Rebuilding performance workflows for a demanding match cycle
There is a growing gap between what modern performance departments are expected to deliver and what their infrastructure allows them to execute.
In conversations with senior technical staff, three consistent challenges emerge:
- Reporting workflows are fragmented, often dependent on manual processes that vary by squad or analyst.
- Insight delivery lacks standardisation, making it difficult to compare matches or opponents over time.
- Coaching alignment is inconsistent, as reports aren’t always designed with the end user — the coach — in mind.
The problem isn’t data quality or staff capability. It’s structural. Most reporting workflows weren’t built for the current pace of competition.
A typical setup
- Analysts pulling data manually from multiple sources (event, tracking, physical).
- Slide decks recreated for each match, often under tight time pressure.
- No centralised archive — previous reports live in siloed folders or emails.
- Visuals rebuilt from scratch, with minimal reuse across matches or teams.
These are smart, capable people — but the demands are unrealistic.
Between travel, opposition prep, internal reviews and managing cross-squad expectations, analysts are already stretched. Adding deep data work — across multiple sources — on tight turnarounds leaves little room for interpretation, let alone innovation.
The consequence is predictable: insight is delivered late, with varying levels of quality and tactical relevance. Coaches stop engaging with reports that feel inconsistent. Analysts lose time to formatting instead of interpretation. And performance teams — though working hard — operate reactively.
A more sustainable structure
We’ve helped clubs restructure these workflows using modular reporting infrastructure that is:
- Built around internal KPIs and tactical language, not generic data views.
- Automated to update post-match within minutes, including on-brand visuals and player-specific breakdowns.
- Configurable by role, so coaches receive only the information relevant to them.
- Centrally archived, allowing trend analysis across opponents, squads, and competitions.
This isn’t a template. It’s a collaborative process.
Our team works directly with analysts and coaches to understand what matters most to them — and we bring our own experience of working across multiple data sets, systems and performance environments to help translate that into practical, scalable outputs.
One top-flight team reduced their report production time from 5–6 hours to under 20 minutes per match — not by cutting corners, but by replacing repetitive tasks with structured logic and reusable frameworks.
This doesn’t just save time. It unlocks value. Analysts now spend more time evaluating opponent behaviour. Coaches engage with materials because the format is familiar and consistent. Departmental alignment improves — not through process redesign, but through clarity of output.
The strategic takeaway
Performance departments no longer have the luxury of being ad hoc. Every week is too short, every decision too visible.
Standardising reporting is not an admin upgrade — it’s a strategic shift. It’s what enables technical staff to deliver insight that is consistent, context-rich and actionable.
If you’re still relying on custom builds for every report, or if your analysts are spending more time building slides than interpreting data, it may be time to consider a structural alternative.
Not just faster. Smarter. Repeatable. Scalable.