Hallett goes with the data to find right fit

SIMON Hallett has made no secret of his fondness for data and analytics, so it comes as no surprise that they played such a fundamental role in the appointment of a new head coach at Plymouth Argyle.

- STUART JAMES

Throughout his involvement at Home Park, the 68-year-old has been keen for analytics to be at the very heart of all key decisions made at Home Park and given the success of the club in the last five years, it has been a success.

Now, he hopes that by delving into the detailed statistics behind Wayne Rooney’s managerial career to date – and not just the stand-out 25 per-cent win percentage he has as a manager – he has found the right man in which to take the Pilgrims forward.

“First of all, you can look at data to analyse style of play and Wayne’s style of play is consistent with what we want to see out of an Argyle team,” Hallett said of how Argyle came to appoint Rooney from a long list of several.

“Results have been poor, we know that his win/ loss ratio is not particularly attractive, but actual results are not a terribly good way of looking at how much of an impact a manager has had on a team. So looking at the underlying data, we can see that at DC United, he improved attack and defence and in fact, when it came to chance creation, they were almost top of the league.