Manchester United are finally catching up where others have followed when it comes to using data to aid their recruitment and player development.
And the club's latest addition, the hiring of Southampton’s lead data scientist Alex Kleyn, marks another rung on the ladder in United's quest to become 'dominant' in data – in their own words.
Clubs have been using data scientists for years now, particularly to identify players' strengths and weaknesses before they are brought into the squad – either from transfers or through the academy.
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It's become commonplace at clubs like Brighton and Brentford to get ahead of the competition; they're market leaders in signing unheralded players who can be sold on for huge profits. It's also used to highlight which of a club's young players can make the step up to first team level, which – according to Training Ground Guru – is the reason United have hired Kleyn.
United have been lagging behind their rivals when it comes to using data, but they appointed Dominic Jordan as director of data science in October 2021 with the aim of "driving forward the club’s use of data to help players and staff deliver success on the pitch".
So how will Jordan and Kleyn help United get ahead of the game after years of recruitment flops and near-misses with young players trying to step up?
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Kleyn said at a data webinar in December 2020 he had a "ready-made tool" to judge how young players can make the transition, tactically, between youth football and the first team. He and Southampton's director of football Matt Crocker turned the Under-23s side at St Mary's into a 'B team', which replicated the style and intensity of the first team rather than simply being an academy side.
He said: "It allows us to use internal comparisons, so we can compare the first team with key metrics to the B team and interpret the differences.”
Crocker said: “There was definitely a void between those two styles of play. One of the big wins was to come in and really remove the U23s from the academy and place it as a B team connected to the first team.”
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United's current U21s (the Premier League changed U23s to a younger age group from 2022) boasts exciting talents like Zidane Iqbal, Kobbie Mainoo and Isak Hansen-Aaroen, who are all teenagers and have been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and company at Old Trafford. But in the U21s league they've had mixed results this season and sit seventh in PL2, out of 14 teams, with Man City top of the pile.
United are approaching nearly 86 years of consecutive matches in which they've named an academy graduate in their matchday squad – an incredible record that started in October 1937 - and one the club are keen to continue.
If Kleyn and the new data team at United are successful, it could mean even more minutes for youth graduates at United, as well as big improvements to recruitment in the transfer market.
Topics: Manchester United, Southampton
Dominic Booth