Iterpro visited AC Monza Head Quarter to talk with Simon Barije, Performance Manager, about Iterpro Football Intelligence and how important is to use our platform to smoothly run their daily operations and provide the staff with priceless insights about players.
Hi Simon, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role?
I am the Performance Manager at Monza Calcio, working alongside Pietro Lietti and Mauro Apone. Our job is to assist the coaching staff in planning training sessions, monitor training load and plan recovery strategies, in order to improve players’ performance.
Digital innovation and data-driven decision making are hot topics in football. Why do you think they are so important?
I believe that digital innovation is crucial in order to make sense of the amount of data that we collect daily. Once this is achieved, communication and information sharing can truly be enhanced and they are of paramount importance to a football club.
What impact has Iterpro had on your work?
Since Iterpro has been implemented at Monza we noticed that we became way more time-efficient – at least in our department; being able to collect and interpret data in order to give prompt feedback to the coaching staff – as well as individual players – has been something extraordinary. We now have a clear general overview, but at the same time a specific real-time snapshot of the squad, which allows us to effectively share information between departments (coaching, performance, medical). I think this is vital and allows us, if not to prevent a future injury, at least to reduce its occurrence.
Which feature would you say is the best?
The most immediate benefit of Iterpro is its ease of use, transforming data into simple information accessible to the coaching staff.
Can you give us a practical example?
A practical example would be a coach reading the readiness of a player before training. The same information can be used by our performance staff to monitor a player’s response to training and optimize our intervention on the pitch, making the process quicker and more functional to our needs.
What is your overall feedback after 3 seasons working with Iterpro?
We can only give Iterpro a positive feedback, since it is a platform accessible to all members of staff working in different departments. It enhanced inter-department communication and cooperation.
What are your thoughts about the future of football innovation?
I think that digital innovation will be more and more present in football since it allows us to elaborate the amount of data we are collecting on a daily basis and to obtain the final result we are looking for in a quick and easy way, real-time. Eventually, it will allow us to predict the outcomes we can achieve with our resources; for a football club, its assets being the players, being able to reduce the incidence of injuries and trying to find potential talents.
