England footballer Harry Kane – the current lead scorer in the World Cup – has demonstrated that less is definitely more. With only 153 minutes of play time, Kane has scored 5 goals. That’s one goal for every 30 minutes on pitch. By successfully taking a targeted approach, he is producing the best outcomes. That’s efficiency.

Kane has managed his 5 goals with only 54 touches of the ball. This is a turnaround strategy for England as he became only the third England player to score three or more goals in a World Cup.

England manager, Gareth Southgate, has put his stake in the ground and clearly applied a new intelligence to team tactics. He has taken a step back, communicated a clear strategy and focussed the team on ensuring the right player is there at the right time. He doesn’t want Kane to both create the chance and score the goals. Kane has a singular job, and it doesn’t mean getting involved in everything - like when he was taking the corners.

Other teams take the approach that their strikers should indeed do both. Create the scoring chances, and then also score the goals. So far in this World Cup, Neymar has 1 goal for 177 touches and Suarez 2 goals for 100 touches.

In terms of efficiency, though, Spanish attacking midfielder Isco is the man with most touches of any World Cup player – 1016 to date for 1 goal. That’s 52% more than his Spanish captain and defender, Ramos who is fourth ranked in terms of player touches. Spain is staying true to its tiki-taka style that brought them to the World Cup and this is shown in the high touch to output statistics.

Spain have so far kept their heads above water, making it through to the last 16, albeit without as much style as we would have expected. Luckily, they also looking like they will have avoided the toughest route to the final.

And that’s the approach of many a bank, keep playing the same games in the middle and back office while piling on the pressure. Lots of data passing, hoping for strong player accuracy, the essential player clearances and the inevitable occasional dropped ball.

Banks need to stop playing tiki-taka with their data and sticking to the same processes. It’s not about keeping the ball but rather better to change strategy.

If banks did automation like Harry Kane, they’d be taking out a lot of the touches, have their head in the game and be focussing on the golden boot of automation.