11 Questions with Marty Hill

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 Marty Hill:

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

I basically mithered everybody on the internet who had a blog when I was around 13 asking if I could write for them. A couple got back to me and hundreds didn’t. I then wrote stuff like match reports, player profiles etc for a handful of small (mostly now defunct) blogs throughout high school - I only really stopped doing that around the start of sixth form when I started to get paid music journalism work.

My first paid opportunity in football came in 2018. I applied for an internship at Studio 68 - which was the home of various football YouTube channels at the time. I think they were mostly looking for video editors and producers at the time, but I sent a cover letter and CV anyway and tried to convince them I’d add a lot of value by researching and writing videos as well as helping out with social media. That’s the best piece of advice I’d give to anybody wanting to work in football: don’t wait for the ideal job to pop up!

I helped Studio 68 cover the 2018 World Cup as an intern - writing ‘players to watch’ pieces, covering games on social media and stuff like that. I stayed on part-time after the internship and Dave O’Brien (Statman Dave) offered me a full-time role working on his YouTube channel and social media a few months before I finished university. Since then, I’ve worked with the likes of Manchester United, BBC, Mundial & Coral.

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

On a basic level, I began wanting to work in football media as soon as it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to play football for a living - which was painfully early on. 

I became interested in the data and analytics side of things really quite recently. I’d watched the Statman Dave YouTube channel for a while but that was my only real exposure to data analytics in any kind of meaningful way. When I started my internship, I really threw myself into it and tried to educate myself. I read as many stats blogs and listened to as many podcasts as I could and started writing my own stuff on the side. I basically knew that getting a really good understanding of advanced data was my best shot as getting a full-time role after the internship. Thankfully, it quickly became apparent that I was really interested in it!

Stuff like expected assists really helped to peak my interests because it basically felt like magic. The idea that you can sign a player for half of their true value because they’ve created great chances that teammates just haven't finished was (and still is) absolutely fascinating to me. 

Both are important. The most exciting part of my job is when a young player with really great underlying numbers pops up through something like Instat or Fbref filters and then you find out he plays for a team who are facing relegation or has an expiring contract. A recent example of this is Mounir Chouiar - his npxG+xA p90 is comparable to James Maddison, Dejan Kulusekvski and Jack Grealish but he still seems to be going under the radar!

What type of player fascinates you? What caught your eye?

I’m really interested in players who can contribute in a big way in multiple thirds of the pitch. People like Dominik Szoboszlai, who do loads of progression from deep but also assist shots frequently. It’s obviously important to recognise the tactical systems that players operate in and how they can influence the numbers, but I tend to find that those kind of players override the systems to an extent - in the sense that if you bring in a player like that your ability to create will almost certainly improve as long as the similars are somewhat similar. 

I’m also really interested in centre backs generally, just because of how difficult it can be to evaluate them even if you have more advanced data.

Aesthetically, I love players who can pass really well with both feet.

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

I’ve found that there’s a tendency to project more meaning on stuff that the original poster intends. Sometimes, we will tweet a stat just because it is funny or something we’ve not seen before - and sometimes that is interpreted as us making a general point about the player. Virgil van Dijk being dribbled more in five minutes than he was in a season is noteworthy but it doesn’t mean he’s a bad player. 

Basically, people assume everybody who works with clubs or agencies is always in scouting mode - sometimes they’re just making observations as fans of football. 

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

This is difficult because, despite working with football data 9-5, I’m not good with numbers in a general sense. I’d say coding/data viz but I truly am not wired that way - I did an English degree! Something like that would be ideal but the reality is that there will always be people miles ahead of me in that and so I question the value it could really add.

Learning a new language would be cool - a lot of the most cutting edge stats stuff comes out of Austria and Germany, and so being able to read that properly would be really useful. Obviously, the pool of potential clients in terms of clubs widens massively if you can speak a second language and so that’s something I really wish I’d thought about earlier. 

What is more important domain knowledge or curiosity?

Curiosity, I think. It goes without saying that domain knowledge is important - but that’s something you can build on if you’re willing to. Also, I think curiosity is vital because you have people coming into the space from different perspectives and providing new insights. 

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

Probably Man Utd winning the Champions League in 2008. I grew up sandwiched between Liverpool and Manchester in a time when Man Utd dominated the Premier League and so European titles were really the only meaningful bragging rights my Liverpool-supporting friends had. Seeing us win it was amazing. As a huge fan of counter-attacking football, that time was just so much fun to watch. 

A recent favourite is Hirving Lozano’s goal vs. Germany. Again, what a counter-attack - it’s actually very reminiscent of that ‘08 Manchester United team! I’d picked out Lozano - then at PSV - as a player to watch for a video I researched at the very start of my internship and we covered that game live - so that was a really nice moment too.

What coach or player would you give a lifetime contract to? Why?

Julian Nagelsmann. I think one thing that people often overlook is that managers often get better with age  too - Brendan Rodgers being a good example. Nagelsmann is already one of the world’s best and he’s still ridiculously young. In the context of a lifetime contract, his teams would obviously be great at their peak but I’d also trust him to have the team performing above its talent-level during transitional squad-building periods. 

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

Try not to spend much time listening to other people’s opinions on players. Try to form your opinions on players or managers as organically as possible - filtering out the discourse and watching loads of footage and exploring the data. At the same time, making time to enjoy things other than football is really important for your mental health. Set time aside to learn about this stuff and try to not think about it too much outside of that time.I’ve found that reading more fiction has allowed me to step away from football when I’m not working.

When you do watch games, try to do so from varying perspectives. Can you put yourself in the shoes of an opposition scout and identify weaknesses? Can you watch from the manager’s perspective and identify how the system or personnel could be changed in-game to gain an advantage? Can you watch with player recruitment in mind and identify players that could improve other teams - is somebody being misused and potentially available for cheaper than they’re worth because of that? Watch with purpose and try to learn something new from every game.

Be open to constructive criticism but don’t be afraid to back yourself. If you think something is worth pursuing but others don’t, go for it. It’ll either come off or you’ll come to understand why it didn’t. 

Who is your favorite athlete? Why?

Of course, there are a bunch of ex-Man Utd players that I adore; Paul Scholes is probably my favourite player of all time. I also loved watching Kaka and Ronaldinho growing up - they were so different but both so much fun to watch. 

I’ll say Marcus Rashford though. He’s an exceptional footballer but I think that goes without saying. The stuff he has done off the pitch is incredible. I’m always skeptical with footballers getting praise for doing charity stuff when they’re contractually obliged to, but there have been countless examples of Rashford going out of his way to support underprivileged kids in the local community and it really is lovely to see. He’s somebody that truly cares about other people and I feel we’re very lucky as a club to have him.

What is your favorite quote or saying?

God, there are so many so I’ll narrow it down to football-specific quotes:

“My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch. And you can print that."

Just so, so good.