Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game (Bloomsbury Sigma)

incentives.

A goal is just as likely to occur at any time during the match. While there are all sorts of factors determining the rate at which teams score, the timing of goals is more or less random.

Soccermatics.

bookies.

incentives.

slackers

quid

imposed

the first thing football scouts look for in youngsters is ‘intelligence’, the ability to see quickly what is going on around them and to plan for all eventualities – something we academics might call spatial reasoning. Nor are footballers lazy.