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extreme technical
ability that is the thing that gets
people excited
also part of our job is to think about
in in two or three years
you know what's going to happen with
your squad
well the court could be in trouble here
the opposition are up in their game we
have to up our game
what we're trying to do is essentially
uncover fundamental truths about the
game
they are undoubtedly born with an
incredible sort of natural talent
but i think as time goes on there is far
more to it than that
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on this brilliant of days
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the player has changed over the last 10
years
now the amount of running they do for
example the physical output
is incredible
if we go back years things weren't as
professional generally
diet wasn't good fitness wasn't as good
well it was the same for everyone it was
a level playing field
now it's the ones who are prepared to
work and develop that
that reach the top
and de bruyne with the outside of the
boot and there's the goal
john stones you know for a man city
player that invariably is international
we're looking at them playing 50 60
games a season
you're looking for players that are
robust and you're then looking to
develop them in a way that they can be
even more
robust what we're really looking for is
players who have everything
it's very possession based the way we
play so
so clearly you need to be able to handle
the ball so that's an important aspect
whether you're a right back a left back
a center forward we like to play through
the lines
sterling will slip this through it's
rolled through and touched in
it's probably a trend of of modern
coaches particularly the top ones that
they have a very clear
identity and philosophy of the way they
want to play and therefore what the
players
in the system need to be and that makes
it easier from a scouting point of view
definitely
many clubs now look to invest in
in data in science i think that's been a
fundamental change
in a lot of people's thinking what you
want to do is just want to make sure
you get to the right decision and you
want to try and eliminate
mistakes
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data isn't a concept it's a mindset it's
part of our day-to-day lives in which
it helps us to make better decisions
faster
ai fits in like all technology and
football it's grown
significantly in a relatively short
space of time
this growth in tech and the availability
of it
has meant there's been an exponential
growth in data as well
but more data doesn't necessarily mean
more insight we don't kind of monitor
and track and report on every little
aspect
we're very much football centric where
kind of the football and the questions
and the performance challenges that come
out of it and what drive
our work
what we're trying to do with with the
data is essentially uncover
what we call the fundamental truths
about the game game changing insights
i would call them and kind of
communicate the story behind these
insights
there are actually two types of data i
think it's quite important to
differentiate between the two
so one is sort of autobiographical data
so
stuff as basic as age clubs they've
played for
coaches they've played for how many
games they've played the other type of
data then is performance type data
you know from the game how many crosses
did he deliver
how many tackles did he make
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that is outstanding he's in sumptuous
form right now
there's a whole volume of information
that you can pull together that perhaps
just builds a picture
i think that the the more informed you
are you hopefully that'll lead to the
to the to the right outcomes
know from analyzing the outputs of the
most successful teams across history
that a balanced squad
is is the foundation of success these
teams
had a succession of players in each
position so
this is one of our guiding principles
future in the right hands
also part of our job is to think about
in in two or three years
you know what is going to happen how to
start renewing the
squad
we provide and develop tools to assess
and simulate kind of squad balance going
forward
prime example our squad balance tool
enables kind of a sporting director to
go in
to add and remove players from their
squad and it also allows us to kind of
simulate out and predict
the impact of those changes that
sporting directors is making there and
then
it enables us to not only be successful
right now but also
next year the year after and in many
years to come
at the climax of one of the great title
races in premier league history
the champions in 2019
are manchester
[Applause]
manchester city
hello
we need to understand which
players we're looking for and that's
usually driven by a recruitment brief
when you think about the fact we've got
a database of over half a million
players
worldwide that we keep track of on a
daily basis
first step is is narrowing our field
we're pretty clear in terms of
the attributes that we look for each
position that kind of narrows your focus
to if it's a right back these are the
four or five qualities we're looking for
we tend to do that initially by looking
at the age profile of the player that
was required the the position
so that kind of already brings our poor
down quite massively in a lot of
instances
from here we can then start to assess
the players quality
i think at the level that we're talking
about for manchester city
it's probably extreme technical ability
that is the thing that gets people
[Applause]
excited
1v1 ability to combine and play very
quickly
athletic things as well speed and
power and strength and all those kind of
things
we apply the various machine learning
optimization and reinforcement learning
models
to build our player index score once we
have this currency that we work to and
we have this kind of search field
combined with and layer with the wide
variety of
information we have and data we have
around the technical skill sets of
players the the kind of the qualitative
assessments of our scouting network
you start to pretty quickly come down to
a fairly short list
and then you kind of filter that to a
point where you may get to four or five
on each position
and then you start engaging with the
sporting director
or the coach or other members of the
coaching team
just to start understanding what their
views are and could they
fit into the profile of a city team
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with data you can look back over years
and years and years and see how
how he's improved how he's developed
there's a lot of contextual
sort of elements to it you know you have
to understand perhaps who the coach was
what the system was what role they were
playing who they were playing against
who they were playing alongside
perhaps without even seeing the player
play if you can see the numbers
the things they do the things they're
particularly good at you can get a good
sense of what they are
i think for players who get to the top
that get to manchester city's level
they are undoubtedly born with an
incredible sort of natural talent
[Applause]
with torres he's in the box and he
scored and now city do have the lead and
torres keeps this record going
of scoring in all three champions league
games
but i think as time goes on there is far
more to it than that
attitude professionalism lifestyle
are increasingly crucial parts of the
game
that's largely because the support for
players and the quality of coaching and
things like that are so high
you look at someone like phil foden you
look at what he's been through in terms
of his physical development
what pep has done is he's developed him
in a way that's given him just enough
pitch time
enough time on the training ground
enough rest to make sure that he's
capable his body is going to be robust
to play till he's 35.
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and manchester city have a much great
lead
and it's their boy
filled fold and throw himself at it
players have to be prepared to buy into
them and it needs years of that that has
to happen at
seven and eight and all the way through
every day all the way through
phil foden plants the ball into the
empty net
[Applause]
so i'm rick's a great example of a
player who from a
from a data and an insights perspective
stood out really early days he was
someone that
we could see was had this potential
to be an elite player we from a davis
perspective really
really pushed forward there was a large
consensus once we'd gone through through
the processes from
from all parties that he was a player
that would be an elite centre-back for
manchester city
the way he joined him the squad has been
fantastic he's been an
absolute asset to the club
the fallback position has been
absolutely transformed in recent years
it used to be a predominantly defensive
position
now it's extremely attacking extremely
influential
it's all about just nudging people in
the right direction and you start to be
more and more convinced
that the process is working really well
as feedback from the scouts and and the
insight from the data starts to align
what's really interesting is when you
get the outliers
you know look at someone like alexander
sinchenko
you know incredible pickup
and this was somebody that again our
scouts picked up and we tracked and we
thought
this is interesting he went to psv on
loan hardly played
he goes there as a number eight he's a
midfield player
he comes back in having not played and
pep has
not just seen a player he's seen a left
back
i think at the point where we're signing
him we didn't necessarily predict that
he would go into manchester city's first
team and play
i don't know 50 60 games
it's unusual to take somebody from that
background and for them to become a
regular in a team like manchester cities
[Applause]
so much of that is down to his ambition
the perfectionism
and the the willingness to develop and
learn he's fantastic
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historically there's been kind of event
data which
can all be useful but ultimately miss a
lot of the context of the game
what is available now to premier league
clubs
is optical tracking data which tracks
the players 25 frames per second
what we try and do though is is start to
identify features and extract features
of players who
understand space and movement and time
prime example of that is someone like
kevin de bruyne mahrez is in the same
mode
they're not turning 180 degrees they're
not even turned 90
degrees they're always just shifting and
adjusting their body to be in the right
place at the right time
understanding the decision-making
process of players and the cognitive
capabilities of these players is
something that
is really interesting something that
we're trying to delve into more and more
goals first ever goal
as a city player everybody
has access to the data everybody has
access to all the same video that we do
so the key then is i suppose is who is
using it the best who's using it the
most efficiently who has the best
systems and processes you know
you can lose players for different
reasons you know what's being offered
what what
what do agents want does it then make
financial sense
these are all kind of questions that you
keep asking yourself and
and i think that you you can't have them
all right
at the young ages there are a whole
group of players that
show massive potential but it will only
be a few that actually
become as good as we ever thought they
could be
we're pleased but we also know as a
group we have to continue to improve we
also know the opposition are
up in their game we have to up our game
this this goes on this this has to
maintain that kind of success rate
a chance for a third and it's taken by
gunduan again
[Applause]
slipping inside and
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finishes it off
i think in time the mls will be huge
because i think the united states
they know how to do sports
really what we want is people who are
hungry and that drive and that passion
for wanting but also wanting to develop
soccer in the us is growing when you're
growing up i feel like
almost every kid plays soccer
at one point mls and u.s soccer will
produce talent and compete with the top
eight leagues in the world