From the cloud to the pitch — How data analytics is evolving football
Adam is a content writer and manager at Sisense. He began his career in corporate communications and public relations in London and New York before moving to Tel Aviv, where he has spent the last 12 years working with tech companies including Amdocs, Gilat Satellite Systems, and Allot Communications. He holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Manchester. When he’s not spending time with his wife and son, Adam is preoccupied with his beloved underperforming football team, Tottenham Hotspur.
Data analytics are no longer solely the province of big enterprises, but are being leveraged by companies of all shapes and sizes and infused into workflows to help decision-making processes anywhere — even on the football pitch. In fact, analytics are now an essential part of the winning formula that’s revolutionising football teams and the way they play.
Players, pioneers, and leaders
For most of modern history, coaches had little more than pen, paper, and video to help them analyse play. During the ’90s, Manchester United became one of the pioneering teams to adopt analytics in their decision-making; by 2010, analytics were becoming widely adopted by teams in leading international leagues.
In recent years, football experienced rapid technological advances, with platforms able to capture and analyse data from training, match play, internet of things (IoT) devices, and wearables. Coaches now rely heavily on metrics to guide their decision-making and help their teams excel.
Infusing analytics to enhance play
Football teams rely on huge amounts of data drawn from countless sources to take their play to the next level. IoT sensors and GPS devices track player and ball movements in real time. Optical tracking can even pinpoint the position of players on the pitch 25 times a second, in relation to the ball, opposition, and teammates.
In training, wearable devices measure players’ workload, movement, and fatigue levels to manage their fitness and positioning and optimise performance during play. The data collected by these devices are also used to design personalised training plans. During matches, coaches can also see in real time how each player is performing to help guide strategic substitutions.
This is infused analytics at work: Wearable devices deliver data and insights directly to the coaches, enabling them to make decisions and transform teams’ performance without technical data expertise.
Modern data storage on the cloud gives teams the ability to collect and mash up vast volumes of data from these devices. Big data analytics and artificial intelligence enable the simultaneous processing and analysis of data from many sources to measure and even predict performance. These developments have added new dimensions to data analysis and to football!
The same trend has happened in business. Technology offers leading companies more ways to generate data than ever before. As top companies began to benefit from the analytics they had adopted, increasing numbers of other organisations followed their lead. Analytics have proven to be a winning formula, on and off the pitch.
How teams benefit from analytics
The most valuable intelligence for coaches shows what happens in real time.
