In December 2021, Atlas FC defeated Club León to win the Mexican Apertura title - the club’s first championship title win for 70 years. The victory was the culmination of two years of progress since the club was purchased by the Orlegi Sports group, successfully taking the club from the bottom-half of Liga MX to the Apertura title in just a couple of seasons.
Part of Orlegi’s mission when taking control of the club was to improve its internal processes in opposition analysis and player recruitment. To help them achieve their goal, they signed up in 2021 to become one of more than 100 clubs and federations around the world to benefit from StatsBomb’s cutting edge data and modelling.
We spoke to Andrés Conesa, Head of Football Analytics at Orlegi Sports, about the role StatsBomb’s data and analysis tools have played in Atlas’ organisation and title-winning season.
Orlegi’s Analytics team: Santiago Villareal (left, Football Analytics Analyst), Andrés Conesa (middle, Head of Football Analytics) and Hugo Camacho (right, Data Engineering)
StatsBomb (SB): Hello Andrés. Firstly, congratulations on a historic title win for Atlas in 2021. If we start by looking backwards, what was the challenge you were looking to solve by signing up with StatsBomb’s services?
Andrés Conesa (AC): Mainly we were seeking to be a support tool for both the Technical sporting staff and the Council Executive within the organisation. We seek to make the best decisions in the design of the club's squad - both financially and sportingly - by providing data-driven solutions.
SB: Can you describe how StatsBomb's services and products are used in your work to help you meet this challenge?
AC: The StatsBomb IQ platform and visualisations make our recruitment work easier, powered by reliable and accurate data. We also use the raw event data itself by extracting specific information to use in our bespoke reports.
SB: Can you share examples of how StatsBomb's services have been used within your organisation?
AC: We seek to align corporate objectives with day-to-day decisions within the club; seeking to increase the probability of victory in every match through different strategies, consolidated with the stability of the club long term.
Prior to the Apertura final vs León, we conducted a special analysis which helped the coaching staff to minimize the danger León generated through set pieces.
Both the President of Atlas and the Managing Director of Atlas have shown confidence and support in our implementation of internal data-driven solutions being a crucial tool for the organisation.
SB: What part or feature of our StatsBomb IQ or Data products do you and your team use most frequently?
AC: The raw data, both on a player and a team level. We create internal models, both descriptive and predictive, for decision making. With the models, we evaluate players based on the probability of their success, combining analytical methods with analysis from other areas.
SB: How would you evaluate our customer service?
AC: When it comes to customer service, StatsBomb have always been aware of our needs. It is not only a platform for the end user, but they also have specialized help on hand.
SB: Finally, why did you opt to work with StatsBomb? And what's your favourite thing about working with StatsBomb?
AC: For us it is essential to be able to have confidence in the credibility of data and with StatsBomb we have it. Our favourite thing is the ease of use of the IQ platform.
