Do Certain Managers Have Certain Repetitive Influences?

Do Certain Managers Have Certain Repetitive Influences? 

Football Manager Mobile is the closest to the reality of being, well, a football manager, we Mobile users have to boot. The game and it's developers go to incredible lengths, immersing each and every consumer of the game into the deep, dark world of football management. Our own managerial experience is judged purely by ourselves, with the decision falling to us as to who to sign, what tactic to deploy and whether to fine our players for misconduct. However, do the AI managers have this same freedom, or are certain managers set to deploy certain tactics and sign a certain criteria of player? That's what we'll be looking at today as delve into the thought-provoking question; do certain managers have certain influences and tendencies in Football Manager Mobile 2018?

 

How will this experiment work? Well, I'll be picking three managers and simulating three seasons on three separate saves, where we will monitor each manager in two certain aspects. Those aspects are:

 

• Transfers
• Tactics
•  

We’ll look at these conditions in order to get a grasp on if these managers really do have an impact on these things. For more information on exactly what we're looking at, see below. 

 

Transfers: We’ll be intrigued to find out if the managers consistently sign the same type of players to fit their tactical master plans in the three saves, or if they bring in the exact same players all together. 

Tactics: Fairly self explanatory, do they explore several tactical options or just stick to a set shape, say the managers preferred formation. 

 

Now that we've had a deeper look at the experiment layout and criteria, we need to introduce the three test subjects for today's little experiment. I'll try to explain why these certain three managers have been selected for the test and we’ll go from there. 

 

Pep Guardiola: Pep was the first manager that came to my mind for this and was actually the inspiration for the experiment. He has a very set style of play that he likes to deploy in a match and his brand of football is recognisable in any team he manages. He is perceived as a very good man Manager and likes to bring in players cultured in a certain way of football, as we've seen with the arrivals of Bravo and Laporte at City. Pep will, of course, start the experiment at City. 

 

Massimiliano Allegri: The man who's done it all in Italy, Allegri is my second choice for the experiment. Like Guardiola, though maybe not as highly discussed as other managers, Allegri has a very strict and clear way of setting his team up and it will be interesting to see if that translates over the three saves. Allegri, like in real life, will be the Juventus manager. 

 

Zinedine Zidane: Our Final manager who will be the subject of experimentation, Zidane has had gargantuan success since the beginning of his reign, with his great tactics and management of a side full of egos and aging players seeing him be credited as a world class manager. Zidane, like the other two, will be starting the experiment at his current club, Real Madrid. 

 

Why These Managers? 

All three of the managers we've chosen to evaluate have specific traits that are the most noticeable amongst their managerial peers in their respective leagues. Alongside this factor, I didn't particularly want all three managers in the same league, as I was seeking a bit more variety in the results, so we opted for three differing leagues for our three coaches. Finally, we needed to pick people who are less likely to get their P45 midway through the season than others. Considering they are managers at top clubs, the hope is that they'll perform as expected and keep their jobs as to not ruin the experiment, and waste my time . Anyway. Now that we've thoroughly analysed the three managers at our experimental disposal, let's introduce the actual experiment rules. 

 

I'll be simulating three seasons, as we've already established. I'll take regular screenshots of the transfers dealings of the manager, and the tactics they choose to teach and deploy during the season. In the event that a manager is dismissed, I'll have to (rather annoyingly) restart the simulation. Ok, so before your attention dwindles any further, let's go into Experiment One. I kind of want to present the data a little differently. So instead of looking at the three seasons overall, I thought it'd be more interesting to look at each Manager individually to see specifically where their strengths resurface in sperate saves, and what influences they have. 

 

Experimental Data - Pep

 

Pep and his flamboyant City side are running away with the title this season, and with such a noticeable playing style it's a no brainer to have him take part here. We’ll first look at the tactics that Pep chose to deploy during the Premier League Campaign in a nifty little table. This will be marked out of the nine times we checked Guardiola’s tactics over the 3 different saves. 

 

4-2-3-1

9 Times

Interestingly, over 3 saves and 3 different points in each season, Pep stuck with the exact same shape week-in, week-out. You can see his constant use of the formation over the 9 checkpoints in the spoiler below, for proof. 

Spoiler

A pretty simple, solid base formation with simple, solid roles to accompany it. Nothing interesting or even ‘exotic’ about his choice of tactics. It's interesting that Pep went for a similar shape in all three experiments and didn't change once, is that a part of his tactical profile or a problem with the game? 

 

Transfers

Another subcategory, another table! Over the 3 seasons we’ll be looking at transfers Pep made, not by individual player, but by that players role or type. 

 

Goalkeeper
Solid Defender	1
Ball Playing Defender
Defensive Midfielder
Creative Midfielder
Attacking Midfielder	1
Attacking Winger	1
Creative Winger	1
Poacher Striker
Target Man Striker

So no real re-occurrences to Pep’s transfer business whatsoever in the three experiments. The only thing we can really pick out is the fact he tended to sign attacking talent regularly, which is perhaps something he is more equipped at as a manager, or maybe it's a weakness for his current team, yet I doubt City need attacking reinforcements in real life. 

Spoiler

 

 

What Can We Infer - Guardiola 

In the two aspects we looked at, Pep seemed to stick to a specific way of management. On the tactical side of matters, he put all his eggs in the 4-2-3-1 basket, whilst opting for a similar type of player, albeit it not much of a filter was on them. So, Pep looks like he is programmed to behave a certain way, and these experiments have gone a long way in showing that. 

 

Massimialiano Allegri

Next we move over to Italy and take a visit to Turin to monitor the proceedings at Juventus, and more importantly the acts of Manager Allegri. His swashbuckling side have taken the Serie A by storm this year and it'll be insightful to see if Allegri replicates any certain ways of management in this virtual footballing world. Well, in all three of them in this case. 

 

Tactics

Juventus are world renowned for their defensive shape and strong, solid backline and midfield, so would this be replicated over our three simulations, or does Allegri have another trick up his sleeve? 

 

4-2-3-1

9 Times

Huh? Wasn't that the exact same for Pep? You would be correct in assuming that and don't worry, I was rather baffled as well. Allegri went with the exact same shape and player roles as Pep Guardiola at Man City, which was a shock for me as I suspected the traditional Italian way of football would kick in here. This shows Allegri is also a stubborn one when it comes to tactics. You can see all 9 screenshots from the 3 different saves below:

Spoiler

 

Transfers

This is the department in which we are most likely to see the most variety in our managers actions, with the transfers seemingly changing each year, even if we see similar types of player, which is what we are really after. 

 

Goalkeeper
Solid Defender
Ball Playing Defender
Defensive Midfielder	2
Creative Midfielder	3
Attacking Midfielder
Attacking Winger	3
Creative Winger	1
Poacher Striker
Target Man Striker

Here’s an interesting set of data! It seems Allegri goes for certain players, with Attacking Wingers and Creative Midfielders his preferences when looking for recruitable talent. It's interesting to see he prefers these varieties of the position and maybe it's due to underlying instructions or an unseen way of play he likes to utilise, hence splashing big cash on certain specified targets. 

Spoiler

 

What Can We Infer - Allegri

We, rather suprisingly, saw Allegri use an identical tactical makeup as Guardiola, which shows he also likes to stick to similar shapes, but we also saw Allegri specialise in recruiting a certain calibrate and type of player. This maybe gives us a bit more to think about when considering the big question and title of this article. 

 

Zinedine Zidane

Our final manager and one who is struggling domestically this year, Zidane has, like out other two candidates, a fluent style of play that is recognised solely in his teams. Will he give us anything major to think about in the last part of this experiment?

 

Tactics

 

I'm almost hoping we see Zidane use a different shape, instructions or just anything that sets his tactic apart from the other two for this….

 

4-2-3-1

9 Times

What?!?! How crazy is this! Zidane, Guardiola and Allegri have all used the exact same instructions, shape and roles in three seperate saves and on 9 overall checkpoints! Maybe all three are stubborn tacticians, or maybe there is an underlying issue with the game. See below all 9 instances of Zidane using the same tactic. 

Spoiler

 

Transfers

 

At this point, the Transfers are the only way we are going to learn anything here. Does Zidane prefer a certain type of player, like Allegri before him? 

 

Goalkeeper	1
Solid Defender
Ball Playing Defender	1
Defensive Midfielder
Creative Midfielder
Attacking Midfielder
Attacking Winger	3
Creative Winger
Poacher Striker
Target Man Striker

Slight variations in business this time round, but it seems Zidane prefers a more attacking Winger than a creative one. With three seasons, 6 windows and an abundance of wealth at his fingertips, it's hard to see why he'd sign extremely similar players if he wasn't programmed that way, unless Madrid need attacking reinforcements. 

Spoiler

 

What Can We Infer - Zidane 

Similar to Allegri, Zidane prefers a more advanced, attacking Winger than any other variation of the role. The tactical side of things once again didn't prove fruitful, but maybe that's a whole other issue entirely. 

 

Overall Conclusion

So, what have we learned, if anything? Well it's fair to say that managers have some input on proceedings and, as the title asks, some repetitive influences on the tasks at the club. However it seems it's all very randomised, or perhaps buggy. The tactics thing was strange and I can't really explain that, and some transfers were just completely off the rest of the business, yet we did see the managers sign similar, and sometimes the same, players. So I'd say yes, certain managers do have certain influences, however small they may be. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this rather long winded article, hopefully it gave you some food for thought. I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter, and as always, thanks for reading! 

Edited March 15, 2018 by mcandrew003

[Fish18ish]

Well that was odd! Very insightful, just a shame the game didn't want to cooperate. Not sure about Zidane signing all those wingers though, I thought he'd been keen on narrower formations since becoming Real Madrid manager? On a side note there's no way Guardiola's preferred formation should be 4-2-3-1, he's probably the most avid fan of 4-3-3 in the world.

[samhardy]

Interesting stuff but the game not giving much to work with tbh. AI wise every fucker seems to start a game in the 4-2-3-1 formation it's like there's no other options. A bit repetitive really.

[mcandrew003]

1 hour ago, Fish18ish said:

Well that was odd! Very insightful, just a shame the game didn't want to cooperate. Not sure about Zidane signing all those wingers though, I thought he'd been keen on narrower formations since becoming Real Madrid manager? On a side note there's no way Guardiola's preferred formation should be 4-2-3-1, he's probably the most avid fan of 4-3-3 in the world.

Yeah it was very odd, wasn't it  Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The game seemed to be against the idea unfortunately, the formations were very annoying, as Guardiola and Allegri both have drastically different shapes. Maybe testing if the managers would make the same signings at other clubs would be more fruitful....

1 hour ago, samhardy said:

Interesting stuff but the game not giving much to work with tbh. AI wise every fucker seems to start a game in the 4-2-3-1 formation it's like there's no other options. A bit repetitive really.

Yeah the game is broken in terms of AI formation and replicating real life unfortunately. Glad you found it interesting though. 

[Ashez]

Very interesting mate! The tactical stuff is a massive disappointment but the transfer stuff was interesting. 

[mcandrew003]

8 hours ago, Ashez said:

Very interesting mate! The tactical stuff is a massive disappointment but the transfer stuff was interesting. 

Thanks! Yet was let down by that, but also I reckon we have learnt something; the game is broken 

[Titjes]

Nice writing mate  Weird and kind of stupid though about the "standard tactic" they all use  

[samhardy]

2 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Thanks! Yet was let down by that, but also I reckon we have learnt something; the game is broken 

We've known that for roughly 5 years

[PriZe]

interesting read mate!

Great to see that the ai is as dumb as i expected with the tactics The interesting thing is that if you look at the squads only Allegri made signings that make sense as juve lacks in that department. Clearly also no good AI behind that

[Ashez]

1 minute ago, PriZe said:

interesting read mate!

Great to see that the ai is as dumb as i expected with the tactics The interesting thing is that if you look at the squads only Allegri made signings that make sense as juve lacks in that department. Clearly also no good AI behind that

I wonder how different it would be if you put him/them at another club. Would they identify weaknesses or do they have certain players/types they always sign?

[PriZe]

1 minute ago, Ashez said:

I wonder how different it would be if you put him/them at another club. Would they identify weaknesses or do they have certain players/types they always sign?

Good question. Based on what this is showing i would say it's a safe bet that they won't judge squad and adjust their buying behaviour. @mcandrew003 some extra work for you  

[Seth Anacondas]

Test the mighty Fulham and possibly Poole Town for more variance. We play the 4-3-3 IRL.

[rafa]

Not sure about the current version of FMM, but in older versions the clubs had a club preferred formation attribute. Maybe that’s the problem here?

So it would’ve interesting to see when there’s a manager change if the formation changes. Or maybe during new season?

[rafa]

Alright, just holidayed for a while (but over a season).

Followed a couple of teams, the first change of tactics (from the few teams I followed) came from Arsenal after Wenger retired in the beginning of the second season. They shifted from a 5-2-1-2 to a 4-2-3-1.

Ancelotti took over Arsenal and kept the 4-2-3-1.

Mid second season Conte was sacked from Chelsea and Mancini took over. He also switched from the 5-2-1-2 to a 4-2-3-1.

 

So it appears that managers are quite inflexible when it comes to changing tactics, and real change only occurs when someone is sacked and a new manager takes over.

[mcandrew003]

6 hours ago, samhardy said:

We've known that for roughly 5 years

5 hours ago, PriZe said:

interesting read mate!

Great to see that the ai is as dumb as i expected with the tactics The interesting thing is that if you look at the squads only Allegri made signings that make sense as juve lacks in that department. Clearly also no good AI behind that

Thanks mate, glad you found it interesting! Yeah was a but suprised/annoyed/confused by the formation issue, baffled me really. 

5 hours ago, Ashez said:

I wonder how different it would be if you put him/them at another club. Would they identify weaknesses or do they have certain players/types they always sign?

 

5 hours ago, PriZe said:

Good question. Based on what this is showing i would say it's a safe bet that they won't judge squad and adjust their buying behaviour. @mcandrew003 some extra work for you  

Your wish is my command.... 

4 hours ago, Seth Anacondas said:

Test the mighty Fulham and possibly Poole Town for more variance. We play the 4-3-3 IRL.

Haven't seen many changes in formation, do Fulham constantly stick with that shape? 

4 hours ago, rafa said:

Alright, just holidayed for a while (but over a season).

Followed a couple of teams, the first change of tactics (from the few teams I followed) came from Arsenal after Wenger retired in the beginning of the second season. They shifted from a 5-2-1-2 to a 4-2-3-1.

Ancelotti took over Arsenal and kept the 4-2-3-1.

Mid second season Conte was sacked from Chelsea and Mancini took over. He also switched from the 5-2-1-2 to a 4-2-3-1.

 

So it appears that managers are quite inflexible when it comes to changing tactics, and real change only occurs when someone is sacked and a new manager takes over.

Wow, that's quite interesting then to see that's when the real changes occur. Thanks for sharing that mate 

[Dar J]

20 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Yeah it was very odd, wasn't it  Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The game seemed to be against the idea unfortunately, the formations were very annoying, as Guardiola and Allegri both have drastically different shapes. Maybe testing if the managers would make the same signings at other clubs would be more fruitful....

Yeah the game is broken in terms of AI formation and replicating real life unfortunately. Glad you found it interesting though. 

Just to clarify something, when you go to a clubs profile to see the tactic they play what you see is the formation ignore the roles because they are the very basic roles for that formation the AI managers don't necessarily use them. The managers change the roles before the match.

If you want to try it before going into every game your team plays go and have a look at the roles of the team you are playing against and compare it with the roles they actually play during the game.

And for those saying that the AI managers are broken, they are much better this year 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Dar J

[Seth Anacondas]

9 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Haven't seen many changes in formation, do Fulham constantly stick with that shape? 

More of a 4-3-2-1. Uncommon for the AI.

[hyperion21]

It's true most of team use 4231,,but they can use different formation when you meet them at match..

I met juventus and intermilan twice in champions league knocked out phase,,both of them have 4231 as their base formation,,when i met them in match, they use very attacking 433 formation with 3 striker up front..

It can be troublesome when you met team with that formation,,they attack us like no tomorrow lol

maybe it just me,but when you play in epl, many mid-table team use different and unique formation when you face them, like 343 352 and 442 classic..

So they not fixed in 4231 forever, sometimes they use different formation when you play against them

[Lillywhite Dean]

I think the AI is incapable of being dynamic in its tactics. I complained to SI that the AI seems to adopt the same tactics for every team and I was told that the personality of each AI manager is based on their real life counterpart. But I do doubt this.

Another AI manager issue for me is their inability to re-strengthen squads.