11 Questions with John Harrison

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 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 John Harrison:


What is your first memory of football?

My first really strong memory of football in general is playing football in the garden with my brother. Originally we would take it in turns to be in goal and to shoot but soon enough I was always in goal and he was always shooting at me for hours on end. My first strong memory of professional football was watching England lost 2-1 to Brazil in the quarter final of the 2002 world cup.

What attracted you to data and scouting? What’s more intriguing now, refining your processes and acumen or 'discovering' players?

For the last decade my biggest passion has been for physics, & science in general. Thus naturally I have tried to combine this my favourite pass time, football. Questions like “Should the GK have saved that?”, “Is shot prevention more important than shot stopping?”, and “Are certain save techniques better than others in given situations?” have always intrigued me and I think a scientific & statistical approach may not yield perfect answers but can at least offer a deeper insight than anything else. 

So I guess I prefer the understanding of the game in general & its application to coaching rather than scouting. However finding the best players & most valuable players still excites me a lot.

What is the biggest misconception/cliche regarding goalkeepers you’ve found in this space?

I think the biggest misconception in goalkeeping is hard to say. I would say in general it’s a lack of understanding of goalkeeping techniques. The phases “that just hit the GK” and “the GK knew nothing about that save” stem from this lack of understanding & so do the phrases “the GK went with the wrong hand”, “the GK shouldn’t spill that shot” and “The GK needs to catch that rather than punch”. So I think the general cliches which are sometimes true but most of the time false all stem from a misunderstanding of the techniques which GKs use and which scenarios they are useful in.

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

I’m only just starting out in the world of football analytics so I have no idea! But I’m very glad I have a solid background in various coding languages and data visualisation tools!

What is more important domain knowledge or curiosity?

I would 100% say curiosity. I believe anyone can pick up knowledge of a sport if they watch it often and interact with enough people in the know.

What is more useful in scouting- breadth of skills or depth of talent? Why?

I am probably not qualified to answer this question however my preference would be for depth of talent. A former league 2 coach once told me the best footballers are normally incredibly good at one specific thing and make sure they do that over and over again. I would tend to agree with that.

What three (3) football icons would you want to have a meal with? Why?

Joe Hart, Iker Casillas, & Frank Lampard

Not only were Hart & Casillas heroes of mine growing up & would have a lot of interesting opinions on GKing I think they both have incredible stories & I would love to know what they both thought of the latter years of their career & how they both dealt with fans turning on them when they had been icons for their club & country. I chose Frank as I would love to probe his thoughts on how to effectively communicate with footballers as well as his thoughts on his time with Chelsea (and the team camaraderie they built) and England.

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

I guess if you want to go into football data analysis etc. First learn to code in Python/R/Matlab, second learn to make nice data visualisations, & third investigate whatever interests you, read up about it, and then once you have finished your study publish it somewhere even if it’s just a blog page. You will quickly get noticed if you do this & you will soon be in a position to get involved in the analytics community.

What is your favorite quote or saying?

I would say I don’t really have one, however if I had to choose, I do have a close affinity for the motto of my school & the motto of my football club.

Turpe Nescire (It is a disgrace to be ignorant)

Keep right on to the end of the road.