Launching Player Search: scouting workflows within the Kognia platform
Every club wants players who fit their style. With Player Search, Kognia is launching a new layer to its platform with a scouting and recruitment focus, designed to elevate the search for talent and strengthen scouting workflows.
How Player Search works
Player Search allows clubs to generate a relevant list of players to analyse. Scouts and analysts define the scope of each search through a set of initial filters ahead of aligning the player’s tactical behaviours and outputs to their requirements:
Competition, to target the leagues that suit the club's market and budget
Season, to assess current form or track how a player has developed over time; team, to monitor specific squads, feeder clubs or direct rivals
Age, to align the search with the club's squad-planning horizon, whether that means a ready-made starter or a high-potential prospect
Position, so that every player is judged against the demands of the role he actually plays.
The result is a data-led starting point: a clearly defined pool of candidates that we can investigate further.
Every metric that matters, position by position
This is where Player Search can make a difference. Rather than showcasing a generic set of metrics for every player, Kognia incorporates all the relevant tactical behaviours for each position.
That means evaluating a winger not only on what they do in terms of chance creation, but on their contribution to the build-up, how often they move behind the defensive line, how they press after losing possession, progress the ball after a recovery ort how they support their team-mates through the movements they are making to receive the ball.
It means judging a striker on his movement behind the defensive line, his receptions after occupying spaces inside the box, his pressing and his involvement in the final third through giving support, not on goals alone.
The real difference: you decide what matters most
Having the right variables is key. Within the Kognia platform, clubs have the ability to assign a weighting to each of those variables. Every club can outline which qualities are essential, and the player rankings adjust accordingly.
Two clubs with different game models looking for a U25 winger will end up with entirely different shortlists, because they play differently and value different things.
The below examples provide the outcome for wingers at 2025/2026 that fit a methodology that values possession highly, and for one that prefers a higher tempo, more direct approach.
These tactical outputs combine to produce a single figure. Every search template produces one key performance indicator that summarises the output.
From longlist to decision: stronger scouting workflows
Player Search is designed to be the first step in the recruitment process, but it is far from an isolated one. The weighted ranking produces a longlist that already reflects the club's identity, and from that list every player is just a click away from a much deeper level of analysis, whereby Kognia tactical metrics are synchronised with video footage.
Each name leads directly to the player's Kognia profile, where analysts can explore data and tactical behaviours in greater detail, assessing output across seasons and competitions, and further understand the context behind the numbers.
The workflow also extends into video. Analysts can generate playlists of the specific actions that matter to the club's game model, such as moving behind the defensive line, running into the box, third man pass or occupying spaces inside the box for receive and finish.
Player Search provides a comprehensive, position-specific variables with fully customisable weightings, giving clubs a way of identifying talent that begins with one simple question: what kind of football do we want to play?
To find out more about Player Search and access a trial of the Kognia platform, get in touch.
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