2 Footers VS 1 Footers - An FMM Experiment

2 Footers VS 1 Footers - An FMM Experiment. 

Hello all and welcome to this new article! Today, we will be looking at a interesting idea involving the new feature of footedness. A question that is sometimes asked by people is what is better, 2 footed players or 1 footed players? In this thread, we will look into the effect the 2 have in a team, and how they affect team results over the course of a season. Let's begin, shall we? 

 

Initial Idea:

 

The idea for this experiment is simple. I will holiday 2 seasons in separate saves looking at the same club, Everton, but both saves will be different. Save 1 will be the usual Everton squad, just simulating a season. This will see what effect the 1 Footers have, their stats and how they perform in all competitions. Save 2 however will have every single player in the Everton squad be able to use both feet efficiently, meaning we can see just what effect it has compared to normal results. 

 

What Are We Trying To Prove? 

 

With this idea, I am trying to find out just how effective being two footed is in the game compared to the normal 1 footedness, and what effect it has on the overall team performance in all competitions. This article will consist of two parts:

Part 1: Going over how Everton did in both saves, with one Footers and 2 Footers. 

Part 2: Going over the player statistics, going over stats, figures and what we have learnt. 

 

Save 1 - 1 Footed Players - Club Season

 

Experiment 1 saw us test the average Everton squad, just to get an idea of what the 2 Footers are competing against. So how did they do? 

League Table

 

 

Everton have a shocker of a year, finishing 8 points above the drop with a GD of -17. This poor season saw Koeman sacked before the new year, and young manager Chris Weale come in to steady the ship. 

Competitions

 

EFL Cup

 

A heavy defeat in the League Cup to the hands of The Saints. 

 

FA Cup

 

Another defeat to an average team leaves Everton trophyless this season. 

 

Save 2 - 2 Footed Players - Club Season

Experiment 2 was the more interesting one for me personally as it was the one with the most change, and let us see some scenarios in action. 

 

League Table

 

Everton secure a solid 9th place, massively improving on the poor 16th from before. Interestingly, they only conceded 6 less goals, meaning the defence may not have been comfortable with the footedness change. Despite this, 9th is 9th, and a decent finish at that. 

 

EFL Cup

 

Absolutely smashed by United, and knocked out at the same round as the 1 Footers. 

 

FA Cup

 

And the Two-Footed Toffees are defeated yet again by United, this time in the 6th Round of the FA Cup. Interesting as they progressed 2 more rounds than the Save 1 Everton. 

 

Part 1 Conclusion

I think from the information we have gathered, we can clearly see that the Two Footers had a better season than the normal Everton Squad. However, we did find some interesting information in this part of the experiment. Firstly, the TF (Two Footers) had a very leaky defence, and conceded just 6 less goals than the Save 1 Everton despite finishing 7 places above them. Also, the TF seemed to concede a lot more in the Cup Competitions, albeit it against United and other tough opposition. Is it possible that the TF’s confused each other and caused defensive fragilities? Or is it a one-off, and they would be fine in any other test? 

 

 

Part 2

Save 1 - 1 Footers - Player Stats

So, we flip back to the 1 Footers to take a look at how the individual Everton players performed in their shocker of a season. 

 

Goals

Lukaku leads the line as expected, picking up 20 goals in all competitions. Players like Barkley and Valencia back him up with 14 between them. 

 

Assists

 

The highest assist count is a measly 5 by Bolasie, Gueye and Lukaku. A positive is that several players got 4,3 and 2 assists, with many of them being both Left and Right footed player. This shows that the variety of different sided players worked well for Everton. 

 

Average Rating

 

Lukaku dragged the team through such a poor season, earning the top AVR for the season, but is closely followed by Gueye. 

 

Save 2 - 2 Footers - Player Stats

So, the main event. I think this is the most interesting part of the experiment, judging and analysing how effective having both feet was for all of the Everton 

 

Goals

 

This is interesting. You could argue Lukaku had a better chance of scoring in Save 2 because of the versatile players around him, bit in fact he scores less goals than his one footed counterpart. You could also argue however that Lukaku played 5 less games, but you would think that wouldn't matter. Substitute striker Tarashaj buried 8, whilst Schneiderlin grabbed 7. 

 

Assists

 

Another interesting set of stats as the two CM’s grab the most assists with 8 and 7. It would be interesting to see what role Koeman utilised these players in, which we will go over later. Still quite a range of assisters, with the two CB’s grabbing 6 assists between them as well. 

 

Average Rating

It seems Koeman made the most of the TF Midfielders in this save, with them grabbing the top 2 AVR’s, as well as contributing to 30 goals this season between them. They are closely followed by McCarthy, as well as defenders and Lukaku. 

 

 Part 2 Conclusion

Well, what we gather from this part of the article is interesting. Firstly, the TF Lukaku struggled to hit the same numbers as the OF Lukaku, which is surprising considering he had the option of both feet and his head, was personally expecting a 30 goal season. Next, the TF’s CM’s seemed to perform much better than the OF’s, this is likely because of their versatility in passing with both feet. One thing to ponder over is that both teams achieved similar AVR’s, meaning in theory all of the player played similarly. The TF’s CB’s also were a more creative force,  laying on 6 Assists compared to the OF’s 3. Overall, we can see that for creative purposes, TF’s are a lot better. It all depends on if you want a set blend of sided players in your squad, or if you look for those 2 Footers to carry you home. 

 

Overall Conclusion/ Points To Ponder

I'm hoping through this article you have learnt a lot. I certainly have. Firstly, we found that the TF’s concede A LOT of goals. I feel this may be due to defensive confusion between the players there, may be due to not being limited to one side they are invading the other defenders space. More testing would, of course, be required to confirm this. Next, we learned that Lukaku failed to score more goals than his his OF counterpart. This could be for a similar reason to the defensive fragility, or for the fact that he played less games than the original Lukaku. Either way, would need more in-depth testing. I think with both tests we can tell that that the TF’s are a lot more successful with creativity, and also scored 12 more league goals than the original Everton. This proves that having 2 feet is a lot better for creative purposes in certain scenarios. We also discover it is best to have one footed players in defence, as that way they are not confused or invading each other's space. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this article, thanks to @Ashez for his incredible help, and please leave some feedback is this is my first of this type of article. Cheers! 

 

 

[JustM1kePlays]

Really enjoyed reading that. Tbh I was expecting abit more from the two footed side. However as you mentioned I think if you was to carry this on you might see more of and improvement. 

Also one thing to not that no matter if they were one footed or both footed Everton have a decent defence not conceding alot.

Great job!

[mcandrew003]

2 minutes ago, JustM1kePlays said:

Really enjoyed reading that. Tbh I was expecting abit more from the two footed side. However as you mentioned I think if you was to carry this on you might see more of and improvement. 

Also one thing to not that no matter if they were one footed or both footed Everton have a decent defence not conceding alot.

Great job!

Thanks a lot M1ke! Me too, I thought we would see Lukaku grab at least 30, shocked to see how bad Everton did aswell. If enough people want it, i might have to give this another season....

Very true, was shocked to see they conceded so many in both games. Like I said, I think they were confused and invaded each other's space, which caused mistakes, but of course that is my opinion. Cheers mate!

[Brenty92]

I may once the national physio challenge is out the way, set up a team based on what's happened here, OF defence, TF midfielders and OF if I was playing 1 up top or TF 2 up top, I think either foot would help when it comes to not playing a lone striker, just a thought mind you lol

[mcandrew003]

42 minutes ago, Brenty92 said:

I may once the national physio challenge is out the way, set up a team based on what's happened here, OF defence, TF midfielders and OF if I was playing 1 up top or TF 2 up top, I think either foot would help when it comes to not playing a lone striker, just a thought mind you lol

Interesting mate, would be interesting to see how you get on. Thanks for the comment! 

[Pogba]

great read mate, next time i start a career will be sure to get at least 2 two footed players in my midfield. Loving your contents that you put out though @mcandrew003.

[mcandrew003]

9 minutes ago, Pogba said:

great read mate, next time i start a career will be sure to get at least 2 two footed players in my midfield. Loving your contents that you put out though @mcandrew003.

Cheers mate! Good to see this has helped you decide on your type of players. 

Thanks! I've got a few more big ones in the works 

[BatiGoal]

Interesting experiment. 

Before I read this I asked myself this question: TFs are probably better than OFs but by how much? Apparently not by that much at all. Good to know, but if I'm faced with the decision to pick between two good players and it eventually comes down to these minor criteria I'd still pick the TF. Makes sense but nothing more than that.

Very good read!

[Niall C]

Interesting test mate. Surprised Lukaku didn't score more with the options of both feet. Maybe he was injured which would explain fewer games.

Either way nice idea keep it up

[mcandrew003]

24 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Interesting experiment. 

Before I read this I asked myself this question: TFs are probably better than OFs but by how much? Apparently not by that much at all. Good to know, but if I'm faced with the decision to pick between two good players and it eventually comes down to these minor criteria I'd still pick the TF. Makes sense but nothing more than that.

Very good read!

Glad you think so 

Thats what I thought would happen aswell, but it seems that it was closer than expected. Can understand that, I think with more testing the truth would be uncovered, but who has time for that 

Cheers mate! 

added 0 minutes later

24 minutes ago, Niall C said:

Interesting test mate. Surprised Lukaku didn't score more with the options of both feet. Maybe he was injured which would explain fewer games.

Either way nice idea keep it up

Thanks mate, yeah Lukaku surprised me with not scoring as many, but the 5 less games hindered him I think. 

Thanks a lot mate 

[veerus]

Good idea but I'm sorry to say, because of your methodology, this isn't very useful without additional testing.  A single season on each save tells us nothing.  In fact, it probably tells us less than nothing (that is to say - it's leading you to make possibly wrong conclusions).  You're falling victim to simple variance in how the game generates results.  Your Everton's results improved marginally resulting in 11 more points from 12 extra goals scored (GD improved by 18) in a 38 game season. 

Based on your screenshots, here are three more examples of the variance I'm talking about between OF and TF tests which could lead you to make similar conclusions in situations where literally nothing changed:

• Watford also improved by 11 points thanks to 16 more goals (GD improved by 10)
• West Brom improved by 9 points despite scoring 2 fewer goals (GD improved by 17)
• Crystal Palace improved by 8 points despite scoring 18 FEWER goals (GD worsened by 2)

What I'm saying is you should run this test at least 10 times on each season in both saves and look at the averages to even begin drawing any meaningful conclusions.

[mcandrew003]

I

9 minutes ago, veerus said:

Good idea but I'm sorry to say, because of your methodology, this isn't very useful without additional testing.  A single season on each save tells us nothing.  In fact, it probably tells us less than nothing (that is to say - it's leading you to make possibly wrong conclusions).  You're falling victim to simple variance in how the game generates results.  Your Everton's results improved marginally resulting in 11 more points from 12 extra goals scored (GD improved by 18) in a 38 game season. 

Based on your screenshots, here are three more examples of the variance I'm talking about between OF and TF tests which could lead you to make similar conclusions in situations where literally nothing changed:

• Watford also improved by 11 points thanks to 16 more goals (GD improved by 10)
• West Brom improved by 9 points despite scoring 2 fewer goals (GD improved by 17)
• Crystal Palace improved by 8 points despite scoring 18 FEWER goals (GD worsened by 2)

What I'm saying is you should run this test at least 10 times on each season in both saves and look at the averages to even begin drawing any meaningful conclusions.

Well, I was thinking of running more tests as I've said above in certain comments, but haven't got the time ATM. You are very right though mate, there could be random results and this could well be a one off. If enough people want it I'll happily run some more tests. 

Thanks for your feedback mate, very helpful  Cheers! 

[Ashez]

Very interesting concept and something I've often thought about and this gives food for thought. Is it exact? Unfortunately not but it gives us some idea and this test does line up with what you'd expect in real life IMO. A more in depth test would give more of a picture of it's impact for sure but is this or any article worth 10-20 hours worth of work? I don't believe it is so I'm more than happy to work with what I'm given. Nice work mate, technical writing is one of the hardest to do which is shown by the lack of it on Vibe in the last few years and this was an enjoyable read, keep it up mate. 

 

[mcandrew003]

On 04/06/2017 at 19:23, Ashez said:

Very interesting concept and something I've often thought about and this gives food for thought. Is it exact? Unfortunately not but it gives us some idea and this test does line up with what you'd expect in real life IMO. A more in depth test would give more of a picture of it's impact for sure but is this or any article worth 10-20 hours worth of work? I don't believe it is so I'm more than happy to work with what I'm given. Nice work mate, technical writing is one of the hardest to do which is shown by the lack of it on Vibe in the last few years and this was an enjoyable read, keep it up mate. 

 

Thanks Ash, very good points there.