Training Ground Guru Podcast

Our guest on Episode #58 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Chris O'Loughlin. Chris is the Sporting Director of Union Saint Gilloise, one of the most innovative and interesting clubs in the whole of Europe. Despite having a stadium with a capacity of just 9,400, and a budget that’s dwarfed by the biggest clubs, they are top of the table in Belgium.      Chris told us how the club scout for character and how they use data to punch way above their weight.  SHOW NOTES=> 02:13: Background. Born in Limerick, move to Cape Town at a young age. B Licence at Larne in Northern Ireland. Break with Bibey Mutombo at Orlando Pirates. 09:25: Move to Belgium with Yannick Ferrera at Sint-Truiden. 12:09: Becoming a Sporting Director with Union Saint-Gilloise. Strong believer in culture. In his experience, clubs hadn't included considerations about culture in their decision-making, especially in terms of squad building. 14:48: History of USG. Potential in Brussels. Stadium is romantic/ 104 years old. Budget is low and has been growing step by step. About building a foundation and strategy. 17:07: Never met or had a conversation with Tony Bloom. Alex Muzio is the day to day President and now majority shareholder. Reasons why the duo chose to buy the club. 21:48: First role was to create a behavioural culture and performance culture for the club. Establishing five key values for the club. Recruiting to those values. Human being qualities they look for. People can get confused about what humility actually means.  30:40: Example of Victor Boniface. Went deep into his social media and found how he had helped a mother in Nigeria. 'We don’t need an angel, we just need a person with a good soul.' 32:33: Creating a 'common denominator' among the players/ having something common in their spirit and soul, which creates cohesion and togetherness. Richie Barker at Charlton told him about creating a common goal. Looking for hungry, humble players. 35:47: Analytics used as a filtering system. Look for undervalued, underrated players. Don't recruit for a specific style of play. 43:54: Ambitions for the club - new stadium, focus on Academy, challenging for trophies in Belgium and qualifying for Europe regularly.   

Everton Director of Football Kevin Thelwell discusses the club's strategic pillars, the importance of data and philosophy in building a successful team, and the evolution of manager Sean Dyche's style of play. They also explore the use of data analysis in football, the challenges of the summer transfer window, and the positive signs for the club's upward trajectory.

Jes Buster Madsen, Head of Research and Development for FC Copenhagen in Denmark, discusses the role of cognitive neuroscience in football. Topics include the importance of ecological psychology, visual cues, working memory, game intelligence, simplicity in neuroscience, and the neuroplasticity of the brain.

Mark Leyland, prominent football analyst, discusses his journey from VHS analysis to coaching at top clubs. Topics include feedback delivery, player-driven analysis, and the evolving role of analysts in player development. Insightful anecdotes on working with Klopp and Howe.

Sarah Rudd, former VP of Analytics for StatDNA and Arsenal, discusses her work at Arsenal, challenges of sustaining an analytics department, data v human eyes in scouting, and her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated industry. She also talks about the top clubs for data science in the Premier League, leveraging tracking data, and the future of data analytics in football.

Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders reflects on his career, Liverpool's youth development, and his special relationship with Jurgen Klopp. Highlights include the importance of building an 'inside pathway' for young players, the progression of coaches and analysts at Liverpool, and Lijnders' admiration for Klopp's coaching style.

Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders discusses pre-season preparations, counter pressing, Trent Alexander-Arnold's role, Roberto Firmino's impact, the importance of top players, and the team's intensity. They reflect on the importance of compactness, balance, clearness, freedom, individualism, and unpredictability in football. They also emphasize the significance of dominating the midfield. Lijnders mentions the impact of fatigue and the need for new players. The chapter ends with a mention of a game where they lost the Premier League in the last 20 minutes.

Episode #52 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Hudl, features two guests: Bolton manager Ian Evatt and his Sporting Director Chris Markham. Simon Austin sat down with the duo at the club’s Toughsheet Community Stadium ahead of the new season. It’s rare to get a manager and Sporting Director speaking together like this, so we hope you enjoy it…   SHOW NOTES => 01:53: Having a blank canvas when they arrived at the club. 05:35: Setting a game identity, which then helps with recruitment. 09:58: Establishing this identity at Barrow, where it became known as futbol club de Barrow! 13:45: Pressing strategy and splitting the pitch into five zones. 16:00: Scouting process. Allying data and video. Chris being a data translator. 21:50: Ian seeing a big part of his role as a manager being to develop players. 'Re-recruiting players every day.' Looking for hungry players. 24:02: Scouting for character/ psychology. Young players having a problem dealing with adversity/ not being resilient. Mental health and wellbeing. 26:35: Treating people as individuals/ realising they are motivated by different things. How to give feedback. Young players want detail. B team.  33:36: Progression of the game. Playing in Premier League with Blackpool and not doing opposition analysis/ having any out-of-possession strategy. 37:16: How a manager should behave on the touchline.  40:16: Loans. Why big clubs want to send their players to Bolton. Difficult for big clubs to develop young centre backs. James Trafford. 48:11: Academy/ developing their own players. Having a genuine B team.  53:09: Using Hudl and Wyscout for the B team and first team. Having an analysis culture. 54:43: Chris's work on penalties at the Football Association. 56:28: Chris: ambitions for Bolton in next few seasons. 57:17: Ian: personal ambitions. Wanting to become the first manager to take one club from League Two to the Premier League. 

Our guest on Episode #50 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Conor Nestor.  Conor is the new coach of Hyderabad in the Indian Super League. He arrives from Svay Rieng in Cambodia, who he led to the 2019 league title. The Irishman told us about his fascinating career journey and about how he has used analysis to gain an advantage. 

Our guest on Episode #50 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Des Ryan.  Des is Director of Coaching and Performance at Setanta College and was Head of Sports Medicine and Athletic Development at Arsenal Academy from 2013 to 2021. During his time with the Gunners he helped to develop 'Strong Young Gunners' like Bukayo Saka.  SHOW NOTES => 02:01: Darcy Norman praise. Always being an outsider. How move to Arsenal came about.  07:24: Differences between athletic development in football and rugby union.  09:41: Strong doesn't mean big. Lots of misconceptions about strength and conditioning work in football.  13:02: Skepticism/ hesitancy about gym work when he arrived at Arsenal. In vast majority of cases the training age was low. 18:30: What athletic development looks like through the different ages in the Academy. 21:15: No truth in 'old wive's tale' that weights can hamper growth. 24:15: Strong Young Gunners philosophy at Arsenal. Four pillars. Creating the most challenging and caring environment for development in the world.  28:06: Arriving in England and finding that players went home at 2pm. That changed so they were working full days. 29:37: Letter from Hector Bellerin to himself, now on the wall at the Academy.  31:31: Publishing 'The Arsenal Way of Physically Developing Players.' Arrow. Speed training. Different to straight line track sprinting. Arsenal have a tradition of producing athletic players. 38:17: Bukayo Saka. 'He was a very good example of Arsenal development' 42:57: Work with Setanta College. 45:40: Looking ahead to presenting at TGG's Youth Development Webinar on June 6th.