Newcastle United performance analysts hold Seoul seminar

Yahoo

5 days ago

Joe Friar and Matthew Hutchinson presented to counterparts from the K League at the Korea Football Association's headquarters in Jongno-gu on Thursday.
The pair - who hosted a similar session in Japan last summer during United's trip to Tokyo - offered insights into the Magpies' analysis department, from first-team level down to the Academy, and shared knowledge at the workshop-style event.
"Some of the clubs in the K League have a smaller analysis provision than ours, so to be able to give them an insight into how our department and what we do was great," explained First Team Performance Analyst Hutchinson, who joined Newcastle United in 2021.
"Hopefully they got a lot from it - there were some brilliant questions at the end and even after the seminar, a lot of people came up to talk to us about how we do things and what they do. It was nice to speak to like-minded people on the other side of the world."
United's analysis department is led by First Team Coach Analyst Jordan Tribe and Head of Performance Analysis Tom Coffield, and Friar and Hutchinson are part of a talented team based at the club's Benton HQ to study opponents' strengths and weaknesses and work on marginal gains ahead of each matchday.
Senior Performance Analyst (Training) Friar, who has been with the club since 2015, added: "We spoke a lot about how performance analysis links in to different departments at the club and supports the coaching process, and heard about the various differences in the way we work compared to the K League and vice versa.
"It was a really cool experience to present in front of so many people in a place like that and to see their enthusiasm for analysis, even if they might not have the same resources as we're lucky enough to have.
"They're sometimes operating with just one or two people but their enthusiasm is so high and they were so keen to take on board what we had to say.
"It's something we really like to do if it helps people - and we were even taken out afterwards by the K League for a Korean meal! We were able to chat more about football and the previous night's game against Team K League, as well as the Premier League and the latest trends."
United took on Arsenal in Singapore before heading to South Korea, where they faced Team K League and Tottenham Hotspur.
And Hutchinson added: "It's been class. They're two parts of the world I'd never seen before; starting in Singapore was amazing and the game, stadium and event was brilliant.
"Then we arrived in South Korea which is a fantastic place and the people in both countries have been great. It's so good to see people with Newcastle United tops on so far away from home."