Distance covered was an important feature for wingers Frankie Church and Josh Setchell as Conlon’s emphasis on width required the hard yards up and down the touchline, while striker Luke Plange, our top goalscorer at the tournament, was expected to beat markers with sudden bursts of pace.Ĭombining data tracking with analysis from our SmartCoach system, the numbers produced from hour-long matches were brought to life.
On the flip side, we didn’t get time to work properly on different scenarios playing out from the back, we didn’t get to work on defending set pieces and we didn’t get to work on attacking set pieces.”Įvery player was set up with an account so they could access their data and insight, and having to play up to three games a day in the latter stages of the tournament, sports science insight from Premier League coaches and workload management became invaluable. “In some ways it worked in our favour – the fact is, we didn’t have a set team. I would say say this was our biggest challenge. It wasn’t easy getting to the final of the world’s largest international youth tournament, especially with the resources and time we had to prepare. “We have some memories that we will never forget. “It was awesome, an incredible experience that was emotionally and physically draining, but so much fun,” Conlon explains. PLAYR was with the Academy for every step of the journey, providing manager Sean Conlon and his squad with performance data and sports science to ensure preparation, performance and recovery at the level required to succeed. An annual tournament attracting 1700 sides from 80 countries, the feat was all the more impressive when you consider our side were up against established clubs from across the globe, including the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and Leeds United.īehind results such as an 14-0 opening game victory against Tunisian outfit Villa Park and a tense 1-0 win over Jockey Club de Rosario – an Argentine club based in Lionel Messi’s city of birth – was our technology. Playing nine games in six days, scoring 32 goals and losing just once, the PLAYR Academy reached the final out of 186 teams competing in our age category at the Gothia Cup. The answer, as we found out at this summer all the way in Sweden, was pretty far.
Selecting 15 players who had never played together before and preparing them in just six weeks for the world’s largest youth international tournament, we created the PLAYR Academy to see how far performance technology used by the professionals could take them.
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