After seven years, it was time for a rebrand and a new website. This site will now be an archive only, as of October 14th 2024.

Peter Thompson has been promoted to Lead Data Scientist by Leicester City.

Sale and England fly-half George Ford has highlighted the dangers of hindsight analysis in modern sport.

Jes Buster Madsen, the world expert on the application of cognitive neuroscience in football, has been appointed Director of Football and Data Science for the Saudi Pro League.

Jamie Osman has joined Ipswich Town as Head of Analysis as the club beef up their backroom staff for the Premier League season.

Elite teams need players at the base of midfield capable of making passes that penetrate and unbalance the opposition. In this article, SkillCorner use their Game Intelligence data to assess the ability of defensive midfielders to penetrate an opposition defence.

US sports software company Teamworks has acquired Zelus Analytics, the sports intelligence platform co-founded by Doug Fearing and Luke Bornn in 2019.

Susana Ferreras has been promoted to Data Analytics Lead at Arsenal, managing their Research and Insights team. The Spaniard replaces Tolly Coburn, who has left the club after eight years to become Head of Men’s Insights at the Football Association.

Manchester United Director of Data Science Dominic Jordan is leaving the club after more than two years. He joined in March 2022 and was tasked with belatedly building a data science department.

Lead Performance Analyst Andy Blake has left Leicester City after 16 years’ service.

Richard Bredice, Burnley’s Lead Performance Analyst and Set Piece Coach, has lost his job and been banned from football for 12 months (with six months suspended) for breaching FA betting rules.

Francisco Belo has left Wolves after three-and-a-half years to become the new Head of Sports Data Insights at Nottingham Forest.

Southampton’s Natasha Patel has been appointed Director of Analytics for US Soccer, working with their men’s, women’s and youth teams.

Tottenham are advertising for five key roles as they look to build world-class scouting and insights departments.

Mark Clattenburg has stepped down from his role as Referee Analyst with Nottingham Forest after less than three months, admitting his position had "become more of a hindrance than help" to the club.

Championship referee David Webb tells TGG how data and video analysis forms a key part of his preparation for every match.

Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola says analysts face the toughest task of all during busy fixture periods and that he begins pre-match analysis on the bus back after a game.

Lead Data Scientist Akhil Shah is leaving Sunderland after two-and-a-half years to join Ludonautics, the analytics consultancy set up by former Liverpool Head of Research Ian Graham.

LIVERPOOL and Google DeepMind have developed a “full AI system” that can “advise coaches on corner kicks.”

OVER the course of the last decade, the Opta Forum has become a key date in the football calendar and a recruiting ground for clubs scouting for the brightest data science talent.

FORMER Premier League and FIFA referee Mark Clattenburg has joined Nottingham Forest as a Referee Analyst.

READING manager Ruben Selles, who worked with Rasmus Højlund at FC Copenhagen, explains how the striker has carefully chosen his clubs throughout his career, with PPDA a key metric.

HEAD of Tactical Analysis Scott Waters has left Southampton after 12 years and more than 500 competitive matches with the club.

MANCHESTER UNITED are “on a mission to build the best data platform in sport, not just football”, according to their new Head of Data Operations Chris Shumba.

LEE MOONEY, Director of MUD Analytics and former Director of Data Insights at Manchester City, says what Union Saint-Gilloise are achieving relative to their budget in Belgium is "ridiculous, really ridiculous." In this article he highlights why.

NOWADAYS it's shape, not formation, that matters - and tracking data models make it possible to identify and analyse team shape. In this article, Stats Perform's Jon Manuel uses such a model to look specifically at inverted full-backs in the Premier League.

FORMER Liverpool Head of Research Dr Ian Graham has said the “holy grail” of analytics is to be able to accurately assess the importance of a manager.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST have hired Sam Astley from Manchester City to become their new Head of First-Team Analysis as their Data and Analysis rebuild continues.

OFF-BALL run data is key for scouting players. In this article, SkillCorner explore the data for centre forwards and whether they can reproduce these runs from one season to the next.

TOP players are increasingly employing their own analysts and it’s a trend that clubs would be “silly” to fight, says City Football Group Head of Coaching Methodology Mark Leyland.

MARK LEYLAND has taken up the brand new role of Head of Coaching Methodology with City Football Group. Speaking on Episode 56 of the TGG Podcast, he explained what the job entails and outlined the reasons for his departure from Newcastle United, where he was making a big impact as Coach-Analyst.

FORMER Arsenal Head of Analytics Sarah Rudd has said that clubs should share more of their data science work ‘for the good of the industry.’

FORMER Liverpool Head of Research Ian Graham has launched his own consultancy called Ludonautics, which vows to "help sporting organisations improve their decision-making capabilities."

MANY data scientists and analysts got their break in the professional game because of Twitter. One was Sarah Rudd, who went on to become Vice President of Analytics at Arsenal. She told TGG the main differences between being a Twitter and club analyst.

MICHAEL EMMERSON has been promoted to Head of Data and Insights at Newcastle United and will now set about building a “world-leading department.”

WORLD players’ union FIFPRO has committed to develop a Player Data Management Platform? enabling players to “protect, manage and control their data through a universal database.”

PLAYER ownership of data is one of the big issues facing football and has been described as a wave that's about to come crashing in. Former Chelsea Head of Research and Innovation Ben Smith is now part of a company called BreakAway Data who believe they have the solution.

FIRST-TEAM Analyst Tom Hocking outlines how Wolves use video analysis to empower and develop their young players.

JOE FERRELLY îs leaving Everton after four years to become Head of Data and Research for Sport Republic, working for Southampton and Goztepe in Turkey.

PARMA are trying to rediscover past glories, with data analytics to the fore, as their Chief Performance and Analytics Officer Mathieu Lacome tells TGG.

LUTON TOWN manager Rob Edwards and Carlisle counterpart Paul Simpson have paid tribute to the Football Association’s work on penalties after their teams won shoot-outs to gain promotion.

EDD WEBSTER has been appointed Lead Data Scientist at Leicester City after a year with LEGO.

MLADEN SORMAZ, Director of Football Analytics at 777 Partners, explains how analytics works within the multi-club model.

MLADEN SORMAZ explains how he went about setting up Leicester City's data department and the key lessons he learned in doing so.

IPSWICH TOWN'S Academy video analysis set-up is elite - both in terms of the number of training sessions and matches they film and the way the footage is analysed. This is how they do it on a Category Two budget.

MARK LEYLAND, who has been described by Eddie Howe as an “integral” member of his staff, is leaving Newcastle United at this end of the season to become Head of Coaching Methodology at City Football Group.

MANCHESTER UNITED have made a major addition to their new data science department by hiring Southampton’s Lead Data Scientist Alex Kleyn.

PROFESSOR David Sumpter says Ajax are like a 'University of football' and are building an understanding of the game from the foundations up. Here he explains why - along with Ajax's Head of Sport Science and Data Vosse de Boode.

WILL SPEARMAN has been promoted to replace Ian Graham as Director of Research at Liverpool at the end of this season.

NEWCASTLE UNITED are beefing up their scouting and recruitment department - and also moving to the position-specific model that Sporting Director Dan Ashworth used at Brighton.

MANCHESTER CITY have added to their growing Insights team by hiring Maram AlBaharna from The Athletic as Football Insights Analyst.

CHELSEA’S Head of Research and Innovation, Ben Smith, has left the club after 16 years to join Los Angeles-based data analytics firm BreakAway Data.

JONNY WHITMORE of Stats Perform uses advanced metrics to analyse the contribution of Thomas Partey this season and show why he is Arsenal's unsung hero.

NORWICH CITY have developed an innovative alternative to the Hoffenheim videowall with their own analysis buggy.

VIDEO TELESTRATION has been growing in popularity in football for several years. However, to date, there has been little published research about the efficacy of these tools. That's what Jordan Smith and his co-authors set out to put right.

LIVERPOOL’S Director of Research, Ian Graham, has resigned from his role and will leave Anfield after more than a decade. The Welshman joined Liverpool in July 2012 and became a key figure at the club, building the leading data science department in the Premier League and perhaps even in Europe.

CHARLIE REEVES has been promoted to Senior Lead for Performance Insights by Everton. The club are also still aiming to recruit a Head of Performance Analysis and Insights to lead the department.

MANCHESTER UNITED have started the process of recruiting data scientists, machine learning scientists, analysts and engineers as they look to become “dominant” in data science.

HARRY DUNN has been promoted to Performance Analysis Lead at Manchester City. The analyst, who has been with City for eight years, replaces Piet Cremers, who left at the start of this season.

ANALYSIS Operations Manager Andrew Meredith has left Manchester United after three years. The Australian, who previously coached the Germany men’s hockey team to two Olympic golds, joined United in the new role in September 2019.

EDD WEBSTER is a data scientist for LEGO who previously worked for Manchester City and West Ham. On October 25th, he will be hosting an SQL Masterclass for TGG. Here is some background on SQL and what the Masterclass will involve.

MANCHESTER CITY Head of Analysis and Insights Piet Cremers has left the Premier League champions after four-and-a-half years.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST have appointed Swansea’s Dan Morris to the new position of Head of Data Insights. Morris has been a data scientist at Swansea since 2017.

EDD WEBSTER worked as a data scientist for Manchester City and West Ham. Now he's with another iconic brand: LEGO. He tells TGG how football clubs are (and aren’t) using data, what they can learn from other industries and how people can transition into the profession, just like he did.

KYLE MACAULAY was 26 when he wrote to Graham Potter asking about playing opportunities at Ostersunds. Now he's a key member of his inner circle and will take on a senior recruitment role at Chelsea.

RYAN DEFREITAS has left Leicester City after nine-and-a-half years to become first-team performance analyst for training at Manchester City.

DANNY KARBASSIYOON was a young player for Arsenal almost 20 years ago, but never made it. However, he has ended up returning to the club and making a big impact in a completely different guise.

LA GALAXY are rebuilding after a difficult period in their history - and video is key. Their Assistant Coach and Director of Video Analysis, Sam Green, told us more.

HUDL has acquired performance analysis company InStat, which serves more than 2,000 teams in major leagues including the NBA, NHL and Premier League.

FORMER Chelsea sport scientist Malcolm Harkness has revealed that the club ‘psychologically coded’ players during Maurizio Sarri’s season in charge in 2018/19.

ERIK TEN HAG has brought in Kevin Keij from Ajax to become Manchester United's new first-team performance analyst.

KITMAN LABS have analysed the graduation rates between age groups and at the factors influencing them at a Premier League Category One Academy. Darcy Norman and Michael Bridges told us about the findings.

MLADEN SORMAZ, Leicester City’s first Head of Football Analytics, has left the club after three years to join Miami-based private investment firm 777 Partners.

EVERTON’S Head of Performance Insights, Paul Graley, has left the club after 13 years.

HUDL will now integrate human performance into the analysis process after acquiring Spanish company Realtrack Systems.

BAYERN MUNICH used a huge videowall at their training ground for the first time on Wednesday ahead of their final Bundesliga game of the season.

RAVI MISTRY has been promoted to Head of Football Insights at Manchester City as the club continue to invest heavily in their data science capability.

NEWCASTLE boss Eddie Howe says Mark Leyland has become an “integral part of our team” since joining in the new role of First-Team Coach/ Analyst in December.

CELTIC are having great success with a manager and quartet of players signed from the J-League. Is it time for more clubs to start looking to Japan for talent?

TOLLY COBURN has been promoted to Data Analytics Lead by Arsenal as they continue to reshape the department.

ARSENAL’S Tyler Cox has been appointed as the new Director of Analytics at MLS side Seattle Sounders.

AT 26, Piet Cremers is younger than the average age of Manchester City’s playing squad (27) and almost half the age of their manager, Pep Guardiola (51). But despite his callow years, the Dutchman has become an important and influential member of Guardiola’s backroom staff at the Etihad.

MIKKEL KELDMANN, the Head of Quantitative Analysis at Danish champions Brondby, explains how the club's data operation went from one intern (him) to fully-automated analysis.

CATHERINE HESFORD has left the Football Association after five-and-a-half years to become Manchester City’s first Head of Talent Science.

MARIELA NISOTAKI is the Head of Emerging Talent at Norwich City - and the only female scout on the circuit in the UK. She told us what her job involves, how she balances data with live eyes and why Norwich are an ambitious club doing things their own way.

LIVERPOOL’S Head of Post-Match Analysis, Mark Leyland, has joined Newcastle United in the new role of First-Team Coach Analyst.

JEREMY DOKU is one of the most coveted players in European football. Could AI models have predicted the success of his move from Anderlecht to Rennes?

WITH football data now more abundant than ever, it's crucial for clubs to have an effective pipeline for it, explains David Perdomo Meza, Head of Engineering and Data Science at Twenty3.

ARSENAL'S Mikhail Zhilkin offers advice to clubs looking to make their first foray into data science.

FORMER Arsenal data scientist Arjav Trivedi has joined Aston Villa’s new Football Research department.

MARIELA NISOTAKI, the only full-time female football scout in the UK, has been promoted to the new role of Head of Emerging Talent by Norwich City.

WHEN Vincent Kompany was appointed player-manager of Anderlecht, one of the first staff he took with him was Manchester City Performance Analyst Richard Bredice. The Englishman tells TGG what it's been like working with the Belgian legend.

FORMER Cardiff City manager Russell Slade says he is leading a group of 850 players in taking legal action against the data collection industry in football.

MANCHESTER UNITED have appointed Dominic Jordan as their first Director of Data Science “to drive forward the club’s use of data to help players and staff deliver success on the pitch.”

JOHN IGA says his new role as Norwich City’s Head of Data, Strategy and Innovation is about “trying to out-smart our opponents and really out-think them to give advantages that can help us achieve our goals.”

TGG's Big Data 2021 Webinar, shedding light on how top individuals and organisations are using data science in football, is now available on-demand.

SHEFFIELD UNITED have hired Pablo Pérez from Valencia to become their new Head of Analysis.

JOSH KIRK has left Sheffield United after three years to become Head of Analysis at Premier League Brentford.

SUNDERLAND'S new Head of Data and Analysis, James Young, tells TGG about his first five months at the club and his ambitions for the future.

VILLARREAL analyst Victor Mañas looks ahead to tonight's Super Cup final against Chelsea - and back on 13 years working with manager Unai Emery.

SARAH RUDD, Arsenal’s Vice President of Software and Analytics, is leaving the club after nine seasons for a “new gig” with “an all-star cast.”

OUR Python Masterclass, which gives an introduction to the football capabilities of one of the world's most popular programming languages, is now available on-demand.

ARSENAL have hired Dutchman Kevin Balvers from Malmo to become their first Football Methodology Analyst.

HOFFENHEIM have been described as the most innovative club in football. Now they're working on a solution to democratise tracking data.

CARDIFF CITY Head of Analysis Jack Radusin reveals how the club use live video on the bench on matchday.

DEFENDER Ben Gibson has revealed the lengths that Norwich went to to sign him on loan from Burnley last year - and how they ‘knew more about me than me’ at their first meeting.

KEVIN DE BRUYNE employed the services of data analytics company Analytics FC as part of the negotiations over his new four-year contract with Manchester City.

LAURENCE STEWART, the Head of Recruitment for AS Monaco, explains the core principles of the club's transfer strategy.

CRYSTAL PALACE Recruitment Manager Omar Yabroudi, once described as the richest scout in the world, has returned home to Dubai to join the UAE Football Association.

BREXIT has shut the door to English football for a lot of European players, but it has also opened one for the rest of the world. Dan Altman, founder of smarterscout, explains how clubs can properly evaluate players from far-flung leagues.

THE Football Association has started the process of replacing Head of Performance Insights Kate Baker, who left the organisation in February to join UK Sport.

SUNDERLAND have made two major hires, with James Young appointed Head of Data and Analysis and Stuart Harvey as Head of Recruitment.

MONACO have made another major off-field hire as they continue to pursue the “Red Bull model of success.”

A PLAYER'S position only tells us so much about them - as a comparison of Roberto Firmino and Robert Lewandowski shows. Paul Power of Stats Perform explains how we can carry out some more sophisticated analysis of a player.

EVERTON have revamped their analysis department, with Paul Graley moving into a new Head of Performance Insights role at the club.

LAST summer Arsenal made their senior scouts redundant and announced a more video and data-driven approach. Now those changes are starting to take effect.

A PhD in computational astrophysics, developing trading systems for a £30bn hedge fund and policy advisor for the British government: not your typical CV for a member of backroom staff. However, these are just some of the credentials of Laurie Shaw, who has been appointed Lead AI Scientist by Manchester City.

SAM STANTON, who was Head of Analysis at Bristol City for seven years, has joined the new Player Insights team at Southampton.

SOUTHAMPTON'S Lead Data Scientist, Alex Kleyn, explains how the club use data to ensure the new B team is tactically aligned with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first team.

FORMER Manchester United player and coach Tony Coton has returned to the club after 12 years to become Chief Goalkeeping Scout.

MARK LEYLAND has been promoted to Head of Post-Match and Elite Player Analysis by Liverpool following the departure of Harrison Kingston to Moroccan Football Federation earlier this month.

TABLEAU is becoming an increasingly important tool in professional football, in a variety of different roles, so TGG has teamed up with Touchline Analytics to offer a Masterclass.

LIVERPOOL’S Head of Post-Match Analysis, Harrison Kingston, has left the club after eight years to join the Moroccan Football Federation.

BEN MACKRIELL, VP of Pro Products at Stats Perform, explains why it's shape and not formation that matters in football.

MANCHESTER CITY have teamed up with Google Research to launch an AI football competition which they hope will ‘test and refine’ tactical principles on the pitch.

BLACKBURN ROVERS Head of European Scouting Glyn Chamberlain says clubs need to start allowing scouts back into games, or else the profession could be facing an apocalyptic scenario.

MATHEW PEARSON has been promoted to the new role of Head of Performance and Analysis by Wolves.

THE Premier League is providing its clubs with synchronised tracking and event data for the first time, in what has been described as a “democratisation of data”.

FORMER Bristol City Head of Analysis Sam Stanton explains how the club went from just one member of analysis staff to being leaders in the field.

ARSENAL Technical Director Edu has said he will be working a “a lot more” with StatDNA, their in-house data and analytics company, as part of the club's revamp of recruitment.

SKILLCORNER finally answer the question of which of the 'Big 5' leagues is the most physically demanding, by analysing physical performance according to intensity, sprinting and volume.

FOR the last two years, Liverpool have been working with Paris tech firm SkillCorner, which is able to turn broadcast footage into valuable data and insights.

MIGUEL RIOS, Opta Pro’s Head of Football, has joined Watford to play a prominent role in their scouting and analysis operations.

MANCHESTER CITY’S most experienced analyst, Aaron Briggs, has left the club after nine years to join Monaco.

OLIVER GAGE, the Head of Recruitment and Performance Analysis for the Canadian Premier League, on his work as a personal analyst and coach for strikers.

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN recruitment co-ordinator Chris Baker has left the club after three years to join Manchester City.

JOHN-MARK SISMAN has been appointed to the new role of Performance Physicist by Manchester City.

GARRY GELADE, described as the elder statesman of football analytics after his pioneering work for clients including Chelsea, has died at the age of 74.

SMARTERSCOUT founder Dan Altman reveals the six roles he's seen most often in data departments during his work with teams around the world.

DAVID SLEMEN, founding partner of Elite Performance Partners, explains why the role of Director of Strategy and Analytics should be non-negotiable for any ambitious football club.

LIVERPOOL Director of Research Ian Graham says that although manager Jürgen Klopp “intuitively understands the numbers”, he does not have "day-to-day or week-to-week" contact with the club's data team.

DAN ALTMAN explains how he plans to 'liberate' football analytics with smarterscout - and shares the lessons of his two seasons with Swansea City.

SMARTERSCOUT runs the rule over Birmingham City's Jude Bellingham to decide whether he could be the best 16-year-old in European football.

RICHARD BATTLE, Everton's former Head of Football Strategy, gives TGG his thoughts on how data science will develop in the next five years.

LIVERPOOL'S Lead Data Scientist, William Spearman, delivers a step-by-step guide on how he builds pitch control models and quantifies the creation of space.

MANCHESTER UNITED Head of Football Development John Murtough is heading up a working group developing the club’s data science strategy.

DATA collection and analysis in elite sport can amount to “ubiquitous surveillance” and result in feelings of anxiety, precariousness and performance fatigue among participants, new research has shown.

BRIAN PRESTIDGE has been promoted to Director of Insights and Decision Technology at City Football Group, meaning he will head up data science across nine teams including Manchester City.

TIM WASKETT, one of the unsung heroes from Liverpool's data science team, explains the work they do in the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures.

FIFA has awarded “quality certification” to four Electronic Performance Tracking Systems (EPTS) after carrying out the “largest validity study of its kind”.

ENGLAND manager Gareth Southgate and Belgium Head of Analysis and Innovation Luke Benstead have explained how they create their own metrics to give context to data for their teams.

MLADEN SORMAZ, Leicester City's Head of Football Analytics, explains how teams can avoid becoming overloaded with information.

TRAINING GROUND GURU is launching a new jobs section, aimed at showcasing the best opportunities in coaching, performance, medical and analysis available in professional football.

MLADEN SORMAZ, Head of Football Analytics at Leicester City; Luke Benstead, Head of Performance Analysis and Innovation for Belgium, and Ed Sulley, Director of Customer Solutions for Hudl, discuss the current state of data science in football and where it could be headed.

MORE than 150 delegates from countries including France, Denmark, Russia and the United States attended TGG’s first Big Data Conference at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday.

TGG has five partners for the Big Data Conference on November 22nd - Hudl, OptaPro, Sport Logiq, Playermaker and IMeasureU. All are leaders in data collection and analysis in elite football. Read more about them here.

MANCHESTER CITY’S most senior data scientist, Lee Mooney, has left the club after six years to launch a start-up.

TGG's upcoming conference, 'Big Data: The Future of Football', has sold out with almost three weeks to go.

PAUL BALSOM, Leicester City’s highly-experienced Head of Performance Innovation, says a rare alchemy has taken the side to heady heights in the Premier League this season.

GARY ROWETT'S trusted lieutenant Joe Carnall will take on a new Technical Coach role at Millwall, which will see him relay statistical and video analysis from the bench on matchday.

WYSCOUT founder Matteo Campodonico explains how he came up with the idea for the scouting and analysis platform, how clubs use it and why he believes Big Data will transform the way it is used.

DATA SCIENCE is the growth area in football, yet also one of the least understood. At this special event, we will be finding out what the top Premier League and international teams are doing, from the experts who are doing it.

MLADEN SORMAZ has been appointed as Leicester City’s first Head of Football Analytics.

SEVILLA Sporting Director Monchi says “Big Data is the future of football” and that engineers and physicists are more in demand than scouts.

MANAGERS are supported by an unseen network of tactical analysts on matchday. Derby County's Joe Carnall gives us an insight into this often secret world.

CHARLIE REEVES was headhunted by Everton, having had a unique dual role as data analyst and energy trader when he was at Forest Green Rovers.