11 Questions with David Perdomo Meza

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 David Perdomo Meza:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I started a blog in 2016 after having done some research on free data for my mathematics master dissertation. I also had a “benefactor” who I reached out to on LinkedIn and gave me access to more data for free. Off the back of that blog plus writing for Statsbomb, I presented in the 2017 forum and off the back of that was recommended for the role I’m currently in.

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

I’m a mathematician by training, and a football fan. I kind of stumbled upon analytics because the area of math I was specialising in had a famous application to basketball stats and my advisor suggested we do my research project on the same idea but applied to football knowing I was a fan. The rest is history. I think numbers and tech are more interesting than names for me nowadays.

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

I did a passing network motif work for the Opta forum 2017, which showed since the year before Leicester were champions that there was something there.

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

To be honest I don’t do much “analysis”, I focus much more on process, tech and frameworks. As such it’s hard to give specific “analysis” examples like this.

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

I would have learned python much sooner.

Do you see player development as more of an art or a science? Is development on the club or the player? Why?

Art, probably. It's hard to do science around the small behaviours and muscle memory of players. That’s coaching’s job.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

Colombia qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, after 4 WCs in a row of not qualifying. I don’t think anything compares to the passion of South American World Cup qualifiers. It consumes the whole continent.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

Liverpool is peerless in their current setup.

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

I think the age of getting a job without the skills and qualifications (for example in data analytics without knowing stats, machine learning, data science hard skills, etc) is almost over, it’ll professionalise too much very soon. You have to also professionalise your skills.

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

I’m weirdly analogue for my job and profile. I do everything in a notebook with pencil, and I honestly have the phone of a grandfather. I’m only tech savvy in work!

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

Liking and knowing about theoretical math is the most useful. It helps me be better at my job every day, and most of my ideas come from that.