Ben Griffis

What a crazy penalty shootout

A really honest and vulnerable moment from the #UCLToday crew to open today's show 🥹❤️

Scottish fans: "a manager using a tactics board during games, what a nonce trying to show you're smart" English fans: "a manager taking notes during a game, what a nonce trying to show you're smart"

Their pressing is intense and effective... by far the lowest PPDA and also the highest defensive intensity (defensive actions per minute) This helps them hold opponents to the lowest xT per 100 possessions as well

Venezia are having quite the extreme season @twelve_football data has them as effectively the best team in every aspect of play through a possession & pressing approach

@hallettsgrarmy AI is built off data and data alone is not the way to make a decision imo Data is a tool to aid decision making at clubs. It’s a curve though, as no data or too little can lead to less optimal decisions, and putting too much emphasis only on data also can lead to less optimal

@BeGriffis Great write up Ben, what are your thoughts on Judan Ali, he is cautious that AI shouldn’t be used alone but as part of the process: youtube.com/shorts/aP8Xrro…

Great article to help explain how AI (or really, in most cases, “AI”) is used nowadays and how it isn’t going to just replace data people at clubs It’s not just plugging stuff into ChatGPT. I’d wager Bayern had their people code this stuff themselves, like I do and others do

@pwawrzynow Yeah, I love the buzzword of AI to basically just mean a very basic model, even just regression 😂 Goes beyond football, businesses love the “AI” buzzword now, it’s the new Blockchain of 2015

@BeGriffis And in the classic sense, AI (or machine learning) has always been a part of football analytics. Take stupid xG models - AI. VAEP, EPV, OBV - all AI. Even what they're talking about in the article - player chemistry, I bet they use targeted models at the core, not a chatbot.

@coach_kevin_m Check out something like @twelve_football ! I mean, if someone is a volunteer coach in a youth setup there won't be data, but they cover loads of league and is accessible. I'd imagine their success will make other people want to make companies like them, targeted at coaches

I know this is an article about Bayern so what I am about to say will sound stupid ...... But ..... It's extremely sad that the trend of building solutions for professional football has tumbled into AI. Due to the abundance of data, the barrier to entry is really low, but there is a whole other side to football where expertise and AI can be combined to help coaches save time and money. Especially volunteer coaches. But the barrier to entry is high as you have to have experienced those challenges to help train the LLM on them. I'm still searching for someone else who is exploring this market (like I am!).

(Written in March 2026. Who knows if my thoughts will change in 2027 or 2028. For all I know my career vanishes in 2029)

The biggest clubs will probably never actually use AI to replace people. Smaller clubs might… but it would likely be that instead of *replacing* someone they just don’t hire someone in the first place. But those clubs probably wouldn’t have hired a data person at all anyway

@EmlynBreese 🙏🙏🙏🙏

@BeGriffis Love these, super clean

Revisiting old code because at some point I want to speak into existence that I'll start actually building better AFL visuals 😅

@Philipp130487 Obviously, as you can see, my xG model is not perfect and fairly consistently over-estimates goals for a season. Never claimed it was great! So feel free to ignore the xG data on the apps, it's meant to be more than just a place to see xg!

@Philipp130487 But I also recommend using FotMob if you just want xG. They have a better model than mine. I use my model on all the leagues I have because 1) I cover more leagues with xG than FotMob does so I can't just use theirs, and 2) I want all xG in my app using the same model

Match report app has had issues for a few days but *should* be all set now again... with some new leagues! Virsliga 🇱🇻 USL Championship 🇺🇸 Chinese Super League 🇨🇳 All 3 started yesterday and are now added. USL League One starts tonight & MLS Next Pro will be added soon!!

@Philipp130487 on the app!

@BeGriffis Hi Ben. What is the difference between your Opta Data and the FotMob Data? I thought FotMob is also showing opta Data? If I Watch at the First Season Game from Bayern vs. Leipzig. You have xG 3,72 - 0,7 FotMob Shows 1,72 - 0,54xG at the Same Game Thats a huge difference 🫣