Cobblers to take a more 'data-driven' approach to recruitment

But club not yet looking at appointing specialist recruitment analyst
First-team analyst Alex Latimer (left) and current manager Jon Brady in the stands at Stadium MK.First-team analyst Alex Latimer (left) and current manager Jon Brady in the stands at Stadium MK.
First-team analyst Alex Latimer (left) and current manager Jon Brady in the stands at Stadium MK.

Cobblers are to take a more 'data-driven' approach to recruitment as part of wider changes within the club's current structure.

Data and statistics are playing an ever-increasing role in football, both in terms of recruitment and player analysis.

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Championship outfit Luton Town are an example of one club who have only recently appointed a data specialist to help find and identify the best talents.

Whilst something similar is not on the cards quite yet for Northampton, chairman Kelvin Thomas wants to increase their use of statistics.

"We want to ensure as a club we take a bit more control over the process and also be a bit more data-driven," he said. "That includes even looking at our own players and their performances levels and things like that.

"It'll be about defining what our playing philosophy will be and what type of players we want to bring in

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"We do have video analysis and we do use data so it's not suddenly a new thing for us, but it's probably just stepping that up a little bit.

"We have talked about potentially having a data recruitment specialist but it's probably not something we will do this summer.

"It's definitely something we will consider and that might be utilising our current analyst in a recruitment capacity and using the data instead of just the video.

"So much of it comes down to players anyway, it's not just about structures. It's about using this process to find and identify better players so that we can develop those and have a successful, winning football team.

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"It's the type of player and the position of players. What player fits into what position? It's not so much a case of being told 'he's a good player', it's more 'does he fit into the team?'"

"We want to be a winning football club and that still has to be the main focus so we will be looking to get promoted next season."