This is post four of a wider series. A series for FM22.
“No one can say that watching Honvéd was boring this season.”
7 May 2022
The final whistle blows at the Groupama Aréna and there is no time to take another kick-off. In the 95th minute, home side Ferencváros’ Moroccan centre-back Sammy Mmaee has just nodded in a goal directly from a Marko Marin corner to break Honvéd hearts. The eighth goal being scored (yes, really) of this end-to-end match was genuinely the last touch of the ball.
The penultimate league match of the season between first and second in the table ends 4-4, if you can believe it.
The winners of the league title would have to wait for their fate to be decided on the final day.
No one can say that my sides don’t have a flair for the dramatic at the business end of the season. Remember Rayo Vallecano’s promotion drama under Fernando Teixidó last year? My heart rate still hasn’t levelled out.
League champions!
Wait, what?
Yes. A lot has happened at Honvéd since we last met. Let’s get into it.
In the final 14 league matches of the season, Glenn Árnason’s Honvéd won 12 and drew two games! The second last game ending in a draw broke our hearts for less than a week though, as a 2-1 final day dispatching of already relegated Gyirmót meant that Honvéd lifted the Hungarian league title for the 15th time.
It was the first time in five years.
January arrival Raouf Benguit contributed 4 goals and 4 assists in 20 matches from central midfield in all competitions (we also reached the semi-final of the Magyar Kupa but got no further) and giant talismanic £88k striker Denis Laptev notched an impressive 13 goals in his first 15 games.
Martin Eppel bagged 29 goals. Nenad Lukić contributed 14 assists and 19 goals of his own from the wing.
A real triumph for the offensive side of our game, considering the frankly ridiculous quantity of goals we conceded as table-toppers.
How did this happen?
It’s a valid question.
First off, we stuck to the 4-4-2 (4-2-4) shape discussed in the previous post, Stick or Twist. This allowed us to focus in the areas where we really excelled, like accurate crossing and consequently having many headed chances at goal. Unfortunately we couldn’t plug the gap at the other end and despite scoring 20 more goals than anyone else in the division with 86, we conceded 53. This is the second highest goals against in the division. Four more than bottom of the table Gyirmót, if you can believe it.
No one can say the football was boring watching Honvéd this season, as this means our average league match had 4.2 goals in it. Incredible.
A review of FM22’s new Data Hub at the end of the season makes a few things clear. A few things that will need tweaked going into next year and beyond.
- 3.44 more interceptions than average, but 3.45 more fouls per game – Maybe ‘get stuck in’ is a step too far, when our press and defensive positioning is seemingly working well without it. I like the added violence though.
- 8.1% more successful at crossing than average, plus 6.3 more shots per game – The more we shoot, the more we score (duh). Our tall and powerful strikers are dominating matches in the air and we are feeding them with chances regularly.
- 42 less passes than the average team per game but also poor accuracy – The poor accuracy can perhaps be explained by our delivery method being more offensively adventurous than most sides are. Not every floated through ball keeps the attackers onside. Not every drilled one bends into the path of a striker who has successfully rolled his marker to get in behind – Passing improvements required. This is a must.
We mainly score from a combination of placed shots from through balls and headers from crosses and corners. Our towering strike force is key.
There is no hugely alarming trend to be identified as a defensive flaw, other than our poor passing accuracy potentially a factor, coupled with too many goals from opposition through balls. Improvements in defence are a must if we are to quite simply concede fewer goals. Matches are stressful enough without it feeling like they all end 4-3!
The Players
To accompany the spotlight shone on our most impactful attackers earlier, I always like to put together a quick manual plot to track individual players and their attacking and defending performances overall.
The new Data Hub is a massive step forward in terms of analysis, but I still like to combine various related metrics to come up with a singular ‘score’ for a player’s contribution at either end of the pitch.
- ‘Attacking Contribution’ is combined key passes, chances created, successful dribbles, assists, shots on target, goals, xG per 90, xG per shot and adjusted average rating.
- ‘Defensive Performance’ is combined interceptions, tackles, and headers won per 90 /2 and adjusted average rating.
Basically, the further right the dot is plotted, the better the player defended. The further up he is placed, the higher number of successful attacking actions he contributed.
A player in the top right would be a God at both ends of the pitch, while a player in the bottom left would be as much use as an inflatable dartboard, as the famous saying goes…
Krisztián Tamás – Very solid at both ends of the pitch. A quality left-back who will retain his place for season two.
Gergő Nagy – Ali Dia’s cousin.
I won’t dwell on the next analysis for too long, but I also like to put on my football economics hat and do some calculations that help me make a judgement call on whether a player’s wages are subjectively ‘worth it.’
For example, do our top earners spend the most minutes on the pitch? Do we have some fringe players who are overpaid when you consider their actual time spent playing? Does anyone stand out as a real bargain who is probably due a wage rise? I’ll post the image below, but if anyone wants further details on this analysis, please let me know on Twitter.
Bence Banó-Szabó and Patrik Hidi – Should probably move on if I don’t plan on playing them. A resource drain.
Dominik Nagy – At 27 but with only 521 minutes under his belt, are his wages too expensive for a fringe player who probably won’t develop too much more? Perhaps.
Bence Batik and Krisztián Tamás – What lovely bargains. Reliable and almost ever-present. They represent wonderful value for money.
End of 2021/2022 (season one) review
What’s next?
Moving into season two, the board would seemingly be happy with a top four finish. I can definitely live with that.
I’ll leave any proper detail about season three until the next blog post (it will generally be one post per season from here), but I can tell you that we have drawn Norwegian champions Molde in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.
I can also tell you that £170k-worth of players have left Honvéd in the summer break, while seven new faces have joined. All free agents who were out of contract.
Details to follow!
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag