11 Questions with Scott Willis

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 Scott WIllis:

How did your first opportunity in football come about? 

My first opportunity that wasn't just posting things on a blog that I wasn't sure if people actually read was doing things for the Arsenal Vision Podcast. I think that I also might have done a guest post on 7amkickoff's blog. Not long after I also started doing things for the shortfuse. I kind of posted a lot on my own for a year and then it seemed like all of a sudden I had more opportunities to post other places.

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

I am a numbers guy, I do it for my day job, it was what my university degree was based on and I did it for a hobby following baseball. It felt natural when I started getting into Arsenal to look at the numbers for this as well. I still find looking at statistics to be the most interesting.

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

I feel like I am drawn to players that do some of the other work besides actually scoring the goals. A player that I always enjoyed watching was Eden Hazard, you knew from watching him that he did a lot to provide value for his team but he never really scored all that many non-penalty goals. I love digging into that kind of a player to try to illustrate the value that they can bring to a team.

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

People really freak out over turnovers while trying to attack. Most of the time these are really high reward kinds of passes and dribble attempts and they don't lose that much scoring threat when the defense clears the ball or tackles it away. It is still very valuable to a team when you try these kinds of moves because the payoff when they come off is so high.

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

In my analytics? For that I would get a lot better at writing code.

What is more important player development or recruitment? Why?

 I don't think that you can really put one above the other, they go hand in hand in my opinion. Even when you do recruitment, that still will often still involve player development, as players are often far from the finished article.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why? 

It is when the San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series, that's a team that has been passed down for support in my family and for so long had come close but never won the league so that made it a very special moment.

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why? 

I love Arsene Wenger and his philosophy of playing. He is what drew me to be an Arsenal fan.

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

Just start, you get better by trying things, write as much you can, try to interact with people and share what you have done.

Who is your favorite athlete? Why? 

Currently my favorite is Steph Curry. He is electrifying to watch, and I love the way that he makes his teammates better.

What is your favorite quote or saying? 

That's kind of tough, I think it really depends on what my wife and I are watching on TV because we seem find ourselves quoting that back and forth to each other. Right now we have been watching Schitts Creek, and we have always been saying "Ew, David" to each other so that is probably it for right now.