The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in football to simulate a player's suitability for a team is no longer a strange topic.
That's the opinion of Dr Ryan Beal, co-founder and CEO of SentientSports. Most recently, the Telegraph invited him to use a data model to predict the dream signings for all 20 clubs in the Premier League next season.
In-depth analysis
“It’s quite easy to go into the top five European leagues and figure out who scores the most goals, who has the best stats and go after them as a transfer strategy. But we spend time in simulation models and look at what changes when a player moves from one team to another, to another league, to new teammates, to the language.
It will all be aggregated into one model to provide better insights to decision makers,” said Dr Beal.
Based on the data model, SentientSports' AI surprised with the names considered "dream" contracts this summer.
Not the appearance of Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo - the duo scored a total of 35 goals in the Premier League last season, AI believes that Angelo Stiller is the most important name for MU this season.
Specifically, this midfielder rating model is a logical addition to bolster midfield depth alongside Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte, while also providing a long-term replacement for older players like Casemiro.
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AI rates Angelo Stiller as a reasonable addition to strengthen MU's midfield depth. Photo: Goal. |
In fact, the 24-year-old is considered the ideal name to replace Toni Kroos at Real, both in terms of position and playing style.
Stiller grew up in the Bayern Munich training center and is now a mainstay in the Stuttgart midfield. Although the club has not played very well this season, Stiller has left a strong impression on the individual. He leads the team in passes, turnovers and assists.
Notably, it was Kroos who introduced Stiller to Real Madrid. Stiller is far from the level of his legendary senior, but possesses a similar playing style such as intelligence, composure, accurate long passes and sharp tactical vision.
Another name that has brought many surprises is Charles De Ketelaere. The Atalanta player is considered to be able to bring great value to coach Mikel Arteta, with good coordination ability, suitable for Arsenal's attacking midfield.
New trend of Premier League
Using data is nothing new. However, what is rapidly evolving is how widely and specifically it is being used in sport , and more and more clubs in the UK are benefiting from the technology.
The most prominent is probably Liverpool. Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are all the results of data science that Klopp's team has applied since arriving at Liverpool.
The main "brain" for this project is Ian Graham - the head of Liverpool's analysis team, who has built his own database to track the development of more than 100,000 players around the world .
From there, he introduced promising faces to Liverpool and guided the club on how to develop and use those players.'
Following Liverpool is Brighton. The top-secret data analytics technology, created by Brighton chairman Tony Bloom to gain an edge in poker, is bringing some very good players to the club.
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Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool is one of the most active teams in applying technology to football. Photo: GOAL. |
An anonymous source at a major club even confirmed to The Athletic that Brighton are leading the transfer market in certain areas, an advantage that comes from data analytics technology from Starlizard, a company owned by Brighton chairman Tony Bloom.
Starlizard was founded in 2006 to beat the bookmakers by using ever more advanced data, analytics and technology to understand sports. Starlizard has now expanded to a staff of around 200.
Brighton's scouts will be sent a list of players. The scouting team will then monitor and compile a report on the players who have passed the requirements, based on factors such as age and minutes played.
A traffic light system will be used for these reports. Green means very suitable, amber means players are close to matching the criteria and red means further monitoring is required.
Brighton usually plan at least one or two transfer windows in advance to line up players they are targeting for development into the first team.
According to Dr. Beal, in just 10 years, not just in football, people will use AI in every field.
“It will be a hybrid role in the future. There will be a crossover between the ‘very football’ data people and the data-driven scouts. I don’t think they will be separate. You need to do both because there is so much data being collected, so many different ways to analyse it. Both skills are really important and then it’s all about who uses AI best,” Beal commented.
Source: https://znews.vn/day-la-cau-thu-mu-can-chot-ngay-trong-he-nay-dua-tren-ai-post1571341.html
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