Rangers have dramatically changed the scout system – and it isn’t working yet | OneFootball

As we have been covering lately, Rangers Director of Football Recruitment Nils Koppen finally broke his Ibrox silence recently to give an in-depth interview to official club channels about transfer strategy and general aims and objectives, and unfortunately the Belgian didn’t really say anything particularly reassuring to fans.

Indeed, Rangers’ Chief Scout (that’s really what he is) actually had some… well we’ll not say ‘grim’, but perhaps not overly positive comments to make about his job and how he is doing, apart from dropping a hint that January, including Fabio Silva, was a job well done. We’d thoroughly disagree.

However, Ibrox Noise has pointed out that his job is heavily data-driven, and scouting-based, and that most signings are effectively made on that basis.

And the man himself agrees, saying:

Now, this is what reportedly outgoing Director of Football Operations Creag Robertson said too, that the scouting system had changed, and that the club was now a lot more data-based, using stats, numbers and forensic information to try to find good players.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – FEBRUARY 12: Graeme Murty is seen with Creag Robertson prior to the UEFA Youth League match between Rangers U19 and Atletico Madrid U19 at Firhill Park on February 12, 2020 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

We weren’t completely against it, but it has to be in concert with eyeballs on the players too.

We do understand that it’s not practical to visually scout thousands of players, week-in-week-out, and that there has to be some system of filtering out the lesser targets, but Koppen’s use of ‘hopefully’ is a major admission that the system isn’t exactly faultless.

In short, data doesn’t replace what the eyes see on the pitch – and it’s very, very likely a few good many great players have slipped through the net because their data didn’t match the profile.

Rangers’ scouting network has to expand – while we repeat the notion that thousands of players can’t be physically-watched in person, there is no substitute, including forensic data, for watching a player and getting a feel for him.

Unfortunately, Rangers are ditching many players who could be bang on, simply because they didn’t pass the data screening before the viewing stage.

With Rangers being third in a two-horse race, it seems pretty clear that the system Robertson mention many moons ago hasn’t really borne a lot of fruit yet – either that or the manager isn’t good enough. Who knows any more.

But Koppen is in charge of it, and till Rangers are top of the table and winning titles again, it will be rightly questioned.