11 Questions with Statified Football

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 @statifiedf :

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

Not sure what you mean with this question, but the first time I discovered the world of football analytics was late in 2014. I had just started working at my first full-time job after graduating from university and was I traveling to and from work by public transport. That's when I read the book "The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football is Wrong". At that moment I thought: wow, this is where it all comes together. I know how to work with data + data can be used in the thing I like most, football! I have to combine those two and become a data scientist in football! That's when the dream started... 

What attracted you to scouting/analytics? What’s more intriguing now, names or numbers?

The most appealing to me is the ability to make fact-based decisions in football. There are a lot of people who act based on what they know or what they see ("experts", pundits, etc) and that's crazy. You can't rely on guesstimated decisions in a million dollar business like football. By using data, one can make proper decisions. Actually even better decisions than decisions based on what the eyes see. 

Numbers is more intriguing. Numbers create names: if you are a player/team with good numbers, your name will get noticed at some point.

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

I focus on data driven tactical analyses instead of scouting for players. I am developing some stuff in 2020 to help determine tactical playing styles without having to watch hours of video footage. When that is finished, I will definitely "find" some interesting things: interesting teams or players based on their playing style.

For now, I can't really say I found a player (yet). Though I must say I (or my stats) really liked Laszlo Benes from Gladbach last season already! And Boadu from AZ was looking good already in a small sample at the start of last season. Same goes for Ihattaren and Kokcu. Let's see where these are in a few years!

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

Not really missed someone, but based on stats one would never say De Ligt is a top defender. Still, we all agree he is and he went to Juve. What I am thinking about these days is: is it really that hard to identify defenders based on data (like everyone claims) or are we missing something? Virgil van Dijk does post really good defending numbers/stats, but why don't many other (so called) top defenders do that too?

Another mystery I recently talked about with a few people on Twitter is Wijnaldum (and other "supporting style" midfielders): they are very useful to their team, but don't post the best of stats... How can we measure their worth? Do we need other / better metrics?

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

I do have extensive experience in programming now, but if possible, I would've started programming even earlier with. I would recommend everyone to learn some basics in Python/R, not necessarily only data scientists or people in football analytics.

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

It's both. Some things can be taught through scientific methods, like how can you best kick a ball, what's a good diet, etc. But another important aspect of football is the mental one. Picking out the players with the right mindset and make them want to learn and get better every day, is more of an art IMO.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

Italy becoming Word Champion in 2006 & Milan winning the Champions League in 2003 and 2017. How many people can say they witnessed their favorite club and country of birth winning the biggest possible prize at club/country level?

But there are so many other great moments... how about the Messi-goal against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi final in 2011?

Or the win by Mark Cavendish on the Champs Elysees in 2009? What makes that one great is the tactical trick they pulled off in the last corner, by cutting of the other riders. The sprint was already won due to that move. 

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

Narrow formations always interest and inspire me. 4-3-2-1, 4-3-1-2, 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1 with 3 attacking midfielders / trequartista's (no wingers) etc. A few weeks ago I visited the match between Dusseldorf and RB Leipzig... I have never seen something like that Leipzig team before! They were helped by a poor Dusseldorf of course, but still, they played such an unconventional/a-typical formation, with a-typical players, so well! Everything clicked and it seemed so easy.

The Ferguson era at Manchester United was also very admirable. It's not about having the most money and buying the best players. It's about instilling a winning mentality on your players, create a simple yet well-working tactic and send the right players on the pitch.

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

Some people are just lucky: they "know someone who knows someone", or are just at the right place at the right time. From there they roll into football scouting/analytics. Only for them to leave after a few years, "looking for a new challenge". What else can possibly be out there better than football? 

They don't realize how lucky they are to be in the world of football, how many people there are wanting to do the same as them... On the other side there are a lot of people who work very hard in order to get that one opportunity, which maybe will never even come. To the latter I would say: if you have a dream, chase it. Do everything possible in order to learn the right skills, show others what you can do and why you are good at what you do. Increase the probability to get as lucky as the lucky few...

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

Python, because it's free and it lets me do what I do best: analyse data, build models, create visualisations, etc. And you don't need a course or go to university in order to work with Python. Google is your best friend!

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

My background as epidemiologist / scientific researcher allows me to ask myself the right questions and create the best models in order to analyse the problem at hand. Without knowing how to unravel a problem properly and which answers the football world is (or should be) looking for, one will never be able to create useful analytics. 

Instead, one might focus too much on cool looking graphics, produce "they usual stuff" because that's what people want to see or focus too much on technical stuff like improving model accuracy by 0.1%.