Liverpool team up with IT firm who predict ‘robo-coaches’ will one day replace managers
LIVERPOOL have paired up with a tech company who think robot managers are the future of football.
The cyber security firm - whose bosses have clearly not seen Terminator - have outlined their vision for the Beautiful Game.
Speaking at an Anfield event to launch the partnership, Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov explained how he would help the Reds become 'cyberfit' and protect important data.
But the imaginative businessman thinks technology will go far further in future.
Beloussov said: "So what does this mean for football? It means you can do training and recovery improvements because you can record everything and analyse everything using machine learning and data.
"That means essentially, you can create robo-coaches, because in the future, coaches will not be needed - you will win without coaches."
Before handing over completely to our machine overlords, Acronis think their software can complement the work of highly-rated Anfield chief Jurgen Klopp.
Beloussov added: "The coach Liverpool has is amazing, but coaches change, and machine learning can help the coach.
"That is interesting for us, because it will mean that data becomes the ultimate coach. Right now, the IT people in the club say 'oh, we won', 'oh we lost'.
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"But in the future, it will be those IT people who are blamed for the losses, not the coach.
"The world is digital, and sports are becoming digital. We hope to do more machine learning data management together with the Liverpool team.
"Playing with technology makes football much smarter. So it's no longer a sport where the players run very fast and they kick the ball, it's a lot more about the technology which comes into it.
"At some point, players will have to understand how this technology works, and so the players who will be able to better understand how to leverage the tech, will play better. It makes it a much more advanced sport, much more competitive."
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Beloussov thinks clubs will be quick to embrace technological advances as the competitive drive is so high.
He explained: "Liverpool is just focused on winning, so when there is a case to win better, they will do whatever is needed to do that.
"When the environment is so competitive, you use any tool you need to win that is allowed. There is no reason not to leverage computer-based learning."