Introduction to
Football Analytics.

Course overview

You’ll learn all the basics from understanding expected goals to analysing opposition tactics.

This learning can be successfully applied to a role in professional football analysis, assist you with a future role or simply provide learning material to help develop your knowledge of data and analytics in football.

This course contains five core lessons, with each tuition video lasting between 30-50 minutes.

This course is also available in Spanish - https://cursos.statsbomb.com/courses/introduccion.

What you'll learn

Our curriculum is crafted to give you a structured and relevant understanding of how best to leverage football data. Everything you need to get going is covered in this course, whether you’re a professional analyst, coach, or just a passionate hobbyist.

1) Welcome to the Course

An overview of this course from StatsBomb Director of Football, James Yorke.

2) Expected Goals (xG)

Get a deeper understanding of what plays into football’s most popular metric.

3) Types of Attack

Using data to understand, analyse, and craft the different types of attacks in football.

4) Set Pieces

What data reveals about how to score and defend with set pieces.

5) Defensive Choices

How do you protect yourself against the different kinds of playing styles?

6) Team/Opposition Analysis

Data can lift the veil on a team's playing style.

7) Wrap Up

A short summary of everything learned in the course, and some suggested next steps.

8) Course Survey and Resources

More resources to continue your learning journey, and the chance to feed back to us.

Why StatsBomb courses?

->
->

Expert tuition

Classes led by experienced football experts who have helped the best clubs in the world.

Anytime, anywhere

Your courses can be accessed from via laptops, tablets, phones and smart TV's.

For anyone, on and off the pitch

This isn’t for practitioners only. Our training is accessible to anyone with a serious passion for football data and analytics.

Your instructors

Our course is taught by our CEO and Co-founder Ted Knutson and Director of Football James Yorke. Ted and James have both been heavily involved in using data for pro clients for more than 20 years combined.

Content banner
CEO and Co-founder

Ted Knutson

Ted worked as Head of Player Analytics for Brentford and Midtjylland, and has consulted for multiple Champions League clubs.

Content banner
Director of Football

James Yorke

James oversees the football data analysis conducted within StatsBomb, consulting with and supporting our club customers.

Hear from our students

Not sure yet? These are some reviews from students that have already completed this course.

Buy course
->
->
Douglas Hagey

Fantastic introduction to football analytics

I probably can’t overstate how much I learned from this course. Not only from the amount of detailed material covered, but, perhaps more importantly, how it got me to think about using analytical football data.

Bas Stegehuis

Great way to get started with football analytics!

A good place to start if you’re new to football analytics, but also useful if you’re already familiar with some of the concepts. Definitely worth the money for me.

Paul Olson

A Great Introduction

This course was a really great primer for those looking into how to think about analytics in the world of football. While staying away from anything that requires a Masters in Data Science, James and Ted do a really great overview of how teams are starting to look at integrating data into their decision making. Excited for more!

Gabriel Hermosillo

Insightful and very useful

A great introduction into analysing football, opening your eyes to a different way to look and appreciate the game. A great module that takes you through all parts of the game, especially being of great help to understand data and recognizing team styles and patterns of play. Very insightful and has given me a different way at looking at the game and especially evaluating shots.

Phil Newens

Very helpful and insightful

I gave this course a try as I'm looking to move into an analytical role within football and this course is a great place to learn the basics and help you to understand it easily, I would highly recommend it.

FAQs

Who is the course for?

The introduction course is designed to be accessible to everyone and teaches you the basics of data analytics in football. You don’t need to work in professional football or have advanced statistical knowledge. A basic understanding of football and statistics is useful.

How does the course work?

It’s very simple. You will need to create an account on our courses website, then you can watch the course videos at a time that suits you. There are some exercises to complete during the course which you can also do at your leisure, there’s no need to send these back to us, they are for you to test your learning.

How long is the course?

There are five modules, each lasting about 40 minutes.

How much does the course cost?

It’s £60 inclusive of any relevant taxes for all five modules, payable before you start. No student discounts or refunds available.

Who should I contact if I have questions?

You can email support@statsbomb.com with any questions about the course.

Are there any technical requirements?

This is a web based course - we recommend using Chrome but it also works on Safari. We recommend watching the videos in 1080p - you can set the video resolution in your settings when watching each video (bottom right hand corner of your screen). There are no particular tools or software introduced in this course. However at the end we do link to some of our existing resources for getting started with data (especially our R/python packages).

Does the course expire?

No it doesn't. Once you've paid for the course you can access it whenever you like. The course is yours for life.

Will I get a certificate upon completion?

Yes you will receive a StatsBomb certificate of completion once you finish the course.

Can I get an invoice?

If your company is paying for the course we can arrange an invoice in advance and once payment is received we will provide access to the course. To request an invoice please email accountsreceivable@statsbomb.com including the following details below; Course Required, Business Name, Address and VAT number to be included on the invoice. Please note that we cannot provide B2B invoices retrospectively if not indicated in advance, as payment is processed as a B2C transaction.

Enroll now

Before you purchase and enroll in this course, you’ll first be directed to create an account with our provider Thinkific.

Buy course