Blues manager Kieran McKenna says Town’s data system has a long way to go before it matches those of Saturday’s opponents Brentford and Brighton.
The Bees and Seagulls are understood to have among the best data analytics operations in the Premier League, while McKenna admits the Blues are very much playing catch-up following promotion to the Premier League.
"It’s something that is still very much a work-in-progress, to be honest,” he said. "There’s certain data aspects that we have and we utilise well from a sports science point of view and a physical point of view.
"There’s certain data aspects that we’ve utilised from a recruitment point of view, but it’s very, very early days for us.
"I don’t know the ins and outs of Brentford’s system or Brighton’s system, but I get the gist of it and people who have done it for a very, very large number of years as their job and have probably got a competitive market advantage in that.
"You look at some of the recruitment that they’ve done from international markets and some of the value that they’ve found in the market, I think they’ve done a fantastic job.
"For us, we’re on our own journey with that, we’re trying to develop our data system, especially from a recruitment point of view. I think it is so important and can be a big advantage.
"Of course, there are other people and those clubs are way ahead in the market, but it’s for us to build a system up, but that takes time and is something we’re in the process of.”
It has been reported that Town had been using Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics prior to promotion when the Seagulls brought the arrangement to an end with the teams now Premier League rivals.
"That’s something not at my level, to be honest, it’s club discussions,” McKenna said when asked whether that was the case.
"I’m not sure what is public or not public. That’s a level above my pay grade that one.”