Reading some of his quotes earlier. One of them was about scouts using computer stats and percentages. He said he'd have never been scouted these days because computers don't track 'vision and technique'. And then it got me thinking about if we'd have used our methods in the past. Glavin, Redfearn etc wouldn't have been here. Pros and cons as with everything, but like with tactics, I suppose there're always flaws and gaps.
Can definitely recommend his Autobiography " My Turn". Some great content in there. Rumoured, that if Ole Gunnar is appointed permanent Manager at Man U he could be looking to bring former team mate Jordi Cruyff in to help with the Coaching alongside Mike Phelan. https://books.google.co.uk/books/ab...=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y
He's not wrong, insofar as no, he wouldn't appear on Barnsley FC's spreadsheet. However, someone somewhere watching youth football would probably have noticed him, being one of the greatest footballers who ever lived. I find him a bit irritating in that he seems to get annoyed about how the rest of the world isn't as good as him/Ajax/Barcelona. The way modern football has developed, pragmatism in youth development is necessary if you don't have the funds/ability required for your team to carry a player who spends the entire game playing for themself as an attacker. See: George Moncur, etc.
He’s wrong. Look at me calling one of the greatest footballers of all time wrong on a footballing matter...but he is. His superior vision and technique would have seen him appearing at the top of the charts for metrics such as pass completion, successful dribbles, expected goals, chance creation. Obviously a computer doesnt just spit out a number to assess someone’s ‘vision’ but you can make an assumption that if someone scores high on certain metrics, that they have good vision. There seems to be a certain group of old school people in football who seek to dismiss stats but all they really do is show their lack of understanding of what the stats can be used for. There’s a similar dismissive tone to some posts on here about our approach to recruitment, as if we just have an excel spreadsheet and someone clicks a button and the computer bids for a player.
The only dismissive thing about our recruitment is how players are dismissed on age grounds. Hmm is that actually legal?
Exactly this. Stats measure the key qualities of a player and they add up to things such as vision, spacial awareness etc. Football's got a long way to go before it comes out of the dark ages still.
