11 Questions with @Blades_Analytic

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 BA Analytics, recruitment data analyst for Peterborough United and @insightMrkt

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I had been running an analytics twitter account for over 18 months when contact was made with the Peterborough United Chairman, Darragh Macanthony, had some contact and interaction with me and the guys from the Not the Top 20 podcast regarding how data and video analysis should be used in club recruitment. From there some more private conversations took place and within 24 hours I was on the trail officially working for the club! I had done previous work freelance for clubs in the EFL pyramid as well as in the USL in the States with some additional agency work but this was something much more intimate and connected to building a strategy and long term vision.

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

I studied performance analysis and coaching at University and worked in coaching from a very young age. I always felt that would be the avenue I went down if any route into professional sports was available. Whilst at University I had the brilliant opportunity to go and live and coach in the USA. There I found a love and appreciation for American sports especially Ice Hockey. A huge part of American Sport culture is the statistical analysis that is freely available pre, during and post games. This is where I began to learn and love the relationship between what happened in the game that I saw and what the numbers and data told me that I didn't/couldn't see. Over the years that grew to the point where I started one of the first wave of club "fanalaytics" accounts analysing Sheffield United. 

The account started off as basically me musing my thoughts and stats to myself a few geeky friends but it just grew and grew and became clear that the thirst for more insightful and evidential analysis was very big. In terms of my intrigue I still love the tactical elements of the game, the movement patterns and moments of skill but I'm able to combine that with an appreciation and understanding of why the data of games and players can be very different to your 1st impression. That fusion of being able to understand a single game in the context of a much larger sample size is very intuitive and can help in so many ways.

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

Everyone will claim they saw a player 1st! one of the first things Ilearnt was that self promotion in this regard is quite common! In terms of the 1st player I used statistics to highlight as someone with potential to be better than the level they were out, Adam Webster is a great example. I wrote some pieces on the type of Centre Back Sheffield Utd needed to get out of the Championship, highlighting the stats Webster produced at a struggling Ipswich Town side as someone to be interested in. Next Season Webster went to Bristol City then consequently to Brighton in the Premier League for 25m! The first statistical model/concept I really fell into was expected goals. I first began reading about expected goals in Winter 2015 and just instantly saw how game changing the concept was if used correctly.

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

Just as everyone will claim they saw a player first it's conversely as quiet on players people have missed! lol But in all seriousness there is always going to be "misses" based on the data/video you have available and the process you use. I don't count it a miss if that player signs for a club you didn't know about, quite frankly the world is so condensed now in football you know the players. You might however, not fancy the player and someone else signs them and they excel! Ultimately you then learn from that in terms of questioning your process and your decision making within that process.

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

That's a very interesting question. I think there's lots of talk about coding/programming languages. Certainly it's a skill you need to know to work in data analysis in football. I do think that is a good place to start for sure and save lots of time further down the line. That said I still feel the relationship between the data analysis and actual heads of recruitment/scouts is not there yet by a long way. 

The value in that relationship is being able to translate/interpret what the data is saying in very concise, simple terms that relate to the football club. Not many clubs yet fully understand the full extent of how data can influence their decision making at all levels. That ability is seriously under valued and probably the biggest role I see in football.

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

I see player development as both. There is always going to be the intangibles to any player that without them in place the player will not perform. Happiness, feeling valued, having the right mentality and characteristics is vital and is down to the ability of any coach/manage to man-manage the player correctly. There is though an ever evolving science to development in terms of providing players with the right statistical information to help them improve. 

We are now at a stage where we are becoming close to analysing an individual action of a player in a game and valuing that action in how it affected the outcome of the phase of play. From this trends can be derived to see if a player has a particular flaw/strength in their decision making and this can be worked on. There's so many facets to player analysis now but too much information is a waste. The key is to highlight 2/3 analysis points maximum, in very simple ideally visual format.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

My favourite sports moment is a biased club moment. As a supporter of Sheffield United there will be no bigger game than against our city rivals Sheffield Wednesday and in 2017 we played them for the 1st time in many years after promotion to the championship. We won that game 4-2 away to our rivals and frankly Sheffield United have never looked back since going from strength to strength. For a non football related one i'd have to say  the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final was an incredible experience as a 13 year old!

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

Too obvious to say Chris Wilder (although it's true!) I'd have to say as a coach I'm completely inspired by the concepts of Marcelo Bielsa! Team wise as an analytics lover Brentford as a club absolutely fascinate me. A club that size should simply not be able to trade as they do but their attention to the "1%s" and the involvement in analytics at all levels of the club is a brilliant insight into how a club can be transformed to perform well above expectations.

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

I think I split the 2 when people ask me about how to get into scouting and analytics. Scouting wise, I'd advise people to simply get out there and watch as much football as possible. Begin by notating down interesting players and why they are interesting, why do they stand out. Read as much as you can about scouting and talent ID (there's lots out there!). 

Analytics wise I think we've already discussed the advantage of learning a coding skill/language but again same principle applies. Read as much as you can about stats and data in football. Look at what the people at the top and bottom of the game are doing, look at the questions they are asking with the data. 

Think of questions you can or want to ask about the game and work out if data can help answer it. Produce work, publicly and don't be scared to do so. Even if it's basic. Don't fall into the trap of just quoting stats of players, learn and understand not only what numbers say but what they don't say too. Understand and approach data within a context always and ensure that is applied. 

Ask smarter people advice and help, the analytics community in the main is extremely helpful. Learn how to present and apply data in simple but intuitive formats. Most of all look into the things you are interested in and passionate about. Love and enjoy your use of data in football, don't do it because it's popular. 

Find your niche, work hard, learning all the time. On both fronts there is a gulf of information out there that can start you on your journey. Use that information to guide you through your 1st steps. I started out on twitter and grew from there, I've seen the thirst publicly and professionally grow for data usage in clubs and can only see it growing further. Ultimately do what you love but be your own person, don't feel like you must copy or imitate anyone. 

Everyone started at different levels of skill or experience, the key isn't what level your'e at, it's the confidence to get started and the ability to learn and improve.

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

In terms of football tools I love Wyscout video app on my phone. The ability to watch players anytime from anywhere in the world for the subscription fee i pay is fantastic. I also think there excel is still completely under rated! For models/basic models Excel can help build very intuitive information, and is familiar to most people!

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

As discussed previously I love American sports, NFL, NBA and NHL. I also have a day job as an engineering analyst so that helps me learn skills and apply them to football data analysis! I'm basically a football geek though, i watch over 20 hours of football a week and happily do so as the more I watch the more I learn!