Man Utd raids N Brown to sign first data science chief

Manchester United has raided online shopping giant N Brown Group for its latest signing, bringing in Dominic Jordan as the club’s first director of data science in a bid to help players and staff deliver success on the pitch.

Jordan, an experienced data scientist with a background in geospatial analytics, will be tasked with improving the way the Premier League club connects and analyses the vast amounts of data generated across its football operations.

He started his career as a data systems manager at NUS Services in 1999, where he stayed for seven years before joining ITIS Holdings as head of science and innovation.

In 2011, Jordan became chief data scientist at INRIX, a specialist in population movement analytics, where develop algorithms to help monitor the flow of people and vehicles in transport systems.

He switched to N Brown in January last year to take up the role of director of data science and analytics and led a 30-strong team of data scientists, engineers and analysts optimising the operations of one of the UK’s largest online retailers.

Man Utd football director John Murtough said the appointment reflects the growing importance of data science across a range of areas within the club and its potential to provide a competitive advantage.

He added: “We already make extensive use of data to analyse players’ performance and physical condition, and to scout opponents and recruitment targets. But there is huge potential to strengthen our existing capabilities, and build new ones, as part of a more integrated approach to managing and using data.

“This is not about replacing the human elements of performance and decision-making. Coaches will always draw on their knowledge and judgment, and players their experience and instincts. But these things can be complemented by smart use of data.

“Ultimately, it’s about ensuring that players, coaches and support staff are equipped with the best possible information with which to make the right decisions, quickly.”

Jordan commented: “There is so much potential for data science to benefit the club, from assisting with player recruitment, automatically analysing patterns of play right through to using computer vision to extract information from video feeds in real time.

“At first it’s a question of determining which problems are the most important for the club and tackling those to deliver quick but effective results. Over time as you embed good practice, the problems become harder – hence why building a great team is critical, to keep the club ahead in the data space.

“There has been an explosion in data collection and analytics around football over recent years and that’s going to continue: more and more data collected about more and more players and teams. It’s inevitable that access to information like that is going to mean people will figure out different ways of doing things that maybe have been done a certain way for a long time.

“The difficult part is narrowing down all this data to be ready to answer a specific question at a specific time. Clubs that understand how to do that to enhance the expert decision-making in critical areas will succeed in the long run.”