Clubs are becoming more aware of the importance of implementing good data engineering as well as data science. James Young, Sunderland’s former Head of Data and Analysis, spoke about this at TGG’s Big Data 2021 Webinar.
He described data engineering as “moving data around and storing it in ways that can be leveraged” and added “it’s an old adage that if you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out.
“Unless you have nailed down the quality of the data you are holding, you won’t get anything useful out of the other side. If anything, you could get something misleading.”
Dominic Jordan, Manchester United’s former Director of Data, has welcomed the increase in the number of Data Engineering roles in football. Responding to a recent TGG job advert for a Data Engineer at Leicester City, he said: “A very nice looking job. As the Data Science space in football matures, you will be seeing a lot more of these.”