The Point of Difference: Analysis in Albania

ANALYSIS ON THE TRAINING GROUND

The preparations for every fixture begin on the training ground during the week and FSHF head of analysis, scouting and innovation Alarico Rossi oversees this process.

“Every training session is filmed with head coach Edoardo Reja and our staff watching to make an analysis afterwards,” explains Rossi. “We join this video analysis with GPS data, because we don’t have much time with athletes before preparing for national team matches, so we need as much feedback as possible in a short amount of time.”

ANALYSIS ON MATCH DAY

Moving onto match day, Rossi and his technical staff define key aspects of the match strategy that are to be focused on and shared with coaching staff throughout the match. 

“During the match, we film situations and shared through Hudl platform to the bench,” said Rossi. “Also, we communicate during the match if something happens that we didn’t forecast, and a tactical adjustment needs to be made. We also use Wyscout regularly and for the last three years I use Sportscode for analysis. All of this is part of the wider program to innovate analysis in Albanian football.

VIDEO MAKING A DIFFERENCE 

Analysis is worth the time and effort when it makes a tangible difference to an on-field situation. The women’s national team of Albania were great beneficiaries of the new analysis offering provided by the FSHF.  

“Last March we started video analysis in the women’s team, they never had an analysis meeting before,” said Rossi. “We worked hard from the first day with match analysis, opponent analysis, training analysis and two days before the match, players were in the meeting room at the hotel until midnight to see their training. On the matchday, during halftime we showed clips to players on my laptop. They ended up winning their first official match in three years.”

BUY IN FROM PLAYERS

Relating to the last point the women’s match, buy in from players is vital to the success of an analysis department. This works on a national scale for both youth level and senior players.

“In a structured organization, from the younger ages we can use video analysis, but obviously requirements must be different between different age stages: before only for technical aspects, after with more tactical aspects,” said Rossi. “This structure could also help all the organization for monitoring players' growth and making much more detailed evaluations on its players.

At an elite level, video analysis has a very big impact on player performances. Every player wants to see his performance the day after the match for understanding himself what he did well and mistakes. So, players' habits in this case join the technical staff job and this is a great work environment."

National team coaches have a unique set of challenges when coaching and evaluating players due to the small amount of time they spend together during international windows. Video analysis is key in this instance for the Albania analysis staff.

“We don’t have a lot of time during the national team’s period and feedback is fundamental for empathizing the relationships between the coach and the players,” said Rossi. “Also, we have players across the world and everyone has his experience in football and works in a different culture. So we work with video analysis in every way, to put everyone in a comfort zone regarding their feelings. Due to this reduced time, players are forced to explain their point of view to the technical staff and when we aren’t in the field, every moment is good for talking about performances.”

Learn more about the new Wyscout Scouting Area HERE