FC Copenhagen has been a happy Eyeball customer for a year now. We recently sat down with head of recruitment, Mikkel Lund Køhler, to talk about scouting trends and how Eyeball has boosted his club’s talent acquisition success. Here are some key takeaways directly from the interview:
Football is getting younger
In regards to youth players, this is a market that’s been changing a lot. When I started 7-8 years ago (video scouting) was non-existent, we were relying only on live observations of players. But now…the budget for youth players, the transfer fees paid in world football for youth players is increasing. So I think the focus on getting even more thorough information on each player is natural.
For us, Eyeball is playing a key part because you allow us to see games that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.
The key to good scouting
For me, scouting is knowing as much as possible about the player. Maybe half of our scouting process is about the ability on the ball or the physical ability. For us, it’s a matter of tactical potential. How good are you at learning? What is your mentality as a player? So the more information you get, the better.
There’s no doubt that [Eyeball’s] tools on the platform allow us to know even more about the player.
Scouting with Eyeball
Since we know our markets so well, the most players we identify are players we identify ourselves. Eyeball can be used for the early part of the process when you follow up on live scouting. Or it can be more thorough where you go in-depth with one specific player before signing. Or let’s say you want to do a video package before the board for buying a player.
Eyeball can support us in different parts of the process. But mainly it’s to support the live observations or the network we already have on one specific player.
Speed is key
In football it’s about being there first and it’s about acting fast. Often we are there at the right time because we have many years of experience of where to be and when. So when we see a player once and we like what we see, we can go back to the platform and get even better knowledge of the player. And that allows us to take the second step faster.
Eyeball for every stage of scouting
We spend more time on technical scouting than we did years ago. Also, thanks to Eyeball, we definitely spend more time on video than we did in the past. We have scouts that use the platform on a daily basis, but also it’s very much case-to-case. What do we need on this specific player? Do we need more video? Do we need to see him live?
When we use [Eyeball] it can be any time and at any point of the scouting process of a player.
Building a case
In the recruitment, you always want to show your points whether internally to the club, to a player, or to another club. So often if I do observations live and I see a player with the potential to be a good finisher and I want to showcase that, I need more repetitions. And here Eyeball is great because we have access to material that we don’t have on a live basis.
Eyeball’s future
I think Eyeball has a great potential and it’s already very useful. Of course, the more players you get on the platform, the more games, the more history, the more data over the years, the more useful it becomes. It can help us right now, and I think in 3-5 years, we can also use the history of Eyeball, both in regards to data, the players, the games that are played to compare with present times and use it for the future.
Watch the full interview with Mikkel Lund Køhler:
