Understanding match stats

Don't you just hate it when you lose 0-1 despite having 70% of possession and creating 20 chances to 1? Those are the results that stick in the mind, but in reality there is probably nothing you could have done to change a result like that. However reviewing the match and player stats whilst the game is in progress are key to making those changes that can affect the result before the final whistle.


The match stats page contains the following statistics:

• Possession % - you should be aiming for 55-60% when playing attacking football
• Shots - you can't score if you don't shoot, but sometimes high shots are bad
• On target - 50%+ of all shots is good
• Off target - 50%+ of all shots is bad
• Blocked - due to good defending or poor decision making
• Long Range - the bane of most managers; you want to keep this figure low
• Clear Cut Chances - chances you 'should' have scored from - measure against your goals
• Corners - indicates the amount of pressure you are applying outside of your chances
• Free Kicks - how many times your players were fouled
• Throw Ins - ignore
• Fouls Committed - how many times your players foul - compare with Free Kicks
• Offsides - if it's high either the opposition push up or you have a culprit in your team
• Passes Completed % - below 75% is unacceptable unless you are a direct team
• Crosses Completed % - 25% is decent, 40% is outstanding
• Tackles Won - 75%+ is superb
• Headers Won - not as important as the individual player version
• Yellow Cards - self evident
• Red Cards - self evident
• Rating - again not as important as the individual player version

Goals win games but not all shots are good news. Many teams have high shot totals and managers get upset when the team with less shots wins. It's important to analyse two factors over time with your own team.

Firstly how accurate are your players at getting shots on target? Too low an accuracy rate may mean you are forcing or encouraging your players to take too many shots from very optimistic positions. Too high a setting for creative freedom, high attacking mentality and high tempo all contribute to taking too many shots. A more defensive, slower tempo, short passing game will result in less chances overall but chances of higher quality. The accuracy of your strikers is obviously a contributing factor too. Many managers (including myself) prefer fast strikers and then get upset when their 12 finishing 12 composure star striker can't find the bottom corners with any consistency or regularity.

If you find yourself creating loads of chances but not scoring many goals, try slowing things down, shorten up your passes and setting striker mentality lower.

Secondly, too many long shots flatter to deceive. It's wonderful if you have Wesley Sneijder in attacking midfield with 20 long shots, but most mortal players cannot regularly hit the back of the net from distance. If you set players' settings to frequent long shots, they will take more long shots than they are naturally inclined to do, a bit like Frank Lampard at the World Cup in 2006. If 50%+ of your overall shots are long shots you have got to reduce the amount of times you are asking your players to shoot from distance. However, if you are playing against a packed defence, without a world class playmaker to pick the lock your players will have to resort to shooting from distance. As a manager you need to decide when it's your settings that are causing this and when it's the style of the opposition.

The way I read Clear Cut Chances is, on another day the chance should have been a goal. The ratio of CCCs to Shots is a measure of the quality of your chances. The ratio of CCCs to Goals is how good your finishing is. It's kind of the opposite of mistakes leading to goals - because only defenders really commit these - this is the striker's version.

Passing completion percentage is also an important statistic. If you rate is 80%, there is a 50% chance you team will string 3 passes together (80%x80%x80%). If you pass completion rate is 70% there is a 34% chance your team will string 3 passes together. Defenders should be averaging 75% completion, midfielders anywhere from 75% to 85% and attackers 80%. Sometimes if you are very cautious with your play you can achieve high completion rates without ever creating a chance. Whilst technically defenders are not as good at passing as their colleagues in midfield, they shouldn't be under anywhere near the pressure your midfielders are under. Any defender who can't average 70% completion in passing is an accident waiting to happen in your team. Giving the ball away in your own half is a sin. You could also be contributing to a low completion rate by instructing your defenders to be too progressive with their passing. For example instructing low passing attritubes fullbacks to play through ball often is akin to just giving the ball to their goalkeeper. Goalkeepers themselves often have pass completion rates of 40%. If you are a passing team you should instruct your keeper to throw the ball out short.

Average rating can also sometimes be misleading. Ratings are massively boosted by assists and goals. Mistakes and penalties given away significantly reduce a player's rating. Your set piece taker's stats will look different to everybody else and you need to factor that into your calcluations too. Your job as manager is to see beyond the average rating of your players. My personal favourite stat is key passes. If your players are making key passes they are generating chances. Regardless of their rating if a player is making several key passes I would never take them off. Experienced managers will not look at average rating to judge a performance, they will look for the other signs mentioned above.