Player tracking

From these words I will try to explain the procedure that goes from the confirmation of a search to the recommendation of a footballer, trying to reach a level of detail that allows us to reduce the margin of error when hiring a reinforcement

    We are going to structure how the monitoring of players for teams is carried out from a broad view, but trying to go deeper into the most important points.

    I am going to give you my view from a country like Spain, where the data, the possible vision of players and all the information of the footballers is relatively easy to obtain.

    The first step as a scout is the talk with the coach or director to have all the necessary information of the player to be searched for. There we can find two cases:

    One where the coach already has a name, a player that at some point he has seen or has been told that he could fit into the team, in which case the first part is much more agile.

    We would move on to carry out the monitoring of the player as we will indicate later.

    But let's look at another possible case, the coach tells us some characteristics of a player, both tactical and technical, and we have to find a player that fits that search, in this case the first thing we do is go to our player pool.

    As a scout we have a pool of players that we have already followed or that we have seen in a match and we are interested in saving the name for possible future follow-ups.

    When responding to the club's demand, it speeds up our work a lot, this pool has to be as complete as possible, it has to cover all the positions on the field and with several players per position if possible, but above all we are interested in it being as up-to-date as possible.

    Once we know the position to look for, for example, a midfielder or full-back or centre forward, we will go to the pool in search of players in that position, with the names of the players that could fit the search, we go to an important point, the data and information of the players.

    Nowadays it is quite easy to obtain data on players' games. For example, if we are looking for a forward, we will look for different data from that of a midfielder or a centre-back. Each position has its own range and we have to pay close attention and know clearly what we are looking for: a player who scores up front, a ball-winner in the middle or a player who can get the ball out from the starting area.

    The use of data is something that is increasingly used and for scouts it is a very useful tool that, together with the monitoring of players, allows us to make the right searches.

    With the review of data, we must make a small selection of players by position, a selection to close the circle on the players that interest us the most.

    With the selection made and with the players to be presented increasingly clear, we will carry out the monitoring, both during the matches and in training and their behaviour both on and off the field.

    The matches allow us to get a clear idea of ​​the type of player, their virtues and weaknesses, their way of solving plays and how they perform in the matches.

    I like to monitor 3 or 4 games, preferably very different games, with both strong opponents and games of lower intensity, it gives me a clear picture of how the player will behave depending on the opponent.

    There are many cases in which players give 100% on the field, but not in training, they even give less than expected at a certain level, they are players who always arrive late or are tying their boots in the middle of the field because they don't arrive at the scheduled time, players who find it difficult to make a collective sacrifice in training, are more individual or have different attitudes to what is seen on the field during matches.

    It may seem silly, but coaches like players who are always committed, in training and matches, this attitude may not please the staff and it is necessary to check everything about the player to be sure that he is adaptable to the team and will not be a problem in the long run due to the attitude and commitment in the locker room.

    My opinion is that observation of matches and training sessions must be accompanied by data, in order to rule out variations that affect the player from the outside, bad streaks, difficult moments due to family reasons, etc.

    By this I mean that if the player does not give the expected level during some matches or is not at 100% aptitude and the game data indicates otherwise, it is necessary to confirm it with something else, the environment.

    Sometimes players go through bad spells in the game due to external problems or because they don't understand their new role in the team. This must be confirmed before discarding the player, since perhaps the role for which our coach wants him is adapted to the player and his style of play or he is going through a bad streak that affects his game, but we know that he can perform much better.

    Just as we must know if his behavior off the field is correct, if he pays attention to the club's schedules or instructions or if, on the contrary, he is a player who finds it difficult to maintain a serious line in his sporting life, it is known that sometimes there are players who do not continue with a behavior that is, let's say, very appropriate to the condition of a soccer player and that ends up affecting their game. If we are foresighted in this regard, we can avoid future problems.

    All this information, depending on the league or country where the player plays, will be more or less easy to obtain. There are leagues where the control of the players is hermetic and certain information cannot be accessed. On the other hand, other leagues are more open and it is possible to have more information outside of the sport.

    One of the most important parts of the monitoring is the preparation of the report. It seems easy. We have the information gathered, we put it in the report and that's it. But it is not like that.

    If we are not able to capture what the player is transmitting or we cannot make a report that is easy for the coach to interpret, we could lose all the work done.

    Just as when the analyst makes the reports on rivals, he must present them in the easiest way for the players to interpret and adapted to the demands of the coach, the same happens in the case of the scout. The reports and video analysis must be specific with the necessary information and with clear videos that really show what is being sought.

    Therefore, from my point of view, the report must provide several important parts, the information on the player, the game data, minutes or playing time, everything depends on the position we are looking for, as we said before we do not need the same data for a forward as for a centre-back.

    The player's technical information, as well as the most important indications of the type of tactical play, positioning, performances with and without the ball, a broader summary, since it is the important thing to highlight in the follow-up.

    And finally the video. I accompany my reports with a video that is not too long, always avoiding it being too heavy, where we try to clearly visualize the player's virtues and to see above all what the coach is looking for, the type of player that adapts to his needs and all of that accompanied by a very clear presentation of the entire follow-up.

Roberto Segui