“Data analysis was a big step,” Jan Wendt tells Sky Sports. “This is a huge leap in the evolution of football data.” Wendt is a co-founder of Plaier and helps bring artificial intelligence technology to Premier League football.
They already collaborate in four Premier League clubs and ten times more worlds. By harvesting huge amounts of data and using AI to understand it, they provide guidance on transfers, squad cohesion and whether it’s time to sack the coach.
The initial plan for Went and his business partners was to use AI as a predictive tool, but quickly realized that measuring football was a major challenge for in-game decision makers . “It’s just as important now to make better decisions.”
We built what we claim to be the largest database ever built in football – “an exotic mesh of event data, injury data and pay data across over 100 leagues” – they are data announcers from owners We work with everyone up to the list to help change the game.
“We see it in three steps. One is to see exactly how strong your team is and how strong you need to make it to achieve your goals. You can tell us the difference at the end of the season.
“We provide very clear insights, so we know exactly which positions we’re targeting to be stronger. The third part is to help clubs find the right players. It’s about supporting and investing your money in the best possible way.
“Imagine you’re a doctor and you have to get a diagnosis without an x-ray. I know your legs hurt, but touch them with your hands to see if it’s broken or scratched. You can only hear their cough.
“Then the guy with the x-ray comes in. It doesn’t mean that the past decisions were wrong. It just gives you an extra level of insight into what’s going on. We’ll do something about the additional It provides the tool. It gives the owners a very transparent look at what’s going on in their club.
“If you want to arrive in Europe, these are your competitors and this is how strong they are. Do you want them to be better than them? of how to reach the next level.”
All clubs can access the same data via Plaier, but they are used differently. Some are willing to use it as a filter to better target scouts, while others have apocalypse.
“They create a list of players they like. They create a list of players that our system recommends and see if there are any duplicates. That’s the more careful club behaviour.”
Surprising Kane’s prediction
What lessons have you learned? “Defensive positions are cheaper than offensive positions.” Perhaps not a surprise. But the outcome of acquiring that expensive new striker can be complicated. There’s more than they score.
Some of the insights may shock you. For example, when Harry Kane signed Bayern Munich, Pryor said that their models were revealed to have a record Bundesliga signature that would not have a positive impact on the team. I made a headline in Germany.
“In the end, they had a 54 goal difference without him, and 49 was him and 49,” Went says. Bayern is the lowest in 13 years. “Tottenham also got better, got more points, scored more goals, had better goal differences, and we simulated it too. That’s how it was.”
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Harry Kane made the perfect turn and finish, scoring Bayern Munich against Freiburg
That’s not a small amount in Kane. We believe that soccer is a team sport with many moving parts. Adding something to your team can lead to something else losing it. “Ehling Haaland’s first season also scored a goal,” adds Went.
Calculating the impact of individual players is extremely useful for the club in determining recruitment and retention. Clicking the “This is the most used tool” button allows Wendt to show results that could potentially replace one player with another.
“Event data has been around for over 15 years now. What we want to measure is the efficiency of the system, not dribbling or fast speed. How players contribute to the success of the team. Do you think? That’s what we have: exercise.
“This is important. It’s a team sport with a lot of dependencies and correlations. What AI does is like a helicopter, and it needs an overview. And what these billions of correlations are Trying to find a pattern. Data, what is important?
“If you’re proposing a player to join Manchester City, we’ll simulate 100,000 games for each Premier League team and see how it works. That data cannot be processed manually. You can kill a computer. You need artificial intelligence.”
Continuing Manchester City, he makes his point. “Ederson or Stephen Ortega, for example? The scores are roughly the same.” But he removes Rodri from the city side. “It’s going to have a big impact,” and this would have been flagged as a risk long before his injury.
“Players like Rodri are in the 7,000 range of our metrics. There are about 200 players worldwide at the 6,000 level, so there’s a risk to have a good player for players. Davis Cup. Team Federer?”
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Highlights from the Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester City
The impact of coaches is overrated
In contrast to Went’s view on the important impact of world-class players, the coach’s influence is something he considers to be overestimated. He didn’t come into it with pre-thinking ideas. That was a discovery. “This was a bit surprising to us,” he admits.
“One of the more interesting learning from AI is that players’ quality is responsible for around 90% of the success of the sport, and coaches’ contributions are only responsible for around 10%. Now, 10% is still different Remember that it can be produced.
“However, coaches tend to perform only on teams for up to one year. Coaches in the system for the past decade have not performed excessively for a long time, with a few exceptions.” Who is it? “Christian Strich of Freiburg and Pep Guardiola of Manchester City”
Guardiola’s recent struggles – of course, without Rodri, it helps to highlight the points. It can also work inversely. The model also suggested that Jurgen Klopp was not performing very well for Liverpool, contrary to popular opinion at the time.
Wendt shows Klopp the correct graph where the outcome might be expected for that quality team. “You can see Jurgen on the green line, like in the previous season.” The line represents a performance in line with expectations.
Again, it’s not to distrust Klopp. Part of the reason these players are highly valued is because Klopp has improved them. “Of course, Jurgen contributed to that. And Arne Slot isn’t worth trusting either. But it’s a very strong team,” says Wendt.
“Now, our model shows that Liverpool has the strongest team in Europe, perhaps the second strongest team. A new coach brings fresh motivations and he If we can add another 2%, then we can do amazing things.”
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Highlights from Bournemouth and Liverpool Premier League matches
The temptation to change coaches will only grow now that the transfer window has been closed. “It’s the only real thing you can change now. It’s like Mary Pass, a hail in football.” But through the insights provided by Plaier, the hope that a better decision will be made. There is.
“The owners have that problem all the time. Is my squad not enough, or is the coach not getting the best performance from the team? For example, Thomas Touchel of Chelsea. That’s not necessary That was. That was.”
Went talks about “educating the market” and “providing a more accurate foundation for decision-making.” Plaier is trying to expand its reach, so he suspects this is just a start.
“We now have some psychological parameters. We can predict injuries. It’s an extraordinary tool, and we add things every few weeks, but we’re already too many so we add them carefully. It’s difficult to operate.”
It seems that soccer is becoming more complicated. Ironically, the purpose of all of this is to make decisions easier. “We want it to be black and white for the club. This player is either enough to make you better. Welcome to the world of AI.
