A 48-match sample of in-game footage of Nike Academy (16-20-year-olds) matches for the 2017 season was used during the study and identified examples of players performing in a number of number of outfield positions (i.e. central defender, full-back, central midfield, left/right midfield and central wide/attacking player). The Nike Academy was an English football academy funded and administrated by Nike, Inc. until 2017. The academy had a revolving squad of unsigned under-20 players and was run with the intention of helping players find a professional football club. The academy was based at St Georges Park National Football Centre (UK) and the squad was made up of players scouted worldwide and drafted to the squad through the Nike Most Wanted football trials. Full ethical approval was provided by Liverpool John Moores University Ethics Committee (15/EHC/044), and verbal and written informed consent was obtained from the participants and the Nike Academy to use match recordings.
In this study, we used a reliable and valid procedure to generate video clips of the required attributes for all six outfield playing positions (central defender, fullback, central midfielder, wide midfielder, centre-forward and wide attacker). The standardization process followed the systematic review of 4320 minutes of match footage in order to find video clips that were representative of various outfield positions. All the agreed player film sequences were incorporated into SportsCode Gamebreaker 10.3.1. for editing and reviewing purposes by members of the research team. Training in the use of SportsCode Gamebreaker 10.3.1. was provided by one of the authors (AM) (~3 hours training) who has extensive experience of performance analysis education. In total (n = 15) film sequences were produced for each of the outfield positions (i.e. central defender, fullbacks, central midfielder, wide midfielder, centre-forward and wide attacker). Each positional sequence contained (n = 10) clips that lasted for approximately 90 seconds each (15.00 minutes total).
To test for attribute acceptance for each position, we asked the participants to watch the video clips and to concurrently verbalise their cognitions from when the video clip started until it ended. Before the beginning of each clip, a black screen presented the name of the playing position and a numbered countdown (3-2-1) was provided, to aid participant visualisation. In addition, a still image with a circle around the player under observation was shown. To achieve acceptable content validity, the observations were recorded and consensus as to whether the attributes were efficiently shown in the player position-specific videos was determined. This approach demonstrated the presence of these attributes and provided the likely language a scout would adopt when thinking about the attribute. In order to confirm the existence of the definitions within each category two members of the research team independently reviewed the recordings and used the following equation to determine inter-observer agreement (IOA): [(Agreements) / (Agreements + Disagreements)] x 100. For example, if there was eight agreements and two disagreements then the equation would be [(8) / (8 + 2)] x 100 = (8/10) x 100 = 80%]. In order to check for observer consistency, the intra-observer reliability (IOR), was established by performing the same test, two weeks after the initial data collection sufficient time for complete memory lapse.
The results of this study found that the IOA for central defender was 0.87 (87%); full back 0.80 (80%); central midfielder 0.84 (84%); left/right midfielder 0.80 (80%) and central/wide attacking player 0.86 (86%). The results of the IOR for central defender were 0.83 (83%); full back 0.81 (81%); central midfielder 0.83 (83%); left/right midfielder 0.82 (82%) and central/wide attacking player 0.84 (84%).
Following full ethical approval, provided by Liverpool John Moores University Ethics Committee (15/EHC/044), two full-time talent scouts (i.e. Adam and Ben [pseudonyms]) were purposively sampled from a category one English Premier League academy (see, for an overview of academy category status). Adam (44 years) had worked as a talent scout for (17 years) and Ben (26 years) had worked as a talent scout for (3 years). Purposive sampling methods are commonly regarded as suitable for studies where the research team are interested in capturing the best knowledge concerning the research topic and studies which employ content analysis procedures. Prior to commencing the study both Adam and Ben provided written informed consent and were notified that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Gatekeeper consent to undertake video recording was obtained from the club's academy director as well as the gatekeeper for the opposing team, subsequent informed consent was also obtained from each individual player.
If we are to fully understand the role of the talent scout and their decision-making processes it is important the complexities of the identification process are captured in situ before attempting to recreate similar conditions in more controlled, simulated environments. The study was, therefore, conducted at the club's academy site as the research team were granted permission by the club's academy director, to observe and record a competitive game between the clubs under 15 team and another junior-elite under 15 team. The game was played mid-week, kick off 1900 hours, on a regulation size (100.5m x 64.0m) artificial 4G pitch, under floodlights with clear weather conditions.
Adam and Ben were trained in concurrent verbal reporting using an adapted version of the instructions outlined by Ericsson and Kirk. This included assigning warm-up exercises such as mental calculations to shape their verbal behaviour. For example, "So that you understand what I mean by think-aloud, let me give you an example. Assume I asked you 'How much is 127 plus 35?'. Now think-aloud so I can hear how you solve this problem. The participants practised providing verbal reports with feedback provided by members of the research team until level I or II verbal reports was established. Training in concurrent verbal reporting techniques was provided by a member of the research team who has published previously using this procedure in both sport and simulated medical domains. All concurrent verbal report training was conducted on the day of the game to ensure complete understanding of the task requirements.
Prior to the game commencing, a Lavalier microphone and radio transmitter (Sennheiser ew 122-p G3), was connected to a Dictaphone (Olympus WS-853) which was fitted to both participants. Adam and Ben also wore GoPro camera's (GoPro Hero 5) which were attached to their chest in order to determine whether the team they were scouting were in possession of the football or not. Adam and Ben were instructed to verbalise their thought processes in real-time without self-censoring, or attempting to justify or explain their thoughts, as per the verbal reporting protocol. Each participant took up a position at pitch level on opposite sides of the pitch on the half way line (Fig 1) and engaged in a full 90-minute football game, with the typical 15-minute half-time interval. During the game, Adam and Ben were allocated a research assistant who stood behind them listening for verbal reporting occurring. If either participant stayed quiet for longer than 30-seconds, following verbal reporting protocols, they were prompted by the research assistant to "think aloud".
For the first half of the game, Adam and Ben were asked to focus on the game as a whole. This was intended to represent a scouting assignment where no particular individual had been chosen for observation, and so the scout was responsible for identifying those individuals who they believed to be talented. For the second half, the research team selected two individuals from one team (the team with whom the scouts were not associated) to focus their attention and provide verbal report data.
Following the game Adam and Ben engaged in a debrief and informal semi-structured interview with members of the research team to discuss their thoughts on the verbal reporting protocol, including any difficulties or concerns that they had. This was recorded using a Dictaphone and transcribed away from the academy environment.
Verbal reports for both participants were transcribed verbatim, generating 15 single-spaced pages of text from 189 minutes and 20 seconds of total recorded audio. Ericsson and Simon outlined analysis procedures for verbal reporting protocols, where they highlighted relevance, consistency, and patterns of verbalisation streams as important. However, due to the exploratory nature of this study, and the broad range of factors likely to be covered by scouts in a dynamic game environment, it was deemed appropriate to conduct line-by-line deductive content analysis (see). Deductive content analysis is often exemplified by cases where researchers wish to code data based on an existing categorisation matrix. Any categorization matrix can be regarded as valid if the categories adequately and accurately captures what was intended.
Following transcription, verbal report data were converted to a Notepad text file and imported into Microsoft Excel (2016). Each verbatim statement was then coded using the coding criteria outlined in the codebook generated in Study 1. Each verbal report was then simultaneously and independently coded by a second trained member of the research team using the attribute definitions contained in the codebook. Each concurrent statement was coded using a colour system which was aligned to the attribute presented in Table 1. IOA estimates were conducted using the same method noted above, and suggested that two coders had equivalently coded (70.3%) of the verbalisations. The remaining verbalisations (29.7%) were re-coded by the two raters following a line-by-line debrief and discussion. Following line-by-line deductive content analysis, frequency counts of the individual phrases were imported into the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS V25) where descriptive statistical analysis procedures were conducted (i.e. means and standard deviations).
The informal debrief data were transcribed line-by-line and content analysis with inductive reasoning was conducted to develop themes and a process of continual examination and comparison was performed. Following hermeneutic procedures provided by Thomas and Pollio, information-rich verbalisations were identified as meaning units, which were subsequently grouped into sub-themes. Verbalisations were pieces of coded text that related to an attribute and ranged in the number of words they contained. This process was initially completed by two (MJR & SR) of the research team before being shared with the remaining two team members (AM & CL) to consider trustworthiness surrounding interpretation of data.