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 Luc Jeggo:
How did your first opportunity in football come about?
I started playing football from a young age and progressed up the ranks at Melbourne Victory, eventually moving overseas and plying my trade in the 2nd and 3rd tier in Norway.
In terms of the analysis side of football, I began reading and writing analysis articles online two years ago. After following the individual guys and then company at MrktInsights for awhile, I applied through an online application and was fortunate enough that they gave me a chance to join them. It has been a brilliant experience so far.
What attracted you to scouting/analytics? What’s more intriguing now names or numbers?
I love football and have always had an analytical mindset in general. It was therefore a natural progression into scouting and analytics. I love analysing something, breaking it down into parts and then seeing how that is applied in the real world. I find it fascinating how there is so much randomness around, yet with deep analysis on both an objective and subjective level, we can make things clearer and make better, more successful decisions.
Personally I think it is never really a names versus numbers battle. Both have their place and as cliché as it sounds, both are equally enjoyable. They are really interchangeable. Sometimes the numbers will lead me to names and vice versa. The real power and interesting part for me is how we can combine the two.
What player or concept you fascinates you? What caught your eye?
I recently had a love affair with the Red Bull football concept! I found it incredibly interesting the journey the philosophy took with it’s two co-creators of Ralf Rangnick and Helmut Grob. Grob was a structural engineer and in combination with Rangnick founded a completely alternative philosophy to what was out there at the time.
The philosophy has been implemented throughout the Red Bull organisations and has been an undoubted success. The most fascinating part of it was how something that was a concept had such a powerful real world application and result. When you look into his past, you see how many of Rangnick’s failures and life lessons have been built into the philosophy and are a central part of the success.
I have also started to dive deeper into the areas of A.I and Machine learning. There is so much application for these tools within football and I really see them becoming a huge part of the game moving forward. I think they are an amazing tool for teams to get a better understanding of where they stand in comparison to their ideal game model. It can be such a powerful feedback tool for a coach to see the effect of specific actions in training and games on his team.
What is the biggest misconception you’ve found in this space?
I find that we have a massive cognitive bias towards success and attributing things that a team, player or organisation does to being key to that success (narrative fallacy). One of my favourite examples is when Alan Pardew was given a six-year contract for Newcastle. The prevailing thought was that Newcastle had been amazing that season and therefore Pardew was the reason for it. When looking at the underlying numbers for that season, it was fairly clear that they hit a purple patch and there were many underlying reasons (often unsustainable) that were key to their success. The craziest one probably being the fact that Pa Cisse was converting goals at a better rate than Lionel Messi!
In particular since working more closely on the recruitment side of things, clubs will tend to be over-swayed by recent players or events in the transfer market. One of the most interesting analysis we found that was discussed within our company was the move towards Dutch based players in Scotland after Van Dijk arrived.
Our analysis suggested most of these players have struggled since, with clubs probably being over-biased and wanting to bring in the next “Van Dijk”. You see these trends a lot, with Scandinavia becoming a newer one thanks to the likes of Haaland and Evjen (although I think there is loads of undiscovered talent here still).
If you could start over what skill would you build on first?
It is more mental concepts and skills that I wish I had when I first started that I feel help me to learn quicker and perform more efficiently now. Learning underpins everything you are doing, so if you can learn quicker and better, everything follows on from there. Concepts such as first principles thinking. Kapil Gupta is another example of someone/something who has changed the way I think about performance on and off the pitch. I wish I’d discovered him a little earlier!
What is more important player development or recruitment? Why?
Again, a cliché boring answer, but I don’t think one or the other can ever be more important on a broad level. However situationally, I certainly think it depends on the individual circumstances of a club. The Red Bull organisation would not have been able to develop anywhere near as quick if they had only relied on local talent and developed those players. They also had the resources to implement a world-wide recruitment strategy and therefore had a perfect fit for their organisation.
However it is also a lot riskier as you have to be able to constantly make good signings, which in my opinion can be tough. Developing a strong player development model can then be a better more sustainable method of ensuring that you have a steady stream of regular talent for the first team over a longer period. However, it also depends on the local pool available. Once again, like with the numbers and name, the real power comes in the combination of the two and how you weight each one dependent on your resources and situation.
What is your favorite sports moment? Why?
On a personal level, it has to be the friendly against Liverpool in Melbourne. I’ll never forget looking at my brother when we were warming up, with the stadium chanting the Gerrard song and trying to hold in a smile at the surrealness of the moment.
On a broad level, it’s hard to chose. Notable mentions would be the Barcelona masterclass in 2011 against United, them being overrun at Anfield by Klopp’s mentality monsters and the brief moment when Blackpool nearly stayed in the Premier League through Gary Taylor-Fletcher.
What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?
Pep Guardiola for me is a revolutionary in football. He gets painted as idealistic and understandably so, but I love how pragmatic he has been with the different teams he has coached. He has been able to deliver his philosophy with different types of players and in different ways. Everyone has a philosophy these days, but the way Pep Guardiola knows exactly when and when he isn’t within his philosophy and the knowhow to shape it towards that ideal place is what separates him apart as a manager.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into this space?
I definitely don’t think I am in a position just yet to give advice because I don’t feel I know it all or will ever completely understand everything in the business. But that is also the mindset I would say has helped with the progress I have made so far. So many of the skills that are applicable to the things I do now were only developed through my basic interesting in learning new things. One example was with teaching myself Tableau a few years ago just for fun at the time and to help some of the analysis stuff I was doing. It helps me massively now to follow some of the amazing things the guys are doing both within the company. The world is too complex to understand everything fully but by having an open and learning mindset, you will constantly improve and become better at a variety of things moving forward.
Who is your favourite athlete? Why?
I would have to say Kobe Bryant. I remember hearing him speak for the first time on a podcast and was gobsmacked by his analytical mindset. The way he broke down the game of basketball on a conceptual and then personal level was brilliant and so different to how other players are/were from my personal experience. I always had felt that I needed to focus every single bit of energy on playing, but slowly realized that it was okay and actually beneficial to have outside interests like he had done through his various business ventures. It led me down to the path now where I feel as though I have a healthy attitude with interests that keep me occupied outside of playing personally.
What is your favorite quote or saying?
‘I am the master of my ship, I am the owner of my own fate’
Whilst I believe luck plays a bigger part in life than we admit, I also have this belief that luck is just a series of factors we don’t know yet. The more you can work these factors out, the more you can stir your own ship.
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