Game Intelligence
The Easiest Area to Improve?
Intelligence and match IQ is something I really value in players. Just like the phrase ‘technical player’, it’s very vague though and can mean a lot of things. Intelligence is an accumulation of the tactical side of the game. How is their positioning, movement, timing, creativity, pressing, reading of the game and decision making? These all contribute to game intelligence, among others.
Positioning and movement are two of my favourite things to look at. What positions to they take up? What habits do they have? Why did they take that step? Are they too static? How accessible are they? Are they reacting to play?
I described scouting the other day as analysing every step and decision a player makes. And of course, execution is the key.
The tactical side of the game is surely the easiest part of a players game to improve. This is where analysis is so important, so you can maximise performance and get the best out of talent. With professional players, their technical ability or athleticism can improve, but to what extent? Once a player is 27, how much are they going to really improve?
However, the tactical side is where I believe any player can improve. Even experienced players can always learn more and find smaller ways to improve their game.
I’ve spoken before about it before from a coaching perspective also one a previous newsletter. There are three examples from last season my U15 team where chatting with players for a minute during a match improved their game massively. I have limited coaching experience but these really stick in my mind. I can’t make them faster or stronger or make them pass the ball better, but I can explain small tweaks which helped them massively.
These kids were a good level team, good athletes and technical. That’s why they were where they were. But the tactical understanding was completely missing. So that was an area where it was really easy to improve players. And this was and still is a team with a lot of potential.
Potential is a discussion that comes up in scouting and player development, but not something I’ve seen debated recently to be fair. Potential is kind of a gut feeling thing. But I think some factor is the tactical side. If they’re an athlete with good ability on the ball, they’ve got potential. The tactical side can come as long as they’re willing to learn. If you get to a certain age and your technical ability isn’t there then you’re found out quickly.
I’ve seen this before with a young striker. An amazing physical profile, good technical base. But such a lack of game understanding. Watching his movement (or lack thereof) and positioning was painful to watch at times. I kept thinking that 10 minutes with me and my laptop and I could improve his game significantly. But there’s the potential there.
I believe that his lack of the tactical side is because at the academy level he was so dominant physically that he didn’t need to be smart in the box but now at senior level he’s now behind in this area. But his youth coaches didn’t teach these aspects because he was so successful without it.
This is something I’ve noted with Sasa Kaladzjic, the 6’7” Stuttgart striker. He’s always been able to dominate with his height but this has resulted in him being slightly lazy and poor inside the box and could score even more chances if he didn’t just hang at the back post every time.
I think this can be a problem with players though. Where their strengths and talent make up for a lack of tactical understanding, which then gets found out at a higher level. It may just be that they’ve never been taught things and explained certain tactical elements because they were so good that it wasn’t needed or seen.
I haven’t worked directly with professional players, yet at least. But I believe that 1-to-1 analysis can be a very useful tool and I believe that making information accessible to players is important. I know an analyst who has worked with first-team players doing individual video analysis work and he said he learned a lot from the player and the player from him, and that while players might just naturally do things, doesn’t mean they have a full understanding of what they’re doing and why, they just know to do it instinctively and through coaching.
And there is this good article about Stefan de Vrij working with an external analyst to improve his individual game. I also believe in individual coaching and this is where analysis is important. Speaking with Harry Brooks last week, we were both saying how players can always do more, whether that’s extra training, physical work or analysis work. Training the body and mind. I’ve talked about this sort of thing before on this newsletter.