Simon Gleave

It is very difficult to leave this platform completely, deleting your account along the way. However, I am considering it very seriously now. In the meantime, you'll find me posting on Blue Sky for sports data stuff, movies, music etc: bsky.app/profile/simong…

@ramsaymatt It is all about the Swindon, Notts County and Salford home matches Matt. Get good results in those - by which I mean not losing any and ideally picking up 7 points - and automatic promotion is ours. Lose any of them and we could be looking at the playoffs. 15-18pts needed

Cambridge United lost at Notts County at the end of October, since when they’ve now gone a half season of 23 League Two matches with only one defeat. Frustrating evening tonight but fantastically placed in the automatic promotion places with nine games left.

@OlympicStatman Yes, this is overperforming a pretty low bar, particularly in regard to world rankings.

@SimonGleave Wales got better over time but we're not where we were at our peak. Sadly.

Over- and underperformance in this year's Six Nations: Against bookmaker handicaps: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 +27 🇮🇹 +19 ☘️ +13 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 -4 🇫🇷 -18 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 -37 Against handicaps derived from World Rugby ranking: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 +32 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 +31 🇫🇷 +13 🇮🇹 -1.5 ☘️ -24 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 -50.5 #SixNations

@CharlieFelix I don’t want to be “elitist” but the claim professed by many that England should have just played out the final phases in their half, separates the people that know and the people that don’t know, you know?

Love this. Very clear.

In today's Substack I look at why England are struggling in the opposition 22. Have they lost their scoring touch or misplaced some luck? samlarner.substack.com/p/the-final-fr…

Over/underperformance in this year's #SixNations Compared to odds 🇮🇹Italy +25 points difference 🇫🇷France +15 ☘️Ireland +13 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland -7 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Wales -8 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England -38 Compared to World Rankings 🇫🇷France +39.5 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland +18.5 🇮🇹Italy +10.5 ☘️Ireland -1.5 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Wales -18 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿England -49

To add to this excellent overview from Brett, kicking metres is still the key stat. The team with the higher kicking metres has won eight out of nine matches in this Six Nations. The only exception is Wales v Scotland which arguably Wales did enough to win.

Just arrived, @SamLStandsUp's masterpiece on falling in love with kicking, numbers, and all other things. PS. Chuffed to be a member of the #Bajad8ta group!

@SamLStandsUp @simonrug @ValleysVegas It is never about kicking or box kicking, it is about kicking effectively.

@simonrug @ValleysVegas It's a fairly big caveat given that was the thrust of the post....

Sad to see so many empty seats. We desperately wanted wales to put up a fight but watching the pace, power and subtlety of France was a pleasure. If other teams can adopt this style of play there’s hope yet of moving away from the box kicking game that has blighted recent years.

Olympic medal tables can work any way that you want them to. Most media decided to order them on gold but that doesn't mean that everyone has to. Every method is flawed anyway and the best is probably a weighted medal count so that all medals do count in some way.

Except the US doesn't win most medals at Winter Olympics. 2010 is the only time in the last 90-odd years in fact.

Better to say "In 14 Borthwick away Tests.....", otherwise open to accusations of making things look worse than they are by conflating total Tests with away wins. Away wins against the best teams are very tough to achieve - for anyone.

Kick Blocking Masterclass with Matt Fagerson Three crucial numbers: 11.5 metres, 1.74 second and 0 players on his way #SCOvENG #GuinnessM6N

Really enjoying this. Very enlightening, particularly the chapters on kicking and defence (so far). Apparently some bloke in Holland was the first person to publicly talk about 22 entries after noting them down in an Irish pub while watching the Six Nations.

@NASAgirl67 All good here. Hope you are well too. The fact that I once went to a World Cup football match with someone who became the Director of Engineering at NASA remains a great story to tell to people!

@SimonGleave Hi Simon! Sorry I missed this…I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast, let alone 20 years ago! LOL. I suspect $75 would be about right…that would have seemed like a lot then! Hope you are well!

@NASAgirl67 Hi Julie, not sure that you have time for trivial nonsense like this question but I was wondering if you might know what sort of tickets we had to Brazil v Holland at the 1994 World Cup and what they cost (I am guessing $75). Next year's WC tix are crazy prices!

Once you realise that public reactions to England matches are going to be extreme, it helps you to not get caught up in the hyperbole (one way or the other). England are neither as good as they were purported to be before this game nor as bad as they are supposed to be now.

@Gielsbrouwer Not sure that I will be doing that this year. Hope all is well with you, it has been a long time!

@SimonGleave You cannot leave us during the Olympics right? Looking forward to your previews!

It is very difficult to leave this platform completely, deleting your account along the way. However, I am considering it very seriously now. In the meantime, you'll find me posting on Blue Sky for sports data stuff, movies, music etc: bsky.app/profile/simong…

@colintrainor @ramsbobby40 How nice of both of you. I did used to post on all of that so it could be.

@ramsbobby40 I guess it was @SimonGleave ?

Been on X for 14 years. Without any question, THE best thing to happen to me because of this platform was mine and my family’s love of nporadio2.nl/top2000 I don’t recall who posted about it, but I think it was someone no longer on X who posted about ⚽️ data and xg possibly called Steve or Simon, who every December would post some tracking of the yearly top 2000 in Holland. We started listening to it well before Covid and has now become a firm family favourite to listen (and watch nporadio2.nl/live) along. One day we’ll make it to that cafe I hope!! “zing vecht huil bid lach werk en bewonder” the big hit in the house this year!

The honest story of how data is used inside football clubs... First in a series. medium.com/p/the-honest-s…