FM22: LES GONNES — SEASON ONE ANALYSIS
Season one has been completed and I must say I am really enjoying my time in France, a league which I will no doubt appear in again with the next edition of Football Manager.
As always PSG have dominated the league, they finished the season with a goal difference of +75. (How can I compete with that) Taking Qatar out of the equation the competition between ourselves, OGC Nice and Monaco was fierce, everything you would want in a title race.
Credit goes Christophe Galtier and his OGC team as they only succumbed to three defeats across the campaign (Troyes, Lens and Lyon) in which they outperformed their expected points by +19.
Angers were the side which performed worse than expected (-11 points) However, even when looking at the table using xPTS they still finished rock bottom.
Our performances deteriorated significantly over the month of March, a trend which had often occurred during my time in France with OGC Nice in FM21. I often associated this with the winter break and also the return of continental football increasing the demand of the playing squad.
One win in eight fixtures was enough for me to trial out my Mario Zagallo tactic with OL, given the fact we have an abundance of 10s (list) the false 4–3–3 felt like a great option.
Looking at our general performance in the league we can be proud that we have performed above all metrics highlighted in the general performance radar.
The 91% pass completion is one which I am proud of given the fact that my aim was to implement a possession based (vertical) game.
Looking at the ‘Team Attacking’ visualisation within the hub, it highlights just how good we were on the ball, drawing 15.45 fouls per game. We also averaged 15.16 shots per game and boasted a Shots on Target Ratio of 47.40 which was above the league average, the boys weren’t wasteful with their decision making in this department.
On the flipside, our ‘Team Defending’ visualisation has been heavily impacted by our dominance of the ball, we have performed less clearances, blocks and attempted less tackles than the average side, which is pretty self-explanatory.
Looking at our end of season tool, the good old squad analysis, individuals such as Damien Da Silva, Julian Pollersbeck, Karl Toko Ekambi and potentially Jerome Boateng (Highest earner £82k p/w) can look to be moved along. The squad have a total of seven players frequently featuring who are in their prime, three players who are experienced and and three players in their youth gaining above average minutes, offering a good blend.
Due to the potential departure of Boateng, I have opted on securing the signature of Oumar Solet. The 22-year-old defender returns to OL after departing for Austria at the end of 2019/20, Solet has a primary DNA score of 77 and total of 119.
Moussa continued his emphatic form in front of goal to secure the Ligue 1 Golden Boot. My love for analysis took me down another rabbit hole where I compared his performances to the top scorers in the other four of the big five leagues. (eyebrows will be raised when you look at the winners).
Dusan Vlahovic secured the European Golden boot with 27 goals in Serie A. However, looking purely at non-penalty goals our Frenchman finished joint top with Valencia’s Maxi Gomez.
Che Adams of Southampton boasted the best conversion rate, whilst Erling Haaland amassed the most shots with a whopping 155. Dembele really stood out when looking at his non-penalty expected goal per shot score of 0.14, this figure was significantly higher than the majority of the field with only Gomez scoring a value over 0.10. This credits both Dembele and the teams ability to present the forward with opportunities in good goal scoring positions, I’m not entirely certain but I think a clear cut chance has an xG of 0.15 which speaks volumes.
Moussa has been fundamental in OL’s successs in Ligue 1 this season, he has doubled our second highest goal contributor in Houssem Aouar, to say we are over reliant on the Frenchman is probably an understatement at present. Despite Faivre, Emerson and Aouar all having good seasons in relation to goals and assists, if you take Moussa out of the squad we don’t have anyone to lead the line at his level. Therefore, there is a necessity to secure the signing of an individual who is happy to play second or even third string (not to block the development of Barcola). In my opinion I am thinking of someone like Zlatan Ibrahimovic (1016 minutes played) and the impact he has had for Milan across their Scudetto winning season.
Aulas and his vison for the club to have an improved synergy to the OL DNA lead me to create the below visual/tracker which shows how the playing squad align to the DNA.
The primary attributes are those that are greatly linked to the mental attributes of the player (Anticipation, Composure, Flair, Leadership, Positioning and Vision) whilst the secondary are more technical (First Touch, Passing and Technique)
The below is an example of how player shortlists are created within the game, the custom view enables me to easily see at a glance how potential targets align with the OL DNA.
This example focusses on central midfielders, Tanguy Ndombele is set to leave OL at the end of the season and Habib Keita hasn’t shown his ability to fill the void when provided with chances in the team, therefore there is a need to strengthen this area of the squad.
Many of you will have noticed that Matias Vecino is available on a free transfer at the end of the first season. The Uruguayan is an attractive option to bolster any side and his primary DNA score of 80 made him too good to refuse.
Vecino, a player who has just finished his prime and entering the decent of his career is a mental beast and will absolutely add significant value both on and off the pitch. Diversity is the spice of life right!
It would have been exceptionally rude of myself to not sign my golden boy Ludovic Blas, my go to midfielder within Football Manager. The 24 year old signature was secured from Nantes for £6.25 million, Blas has a primary DNA score of 78 (ranked 5) and when combined with his secondary DNA (46) sees him score a total of 124 (5th place). His ability to operate as the advanced playmaker (433) or even shadow striker (False 433) makes him the perfect acquisition for such a small fee.
Given the fact that Emerson would be scheduled to leave Lyon at the end of his loan spell it was necessary to explore the market to establish if there is anyone available who is delivering outputs week in week out at a similar level to the Italian.
The below is an analysis of all left sided defenders who have accumulated over 2,000 minutes of league football across the 2021/22 season in the top five leagues (England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy) along with Portugal and the Netherlands.
Apologies in advance — medium isn’t the best for uploading images! However, you can see when slicing the data across two metrics. Clear cut chances per 90 (vertical) and Dribbles per 90 (Horizontal) adds real emphasis in relation the outputs which Emerson has created whilst wearing an OL shirt, he is an outlier and would be hard to replace.
Ben Chilwell and Thierry Correia are hitting dribbles per 90 (2.4)closest to Emerson (3.4), however both individuals are out of our price range. Whilst only Nuno Mendes and Maximilian Wittek are out performing the Italian in relation to chances created per 90.
Don’t get me wrong we still looked at a few of the potentials, Federico Dimarco of Inter (wanted £100k p/w contract), Owen Wijndal (£30m price-tag and wanted by Europe’s elite), Borna Sosa and Rico Henry were also considered although a move to a new league could be a potential problem and for that decision along with the data analysis helped to make us decide to submit an offer.
Emerson was delighted to agree terms with OL, the Italian joins from Chelsea after his exceptional season on loan, the initial fee is £17m with a further £17m to be paid across a three year period.
I am just going to leave this here…
