Data has revolutionised football transfers. When will it do the same to real-time tactics?
“The football analytics boom has been firmly established, but its role within the game remains debated. Some argue that data has cleansed the game to such an extent that football has become too uniform for the average fan. For others, a data-led approach is romanticised as the tool that helps clubs find an edge in creating their underdog story. Whatever your opinion, data analysis, paired with video technology, is becoming increasingly complex in football — even if its impact on a team’s tactical approach continues to be discussed. The Athletic’s Michael Cox recently provided a compelling argument that the work being undertaken within football analytics might not have been applied as much on the pitch as we might have thought. While data-led recruitment — and even artificial intelligence — has become increasingly valuable for clubs, there are fewer examples of statistics directly informing decision-making within a game. The question is, why might this disconnect exist? …”
NY Times/The Athletic