360 Scouting

The transformation of Liverpool from Klopp to Slot in terms of playing style. Which coaches would you typically categorize as top right corner?

In the last few years, we've spoken to 40+ heads of scouting. Here are six things we've learned. ?? 1. Many scouting departments have to deal with a very limited budget. Even though scouting is perceived by most people as crucial to strengthen the team with high-quality players, the willingness to allocate a reasonable amount of budget to the scouting department is still relatively low. 2. Clubs aim to sign the best possible players, but the bar is much lower when it comes to hiring scouts. Too often, clubs either hire scouts who are already within their network, or they set up an ineffective application procedure. In both cases, they miss out on scouts who would have offered better quality. 3. There is still a lot of work to do in setting up a robust scouting infrastructure. At too many clubs, there is an ineffective setup of the scouting database, the player profiles, the rating system and the reporting guidelines. By designing a better scouting infrastructure, all the scouting work done by the scouts becomes more effective. 4. More and more clubs believe in the power of watching individual video clips of players to 'screen' players. Although people acknowledge that watching individual clips offers less context and less off-the-ball actions, they value the main benefit: seeing many relevant actions in a relatively short time span. 5. It still happens too often that scouting departments are bypassed by the sporting director. One way that happens is when the sporting director signs a player who is recommended to him by a player agent with whom he maintains close contacts, even though the scouting department puts forward other players as more suitable. 6. Clubs still heavily rely on the personal, undocumented market knowledge of the scouting department. That means that if members of the scouting department leave the club, they only leave a fraction of their knowledge behind. Consistently documenting player information is crucial to create a club-owned high-level player database. ------ With 360 Scouting, we continuously recruit and train the best possible scouts. Would your club benefit from additional manpower? Get in touch!

?? Want to become a professional football scout? ?? We’re hiring new remote video scouts to join our team! ??? This is your chance to start working for football clubs worldwide. If you have top-tier football knowledge, sharp analysis skills, and excellent reporting skills, we want to see what you can do - no cover letter or CV is required! ?? At 360 Scouting, we prioritize talent over connections. Your skills matter whether you have a professional football background or not. Our application process tests your analysis and reporting abilities; only the top ~1% of applicants make the cut. ?? Apply here, and you will receive your first assessment on October 29: https://lnkd.in/eBQrwuZq

?? Incoming transfer! ?? We are thrilled to announce that Danny Post, former professional footballer, has joined the 360 Scouting team as our new Head of Partnerships and Business Development. With years of experience on the pitch as a player and captain, Danny brings a unique perspective on the importance of scouting to football success. He will focus on expanding our domestic and international network and client base. At 360 Scouting, we believe quality on the field starts with quality scouting. Danny shares our passion for improving the player identification process—making it faster, more effective, and more cost-efficient. Scouting: better, smarter, faster. We’re excited to welcome Danny to the team and look forward to achieving great things together! If you’re interested in learning more about how 360 Scouting can support your club or agency, please feel free to contact us.

A simple question (with a complex answer): what is the direction of this pass? One of the things we emphasize with our team of scouts is their ability to describe football actions ????????????????????????. So, no vague descriptions like: - 'He looks sharp' - 'He’s calm on the ball' - 'He shows a lot of confidence' But instead, concrete, specific descriptions in the language of football actions. To describe the pass in the image precisely, it helps to know that every football action involves four steps: 1. Gathering information (in this case, by looking) 2. Deciding 'what' to do (here: passing to the striker) 3. Deciding 'how' to do it (with a lofted ball into the run) 4. Executing those decisions as accurately as possible These steps apply to football actions and everyday activities, like crossing the street or chopping an onion. The last two steps (deciding 'how' and executing) also involve four key characteristics: - Position - Timing - Direction - Speed The question at the start was specifically about the 'direction' of this pass. Four factors influence that: 1. Starting position 2. Length of the pass 3. Width of the pass 4. Height of the pass If you can describe those four things, you can accurately explain to someone (who hasn’t seen the situation) what kind of pass it was. This is how we create 'frameworks' for our scouts to apply. These frameworks are mainly used internally, in their heads. When writing a report for a club, scouts keep it focused and simple. However, to understand which details are crucial (the main points) and which are less relevant (the minor details), you must first break down each situation as thoroughly as possible. These frameworks help with that and they you can accurately describe the pass as: ?????? ???????? ?????????? ???????? ?????????? ?????????????? ???????? ?????? ????????????????’?? ????????, ???????? ?????? ?????????? ??????????. ?????? ???????? ???? ???????????? ???????? ?? ???????????? ???????? towards the goal ???????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?????????????????? ????????????????, ?????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ?????? ????????. And yes, the passer looked sharp, appeared calm, and showed plenty of confidence. ?? PS: Want to learn how to apply these frameworks to report more effectively? Join our Video Scouting Insights course, which starts every month, including next Sunday, September 29th (we have one spot left).

?? Attention Aspiring Football Scouts! ?? We just concluded our first Video Scouting Insights course, and it was a fantastic experience with participants from all over the world! ?? This course is specially designed to help you become a more effective football scout by blending theory with hands-on practice. What can you expect? ?? Interactive Learning: Each session is limited to 12 participants to ensure a highly interactive and personalized learning experience. ?? Expert-Led Lectures: Gain comprehensive knowledge from industry experts covering key video scouting aspects. ?? Practical Application: Put your learning into action with real-life scouting tasks to challenge and refine your skills. ??? Individual Feedback: Receive personalized feedback after each task to help you improve and grow as a scout. Due to last-minute cancellations, we have a few spots available for our next course starting tomorrow evening! ?? We also have sessions beginning in September, October, and November. ?? If you want to improve as a football scout, this is your chance.

Want to become a better football scout? Recognize these four phases in every football action. They are a simple and understandable framework that greatly improves your understanding of match situations. As a scout, evaluating players effectively means using various 'lenses' to understand match situations. One powerful framework is recognizing the four phases in every football action, as detailed by Raymond Verheijen. The Four Phases: 1. Communication: Players exchange information with their environment. This includes pointing where they want the ball, checking space, and signaling to teammates. 2. Decision (What): Based on collected info and game intelligence, players decide their next move—dribble, cross, pass, or shoot. 3. Decision (How): Players then determine how to execute their chosen action, such as speeding up a dribble or curling a shot into the far corner. 4. Execution: Finally, players try to execute their decisions as precisely as possible. Good technique ensures the action aligns with the planned decision. Practical Application: Next time you watch a match, apply this framework to analyze football actions. Pause, rewind, and scrutinize interesting situations through these phases to enhance your scouting insights. ?? Want to know more about this framework? Read a more detailed explanation of every phase on our blog. Do you want help really understanding and applying this framework? In our course Video Scouting Insights, we explain this framework among other ones, show video examples, and provide tasks to practice by watching matches. We give individual feedback on those tasks to help you improve your skills as a scout. We have a few available spots for the course that starts in August.

?? Exciting news!?? In addition to our scouting services for clubs, we're thrilled to announce the launch of our new football scouting course, Video Scouting Insights, which helps you become a top video scout. Launching our first course: Video Scouting Insights? In the last few years, we’ve seen how many people have the ambition to start working as a (remote) video scout. With our application procedures, we’ve been offering a unique pathway into football. However, due to the high number of participants and the limited number of clubs we cooperate with, we can only take on board about 1%. The other 99% of aspiring scouts also have a lot of ambition and potential. That’s why we have created a football scouting course. Our course, ‘Video Scouting Insights,’ is designed to help you become a better video scout by mastering the most critical concepts of football scouting. Key features of ‘Video Scouting Insights’ This course is designed to enhance your knowledge as a scout. But it is not only theory; we will help you apply that knowledge through practical scouting tasks and feedback. You will master three essential concepts of video scouting: (1) understanding football actions, (2) player roles within a team, and (3) effective reporting. Course Overview Here’s what you can expect: - Interactive Learning. Each session is limited to 12 participants to ensure interaction and personalized attention. - Three online lectures. Comprehensive lectures delivered by an industry expert covering three key aspects of video scouting. - Practical application. Implement your newfound knowledge by performing real-life scouting tasks. - Individual feedback. After completing each scouting task, you will receive personalized feedback to help you improve. ?Course Details: - Price: €190 - Dates: Various start dates are available, with sessions beginning at the end of August and September (July is already full). Check our website for more details. - Instructor: Marco van der Heide, our founder, former professional football player, and expert video scout. Let's take your scouting skills to the next level! All the information can be found on our website. Check: https://lnkd.in/eDx6_eZf

Our team of video scouts does not only help multiple professional football clubs throughout Europe; some of them also like to write to share their football knowledge and insights. Today, our first analysis for Voetbalzone, written by our scout Dennis Liljeberg Mertanen, is published. It concerns Feyenoord transfer target Derek Cornelius. In it, we examine his strengths and weaknesses in depth and compare him to David Hancko.

Contrary to popular belief, the key to better scouting isn't just about adopting specific tools or hiring more skilled scouts; it's about recognizing and overcoming biases when assessing player qualities. As humans, we naturally have biases. While they can provide shortcuts to understanding the world, biases can also lead to errors in decision-making. Actively acknowledging and overcoming biases improves the accuracy of player selection, increasing the chances of making better recruiting decisions. We've identified ten specific biases that frequently emerge within scouting teams. Each bias represents a specific cognitive tendency or pattern of thinking that can lead to errors in judgment or decision-making. 1. Confirmation bias 2. Anchoring bias 3. Recency bias 4. Halo effect 5. Similarity bias 6. Overconfidence bias 7. Optimism bias 8. Selection bias 9. Sample size bias 10. Contextual influence bias In the presentation we provide definitions, illustrate with examples, and offer four strategies to combat these biases within your scouting and recruiting team.