It's a false distinction. All managers and scouts will use stats one way or another. Saying someone is "a brilliant footballer" tells you nothing useful about the player, where does he play? How can you use him? How will he fit in alongside the sort of players you have at the club? Stats can give you an insight into all of that. No-one says they are perfect, but just saying they are rubbish misses the point. As a fan you don't need to worry about them, but the scouts and manager will be using them. A lot.
I never said they are useless, and i never dismissed them. I am just a believer of getting a incredibly talented manger to make a decision on a player and if he is good enough to play in his team using his instinct and ability rather than numbers.
I am all for scouts using as much data as they want they can produce all in the statistical data they can, but before i would would want the manager to look at any of that i would want him to watch him in 10 or so games and be able to so yes or no.
I think stats internally at a club are important and they have a role that is to be assessed and certain recommendations can be made through stats to your own players and you can make assessments on other players that you may be playing in up coming matches using stats. BUT you can also as a incredibly talented and hard working manager watch a player you are to play against and 'just notice' certain things about players and what they like to do, how you can combat them without stats.
As we have seen stats are all well and good but how do you interpretate them. If a player scores 15 times before feb stats tell us he must be a talented goalscorer ... our eyes tell us hes michael ricketts and we should not be interested.
I guess what i am saying is i watch a football match with my eyes and it seems to be more fashionable in the last 3 years to watch it through a spreadsheet.
As much as football as changed i think if it was good enough for bob then its good enough for us now.
