The Scouting Nerd⚽

@DataScout_ C'est quoi votre source de données pour le profil physique svp?

🇮🇹 Bastoni, parfait pour le Barça ? Meilleur défenseur-relanceur de Série A selon nos algos, il est sans doute dans le top 5 des meilleurs défenseurs centraux gauchers au monde. L'Inter n'aurait aucun intérêt à s'en séparer donc j'imagine mal le transfert se réaliser

@PER90s Awesome thank you! Would love to see more lower tier leagues 🙏

Some big additions to per-90.streamlit.app: 🆕 Role Rankings (Sort by Playmaker, Poacher etc.) 🆕 Many new positions (CBs, FBs, DMs etc.) 🆕 Reintroduced match reports

@fc_mossman Well! What if there wasn't a World Cup on the? horizon?

Love when players choose to represent the country with a lesser talent pool. Hope we see more of this with international tournaments getting bigger. Wonder if Brahim Diaz picking Morocco after not being called up for Spain will be a catalyst for more situations like this.

@bwfast Even Cycling has a Pro/Rel system

Soccer is massive in the USA MLS is not massive in the USA 🇺🇸 is a world class market for soccer & its people go bonkers for authentic club soccer every year. USA soccer is drastically held back by the U.S. Soccer Federation/MLS closed system. #ProRelforUSA #FIFACWC #USMNT

A Brazilian youngster at many other European clubs can wait three years for a registration slot. At Shakhtar Donetsk, he walks straight into the first team. That one fact explains almost everything. Spain allows three non-EU players per club. France allows four. Ukraine has no registration limits at all, and first division clubs can field up to seven non-EU players simultaneously. While a talented young Brazilian is sitting in a reserve squad in Madrid waiting for a slot to open, his counterpart at Shakhtar is getting first team minutes, European football, and a transfer fee that grows every season. That in my opinion is the first reason why Shakhtar is attractive to Brazilians. The second reason was a transfer architecture that was built by one man. Just stay with me. When Romanian manager Mircea Lucescu arrived in 2004, he had a simple idea. He wanted Ukrainians in defence with structured instructions, and Brazilians in attack with freedom. He spoke fluent Portuguese, had contacts across Brazilian football, and convinced owner Rinat Akhmetov that this was the way to play attractive, winning football. In his first summer alone he brought in five Brazilians. Shakhtar won the league that year and barely looked back. By 2009 the model had announced itself to Europe. Shakhtar fielded five Brazilians in the UEFA Cup final against Werder Bremen and won it. Between 2002 and today, they have signed 47 Brazilian players who have scored over 1,000 combined goals for the club. For the players, the Unique selling point is easy. They get minutes, a platform, a Brazilian community, and a pathway to bigger clubs. For Shakhtar, they get affordable world class talent that cost less than European talent of same quality with no registration headache. Both parties meet at exactly the right moment. So Shakhtar is as attractive to Brazilians as Brazilians are attractive to Shakhtar. A symbiosis of sorts. My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

@Zirkzeason 6 out of 10 Shakhtar's most expensive transfers are Brazilians. This makes them the perfect place to get noticed by the biggest leagues.

What makes Shaktar so attractive to Brazilians btw?

Delighted to see my work recognized by the likes of Davide Ancelotti and a big thanks to @zcoutverse for giving us the platform for showcasing our knowledge 🙏

@zcoutverse Great initiative and hopefully we'll see more of it in the future!

What made this exercise interesting is that the process looked very similar to a real scouting department: • multiple scouts proposing players • several strong candidates per position • final decisions balancing profiles, tactical ideas and squad structure The image shows the shortlist that emerged before the final XI.

The first #ZCSpotlight has come to an end. 𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗶 for the time and attention he dedicated to reviewing the reports and selecting the final team. If this event has worked so well, it’s largely because of the 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝘁 who wanted to participate and be seen. And 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱, contributing 170 reports that now form part of a network approaching 1000 analysed players on ZCoutverse. This is the final shortlist that made the final XI.

🇸🇪 Paulos Abraham LW — Hammarby €1.5M Selected from the report by @ScoutingNerd, Abraham stood out as a technically skilled attacker who moves intelligently between lines, linking play and exploiting spaces in possession-based structures while maintaining a strong work rate in pressing phases. Diakhon (@dilanftbl ) would also have been a good alternative, but in the end the balance tipped in favour of the swedish.

@XxAdamKhanxX Totally agree on over analysis.

With how attractive and competitive the scouting industry has become, I see an increasing tendency toward over-analysis — and, at times, over-importance of marginal details. Scouting is not rocket science. And we don’t need to make it bigger than it is. One example: the obsessive emphasis some place on warm-ups as a meaningful evaluation tool. I played four years of professional football in Germany, preceded by six years at the highest level of U.S. youth football. From experience, I can say this clearly: How a player warms up has zero guaranteed correlation with how they will perform. I’ve seen players look phenomenal in warm-ups — sharp communication, clean ball-striking, finishing from every angle — only to crumble once the game state turns against them. I’ve also seen players drift through warm-ups with apparent indifference, only to become decisive, commanding competitors the moment the whistle blows. For players, warm-up is personal. It’s routine. It’s regulation. It’s psychological preparation. For some, that means high energy, vocal leadership, visible intensity. For others, it means calm repetition, controlled movements, staying inward and measured with even playful indifference at times. Both are valid. Both can precede top-level performances. And this is what is crucial as we turn our attention back to recruitment… As scouts and coaches, we must resist the urge to assign authority to every observable behavior. Not every signal carries meaning. Not every detail is predictive. When I’m live scouting, I’m not racing to the stadium to scrutinize warm-up routines or overinterpret communication cues. My focus is where it should be — on performance and the quality of decision-making across different game contexts. There are enough meaningful data points available to make informed evaluations. We shouldn’t allow low-impact observations to cloud high-stakes judgments. Judge the performance. Not the ritual that precedes it. —— Curious to hear from others in recruitment and coaching — Have you found any true predictive value in warm-up behavior, or are we sometimes searching for signals that simply aren’t there? Let’s challenge what actually moves the needle in player evaluation.

@AlexDS78 C'est quoi ton avis sur Salim Akkal?

Sans ordre particulier : - Idris Mohamed - Karim Chaban - Mael Zogba - Paul Bellon - Adel Lembezat - Gaël Alette - Yanis Barka - Élie N’Gatta - Shelton Guillaume - Benjamin Gomel Bien évidemment, cela reste totalement subjectif. Des joueurs comme Tom Renaud, Théo Trinker (même s'il est moins en forme en ce moment), El Kaddouri, Florent Sanchez, etc., pourraient tout à fait y figurer.

@AlexDS78 J'ai déjà fait un rapport sur lui et je suis totalement d'accord avec toi. "Defends through intelligence rather than pure aggression, reading passing lanes, anticipating danger, and positioning himself to delay or disrupt attacks instead of diving into tackles."

🇫🇷Je n'ai pas encore vu un seul mauvais match de Noah Madsen (2001, 🇩🇰), et j'ai regardé de nombreux matchs du Marítimo cette saison. C'est un défenseur exceptionnel dans les duels, non pas grâce à ses capacités physiques, mais surtout grâce à sa lecture du jeu. Je vais le présenter en détail bientôt, mais c'est un joueur qui évoluera en première division l'année prochaine, j'en suis certain. C'est ce qui se fait de mieux en deuxième division portugaise à son poste. 🇵🇹Ainda não vi um único jogo ruim de Noah Madsen (2001, 🇩🇰), e assisti a muitos jogos do Marítimo nesta temporada. Ele é um defesa excepcional nos duelos, não por causa de suas capacidades físicas, mas principalmente por sua leitura de jogo. Vou apresentá-lo em detalhe em breve, mas é um jogador que irá evoluir na primeira divisão no próximo ano, tenho a certeza. É o melhor na segunda divisão portuguesa na sua posição.

@Garyncha89 A l'époque c'était même interdit de faire une touche vers l'arrière.

J’ai de plus en plus de mal avec cette obsession des coachs de vouloir absolument ressortir proprement le ballon depuis la défense. Surtout au niveau pro, avec des équipes jeunes et peu dominantes. La plupart du temps, elles se mettent plus en difficulté qu’autre chose et perdent des ballons dans leurs 30 derniers mètres. Il y a 20 ans, il était quasiment interdit de faire une passe dans sa propre surface, c’était sans doute trop extrême. Aujourd’hui, on est tombé dans l’extrême inverse. Bien ressortir, ce n’est pas ressortir à tout prix. Sinon, ce n’est plus un principe de jeu, c’est un piège.

After the UEFA and the CONMEBOL, it's time to discover the xG overperformance/underperformance in the CONCACAF Leagues. ***As always, sample size excludes players who already transferred to higher level leagues. #scouting #football #soccer #futbol

Lets diving into the XG outperformance/underperformance from the non top 3 CONMEBOL leagues! ***As always, sample size excludes players who already transferred to the Top 3 leagues. #xG #soccer #football #scouting

Here is a quick look at xG outperformance/underperformance and what both can tell us beyond raw goal totals. ***Sample size excludes players who already transferred to top 15 Leagues***

@HenshawAnalysis GPT

You're not getting football opportunities. And you don't actually know why. Is your CV wrong? Portfolio weak? Interview answers poor? You're just guessing and hoping something clicks. I've built 4 custom GPTs that remove the guesswork. - COMMENT "GPT" TO GET THEM - They assess you across the 4 areas that actually matter: Readiness Rater - Scores you out of 40 and tells you what's holding you back Application Analyser - Reviews your CV against jobs and explains why you're not getting shortlisted Interview Prep - Shows you what interviewers will actually test Portfolio Audit - Tells you if your work looks professional or amateur These use 6+ years of my experience to give you brutally honest feedback. Not encouragement. Not generic advice. Just the truth about where you stand and what to fix. - COMMENT "GPT" TO GET THEM - Then I'll send you a DM with access.

@Garyncha89 C'est la faute des fédérations

Les joueurs qui se découvrent une nationalité à quelques mois d’une Coupe du monde, j’ai vraiment du mal avec ça. T’as même pas disputé un seul match de qualification et, sans vergogne, tu vas prendre la place de quelqu’un. Quelqu’un qui était là quand ça comptait.

@ArobaseYL Et le cas Bennacer d'une mère Algérienne et un père Marocain 🤷

Il est issu d’un père algérien, il est donc plus algérien que sénégalais. A voir maintenant il choisira qui. (Spoiler: il jouera pour l’EDF.)

@Garyncha89 C'est le salaire qui fait bouger les choses

Quand tu vois un transfert comme ça, tu te rends compte à quel point les Anglais ont cassé le marché des transferts. Aujourd’hui, un bon joueur de Liga 🇪🇸 de 26 ans, comme Carlos Vicente se retrouve à rejoindre un club de milieu de tableau de Championship 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pour 8 millions... Je ne sais pas si on se rend vraiment compte de la folie. Économiquement, l’Angleterre est au-dessus de tous les autres championnats européens, sans débat possible, l’Angleterre joue dans une autre dimension.