Kick-start Segmentation Guide for Football Clubs
Reading time:
9 mins
Doctoral student at ETH Zürich working on dynamic tactical formation identification from tracking data. He is also the teaching assistant for the university's Soccer Analytics course.
He’s earned recognition from PSG, Manchester City, and the Bundesliga through top finishes at major sports analytics challenges.
In this interview, Hadi breaks down what formation analysis really means and why it matters for clubs and analysts.
Let’s get into it.
The primary purpose is match analysis, focusing on how a team’s spatial organization evolves throughout a game in relation to key factors such as phases of play, scoreline, substitutions, red cards, and stoppages. These insights are also valuable for clubs in recruiting players or coaches and for media coverage.
Starting line-up formations are merely analyst predictions that vary by source and are not fixed, as they change throughout the match. Moreover, determining who is right or wrong is challenging due to the absence of ground truth labels. In my view, alternative approaches are needed to evaluate formation identification methods, as discussed in detail in my survey paper.
They can reach out to me 😉
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hadisotudeh/
What struck me in this interview with Hadi is how fragile the “formation” concept really is. Clubs, analysts, and even fans tend to think in static categories like 4-3-3, 4-4-2, etc. but reality on the pitch is far more fluid. What Hadi highlights is that tactical identity can’t be captured in one snapshot. It evolves with substitutions, phases of play, even single red cards. For me, that’s a reminder: if football data is this dynamic, then the same must hold true for CRM and fan data. Clubs can’t rely on static segments or assumptions. They need systems that adapt as reality changes on the pitch and off it.
