Local to Global: The Remote Revolution in Football Talent Identification

Attacking The Championship

In todays episode we expand on step one of the recruitment process we will be using to identify potential targets for teams in the 2023/24 EFL Championship.

Every team has access to the same data, but it seems that some teams are gaining an edge on the competition. Look at two clubs who have successfully attacked and defeated the championship in Brighton and Brentford. They're not traditional powerhouses with unlimited resources, yet they're now knocking on the door of, or already attained European qualification.

These are two teams that had a plan, a long term plan to improve incrementally on and off the pitch in order to climb the football ladder.

David has a plan, a vision of how teams can structure their recruitment process in order to gain that edge before EVERY team starts to adopt this type of strategy. Brighton and Brentford are two clubs who have benefitted from 'first adopter advantage'. At first they were ridiculed and got eye rolls due to their statistical approach. However, the results in the transfer market, and results on the pitch speak for themselves.

The objective of Step 1, Talent Identification, is to act like a filter because there's data collected on 500,000 professional players (approximately 25,000 players for each playing position) worldwide, and there will be approximately 100 metrics measured........ leaving us with 50 million data points to view....... I can feel the glaze of overwhelm crashing over you!! So how can teams turn this sea of stats into usable insights that make a measurable difference on the pitch?

You can see why some clubs shy away from it. Even if a club has an analysis department the language they use is not always the same as those who are responsible for getting the team ready for match days. This disconnect, this misunderstanding, this mistrust perhaps can mean that the opportunity for insights are lost.

David feels the key is to make a process so simple that it's easy to use daily, easy to understand, and most important of all is able to be tailored to the needs of any club...... of course that means those in leadership roles need to be able to answer the question;

'What do we want?'

That's not always as easy as we might think. When options are limitless it can make decision making a more difficult process. In the Talent Identification step we're looking to attain some general metrics that will help us take us from 25,000 players per playing position down to a more manageable 250 that is also appropriate for that specific club.

To do this we might look at the financial budget of the club, whether the players are available for transfer, do they play a role that fits their style of play and formation, the age of the player, and perhaps how many minutes they've played that season.

These are of course just some examples of the measurable data points that could help us narrow down to a list of 250 potential players.......

I hope you enjoy the episode and don't forget that you can follow us on Youtube and X (Formerly Twitter) and join us in Attacking The Championship.