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 Thomas Sorensen, Denmark U21 performance analyst:
How did your first opportunity in football come about?
Like many other people I quit as a player in my early teenage years, and did more or less immediately become a coach on a grass roots level at my local club. After having spent 4 years there I applied for a volunteer position at Lyngby BK (Danish Superliga side) to help out with the analysis, which I got. There I was doing some matchday coding and some smaller ad-hoc tasks.
At Lyngby the staff was really good to me and showed me how the daily work in a football club was, and I started getting introduced to industry software, opposition scouting, and how to deliver information to players and so on. Working with Lyngby then introduced me to other people in analytics also helped me create a network and gather knowledge from people outside the club. Some of the people in that network are people who has eventually helped me to where I’m at now.
What attracted you to scouting/analytics?
I’m not sure I was ‘attracted’ by anything specific in the first place really. I started out as a coach and already back then I was interested in the tactical and strategical side of football. When I started as a volunteer in Lyngby, performance analysts weren’t very common in Denmark. 3-4 clubs had full-time analysts at the time I believe, so it wasn’t something that I knew a lot about. But the more I got into it and started creating my own projects and really getting into detail about tactics and the application of statistics to the sport, I got more and more ‘hooked’ on it.
I’m aware that that doesn’t completely answer your question, but I can’t point one thing out, but rather multiple things, which I find interesting in analysis. Creating strategies for short and long term, communicating your messages, and building an analysis template designed for your own KPIs are just a few things that I’m attracted to by analysis.
Who/what is the first player/concept you "found"? What caught your eye?
It was probably not the first concept I found but something that definitely has caught my eye and changed the way I watch games is the impact of game state. Put short: If a team is losing, drawing or winning. After really looking into it and researching both via academic literature and my own projects, it is now a key part in how I analyze games and affects the points I will make to the coach when preparing for a match or analyzing our own performance post-match.
Who/what is the player/concept you "missed" on? What did you learn from it?
The answer to this would probably be the same as to the previous: Game state. Learning about the concept and starting to incorporate this into how I analyze games has made it easier to explain certain events or statistical information in my analysis. But if you ask me this question in a year’s time, I’ll probably, or hopefully, mention another concept which some people are already creating and implementing, which my eyes just then would have opened to.
If you could start over what skill would you build on first?
In my opinion, the most important skill to build on when analyzing the game is to improve your understanding of the game. Being able to see the game as a whole and see how the different phases interact and connects with each other, rather than trying to break the game into too many phases and situations. Try to look at the game as a whole and analyze how each action in one phase determines or could impact another action in another phase.. In my experience, this is something you best develop on a quite simple way: Watch football.
Do you see player development as more of an art or a science?
I don’t think that it’s definitely one or another. I think you have to respect both the scientific factors and the human factors. A lot of science and research within talent development has already been conducted, and that’s always a good start. But ultimately, you work with people and everyone is different and needs to be approached differently in order to reach their potential. So to clear it up, I think science is a good place to start when working within talent development, but you should always be aware that science doesn’t have one specific answer for each and every person, which is where the human (or artistic, if you want to say that) elements comes into play.
What is your favorite sports moment? Why?
Tough one. I’m not sure I have one that stands out really. In general, I always love to see when people who put so much effort and passion into their sport gets their reward and succeeds on the big stage and brings their dreams to life. That always brings a smile on my face, no matter if it’s a sport that I follow or not.
What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?
I’m always inspired by clubs or people that tries to do things differently than they have always been done, and try to challenge the traditions. Here I could name a club like Brentford or Brighton, who with their approach to recruitment and youth development each in their own way tries to challenge the traditions and go their own way.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into scouting/analytics?
Assuming that everyone who wants to enter professional football knows that it does require a lot of hard work, I would encourage people to be curious. When you read or hear something that catches your attention, see if you can gain more knowledge on the topic and ask questions of people. The best people who I have worked with so far, and also those I enjoy discussing football with the most, are the most curious ones who are interested in not only knowing, but also understanding new concepts and ways of thinking.
What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst/scout? Why?
That’s a good question. For activities, I like to go places with some nice nature around to take a walk and enjoy nature. Especially the quietness in the nature. Funnily enough, I do it to try and take a break from work and reflect over things, but some of my best ideas has come from trying to take a break. All of a sudden an idea or a solution to something just hits you, and then you’re back in front of the computer first chance you have. So I guess that improves me to have the possibility to reflect and think through going to enjoy nature.
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