How to Win the Premier League

The insider account of the data revolution that has swept through the modern football world written by one of its key architects, Ian Graham.

Between 2012 and 2023, Ian Graham worked as Liverpool FC's Director of Research. His tenure coincided with the club’s greatest period of success since the 1980s, including winning the Premier League in 2020 – Liverpool’s first league title after an agonising three decades.

Here for the first time, Graham reveals the fascinating data that informed some of the club’s most pivotal moments of the past decade, from the appointment of Jurgen Klopp as manager in 2015 to the signing of Mohamed Salah in 2017. Along the way, he shares groundbreaking insight into the modern game, including how a season largely played behind closed doors transformed our understanding of home team advantage, or why the GOAT (greatest of all time) might not be who you think. And, in a game that is increasingly dominated by an elite few, Graham charts a path for the future where a data-savvy competitor will always find the edge.

Review

This is the best book on football I have ever read. Ian Graham is totally brilliant. Make sure not to miss out upon learning from him ― Daniel Finkeklstein, columnist and bestselling author

Fascinating and educational. An enjoyable and informative read. -- Sir Kenny Dalglish

Never before has the data revolution in football been described so much from the inside. And not from a marginalised figure, but from someone at the forefront of the revolution who has helped two of the biggest clubs in the world to look at football in a completely new way and work radically differently. It says a lot of things I've always wanted to know, and it makes it clear that data analysis is not a magic trick, but hard work and an ongoing process of distilling practical information from the data. ― Christoph Biermann, author of Football Hackers

A fascinating, witty and remarkably insightful account of Liverpool's reinvention and a clear-eyed, detailed explanation of the inner workings of modern football. Nobody is better qualified to tell either of those stories than Ian Graham, who stands as one of the most (quietly) significant figures in the recent history of the club and the sport. -- Rory Smith, author of Expected Goals and Chief Soccer Correspondent, New York Times

'How to Win the Premier League' gives you three books for the price of one: a book about all of the silly inefficiencies plaguing European football, a book about what it's like to be empowered to use outside-the-box thinking to help turn your boyhood club into the best team in the world, and a book about how football actually works. If he really wanted to, Ian could easily put me out of a job.' -- Ryan O'Hanlon, author of Net Gains and staff writer at ESPN

One of the great football books of its time ― Telegraph Published On: 2024-08-19

A fascinating read ― Esquire Published On: 2024-10-29

About the Author

Ian Graham is the founder of sports advisory business Ludonautics, where he develops statistical tools for the prediction of football matches and the performance analysis of players. He is one of the original architects of the data revolution that has swept through football.

Between 2012 and 2023, Ian worked for Liverpool FC as Director of Research and built the first in-house analytics department in the Premier League. He was previously head of football research at Decision Technology. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge.