A few days ago, the Performance Analysis group at Manchester City Football Club released a pair of videos that demonstrate the role that analysis has in player development, match preparation, and match analysis. The first video looks at the use of performance analysis for opposition scouting and youth development, and the second video describes its use on match day, in particular for providing a video aid to the manager in his pre-game and half-time talks.

Taken together, the videos show how analysis is used in the field, from the software and hardware to its integration in the football team development. For instance, you can see that the group uses Prozone and Sportscode for their data generation and video analysis.  It's worth mentioning that even though there are a lot of data available, the metrics that you see in the videos aren't all that complicated — which puts the onus on those who develop advanced metrics (like me) to justify their claims of added value.

Thanks to Gavin Fleig, Ed Sulley, and the rest of the MCFC team for putting these videos together.