How Liverpool FC is leading the way in artificial intelligence in football

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more mainstream, especially with the launch of chatGPT and others this year. Liverpool FC is at the forefront of technological application in the football industry.

Football was late for the party.
With endless variables and an ever-changing picture, it took science a long time to get into the beautiful game.

Since its beginnings in the 19th century, football has demanded decision-making based on the experience of individuals or teams.

Of course, statistical analysis has become an important part of modern gaming, but it still depends on expert knowledge to correctly interpret this data.

However, the AI ​​is now almost advanced enough to be able to make decisions for trainers.

Although the technology was in its infancy, it was more effective at identifying fixed-part patterns due to the more “closed” nature of the task, meaning fewer variables to calculate.

For this reason, sports like baseball, cricket, and even American football lend themselves much more easily to data-driven analysis, as the image is constantly reset on a predetermined schedule.

In football, however, there could be an unlimited number of possible outcomes at almost any point in open play.

AI is starting to be able to predict what players might do in certain situations, which could greatly help coaches make tactical decisions.

By partnering with Liverpool FC, Google-owned DeepMind goes one step further.

Thanks in part to research and modeling tested with data from Liverpool (the club provided DeepMind with data on all Premier League matches played between 2017 and 2019), they hope to provide decision-making for managers and a effective automated video assistant coach to create.

While Jurgen Klopp’s footballing style may seem chaotic at times, the chaos is planned. It’s designed. AI is well on its way to understanding organized chaos and figuring out how to prevent or circumvent it.

Football clubs are unlikely to rely solely on computer advice.
The more advanced the orientation, the easier a manager’s job can be.

Despite football’s “inherent uncertainty”, as described by journalist Amit Katwala, predictions are still possible.

Ghosting is an important way technology can speculate on the probabilities of different outcomes. Referring to an article published by Liverpool and DeepMind, Katwala explained in Wired how it would work.

“The paper shows how a model can be trained using data on a given team and group to predict how their players will react in a given situation,” Katwala said.

“For example, against Manchester City, if you hit a long ball into the correct channel, Kyle Walker will run in one direction while John Stones might run in another direction.

“It’s called ‘ghosting’ because the alternate trajectories are superimposed on the real action, like in a video game.”

This could be useful for predicting how a tactical change or substitution would affect a game.

AI could also be useful in identifying potential transfer targets. In football terms, the “Moneyball” technique, made famous by the Oakland Athletics baseball team, involves statistical analysis to find the players who display the qualities that best suit your system.

The use of artificial intelligence would make it even more efficient.

Grimsby Town chairman Jason Stockwood wrote on the cover of Brighton and Brentford, who are still the two best in the Premier League by budget.

“Rumors suggest they have armies of quanta looking for undervalued players in markets around the world, just like Moneyball,” Stockwood said.

“ML (machine learning) will already be part of their business interests and will build on the players who continue their journey into the next decade and establish themselves in European football.”

With the Reds aiming to remain at the top of the world game, Liverpool will monitor every step forward in AI closely and apply it to their own practices wherever possible.