Antoine Maratray

Interview originally recorded in French, linked below. A big thank you to Nosotros FC and Alilou for taking the time to discuss football together.

https://nosotrosxp.com/entretien-avec-antoine-maratray/

Full English Version

What does football represent for you?

Like for many people, it has first and foremost always been a passion. A sport that is an integral part of my family history. When I was younger, my father helped coach teams, which very quickly made me want to coach as well. It also allowed me to realize that I wanted to work in that world and turn it into something more serious. Football has shaped my personal life, beyond work, by allowing me to form many friendships. For me, it is essentially the universal game.

People often say that you have to “follow your passion” to find the job of your dreams and be fulfilled. However, passion is not necessarily constant and is generally not enough to cope with all the challenges inherent to a field. Being passionate, feeling competent, and being competent, for example, are all different things. Starting from that premise, one of the key challenges is developing “career capital”—a set of skills and lived experiences that allow us to create value and continually transform ourselves. How did you develop your own “career capital”?

What you describe resonates a lot with my own story. Passion is indeed not always constant, and there were times when I was even a bit upset with the game. That is why, for me, it’s important to distinguish between developing skills that may be useful for a job and what truly excites us, even if that leads us to explore areas far removed from our ideal career. At one point, for example, I coached youth teams—high schools and universities—in the United States, and football was not what truly motivated the players. Their lack of enthusiasm ended up affecting my own passion for coaching and performance.

We had excellent facilities that we didn’t even use to 50%; beautiful stadiums but with American football lines painted over the pitch, etc. Even though I love the game, we were drifting away from what truly excited me. I started to wonder whether I really wanted to make it my life, and I eventually decided to step away for a while and work in motorsport.

“It’s important to distinguish between developing skills that may be useful for a job and what truly excites us, even if that leads us to explore areas far from our ideal career.”

Motorsport wasn’t my passion, but it was an opportunity that interested me. During that time, I acquired skills that many people in football have not necessarily developed, such as the very rigorous, analytical, and scientific approach typical of those sports. That experience also made me realize that I missed football and truly needed to return to it. Today, I can use the skills I acquired in service of the game, but it was a process that took time. Stepping away to explore other environments and ideas outside football helped solidify my passion in a certain way.

Moreover, football—while not completely closed—is a sport that tends to operate in a bit of a bubble, with many people coming from similar backgrounds. For me, it is therefore essential to take an interest in what happens outside that environment and to identify what can be transferred from one activity to another. In fact, many concepts found in football today come from other sports.

For example, the concept of “xG” (Expected Goals) comes from the world of ice hockey. It’s easy to retreat into oneself, and instead of trying to understand how to work differently, one may simply attempt to keep doing the same things but in a slightly more rigorous or refined way, rather than genuinely questioning our methods.

Data can be seen as something abstract, or even something that denatures football. Yet, like the ball, it is just a tool—one used by humans to communicate and connect with other humans. As Customer Success Manager for Hudl and previously StatsBomb, you help clubs implement analytical solutions for performance and recruitment. How do you approach your role?

For the analysts, sporting directors, scouts, and assistant—or even head—coaches I work with, one of the keys to their job is finding relevant information and presenting it in the clearest possible way to others. So yes, it’s human beings using tools to present information to other human beings who then try to make sense of it.

For me, there are two areas where data is particularly valuable: dealing with bias and gaining time. As humans, we all exhibit a number of biases, and data use can help mitigate them. We cannot eliminate them completely, of course, but we can become aware of things that previously escaped us.

“The value of data lies in its use, its communication, and the way it is integrated into a club’s operations.”

As part of my job, I once spent a few days with the Dynamo Kyiv staff. Dynamo is a club known for its scientific and analytical approach to the game, thanks to its iconic coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi. I had the opportunity to speak with an assistant coach who has been at the club since the 90s. I showed him some data, and even though he didn’t know exactly how to handle it, he immediately showed interest because they have that culture.

The second dimension is time-saving. Staffs are extremely busy. Saving even a few hours per month allows them to refocus on the essence of their job: presenting and communicating information clearly so it can be used on the field. The relevance of technology does not lie in the technology itself. Data for the sake of data isn’t useful. Its value lies in its use, its communication, and the way it is integrated into a club’s functioning. That is why, in my eyes, the best technology in the world is useless if it is not handled by the right people.

In football, the amount of data collected can create a lot of noise. How do you help clubs ensure that the signal is stronger than the noise so they can make the most informed decisions possible?

Distinguishing the signal from the noise is, for me, the key to using data. First, it is crucial to clearly understand a club’s intentions and why they are reaching out to us. Are they aiming to win a title immediately? To develop players and better quantify their progress? This is a crucial step, because it helps us determine the club’s priorities and choose the relevant indicators together. If we don’t understand the club’s objective, we can’t propose a solution that truly helps them.

The second element is understanding who our interlocutors are. Are we dealing with a sporting director? A recruitment department? Coaches who want to optimize their training sessions or work on individual development? Depending on the case, the relationships, communication style, and vocabulary will be completely different.

Finally, there is an educational component. At the beginning of every season, there is very often a phase of uncertainty, where results are not always correlated with the numbers. This is where guidance is essential to help clubs understand the data.

“If we don’t understand the club’s objective, we can’t propose a solution that truly helps them.”

We might think that a lack of correlation between data and results is necessarily a bad sign. In reality, it can help identify certain trends quite early, and depending on the signal, it can even be reassuring for some teams. We work, for example, with a club in Poland whose coach favored a very direct approach. They changed coaches to adopt a more possession-based model, with more movement in midfield, to better showcase their players.

We quickly saw, thanks to the data, that the team had succeeded in implementing the desired style of play. The results are not there yet, but the early-season signals allow us to say: “We hired a coach to put a specific playing style in place, and it’s working.”

Conversely, a team may have very good results early in the season without any strong signal in the data. Yet what we almost always see eventually is regression: results and data tend to align over time. That is why the beginning of the season is a particularly interesting period to work on the educational side and build the foundations of a long-term approach.

In this context, the key is less about access to data than about asking the right initial questions. How do you support your partners on this?

Even though I am not integrated into the clubs we work with and do not have access to a certain amount of “off-the-field” data that influences performance, my mission is to identify the signal—what can be optimized or what might be causing poor results.

I like asking precise questions based on simple observations grounded in data, to spark discussion. For example: “The chances you’ve conceded since the start of the season mostly come from one side of the pitch. Is that something you’re aware of? Is it something you want? Is it something you are actively trying to change?”

Teams do not always realize flaws that can be quite obvious. In other cases, they are aware and accept them, simply trying to minimize their impact as much as possible. This brings us directly to the importance of strategic thinking and organizing limited resources optimally. Our job is therefore to find concrete solutions despite the constraints in order to reach realistic yet ambitious goals.

For example, this might mean identifying that a player already in the squad is underused but that his profile could help compensate for certain issues, rather than trying to recruit someone new. Could we place him in another position, give him a slightly different role to better use his strengths and weaknesses? In many teams, players put into a different context could help the team in a more optimal way. It is interesting to explore these avenues.

“Our job is to find concrete solutions despite the constraints, in order to reach realistic yet ambitious goals.”

Other examples: have we thought about using one of our center-backs to help bring the ball out more, because contrary to what we assumed, he is able to do it? On the other hand, many teams assume that because a center-back is physically imposing, he will necessarily be good in the air. These two aspects are not necessarily correlated.

Offensively, we can make similar observations. Despite their size, players like Alexander Isak or Hugo Ekitike are not very strong in the air but have impressive technique for their build. The data shows this well. So the key is to ask such questions. It’s a constructive way to challenge what has been done. These are the questions that move the thinking forward.

For clubs, data can greatly contribute to implementing a coherent, ambitious but realistic strategy. Is one of the first obstacles you encounter the fact that teams often do not know themselves very well—their playing style or the real strengths of their players? And if so, is this objective knowledge the crucial starting point for making any ambition achievable?

In my experience, yes, there is indeed something crucial: clubs often do not know their own squad very well. From a collective standpoint, they believe they have a certain tactical approach, but the reality on the pitch is often quite different. For example, if I point out that a team doesn’t really like pressing in the opposition half, they might say they do, while the numbers show that’s not truly the case. Individually, it’s the same: they do not always have a clear understanding of each player’s strengths and weaknesses. That’s why players who move to a club that has “done its homework” often perform better.

Once we clearly understand the squad, the desired playing style, and how it aligns with what is actually happening on the pitch, data becomes essential because it allows us to rely on numbers. For example: does the right-back often play the ball into the final third? Does he do so more than the left-back? These numbers help us make more informed decisions. Depending on what the club wants to implement, maybe they need another right-back capable of finding the final third more often. But perhaps this player is extremely strong in ground duels, and the team needs that characteristic. There is therefore a trade-off to make.

“Intending to implement a vision is one thing; making it visible and executable is another.”

Knowledge of the squad and its needs is therefore extremely important. From there, we can work in cycles, broken down into microcycles. For example, we’ll start by working on how the team builds play, how the ball is progressed from the back, and how that should evolve over time. Then individually, based on each player’s role, we will monitor their progress. Just like training cycles, we will build performance-monitoring cycles to see whether our vision is coming to life on the pitch.

Intending to implement a vision is one thing; making it visible and executable is another. This is where advanced analysis systems and data allow us to go into great detail. Then we must be able to communicate this information clearly to all stakeholders involved in the project.

What, for you, are the pillars of an effective communication tool? And beyond the tool itself, what are the keys to ensuring that information is truly understood?

For me, in communication, there is one crucial element: trying to create a common, shared football language. It’s something I work on a lot, even without being inside the club: identifying the terms each person uses. This applies even to simple notions like “counterattack,” which others call “offensive transition.” Definitions vary. It is therefore essential to be precise about our expectations, to establish a consensus on these definitions, and always return to this shared language. This is part of the human aspect: understanding how colleagues or the coach express themselves.

The coach remains the guarantor of the project and the team’s culture. He is the decision-maker, so it is crucial to use the same terms as he does and ensure everyone shares the same precise meaning of those terms.

Regarding the actual materials, the information must be digestible, but we must also keep in mind that the format depends on who we are speaking to. Some players want numbers, while others prefer to watch video. We have to adapt. For some players, showing them a number is not enough—we need to show them a video and say: “Look, half the balls you touched were in this space.”

Understanding each individual’s preferences is essential to communicating information effectively. There are also risks linked to information overload. Players already have many tactical concepts to absorb, and too much data quickly becomes counterproductive.

“In communication, there is one crucial element: creating a common, shared football language.”

This is where learning cycles (microcycles, macrocycles) are very useful. They allow us to focus on key points and monitor progress after each training session or match. For example, we might tell a player: “Usually, you touch the ball in the box an average of four times per game. Over the last three matches, it’s been five or six.” Is this a trend that can continue, or was it exceptional?

The hardest part is simplifying the information as much as possible. There is no universal solution: players have different needs, expectations, and cultures. In the end, I believe understanding the person you are speaking to is the most important factor in communicating effectively.

Another major challenge for clubs is vanity metrics—indicators that are not robust or have been distorted and are used to appear favorable internally (to staff) or externally (media, fans), but which do not actually help you understand your performance or guide your decision-making. How do you raise awareness about this risk and help clubs remain vigilant so that the data they use is truly actionable?

Indeed, any metric can become a vanity metric if we are not careful. Assists are a great example. If a player makes an incredible pass but his teammate doesn’t score, he is not credited with an assist. Obviously, every metric can be useful, but each one is also “agnostic” to other elements. xG, for example, gives a good indication of the shooting opportunities a player manages to find, but says nothing about the quality of those shots. Every metric has weaknesses. In today’s ocean of indicators, the most interesting thing is to find metrics that compensate for another’s weaknesses. In the case of xG, for instance, we might pair it with Post-Shot xG (PSxG) to compensate for its limitations.

For key passes or assists, we can use Possession Value models. These models can show that a player makes good, well-placed passes, and that perhaps it is the context or teammates that prevent them from being turned into shots or goals.

“Every indicator can be useful, but each one is also agnostic to other elements.”

This is the key: if we treat one metric as central to our analysis, we must always look for other indicators that challenge it. It’s by making that effort—by questioning ourselves—that we find the real signal. For example, a player might have a very high xG but a lower Post-Shot xG. We need to dig deeper to know whether the player is in excellent form and converting difficult shots, or the opposite. We must look for the tiny detail, the element that contradicts the surface-level analysis.

This is not easy, because as analysts we tend to want to reach a conclusion. It’s always satisfying to find a result, whether positive or negative, like saying: “Our shots are not high-quality.” But we have to make the effort to go further and question our own assumptions to check whether that’s truly the case.

That is why—even though using data (including creating one’s own metrics) is essential—I will never say that it replaces video. Data allows analysis to be more targeted, more contextualized, and more precise because it provides tangible elements. But there are many things you only notice by watching the match. Ultimately, data is still like back in the early days of Football Manager: a bird’s-eye view with little 2D dots moving around. Many elements simply cannot be captured through that. For me, the two go hand in hand—they do not oppose each other.

What have all these experiences taught you about how football clubs operate and about the people who make up these organizations?

I find that people in football are particularly hungry for information. Most of the people I deal with have a genuine desire to develop their knowledge and skills. For them, the pedagogical and educational aspect is essential.

In this sense, being able to create communities—like what you propose with NOSOTROS FC—where people can continue to develop is incredibly important. Unfortunately, this community and discussion aspect does not always exist. To me, it is crucial, because humans have a constant need to improve, and football is no exception—you always have to be ready to learn new things.

This ties into questioning oneself. It’s not easy, but being able to question yourself almost constantly, as a principle, plays a huge role in how we evolve and develop professionally.

On the other hand, in many clubs, siloed work is still the norm. It is therefore essential to establish transversal communication channels so that different departments can collaborate and follow clear processes understood by all, serving the organization’s ultimate vision and goals.

For example, it is still common to see recruitment departments that are not aligned with the coaches on the field. Some coaches still learn about the arrival of a new player at the same time as everyone else. For me, education, training, and discussion are essential elements that could greatly improve this situation.

A coach should understand the way a sporting director or a scout works, and vice versa. There is a lot to share and to bring together. It is a shame that we don’t see more coaches becoming sporting directors, for instance. The separation between the different roles is still too strong.

Even in large structures, within a recruitment department, there are video specialists, data specialists, and field scouts. It is important that each person understands the function and purpose of the others’ work. This is where leadership figures, like the head coach, are essential. The coach is the guardian of the club’s philosophy. He must be the keeper of that vision, communicate it to the media, and ensure that everyone is aligned.

Each club functions differently, but there must always be a shared vision, understood by all. That is why having leaders, or people with strong psychological understanding, who can bring everyone in the same direction, is crucial for an organization’s success. This is often where difficulties arise.