Whenever Real Madrid are mentioned, an array of attackers spring to mind. Los Blancos are famous for their Galácticos and those individuals, with the exception of a few, usually operated in the final third of the pitch. Raúl, the original Ronaldo, Robinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema. The list is impressive. Zinedine Zidane added…
The journey from Curitiba to the coastal town of Torquay certainly isn’t one of football’s more well-trodden paths, but then very little about Lucas Covolan’s career could be considered conventional. Torquay United’s globetrotting goalkeeper has taken the scenic route to the English Riviera – playing for teams as varied as South American giants Vasco de…
It’s one of the most important questions in football: if we expect our opposition to play in a certain way, what’s the most effective way for us to play against that? That’s what we at Twenty3 were trying to answer at this year’s Opta Pro Forum. The Forum is an event held by data provider…
With Barrow seven points clear at the top of the Vanarama National League table, there have been suggestions in some quarters that this season’s title race is as good as over. Former Torquay United manager Chris Hargreaves certainly implied as much, when appearing on BT Sport’s National League Highlights Show last Saturday. “They (Barrow) are…
Another week, another day reviewing the past few days’ games and looking ahead to the next round to come. The only thing more entertaining than football is no football, because we can talk about all the football. As much as we enjoy the latest clip of the to-remain-unnamed-pundit not knowing a basic part of a…
“The National League still allowed me to achieve my dream, in a way – playing full-time football and allowing me to do something that I love every day.” Dagenham & Redbridge captain Kenny Clark is in a reflective mood, as he assesses his career to date at the club’s training ground. “It might not be…
Squawka is an online football publisher which cuts through the noise of football media by offering unique statistics, stories and insights that fans deem worth sharing. Boasting a huge presence on social media, Squawka had access to a wealth of football data from Opta but sought an all-encompassing solution to help them visualise this in…
Twenty3 are delighted to announce a Content Toolbox partnership with the UK’s leading sports broadcaster, Sky Sports. The agreement sees Sky Sports officially integrate the Twenty3 product into their workflow, adding to their extensive content portfolio. The Content Toolbox will be used by a range of different teams across the company: Sky Sports News, Broadcast…
Here’s a prediction: in two years, expected goals will be commonplace in conventional match reports. Maybe not in all outlets, maybe not in every match, but they’ll be there. There’ll probably be a major outlet that tries outputting an expected goals scoreline below the actual scoreline. (This will be a bad idea). The better use…
There’s a special kind of excitement about seeing visualisations you’ve helped create on the screen of Sky Sports. Ego, mostly, let’s be honest. But it’s also been really interesting to see which visualisations they choose to use. At Twenty3, we have a whole toolbox of toys with various ways of displaying data. Heatmaps, shot maps,…