Could your favorite soccer team be using ChatGPT for tactics? One pro coach has publicly admitted they have (www.techradar.com)

Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey told the Soccerish podcast she used ChatGPT in the off‑season to probe questions like “What is Seattle Reign’s identity?” and “What formation should you play to beat NWSL teams?” The model reportedly recommended a back‑five (5‑defender) setup for two league opponents, and Harvey says she implemented a five‑at‑the‑back formation in at least one match this season. Seattle sit fourth in the NWSL and have qualified for the playoffs, making the admission notable because it’s a rare public example of a professional coach citing a generative AI as part of tactical decision‑making. The episode is significant because it highlights how large language models are seeping into high‑stakes sports coaching as idea generators, not just gimmicks. Technically, ChatGPT can produce plausible tactical suggestions by summarizing public knowledge and heuristics, but it lacks access to live tracking data, proprietary scouting reports, and may hallucinate specifics or ignore match context (player form, injuries, opponent tendencies). Best practice would be to treat LLM output as hypothesis generation—useful for alternative formations or counter‑ideas—then validate with data‑driven analytics, video scouting, and coaching judgment. The story points to near‑term opportunities (integrating LLMs with tracking data, fine‑tuning on tactical datasets) and risks (overreliance, opaque reasoning) as AI tools become more common in competitive sport.