How to get started in football data analytics (Tableau, Python, R) - Create Data Visualisations!

if you're looking to break into the

world of sports analysis you're probably

going to need to get to grips with some

data analysis and kind of understand

things like tableau python and r now we

did have this video already planned out

but i did delay it as i did do an

industry chat video with liam henshaw in

that video we spoke about how we got

started posting content online and the

different tools and languages that are

available to use

that video is linked down in the

description below but it is an hour long

so for anyone that can't be bothered or

too lazy to watch the full thing i

thought i'd do another video just to

kind of condense it down but also give a

bit more of my input too so before we

get started i do want to clarify that

from this sort of video i'm not saying

that everyone needs to be an absolute

expert data analyst you know it's not

practical to just kind of go from

nothing all the way to being a master

but what i will say is that if you are

looking to stand out when applying for

jobs even just having a basic

understanding of some of these things is

going to set you kind of aside from from

the other people that are going for the

same job so you know you haven't got to

go all in on this if you just want to

kind of dip your toe and see what it's

all about learn a few of the skills it

might actually mean that when you do

that you do want to continue learning

more but i think just having a basic

understanding is a massive massive help

okay if i always wanted to get started

in data analytics then i'd be looking to

begin immersing myself into the

community so by that i mean you could

read some books you can do some online

research and you can start following and

connecting with people on the likes of

twitter and linkedin the twitter

community was mentioned a lot in my chat

with liam so i think that's testament to

how useful that can be so i do really

advise that is a great place to get

started there's loads of people out

there that are you know keen analysts

and they they just love what they do and

they're sharing great things on twitter

a lot of them have their own blogs and

things like that so i think that's a

great place to start just to kind of see

first off what kind of things are

already being done and you can maybe

start to see trends on how things are

changing over time and that's going to

give you inspiration as well so if

you'll see something you know if you see

something that you like i'm not saying

go ahead and just copy it but you can

take inspiration from that to maybe

create something similar for yourself so

um i think there's lots of cool people

out there and again liam did mention

that there was a list along with his

army did say so get yourself on twitter

start immersing start connecting and

following and get integrated with with

the kind of things that are on there and

like i say there's loads of books

that you can read there's other podcasts

as well and just basically just do some

research online if reading is your thing

then three popular books that come up in

the discussion of data analytics include

sockonomics and football hackers the

science and art of data revolution and

the expected goals theory all of those

books i will link below and so if you do

want to check them out feel free to do

after the video you've probably all

noticed that expected goals for example

is even shown now in the likes of match

of the day as it becomes more and more

mainstream okay before i move on i do

just want to quickly say that i am by no

means an expert in the world of data

analytics so the contents of this video

basically come from my general research

my opinions but also chats from people a

lot more intelligent than me in this

field however i think if you apply the

knowledge and combine it with an actual

desire to learn then you really really

should be able to get started at least

with the basics one thing that was

mentioned was to start using tableau

public so i think the reason for this is

because apparently it is kind of

easy-ish to use it's quite intuitive so

it's easy to pick up for the complete

novice and there are lots of kind of

tutorials and resources out there online

to help you get started from using this

you should start to be able to create

some simple scatter graphs and bar

charts just to kind of wet your appetite

i think by starting and even just doing

something very very basic is going to be

a you know it's going to be a big

psychological win i think a lot of it is

just getting started and i think the the

whole term of data analytics and

visualizations it sounds very

complicated and it is difficult of

course but i think a lot of the times

people just put off by being overwhelmed

maybe and just being a bit scared to

actually start so if you are able to you

know

get the first steps done and just start

creating some simple things

i think that's going to give yourself

more confidence to then push on it and

create much much more like anything

practice makes perfect so the more time

you put in and practice with these

different skills the more you're going

to be able to achieve the next thing i

will say is to find a niche and also

understand why you want these skills and

which direction you want to go on in

your career basically so the whole thing

of finding a niche was mentioned by liam

in the industry chat that we did but it

was also brought up in a recent q a

video that i did also so i think it is

important not to kind of just do the

same thing as everybody else i think if

you are able to kind of

be creative and do something that is

different um

obviously it's got to be a niche that's

kind of other people are going to

actually find an interesting because

there's no point in doing something no

one's ever going to look at it but

there's plenty of things out there so i

think liam mentioned something along the

lines of um all

scottish players playing in italy for

example are all left backs under a

certain age so you can kind of niche

down into what interests you and start

basically producing content on that in

terms of where you want these skills to

kind of take and mold your career that's

entirely up to you so like i kind of

mentioned you can just learn the basics

just so you know you've got a basic

understanding and that's enough to get

you by but there's also always some

actual data positions that clubs will

kind of hire for as well so but i think

it is important to know that the data

jobs that are available these days

aren't just in clubs so you have organ

you have actually stats companies that

hire kind of data scientists you have um

clubs obviously you also have things

like content creators and and kind of um

magazines and things that we'll want

pieces doing on certain players so these

kind of jobs can be done on a freelance

basis a contractor basis so there's lots

of different avenues so having these

skills can open many doors

in terms of getting started with data i

have been recommended fb ref so this is

a website which again i will link below

and it has data it's all free as well by

the way data on the top five european

leagues so that can be a great place to

get started so again you've got that for

free you've got the tableau public for

free and you can just start playing

around and kind of see what you what you

can do

so there's not really any barrier of

entry really so free download get

started and see what you can achieve

okay so before we move on i do quickly

need to ask you to subscribe to the

channel if you haven't already and give

the video a like if you are finding it

useful and again when you get to the end

of this video some more of my videos

will be linked below and which again i

think you will find useful so let's get

straight back to the video

okay so the next thing i will say is

learn how to code so obviously that is a

lot easier said than done now the two

most popular languages that tend to be

used within football data analytics and

all the visuals that you see are python

and r so these are two different coding

languages so it will take some skill to

actually learn about them in the first

place and but you know like i say most

of the stuff you will see on twitter is

produced by using either of these

languages during the chat that i had

with liam he did mention both of these

he says that he you know uses python a

little bit more but he actually

recommends if you are getting started

there might be more online resources

available for r actually and so maybe

check that one out as an alternative

depending on what kind of learner you

are you might actually want to take a

course so there are online courses

available that kind of specialize in

python and also um you know you can kind

of go away spend some time and try and

self you know learn yourself and but you

know if you are kind of one of them

people that kind of learns better with a

structured kind of um curriculum or or

course and there are courses available

so you know that's at your disposal

you've also got there's loads of youtube

channels which i've been browsing

earlier actually in terms of how to use

these different languages to create

specific visualization so whether that

be a shot map

scatter graphs and stuff like that so

you can do that and there's the tutorial

videos then again they're on youtube so

they are free and you can always

obviously leave a comment under those

guys videos as well to kind of ask

questions and if you're unsure about

anything that they've put in the video

one thing i will say on this is it will

be a lot of trial and error so don't be

afraid to fail so do some work

obviously there will be some mistakes

because that's natural and but then i

think as you kind of get used to it

you'll start to rectify those mistakes

as you kind of get a better

understanding of the different languages

that you are using one thing that did

stick with me from my conversation with

liam was he actually said that you know

when he was kind of browsing twitter

before he started his own account was

the fact that he was looking up to these

people that were posting these cool

visuals and just basically thought well

if they can do it why can't i and i

think that's a great kind of mentality

to go with so i think from that i think

for me the most important thing is if

you are looking to do data analytics is

simply just to get started

we spoke about the twitter community

loads before and i think in terms of

that playing a part in your development

i think that's really really important

so share your work online again when you

first start your work you might you know

you might think your work is not very

good but that's fine you know get it out

there get some feedback maybe ask some

questions to somebody that's doing

something similar and learn as much as

you can from these different people

ultimately you've got to learn from your

mistakes so actually you're not going to

be perfect when you start out and but i

think even the people that you look at

now you know if you go on the on the

twitter community and see some of the

cool visualizations by the people with

loads and loads of followers they

started off at a basic basic level so

you've got to be realistic the fact that

yeah you might take some time to get

there but you've got to start otherwise

you'll never get there okay so that's

all for this video so thanks very much

for watching please do check out my

other videos linked in the description

below and go ahead and get started on

your data analytics journey let me know

if you have any questions down below in

the comments but also leave a comment if

you have any cool resources that you

want to share with anybody else that is

watching this video good luck and have a

great day