Meet Your Future Lecturers: Connor McGillick, MSc Performance Analysis in Football

Football’s data revolution has changed a lot of people’s approach to the game.

Matthew Benham and Michael Edwards are both big names in football known for their data-driven approaches, with modern coaches reaching beyond the traditional eye-test and incorporating statistical analysis to inform footballing decisions.

Influencing training plans and player scouting, performance analysts are a significant part of the industry whose market value is expected to reach USD 14.8 billion by 2030, with many aspiring sports students hoping to be part of this growth.

GIS’ MSc Performance Analysis in Football programme is a great place to start. Our course leader is analyst Connor McGillick, who has been with us since 2021.

“I enjoy all aspects of performance analysis in terms of practical application, theory and teaching,” Connor told us.

“I wanted to teach performance analysis to the next generation of analysts, scouts and other practitioners because I believe in the power of information and how analytical information can support all departments.”

Connor has been part of the performance analysis setup of various organisations, such as Coventry City FC, Stoke City FC, and Bury FC, and has also worked in swimming and volleyball.

“I have experience utilising video and data to support pre-match, during-match and post-match analysis. I also have experience in scouting and recruitment as a practitioner and leading scouting teams and projects for football clubs. “

Recruitment is a particular area where the use of analytics is prominent, with many clubs fully committing to this approach. This follows the recommendation of Analytics FC founder, Jeremy Steele, whose organisation provides clients such as Kevin De Bruyne customised data models.

“If you have the philosophy to use data, you should go fully in, use it properly, have the right members of staff on board, and have the right data sets that you want to use, rather than just dabbling,” Jeremy told GIS earlier this year.

For Connor, his experiences in professional clubs have taught him the importance of adapting his analytical methods to the environment he is working in.

“I have learnt the power of supporting the specific coach, head of recruitment or club I worked for. For context on this, there are various ways to analyse data and video, different key performance indicators can be investigated, and players can be scouted in various ways. Practice needs to effectively support the environment you are working in to have a positive impact, rather than using techniques that can be successful in general but fail to support your key stakeholders.”

Emphasising that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to being a performance analyst in football, a student of Connor’s who knows this all too well is James Pugh. A performance analyst at Northampton Town FC, James was recently part of our GIS Live Lab internship during which a group of GIS students travelled to Jamaica to work with Mount Pleasant Football Academy in the country’s top flight.

Finally, we asked Connor what skills he thinks students, such as James, will acquire on the course ahead of their careers as analysts.

“It is difficult to choose one skill, given the interlinking nature of theoretical and applied practice in analysis and scouting. For this reason, I would say that the skill of integrating concepts learned to provide a holistic, well-rounded objective and subjective service is a key skill to strive for throughout a student’s journey on the course.”

Led by Connor, MSc Performance Analysis in Football is one of our many courses tailored to the next generation of future professionals. To explore the others that we have on offer, click here.

Article by Zakaria Anani