Sports Games
Data analytics and simulation tools have become critical to football in the modern world, reinforcing the increasingly prominent intersection of technology and sport. Football Manager is one of these tools. It is not just a game with millions of sales worldwide but also a tool that professional football clubs use for scouting, recruitment, and tactical analysis.
Football Manager has come a long way since it began back in 1992 and is often thought of as the most complete managerial simulation available due to its large database and complex scouting network that often draws the attention of real-life managers/scouts. Let’s look at how far football clubs actually use Football Manager, what the data on Football Manager looks like, how it affects club strategies, and how the simulation in professional football evolves.
How Football Manager Has Evolved
Football Manager is a football management simulation video game developed by Sports Interactive (SI), in which the player manages a football club, making decisions on player transfers, tactics, and staff management. The game is legendary for its depth and realism, containing detailed data on over 300,000 players and 60,000 clubs worldwide. Its depth has made it not just a resource for casual gamers but also for professional football clubs hoping to spot and evaluate potential signings.
The series transitioned from Championship Manager to where it is now, but it has come a long way from what it used to be. When the game came to light in 1992, data and statistics were not commonplace in football the way they are today. clubs had not yet use Data analysis, and there were no sports analytics companies such as Opta and Prozone. In the early forms, the game was shallow, only using the top four English divisions, and foreign teams lacked real player names. Details were gleaned mainly from the Rothmans Football Yearbook and fanzine writers.
Football Manager pretty quickly realized that it needed a bigger database, more accurate statistical models, and more detailed simulations to replicate the real-world sport it was trying to imitate. At the same time, the role of data analysis has grown as football clubs, pundits, and data firms have turned to data to gain a better understanding of what happens on a football pitch. The result is a strange blending of reality and simulation, as the parallel evolution of Football Manager and professional football data output has become increasingly indistinguishable.
How Football Clubs Utilize Football Manager
Professional football clubs face numerous challenges in identifying and recruiting talent. The global nature of the sport requires clubs to monitor leagues and players worldwide, demanding substantial resources and an extensive scouting network. Football Manager solves this by offering a comprehensive database compiled by a network of over 1,300 researchers who monitor matches globally.
Data and Scouting Network
Scouting and discovering new talents are among the best assets of a football manager. A top club — say, Manchester City — will have around 40 scouts around the world. Still, a football manager can have a network in 51 countries and compile data on thousands of players. Within the broader evaluation of a player’s potential, the game’s database covers a variety of attributes, including technical skills, physical abilities, and mental traits.
Clubs use these data to discover hidden gems —players that have the ability to change the game. It’s something that managers such as Wayne Rooney have confirmed, saying that it is a great tool for scouting players, particularly players in South America, which is popular for its rich pool of new talent.
Partnerships and Data Sharing
Sports Interactive has established partnerships with actual football organizations and data analytics companies. One such instance is the deal with Prozone, which allowed clubs to use data from Football Manager via a Prozone Recruiter service. It is yet another example of the continued blending of the simulated data from Football Manager and the real-life analysis conducted by clubs.
Prozone Recruiter is intended to “complement the instincts of scouts and coaches by providing detailed performance data on more than 80,000 players globally,” says Prozone CEO Thomas Schmider. He added that the Sports Interactive database was “a tremendously accurate and important source,” which would only improve their recruitment service.
Hence, both the parties benefitted from the partnership. Prozone then gave Sports Interactive access to the Football Manager database in return for early access to reports on movement and fitness in players to make the game feel more authentic. This symbiosis shows the interaction and benefit between the real and virtual worlds of football.
Real-Life Examples
There have been a few prominent managers who have admitted to using Football Manager as a scouting tool. Former D.C. United manager Wayne Rooney has discussed the game and its role in helping him name new players for his squad. Even José Mourinho has recognized the importance of the Football Manager’s database.
Football analyst Matt Neil, a former Football Manager researcher, said, “When I watch players, I don’t ever judge them on their Football Manager ratings. If someone has got a passing attribute of 17, I don’t immediately think they’re going to be an unbelievable passer, because that might be after someone’s watched them for three games”. But he also admitted that developing the game did at least give him a good launching pad for his career.
Impact on Football Management
The impact of Football Manager does not stop there; it also influences how clubs approach data analysis and tactical planning. Its focus on stats and match detail corresponds with the increasing use of data analytics in professional football.
Developing Skills for Real-Life Careers
The skills acquired through Football Manager can serve as a launchpad for careers in football analytics. Matt Neil’s career trajectory illustrates this point. Starting as a researcher for Sports Interactive at the age of 15, Neil provided information on Truro City and later Plymouth Argyle. His work scouting the Plymouth squad brought him into contact with club staff, leading to a recommendation of a Non-League player to the manager, Carl Fletcher. Impressed with Neil’s statistical and video presentation, Fletcher offered him the position of Lead First Team Football Analyst, marking the beginning of Neil’s professional career in football analysis.
Data Analysis and Tactical Planning
The game’s rich match data also had an impact on clubs’ tactical planning. The impact of the game is clear today within real-world football management, where managers now look at reams of statistics to formulate tactics and analyze player performances. Simulating these scenarios and outcomes has now become an invaluable tool for clubs wanting to gain an edge.
Challenges and Limitations of Football Manager
While Football Manager can be very useful, it has its downsides. The game’s data is, for the most part, extensive but cannot be totally accurate at times. Scouts and managers have to exercise their discretion and carry out further scouting to verify the data.
Accuracy of Predictions
Predicting a player’s potential ability is one of the hardest parts of the game, just as it is for scouts in the real world. Football Manager has managed to spot players such as Lionel Messi before they became stars — and miss out on some, too. Remember Cherno Samba, who was popular in the game as likely one of the best strikers in the world but did not achieve such potential in real life?
Changing Data Analysis in Soccer
Though the Football Manager database has been somewhat eclipsed in depth and detail as the use of data analytics in football has grown, it remains a hugely impressive and expansive piece of work. Thanks to companies such as WyScout and the Twenty-First Club, clubs now have databases available to them, and, like Liverpool, some even have their own private databases.
Conclusion
Football Manager has evolved from a best-selling video game to an essential tool for football clubs. Its huge database and scouting network have changed how players are bought, allowing clubs to target and sign players more easily. It does not replace traditional scouting. Still, Football Manager has, without a doubt, revolutionized the way clubs think about data and identify players.
Before you go, check our beginner’s guide on how to play Football Manager. Also, learn about the role of RNGs and algorithms in video games. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.
Sources:
- www.analyisport.com/insights/do-football-clubs-use-football-manager/
- www.afootballreport.com/blog/how-real-world-football-teams-use-football-manager
- www.essaysthatworked.com/essay-library/91-when-i-watched-the-patriots-and-falcons
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