Do City have the technology?Updated: March 10th, 2007
I was reading this fascinating article in the Observer Sport Monthly about technology in sport, and it made me wonder how ours compares to rivals.
The club was slow to embrace computerised tactical analysis. By the end of the Keegan era, we were one of just five Premiership clubs that didn’t use the ProZone software. Although Pearce introduced video editing to Carrington a month after becoming manager, it took until last May before we were using state-of-the-art software, following the arrival of video analyst Simon Wilson from Southampton (link).
City opted for the Amisco software, which is now the preferred choice of bigger clubs. Below are the tactical software systems currently used in the Premiership (no info available on Sheff Utd or Fulham):
Amisco
Created by: Antoine David (Sport Universal Process)
Used by: City, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Tottenham.
Details: 6 to 8 sensor tracking system provides 2-D representation of the whole match, tactical and fitness data.
Price: not known
Archive:
06/06/06: Amisco system tested at Champions League final
07/12/06: Amisco users are very successful in the UEFA Champions League
ProZone
Created by: Neil Ramsay, Ram Mylvaganam, Frederic de Graca
Used by: Arsenal, Blackburn, Bolton, Charlton, Everton, Middlesbrough, Watford, West Ham, Wigan.
Details: 8 to 12 sensors within a stadium capture positional data every 0.1 seconds which can be analysed within 24 hours.
Price: c £200,000 per season
Archive:
09/08/05: Profile of ProZone founders (Yorkshire Post)
27/10/05: Computerised revolution in football tactics (The Independent)
19/08/06: ProZone: do not exceed stated dose and keep out of the reach of children (The Times)
DatatraX
Created by: Neil Ramsay (Performance Group International)
Used by: Reading
Details: 3-D digital image analysis relayed to laptop computers in real-time.
Price: not known
Archive:
28/03/06: Royals move into the realms of virtual reality (Guardian)
29/05/06: Demonstration at England B international
Datatrax presentation
The invention of statistical analysis in football has been dated to 18 March 1950, when wing commander Charles Reep took out his notebook at a Swindon Town game and began making detailed notes.
According to the Journal of Sports Sciences Reep “soon became the first professional performance analyst in football and later co-authored the first scientific paper to apply statistical analysis to football.” He worked closely with Stan Cullis’s successful Wolves side of the 1950s and his theory was taken up by Graham Taylor at Watford.
The creation of ProZone in the late 1990s took football analysis onto a different level. But while the impact of computer software is difficult to gauge in terms of performance, what is clear is that this is a rapidly developing area of football.
And lagging behind our rivals in the technology race might come at a heavy cost.
The club has always been quick to embrace new technology in other areas. As well as pioneering ticketless entry, City were the first club to test mobile phone ticketing and last August became the first UK business to use SponsorshipPRO+ software, which helps find sponsors.
We’ve been the first in other off-field areas too - the first club that will be powered by renewable energy, the first officially “gay-friendly club” and in November we signed a £2million deal to become the first British club to have an “environmentally-credible matchday magazine”.
But when it comes to innovation that actually helps the team, we appear to drag our heels. Spurs and Chelsea had been using Amisco for almost a year by the time we got it, while a few weeks ago we became the 15th Premiership club to use the Scout7 software, something Reading and Sheffield United had been using since the summer.
The next revolution in football could involve DatatraX. It’s the first system to offer real-time information during games and PGI claims it represents a “quantum leap in sports analysis”. Its website quotes an unnamed Spanish coach:
“It’s amazing the progress that PGI has made in such a short time of development. This changes the face of football analysis forever, and though it will give us more work to do, the value of that data will be immeasurably better than anything we have done before.”
If the technology is as superior as the firm claims (and Reading are proving a pretty good advert for it so far) it’s likely that other clubs will be switching to it soon.
So will the club have the foresight to be at the cutting edge of this technology, or will Mr Mackintosh be too wrapped up in his latest dolphin-friendly marketing gizmo to make it a top priority?