Cheltenham Town analyst Shaun Howl has said that he believes the strong analysis set-up at the club will help them push for a play-off spot this season.
Howl is an intern who is responsible for researching Cheltenham’s opposition and he says that the work he and his team do has a greater impact on the side’s fortunes on the pitch than fans might believe.
“Every top club now has a strong analysis team in place”, Howl told Park Life Sport.
“It is so competitive at the top level and analysis can give teams the edge over their opponents.
“It means that nowadays, having good analysts at the club can be almost as important as having talented football players.”
The importance of analysis in the modern game
Howl’s job involves reviewing stats and figures as well as watching footage of opposition’s previous matches in order to identify formations, line-ups and tactics.
His work helps shape training sessions for the manager as he can identify how the team needs to prepare for the upcoming game.
“We work with (Cheltenham manager) Gary Johnson throughout the week so he has an idea of what he can work on with the players and how he can prepare for our next opponents”, said Howl.
“It’s important as it helps to shape training sessions and it helps with things like player’s recovery times as we can do the most intensive training early in the week.”
The key facts and figures
Cheltenham are second in League Two this season for expected goals however, they are top of the charts for the league’s under-performing sides.
Expected goals are a figure given to measure how many goals a team should have scored. It uses a measuring system ranking chances from 0-1 based on how many times out of 100 the chance should be scored.
For example a shot from the corner of the penalty area with a players’ weak foot would have a value under 0.1, but a tap-in from three yards out would have a value between 0.9 and 1.
Looking forward
The Robins currently sit 15th in League Two, comfortably seven points clear of the relegation zone, but just five points off the play-off places.
Three draws in Cheltenham’s last five games shows where the Robin’s main problems may lie.
Had Town managed to convert those draws into wins they would be sitting in one of the League Two play-off places.
This should offer Robin’s fans plenty of optimism after a difficult season last year and if they are to push for a play-off spot this year their analysis team could have a big part to play.
