As Arne Slot settles into his role as Liverpool’s head coach, there is an exciting array of fresh ideas from his new backroom staff.

The novel training methods of assistant coaches, Sipke Hulshoff and John Heitinga. The vibrant voice of lead physical performance coach, Ruben Peeters. The creative coaching drills of head of goalkeeper coaching, Fabian Otte.

Off the pitch, Liverpool have been developing a coaching assistant who could help their set-piece approach for the coming season… and it’s not even human.

Liverpool’s analytics department is renowned for its pioneering work, led by director of research William Spearman who took over from Ian Graham in 2023. In their most recent venture, they have teamed up with Google DeepMind, using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine strategies for corner kicks.

The collaboration has culminated in a paper published in Nature Communications — TacticAI: an AI assistant for football tactics. The project, led by researchers Zhe Wang and Petar Velickovic, used data from 9,693 corner kicks collected from the 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23 (up to January 2023) Premier League seasons, feeding information on each player’s height, weight, starting location, and movement throughout the corner routine.

The information from each player enabled the researchers to predict the outcomes most likely to occur within a given corner setup. For example, which player is likely to receive the ball? Will the sequence lead to a shot attempt?

Once the sequence has been played, the analysis can then build a picture to determine whether similar routines have been successful in the past. Crucially, TacticAI can draw from this analysis to generate suggestions that improve the outcome of the corner. For example, moving players’ positioning or body orientation to reduce the chances of conceding a shot from a specific corner.

The graphic below shows four suggestions made by TacticAI to tweak players’ positioning when defending a corner.

As evidence of the model’s capability, experts at Liverpool — including assistant coaches, video analysts and data scientists — were unable to distinguish between the output provided by TacticAI’s suggestions and real-life corner routines, with the suggested routines favoured from the original corner sequence 90 per cent of the time — highlighting how effective the model can be in providing improvements within the tactical structure.

As you can see in the graphic above, the advised tweaks might appear subtle but joint-lead researcher Velickovic emphasises these suggestions are in-keeping with modern-day football. Small changes in distances, timing, and decision-making can be the difference between victory and defeat.

“The aim is not to tell you that a player needs to move two or three metres to the left or the right,” Velickovic told The Athletic. “You make minor adjustments to a player’s location, orientation or velocity which are all relatively small, and that was deliberate.”

A core aim of Liverpool’s project with Google DeepMind is to provide coaches and analysts with a tool to help them with workflow. Opposition analysts often watch hundreds of videos in the lead-up to a game, which is labour-intensive. The ability of TacticAI to sift through similar opponent routines and curate defensive strategies is powerful.

It is more time-efficient to draw conclusions in a fraction of the time and this work provides an objective tactical approach without bias, underpinned by thousands of examples.

“This tool is designed to accelerate a coach’s ability to spot patterns,” Velickovic said. “Coaches are looking at complex situations with 22 players, and they have to work out what the key parts are that made or broke a particular strategy — and which players were responsible.”

“With a system like this — where it immediately produces adjustments to all of the defensive players — you can focus your attention and immediately spot that, for example, a specific defender is doing something wrong.”

“If this happens to your defender over many situations, you can then try to fix it in your coaching. If it is an opposing player, you can work on strategies to exploit that weakness.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold takes a corner against Atalanta last season (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)

It is worth noting this research evaluates the potential use of such an approach, and is yet to be rolled out in Liverpool’s matchday analysis. Nevertheless, the rise of dedicated set-piece coaches shows how many clubs are growing wise to this important part of the game — with 28 per cent of all goals scored from dead-ball situations in the Premier League last season.

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For Velickovic, the marginal impact this work can have could prove crucial.

“We can never exactly forecast what will happen in a corner,” Velickovic said. “But  if you increase your chances of scoring or decrease the chances of conceding by even one per cent, that can make a huge difference over the course of a season.”

Corners have been responsible for some of the most important moments in Liverpool’s recent history. Jurgen Klopp’s final trophy as manager was thanks to a Virgil van Dijk header from Kostas Tsimikas’ corner to clinch the Carabao Cup against Chelsea in February.

The unlikely figure of Alisson Becker scored an iconic last-minute header to convert Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner against West Bromwich Albion in 2021 to keep Liverpool’s top-four hopes alive.

And Liverpool fans do not need a second invitation to relive Alexander-Arnold’s quickly-taken corner to Divock Origi in the 2019 Champions League semi-final against Barcelona — one of the most memorable goals in the club’s history.

“Corner taken quickly… ORIGIIII!!!!” 😱😍

Does Divock delivering in our incredible comeback against Barcelona get your vote for our greatest ever goal?

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— Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 22, 2022

Ultimately, the delivery Alexander-Arnold provides from set pieces is the crucial component to ensure a choreographed routine is executed. As set-piece specialist Gianni Vio has previously told The Athletic, “The taker is the most important player in set pieces.”

The statistical models can be instructive for coaches, but without strong delivery, the sequence collapses.

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Looking at last season, the numbers suggest Liverpool could improve their conversion from corners when assessed against the rest of the Premier League. Their 4.2 goals per 100 corners was their poorest rate since 2018-19, with their overall goals scored and conceded per 100 corners almost perfectly aligned with the league average.

This project was the final milestone in Liverpool’s multi-year journey with Google DeepMind, but the collaboration shows an ongoing desire to push boundaries and find an edge when using analytics in football. It is a partnership that traces back to 2021, where their work has seen them publish two other papers relating to AI in football tactics and its use in analysing penalty kicks.

The constant evolution of football tactics means that the analysis of corner kicks is a dynamic process that should be continually updated. An optimal strategy in 2015 might look different today. The best for the German Bundesliga could be different from the Premier League.

The potential for this AI model to grow across multiple seasons and wider leagues is where analysts can create an extra dimension in their tactical approach and strategic decision-making.

At its core, AI is the ability of a computer to perform tasks that we typically associate with humans. The growth of AI — specifically, Generative AI via platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini — has been visible across multiple industries worldwide.

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While these platforms are fantastic resources for coaches and analysts to use as tools, they should never replace human expertise. Data’s place in football is secured, but the combination of objective and subjective analysis is where staff can optimise their in-game decision-making. We are not entering a world where football is played by machines.

For now, at least.

(Top photo: Playmaker/MB Media/Getty Images)

On physical skills alone, 6-foot-3, 195-pound junior Luc Weaver of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame looks the part of a receiver capable of making a huge impact on the football field.

Blessed with big hands and improving speed, Weaver will be one of the favorite targets for outstanding senior quarterback Steele Pizzella. He caught six touchdown passes as a sophomore.

Coach Evan Yabu said Weaver has begun to understand the little things needed to take a bigger jump, such as improved blocking, better body language and being a leader.

Notre Dame has more speed with members of its successful 400-meter relay team, led by Pizzella, perhaps the fastest quarterback in the state.

The Knights have decided not to play another opponent in a scrimmage after suffering a big injury last season during a scrimmage and will open the season Aug. 23 at Downey.

Players got an early practice on Tuesday at 7 a.m. to beat the heat. Because several players were late, everyone had to do bear crawls. It was not a pretty sight, especially backward bear crawls.

But Pizzella said, “It wakes us up, though.”

Hawaii trip for Sierra Canyon

Sierra Canyon is opening its season next Friday with a trip to Hawaii to play Punahou. The Trailblazers are scheduled to hold a Tuesday practice at 6 a.m., then take buses to LAX for a 1 p.m. flight. Their game is at 3 p.m. on Aug. 16. Then they will board a plane home.

The Trailblazers might have the toughest schedule of any team, with games against JSerra, Oaks Christian, St. John Bosco, Orange Lutheran and Gardena Serra, all top 25 teams.

It was a small broadcasting moment, one you understandably may have missed, but it highlighted why Laurie Hernandez has been one of the broadcasting stars of the Paris Games. During NBC and Peacock’s live coverage of the women’s gymnastics team final at the Paris Olympics last Tuesday — the United States took gold thanks to vaults from Simone Biles and Jade Carey and a Michael Jordan-like closing routine by Biles on the floor exercise — Hernandez offered the many laypersons in the audience a lesson on how to become a smarter gymnastics viewer.

“You can always tell if a gymnast is nervous by the way her ankles shake while she is either walking or on her tippy toes,” Hernandez said.

It was fascinating insight and the kind of details Hernandez has provided throughout NBC’s live gymnastics coverage. Her ability to communicate the sport to a broad audience combined with genuine enthusiasm for the success of her former teammates (she and Biles won gold in the team competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics; Hernandez won an individual silver medal on the balance beam) has made for an exceptional viewing experience.

She and Rich Lerner, the Golf Channel anchor serving as a play-by-play voice for the live gymnastics coverage, figured out the chemistry part right from the jump. (NBC has a more well-known gymnastics crew handling what we see on the prime-time rebroadcast consisting of play-by-play broadcaster Terry Gannon, analysts Samantha Peszek, Tim Daggett and reporter Zora Stephenson.)

“Because she competed so recently, Laurie speaks as a contemporary of the gymnasts,” said Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president for NBC Olympics, in an email. “With her emotion so authentic and at times so raw, as she experiences the pressure now from a broadcaster’s perspective, viewers find her voice and her empathy for the tension of the moment refreshing.”

Hernandez continued her fine work on Saturday for the women’s vault competition. Following a vault from An Chang-ok of North Korea, Hernandez offered the following for viewers.

“If a gymnast looks like a letter L towards the end of it, that’s going to be a huge deduction,” she explained. “You want to look like a pencil or a straight line. Also, if the chest is parallel to the floor rather than being parallel or facing the vault table, then that’s another deduction.”

That’s excellent stuff. The Athletic connected with Hernandez in Paris over the weekend to discuss her broadcasting work.

It’s a significant challenge to translate the world of gymnastics to a mass audience. What’s your approach to explaining a sport that you know and love to people who don’t necessarily follow it every week?

There’s not necessarily a specific approach to it. I think the biggest thing is trying to bridge the gap between the massive gymnastics fans who know the code of points (the rulebook that defines the scoring system) honestly way better than I do versus those who are at home and know nothing about the sport but want to understand why someone might score so high or low.

My mom was always such a great parent in the sense that she knew nothing about gymnastics. I would try to explain things to her and it was in one ear and out the other because she was just so proud of me. I feel like maybe that explains some of it. I was always excitedly trying to explain to her what I was doing in a way that she could understand, knowing that she knew nothing. I wanted to spread that joy and share this experience with her.

Can you give us a sense of what are you specifically looking at when working on air as a gymnastics analyst?

Let’s go down the order for gymnastics. We’ll start with vault. For vault, we’re looking at height and distance. Simone Biles and (Brazil’s) Rebeca Andrade are the two that come to mind in terms of the best, and in terms of past Olympics, McKayla Maroney is someone whose name I hope is remembered forever.

She had the height and capability and a daring nature to try new things. So when we’re looking at height, it’s how high can they go? Are their arms straight on the table? You’re running full speed at a stationary object. It’s like if you throw a pencil at the wall and you’re able to hit it with the eraser side, it’s going to bounce. But if you throw cooked spaghetti at the wall, it’s just going to sink and kind of melt into the floor. So the tighter the gymnast is and the more kind of straight arms and open shoulder position we see on the table, the higher they’ll go. That’s why Simone is able to do what she can do is because she hits the table at such an angle that I wouldn’t even dare to try. Vault is about height and distance and landing deductions.

For the uneven bars, we are looking at handstands. That’s where gymnasts tend to get deducted the most. Toes have to be all the way up to the ceiling. We’re also looking for any release moves where a gymnast lets go and catches the bar. It could be the same bar, could be a different bar, they could turn mid-air. Then a fun thing is just checking to see if the bar bends when they swing beneath it. Some of the best bar workers, not only in the United States, but in the world, will actually use the equipment to their advantage. They’ll kind of relax their bodies underneath the bar and allow their full weight to just tug at it. It allows them to have toss skills even higher. It helps them do less work. That’s definitely a fun thing to look for.

For beam, it is minimal wobbles. If their ankles while they are on their tippy toes are shaking back and forth, that is a telltale sign for me. I could always gauge how nervous I was by the shakiness of my ankles. When you only have four inches to work with, you don’t have room. So obviously no falls or wobbles on beam. Then breathing is a big one. Some of the best beam workers will exhale when they land because that center of gravity will sink them into the equipment. A lot of times when people get nervous, they hold their breath. It may bring your center of gravity up towards your neck, but what you want is the opposite. You want to feel grounded. So an exhale will do that.

Then for the floor, it’s just watching for a lot of fun. Landing deductions is the biggest thing but if you see a gymnast out there who’s having an absolute blast, the odds of her getting an artistry deduction, which I call ghost deductions, places where you might not realize there’s a deduction, is small. Artistry is a big place where the judges tend to grab and pull. When you look at a team like Brazil, they’re such a joy to watch.

Where have you and Rich Lerner been located inside Bercy Arena during the competition?

We are on the complete opposite side of where the vault is. There is an entire section of the arena that’s just purely media and networks from different countries. We have a really good view of all four events. The (other NBC broadcasters) are near us but we don’t really get to interact with them since we’re calling it live. There are times where they’re also calling it live but then for prime time, there’s a lot of either recaps or reshoots or whatever that might be.

You received a lot of social media attention for your very natural reaction to seeing Seth Rogen in the crowd. What’s your reaction when something you say on a broadcast becomes a moment on social media?

It’s hours of live commentary, so thank God I said something that was at least funny or kindhearted. My goal is always to have an optimistic outlook because I recognize how hard this sport can be. But I’m also chronically online. I’m 24. I’m in college. I’m unfortunately on TikTok until my eyes get droopy. I’m trying to work on that.

But sometimes those natural instincts on air are just my natural instincts. Sometimes I feel a little embarrassed by it, but people seem to really enjoy it. At the end of the day, I want it to feel like I’m talking to a friend.

You are currently a student at NYU majoring in drama but a unique one in that you have a lot of television experience at the very young age of 24. (For example: Hernandez was champion from Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars.) How are you looking at gymnastics broadcasting long-term?

To be honest, I’m so in awe of even just being here. The imposter syndrome has kicked in tenfold in the sense of not having as much experience as those around me. Yet I am commentating about something that I find so important and near and dear to my heart. I would love to do more commentary work in the world of gymnastics because I love it so much.

My parents (knew) since I was a little kid that I wanted to do entertainment. I always loved acting in comedy and imitating people and putting on funny voices. I found so much joy in that and in getting them to laugh. I loved fiction as a kid and still love it to this day. I do a little bit of screenwriting and novel writing. So I’d definitely love to do some on camera acting work for film and TV. I’ve also always loved the world of animation whether it’s through motion capture for video games, or if it’s voice acting for animation. That that would be a dream.

I wonder if you could offer me a perspective as an Olympic gold medalist on why Simone Biles is the best of all time?

If you asked an Olympic gymnast why Simone is the best, we could give you all kinds of things. We could say she’s the most powerful gymnast. We could say it’s because she’s daring. We could name a list under the sun. But the fact of the matter is she’s not only physically aware of herself, but mentally present as she flips. She’s making split-second decisions in the air.

Every gymnast is striving for perfection. That’s the goal. That’s the dream. But no one’s ever perfect. For every single turn, there is usually something going wrong, and that’s what we plan for. But when she’s out there and she’s doing something like a triple-double on floor, that’s three twists and two backflips. If she takes off a certain way, she can be, “OK, I’m not rotating enough, I’m going to need to pull this way or rotate that way and up.”

It’s like having a multiple-choice question with a thousand different answers, and because she’s trained so hard, she just knows what answer in a split-second. She thinks it — and it’s done. I’m in awe of her quick thinking, and I’ll forever be in awe of it.

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(Top photo of Laurie Hernandez in 2019: Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)