For those that followed my AC Milan save in Football Manager 2020, you may have been wondering who I’ve chosen for Football Manager 2021. Keep reading to find out what I have decided.
Data Analysis within Football Manager 2021
Given new data available in FM21 compared to previous editions, I am keen to further integrate this into my writing and review of my save game. Those that read through my FM20 save with AC Milan will know that I took a deep dive into the data analytics around player recruitment, squad performance, but also within a tactic and across the league in general.
The new staff analysis roles, especially the Head of Performance Analysis, pretty much mirrored the approach I adopted with my writing and this year promises to be different only by the level of data available to me. We know that xG is in FM21 and of course I will be including that into my analysis of strikers/wide forwards when recruiting players and analysing my own players. It’s great that the conversion rate (the goals/shots as a percentage) is in there too as this is something that I had to calculate within Excel myself. I may also look to use this to try computing the difference between Expected Goals from Shots on Target and Goals conceded to assess goalkeepers. The below radar graphic is certainly appealing and a fantastic addition to the game, but as yet, doesn’t fully cover all the data that I would like to be available.
The shot map is also an encouraging edition to the game and I’m also keen to see whether these will be available just on a game by game basis or whether we will be able to map multiple games onto the same shot map to assess a team’s shot quality over a multitude of games.
I do have a mental list of different metrics that I’d like to be in the game, and it’s good that Sports Interactive have disclosed that there will be additional data included, such as clearances for defenders on their FMFC site. Yet there’s no mention of xA (Expected Assists), which is somewhat curious and disappointing at the same time. Hopefully, if it’s not included in this edition of the game, it will be in the future editions (during the live stream on Twitch, Miles did say that they were looking to fold in more metrics going forwards).
As such, I do expect to be producing my own data analysis from within the game to create a method of analysing player performance, team performance and tactical analysis once more. This has helped to improve my use of Excel and PowerPoint no end, so it’s been pleasing to develop my own skill level as well as becoming a FM content creator. So you can expect more graphics like the ones I created below:
The last graphic in particular is one that I’m keen adapt to utilise the xG in some way, perhaps to assess the xG differential between the two teams as a crude method of xP.
With all this in mind, I presumably have to be at a club that has a good history with regards to data analytics to ensure that the analytics facilities and staff are up to scratch. With AC Milan I did manage a fallen giant within the European game, and I’m not against that idea again, but I’m looking for metrics to play an even greater role in my save than it did in FM20.
With the beta, I’m tempted by a save with Brentford for fairly obvious reasons – their analytics team have unearthed a number of ‘low hanging fruit’ players via metric analysis and highly detailed scouting, offering the players a clear pathway and acknowledging that they will be willing to sell players if the offers for them are to the benefit of the club. Equally, I’m tempted by a quick save with AS Roma or Fiorentina as a number of their players were regular transfers I picked up in FM20, so it would be good to manage them ‘at source’, whilst learning about the new metric analysis and how to integrate that into my playing and writing style.
With regards to my ‘full save’, I’m going to dig around a bit more and see what smaller teams in non-English (or indeed most likely non-UK) have good data analytics, or at least enough cash in the bank to improve these facilities. Cash may of course be hard to come by for many clubs, with the impact that Covid-19 will have had upon the cash flows of most teams that aren’t in the very elite leagues. Therefore, I intend to be very selective and take my time upon making my decision. I don’t mind saying I’ve considered teams in Italy, Spain, Austria and France – time will only tell if I choose one of those nations to manage in.
I would not expect to be able to progress too far into a save game – being a teacher and my ability to play the game is very much dependent upon how heavy my workload is. Only teaching exam groups and having to manage balancing teaching pupils both in and out of school at the same time has doubled my workload, so I can’t expect to be progressing twenty to thirty years into the future. The SI guys on the first look stream did say that the game processes much faster now, and Miles has said something similar on Twitter, but I don’t expect that will make much difference to me.
That said, I would like to be able to have some good youth prospects come through my academy this year that I can actually develop and then use. In FM20, I only had one newgen player who was nearly good enough for the first team, not with AC Milan but with a Liverpool save I started after my AC Milan save ended. With around 10 years played in game across two saves, this was a big disappointment. However, ultimately he never displaced Alisson from the starting eleven. So a club with good youth facilities and at a level where it’s easy/easier to bring them through would be high on my list too. Therefore, I expect to spend some time researching around different leagues and seeing what I can find that fits with what I want to do.
Equally, I have a moral compass. So, for instance, I will never manage Lazio – their far right fans do not sit with my political view points and so I can rule out quite a number of clubs or fans who follow similar political standpoints.
In other words, yes – I’ll be blogging Football Manager 2021, but as of yet, I don’t know who I’ll be managing or when my blog will launch with a true save reveal. Keep your eyes out around December/January is my best guess – sorry it won’t be before then!
A FM Old Timer 