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Scouting in the 21st Century


Fosse69

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I just don’t buy this analytical approach to buying players.

 

If you need computer data to tell you that Van Dijk, Salah etc are super players, then you are in the wrong job. Even at Vale’s standard, the vast majority of the crowd could tell you who the best player on the park is. The real talent is knowing to how high a standard of football that player can be comfortable in. Now amount of “data” can tell you that.

 

I think that all this is just a way of “no marks” making money on the football gravy train, without having the ability to even hit a “cow’s arse with a banjo”.

 

And most clubs who seem to adopt this approach are, surprise surprise, teams who are owned by foreigners with little knowledge of football itself.

 

And therein lies the problem.

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I just don’t buy this analytical approach to buying players.

 

If you need computer data to tell you that Van Dijk, Salah etc are super players, then you are in the wrong job. Even at Vale’s standard, the vast majority of the crowd could tell you who the best player on the park is. The real talent is knowing to how high a standard of football that player can be comfortable in. Now amount of “data” can tell you that.

 

I think that all this is just a way of “no marks” making money on the football gravy train, without having the ability to even hit a “cow’s arse with a banjo”.

 

And most clubs who seem to adopt this approach are, surprise surprise, teams who are owned by foreigners with little knowledge of football itself.

 

And therein lies the problem.

Sheer brilliance is obvious, but activities can be measured, making passes and being in position to receive can be measured for example and comparison made between players and so concentrate match scouting to advantage, and also where individuals need to up their game for example. Small improvements can make all the difference. Are foreign owners any different to English owners? The main thing is to employ people who understand the game as with any other business.
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I just don’t buy this analytical approach to buying players.

 

If you need computer data to tell you that Van Dijk, Salah etc are super players, then you are in the wrong job. Even at Vale’s standard, the vast majority of the crowd could tell you who the best player on the park is. The real talent is knowing to how high a standard of football that player can be comfortable in. Now amount of “data” can tell you that.

 

I think that all this is just a way of “no marks” making money on the football gravy train, without having the ability to even hit a “cow’s arse with a banjo”.

 

And most clubs who seem to adopt this approach are, surprise surprise, teams who are owned by foreigners with little knowledge of football itself.

 

And therein lies the problem.

 

I think you've miss understood the whole point of this. It's all about obtaining the maximum return on investment. Just like in every other aspect of life, you want to get 'value' - ie. get more output than the price suggests. Vale's scouts and management should know better than anyone which attributes a player will need, what we are missing as a squad and can use data/stats/analytics to find this player. At our level it could also help us to identify a player who has the attributes we need but is currently being played out of position. The fans n the stands may think he's terrible but maybe it's a player with all the attributes to be a great central midfielder being played at right back. We may sign a winger this summer who got no assists last season. His XgA may have been much higher than zero meaning that he's put it on a plate for his strikers all season who have routinely missed every time. That's where data can be useful.

 

The Vale specific version of this (based on the stuff I've been told) is Luke Hannant. There's some disbelief that he's been released but without knowing what he was earning, how that wage compares to the rest of the squad and crucially what that wage could get us instead, we have no idea if it was a good call by the club or not.

 

If we can replace him with someone who can produce the same output for half the wage, then it's an intelligent decision by the club.

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I just don’t buy this analytical approach to buying players.

 

If you need computer data to tell you that Van Dijk, Salah etc are super players, then you are in the wrong job. Even at Vale’s standard, the vast majority of the crowd could tell you who the best player on the park is. The real talent is knowing to how high a standard of football that player can be comfortable in. Now amount of “data” can tell you that.

 

I think that all this is just a way of “no marks” making money on the football gravy train, without having the ability to even hit a “cow’s arse with a banjo”.

 

And most clubs who seem to adopt this approach are, surprise surprise, teams who are owned by foreigners with little knowledge of football itself.

 

And therein lies the problem.

 

Its all well and good saying, with hindsight, that VVD and Salah are elite level players, but prior to that you wouldn't have automatically assumed they were world class, the best in their position worldwide.

 

Salah didn't make the cut at Chelsea and got a respectable but hardly magical 14 and 15 goals in a weaker Serie A. VVD had played in the Netherlands, Scotland, and for mid-table Southampton. Both are now considered one of, if not the, best in the world for their position. Stats helped identify this.

 

How many of the players who are now playing at world class level for Man City were household names before? Ederson, Laporte, Bernardo Silva, Jesus, Zinchenko; you'd be hard pushed to find many average fans who were aware of these names prior to their moves to City.

 

Spurs are even more impressive; Dier, Eriksen, Moura, Son, Vertonghen, even Dele Alli; to the naked eye, he looked painfully average in League 1 against Vale.

 

Stats can identify a lot of things the crowd often don't notice; the much-maligned xG can point towards which players are getting in the best positions, even if they aren't converting chances.

 

Stats is utilised by every big club in the land at the present, and it could help us identify players that have gone under the radar at other clubs, if we ever had the financial means of implementing a statistical model system. No club solely relies on stats but it can point you in the direction of a player you hadn't considered before, or expose a weakness/strength in a team that the naked eye fails to notice. I agree that sole reliance on stats would be foolish but no one is using it in isolation.

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