Arguably one of the most forward thinking tools in football is related to talent identification and some of the most ambitious clubs are on board with this. Without a doubt, when it comes to the continuation of success at a football club, clever recruitment plays a big part in this and some of the best are able to breed some of the best talent from their youth academies.
Though, for most, this is wishful thinking. Over the last few years as technology has moved forward, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has played its part in being able to effectively drive some of the best businesses forward.
This has been used in many different areas of business, though especially football and more specifically scouting, with many tools now available in order to hone down on the most important elements.
Like we have seen in many different verticals, AI in football scouting is revolutionising talent identification by analysing vast data sets and predicting player potential and, as results have shown – certainly over the last few years – Liverpool have reaped the rewards of this.
How Liverpool Have New Tech To Their Recruitment Advantage
During former manager Jurgen Klopp’s reign, the club won everything there was to win in domestic, European and global football – the fees they paid for players, more than reflected a return on investment and, this wasn’t a coincidence.
Take the signing of Mohamed Salah, whose transfer to the club raised a number of eyebrows at the time in June 2017 for £34.3 million – yes, you read that numer right – decimal point in the right place. He has transformed into one of the best players on the planet and has been consistently for a number of years. Coincidence? Absolutely not.
NEW: How Liverpool are pioneering artificial intelligence in football – with the help of Google
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In 2012, Ian Graham – a Cambridge University educated physicist was appointed as the club’s Director of Research – essentially when “AI” was just in its ‘infancy’ – or certainly interpreted in this way among the “masses”. However, Graham was already one step ahead of the game. In the years that followed, he helped to spearhead and adopt a model, utilising advanced and sophisticated algorithms with a long term agenda, that would help the club with what would turn out to be one of the most efficient and cost-effective recruitment strategies, potentially ever in Premier League history (especially for return-on-investment).
The club (following the arrival of Salah), went on to sign Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim for an initial £25 million (rising to £29 million) – another beneficiary of Graham’s developed and well-enhanced AI-driven algorithm.
In addition, Liverpool also partnered with Deep Mind – a statistical analysis AI-driven company in order to complement, add emphasis and more effectively bring Graham’s ambitious visions to life when it came to scouting and player recruitment. A symbiosis that paid dividends.
Right now, the signing of Virgil Van Dijk looks to be one of the Premier League bargains of the last decade from fellow Premier League club Southampton in January 2018 for £75 million. At the time, eyebrows were raised, though, when you look comparatively at other centre-back signings from an accomplishment perspective he has proved to be worth every penny and substantially more.
The list is almost endless in terms of the players that followed. Certainly it would have played a part in the decision to promote home-grown youngster Trent Alexander-Arnold to the first team, in addition to further signings such as Fabinho, Alisson Becker, Sadio Mane, Joel Matip, Andy Robertson and others – all of whom played a part in arguably the most successful period for Liverpool football club since the 1980s.
