The players Manchester City, Manchester United, Spurs and Liverpool must sign in

On Dec 16, 2020

Fixture congestion, player fatigue, injuries and a wide-open race for the 2021 Premier League title means the temptation – and the need – to spend big in the January transfer window has never been greater.

But successful recruitment midwinter is notoriously difficult to do well. Think Liverpool signing Andy Carroll for £35million in January 2011 for the ultimate panic buy.

The aim is to not just relieve those on the front line, but to power the final push for glory, so new recruits will have to go straight into the action. Carroll, for example, didn’t play until March or score until April.

So, who do Liverpool, Manchester City, Spurs, Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal – who remain the established Big Six clubs of the Premier League, despite some enduring poor (or woeful in the case of the Gunners) campaigns so far – buy now to sustain their title and Champions League challenges, or in the case of the latter, to simply save their season?

Who can be back up for Harry Kane, replace Virgil van Dijk, replicate the achievements of Sergio Aguero or take the pressure off Bruno Fernandes, and who, crucially, who can come in and instantly make a telling contribution?

Until now, the answer to the final question has been a matter of judgement and intuition. But not any more.

Clubs are beginning to look beyond simple player data and are using artificial intelligence to calculate which players will fit and fire from day one.

Tottenham Hotspur have a decision to make – do they bring in more back-up for Harry Kane? And do Manchester City sign a new talisman to replace the extraordinary Sergio Aguero to give them a shot at the Premier League title this season

The man behind the AI

The Professional Zone – or Prozone – marked the beginning of digital performance analysis in sport, when the company began in 1998.

It was the brainchild of Ramm Mylvaganam. He came to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1968 to study chemical engineering at Aston University in Birmingham and he went on to work for Mars.

Years later, he recruited a group of technicians and pioneered his Prozone approach with Steve McClaren, who was the first-team manager at Derby County, under Jim Smith.

In an age before reliable GPS, the system used cameras positioned around a stadium, which enabled analysts to measure the movement and touch of the players

Suddenly, coaches knew exactly how far players were running, their strengths and weaknesses and where on the pitch they were effective.

Mylvaganam sold the company to US investors 15 years ago and it now operates as Stats Perform. His latest venture Ai Abacus aims to go beyond raw data and use it to predict the best outcome for clubs and players.

‘People always talk about chemistry between players, but up to now that has just been words,’ says Ramm Mylvaganam, the founder of Ai Abacus, a company that uses artificial intelligence to find the perfect match between players and clubs, based on style of play and the ‘chemistry’ a player will have…