Dr. Craig's blog: Performance analysis

Tuesday, 18 January 2011
by Craig Duncan

Sydney FC Head of Human Performance Craig Duncan Analysing performance is an important aspect of preparation in football. However, too often video analysis and performance analysis are thought to be the same when they are not. Many teams analyze video but do not analyze performance.

Video analysis is as simple as examining a game and then showing certain video clips to a team. It is an important and basic concept completed by many coaches worldwide but performance analysis is far more detailed and wide reaching and thus brings many more advantages to a team or individual player.

Performance analysis includes player monitoring, analysis of training and full analysis of your teams and future opposition performance. I will focus this blog on game analysis and outline the process that I advocate. Firstly, it is important to identify an analysis system that works best for you.

I use sportscode which is used by many teams in many sports around the world. I recommend this product as it is fully customizable to your individual requirements and has very good technical support.

The first stage of our process is to analyze the opposition. We will look at 3-4 of their previous games as well as any games when we have played against them. It is vital to look at home and away games as often teams play differently depending on the venue.

A basic analysis can be completed looking at turnovers, individual player performances, goals for and against, corners and other set pieces. A further analysis of general play is then required to identify trends of play in both attack and defence.

An individual analysis of every player is then completed so that our players know and understand the opposition. Interestingly, when analyzing you can see that players are predictable and often make the same runs, look for the same passes and often interact with the same players game after game. The coaching staff then can identify a number of key points on how best to defeat the opposition. It is important to use video that links directly to these points so players can easily visualize how this can be completed.

On game day I analyze our game live and here we are looking at key indicators that have been identified in the analysis of the opposition. For example we may have identified that they have a weakness on a specific side so we will look at if we have exploited this or not. These stats are live so at anytime the coaching staff can request any information that they require and can even view a short video of any instance that has been identified.

It is possible to set key performance indicators and see throughout the game if these are being met or not. As a database is built it is possible to identify what is required for victory and these become your KPI's but of cause football is not always predictable and I have seen us meet our KPI's and not win.

Post game, players are able to view all of their involvements during the game and these touches are catorgorised and databased. This is an important part of player education and with the help of the coaching staff players can discuss their game as they view the video. Another positive is that injuries can be identified and the vision can be scrutinized to determine the mechanism of the Injury.

As football is unpredictable I do understand it's not all about the stats but even if performance analysis gives a small advantage it is worthwhile. At the grassroots level it may not be possible to have expensive software but much of this analysis can be still completed with more basic but still effective methods. It is possible to just look at certain aspects like turnovers and record these by hand during the game.

There are also a number of free applications now available that can be used but whatever method you use it's important that you analyze performance rather than just showing video clips.

Youth Development

Many children wish to be professional football players and all parents would love to see their children’s wishes come true. However, are parents, coaches and associations doing what is right by these children in respect to football?

Children play sport for many reasons with the number 1 reason being to have fun. Reasons such as “to make friends” and “to improve my skills” are also identified but interestingly, “to win” doesn’t even make it into the top 10.

In recent years children have gone from playing a number of sports to specializing in football from an early age. There appears to be no more winter and summer sport but the message is to be elite it must be just football, football, football.

This in my opinion is a major mistake and will decrease the chances a young player has in becoming a professional football player. Football is not an early specialization sport but for some reason associations are making it one.

By playing only football children are missing out on developing a range of movement patterns and skills. They are at greater risk of over use injuries and from a psychological perspective burnout is a real possibility.

I presently know 9 year olds that train 4-5 x /week and travel 75 mins to and from training. All I can ask is WHY? This child may get an advantage in these early years but not in the long term.

Specialisation in football is not required until 14-15 and even then a player should still have time to participate in other sports. There are many instances in history of great players that also played other sports so I am unsure where this early specializ


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