11 Questions with JM

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 JM:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I don’t really consider myself as working “in” football, I just write about it really. But in terms of how I got into writing, football has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember, both playing and watching it from a young age. Eventually I became interested in how football worked in terms of tactics and strategy, and one day discovered the website Spielverlagerung, I think it was back in 2014. 

It wasn’t until a few years later that I started writing myself, but the work I read on Spielverlagerung was a big influence, as anyone reading could probably tell. I was writing sporadically on my own blog for about a year and a half before BetweenThePosts launched in summer/autumn 2018. If I remember correctly it was actually Judah Davies of Spielverlagerung who recommended that they recruit me as a writer, which was very kind. Anyway, that brings us to the present day where I’ve been writing for BetweenThePosts for two seasons now. 

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

I guess it was just wanting to understand football better. The tactical side of the game was what always intrigued me, how teams can adapt to find advantages on the pitch and utilise the players available in the most effective way. 

In terms of the numbers side of things, I think that’s actually my weak point where I need to improve (well, I need to improve in every respect, but especially that one). I’ve only ever written qualitative analyses, with the occasional stat thrown in. I definitely want to get more into data and analytics. There’s plenty of good work out there publicly, so I need to do some thorough reading. I would love to get to the point where I could maybe even start writing some analytics articles of my own, but I think I have a lot of learning to do before I’m even close to being that competent.  

What player or concept fascinates you? What caught your eye?

At the moment, I’m not sure there’s any one concept in particular. Initially though I was very interested in the concept of positional play. I loved Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team and the way they controlled games with the ball, they were definitely a source of fascination for me. 

And in terms of a player, it’s a really obvious answer but it has to be Messi. I don’t think any footballer has ever mastered the craft in the way that he has. The level of precision in all of his actions, his vision and decision making, his consistency - there aren’t words for it really. 

What is the biggest misconception you’ve found in this space?

I’ve talked about this on Twitter before, but maybe sometimes we need to remind ourselves that our perception of how good a player is depends partly on the tactical context he’s in. Trying to understand that context not only allows a better evaluation of the player but also helps to understand in what other contexts his skillset might be useful.

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

I’d probably just try to write more consistently early on to be honest, and treat it as a reflective exercise rather than overthinking things and trying to produce some perfect article. Writing really does help you to structure your thoughts and realise what you know compared to what you think you know.  

What is more important player development or recruitment? Why?

It depends on the circumstances and the resources that you have I suppose. To be a successful team/coach at the highest level you probably need to be good at both. 

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

I don’t really know. Obviously football produces great moments all the time, it’s hard to choose. I always think back to Messi’s solo goal in the Bernabeu in the 2011 Champions League semi-final, so maybe it’s that.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

In terms of coaches, obviously Guardiola and Klopp are up there, they’re probably the two most influential coaches at the moment and draw their legacies from Cruyff and Sacchi, the two people who modern football can really trace its roots back to I think. 

Right now, I think Julian Naglesmann and Marco Rose are inspirations too, I see those guys as being on the cutting edge of football at the moment. Their teams are proactive, cohesive units that can compete in all phases of the game, while also getting the best out of the individual players they have. 

There are other teams which I’ve really enjoyed in recent years. Sarri’s Napoli were good to watch. There’s Erik ten Hag’s Ajax as well, I absolutely loved them in the Champions League last year, probably even more than I enjoyed Sarri’s Napoli because I think Ajax were more flexible, and they had Frenkie de Jong of course. Also even before Nagelsmann arrived, RB Leipzig definitely captured my imagination in 2016/17 under Ralph Hasenhuttl, that was a super entertaining team. 

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into this space?

I always feel weird giving advice since I still have so much learning to do myself, I don’t really think I’m an expert to be telling others what to do. But based on my own experience, reading existing work done by others will help increase your knowledge base, and linking back to my earlier answer, I think you really just need to write a lot, practice analysing and reflect. Like anything else you get better by practicing, and with platforms like Twitter you can share your work and learn from others.

Who is your favorite athlete? Why?

It’s Messi, but since I’ve already mentioned him I’ll go in a different direction here and talk about Hector Bellerin. Not necessarily for what he does on the pitch (although he’s a good player obviously), but for what he does off the pitch. I find it refreshing that a footballer expresses himself in a different way and is comfortable using his platform to speak up about social issues. He’s talked about climate change, mental health, spoken against racism and homophobia, as well as other things I’ve probably missed. I admire anyone with a large platform like that who choses to put it to good use. 

What is your favorite quote or saying?

It’s not really specific to football but goes back to my last answer about social issues - the one that comes to mind right now is that quote that says something like “those who stay neutral towards injustice are taking the side of the oppressor”. I think that’s probably a useful thing to remember.