Rashidi

Shouldn’t we remove scout recommendation values those from to A>E since they all tie closely to their CA values as well.?

Oh yeah definitely, its such a challenge sans stars and attributes. I wouldn't know how to get those skinned out, and if you have a skin to recommend I would love to try it.

Well I edited the post to reflect that I will be using the coach reports, stars are just an attribute range. And I think the "proper way" is the way you enjoy it. And this is how I enjoy the game. I want my coaches to assess the players and give me a rating of how they stack against players in the squad. I want to know if a coach thinks one player is considerably better than another. And I like to play it that way. A lot of people may not understand how to play completely clean even without star ratings, this is a way for me to show them how they can incorporate the understanding of statistics into the game. To each their own.

I think Football manager can improve the kind of statistics it provides. At present those who want to play the game via stats need to understand what the stats actually mean. For example, the difference between a key header and a header. Or a key pass and a pass. For me its not that big of an issue, but to go into the game expecting a range of statistics for a specific role may be challenging for some people. If someone were to ask me the difference in stats for a BBM and a Mezzala, I would probably be scratching my head. It will depend on how you want to use them I have a simple method. I divide stats into 3 broad groups, and then I just apply the stats I need for a specific position. I am finding it quite easy at the moment. Naturally without attributes showing you raise the level of difficulty. Its important to pick the right leagues for example when you expect to be looking for a starter in a premiership side. There will be variances between the FME and the QME, ( view only vs playable) so you need to scout the right leagues. Then you need to figure out if the player is playing at the desired level of competition. Currently I am looking for an IF and I have narrowed it down to 3 players, but one of the players is only 18, hes fantastic, the scouts love him and he is cheap, but I don't think he measures up to other players at top flight level. This is the reason why for most people I would recommend using attributes, at least then the knowledge you develop by studying statistics only helps to cement your knowledge of the player As far as filtering out players who may not be in a league comparable to yours, all you do is filter the right leagues.

Once the scout reports come in I take a look at them where there are videos I watch them too. Konta is the first. While he is physically good, his lack of bravery may be an issue, he does use his left foot. In terms of CA he is some way behind my own players The scouts seem to love Navarro, they must see a big price tag and go for it. Personally his CA might be good, his lack of jumping reach could be an issue. I do want my IF to bully the opposition fullbacks, he doesn't really fit my needs The numbers for Leones were good, he had 1.799 striking score, which is impressive for me when I usually think 1.3 is a sign of a good striker. He has jumping reach, but he doesn't really hound defences a lot. His tackling ratio is 0.38 which is probably the lowest amongst the group of players, this could come down to either Konta or Leone, but I need to wait for the rest of the scout reports to decide. Both players will come in on their left foot, but Leone already has cuts inside as a trait and he can operate on both flanks, which does give me options. Leone will also adapt quickly as he will fit into the core group of players while Konta could take some time adjusting.

Search for an INSIDE FORWARD/STRIKER Now we're on the hunt for more options upfront. So far this season we have done ok. I've had seasons where my striker banged in 100 goals a season, which frankly is nothing on Football Manager. Playing the game via stats makes it a bit more challenging and I do appreciate the effort it takes. My spreadsheets are evolving, and the calculations keep changing. My metric for the IF includes me tracking like how many times they get fouled per 90mins. Its usually an indication that he has some skill on the ball, and is willing to take on players. Other metrics included in the IF metric include Dribbles/90, Non Pen Goals vs Non XG Goals. Naturally I like my teams defending from the front, so I compiled all the defensive actions into its own metric. Once again mine could be different from others, but so far my conclusions from last season have borne themselves out. As a team we concede far too many goals, we score a lot too, but its a rock and roll kind of football. Entertaining, but I want to control more games and have the option to dial it up. To do that we sometimes need to attack teams from wider positions and drag them out. The 4312 has been fantastic and so to has the Box system we are using, but I do so like Inside forwards attacking the centre with a blind run running through the middle. We have the players to pull it off. Last season we had an IF called Facchin who gave us that magic. He was on loan. This season we need to strengthen our side so I filtered out any player with an average rating of less than 7, he must have played at least 5 games. He needed to have an XG/Goals ratio of 1, which basically means if he scored 1 goal he had an xG of 1. At least he meets expectations. We also wanted someone who could take on defences and find the cross/pass. In my scoring system I have a Striking Score which is basically the Non Pen Goal vs Non Pen XG Creative Score which measures things like CHC C/90 vs Pass Completed /90 Defensive Score Defensive actions per 90 I also created a metric for IF and Wingers, different people may want different things so I doubt sharing this would be of any use. I am still testing this but I reckon I have most of these spot on. I have filtered everyone by my IF Metric. I really want someone who can give me options either out wide as an IF or play as another striker. The top 4 targets will be scouted Zuluga appears to play more a supporting PF which explains his low scoring output Zapata looks decent, but 20 appearances with that goal output probably another support player Neither of them appear to be tackled as much as I'd like Navarro and Leones look interesting, more appear to be better options for getting goals and they have a bit of creativity in them. Along with the two below them all 5 of the options after the first to create between 0.38-0.5 chances a game. Leones and Konta are interesting. Konta's scout report says that he sometimes doesn't go into challenge, which indicates low bravery. There is no mention of pace. He has consistency, strength, stamina and agility. His personality is sporting. There is a player further down the list my scouts are keen on Gabriel Pignataro. They have given him an A rating, I have made an offer for him. However I could cancel the offer. We need someone to start, not someone who could be ready in 2 seasons. Pignataro has the advantage of having Italian as a 2nd nationality. At 4 million he could be a second signing. We have already signed a central defender, unfortunately than was based on the previous spreadsheet where there was an error in one of the defensive actions metrics. It shouldn't be too big of a problem, since we really only signed him so we could send him out on loan again. Imagine his shock. Nevermind we have some sicilians who can convince him to take my offer.

Using a phone to type this, so please excuse any typos. Plus I am heading from the hospital atm. 352 formation Counterpress. This is an instruction primarily for sides to maintain possession immediately after losing the ball. To do so they might break formation in an attempt to win the ball. This has the potential of causing you to lose a bit of shape so it’s vital to observe your own time immediately after it’s lost the ball. In an effort to win the ball back, did it make things worse? We’re you able to win the all and do something with it. Whenever I play with this instruction it’s meant to be for sides that want to attack. If you don’t have players with the necessary skills you could struggle. The instruction ties in closely to LOE and DL. The LOE will be triggered by your front line, so if it’s set much higher, your strikers will be the first to try and engage the oppo players but again this depends on your pressing intensity. Set it too low and the player individual zonal marking areas may be smaller. Here your defensive line plays a big role. The interaction between the LOE and thr DL create what coaches irl call the zone of compression. This is the area they will try and force the oppo into. That is the area that becomes the battleground. If your dL is set to low and your LOE is high your zone could be very big. And if your pressing intensity is also low the opposition could work the ball all the way to your backline without too much pressure. For a 352 I typically like to play higher up the pitch with a high defensive line because I want my backline high enough to support attacks turning the WBs into quasi wingers. Since i want to play higher than the counter press will be useful since I want my 352 more attacking. If it was not chosen then there could be times immediately after losing the ball where I could find my wingbacks retreating too early. However I could also playa more defensive variant of the 352 without counterpress but here maybe my DL is set to balanced my LOE could also be set to standard, my players are told to press on the middle notch and my players are told to stay on feet. Now I am playing to restrict space with direct passing, and perhaps a TM/AF combo I could be relying solo on opposition turnovers to score goals.

Match boosts only apply to the next game only. It’s one of those all time top of the charts UI bug that is on my “All time Most Annoying Things about FM”

So I've given a bit of an introduction at the top. Now I will walk through the steps. I do play without attributes, though I am not the only one who does this in the community. FMStag is a great source of information for a statistical deep dive into the moneyball side of the game. You can find stuff from him here Player Search Tool - Moneyball, data recruitment etc - FM Stag. I strongly recommend following him and his updates. And of course Cult0fFM who has a Moneyball Series on his channel. You can follow his series here. He covers a lot on his series and it should be easy enough for anyone to follow. I don't claim to be the authority on how to apply a moneyball approach to football manager, and believe me I will make mistakes, but so far i am enjoying this approach so much it really is the first time I am playing an edition of FM from one cycle to the next. What FMstag offers is a search tool you can use, there are slight differences in our approach, but the essence is the same. My goal here is to help you understand the process of how one would apply data analytics to evaluating your squad and performances. I hope I can make this easy to follow, so if you want more information you can check these sources out. The Cult of FM actually explains why he uses Team Conceded/90 vs Team Goals Scored/90 as well. And its not hard to follow. Let's get cracking. For any numbers driven approach you will need benchmarks, you will need to set expectations. And you absolutely need to know the context in which you are analyzing that data. When you are evaluating players you want to evaluate players playing at similar levels of competition. When you are looking for additions to your squad, you actually need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your tactic. I will walk you through the process of how I do that, starting with the tactic, then the sources of information I need in the game and finally how I present that information to myself so I can make informed decisions. Numbers don't lie, but its easy to use numbers the wrong way and that can mislead you. So having a realistic approach is important. This is the tactic and these are the metrics I want to pay attention to when analyzing my squad. In red are the scoring metrics for each group. I covered the metrics earlier and will cover that again in a video that I will link for those of you who prefer listening to my boring voice. HOW WILL THE TACTIC PLAY The tactic is meant to be played on normal tempo, but I want to be able to switch between low and fast tempo too. I want to draw teams into the middle where I will press them and tackle them hard through personal instructions I have given the 3 centre mids. I expect to win the ball in transition, which basically means that I want the opposition attacks breaking down there, the mezzala and the box to box midfielder are expected to feed either the flanks via the fullbacks or find a way to play the ball into dangerous areas. Occasionally I expect the mezzala to play the ball with the outside of his foot to find the Advanced forward on the right with dangerous passes. The box to box midfielder in some games is expected to arrive late into the box and in other games I expect him to be the sort who will provide extra protection down the flanks. Naturally the left side of formation could be weaker, so I expect the left central defender to do help that area out with good reading of the game via a solid set of defensive actions. In attack I expect to see the fullbacks, the mezzala and the attacking playmaker creating the most chances. The AP(A) will be the focal point of most of my attacks so he is expected to take players on with good dribbling. I do expect him to break the opposition’s defensive midfield tier and sometimes arrive into the box either with or without the ball. This necessitates having good intelligence, on and off the ball. He will also be pitching in with goals as I expect him to be a free striker against certain formations. The strikeforce could alternate in terms of roles, in some games I may want to change one role to a pressing forward so that we keep one defender occupied, this could lead to him pulling the defender away making space for the AP(A) to score or create even better goal scoring chances. I do not expect to be getting most of my assists from crosses, in fact most of them should be coming from through balls. When I make any tactic I have expectations and with those expectations I will have be doing several things. I will play the game on a highlights mode that allows me to see enough action to determine if things are going to plan. And I will be using statistics to measure the output of my players. SETTING UP THE SAVE Before jumping in on how you can assess your squad we need to first set up our save properly. The game uses two match engines, the quick match engine and the full match engine. The QME is used in view only leagues and the FME is used in playable leagues. So its important for consistency that you extract data from playable leagues only. That's really the only requirement, if you want a stats driven game. ASSESSING YOUR SQUAD When you are playing without attributes there are only a few pieces of information you can use to assess your squad Height Ass Man assessment of current ability Ass Man assessment of current ability in selected role Ass Man opinion of this players style Scouts opinion of this players main strength Scouts opinion of this players main weakness Average Rating Last 5 games Playing Time Appearances Game Win Ratio Team Conceded per 90 Team Scored per 90 Player of the Match Assists Goals xG I use these in a view like this to give me an instant understanding of my team. On my streams you probably have seen more information, but this is the very basic information I go for Each player also has detailed coach reports that are very helpful. The coach report also contains pros and con and an assessment of his CA/PA. When you start the game and if you play without attributes, your only source of information will be the data that comes from your staff, and you will need to depend on their assessments before match data starts coming in. There is plenty of information there already that can be a suitable starting point for anyone seeking to play without attributes. Once the season is underway you will start collating the information within your views and you will start making assessments. To do that you will also need to look at the data hub because not all the data can be displayed in a view. One of the most important I feel is possession lost and gained/90minutes. This is the possession gained and lost per game, and is accessed through the scattergroups for team data. You can also access these for players via the players search options. Unfortunately it doesn’t come as a filter in views, which is a real bummer. Another scattergroup which I like to refer to is the advanced goalkeeping numbers that measure how good your keeper is vs the rest of the league at expected goals prevented. Why have I listed these sources of information? The moneyball approach usually works as a great starting point before you dive deeper into the numbers. These are all going to be my sources of information before I launch any further. So I’ve set my expectations with the tactic, discussed why I will let the assistant manager and coaches play such a big part in influencing my decisions on who should play.(Because I am playing without attributes) Ultimately my decisions will rest on the little information I can gather from their coach and scout reports. At least until they have played around 5 games. That's when the fun starts. But before then I need to depend on the Assessment view I use game to game. Let me explain why I have chosen to display it like that. Height - Who doesn't want to know height? Scouts assessment of style - Quick way to have some kind of indication of where the attributes fall Ass Man assessment of CA - This acts as a way for me to tell what his overall attribute level is. Ass Man assessment of this players CA in the selected role - this helps to guide me when I have opted to play someone in a role completely unsuited to him. (SI's algorithm isn't half bad) Scouts opinions of pros and cons - Frankly speaking there are NO attributes, I do not some quick warning on the players weaknesses. I usually go to the coach reports to get more detail and then map out an appropriate training schedule. And yes I have a specific way of training and no I don't use anything but my One Training Schedule to Rule Them All. Its balanced and it works. I will cover training in more detail later. Or you can catch the youtube video which I will link here later, when its up, which it isn't. Average Rating - Nuff said Last 5 games - Haven't you heard of streaks, players hitting a vein of form. If a players last 5 games is > than Av Rating, he is on fire! Playing Time - To prove to the whole world -- Look I ignored every players unhappiness levels, some I dumped into the reserves, we did it "live" see no unhappy people, well there is one, but he doesn't count. He failed to deliver consistently, his name is Tripledelli, only the viewers of my stream get the running joke. Appearances And the rest is what I pay attention to, GWIN, TCON/90,TGLS/90, POM, Assists Goals. This is the data I pay attention to when I am playing games. I am looking to ascertain which players add more to my attacks. Some players have notoriously bad team game winning ratios, like Alessio Holwerda, when compared to Raffaele Celia. This is stuff I should be paying attention to, but I wasn't doing that. This lesson I learnt came from hindsight. In future I promise to pay attention to this page when I am playing the game. Now its time for the the moneyball data view. This is the view I use to export all my data to spreadsheet. I hate FM, its made me use an excel spreadsheet for a game again! This view probably has too much information and is still very much a work in progress. I have plans to use it to identify high performing wingers and inside forwards as well, but until I come up with a metric for them, I wont be sharing it just yet. You might be wondering why do I have total crosses showing? Its not necessary right? Well the game does not differentiate between a cross from a corner and some set pieces which could be classed as corners. So whenever I see high key passes/90 there is a chance that he could be taking a lot of set pieces In a later post I will dig deeper into the numbers. Its time my squad did an end of season analysis. That will be the focus of the next update and along with that, training and my search for a striker who is versatile.

First week no, but I roll them in the 2nd week during bootcamp itself. And I do bootcamp only for the senior team.

Does it even work in real life?

You’ve answered your own question. Without a proper preseason training schedule that incorporates some kind of boot camp to build up fitness, you will find midway through a season that players develop issues around their conditioning. I do almost 3 weeks of boot camp. Players are naturally going to pick up minor injuries but these are not usually game breaking. I also incorporate at least 5-8 friendlies. This depends entirely on tactical familiarity. If my team has been playing the same tactic every season and there are not a lot of new additions to the squad then chances are heavy boot camp and around 5-6 games. Otherwise it’s more games and around 2 weeks of bootcamp with as many match practice sessions as I can squeeze. Once the season starts it’s easy street as far as training goes. Training on FM is very organic and you just need to make sure the overall schedule is balanced for development and you can never go wrong.

Like Johnny has said it really depends on your formation. Beating two banks of 4 is not hard but different formations will do it in different ways, it will depend on how yours is set up: I play a 4312 sometimes I focus play through the middle and there are times when I draw them down the flanks. It’s hard to answer your question without a screenshot of your tactic. Any advice people give you will be broad generalisations at best.

Yup

Its WIP, and I am a muppet when it comes to excel, but if people want to use it and then improve it by all means, i will link it here, I tried to find a way to avoid the infinity error for a null value, so you might see fields like this IF(AK3=0,"",(H3-K3)/AK3) where AK3 could be a 0 value. The actual calculation is meant to be (H3-K3)/AK3) for example. Or and its not google sheet but excel. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2s6nzaat21har0pjux471/BTN-Moneyball-Master.xlsx?dl=0&rlkey=5d8rcnue85v605e4ih23o9nt7

Time for me to do some analysis, the defensive actions formula was amended since the last post. I realized I was averaging it wrong. And don't forget you can also use the data hub Let me explain the spreadsheet really quickly. I have basically split Defensive Actions, Creative Actions and Scoring Actions separately. Far right I have calculated the non penalty xGs for goals. Essentially trying too find out what the goal output is not counting pens. Defensive Actions = Clearances per 90, Interceptions/90, Headers/90 and Tackles/90 Creative Actions = Passes/90 divided by Chances Created per 90 Scoring actions are basically the ratio of non pen goals to xG A player with good defensive actions only is generally playing a defend duty and/ or a role that is not expected to create A player with good scoring actions and good creative actions could be a scoring threat like a mezzala, inside forward etc. It just says that the player can create chances and score A player with good creative actions could be a playmaker, fullback that gets up or a winger that creates chances with. I basically haven't finished this because I also track fouls against with crosses attempted or shots attempted to track players that break tiers, these could be inside forwards or wingers on attack duty or even wingbacks on attack duty, that I normally consider separately to identify different kinds of options. For example: I could be looking for a inside forward, so I will look for good scoring actions, plus take ons eg, dribbles/90 and indications that he is drawing plenty of fouls. Currently I am evaluating strikers who can do a job as inside forwards so I am using this metric within my filters. LAST SEASON We were in the top 3 for quite a while last season but fell away in the final stretch because I became experimental again. I decided to mess around with my setpieces and it tossed me for a curve. Plus I lost sight of some fundamental basics. Lorenzo Pirola and Saguesten were my standout defenders, however this season even after signing a new defender, I was hesitant to break up my defensive pairing because it was still good. I was too focused on how good Pirola was at winning key tackles. Now when I extracted the full numbers for the season, it painted a different picture. In terms of defensive actions Sagstuen Andersen was 6.1, the new defender Hernandez was close in numbers to him but Pirola should have never been starting. He was winning fewer headers than the other 2 defenders. And like I mentioned in the last post there is a potential that the Hernandez/Sagstuen partnership could be the strongest partnership we have ever seen. Don't forget the data hub has great tools too. Pirola's defensive output was decent but nowhere near them. Now returning to my spreadsheet, I am now going to evaluate midfield. In midfield our holding mid Tarcisio is easily the best choice in terms of defensive performance, flanked by Casadei and Faticanti, who are both good all rounders. Casadei and Faticanti play as Mezzala and BBM in my system, but both need to work hard and win the ball back. Faticanti has defensive actions of around 2.35 and Casadei has even higher numbers which has surprised me. At 2.79, this now poses a problem for us heading into next season. In terms of training now I need to focus, Raimondi and Dinho along training plans that work on their , anticipation and concentration. We only have Christian Kouan coming off the bench to cover for them. Casadei, Rodriguez and Sagstuen are the oldest players in the starting 11(27,28,26) the rest of the squad is between 18-23 Raimondi has a bit of bad form in the last few games of the season and I plan to give him more game time and use him more consistently, he appears to have a good range of passing. As a RPM he will also be able to train his mental and physical attributes eg. concentration. Dinho is by far our worst player, while he has great defensive actions, and has played well. 4 games are just too few. He needs to go out on loan. Amerigo Bova is 23 playing as a left back, Holwerda is 18 and is also a left back. Holwerda has a 60 million transfer value plastered on his head because he is that good, but in terms of performances, Bova is putting better numbers in defensively. The choice is simple. Bova is first choice next season and Holwerda will continue learning from him. When I look back at my season we were imperious at one point and brittle for almost 2 months. Identifying Pirola as the weak link via stats was eye opening.

Yeah i want a multi purpose striker, one who can play as an IF and as a striker

We added Ramiro Hernandez to our team this season. We signed him because he had a good interceptions/90 ratio and stood 1.88m tall. Previously our best defensive pairing was Lorenzo Pirola and Saguesten Anderson. That partnership has lasted from serie C all the way through to Serie A. After a season of play I typically review how we have done. There are several metrics I like to track: GWIN, TCON/90 and TGLS/90 These are broad metrics that can help. Tobias and Pirola as a defensive pairing we win 51% of the time. When Hernandez plays he is in winning matches 59% of the time. I also created a scoring system for myself that measures striking, creative and defensive actions. I am not the only one to do this, FMStag has also done something like this as well, and I think most people are going to end up along similar paths. We are lacking another striking option up front, overplaying Morten Hansen is having its sideffects. So we went out to look for a winger/inside forward. The metrics I used were dribbles/90, goals, xg, ccc created by 90, fouls against, distance/90. The goal here is to find someone who takes on defenders, and either draws fouls or gets inside the area to score.

And I said I wouldn't do this, I will do a video to explain this and link it here. What I plan to do is explain how using my formation as a starting point I go about determining the stats I will be tracking for each position. When it comes to Scoring stats there are a range of numbers I will evaluate that finally gives me an idea of what a players non penalty goal xG is. Basically how good is he at finishing chances that are not penalties. This can also be a cool way to see if your system is creating chances. I will also evaluate the creative output of my players, there are a couple of creative types in any team: some cross, some pass, some do set pieces. A basic way is to just whittle them down to chances created per 90 over passes played per 90. That gives us a ratio that is indicative of the proportion of creative output from a player Finally we have defensive actions that can take several forms, I take all defensive actions ranging from headers won, tackles won and clearances. Interceptions per 90 are also included. I wanted to find a way of splitting key tackles per 90 as well, but i think I will ignore it for now in the calculation. However Key tackles per 90 are usually a decent indicator of how alert a player is at stopping a goal scoring action with a tackle. And yes I have done a simple spreadsheet, so out of practice. Thats my team Palermo from this season. There is more but I plan to do that on a stream later today, or rather in the next half hour or so. I am still working on this... so there is more to come including a view I use to evaluate my starting 11's contributions during a season. That spreadsheet I linked above can also be used to import data from player search windows.

THE METRICS Time to list out the metrics that I usually pay attention to, these are to assess players. As far as squad performance goes, I will update it later with another post. There are plenty of people who play the game using metrics. Some use them to develop a moneyball strategy others just use metrics to determine the best players for the system. I typically land in the latter group. However when it comes to signing players I usually think in moneyball terms by attributing their values. To do so I will usually use a simple way of doing this by evaluating a metric and then dividing it by the salary per annum of the player. I prefer using salary per annum as my budgeting is usually done annually. There are some notable content creators, but the best one I am aware of is FMStag who even has a calculator you can use to do moneyball strategies. I myself don't want to use excel spreadsheets as I want a simple way of doing it. Using spreadsheets is definitely a superior way, but I just don't want to play the export/import game on between FM and Excel. I will list out all the metrics explain why they are important for me and then within this post or maybe within another I will use case studies to explain my decisions. Caveat: For any player evaluation to be accurate, that player should be within a playable league. In other words, if you want your data to be accurate, playable leagues are the way to go. When you evaluate players you typically need a good data range. You ideally need players to have made at least 5-10 appearances. If you out to sign wonderkids, I have done a video on this and will link it to this thread later, which explains how I use filters to find the best wonderkids. The principles of both are almost the same. All examples I mention below with data, come after one season of simulation. GOALKEEPERS Save Ratio- Measures how many shots a keeper saves against those taken. Generally most average keepers will have an average ratio of 69%. Shots outside the area usually have a higher save ratio. The game however does not distinguish between the two, and a good yardstick for a decent keeper is around 75%. So if you want to search for a good keeper you start with a 75% save ratio. Expected Goals Prevented - This piece of information is only available via the league detail stats for goalkeepers. And you cant really filter it. What I recommend doing is to have as many leagues set to playable. This is where you will need to shortlist all keepers with a high save ratio, then physically check each keepers advanced goalkeeper statistics. Some skins may help you with that information or you may need to go to the league stats. Within a leagues player detailed stats you will find information on the keepers Expected goals prevented basically informs you on the quality of his shotstopping, the more he prevented these high xG chances the better a shot stopper he is. Saves Tipped/Parried/Held - While this information is useful, it only serves to paint a picture of the type of keeper you have. If you want someone with good handling chances are he will be generating more “held” numbers than “tipped” or “parried” Outfield Stats FOR ROLES/POSITIONS THAT REQUIRE DEFENSIVE CONTRIBUTIONS Clearances - When a defender has high clearances, it means that he brings the ball out of defence to clear it with a pass. So double check that against pass completion or key passes. Clearances can be a very good indicator for a ball playing defender Headers Won Ratio Central defenders need to win headers. I expect most central defenders to win at least 85% of all headers. If you find anyone who does higher numbers than that, its worth investigating. Height - In simple terms a player who is at least 1.9 is likely to have a high jumping reach, and if he has good headers won ratios, then he could have good heading. Interceptions per 90 or Possession won per 90 Either one of these tells us that a player is great at reading the game. He most likely has good anticipation and concentration. I rate this very highly for all players. Tackles won ratio - This tells us how many successful a player is at winning the tackle. Some strikers could have good tackles ratio, which is indicative of bravery and aggression. Tackles Per Game - Aside from the ratio, tackles per game give us an idea of how many tackles a player makes. Be wary of this, there might be times when some players may have more tackles per game, this doesn't necessarily mean they are good, just that their side tends to be more defensive. While I do value tackling metrics, I place interceptions per 90 at a higher level because that metric indicates the footballing intelligence of a player. Key Tackles - How many times a tackle stopped a goal scoring chance. When I signed Tobias Sagusten Andersen for Palermo at the age of 17 for free, he was already making a few senior appearances for his club in Norway. His data indicated that even at 17 he was winning 87% of his headers and more importantly he had a high number of key tackles. With his interceptions per 90 at almost 4, I didn't hesitate to sign him without even looking at his attributes. He was signed by Palermo in Serie C, he is now the captain and one of the leading defenders in the Serie A. These group of metrics serve to outline a players defensive contribution to a game. Ball playing defenders typically have good clearances. Any player who brings the ball out of defence will have higher clearances than a player that does not. A player who generally has a good spread of outfield stats that cover these general defensive contributions is a player that will be good in most roles that require him to support midfield and defence. ROLES/POSITIONS THAT REQUIRE CREATIVE OUTPUT Key Passes/90 Key passes are basically a cross or pass that led to a goal scoring chance taken. If a goal is scored then that key pass is registered as an assist. A key pass can come from set pieces or open play. Players who can produce a high number of key passes could either be skillful at playing a killer pass or great at set pieces. Its another important metric to check. If I am looking for players in midfield to unlock defenses I am normally looking for players who do around 1-2 key passes a game. When it comes to fullbacks who are expected to cross I am looking at around 3-4 key passes a game. If my game is based on a heavy crossing style then I expect even more, but I rarely go above 4. Generally when a player is doing more than 4 I always check to see if he is a set piece taker. A player with high key passes per 90 is worth checking out because either his set pieces are usually generating goal scoring chances or he is great at unlocking defenses with killer passes. This ties in very closely to assists and clear cut chances. The issue with key passes/90 is that completed crosses that don't lead to a goal or a freekick that connects but is saved by a keeper are also counted. So I tend to add Crosses Completed If a player has high key passes/90 and high crosses, I will hesitate, I may even go into his detailed stats, watch a game or two to find out if he is taking set pieces. The combination of key passes/90 and high crosses completed could indicate a player who delivers set pieces very well. A good example would be Bernado Silva. In a simulated season of data I discovered that he was doing 1.72 key passes per game with 13 assists but he also had 70 crosses completed. This told me that he was probably having a large number of his goal scoring chances coming from crosses. ASSISTS AND CCCS A completed cross that ends up in a goal is not counted as a key pass but as an assist. A ccc is a goal scoring chance in the game. I noticed that since FM22 when you mouseover cccs, it now says overall number of chances created instead of clear cut chances. This also correlates to the data that I have been studying. Dribbles per 90 This is a useful metric to identify two kinds of players. Strong wingbacks and outfield players who like to break tiers by dribbling through them. A player who can dribble can carry the ball through the tiers forcing sides to collapse on themselves. Since the player is skillfully bringing the ball up, defending sides tend to fall back. Sometimes more than one defending player can be drawn to a skilled dribbler. Eden Hazard in his prime was one such player, who used that skill to drive at defenses drawing opposition players to him thereby creating space for others. Dribbles per 90 is useful to identify mezzalas too. You don’t need a high number you just need someone who is doing between 1-1.6 a game. Players like Carlos Soler can do around 1.67 dribbles per game. Another good example, Christian Eriksen who does around 1.45, James Maddison, 1.37 and Luca Paqueta at around 1.2. Fouled Against is also useful, a player who has a high FA number next to him is usually one that the AI targets with hard tackling. Every time your assistant manager recommends hard tackling as an OI its usually against a player who needs to be stopped. And players with high dribbling, agility, first touch are usually the targets. Bernardo Silva typically receives the most fouls against in a season as a midfielder. So if I were looking for a winger, inside forward, inverted winger or a mezzala on attack. I would zoom in on dribbles/90, fouls against, key passes/90 and pass completion rate. Distance covered per 90 - Is a useful measure and sometimes can help you determine if a player is pacey, but its a very inaccurate measure. While a high distance covered/90 might indicate good work rate, you still need to send your scouts out to find out if a player has pace. Thats really the only way. Passes completed per 90 High key passes alone isn't usually enough to identify great playmakers, you also need to know if they playing a lot of passes during a game, generating ccc and of course getting assists. Pass Completion Ratio - Indicates how many passes a player completed A player with high passes/90 with low key passes/90 could simply be playing as a central midfielder on defend duty within a system that is generally played on balanced mentality, suggesting that the player makes a lot of short passes. A playmaker would generally be seeing around 1.76 key passes a game with high passes per 90. In a simulated season, Casemiro had 87 passes per 90 but only 0.87 key passes with an assists/90 number of 0.10, which suggests that his playing as a CM(D). Frankie de Jong on the other hand had 80 passes per 90 with 1.56 key passes a game which suggested he was playing a bigger part. When scouting the player I found that he also had the trait plays short simple passes, this suggests that he could have been played as an advanced playmaker on support or a mezzala on attack. I did find someone even better Jude Bellingham who tore through the creative numbers and had a good xg/goals ratio to boot. SCORING STATS Shots/90 vs Shots % I could be alone on this but I like to compare these two metrics. I could end up with a striker with a high xG but could be playing for a side that is so good that its generating a high number of shots for him per game. Personally i get worried when players are taking a LOT of shots to score. The math is in my head somewhere I just need to dig it out. Its late. xG and Goals At the very basic level this tells you how good a player is at scoring. Typically you want a ratio of at least 1.3 or higher, which means that if you find a striker and his xG is 10 he needs to be scoring 13 goals to be considered as a very good finisher of the ball. A player who has a ratio of less than 1 is not finishing his chances. I do not use xG to assess if a player is good at placing himself in good goal scoring positions although I do understand the merit of that. The issue with xG numbers in the game is that they cover penalty and non penalty goals. We want to isolate penalties to determine if a player is finishing well in open play. To do that we need to account for penalties Penalty Scored - xG value of 0.76 Penalty Taken Mbappe has an xG of 18.71 for 39 goals which gives him a ratio of 2.1 which indicate that he has fantastic skill, his shot on target is 51%. This alone might suggest one should sign him. However we need to dig a bit deeper. Now while Mbappe is good, Moussa Dembele is interesting, his ratio is 1.6 with a shot target ratio of 59% which suggests that he usually works the keeper. We should not stop there. Some players also take penalties. And penalties are good xG chances valued at 0.76. We want to know how good a player is at converting non penalty chances. So we need to do some calculations to get a better picture. Kylian Mbappe has an xG of 18.71 and has scored 39 goals. However 7 came from penalties. If each penalty produces an xG of 0.76. Then 7 penalties have to be discounted from his overall xG. This then gives us a value of 13.39 (18.71 - 5.32). And we need to knock 7 goals from the total giving us 32 goals. His non penalty xG is then 13.39 and he has scored 32 goals. Now if we were to take his annual wage of 21,467,000 , each goal has cost the club 670,843. There are other players who have good xG ratios and could come at a third of his value. That in essence is Moneyball. If I wanted a striker who had a good xG ratio but could also be a nuisance for defenders I would check their tackles ratio and the tackles per 90 number. Here a standout player would be Dominic Calvert Lewin who has 0.76 tackles per game with a ratio of 70% which means he wins 70% of his tackles plus he has a good xG ratio of 1.8. On top of that he wins 8.2 headers a game with a header won ratio of 67% .I would sign him in a heartbeat. Why? When I evaluate players I like to get a big picture view. I like to evaluate a players TOTAL contribution during a game. Naturally there are ways in which we can extract this information and then apply them to an excel spreadsheet and finally give scores to players. You could even use excel to create your own scattergroups if you so desired to look for specific kind of players. What I did in the last example was to evaluate the attacking and defensive contributions of my striker to make my assessment. In a future post I will write about metrics I use to assess my squads performance with my tactic and how I decide who to play and whom not to play.

If you could get a stats panel within the player profile page that allows us to ask for scattergroups or polygons I would love to give it a go

I am not a legal expert, but the usage of some players images can be seen as an infringement. Some clubs, media companies and players own the rights to use player images. These faces can’t be reproduced digitally or used as a image for profit or personal use. Whether the image right holders want to pursue infringements is up to them. Once again I could be wrong.

How do I play defensive? I might be playing a 4312 with a high defensive line and a higher line of engagement, max pressing, hard tackling with an offside trap. My team could be set to counter pressing and counter, with a high tempo.. Whether I play on balanced or attacking mentality I am still playing aggressively. This is attacking football in the context of FM. Now if I wanted to be more defensive these are the things I could change, some have big impacts others have smaller ones. —All mentality will do is reduce the main sliders a bit but overall my players will take less risk with the ball. If I go from attacking to balanced then I will expect my players to be more measured with how they play. It doesn’t mean I have gone defensive, they could end up keeping the ball better. —If I were to reduce the sliders like DL and LOE, then these are very big changes, so if I wanted to become more defensive without making big changes I would instead, drop counter pressing first. That instruction encourages my players to break shape to win the ball back quickly. It’s a minor change but incredibly useful for holding shape. —Another thing I could do is reduce tempo or width, both changes would help me retain possession. If I wanted major changes I would change defensive line first as this affects how the fullbacks or backline supports midfield transitions. If I drop it drastically I am literally telling my backline to let midfield worry for themselves. Naturally your role and duties matter. If I drop my defensive line, then how a fullback on support duty and a wingback on attack duty might react will be very different. Changes like LOE can be great if I wanted a compact block that was defensive. Perhaps, I want my backline to act like obstacles the AI needs to get around, then I might ask them to do a mid block with a high defensive line but I tell my entire team to press neutrally while staying on feet. Here I would be taking on a position where I am forcing sides to play around me. If I am not aggressive in the press or hard tackling we could stay compact and here mentality could be fun to use as a trigger. With such a compact block I could tell my team to play on positive mentality, this will encourage us to play the ball out with a bird more risk, o4 I could dial things down with defensive and they don’t always look up to launch attacks. Finally your formation plays a big factor in how offensive or defensive you are. Any system with 2DMs is going to be more defensive than a formation playing without DMs. There are many ways to play defensively and your choice of mentality is the last thing to worry about.

In the long run, you need funds to make a proper assault in the premiership. I would sell him

You are Barcelona, I would expect your side to be able to take on sides like Manchester United Your tactic could need small tactics, like keeping the ball for extended periods of time. Perhaps look at using IWBs to give 5 channel attacks and that extra man in midfield during build up plays. The other thing that you could is OI their key player during matches, but I still think that you can beat all kinds of sides with 433DM, you can do a slight adjustment to your block and drop the LOE by one notch. Its hard to give more advice without seeing your tactic