_Ben_

I like this idea. Kind of looks like a heatmap for where he could play. Yep. Sensible suggestion. Had to choose between condition and morale and role because it doesn't really fit in anywhere else, given the size restrictions I've got here. The scout rating star appears on the right of their name once the team report has been created. You've then got a slightly extended panel when you hover on their face:

Hijacking a beautiful idea that @TCSSkin had... Trying to make their positions look almost like a heatmap. Yes, you've got the description and the player archetype there but you can see that Fofana is a player who could play anywhere centrally, once you've corroborated that with all of the stats on offer.

I think that’s impossible, sorry. I mitigate that by making all colours (awkward to natural) the same size and colour so you don’t really know much. I have seen on a wonderful panel by @TCSSkin a heat map styled thing for position indicator - so may drop him a DM and seek some further inspiration! Also - the scouting of players without playing any football is unrealistic, yes, but not something I have control over in a skin. Yes. The bars change as the knowledge increases but, from what I have seen in testing is that the bar shows the ‘best possible’ value. Because these correlate with the polygon, when you look at those - below (not in screenshot) - you’ll see it greyed out if knowledge is not fully known and can cross reference that with the top bar. With that in mind, you are likely to see the length decrease as knowledge improves. Not entirely accurate as someone may be better than first thought but something I don’t seem to be able to control.

Already there! When you 'own' the player, that space is used for the attribute DNA selector. When he's unemployed, you also cannot see the individual attributes when clicking on a position: Even with extensive knowledge, there is a little 'warning' on a non-human player:

Lost a fair bit of interest in skinning of late but did spend half an hour or so building a new, smaller, visualisation for the player popup panel:

The panels are different. Find the match one and reverse the vertical=“true” line

Do the opposite of what you’ve did on the other one?

Skins folder not views?

The most logical place to begin feels like the incoming transfer dealings, given that the correct recruitment this summer may well make or break our season. In previous editions of FM, I’d spend hours exporting the data into Excel and creating as many charts, visualisations and combined metrics as I could – but – given my lack of playing time at the moment and the developments in my Statman skin, I’m now able to do more in game. When looking to recruit, I tend to create a hierarchy of things that force my hand into decisions: Watching the player play myself in competitive, open age, fixtures. Analyst report. Scout report within a modelled league. Watching a player play at youth level. Scout report within a non-modelled league. Historical stats from previous clubs and/or previous seasons. Stats at youth level. Whilst I trust my scouts’ judgement, I do feel that there is an element of realism in that I’d probably ask them to bring back comprehensive video footage of the players. Now, sometimes, when I send my scouts out, they aren’t able to/don’t bother to attend matches and, whilst they can get a nice overview of the attributes, I always like to settle down and watch five to ten games – usually in extended highlights – of their performances. I am not picky and like to try and get a mix of good and bad performances against a variety of tactical styles and oppositions. It’s a long, drawn-out process but really gives me an immersion into the player I’m signing. If I can’t get that, an analyst report is the next best because they’ve taken into account how the player is performing and identified any under/over achievement that I can ponder over. With my tendency to want to sign and develop younger players, I often find myself having to look at youth level to spot players who are doing well but are not quite ready for first team action. When all that fails, and when my recruitment pool is more limited – like this season given our promotion and lower reputation – I turn to previous season data from a save file I make at the end of each year. I feel that this process stops me going overboard on unrealistic signings – a bunch of 15 year olds or 18 year old Ivorian’s playing in the (unloaded) Ivorian youth leagues and also streamlines the number of signings I make, given the labour intensive process. With that in mind, I headed into the winter transfer break with a rough plan in mind of what I wanted and where I wanted it, below. As the 24.2 patch has now fixed the issue with a director or football not making the signings, I tasked him with sorting these out by creating groups per position, ranked both in order of need and in order of preference within each group. I was also able to split things down into a timeframe for the signings: Immediate: Goalkeeper: I talked about Jonsson’s lack of command in the centre of his goal so ideally wanted a bigger, more commanding keeper with better reflexes than my current number one. Left winger: I wanted a flair player who was able to progress the ball into dangerous areas, either to shoot or lay off to a team mate and one who may also draw us fouls in dangerous areas. Defensive midfielder: A man who could step into Salaou’s shoes and win the ball back before progressing it. Centre back: A man who could step into Perez’s shoes and complete all defensive duties but also be able to help us play out from the back. 6-12 months: Stiker: With Damus and Mattson both untested at this level and Engblom no longer at the club, I could easily find myself lacking an actual goalscorer. I want to trust them but I need to be busy creating a list of alternatives for when, or if, the time and price is right. Centre Back: Captain Blomqvist is getting no younger and his lack of passing ability may grow to hamper us at a higher level. I'll be on the look out for right footed centre backs, or, should my left footed centre back search not be fruitful, continue that one. Left Back: With Team Leader Olsson not interested in renewing, I'm left with converted midfielder Andersson in this role. He could be great but he showed last year that he might not be. One certainly to watch. 12-18 months: Right Back: Forsberg was, on paper, the weakest performer and is tasked with quite a tough job in the IFB role. I want to tie him down a bit longer as he develops but do have some reservations. Here is what I got: Full profiles can be found by clicking on each thumbnail. Marko fits the bill for my number one slot and the DoF was able to make quick work of the shortlist that I’d created for him in that area – considering he was the only name that was on it. He has significant experience at this level – playing for Trellborgs, Mjallby and Malmo before moving to HSV for €600k in 2021. He turned out a few times for HSV II last season but I was unable to watch any of these games so dipped into his time on loan at Halmstads, who finished fourth in the Allsvenskan. The data is encouraging – he’s able to keep clean sheets and is pretty tidy with the ball. My concern, as raised with Jonsson’s performance, is the ratio to saves held to saves parried, which sits around 2:7, compared to the 1:1 for my keeper. I’ve watched a number of the matches he appeared in and – honestly – don’t feel too worried given the shot types, compared to what we faced in the second tier. His reaction speed is great and, at 6’4”, he’s three inches taller than Jonsson, too. I put all my eggs into one basket though with this, risking the happiness of my ousted number one, moving him to ‘Backup’ before this move had even been finalised. Fortunately, he has not (yet) complained of this as he recovers from a broken hand but, whilst I’ve got myself a great new number one, am conscious of the wider impact on the team. Muamer is a similar type of signing too Marko in that he came as a free transfer; however, unlike the keeper, had spent a significant amount of time on trial with us, performing strongly in reserve fixtures. Another Swede who, as a youngster, moved abroad – firstly to Fulham and then to AZ, before scoring at more than a goal every three games for Hammarby. This preceded a move to AEK Athens and then of to Pafos, in Cyprus. His performances in the 2023/24 season left a bit to be desired but (in a non-realism sense) I was less worried as Cyprus is not a loaded league and it was pretty clear that his creativity, progression and outputs were strong. He was, again, an agent offer, but his flair and skill combined with a historically good finishing record convinced me to take the leap without watching him outside of our environment. However, when the five-time capped winger stepped into our tactical shape – albeit for the reserves – he was outstanding. His traits really closely match the style that I want and the fact that he’s naturally inverted will only help the build-up down that side as I look to create a transitional overload on the right with the IFB, BWM and DC before an offensive overload on the left with the IF, VOL and AF. I placed him atop the list of wingers that I wanted and my DoF was able to secure the deal. At the time, his €1.2k p/w made him the highest earner but since then he has been usurped following some contract renewals. Manasse is my favourite signing of the lot – coming in on a free from last-years divisional rivals, Osters. His output at the base of a three-man midfield was really interesting to me and I must have watched ten to fifteen of the games he appeared in. I watched him, time and time again, progress the ball to the midfielders ahead of him but it was the trait combination – Dwells on Ball and Likes to play out of trouble – that really did it for me. Osters were always quite an aggressive team, yet he was calm, collected and many, many times drew pressure from an opponent before moving the ball on – even against us. Yes, there were occasions when he gave the ball away from this but this alone was enough to make him the top target in my pursuit for a defensive midfielder. However, his role will be slightly different for us as part of a two-man pivot – so it was pleasing to see the contributions in terms of blocks, clearances and pressures that he attempted, too. He’s clearly not just a deep lying playmaker and will, in my eyes, excel as a 6 in my system – strengthening the area compared to Salaou. The fourth many on the list is Robin Frej, a man who has been on my shortlist for what feels like an eternity. I took the chance to sign him as his contract at GAIS – another second-tier team – was coming to an end. I really wanted a left footed centre back but, unable to find any that fitted within our pricing range, settled for Robin and placed him atop a list of very average centre backs. The thing, attribute-wise, that sets him apart is his intelligence in game. Statistically, he is choosing the right moments to progress the ball forward, sitting inside the top five percent of all defenders in the top leagues of the game, which will be even more of an anomaly at the level we are at. Clearly a ball player, Robin will slot in on the left hand side of the two centre backs and I may look to add a trait, or – at minimum – player instructions, that will allow him to get the ball forward to bypass any potential press that we face. At 26, he has one year of experience in the top flight – at Brommapojkarna – so does pose a risk. My recruitment, overall, feels really strong as we’ve upgraded areas that we are weak in. However, it has come at somewhat of a cost – noted when you see the squad status of my players, below. In order to keep the current crop of players at the club, my hand was forced across many contract renewals as both myself and the DoF were only able to renew contracts with promises of ‘Important Player’ status. Whilst I’ve recruited arguably stronger players, they, too, have asked for similar statuses within the squad, very much leaving me with a strong XI and a much, much weaker XI. With little to nothing left in the kitty, I fear that any sort of injury could curtail our plans massively. That, however, is perfectly normal for a newly promoted team, in my eyes - especially one that hasn't chosen revolution by bringing in fifteen to twenty new players. --- However, all didn't quite feel right through pre-season. Our training ratings were really poor as I reshuffled the backroom staff and things didn't quite click in the friendlies. I feel that, more than likely, there is a part of me looking for something given that these were the first games I'd played since the ME updates but I definitely think something is a little amiss. I've not broken the dynamics within the team nor changed anything drastic. As you can see from our performances, below, we didn't really get moving until the end of the season and luck meant that I was in the easier side of the draw for the last tournament: We were handed a battering by champions Hammarby; expected but, maybe not quite to the extent that it turned out - amassing a grand total of three shots. I was, unfortunately, without both end-contract players, Musu and Frej, but soldiered on with the slightly smaller squad. That squad was then butchered in the Cypriot heat by Larnacas and, again, by Pafos as we struggled to a draw. We defeated Sirius - just relegated into the tier we left - before three easy games, although Brage - also of the second tier - had beaten Hacken, the large side, in the semi final to progress themselves. Nevertheless - I'm heading into the season with some positivity - hopeful to upset the apple cart and build something really wonderful here in Sundsvall!

Thank you! I think is also one where the eye test takes over a little bit. I'd say that, given the five that we attack with (IF, VOL, AF, AM, W) and the positional fluidity of the AM moving into channels, we don't always get the ball into Zone 14. It's not an issue at the moment but, this year especially, I don't have a tall striker and won't benefit from balls that go wide and are then crossed in. Also - the fact that Navik, my AM, was the top scorer with a lot of his goals coming from Zone 14 is a reason why there aren't more assists from there! Yeah - it's been quite a big thing. I actually really like the systems this year and how they're much more fluid in terms of what you see on the pitch. I have a short corner that I have selected 'more often' in usage. I have quite a small offence, so like to remove the crowd from the box and try and isolate my big few players against theirs with everyone else outside the box to either stop a quick break or to work the ball in another way. I still think we lack a proper set piece taker but that'll come with time.

Who came down from Serie A last season? I'm guessing that they'll be your biggest challengers for promotion! However, you're doing wonders on (less than) a shoestring!

Thanks! Yeah - I do like having the eye test comparison to the statistical output. My plans are very much evolution and not revolution but we shall see where it takes me! I also kind of like the patch coming in the off-season so I can re-address any ME changes. It's really not intentional but I've done a little bit more digging to find out why. We currently have a standard defensive line and use a mid block but we've been pretty imperious when cutting out the long balls and, as such, it feels like the game is recording that as a much higher turnover than it actually may seem. I've taken our defensive actions from the last game - against Jonkopings - here: In there are headers, tackles, interceptions and clearances. I'm excluding those in our box because they'll be from corners and when our defence has been breached. The line I've added - mainly showing headers - would indicate the starting position of our backline in a defensive situation, in my eyes.The interceptions, those that have a white border around them, come much higher up but that is because I already have that back six and my rest defence is always super cautious combined with the fact I pull both wingers back to the ML and MR areas through marking instructions. That gives me, essentially, nine men behind the ball for those defensive actions - crowding out their offensive space and winning the ball back a little bit higher up than the actual line. I know that we'll get caught out more often this season, given the almost complete lack of pressure on their defenders, knowing they'll be better with their distribution, but it's a risk that I will try and calculate against. It's something that - as a Villa fan - I've seen Emery toy with over the last season and into this one and I will also need to react to. You may see that and think different - which, if you do - I'd love to discuss! That bottom screenshot was the entire club based on PA but I definitely agree that we need some experience - mainly at this level rather than anywhere - to bolster the youngsters in the squad. It's funny that I've been driven, financially (an area I know you're well versed in), to using the youth system because our coaching setup is really pretty poor and on my list of off-season stuff anyway! I want four or five first team players to join the squad before I'll feel happy that we've got what we need to put on a bit of a show at this level!

Well, where do I start?! CHAMPIONS! Three months of games since the last update but we are over the line, just. Our form was incredible, with the only blip – really – coming in an abject performance away at Osters, where we couldn’t manage a shot on target across the entire ninety minutes. With two games to go, we could have secured the title but fell to a defeat away at Varnamo, which did worry me somewhat. Against Jonkopings, I knew I had to match the result of our title rivals, who, themselves, were facing our own rivals in Ostersunds. There was a palpable release when our bitterest rivals took the lead midway into the first half and a genuine, real life, fist pump when Fofana nodded in just after the hour. In the end, two more goals – one for Varnamo and one for Jonkopings – didn’t spoil the affair and we were crowned champions and promoted back to the top tier! At face value, we shouldn't be getting too carried away with the league performance, if I'm being totally honest. Whilst three defeats - 100% better than the next best side - is great as is having the best defence and the best offence, eleven draws shows that we were, more often than not, unable to put a game to bed. This is particularly a worry with our away record - 5-7-3 with a total of 22 points accrued - which is around 60% of our home points. What is more, forty-two home goals to twenty-four away goals feels like something I should be checking in with, particularly as we favour a counter attacking style where possible and would, therefore, expect more opportunities to do so against attacking home sides. I know that the challenge from the top flight will be significantly harder than what we've faced here but I back our tactical identity and, given that is is still very much defence first, don't feel that I really need to change much unless personnel dictates that to me. Therefore, I can quite easily dig into the stats, knowing where I want to see improvements - again, from either recruitment or player development - for next term. I haven't done my research into this but I feel that, as the top team in the league, we should also be the best team in the league. I wonder how many clubs have got promoted without being in the higher percentiles for team stats - particularly those involving build up and scoring outputs. I am delighted to see that our Clearances, Blocks and Tackles are below the league average - part down to the lack of defending but then also part down to the hard hours we've grafted to create a strong shape and a drilled backline, who prioritise interceptions and create unforced errors as opposed to directly engaging with the opposition, as also seen by own low fouls committed total. Offensively, we are in a really strong position across most areas - as you'd expect from the top scorers. We do, sometimes, allow ourselves to become a bit rash with shooting - pulling the trigger whenever we get sight of the goal because of the speed and directness of our transition combined with our excellent dribbling outputs but I think that there is scope to investigate the 'fouled/game' metric: we have aggressive, fast, direct wingers and I really think that a little bit more risk in taking the man on may lead to some extra opportunities, of which I'm able to dig into some nice new metrics for: Around mid-season, I changed our corner setup to mainly use short corners, but kept the man there for the less often used inswinger, hoping to pull another man out and allow ourselves the best possible opportunities. It's clear that we're not bad aerially because we are pretty dominant defensively, losing only 16% of far post headers and 23% of near. There is clearly a concern in the central area - with Jonsson's (lack of) command - as we win 77% there but opponents, as an average, win 92% of theirs. Despite the red areas in our first contacts, we have still scored a good amount of goals from set pieces - 7 from corners (9 behind Orebro), 1 direct free kick (1 behind best teams) and 3 from a result of a free kick (4 less than Atvidaberg). At the other end, we've conceded five from corners (7 less than Sandvikens), none from freekicks or results of free kicks - which is eight behind Osters. I think, with a stronger set piece taker, I can make some further inroads here, especially as our chances in open play may be somewhat reduced. It is that open play that I'm also interesting in digging into. We play quite a dangerous game with the highest line (but, importantly, not an intentional high block) and put little pressure on the ball - asking the less skilled defenders to thread a ball through a bank of two fours or over the top. We do that well although we are, clearly, leaking through some times as you can see by so many defensive actions being a bit last gasp - although, given the amount of xA from set pieces that we concede per game - I envisage that a good chunk of that comes from corners. I really like that we gain possession quite high up, showing that the block that we create - pulling the wingers back - is effective. Our use of 'counter' in the transition stage might change the correlation between possession gains and pass attempts but it is clear to see where our very two-paced transition switches from passes around the defenders to aggressive dribbling. Our overall player stats show some absolutely fantastic performances, but I want to dig into how they look positionally, ensuring the the squad are, on the whole, performing well in their roles. GOALKEEPING When looking at the types of goals conceded, it adds weight to the fact that Jonsson maybe doesn't command his goal as he possibly should be. Lots of goals come in close - inside the six yard box - and I do think he should be doing better there and, when you look Jonsson' save types, you'll see that his hold to parry ratio is nearly 1:1 - again a worry. Overall, his saves vs expected saves is great and his passing outputs are, as you'd expect for a league that isn't really going to be built around sweeper keepers, strong. Yet my thoughts still remain that he may be a player who could be upgraded on. I'd be - almost certainly - looking for someone bigger than his 6'1" frame, not overly reliant on one foot and with strong Handling. DEFENDING Once again, all of my defenders are efficient in that they don't have to deal with too many blocks, clearances or tackles - although the tackles attempted scatter shows a significant increase for the wide defenders. This amount of tackles surely is linked with both us trying to full wide men out to stop crosses and then also because teams often favoured a wing play style against us. However, maybe the funneling wide wasn't always necessary as our heading outputs show that those who require strong heading performances, have it. With a central block of four as well as two full backs, I do feel that I need to explore pushing players inside a little more often. Looking for weak areas, based on where our goals were conceded from, I must note that Forsberg's defensive tackling was poor across the season from right back. Looking at the attribute/stat comparison that I made, I'd actually say he's underperformed his attributes in the Positioning area (which includes tackling), although Tackling is the weakest of those three attributes and this directly correlates with the opponent's assist locations. He's a good young player but, maybe, hasn't quite kicked on like the others - one to watch next year. Going forward, I'm delighted with the strong passers that we are in that aforementioned two-paced build up. The next job is a centre back who can stop play, bait a press and allow us to increase the build up speed a little closer to our goal, whilst utilising a bit more directness further forward. MIDFIELD The midfielders in the team have been fantastic and, looking at our assist locations, you'll see that Zone 14 has been really well utilised, particularly with Ludvig Navik and his twenty-four goal contributions this season. My only mid season signing saw Yaya Fofana join and looking at the passes vs assists, you can see the nice change from Pichkah to Fofana in this role. However, annoyingly for Pichkah, his season output had reset for some reason to show only 5(3) games played as a BWM(s). Never the less, his performances were really strong and his progressive passing, when in that ball winning role - as the replacement for Salaou - was really strong. The physical output for all four midfielders was great, but, being picky - I see the VOL(a) role as an attacking midfielder and, as such, I'd like to see more dribbles from Yaya - hence a move to the Runs with ball through centre trait. Our scoring record (again, skewed by Pichkah) was sublime and Navik's creativity has been wonderful to watch as he plays like a real old-fashioned #10. ATTACK I've been gifted the ultimate attacking duo in Engblom and Mattson as, when looking at shooting efficiency, both strikers top right in the often/clinical area. We play to our strengths - using Engblom's aerial ability and Mattson's ability to demonstrate close dribbling skill. I also love that our scoring output is good across several players and our goal types are different enough to demonstrate the wider ability we have within the attacking area. The wingers are tricky and dribble towards the byline before crossing or shooting - which is pretty much ideal in the style that I want to play although, as expected at this level, the player's offensive output shows that they are either a finisher or a creator, not both. My goal for next season would, ideally, be to develop or find someone who can bridge that gap. I would also like to develop players that can draw fouls, either through traits or high flair. --- With that in mind, I want to start the process of shaping my squad. Regardless of how long I will or how long I intend to spend here at Sundsvall, I want to create a brand of football that comes through attributes and through playing styles. Although the players are going on holiday in a matter of days, I still want to set them up on their schedules and get traits in and underway. I have read many ‘recommendations’ not to teach traits to under 18s as this is optimal development time – see it from the other side that this may mean traits are learnt quicker and have come to these conclusions based on a few areas: Positional ability Tactical identity Sell on ability With those three - I could choose a role that benefits the player's position, such as asking a winger to stay wide or an inverted player to cut in, with the tactical identity, you can see that I'm using the Stops Play as part of my plan to bait a press and, in terms of sell on ability, I know that a winger who can utilise his pace (but maybe lack an end product) may become more fancied if he just knocks the ball past his opponent - although these traits are not just for that, as you can see from above. It also gives me a chance to introduce my top youth players from the intake: Alexander Rosenberg, Dejan Begovic, Alexander Lundin, Alfred Nilsson, Marcelo Svensson and Mattias Otherus will all be nurtured, receive first team minutes where appropriate and hopefully continue the tradition of what is already well underway with the club's academy. --- I'm under no illusions about the difficulty of the summer: no homework has been done as the reputation changes from promotions make it almost impossible to create a target market and we are also certainly not too well off and I've been given a €20k to see me into the new season. However, I do have hope within the squad we have and feel that, if I continue to give players opportunities to get better, then we'll be ok!

@Jogo Bonito, @phnompenhandy, @fslashz, @keeper#1 and @Chris_ANZFM Thank you, so much, for the kind words. I don't write it for the engagement but I do love the feedback I get. Please fire away and questions, ideas, screenshot requests! I've said it at the end of every save over the last few years - Matroyshka, Age of Empires and now this that it's been my best ever save but I've never grown into it as early as I have here. Sorry Meyrin, Mashuk and Menemenspor - GIF Sundsvall has that crown now!

As with all of these posts you’ve made on everyone’s skin - if it’s out today then, yes, today is the day. If not, then, no.

I had to make this graphic especially for this update! I was not planning another update until the end of the season but - for me - the best way to solve a problem can sometimes be to dive head first into it. Here are the first five fixtures following the previous update, with a full set of match stats available by clicking on each thumbnail: Four draws and one victory is not exactly what I’d call title contender form but, luckily, Varnamo went 3-2-0, GAIS went 2-3-0, Osters went 2-1-2 and Varbergs went 2-1-2, meaning we didn’t really lose pace. Yet, things just didn’t feel right with our game play. The lack of any clean sheets does not sit well with me but I also felt that our attacking play was a little bit rigid and forced and we lacked the little bit of a spark needed to put the games to bed. We’re tired, obviously, as late goals in the last three games (although the Ostersunds goal was a little more than a consolation) shows that both fatigue is an issue as is my use of substitutes. But I also wanted to break it down further than that, so this is what I did: I compared each of the five games with our overall season averages, where possible, and looked to draw any conclusions from the opponents we were facing. What I found most interesting though came through some deeper diving, look at the shots and shot quality from each area of the pitch. I know that I have one striker compared to five midfielders, but seeing a maximum of 16.7% of all shots taken by them feels a bit concerning, but, a shown by the green cells, two of the games saw some very good chances – with Mattson somehow missing a 0.90xG open goal in the GAIS tie. The majority of shots are coming from midfielders, which is great overall, and the quality of them is generally better than what Engblom and Matsson are getting, but they aren’t strikers for a reason! I dug even deeper into this and watched all the moves that led to midfielders shooting and a good proportion of the time – of the total 48 shots – the ball was worked back to the edge of the box where the majority of them were before a long shot came in. The higher xG shots really skewed the overall stats and it just felt pretty clear that, by the time we’d got forward, the opposition defences had recovered and, as such, we were outnumbered in the box. So, I did this. We already regroup when we lose the ball and our rest defence is really strong but I’ve added the Counter instruction to try and increase the pace that we break at, creating – hopefully – more opportunities where we can have numerical advantages, or, at least, not such disadvantages in and around their box. My hope is that this allows our midfielders better shooting options and gives more chance of the ball finding our strikers, who are – predominantly – in the team for their finishing ability. My little change ran for two games before I decided that I’d already written enough words in this update… Rule one – don’t make five subs when 4-0 up at half time with a completely complacent bench! Rule two – utilise the counter! Ten goals scored feels like a strong turnaround statistically, particularly the Orebro result, as they are a team of a similar stature. We created 5.13xG against Karlstad from a total of 24 shots, which did include one penalty whilst two of the goals came from midfield in Palsson and Damus. 2.77xG from 19 shots against Orebo with strikers scoring none of them also feels like I’ve half fixed this issue. Again, it’s one to let run and to monitor as time goes on! --- This man. I think that 95% of the comparison idea came from seeing ‘Yaya’ on the back of his shirt burst through the midfield, making me think of a fellow Ivorian-born midfielder with a similar name. Whilst, at 5’11”, he does lack a little bit of the stature that Yaya Touré had, I do see my Malian man as being a key cog in the team and someone who can help us drive forward. I used a Bleacher Report article to get a nice explanation of the change in role that Yaya Toure went through following his move from Barca to Man City: “There he was asked to sit deep, break up attacks, play simple balls to the likes of Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, and generally do the leg work in order for the attacking players to shine. It was an incredibly narrow remit for a player with such an obvious array of qualities. He was eventually usurped by the emerging Sergio Busquets, an out-an-out defensive midfielder and a native of Catalonia who had risen through Barcelona’s youth set-up. The former City boss, Roberto Mancini, who had made his interest clear months before, wasted no time in bringing him to City once the transfer window opened. Under Mancini, everything changed. Suddenly he had licence to run at the heart of the defence with his pace and power. He was central to City’s attacks, becoming a box-to-box midfielder and exerting influence all over the pitch—a far cry from being a small cog in the glittering Barcelona wheel.” I think that this role is absolutely perfect to our style of play. With that in mind, I created a little comparison between FM24 Fofana and FM12 Yaya, who – at the time – was 30 and playing at Man City. The results were, thankfully, pretty much what I expected – a man who lacks a little bit of defending quality plus that overall top-end strength that Yaya was synonymous for when moving with the ball. Immediately, my development plan for Fofana has switched from VOL(a) to BWM(d) with a Defensive Positioning focus; he’ll still play, for now, as a Volante, but this will allow him to both learn his new DM position and develop a couple of his weak areas. Without FM12 to fire up to get a direct, SI Games comparison and, to be fair, without FM12 having the depth of stats that FM24 had, I was able to dig into another Bleacher Report article to find out really what made Yaya good on the pitch: “The outstanding form of Fernandinho has been key to Touré's brilliance so far this season. Fernandinho has been superb for much of this campaign, offering excellent protection to the back four. He is consistently in the right place at the right time, and his energy levels mean he makes tackles and interceptions all over the pitch. That has allowed Touré to increase his performance, as demonstrated by the stats below. He has scored seven league goals in 14 appearances, and has managed an incredible 92 percent passing accuracy level. He barely ever gives the ball away, and is adding more goals to his already accomplished game. Passing, Chances & Goals: · 2012/13 – 90% pass accuracy, avg length 17m, 22 chances created, 2 goals and 2 assists. 63.5% of his passes are forwards. · 2013/14 – 92% pass accuracy, avg length 17m, 17 chances created, 7 goals and 3 assists. 65.3% are forwards. As these stats show, Touré is more clinical when in possession and is making better use of the ball this season compared to last. Shooting: · 2012/13: 40% shot accuracy, 25 shots at a 8% chance conversion rate. · 2013/14: 65% accuracy from 15 shots at a 41.2% chance conversion rate His shooting accuracy and conversion rates are also up considerably on last season. His powerful bursts from midfield are an incredible facet to his game, and gives City an edge that few other sides can match. Touré moves through the gears at pace, with his close control and sheer strength meaning he can beat players and take City up the pitch within seconds. This season, he has a 70 percent take on rate.” Whilst I can’t measure pass length, I can quite easily look at two metrics that made Yaya stand out: High conversion rates and highly progressive ability – mainly through passing. With that in mind, and, with this essentially being my first signing for the first team, I wanted to get a deeper analysis of his play, so dug into his first six games with us. Below you can see the combined map for passes, dribbles and shots: The role that I’m creating is really niche and, prior to this, had trusted Pichkah with it, without really making a concerted effort to find out whether or not he was actually good at it. Below are the statistics that I was able to collect, with a comparative colour at the bottom – but more on that later on. I feel that Bleacher’s stats on ‘forward passes’ must include sideways, too, because that rate is far far higher than what I have seen, even with such an aggressive role in the VOL(a) one. However, looking at a total of 79% not-backwards passing feels pretty decent, although I do feel that his defensive outputs are lower than I’d like and his scoring exploits, minus a goal against Ostersunds, could be much better. Overall, I didn’t feel that he was enough of the heartbeat of the team, but I did – and still do – feel slightly conscious about making him an RPM(s) because a) the support role will mean less aggressive play than an attack role and b) I don’t necessarily want to use a playmaker as I feel it can take a little away from a pacey and, ultimately, lethal, counter attack. So… I modified his player role, as seen below. Adding Dribble More, Shoot More Often and Take More Risks, as well as asking him to Move into Channels when the team has the ball would hopefully make him engage with the attacking phases of our play, creating, essentially a 3-2-5 shape from the 3-box-3 that we transition with. Obviously, this run of form coincides with a slight dip in our own fortunes and I must remember that this is a man who, initially, was without match sharpness, new to the country and not being able to speak a word of Swedish and new to the tactical setup, without being even competent in the DM role. With that in mind, I do feel he’s done a pretty stellar job of adapting, yet, I am ever the perfectionist and think he’s capable of more! Which makes the next two games even more satisfying – both to watch and to analyse. New instructions in place and a chance to get some minutes in against a lower league team in the cup and a team of equal standing to ourselves in a tough, tough league game at home. In red, I am able to compare where a statistic has decreased in value compared to the previous set of games and in green where it has increased. Whilst Yaya has made fewer forward passes, his overall total of non-backwards passes has risen to 84%, which has allowed an increase to 3.7 key passes a game and a 7% increase on the percentage of total passes that can be classed as ‘key’ – certainly a nice step forward. Now also created an xA of around 0.5 per/90 and registering an assist in each of the two games is – albeit a small sample – an example of extra impetus going forward. His attacking outputs, registering a goal in each set of matches, is quite similar and he’s completed less dribbles but I do feel that there is progress here. His overall output from six games looks pretty top draw, if I’m honest. I can’t wait to see just how far he can take this role! My thoughts for his continued development are: Develop traits of ‘Runs with ball through the centre’ and then ‘Tries killer balls often’ – I believe that both of these will work with his attribute set and allow ability to progress the ball more, especially as dribbling is one of the weaker areas of his statistical output at the moment. I may then look at ‘Plays One-Twos’ as I do think that has progressive qualities but when you look at how we build up, below, I think it’s important that I give him the space and freedom rather than dragging him closer to others, as this trait may encourage. Following that, I may look at a Finishing trait, such as ‘Curls ball’ or ‘Places Shots’ given his high levels of Finishing, Technique and Composure and the fact that he’s a right footed player predominantly cutting in from the left. --- I will - almost definitely now - be back at the end of the season for a wrap up and, hopefully, some good news on the promotion front!

'Flying' is something that I'm not entirely sure about, actually! I'm in the process of writing up the next seven games - given that I had some good playing time yesterday - so you'll soon see my thoughts...

Superb stuff! Love the detail and feel a real connection to your style - both of posting and playing. What are your predictions from here? What needs to change and develop to help you get there?

Wow, I’m addicted. I honestly never anticipated to be living on the absolute edge when I send my second-tier Swedish side – my first club job – into battle, having created an absolutely beautiful brand of football and feeling an already quite immense loyalty to my players, but…here I am! There is so much farther to go and progress in this save but the time I’m pouring into every tactical, training, press conference decision makes me feel that this will be a long and fruitful save. With that in mind, I’ve decided not to write about each and every post and actually play a fair bit through the save, looking at a couple of other areas. That being said, I couldn’t not post a gif of this wonderful strike from Damus as he opened his account for the club in the 7-0 rout of Åtvidabergs. We also had to deal with an annoying issue that saw the loss of Svanberg – because, apparently, a centre back being played as a centre back is not correct! That being said, I quickly moved on and signed a new contract with the club as I look to build on this success and, hopefully, take Sundsvall back up to the top flight. You can see a full match report of each of the nine games, shown below, by clicking on the thumbnail. The results have seen us climb to the top of the league but, with one point separating the top five, I’m cautious to get carried away. Scoring at two a game and conceded a two goals in three is really strong and, Varbergs’ scoring aside, we’ve got the best record. --- Wanting to keep things as realistic as possible but also knowing that, given our current league position, I’d be foolish to not think about next year, I wanted to keep the transfers simple and ones that would normally be available to a club of our standings. Enter Yaya Kader Fofana. In the Ivorian-born-Malian's short career to date, he’s played in France and Mali and has actually featured five times, all off the bench, in Ligue Une, for Reims. Scandinavia feels like a real stomping ground for Africans to either get to the continent or to re-find their feat, given the somewhat lax rules on foreign players. I find myself inundated with Agent offers and am normally quick to delete those many, many offers for 35+ year old Argentines, who’ve never left their country. Yet this one felt different: a youngster who hadn’t quite made the cut in a higher level and one who was willing to come in without breaking the bank. Yaya immediately joined on trial and was strong across a series of friendlies for the reserve squad. My staff have outlined some concerns about his injury proneness, but his medical history, long illness aside, is pretty much clean. My biggest interest though is, when compared with Pichkah, he’s a stronger option for my VOL(a) role and, when Salaou’s loan ends, will allow Paya to move back into the more defensive minded role that he, probably, prefers. In terms of his development, I'll be using the VOL(a) schedule to retrain him as a DM with a focus on his defensive positioning, which currently sits as the weakest area, bar aerial threat, in his game. I'm going to toy with what traits to add but I feel something like 'Plays Killer Balls' might work really nicely as, when it attack, he'll form the top of my box with Navik, who also has that. Therefore, it feels even more imperative that my striker is fast and can get in behind to really allow these balls to have maximum impact. Yaya is just another example of my want to have young, hungry footballers at the club who I can develop. Below are our top prospects: I would already consider both Navik and Forsberg to be developed but I really like that, for a club of our size, there are a number of really strong candidates for the first team. Viktor Mattson is currently working to develop as a PF(a) with focus on his intelligence in the final third as I look to develop him into Engblom's long term successor - a far more suited man to my striker role with bags of pace and an eye for goal. Likewise, Palsson is starting to see more football on the wing and will look to also develop his footballing intelligence. Filip Aberg is an interesting prospect at left back whilst Torstensson is some way off challenging at present. Our coaching setup needs some work but my focus on these lads is to really build a strong core of homegrown players, supplemented by experience from elsewhere. To quality assure their development, I'm giving them as many minutes as I can, talking to them about their performances - both good and bad - and ensuring that I'm commenting on their training and development regularly. As I, currently, lack more evidence of their performances, I feel that working on player traits will come in weeks, months or years to come. As I said - I'm feeling really connected to the players, the team and the league itself: long may this continue!

No, you can't. But that's ok - because on the Player Tactics area, it is still broken!

Not possible within the game.

Statman v1.3 https://www.mediafire.com/file/zm4x40exw1fh2qu/Statman24+v1.3.rar/file# Changes: Update to attribute display system, encompassing a closely match statistic to compare. Fixed staff profile to match, with buttons that show text breakdown of attributes Many other QoL fixes Hoping to leave the skin alone for a little while now! Please let me know of any bugs but I'll return with some - maybe - new creative ideas in the coming months. Off to get into my Swedish second division club... Enjoy!

Very, very kind words - thank you! As you can see from the above, I think that these little tools in game just help me with that internal monologue that, when I get to a club that can actually recruit players, will be really pertinent to the discussions I post about. I must say that I've been absolutely obsessed with the turnaround that Unai Emery has had at Villa and my want is to just make my players better so this is really key to look at long term overachievement, essentially. I do wish that Sundsvall had the facilities to actually develop the players off the pitch, but, one day, that'll come! In the meantime, this is absolutely my focus. I really don't know what path I will take but I do envisage taking Sundsvall up before moving on. IFK Brommapojkarna are a club I like (mainly because they're managed by Olof Mellberg) and their identity fits in with mine in terms of developing youth. However, with King Olof there, I wouldn't want to wish bad on him and take his job! With the Swedish league being a fair bit poorer than the Turkish league that I enjoyed last year, I see that I'll need to become somewhat of a dominant force before a move to somewhere like Germany is available. Either that or success across other Scandinavian countries. I could foresee a path that almost certainly misses Finland and Iceland now but could stop at one of the bigger Norwegian or Danish teams, definitely!

Ok, so I've updated it! As I said - the data was there and just needed comparing and amending where necessary. For an example - here is my striker, Ronaldo Damus: He's not scored yet this season but has accrued a value here from hitting the target just 17% of the time. Clearly, there is an issue with that. I can dig deeper and see that he's recording a really strong amount of non-Pen xG per/90, 0.47, he just hasn't found the net yet. Therefore, my concerns around this are likely to be rectified once he gets the rub of the green and settles in with my tactical identity. Now here is Mr Haaland and Mr Engblom. The Norwegian's attribute values are, of course, far far higher than Pontus' and he's doing well - 18 goals in 36 games compared to Pontus' four in six. However, his shots on target percentage isn't as good and he's converting only 11% of all his shots, therefore, you 'may' say that he could be doing slightly better in that area, compared to my lad who is doing amazingly well (69% SoT and 31% conversion rate). But, with the nod to attributes, it's probably fair to say that Engblom's outputs are form rather than quality It's an idea I've been working through in my head for ages and I'm really glad I've got something down. It's a little rough around the edges still but there is potential to grow it over time.

The data is there. My FBREF style metric bars work on positional comparison so I think I can do it - just have to put in the time to set up the changes in graphics and classes. I think that, because I’ve really grown to like the play I’m creating here at Sundsvall, I’m not really in a hurry to move on and, as such, find it easier to dip in and out of gaming and skinning. It’ll be something I can work on without feeling completely left out from moving forwards in my career. Plus, I’m very much a one save-man nowadays so have plenty of time to get to the top, or wherever I may end!