Where it all began

I started analysing matches using a piece of software called Pinnacle Studio. It took me eight hours to analyse a single game. It was the first tool I ever used to watch and record youth football matches. Nobody asked me to do it. I did it because I wanted to understand the game at a level that couldn’t be seen from the stands or from the pitch.

Today, every professional club has an analysis department with tools that, twenty years ago, would have seemed like science fiction. Video platforms that tag actions automatically. GPS systems that measure physical load in real time. Mathematical models that calculate expected goals. Databases with information on thousands of players from around the world.

Data without context is noise

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my career is that data only has value when it’s interpreted with judgement.

I had the privilege of collaborating with Media Coach on the development of LaLiga’s data programme. And there came a point when I told them something they perhaps didn’t expect: they were generating too much data. Football professionals weren’t prepared to absorb that volume of information. We went from having almost nothing to an avalanche, and that made it virtually impossible to decide what was truly important to teach your players.

I’ve seen scouting reports with fifty metrics per player that were absolutely useless. And I’ve seen a three-minute video, well-edited and well-explained, change an entire team’s tactical preparation.

The difference isn’t in the volume of data. It’s in knowing which questions to ask.

The Iniesta lesson

At FC Barcelona I had the privilege of working with one of the greatest squads in football history. How do you prepare a match when you have Messi, Neymar, Suárez and Iniesta?

One day I asked Iniesta how the coaching staff could help them better. He said:

That sentence changed everything for me. From that point on, we focused on identifying the opponent’s weaknesses and communicating them as clearly as possible. They did the rest, at a speed that defies rational explanation.

Four leagues, four ways of understanding the game

I’ve had the fortune —and sometimes the difficulty— of coaching in four European leagues and five countries. Spain, France, Italy, Russia. Each with its own culture, its own rhythm, its own demands.

Technology as an ally, not a crutch

I use technology in my work. I always have. At fourteen I was already recording matches when nobody else was doing it. I analysed Guardiola’s four years at Barça match by match. I spent my first salary on a projector to bring to youth football pitches.

Today I use video analysis platforms, physical performance data, artificial intelligence tools. Just as medical teams, scouting departments and clubs all over the world do.

But there’s a line that’s important not to cross:

The data tells you a player has run 11.5 kilometres. It doesn’t tell you he had an argument with his roommate the night before. The video shows you the team is losing its reference point in the build-up. It doesn’t tell you the centre-back is afraid to make a mistake because last week the error was his and the crowd singled him out.

The coach of the future

People often ask me what the coach of the future will look like. My answer is always the same: someone who can read data and read people. Who masters technology and understands that a dressing room is managed through eye contact, conversations at seven in the morning, and the ability to convey confidence when everything is going wrong.

I’ve learned, through experience and through mistakes, that dealing with people is 80% of the job. I used to dedicate most of my time to tactics. Today I see it the other way around. At the tactical level, the differences between elite coaches are minimal. What truly makes the difference is how you treat people. How you anticipate what they feel. How you build trust.

What defines me

I was never a professional player. That’s why I study twice as hard.

My path has been different from most coaches: built from analysis, from study, from an obsession with understanding the game from every possible angle. That journey has taught me that in modern football there is no single formula.

What does exist is an attitude: the commitment to keep learning every day, to listen before imposing, to use every available tool without forgetting that the main ingredient will always be people.

My vision of modern football comes down to one idea: playing both matches. The one on the pitch and the one off the pitch. With the same preparation, the same standards and the same values.