FRISCO, Texas – FC Dallas and its technical staff have recently begun using a new tool “The Comparisonator” to supplement its player scouting efforts.
The Comparisonator is a Turkish-based scouting company that helps clubs compare players from other leagues and teams in order to be more informed about their strengths, weaknesses and tendencies prior to completing transfers.
“It’s an interesting tool because you can compare players using very detailed parameters,” said FC Dallas Technical Director André Zanotta. “It’s not a tool that makes the decision whether we’ll sign a player or not. It’s a tool that gives us more information to help us make the final decision.”
Zanotta learned about The Comparisonator from an article and contacted the company about a trial period. After seeing the benefits to his scouting process, Zanotta decided to employ The Comparisonator full time. The tool has already helped Dallas pull the trigger on a recent transfer when the club signed Hungarian winger Szabolcs Schön from MTK Budapest FC.
“In the case of Schön, we compared him to other MLS players in the same position,” Zanotta explained. “Among left wingers, he would’ve been sixth in goals, 11th in assists, sixth in shots on target and fourth in successful dribbles. So, it’s another tool that we can use just to try to minimize our mistakes.
“When we want to bring in a player, it (The Comparisonator) helps us envision how’d he’d fit our team and the league. So, it’s another interesting tool that we decided to add and I think it’s going to be very useful.”
