SciSports and Sports Interactive Bringing Next-Gen Analytics to FM21 Groups

[David76]

SciSports, the global thought leader in data intelligence for the pro football industry, has partnered with Sports Interactive to integrate Expected Goals into the upcoming release of Football Manager 2021. SciSports is well-known for supporting parties like the Dutch FA, Eredivisie, Leeds United, Ajax and Olympique Lyonnais with data-based scouting and performance analysis.

Data-driven player and team insights are increasingly part of the way football fans and professionals experience and analyse matches. This stimulated Sports Interactive to bring in more advanced metrics in order to improve the Football Manager gameplay. Popular metrics like Expected Goals will be featured heavily in the game which is absorbed by tens of thousands of football fans every day.

The team at SciSports feels honoured and proud to become an official partner of the game that inspired the company's foundation back in 2013 and looks forward to enriching one of the best games out there with football data intelligence.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive: "We're delighted to be working with SciSports. As a studio we strive to maintain realism and enhance the game experience for our players. Metrics such as Expected Goals are now commonplace in football and we look forward to collaborating with SciSports for Football Manager 2021 and beyond."

Giels Brouwer, Founder & Strategic Advisor of SciSports: "I have always been a passionate Football Manager gamer and it is a great source of inspiration for our entire team. When we founded SciSports, we always said that our ultimate goal was to build Football Manager with real match data for pro football clubs. This partnership shows that the vision and philosophy of our companies are extremely synergetic and I am delighted to bring both our products to the next level with this partnership.

 

[David76]

What is xG?​

A relatively recent incarnation, xG stands for "expected goals", and gives a snapshot of one team's performance in a game.

xG is made up from a number of factors but its basic job is to show how many goals a player or team should have scored on average given their shooting angle, distance to goal, assist type, and other factors.



Different stat houses mix their xG recipe differently, and SI has partnered with SciSports to bring a tailor-made xG system to Football Manager 2021.

Thanks to data from the match engine, the FM21 xG recipe can include opponent positional data as well as the speed of the shot.

Optimise your tactics

Every armchair manager in FM games tries to create the ever-elusive "unbeatable tactic".

Well now that xG is included, you will be able to see more clearly how your team is creating chances and the quality of the attacking moves your tactic creates.

That means you can start to tweak your tactical instructions to work the ball into high xG areas, and deny your opponent the same space.



You can view in detail xG in both the half-time review and full-time summary where you'll be able to see the xG match story and how each team's xG has fluctuated over the course of the game.

You can also view xG shot maps for both teams that show each shot's xG rating. Post-match, xG will be included in the analysis you receive from your data team.