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Net Gains
- Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
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Net Gains
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Summary
This in-depth examination of soccer takes listeners on a tour across the world and throughout history, introducing the many people who have attempted to shine a light onto and innovate a sport that, in many ways, is still stuck in the Dark Ages. This deep dive into the rise of analytics in soccer—a sport where tradition reigns supreme—shows how revolutionary tactics and underexplored metrics are breaking the beautiful game wide open.
By exploring how massive institutions built on billions of dollars can function for so long without any kind of introspection—and what happens when people from the outside attempt to question the status quo—author Ryan O'Hanlon, a staff writer at ESPN, shows how time and again experts, managers, coaches, players, and fans feel they know the best approach for any given team or player and yet get undermined by the complexity of the game—and human behavior.
To tell this globe-trekking story, O'Hanlon takes listeners inside the front offices and analytics departments of the top professional leagues’ most cutting-edge clubs and profiles a misfit cast of number-crunchers, behavioral economists, tech insiders, and managers all working to move beyond the philosophical side of soccer and uncover the hard truths behind possession, goals, and developing talent.
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What listeners say about Net Gains
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- BenW
- 12-09-24
Good book, terrible choice of narrator
The story was in depth and informative but this audiobook is let down by a narrator who regularly butchered the pronunciation of teams, names and places. The American narrator should have done some basic research on European football pronunciation given that it is the subject of most of the book, Barca doe do not have a hard C. Arsenal is not pronounced “ArsenALL” (this is an English word and not pronounced like this even in American English), Jose Morinho has a hard J (and Juventus does not). These should not be difficult things to get right.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cliente Amazon
- 17-06-23
Great book
Interesting, light and well read.
Accessible for the hardcore football fan but also to those who don’t watch every game
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thanos
- 28-03-23
Grat book on sports analytics history and current
Grat book on sports analytics history and current state! Lots of real life examples linked to the story and science behind it. I will read the author's next book for sure!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-07-24
Good book. Poor recruitment of narrator
The book itself is excellent. I’ve read/listened to many similar so as a football coach and football nerd there wasn’t much new stuff in there but it was still worth listening to.
But I have to say whoever recruited the narrator should lose their job. Surely when you’re looking for a narrator for a book that is clearly for avid football fans, you should look for someone who has at least heard the things they are going to be saying. José Mourinho pronounced Hosé Mooreen Ho and U-E-F-A were my least favourites but there’s enough in there to burn the ears of a proper football fan. Understanding the nuances of different languages pronouncing words differently (Portuguese Jose and Spanish Jose) and not using Americanisms when talking about the English teams and names of things.
It’s not hard. I see many American football journalists who adjust how they talk knowing Premyerrrr league would go down well.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-01-23
interesting, accurate book. off narration
the overall content and journey on football analytics is all excellent but I was frequently annoyed by the narrator who is clearly not a football fan.
be prepared for U-E-F-A, Pay-lay(Pele), Moor- een- ho, and Barka and a few other!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-03-23
Great book let down by the narrator
The quality of the book is outstanding. Great detail and covers some stories I hadn’t heard from other similar books
I understand why this narrator was chosen. He’s very clear and therefore great to listen to but is clearly not a football fan. It’s very difficult to listen to wildly inaccurate (albeit minor) pronunciations such as “U-E-F-A” rather than “UEFA”, Ajax, Brain Clough as well as many others.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-23
Someone should have told the narrator how to announce football names, terms etc
Sad that a very interesting and well written book has had such a lack of expertise applied to the audiobook version. The narrator is constantly pronouncing the names of football players and organisations wrong, proving that no one involved in the audio recording had an ounce of football knowledge. Book was interesting but mostly aimed at an uninformed US soccer audience as it spends a lot of time explaining basic football concepts. Picked up in the second half when it got more detailed and intricate into how data is used.
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