1.文章很长，专业性很强。三月初的专栏，一直想等虎扑翻译团的翻译，没等到只有自己翻了。文章在推上很受欢迎，Tim Payton推荐过，现在已经被无数博主引用过了。
2.专业名词太多了，翻译是粗的，大家有条件尽量看原文，并帮着纠正翻译。
3.喜欢马丁内斯的进来看，你们不会失望的。
英文链接：
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/09/premier-league-football-clubs-computer-analysts-managers-data-winning
@仙山灵狐 @潘迷不要迷宫@焚色@喧嚣中的寂静 @l只小灰狼@kimi_arsenal

沙发

None of these appointments made headlines, but Moyes believes they could be crucial inunearthing the future stars of Manchester United – within the club and outside– and turning round his fortunes at Old Trafford.
这些人事更迭都没上新闻头条，但莫耶斯相信，这些人对于曼联的未来相当重要，他们将发掘和培养曼联的未来之星——从俱乐部内部到世界各地——而这些未来之星，则是莫耶斯在曼联俱乐部成功的基石。

All 20clubs in the Premier League – and many in the lower divisions – now employ data analysts to make sense of this information. Manchester City has 11 of them. In 2012, Liverpool caused a stir by creating a newposition, director of research, for Ian Graham, who has a PhD in theoreticalphysics. The analysts are involved in pre-match preparation and post-gamedebriefs; they help to identify transfer targets and devise strategies fornurturing young players through the ranks. These developments have inspiredconfusion and even suspicion from many supporters, summed up by a recentheadline in the New Statesman:"Howthe spreadsheet-wielding geeks are taking over football."
所有20支英超球队，包括许多低级别联赛的俱乐部，现在都聘请了数据分析师。曼城有11个数据分析师，而利物浦，在2012年新设立了一个岗位——研究主管，聘请了伊万·格兰汉姆，一名物理学博士。分析师们参与赛前的准备会，也提供赛后的咨询，他们帮助俱乐部甄别转会目标，还设计评估模型用以青年球员的培养。随着这些工作的开展，分析师的重要性受到极大的鼓吹，以至于那些数据支持们有点迷信了。《新政治家》最近的一个标题是：狂热的数据控是如何接管足球的。

We can't be blamed for being perplexed. Take the match last month between Arsenal and Bayern Munich, which Bayern won2-0. The following morning, the Guardian plucked out two statistics: ToniKroos, the German midfielder, completed more passes than the entire Arsenal midfield; meanwhile, Arsenal's Mesut Özil covered 11.69km, the third-highestdistance on the pitch. What the stats didn't say, but was blindingly obvious toanyone watching, was that Kroos was sensational and Özil had a stinker.
迷恋数据可怪不得我们。就拿上个月阿森纳对阵拜仁慕尼黑的比赛来说，当拜仁2-0赢下后，第二天早上《卫报》采样了两个数据：托尼·克洛斯，德国中场，传球数比阿森纳的整个中场的传球数还要多，同时，阿森纳的厄齐儿，跑动距离11.68千里，全场最三。文章没有直说，可瞎子也看得明白：克洛斯是极好的，厄齐儿臭不可言！

These are simplistic examples, but they encapsulate a debate taking place at thehighest levels of many football clubs. In one corner are the "quants"or quantitative analysts: they are admirers of the statistician andelection-oracle Nate Silver; the Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman; and especially Billy Beane, the star of Moneyball,Michael Lewis's 2003 book about the data revolution in baseball. They believethat a football match can be translated into numbers and – much as a hedge-fundtrader does with the stock market – those figures can be crunched and scannedfor patterns. They don't think intuition should be removed from the game butthey have found that statistics are dispassionate in a way that humans never are.
这样粗暴化的例子笔笔皆是。现在许多大俱乐部里也存在争议。一边是数据分析专家们，他们是大数据巫师“Nate Silver”、诺贝尔经济学奖得主，数学家兼心理学家Daniel Kahneman的追随者，尤其崇拜《点球成金》里的Billy Beane，在这本小说里，作者迈克·路易斯描写了发生在棒球界里的数据革命。他们相信一场足球比赛可以被“翻译”成数据，如同股市里的对冲基金一样，通过对数据的精确解读，能够得到其肯后的某种规律。他们不认为比赛的直观感受应该被摈弃，但他们发现数据更为客观，数据的“极度理性”——是人类永远没法做到的

As Beane, general manager of the OaklandA's, has said: "The idea that I [should] trust my eyes more than thestats, I don't buy that because I've seen magicians pull rabbits out of hatsand I know that the rabbit's not in there."
正如比恩（点球成金），奥克兰棒球俱乐部的主教练所说：“相信自己的眼睛，而不是数字——这种观点我无法苟同。我亲眼看到魔术师从帽子里拎出三只兔子，但我知道，帽子里没有兔子。”

In the other corner are the traditionalists, which is to say the owners and managersof the overwhelming majority of professional football clubs. They are aware of Moneyball – at least the film starring Brad Pitt– but don't believe the lessons of a stop-start sport such as baseball can beapplied to the fluid dynamics of a football match.
还有一边是传统的捍卫者，大部分足球俱乐部的老板及长期执教足球的主教练都是此类的代表。他们也知道《点球成金》——至少知道BradPitt主演的电影——但不相信像棒球这类静态比赛运动的数据分析，能够适用于快速激烈的足球运动。

Most managers once played the game themselves at a high level and it is this fact,they contend, that gives them a special insight into what happens on the pitch and which players they recruit. This approach is summed up by an anecdote about Harry Redknapp, reportedin Wired magazine.When he was manager of Southampton, he turnedn to his analyst after a loss and said: "I'll tell you what, next week, why don't we get your computer to play against their computer and see who wins?"
大多数主教练都曾是球员，他们也大多在高级别联赛前踢过球。因此，他们能够敏锐的解读球场上发生的事情，也能明确知道自己需要引进什么样的球员。哈里·雷德纳普（老雷）的秩事最有代表性，《连线》杂志曾这样报导，当老雷还是南安普顿的主教练时，一次输球后他对分析师说：“下周为啥不用你的电脑和他们的电脑比比，看看谁会赢？”

It turns out that Redknapp was not too wide of the mark: how long will it be before we look at football not just as a contest between 22 players or a clash between two managers, but as a battlebetween the respective brains trusts assembled on the two benches?
这话也倒没太离谱：不知道什么时候起，我们看待足球比赛，已经不把它当作是22个球员和2个主教练之间的较量，也是双方板凳席上“聪明的大脑们”之间的较量。

They've managed this despite being more frugal with wages than all of their rivals andnot splashing cash on big-name transfers. Instead they achieved success by developing brilliant home-grown talent – Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell and RossBarkley among them – and melding these players with unheralded stalwarts such as Leighton Baines and Leon Osman, who just happen to be statistical outliers.
埃弗顿的成功建筑在他们比竞争对手更为节制的薪资管理体系，也从不大手笔引援。相反他们坚持不懈地培养本土球员——鲁尼、罗德维尔、罗斯·巴克利为其中的翘楚，还签下一些实力派球员如拜恩斯、奥斯曼，这些人都是转会名单上的冷门，如今他们成为了球队的中坚力量。

They have just come in from training. How much data do they collect in preparation for matches? "Every step on afootball pitch is measured now," says Martínez, in his unique Spanish-Lancastrian lilt. "We monitor each session with GPS and heart-rateprofiles. From a physical point of view, the most significant stats are probably the number of sprints, the sprint distance and the amount ofhigh-intensity efforts a player gets through. We look at these through the season and they give us a good indication of how fatigued a player is and the recovery he needs."
他们刚刚从训练场下来，他们在比赛前要收集分析有多少数据？“球场上的每一步都被记录”马丁内斯讲着西班牙口音的英文：“每一个训练环节都有GPS和心跳监测。身体数据，最有参考意义的是冲刺跑，冲刺跑的数次、距离，球员能承受的强度。赛季中通过这些数据，我们可以知道球员的疲劳情况，及他需要什么样的恢复。”

The Everton manager is especially scathing of using data to identify transfertargets – the Moneyball dream of unearthing players whose utility might not always be immediately obvious. There is the famous story of Arsène Wenger signing Mathieu Flamini (the firsttime) partly due to a statistic that showed he ran 14km a match. Or Liverpool,under their then-director of football Damien Comolli, who spent heavily in 2011 to acquire Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, ostensibly because their"final-third regain" percentages – how often they recoveredpossession in the opponent's penalty box – were so high.
马丁内斯用数据寻找转会目标格外谨慎——《点球成金》里经常用数据挖掘未受注目的实力派球员。足球圈里最著名的例子是温格签下弗拉米尼（第一次），完全归功于弗拉米尼每场1.4万米的跑动数据。而利物浦，在他们的前足球总监达米恩的援意下，花重金引进亨德森和唐宁，就因为他们的“禁区逼抢”的百分比——在对方禁区内反抢球权的次数非常高。（？）