Soccer has long been driven by instinct, tradition, and intuition—but this fast-moving, idea-driven book shows how analytics is reshaping how the game is played, managed, and understood around the world.
In Net Gains, ESPN writer Ryan O'Hanlon takes readers inside the clubs, front offices, and analytics departments pushing the sport forward. From cutting-edge teams to unconventional thinkers, he introduces the data scientists, coaches, and outsiders challenging the way soccer has always worked.
In the spirit of Moneyball and modern sports reporting, Net Gains reveals how data is challenging long-held beliefs about how soccer is played and understood.
Through a globe-spanning narrative, the book explores how new metrics and experimental approaches are redefining everything from possession and shot quality to player development and team strategy. Along the way, it reveals how a multibillion-dollar sport operated for decades with limited self-examination—and what happens when that begins to change.
As competing ideas collide, O'Hanlon shows how complexity, uncertainty, and human behavior continue to shape outcomes no spreadsheet can fully predict.
For fans, analysts, and curious readers alike, Net Gains offers a compelling look at how data, intuition, and decision-making intersect in one of the world's most unpredictable games.
Praise
"Ryan O'Hanlon pulls off a remarkable trick in Net Gains: he writes about the evolution of soccer in a way that somehow feels both romantic without being blind and analytical without being cold. It's exactly what I was hoping for from a structure standpoint, and even better than I was hoping for from an execution standpoint."Shea Serrano, #1 New York Times bestselling author
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"In his terrific book, Ryan O'Hanlon pulls off a genuine feat: describing the latest ideas, approaches, and purveyors of soccer data analysis in a way that appeals to both wonks and everyday fans. I follow these topics with regularity, and I learned a heap of new things about the sport we love."Grant Wahl, CBS Sports soccer analyst and author of Masters of Modern Soccer
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''An extremely well-written look at football's statistical development in recent years, with some intriguing predictions for the future of the sport."Michael Cox, The Athletic UK
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"O'Hanlon offers a thorough history of soccer analytics, managing to paint compelling pictures of the characters who drive the field while at the same time explaining often complicated or counterintuitive concepts in a way that is accessible and entertaining. This makes the book hugely readable even for someone with no prior knowledge of analytics or even the sport. At its heart, it's about ingenuity and thinking creatively about dataGabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FC
to better understand what our eyes and brains tell us. O'Hanlon understands this and skillfully illustrates how we got to where we are. His broad knowledge dips into other sports as well, recognizing the common ground while, at the same time, doing a fine job of explaining just why the random, organized chaos of soccer make it so unique and, in many ways, so hard to chronicle from a data/analytics perspective. All this written in a breezy-but intelligent-way that make this a very rewarding book."
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