FC MIDTJYLLAND – Moneyball, setplays and professional gambling
Derry City will come up against one of the best set-play converters in Europe when they faced Danish side FC Midtjylland in just one weeks’ time.
Barring Athletico Madrid, no other team has been as clinical from free kicks and corner kicks in recent times, with ‘The Wolves’ of Denmark proving proficient at finding the net from dead-ball situations, a fact that is helped by the presence of a 6ft 7’ striker in Nigerian Paul Onuachu.
The draw is arguably the most difficult of all potential opponents for the Candy Stripes, and coming on the back of their poor defensive display at Bray Wanderers last weekend, a definite area of concern for Kenny Shiels and his players ahead of next Thursday’s game at the MCVH Arena.
Basing their success on statistics, tactics and video clips, the story of FC Midtjylland’s rise to power in Denmark is one of the more remarkable footballing tales of modern times.
Flying in the face of the mega-power’s spend big policies, the Danes sign their players and plan their seasons based on a tactic derived from the famous ‘Moneyball’ statistical method introduced by Major League Baseball side Oakland Athletics in the 1990s and favoured by Liverpool owner John W Henry.
It has proven to be a highly successful decision for Midtjylland who soared to their first ever Danish title just two years ago. Along the way there has been plenty of European experience also, with the club preparing to play its 55th and 56th European ties against Derry City in the next few weeks. Along that journey they have come up against some very recognisable names, defeating louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United in 2016, this after knocking out Southampton on their way to the last 32 of the Europa League.
This will not be the first time they have come up against opposition from the North of Ireland, having met Irish league side Glentoran in their very first European tie back in the 2001-02 season, drawing 1-1 at home before winning 2-0 at the Oval to progress to a tie with Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon.
Who are FC Midtjylland?
FC Midtjylland’s history is a very brief one, as they were only formed in 1999, the same year that Derry City were struggling for survival
Founded by Johnny Rune, and Steen Hessel, the club was an amalgamation of two great rivals
Ikast FS and Herning Fremad, clubs that for decades had been strong rivals, but had never played any significant role in Danish football.
It wasn’t long before Midtjylland enjoyed success, achieving promotion in 2000, after a season in which the team had gathered more points than any other team in the history of the first division.
FC Midtjylland recently started a revolutionary experiment which was called a statistics-first approach.
This experiment started in the summer of 2014, when professional British sports gambler Matthew Benham, who also owns Brentford, bought the Danish club.
Mathematical models rather than football tactics are the leading factors in all of Benham’s decisions, a model Benham believes is far more reflective of a team’s strength than the league table itself.
The success of their approach is also proven by the number of goals they score out of set pieces, which were nearly half of their goals of last season.
Since the take-over of Benham the team has intensively started work on this and set pieces are therefore perfectly suited to train on.
That, and the presence of former Real Madrid and Tottenham star Rafael Van Der Vaart in their team, is something for Kenny Shiels and Hugh Harkin to ponder over ahead of next week’s game.