By The Numbers: Shannon Murray

We sit down with the Timbers assistant to talk analytics, PTFC's 2024 campaign, and how the Timbers use data and analysis in their day-to-day environment.

Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer// Portland Timbers

The 2024 edition of the Portland Timbers has been chock full of high flying goals — both for and against. In this edition of By the Numbers, we speak with Portland Timbers first team assistant/former T2 head coach Shannon Murray. Shannon joined the Timbers prior to the 2016 season, where he joined the coaching staff of T2. He joined the first team staff as a coach and performance analyst in 2018, In 2022 was named the head coach of T2, and just this last season joined Phil Neville’s technical staff in a familiar role, as a first team assistant coach.

Shannon has an interesting role within the Timbers first team staff. He spends the first half of every match in the technical booth with head video analyst Connor Ceballos and then joins Phil Neville and fellow assistant coaches Liam Ridgewell, Dave Van Den Bergh, and Memo Valencia on the bench for the second half.

With Murray being one of the analytical eyes in the sky for the Timbers, we thought it’d be a good idea to sit down with him to talk the stats and analytics behind the Timbers 2024 campaign. Enjoy my interview with Shannon, where we talked analysis and data, how PTFC use data in their day-to-day operations, the 2024 campaign and data in the future of the game of soccer. Sit back, relax, grab a nice beverage, and prepare to learn, because class is now in session.

Part 1: Building a Foundation