Interview with Matthew Egan, First Team Analyst at Bath Rugby

Matt Egan is a First Team Performance Analyst at Bath Rugby focusing on Attack and Backs. He previously worked for the England RFU and Leicester Tigers. Matt tells us about his experiences and what it is like to be an analyst at Bath Rugby.

Tell us about your background. What made you want to become a Performance Analyst?

I am from Northamptonshire, a small town called Corby. I went to Loughborough University and ended up doing a Sport Science degree there. When I was at Loughborough, the university had a mentorship programme at Leicester Tigers, so for my Performance Analysis module I would go work at Leicester Tigers with Simon Barbour, who was my first boss. He was unbelievable, one of the top in Performance Analysis in Rugby Union.

I was working a Leicester Tigers throughout my final year of university. Obviously, I would learn the theory at uni and then go do the hands-on experience at Leicester. The way Leicester works is that, when you are an intern, you can also go and work for Nottingham as well. I would work at Leicester Tigers under Simon and some other analysts, and then also when there was a game at Nottingham I would do that by myself. It was really good learning.

After university, I decided to go travelling. I went to New Zealand to play rugby out there for the season. I loved it. Then, while I was in New Zealand, Simon contacted me about a job that came up with England. It was through Insight Analysis, formerly PGIR when I first joined. The job came up with PGIR, did the interview on Zoom from New Zealand and then got the job. I had to come back to England in two weeks time, which meant my travelling was cut short, but it was too good of an opportunity to refuse. There are not that many times an opportunity like that comes up, especially in a professional environment.

At England I was working directly with Mike Hughes and Duncan Locke, the two England Senior Analysts at the time. They were my bosses and I worked directly with them. I also worked with Kate Burke, who is also in the RFU, and Austin Fuller, who is now at Hudl. They were the senior characters in the environment at PGIR at the time. I started doing all the individual coding for the English Premiership squads each week. I also filmed and coded the Championship. I did the Bedford Blues and loved it there. The coaches there are unbelievable, really good guys.

After working on that for a while and as I progressed, Mike and Locke kept introducing me more and more into the senior work. After a couple of months, I was there in camp doing all the Six Nations, Autumns and Summers. I became heavily involved. I was also in the 2015 World Cup, which started off as a highlight but did not end as a highlight (England did not reach the knockout stage). After that World Cup, Eddie came in and there was some change in personnel. Locke left so I then stepped up and went to the Australia 2016 tour with Mike. It was an unbelievable experience.

As I was in Australia, the Bath Rugby job came up. Speaking to Mike, it was very much that he was not going to be leaving England anytime soon, so for me to get more experience the idea was to go elsewhere and work at a club for however many years and then potentially return back to England. I joined Bath Rugby and worked with Dan Cooper, the Head of Performance Analysis at Bath Rugby and who had previously done the England 7s and the Olympics. I also work with Matt Watkins who has been there at Bath pretty much all his career. The two are very good analysts. Both have different traits and are very good people to work with.

What does a typical day as a Performance Analyst at Bath Rugby look like?

As a First Team Analyst at Bath Rugby I specialise in attack. Since there are three of us within the first team, we would split the game up. I look into attack with the attack coaches Girvan Dempsey and Ryan Davis, Dan Cooper will do defense with Neal Hatley, and Watkins will do set pieces (lineout and scrums) with Luke Charteris and Mark Lilley.

A day at Bath Rugby usually starts with an early morning meeting, which can be as early as 7am. We are in for the first meeting at 7am to review the training session from the prior day or the game, depending on the day that we come in. We start off with that and then we start looking at how we can review it back with the players, whether that is through a meeting with the coaches or straight onto the pitch to do walkthroughs. After that, we start designing the training for the day. We go through the training, looking at what outcomes we want to get from the session. We then just look through the list of players to see who is available and who is not. My role within that meeting is usually to provide some stats and some visuals, some sort of evidence-based opinion of how the training was and to back it up with what we try to get from that session to see if we achieved our goals. We tend to look at things against our principles. Any aspects of our game that we monitor regularly to check whether we are still developing in those areas. After that part of the meeting is done, I just make sure that I connect up with the coaches or whoever is in the meeting to make sure that we have clips available on the points that we want to get across to the players and to understand what the plan for training is, what filming requirements will be needed and what we are looking to review post training. The meeting starts at 7am and usually is done by 8am or 8:30am.

Once the first meeting is done, we have a moment to get coffee and a little bite to eat. Then usually we have back units training in the morning, which can start at 9am or 10am. That is the first meeting out on the pitch with a big screen to go through clips with the players. I normally just run the laptops while the coaches speak through the clips and direct me through it. Then we go straight into some back units training, where I would film and clip it up afterwards to send it to the other analysts to have a quick review with the coaches and see if there is anything that we need to pick up with the players before the team session in the afternoon.

Once backs units training is done we start planning for the team session. We start thinking about what we are going to need for filming and so on. At the moment with Covid-19, we are not in contact as much with people, so we have to start planning and start identifying what we are going to need beforehand. Also, our pitch at Bath Rugby is not great so we are actually training in a different facility. We start in the morning at our usual base and then have to travel in the afternoon somewhere else for our team session with all the equipment, making sure it is all running. You’ve also got to be prepared for any weather, since you can see, like lately, that it can be sunny in the morning and then start hailing in the afternoon. Your car is usually full since we pack a lot of stuff.

We usually have a couple of hours between sessions. Team training could be at 1pm or 2pm. Within those hours, the big thing for me is to start trying to get ahead of what I need to do. I start looking at the opposition for the week after. If there are any trends in the last couple of games, I get that across the coaches and any of our leaders within the team that need to see them. There is a big emphasis in our club that analysts should not be looked at just as coding monkeys. Analysts have to be present and they get asked questions, making sure we engage with the players, go around chatting with them, not just about rugby but also to get to know them. That is a big emphasis at the club, which makes the rugby chat with the players a lot easier later on.

Bath Rugby is a really good club in that way. You hear stories from players that come to our club and we ask them about an analyst at the club they have just come from and they say “oh, spoke three words to him in 4 years”. For us, as a group of analysts, we are actually really sociable with the players. We make sure we connect with them, get in and around them and we can go through clips with them with honesty. Players then open up to us. If there is anything they don’t see or agree with they would open up and they would trust us quite a lot to pass on that information or not. Those couple of hours in between sessions are good in that sense, to make sure you are not just sitting behind your computer but getting to know the players.

For the team session, we get down there with all our equipment and just film it. Then we clip it up, get it online using Hudl for everyone at the club to see, and send it out to the coaches to start the review process. Then it is Groundhog Day again, the next day is the same.

We are always looking directly at the next game. As an analyst, we’ve got to make sure we don’t get distracted too much with other games. You’ve got to make sure that you are still engaged in the week ahead. This weekend for instance, we are playing Newcastle, so I need to look at the game plan for Newcastle and see how it matches to our principles. That is what I’d be reviewing in each session during that week. In-between that, I may get down at looking at the following fixture against Worcester and making sure I’m taking on that end because we might review them at the end of the week. But I need to make sure I’m ready for that without disregarding the game against Newcastle this week.

What is the main highlight of your Performance Analysis career so far?

My two highlights involve England. The first one is the 2016 tour in Australia. It was the first time the England team went to Australia and won 3-0. It was an unbelievable experience doing something you love while being there and it being a success. It was unbelievable being involved in the games and being trusted with live feeding information to the coaches. We were looking at work-rate of certain players, so I was coding it live, feeding it live to the coaches and then substitutions were made on that data. It was an eye-opener and a really good feeling. You can really have a real impact depending on the coaching squad you work with. I’m not saying that whatever I did could have changed the game for the better, it all depends on how responsive and how much your coaching groups trusts you and how much they look at the right things. But you can actually really have a real impact as an analyst and for me that was one of those occasions.

My other highlight was the 2019 England vs Barbarians match. I got invited back to do the match for England. The thing I loved the most about that experience was meeting so many different people. It was a really good highlight being back in camp and everybody there just wanted to enjoy it. It was just a really good week meeting new coaches and new players, something you don’t really ever get to do because once you are in a club, you are in a closed club environment. It was really nice and refreshing to speak with different people, seeing different faces and ending up beating Barbarians at the end as well. From that experience, I’ve built some really good relationships. I am still in contact regularly with one of the coaches and a couple who I still speak to often. It is a nice highlight in a different way.

What are the most challenging aspects of being a Performance Analyst?

One of the most challenging aspects of the role is that when you first come into it, you are really hungry and fresh so you work every hour under the sun and do everything. But then, it is actually one of the most challenging things to pull back from that. You’ve got to be able to pull back from that starting pace, taking out the information that is not being used by coaches. You need to have those conversations with your coaches, making sure that as a squad you know exactly what you are looking for. In the worst case, you are going to spend 9 hours on a review and none of it is going to be used.

That is something I have definitely done, even had it at parts of this season. I was spending 3-4 hours reviewing something and ended up producing nothing that just watching the video wouldn’t have already told the coaches. It is really challenging to realise at the time and have that difficult conversation with the coaches. You just tell them that it takes you 4 hours to produce one single number that they use and ask them if that one number is that necessary or could we trim that time down so you could look into something more valuable. Thankfully, the coaches at Bath Rugby are actually really understanding of the timescale of analysis. Although, don’t get me wrong, when the pressure comes, the pressure comes and you get asked to do lots of different things regardless. But the coaches here do ask how long do things take and whether we use them. Sometimes, it is actually down to me to bring it up and I’ve still got to get better at it and bring up things that we produce that I’m not really sure that they get used. It’s a tough one because as an analyst there is a mix of things where you have that drive to make sure you are covering everything because everyone out there is looking for that golden nugget. But it is never out there. There is no winning formula, but we are still searching for it, so you end up digging into things probably far too deep.

The biggest thing is to make sure you take a step back and have a look at what you are working on. The thing that definitely helps is if your club, sport or coaches have a clear idea of how they want the game to look and how they expect it to be played. Then, you can really start narrowing down the areas to look at. But if you don’t have a clear goal and understanding of the principles or the framework, you end up just bouncing around week after week looking for something different each week and produce reports without knowing if the team got any better.

What are the most important skills to have as a Performance Analyst?

I would never underestimate the basics: being able to film, code and distribute information. You would never get told “that’s really good footage” or “that’s really good camera work”, but as soon as you do it wrong, you will get told. You never get told “that is really good coding”, but as soon as you do a mistake in your code, you get told. You always need to make sure you have your Performance Analysis basics right. If you have your basics right, everything else on top is just a bonus. At the moment, a lot of coaches as long as you give them the film and the code that they want they are able to use Hudl Sportscode to do their own little clips. As long as you can supply them with the basics, they are usually quite happy. Giving that extra 20-30% of your own individual skill on top of that is what makes you different from everybody else. But as soon as you don’t hit those basics, you are going to get told.

Another thing is building relationships. You have your technical skills on one side: making sure you know how to work a camera, capture video and, if it goes wrong, problem solve to make sure you always get the footage and work back from there. But on the other side, building those relationships with coaches, with the team, the players is important. You’ve really got to build that trust in the bank for when that one time when it does go wrong and you can’t fix it. Then, the coaches would be “actually, it’s the first time that he got something wrong in about 3 years”. It is going to happen, everyone makes mistakes, but building that relationship and trust can make that conversation more human and understanding.

How is data and analysis being used and perceived at Bath Rugby?

At Bath Rugby, particularly on attack analysis, we use analysis in two ways. We use data for check-ins, to see if we are hitting the targets that we want to hit against our principles each week. We look at metrics over a period of time and see whether they are dipping or getting better and then do work off that, always comparing it to our principles. Then we also have the visual and video side of things. There needs to be a really good blend between the two. If I’m looking at something, you cannot only use video because then you will never identify any sort of trend or pattern and you will never have any weight behind what you say, since you are just showing the instances happening in one game that may change in the next game. Whereas, if you make sure you have your principles right and you are tracking data against them, you can then attach video to it.

We also look at wider trends. We’ve always got an eye out on what is happening within our league and other leagues. We use larger datasets using Opta to do little check-ins with that data every so often. All three of us analysts are quite experienced and we can pick up on things in the game quickly. Between the three of us, one of us will pick up on something that they’ve noticed and then we’ll dig a little bit deeper into that using a larger dataset. Once we’ve identified it, we will start looking into the footage of that area.

What are the main tools and technologies used at Bath Rugby?

The obvious things like cameras and so on. We have a variety of cameras, the usual recording cameras and then we’ve also got some of the higher poles, small cameras with higher viewpoints. To be honest, those are probably one of the best things we’ve bought. They make it so much easier to film on whatever angle we want. We also use drones, GoPro and also try to capture some audio using some of the small USB audio devices.

In terms of software, we use Mac applications and Hudl Sportcode. We also use CoachPaint quite a lot. It is really good and looks very professional. We’ve got a few touchscreens, but with Covid-19 we cannot use them at the moment. They are very similar to Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher’s Monday Night Football where you would be able to get a few movies on there, add a few clips, get the coaches and a few of the players and then just ask them questions to get them to start drawing on the screen and start building their understanding of the game around that. They are really good and I look forward to start using them again soon.

When it comes to footage, within the league everyone uploads to Hudl. We just download the four camera angles off there, which makes it handy. If there are not there we just grab them off Opta. We use Opta's SuperScout to get the codes as well. Opta has done a really good job at being able to pull the data off their platform. We are able to pull out some stats and compare week on week against oppositions to see if there is something different. We then do our own individual analysis, coding on top of the Opta data to look into how we can apply our game against them.

How do you see the field of Performance Analysis evolving in the next few years?

In terms of technology, I see that with some sort of AI technology or similar you will be able to put the players and the coaches into game situations without them having the physical demands of playing the game and then see what decisions they make in different situations. Simulation devices like VR will allow you to just put the device on and be realistic enough that you really start feeling the heart rate go. You will be able to put players in pressure situations where they will have to make instant decisions in the moment. I believe that is where the future is heading.

I also feel that Performance Analysis is going to split into two areas. You are going to have the data side of things and then you are going to have coach-analysts on the other side. Data analysts or scientist are going to be doing all the trends and work on big datasets, looking at data from games everywhere in the world and producing insights from those. Whereas, the coach-analysts are going to be the coaches’ right-hand men to turn the data into common sense. They will be almost like a translators, since it doesn’t matter what figures you pull out, if nobody understands them they are not going to have any impact.

Coaches are actually becoming more proficient with tech. You see some of the older coaches now come in and when they don’t know how to use Hudl they soon feel embarrassed. All the younger coaches that have come through the academy are all proficient with Hudl Sportscode. They all know what they are doing. They pull up organisers, they do the drawing on them, they’ll have their meetings sorted with all their clips ready. Some of the older coaches at times ask about how to do things in Sportscode. It’s really good to see. It is modern-day coaching and as a coach you need to be able to do that now.

What advice would you give to someone looking to become a Performance Analyst?

The advice I’d give someone looking to start is to jump in and get involved. Start getting the basics right. The sooner you can start getting the basics the better. The domain knowledge of the sport is not crucial. To work in rugby as a Performance Analyst, you don’t need to go into it as a rugby expert. You can go into it as a rugby novice and just have basic understanding of the game, but if you can do the basics of analysis (filming, capturing, coding, work to the timeframes, work under pressure) you then learn the knowledge of the game as you do it. You need to make sure you understand that as a Performance Analyst you have to make sure you can film, capture, code and work long hours. If you can do that, then everything else you will pick up naturally.

Once you get the basics right, you need to start working on some emotional intelligence aspects. With coaches, egos get damaged quite a lot and sometimes you have to be there to pick them back up. At the end of the day, even though you are working as a team, the coaches are the ones who get fired if it’s not going well on the pitch, so they have immense pressure. You are there to support them. You need to make sure that you are there as a support mechanism for coaches. You need to challenge them in a supportive way. Ultimately, they are the face of it and the ones who take the brunt. As frustrating as it can be at times in a high-pressured environment, actually all the pressure is on the coach and we are there to support them.

That’d be my advice. Make sure you learn the basics and then start being able to understand the people by building that emotional intelligence and the relationships with the coaches. Emotions run high in professional sports. When they are high they are really high and when they are low they are really low. It jumps between those two states each week and is never stable.

Interview with Tom Johnson, First Team Analyst at Crystal Palace FC

Tom Johnson is currently the First Team Performance Analyst at Crystal Palace FC. He joined the club 4 years ago as the Head of Academy Performance Analysis, having previously been a Senior Academy Analyst at Derby County FC, where he started his career as an intern. Apart from being an analyst, he is also an under 13s coach. Tom tells us all about his journey in Performance Analysis and what it is like to work in a Premier League club.

Tell us about your background. What made you want to become a Performance Analyst?

It originally started when I was at college. I had finished school and always had an interest in football. I played recreationally but was never at that level to make it as a professional, which I had already realised when I was a child. But I always wanted to stay in football, I love watching football, love being part of football, so I decided to make the decision to study Sports Science and coach at a higher level other than just part taking.

When I was 16 or 17, I decided to enroll in a course at a local college, where I grew up in Essex, to study Sports Science and Coaching. In that time, I started coaching part-time at a grassroots club helping with the development centre in a local team Southend United. There I was getting some experience as a grassroots coach to try to learn the craft. I was then able to get into university. I enrolled in a course at Nottingham Trent University to study Coaching and Sports Science with a view to get down the coaching pathway. At this point, I had already completed my Level 1 and 2, which was the aim, and then to get my UEFA B as soon as possible.

It was whilst at uni that I was introduced to Performance Analysis. This was in about 2012 or 2013, when Performance Analysis wasn’t anything new back then. However, the publicity that it has nowadays, with the online community and how much more you hear about it now, wasn’t prevalent at the time. My first introduction to Performance Analysis was through a lecture at university, where a member of staff at Derby County talked about an opportunity that they had at their club to come in and learn and get some experience on Performance Analysis. The opportunity meant filming and analysing the academy games at the club. When the Derby County staff member spoke at the lecture about looking at football from a tactical side of things, working with coaches, working with players, it ticked the boxes in my head as that was the side of coaching I loved doing - speaking with players, talking about the game, etc - not so much on-field coaching but more like off-field coaching. I was intrigued about what it could be like so I applied to the internship. The word “internship” sometimes has negative connotations. It was more of a studentship really. It was part of my course as I was using the hours I was doing at Derby County to put towards my work-based learning.

Long story short, I gained 18 months experience from halfway through my 2nd year of university all the way through my third year. I was volunteering my time at the weekends, mainly Saturdays and Sundays. One day of the week I would also go along to the academy and learn the job. That is how it all started. At the end of my internship, I was in a really lucky position that after 18 months of volunteering, Derby’s academy went from Category 2 to Category 1, which actually meant that there was a position available in the analysis department in the academy to become full-time. I applied for the role and was able to get it.

So, really, my journey to become an analyst was pretty smooth. I was volunteering my time and showing my skills and ability on the job to eventually be able to get it. When I talk to people I say it is like an 18 month interview. The internship and the volunteering at Derby was all about meeting the coaches, getting that relationship with them, with the academy manager, with the analysis staff so that when it came to my interview I knew the guys interviewing me anyway, which was really fortunate.

How did your current role come about?

Essentially, I spent my first full-time role at Derby working with younger age groups. I had already being doing that as an intern, so the transition into start working with coaches in the foundation phase (9s to 12s year-olds) and the youth development phase (up to under 16s) was smooth. The actual analysis that was taking place at the time was quite broad. You worked across lots of age groups so you couldn’t really go into too much detail. You could go into detail but obviously not as much as you would go if you worked with just one team. It is about giving the players, especially younger players, an introduction into analysis and what it is like to watch yourself back. In academy football, they put a lot of pressure on young players to succeed, so hopefully through the use of analysis we were able to give them a football education outside of the football pitch. We had a day release program whereby the lads would come in and train in the morning but in-between sessions we would put on some analysis and hold educational sessions working on the development of individuals, getting them to set their own development tasks. That was mainly my role with under 16s age groups.

After 2 seasons, I moved up to work purely with under 18s age groups. This role is a little bit different because now you are working with an emphasis on the Saturday game, doing things like building up the opposition analysis. It looks a little more like what analysis is like in a first team level, but you still have a massive emphasis on developing the individual players. As much as you want to win games, the aim is to develop the individuals in the team to hopefully help them become professionals and play in the first team. I really enjoyed that role, working with some great coaches. For example, Justin Walker, who is now one of the first team coaches at Derby, and Rory Delap, who is also an ex-Premier League footballer. I worked with lots of them whilst they were starting or in the middle of their coaching journey. We were all on a similar position, they were developing their skills as coaches and I was developing my skills as an analyst.

We also had a really good analysis department at Derby working under Steve Doyle, who is now working for Rangers FC. At the time when I eventually moved on, we had a department of about 4 to 5 full-time members of staff alongside about 6 to 7 students who came in and supported the department. I was loving working with Derby County and loved the work we were doing. We worked very closely with the first team staff, so I learned a lot and was able to bounce ideas off them. It was a great environment to work in. We shared a big office so we could constantly ask questions and bounce ideas off each other.

However, it came to a point when I was looking to progress professionally in my role. I felt that at the time my boss at Derby was comfortable in his role so I couldn’t move up within the club, so I had to look elsewhere. I grew up in the south of England, in Essex, in and around London, and an opportunity came up to work at Crystal Palace as the Head of Academy Analysis. The role meant working with the under 23s age group while also working as the Head of Analysis for the academy. This meant having a more managerial role that looked after the full-time staff and students at the club. Also, at the time, Crystal Palace were a Category 2 academy, so they were below Derby in terms of academy level. But in terms of players that they had at their disposal, South London is a hotbed for talent. I didn’t really notice the difference with Derby. If anything, the players that we were developing and were coming through the system at the time were at a higher standard at Crystal Palace.

My move to Crystal Palace was 4 years ago now, at the start of 2017. During that time, I was able to build the department which at the start was just myself and another colleague as the only full-time analysts. Crystal Palace’s academy were also going through a big push to try to get to Category 1, and I already had that experience of transitioning from Category 2 to Category 1 at Derby, which meant I was able to use my experiences. Together with the other coaches and members of staff at the academy at Palace we had a really good working environment to really push the academy along.

During the two years I worked in the academy at Crystal Palace I worked with some really good coaches with the under 23s, some of them really experienced ex-players and coaches. For example, Dave Reddington, who I am working with now in the first team, or Richard Shaw, who is now working with Watford. It is really important as an analyst to work and bounce ideas off ex-players and current coaches because that is where you really develop as an analyst. You can learn so much out of a textbook, filming and watching games, but getting that experience when talking to coaches, what they are thinking of, you start gauging where they are at in terms of tactical side of things. It is always interesting to get their ideas and their views on things.

I worked on that role for 2 years and in that time was able to develop the department as well as my role with the under 23s. In terms of how I got into my current role, the first team analysts at the time Charlie Radmore got the opportunity to go work for West Ham so he transitioned from club to club. There was then an opportunity for me. My current boss Ben Stevens asked me to move up and work with the first team. I got a call from the Sporting Director and Ben and they said that they were looking to bring me up to promote within, so I grabbed it with both hands.

I suppose that the end goal at the start of my career was to work in a first team environment, to hopefully work in the Premier League, which I think is one of, if not the best league in the world, and use all my experiences in the last 5 to 6 years to analyse games in the Premier League. I’ve now been in this role for 2 years. It was a big step up for me in terms of the intensity of the work and the pressure that the first team environment brings. Even with the under 23s age group you are looking to develop individuals. No matter if you win, lose or draw in the game day you are still trying to look at the individual performance and the development of the players. But now when you lose or draw a game on a Saturday it means a lot compared to that. There is more focus on the team performance and what that brings.

That is a whistle-stop tour on where I am now. I suppose that when I speak to other people about it now it sounds like a smooth transition. I’ve been very fortunate to be in the position I am now, but without lots of hours of volunteering initially to get to that position where I am now it wouldn’t have been possible. As lucky as I’ve been to be at the right place at the right time, you need to take some risks. If you want to succeed in anything you need to take a bit of risk. My risk was to move to Crystal Palace out of the comfort of that role I had at Derby Country. I thought “ok, I’m going to do this”. I trusted myself to be able to do it and was lucky enough to succeed at it. 

What is the main highlight in your analyst career?

If you talk to a player or a coach they will always say that their main highlight is winning a trophy or a certain game that sticks out. For me, the highlight of my career is obtaining the job I’ve got today. It doesn’t happen overnight. Winning a game of football, or if you are lucky enough to win a league, cup or trophy is such a big thing and could definitely be a highlight, but it has so many different variables that go into it. For me, to be able to do the job I’m doing now is the highlight of my career.

I enjoy working with the elite coaches and players. I’ve come from first starting to work with players under 9 and under 10, and while that is enjoyable it seemed so far away from the top, a little detached. That’s not to say that those young players are not going to go on and be professional. So many of the young players I’ve worked with are now playing at a senior level, which is a massive highlight for any analyst or coach working in grassroots or even academy level. The highlight is seeing them 4 or 5 years on making their first team debut and playing in the Premier League. That was definitely the highlight of when I was working in academy football, seeing players flourish and develop. However, by no means I’m saying that I had a hand on what they’ve done, they’ve done it for themselves, but you feel part of the process. As an analyst, you are a small part of that process and it’s great to see these players flourish and kick on. It’s a holistic process and you can’t pin it down to one person that has made that player’s career possible, but I feel that as a whole you are part of that process.

At Derby County I was very lucky. In the current first team squad they’ve got probably 7 or 8 players that were in the under 15s, under 16s and under 18s at the time when I was there. They’ve had an amazing list over the last couple of years. They’ve really pushed lots of young players through. For example, Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe have gone on to play for Sheffield United. Derby currently has got Jason Knight who was also only 15 when he came over from Ireland when I first started working there. There is also Max Bird. Also young players like Kaide Gordon who has just left Derby and gone to Liverpool. It is a real big pool of players that Derby are pushing through, which is excellent to see. I speak to some of my ex-colleagues now and they are saying that the talent they had in across those age groups is second to none. It is great to see. You see all these players and remember watching them when they were 12 years old. That is probably the biggest highlight having worked with younger players.

At Crystal Palace now, I’ve been lucky that when I first joined the club Aaron Wan-Bissaka was already playing in the under 23s. He had just transitioned to start playing right back. When I joined 4 years ago they had just had a discussion that he had been a wider player, a winger, but that they should transition him to play right back. To be honest, I can’t say I had any impact at all, it was the coaches just before I arrived that made that move. Then for the first year working with the under 23s he was a great asset to have in that group. He was training with the first team most days and then the rest is history. He made his debut and never looked back and now he’s gone to Man Utd. Also, currently at Crystal Palace we’ve got Tyrick Mitchell who has come on to the first team at the end of last season / start of this year. He’s another full back who is doing very well. Similar story with Tyrick, he was on the under 18s when I first joined and it has been great to see his pathway come through.

These are players that when you work with them in a younger age group and you then see them come through you talk to them outside the game and see how they are getting on. No necessarily put a shoulder because the coaches and the rest of the staff do that, but you just have a conversation and see how they get on. I would say that the biggest aspect of the role having worked in the academy is seeing younger players come through, make their debuts and hopefully go on to have careers. There are plenty of other examples out there. I am currently working as a coach with the under 13s as well and we tell the players that the chances of you becoming a professional in the Premier League are so slim, but what we really are there for is to make these under 13s footballers, or whatever age group, better people outside of football. Hopefully we can do that. If they then get a career in the game that’s even better, but it’s making the person as much as making the footballer. It’s great to see that I’ve been part of so many success stories, and there are other success stories that have gone on to make it at other clubs, gone out on loan or maybe stepped out of academy football and play in non-league. I see those as much as a success as some of the top names I’ve mentioned before. 

What are the most challenging aspect of the role of an analyst?

Other analysts that I speak to and some good friends and ex-colleagues of mine who are now working in the Championship have ridiculous schedules of 46 games. For me, the biggest challenge I found from stepping from my previous role into this role working with the first team is the intensity of it. It’s almost like there are no days off. Not in terms of physical days off but almost that you are always watching, always focusing on the next game. One game is finished and you are onto the next one. The intensity can be quite stressful. You can’t have a day off or have a day when you are not on it because of the type of content that we are having to produce for the coaching staff and players, if you do you are going to get found out straightaway. For me, the most challenging aspect was that intensity and having to pretty much bring myself up to speed. To make sure to work and produce every single day and that the work is of certain acceptable standard that the coaching staff want.

I’ve been in my current role two years this month. I came into the role at the end of the 2018/19 season. There was a handover period with Charlie who later moved clubs but from the start of the 2019/20 season it became my first full season in the first team. I am always learning, that’s a given. You are always learning from other people. My colleague Rob Weaver has been working for the club for about 5 years, so when I first moved here I learned so much from him because he was so up to speed with the way coaches wanted to work. I think that is so important as an analyst. You almost have got to be their go-to person. They always come to you or you go to them. You have got to know what they are thinking before they are thinking it. Rob had all of that knowledge from the 3 years he had worked previously with the current staff before I joined the first team, so it was me bouncing off him and the coaches to get up to speed. I definitely feel I’ve progressed in the last two years, but there is no slowing down. You are constantly learning, taking different bits of information from them to develop yourself as a person and an analyst.

What are the most important skills for an analyst?

First and foremost is organisation. As an analyst you cannot do the job if you are disorganised. If you are not organised you can miss deadlines, and you can’t afford to do that unfortunately, it’s a simple as that. We are quite lucky in that in this job you know what you are working towards. You’ve got a game day, you know that the game is on a certain date, so you’ve got a timeframe to work towards. When you are playing every Saturday, the schedule can be quite simple. But when they chuck in a mid-week game, or when you’ve got the Christmas period, that always condenses the timeframe right down. Because of that, organisation is massive.

Communication in terms of speaking to people like the coaches and other colleagues is important. Constant communication, whether talking about the game or talking about the plan, is very important. I don’t think you could do the role if you are a poor communicator. You’ve got to get your ideas across. You’ve got to listen as well. Communicating is a big part of the role.

Finally, the ability to work under pressure. With the intensity of the role and the level of detail you are having to produce, the ability to work under pressure is massive at this level. Even with condensed schedules, expectations don’t change. We’ve just had the Christmas period and we’ve had the January fixtures as well. I am also hearing they are moving a fixture next week to compensate for the FA Cup. It doesn’t really slow down. Also, this year is unique in the sense that we missed a few weeks at the start of the season because of coronavirus. It’s a unique situation and because of that we’ve had so many games in such a short time. But the quality of the work cannot dip just because you’ve got two games in a week. It always has to be to the same standards.

What data and analysis do you use and how is it perceived at the club?

It is an interesting question because whoever you speak to will have so many different answers. Every single coaching staff and club have a different process in the way they perceive data and the way it is used in their processes each day. Currently, I’d say that my role, and it will likely stay like this, is video analyst. My colleagues and I work 90% of the time with video. That’s how the current staff want to work. They do not rely on the data, which is not to say we don’t use it. We currently use more video and really just back up what we are saying with the data. We won’t necessarily go to the data first and come up with our game plan or analysis off that. We would do the video side first and if there is any data that backs up what we are trying to say we would input it there.

That’s not to say we are neglecting it, we are very much in touch with what is going on with data analysis. At the club we have two Data Analysts that primarily work with the recruitment side of things. However, they also work alongside our team producing some of the data for the opposition reports we do. Any kind of bespoke analysis we need, whether is looking for a certain team and run some data on them that is outside of what we already collect on every team, then we would go to the Data Analysts for their expertise. At the moment, some of the algorithms and processes they use are way above my head but as an analyst I want to develop those skills over the next few years so that I can have a better understanding of how they get to their final conclusions. I understand the data once it’s given to us, but it’s the how they get there that is the interesting part for me.

In terms of how data is perceived at the club, like I mentioned, the current regime are heavily video based. You find that a lot of coaches and ex-players would always tend to gravitate towards video because that is what they know, it’s the game, it’s how it looks like. Some coaches you may hear them talk about data in the press conferences and in public, but our current regime is heavily video based. This suits the way Rob and I work at the minute, but if we had to use data more, if that come into our workflow, we are ready to incorporate it.

What are the main tools and technologies that you use in your analysis?

In terms of the technologies we use, Hudl SportsCode is my best friend. There is not a day that it is not open on my laptop. We are heavy users of the Hudl umbrella of companies. We use Hudl SportsCode, Hudl Replay as the technology on a match day when we send the stream down to the bench, and the Hudl online platform to share clips with the coaches and players. We heavily use Hudl platforms and systems every day.

The illustration tool that we use at the club is CoachPaint, which is a big part of our workflow. Once we have decided the clips that we want to show to coaches and players we then paint the story and put any kind of detail onto the clips with CoachPaint. Also on our day to day we use Keynote to produce presentations and dossiers because we work on Macbook applications to produce our work. We use Apple products to do that rather than PowerPoint and Word.

We also use other platforms to get our footage. We use DVMS, which is the sharing platform for the Premier League. The Premier League provides us with the footage of each game. Once you are a Premier League club you get access to every single game in the Premier League from 8 different angles. We also use Wyscout for video footage, mainly for anything outside the Premier League that we need to collect.

In terms of data, we also have access to Opta. We use their different platforms, like the query tool or the portal. We are able to get all our data that we need from Opta. Also, Scout7 is also used quite a lot as well, which is part of Opta. That is more for our scouting systems and to do reports on players or if we ever need to read up on players that we have not seen before. For example, a new signing from abroad. We use all of these different types of platforms to come up with the final product for coaches and the staff.

What does the future of Performance Analysis look like?

Analysis has come a long way from when I first started. For instance, things like SportsCode or the ability to have an iPad on the bench was unheard of before. You would always have to do stuff post-match and now so much analysis is done live. Where do I see it going? I definitely see that as a profession you will have a lot more coach-analysts. It is not something that is not out there already. In a lot of clubs you have coaches that are watching a lot more video and you’ve got coaches that are doing the analysis themselves. Coaching staff are coming with manager, assistant manager and first team coaches who are essentially analysts that also coach on the grass. I think there is definitely a shift in the role of the analyst.

Where I see the processes going? I suppose AI is being spoken about in terms of the coding process. There will be less emphasis on having to watch games and sit there picking through what things you are looking for. If you are looking for certain trends in the game you will be able to use the data and AI to do that for you. Still, I don’t know where I sit with that. Of course, having an analyst sitting there and watching the game is important. I will still go back to the eye and always want to watch it for myself, but we’ll see. Things have accelerated so much in the last 10 years, it’s been amazing. In 5 years time we might go back and think “remember what I was doing in 2021?”. I feel that’s constantly what we are doing. It’s exciting but it’s also difficult to keep up with technology at times. Keeping the finger on the pulse is difficult, but it will continue to develop as long as the game is being player at top level.

Another aspect is that when you go back 2 or 3 years you had Hudl, SportsCode and Nacsport, or other kinds of secondary platforms, but now you’ve got more and more technology companies trying to push different technologies and platforms to compete with these. It’s a good and healthy thing not to have companies monopolising the industry and the more options we have to go off the better.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into Performance Analysis?

I’ve got many people asking me whether I’ve got any opportunities. It is difficult to get that first foot in the door, but there are also many things that as an aspiring analyst you can do to get into the industry. First and foremost, it is important to invest your time. That may be going out and volunteering at your local club. To become an analyst you don’t have to be working at a Premier League club, or even at a football league club in this country. You can go and work at your local grassroots team as an analyst. You also don’t need Hudl SportsCode to be an analyst. You can literally go back to basics and get a notepad and a pen out and stand at the side of the pitch and provide some sort of analysis. Now, obviously if you wanted to work at a club level and a professional level you are going to have to learn the technology at some point, but getting that kind of experience at grassroots or even academy level, if you have the opportunity at your local club, is invaluable.

I’ve also talked about communication and organisation skills. That’s where you learn that kind of thing, on the job, to then apply the experience later. Even though you might not be learning the technologies or intricacies of analysis, by working at a local club and with coaches, you are building the key foundations to become an analyst. Then, once you’ve got a foot on the door, say at a local academy side or with a college program that has funding and access to video cameras, you can start producing some video analysis.

I think it important to ask questions. You need to use your experience and your volunteering almost like a job interview. You use those to become full-time employed if that’s what you are aiming for, or part-time employed if that’s possible. Treat every experience you are doing as an opportunity to learn and develop yourself. For me, that is the most important advice. Not every opportunity you are going to get is going to be paid. See every opportunity like an internship, even if it’s not officially an internship or a studentship. Make some phone calls to your local grassroots club and say “can I come along with a camera?”. Nowadays, even an iPhone has the ability to film a game of football. You don’t need a top of the range camera. You probably just need an iPad or an iPhone if you’ve got one and start filming games and producing some sort of analysis to then build up from there.

I’ve been lucky enough to study at university. I did Coaching and Sports Science and then went on to do a Masters in Research in Performance Analysis. If I’m honest, I’d say you don’t need to be Masters degree educated to be an analyst. I know a lot of jobs say that they require an MSc or a BSc to do the role. I disagree with that in a way. They probably do it to vet the field of applicants. However, there are definitely examples of analysts out there that I know that haven’t had their education through university. They’ve come from a practical side of things, where they’ve been a coach and then gone on to become analysts. Don’t get me wrong, you probably need more experience to do it if you are not coming through university because university is where the opportunities open up to you, but don’t see it as a ‘be all or end all’.

Coaching certificates are also becoming more and more apparent. I am currently doing my UEFA B now. The reason I wanted to do that is that I have been coaching previously and I saw it as a bit of CPD for myself. I think they are definitely going down the route where analysts are going to be judged on their ability to deliver and coach off the field, so coaching badges can be important. Even by doing your Level 1 or Level 2 coaching badge that is definitely going to get you recognised within the football environment, as they can see you’ve got some sort of understanding of the game. Whereas if you have just done the academic route, people within football could question whether you have an understanding of the game. You might do and might be well educated in terms of football, but having both the academic and the coaching badges will always help.

Setting Up Performance Analysis Equipment On Matchday

The following guide explains the setup process of Performance Analysis equipment during match days. This setup is frequently used in a number of major sports, particularly in those sports where analysts and coaches sit close to each other. However, the level of venue infrastructure can significantly vary between sports, clubs and divisions. Therefore, the same setup is not always possible and analysts need to have contingency plans at hand to be able to achieve the objectives of obtaining match footage, generating statistics and sharing real-time insights with coaches.

The example presented below represents a relatively simple setup often used in events with little to no technical infrastructure available in the match venue and where coaches are in close proximity to the analysts. This is frequent in sports such as Rugby Union where the coaching staff is located in the stands or gantry where the analysts perform their live coding. The equipment setup described here can easily be transported between venues, quickly assembled and later dismantled after the match. It provides sufficient flexibility to be used in a wide range of sporting events at different levels, from academy teams to elite matches.

Scenario:

The hypothetical match setup in this guide covers a scenario where two performance analysts code the match live as it takes place. Three coaches sit next to them in the gantry of the stadium, each with a laptop available in from of them. As the match is played, the performance analysts import the video feed received from the cameras into SportsCode Elite. They then use the software’s live coding capability to generate live statistics, such as possession in the different pitch zones, number of tackles, shots, infractions (penalties, cards, fouls, etc.) and other relevant match actions.

Coaches have access to the same SportsCode Elite file from the performances analysts available in their laptops. By opening the SportsCode file on their own laptops, coaches can review all key statistics generated by the analysts in real-time and use the information to make immediate tactical decisions. They also have access to the coded timeline, allowing them to replay footage of any actions or incidents from the match that they wish to review.

Objectives:

• Obtain video files of two different camera angles for post-match analysis

• Generate live statistics and video replays of key actions in real-time

• Display key statistics to coaches for immediate tactical decision-making

Personnel:

• Camera operators (usually Performance Analysts if event is not broadcasted) x2

• Performance Analysts x2

• Team coach x3

Technical Equipment:

• HD Camcorders x2

• Camera Tripods x2

• SD Cards x2

• SDI Cables x2

• Blackmagic Design SDI to HDMI Converters x2

• MacBook Laptops (x5)

• SportsCode License (x5)

• Ethernet Router

• Ethernet Cables (x5)

Setup:

Filming

Two HD camcorders film the match in two different angles: one camera films a wide angle capturing full areas of the pitch to evaluate team structure and positioning of players while the other camera films a tight angle closing in on the play to capture the players’ technique and closer movements. Since the footage from these two cameras needs to be stored for post-match analysis, each camera should be equipped with an SD card that contains sufficient capacity to store the footage from the full length of the game. The storage capacity of the SD card would greatly depend on the length of the match and the video quality format of the footage recorded.

In most major events, camera operators from TV broadcasters usually operate their own advanced filming equipment that already capture multiple angles of the pitch in high definition. This means that performance analysts may not require to operate their own cameras to capture match footage during these events. Instead, if the infrastructure permits, video feeds are shared to all interested parties (i.e. home and away Performance Analysts teams) by the TV camera operators by sharing an end of their Serial Digital Interface (SDI) cables connected to their cameras. These SDI cables are essential for the type of video transmissions required in sporting events, as they allow for stable transfer speeds of around 270 megabits per second in an uncompressed format. They also ensure that video quality is maintained from the camera to the receiving device.

Whenever a video feed from an HD camcorder is sent directly to a laptop via an SDI cable, a converter needs to be used to be able to connect the feed to the laptop, as most common laptops do not have SDI ports. A popular converter used in Performance Analysis is Blackmagic Design’s Mini Converters. Like with most adapters, the SDI cable coming from the camera is plugged into the mini converter, then a USB cable is then plugged from the mini converter to the laptop.

In the scenarios where a video feed is sent directly to the analyst’s laptop from a camera that does not have the analyst’s SD card inserted in it to store the footage, it is important for the analysts to record and store the incoming video feed in their laptop for later post-match analysis. To do so, performance analysts often use media capture software, such as Blackmagic Design’s Media Express, to log and capture the footage coming from the SDI video feed and store it as a video file in their computers. Often this process is followed regardless of whether there are other means to obtain the footage (i.e. SD cards or shared between Performance Analysts teams), acting as a backup option to avoid the loss of footage if any of the primary methods were to fail.

Coding

Once the filming equipment has been setup, analysts can now make use of the incoming video feed to analyse the match in real-time. The video feed cables are connected to each of the analyst’s laptops via an USB cable coming from the SDI converters. One of the analysts would input the footage into their laptop from the camera filming a wide angle while the other analysts would do the same with the tight angle.

Now that the laptops are receiving the footage from the game, analysts can open SportsCode Elite and use the live footage to code events in a new SportsCode timeline. Using the SportsCode Live Capture functionality, analysts can record the video feed and create a movie file inside the SportsCode package for the match. Recording the video feed and creating a movie file enables the software to refer back to specific coded sections of the match footage and replay the videos of specific events whenever they are selected from the timeline (i.e. show replay of the latest foul). Moreover, Analysts are able to rewind, review and re-code the footage as necessary while SportsCode continues to record the live footage into the SportsCode movie file.

The coding windows used by performance analysts to generate live statistics and video highlights during matches are prepared prior to the event. These code windows tend to follow a standardised format that is discussed and agreed with the coaching staff prior to the match. The match actions and in-play events that these code windows track would depend on the key areas of interest that a particular coach may want to have instant access to. For instance, a coach interested in closely monitoring their team’s defensive performance to make defensive adjustments may want to know the number of last third entries the opposition team has achieved so far in the game, the number of shots the team has conceded or the amount of possession given away in the team’s defensive zone. Knowing the coaches’ preferences beforehand enables a performance analyst to prepare their code window with the right level of trackers and descriptors that would provide a coach access to the right information at the right time throughout the match.

Presenting Statistics

The final part of the setup of the Performance Analysis equipment during matchday is the process required for coaches to be able to access key information in a timely and easy manner. The information generated by analysts through their live coding needs to add value to a coach’s decisions by being delivered at the right instances of the match to be able to influence decision-making and impact the team’s performance during the game.

The coded SportsCode timelines and statistics can be presented to coaches by interconnecting the analysts’ laptops with the coaches’ laptops via a local area network (LAN). This allows to create shared files from the analysts’ laptops that can be accessed by the coaches’ ones. A simple local network can be setup by plugging each laptop to a local network router using ethernet cables. Once all laptops are connected to the router, the “host” laptop (one of the analyst’s laptops) connects to the ethernet network via System Preferences > Network. The other computers can then connect to that laptops IP address by going to Finder > Go > Connect to Server > typing the host laptop’s IP address > Connect. This way, the coaches laptops would be able to access the shareable folders from the analyst’s laptops via the private local network.

A LAN connection is often a preferred option in sporting events, especially with large crowds, as WiFi connections tend to have bandwidth limitations that can significantly delay, or completely interrupt, the transfer of large video files across the network. During match events, when speed of decisions can be critical, a fast network connection is essential for coaches to received their analysts’ outputs without any delays.

The SportsCode packages being coded by the performance analysts are saved into the shared folder in the local network. As analysts continue to code the game into the SportsCode timeline, coaches can access the latest file through their own laptops at any time. The default auto-save feature in SportsCode makes sure that the file on the shared folder is always up-to-date. SportsCode’s statistical windows are also opened in coaches laptops to clearly display live statistics calculated from the coded events in the timeline.

Lastly, whenever the match venue does not permit this sort of setup, performance analysts often choose to communicate with coaches via radio to inform them of the key insights they have gathered. As previously mentioned, different sports, club venues or even playing levels have different infrastructures and venue formats allow certain setups and restrict others. Regardless of the specifics of a Performance Analysis setup, the objectives across the field remain the same: providing coaches with immediate information to make quick decisions while obtaining as much video footage from the match for post-match analysis.

The Brentford FC story: running a football club through data

In 2012, professional gambler, betting businessman and lifelong fan Matthew Benham saved Brentford FC from bankruptcy by paying the £500,000 debt the club owed. Since then, he has invested over £90 million in improving the team's training facilities, stadium and developing a youth academy that looks after every young player's academic and sporting development needs.

But aside from investing money in the club like many other club owners do, what Benham also brought to Brentford was a revolutionary analytics culture to every aspect of the club. He removed the idea that results should drive decisions, but instead use the evaluation of key performance indicators to make any recruitment decisions. When looking for his next striker, the club would now look at the number and quality of chances that player creates and how the collective performance of the team, whether it is offensively or defensively, affects the performance indicators of such player. It is by consciously doing things differently that Benham attempted to take a small club like Brentford to be able to compete at the highest level against clubs with a lot larger budgets.

Implementing a new pioneering approach to looking at the sport like the one Benham wanted for Brentford does not come easy in the world of football. Resistance of fans, and even coaches, to let go of traditional believes by holding on to the use of acquired wisdom for decision-making was something Benham had to face. In 2015, Benham sacked successful manager Mark Warburton after Warburton had won the club promotion to the Championship the prior season and the team was by then in a healthy league position. It was openly discussed that Warburton had fundamental philosophical differences with the changed structure in which Brentford FC was being run. The mathematical modeling methods that were being applied at the club, particularly in the club's scouting practices, conflicted with the football believes of a more traditional manager like Warburton.

As journalist Tim Wigmore clearly explained in his article for Bleacher Report in 2017, another unorthodox and tough decision Benham had to make was around the youth academy. Since 2005, no academy player had debut in the first team. Not only that, the best talent being produced by their academy was being stolen away by top clubs in the Premier League at young ages when Brentford was not due compensation for the transfer. The situation meant that the large investments being made in developing young talent were not returning any positive results to the club. This is why Brentford FC decided to completely close their academy and solely focus on recruitment from other clubs. They also created a B-team consisting of players previously rejected by other clubs and overseas players looking to trial in English football. They switched from being a feeder club of young talent into larger rivals to partnering with them for the release of the other club's surplus assets for a small fee. With a B-team as a stepping stone into the first team, the club ensure a the have a plan of succession and a place to develop talented players regardless of their age.

The approach to the recruitment of players at the club also changed. They started to follow a stock market type approach when evaluating which players should be signed, almost looking at them like appreciating and depreciating assets and taking into consideration market inflation in different countries. They aim to hire young and undervalued players that had the motivation and energy to develop further, even though that sometimes causes conflicts between short and long term planning. To do so, they employ statistical modeling to analyse player performance, particularly focusing in leagues across Europe where the markets are less inflated but player quality levels may exceed those in the Championship. 

Evaluating team performance also changed drastically at the club. Brentford are big fans of models like xG, and use those to obtain a potentially different view to the existing league table position and match results. They argue that this takes away the luck factor that can influence football results and instead looks at the quality of performances the team is having with an eye in the long term sustainability of the club. They do so to avoid the traditional rash decisions often made in football, especially around sacking a manager for a poor run of results. After the previously mentioned disagreements with Warburton, Brentford hired Dean Smith as their head coach who was fully onboard with the club's innovative philosophy and is now one of the longest-serving managers in the league.

The Telegraph also explained in 2016 how tactics and training also experienced a change in dynamics with the implementation of analytics at the club. They found that in football, teams don't pay enough attention to set piece, even though they may constitute up to a third of a team's goals. They decided to place more emphasis in these areas during trainings and even hired specialised set pieces coaches to improve on them. This resulted in a more planned approached to taking set pieces that ultimately led to more goals.

The long-term philosophy that Brentford FC have been implementing over the last 6 years generates excitement around the football analysis community that is hoping to see a club being run by analytics, sound business strategy and statistically-based decision making can make their breakthrough into the Premier League in the coming seasons. In the 2017/18 season, they were only 6 points away from promotion play-offs.