David Sumpter is professor of applied mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he runs the Collective Behaviour Research Group. Originally from London, he studied his PhD in Mathematics at Manchester and has held academic research positions at both Oxford and Cambridge before heading to Sweden, where he lives with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he trains a successful 9-year old boys' football team, Upsala IF 2005. An incomplete list of the applied maths research projects on which David has worked include pigeons flying in pairs over Oxford; clapping undergraduate students in the north of England; the traffic of Cuban leaf-cutter ants; fish swimming between coral in the Great Barrier Reef; swarms of locusts traveling across the Sahara; disease-spread in Ugandan villages; the gaze of London commuters; dancing honey bees from Sydney; and the tubular structures built by Japanese slime moulds. His research has appeared in Science , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , and Proceedings of the Royal Society , among many others.
@soccermatics / collective-behavior.com

Football and mathematics - together, much more than a game

Preface: The Kick-off Part I: On the Pitch
Chapter 1: I Never Predict Anything and I Never Will
Chapter 2: How Slime Moulds Built Barcelona
Chapter 3: Check My Flow
Chapter 4: Statistical Brilliance
Chapter 5: Zlatan Ibrah Rocket Science Part II: In the Dugout
Chapter 6: Three Points for the Bird-brained Manager
Chapter 7: The Tactical Map
CHapter 8: Total Cyber Dynamo
Chapter 9: The World in Motion Part III: From the Crowd
Chapter 10: You'll Never Walk Alone
Chapter 11: Bet Against the Masses
Chapter 12: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
Chapter 13: The Results Are In
The Full-Time Whistle

Notes
Acknowledgements
Index

'Football looked at in a very different way' Pat Nevin, former Chelsea and Everton star and football media analyst

Football - the most mathematical of sports. From shot statistics and league tables to the geometry of passing and managerial strategy, the modern game is filled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How do we make sense of them? The answer lies in the mathematical models applied in biology, physics and economics. Soccermatics brings football and mathematics together in a mind-bending synthesis, using numbers to help reveal the inner workings of the beautiful game.

How is the Barcelona midfield linked geometrically?
What's the similarity between an ant colony and Total Football, Dutch style?
What can defenders learn from lionesses?
How much of a scoreline is pure randomness and how much is skill?
How can probability theory make you money at the bookies?

Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football. No matter who you follow - from your local non-league side to the big boys of the Premiership, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A or the MLS - you'll be amazed at what mathematics has to teach us about the world's favourite sport.