A guide to Archetypes

PROJECT: Archetype is an ongoing quest to translate the football meta into RPG-inspired classes in order to better understand a player’s function on the pitch. It marries together two of Jake Entwistle’s core hobbies: video games and football.

JAKE, DATA SCOUT

Jake Entwistle is a data scout, analyst, and writer for SCOUTED. He is also the architect of Archetypes, a project to quantify the player profiles defining the new football meta. This is Monday Night SCOUTED, his weekly newsletter of data-led narratives from the weekend’s action. He does not use contractions, but his editor doesn’t does not mind.

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Each Archetype represents a player profile in the modern game, spotted simply by watching football. Then, in order to accelerate the discovery of similar players, we attempt to translate the eye test into datapoints, discovering superpowers and transforming them into metrics.

Below, you’ll find an ever-expanding list of fully-developed SCOUTED Archetypes. We’ll add more as we workshop them and if you’re looking for more detail about the process, you’ll find that after the list.

Beyond specific player profiles, we have also developed key terms to explain particular stylistic traits.

How to develop an Archetype

If you’re wondering why certain words were capitalised and in bold, here’s an in-depth look into the process of developing Archetypes. At the heart of each profile are the four Ps:

• Possession: securing and circulating the ball
• Progression: moving of the ball towards goal or through all-but the last line
• Penetration: getting the ball into the penalty area or breaking the last line
• Production: end product as defined by goals/assists, shots/shot assists

The idea is that each profile will have a unique set of primary and secondary functions relative to their role on the pitch. Another unique aspect of each profile is the means of achieving these functions:

• Shooting: derivatives include technique, location, volume
• Passing: derivatives include type, length, volume, accuracy, difficulty
• Moving: movement without the ball
• Carrying: moving with the ball
• Dribbling: creating separation or beating players through ball manipulation
• Retaining: attracting, resisting or overcoming opposition pressure

A player’s principal means of achieving their primary function is their superpower. To visualise this framework, we’ll use one of the most robust Archetypes: the Pathfinder.

Inspired by Trent Alexander-Arnold, the primary function of the Pathfinder is Progression, the secondary is Penetration and their superpower is Passing. That’s how simple it is.

Thanks to our partnership with SkillCorner, this was originally developed as a full-back Archetype. Using their data, we have been able to craft, interrogate and refine player profiles and although each profile will be most commonly associated with a specific position, we found that certain traits could transcend the team sheet. The Archetype should depend on a player’s role within a team not their positional label.

As another example, the Imposter full-back Archetype inspired by Myles Lewis-Skelly is based on his instructions to invert and become involved in the build-up phase. A midfielder wearing full-back pyjamas. Although the Imposter tag is useful to denote a deviation from his expected role based on the team sheet, it may be better served in the future as a prefix rather than an Archetype in itself. As Lewis-Skelly’s primary in-possession function is to flip pressure into positive situations, he profiles as a Defuser. Given his deployment at left-back, you could call him a Defuser Imposter.

The same applies to the Pathfinder example. Most full-backs are not tasked with the responsibility to progress the ball and penetrate the penalty area, this is usually reserved for midfielders and wingers. So, Trent Alexander-Arnold could be called an Pathfinder Imposter. But even then, as the Archetype project develops, it makes sense to keep the nomenclature as simple as possible.

However, there is something to be said for where on the pitch a player looks to achieve their function. So, instead of positions, Archetypes can also be separated by their Area of Effect (AOE). Both Lewis-Skelly and Alexander-Arnold operate primarily in the middle third and in central or at the very least half-space areas. This is their AOE.

A Defuser is any player that secures Possession through Retaining the ball in the middle third. A Pathfinder is any player that achieves Progression and Penetration through Passing in the middle third. These two Archetypes have the same AOE but contrasting functions. Therefore, they require different skillsets and should be evaluated in different ways. That is the final step.

The Evaluation process is inspired by a framework laid out by M.H. in his Spielverlagerung article about Chance Conversion. He explained that chance conversion can be improved by two approaches:

1. Increasing effectiveness (indirectly improves the conversion rate)
2. Increasing efficiency (directly improves the conversion rate)

I thought this could be applied to all player superpowers. To use the Pathfinder example once again, Trent Alexander-Arnold is one of the most effective players in the world at progressing the ball and penetrating the penalty area with his passing. However, given his ability to do so over ridiculously large distances with a repertoire of outrageously difficult passes, his approach is not efficient. Therefore, a Pathfinder is not judged on how efficient they are at achieving their primary function, they are judge purely on effectiveness.

Of course, if you were comparing a shortlist of players to fulfil this role, you could introduce efficiency in the final stage to separate the premium candidates. But effectiveness matters most for this particular Archetype.

Here is the Archetype framework in its simplest form:

• Functions: discover the player’s primary responsibility on the pitch using the four Ps: Possession, Progression, Penetration, Production
• Superpowers: discover their primary means of achieving that function: Passing, Carrying, Dribbling, Moving or Retaining and if physical traits can augment the output
• Area of Effect: discover which part of the pitch their superpower is most apparent
• Evaluation: discover if the profile should be judged by effectiveness or efficiency of achieving their function

The value of the Archetype then becomes communicating all of that information with one word. This refines and accelerates the player discovery process, provides clarity for team selection, squad building and player recruitment and offers an easy way to evaluate player success.

If you're interested, this Google Sheet shows an early draft of how I tried to define every metric I use and create when exporting data from FBref. This is not the final table. That's on the SCOUTED database.

In the future, we hope to produce a Pokémon-inspired type chart that shows how effective each Archetype is against a particular style of play. It should also be noted that although certain characteristics will translate from In-Possession (IP) Archetypes to Out-of-Possession (OOP) Archetypes - or even combine the two like a Ground Eater - we are keen to develop specific profiles for each phase of play. Superpowers available to the OOP Archetypes will included Destroying, Disrupting and Denying. But this is a work in progress.

The final thing to address is the Gamebreaker. Again, this was initially developed as a specific Archetype inspired by Mohamed Salah’s logic-defying effectiveness at penetrating the penalty area through Passing and Moving. Since writing that article, however, I think the term is too good not to use in a more widespread manner.

Gamebreaker is the PROJECT: Archetypes tag for any player achieving elite level Penetration or Production through multiple superpowers. This is the tag that allows us to separate the most elite players from the rest. Salah is a Gamebreaker because a player should not be, and does not have to be, effective at breaking the last line of defence with their passing and their movement. But he is.

The same applies to the Gameweaver tag. The difference is that we will use this for any player that achieves Progression at an elite level through multiple superpowers. Pedri is a great example of this.

Now that you have read the Archetypes primer, here is an ever-expanding list of articles that explore them further. Dive in.

• Brazil: the centre-back goldmine about to explode
• An introduction to Full-Back Archetypes
• Finding a nest for Full-back Flyers
• Breaking down Noah Nartey, the first Defuser
• Introducing: The Developer, our first midfield Archetype
• An introduction to the Power Forward
• An introduction to the Gamebreaker
• 2025 U-21 EURO: translating the eye test into data and discovering superpowers
• Finding the right massive number nine: a big German case study