Data analysis will contribute to J-Södra's development

The School of Engineering at Jönköping University supports Jönköpings Södra IF in using advanced data analysis and contributing to the club’s long‑term development.

“This is incredibly important to us, and it’s great that it’s happening locally,” says Dennis Jalmarsson, Head of Men’s Football at J-Södra.

The School of Engineering is supporting J-Södra’s initiative to use data analysis to explore new approaches to opponent analysis, scouting, and game development.

“It’s a natural step for us to take, and we see great opportunities in this collaboration. It’s a way for us to grow as a club, and it will be exciting to see what we can achieve together with the School of Engineering,” says Dennis Jalmarsson.

Ulf Johansson, professor of computer science at the School of Engineering, is very positive about J-Södra's initiative Ulf Johansson, professor of computer science at the School of Engineering, is very positive about J-Södra's initiative – which began with an IPC internship (Industrial-Placement Course).

“It’s going to be a lot of fun! Almost all elite clubs use digital analysis tools in some form, so this isn’t the future – it’s the present,” he says.

"Explore data to help J-Södra"

Mohammad Abbas and Joel Scarinius Stävmo, a Computer Science and Engineering student and a lecturer at the School of Engineering, are also participating in the project and, according to Ulf Johansson, have carried out most of the schools work in this regard.

“It will be fun and interesting to explore the data and see how we can use it to help J-Södra. Historically, many teams have improved their performance by using data analysis, and hopefully that will also be the case for J-Södra,” says Mohammad.

"Increase the likelihood of scoring goals"

Joel points out that data analysis can reveal things that are otherwise difficult to detect.

"You might think you’re playing a certain way, but then the data shows something else. There’s a lot to investigate, and you can create graphs that show exactly what’s happening on the soccer field. For example, you can see if a team is taking shots in favorable positions, or if the players should take a few more steps before shooting to increase the probability of scoring a goal,” says Joel, who has just graduated from the Computer Science and Engineering programme at the School of Engineering.

A valuable complement

Mohammad and Joel emphasize that data analysis is an important complement to the rest of the club’s operations and that coaches, for example, can review past matches together with a data analyst to identify advantages for their own team.

“It’s good if there’s a dialogue around data analysis and if it becomes part of the club’s culture. The goal is to instill a second-nature habit in the players, where they use this data to become more effective—whether it’s making a run, making a pass, or taking a shot. Of course, it takes time and needs to be built up gradually, but you have to start somewhere," says Joel.