11 Questions with @tlogic1991

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 @TLogic1991:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I haven’t yet had an opportunity at a professional level but my first steps towards a career in football was when I went to Myerscough college and did BTEC football studies. After college I tried to get some coaching roles at clubs but it didn’t work out and I started to get disheartened by all the rejections, in the end I fell out of love with football in general so decided to go down a different career path so if anyone wants a player scouting report and granite kitchen worktops I’m your man!

What attracted you to writing about football? What’s more intriguing now names or numbers?

After five or so years since I decided to change my career path, I had an accident riding to work in which I broke by shoulder. With many days sat doing nothing and dealing with my own issues on

what I actually wanted out of life, I was watching Toffee tv and they had a lad on who had a scouting blog and went by El Pivote. He inspired me to have a go at writing about players myself and gave me a path in which I set up my own blog and twitter page up but I didn’t have ideas of looking at making a career of it until the positive responses I have had, it was just to start enjoying what I always loved growing up. 

The simple answer in my opinion is numbers follow the names, in which the players who create the best stats in their positions are the best players in the specific leagues. I have over this year, used a strategy that use stats for specific positions on the pitch and using the players stats to show me how he can fit into a team’s system or in the opposite way using his weakest stats to show me and deciding if in a different system would the stats improve but never let stats takeover your overall opinion on a player, trust your eyes.

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

I don’t think any scout or coach at a professional level could take the credit of finding a player first. I’ve noticed over this year that people will try to always get the leg up in this profession with making this statement but the first player that caught my eye to write a piece on them was Lirim Kastrati of Lokomotiva Zagreb. He impressed me first over a few games I watched then I started to go more in depth with his stats which made me like him even more and have been keeping eyes on him all season. Rumours in the winter transfer window had him linked with a switch to two La Liga clubs.

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

I couldn’t tell you specifically who I have missed but it’s probably too many players to count that I haven’t seen or heard of. Congratulations to scouts who find players who aren’t necessarily on people’s radars and perform really well but I’m just waiting for the day when Wyscout can put a chip in my head and it automatically downloads all the data and names, would make it a lot easier haha.

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

I wouldn’t put it down to skill on what to improve because you should always be learning for however long you’ve been in the profession and not get complacent with the impression you’ve

cracked it and thinking you’re the perfect analyst or scout. Always room for improvement.

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

You can see it as a science to the art of developing players and art to the science in the development of a player, so in simple terms both.

I think it's all down to the environment that the young player can thrive in. You could have the best facilities and coaches available but for some reason they just don’t mix. So as long as the club provide a path to the first team and the academy coaches and players have a personal relationship in which they can talk about other things in life because I think it’s the duty of care that should come with teaching younger people with keeping them engaged to learning and growing them as people, then it can only be down to the determination and dedication of the individual.

What is your favourite sports moment? Why?

It isn’t a football moment funnily enough but was at a football ground. That was when Tony Bellew become the Cruiserweight World Champion at Goodison Park, being in the mist of that night with my dad and brother singing and the ups and downs of the fight created an atmosphere that I’ve never felt. Unbelievable really.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

One man who I was in awe of as a kid was Ronaldinho, that man was magic! I would stay up late on Saturday or Sunday watching him in a Barcelona shirt and I couldn’t imagine the number of hours I watched of Nikes Joga Bonito series. I think he was the last of a generation of players who just played football for the love of it, nowadays coaches would be tearing the hair out at the tricks he

would do.

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

Love and watch the game as much as possible. Also help others that have the same desire as you because life is too short to waste on being selfish and negativities that are irrelevant and find the paths that others have already created for you.

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

Podcast addict for me! While in work I'll have them players for hours to pass the day and its great you could be laughing at something silly but then have your head blown off by conspiracy theories. The earth is not flat or is it…….

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

That’s an interesting question I haven’t really thought about but thinking about it now whatever interests you have a go at it, you can watch as much football as you like but I think a break from it

sometimes helps you refresh your brain with new ideas and new approaches.