United appoint data scientist to seek extra edge

Manchester United have appointed their first director of data science in the latest example of the Premier League’s “marginal gains” battleground.

Dominic Jordan, a data scientist with a background in geospatial analytics, will be responsible for improving the way United connect and analyse the data generated across the club’s football operations.

Jordan has joined from the Manchester-based N Brown Group, where he led a 30-strong team of data scientists, engineers and analysts optimising the operations of one of the UK’S largest online retailers. A graduate from Cambridge University in maths, statistics and pure mathematics, he worked previously for Inrix, a Us-based world leader in population movement analytics, developing algorithms to help monitor the flow of people and vehicles in transport systems.

Data science is increasingly prevalent across European football and

United’s bitter rivals Liverpool and Manchester City have both invested heavily in those areas.

Liverpool’s data wing, which boasts a chess champion and astrophysicist and is overseen by Dr Ian Graham, another Cambridge graduate who holds a degree in theoretical physics, was credited with playing a role in the club’s title-winning season in 2019-20. Graham’s modelling helped Liverpool’s record on injury prevention among other things.

This year, City employed several rocket scientists as they sought an edge. Among those was former astrophysicist and Treasury policy adviser Laurie Shaw, who was appointed as lead artificial scientist.