It’s July and the transfer window’s open, so today we’re going to share with you some of the ways professional clubs at all levels are using StatsBomb IQ in their player recruitment.
StatsBomb IQ aids player recruitment in three main ways: Identification, Shortlisting, and Evaluation.
- Unearthing players as early as possible
- Analysing a player's suitability for your club
- Adding depth of information and context to player reports
To get ahead in the market, clubs need to be able to identify talent as early as possible.
StatsBomb IQ Scout enables users to create role-specific filters from a range of over 100 metrics, to capture suitable players for the club.
Shortlists can be generated in seconds.
These filters could include position, age, minutes played, and competition.
Or performance metrics, such as On-Ball Value for passes or carries, can be applied to account for style or quality.
Each search can be saved for repeated use, and the results of each search exported in a CSV.
Clubs also use the Similar Player Search tool to identify players that are similar in style to other players already identified as a good fit for their team.
Want to find the Toni Kroos of the Swedish Allsvenskan?
Like IQ Scout, the parameters and metrics applied within the Similar Search Tool can be changed to be specific to the player role the club is recruiting for.
What if a team wanted to find a midfielder like Kevin De Bruyne but that played outside of the Big 5 leagues?
They may want to look for midfielders that:
- Create a lot of chances from open play
- Can open the pitch with their passing
- Are used to playing in advanced areas
... among other things, to create a player profile specifically suited to their team's requirements.
Once shortlists have been filled, it's onto the Evaluation stage.
Clubs will be looking to analyse all aspects of a player – technical, tactical, physical, and mental – using both traditional and data scouting.
IQ Tactics is where clubs drill down into granular StatsBomb data.
Want to evaluate:
A player's passing range and their passing using their left or right foot?
Where they do their defending?
Where they create chances? With High, Low, or Ground Passes?
How they perform when under pressure from an opponent?
There's very little users can't uncover within the platform.
The StatsBomb Shot Maps provide even more granularity than can be found in IQ Tactics.
Scouts will use the Shot Maps to assess the type and quality of chances a forward is getting.
Are they a threat from set plays? From throughballs? Off the dribble? With their head?
And data isn't only for rich clubs with big budgets.
Clubs at all levels of the professional game worldwide use StatsBomb.
We can't talk about every club we work with, but some we've announced in the last year have been of varying sizes and budgets. In 2021/22, three of the four promoted sides in England's League Two were StatsBomb customers.
Clubs can contact us to discuss their use of data and requirements at https://statsbomb.com/contact/
Or, if you wanted to learn more about the principles of player recruitment, our Modern Scouting and Data-Driven Recruitment course is available now.
The StatsBomb Team
