The brand new Flat-Track Bully feature can help Fantasy Football Scout members conduct research in greater detail this season.
It allows us to apply an opposition filter to their tables and comparisons.
Of course, the addition of this feature will also enhance the research that we can undertake as members of the editorial team.
For that reason, we will be able to produce members articles that go into greater than ever before.
How do I use the Flat-Track Bully feature?
The default setting of this new feature is to have matches against all opposition ticked.
In order to customise this, you click on the drop-down box next to where it says the word “versus:”, which will bring up a list of Premier League teams in two categories.
The ‘top six’ are the clubs which occupied the upper echelons of the table in 2018/19, namely (in alphabetical order) Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Below that are the ‘others’, the teams that finished below the top six.
You have the ability to tick or untick each team and create any number of combinations.
What we believe will be the most popular filter applied by the Flat-Track Bully feature is a distinction between the top six and everyone else.
The easiest way to look at matches only against the top six, simply
In order to analyse which players do better against the weaker opposition, remove the top six clubs by clicking on ‘unselect all’ in their section of the drop-down box.
To apply your selection of opposition to the data you wish to view, simply hit the ‘FILTER’ button when done.
In order to leave the top six sides in and remove the weaker ones, simply reverse the process above and click ‘FILTER’.
How can this new feature help my research?
We have provided a few examples of how can be used by Fantasy managers in 2019/20.
Firstly, we have opened up a table on the distribution among defenders this season, to analyse their assist potential (see below).
As you can see, we currently have the table sorted by big chances created in all matches of 2018/19.
However, we are now removing games against the top six sides from the data.
Once that is complete, you can see that we have now a slightly different picture.
Trent Alexander–Arnold was joint-third on 11 big chances created in all matches, but once we looked at ones against only against the bottom 14, he rose to joint-second on 10.
Furthermore, Matt Doherty, who was previously seventh on nine big chances created in 2018/19, drops out of the top 10.
Among those who came into the conversation were Seamus Coleman and Patrick van Aanholt, who both created six big chances in matches against teams outside the top six.
Now, we are going to apply a different filter, this time asking the members area to show us data only from matches against the top six.
Once again, this has given us another varied set of numbers, as you can see below.
We can now see that Doherty and Leicester’s Ricardo Pereira are among the top three defenders when it comes to creativity against the bigger teams.
Also, we see that in matches against the other bigger clubs, Andrew Robertson created three big chances, while Alexander-Arnold fashioned just one.
As the data builds from each Gameweek in 2019/20, Members can use this feature to keep track of how players are developing based on the opposition.
These sorts of key pieces of information could prove invaluable when making transfer or benching decisions ahead of upcoming tough fixtures on the Season Ticker.
How do I combine the feature with the comparison tool?
The filter can also be applied to the comparison tool, which can also be very handy when making a decision about whether to keep or sell a player depending on upcoming fixtures.
As you can see from the picture, in this example we have run a comparison between Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser in 2018/19 matches against the top six with the same player’s outings against everyone else.
This shows us just how big an impact there is on his performances depending on the opposition.
We found that Fraser created an average of 1.8 chance per game against the top six in 2018/19, compared to 2.7 per game against everyone else.
Crucially, he fashioned just 0.5 big chance per game versus the top sides, compared to 0.8 big chances against everyone else.
We also ran a comparison on Wolves striker Raúl Jiménez, who was notorious for his exploits against the top sides last season.
The most pertinent piece of information from this comparison was Jiménez’s expected goals (xG) shot map. xG shot maps show higher quality chances as bigger circles and ones of a lower quality are smaller ones.
As you can see from the two xG shot heat-maps, Jiménez’s chances against the better sides in the league were of a higher quality.
The application of the Flat-Track Bully feature allows us to split off Jiménez’s shots from last season into two categories, the first (left) ones against the top six, and the second (right) ones against the bottom six.
Fraser and Jiménez were two players whose fortunes in 2018/19 were very much linked to the playing styles of their opponents, either for better or for worse.
Having the Flat-Track Bully feature for 2019/20 should help us identify these sorts of players sooner than usual.
If you’d like to sign up for a Fantasy Football Scout Membership, read the information below.
4 years, 11 months ago
This feature looks very handy. Will sign up later on.