"Data analysts could someday manage a football club"

A data badyst could one day run a football club as tactical information becomes more sophisticated and relevant, it was said today.

After the row Spygate, responsible for Leeds Marcelo Bielsa called a impromptu press point Wednesday night give one overview of its practices.

The 63-year-old Argentinean used a PowerPoint presentation to be transparent about the extraordinary depth of his data badysis.

According to Simon Austin, publisher of the Training Ground Guru website, other Premier League and Championship clubs use data badysis in a similar manner.

And Austin thinks it may take time for a data expert to take on the role of manager.

"What is clear is that more and more managers are interested in this data badysis," Austin told Press Association Sport.

"You could see Pep Guardiola coding on his laptop during a train trip in the Manchester City documentary and officials like Lee Johnson and Gary Rowett could also record and encode videos.

"We are also starting to see badysts being promoted to badistant coaching positions. This happened in Leicester. The next step will be when an badyst becomes a manager. "

Bielsa has been condemned by some leaders and former players after acknowledging that he had sent staff to spy on all the teams that Leeds has played this season.

Bielsa acknowledged that a man abducted by police from the perimeter of Derby's training grounds had been sent by him.

Leeds has officially apologized to Derby and the Football Association and the English Football League have opened an investigation.

"What was really different from the Bielsa press conference was that it revealed what he was doing." Almost every club now carries out a tactical badysis, they do not talk about it. not and it's hard to know what they actually do, "Austin said.

"With the help of a software called Sportscode, you can cut out pieces of video and turn them into data.

"Starting this season, coaches can now see these clips and reruns on handheld devices during games.

"So the canoe sees from which part of the field most of the shots come from, where the ball spends the most time, where it is won and lost, and so on.

"So there is a lot of correspondence badysis going on. And then you have all the tactical work they do during the week in training, which is based on what their opponents did. "

Austin said that Bielsa's data badysis was unusual because of the distance he had traveled, while the director of Leeds himself stated that most of the information that he had had gathered together were meant to appease his anxiety and were useless.

"The other problem to consider is the amount of information that any player can take into account," added Austin.

"Pep Guardiola, for example, is only known to give a few key messages before every training session or game.

"But the kind of tactical badysis that Bielsa talked about is being done by all the big clubs.

"Liverpool, for example, has a research team of four people, one with a PhD from Harvard, another from Cambridge. And Arsenal bought a company called StatDNA that wants to be sophisticated on another level. "