I’m wondering if the coming Premiership season might be no place for smaller players.
The emphasis at many clubs recently has been on increased physicality and athleticism, and early signs at Tannadice are that this philosophy might be at work there.
If so, it’ll be part of a trend we’ve seen developing in Scotland and that could be bad news for players of shorter stature.
St Mirren proved last season that might can be right with a big powerful side which proved more formidable than their resources might otherwise have allowed.
Four of Jim Goodwin’s signings so far suggest we could see a Dundee United team featuring the kind of physicality and stature which is increasingly favoured over smaller performers by many coaches.
Only time will tell if United have replaced the sort of quality they’ve lost with as good or better, but they’ve certainly not been short-changed in terms of physique.
At 6ft 5ins, central defender Iurie Iovu looks a formidable mountain at the back, in front of new keeper Yevhenii Kucherenko, who is only a couple of inches shy of his new colleague.
Meantime at 6ft 1in, Panutche Camara will certainly add strength and bite to United’s midfield.
Now, Bert Esselink, has become the latest 6ft-plus new recruit.
It’s always been a contentious subject in football whether a good big one is better than a good wee one.
But increasingly, unless a smaller player provides something really special by way of pace, passing, dribbling, crossing, or a lethal ability in the box, those with more powerful and bigger frames seem to be finding more favour.
There’s still no substitute for quality though, and if the trend towards big is better continues, it’ll be up to the more vertically challenged players to prove that, as my old granny used to say, “Guid gear comes in sma bulk”.
St Johnstone’s move towards an analytics-based approach to signing new players apes that of Hearts and a host of other clubs who are using scientific methods to aid traditional recruitment models.
As Eric Nicolson reported this week Saints are linking up with a top American sports analytics operation at Samford University, who already work with LA Dodgers in baseball and FC Dallas in the MLS.
The data expertise on offer has been part of the process which has already brought five new signings into McDiarmid Park.
Tony Bloom, who owns Brighton and Hove Albion, has just invested almost £10 million into Hearts and says they can “disrupt the pattern of domination of Scottish football which has been in place for far too long”.
Bloom’s revolutionary approach involves the use data and statistical metrics to recruit, develop, and profit from the sale of underrated players.
His investment at Union Saint-Gilloise saw them win the Belgian league for the first time in 90 years, and it’s taken Brighton from League one to eighth place in last season’s Premier League, bringing in over £300 million in player sales.
Data led information and analytics is here to stay and seems set to be a key part of future player recruitment.
Saints’ new strategy is unlikely to replicate the success of Brighton or to upset the Scottish football duopoly of the Old Firm, but if, after the recruitment shambles of recent times it helps Simo Valakari build a squad capable of returning to the Premiership in one leap, Perth fans will be delighted.
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