Fig. 5: Examples of the tactic refinements recommended by TacticAI.

These examples are selected from our case study with human experts, to illustrate the breadth of tactical adjustments that TacticAI suggests to teams defending a corner. The density of the yellow circles coincides with the number of times that the corresponding change is recognised as constructive by human experts. Instead of optimising the movement of one specific player, TacticAI can recommend improvements for multiple players in one generation step through suggesting better positions to block the opposing players, or better orientations to track them more efficiently. Some specific comments from expert raters follow. In A, according to raters, TacticAI suggests more favourable positions for several defenders, and improved tracking runs for several others—further, the goalkeeper is positioned more deeply, which is also beneficial. In B, TacticAI suggests that the defenders furthest away from the corner make improved covering runs, which was unanimously deemed useful, with several other defenders also positioned more favourably. In C, TacticAI recommends improved covering runs for a central group of defenders in the penalty box, which was unanimously considered salient by our raters. And in D, TacticAI suggests substantially better tracking runs for two central defenders, along with a better positioning for two other defenders in the goal area.