Top-Level Football Manager Admits Using ChatGPT For Tactical Advice

A top-level football manager has revealed they have used ChatGPT to recommend tactical advice ahead of matches before the start of this season.

The AI software has grown significantly in usage since it was first introduced to the public in 2022, despite concerns over its accuracy and its ability to verify sources.

Several authors have taken ChatGPT's founders, OpenAI, to court, alleging that they are committing copyright infringement by training the AI model using existing copyrighted books.

The model also uses statistical predictions and attempts to learn from patterns in order to give answers, rather than provide human reasoning to questions presented to it.

When it comes to football, though, the use of data is a rising trend, with managers, coaches and recruitment staff looking to find ways to gain an extra advantage over their opponents.

Former Arsenal Women boss Laura Harvey, who won three Women's Super League titles with the Gunners between 2010 and 2012, has admitted that she sent several prompts to ChatGPT during the season break.

Harvey now manages Seattle Reign, who play in the National Women's Soccer League - the top-flight division of women's football in the United States.

She has spent nine years in charge of the club across two spells, with her most recent stint beginning in 2021.

She is the most successful coach in NWSL history, winning three league titles and over 200 matches.

Reign count a number of internationals among their current squad, including Canada striker Jordyn Huitema and Wales midfielder Jess Fishlock, who recently retired from international duty.

Speaking on the Soccerish Podcast, Harvey revealed that, based on her prompts, ChatGPT provided her with a list of formations that Reign should line up with against each NWSL team - and added that she used its response on two occasions this season.

She explained: "I was like, 'I wonder if ChatGPT can give you some information about football, and it would be beneficial?

"One day in the offseason, I was writing things into ChatGPT like, 'What is Seattle Reign's identity?' And it would spurt out. And i was like, 'I don't know if that's true or not'.

"Then, 'What do you need to do to be successful in the NWSL?' Like really broad questions.

"And then I put in, 'What formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?' And it spurted out every team in the league and what formation you should play.

"And for two teams, it went, 'You should play a back five'. So I did. No joke, that's why I did it."

Harvey added that it was not quite as simple as that, with the 47-year-old and her coaching staff doing a 'deep dive' into their own data to assess whether a back-five formation would work.

"We researched it, we did a deep dive on it. We thought about how we could play it," she said.

"We went for it, we liked it, it worked. We won the game. That [the ChatGPT answer] was what spurred me to look into it."

Reign are currently in fourth place in the NWSL and have qualified for the end-of-season play-offs.

They have bounced back from a disappointing season in 2024, where they finished in 13th place out of 14 teams.