Every single team, every player in the world, has a weakness... it’s my job to identify them for benefit of Livingston

Data analyst Dougie Wright on his role in helping Lions defy the odds

Clubs are all looking for an edge, they all have to evolve...

Livingston’s latest signing may well be a 26- year- old Glaswegian — but he’s barely kicked a ball in his life outside of a casual game of five-a-side.

Yet, Dougie Wright is set to play a crucial role in the Lions’ attempt to retain their Premiership status after being appointed as the club’s first-team analyst.

Wright has gained something of a cult following since co-founding the website ‘Modern Fitba’ and his previous roles have involved work experience stints at Scottish Rugby and Rangers.

But when the chance to join Livingston presented itself, it was simply too good an opportunity to turn down.

Speaking to the Courier, he said: “I saw an advert and it was a chance I wanted to jump at, so I emailed my interest and within a couple of hours got a reply back from David Martindale (Livi No 2) asking if I could come in for a chat.

“We spent a good hour or so looking at tape and identifying trends and analysing everything. It went by so quickly because I think it was just two guys who are incredibly passionate about football. It was a good relationship from the start.”

He added: “Livingston are a club on the rise and you can’t help but be impressed by them over the last couple of seasons. They’re now not only surviving, but actually thriving in the Premiership and it was an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down.

“Looking at it from the outside, it was clear that something special was happening at the club and I wanted to be part of that.”

But what exactly does a first- team analyst do and how is he set to boost the coaching staff?

That’s where Wright could talk for days.

He commented: “I was thrown in the deep end a wee bit because we spoke on the Wednesday and Davie wanted a report on Celtic by Friday.

“Luckily I was already going to their Europa League game against RB Leipzig the next day and I studied film from earlier games as well.

“I work full-time through in Bellshill, so I ended up analysing them after work.

“It was a long night but we were able to identify things that came up in the game.

“You look acro s s European football and you see clubs getting an edge from data. Brentford is a famous example from down south because they are punching well above their weight and have bought into the data-analysis side of things for a while.

“There’s also Midtjylland in Denmark, who won the title last year, as another example of a team making the most of their resources and buying into the idea of data.

“Their win would be similar to a Motherwell or even Livingston winning the Scottish Premiership.

“Every club is looking for an edge and it’s crucial that your club doesn’t get left behind as things evolve.

“My role as an analyst is basically to act as a filter for the coaching staff. You want to make sure that they’re not wasting their time looking at video that’s not relevant or watching whole games to spot a couple of key points, so that’s what I do.

“I need to make sure that they’re putting their focus on the things that matter, for example, who marks who at the back post or how the keeper reacts in certain situations. There’s so much data that you can get lost in it all, so I’m there to make sure the coaches get that extra edge by spending their time on the important stuff.

“Every single team, and player, in the world has a weakness and it’s up to me to help identify those weaknesses for the coaches.

“It’s all about working smarter and not more. Thinking in a smart way to make sure the players go into any given game with the best chance of winning.

“If the right-back knows what the left-winger likes to do most of the time, then he’s going to be in a better position to stop him. If you do that across the team, then it’s possible to get some extra points across the season.”

If his work on the Celtic game, which ended in a draw, is anything to go by then Livi might have just made yet another shrewd signing.