Analysing the Stats - A Discussion

[Cleon]

I posted this in the Sheffield United Project thread http://www.community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=181444. But as not everybody will read that and there isn't any threads on this currently on the forum. I felt it deserved it's own thread to create a seperate discussion for all.

---------------------------------------------

How to Identify Issues

We have many stats available to us in game but how many of us actually know what they mean, or how to adapt a tactic based on them?! Well hopefully here I can explain a little bit about how I interpret them and alter tactics based on this information. A good place to start would be to take a quick look at the match stats, so here goes;

While these stats might give us a quick overview of how our team is playing, it doesn’t show a clear indication of how well. It can also be misleading if you don’t check to see how you are using these stats. By that I mean let’s take the possession as an example. It’s possible you could very well have over 70% of the possession; however the majority of that possession might be in your own half. The same can be said for the rest of the stats. Every now and then we need to take a quick look at how well we are using things like possession, what sort of shots we are doing and things like that.

Let’s take a closer look at the stats from the screenshot I posted above.

Straight away the stats jump out as been very similar and it looked like an even close game. Even though the score line doesn’t reflect that. So was the game really even, or were Manchester United unlucky? To determine this we need to look at every aspect of the match stats to determine how I won the game and why Manchester United lost.

Shots

I had 9 shots to Man Utd’s 14.

I had 5 on target to their 8.

3 off target to their 5.

I had 3 long range to their 8.

And we both had 1 each blocked.

Again it seems like Man Utd had quite a few more shots than I did. So now let’s take a look at the type of shots they had. For this we need to use the analysis page.

[Cleon]

The shots page is a good starting point and will give us a better idea of the type of shots I am having and from what areas. This can be a good way of identifying if players are getting into good shooting positions. If you just want to view 1 type of shot then you can use the filters under the control bit at the very top of the page. All you have to do is un tick the check boxes to filter the type of shots you want to look at.

From this page we can also find out if some players are having too many long range shots. Then we can try and correct it. Correcting long shots isn’t always easy as it can be a number of reasons why they shoots from distance. It could be down to them not having players running beyond them in good positions for the pass. Too high creative freedom. The opposition parked the bus in front of goal. Or it could even be a PPM (players preferred move) issue. It might take a while to find the actual cause but at least we can keep a track of the culprits of long shots via this page.

A few things we can try to stop long range shots if we feel a player(s) is having far too many are;

First and foremost check his PPM’s. If you feel he has a PPM which isn’t helping his game and encourages long ranged efforts then try to train him something more useful that will help your side.

We can also check their long shots slider and make sure it isn’t set to try them often. If it’s set to mixed try and put the slider on rarely to see if it improves.

Creative freedom can be a big contributor to why a player is trying too many long ranged shots. If he has a high creative freedom then he is licensed to use his own brain and play more how he wants to rather than how you instructed him to. Try lowering it and see if that helps.

If you still seem to be experiencing it after all the above then it could be a case of lack of options for the player. Try pausing the game at random intervals when attacking and try and take notice of your player’s positions. This should give you a clear idea of how many players you are committing to attacks and you might find the player who is taking long range shots doesn’t have any options around him. So he sees a long shot as the only option.

For people using the tactics creator you could utilise the shouts here to see if that helps. The option you’d want would be the ‘work ball into box’ shout. This should discourage players from shooting from distance.

If you click on the coloured circle on the football pitch to the right, then it plays that clip for that particular shot. This is extremely useful. It will always show you clips but the type of clip you see depends on which part of the stats you are looking at. For example if you're on the passing section then the clips will be passing ones and so on.

Let’s take a look at the stats from the screenshot I posted earlier and determine how the game was won and lost.

[Cleon]

Sheff Utd Shots

Now this page shows all my players that played and tells you the amount of shots they had, how many on target and the goals scored. This page also identifies the type of shots a player had. When you click on a player’s name on the pitch to the right this happens;

These are the shot types for Luigi Vanni. Now you can see he forced 2 saves from the keeper and put 1 wide. The areas the shots were taken from seem perfectly fine and would be where you expect your striker to be. So the shots for this player seem alright to me and I don’t see any real issues. Let’s go and look at the rest of my teams shots.

This is for my inside left forward Magaye Gueye. He only had 1 shot but he scored from it. And the position it was scored from is the sort of position you’d want an inside forward to take up.

Deniz Naki is my right inside forward. He only had 2 shots but 1 resulted in a goal. The first thing what struck me here was he scored a goal from the left side, yet he is my right inside forward. So I viewed the clip and it shows he was making a run to the SC position when my DMC picked him out with a pass. He continued the run and ended up on the left and tucked it away. It was a really well worked goal when viewing the clip. It also shows the player wasn’t out of position to start with. He just continued his run from a quick counter attack move.

These shots were for Jonathan Dos Santos who is my more attacking midfielder. Now you’ll notice it says he only had 3 shots yet shows 4 coloured circles. The blue one what shows at the bottom of the screen is a blocked shot but a defensive block not an attacking one. Therefore he blocked a shot and didn’t get his blocked. The blue circle at the top of the screen though is his shot been blocked.

I know all the shots he had were outside of the box but that is what I expect for him. This is where he’s most effective and he’s scored quite a few goals from these areas. As the number of attempts he had isn’t that high then I have no real problem with him. He’s doing exactly what I expect and want from him. If the number of attempted shots were higher and not on target then it could have been an issue and I might have instructed him to play differently.

That’s all the shots I had and I’m happy with the amount of quality there seemed to be. After all I’d rather have quality chances rather than quantity. I seemed to have shots in good areas of the pitch.

[Cleon]

Let’s take a look at Man Utd’s shots now.

That was Fletcher’s contribution. I’d gladly allow my keeper to save them all day long. I’m confident he’d save 9/10 of them.

A similar shot to the one above, however this one was on target.

Dzeko had a few chances so I looked at the clips to determine if they were good chances or not. It turns out that for the 2 he missed he was under massive pressure. On them all he had pressure on him. So while he got 2 on target there wasn’t much my defence could have done different. They were all positioned good and didn’t allow Dzeko space or time.

The same as above for Rooney in all honesty. He wasn’t allowed time to turn and was under pressure constant.

[Cleon]

Both Carrick’s efforts were free kicks.

Well he’s not going to score from there now is he?

After viewing this clip I realise I was very fortunate and Valencia should have scored. Luckily for me I have a good consistent keeper and he made the save and made it look quite easy. However this shot happened due to my left back not been in position and a quick ball over the top caught him out. This is something I need to keep an eye on in the next few games. If it is a regular occurrence then I need to change his settings and ask him to play slightly deeper. However I won’t panic and it could just be a mistake.

This attempt came from a corner and was expected really. I’m just surprised they didn’t cause more of an aerial threat throughout the game.

As you can see while Man Utd had more shots the quality of them was quite poor (especially after viewing the shot clips). Were as mine were from better positions and of better quality.

Next up the passing section.

[Cleon]

Passing and Possession

Next up we take a look at the passing and possession from the same game.

There is no doubt in my mind that many users of the forum put far too much emphasis on the possession stat. While it tells us how much of the ball we’ve had, it doesn’t tell us what we actually did with the possession. You can have as much possession as you want but if it’s all in your own half then you aren’t going to do much are you? It’s quite easy to dominate the possession in a game by just letting the defenders pass the ball around. But playing like this won’t win you many games if you’re not getting forward much.

In the game above I had 51% of the possession which suggest that it was an even affair, so now let’s take a look at what areas I had the possession in and what sort of passing my players did.

Action Zone’s

The battle was definite in the middle of the park which was expected. The rest of the action zones seem even considering I knew Man Utd would be a very attacking outlet and I adjusted from my normal playing style to compensate the extra attacking threat they possess.

Now let’s look a little closer at the passing my players did.

[Cleon]

Sheffield United’s individual passing stats

The first thing I notice is how involved my defensive midfielder Sandro is. He seemed to see a lot of the ball and judging from the clips I watched from the shots section, he was involved in the breakup of play and often was the starting point of my attacks. This is exactly what you want from a DMC. Let’s take a look at what areas he was in and making passes from.

The more green dots he has the better for this section. As you’ll see he had a few of his passes intercepted. In fact 10 in total. I’ve just looked at the clips for these interceptions and 8 out of the 10 were attempts to counter attack quickly and play a ball into the forward or wingers. I know not all of them connected but against strong opposition who I was playing on the counter attack against he did extremely well. You’ll see he was playing the ball backwards, sideways, forwards and at angles. His play is very varied and none of the intercepted passes were in defensive situations, they were all high up the pitch and not deep enough to be costly. However it’s something to keep an eye on and if it is becoming an issue and giving the possession away I can alter his passing. At the minute his passing is on mixed as I like him to try all types of passes and not be limited as I feel the defensive midfield role works better when he isn’t limited in what he is able to try. Especially with a quality player like of Sandro’s calibre.

I should also point out that the length of the yellow arrow is also the pass type he tried. The Longer the yellow arrow is, the longer the pass and vice versa. It’s not worth me going into detail about every single players passing here as it’s not necessary and you should have an idea what to look for now already.

[Cleon]

Manchester United’s individual passing stats

Let’s take a look here at some who didn’t have the best game for Manchester United from a passing perspective. We look at Antonio Valencia.

He seemed to have a really bad game here and only managed to complete two passes which were attacking. The others completed were either defence back passes or sideway passes. He wasn’t allowed the time to pass and was closed down heavily by my defensive players whenever he received the ball. If this was my player I’d have probably subbed him or changed his settings as he was not been utilised enough for the majority of this game. Things that could have been changed were his passing style for a start. Judging by the passing he did he was given a more direct passing approach. I’d have maybe asked him to play either a shorter or mixed game and kept an eye on it throughout the game to change it further if needed.

If he was set up as a standard winger id have maybe tried asking him to cut inside more as he was ineffective out wide. If this didn’t work you can always sub him and bring someone else on to try and make them more influential. If not then you’re basically playing with 10 men for most parts of the game.

Hopefully the above will give you a basic idea of how we can look at the passing section and determine if someone is playing well or not.

[Cleon]

Crossing

The way my tactic is set up the crossing is always low. As my attacking wide players are set up to play as inside forwards, so are encouraged to always drift inwards. So from my point here the crossing attempted by my player’s shouldn’t be that high at all. This part of the analysis can be used for making tweaks in game and is worth always keeping an eye on in possible. Especially if you notice you’re forwards aren’t receiving the ball as you had hoped. It’s also good to find out which areas your players are crossing from.

As you can see from the screenshot above the crosses attempted are minimal and the only ones I attempt are from set pieces. That’s why Jonathan Dos Santos tried so many, but apart from that my team shouldn’t be crossing unless they have a really good opportunity to do so.

Whereas Manchester United were quite different and rely heavily on supplying crosses for their forwards. I actually managed to limit them quite successfully. Here are Man Utd’s stats and in particular Antonio Valencia.

He tried 13 crosses and only completed one. For a right winger who is the main supply for the strikers this simply is not good enough. If the supply is cut off to the strikers they will struggle to score. Man Utd play with a target man striker at all times on my games. So cutting off the supply from the wide men is half of the battle won. If you look at Valencia’s crossing positions you’ll see he was in the right areas but my defenders were all over him not allowing him time and space to get crosses off. Therefore intercepting them and making our own counter attacks.

Andersson was the left winger and he didn’t do any better. Take a look at his positions he got crosses in from.

[Cleon]

He was in the correct areas but wasted them. Take a look at these screenshots to see what I mean.

Andersson is the player circled and he is just about to receive the ball once Dzeko wins the header.

That screenshot shows him now he’s received the ball. But look at all the players I have back. The only option Andersson has is to cross early or run into the corner.

As you can see from this screenshot he was forced out wide by my right back, while the other players dropped back to provide cover should he cross the ball. You should also notice that if my right back got the ball back then I would have players placed to hit them on the counter attack.

Then in this screenshot you can see when he finally put the cross in it was too late as the strikers had hung back to long waiting for him to put the cross in. Not only that but my right back pressed him too much and stuck with him and forced the delayed cross. My keeper just collects the ball from this cross.

This happened all the time during the game from both sides. Again if it was my team doing this I would have looked to change it and try playing through the middle. As Manchester United's wide play just wasn’t working on this day. If they had changed and focused play through the middle I would have had to adapt also, but they didn’t.

[Cleon]

Headers

These stats show both offensive and defensive roles of a player. Attacking players who miss a lot of headers tends to let you know you need to pass the ball around more and attempt less crosses. To get a better idea of the type of headers a player keeps losing. Then you can click on the red circles to view them. Then you can make a better call, as to what to change.

Defensive issues with headers are trickier to sort out though. And there might not be a clear solution. If this happens then like above you need to assess what sort of headers the defensive players are losing out on. If it’s a case of your players simply not good enough in the air (this can be a common issue) then you can change things like less tight marking, deeper defensive line or ask one defender to play slightly deeper. By allowing a player to play slightly deeper by changing his mentality, you provide cover should the opposition win the header or do any kind of flicks on. This limits the damage, it’s not an ideal solution but there isn’t much you can do against someone who is good in the air and your players aren’t. You can go out and buy a defensive player who is good in the air but sooner or later he will also come up against someone better than him.

[Cleon]

Tackles

This page is very important for defenders as it allows you to view the tackles a player does and also shows you the areas of the pitch. So you’ll be able to see if a defender is positioned where you’d want him to be, or show you if he’s been dragged out of position often. It can be useful for all players but I find it best used to keep a track of the defenders. When viewing a player and checking out his tackles he’s done in a game then you want to see more green circles than red ones. If a defensive player as too many red circles then you have massive defensive issues. I can’t stress how vital this page is for me. I can pin point players who are going for tackles and missing them. If that happens I can either ask them to tackle more ‘easy’ or ask them to close down less.

Let’s take a look at my stats;

As you can see my defensive players win most if not all of tackles they enter. You’ll also notice that Jonathan Dos Santos wins a lot even though he only has a tackling stat of 8 and is my more attack minded MC. He is instructed to do easy tackling meaning he only enters tackles he knows he can win.

I only made 2 tackles in side Manchester United’s half. This is because when I lost possession I dropped off and allowed them to attack us so I could make use of quick counter attacks. My players only attempted tackles once they were inside my half. This helps keep the squads shape and stops players been out of position or allowing them to get turned easily.

You’ll notice from the Man Utd’s stats that they were bringing their attacking players further back than me to help in defensive duties. You might also want to look at the interceptions page while viewing these. As it will show if players are missing or making interceptions in vital places.

[Cleon]

Runs Past Opponent

Runs past opponent can tell how you are attacking and getting past players. If you view the opposition’s page it will also tell you the areas you need to keep an eye on. Take a look at my stats;

Not very impressive are they? That’s because I’m not set up for players running with the ball and for this game had to be restrained, as player for player Manchester United were slightly better than my squad. Especially in the full back positions.

Now if we look at Manchester United’s stats;

Now you’ll see that the wide players kept having a lot of successful runs past my players. We’ll the reason for this was pace. My left back was only 16 at the time as well, so wasn’t experienced and I expected him to get beat quite a bit. However I compensated this by providing cover using my defenders and defensive midfielder. As man for man my full backs would get skinned all day long, I had to make sure I numbered up on the Man Utd wingers. And if we look further back up the post we’ll see I did just that for most of the game and made their wingers ineffective for 90 minutes.

You have to do things like that if you are faced with wingers with pace and acceleration. If I didn’t provide cover from other areas they would have tore me apart all game long.