Former Arsenal defender and the club's current head of scouting in France, Gilles Grimandi, has taken aim at the ever increasing use of statistics and data to decide player recruitment in football. Speaking to l'Equipe the Frenchman spoke about a wide range topics but it was his analysis of what has come to be known as the 'Moneyball' model of scouting which is most interesting.
The term of course comes from the system used by Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics baseball team. Their surprising success spawned a book and a film, both entitled 'Moneyball' and the effect of Beane's statistical analysis has since transcended the sport of baseball.
Liverpool for example have dabbled quite a lot with data analysis, somewhat in thanks to their Boston Red Sox links, and while obviously this is not solely Liverpool's doing, there's no doubting the squad which was assembled during the Dalglish/Comolli era owed quite a lot to questionable data analysis.
Grimandi is very wary that this trend is taking away from the skills that were once valued in scouting and he certainly hasn't held back in his criticism of those who look to stats before apparent ability.
In a club, statistics give people the chance to exist who have little knowledge. And these numbers act as a safety guard for decision-makers who lack courage.
Perhaps Grimandi's strongest indication that data analysis is the wrong way to go is in his statement that players being scouted may be actively working on their 'numbers' as opposed to playing their natural game.
The players are aware of this trend. I ask myself to what extent they’re playing to make their numbers good, the duels they have won, the amount of kilometres they have run.
