FM22: Viva el Betis — Role value & KPI’s
After reading my good friends (@fm_throwing) blog surrounding role values and squad management it would be rude of me to not incorporate his well branded model into my save with Betis.
Below is the main tactic which I have used to date, along with the values which I have attached to each player role (Key Players, Regular starters, Role Players). The roles which I am going to explore are the key roles, these are fundamental to the success of the tactic and require specific individuals to play in for the tactic to work with maximum efficiency.
Keeping this in mind, we will look to establish some KPI’s for these key roles, which will aid squad selection and also recruitment. In order to establish these baselines I will attempt to combine attributes, statistics through per 90 metrics and the Data Hub.
Key players
Left-sided Central Defender (Defend) — the main job of the Central Defender is to stop the opposing attackers from playing and to clear the ball from danger when required. With a defend duty the Central Defender will stay in line with his defensive partner and look to break up attacks, mark opposing forwards and prevent the ball from getting into the box.
As previously discussed this role demands a left-footed player as this will ensure that our team is well balanced. The individual must have good composure to help the team maintain possession as this role plays an important part in opening up the left-side of the pitch and access to the Advanced Playmaker.
Attribute comparison
The below comparison shows that there isn’t too much difference between the quartet, Pezzella is the best out and out Centre Back (Defend) at the club. The Argentinian is the tallest which is reflected in his 10.4 headers won per game.
Given the fact that Ruiz is the only left-footed centre back at my disposal he is the best option to play on the left-side of the defensive duo. When looking at the defensive statistics below you will also note that he has managed to rack up the most passes completed per 90 (75, joint with Pezzella) and completes the most amount of tackles per 90 (1.19). Suprisingly his interceptions per 90 is a long way off the figures achieved by both Bartra and Pezzella, I wonder how much this is effected by his lower anticipation attribute?
Using the data hub, you will see form the below that Ruiz is performing above average in relation defenders in La Liga when comparing passes attempted p/90 vs passes completed. He is showing his ability at retaining possession and helping the team to build from the back.
Establishing a KPI for the left-sided centre back I feel that 95% pass completion would be a very good KPI and 63 passes and above. There is a need for a volume passes despite not operating as a Ball Playing Defender to work with the double pivot to by-pass the press.
The player comparison with a focus on statistics clearly shows that Pezzella should partner Ruiz at the spine of the team as he is outperforming Bartra against every metric other than distance covered. Considering Bartra is on £105k per week compared to Pezzella’s £36.5k the Spaniard isn’t quite providing more bang for the buck!
Wing Back (Attack) — the wing back aims to overlap down the flank to provide wide support for attacks, run at his man and get crosses in from the byline.
The role holds a significant value to the tactic as it will provide much needed attacking width and ideally produce an overload down the right-flank, doubling up with the Winger forcing the oppositions defensive unit to stick (hold position and deal with the cross) or twist (engage in a defensive duel leaving space for the Shadow Striker to interrogate.
The individual will need to have strong dribbling attributes as the role offers an outlet in the transition through progressive carriers along with the need to have a good delivery due to the hard-coded cross more often.
Attribute comparison
Both players have a very similar profile with respect to their attribute radar and averages in respect to the both key and preferred attributes. Bellerin and Sabaly both also have the same traits Gets Forward Whenever Possible and Knocks Ball Past Opponent. However, when taking into consideration their outputs Bellerin leads the line in terms of dribbles per game and cross completion rate.
However, when taking into consideration their outputs Bellerin leads the line in terms of dribbles per game and cross completion rate.
He is performing above average in relation to both crosses attempted per 90 and his cross completion rate which are two fundamental metrics for this role. In terms of KPI’s I will note that I will be looking for players who can produce 10+ crosses per game and have a success rate of above 22%.
Using the above scatter graph individuals such as Fran Garcia, Jose Gaya and Javi Galan would fit the bill in terms of their current outputs.
When taking a look into the other key function of the attacking wing-back (dribbling), you will again note that Bellerin is a volume dribbler. Yes, I am fully aware that the tactic played by each manager will impact the outputs but for the purpose of this post I am going to state that my KPI is 5 dribbles per 90 minutes.
Bellerin has a tendency to lose possession, you can’t always have your cake and eat it and when adopting high risk/reward roles there is always going to be some negatives to off-set the positives.
With this benchmark in mind this would highlight individuals such as Yannick Carrasco, Sergio Dest and Javi Galan as individuals who are performing with similar levels of outputs as Bellerin.
*note to self; look at Galan
The Segundo Volante (Attack) is different from the Deep Lying Playmaker in that their role is primarily a defensive one, with an attack duty the Segudo Volante will get further forward and frequently look to arrive late in the opposition’s penalty area as well as attempting more shots on goal.
The reason why I switched the original tactic from having two DM’s to a DM and SV pairing was to provide a better linkage between the team, I felt the SV would be more effective at doing so due to Get Further Forward player instruction, therefore making the team work.
You can see in the above a good example of how the SV can operate (justifying my change), as Bellerin drives forward with the ball the winger makes a diagonal run to pin the left-backs position and stop him engaging in a defensive duel. The DLF also starts to advance up the pitch which causes the oppositions DM to track his run.
As play advances the opposition react with three players moving to cover the danger. By them doing this, it opens up space for my segundo volante to run into and exploit.
The Segundo Volante also has the ability to take the ball from deep and look to advance it, either via long passes or with dribbling runs forwards, as the attacking quartet stretched the defense and looked to find space.
Attribute comparison
Guido has been my main SV to-date, However, after breaking down the Key attributes average there really isn’t much difference between him and Victor.
This lead me into comparing the players outputs and again I have been foiled, Camarasa could potentially become my new SV, this would provide me the opportunity to move the more mobile Guido into the DM role.
The scatter-graph looking at tackling adds more fuel to the fire! Just look at Carvalho’s position. Given the fact that the Defensive Midfielders role is to protect the back-line from breaking attackers Carvalho certainly isn’t doing that through tackling.
In terms of KPI’s due to the role’s main focus being defensive, I think a tackle won ratio of over 68% is going to be my baseline. The secondary role of the SV in my system is to be the link in the middle of the park and for that reason passing completion is also key, I think most of you would agree with me that for a player who isn’t expected to play defence splitting passes 90% is the figure should be acceptable for a professional.
Advanced Playmaker (Attack) — the Advanced Playmaker will look to run at the defensive line from deeper positions, aiming to craft out crossing or through ball opportunities as he moves into the final third.
This position/role is one which I am going to conduct a little more experiments with prior to analysing in detail. To date I have the PI set to sit narrower in order to replicate the average position which Betis play in real life.
As the main responsibility of the playmaker is to create opportunities in the final third the plan is to collect progressive pass and key pass data over the next ten games before making judgement.
Shadow Striker (Attack) — The Shadow Striker operates as one of the team’s main goal-scoring threats. Usually coupled with another forward in support, the Shadow Striker aggressively pushes up into goal-scoring positions as the ball moves into the final third and looks to close down opposing defenders when out of possession.
In Nabil Fekir, Betis have the perfect Shadow Striker. The Frenchman has already proven his worth to the team with 10 goal contributions (five goals, five assists) to date.
He is second in La Liga charts for key passes and has completed 17 dribbles thanks to his trait Runs With Ball Through Centre.
In terms of KPI I am opting to go for xG per 90 for this role due as I feel the player in this role should be looking to take some of the goal-scoring burden away from his fellow Forward.
Fekir has a xG per 90 of 0.375 and I feel that the basline should be around the 0.35 value with a high importance on the ability to also have a high key pass output. (If he isn’t scoring, he will be supplying).
Apologies for the length of the boy, I guess I got a little carried away with writing up this one. Serious kudos again goes to @throwingcopperfm for inspiring me on this piece.
