The Numbers Game: Interview with Mike Faulkner

Mike Faulkner, Head of Player Development and Analysis for FC, discusses how making use of new technology within the game is helping the FC management team.

Tim Browning recently heard from Mike Faulkner about the new GPS bibs the players have worn recently and why they are providing a valuable insight into developing the current FC squad.

"Firstly, from myself, Reno and all the backroom staff we’ve got to thank the fans for clubbing together to buy them, it’s just brilliant and another thing that demonstrates how welcome we’ve been made to feel.

"The bibs contain a GPS tracker which measures the movement and position of the player during the game and they are so useful; we don’t use them just to track how far people are running, one lad could wear a bib and be running all game, he might not even get the ball but we would see that he’s run twelve kilometres, so it doesn’t really work like that. We use them for the heat-maps so you know where each individual player has been during the game.

"Watching FC for a few games you’ll see how Reno plays, he likes to have a front three behind the #9, nice and tight, and leave the channels free for the fullbacks to get up the pitch, so we look at the data after the match and see how that three have positioned themselves.

"If they’ve gone wide we can talk to them individually, and tell them what we want them to do next time, which could either be to carry on as they are or maybe get tighter. As everyone knows, Reno is keen on fitness so as well as the shape of the team we can tell how far players are covering, sprints etc.

"That’s just one of the things we do with those bibs so they’re fantastic for giving us the insight; many games are won in the last ten minutes when the opposition are tiring so we the bibs can help us ensure that fitness is there.

"Many clubs have these systems now, when we were in the division below with Bamber Bridge we were ahead of everyone as not many other clubs have them at that level. In the league FC are in I believe that half the clubs have got a GPS system, the sales representative for the company we bought ours from plays for Bradford Park Avenue who use them, and they are becoming very common because teams realise the benefits they bring.

"I used to play myself and had a bad achilles injury when I was 21 which never fully recovered despite an operation, so I moved into the coaching and development side, I’m an accountant by trade so I have a natural aptitude with numbers and statistics which helps with the analysis of the data and giving the manager and players information that they can digest.

"After each game we take all the GPS units from the bibs, plug them into a docking station and then upload the data into a laptop, then we can start doing the analysis and produce reports which I then send over to Reno to read.

"The players all have an individual login to a website so they can look at their own individual stats, then after a Saturday game we’ll talk about them on the Tuesday training session, then issue briefings on the Thursday night session to prepare for the Saturday game.

"We’ve used these now for a couple of games since we received them, thanks to the generosity of the FC fans, and we’ll repay them when they’ll start to see the benefits of the analysis of the information from the bibs as we continue to work with the team to get the right results.”