With a record of 12 Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A titles and an estimated 21 million supporters, Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras are one of the most successful and popular clubs in Brazil.
On the continent, Palmeiras has also claimed the Copa Libertadores title three times, with the most recent victories taking place in 2020 and 2021.
In 2022, Palmeiras crowned a golden era by winning the Recopa Sudamericana, becoming South America’s premier club champion.
Check out our video feature with Palmeiras, where their coaching and analysis staff take us through a tour of the Palmeiras Intelligence Centre and show us how technology drives performance in every touchpoint of their work both on the training ground and on match day.
The success of Palmeiras in recent times is based around the scientific methods of performance analysis and athlete preparation within the Palmeiras Intelligence Centre.
Palmeiras Performance Analysis Coordinator Rafael Costa has been with the club for 14 years and has witnessed first hand the process of change.
“I’ve been at the club for 14 years, so I've been present through all of the club’s reformulation and restructuring until it became a benchmark,” said Costa. “This was a restructuring that started in mid-2013, improving in 2015 and being what it is today.”
In terms of benchmarking, Palmeiras have a set of core values which have clearly helped its success both on and off the field.
“We recently adopted this value of always striving for excellence,” said Costa. “So I think that Palmeiras today, is always striving for excellence, always being at the vanguard of all processes, always being at the forefront of processes.
The Palmeiras Intelligence Center is the heartbeat of high performance for one of the strongest clubs in South America.
Palmeiras for a few years now, has been fighting in the football market, being a pioneer in the main areas of performance - and I think we’re achieving that. From the moment you look for professional excellence, an excellent structure, you’re closer to victory.”
To strive for excellence in the area of performance, the Hudl Pro Suite has been implemented throughout the Palmeiras Intelligence Centre.
The Hudl Pro Suite is the benchmark for performance in the Intelligence Centre and allows a range of video and data analysis tools to be combined on one connected platform.
For Palmeiras, that means video capture and data analysis are covered on both the training ground and match day. Scouting and recruitment are also integrated into the platform.
We can break down the work of the Palmeiras Intelligence Centre into four stages.
Stage One: Automatic Capture on the training ground with Hudl Focus
In the past, Palmeiras captured their training sessions manually, using a staff member to operate the camera and follow the action. Now with Hudl Focus this process is automated.
Through the click of a button on the Focus App, Palmeiras’ two Hudl Focus cameras are switched on and follow the action automatically.
“Focus is a camera that has artificial intelligence,” said Costa. “It starts from the principle that it traces the players on the pitch and it records you from various angles. We have two cameras installed on our pitches and we capture all of our training sessions without the need to have a professional operating the camera.”
The footage from the Hudl Focus camera is available almost immediately for review by coaching staff on the Hudl platform. Without the need for a camera operator, this provides extra time and resources for this analysis.
“As I have a camera that is independent, that uses artificial intelligence to capture the movement, you have four camera angles, I don’t need a professional operating it,” said Costa. “So I can direct this professional to do training tagging, to do an image separation, to do further analysis.
So as soon as I don’t need a person focused on worrying about camera movement, zooming, everything else, and that person is focused solely on observation, that’s already a significant gain in productivity in the department.”
The Hudl Focus camera is controlled via the Focus App. A touch of the screen control the camera.
The Hudl Focus camera delivers multiple angles of footage, including tactical and extra-wide tactical angles.
Stage Two: Integrated analysis workflow with Hudl Focus, Hudl Sportscode, Studio, and Hudl.com
Inside the Intelligence Center, the Palmeiras staff are receiving a live feed of action from the training ground which they can immediately begin to analyze.
Footage from the Hudl Focus camera feeds directly into Hudl Sportscode, where Coaches and Video Analysts tag, clip and database key moments.
Sportscode integrates with Studio, where dynamic drawings and graphics are added to video presentations, before being shared out to players and coaches for review via the Hudl platform.
The Pro Suite works in a cyclical way,” said Costa. “All of the software talks to each other and you’ll hardly be able to use one software independently of the other. It’s all interconnected, you’re in Sportscode, then to Studio and from there to Hudl where you send work to a player or coach.
So as it's all interconnected, it gives you a certain agility in the analysis process, with everything in one central place.”
Footage from the Hudl Focus camera is then analyzed in Hudl Sportscode by Palmeiras Intelligence staff.
After analysis passes through Hudl Sportscode and has telestrations added in Studio, content is distributed to players and coaches via the Hudl platform.
Stage Three: Live Analysis on Match Day with Hudl Replay
The work done on the training ground during the week all leads up to match day, where the next part of the Hudl Pro Suite provides live analysis from the sidelines.
Hudl Replay gives Palmeiras’ coaching staff the ability to review match footage live on the touchline via an iPad connected to the live feed of the match. The match feed can be rewound and clipped, giving the opportunity to make decisions at the speed of the game and analyzing the action as it takes place on the pitch.
“Hudl Replay allows you to enter with your tablet and show it to the players,” said Costa. “So today Palmeiras is able to use Hudl Replay both at home through cabling in the two stadiums we play in today.
Last year we managed to win almost 90% of the games, where the coach, on the bench, can watch the games and can make appointments that he thinks are pertinent.”
For Assistant Manager Carlos Martinho the ability to take Hudl Replay footage and impact the half-time presentation of information is especially important.
“Hudl Replay isn’t just to show the players. It allows us, the coaches, to be aware of everything that is happening in the game, so that at half-time, which is the moment when the coaching staff has more capacity to intervene in the game,” said Martinho, “We can be more aware and at half-time, be able to use it, be more instructed or more capable of giving the solutions that the game is asking for.”
Replay integrates with Hudl Sportscode to allow the ability to create playlists and provide data-driven decision making for this crucial half-time review period.
“At half-time, I leave Sportscode on with the images, and there’s almost always a review of the most important images from that game, what we might be doing well, what we might be able to correct,” said Martinho. “We can pass this on to the players, which often happens, showing the players this is something to do, or this is something we’re not doing well and we have to correct it.”
Hudl Replay connects to the Palmeiras bench to allow instant video feedback for the coaching staff on match day.
Instances of the live match footage can be paused, rewound and clipped out to Hudl Sportscode to make evidence-based decisions as the match takes place.
Stage Four: Safeguarding the future of Palmeiras through Wyscout Recruitment
A strong scouting and recruitment strategy to transfer and develop new players of first team quality is one of the best ways to secure the future success of a club. Head of Scouting Guilherme Dias uses Wyscout - the world’s biggest library of football video and data - to source talent from both in Brazil and in countries abroad.
“Wyscout is present in our department, in the recruitment sector, from start to finish,“ said Dias. “From analyzing videos of players on our shortlist, to statistical analysis, and even sharing videos with other professional scouts and coaching staff.
What we try to do is monitor the entire world players market, so we have as much information as possible about players’ technical, tactical and playing behavior as much as possible within the database, so we can supply whatever is necessary for a potential future signing for Palmeiras.”
Palmeiras’ recruitment strategy begins at youth levels, with the idea that players brought into the club will be able to provide value on the pitch and potentially on the balance sheet should they transfer to a club overseas.
“Our recruitment is for the first team, so we start from the age of 17,”said Dias. “So that includes some tournaments from Under-17, Under-20 and eventually Under-21 as well. It makes a lot of sense to follow this market and look for players at this age who can generate future added value for the club.”
This strategy continues to generate financial value to the club. Current players Endrick and Luis Guilherme are prime examples of scouted talent succeeding at Palmeiras before moving to Real Madrid and West Ham United, respectively.
Richard Rios (scouted from Guarani) and Murilo Cerqueira (from the Russian Premier League) are two members of the current team who have become important players after being recruited by the methods of Dias' team.
Palmeiras use Wyscout's world-leading player database to scout potential targets both in South America and worldwide.
Raised in the Palmeiras Academy and soon to join Real Madrid for a large fee. Endrick is a key example of Palmeiras effective scouting and development system.
Analyzing Palmeiras’ last decade, which is considered by some to be the best in the club’s history,reveals a significant shift towards professional, high-level performance driven by the Hudl Pro Suite.
“So you have to move away from that vision of football that you had in the past, how football was done and move towards a professional side, a side of knowledge, where you always look for people who are extremely qualified and extremely focused on what they do - always striving for excellence,” said Costa.
“For me it’s extremely important when you have the best tools on the market. We’re talking about excellence, we’re talking about high-level work, we’re talking about a highly competitive team, and in order to do that, you need tools to empower that team.”
