AI in football would be 'like hiring a team of Pep Guardiolas'

It is 2029 and Manchester City trail Bayern Munich in the closing stages of the Champions League final.

Erling Haaland has already scored twice, his 321st and 322nd goals for the club, as Pep Guardiola looks to make it seven European titles in a row. Haaland is hungry for a hat-trick and the Bayern centre-back has lost a yard. Suddenly, an alert dings around the dugout from the analyst’s tablet. The AI has spotted something.

A message flashes up on the screen. It tells Guardiola to take off Haaland.

Leading figures in football and artificial intelligence believe the sport is close to having the technology for a ‘virtual assistant coach’ to instruct managers such as what decisions to make.

Tech experts claim harnessing the power of AI is like ‘hiring a team of Peps’ and could lead to ‘twisted’ tactical innovations that will shape the future of football.

‘I am sure it will get to the point where AI can use physical and technical data to guide coaches that they should swap one player for another as they are now becoming statistically less impactful,’ James Bunce, who spent the last three years as director of performance at Monaco, tells Mail Sport.

Artificial intelligence has already transformed the way Premier League clubs and those around Europe sign players, manage injuries and analyse performances — and could soon influence how managers react during games.

Manchester United recently teamed up with the city’s Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport to use AI to find an edge.

Aldo Comi, chief executive of leading analytics provider Soccerment, believes the ‘virtual assistant’ will be the next stage of football’s AI evolution.

‘I envisage an assistant coach having a tablet and a virtual assistant providing suggestions on