In Focus: Next11 - Are You Looking At The Right Player Stats?
Everton WSL head coach Brian Sørensen has been suspicious for some time. That the club’s GPS system wasn’t giving him the full picture of his players’ workload. In particular, he could see that the players in the middle of the pitch were working really hard, but their performance wasn’t reflected in the data.
He then initiated a comparative test in which the players were fitted with both GPS-sensors and Next11 Technologies’ accelerometer-based sensors on their calves in training and league matches. The results confirmed his suspicions.
“With the sensor on the leg, we can now see how much our players move in tight spaces on the pitch, which previously couldn’t be tracked with GPS. This led to a misconception on our part about the actual workload of our midfielders,” he says.
“Based on the GPS data, our physical trainers would often send our midfielders out for extra runs after training. With the Next11 data, however, we can see that these are the players who are actually moving the most.”
Although sprint distance is only one part of the overall load calculation, it is considered by many to be one of the key load indicators. However, as the red bar chart shows, there is no correlation between sprint metres and overall player load. Sprints favour the wingers who have the space to run and reach the sprint threshold, while a different technology is needed to track the performance of the rest of the players.
As Sørensen, puts it: “Incorporating Next11’s tracking system as a regular part of our training and matches has been a great success. It has given us completely new and valuable data about the workload of our players that we didn’t have before. It allows us to manage each player’s workload better and more accurately.”
At the PSG Academy in Paris, technical coordinator Cedric Bouchet also uses the Next11 system and sees a number of benefits when working with young players.
“We chose Next11 because it allows us to quantify the workload in a player’s development more precisely,” says Bouchet.
“Coaches can also use it in matches to get a clear idea of the player’s intensity level compared to his reference value. The calculation of the team’s workload allows us to really see where we are in relation to our reference match and therefore adapt our interventions.
“The system is very easy to use, especially in terms of data processing. It is much easier for the coach and the players to understand.”
For further information about Next11 contact CEO, Nikolaj Thomassen at nikolaj@next11.com
