Yet that very scenario faced Ottmar Hitzfeld throughout his stint at Borussia Dortmund between 1991 and 1997. During that timeframe, BVB reached the Uefa Cup [a forerunner of the Europa League] three times, twice competed in the Champions League and won the competition in 1997.

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Overall, a good book if you are interested in football analytics. The book meanders a bit through different subjects though, and it also feels like a snapshoot of the development at that point in time, more than a complete primer on football analytics. But that is mostly because there is a lot of development in this space.Sporting directors and scouts face the challenge of gauging player ability across different leagues. Prior to the modern era of ubiquitous digital footage of thousands of games and the availability of cheap computing power coming up with better football statistics has not been possible. Charles Reep's simplistic counting of passes being the best known failed example. But today with annotations available for thousands of games a year being done more sophisticated analysis has become possible. Companies like STATSports are making significant sums as their GPS sports vests are used by some of the biggest teams in world football as a way of measuring and monitoring the fitness of players. Data is part of an ongoing evolution that changes football from a game of opinions into one of knowledge.’

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It goes without saying that the increased prize money available and the fierce competitiveness within the sport has lead to clubs seeking to eke out any possible legal advantage to get an edge over their rivals.

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Football is like chess, but with dice." - Peter Krawietz, highlighting the game's unpredictability.