Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used in future to construct football tactics and select squads, according to Aldo Comi, CEO of Soccerment, a leading global supplier of analytical data on football.
AI is currently being used mainly to analyse matches after they are played. However, with more and more high-quality data and advanced metrics available, it will become capable of providing more predictive analysis and suggesting tactics, player line-ups, substitution timings, and transfer targets.
This technology could even advocate unconventional strategies. "Eventually, it will be able to do such things. This is one of the most exciting aspects of AI’s arrival on the football scene,” Comi told PA news agency.
“We’ve seen in chess how AI developed peculiar strategies that were hard for humans to accept, being counterintuitive but ultimately correct," he recalled. "There will come a point where managers listen to their assistants, and they, in turn, listen to AI."
This, he added, would lead to "strange tactical solutions, like opting for a 2-4-4 formation rather than a typical 4-4-2. AI will offer counterintuitive solutions and strategies, but the end result will be the same as in chess.”
Soccerment has developed a shin guard capable of tracking real-time player data. Elaborating on this new feature, Comi explained: “The data is processed by an AI model that understands technical events from a biomechanical perspective, recognising whether a shot, cross or pass has been made.”
He also sees a future where AI supports coaches but does not replace them. "It's hard to envision a future where there is no coach," he said. "I hope that never happens.”
