This guide will explain the Data Analyst in Football Manager.
The Data Analyst was introduced to Football Manager in 2017 and the staff role has become more important in the later versions. Nowadays the Data Analyst is one of the key members of the scouting staff and he will be aiding the scouting team based on statistics. In this guide we will be explaining more about this role and what he has to offer.
The role of Data Analyst has changed in recent versions of Football Manager. The role has been split into two different roles:
Key Attributes
While the Data Analyst (DA from now on) is a member of the scouting team, he has his own set of attributes. These and their descriptions according to Football Manager are:
Judging Player Data
The ability of a DA to understand data concerning an individual player and interpret it in a manner useful to the manager.
Judging Team Data
The ability of a DA to understand data concerning a team and interpret it in a manner useful to the manager.
Presenting Data
The ability of a DA to present their data in an efficient and easily digestible manner to the manager and the players.
To sum up it is basically the higher the attributes, the better and more complete reports you will receive. However, the last attribute is described in a pretty weird way. This does not mean you will receive a scribble or a report written in Latin if your DA has a lower rating. It means that the analysis he will give you is incomplete.
The lower the rating, the less information a DA will give you when presenting an analysis and the more time he needs to complete a full analysis
Facilities are important!
As always, looking for staff members with 20,20,20 ratings on their key attributes is essential. But, in the case of the DA you should also have a look at the Data Analyst Facilities at your club (find these at Club > Facilities). The level of your facilities have a direct effect on a DA's report.
See it like this: if he is asked to make a report with a Commodore 64 and a flip-over, the report will not be that good. If he is able to create a report with the state-of-the-art technologies he will be able to analyse a lot more (useful) information.
Data Analyst's Tasks
In Football Manager it is possible to give a Data Analyst various tasks. You can ask him to make an analysis of an individual player who you want to sign but his main task will be analysing your opponents and your team's performances during the season. We discuss both.
Player Analysis
If you want to sign a player you will send over a scout to have a look. The scout will then make a report which you can find in the 'Reports' section of a player profile. To create a more in-depth report card, you can also ask a DA to make an analysis. He will then analyse the player's performances and will give you a nice set of statistics to have a look at. These statistics could help you decided whether to sign or not to sign a certain player and those stats could be very handy to find out stuff a scout will not report on.
For example; you are looking for a new attacking minded full-back who can deliver a good cross onto your tall striker. You have found a player you might be interested in and ask a scout to make a report. The scout makes a positive report and advises you to sign the player. However, the analysis the report the Data Analyst creates shows that the player has a 2% cross completion rate over the course of the season, that he makes a lot of mistakes passing a ball and that his tackle rate is very low.... Not so interesting anymore, right?
Team Analysis
While a Data Analyst could help you discover a more in-depth look in a scout report, his main tasks will be analysing your own team and your opponents. He will be doing so in a Pre-Match and Post-Match analysis.
We will be discussing both in this section.
Pre-Match Analysis
One of the assignments you can give a Data Analyst is an ongoing analysis of your next opponent. This is a different report than a scout report, which reveals the strengths and weaknesses. The analysis will be more statistical and will show you things like a positional heat map, a recent match analysis, an analysis of the goals they have scored or conceded and a formation analysis.
Post-Match Analysis
If you have instructed the Analysis team to create ongoing Pre-Match reports, they will automatically make a Post-Match Analysis after each game you play. This report is similar to the Pre-Match Analysis, but this time the analysis shows the performance of your own team instead of your opponent's.
The report you receive in your inbox has a lot of useful information and is shown in four different tabs which you can click through. We will discuss them all:
Match Summary
The standard tab you will see if the Match Summary. Here you see an overview of the match you have just completed and it also shows your formation including the player's match ratings, substitutions and basic match stats (possession and shots on target).