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BIG PETE: The evolution of data in football. How would Cech fit into the modern game?

LI

Livesport

Published 3 months ago

In the latest episode of the Big Pete series by Flashscore and CANAL+, Petr Čech dives into the world of modern football analytics together with data specialist Jonathan Whitmore from Opta. They discuss how working with data has changed—from the days when players took handwritten notes about their opponents, to today’s era of detailed statistics and video analysis. They also show why numbers alone aren’t enough, and how misinterpreting data can lead to a completely distorted view of both players and the game itself.

[embed guid="6d6e0b72-076a-43fb-902b-f9506c78f802" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEzQxlsU1-s" social-type="youtube" /][p]Jonathan Whitmore mentioned one of the first uses of analytics that viewers could actually see live: “[b]A lot of goalkeepers, especially during penalty shootouts, use this. The first well-known example is Jens Lehmann at the 2006 World Cup. Right before the penalty shootout, he received a note listing all the penalty takers and information on where they were most likely to shoot. Even [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pickford-jordan/SKTJdUtH/"]Jordan Pickford[/a] still does this, and every time he saves a penalty, it’s always thanks to the information written on his water bottle.”[/b][/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/cech-petr/fTjQ34vo/"]Petr Čech[/a] responded to some fans who called him a “dinosaur” and claimed that his style of play wouldn’t fit into the modern game, saying he only used to kick long balls. “If you look at the percentage of short passes, I was well above the league average for goalkeepers every single season. Every season. Yet people still think that, because I played ten years ago, I wouldn’t fit into today’s style. I used to laugh at that—when I had the ball at my feet and could get more involved and help build up play, that’s exactly what I enjoyed,” said the Premier League legend.[/p][p][i]The full TV version of this episode of the Big Pete documentary series will be available on CANAL+ Sport and the CANAL+ streaming service in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Poland, Myanmar, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, and Hungary, and on SuperSport in South Africa and Switzerland.[/i][/p]

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