jackane24

Sorry for not updating, this challenge was frighteningly scary unfortunately. I'd have to limit purchases to £15m to make it anything like a proper challenge, just too easy to improve year on year and buy good players. I bought Declan Rice at the start of Season 3...

No, thanks, I appreciate the advice. Keep it coming! I got FA 1/4 final coming up vs Villa now. EPL 10th, 4pts behind 7th.

I've just realised I shouldn't be such a prude and Mitrovic is now on TM-A and his partner an AF.

Decided to start a Fulham game where I can only buy transfer listed players. The idea is that it will force me to change tactics every year as I grow + better players become available. Then I need to find a tactic to suit those players (ideally my 3 best players). I like that it will force me to focus on getting the best out of my best. My best 3 players are Mitrovic, Palhinha and then quite a few on 3.5*. So Mitrovic is a bit slow and gangly to be an effective pressing forward, but as a DLF/TM he's mustard. I think to get the best out of him I'd like to give him a good bit of support, so a 2nd striker and an AM (Fulham have no good wide players). Pereira is skillful and I want him on the ball attacking. I started off with him on SS-A but that didn't go well so trying on AM-A now. Also given him the 'gets further forward' trait now. Harrison Reed is a quick, hard working BBM so he can support too. I'm doing ok (I threw my games away to Ars/ManC, combined 7-0 loss), the attack is a bit rubbish at the moment but I've just changed mentality to Positive and that resulted in an easy 2-0 away win at Soton. Just thought this might be a topic worth starting as we can come together to work out how to get the best out of individual players, and we'll become better players as a result.

Ok little update here. Redownloaded the game to give me an escape from my current work situation lol. Brentford are dominating Europe. and England. and my board now basically expects me to win 6 trophies next year. This is the current iteration of the tactic. Changing the RB to a FB-S was an excellent spot. It's turned Livramento into a 7.5 player. Previously couldn't get anything decent out of Mukiele or Kimmich or anybody. The LM might work as a W-S with Gets Further Forward but for now, I see no reason to change. It seems insane with 2 attacking roles down the left but it works. However, it is ESSENTIAL that the winger have the 'Cuts Inside From Left Wing' PPM. Previously could barely muster anything out of my winger, now he's brilliant. Gets consistently involved in the game without taking space away from the IWB. Also remember it is ESSENTIAL the MCL has the 'Stay Wider' PI. I'd also highly recommend to get the CBs on 'Stay Wider' as well and I like them to 'close down less' too. Really the football is just out of this world. It's so pretty, sometimes the interwoven stuff is just gorgeous. Managed to get 16 goals from the LB position this season just gone. 10 from Bellingham, 6 from Pobega It seems a little bit quick though and the players I want running with the ball don't really run with the ball as much as I'd like. And when we do lose the ball, there's a huge gap right in front of my defence. I think another iteration of this could be something like Gives the attacking players a bit more space to work with, but it takes 2 attacking players away. Also gives them more time on the ball to dribble a bit more and get some interwoven stuff going. Might start playing around with it to see if I can really pinpoint what I want to achieve. The shape also lends itself a little better to the ice hockey formation the Red Army lined up with.

I don't know ice hockey either. I just went for roles with dribbling and movement. I'd like to somehow get a Treq or Shadow Striker in here. So I got rather addicted to this long-term save. I had to uninstall it cos it was too distracting... IIRC I came 6th, 6th, 5th, 4th (also won FA Cup), 4th (won the Champions League) and then won the league easily (along with Super Cup and Carabao Cup), but only 87pts. No Klopp, no Pep, no Mourinho, just a terrible league. Arsenal spunked all their money up the wall (what's new?) and the league is barren. Man Utd just finished 15th or so. Chelsea came in 2nd with 75pts or so. Very empty achievement. Got knocked out in the 1/4s of the CL due to last minute Man City equaliser. So, to answer some questions... I didn't find too much trouble down either wing in particular tbh. But my RCB is Lacroix, just finished 2nd in the Ballon D'Or, and my RWB is (was, I have Livramento now) Kimmich. Sometimes I change him to a WB-D. Tbf the only games I typically lose in a season now are away vs the big teams, so I do find it has a few defensive frailties, but the offense can overcome them sometimes. FB-S could be a good role, not something I've tried. Yes a fair few PIs and more importantly PPMs. ML, MR, LB, RB all have tighter marking. MCR is set to close down more, tackle harder and mark tighter. Porro is set to Get Forward Whenever Possible, Tries Killer Balls, Arrives Late, Cut Inside From Left and for him I've done Shoots With Power as I think it suits him better personally. LCB is set to Stay Wider. Close Down Less is something I've done as well. RCB is also Close Down Less. LM I might have screwed up and not had it selected all this time, but Gets Further Forward. I also like my guy here to Cross Early. MCL has to Stay Wider. Absolute necessity. Then he turns into a LB when your IWB goes bombing up the pitch. My RM actually has no PIs apart from Tighter Marking. Roony's PPMs are pretty standard, I think his default. Cuts Inside From Right, Shoots From Distance, Runs With Ball Through Centre / Runs With Ball Often and 1-2s. I don't like Shoots From Distance but Roony pulls it off nicely so I've left it. The AMC is the big piece of the puzzle. I couldn't work out what on earth to do with this guy. I tried different players, roles, PIs. I tried everything. Barely ever got 7.0+. I know that it's difficult to get the AMC to perform in FMs, Then one day I tried a PPM and it changed the entire team. Runs With Ball Through Centre. It was like a switch had been...switched. And the team just turned it up to 11. Wow amazing. Luka Romero started performing amazingly here for me, I think cos of his dribbling/flair/pace/balance together with that PPM. Not sure what PIs work best for this guy tbh, but at the very least Gets Further Forward. I bought Bruno Fernandes to play in this position, thinking I was treating myself to a godly AM, but he performed terribly. I think he registered 1 goal from open play and just a couple of assists all year. Dribbling 10, and his pace stats are around 13/14. Just can't play the role. And my IWB Porro is incredibly annoying. He should score 30+ a season. But the finishing/technique/long shot stats are just too low. Porro will typically score 7 or 8 and pop up with 10-12 assists (including corners...). I'm sure if I learnt how to man manage him well, he could score 15 or so. But I'd need to find an incredible regen to retrain early on to reach 30+ goals a year I think, match engine won't allow it. I think my overall IWB stats are about 10-12 goals a year and 15 or so assists. Really fun player. Struggling to find many players who can play the role. Was retraining the Italian Pobega to play there. Wrong foot and a bit slow, but nice scoring stats and a bit more intelligent than Porro. Vranckx performed ok there for a bit, now I have Lamptey as a versatile sub and I'm sure he'd do ok there with that pace.

Just noticed the BPD playing into the LB, so I'll switch the BPD to the right hand CB.

So I've had a bit of free time and loaded up a Brentford save. Going into my 4th season I started to use this idea again and I'm currently set up like this. s And after a few months of getting used to the tactic, I've just had this game. Ok, only Maribor, but a hat-trick from my LB. Absolutely over the moon with that. Quite an astonishing hat-trick too, wow he's incredible. Been playing Pedro Porro there but just brought in Gomez for one game and now he's my clear #1 there.

Or this?

Has anyone seen Red Army? Incredible documentary, one of the very best I've seen. It's about the USSR ice hockey team of the 1980s, who later...well I won't ruin it for you, just watch it. Beautiful story about a beautiful playing style. Long story short...just gorgeous fluid ice hockey. Interwoven movements, impossible to track. I'm bored of other systems I've set up and now I want to do this! I'm one year in, with Arsenal. Finished 4th and these are the tactics it started with. It's based on 2 units - 6 and 5. The 6 are the defenders, so Matuidi, Partey, Gabriel, Süle, Tomi and Ramsdale. They're all told to hold position and they're there to support the front 5. The front 5 (I include the IWB-A in this group) should have überfluid movement between them. All criss-crossing and causing havoc. Anyway the tactic evolved a little through the season and I suppose it ended up like this. The fluidity is now structured, not sure how much that goes against what I want. I want fluid movement but I want it from a certain group. Anyway the question is now 1) what can I do to improve this tactic? 2) Where do I go from here into the 2nd season? I'm playing around with a few ideas but I'm loathed to commit cos I'm fumbling around in the dark a bit. I could do this? Anyway, anybody have any thoughts? The football played by these tactics is gorgeous, obviously. Wowowow.