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BuryBlade

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443 "They call it a Royale with cheese"

About Me

  • About Me
    Bury

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  • Favourite Team
    Sheffield United

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  • Currently Managing
    FC København

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  1. I expected Barca to win their game, meaning a draw wouldn’t be enough for us. This put me in a difficult position knowing we probably needed to win, and not play my usual 0-0 ball. I setup cautiously to begin with, wanting to see how Real would approach the game. When Real were on top, I went more attacking for 10 minutes to try and change momentum. I’d then switch back to cautious again. The result was a fabulous 1-0 win, securing back to back titles. Not quite as good defensively this season, but still very very good.
  2. An incredible title race goes down to the wire in the most dramatic fashion… Our final game of the season couldn’t be much harder though!
  3. I’m delighted to hear you’ve managed to successfully recreate this in FM24!
  4. It must be really painful, particularly for the neutrals, watching my matches 😆 Spanish Super Cup semi final and final (2 matches in 3 days) My approach was slightly different compared to my original write up. Whilst I started both games using my defensive tweak tactic, I did not want a 0-0 and extra time. Therefore I wanted to keep the game tight and choose my moment to attack. Against Barca, I switched to a more attacking formation in the 82nd minute. Barca were pushing and I felt we could sucker punch them. In the final against Real, I noticed their mentality was cautious, so I switched tactic in the first minute to be more attacking than normal to try and score early. Thankfully we did and I immediately went defensive for the rest of the game.
  5. Started the next season with a squad very similar to last season. 4-0 at home vs Vallecano, and 2-1 away at Getafe meant I was already behind last seasons goals conceded mark (13 games, 0 conceded last season) Match 3 was away at Barcelona. Deployed tweak 2 from the start of the match, and applied hard tackling and pressing to Barca’s front three. This is my favourite type of match, and it’s so satisfying when it all comes together.
  6. Haha thanks, and yes I get that the number of TIs is excessive! My tactics normally have very few of these but somehow this just worked in FM20’s match engine.
  7. Haha it didn’t feel right usurping him so I waited my turn! I played FMT23 and had a very successful low block system but the game was a mess. Youth development didn’t work, along with basic gameplay issues like half time being skipped (since FM21 this was an issue) FMT24 is a train wreck and I stopped playing it after a few days. It’s a shame because the match engine is actually beautiful. I don’t think you could take this system and put it in a newer FM and get the same results. Each match engine is different and as players we get used to what works and doesn’t in each iteration. It just happens that this works in FMT20.
  8. There are no download links for two reasons: 1) it’s FM Touch on the iPad. Its not possible to provide download links. 2) All the information you need is in the post. You could easily recreate the tactic.
  9. Results I took over in December of season 5 in game and needed to do a minor rebuild of the squad to better fit my tactics, and also to sort the finances out as the club was heavily in debt. This first ‘half season’ I saw as preparation for the following year, but was disappointed to lose 1-0 in the Copa Del Rey final to Barcelona (119th min goal), and 1-0 to Chelsea in the Europa League final. I managed to reshape the squad the way I wanted in the summer and in my first full season in charge, the team finished 2nd in La Liga behind Barca, but incredibly won the Champions League using my approach of playing for 0-0 draws. The semi-final against Real, and the final against Man Utd were both won on penalties. However, the defence was not as tight as I wanted, and we finished way behind Barca in the league. We had been beaten 4-1 by Villareal, and struggled to defend against teams like Sevilla, Valencia and Vigo. The summer was spent improving the defensive personnel, including spending 70 million on De Ligt who had been transferred listed by Zebre (no name fix on iPad!) What ensued during the next league campaign was exactly how I wanted the game to be. After 13 league games, we had yet to concede, before a freak own goal against Bilbao ruined the streak. Getafe scored twice against us in the final game before Christmas (I was fuming!) but they would be the only domestic team to manage this feat all season. The Champions League campaign was a disaster, with us losing to eventual winners Chelsea in the first knockout round. They scored early in both legs and I had to try and chase the game, something I know this system is not built to do. A shaky finish to the league season saw us lose our first and only game at home against rivals Real (0-1), to setup a nervy final day where all three teams could win the league. Beating Vigo 2-0 secured the title along with our 31st clean sheet in the league, and just 8 goals conceded in 38 games! I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this save a different way, and hope someone might find my ramblings interesting or useful.
  10. Intro One of the beauties of FM is that you can essentially play it however you want. It’s a single player game and you get to create your own in-game universe. However, in recent iterations, it certainly feels like you have a better chance of success playing attacking, gegenpress, high temp styles. Those wanting to play defensive football had a harder time creating something that actually worked in the match engine. I’ve never written a detailed post on here before. I have been playing the game since CM2, and exclusively spend my FM time playing FM Touch on the iPad. As an adult, I don’t have the time or energy to commit to full-fat FM anymore. The thought of working all day in an admin job, and then spending my evening renegotiating contracts for 50 staff members (more admin!) is not how I want to spend my ‘fun time’. FM Touch (specifically FMT20) allows me to still play the game but at a pace that better suits being an adult. Every iteration of FM, I always tried to create a defensive minded approach, but always struggled to get what I had in my head into the match engine. I had kind of given up on the idea and was experimenting with my usual Strikerless tactics (shout out to Guido Merry and his Strikerless blog; Guido has been a big influence and helped me learn the game over the years) when I found myself down to ten men after 5 minutes of a match. I maneuvered players round the tactics screen in a desperate attempt to keep things tight for 85 minutes. Not only did it work, but it was the birth of an anti-football monster. The Creation of my Anti-Football monster If the system I had hodge-podged together with ten men worked, I was now desperate to refine it and see how it played with eleven on the pitch. I have spent the last year tweaking and testing with various teams and felt it was finally ready for a proper examination. My real-life manager hero is Diego Simeone. The level of anti-football his teams have demonstrated in previous years (I’m ignoring the ‘new’ style they play this year) has been an inspiration for what I have tried to create. I want to suck the life out the game and become one of the worst teams to have to play against. I waited in game until Simeone was either sacked or moved to another club, and I took over Atletico Madrid (4 seasons in). Aims of the Tactic Clean sheets are more important than goals. 0-0 is a perfectly fine result. 1-0 is the holy grail. Be as difficult as possible to break down. Force teams wide and pack the middle of the pitch. Focus on set-pieces. Can we score from our own, and even better, can we counter from the opposition's corners. Use positions that players can feasibly interchange throughout a game, or season. E.g. CM can play in the DM, CM and AMC strata. Versatility opens up options. The Tactic There are multiple versions of the monster, that become more defensive each time. Below I explain when I use each one, and what I’m looking for during a match to help me choose which approach to use. This is the main tactic. Let me start by saying I am not a tactical guru. I wouldn’t even say I am good at tactics. I will try to explain why I think it works/why I set up this way, but I’m no Cleon. I started from the picture of what I wanted to see in my head which was defensively solid, focus through the middle, and roles that would provide off the ball movement that would pull opposition defences around the pitch. When we have the ball, I want to pass it quickly and rely on this movement and unpredictability to create openings. This often manifests itself with the 3 players in the AMC strata drawing in defenders, and space opens up for the CWBs to attack in to. Without the ball, my aim was to try and force the opposition wide and we defend the central areas with a lot of bodies. I have three tall, fast defenders who can deal with any aerial threat, but also cover the space in behind. Tweak 1 – more defensive If the opposition is managing to create chances easily, I will drop into this version with less ‘roaming’ from the CM, DLP, and WBs. I also switch off counter press and will look to see if these tweaks help tighten up the defence. I also tend to move into this version around the 70-75 minute mark if I am leading. Tweak 2 – Much more defensive I use this version if I want to really tighten the defence and limit any space through the middle. I have compacted the midfield, and instructed them to hold shape and regroup. This version is not really looking to score goals, but to make sure we don’t concede. If I am leading, I usually move to this version around 80-85 mins. Tweak 3 – Ultra defensive – the final stages of the game With a few minutes left on the clock, if I am looking to hold on to the current scoreline, I will use this. Moving the WBs to FBs on defend is to try and limit any space in behind them, and stop them wandering too far forward. You’ll notice how all versions still have players in the AMC strata. One of the big things I learnt from Cleon’s Art of Defending posts is that you can’t just pull everyone back into defensive positions and expect to be successful facing wave after wave of opposition attacks. An outlet is needed to help get the ball up the pitch. Approaching the hardest games My approach for the hardest games, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Champions League knockout ties, is usually to go with one of the defensive tweaks from the start, with added OIs focussed on pressing and tackling hard against the opposition attackers. My belief is that 0-0 draws against Barca and Real are good results, and keeping knockout ties as close as possible, will always give me a chance to progress. When testing the tactic over the last year, this approach helped me win the Champions League with FC Basel in just 3 seasons by drawing 0-0 and winning 1-0 in knockout games. You can see a very compact shape, with everybody defending deep, making it hard for Liverpool to create good chances. Game finished 0-0. Another example, this time against Barca, where I played much more defensively from the start (tweak 2) with a goal of grinding out a 0-0. There were ZERO key highlights in this game. In game tweaks are a huge factor to being successful at the game (not just with my tactic). I am always watching what the opposition is doing and what changes they are making. If they change their formation or mentality in game, I need to be thinking how this changes the dynamic and what I can do to maintain the upper hand. When it all goes wrong and the sheet is not clean One major limitation of the tactic is it is not designed to score many goals. I’m playing to win 1-0 essentially. So when the opposition takes the lead, it can be a struggle getting back into games. I tend to start by changing the mentality to positive on the starting tactic and seeing how that goes. If we need a goal late in the game, I tend to go with the below approach, and play very direct football. Having players who can play roles in different ways This is another thing I learnt from Cleon’s writing. I don’t want all my AMCs for example to play the role in the same way. This would make us very one dimensional. In my pool of AMCs I have players who are very fast and good dribblers, players who are very technical and excel at linking play, and I have a 6ft 7in beast I can deploy if I need to go more direct. Same position and role, different ways of playing. I’m also very specific about players I sign. I want players who have high determination, decisions, composure and stamina. If we are going to be successful, I think these four attributes are some of the most important. I will regularly pass on signing a world class player if they have low scores in these. The Results (the bit you were hopefully waiting for) In the next post (file size limitations), I will show the results from my experiment with Atletico Madrid.
  11. The fundamental issue for me isn’t ‘why is the fix taking so long’, but ‘does nobody in SI studios play or test the game at any point before release?’ I can’t for a second believe that all of the issues with FM24, most of which are apparent within a couple of hours of playing, were missed by everybody. Either nobody is testing the game, or everyone is a ‘yes-man’ (parroting Miles’ Twitter approach) because apparently this is the most polished version ever!
  12. But bugs that have existed (and been reported) since FMT21 still exist in the game. Hardly ‘not the same as previous versions’ I agree with OP’s comments. The over promises before release, and the under delivered product have made this year worse. Touch has been bad for a while, but I’ve already given up and unsubscribed from Arcade because it’s unplayable. I’ve gone back to playing FMT17 and visually it looks so much better than FMT24 in terms of match day lighting, stadiums, pitch textures. The match engine actually plays some decent football too. All been a bit downhill since the ME changes for FM18.
  13. FM24 was supposed to be the most polished version ever. Great marketing and hype and the game is quite frankly a mess. FM25 is the first using the new Unity engine. I’d expect there to be even more hype and marketing for this iteration. The question is, how can we trust the marketing/hype in future after what they’ve done this time round?
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