Ottawa, Canada, April 28th 2021 – Swansea City Association Football Club, founded in 1912, is a Welsh professional football club based Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, English football's second tier. The club is currently sitting fifth in the league and, having narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premiership last season, has a promotion place in its sights once again for 2021. The club has recently begun using Ross Video's PIERO sports graphics analysis solution as a coaching tool, and credits PIERO with an upturn in the team's fortune.
"I have been using telestration tools since 2015 when I was working with the City Football Group," notes Steve Rands, Swansea's Head of Performance Analysis, "but the product I was using wasn't really keeping up with my needs. When I saw PIERO, I knew it was going to be the right tool for us and so I signed a deal to bring PIERO to the City Football Group, which administers several clubs including Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City and Girona." Steve subsequently moved to Derby County Football Club and then Swansea City, and has chosen PIERO as his analysis tool of choice each time. At Swansea, the pace is intense. "We're currently having daily meetings and every meeting with the players, be it as a group or individually, features PIERO. It's definitely getting a lot of use and it has helped us improve performance in some key areas. As an example, the season before I joined Swansea the club conceded twenty-four goals from set pieces – the worst record of any club in Europe's top six leagues – but we have completely turned that around and PIERO has been a massive part of that journey."
"Our players are a dedicated and ambitious group of young men," comments Tactical Analyst Tom Jenkinson. "However, they are all part of the millennial generation and so it's crucial that I can hand a player a tablet running PIERO and let them take more ownership of their analysis sessions. It makes these sessions much more interactive and effective, and really helps with the transmission and retention of information. Some of the coaching concepts we're trying to get across can be a little academic and theoretical, so PIERO really helps us bring them to life and explain them in a highly visual and relatable way. We've found it such a valuable tool that we're actively looking to expand its use into our Academy and get our younger players using it too."
The quality of PERIO's graphics has also been a key factor for the team, according to Steve Rands. "The top broadcasters use PIERO for their football shows and it's great that we can give our players an identical experience, so they're working with the same tool they see on their TV screens every week. I've seen firsthand that if the analysis tool is low quality, players simply switch off, so it's important that we use the best we can. It really helps with engagement, and I've had players asking me to create best practice analysis of the world's top players in their position using PIERO – that's when you know you're doing something right!"
Vincent Noyer, Director of Sports Analysis Graphics at Ross, is delighted to see PIERO playing its part in Swansea's success. "Promotion to the English Premiership can make a huge difference to a club in terms of revenue and fan attendance, and it's understandable that Swansea want to take that next step, especially having just missed out last season. With a prize that important at stake you need every advantage you can get, and it's great to see Swansea putting PIERO at the heart of the team."
