How to work effectively with a performance analyst

Laura Seth, FA performance analysis education lead and former analyst for the England youth teams, provides her top tips for creating an effective working relationship between analyst and a coach.

Be on the same page

The biggest thing for an analyst working with a coach is understanding and interpreting aspects of the game in the same way. Long gone are the days where there was a disconnect between the coach and analyst and it's quite an isolated process; it’s very much a collaborative process now and you need to be on the same page.

As an analyst you’re almost there to be the coach’s second set of eyes, so you need to understand the game the same but you also need to understand it in such a way that you can challenge something if they’ve not quite seen something that might be key.

Build a rapport

You’ve got to build a rapport, a relationship and an element of trust. If the coach is there to help the players to be the best that they can be, an analyst is there to help the coach to help the players. That doesn’t mean that they should just say yes to everything the coach says. Always step back and say ‘is this going to help the players get better?’ The more open, collaborative and honest that relationship can be, the better it is going to be for helping your players.

Watch football together

Sit down and watch football together, talk about the game, get to understand how the coach sees certain things and just mentally pick bits up. You can find out things like what they determine a switch of play to be or what an effective penetrative pass is to them. Then log them all mentally so when you break down the game, you can do it with the understanding of how the coach sees the game.

Be supportive

It’s important to create an environment where the analyst can come and bring something to the coach. If I’d seen something that I felt was important to help the coach to help the players and I didn’t say it, then I don’t think I was doing my job. I also respected that if the coach has then got that information, whatever decision they make, I’ll support.

Share a common goal

We’re all here to help the players be the best that they can be, whether that’s with a grassroots U10’s team down the road, a League Two side or a Championship team. The pressures are going to be different, but ultimately we’ve all got a common goal - helping the players to be the best that they can be and providing the information to the coach.