How Arsenal and Arsene Wenger Bought Into Analytics

I found this quite an interesting article for a number of reasons. One of the main ones being that I knew about the StatDNA deal but not the specifics, so it was good to read some of the background and inner workings of the club. It’s good to see some of the input Gazidis has other than the commercial side, and how he tries to influence Wenger.

I also found analyst’s creeping influence into recruitment in these talent development roles particularly interesting as it seems to be confirming this trend towards relying on statistics over scouting in some cases. Neither method is full proof but it seems like there is reluctance from analysts and scouts to place any real weight on the other’s opinions. Ultimately it will be down to the manager to make the decision but were there more acceptance of the benefits of each method from the other party it should lead to a more constructive conversation on potential targets. Instead it’s framed as analysts stats against scouts observations.

It’s nothing new as we’ve known the likes of Comolli and his moneyball philosophy (God I hate these types of phrases) at Liverpool and Spurs but it seems to be spreading and becoming the norm. It’s widespread but the difficulty appears to be getting rid of the silo mentality of the two departments and getting them working together to identify targets with a rounded profile of stats and scouting input. Perhaps the biggest advantage will come in who can reach this compromise quickest and put it into practice. You’d think we’d have an advantage there with us having it in house as opposed relying on third party statistics companies like some others.

All of this begs the question, in light of my previous post today, if the structure and strategy isn’t in place – where is the point? Does the transfer strategy guide the metrics used to judge and identify players, or are certain players identified as meeting a general standard and listed as potential targets?

It all seems like a waste to me when our targets seem to be reactive and/or opportunistic. Were Mustafi, Perez and Xhaka identified as priority targets fitting into Wenger’s philosophy and squad plans? I don’t think so, perhaps Xhaka was but Wenger’s comments on trying to sign Kante before he went to Chelsea would indicate Xhaka wasn’t his preferred option for what he envisaged the team to be. Similarly with Perez and Mustafi, reactionary signings based on circumstances at the time.

I’m sceptical as to how accurate the minute details of the article are (I struggle to accept Wenger passed on trying to sign Griezmann or De Bruyne due to unimpressive metrics for example) but I think the overall concepts and content are believable. Like much of what we do elsewhere, this all seems a bit half arsed and lacking proper application.

I'm not really going anywhere with this. It just caught my attention as being an article covering something which hasn't been touched on much on here and it would be good to hear your thoughts on it.