From working on the book, talking to people in the various sports, and going to Sloan conferences, etc., the analytics in sports looks like this: baseball > basketball > hockey > football >> soccer. There is a momentum (contra Barnwell) across all these sports to apply models and statistics to look for value and…

It will definitely go away: there are too many American kids playing the sport and too many younger fans watching the sport for it not to continue to gain mindshare. At the worst, when football is banned (ala Gladwell) or withers on the spine (intentional pun), US soccer will be there.

Chris Anderson, my co-author, who grew up in Germany playing soccer as a keeper has a very strong opinion on this: it's all in the coaching (and lack thereof).

Possibly. It is starting to share this problem with basketball. More could and should be done through post-match review and discipline. Eventually, sensors in the kit might bring data to help police the situation.

Lack of shots on goal.

A combination of luck and smarts. Develop some young talent through your academy (saves money) and scout away from the crowd (either through statistics or through better scouting practices). Let's see if Liverpool can keep up their strong start.

I don't have their book in front of me, but I thought Kuper and Szymanski showed in Soccernomics that both GDP and democracy were good for national team performance?

Eventually, yes. And, this is what makes it so exciting: the analytics of soccer are difficult; baseball is easy. But this means there's a lot to be discovered and, to go to an earlier question, there's a great deal of competitive advantage for the discoverer.

The preliminary evidence that I've seen suggests that there might be "negative" form but not "positive" form. Namely, clubs can spiral into losing streaks, but once you adjust for player talent, lack of injuries, etc., there's no momentum in a winning streak, it's just a good healthy team playing well.

It's better than flipping a coin (the old method), and it's probably better than a penalty shoot-out. There is a distinct home-field advantage in soccer, so there is something notable about scoring an away goal. However, as a trained and pragmatic game theorist, I believe soccer (the tournament version) does have…

We make the argument in the book that in a continuation of soccer's tactical history (as outlined so brilliantly by Jonathan Wilson in Inverting the Pyramid), offense continues to be over-rated relative to defense. We make the prediction that the large gap in salaries between strikers and offensive mid-fielders and…

Some clubs are further along than others, and some managers are more into it than others. In every case, there is a long way to go, but most clubs, as we certainly do, believe there is great competitive to be found here eventually.

Combining the better facets of both your candidates...gold medal winner, Cristiano Ronaldo.

This is my own personal gripe (not sure it would be shared by my co-author, Chris), but if it's a game whose rules involve a fixed amount of time, please put a clock out in public so everyone can see it. Stop the clock for injuries and substitutes so I don't have to watch the striker from the leading side roll around…

I know better than to get in the middle of a Wenger-Ferguson acolyte spat. However, I will say that if you read The Numbers Game, you will find that they both might take a back seat in a very Darwinian sense to Jimmy Davies, the manager for more than half a century at Waterloo Dock AFC.

Ass or not, Big Sam has a bit of the Bill Walsh coaching tree going on as many of the coaches and staff who worked with him at Bolton are playing key roles in the analytics reformation in English soccer.

We don't know the answer to that yet, but it is a question that many club academy directors should be thinking about and gathering numbers on.

You are correct, ma'am. The key statistic of them all.

Probably possession or corners for over-rated as they are among the few stats that are broadcast. As I wrote earlier, turnovers should be highlighted more frequently.

Thanks so much!