Here is Andy Forrester of STATSPerform and OptaPro.
How did your first opportunity in football come about?
Shortly after finishing my post-grad in Sports Management in Cape Town in 2010, I heard of an opportunity through a friend to work for a football statistics company called Amisco. I joined the company as an entry level data collector and worked my way into the analysis department over time which resulted in some valuable experience working with professional teams and coaches.
What attracted you to scouting/analytics?
Bearing in mind the industry was still quite young and not as well-known back then, I was simply looking for any opportunity to work in the sport I love and happened to be lucky enough to fall into a role that allowed this to be my job!
Who is the first player you "found"? What caught your eye?
For the first few years of my career my role focused mainly on opposition analysis so I didn’t really spend much time with recruitment data until a few years later. My advice to anyone trying to start a career in the industry is that they should spend as much time watching football as they do on looking at players through a data-lens, as this can lead to far too much focus on far too few things.
If I had to say someone, I did spend a lot of time telling my colleagues that Dries Mertens was a great player when I was spending everyday coding PSV Eindhoven games in back 2011! (I also thought Balázs Dzsudzsák was going to be a big player as well though…)
Who is the player you "missed" on? What did you learn from it?
I think most people didn’t really see Mo Salah having as big of an effect as he did after his move to the Prem. A lot of focus has gone on Liverpool’s analytics team that allegedly scouted him using data but I think giving data all the credit for their recruitment during this phase is probably a bit unfair. The whole club deserves a lot of credit for not only finding players like Andrew Robertson, but most importantly turning them into the monsters they are today. Klopp probably deserves some of the praise as well…
If you could start over what skill would you build on first?
Tough question as I think the most important thing you can have in this industry is experience but due to the number of people trying to work in football this becomes a challenge if you don’t have any qualifications or prior experience already. If I started over I would probably attempt to do coaching badges early on I suppose.
Do you see player development as more of an art or a science?
More of a science I guess. I think you could break up a player’s development into roughly 3 core elements which would be technical, tactical and physical development, and you could apply science to all 3 of these along the way (obviously most applicable to the latter). In my opinion the player has to want it to achieve it though (putting in extra hours in the gym/analysing opponents etc) and I guess this is where the ‘art’ of a top coach would earn his money in transforming the mentality of certain players.
What is your favorite sports moment? Why?
In football, I loved the drama of the 2006 World Cup final and Zidane was one of my favourite players growing up so it was entertaining to see him at the centre of the good and the bad. My favourite ever game though was the UCL match between Real Madrid and Manchester United (1st leg) in 2003 when Real won 3-1 (https://www.youtube.com/
What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?
As a South African, the 1995 Rugby World Cup was an inspirational example as to how sport can unite people across cultures and race, and living there at the time I was fortunate enough to witness it first-hand. The team (and captain) had a huge role in uniting people in the country at such a fragile point in South Africa’s fight to overcome the damage caused by Apartheid.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into scouting/analytics?
You will most likely have to give up a lot of your time/work/energy for free at the start. You need to be prepared to accept this because if you don’t someone else most definitely will and you need to get a foot in the door somehow. Twitter is a great tool to showcase your work although don’t make it your only route. Experience is everything, you will learn from coaches. Ask around lower league clubs for opportunities. Download the free data that is available online and learn to use it. Interrogate the meaning of different data points and question what you think is valuable and not. Watch football (preferably live, doesn’t have to be any decent level), read football, and hopefully a door will open.
What is your favorite app/tool to use (for work or fun)?
I like the simplicity of SofaScore app, and the player notifications you can set up. Stats Zone is also decent.
What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst/scout? Why?
A little bit of Football Manager can’t hurt :)
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