Football, Statistics and the Middle Classes

Since the commoditization and gentrification of football that got into full swing with the formation of the premiership and the middle classes discovering the game in 1996, there has been an explosion of meaningless statistical analysis to fill the knowledge void of the nufan, and it makes me me puke And like any plague , it's spreading, even people who know the game are at it.

This so called knowledge is used by these nufans to create the impression that someone who has never kicked a ball in their life or watched hardly any live, has a inkling about the dynamics of the game or how it is, can or should be played. There are exceptions, but they are few.

Take this drivel as an example http://www.theguardian.com/football/...r-united-title Not only will this cretin be walking around priding himself on his 'knowledge' of the game, but he is actually earning a living from it (a very nice middle class one I've no doubt) and his idiotic followers will be quoting the meaningless shite chapter and verse in their offices and over lunch.

Just another example of how football has gone to the dogs, literally

Is everything you think about shaped by socialist ideology?

Disappointed you didn't manage to get bourgeoisie in there somewhere.

wow, you really hate the 'middle classes' don't you? pathetic inverted class snobbery. feel a bit sorry for you in a way: it must be so tiresome living your life like that.

Originally Posted by itisme_panaflex

Is everything you think about shaped by socialist ideology?

New to commies?

It's annoying but it's not a class thing.

Perhaps has more to do advances in computing + internet than the middle classes, which is so broad as to be virtually meaningless these days

There are more stats available on everything. I can alt tab right now and look up the GDP & demographics of Botswana.
Bloody Sky

Statistical analysis has absolute nothing to do with the middle classes you absolute berk.

It comes from the US. They're absolutely stat obsessed over there, and in fairness it has some merit. Personally I don't feel it translates as well to a fluid, dynamic game like football, although there's clearly something to be taken from it, if you know what you're doing and are open to new ideas.

In summary, you're wrong, and you're a dinosaur.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Statistical analysis has absolute nothing to do with the middle classes you absolute berk.

It comes from the US. They're absolutely stat obsessed over there, and in fairness it has some merit. Personally I don't feel it translates as well to a fluid, dynamic game like football, although there's clearly something to be taken from it, if you know what you're doing and are open to new ideas.

In summary, you're wrong, and you're a dinosaur.

Yep. The fact that clubs invest enormously it shows it serves a purpose. It's just from a fan point of view I find it depressingly dull.

Originally Posted by Ethers

Statistical analysis has absolute nothing to do with the middle classes you absolute berk.

It comes from the US. They're absolutely stat obsessed over there, and in fairness it has some merit. Personally I don't feel it translates as well to a fluid, dynamic game like football, although there's clearly something to be taken from it, if you know what you're doing and are open to new ideas.

In summary, you're wrong, and you're a dinosaur.

This.

It has some value in football but more often than not, is useless or misleading or rather the interpretation or weight it's given leads to those outcomes.

Great for Internet arguments though.

It's the utterly irrelevant, pointless stats that annoy me.* Commentators seem to love em though. Just because something is factually correct doesn't make it interesting.

*can't recall an example at the min.

tbf nobody in those pictures from the football blogging awards (serial stats offenders) looked middle class. They all looked like dweebs and virgins who'd won a mid-2000s footballer's haircut and a Topman trolley dash in a Shoot! competition. There's defo more of the middle class involved in football nowadays but they're more interested in corporate freebies and selfies with millionaires than stats.

Originally Posted by General Woundwort

tbf nobody in those pictures from the football blogging awards (serial stats offenders) looked middle class. They all looked like dweebs and virgins who'd won a mid-2000s footballer's haircut and a Topman trolley dash in a Shoot! competition. There's defo more of the middle class involved in football nowadays but they're more interested in corporate freebies and selfies with millionaires than stats.

Exhibit A

http://www.utdforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231823

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

Since the commoditization and gentrification of football that got into full swing with the formation of the premiership and the middle classes discovering the game in 1996, there has been an explosion of meaningless statistical analysis to fill the knowledge void of the nufan, and it makes me me puke And like any plague , it's spreading, even people who know the game are at it.

This so called knowledge is used by these nufans to create the impression that someone who has never kicked a ball in their life or watched hardly any live, has a inkling about the dynamics of the game or how it is, can or should be played. There are exceptions, but they are few.

Take this drivel as an example http://www.theguardian.com/football/...r-united-title Not only will this cretin be walking around priding himself on his 'knowledge' of the game, but he is actually earning a living from it (a very nice middle class one I've no doubt) and his idiotic followers will be quoting the meaningless shite chapter and verse in their offices and over lunch.

Just another example of how football has gone to the dogs, literally

Serious question; if this stuff annoys you so much why do you read it? I find it's best to avoid stuff that makes your blood boil generally

Originally Posted by jaffo

Serious question; if this stuff annoys you so much why do you read it? I find it's best to avoid stuff that makes your blood boil generally

I would say I agree but I opened the thread.

Flounced?

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

Copied the post to a mate who shares your assessment, he sends you his's

Some of the usual suspects playing the man as opposed to the points and Fuzzy with his usual dollop of snide and wishful thinking

Stats have of course a part to play in analysing players, set up's, game plans etc for clubs and is all part of the ever more scientific approach, but that isn't my point.

My point is that stats are used by the new to fooball types, who by and large are middle class, as an alternative to actually knowing anything about the game and gives them the veneer of knowledge and insight. It's becoming preeminent as the evaluation tool when discussing the game, encouraged by a load of MC journo knownowts.

Is that not an obvious point to make? This 'explosion of meaningless statistical analysis', if they are the love of the 'middle classes', is because most modern football fans are middle class. And well, yeah, because the 'middle classes' (I'd like your definition on that btw) are so much more prevalent now. You seem to be wishing for an era of flat caps, jumpers for goal posts and a severe lack of undersoil heating but the world has moved on, for better for worse.



Anyway, it's all LVG's fault. Whatever the problem is.

Originally Posted by My Name is Keith

A discarded cardboard box blowing up a tired northern street

But enough about the Manchester bomb

Originally Posted by bigMikeA

Is that not an obvious point to make? This 'explosion of meaningless statistical analysis', if they are the love of the 'middle classes', is because most modern football fans are middle class. And well, yeah, because the 'middle classes' (I'd like your definition on that btw) are so much more prevalent now. You seem to be wishing for an era of flat caps, jumpers for goal posts and a severe lack of undersoil heating but the world has moved on, for better for worse.



Anyway, it's all LVG's fault. Whatever the problem is.

there speaks a man who has never been to bloomfield rd.

Was thinking that it was unusual to see Trips start a thread and now I know why and the good reasons for it to stay that way for as long as possible.

Love to actually hear what his "working class" credentials are.