AI Revolution in Football: How Plaier helps the Premier League clubs make better decisions | Football news
“The data analytics was a big step,” says Jan Wendt Sky Sports. “This is a giant jump in the evolution of football data.” Wendt is a co -founder PlatorA company that helps to bring artificial intelligence technology into the Premier League football.
They are already working with four Premier League clubs and 10 times the world. By collecting enormous data and using AI to understand this, they provide guidelines for transfers, cohesion cuts and is now the time to release the coaches.
The initial plan of Wendt and his business partner was to use AI as a tool for prediction, but they soon realized that only football measurement was the main challenge for decisions in the game. “This is equally important for making better decisions.”
After they have built what they claim to be the largest database ever built in football – “Exotic events data, injuries information and wages data in over 100 leagues” – they work with everyone from owners to data analysts to help Changing the game.
“We look at it in three steps. One, we can tell you exactly how much your composition is and how much you need to achieve your goals. Two, we can tell you the expected impact of each player at the goal of your team difference at the end of the season.
“We give a very clear insight, so you know exactly what positions need to be aimed in order to strengthen. The third part helps clubs find the right players, investing money in the best way possible. It is a better insight into help in making better decisions, basically.
“Imagine being a doctor and you have to diagnose without an X -ray air. You know that the leg hurts, but you can only touch her with your hands to see if she is broken or just bruises. Or someone has lung problems, but you can only listen to them cough.
“Then comes the guy with an X -ray. This does not mean that the past decisions were wrong, it just gives you an additional level of insight into what’s going on. We offer an additional tool. It gives the owner a very transparent view of what is happening in their club.
“If you want to get to Europe, these are your competitors and they are so strong. You want to surpass them? You will have to do this and this. We can show how strong you will need, providing a clear picture of how to get to the next level.”
While all clubs have access to the same data Platoras they are used to distinguish. Some were ready to use it as a filter to better target their scouts, while others are more careful and preferred to have it as a sensory check on their signatures.
“They create a list of players they like, we create a list of players that our system recommends and see if there is an overlap. This works more careful clubs. This is a more advanced way to really use it to find recommendations.”
Surprise of the prediction of Kane
What are the lessons learned? “Defense positions are cheaper than offensive positions.” Maybe it’s no wonder there. But the consequences of acquiring this expensive new striker can be complex. There are more than goals they achieve.
Some of the insights can shock. When Harry Kane signed for Bayern Munich, for example, Plator They made titles in Germany when it was discovered that their models predict that a record signing of the Bundesliga would not have a positive impact on the team.
“In the end, they had a goal -a difference of 54 without him and 49 with him,” Wendt says. Bayern is the lowest in 13 years. “Tottenham also became better, scored more points, scored more goals and had a better difference in goal. So we simulated.”
Kane is not easy, just acknowledging that football is team sports with many moving parts. Add something to the team and you can lose something somewhere. “The first season with Erling Haaland, Manchester City, has also scored fewer goals,” Wendt adds.
Calculation of an individual player’s influence is extremely useful for clubs when making employment and retaining decisions. “This is the most commonly used tool.” By clicking the Wendt button can show a probable consequence of replacing one player to another.
“There have been events data for 15 years or more years. What we want to measure is the efficiency of the system, not how they can nap or how fast they are. How does the player contribute to the team’s success? This is what we have to do.
“This is all that is important because this is a team sport with a lot of addiction and correlation. What AI does is like a helicopter, it takes an examination. Then he tries to find patterns in those billions of correlation. There are so many so many data, which is important?
“If we had suggested a player to join Manchester City, we would simulate 38 games against each team in the Premier League 100,000 times to see how it works. You can’t handle that information manually, it would kill your computer. You need artificial intelligence.”
Continuing with Manchester City, he sets his position. “For example, Epson or Stefan Ortega? The result is almost the same.” But then it removes the horns from the city side. “It has a huge impact.” And that would be marked as a risk long before the injury.
“A player like Rodri is in the range of 7000 on our metric. Maybe 200 or more players in the world at 6000 level, so there is a risk of being good. Replacement are very difficult. Can you replace Roger Federer in your Davis Cup team? “
The impact of coaches overrated
Unlike Wendt’s point of view on a significant influence of world class players, the impact of coaches is something he considers to be overwhelmed. He did not go into it with pre -imagined ideas. It was a finding. “This was kind of surprising to us,” he admits.
“One of the more interesting findings from AI is that the quality of the player is responsible for about 90 percent of sports success, and the coach’s contribution is only about 10 percent. Remember, 10 percent can still make a difference.
“But the coaches tend to override over a year. No coach in our system in our system has overwhelmed for a long time. Who are they? “Christian Streich in Freiburg and Pep Guardiola in Manchester City.”
The recent Guardiola fight – without a horn, of course – are only used to highlight the point. It can also work otherwise. The models also suggested, contrary to the popular opinion, that Jurgen Klopp was not wild excessively in Liverpool.
Wendt shows a chart that has a Klopp exactly on the line where the results can be expected to be for this quality. “You can see that Jurgen is here, right on the green line, as it was in the previous season.” This line represents the performance in accordance with the expectations.
Again, it’s not to discredit Klopp. Part of the reason why these players are so rated is that Klopp improved them. “Jurgen, of course, contributed. And it’s not that Arne’s groove doesn’t even deserve a loan. But it’s a very strong composition,” Wendt says.
“Right now, I think our models show that Liverpool has the strongest team in Europe, perhaps the second strongest team. If the new coach enters with fresh motivation, and he is able to add another two percent, and then the results can be stunning.”
Trying to change coaches will only grow now a portable window closed. “That’s the only real thing you can change now. It’s like a fight of Mary’s passage in football.” But through the insights it offers PlatorHope is that better decisions will be made.
“The owners always have this problem, isn’t my team good enough or is it a coach does not get the best performances from the team? Bio.”
Wendt talks about “market education” and “providing more precise foundations for decisions” in an industry that can still be guided by a sense of emotions and bowels. One doubt that this could only be the beginning because Plator intends to expand its reach.
“We now have some psychological parameters. We can predict injuries. It is an extraordinary tool and add things every few weeks, but in a careful way because it is too much. If we put it all, people would just find it and people have hard to act.”
Football seems more complex. It is ironic that the goal of all this is to simplify decisions. “We want to make it black and white for the club. This player is good enough to make you better or not. Easy.” Welcome to the world of Ai.
