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 Cam Meighan, U18 analyst intern at @Pnefc
Here is Cam Meighan, U18 analyst intern at @Pnefc
How did your first opportunity in football come about?
My first real opportunity in a professional setting came from writing for Total Football
Analysis, where through writing I’ve gained more contacts in the game and was able to get
an internship within Preston North End’s academy. Being 18, my first opportunity is still my
current role that I’m involved in.
What attracted you to coaching? What’s more intriguing now winning or developing
players?
A career in football is what attracted me to coaching, because I couldn’t see myself doing
anything else and didn’t want to do a job I didn’t enjoy. I can pour a huge amount of effort
into stuff I love and that I have a decent understanding of, but some things I dislike just
frustrate me and de-motivate me, and so the effort isn’t there. I get asked quite a lot if I get
sick of it and I don’t, and it would concern me if I did considering the time I spend doing it is
only going to increase. I wasn’t really even aware of analysis in football until just over a year
ago and now it’s my main career path, but because I analyse/coach football, I can do it all
day and night and enjoy it.
As someone who is both an analyst and a coach there can be some contradictions. For
example, if I was coaching an U14 side that wasn’t winning games, focusing tactically on
what’s going wrong and setting up each game in a pragmatic way hinders player
development, and so in some regards you almost have to stop yourself from developing
system players that are only any good within your particular system. But within academy
football/younger age groups, player development is always the focus, and with lower age
groups which I’ve coached, I’ve been very relaxed on outcome as long as the performance is
promising. With my main ambition being to become a first team coach and analyst in similar
roles to those of Peter Krawietz and Joao Sacramento, winning and results obviously
become more important, but their still needs to be a process.
Who is the first coach/teacher that resonated with you? What stood out?
I can’t say there have been that many teachers or coaches who have influenced me yet,
mostly just the game itself through playing and watching. Like most people my Dad got me
into Football and I’ve watched football all the time and had a basic understanding of it since
about the age of 10. I obviously love it and watching football never really felt like an option to
me, more Liverpool are playing on Sunday at 4pm so I cannot do anything else at that time.
I’ve picked up lots and am still picking up bits from people I work with and who have
coached/taught me, but to be honest I’m not sure who or what has stood out the most. The
teachers I tended to like at school were the ones who put the responsibility on the learner
and used it to motivate us, which probably feeds into my coaching style a bit. I’ve had lots of
good teachers, coaches and people who have just behaved decently towards me and
treated me well, which covers that idea of social competence making up a big part of
coaching/teaching.
What is the biggest misconception in football? Why?
Probably that marginal gains don’t matter. Liverpool are the best team in the league in
marginal gains, and these tiny moments decide matches. If you look at some of Liverpool’s
most important goals, take the Champions League final for example, Liverpool score a goal
from a kick off routine, and then a goal from a second phase corner. Set pieces in general
are massively overlooked, and I’m fairly happy they have been, as it gives me more career
opportunities in the future! The importance of technical skill in coaching is another
misconception in football I believe, and lots of people spend so much time doing unopposed,
unrealistic, technical work which makes freestyle footballers. In my opinion, technical ability
is less important than decision making, and that structuring practices with decision making
as the focus allows for technical ability to also be worked on, but if you structure technical
ability as the focus in an unopposed setting, you lose all decision making.
If you could start over what skill would you build on first?
Probably the hardest question of the lot, and to be honest I’m not sure I’d change much.
Everything has fell into place nicely using my skills I’ve gradually built up over time, and I’ll
obviously keep learning and see where it takes me. I don’t think I could have started much
earlier, and certainly couldn’t have officially started coaching any earlier (at 16).
Do you see player development as more of an art or a science? Which would you start
with?
It certainly has aspects of both, with things like learning theory having to have some
scientific basis. Social aspects and applying things to people is what makes it an art form,
but all of that is underpinned by how best to people learn, which is a science. It’s a very
difficult question but if I had to lean one way I’d say it’s a science that has to be applied
correctly, but this opinion could change, don’t tie me to it forever please. The degree I do in
Football Coaching and Talent Development is an arts degree, which is interesting.
What is your favorite sports moment? Why?
Divock Origi’s goal to make it 2-0 to Liverpool in the Champions League final probably,
although it’s close between that and the Barcelona game. I was in the stadium in Madrid and
the whole experience was what football is all about.
What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?
Leading on, Klopp’s Liverpool obviously play a massive part and Jürgen Klopp in general.
I’m a Liverpool fan who loves heavy metal music, and Klopp’s style of play always appealed.
German football in general has always interested me, and I’ve always loved any pressing
side, which obviously introduces me to German football and coaches such as Ralf Rangnick,
Thomas Tuchel, Marco Rose. Peter Krawietz, Joao Sacramento and Rene Maric also are
massive inspirations, as they follow a similar path to the one I want to go on, particularly
Maric in terms of his writing. I think more and more coaches will continue to inspire me, with
Tim Walter and Julian Nagelsmann some of the more recent ones, and I’m constantly
stealing things and adding them to my potential playing philosophy, which is nowhere near
formed yet because I have so many ideas in my head.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into coaching/scouting/analytics?
Work hard, promote yourself, and constantly look to learn. I used to watch football and think I
don’t know why this is happening or why a team was performing so poorly, and naturally my
personality made me want to find out, which leads me to where I am now. You have to have
a passion for it and probably commit you could say an unhealthy/obsessive amount of time
to football if you want to go to the very, very top, and so there are some sacrifices you have
to make, but I believe if you work hard and with the right mentality then you’ll get
somewhere. I currently analyse I’d say about 10 hours of football every week, which I’m still
not happy with, and so I think if you don’t have the work ethic or passion, then you have no
chance. In truth, I’m in no real position to give advice as I wouldn’t really say I’ve achieved
anything yet, but committing time and being self-aware enough to accept what you don’t
know and need to work on is a massive part I feel.
What is your favorite app/tool to use (for work or fun)?
I don’t use anywhere near enough tools in order to do any of my analyses, with usually just
observations being the basis rather than statistics. So I guess Wyscout’s good for getting me
footage for games, but honestly, no idea.
What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work?Why?
I think knowledge of some other sports like Basketball can help tactically, but I’ve pretty
much only ever played Football. Similarly, I can’t say I have many other hobbies, I think
playing FIFA and Football Manager gave me some basic tactical principles and FIFA
certainly visualizes some things well. Being a decent person certainly helps in all walks of
life, particularly coaching, and you pick up different social skills from certain situations, like
I’ve worked as a bartender part time and that’s probably gave me some things. I’ve refereed
in semi-professional leagues which also probably gave me a better idea of football and made
me empathetic with referees. Football and music are probably my two biggest hobbies, and
music doesn’t so much help with my work but maybe feeds into my personality a little bit and
therefore possibly my philosophy on football. I quite like relating different music to different
styles of football but whether this is actually of use or is just me combining the two is a
different question.
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