It is time for the next instalment of my series in which we use data analysis to identify interesting players in certain markets. While at this time of the season we are starting to come to the end of the period in which we have to regularly question the sample size and minutes played of a player the league that I will be looking at has no such issues.
The Swedish Allsvenskan is a summer league that runs from March to November every year. While this tends to have knock-on effects for their clubs who do well in European competition and effectively have to compete continentally in their off-season it also means that when the rest of Europe is in their off-season we have competitive football to keep us entertained.
The Swedish top-flight also has a reputation as a league in which young players are given the opportunity to develop with clubs throughout the league giving minutes to homegrown players and recruiting young players from abroad. One trend in recent seasons has seen young players from Africa making Sweden their first destination in Europe before leaving for a higher level of competition after a year or two.
I have used data analysis techniques to identify five players who are having interesting seasons this year.
When I am using data in the recruitment process my methodology remains relatively static. I use Wyscout as the data source, the best option from a cost/quality/depth perspective and Tableau as the tool for visualising and interpreting the data. Using these simple tools I am able to gain insights into the performances of players and indeed clubs from across the football world. I have my own combinations of metrics that are used to identify players that are well but these are also combined with metrics that meet the specific requirements and style that the client club prefers. Having assessed player performances I then move on to the longlisting process using custom-built dashboards within Tableau. These will be shown below and allow me to quickly assess player performance across a number of key metrics depending on the position of the player in question.
Data remains a key part of the recruitment process but it is not the only part. Live scouting, video scouting and general information gathering are all also important considerations when you are looking to make decisions from a recruitment point of view.
#1 Jamie Roche, 20-years-old, Central Defender, Sirius and Sweden
The first player on our shortlist is the 20-year-old Swedish central defender Jamie Roche. He is currently contracted to Sirius having come through their youth system and is a versatile defensive player who is comfortable as a central defender or as a central midfielder who can sit in the 6 role. With that said I believe that his development will be better served if he continues his development as a central defender. He is predominantly left-footed and he has the profile to suggest that he would be comfortable playing as part of a back three of in a four at the back system. This versatility can be especially important as teams are increasingly becoming more fluid in the systems that they look to play.
This season has seen Sirius tend to play as the left-sided defender in a back three. He has played 1022 minutes in the Allsvenskan so far this term. His metrics from a passing and progression and from a defensive perspective are very promising. He is a volume passer who is averaging 68.07 passes per 90 with 11.54 of those per 90 being classified as progressive as he regularly looks to find line-breaking passes or opportunities to play diagonals that change the angle of the attack. He is also averaging 8.89 passes to the final third per 90 with the ability to play the ball from the first line into the feet of the strikers. His defensive metrics also look extremely good with no stand out metrics but a balanced look across all of the key areas. He is averaging 7.75 defensive duels per 90 with a success rate of 68.18% as well as 3.35 aerial duels per 90 with a success rate of 57.89%. These outputs in terms of duels are combined with an impressive 7.56 possession adjusted interceptions per game.
Roche pr
