2025-02-05, 01:35 PM - Word count: 526
If you've ever listened to a manager or an ex-player talk about football before, you've without a doubt heard the sayings: "They wanted it more" and "He put in a real shift" countless of times. Especially among the older generation of football fans, there is a strong belief that effort and intensity are two main factors in winning games.
Both in real life and in FM this has recently made its way into both the real life and the in game meta, with teams like Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool being respected and feared for their intensive pressing and constant running.
Let's take a look at last seasons Major League to see if we can find any correlation between the distance players run on average and their teams success.
Without further ado, here is the graph, with the teams ordered based on their position in the league, from left to right:
![[Image: ML8TPVl.png]](https://i.imgur.com/ML8TPVl.png)
(all data is taken from the SSL Index)
As we can see, there seems to be a general correlation, with the 3 teams that run the least being in bottom 3 places in the league. The main exception is Buenos Aires, who finished above the more industrious Tokyo and Hollywood sides. The two highest distance traveled teams being in the middle of the table could also be an indication that the truly dominant teams can sometimes take their foot off the gas a little more and thus end up with a lower average distance.
Now that we've analyzed some of the teams, let's also take a look at some individual players and how they relate to their team's average and league position.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the player with the most distance covered also plays for the team with the highest average. Judy Greer tops the list with a whopping 4 km gap between him and number two, Buenos Aires' Sean O'Leary.
The outfield player (who played in all 14 matches) that ran the least is Buenos Aires' centre half Bérangère-Amandine Bruère-Estrangin, who covered a total of 148.9 km, almost 30km less than the average player on his team.
Also noteworthy is São Paulo's Zyqwarndalethron Velstrazyn-Smith, who is one of the few players among the top of the league who does not play in a wide position, with a vast majority of the top 30 runners in the league being either wing packs or wide midfielders.
There's also a strong link between distance traveled and presses attempted, with all 10 of the players in the league who pressed the most often being represented in the top 30 players who covered the most distance.
I hope you found this an interesting read, and I'm curious to see if a similar pattern holds next season and if there might be value in using the statistic to help with finding players to draft in the next class, especially for the teams who seem to lack some work rate, or for coaches to look at their tactical choices and if they should change something to encourage their players to cover more distance.
Both in real life and in FM this has recently made its way into both the real life and the in game meta, with teams like Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool being respected and feared for their intensive pressing and constant running.
Let's take a look at last seasons Major League to see if we can find any correlation between the distance players run on average and their teams success.
Without further ado, here is the graph, with the teams ordered based on their position in the league, from left to right:
(all data is taken from the SSL Index)
As we can see, there seems to be a general correlation, with the 3 teams that run the least being in bottom 3 places in the league. The main exception is Buenos Aires, who finished above the more industrious Tokyo and Hollywood sides. The two highest distance traveled teams being in the middle of the table could also be an indication that the truly dominant teams can sometimes take their foot off the gas a little more and thus end up with a lower average distance.
Now that we've analyzed some of the teams, let's also take a look at some individual players and how they relate to their team's average and league position.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the player with the most distance covered also plays for the team with the highest average. Judy Greer tops the list with a whopping 4 km gap between him and number two, Buenos Aires' Sean O'Leary.
The outfield player (who played in all 14 matches) that ran the least is Buenos Aires' centre half Bérangère-Amandine Bruère-Estrangin, who covered a total of 148.9 km, almost 30km less than the average player on his team.
Also noteworthy is São Paulo's Zyqwarndalethron Velstrazyn-Smith, who is one of the few players among the top of the league who does not play in a wide position, with a vast majority of the top 30 runners in the league being either wing packs or wide midfielders.
There's also a strong link between distance traveled and presses attempted, with all 10 of the players in the league who pressed the most often being represented in the top 30 players who covered the most distance.
I hope you found this an interesting read, and I'm curious to see if a similar pattern holds next season and if there might be value in using the statistic to help with finding players to draft in the next class, especially for the teams who seem to lack some work rate, or for coaches to look at their tactical choices and if they should change something to encourage their players to cover more distance.
