New in FM22: Data Hub

No doubt you already know that FM21 featured the new xG (expected stats) stat and I think it's safe to say that most FM fans thoroughly enjoyed the new addition.

Well it seems like FM22 is going to be taking the analytical side of things a step further this year with a whole new “Data Hub” dashboard.

We can see from the screenshot, taken from the first FM22 preview video, that it's going to be a new home for all the stats like xG, xGA, shots, passes, tackles, blocks etc.

Ask your Data Analyst to create visualisations

One thing I think looks really cool is that you can ask your Data Analyst to create specific visualisations for you, using a handy search tool. It's unclear exactly how many options there are at the moment, but considering there's a search rather than simply a list of 5-10 different options you can imagine there's going to be quite a few available.

Momentum

One of the new stats we'll be able to see in the Data Hub is the "Momentum" view. It can sometimes be quite difficult to get an understanding of how small changes we make to our team or our tactics affect a match, especially if the score stays the same and there's no key highlights.

What the momentum view tries to do is give you a sense of who's on top of the game independent of the scoreline or more basic stats like shots. By looking at the momentum of the game you can quickly see if you're clawing your way back into a game, or letting it slip away, broken down across multiple periods.

Pass Maps

There's also improvements to pass maps, which look alot better than they did in FM21. You can now clearly see where players are distributing the ball and how frequently. Seeing 99% pass accuracy looks great, but if you're just knocking it between your centre backs, maybe that's not that you wanted, maybe you're playing three at the back and only wanted 1 or 2 of your defenders to progress the ball, while the other 2 lay it off.

This should be much clearer now. Just look at the screenshots to see how much better this is displayed than in FM21.

New Zone Maps

New Zone Maps break down how you're doing things in different areas, here it's showing you where on the pitch you tend to gain possession, presumably you can use this same view for other events such as losing possession.

What do you think of the Data Hub feature in FM22?

This is now also available as a Twitter Thread

Far too much pointless information, this is a GAME, meant to be enjoyed and fun, do i really want to spend an hour crawling through pointless data, its a GAME FFS.

It might not be useful for everyone, but I'm someone who loves to pore over the data and stats from every match 😛 Streamlining the data presentation and making it easier to read will help a lot of people.

Help do what exactly? i get it, stats and info are good and make it a bit and i mean a BIT realistic but too much is pointless, 95%+ people download tactics that are tried and tested, all you need is to pick a player that suits the role. SOME actually created and try to make a tactic, but realistically, 95%+ get fed up and download a tactic, WHY because people always want to WIN. This pathetic need to win win win that comes from GAMES like FM21 and FIFA21 is making real human beings deluded as to what it takes in reality.  unfortunately too many people play this GAME and then believe they are real time highly skilled and have the ability manage a real club. I listen and see comments about REALITY, current football in real life and there are so many people talking S*** thinking they know it all. If the game wants to make it real then add features that REALLY effect the running of a club for a manager. Players health, physically and mentally - having an off day as many HUMAN being actually do no matter how famous or what they are being paid.  niggles picked up at training, arguments and all the other REAL factors that effect a real manager. This cant be implemented i know but why try make a simple game into something you need a degree in university to be able to get through a season.  If Football Manager wants to make the game FUN FOR EVERYONE then improve features that EVERYONE would enjoy. Match engine and graphics, if every single improvement was in this alone and it was more realistic to watch your team EVERYONE would be delighted. 

Nobody's making you read that @JasonTurkClarke, nor the pointless seemingly random capitalisation, actually. I've gotten along just fine in my careers without needing to do much more than dabble into the statistical information available. It's a nice-to-have aspect, but far from fundamental 😕

I'm with @JasonTurkClarke on this one. Far too much statistical data for one player to handle. Look at what they are doing : bringing in to the game more and more jobs and then they want the player to actually use it when noone does those things by themselves IRL. So what's the point of sorting through countless stats screens when its hard for a player to through one season during one sitdown

I  dont read it, my point is if they put all the resources into Match engine and graphics it would be best for everyone, as far as pointing out my as you put it (capitalisation) LOL which you spelt wrong BTW , capitalization's are used to emphasize something and are NOT pointless :0 :0 :0  what is pointless is wasting money time and effort in improving an aspect of the game so a FEW will be happy and not improving the parts that would make EVERYONE happy. But thank you Staff member for your snarky reply, i would say appreciated but it kind of wasn't.

I agree with your sentiments regarding the game and the seemingly just superfluous nonsense added to new versions yearly by SI, and the fanfare that surrounds things that are not important compared to dealing with the many issues the game still has and needs to be addressed first.

However Mons was just pointing out you dont need to use the option if and when you get the game. So no need to get the hump and have a go at him 

My suggestion is take the feedback to SI and see how that pans out

Some huge overreacting to be expected from the crowd that simply download a tactic, an editor and a scout tool and aren't comfortable with complexity.

Should please the crowd who've been demanding more detail for quite some time.

If you use it, you use it.

If you don't, you don't.

Unclear why FM additions bring out so much prepubescent angst when they can be freely ignored.

I imagine it's from the people who expect a management SIM to look like FIFA - which isn't a management SIM and don't want anything added that isn't FIFAesque. 

Isn't there still a dumbed down version for the click and win crowd? Presumably this new feature isn't in it or its optional in the full fat FM.

SI have posted a blog article about this themselves now:
 

Data analysis has become an integral part of day-to-day life at football clubs around the world, fuelling the success of teams at all levels of the game. It has also become an accepted part of football culture, as commonly discussed in the media as Tactics and Transfers.

Some might argue we’ve played a small role in making data analysis a bigger part of the footballing landscape but, beginning with FM21, we wanted to go even further and revolutionise the depth of data and analysis available within Football Manager. We wanted to give you the power to harness the same detailed metrics and reporting methods that top teams use to find a winning edge over their rivals.

Last season, we introduced a raft of new features around performance analysis including the addition of xG and deeper pre- and post-match analysis. In FM22, we’re introducing a dedicated Data Hub alongside some brand new metrics and more interaction with your team of analysts. These improvements not only allow you to view reports and key metrics but also let you tailor analysis to your needs and shape the direction of your analysts’ work. The Data Hub is powered by your on-pitch performances and your team of analysts now have more tools at their disposal than ever before…

THE NEW HOME OF ALL YOUR DATA

You’ll immediately notice that the Data Hub takes its place as a new addition on the sidebar in FM22, cementing it as one of the core areas of the game. Our main goals when creating the Data Hub were to make it clearer and easier to see how your decision-making affects your chances of success on matchday, to diagnose problem areas and to judge which players are making the most effective contributions.

You’ll need to play a few league matches before the Data Hub is active, but you’ll be informed once it’s ready and there’s a brand new tutorial from your backroom staff to help you find everything easily.

 

 

This is the Overview screen where you can see a selection of key metrics – ideal for managers who just want a quick snapshot of how their team is stacking up against the rest of the league. One of the most useful sections on this screen is the Key Findings panel that picks out the most consistent trends from your recent matches.

The type of information that might be listed includes analysis of your team’s shots on goal, xG tables and opposition insights that can illustrate the ways your opponents are responding to your tactical setup. You can click into any of the individual key findings to pull up a data visualisation that shows exactly what your analysts have noticed.

Even if you don’t want to fully immerse yourself in the world of data analysis, it’s worth checking into the Overview screen as you make your way through the season as you may notice a pattern of Key Findings that keep cropping up which could be rectified before they begin costing you on the pitch.

Elsewhere on the Overview screen you’ll see polygon graphs relating to your team’s overall performance and how they stack up against the rest of the league in key attacking and defensive categories. Just like Key Findings, you can click into any of the visualisations to see them in more detail. Your reports and data visuals all live on the right-hand side of the screen, available whenever you need them at the click of a button.

GET MORE OUT OF YOUR ANALYSTS

If you’re the type of manager that constantly seeks marginal gains, then the Ask For function is made for you. The Ask For system provides a wealth of potential statistical and visual information that allows you to fully customise your own suite of data analysis to deliver the information most relevant to your team’s success.

 

 

Using the Ask For system, you can explore even more detailed reports from your analysts on a wide variety of data in just the same way that real-life managers study analysis to inform their pre-match planning, test their assumptions and strategise for success.

When you click the Ask For button a menu pops up giving you the power to search by key word for specific analysis including updated and re-designed data visualisations. You’ll also see suggested data visualisations such as shot maps and xG tables that you can click into immediately. Each of these visualisations can be expanded for more information and pinned to your Data Hub allowing you to create your very own unique analytical dashboard to power your decision making.

For example, if you wanted to see how your strikers were performing in aerial battles compared to the rest of the league you could simply search for ‘Aerial’ using the Ask For system to see all potential aerial data. You could then select the ‘Aerial – Forwards’ visualisation to see each of your forward players’ aerial data and compare how they stack up against their peers.

TEAM, PLAYER AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

 

 

Let’s move on to look at another section of the Data Hub - the Team analysis page. Clicking on the Team tab within the Data Hub brings up a customisable dashboard relating your overall team performance. Here you have the ability to view visualisations relevant to your team or your upcoming fixture and comparisons to the rest of the teams in your league across multiple categories. You can also organise and remove previously pinned visualisations via the “Edit” button. 

Using the same functionality as the Overview screen you can select each visualisation on the dashboard for a deeper dive into the data. In addition the dropdown Team tab menu lets you view Shot Accuracy and Analyst Reports for previous games. 

The Players tab also includes similar functionality to the Team page but focusing on data that shows how your individual players stack up against their peers in the league. Just like with the Team data, you can fully customise the dashboard to bring in the categories you care most about and take out the ones that you don’t.

Additionally, you can view data for each area of the pitch which is especially helpful to diagnose potential problem areas by position. For instance, you might see that your defenders are strong in the air but your full-backs’ crossing leaves a lot to be desired which will require a re-think of that 4-3-3 system with overlapping Wing-Backs you had lovingly created.

We’ve also brought several of the new elements we’ve highlighted such as Key Findings and team performance graphs to existing screens such as the next opposition report – which can be found on the Next Opponent tab - along with the last match analysis report which can be found on the Matches tab.

NEW VISUALISATIONS

While using the Data Hub, you’ll notice that there are some new and reworked visualisations of data in FM22. These have been designed to mirror the way that real analysts present complex data sets and help to bring to life more elements of the huge amount of data stored in Football Manager.

 

 

We’ll take a look at the Match Momentum graph first. This brand-new graph gives you a clear perception of the flow of a match so you can see where the momentum shifted over the course of 90 minutes. It measures both teams’ dominance of possession and the danger they posed as a result and is a great visual guide to show where certain in-match decisions were particularly effective.

For example, you may have just lost a game and did not have had much momentum in the first half, but the momentum graph shows that you dominated periods of the second half, meaning that you might want to incorporate the tactical tweaks and line-up changes you made in the second half into the start of your next match.

Over the course of the season, you might notice regular patterns on the momentum graph that you may want to address on the training ground or as part of your pre-match preparation – for instance if your side is consistently on the back foot in the last 15 minutes then you could choose to work on improving stamina amongst your squad.

 

 

Another new visualisation for FM22 is the Zone Map. As the name suggests, zone maps split areas of the pitch up into six zones – three in your own half and three in the opposition’s territory. Zone maps can be used to visualise a whole range of different data categories such as: where your team is gaining possession, where your players are attempting to play their passes and where your team are performing the majority of their defensive actions.

On the left-hand side of many of the visuals, your analysts will also provide you with a summary of the data presented including whether you were performing above or below average in that category.

 

 

Finally, we’ve reworked pass maps for FM22, introducing colour coding and clearer directional arrows to ensure that it’s easier and quicker to see your passing network and which are the most frequent passing combinations.

A NEW ERA

The introduction of the Data Hub marks a new era in the way you can work with data in Football Manager. The Data Hub not only allows you to access more information, faster but you’re more in control than ever before of what insight you receive from your analysts. You’re able to delve deeper than ever before and discover more detailed, data-driven reasons as to why your team are performing the way they are. Put simply, in a sport often decided by marginal gains, it’s now easier for you to see exactly what you need to do to extract the maximum performance from your squad.

Source: https://www.footballmanager.com/features/data-hub