Professional football matches could soon feature tactics and set plays that have been created by AI (artificial intelligence) rather than a human coach.

A report in Nature Communications discusses how researchers at Google DeepMind worked with staff at Liverpool FC to allow an AI called TacticAI to come up with new corner routines.

The scientists concentrated on corners because they’re a chance for coaches set players up how they want, they occur regularly throughout games, and are a good chance to score.

The team fed in data from 7,176 corners from previous Premier League seasons, which allowed TacticAI to suggest different player set-ups or tactical tweaks.

Five experts from Liverpool, including data scientists, a video analyst and a coach, then looked at TacticAI’s suggested corner routines. They said they were realistic and were actually better than existing tactics nine out of ten times.

The researchers say that TacticAI could be used to maximise the chance of a particular player receiving the ball, or help the defending team to minimise the chance of a goal being scored.