MLS expansion team Atlanta United said they would be using analytics to help build their roster, and they are putting that promise in motion.
The club, which will begin play in MLS in 2017, announced their first Designated Player signing, Argentine midfielder Hector Villalba, last week.
And in a video released by the team after announcing Villalba's signing (watch above), executives discussed the process by which they decided to take the plunge with the 21-year-old.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, analytics played a significant role in the process. As discussed in a feature on MLSsoccer.com in April, Atlanta United president Darren Eales explained analytics would help the team make the most of its resources within unique MLS roster constraints.
“We will have, as we are building up, a style of play we want to play at Atlanta United and ideas about how our right back wants to play, how we want our No. 8 to play,” Eales explained in the feature. “Then we feed that into technical scouting to try and narrow down the targets that fit into our system. At that stage, we get the technical side with Carlos [Bocanegra, general manager] and then we start to [scout] and see who fits.”
