Comment 1: What impact is big data having on soccer?

It appears as though big data is helping more and more sports team to make winning decisions, but the analysis of the data and decisions in the end are still made by a human. 

If we were to take a team and take all orders directly from analysis of big data - I wonder whether the claimed success rate of teams using big data will be similar to that of a team purely driven by the use of big data.

The point of big data is not to predict outliers or rare events but to determine the most expected or most likely scenario. This concept affects two points to do with sport.

1. The emotion fades away as more and more predictability is involved. Undervaluing or overvaluing of players will be less likely since their every move has probably been recorded since the beginning of their career.

2. Sport thrives on outliers and rare events. Maybe once big data is completely embedded into the system of sports, could one realise some flaws of always focusing on the 'average'. Potentially, this could be used as a weapon.

I welcome the introduction of big data in sports because I believe when people become too certain, they become too relaxed, and when they are too relaxed interesting and unexpected things happen.

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