Development Squad – Update Two Is Live

Continuing our programme of fixes and additions, the imaginatively named “update two” is now live with the latest array of changes.

This reflects Mat’s (aka “matzi11a’s”) work over the last couple of weeks and is mainly focused on our immediate goal to build the Fantasy Premier League Bonus Points System (BPS) into our tables for the coming season.

Here’s a summary of what’s included in this latest bout of changes:

Sky Sports Bonus Stats revisited
While we introduced the Sky Sports tiered bonus points in Update One, some users raised the request of seeing how these points were distributed over the two tiers.

We’ve now tweaked the display of these stats in the Sky Sports tables to show just that. You can see exactly how many bonus points each player earned in both the tiers for Saves, Tackles, Passes and Shots.

Fantasy Assists Statistic
When the Fantasy Premier League went to Opta to request a new, broader, classification for an assist – to include fouled players at free-kicks and penalties and rebounds – we stuck by the classic Opta definition in our tables.

However, with the FPL “Fantasy Assist” still used in the game and differing quite markedly from the traditional Opta stat, we’ve decided to build a query to include this statistic.

Across our tables, you will now see Fantasy Assists appear alongside the regular Assist stat with a new Total Assist calculation stat combining the two.

Big Chances Modification
It came to our attention that Opta now classify a new type of event as a Big Chance or “gilt-edged opportunity”. This is an event which does not result in a shot by a player but perhaps a complete miss or an “air shot”. Nonetheless, the opportunity is still deemed a Big Chance and therefore needs to be in our data.

This led us to create a series of new data to cover missed chances with and without a shot on goal. However, you will see new statistics – Total Big Chances, Big Chances Scored and Big Chances Missed in our tables. These are new additions to the Goal Threat tables for players.

Big Chances Created Added
With the change to Big Chances, we had to reflect this in our Big Chances Created statistic. Once revised, we also added this new stat to our Distribution tables for players as a new metric.

Recoveries Fixed and Added for Goalkeepers
Examination of our Recoveries data revealed some inconsistencies and errors and, in addition, we had not recorded Recoveries for goalkeepers – a key stat in the FPL BPS.

We’ve now fixed our Recoveries statistic and added it to the Goalkeepers’ goalkeeping table.

Caught Offside Statistic
This statistic was never surfaced on any table and, although available in the custom table listing, was returning incorrect data.

We’ve now fixed this stat and continue to make it available for custom table makers.

This data, like many others built for this update, will be included in our BPS tables to come.

Take Ons Statistic
Previously we’ve only surfaced statistics for Dribbles – when a player attempts to travel in possession with the ball.

However, the Dribbles stat is not used when calculating the BPS. Instead, FPL use the Opta “Take Ons” statistic – when a player dribbles and attempts to beat an opponent.

We also learned that Opta had a new “Overrun” event which measured a failed dribble – when a player simply overruns the ball to lose possession rather than be tackled by an opponent. We’ve now built a query and surfaced this stat behind the scenes.

In a nutshell, we’ve now added Take Ons as a subset of Dribbles and have replaced Dribbles with Take Ons in the player Involvement tables. However, both Dribbles and Take Ons are available in the Player Comparisons and, of course, when building Custom tables.

Tackled Statistic
The BPS penalises a player a single point each time they are “tackled” in a match. However, this is not, as you might expect, based on tackles lost. Instead, it’s a combination of the failed Take Ons and the Opta Dispossessed statistic.

A vital metric in the BPS table, we’ve already surfaced this in our player Involvement tables. We’ve also added a new “Retention” section to the player comparison tool and displayed both the Tackled and Dispossessed statistics.

Player Comparison Tool names filter
For several seasons the drop-down list of player names when using the Comparison Tool has shown multiple names for some players.

We’ve now addressed this to remove duplicates and also introduced the ability for us to swap in a “known name” or a more familiar name for a player – this enables us to make players like Sanchez and Firmino easier to find. You’ll see us tidy this up over the next few days now that Opta have released a first squad list for 2017/18.

What’s Next?

We continue on our quest to create tables presenting the data for the Bonus Points System – involving both positive and negative factors. We are now just a few statistics short of being able to build the tables.

Mat will work on creating Net Tackles and the Winning Goal data next.

The latter is an interesting one and may lead us to begin work on a mid-term task – to store team results in order to begin work on a proposed new tool. Hopefully, we can bring you more on that in the next update.

We remain completely open to the work we’re carrying out and the tasks to come. You can follow our progress as we add and move tasks via our roadmap here.

We also continue to welcome any comments and requests. Once the BPS tables work is complete, we will have a full appraisal of the next set of tasks and goals.

A reminder that, if you want access to both this update and future additions to the members’ area, you can sign up for the new season now for our pre-season price of £12.50 (RRP £15.00).

Last season’s memberships expired on June 1, but you can now renew to get access to the members area.

Existing registered users can upgrade via this link. New users, who are yet to get a registered account, can sign up via this link.

If you’re new to the benefits of Fantasy Football Scout membership, you can get full details, along with a series of movies previewing the content, via this page.