AI models can improve corner-kick tactics

TO ZHE WANGAIAIAIGNN at , an artificial-intelligence () company, corner kicks are like games of chess. Partly because both feature opposing sides poised to react to a single imminent move. But also, no doubt, because they too may be revolutionised by . models . Football more than satisfies this requirement. Elite players wear vests that measure heart rate, position, speed and force exerted; team analysts watch hours of footage to tally possession percentages and numbers of passes, shots and goals. In a paper published on March 19th in , Mr Wang and his colleagues worked with staff at Liverpool Football Club to feed this data into a statistical model known as a graph neural network (). They then were able to use this model to predict which on-field player would wind up making first contact with the ball with levels of accuracy similar to human experts.