James Tippett is the author of The Expected Goals Philosophy: A Game-Changing Way of Analysing Football. Among the topics discussed in this episode:

- His initial exposure to expected goals
- What prompted him to write this book
- An overview of the expected goals statistic and how it’s calculated
- Using expected goals both descriptively and predictively
- Reaction to Brentford’s rise as an analytics club
- How expected goals is used in English media
- What’s next on the soccer analytics front
- Attending one of the year’s top sporting events

Show links
- The Expected Goals Philosophy on Amazon
- Twitter: @JamesTippett, @xGPhilosophy
- Twitter thread with chapter-by-chapter summary
- Book excerpt: Do clinical finishers exist?
- Book excerpt: What do Lionel Messi and Ryan Fraser have in common?

Mike Goodman is a soccer writer and managing editor of StatsBomb.com, and last week he wrote a good piece entitled, “A case study on using data to prepare to administer the eye test,” reacting to an MLS playoff game in which data and the eye test seemed to differ. Mike is one of the better writers at bringing together data and a tactical eye, and then producing easy-to-understand articles that appeal to a broad audience. Among the topics covered…

- Why and how he wrote that piece
- Bridging the proverbial gap between analytics and the eye test
- How he approaches data when watching a game and when unfamiliar with a team
- Keys to using numbers well in writing
- What he hopes to see from player-tracking data
- His favorite things about living in Latvia

Links Mentioned in this Episode
- Follow Mike on Twitter: @TheM_L_G
- Original StatsBomb.com article
- Steve Zakuani tweets that inspired the article
- Explaining post-shot expected goals: OptaPro, StatsBomb
- StatsBomb conference panel with Vosse de Boode (Head of Sports Science and Analytics at Ajax)
- Jāņi in Latvia

Lucy Rushton is the Head of Technical Recruitment and Analysis for Atlanta United, which has won three trophies in its first three MLS seasons, including last year’s MLS Cup. Before joining Atlanta in 2015, Lucy was Head of Technical Scouting at English club Reading, and prior to that, she was a Player Recruitment Analyst for Watford. She also grew up playing the sport and won the English Championship as a player for Reading. Among the topics covered:

- How Atlanta incorporates data into recruitment
- Evaluating players from across leagues and colleges
- Interacting with the Atlanta Falcons
- Working with new and different coaches
- How teams in England and the U.S. use data
- Women in the sports analytics industry
- Adjusting to life in the South