The Art of Performance Analysis in Professional Football
What is performance analysis in professional football?
Performance analysis is that department in the field of professional football that observes, records and analyses moments, data and the various phases that occur.
The content of performance analysis studies the various techniques used to evaluate data and monitor a match using various specialised analysis systems.
Analysis is done not only for our team or for our players but also for the opposing teams and players. The analysis provides very important help to the head coach and the staff members.
The connection of analysis with scouting
For several years scouts or today’s analyst did not have the technology to be able to work with great precision. So what they did was to watch live matches or watch videos of past matches either to check a player’s performance or to record the tactics used by opposing teams.
Since 2010, various platforms for recording data of players and teams such as Instat scout, Wyscout , Opta etc. have been created, which give great help to all football teams as well as analysts.
Through these systems, analyst and coaches can pay attention to the smallest detail in the athlete’s movement, his physical condition, the distance he covers in the match or in the training, etc.
The image is much more important than the words
The training process and how technology helps ??
The process of a player performing a movement, this movement is observed by the coach who makes the necessary interventions giving instructions.
The athlete’s movements and performance are analyzed and evaluated and finally, we have the interaction between the coach and the player, before the process starts again from the beginning.
To improve an athlete’s performance, all 4 steps must be performed as accurately as possible.
It is vital for a coach to understand the importance of accurate analysis and observation of the athlete and how relying simply on the eye can reduce coaching perception and development.
What is the analytical procedure followed by each analyst?
The 4 parts of the analytical process are the following:
1. data collection: This includes all analysis systems such as: Once analyze, Interplay sport, Nacsport, Prozone, Longomatch etc.
Also included are other data collection devices such as: IPAD, IPHONE etc. Also included in this category are data analysis platforms such as Instat scout, Wyscout, Opta etc.
All these are the first step for a correct and methodical analysis.
2. Data management: This is definitely the most important part of the analysis process which if done correctly and methodically makes our lives much easier.
Many times, however, it is omitted due to the lack of time available to do so. This is due to the large workload and large projects that many high-level analysts have to manage. But if we spend time to do this process, our work for the next 2 processes will definitely become much easier.
3. Data analysis: This is the statistical analysis of data from which we draw various conclusions about the constants we have.
Starting from the general elements we move on to more specialized elements and standard deviations which are very useful at the elite level and of course, we find them through the analysis.
4. Data visualisation: For many people this is the most important part. It is the process by which each analyst presents his report and the data he has collected to the coach of the team and to the other members of the team as well as to the players.
Always in the presentation of the data we have collected, we should use the analysis system that we used in the data collection and of course software that is familiar to the players.
We must always find ways to improve our presentation and always keep our ears open for new choices that will improve us.
Basic skills of the analyst
Object knowledge: All analysts need to know how to work with large volumes of data and need to find new trends in this area. It is important not just to say what we see but to know why it is done and how it is done. This ability can of course be acquired with both experience and knowledge. ·
Technological competitiveness It is important to have a good level of technical training, competitiveness is built by learning new things, gaining experience and training on new technological trends such as iPads, camcorders, etc. ·
Personal skills: This skill is often overlooked and many do not care. Personal skills include skills such as, stress time management, communication skills and of course the organization and proper classification of our tools. These characteristics are the key that lead a group of people to great success.
An analyst what he should have in his bag ??
- Software
- Camera
- Laptop
- Projector
- External drive
- Camera tripod
What are the main responsibilities of the analyst ?? ·
Pre-match – opponent analysis: Αn analysis of the opponent’s tactics and his behaviour both on a team and individual level.
Live match coding: Coding the match and separating the phases of the game.
Detailed post-match analysis: Αnalysis is done after the end of the match. We analyze the mistakes made by our team either as a group or individually.
Delivery of feedback to coaching staff and players: There is a complete transfer of the data we collected to the coaching staff, to the coach and of course to the players of the team.
Video editing: Εditing the match video and coding the phases that we will find useful to decipher the opponent’s tactics.
Data GPS/ STATS: Complete recording and analysis of team statistics and individually of each player separately after each match and after each training session.
Training recording: Record all training sessions.
Loan players: Monitoring the progress of all loan players of the team and continuous information to the technical staff . Year after year more and more analysts are hired by teams.
The field of analysis around the world has developed and continues to grow. All coaches need an analyst next to them and often some very high level teams have more than 10 analysts on their staff.
Pep Guardiola ( Manchester City manager ) said: “The most important part of my staff is the performance analysis department.”