Interesting interview with Comolli

[Maldini]

From This Is Anfield: http://forums.thisisanfield.com/showthread.php?28393-Damien-Comolli-An-eye-for-talent-with-a-talent-for-detail

 

 

Damien Comolli offers his views on talent identification, scouting, recruiting and player development.

 

Dave Richardson interviews Damien Comolli, Director of Football at Liverpool Football Club.

 

Eyebrows were raised, especially those with a Spurs connection, when Damien Comolli returned to the English Premier League with Liverpool Football Club. Damien was appointed as the Director of Football Strategy by Liverpool FC and Fenway Sports Group (FSG) in November last year. He then was promoted as Director of Football. His previous excursions in to the Premier League have received mixed reviews. A short time spent Googling ‘Damien Comolli’ offers an array of perspectives from various (expert) commentators. This interview offers us a chance to hear for ourselves Damien’s thoughts on talent identification, scouting, recruitment and player development.

 

Comolli was a young player with AS Monaco until his late teens. At this early age he appeared to have an eye for talent. His own eye critiqued his own ability and concluded that he was not good enough. The continuation of ‘some’ type of career in football required an alternative strategy. The customary coaching licenses followed alongside a further ‘what if’ contingency of a degree in Law. The law degree doesn’t feature significantly in our early exchanges, and acts only as a vehicle for learning and structuring work.

 

I’m sure that a law degree offers more than this, but Comolli is content to focus on the football education that he required in order to secure a future in the game. A coaching position at AS Monaco was subsequently secured. Arsene Wenger was the manager at the time and a significant ally in Damien’s future career choice and undoubtedly his practice. In 1996 an under 18s coaching position at Nagasaki in Japan proved an attractive proposition. Subsequently, his encounters with Wenger continued and the relationship evolved.

 

Two years later, and one year in to Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal, he offered Comolli a position as the Gunners’ European Scout. Comolli’s experiences thus far included playing and coaching, even a spot of goalkeeper coaching. He also admits to being swayed towards fitness and conditioning. Those with any sense of football nous believe, rightly or wrongly, that they can ‘spot’ a player.

 

However, to take on such a high profile and critical role with little or no experience of ‘scouting’, in a new country and at such a high profile club would appear a fairly daunting prospect. Comolli spent a year ‘learning’ this new trade, ‘understanding what scouting was about’. Any thoughts of returning to the coaching environment petered out after a couple of years, as his confidence and reputation for spotting and recruiting talent evolved.

 

Comolli’s CV possesses two stints at Saint Etienne as Sporting Director and a 3 year period as Tottenham’s Director of Football. All of these appointments embraced a wider brief than his role at Arsenal, including more strategic development plans, medical provision, scouting and contract negotiations. These roles also saw Damien positioned as an intermediate between those that run the club, the owners and the head coach.

 

With no real management experience, other than watching others, his first stint at Saint Etienne was a steep, but valuable, learning curve; one that Damien claims enabled him to learn a vast amount in a very short period of time. Comolli has learnt quickly. He is also quick to recognise the importance of having good people around him, good people who know the demands and identity of their club.

 

Comolli has been involved in either coaching, identifying, scouting and/or recruiting players to the highest level for nearly 20 years. He is well aware of the complex intricacies of talent identification and development. In essence, the facets of talent ID and development include a complex mosaic of talent considerations including, technical, tactical, physical, physiological, psychological, social and cultural issues.

 

So, in scouting a player, what should you be looking for? Comolli recounts the evolutionary nature of his existence and subsequent evolution of the talent scouting and recruitment process, ‘I would say there has been a major change in the last 3 to 4 years whereby I think now we need to look a lot more at the psychological aspect of the player, the attitude of the player, the mentality of the player on the pitch than we used to… before, it was all about the talent and the physical ability and I think now probably with the style of play of the likes of Barcelona and Arsenal… I think we are now more orientated towards the attitude of the player. Is he a team player? Is he intelligent enough that he puts himself at the disposal of the team?

 

The first thing we used to look for is the talent, but not anymore. What we want, is a talented player but with the right attitude and intelligence.’ Comolli explains further and continues to champion the notions of attitude, respect for the team and intelligence, ‘You can sense from what he (the player) does on the pitch, his intelligence and practical awareness can usually be seen without having to meet the player, you want players to be able to use that talent for the team and to be a team player…

 

Obviously, when you work in the Premier League you need to look out for physical attributes because it’s physically very demanding, you need to be strong, you need to be quick. But coming back to the talent, how do you use it? How does the player use the talent they’ve got?’ Comolli works hard to translate this philosophy to his scouts and recruitment staff. Additionally, he recognises that each club is different, each manager is different,

 

‘You have to respect what the club wants, how the club wants to play and the type of player the club wants to bring in… it’s not worth putting a player that you like as a scout but doesn’t match with what the club needs or what the club is looking for, or doesn’t match the playing philosophy or identity (of the club).’

 

These words are rarely heard in the talent recruitment corridors of many top-level (and lower-level) football clubs, or rarely are they fully articulated in this way. The job is to educate the scouts, create regular and direct communication between them and the coaching staff. The best scouts ‘get it, usually, but if they don’t, it’s about bringing them here and making them understand what we look for, trying to make them understand what the club’s philosophy is in terms of our approach to playing the game and our (the club’s) identity.’

 

The ideal scout is one, ‘that has got a great eye, a great judgement of player and also a fantastic network.’ The eye in this regard, must match the needs of the club (i.e., both the academy and the first team), the club’s playing philosophy and the identity of the club. I sense that first of all, you need to spend some reconnaissance time to understand what these immediate needs are and then translate this to the coaches and scouts who must begin to recognise and understand that the needs of the club and the subsequent identity of the club is about ‘today’ as opposed to ‘yesterday’ or some bygone era.

 

The process of recruitment is, more than ever, a strategic operation. At a first team level, due diligence must be afforded to potential multi-million pound acquisitions. The initial player recommendations of the scout are followed up by at least 3 to 4 more viewings from ‘other’ senior staff. Subsequently, three positive reports will trigger a ‘buying’ mechanism, ‘the beauty of having different people is that different people watch different things.

 

They have a slightly different eye, depending on their experience, their personality or background as maybe a coach or maybe a player… the diversity is key… you want to develop a situation where people can challenge, challenge me or the manager. You know, saying that’s my opinion, you may not agree with me but I’ll give you my opinion because that’s the way I think and that’s what I’ve seen… you want your scouts to be strong, not sit on the fence, make a recommendation, yes, no, why. You want a strong recommendation either way.’

 

Comolli recognises that today’s outlay on players requires more than just a playing recommendation. The recommendation must go beyond the pitch. Compiled reports require information about the player’s lifestyle, his approach to training, what he eats and drinks, his family and his background. The narrative conjures up images of scouts being schooled watching re-runs of the exploits Jim Rockford or Eddie Shoestring.

 

Yet understanding every aspect of a player is critical in guiding the ultimate call as to whether you spend a few million. There are no guarantees. We are all fully aware of those players that have not travelled well or settled well into their new club. High outlay and high expectations with little or no delivery or reward (no matter what the circumstances) is an equation that Comolli wishes to avoid. Reducing the risk is paramount.

 

Comolli explains that his role is to try to anticipate whether a player will adapt to life in his new club, with his new team mates, his new city (new country even) or new environment before the club signs them. The club then works with the player’s agent to help the player and his family to settle and become more independent. This post-signature aspect of player recruitment has been traditionally neglected by numerous factions within football. Comolli maintains that this is a critical part of his and the club’s role.

 

Comolli’s role is not confined to first team player recruitment. He’s also involved in the development of the scouting network for the Academy. He recognises that scouting the younger ages is even more challenging, ‘the younger you look at them the more difficult the scouting job is… it is so difficult to try to get a player who is (say) 12, and predict that he’s going to be a top player at 18. The older they are the easier it is from a scouting point of view.

 

But in terms of what we are looking for in a player it is exactly the same thing; talent, attitude, intelligence, tactical awareness. We are taking more of a gamble because we don’t know how a player is going to change between 12 to 15 or 16 and 19 and also 17 and 19 or 17 and 20… you don’t want to sign a player who is 15 and fully matured because you know there is no room for development, from a physical point of view and sometimes from a psychological point of view as well, because sometimes the player will dominate his category at 15 but not so much at 20. So that’s the basic thing to take into consideration.

 

But again, we tell the scouts to not just look only at the talent, but look at what the player is like with his talent and how he uses his talent, so it’s coming back, a little bit, to how we work with the first team.’ The judgement of talent in these early years appears more flexible. There also appears to be a sense of cultural congruence between the first team and the academy. Comolli reiterates his philosophy; talented players, with intelligence, a respect for the team, a sense of selflessness and an ability to develop and learn.

 

At this point he recounts the words of Ernie Accorsi, the former General Manager of the NFL’s New York Giants football team, ‘He used to say that if a kid has had a good attitude in the past but lost his way, you can make him good again but if your kid has never had a good attitude then you’ll never make him good.’ The sentiment here refers back to attitude.

 

Comolli describes his evolving experiences, ‘you think yeah his attitude is no good but we’re going to change him… you’ve got no chance…you always want to meet the player and sometimes you’ve got to make a judgement without really knowing the person personally. But if you think his behaviour is not right but you know he’s going to come into our environment are we going to make him better are we’re going to change him totally, it doesn’t work. In my experience it doesn’t work. You need to see some positive signs to be convinced that you are going to be able to change the kid, if you don’t see anything positive he won’t change.’

 

The psychologists reading this may contend Comolli’s stance. Most psychological literature tends to suggest that, with the correct support, anything is possible. Comolli disagrees. Top-level football is a tough place to be. Players with ‘attitude deficiencies’ can negatively impact the positive environment that you wish to create. Moreover, too much valuable practitioner time can be spent on and/or with them. They have no place in Comolli’s model.

 

Comolli recognises the importance of the youth academy in his strategic recruitment plan, ‘If there is no path between the academy or the reserves and the first team then you can work as well as you want in the academy but there will be no end project. If there is no common identity, there is no common coaching or playing philosophy then it doesn’t work. I’ve arrived in clubs where it was literally two different entities within one club; on one side the academy and the other side the first team and I consider that (the development of cultural congruence) as a very important part of my job to make sure that everybody is on the same line.’

 

The development of cultural congruence between the academy and first team environments is a difficult challenge. Cultural and physical distance between the two entities can further exaggerate the divide. Comolli has developed a series of shared events for first team, reserve team and youth team staff to encourage mutual understanding, references points, philosophical, technical and tactical synergy. Comolli is clearly an advocate of developing common practices across the youth and professional environments.

 

His job is to create a ‘real’ pathway for a young player to travel from the academy through to the reserves and ultimately in to the first team. Comolli is concerned that the post academy experience is probably the biggest challenge facing him and football in general, ‘it’s the same everywhere’. I think that the step between the first team and the reserves is a challenge for every single club in Europe and the bigger the football club the more difficult it is… we haven’t found the right, or perfect path or the right balance and I still think we’ve still got a lot of improvements to make from 18 to 20, 21. Those 3 years are a bit touch and go in football at the moment.’

 

Young players entering the first team environment are (normally) not the finished article, yet they are treated as such. The culture of the professional environment is one that does not typically embrace the notion of development. The bigger conundrum for Comolli is what to do with the player who is (say) 20 and is too good for the reserves but not quite ready for the first team. Many promising young careers have come to an undistinguished, faltering and invisible end in an environment of uncertainty typically beset with a ruthless mandate to ‘just get on with it’.

 

The loan system is normally championed as a solution to this problem. Traditionally the loan system has been devoid of strategic intent and/or strategic management with little thought to the ‘matching’ of host and donor clubs or the development needs of the player. Comolli’s model appears different, ‘The loan system is managed by myself and the Academy Director… it’s crucial to the player’s development.

 

It is managed properly and thoughtfully. We speak to the player after every game, the local scouts pay a visit to the player to ensure everything is fine and then we kind of have a list of clubs that we are keen to send the players to because we know the type of football they will play, the way they train, we know they will look after the player… we don’t want to be in a situation where a loan will be dictated to us, we prefer to be proactive.’

 

The provision of a development pathway is a difficult challenge in any football club. The volatile, short-termism of the football industry typically dictates that managers, chief executives and owners haven’t got time for this. Comolli’s experience knows that he needs the owners on board as well as the manager. To carry out his strategic plan he needs support and patience from those around him. Such virtues are typically in short supply in such environments but Comolli seems to have found them with Liverpool FC and FSG.

 

As for the future of talent recruitment, Comolli extends his need to understand every detail of a player before the club decide to sign them. The need for (accurate and reliable) data and information; physiological, physical, technical, psychological and social is critical to help inform decisions. As is the case in America, he believes that psychological profiling prior to signing a contract will emerge in England and in Europe. The sense of knowing the person as opposed just the player appears critical. At the earlier age Comolli would like to be able to predict the work load capacity of a player before signing them. In essence, he wants to know if they can cope physically with the demands of top-level football. Something similar occurs in US baseball with the physical assessment and work load capacity of the pitcher’s arm. Comolli’s not quite sure whether this will transfer or translate to football just yet, but I’m sure he’ll find out pretty soon.

 

Damien Comolli was appointed as Liverpool FC’s Director of Football in March 2011. The Frenchman, previously the Reds’ Director of Football Strategy, arrived at Anfield in November 2010 after holding senior roles at Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Saint-Etienne. Comolli, a graduate from Nice law school, started his football journey as a youth team player, then coach with AS Monaco. After a spell as a youth coach in Japan in 1996 /97, a move to Arsenal FC followed (European Scout), with subsequent stints at Saint-Etienne (Technical Director), Tottenham Hotspur (Director of Football) in 2005, returning to Saint-Etienne (as Sporting Director) in 2008. Comolli’s exhaustive knowledge of European football helped identify stars like Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Gael Clichy, and Kolo Toure.

 

Dave Richardson PhD is a specialist in youth development, organisational culture and community and the assistant director of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University.

[épieur]

<elm0>A lot of fancy words for what boils down to thinking 16m on Henderson is a good idea, if you ask me.</elm0>

 

Seriosuly though, good read. I hope he makes a habit of these kind of interviews. With Kenny, we have his ongoing interactions with the press about team affairs and games and of course the performances on the pitch to measure what kind of job he is doing. Comolli's contributions are a lot more opaque to the fans, so it's nice to see some in depth interviews with him like this.

[Maldini]

Yeah, a couple of things stood out to me, the "shared moments" thing through the levels is interesting, I wonder what it means in practical terms.

 

  Quote

At this point he recounts the words of Ernie Accorsi, the former General Manager of the NFL’s New York Giants football team, ‘He used to say that if a kid has had a good attitude in the past but lost his way, you can make him good again but if your kid has never had a good attitude then you’ll never make him good.’ The sentiment here refers back to attitude.

 

This made me think of Clichy too, he's obviously a player Comolli knows, maybe he thinks the right environment will help restore him to his previous level.

 

[JonShar]

Great article. Commoli is obviously very single-minded in his approach, I like that about him. He'll be wrong sometimes, but at least he's clear about his, and the club's, vision.

[Epic Swindle]

He's obviously a really intelligent guy but patience is rare in modern footie and he'll live or die by his signings. And he's defo from Transylvania

[Crazy Horse]

  On 10/06/2011 at 20:14, JonShar said:

Great article. Commoli is obviously very single-minded in his approach, I like that about him. He'll be wrong sometimes, but at least he's clear about his, and the club's, vision.

 

I used to hear George W. Bush described in very similar terms.

[JonShar]

  On 10/06/2011 at 21:24, Crazy Horse said:

I used to hear George W. Bush described in very similar terms.

 

With one big difference. I said Commoli was wrong sometimes, Bush was wrong all the time.

 

Shouldn't George W. Bush be ***** out on here?

[Dan]

  On 10/06/2011 at 20:02, Maldini said:

 

This made me think of Clichy too, he's obviously a player Comolli knows, maybe he thinks the right environment will help restore him to his previous level.

 

 

Same here

[alias75]

Good read that, but reading what he had to say about the importance of the players attitude and how it was very difficult for someone thats had a bad attitude in the past to change, it does make me wonder why on earth we would have been interested in Barton (if we were)

[épieur]

  On 10/06/2011 at 22:03, alias75 said:

Good read that, but reading what he had to say about the importance of the players attitude and how it was very difficult for someone thats had a bad attitude in the past to change, it does make me wonder why on earth we would have been interested in Barton (if we were)

 

I think even if they were willing to give him the benefit of a doubt, his wage demands quickly convinced them otherwise.

[Rimbeux]

  On 10/06/2011 at 20:02, Maldini said:

Yeah, a couple of things stood out to me, the "shared moments" thing through the levels is interesting, I wonder what it means in practical terms.

 

 

 

 

Had me in mind of what has gone on at Saracens Rugby club in recent times, they have a big emphasis on their players becoming better people by encouraging productive outside interests and also looking to make the group stronger by creating what they call shared memories. The latter can be just going on a great booze up, such as the one they did to a German beer festival, getting in trouble for not sending anyone to the Premiership press launch as they thought their trip was more important and nobody was going to miss it.

[Tosh]

I am reminded of one of our old managers harping on about players being "intelligent" and thinking that perhaps Comolli is saying the same thing.

 

..."look a lot more at the psychological aspect of the player, the attitude of the player, the mentality of the player on the pitch than we used to… before, it was all about the talent and the physical ability and I think now probably with the style of play of the likes of Barcelona and Arsenal… I think we are now more orientated towards the attitude of the player. Is he a team player? Is he intelligent enough that he puts himself at the disposal of the team? "

[Prag]

  On 11/06/2011 at 09:29, Tosh said:

I am reminded of one of our old managers harping on about players being "intelligent" and thinking that perhaps Comolli is saying the same thing.

 

..."look a lot more at the psychological aspect of the player, the attitude of the player, the mentality of the player on the pitch than we used to… before, it was all about the talent and the physical ability and I think now probably with the style of play of the likes of Barcelona and Arsenal… I think we are now more orientated towards the attitude of the player. Is he a team player? Is he intelligent enough that he puts himself at the disposal of the team? "

 

Agree but also how does he cope in adversity, does his head go down or is he motivated to fight back.

 

 

 

[David Hodgson]

  On 11/06/2011 at 08:48, Rimbeux said:

Had me in mind of what has gone on at Saracens Rugby club in recent times, they have a big emphasis on their players becoming better people by encouraging productive outside interests and also looking to make the group stronger by creating what they call shared memories. The latter can be just going on a great booze up, such as the one they did to a German beer festival, getting in trouble for not sending anyone to the Premiership press launch as they thought their trip was more important and nobody was going to miss it.

 

Sorry, but I just remembered the story about Christian Gross at Tottenham, who thought he'd bond his players by taking them to the circus 'to see the clowns! '.

[Rimbeux]

  On 11/06/2011 at 13:44, David Hodgson said:

Sorry, but I just remembered the story about Christian Gross at Tottenham, who thought he'd bond his players by taking them to the circus 'to see the clowns! '.

[stressederic]

  On 11/06/2011 at 13:44, David Hodgson said:

Sorry, but I just remembered the story about Christian Gross at Tottenham, who thought he'd bond his players by taking them to the circus 'to see the clowns! '.

 

Clowns are evil

[FirstDescent]

  On 11/06/2011 at 13:44, David Hodgson said:

Sorry, but I just remembered the story about Christian Gross at Tottenham, who thought he'd bond his players by taking them to the circus 'to see the clowns! '.

 

Boyzone?

[JRC]

  On 11/06/2011 at 14:41, stressederic said:

Clowns are evil

There are two kinds of people in the world. People who hate clowns....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and clowns.