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What Have They Got To Hide?


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Quick one this.

I’ve seen highlights from 2 games over the last week. Rangers in Europe last week and Livi v Celtic yesterday.

I saw something odd.

Both Arfield in the Rangers game and Menga in the Livi game both appeared to have some sort of rectangular, matchbox sized object under their shirts between the shoulder blades.

What is this? I’m imagining it’s something to do with fitness. Am I right? I also wondered if it is one of those devices that they use in rugby internationals that monitors a players performance for peak ability so that the coach can make more effective substitutions (I saw a program on it once). However, I seem to remember someone saying on the program that they were only just using them in rugby and that football didn’t use them.

So, what is it?

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6 minutes ago, SJ1210 said:

Yes they are GPS devices, and they've only been used in Scottish Football for the last 4 or 5 years at least.

Ok. Makes sense. Never heard of that but I take it that’s to monitor distance covered.

Further couple of questions. Are all players using them?

And is this purely for retrospective monitoring or are teams now using the live data?

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3 minutes ago, Jimboyjones1976 said:

Ok. Makes sense. Never heard of that but I take it that’s to monitor distance covered.

Further couple of questions. Are all players using them?

And is this purely for retrospective monitoring or are teams now using the live data?

All our outfield players wear them, it's for tracking in depths stats but predominantly for distance covered. Worth noting we've also just hired a guy that is providing live data pitch side using these along with other stats

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I'd say most are wearing them (or at least most teams are), some teams may not have every single player wearing them each game though.  It covers more than just just distance, will have Heart Rate data, acceleration speeds, number of different runs & speeds etc.

The teams can use the data live during a game but will also look at it retrospectively as well. 

 

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2 minutes ago, SJ1210 said:

I'd say most are wearing them (or at least most teams are), some teams may not have every single player wearing them each game though.  It covers more than just just distance, will have Heart Rate data, acceleration speeds, number of different runs & speeds etc.

The teams can use the data live during a game but will also look at it retrospectively as well. 

 

Interesting. You live and learn.

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I think that the data derived from these devices will be used more and more by teams. The data will probably eventually be used in transfer negotiations to show how much ground a player covers in match time, how quickly they can chase the ball down-and obviously how many times they are successful on the ball.

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I believe there are some players who will chose to not wear the devices. But all the younger players seem to be much more accepting of wearing them. Some teams also have semi automatic video systems placed around the stadium which also measure player motion, but these are more expensive so are generally seen in the richer leagues.

I think there is an argument that the devices are not utilised as well as they could be. And most clubs will have their own approach to using the data which the sports scientists will implement. The uses GPS provides helps monitor performance, although physical variables don’t really relate to football performance. Although if players are below a certain threshold, it would be considered poor performance. The data can also be used to forecast injury, so you can change a players training regime to decrease the likelihood. There is limited use of the data live. Or coaches don’t find much use in its current state. There are other possible areas of promise such as measuring team dynamics based on the whole teams position.

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