I’ve been watching football since I was a child, but one of the things I am learning through football scouting is that a position label only tells you so much.
A teamsheet might say ST, CF, RW, but for a player in the forward position, that is only the starting point. It tells you where a player is expected to begin the match. It does not tell you what kind of player he is, what problems he solves for his team, or what role he naturally grows into once the game starts moving.
That has been one of the most interesting shifts for me so far. As a journalist, I have always watched matches looking for stories, momentum swings and key moments. Scouting asks for something slightly different. It asks you to slow down, stay with one player, and keep asking what he actually does repeatedly.
Strikers are a good example. It is easy to describe someone as a centre-forward and leave it there. But two players can share the same position and offer completely different things.
One might be a target forward who plays with his back to goal, protects the ball, pins centre-backs and gives his team a clear outlet – case in point the name on everyone’s lips right now, Erling Haaland. Another might be a runner who constantly attacks the space behind the defensive line like Kylian Mbappe. Another might be more of a link-forward, dropping short to combine, bringing wide players into the game and connecting attacks rather than always finishing them.
Then there are forwards who thrive on crosses, forwards who create space for others, forwards who press aggressively, forwards who stay high after turnovers, and forwards who do a bit of everything without being easily boxed into one category. That is where the scouting work begins.
For my recent First Observation report on Taaniel Usta, the starting point was simple: he was listed as a striker for FC Flora Tallinn. But once the match started, the question became less about the letters beside his name and more about the role he was actually playing.
Was he mainly there to run behind? Was he a penalty-box finisher? Was he expected to hold the ball up? Did he help connect play? How did he move around the centre-backs? What did he do when possession was lost?
What stood out was that he did not look like a pure pace-first striker. He used his frame to protect the ball under pressure, dropped into areas where he could release wide runners, and moved around centre-backs rather than simply waiting between them. He also attacked the box and scored with a header, but the goal alone was not the whole point of the observation. The more useful question was: what did the match tell me about his profile?
In this case, the first impression was of a forward who could offer elements of a traditional centre-forward and a support striker. There were positive signs in his ability to receive under pressure, connect play and attack certain spaces. There were also things that needed more viewing, such as first-touch consistency, aerial timing and defensive contribution.
That is why a first observation should not try to do too much. One match can suggest a profile, but it should not pretend to complete the picture.
This is also why repeated actions matter more than isolated moments. A striker scoring once tells us something, but not everything. A striker repeatedly dropping into useful areas, protecting possession, releasing runners and attacking crosses tells us much more about the type of player we may be looking at.
The same applies across every position. A full-back is not just a full-back. A midfielder is not just a midfielder. A winger is not just a winger. The position gives you the frame, but the player’s habits fill in the picture.
That is the part of scouting I am enjoying most at the moment. It changes the way you watch football. Instead of only asking whether a player had a good game, you start asking better questions.
What does he repeat? Where is he comfortable? Where does the game expose him? What kind of team would make best use of him? And just as importantly, what do I still not know?
For now, that is the main lesson I am taking from these early reports. Scouting is not about collecting labels. It is about understanding roles, behaviours and context.