The technical and tactical intelligence that has led Real Madrid to finish 2021 as the outstanding leader of LaLiga Santander, with 46 points and only one defeat in 19 league games, that is put by Carlo Ancelotti.
But there is another intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, which bases its ‘science’ on a predictive model made through qualitative analysis (value that each action of a player has contributed to the team) and that allows us to know the real impact that a player has on his team.
The company Olocip, an expert in this type of ‘techniques’, and through its Artificial Intelligence solution, IA TCT-Scout, has been in charge of analyzing the performance of Ancelott’s workforce. And has concluded that the position that most needs to be reinforced is that of central defense.
With the opening of the winter market ever closer, he has analyzed this position and also the probability of success of possible reinforcements.
When it comes to seeing which players Real Madrid should bid on in the next winter market, the artificial intelligence applied by Olocip is clear: it does not trust Chelsea center-back Rudiger.
It has drawn this conclusion by applying his method: filtering central defenders, more than 2,400, from more than 50 competitions, under 28 years old and with more than 500 minutes played this season. And taking into account the context of Real Madrid with Ancelotti as coach.
Among the names that fit these parameters is not Rudiger. Yes, however, Jules Koundé (Sevilla), Marcos Senesi (Feyenoord), Pau Torres (Villarreal), Manuel Akanji (Borussia Dortmund) and Sven Botman (Lille).
Olocip’s Artificial Intelligence has analyzed the performance of all of them six months from now, and the conclusion is that Sven Botman, from Lille, would be the player who would have the most impact on the defensive game.
The Dutch central defender would be the player who would generate the most value in interceptions, recoveries, blocked balls, punts and defensive aerial duels. Sevillista Koundé would follow him very closely as a player with the greatest defensive impact And, in fact, it would generate the same value on blocked balls and punts.
The impact a player has on every aspect of the game is conditioned by the competition in which he participates, as well as the philosophy and style of play of his team and coach.
AI is the only technology capable of contextualizing a player in a new environment (club, league, coach, teammates, game system, age).
Regarding the power plants that Ancelotti currently has the IA TCT-Scout method establishes that Militao and Alaba present an upward performance, Nacho and Vallejo are the players with the lowest ‘rated’ in the squad.
As Olocip explains, the ‘rating’ is the indicator that represents the impact of a player in each aspect of the game compared to the rest of the players in his position and that takes values between 0 and 100.