Division 4 Season 14 Stats and Facts review.

Run away leaders are not top of the stats.

You could argue that Zagreb were a cut above the rest and a mighty +3 PVA put them in 2nd spot behind River Plate

Atalanta a great performance in 12th place gave them +5 VA

Augsburg came last in the PVA, missing out on the play offs when they should have got there.  ( perhaps no fault of the highly talented manager LOL ) .  Villareal had the lowest VA on -7 VA . 3 of the lowest 5 ranked were relegated.

GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT Pre Fin VA PVA
River Plate 88.0 87.8 87.5 88.5 85.0 87.4 218.49 12 2 10 5.50
Dinamo Zagreb 89.0 88.5 89.3 89.5 86.0 88.5 221.38 3 1 2 3.00
Beşiktaş JK 88.0 88.5 88.3 89.0 86.0 88.0 220.13 6 4 2 0.75
Rubin Kazan 89.0 88.5 88.0 88.0 86.0 87.9 219.40 9 6 3 0.67
Atalanta BC 85.0 87.3 88.0 87.5 86.0 86.8 217.60 17 12 5 0.50
PSV 88.0 87.8 87.5 87.5 85.0 87.2 217.84 14 11 3 0.36
Fenerbahçe SK 87.0 87.3 87.8 88.0 83.0 86.6 217.60 16 13 3 0.31
ACF Fiorentina 88.0 88.0 88.0 88.0 86.0 87.6 218.88 10 9 1 0.22
Lokomotiv Moskva 88.0 87.0 87.3 87.5 86.0 87.2 217.16 18 16 2 0.19
Leicester City 87.0 87.0 87.0 87.0 86.0 86.8 216.51 19 19 0 0.05
Málaga CF 87.0 86.3 87.3 87.0 85.0 86.5 215.99 20 20 0 0.05
Dynamo Moskva 88.0 89.3 88.8 88.5 87.0 88.3 220.93 4 5 -1 0.00
Montpellier HSC 88.0 87.0 88.3 87.5 84.0 87.0 217.72 15 18 -3 -0.11
West Bromwich Albion 90.0 89.0 88.5 89.0 82.0 87.7 220.49 5 7 -2 -0.14
Olympique Marseille 87.0 87.3 88.5 88.0 86.0 87.4 218.56 11 14 -3 -0.14
Internazionale 89.0 87.0 88.3 88.3 85.0 87.5 218.44 13 17 -4 -0.18
Swansea City 89.0 87.8 88.8 89.0 86.0 88.1 220.05 7 10 -3 -0.20
Flamengo 89.0 89.3 89.0 90.5 86.0 88.8 222.43 1 3 -2 -0.33
Villarreal CF 88.0 88.0 88.3 89.0 87.0 88.1 219.85 8 15 -7 -0.40
FC AUGSBURG 88.0 88.5 88.8 90.5 86.0 88.4 221.51 2 8 -6 -0.63

Division 3 Season 14 Stats and Facts review.

+13 VA lucky for some especially Dynamo Kiev

A fantastic performance by the Ukranian side saw them advance from mid table prediction to the heights of D3.  Highest VA and PVA +12 /+13 respectively.

Stoke in 2nd were the 2nd in the stats as well as form was thrown away at the top end of the table.  Great performances from Dnipro on +8 VA in 9th and Sporting in 8th,

Worst  performing teams was Werder Bremen who still made the playoffs just but –0.71 VA and Man Utd who were well off pace.  Lille had the lowest VA –12 and were relegated to boot. Never the less 3 out of 4 teams predicted to be relegated were.

GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT Pre Fin VA PVA
Dynamo Kyiv 89.0 86.8 88.0 89.0 85.0 87.6 218.53 13 1 12 13.00
Stoke City 87.0 87.8 89.0 88.5 84.0 87.3 219.45 8 2 6 3.50
Sporting CP 88.0 88.0 87.3 88.0 85.0 87.3 218.16 16 8 8 1.13
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 88.0 87.8 87.5 88.0 85.0 87.3 218.16 17 9 8 1.00
Borussia Mönchengladbach 89.0 88.0 89.5 89.0 86.0 88.3 220.85 6 4 2 0.75
Galatasaray SK 88.0 87.5 87.8 88.0 86.0 87.5 218.28 15 11 4 0.45
Santos FC 88.0 89.0 88.8 91.0 87.0 88.8 222.35 3 3 0 0.33
1. FC Köln 88.0 87.3 89.0 87.5 85.0 87.4 218.64 12 10 2 0.30
Shakhtar Donetsk 86.0 86.3 87.5 87.5 85.0 86.5 216.40 19 17 2 0.18
Celtic 87.0 87.0 88.3 88.5 85.0 87.2 218.37 14 13 1 0.15
Celta Vigo 85.0 88.0 87.0 87.5 85.0 86.5 217.28 18 18 0 0.06
VfL Wolfsburg 88.0 85.0 87.8 88.0 84.0 86.6 216.04 20 20 0 0.05
Udinese Calcio 88.0 88.5 89.3 89.0 87.0 88.4 221.05 5 6 -1 0.00
Zenit Saint Petersburg 89.0 87.0 88.0 89.0 85.0 87.6 218.73 11 15 -4 -0.20
Chievo Verona 87.0 87.5 88.3 88.5 87.0 87.7 219.01 9 14 -5 -0.29
Club Brugge KV 88.0 87.3 88.5 88.5 85.0 87.5 218.89 10 16 -6 -0.31
Aston Villa 91.0 89.0 89.5 90.0 85.0 88.9 222.42 2 5 -3 -0.40
Lille OSC 88.0 87.8 88.8 89.5 86.0 88.0 220.26 7 19 -12 -0.58
Manchester United 88.0 88.8 90.0 89.0 82.0 87.6 221.25 4 12 -8 -0.58
Werder Bremen 88.0 89.5 90.3 92.0 86.0 89.2 224.48 1 7 -6 -0.71

Division 2 Season 14 Stats and Facts review.

Will play offs play fair with the stats leaders?

Newcastle are the run away stats leaders in D2 top VA +9 and PVA 2.50. PSG this seasons winners come second in the stats with Leverkeusen in 3rd.

Notable high VA Levante +9 and Sevilla +6.

Liverpool were the most disappointing team this season –10 VA and  -0.69 PVA with fellow team Everton not far behind.

3 out of 4 relegation predictions came true.

GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT Pre Fin VA PVA
Newcastle United 88.0 88.3 88.5 89.0 86.0 88.0 220.13 13 4 9 2.50
Paris Saint-Germain 94.0 90.3 91.0 90.5 86.0 90.4 225.43 2 1 1 2.00
Bayer Leverkusen 91.0 89.8 90.0 89.5 85.0 89.1 223.10 4 2 2 1.50
AC Milan 92.0 89.0 89.3 89.0 85.0 88.9 221.69 9 5 4 1.00
Levante UD 88.0 87.8 87.3 88.0 85.0 87.2 217.96 20 11 9 0.91
Sevilla 89.0 88.3 89.0 88.0 83.0 87.5 219.64 16 10 6 0.70
Standard Liège 88.0 89.0 89.5 89.0 87.0 88.5 221.65 10 8 2 0.38
FC Schalke 04 90.0 88.5 89.0 88.5 87.0 88.6 220.77 11 9 2 0.33
Southampton 88.0 89.8 89.5 89.5 87.0 88.8 222.58 6 6 0 0.17
Sassuolo 90.0 90.0 89.0 89.0 85.0 88.6 222.05 7 7 0 0.14
SSC Napoli 87.0 87.8 87.8 89.0 85.0 87.3 218.89 19 18 1 0.11
SS Lazio 88.0 87.5 89.3 88.5 86.0 87.9 219.81 15 15 0 0.07
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 88.0 87.8 88.8 88.5 86.0 87.8 219.61 17 17 0 0.06
FC Basel 87.0 88.5 88.0 88.0 85.0 87.3 219.04 18 20 -2 -0.05
Hamburger SV 90.0 87.3 89.3 89.5 83.0 87.8 220.14 12 16 -4 -0.19
CSKA Moskva 90.0 88.3 89.5 87.0 86.0 88.2 219.87 14 19 -5 -0.21
RSC Anderlecht 91.0 90.5 92.5 93.0 86.0 90.6 228.09 1 3 -2 -0.33
AS Monaco 88.0 89.0 89.3 90.0 86.0 88.5 221.98 8 14 -6 -0.36
Everton 88.0 89.0 90.3 90.0 85.0 88.5 222.66 5 12 -7 -0.50
Liverpool 90.0 89.8 89.8 91.0 85.0 89.1 223.75 3 13 -10 -0.69

Division 1 Season 14 Stats and Facts review.

Genoa good team in Division 1 I do.

The old guard was nearly undone this season by 2 solid rivals of Genoa and Espanyol.

In the end 6 points was the difference but in terms of manager performance Genoa and Espanyol head the charts , they are just above victors Chelsea and the value added winners of Man City and Valencia

Most disappointing team this season was clearly Juventus lowest VA and PVA with relegated Benfica failing to perform. Hella and Atletico Madrid also had poor seasons and are low  in the stats table. 3 of the lowest 5 stats teams were relegated.

GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT Pre Fin VA PVA
Genoa CFC 91.0 91.8 90.0 94.0 87.0 90.8 227.86 8 3 5 2.00
RCD Espanyol 92.0 90.5 91.8 91.0 87.0 90.5 226.43 10 4 6 1.75
Chelsea 95.0 93.5 94.5 96.0 85.0 92.8 234.40 1 1 0 1.00
Valencia CF 89.0 89.0 90.5 93.0 83.0 88.9 224.69 16 9 7 0.89
Manchester City 89.0 89.5 89.5 89.5 86.0 88.7 222.38 20 14 6 0.50
Barcelona 92.0 93.8 93.8 97.0 85.0 92.3 234.29 2 2 0 0.50
SC Internacional 89.0 89.8 91.3 91.0 86.0 89.4 224.95 15 13 2 0.23
Bayern München 95.0 91.3 93.3 91.5 89.0 92.0 229.16 5 5 0 0.20
Real Madrid 91.0 91.5 92.5 91.5 88.0 90.9 228.16 7 7 0 0.14
AS Roma 89.0 90.0 91.0 91.5 81.0 88.5 224.68 17 16 1 0.13
Tottenham Hotspur 90.0 89.5 89.8 90.5 87.0 89.4 223.47 19 18 1 0.11
Hertha BSC 88.0 90.0 91.0 91.5 87.0 89.5 225.28 12 12 0 0.08
Ajax 89.0 89.5 90.8 90.0 87.0 89.3 223.82 18 20 -2 -0.05
Borussia Dortmund 90.0 90.8 90.8 93.0 88.0 90.5 227.01 9 11 -2 -0.09
FC Porto 93.0 91.5 92.3 93.0 87.0 91.4 229.05 6 8 -2 -0.13
Arsenal 92.0 92.0 91.0 94.5 87.0 91.3 229.31 4 6 -2 -0.17
Hellas Verona 89.0 90.0 91.3 91.0 86.0 89.5 225.15 13 17 -4 -0.18
Atlético Madrid 91.0 91.0 91.5 90.5 86.0 90.0 226.07 11 15 -4 -0.20
SL Benfica 93.0 90.8 90.8 89.5 88.0 90.4 225.10 14 19 -5 -0.21
Juventus 95.0 92.5 93.0 93.5 85.0 91.8 230.78 3 10 -7 -0.60

Manager of the Season Votes

Please take a minute to vote here for your manager of the season in each division, and then your overall Top 100 manager.

Where I have put 'best PVA' (basically means most improved and/or overachieving team), it's my personal guess based on Malcolm's Stats at the start of the season. Malcolm may say different when he publishes his end of season reviews.

Division Five

[poll.fm/10773600](https://poll.fm/10773600)

Division Four

[poll.fm/10774500](https://poll.fm/10774500)

Division Three

[poll.fm/10774581](https://poll.fm/10774581)

Division Two

[poll.fm/10774586](https://poll.fm/10774586)

Division One

[poll.fm/10775754](https://poll.fm/10775754)

Top 100 Manager of the Season

[poll.fm/10775757](https://poll.fm/10775757)

Sack Race Results

Following on from this explainer, here are the results of the twelve Top 100 panel members' votes on who gets re-appointed, and who stays sacked (although they can still apply for their old job, along with anyone else).

Division One

Apply here if you want the Ajax job.

Division Two

Division Three

Division Four

No decisions to make.

Division Five

As the vote is evenly split, we felt it is fair to open the job up for applications, as we did with Anderlecht last season when the same thing happened.

Apply here if you want the Sao Paulo job.

Youth Cup and Shield Winners and Prizes S14

Youth Cup Winners

Juventus beat Atletico Madrid over two legs (0-2 and 0-0) to become the first team to win a hattrick of Youth Cups. (4-0 wasn't the score, it just means they won all four of their knockout stage matches).

All the results can be found over at the Challonge tournament website.

Youth Shield Winners

Benfica beat D5 Olympiacos 5-2 over two legs (2-2 and 0-3) to become the first club to win the Shield twice, with manager ruts66 .. notching a record third triumph in the competition (once each with Bayern, Stoke and now Benfica).

All the results can be found over at the Challonge tournament website.

New Free Agent Prize Draw

All non-final winning managers who made it through all the group stage and knockout games without forfeiting any matches (for fielding overage players or failing to organise a fixture) are entered into a draw to select one manager as the winner of a 'wild card' prize to choose a new free agent during the month of April 2021 (see rules blow).

The draw will take place at 10am UK time on Thursday 18 March 2021.

And the winner is... Hertha Berlin manager Dan Wallace!

New Free Agent Prize Rules

For the month of April 2021, the managers of the Youth Cup and Shield winners, DP 91 and ruts66 .., plus the winners of the prize draw above Dan Wallace, can claim exclusive bidding rights on one new free agent – when they do so, anyone who has already bid must withdraw, and no one else must bid.

DP 91 and ruts66 ..,plus the winners of the prize draw Dan Wallace, will take responsibility for monitoring bids and messaging managers to withdraw, as much as possible, and anyone who fails to abide by this will incur a transfer ban.

Claimed players must be announced by DP 91 and ruts66 ..,plus the winners of the prize draw Dan Wallace, on the newsfeed by 10 am on the day that the player is added.

In the event that DP 91 and ruts66 ..,plus the winners of the prize draw Dan Wallace, claim the same player, DP 91 will get priority as Youth Cup Winner followed by ruts66 .. as Youth Shield Winner.

Any dispute will be settled by the game world owner (Beddows).

The Sack Race

Should he stay, or should he go?

The top secret mystery Top 100 Selection Panel has been carefully considering and voting on which of this season's sacked managers will be re-appointed, and which ones will stay sacked (although they may re-apply when the job is opened up for applications in the usual way).

It's a couple of years since we increased the number of managers who get sacked in each division from two to three (the maximum allowed in the game world admin settings).

New managers re-appointed

This season, as is usual, we come to the end of the season with several clubs who appointed new managers during the course of the season looking certain or likely to finish in the bottom three. These managers will all be re-appointed, as is the custom.

So that's Spurs, Wolfsburg, Shakhtar, Malaga, Montpellier and Bordeaux whose managers will be re-appointed (should they finish in the bottom three and be sacked - Spurs and Shakhtar could still avoid that scenario).

In addition, Leicester will re-appoint Doug Earle should he fail to avoid the bottom three. I agreed with Doug when he left Arsenal that he could rebuild and keep his job if relegated.

That's as many as seven of the fifteen who will end up in the bottom three who will be re-appointed.

Clubs definitely available

Manchester United, Basel and Lazio currently have caretaker managers, and Besiktas and Olympiacos will soon be available when Ken and Alex go to the two Manchester clubs (Mark is leaving City at the end of the season).

There may be other clubs that become available - there usually are, but the clubs currently definitely available at the end of the season for applications from managers already in Top 100 are:

So we will have at least twelve clubs whose managers quit at some point this season - D1 Man City and Spurs, D2 Lazio and Basel, D3 Man Utd, Wolfsburg and Shakhtar, D4 Besiktas, Malaga and Montpellier, and D5 Olympiacos and Bordeaux.

We have up to seven out of fifteen sacked managers who will be re-appointed as explained above.

Sackings to be decided...

That leaves us with twelve managers still sweating on the panel's decision and/or hoping to avoid the sack all together on the final match day on Thursday night:

  • D1 Ajax, Benfica, and possibly Hellas Verona
  • D2 CSKA Moskva and Napoli
  • D3 one or both of Lille and Celta Vigo
  • D4 possibly one of Internazionale or Lokomotiv Moskva
  • D5 Independiente, Saint-Etienne, and possibly Sao Paulo

By my reckoning that's a minimum of seven, and a maximum of eleven clubs, who could end up sacking their managers.

I posted on the newsfeed a couple of weeks ago (and bumped the post back to the top several times) asking managers to let me know what they wanted to happen if they got sacked, and I passed their messages on to the selection panel to help them decide. I added some of my own comments where I felt that was relevant.

Any sacked manager who isn't re-appointed by the panel can still re-apply via the usual application process when the job is advertised. We will try to ensure that any sacked manager who wants to stay in Top 100 gets another club, if they don't get re-appointed, but they may have to spend some time on our Waiting List, depending on which clubs are available and what they are willing to take.

Youth Cup and Youth Shield next round draws

Both 1 leg - both to be played on Saturday 13th January.

Youth Cup

Atletico Madrid v Bayern Munich

Man City v Hellas Verona

Juventus v Hertha Berlin

Arsenal v Levante

YOuth Shield

Youth Shield 1st Round Draw