Training Ground Guru Podcast

Our guest on Episode #81 of the TGG Podcast is Reed Shaffner, Chief Technology Officer at Teamworks. Reed oversees the engineering, design, product and data science teams behind a platform used across professional and collegiate sport. In this Episode, Reed told us where AI is genuinely working in football and where it isn't; warned about the security and privacy risks some clubs are underestimating; and explained how Teamworks Player ID is learning to identify how good a player will become, versus how good they look today. SHOW NOTES => 0:00: Introduction 1:39: Reed's role at Teamworks, and his route in through gaming and youth sport 3:17: What AI actually is — beyond the buzzword 5:42: How widely is AI being used in football? 6:45: Where it works well, and where it doesn't 7:25: Injury prediction — why the returns are still questionable 8:24: Hallucinations, and the two athletes who didn't exist 10:20: Case study: the NFL's Digital Athlete platform 11:28: Data quality, process and the role of human expertise 12:53: Privacy and security — what should never go into a model 14:12: It's not just medical data: contracts and schedules 14:43: The questions to ask any AI vendor 15:42: Data poisoning and the fabricated eye condition 17:32: Skills as a new attack vector — and what a skill is 18:49: Build or buy: what clubs are making themselves 19:41: Scout bias detection, and Kahneman on human bias 22:00: The rise of the 'head of AI' job title 22:50: Is US sport ahead of UK football? 23:27: Tracking data, and will AI mean fewer analysts? 25:26: AI inside the Teamworks products: from reactive to proactive 28:02: Player ID — what to do when metrics disagree 29:50: Predicting how good a player will become, not how good they are now 31:11: Bespoke clubs and individualised training 34:17: The future: cameras, youth football and undiscovered talent 36:04: Worries and fears: attackers, deepfakes and social engineering 38:01: Speaking at TGG Live '26 at Old Trafford

Our guest on Episode #80 of the TGG Podcast is the world-renowned sleep expert Anna West. She works with teams competing in the Premier League, Champions League and the World Cup. Her methods have helped change the way that football thinks about sleep and recovery.  In this Episode, Anna told me how she came to work in football, about the work she does with clubs and players, and also debunked some of the common myths about sleep.   SHOW NOTES => 0:00: Introduction 1:36: How did you first get involved in your line of work? Entry into elite sport and football  06:07: How important is sleep for athletes?  08:40: Sleep quality, not just quantity 10:45: Monitoring and sleep anxiety 12:44: The challenge of night-time kick-offs 14:06: The magic eight hours? 17:33: How do you work with a club? 26:02: Good sleep starts in the morning  27:01: Debunking sleep myths: Mouth taping 34:03: Working individually with players. Emi Marcondes case study  37:57: Universal truths: eating & sleeping before you go to bed, room temperature, napping, caffeine. 49:23: Mechanics of a night’s sleep 52:51: Looking at your phone/ social media before bed 55:38: Effects of alcohol  57:58: Advice on caffeine 59:56: Working at the World Cup  1:02:08: Sleeping tablets 1:07:14: Ambitions for the future      

Our guest on Episode #79 of the TGG Podcast is Joe Newton. Joe was part of Thomas Frank's inner circle at both Brentford and Tottenham and is a new breed of analyst. After starting as a youth player at Tranmere and Wrexham, he got a degree and Masters in performance analysis and secured a job at the New Saints in Wales.  His big break came when he was appointed first-team analyst at Brentford, where he forged a close relationship with Frank and helped the club gain promotion to the Premier League. After that came a brief and turbulent spell at Tottenham, which ended in the sack in February 2026.  Joe told us about his progression in the game, about what makes Brentford special, why things went wrong at Tottenham and about his special relationship with Frank. In this episode we also have an interview with Adam Ridgewell, who worked for Southampton for five years before becoming Account Manager with Genius Sports. Adam told us how clubs like Brentford are using Genius Sports' tracking data and Performance Studio to gain an edge in the game. SHOW NOTES => 02:00: What have you been up to since leaving Tottenham in February? Break from the 24/7 nature of football. 04:47: How did you get started in football? Tranmere youth player/ unique University partnership at Wrexham. Does having been a player help your analysis? 12:41: Joining Brentford. Excellent interview process led by Luke Stopforth. 14:58. Why Brentford are experts in staff development and case study of Set Piece Analysts.  17:32: Transporting staff doesn't mean you transport a culture. Reasons why Brentford culture is so good and how they consistently punch above their weight. Alignment right from the top, with owner Matthew Benham. 23:47: Role progression at Brentford. How Genius Sports Performance Studio helped him in the job. How involved was Thomas Frank when it came to Performance Studio and data? 29:17: What does the First Team Analyst role entail, day to day and week to week? 34:31: Getting national attention when his post-match analysis session on Sky Sports went viral. 39:30: Thomas Frank taking him to Tottenham. 41:17: New title at Tottenham was Coach-Analyst. Did the role change much from Brentford? 45:20: Size and scale of Tottenham. Contrast with Brentford. 46:34: Why did things go wrong at Tottenham? Lessons and learnings. 54:06: Did the style of play change from Brentford to Tottenham? 55:57: What is Thomas Frank like to work with? Will he bounce back after Tottenham setback?

Wilfried Nancy speaks for the first time since his departure from Celtic in this exclusive episode of the Training Ground Guru Podcast. The Frenchman opens up on why he took the job, the intense pressures of the Old Firm, what happened in those 33 days, and key lessons he's taken for the future. SHOW NOTES => 01:46: Intro. Back in Columbus and recharging. 06:47: Reflecting on short and turbulent tenure at Celtic. 'Beautiful experience.' 18:56: Style of play was very ambitious. Too ambitious? 34:17: Playing with fear. Banning Sky Sports News at the training ground. 39:15: Football in Glasgow quite conservative? 'They hired me to change that. But the idea wasn't to change everything.' 41:25: Weren't there realistic discussions with Board before taking job? 46:13: Friendship with Russell Martin. Shared philosophies and experiences. 47:34: Moving about a lot as a child, because his father was in the French navy. Helped him develop empathy for people. 51:24: Does he have a rigid style of play? 53:35: Ridiculed for using tactics board/ putting venn diagram on his X account. 57:43: Ambitions for the future.

Episode #77 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Genius Sports, is with Ben Ryan, the Performance Director of Premier League side Brentford. Ben is responsible for making sure that the club's players are mentally and physically equipped for matchday.  Before joining Brentford four years ago, Ben consulted with a number of leading organisations and was Head Coach of Fiji's rugby sevens team, leading them to Olympic glory in 2016. Ben told us how someone from a rugby background landed a top role in football, what it's like to work with Head Coach Keith Andrews and about the club's secret supremacy rating.  We hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please give us a follow via your preferred podcast provider.  SHOW NOTES => 01:31: Facilities at the training ground, where the interview is taking place. 03:05: Concerns about players being pampered? 04:39: What does your role as Performance Director involve? 07:19: What have you been doing today? 11:50: Changes that took place at the end of last season, when Thomas Frank left and Keith Andrews took over as Head Coach. 15:54: How Keith Andrews confounded the critics and doubters.  20:05: Brentford's supremacy rating. Taking a strategic view and not being overtaken by the emotion of results.  23:22: Clever recruitment and importance of developing players. 26:00: Coming into football from rugby union. Importance of looking outside football networks.  31:22: Head Coach of Fiji Rugby Sevens team - chalk and cheese with Premier League football.  39:47: GPS - one of the first teams to use it (with England Rugby in 2006) but not the panacea and won't be important forever.  42:07: Risk of over-monitoring players/ 24-hour surveillance. 43:58: Power of play/ how Brentford break up routine and regimen. 46:59: Setting up guard rails. Analogy about going across Firth of Forth Bridge. 48:52: Europe on the horizon. Challenge of extra games. 52:23: Premium Member question. Lessons from rugby. Chaos and surprise. 55:51: Ambitions: personally and for the club as a whole.  

Episode #76 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Genius Sports, is with US Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker. Matt has been in role for almost three years and is responsible for setting the Federation’s sporting vision and performance strategy across all 27 national teams. 2026 is going to be a huge year for both Matt and US Soccer, with the opening of a new national training centre in Georgia and hosting a home World Cup.  Before joining US Soccer, the proud Welshman was Head of Coaching and Development for the English Football Association and Director of Football for Southampton. I spoke to him about his career, about his current role and about his ambitions for this summer and beyond. We hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please give us a follow via your preferred podcast provider.  SHOW NOTES => 01:57: Opening of the new National Training Centre. 06:48: Big year ahead, with a home men's World Cup in the summer. 08:30: Almost three years in post now - reflections so far. 13:07: Pay to play in United States/ what is being done to make football more accessible for all.  16:18: Academy system in US compared to in England. 17:37: Composition of the senior squads - mostly based in Europe or at home? 19:13: Is this summer's World Cup key to growing the game in US? 20:52: What would constitute success for US at the World Cup? 23:10: How impressed have you been by Mauricio Pochettino?  24:42: Was it hard to land Pochettino and Emma Hayes? 25:54: US Women winning the Olympics just 10 weeks after Hayes had been appointed 27:37: Do the two Head Coaches - and others within the Federation - provide challenge for you? 28:58: How Hayes keeps him "on his toes." 29:44: Will Pochettino get longer with his players than eg Thomas Tuchel in run-up to World Cup.  31:18: Personal journey - starting his career at Cardiff City. Influence of Gavin Tait. 34:26: Joining Southampton as Academy Manager in 2006. 37:41: Pochettino developing young players at Southampton. 39:20: Joining Football Association as Head of Coaching and Player Development in 2013. 41:05: Three mentors: Dan Ashworth, Dave Reddin and Kirk Vallis. 44:04: Benefits of hiring people from outside football/ having diversity of ideas and experience. 46:10: Returning to Southampton as Director of Football in 2019. 50:49: Joining US Soccer as their second ever Sporting Director in 2023. 52:23: Confidence had been "rock bottom" after Southampton. 54:16: Difficulty of sticking to a long-term plan at a club. 56:02: One of first things he did was reappoint Gregg Berhalter as Men’s Head Coach through to the 2026 World Cup. A year later he was sacked after early exit in Copa America. 57:25: Ambitions for the future - return to grassroots coaching.    

Our guest on Episode #75 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Teamworks, is Merijn Zeeman. Merijn is the General Manager of AZ Alkmaar - a team that regularly compete at the top of the Eredivisie, despite having a budget that's dwarfed by their bigger rivals. Prior to joining AZ, Merijn was the Sporting Director at Dutch cycling outfit Team Visma, helping them create history by winning all three Grand Tours in 2023. In this episode, Merijn told us about the lessons he has taken from cycling into football, about how AZ have managed to outsmart the opposition and about their recent collaboration with Teamworks and Luke Bornn. We hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please follow us via your preferred podcast provider. SHOW NOTES => 02:18: Big clubs in Holland have a budget 4 to 5x that of AZ. 03:30: Started at AZ in December 2024. Came in from cycling, where he was Sporting Director. Spent 10 years there.  05:08: How Team Visma were transformed from also-rans to winners of three Grand Tours in one season. Culture had been bad/ still had one of lowest budgets. 08:55: How they transformed the culture. "It is not logical to expect a group of people will work good together." 14:22: Bringing in influences from outside cycling and why. 17:51: Move into football with AZ. How it came about. 19:07: General Manager role - not one we hear about often in UK football. What does it involve? 21:54: What makes AZ special and even unique as a club? Average finish of 3.8 in the Eredivisie in last 10 years. 26:27: Was the transition from cycling to football difficult? Originally from Alkmaar, which helped. Relationship with Dave Brailsford and also Erik ten Hag, who invited him to watch training at Manchester United. 29:33: How club use data. Influence of Billy Beane and Luke Bornn. Team Visma used data to overcome one outstanding rival rider. Use of Teamworks Intelligence and how it has helped. "One of the ambitions is that in maybe five years we can win games because we understand the game better through data than any other team."  35:06: Big thing has been making data more accessible to the coaches at the club.  36:48: How AZ use Teamworks Intelligence. Big thing is merging event and tracking data. Previously the club had tried to develop their own model.  39:23: Using objective data to counter biases in decision-making. "For a lot of coaches it is about opinions or visions, not about objective information. It is very hard to progress if you don't have objective information." 42:25: How Team Visma used data to usurp a dominant rival rider. Taking this lesson into football. 45:35: What are the club's ambitions for the future?

Our guest on Episode #74 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Teamworks, is Jamie Hamilton. Jamie is a UEFA A Licence coach and has become one of the most important thinkers in football coaching, with his work on positionism and relationism. This has struck a chord with coaches, players and fans, at all levels of the game, and is influencing a change of approach. SHOW NOTES => 01:50: Jamie's background - as a coach and writer. 04:06: How he first became interested in the concept of positionism. Influence of Pep Guardiola. Desire of positionists to turn chaos into order. Inspiration of Fernando Diniz at Fluminense.  19:20: Guardiola's teams becoming more controlled and ordered in the last five years. Finding Premier League teams more formulaic and less inspirational than they could be with the players available. 20:29: Coaches putting players into slots in pre-designed systems, rather than evaluating who you have, as people and players, and making the best of them. 31:38: Head Coach as a "top-down controller", thus constraining freedom. Enzo Maresca has said that there IS freedom - by virtue of the player receiving the ball having time and not being under pressure. But this is a certain definition of freedom and very different to the definition that a relational coach like Carlo Ancelotti would use. He gives his players freedom to move where they please too. 35:30: Defences are getting more attuned in how to combat positional systems. Becoming more physical, utilising man-to-man marking more. The inherent predictability of positional systems is being countered. So where now? This is where relational football can come in.  42:12: Coaches are worried about what happens when they lose the ball if they don't use positional systems. This isn't necessarily true though. 46:55: Teams have started using man-to-man pressing systems to combat positionalism, eg Bournemouth. This has led to teams hitting long balls into space with a classic number 9 chasing. Set pieces have also come more and more to the fore. There have been some creative solutions, eg Kane dropping very deep for Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund, but the most interesting solutions have tended to be outside the Premier League. 53:50: Bayern Assistant Rene Maric has said (on this podcast) that "tactics don't exist." Need for players to think in the moment. 56:52: Definition of relationism in layman's language. Positionism is zonal, inspired by handball. Relationism is non-zonal with exponents like Diniz, Ancelotti and Scaloni. 1:05:32: Need to let players play and not over coach. Good example of Messi and Suarez. Ability to let go and to be surprised. 

Our guest on Episode #73 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Teamworks, is Rob Mackenzie. Rob is the Head of Scouting at Tottenham and has worked for the Europa League champions for two years.  Prior to Spurs, he was Head of Recruitment at Aston Villa and at Leuven in Belgium, and Head of Technical Scouting at Leicester City, helping to lay the foundations for their Premier League triumph.  In this episode Rob gave us the inside track on Tottenham's scouting operation and gave insights into his two decades in the game.  SHOW NOTES => 02:40: What does Head of Scouting role involve? Who is in your team? 10:17: Squad building is a continual process. Importance of long-term strategy and alignment. Working to a game model. 18:47: How involved is Thomas Frank in the scouting process? 22:58: Was there a change in strategy in terms of the players you signed this summer? 26:25: How do you scout character? Example of Mohammed Kudus. 32:34: How important is athleticism and physicality when scouting/ selecting players?  37:34: How important is robustness/ availability. 42:50: Does a player's financials form part of the scouting picture (ie their wages/ what the potential transfer fee might be)? 46:06: Getting into football with Leicester City/ how Riyad Mahrez was 'discovered'. 58:07: Why it's getting harder to discover hidden gems. Example of signing Jhon Duran at Aston Villa. 1:01:04: Signing Lucas Bergvall, a "true generational talent."

Our guest on Episode #72 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Teamworks, is Manchester United and England goalkeeper Tom Heaton. Tom is playing his 21st season as a professional and is a member of United's new five-man leadership team, along with Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Noussair Mozraoui. In this Episode he told us what it's like behind the scenes at United, about establishing himself at Burnley under Sean Dyche, about his experiences with England and his ambitions for the future. SHOW NOTES => 01:30: What the non-internationals do during the international break. 02:28: Thoughts on new Carrington training ground.  03:16: Can facilities be too nice and spoil players? 04:19: Being part of the new leadership team at the club. 05:11: Being inspired - but not weighed down - by the past. 06:35: What's the culture like behind the scenes? 07:49: Staying focused on the long-term plan. 08:54: First impressions of new goalkeeper Senne Lammens. 09:23: Does he coach the other keepers? 09:49: Joining United as an 11-year-old. 11:43: Influence of Sir Alex Ferguson. 12:37: His six loans as a United player. Positive experience and 'real' football. 15:21: Returning to United in 2021. Has it gone as planned? 18:12: Finding a home at Burnley (2013 to 2019). Playing under Sean Dyche. Defensive detail and organisation. Goalkeeper factory under Billy Mercer and Craig Mawson.  23:36: Evolution of role of the goalkeeper.  26:40: Which goalkeepers do you admire? 27:45: How long will you carry on playing? 28:37: What do you plan to do when you finish playing? 30:35: Going to the Euros with England as a training goalkeeper. 32:45: Thoughts on the Sporting Director role. Have done the UEFA Football Management Course. 34:01: Sean Dyche or Sir Alex Ferguson as a hybrid manager-Sporting Director.  35:06: Hopes for the rest of the season with Man Utd. Optimistic? 35:49: Looking ahead to appearance at TGG Live 2025 at Old Trafford on October 8th.