New Staff Roles Data Analyst & Sports Scientist Explained

As you know, Sports Interactive introduced two new staff roles in Football Manager 2017, specifically data analysts and sports scientists.

There has been some confusion around them because there are no official guidelines as to which are the key attributes that make a good data analyst or a good sports scientist.

First off, let's look at the official definition for the two new staff roles, as explained on the feature reveal video of Football Manager 2017.

Data analysts form part of your scouting team and will provide you with detailed pre and post-match reports, looking at tactical trends in your positions previous matches, as well as your own performance.

Sports scientists support your medical team and work to reduce the likelihood of injuries reoccurring.

We received quite a few questions on Twitter from people asking what to look for when searching for a data analyst and a sports scientist. Our initial guess for key attributes was as follows:

Data Analysts
tactical knowledge*, judging abilities*, adaptability*, determination, motivating, man management

Sports Scientists
fitness*, physiotherapy*, adaptability*, determination, motivating, man management

Marked the more important attributes with an asterisk.

In essence, we think of data analyst as a scout with tactical knowledge and sports scientist as a physio with fitness coaching. Plus three minor traits we believe that could further enhance their efficiency.

To take it a step further, we asked Miles Jacobson (Sports Interactive studio director) for a more accurate insight, because there were people on SI forums suggesting that attributes do not matter at all for these new roles.



As you can see, Miles confirms our initial guess. So it is now safe to search for your next data analyst and sports scientist using the key attributes we mentioned above as filter.

Feel free to share your opinion in a comment down below.