While Sunderland fans gather at the Stadium of Light every other week during the football season to support the Lads, what really does go on behind the scenes at the Academy of Light so that players in the youth system can eventually reach Premier League level?
In the first of a six-part series of articles put together by safc.com, we take an insightful look into life behind closed doors at the academy and find out what work actually goes into helping mould players like Jordan Henderson.
In this first feature safc.com explores the purpose of the academy’s performance analysts and examines how their work provides coaches, as well as players, with an opportunity to reflect and scrutinise every aspect of their game.
As the media spotlight continues to grow, buoyed by Sky and BT’s ever-evolving coverage, performance analysis has become a compulsory operation at football clubs up and down the country.
And in Sunderland’s academy set-up there are three full-time members who make up the analysts team, Michael Bush, Jordan Rowan and Josh Goodfellow.
“Our work is based around the individual side of the game as well as the key events everyone is involved in,” explained head analyst Bush. “Everyone is different and everyone learns in different ways, so how we relay the information back to players could vary from talking to them or allowing them to watch clips back themselves.
“We also try to get the coaches involved because it’s all about encouraging the player to learn what they should’ve done, and the coach would be there to give them that positive reinforcement.”
As well as focusing on player improvement, the analyst’s job goes much further than that as they also look to prepare players for the intense pressures surrounding first-team life.
While it’s impossible to mirror that environment, the club have laid down a distinct approach for the under-18s and under-21s so that players can be ready, should they been given an opportunity in the first team.
“A lot of our work with the under-21s is based around a game plan,” said Bush. “It’s all about looking at the opposition and trying to give players an idea about certain players - how they are going to play and how they need to respond to that.
“We try to follow a similar process to the first team in that regards, so it’s less about development, but at the same time understanding the game plan that we have set out to achieve.
“The under-18s are still very much in a development phase,” he continued. “Their analysis is less about highlighting the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, but more about working on your own play. It's about personal development as well as learning how your roles can benefit the team.”
While under-18s analyst Rowan, added: “For the lads on the scholarship scheme it’s brilliant for them.
“We are preparing them to become professional footballers in their next stage of life. If we can give them a slight edge in terms of offering them opposition analysis then that can only be a benefit.”
So in a typical week, what is the likely routine of the academy’s performance analysts?
“Our week would typically start on a Tuesday and that would involve uploading game clips and player clips to the Premier League Management Application (PMA), so the boys can have a look back at the game from the weekend.
“I would also have a look at the footage from other clubs so we know what to expect from our next opponent.
“Wednesday would consist of going through statistical analysis with coaches and then Thursday/Friday we prepare presentations for the lads, so they can look at what they need to be doing.
“We also prepare clips of the opposition so they know what to do and they can look at how they need to play tactically to deal with their strengths.”
There is no doubt that the role of the football analyst is a blossoming asset to any club, and in the next feature safc.com unearths the true value of the academy’s scholarship scheme.
