A blueprint of scouting success: Brentford’s Seven Stages Model unveiled
Brentford FC has outperformed wealthier Premier League rivals through a systematic and innovative recruitment approach. Their success stems from a robust seven-stage scouting model, as outlined by Technical Director Lee Dykes on the club’s website. Additionally, The Athletic sheds light on Brentford’s unique strategies, illustrating their blend of innovation and traditional scouting methods. If you […]
The best football scouting course for beginners
Video Scouting Essentials Do you want to start a career as a video scout in professional football? We have good news! We have just launched the Video Scouting Essentials course. This course will teach you everything you need to kickstart your career. The program includes 10 online, on-demand lectures with videos. It is the best […]
Understand and recognize those four time-characteristics in every football action
Imagine performing an action such as crossing the street, throwing a ball or zipping coffee. All of those actions can be split into four time-space characteristics: position, moment, direction and speed. The same applies to every football action performed on the pitch. By using those four characteristics, you can understand and explain football actions in […]
Become a better scout by recognizing those four phases in every football action
As a scout, you constantly evaluate players. You can be more effective if you use several ‘lenses’ to watch football through. One of those lenses is a simple and understandable framework that improves your understanding of match situations. It significantly helps to identify strengths and weaknesses of players very accurately. In this article, you will […]
Improving your player reporting skills massively by avoiding catch-all terms
If you have the ambition to become a professional scout, it is not only important to understand what happens on the pitch. You should also be able to explain what you see, either in written text or verbally. To become better at that, it massively helps to avoid catch-all terms and use clear and specific […]
Breaking biases: probably the best strategy to improve your player recruitment
Contrary to popular belief, the key to better scouting isn’t just about adopting specific tools or hiring more skilled scouts; it’s about recognizing and overcoming biases when assessing player qualities. As humans, we naturally have biases. While they can provide shortcuts to understanding the world, biases can also lead to errors in decision-making. Actively acknowledging […]
Creating clarity: smart use of a player rating system
One of the fundamentals of a good scouting infrastructure is a clear and consistent rating system. The rating system is used by scouts to assess the level and/or suitability of a player for their club. What is important in setting up such a rating system? And how can you make sure everyone uses and interprets […]
How we adjust to a club’s scouting setup
If there’s one thing we’ve learned that clubs hate, it is having to implement many different platforms and applications into their organization. Sooner or later, information won’t align, and that creates problems. Therefore, we always adjust to a club’s scouting setup once we set up a cooperation. In this article, we explain what that entails. […]
Mastering Wyscout: Outsmarting everyone by cleverly using video footage
Nowadays, thousands of matches become available on video every week. There is way more video footage available than even a big team of scouts can process. In other words: everyone involved in scouting should strive to be efficient in how to use the available resources. In this article, we provide clear guidelines for that. Video […]
Creating a scouting funnel – from longlist to shadow list
Signings in football always catch the eye. In fact, they are only the tip of the iceberg. The extensive process leading up to those signings rarely becomes visible to the outside world. In one way or another, every club goes through a process of filtering hundreds or even thousands of players each year, narrowing down […]