Hi,

As part of my Football Manager Tactics series, I recently wrote about a 4-3-1-2 tactic with Western United, during a short one season save in Australia’s A-League. The system was partly based on replicating the 2000 Italian era three striker attack using Puntas & Fantasistas. At the heart of this side was 38-year-old Alessandro Diamanti as the Trequartista, the player operating between the lines of the opposition’s defence and midfield in the AMC position. It was only after publishing that I received a DM from A FM Old Timer (Chris), who suggested that it would be good to take a deeper [statistical] dive into Diamanti and the Trequartista role. I agreed, and sent him over the save file.

With this objective, Chris has produced a short report below that evidences the Trequartista role’s behaviour and output within the Football Manager 2022 Match Engine. This allows us to answer several questions we had about the role. Questions such as: How did Diamanti’s metric stack up against his peers? Was Diamanti good value as the sole Designated Player at Western United? And: Does the outcome from Chris’ statistical analysis align with the preconceived thought processes I had when embarking on the original tactical post?

If any of that interests you, then please stick around for more below. Over to Chris.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

Passing - Chance Creation & Retention

Taking a deeper dive into Diamanti’s attacking metrics, you can see how creative he was for his team mates, with 5.05 key passes/90. This was the second best in the A-League, and makes it little wonder that he averaged an assist every other game (0.50 A/90). His pass completion of 82.39% was also impressive, given he operated at the cutting edge of the pitch, yielding more pressure and an increased likelihood of passes being cut out by blocks from defensive midfielders or opposition defenders. It would be rare for an attacking midfielder to average north of 90%, because they simply don’t have the time and space due to opposition players pressing and looking to make tackles or interceptions.

Yet if you look at his passes attempted per 90, you begin to see how trequartista’s differ from advanced playmakers in the attacking strata. Whilst he looks for space, play isn’t run through him. Instead, he's looking for space to exploit and unlock the opposition defence. As such, he received the ball far less frequently, and this is played out in his 49.68 passes per 90, well below average for a midfielder. 

Let's dive further into this - if he attempted 49.68 passes per 90, and 5.05 of these were key passes over the same measure, then 10.17% of the passes he attempted were key. Key passes are only passes completed, so he was even more prolific in his chance creation if that metric is used - a staggering 12.35%. This is a remarkable frequency of passes that led to a likely chance of a goal being created. Little wonder then that his creativity shows up in his assist numbers - 0.48, practically one every other game.

Yes, his turnover rate (possession lost) per ninety was pretty high at 9.79/90, but remember the type of passes he would be trying to make, trying cutting open defensive set-ups, unlike more defensive midfielders who have the option to lay the ball back to their defenders for a safe and easy pass. Even if he did have this option, it's not in the trequartista's make-up. Add to the fact that he is without the ability to run at opponents due to his lack of pace and acceleration to vary his attacks - they know he’s going to pass rather than take on the dribble, and they should be able to set themselves up accordingly. Digging into his dribbling, he only completed 13 dribbles (or 0.48/90) the entire season - if he could avoid running with it, he did.

Shot & Goal Creation

It’s not just that Diamanti was good at finding space and creating passes for his teammates, he also had a large number of shots for a midfielder - 2.35/90. These shots led to an xG of 0.23/90, which he did beat the xG, but only by 0.04/90 - though there are two penalty goals thrown in here, which would ideally be discounted.

By adding his actual goals to his assists on average over the course of the season, his goal contribution per ninety was 0.77 - an expected goal or an assist every 116 minutes. It's frustrating not to be able to compare this to his expected goal contribution due to the lack of expected assists in game, but one could imagine that with the frequency of key passes that Diamanti's expected assists could be even higher, meaning with better quality teammates, his actual goal contribution could have been higher still, despite playing on the twilight of his career.

Defensive Actions

Where things look a little less rosy on first inspection, if not that much of a surprise for a trequartista given their player instructions of press less, is Diamanti winning/losing possession stats. With his inability to quickly close opponents down to enact a press in an attempt to force a turnover due to his lack of a burst of speed, he yielded a net -6.27 gains in possession. Simply put, he turned over the ball to his opponents 6.27 more times than he won it back from them with a tackle or a block/interception. Equally, he only made 1.39 tackles and interceptions (combined) per 90 - the lowest of any player to play 1,000 or more minutes in the attacking central midfield berth - though there were only six players given the small number of teams and the fact that most teams opted not to field someone in this strata. That said, this figure of 1.39 is still 0.74 below the next ‘worst’ player.

However, this actually makes complete sense, at least in terms of why this number is likely to be below zero. He should be reserving his stamina for when the ball is given to him rather than going and looking for it in a hurry, instead relying on others around him to cease back possession. This is precisely because he lacks the necessary turn of speed over short distances that forces opponents into a mistake. Furthermore, in engaging in such a press, this would put him nearer to defenders such that he would find it harder to find the little pockets of space to make those defence splitting passes. It's speculation, but it's very probable that increased pressing, and as a result boosting his defensive actions, would very likely have resulted in a decrease in his attacking output.

It certainly would have reduced his ability to complete games, with Diamanti only being substituted on two occasions and missing the final A League game against Melbourne City entirely. Racking up 2,177 minutes out of a possible 2,340 across an entire league season is no mean feat for someone of his age. The mark of a class player doesn't always lie in their goal contributions, defensive actions or even saves percentages, it's in his availability. On this simple yet often overlooked metric, Diamanti had the stamina of someone ten years his junior, when players are said to be at the peak of their powers.

If this report interested you and you’d like a similar analysis of players, or even suggestions for recruitment based upon player metrics, DM me on A FM Old Timer on Twitter.