Building a tactic - Académica to glory

I decided to start a career on Academica, a midtable club from Liga Sagres (Portugal's top division) in FM Classic, and describe my line of thought from the start of the game to the actual matches. I hope this starts an interesting discussion / exchange of ideas.

1 - GETTING TO KNOW THE CLUB

OK, as soon as I join Academica, my first task is to know the club's finances. Academica is quite poor, with about 100k € of budget and 7k € p/w spare wage budget, so whatever signings I do must be free. Not much margin for eccentricities.

Next I usually explore my new club's staff (staff is more straightforward than the squad, so I do that afterwards).

Academica's staff

(This screen shows my Job Security a little under 50%, but ignore that, I started doing this article after a couple of friendlies)

Alright, so the staff is generally "good" (quoting the tooltip that pops up over the 3-star ratings). I searched for available better replacements of each position, which were both free (to pay no compensation fee to their club) and interested, to no avail. So that'll have to do for now.

Next, it's time to start digging in the squad. Two tasks are required: to get a general feel of the squad depth...

Squad Depth 1

Squad Depth 2

...and to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the squad as a whole when compared to the other clubs in the same league.

Squad Comparison 1

Squad Comparison 2

Squad Comparison 3

Squad Comparison 4

Squad Comparison 5

Both tasks are equal in importance, so I'll just start with the most straightforward again: the Squad Depth.

1.a) Squad Depth

Defence-wise, one can immediately pinpoint I have a weakness on the right side. Maybe a weakness on the left would be worse, as players tend to be right-footed (so teams arguably tend to get a stronger right side). But hey, on the other hand, if an opponent decides to "force" a right winger to play on the left and exploit my right side, I'll be having some trouble with an inside-forward role there - which means not a cross, but a direct shot on goal. More dangerous? Less? Arguable.

On my midfield, I've got a strong candidate for a DM C position. Nice! That should help patch that rightside problem.

Then I have two good MCs, and an only okay third one. I do have strong AM Ls, AM Rs and AM Cs, though. I'm starting to imagine a 4-1-2-3 with wingers here...

Next, we should study our squad when compared to the rest of the league.

1.b) Squad Comparison

In general terms, we are shorter than the rest of the league, so we should avoid high balls, eg crosses and long passes, as much as we can (maybe I should make my field narrower...? Maybe shorter too? Hmm, let's see). Our general attributes suck bigtime: decisions and workrate (arguably the most important general attributes, that come into play in most ME situations) are better only than one of 18 clubs. Leadership shouldn't matter much as we only need it in one captain. But we are physically weak and even though our first touch is our best trait we are mediocre at passing.

Let's skip goalkeepers for now. On to defence.

The average acceleration of forward in this league ranges from 11.25 to 14.25. Our defence's acceleration is about 12.88. Even though it's good compared to the league defence, our defenders won't be running alongside the opponent's defenders - they will be marking and challenging their forwards. 12.88 doesn't seem like such a good number after all. Something similar happens with pace. Jumping goes around 10.75, against 9.00 - 13.00 from other teams' forwards. Ugh.

Midfield is the easiest to compare, as we compare midfields vs midfields directly. And it's in our midfield's stamina that we might find (finally!) some good news. Maybe we can make our midfield close down often, as their tackling isn't bad either. The rest of comparisons don't allow me to draw any useful conclusions, from what I can tell.

Finally, the attack. This seems to be our strongest asset, as a lot of rankings are one-digit only (another way of telling we're better than 10th, roughly better than half the league). The forwards have an acceleration of 12.33 vs 10.50 - 14.00 of the other team's defenders. Not bad. But what's really telling is our forwards' jumping - 13.33 vs 9.50 - 12.88 from team's defenders! That might be our way to scoring goals - it should be very rare to find defenders which jump higher than our forwards. 12.33 of average heading isn't good, but hey, not so bad either (considering this league seems to average mostly between 9 and 13), so it should be a viable option.

2 - BUILDING A TACTIC

2.a) Making some general decisions first

Ok, so, based on our analysis of the club and the squad so far, we're ready to make some decisions regarding tactics:

- Our shape should e 4-1-2-3 with AM L / AM R

- The home field should be narrow and short

- We are underdogs, so attacking tactics would be kind of suicidal

- We are physically weaker, so we should stand off a bit

- Midfield should be good at closing down (albeit in a conservative way, standing off)

- Our forwards should dominate the air, so we should make those winger pump crosses into that box

Now comes a trick I've learnt to make a decision about philosophy.

Looking across the players' attributes, I get the feeling that even though there aren't a lot of >15 values, there are few < 7 values too. This means players tend to be rather general purpose. Since each one of them isn't good at any particular task, maybe we should get them to do several tasks. Everyone should contribute to attack and to defense, and hopefully no one should do terribly wrong doing any of those tasks. So we're talking about a fluid or even very fluid philosophy here!

- Our philosophy should be fluid - the team should act as one

Tactic Template

OK, so I've set up a nice 4-1-2-3 template.

Since we are playing with a DM C, we will probably want him to commit to more defensive roles. Our AM L and AM R will probably commit to more attacking roles too. So a "Very fluid" philosophy would abolish those preferences too much. "Fluid" (with two mindset blocks - attack and defense - seems better suited for what we're trying to accomplish).

Setting the Philosophy

Next we have to pick the players and their roles.

Look forward to reading this.

Congrats for your squad analysis, it will help me when I start my new save.

2.b) Picking the players

Let's choose "blindly" the best players for each position for now. We can fine-tune this later if we find some unbalance (eg two attacking midfielders in MC position).

Clicking the position we get a popup window to choose a player. Players are conveniently sorted from best to worst already.

Choosing the Best Keeper

Alright, doing this for every position, we get this.

All Players Chosen

Those are the players available taking injuries into account anyway.

Now let's look at those lateral defenders. Let's start with D R.

2.b1) RIGHT DEFENDER

D R Attributes

D R Report

He seems to be fast, but bad at tackling. With a workrate of 13 and stamina of 12, something tells me he could participate both in attack and defense. His crossing, dribbling and off the ball are set at 11, with a first touch of 13; but defence-wise, tackling and marking on 6 is rather unfortunate... Yep, might be better off to try to get him forward rather than stick to defensive tasks. His preferred foot is right, so hitting some crosses to that good-jumper forwards would be neat.

Complete Wing Back Description

Yeah, the engine thinks he's as good as a full back and as a complete wing back. Look at that description. Inclined to attacking roles. That's it!

Wing Back Description

If we see right side getting too skinned, we can switch back to a more conservative wing back, as wing backs contribute a bit more to defensive phases of the game. From then on, we can climb down from attack -> support -> defence duties, if needed .

Inverted Wing Back Description

Nah, turning inside? We don't want that. He's right footed, there would be no benefit.

That will be a full wing back on support duty, just so he won't go kung-fu style attack. We still need a right defender there afterall .

On to the D L.

2.b2) LEFT DEFENDER

D L Attributes

D L Report

Yep. Makonda would be good at attacking too. But we already have D R attacking, and Makonda is much closer to being efficient at defending than Aderian. Sorry, Makonda, but we're putting you on a leash .

Full Back Automatic Description

This seems like an ideal role and duty. Some flexibility for the tactic... The D L duty shall change according to the match strategy. If we decide to go defensive, the D L shall be more defensive; else, we'll go more attacking .

Limited Full Back Description

Should we notice too much leftside skinning, we could fall back into this limited full back then... "Makonda, DEFEND ONLY!". Seems a bit unnecessary to start with though.

Next I shall discuss the rest of the team!!! Stay tuned!! Give me that feedback, y'all!!

2.b3 CENTER DEFENDERS

D CL Attributes

D CL Report

D CR Attributes

D CR Report

Even though the report states the DCs are slow (ie acceleration and pace), they're only slightly better in the air (ie strength, jumping reach and heading).

João Real has 11 on acceleration and pace; Aníbal Capela has 12 on both these attributes. So I believe the difference isn't enough to discriminate a stopper and a cover role here. Besides, none of the D Cs is particularly better at playing one of those roles than the other role. So let's just keep it simple.

Limited Defender Description

They aren't "crippled" enough to enforce a limited defender role either, I mean, they can handle some basic passing without messing up really bad. So the standard Central Defender role is ideal.

2.b4) DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER

DM C Attributes

DM C Report

Some lack of flair (9), vision (10) and off the ball (9). His defensive capabilities are fine though: aggression 14, bravery 13, stamina and strength 14... determination 15! I feel Obiorah can be a kind of "stalkerman" in front of our defensive line, closing down frequently and unsettling whoever has the ball in that DM C zone. Certainly not exactly deep-playmaker material here, huh?

So let's explore those options...

Half Back Description

A "sweeper"? Hmm, not what we were looking for... But this does seem like an interesting alternative tactic. Let's keep it in the back of our heads just in case we need some fresh ideas later.

The regista is another kind of playmaker, so let's forget it too.

Now, between the defensive midfielder, ball winning midfielder and anchorman...

Defensive Midfielder Description

Ball Winning Midfielder Description

Anchorman Description

Defensive mid first - "to protect the defensive line from breaking attackers by closing them down quickly... and to support the creative midfielders when in possession". The first half of the sentence is just perfect for us. The second half... not so much.

Ballwinning mid - "His main function is to close down and win ball the ball". Okay, good, but he needs technical skills? To help to attack? Nah, doesn't feel like what we want...

Anchorman - a "Water Carrier"? As in "restless worker"? That's more like it. Staying behind, and trying to intercept, tackle, etc... Yep. But... "He doesn't venture too far from his position to close down the opposition"? Oh, but we want him to do that!

Frankly I don't see much difference between defensive midfielder and ballwinning roles. Maybe we'll go for the defensive midfielder. Defensive duty.

On to the MCs.

2.b5) CENTER MIDFIELDERS

M CL Attributes

M CL Report

M CR Attributes

M CR Report

I can't figure out a specialty nor a weakness on Mineiro. He's physically weak but determined... Besides that, not much... I'll just give him the most generic role possible: midfielder center on support duty. A painful cliché .

Marcos Paulo is another story.

He's got an above-average stamina. He's consistent and likes big matches. He's reasonably determined and brave. Ugh, his positioning and off the ball just ruin things, though. But he seems like a good box-to-box midfielder. Basically he's got the willpower and resistance to be wherever the action is, every time. Well, almost every time, but you get the idea. He's even good at long shots!

Box to Box Midfielder Description

Wow, gave me a new way to approach my tactics

517 views and only three single-line single-sentence replies?... There must be something to say... 514 people opened this thread, read it and had nothing to say? They disagreed with nothing? They didn't like nor dislike it? It's not that I'm asking for compliments, but I had quite some work setting this thread up... I did expect a bit more feedback, even Harsh criticism would be better than utter silence...

Cleón? Hand of God? Wwfan? Llama3? Rashidi1? You always havê something very useful to say...

Anyway, ill keep developing rhis thread...

It's possible they don't want to potentially influence you until you're done showing how you built your tactic. You're putting thought into creating a tactic and that's great! This could turn out to be a very informative thread.

I have a comment or two, but I'll hold off until you're done. I'm assuming you have final tweaks, TIs and PIs to do?

Oh, and you forgot RTH and Dr. Hook.

Exactly what Hunter said. When you've finished then I'll probably ask a few things but at the minute I'm intrigued to see what you are building and how it works. If I start giving feedback now it will influence you, it will be better if you finish the process yourself then people give feedback. Plus not to forget I am also really busy and haven't really posted on here for months really

517 views and only three single-line single-sentence replies?... There must be something to say... 514 people opened this thread, read it and had nothing to say? They disagreed with nothing? They didn't like nor dislike it? It's not that I'm asking for compliments, but I had quite some work setting this thread up... I did expect a bit more feedback, even Harsh criticism would be better than utter silence...

Cleón? Hand of God? Wwfan? Llama3? Rashidi1? You always havê something very useful to say...

Anyway, ill keep developing rhis thread...

A bit early to say anything, hence the views. You are heading in the right direction by giving this a fair bit of thought. We are just waiting for you to develop it before saying anything, our silence doesn't mean we aren't here.

517 views and only three single-line single-sentence replies?... There must be something to say... 514 people opened this thread, read it and had nothing to say? They disagreed with nothing? They didn't like nor dislike it? It's not that I'm asking for compliments, but I had quite some work setting this thread up... I did expect a bit more feedback, even Harsh criticism would be better than utter silence...

Cleón? Hand of God? Wwfan? Llama3? Rashidi1? You always havê something very useful to say...

Anyway, ill keep developing rhis thread...

I enjoyed your squad analysis and how you seem to be going about your work. Looking forward to the finished business aswell, plus the added bonus of the above fellas input once its done.

2.b6) WINGERS

To me, the single most important characteristic to decide whether an AM L / AM R will play as a crossing winger or an inside forward is his preferred foot. If the side he plays on is equivalent to his preferred foot (ie plays on the right wing and prefers his right foot), he's more comfortable getting to the touchline and crossing the ball into the box. Else, he'll need to turn inside in order to be able to use his best foot to do anything - he might be able to cross, but the most obvious thing to do would actually to take a (long?) shot on goal.

Of course, besides the preferred foot, one needs to check the crossing and long shots attributes to make sure they're at least partly proficient on what you'll be asking them to do.

AM L Attributes

AM L Report

AM R Attributes

AM R Report

Well, look at that, I have two selfish wingers. Not good...

Both prefer their right foot, so Salli will be cutting inside (Inside Forward) and Ricardo Esgaio will be playing Winger. That's good, it will provide some variation to the attacking phase.

Salli is VERY fast (17 acceleration, 15 pace). He has great technique and agility (both 15), and is good at dribbling (14). Average vision (12), some fine flair and off the ball (12). Passing and crossing 11... Long shots 11.

One thing is certain - Salli has the potential to cause havoc in defense by running with the ball. But what shall he do at the end of his run? Three options are available - to pass, to cross, or to shoot.

He's equally good (although not very good) doing any of those three.

Inside Forward Description

Raumdeuter Description

The Raumdeuter description seems like what we want "burst through the defensive line", but it's unclear if he'll burst through on a forward run or with the ball on his feet. Besides, it's unclear if he'll be essentially turning inside. So the Inside Forward task is a safer bet, as the description fits better what we want. How about the duty?

IF Attack Duty Description

IF SUPPORT DUTY DESCRIPTION MISSING. WILL BE RECTIFIED SOON.

Support or attack? Hmm... Either one would be okay. Let's make that decision later. Let's look at the other side first - Ricardo Esgaio.

Ricardo Esgaio is also very fast (acceleration 16, pace 15), he has good flair (15), off the ball (14), technique and dribbling (both 13). The rest of his attributes are rather disappointing. And I can't tell if he should be attacking or supporting.

Winger Attack Duty Description

Winger Support Duty Description

What else can we base our decision upon then? ........

The full backs!

We want Aderian (D R) to go forward, remember? And Makonda (D L) to stay back, but only because Aderian is already assigned to go forward (MAkonda would be able to go forward too, he's good enough for that). Anyway, if we really are keeping this tactic so far, maybe we could attempt some overlap between a winger and a fullback. In this case, it's the D R who's going forward, so we could get the AM R to stay a bit behind (so D R and AM R overlap, that is, the D R goes even further forward than the AM R, causing some trouble to the opposition defence)!

By other words, the AM R (Esgaio) should be Winger on support... and to provide variation again, the AM L (Salli) will go Inside Forward on attack duty. Neat!

2.b7 THE FORWARD

The very last role and duty! The F C!

F C Attributes

F C Report

This is a good example of planning gone wrong.

The squad comparison screen gave us the impression that our forwards were good in the air. But we're only going to use one forward in our tactic, and the best forward in our squad is not too good in the air after all.... Oooops!

Well, we haven't based too many tactical choices on that premise, so it's not too bad. But we do hit a wall now regarding Esgaio...

Esgaio (AM R) is going to play as a winger on support, so, as the description said, he'll be crossing early into the box. However, we only have one F C, and he's 11 on jumping and heading... AND his strength is only 10! In fact, he'd be better off as a poacher (acceleration, pace, finishing, agility, determination an flair all 14; off the ball 15!) than as a targetman, or as a receiving end to frequent crosses.

So we've hit a stalemate here. Are we going to play Rubio as a poacher?

Frankly, I feel that's a bad idea. We will already be relying on Salli's sheer speed, and on Esgaio's speed too (Aderian's speed also influenced us on asking him to come forward); besides, our AM L and AM R are selfish. We don't have an official playmaker in the middle either... So Rubio doesn't look like he'll have folks making penetrating passes to his forward runs... If anything, we need an F C to pull the defenders (namely the D Cs) out of position, to give especially Salli some room and reduce the number of defenders he'll have to feint to get something done with the ball while he cuts inside.

False Nine Description

What we are looking for is exactly a False Nine.

Rubio would play better as a poacher, though. He's not terribly bad as a False Nine, but he could be better.

So we have two options.... Shall we switch one or both lateral AMs to be more compatible with Rubio's poacher role? Or should we put a better False Nine in place of Rubio?

Next, I'll go through the selection of 7 substitutes and analyse alternative roles in the bench available to deploy from our squad. Then we'll decide if we switch any of those 3 forwards.

Stay tuned! I hope you're liking it so far!

PS. this thread is becoming heavy on images. Some users may dislike the additional net usage due to that, or even the slow loading. How can I make the images hidden and expandable by clicking a little "spoiler" button (I've seen it done in other forums)? Cheers

By using

2.b8) THE SUBSTITUTES

It's time to select the substitutes. In the Portuguese League, teams can have up to 7 players on the bench and make up to 3 substitutions during a match.

Usually I plan my substitutes in such a way that provides every possible position with a potential replacement during the match. The main purpose of this approach is to cover injuries, but also tiredness of some players around the 60th minute of the match, and eventually a very bad performance from some player (as in below 5, or so).

I usually save substitutions for the 60th minute, unless I get an injury before or decide there's a clear need to change my approach to the match and that approach requires one of the players sitting on the bench to be deployed. That is quite rare, though.

During matches, I use the 70% on condition as a cut-off for subtitution decisions at the 60th minute: below 70%, I consider a substitution urgent. Another cut-off is 80% - above that, it's quite unnecessary to replace a player due to conditioning reasons alone. Between 70 and 80% is the grey area: if I have no other players with priority to be replaced (a very bad performance, or in case a player is not suited to a new tactical change mid-match), I'll substitute one or two players in the 70-80% range of condition.

In any case, I usually avoid making 3 substitutions; if I do make a 3rd substitution, it's usually past the 80th minute (in a match with no extra time). The reason for this is to ALWAYS make sure I can replace an injury, because I consider playing with only 10 men to be a far greater disadvantage than limiting my substitutions to 2 instead of 3.

You can tell I'm a quite precautious manager. The epitome of my carefulness is my decision to reserve the S1 place for a goalkeeper. Always.

The other six slots are given to players able to play

S2 - DC

S3 - DR / DL

S4 - DL / DR

S5 - DM C

S6 - M C

S7 - AM L / AM R

S8 - AM R / AM L

S9 - F C

Yes, 9 slots for 7 substitutes. I do have to make a compromise there, and usually I skip one of the slots when one of the substitutes can play several of those positions. For example, it's frequent to find defenders that can play D L and D C, or D R and D C, or an M C that can play DM C as well.

Let's start with the D C.

Iago vs Ricardo Nascimento

I have two possible D C substitutes: Iago and Ricardo Nascimento. I think it's fairly obvious Ricardo Nascimento would be a better option. Iago is still growing, though, as he's 22 years old. Still, he's reaching the end of his "growing age" (around 23-24 years old), and there's little hope he'll become as good as Ricardo Nascimento in only 2 more years. So S2 goes to Ricardo Nascimento.

Next, a D L and a D R.

I only have a D L, available: Marco Ramos. So there's no choice. S3 goes to Marco Ramos.

We need a D R now. I have none available outside the current team... But I do have Ricardo Esgaio (currently playing AM R) as an alternative. So if I want to substitute my D R, I'll switch the D R with the AM R(getting Esgaio at the D R position) and replace the now-AM R with a true AM R! Let's make sure the bench does have an AM R, though. As I like to keep the order in the bench players' positions, let's skip to the AM R / D R thingy for now.

Right now, all my DM C options are injured. Argh. I'll keep that slot vacant for now.

Now, an M C. Aaaaaand we get the same problem.

Ok, let's select an AM L and an AM R. We have plenty of options there.

- Marinho: AM R

- Carlos Orascuaga: AM LR

- Rui Pedro: AM RLC ST C

- Ivanildo: AM L

- Magique: AM LC

We have 3 potential AM Rs vs 4 potential AM Ls. So the "limiting factor" here is the AM Rs. Let's decide the AM R first then.

Marinho is an incosistent player that dislikes big matches. Which I hate. So I'll compare the other two.

Olascuaga vs Rui Pedro

Both are right-footed, so crossing will be more important than long shots. Olascuaga seems to have better defensive attributes (he's better at tackling, marking, positioning), but Rui Pedro is a "smarter " player. Rui is a bit slower, but we already have Salli to rely on high speed. So let's give the S5 to Rui Pedro.

Now, we need an AM L.

Ivanildo is an inconsistent performer. So we got Olascuaga vs Magique.

"]Magique vs Olascuaga

Again, Olascuaga seems to have better defensive attributes. Maybe that could be useful in match situations where we want to play a bit more defensive... Also note Magique can only play AM L, while Olascuaga can play AM L OR AM R. Which is a plus. The S6 slot goes to Olascuaga, then.

Finally, S7.

We've got two options: Salim Cissé or Rafael Lopes.

Cissé vs Rafael Lopes

It's a tough choice here, but our tactic is using a false nine and maybe some athleticism would come in handy. Rafael Lopes is better on that department. However, Rafael is also an inconsistent performer. Cissé, on the other hand, is stronger in the air (15 jumping, 13 heading). He could be a good alternative to the inside forward + false nine approach; we might want to try a "target man" + winger approach, using crosses as the main source of threat. Neat! Cissé would prove useful then. S7 to Cissé.

So these are the substitutes:

Final substitute

We'll decide on that S4 once one of our DM Cs or M Cs recovers from injury or we get a match in the meantime and are forced to choose other non-DM C and non-M C player.

The discussion of Académica tactics is over. From now on, I'll be discussing matches; I may discuss Académica tactics but it will be either in the context of a) tweaking things as they're not working as we predicted, or b) countermeasures against opposition players / tactics.

Cheers!

3 - PREPARING A PLAN FOR MATCHES

In Football Manager, the human player has no direct influence on any match outcome. No matter how good a player is, no player wins every match, everytime. After all, it's his players who defend, it's his players who attack, and it's his players who score the goals, so a lot of the responsibility is delegated to them. But that's not to say the human player has no influence on the outcome either.

The human player is who makes the tactical decisions. And the tactical decisions are what shall maximize the probability of success. Success in itself, however, is not absolute, not in the sense of regular singleplayer videogames where the human player can (and in fact is supposed to) master the whole game playing a central (many times undefeatable) role. Success in Football Manager is realistic. Even painfully pessimistic, when compared to the favorable odds of the rest of the videogame industry. Losing only half of the matches can be a tremendous success if in the right context (for example, when managing a team doomed to drown in the bottom of its league's table). In other words, success is relative. Relative to expectations. So the aim and the joy of Football Manager relies on exceeding expectations. How does one do that? By making the right calls... based on deduction, on investigation... based on intel collected on the player's team and the opposition team.

Having a plan to approach matches in a systematic way helps a lot to collect meaningful intel to, later on, make the tactical decisions that (at least according to logic) should help the team exceed expectations.

In this chapter, I will be sketching a checklist to collect information before, during and after the match.

3.a) The pre-match

3.a1) Your team

Player morale and condition

-- anyone tired or with VERY high/ VERY low morale: time for some selection changes?

-- new injuries since last match: time for some selection changes!

Individual and collective performance info

-- results in the last 5 matches: underachieving or overachieving?

-- who trained well / unwell since last match: time for some selection changes?

-- who played well / unwell last match: time for some selection changes?

Squad rotation

-- Indispensable players to the club should play 4 in 5 matches

-- Important players to the club should play 3 in 5 matches

-- Rotational players should play 2 in 5 matches

-- Reserve players should play 0/1 in 5 matches

-- Good rule of thumb - keep everyone’s fitness (NOT condition) above ~80%

Calendar density info

-- how many matches in the last two weeks

-- how long since last match

-- how many matches in the next two weeks

-- how long until the match next this one

-- relative importance of this match compared to the next

3.a2) External factors

Playing home or away?

Weather: hot or wet?

Pitch size and condition

Referee: is he harsh?

3.a3) The opposition team

Player average morale and condition

-- Especially the predictable XI

Collective performance info

-- results in the last 5 matches: underachieving or overachieving?

Special threats

3.b) During the match

3.c) Post-match

Your team

-- Tactical fiddling outcomes: individual and collective performance

-- different formation / style / strategy: How did they perform?

-- someone played in a new position / with a new role / duty: How did he perform?

UNDER CONSTRUCTION