Your data journey
At Twelve we meet with a lot of different teams and footballing organizations, each of which is at a different stage in their data journey. Some are just starting out, possibly feeling a bit left behind by their rivals or teams in other countries. Others have come further (by employing a data scientist, for example) but feel that they need to better utilise AI in analyzing scouting data or doing opposition analysis.
To help you understand where you are today, read through the description below. If you have fallen behind, then we can help you catch up quickly. If you are already on your way, we can help take it to the next level.
Level 1: Starting with data. You want to utilize data within your footballing organisation. You receive match and player summaries from one or more data suppliers, but these are not tailored to your team’s needs. We can help with customized match reports, as well as educating your staff and helping with data procurement.
Level 2: Establishing your team’s KPIs. You make use of match and season data reports to understand some aspects of team performance, but you want to develop Key Performance Indices (KPIs) which capture your own team’s style of play. We can run a Twelve Boot Up with club staff to create metrics which measure your performance.
Level 3: AI-based scouting and player development. You have established KPIs for the team and are using scouting reports and/or a commercial platform to measure actions performed by players. But you want to scout players who match your team’s specific needs and monitor the development of your current squad. We can build customized scouting platform based on defined player roles, which uses machine learning and AI to evaluate every action a player performs.
Level 4: Data-driven playbook. You want decisions on the pitch to be data-driven. How should the team play out from the back or press most effectively? What set-piece variations have the best effect against a each of your opponents? We build a data-driven playbook, which coaches use to present tactics to the players, that integrates metrics, league tracking data, video clips and machine learning to evaluate the best options in every situation.
Level 5: Scout off-ball movement using broadcast tracking data. You are now integrating data in to both performance and scouting and have possibly employed a full-time data scientist. You are using event data in scouting, match and opposition analysis. But now you want to exploit tracking data to understand off-the-ball movement. We can create metrics for scouting movement off-the-ball, helping you work with a broadcast tracking data supplier and provide AI methods to understand these large datasets.
Level 6: Making data central to everything you do. You are using event, catapult, fitness and tracking data in scouting, match and opposition analysis. But the analysis is spread across different platform. We build an integrated platform, so that scouts, the sporting director, the coaches and the players are looking at the same data sources, the same metrics and can use these to make informed decisions.
In the Premier League there are still teams at level 1, while some clubs in smaller leagues are already at level 3 or 4 (very few have reached 6 yet). We have worked with teams at all of these levels and know the challenges involved.
We preface each of the blog posts here with a short description of the level which applies to them. This should help give you a feeling for the way the fast-moving field of football analytics is developing. Wherever you happen to be now, we can help your reach the next level.
