Scouting - why exactly are we so good at it?

[ARM1968]

They play a lot of Football Manager. It’s never wrong. 

[Paninistickers]

I vaguely remember a football documentary in the 90s which was which was pre cursor to the amazon things now. 

 

Featured Sunderland (as per) ...the then.manager's (Peter Reid) idea of scouting was to flick through the rothman's directory looking for an out of favour player he'd heard of.

 

(for.the under 40s, the.Rothman's was a bit like a Wikipedia reference point; squad list, appearances, honours, record attendance, record transfer etc..but in the format of paper )

[Rain King]

7 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I vaguely remember a football documentary in the 90s which was which was pre cursor to the amazon things now. 

 

Featured Sunderland (as per) ...the then.manager's (Peter Reid) idea of scouting was to flick through the rothman's directory looking for an out of favour player he'd heard of.

 

(for.the under 40s, the.Rothman's was a bit like a Wikipedia reference point; squad list, appearances, honours, record attendance, record transfer etc..but in the format of paper )

Premier Passions.

[Royston.]

Easy.

Big teams are too lazy and think money is the answer. "Why buy a hot prospect like Fofana when you can toss 80 million on Maguire"

 

Secondly, I'm sure clubs all over Europe who have similar stature to us just can't compete with the money we can offer said players and also the Premier league wow (cash) factor.

[Ashley]

2 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

What was the black box? 

 

 

That is certainly one area we've excelled at, one moves on and we have another person or two identified to continue our progress. 

A room in their training ground which people work day and night analysing players and future managers. 

 

Google it. Few articles on the black box and how Southampton go about their business.

[filbertway]

26 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

Now look at us, last season we wanted a defensive player who had a strong aerial success rate to deal with a perceived weakness to high balls, so went and signed Wesley Fofana who can leap higher than the stadium itself. It looks like we are signing Soumare from Lille in the summer who has exceptional ball carrying / ball progression stats for his age and position, probably to solve issues in carrying the ball into the final third, etc. This means that when we sign a player, it is clear what role they will play in the team and why signings often hit the ground running; Castagne and Fofana this season being good examples.

 

 

[Royston.]

1 minute ago, filbertway said:

 

Kasper at fault there, instead of shouting "HEAD AWAY" he was like, " I ain't fookin touching that"

[filbertway]

Just now, Royston. said:

Kasper at fault there, instead of shouting "HEAD AWAY" he was like, " I ain't fookin touching that"

Look at that. 5 players marking thin air and a keeper that refuses to control his 6 yard box. 

 

We're an embarassment at set pieces aren't we haha

[Basildon Fox]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact we are just below that top tier of clubs.  This means that because we pay good wages we can beat most teams below the top echelon and offer first team football.  They know they will be able to play first team football and at a high level. I do not think we have signed anybody recently who was not already known as a player with great potential.  We will find it harder to pick up someone like a Vardy for instance as when we first signed him we were in the Championship and he struggled the first season in that division.  He would have got no where near the current team as it is now as he was no where near the level he has got to now.

 

We are now more attractive than a Palace or a Marseille so we can pick up some of the best of the rest that Top clubs do not want to take a chance on e.g. Ndidi, Tielemans, Soyuncu, Pereira.  These guys know we will sell them at some stage for the right price if they want to go to a bigger club.  Hopefully we can grow as a club to not only go for these players but get them to stick with us long term too.

 

[OhYesNdidi]

I would agree defensivly and in midfield but id suggest that - Ghezzal, Diabate, Perez, Slimani and Under have all been terrible. We really need to get the RW & ST right this summer...

[Stadt]

8 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

Don’t put Perez in the same sentence as those 4  

For the money he’s been just as bad tbh

[OhYesNdidi]

14 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

Don’t put Perez in the same sentence as those 4  

£30m Perez?

[KingsX]

On 11/05/2021 at 08:43, Kilworthfox said:

US sports use a lot more statistics to analyse their sports.

 

I feel this doesn't work as well in football, because football has far more variables than all of their popular pro sports.

 

All true, as far as it goes.  But flip the coin for a minute.

 

Because data analysis is so proven in US sports, nearly all the teams use it at a high level, on a nearly equal footing.  The low hanging fruit have been picked.  It costs more and more to gain an ever smaller advantage on your rivals.

 

It is more complicated to apply data to 22 constantly moving players.  It's only in the last few years that second-by-second tracking data is even available.  So a lot of the most productive ways to use it, are still being discovered.  The right investment can still give a club a significant advantage.  Especially a club trying to punch above its weight.

 

I'm sure that's why LCFC recruited Sormaz.  He's devised various new approaches and presented them at conferences.  Hopefully he is now clamming up and keeping them in house!

[sacreblueits442]

On 11/05/2021 at 11:44, SydenhamFox said:

And.... anything to fear here?

 

Arsenal have employed a team of headhunters to get better at it. They must surely be looking at what we’re doing quite closely. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/10/arsenal-move-to-strengthen-scouting-network-in-latest-recruitment-reshuffle

...didn't they pick up someone from our back room staff to improve their off field failings!!!

  Leicester Tigers said they would leave no stone unturned and would scout the world to find a top class manager. They spent the money on the headhunters, they gave the club a list of possible managers and they ended up giving the job to the first person to knock on their door.

If memory serves me right, he lasted a season and was sacked after the first game in his second season. 

 At one stage Arsenal were the envy of the league as they tapped into a market no one else were fully aware of.

[mozartfox]

The main reason is.................. Congers follows Ric Flair on FT.............