On Wednesday we were joined by Columbus Crew Performance Analyst, Liviu Bird. He has been on the podcast before and we wanted to get him back on to discuss his new role and discuss how to analyze football through objective references. We have done a few match analysis webinars over the past couple of months and it is always really interesting to hear coaches discuss their processes. What I really liked about Liviu's presentation was that he stripped the process back and broke down the why, what, and how of analysis, before detailing the roles and responsibilities of the staff at Columbus Crew.
Another takeaway for me was how Liviu shared some clips of his U19 team from last season, before his time at the Crew. There was a vast difference from the level, software, and camera angle of the MLS clips he shared, but I think he made a very powerful point to young coaches who have ambition of working on the analysis side. It's not something you need a huge budget for and you don't have to wait until you get to a professional level team to "get it right" with 300 KPI's. Similar to Liviu's advice about watching game after game, analysis can be as simple as videoing a club or high school game and sending a clip to a player on their phone to start the conversation about their role in the game. Match that to his point about the benefits of an analyst who can coach and I think you have a checklist for young coaches who aspire to get to this level: spend the time watching games without getting distracted, get comfortable with all types of software, but most importantly, before cutting clips of Xavi and Messi, make an impact with your own players and your own club at whatever level that is.
You can watch the a free trial of the presentation below. You can watch the full webinar as well as getting access to TWENTY THREE webinars that we did during the Lockdown by clicking here.
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