Data writer · Belfast
A Belfast data analyst who builds her own expected-goals models at weekends and checks every number twice.
Her day job is making sense of messy spreadsheets, so she is wary of any statistic that arrives without context. She would rather explain what a number can and cannot tell you than use it to win an argument.
For Pressing Matters she writes about match data, expected goals and set pieces. When she uses a figure, she says where it came from; when a number is only there to illustrate a method, she says that too.
Zonal, man-to-man or a mix of both? Who stands where at a corner, why the near post matters, and what each system is weak against, from pros to Sunday league.
By Niamh Doherty 9 min read
Three numbers that tell you more than the scoreline: expected goals, field tilt and PPDA. What each one measures, how to read them together, and where they fall short.
By Niamh Doherty 7 min read