Tactically, you have to look at where the departure lands. Kürsat Kaplan, Gent’s video analyst for five years, is leaving with immediate effect. He joins Burak Yilmaz’s staff at Çorum FK, in the Turkish top flight. And on Saturday evening Gent, joint leaders, play at Zulte Waregem, at the Elindus Arena. Matchday 8, straight after the international break.
Immediate effect. I read it twice. Where I come from, leaving with immediate effect is the goalkeeper who doesn’t come out after half-time because his car is parked badly.
I’ve got a video department too. It’s called Roger. Roger is the club delegate, he has a folder and a mobile, and he films the match from the bar, through the window. Pitch 2 slopes, so for half of the second half all you see is sky. On Tuesday we watch it together in the prefab dressing room. We analyse the transitions. Well, what we can see of them between two clouds.
Five years is a long time for a video analyst. He must have seen Gent’s block from every angle, in slow motion, with arrows. I say this as a colleague: joining the coaching staff of a gaffer in a top division, that deserves respect. Me, my coaching staff is Roger and the bag of balls.
What interests me is what comes next. Who cuts the footage before Zulte? Somebody does, mind you. In a professional club there’s always somebody. The level has gone way up everywhere, people don’t realise.
Silly question, but when a video analyst leaves with immediate effect, does he leave his videos behind or take them with him? I’ve put the question in my “mysteries” tab.
I asked Roger the same question. He told me he keeps his videos on his mobile, between the photos of his granddaughter’s communion and a recipe for beef stew. I run that on Tuesday. When it’s got battery, that is.
On Sunday, at three o’clock, if Roger gets a call from Turkey, I’ll have the physio film the match.
It’s true, we checked: Voetbalkrant.
