11 Questions with Ram Srinivas

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 Ram Srinivas, cofounder @insightMrkt

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

My first 'opportunity' in football was some ad-hoc data-based consultancy for an EFL club in June 2019. It was nothing formal but to be in contact with and providing inputs to someone on the other side of things felt quite surreal. I'd say it came about just by way of me churning out content on EFL (and some on other leagues too) teams and players, eventually some of it probably caught someone's eye and they ended up writing to me. It didn't last very long but I'll always be grateful to them for my first involvement with a professional club!

What attracted you to scouting/analytics?

Since I was a kid, I'd always been interested in tactics, how teams identified players to sign (beyond the 'big' few ones) and how much deeper you could go beyond goals and assists. I was also very taken by lower-league English football, the Eredivisie and how some 'smaller' English clubs like Southampton and Swansea did what they did. 

I maintained this curiosity and was inspired by the likes of Spielverlagerung, StatsBomb and so many more over the years before trying my own hand at it. I've had attempts littered on various platforms throughout the latter half of the last decade. They're quite bad but I'm glad I tried my hand.

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

I wouldn't say I founded the concept - the credit to that goes entirely to the prodigious Ashwin Raman (@AshwinRaman_) - but I extended the concept of player percentile charts to group various metrics into three distinct sections in order to paint a picture of a player's style and performance. 

I wasn't one for unearthing a lot of unknown gems but I'd like to think I called James Maddison ending up at top-6 PL level before he hit real form with Norwich. Mainstream, I know, but he was one I would just not budge on! Nathan Ake, since his debut for Chelsea, was another one. Maybe if we revisit this question in a year, I might have some lesser-known names. Ha! On a serious note though, Perhaps a player's 'conviction' naturally stands out to me a lot and I saw a great deal of that in these two.

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

Ben White, perhaps? He's having a superb season with Leeds. I probably didn't look at League One CB data in as much depth as I should've but he was one of the players whose example taught me to contextualise data in a number of different ways. 

Of course, there are intangibles and Bielsa certainly has a lot to do with just how good White has been this season but I always like to look for real-life situations where players with unspectacular data profiles go on to put up superb numbers elsewhere; I think there's something to learn from every such case.

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

I think I'm not set in any ways as of yet and still developing a numbers of skills. I'd like to think the door isn't closed on any of them yet, although I'd love to have a better understanding of R and not just Python. However if I could do something differently, I'd definitely start putting work out earlier and generally investing myself in football 'fanalytics' much before I actually did. So many prominent folk in the analytics community emphasise on the importance of getting your analysis out there - I paid heed very late!

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

A bit of both, isn't it? There are a number of things that would be conducive to player development, even if simply recruiting smartly and in accordance to certain principles, or translating performance-based data into coach-able insights. There are so many intangibles involved on a day-to-day basis though - nurturing natural attributes, man management, the whole nine yards - and it's hard to bracket development as only a science or an art. It works both ways, hand-in-hand!

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

I'm a Chelsea fan, so undoubtedly Drogba scoring the winning penalty in Munich on May 19, 2012. Derby's incredible comeback against Leeds at Elland Road in the play-off semi-final has got to be up there as well. MAARRRIOTTTTT!

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

There are three managers that really inspire me - Marcelo Bielsa, Chris Wilder and Graham Potter. Visionaries, fanatics of the game even, with an utmost conviction in their principles. It's not just the brand of football you see from their teams on the pitch or methods outside of it, it's their stories; the way they've worked through their respective careers and dedication to football taught me a lot. Football and people in football can teach you things about life, or at least that's the way I see it.

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

Get stuck in really, for me that's the only way! I procrastinated for years and didn't get nearly as much done as I did since the end of 2018. Don't be conscious of the results at first but get the process in motion and let the rest take care of itself. 

There's so much great content on the internet by way of visuals, articles, websites, even Twitter threads. So much to learn, so many people to learn from. Glean as much as you can, don't be afraid to wade into coding if you're more into analytics and you'll be a lot happier when you do. And of course, like everyone's said before me, put your work out there.

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

Python makes my life a lot easier on the analytics side but everyday, I marvel that things like Wyscout and Instat exist. It's incredible, the amount of football and collections of clips you can view on these. I'd be on them all day if I could.

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

I like to consume a lot of football-related content on the internet, simply because there's that much you can learn from it whether it's the interpretation of statistics or ways to look at how the game is played, things that help you think critically. I don't really watch any other sport, although I do make it a point to watch as much football as possible, on every level.

I think a general interest in Computer Science (it was my undergraduate degree) most certainly helped me apply my coding knowledge to this sphere as well, as well as in statistics and machine learning. My day job as a software developer has helped a lot in helping me write cleaner code, too!