What do you think?
Rate this book
Outside the Box: OptaJoe’s 25 Years of the Premier League
In football, numbers are everywhere. From touches in the opposition box to expected goals, clear-cut chances to win-loss ratios. In the modern game, these numbers help provide the narrative, the drama, and the conversation. They are scrutinised in order to justify results and to predict future outcomes. They even dictate transfer policy and drive clubs to achieve the impossible.
But when did the numbers become so important and what do they mean?
In Outside the Box, Duncan Alexander looks back at twenty-five years of the Premier League and beyond, uncovering the hidden truths and accepted myths that surround the game. Using the archives of OptaJoe and never-before-seen data, we discover why Liverpool have gone 27 years without winning a league title and why Lionel Messi is the best player in the game's history. Or is he?
Insightful, wry, and hugely entertaining, Outside the Box is a hugely entertaining and accessible account of football across the decades, analysing data from the some of the greatest seasons, players, teams and managers.
But when did the numbers become so important and what do they mean?
In Outside the Box, Duncan Alexander looks back at twenty-five years of the Premier League and beyond, uncovering the hidden truths and accepted myths that surround the game. Using the archives of OptaJoe and never-before-seen data, we discover why Liverpool have gone 27 years without winning a league title and why Lionel Messi is the best player in the game's history. Or is he?
Insightful, wry, and hugely entertaining, Outside the Box is a hugely entertaining and accessible account of football across the decades, analysing data from the some of the greatest seasons, players, teams and managers.
- GenresFootballSportsNonfiction
300 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2017
15 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 9, 2020
Filled with niche references and a satirical sense of humour, this book was sometimes biting in its cynicism for the modern game but often felt long-winded. The season-by-season summaries became repetitive by the end and the high density of facts makes it a little sticky to get through. Having said that, if you can recognise the clever gestures and hidden glances at some well known (but often lesser known) stories within the game, you’re in for a treat (if you can overlook the spelling errors in the actual text itself!)
October 14, 2019
I couldn't finish this book because of the horrible forced humour. I wish Duncan did a reprint without the jokes. That book would be great to read.
September 9, 2018
In Outside the Box, Duncan Alexander had a joke success rate of 0%. Unfunny.
I am familiar with Alexander from podcasts and the OptaJoe Twitter account, but this was unexpectedly awful. Either Alexander thinks he's really funny, and a book was his way to reach a larger audience, or his publishers thought a statistical book would be too dry without some 'colour', and didn't have time to judge the horrific result, as there are a few typos in this published work as well. I genuinely wondered whether it was worth carrying on after a quarter of the book, but some of the trivia was good enough to trudge through it.
There is a reminder of this humour at the start of each chapter that details a Premier League season, with the "Is it called the Premiership" question, a joke that didn't warrant a mention, yet alone 24 repeats. The subtitle is misleading, as the book is in fact a history of the Premier League, not 'football' (bar one World Cup section), but is more about streaks of results and odd trivia than what I had expected, namely the statistical trends on tactics. There are websites that show me the content of this book, and as I expect Alexander knows working for an analytics company, odd statistical quirks do come out of lots of noisy data, and that doesn't mean they are particularly significant. He also liked repeating the fact that Aguero and Sanchez scored 15 away goals each in the 2015-6 season, though I do concede that the enthusiasm for Andy Roberts' feat of playing 4 league games against Arsenal one season was merited, and the sort of thing that kept me reading.
Aside from the season guides, there were also some bizarre filler sections. I'm no Liverpool fan, but the mocking of each season since their last season was pointless, and the inexplicable decision to write a mini-play about Messi with calendar months as characters left this reader questioning whether a bet had been made to see what level of rubbish people will willingly read, hammered home by the afterword in which he goes on a bike ride to some of Trevor Benjamin's clubs. Perhaps these were parodies that I didn't get, such as the Garth Crooks Uncle Ben reference.
In the section on Arsene Wenger, Alexander apologised for suggesting the chapter should be called 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' as it was a poor pun. Hopefully he'll see that was not the exception to the rule and apologise for the rest of it, but a quick glance at his Twitter suggests this is actually his sense of humour. Jesus wept.
I am familiar with Alexander from podcasts and the OptaJoe Twitter account, but this was unexpectedly awful. Either Alexander thinks he's really funny, and a book was his way to reach a larger audience, or his publishers thought a statistical book would be too dry without some 'colour', and didn't have time to judge the horrific result, as there are a few typos in this published work as well. I genuinely wondered whether it was worth carrying on after a quarter of the book, but some of the trivia was good enough to trudge through it.
There is a reminder of this humour at the start of each chapter that details a Premier League season, with the "Is it called the Premiership" question, a joke that didn't warrant a mention, yet alone 24 repeats. The subtitle is misleading, as the book is in fact a history of the Premier League, not 'football' (bar one World Cup section), but is more about streaks of results and odd trivia than what I had expected, namely the statistical trends on tactics. There are websites that show me the content of this book, and as I expect Alexander knows working for an analytics company, odd statistical quirks do come out of lots of noisy data, and that doesn't mean they are particularly significant. He also liked repeating the fact that Aguero and Sanchez scored 15 away goals each in the 2015-6 season, though I do concede that the enthusiasm for Andy Roberts' feat of playing 4 league games against Arsenal one season was merited, and the sort of thing that kept me reading.
Aside from the season guides, there were also some bizarre filler sections. I'm no Liverpool fan, but the mocking of each season since their last season was pointless, and the inexplicable decision to write a mini-play about Messi with calendar months as characters left this reader questioning whether a bet had been made to see what level of rubbish people will willingly read, hammered home by the afterword in which he goes on a bike ride to some of Trevor Benjamin's clubs. Perhaps these were parodies that I didn't get, such as the Garth Crooks Uncle Ben reference.
In the section on Arsene Wenger, Alexander apologised for suggesting the chapter should be called 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' as it was a poor pun. Hopefully he'll see that was not the exception to the rule and apologise for the rest of it, but a quick glance at his Twitter suggests this is actually his sense of humour. Jesus wept.
January 22, 2018
Outside the Box: A Statistical Journey Through the History of Football (2017) by Duncan Alexander is a season by season statistical trip through the history of the Premier League. Alexander works for the statistical service Opta.
Each season gets a chapter that has various stats about the season included at the end. There are also interludes on Liverpool and each season of their failure to win a title, title defences, Arsene Wenger and various other topics. The book is a bit like a series of Opta tweets joined together. It's actually a bit taxing to read as it doesn't really flow.
For anyone interested in the Premier League it's worth a read, it's not as good as 'The Mixer' but it is well worth a look.
Each season gets a chapter that has various stats about the season included at the end. There are also interludes on Liverpool and each season of their failure to win a title, title defences, Arsene Wenger and various other topics. The book is a bit like a series of Opta tweets joined together. It's actually a bit taxing to read as it doesn't really flow.
For anyone interested in the Premier League it's worth a read, it's not as good as 'The Mixer' but it is well worth a look.
September 16, 2025
This could have been it, this could have been THE book for football nerds, and to some extent it was. It has great insights, niche statistics which are interesting to read about to say the least, and some extremely well written parts.
The satire and unnecessary usage and endless re-usage of jokes however, made this a lot less enjoyable.
Overal I still recommend the book, but only to those who don't mind reading past a few jokes.
The satire and unnecessary usage and endless re-usage of jokes however, made this a lot less enjoyable.
Overal I still recommend the book, but only to those who don't mind reading past a few jokes.
September 11, 2017
Si te gusta mucho el fútbol y las estadísticas lo vas a encontrar muy entretenido. No es para nada formal. Inclusive los capítulos "libres" son más ricos q los de las temporadas en si. Está lleno de datos. Recomendable.
October 16, 2017
If you're really interested in the EPL, this is a good book to read. It's wittily written, sometimes I wished the stats cited were a bit deeper (a lot of the stats were more in the nature of coincidences). Still it's fun, and easy to pick up and browse or just read the bits you're interested in.
January 18, 2018
This was an enjoyable read, except the chapter on Liverpool which made me feel dejected and so I took a break from reading. I learnt a lot of stuff about the premier league and it was really interesting to see all the statistics behind the history.
February 8, 2021
Recommend this to anyone interested in the niche and quirky facts of the football we all love. The book is broken down into football history and premier league seasons, and it's a great way to dive into particular stats, which I will definitely be using!
August 21, 2017
Well written, humorous and interesting. A really enjoyable read.
June 4, 2018
A walk through the Premier League from the beginning. Entertaining an well written
November 8, 2019
Fun, funny, and interesting if you're a football fan but not a book to sit down and pore over.
July 27, 2023
A nice and nostalgic reminder of how old you already are. With a nice balance of refreshing new stats and some completely useless chapters.
September 10, 2023
Hamilton is droll and goes through the premier league history and some side journeys . It's funny intelligent and whilst it won't concert non fans it's a good history
November 29, 2021
Some of it’s really interesting, some of it’s absolutely awful. The chapters on Messi and Trevor Benjamin are a real slog and it’s insane to think they made it through several rewrites.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews