Jürgen Klopp offered a light-hearted response to a question about modern football data analytics at the tail end of his Thursday DFB press conference, insisting that data can inform his decisions without ever replacing the evidence he collects with his own eyes.
The new Bundestrainer has already demonstrated a willingness to look beyond conventional international résumés. His first 44-player Germany squad includes established stars, long-serving Premier League professionals and 11 players who had never previously received a senior call-up.
Klopp and his staff naturally used modern scouting tools while surveying such a broad pool. The 59-year-old nevertheless drew a clear line between information that can help identify a player and information that can tell a coach whether that player actually belongs.
“Yes, data mining is important,” Klopp said when asked about the role modern metrics played in his selections. “When one doesn’t know a player very well, we take a look at their pace and a number pops up in the room. I saw a player who clocked 38 km/hr or something. But he didn’t make the cut. One cannot sprint one’s way into the squad.”
“I think that was the only piece of data I paid [close] attention to,” Klopp continued. “Look, I didn’t really pay that close attention. That’s just supplemental information. For me, it’s all about the players. It’s really all about the value the player brings to what you’re attempting to accomplish.”
Klopp invokes Xavi and Iniesta
To explain the limits of physical data, Klopp reached for two of the defining midfielders of modern football.
“Many effective midfielders like Xavi or Iniesta, I honestly have no clue how fast they were,” Klopp said. “No idea. I know they were fast, but I don’t know the numbers. I know that they made quick decisions, they played the ball at the right moment, they controlled the game and were outstanding. The data is open to interpretation.”
Klopp: “Perhaps I’m old school”
Klopp has spent much of his first month as Bundestrainer attempting to close that information gap personally. He travelled extensively, met players and watched them live before naming his inaugural squad. Klopp has already acknowledged that some of those encounters changed his previous impressions considerably. The process appears central to how he wants to work.
“Perhaps I’m ‘old school’,” he admitted. “Old habits are good enough. One should remain open to new developments. What’s important is that I can correctly interpret the information that I collect from my own eyes and in discussions with others. And then there’s the talks with the players and what I see from them when we work together. That’s what forms my impression.”
“The data is there,” Klopp concluded. “It could be the case that my assistant coaches talked it to death, but I wasn’t there.”
