Calculating Success (among other things)

First off, I am a poor man and because of this I have not been able to get my hand on the latest edition of FM. Its a bit upsetting but, like with every FM game I have ever played, I am still enjoying FM 09 very much. Lately though, something has been irritating me. The 4-3-3. Chelsea introduced it to me and Barcelona mesmerized me with it.

Over the years I have played with a somewhat direct and very attacking 4-4-2 and its worked for me very well (then again ive really only managed man utd….best team ever ). But for some reason, about a year and a half ago, I decided to try my luck at making 4-3-3. At first I failed mismerably, got mad, punched a wall, went back to my 4-4-2, and swore never to mention the “4-3-3” ever again. I refused to acknowledge its existence.....and then Barcelona did what they did last year. They won everything (they even had a special trophy presentation before their game against Villarreal.....just to show awesome they were).

As I continued to play FM, I kept an eye on Barcelona in the real world...and they kept winning with a formation that was as intriguing as it was annoying to me. So I finally caved and started a new save as the Catalans this time and tried to make a working 4-3-3. My results were ok.....I was winning, but I was not dominating. When Im a big club and Im not dominating, I get annoyed so stopped and went back to my man utd save. Well I hate quitting so I came back to it a few weeks later, and tweaked....and tweaked some more……until I started completely swallowing up opponents (even beat Real 3-1 at the Bernabeu). I holidayed multiple seasons and my results were amazing. Messi, Henry, and Eto'o all scored over 25 multiple times...its fair to say that I was happy

Well about 1 month ago I started a new save as Chelsea, who are my baby sister's favorite team (she cried whenever I beat them). My first season went ok and before season 2, I had quite the cash to burn so I did. I brought in Villa and Hulk.....trained Villa to play AML and trained Hulk to play AMR. Now with Drogba there as well, I decided to try to use my 4-3-3 that worked for me with barca. Seeing how my team was pretty class I figured the results would be quite similar....they ended up being more different than I really expected.

It got me to thinking how could a tactic that worked really well with one team work not as well with a team of similar strength?

These are the possible answers that I could think of:

Styles of play in England and Spain....the Spanish league seemed to allowed for more attacking, flowing, goal scoring oriented game.

Squad chemistry.....Like I said before I brought in new players at Chelsea while the players at Barca were playing together for at least 2 years (most of them at least)

Squad strength.....Is it possible that Barca was just better than Chelsea?

League strength......Maybe opposition in the Prem was stronger than opposition in La Liga

These were the only factors I could think of when trying to figure out why the results were pretty different.

Am I right in my thinking? Did I miss anything?

Write in paragraphs...It's so hard to read, I won't even bother...

is that better?

I reckon quite a few of the factors you have metione dare some of the main reasons behind your lack of sucess with Chelsea, espaecially the time it takes new players to gel.

IMO the main stumbling point would be the fact you have retrained 2 clear strikers ot be wingers rather than buying in 2 players much more suited to the AMR/L role.

well my 4-3-3 looked like this:

FL ST FR

MC MC MC

LB CB CB RB

Gk

my understanding was that for a player to play well at the FL or FR positions he needed to be be able to play both ST and AML/R

well my 4-3-3 looked like this:

FL ST FR

MC MC MC

LB CB CB RB

Gk

my understanding was that for a player to play well at the FL or FR positions he needed to be be able to play both ST and AML/R

so your barca tactic was also 3 MCs and FL-FR-FC? If so, I will be surprised a little bit. Also retraining new positions for players is far more better in FM 2010. A player can actually gain that position as 'natural' rather than an 'accomplished' one.

Styles of play in England and Spain....the Spanish league seemed to allowed for more attacking, flowing, goal scoring oriented game.

Squad chemistry.....Like I said before I brought in new players at Chelsea while the players at Barca were playing together for at least 2 years (most of them at least)

Am I right in my thinking? Did I miss anything?

Those two are good guesses. Both may have a big impact on your team.

Your opponents employ different tactics in England. Maybe that tactic works better against the Spanish approach.

Also squad gelling is often underestimated. It really matters.

On top of that, success does not only come from the class of your players. Also the type of your players matters. Your tactic will require a certain type of player with certain specific qualities in each position. While your players at Barcelona may have had them, your players at Chelsea might not. It's not a matter of quality, but aside that matter Hulk and Messi certainly have different qualities and Messi's seem to be more suited to a 4-3-3.

Chelsea, who are my baby sister's favorite team (she cried whenever I beat them)

Aww. That's so cute.

. A player can actually gain that position as 'natural' rather than an 'accomplished' one.

Really? That's good to know

Really? That's good to know

Yeah that is probably my favorite thing in FM10. I especially like to retrain MC players to MR or ML. This way you can have really strong wide midfielders who can play both aspects of the game. (Like box-to-box wingers or something)