CSKA 1948 Sofia became SkillCorner’s first Bulgarian partner earlier this year. This collaboration marked a significant step for the club, and the adoption of SkillCorner’s solutions has quickly begun to influence how the staff approaches player evaluation and decision-making.

CSKA 1948 Sofia were founded in 2016 and experienced a rapid rise, climbing through the ranks consecutively to reach the Bulgarian top flight within four years of their creation.

Having established themselves as a force regularly fighting near the top of the table, with appearances in European qualifying matches in recent seasons, they chose SkillCorner to go a step further and ensure every recruitment decision is supported by objective, measurable data.

We sat down with Nikola Yotov, First Team Scout at CSKA 1948 Sofia, to understand how the integration of SkillCorner’s solutions has since shifted their approach to player evaluation. He detailed how our Physical and Game Intelligence data have allowed the club to quantify tactical behaviours, objectify their assessments against the eye test, and increase the efficiency of their daily workflows.
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Before SkillCorner, how did you evaluate a target's physical profile or tactical fit? What did you rely on?

Before SkillCorner, we mainly relied on video and live scouting, together with physical information available from clubs, strength and conditioning coaches or, in some cases, the players themselves. 

Live scouting remains extremely important when assessing physical qualities because it gives you a direct impression of a player's speed, explosiveness, intensity and ability to repeat actions. The challenge was supporting those observations with consistent and comparable information, particularly when assessing players from different competitions.

For example, knowing that a player can reach a certain maximum speed is useful, but it doesn't necessarily give you the complete picture of his physical profile. We also want to understand how he accelerates, how frequently he performs high-intensity actions and the context in which those actions occur.

From a tactical perspective, we traditionally assessed most behaviours through video. Game Intelligence data gives us another way of looking at some of those behaviours objectively and then returning to the footage to understand the context behind them.

Was there a recurring situation where you felt you were making a call with less information than you wanted?

The physical side was probably one of the areas where additional information was particularly valuable.

We could develop a strong opinion about a player's physical capabilities through video and live observation, but consistent physical information was not always available, especially when comparing players across different countries and competitions.

Having access to physical data across multiple competitions gives us another reference point. At the same time, we always consider the context because the intensity, playing style and physical demands can differ significantly between leagues.

Why was SkillCorner your preferred choice?

One of the main reasons was the combination of Physical Data and Game Intelligence within the same environment and the coverage available across different competitions.

From a scouting perspective, that combination is valuable because physical and tactical characteristics should not be viewed completely independently. Having access to both gives us additional context when evaluating players across different leagues and playing environments.

We also saw value in the possibility of combining this information with our existing scouting process rather than changing the way we evaluate players. For us, SkillCorner is an additional source of objective information that can complement video, live observation and the football judgement of the scouting department.

Has SkillCorner data ever contradicted the eye test? A player who looked one way but the physical numbers said something different?

Yes, and those situations are actually very useful. There have been players who appeared particularly quick or physically dominant on video, while the data suggested that we should look more closely at certain aspects of their physical profile.

That doesn't mean we immediately change our assessment. Instead, we return to the footage and try to understand the reason behind the difference. It could be related to the player's position, tactical role, team style or the situations he is exposed to during matches.

This is one of the ways we like to use the data: not as a replacement for scouting judgement, but as another source that can confirm an observation or give us a reason to investigate it further.

Same question but for tactical data — a player recommendation shaped by metrics like off-ball movement or possession and carry stats?

Game Intelligence data can be particularly useful when we want to quantify behaviours that we have already identified through video. 

For example, with attacking players we might observe how they attack space, how frequently they offer options beyond the defensive line, or how they position themselves to receive the ball. With other positions, we may be interested in different off-ball behaviours or how players provide passing options to their teammates.

Could you walk us through one real scouting case of a player where his physical numbers changed your read on him?

There was a player we had been following for a couple of months and, from our observations, we considered him to have a strong physical profile. When we later analysed the physical information available to us, it supported several of the characteristics we had identified through our scouting process and gave us a more detailed picture of his physical capabilities.

It didn't make the decision for us or fundamentally change our opinion of the player. Instead, it gave us another layer of information and greater confidence in some of the observations we had already made.

In what ways has the integration of SkillCorner data transformed the pre-match briefing process for the coaching staff?

Our pre-match analysis continues to be driven primarily by video and tactical analysis. Where data can help is by providing additional context to certain observations. If we identify a particular behaviour or physical characteristic of an opponent through video, having objective information available can help us examine whether what we are seeing is consistent across a larger sample.

The important thing for us is not to add data simply because it is available. It needs to contribute something relevant to the analysis and help us communicate the information clearly to the coaching staff.

How has SkillCorner changed your personal day-to-day process?

It has added another layer to the information available to us during player evaluation. We can use Physical and Game Intelligence data alongside our video and live scouting work to investigate particular aspects of a player's profile in more detail. 

One practical benefit is the ability to move between the data and the video. We might identify something through our football analysis, examine the relevant data for additional context, and then return to the footage to understand why the numbers look the way they do.

That interaction between different sources of information is more valuable to us than

looking at any individual metric in isolation.

What's the next thing you're trying to figure out with this data? Where does the scouting department want to take this?

The next step is to continue improving how we combine video, live observation, physical information and tactical data within our scouting process. 

We don't want one source of information to dominate an assessment. Each can answer different questions about a player. The objective is to use the information available to us more efficiently while keeping football judgement and the context of the player at the centre of every evaluation.

CSKA 1948 Sofia are one of 300+ teams around the world who trust in SkillCorner’s solutions to help them make smarter, data-driven decisions. 

If you want to learn more about how SkillCorner can help your organisation, get in touch today.