- Hardcover: 344 pages
- Publisher: HarperSport (6 Aug 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007301111
- ISBN-13: 978-0007301119
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 141,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Why England Lose: And other curious phenomena explained
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Product Description
Review
For Simon Kuper's Football Against the Enemy:
"A terrific book, deftly written" Guardian
"Another great work on soccer … effervescent and hilarious" Independent
Review
For Simon Kuper's Football Against the Enemy: "A terrific book, deftly written" Guardian "Another great work on soccer ! effervescent and hilarious" Independent
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
`Why England Lose' or `Soccernomics' - to give it its non-UK title - is an attempt by Simon Kuper, a leading football writer, and sports economist, Stefan Szymanski, to give football the `freakonomics' treatment. The result is sometimes entertaining and often interesting, but overall the effect is somewhat uneven and frequently bogged down by the authors' attempts to provide a theoretical framework for their musings.
Comparisons with Moneyball, Michael Lewis's 2003 account of how Billy Beane revolutionized the Oakland Athletics baseball team through statistical analysis, are inevitable. At times `Why England Lose' seems a self conscious attempt to give football the Moneyball treatment . But the very nature of the game is less controlled than baseball, which essentially boils down to one-on-one encounters between pitcher and batter. Football's inherent randomness, despite the authors attempts to argue otherwise, make it more difficult to be influenced by statistical theory.
Arsene Wenger is the golden boy of this book. He has used statistics and psychology to brilliant effect, particularly in the first half of his career as Arsenal manager. The authors unravel some of his strategies, but don't really add much new. There's a sense that even an in-the-know fan could suss them out (buy young, sell after a player has peaked, make a player feel wanted, and so on) over a few post-match pints.
But instead of on-the-field business the authors explain other footballing phenomena. Some, such as why new stadiums and football tournaments don't bring desired economic benefit, is fascinating. Others, such as which country is the best `pound for-pound' footballing nation, less so.
This is an entertaining book, but I'd stop short of describing it as a must read. There's a knowingness - which borders on smugness - in its tenor that belies the actual content -- which is interesting but not exactly earth shattering. In his earlier works and his weekly FT column Kuper has proven himself a far more entertaining and perceptive author; it's a shame he doesn't quite carry it off here, but maybe that's a problem that comes with co-authorship.
Comparisons with Moneyball, Michael Lewis's 2003 account of how Billy Beane revolutionized the Oakland Athletics baseball team through statistical analysis, are inevitable. At times `Why England Lose' seems a self conscious attempt to give football the Moneyball treatment . But the very nature of the game is less controlled than baseball, which essentially boils down to one-on-one encounters between pitcher and batter. Football's inherent randomness, despite the authors attempts to argue otherwise, make it more difficult to be influenced by statistical theory.
Arsene Wenger is the golden boy of this book. He has used statistics and psychology to brilliant effect, particularly in the first half of his career as Arsenal manager. The authors unravel some of his strategies, but don't really add much new. There's a sense that even an in-the-know fan could suss them out (buy young, sell after a player has peaked, make a player feel wanted, and so on) over a few post-match pints.
But instead of on-the-field business the authors explain other footballing phenomena. Some, such as why new stadiums and football tournaments don't bring desired economic benefit, is fascinating. Others, such as which country is the best `pound for-pound' footballing nation, less so.
This is an entertaining book, but I'd stop short of describing it as a must read. There's a knowingness - which borders on smugness - in its tenor that belies the actual content -- which is interesting but not exactly earth shattering. In his earlier works and his weekly FT column Kuper has proven himself a far more entertaining and perceptive author; it's a shame he doesn't quite carry it off here, but maybe that's a problem that comes with co-authorship.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The combination of data-analysis and great sports writing makes this book really enjoyable. The authors clearly love football and love the numbers too. I really enjoyed the analysis of managerial myths: why transfer spending is usually wasted, why football clubs are often irrational, why Brian Clough is the only manager who ever made a serious difference to footballing performance. If you like football, highly recommended.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The book is an economists look at the game of football - a Freakonomics for football. There are some insights that should make the book mandatory reading for strategists at the FA, club chief execs, and ALL football pundits. Although it is over 300 pages often fairly detailed analysis, it is surprisingly easy to read, and peppered with interesting anecdotes about the likes of Brian CLough and Guus Hiddink. I could not put it donw and read it from cover to cover in a day.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Kindle version is a joke
I have to confirm that the earlier reviews about the Kindle version are absolutely right. If you crumpled up a photocopy of the paperback, fed it through a scanner and used 15... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Elephant
A truly awful triumph of misdirection represented as fact
Never in the history of literature has someone presented so much misdirection and selective fact picking and tried to create a hypothesis that is professed as correct. Read more
Published 20 days ago by SideshowAl
Pick and choose your stats and they are worthless
For a book that tries to equate MoneyBall to soccer it completely misses the point. It picks and chooses facts, wraps it in very basic stats to make it sound like they have done... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rockhoppers
Footballonomics
This was an extremely entertaining and informative book. A sort of combination of "Moneyball" and" Freakonomics". Read more
Published 5 months ago by The Emperor
Why England Lose: And other curoius phenomena explained.
Excellant read. Very entertaining. Its the sort of book once you pick up you wont put down again until you have read it from cover to cover. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Noahsway
Brilliant, but a heart-breaker
Like most other English fans, I fall into the trap of always expecting England to win every cup going only to find myself "Croatia-Wembleyed" into an angry, denying beer-fuddled... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ed Jie
Sample only - interesting, intelligent if not necessarily eye-opening
A book about football and statistics may not sound like everyone's cup of tea, but I found this surprisingly readable and accessible. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Andrew Ives
Five Stars for Content
This book makes a number of ironical comments about football and associated attitudes, but the biggest irony of all is that there should be explicit thanks to the "copy editor who... Read more
Published 8 months ago by T. Field
Fantastic book, awful kindle formatting
Too many typos, and the whole thing formatted as centre justified detract from a really cracking football read. Shame, totally unnecessary.
Published 12 months ago by Quos
A BOOK FOR GUARDIAN READERS
This is a very curious book. I bought it as a "Football" book, which it clearly is. However, I would urge caution to the prospective buyer as you do need A Level Statistics (which... Read more
Published 15 months ago by David H. Hargreaves
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