What are the real stats when it comes to interceptions?

I've just noticed that after 11 game the player leading with the most interceptions is Distin (who moved to southampton) on 123. That's averaging over 10 a game. Is this close to real life? it sounds to high to be but i'm not really sure

Superman wears Distin PJ's

Completely making this up, but I would have thought Anticipation and Positioning? Anticipation to react before anyone else, and positioning to read the play and put themselves in the best place to make the interception. Also roles would have an impact I think... For instance I see a Stopper making lots of interceptions as it's kind of their job.

Interesting about Distin though. Would love to hear one of the expert's opinions!

I am not an expert in football tactics, but I wanted to share some feedback.

Foreword: I've always personally found interceptions in this game to be better than tackles. I dislike seeing the ball passed right through my defense, or to see last ditch tackles result in dangerous free-kicks or even penalties.

To that end I've personally tried to aim for my team to do more interceptions, not only in defense, but also starting from the midfield.

In terms of Silvain Distin. He has comfortable tackling, marking and very good strength and balance.

Coupled with his PPM, that he doesnt like to do slide-in tackles.

This tells the game engine that Distin is to tackle on-feet, and because of his high strength and good balance, he uses his sheer physicality to wrest the ball away from his opponent without much fuss.

He also has a comfortable positioning attribute, means he knows where to go to be more successfull in this endeavor.

Don't forget his high Jumping Reach. Getting first to a high ball that was originally a pass/cross to an opponent, is also considered an interception.

Yes, Anticipation is a very valuable attribute in terms of getting good interceptions, but there are many ways in which you get them.

Don't forget that many of the attributes work together in the match engine.

Strength + Balance - A player with high values here can hold his own, and coupled with Bravery and Determination, is not afraid to get into the thick of it.

Marking is a very undervalued attribute in my oppinion, as alot of people only consider this for defenders.

Marking is not only an attribute that tells you, that this player marks successfully.

Marking should tell you that this player knows how to keep track of another player, but he will also need other attributes to get the most out of it.

Acceleration - to keep up with his opponent trying to get away.

Strength+Balance - to keep the opponent locked down, and possibly get the ball from him without having to resort to tackles.

Anyway, my POV, how I see the attributes work in this game. I hope it can shed some light, or give ideas.

I've just noticed that after 11 game the player leading with the most interceptions is Distin (who moved to southampton) on 123. That's averaging over 10 a game. Is this close to real life? it sounds to high to be but i'm not really sure

Thats way off real life.

Currently in the PL (according to whoscored.com) Mile Jedinak tops the averages on 3.5 per game. Across all Europes top leagues, Daniel Baier of Augsburg leads the averages with 3.6 per game. Obviously your results are from a smaller sample size (11 games as opposed 31 for Jedinak and 28 for Baier) but still it seems massively skewed. Perhaps worth raising in the ME bug forum.

Thats way off real life. Currently in the PL (according to whoscored.com) Mile Jedinak tops the averages on 3.5 per game. Across all Europes top leagues, Daniel Baier of Augsburg leads the averages with 3.6 per game. Obviously your results are from a smaller sample size (11 games as opposed 31 for Jedinak and 28 for Baier) but still it seems massively skewed. Perhaps worth raising in the ME bug forum.

There's no precise definition of an inception in real life, so it might be the case that FM is not classifying interceptions in the same way as whoscored.com, leading to the big difference. Maybe FM classes any pass that goes to an opposing player as an interception, whereas whoscored.com requires a deliberate action from the intercepting player, for example.

And it might be counting long balls that are being headed? Someone could easily check that though.

The thing you have to think about though is, if you expect to be the dominant team more often than not, (so finishing above half-way), then you might very well have more possession than your opponents and even Superman, (wearing Distin's jimjams for good measure), can't make interceptions when your team has the ball.

If I look at my current season Serie A stats.... (Nov 2027)...

None of my San Marino players are anywhere to be seen near the top of the interceptions table. Instead, the leader, (169 interceptions), is a centre-half from Chievo, (who are just outside the relegation zone. Interestingly, their other centre-half, (121 interceptions), is ranked 7th.

3rd & 4th are the DC's at Cittadella who are in the relegation zone.

2nd and 5th are the Torino DC's who are actually performing really well as a team, (they sit in 4th), but Torino play an old-fashioned 442 which means that they often concede possession to teams with more bodies in the middle. As a result there is more scope for defending and thus interceptions.

My best centre-half is down in 27th with only 97 interceptions, although he has only made 10(1) Serie A appearances this season as opposed to 12(2) 13 & 13(1) made by the top 3.

Interestingly, one of the Cittadella centre-backs is one of my San Marino NT players and he is a very average player. He wouldn't get anywhere near my 1st team or I would have bought him. He's really a Serie B player playing in Serie A simply because Cittadella got promoted last season and haven't been relegated yet.

Sorry to bring tactics into this, (like everything), but of course a centre-half with a "cover" duty would be expected to make more interceptions than one tasked with a "defend" or "stopper" duty. Also, (again on tactics), going back to Torino playing 442 but doing well in the league, they don't have the protection of a DM sitting in front of them. As a result they will have to make x number of interceptions that he would have made, and of course there will be more balls being played simply because of his absence.

If I look at what individual stats seem to make a centre-half a good interceptor there doesn't seem to be a trend. In my game and in Serie A at least, what makes a player get the most interceptions is playing centre-half in a team that doesn't play a holding midfielder and doesn't dominate possession. That seems key to me more than the individual ability of the player.

Defending stats, tackle per game and interception made in the game are far away similar to the real world. You can check the real world stats in http://www.whoscored.com/ . You can compare directly between the game stats and the real world stats. Actually I have mentioned tackle stats in the game is extremely ugly last year December. However, you can only hope that SI will solve it in FM 15.

There's no precise definition of an inception in real life, so it might be the case that FM is not classifying interceptions in the same way as whoscored.com, leading to the big difference. Maybe FM classes any pass that goes to an opposing player as an interception, whereas whoscored.com requires a deliberate action from the intercepting player, for example.

Maybe there is life in outer space? Is there any value in stat that is not precisely defined?

Defending stats, tackle per game and interception made in the game are far away similar to the real world. You can check the real world stats in http://www.whoscored.com/ . You can compare directly between the game stats and the real world stats. Actually I have mentioned tackle stats in the game is extremely ugly last year December. However, you can only hope that SI will solve it in FM 15.

Just like they fixed it in previous versions? This has been an issue for a very long time. Considering repecusions it has on number of possesion cycles it is a rather critical issue.

Maybe there is life in outer space? Is there any value in stat that is not precisely defined?

So what's the precise definition of an interception then? If you picked a bunch of borderline cases from any match and asked 10 fans to classify them as tackles/interceptions/blocks/defensive mistakes or a combination of, you'd end up with 10 different answers. So you just have to pick a sensible definition and stick with it. But don't expect your choice to match anyone else's, and don't expect consistency when you compare stats between them.

Interceptions is one of several stats in which FM uses a different definition than Opta. Opta's definition requires a player consciously moving from a different position into the path between the player passing the ball and the intended target. In FM, the definition of interception broadly encompasses what Opta would define as interceptions, recoveries and defensive headers.

Similarly, FM defines possession as actual percentage of time spent on the ball whereas Opta's definition is merely a team's percentage of the total attempted passes made by both teams.

I only can say there is still a big room for improvement. In my save, the highest amount tackle per game in my playing league is 8.75. Most of the highest tackle /per game players are D(R/L). There is still a big difference between the real world stats and stats in the game. In my view, players in the FM just look like we are playing FIFA 14 online. Every players are similar and very aggressive.

So what's the precise definition of an interception then? If you picked a bunch of borderline cases from any match and asked 10 fans to classify them as tackles/interceptions/blocks/defensive mistakes or a combination of, you'd end up with 10 different answers. So you just have to pick a sensible definition and stick with it. But don't expect your choice to match anyone else's, and don't expect consistency when you compare stats between them.

I am trying to say that stats in FM should have precise and publicly available definitions otherwise they are useless. It would be nice if definition popped up when you hover with mouse over particular stat.

Interceptions is one of several stats in which FM uses a different definition than Opta. Opta's definition requires a player consciously moving from a different position into the path between the player passing the ball and the intended target. In FM, the definition of interception broadly encompasses what Opta would define as interceptions, recoveries and defensive headers.

Similarly, FM defines possession as actual percentage of time spent on the ball whereas Opta's definition is merely a team's percentage of the total attempted passes made by both teams.

Thank you! I have asked this numerous times before and never got an answer. Do you know what is the definition of tackle in FM?

Thank you! I have asked this numerous times before and never got an answer. Do you know what is the definition of tackle in FM?

I'm pretty sure it's just dispossessing another player, so tackles in terms of tackle rate should be about the same as Opta's definition. I don't know the exact definition of what constitutes winning a tackle in FM. It may be something other than any tackle that doesn't lead to an immediate recovery by an opposition player, but I'm not sure.

EDIT: I'd add that Opta refine their event definitions periodically, so I don't think SI are in any hurry to recode stat tracking to fit their standards. It's also possible that there could be licensing issues with using specific definitions.

i dont think the big difference of stats exist because of the difference defination. when you watch full match, you always see that ai like to use get suck in instruction. there are so many slide tackle in the match by AI team. every winning possesion also comes from slide tackle. If AI team does not get fouling problem,many injuies and kocked down event will happen. Most the time I will lose in this game.