Discover football's astonishing hidden rules in The Numbers Game by Chris Anderson and David Sally *Fully updated with a new World Cup chapter* Football has always been a numbers game: 4-4-2, the big number 9 and 3 points for a win. But what if up until now we've been focusing on the wrong numbers? What if the numbers that really matter, the ones that hold the key to winning matches, are actually 2.66, 53.4, 50/50, and 0 > 1? What if managers only make a 15% difference? What if Chelsea should have bought Darren Bent? In this incisive, myth-busting book, Chris Anderson, former goalkeeper turned football statistics guru, and David Sally, former baseball pitcher turned behavioural economist, show that every shred of knowledge we can gather can help us to love football and understand it even more. You'll discover why stopping a goal is more valuable than scoring one, why corners should be taken short, and why it is better to improve your worst player than to buy a superstar. You'll never play, or watch, a game of football in quite the same way again. The Numbers Game is essential reading for football fans everywhere and will also appeal to readers who loved Moneyball and Freakonomics.

本書は、サッカーという「予測不可能な美」を、冷徹なデータと行動経済学で解剖した知の革命書です。著者たちが挑むのは、長年信じられてきた「神話」の解体。コーナーキックの不確実性や守備の圧倒的な価値を証明する論理の鋭さは、慣れ親しんだピッチの風景を一変させ、勝敗の裏に潜む数理的真実を鮮やかに浮かび上がらせます。 特筆すべきは、本作が「最も弱い選手が負けを左右する」という残酷な本質を喝破した点にあります。成功の鍵は華やかな足し算ではなく、欠陥を埋める引き算にあるという哲学的転換は、統計学を超えて組織論としての凄みを放ちます。本書を閉じれば、ピッチ上の動きが、運命を制御するための精緻な対話として、かつてない情熱と共に視覚化されるはずです。