Out of curiosity, how analytics-orientated are Ajax as a club? Wondering about the degree of infrastructure/support ETH would have had in that regard there versus here.
Ajax like other clubs utilise data to back up the eye test. The eye test is crucial towards understanding what is required before the data plays a part in helping with the decision making process and minimising the mitigating factors and associated risks.
At Ajax, the data analytics along with the sports science side of the football club is led by Vosse de Boode. And she has gone on record and said that without the guidance of the football experts at the club, like Henk Veldmate, she wouldn't be able to function effectively in her role when it comes to applying the data.
At Liverpool, Michael Edwards recently wrote a open letter to the Liverpool fans before he stepped down as the DoF at the club. And he clearly stated that the two head scouts (Barry Hunter & Dave Fallows) were absolutely integral in Liverpool's success and the data analytics was important but they didn't sign players 'off stats'. But the data was applied to help minimise the risk factors, which is important.
And I often see people saying, we need a DoF because he needs to have contacts etc, which will help us sign players more effectively. But Edwards in his open letter stated that the person with the contacts/connections at the club was the Chief Scout, Barry Hunter, who has a contacts book that reads like a who’s who of football.
It's important to cover all bases and leave no stone unturned. So it's good to see that we're going to hopefully back up the eye test with the help of a dedicated team of data scientists, which will hopefully be very important in reducing the associated risks when it comes to signing players and also aid the coaching staff via the sports science side at the club, as well as strategically in-game whilst the game is in progress.