News

Lionel Scaloni, Argentina's World Cup winning coach, bemoaned the state of analysis within the game and the negative impact on players, including our youth.

His criticism is fair, but not because analysis lacks value. Rather, the issue is with the application of analysis. Copy and paste, which is the norm in this global state of the game, misses the point. 

So what is the point? Find out here.

During his time as José Mourinho’s Chief Opposition Scout, André Villas-Boas said the following about his head coach and scouting expectations: “Jose is obsessed with detail – He will leave nothing to chance, even if his team are playing the worst side in the league.  My work enables Jose to know exactly when a player from the opposition is likely to be at his best or his weakest.”

This article offers an extensive approach to constructing opposition scout reports. Data-driven research, tactical analysis, important questions and suggestions for studying the opposition offer a guide for a comprehensive report. With the research on hand, attention turns to red teaming and presentations.

A brief quote taken from The Athletic’s interview of Los Angeles Chargers coach, Brandon Staley, struck Ian Sarachan and Aidan Reynolds.

Assistant coaches for Creighton University in the American NCAA, the long-time friends latched onto the line and created a theme.

The math should matter, especially for this Creighton team. In an NCAA soccer scene that has been a slow adapter to data analytics, the Creighton coaching staff found their secret weapon. Head coach Johnny Torres wanted something different, something that connected to his love of attacking football and high pressing.

Investing in data analytics was the answer, both for the coaches and the players. “We really wanted to grow the minds of our players. To do that, we motivated them in so many different ways, and a lot of it was through the use of data,” said Reynolds.

Successful World Cup appearances for England and Croatia got me thinking…these two squads exceeded expectations, but do most Golden Generation manage to live up to the hype?

Are certain tactical styles more conducive to hoisting trophies?

Put it in this perspective, Arsène Wenger won four league titles and 17 domestic cups, but he never won the Champions League. The Invincibles conquered England but bowed out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals.

Do you remember which club won the Champions League in that 2003/04 campaign? None other than a Porto side coached by a young José Mourinho. In the Arsenal ideologue’s most famed season, it was one of the game’s preeminent tacticians who claimed the highest honor.

Is there something the 2003/04 season is trying to tell us?

Yesterday, we looked at the Art of Overachieving. Today, let’s move to the other end of the scale…the art of underachieving.

From the same data source, we’ll identify the clubs that got it wrong, as well as the specific trends in the build-up to the catastrophe.

Just like yesterday, this post will focus on salaries and transfer spending.

Do big clubs buy titles in the transfer market?

Does the club with the highest wage bill win the league?

Is there any hope for small to mid-sized clubs?

We’ll look at the underlying data to find the game’s best overachievers and dig into their methods.

In this post, we’ll focus club salaries and transfer fees. The original article has much more, covering recruitment philosophies and game models, but we’ll follow the money here.