Jobs4Football meets Woohyuk Chang
Jobs4Football spoke to Academy Performance Analyst,Woohyuk Chang, to discuss his current role at Charlton Athletic, why data and statistics are so important in today’s game and what his aspirations for the future are.
Chang grew up playing football as a full-time scholar in South Korea, and as his passion for the game grew he developed an interest in sports science, and from there on he knew that was what he wanted to pursue.
He decided to study Science and Football at Liverpool John Moores University and last year he obtained a first-class degree before landing his current role with the south-east London club.
When discussing his position at Charlton, Chang said: “My role is basically providing all the analysis supports for the coaches and players by using videos and statistics. We watch back the games and reflect on our performance to identify the aspects that need improving.
“I make video clips of individual players and teamsperformance and upload it to the video share platform so everyone can watch it, and then we also do post-matchanalysis sessions after each game with the coaches and show the players the areas we would like to improve as a team.
“I would say ‘the most important thing for someone in my line of work is the understanding of football’. But Since I have started working with Charlton I have seen it is also important to build up an effective performance analysis system that all the players and coaches can fully utilise to help with progressing to the next level.
“A well-developed PA structure across different development phases is vital to helping and guiding young players in terms of how they can benefit from the support at each stage. If they are not familiar with the system and don’t know how to use it then it doesn’t matter how good the analysis session is in terms of the contents because the players won’t be able to utilise and benefit from it.”
Over recent years, data and statistics have become vital components to football clubs across the world, as teams look to get an edge over their competitors on the pitch and in the transfer market. With seemingly all the professional clubs in football having access to the same data, how is it that clubs are still able to get this competitive advantage?
“The data is crucial and it’s one of the fastest growing parts of football, because all professional football clubs are using data and everyone has got a performance analyst and data analyst, that’s why I think it’s really important to understand the game of football and how you visualise it using the software.
“I think the quality of the data is not the most important thing, I believe the questions that follow are more important in terms of how you are going to use it when everyone has access to the same data. Some people might see one thing from the data and someone else will see something different, and I think the football club is also a key factor in terms of how the data is used because it’s often focussed on how the club wants to play.
“We are using data everywhere, the Moneyball method is a perfect example of this. Before a game you use the data to highlight the oppositions strengths and weaknesses, and after the game you can use it to evaluate what the team did well and what they could improve on, so it’s everywhere and it’s only going to become more important in the future.
“That’s one of the reasons I’m doing my master’s degree in Sports Performance Analysis, and the other reason is to bridgethe gap between the applied world and the academia, how can scientific research help the coaching process. This is what I’m trying to find out.”
As well as his emphasis on education, Chang has also had internships at Stoke City and Everton, where he specialised in both sports science and match analysis which has put him in good stead for his current position. Whilst still being in the early days of his career in analysis in football, what does Chang hope to achieve in the future?
“I’m just focussing on what I’m doing at Charlton at the moment, but I want to keep working at the professional level and the highest level. Besides this, working with the national team of my country, South Korea, has always been one of my dreams since I started playing football so if the chance comes in the future, that would be great, but again, what I really want to see is the players who are working with me to play and achieve things at the professional level, that would be the best feeling for me.”