11 Questions with Laduma Analytics

The pursuit of wisdom in any walk of life quickly reveals that what you think you know is not nearly enough to get you to where you want to go. As I'm starting out in my football scouting journey I challenged myself to reach out to those already working in various roles in football to answer a short list of questions. My goal wasn't to get answers but relevant perspectives on the game within the game.

Here is @AnalyticsLaduma

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

When I studied my MSc, part of the degree was to complete a work placement which happened to be offered in the USA at Major League Side (MLS) Houston Dynamo. I spent 6 months in the USA working with the academy and first-team in various projects. The role itself involved pre and post-match analysis as well as player academy and first-team analysis.

What attracted you to scouting/analytics?

I have always been involved in football, whether it was playing the game myself, watching the game as fans or even coaching youth football. It was at university when I really got involved in scouting and analytics. My thesis topic was about Expected Goals and as such, this was the first step into scouting & analytics using numbers/statistics. It was from there that I joined Twitter and followed accounts which started conversations in the 'football analytics' community.

Who/what is the first player/concept you "found"? What caught your eye?

I think it was the radar charts that the blog Statsbomb released which first caught my eye. If I remember correctly, these were the first visualisations of player data that I found online. Since then, people have used bar charts, bubble charts, dot charts and many more.

Who/what is the player/concept you "missed" on? What did you learn from it?

Nothing springs to mind at present.

If you could start over what skill would you build on first?

Depending on which route you want to take into football or sports analysis. If you are interested in coaching or managing then definitely do your coaching badges. If you are looking into the analysis/analytics section, computer science or data analytics is a route to go. I sort of took a 50 50 route on both but ultimately enjoyed the analysis side more as I am a bit of a geek/nerd. The key skill though is communication and being able to bring that across to the key members of staff who need to interpret that information first and foremost.

Do you see player development as more of an art or a science?

Great question - difficult actually. For me, you would want a player developing skills to have both, even if they are very similar to each other. 

What is your favourite sports moment? Why?

I am not a fan of these questions :) The allowance of only choosing one moment is incredibly hard. I used to swim competitively so my moment would probably be outside the footballing world. Michael Phelps' 8 eight medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. 

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

I am an Arsenal but would have to say Guardiola or Klopp of late. Due to how they have managed their teams' despite the heavy scheduling. It creates real strength to show this leadership on a daily basis in such an enthusiastic manner. 

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into scouting/analytics?

Watch the sport of your choosing, learn data analysis techniques, write blog posts about your findings, create new metrics from data and show your passion for the field. 

What is your favourite app/tool to use (for work or fun)?

My tool of choice would be Tableau. It's a massive upgrade of Microsoft Excel and very simple to use. Although I have recently also enjoyed using Python. 

What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst/scout? Why?

Competitive swimming when I was younger definitely helped me discipline myself due to time constraints/commitments.