Derek McInnes fully invested in Hearts analytics deal as 'special' transfer process revealed
Jambos chief executive Andrew McKinlay has heaped praise on the Tynecastle boss for embracing the system
Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay has praised Derek McInnes for the way he has embraced Jamestown analytics.
The Gorgie side are flourishing using new investor Tony Bloom’s recruitment software to identify players after opening up a stunning nine-point lead at the Premiership summit.
Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis are just two players who have made a huge impact while fellow summer arrivals Landry Kabore and Tomas Magnusson netted in the weekend’s 4-0 victory over Dundee.
Hearts are set to dip into the transfer market again in January to bolster their title bid and McKinlay insists boss McInnes is totally committed to their signing strategy.
He said: “I was talking about the first time I ever saw it [analytics] and I remember coming back and telling the guys here, ‘you’ll have to just buy into it and you have to fully buy into it’.
“And everyone at the club here, including the manager, which is crucial, and the sporting director (Graeme Jones) are fully bought into what it does.
“You then see players coming in, see what they can do. We’ve got Kyziridis, who was playing in Slovakia and he scored against Celtic last Sunday. And there are more like that as well. Claudio is a great example because he came from Norwegian second division.
“He’s the sort of player that just wouldn’t be picked up by anyone else. And that’s entirely down to the analytics.
"Derek’s heavily involved in it and he’s heavily involved in the whole process and obviously no one comes in without him being heavily involved in it.
“He will have views on players and he will have been used to in the past doing normal recruitment through normal recruitment processes. And to now be involved with analytics is a change of direction for him.
“We spoke with him a lot about that before he came in. But having said that, he can say that’s all great. But the way he has embraced it since he’s come in has been fantastic.
“He knows how special and how good the players we can get through it. So, he loves it. He absolutely loves it.”
And McKinlay insists it is vital they trust analytics over their own individual opinions of players after revealing he was surprised by some of the data at the beginning.
He added: “We don’t actually get to see how it all works. We get to see the outputs from it.
“But what was very fascinating is they showed us ratings of our team and you look at it and you realise quite quickly that you might have to suspend belief a little bit because what you’re looking at on the pitch might not be what the analytics are telling you.
“And you have to very quickly realise it’s the analytics that we go with here. So, that was an interesting starting point.”