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 29 years.

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 a home-side 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.

Auteur

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.