FM10: Official Athletic Club Bilbao Thread - The Lions of San Mames

[Falahk]

so time for a session summary, i will do it in short

-transfers I only bought some regens

-spanish supercup lost to Real Madrid 3-8 on aggregate

-european supercup won vs Genoa 3-2 after extra time

-club worlds won vs Cruz Azul 2-0

-spanish cup lost to Real Madrid 0-2 in the final

-champions league got to the semis where a divine Amauri/Diego pair messed me over big time, lost 2-6 on aggregate vs Juve (was gutted since my team played well, but just simply faild to cope with the metioned pair)

and well....I friggin did it! yay yay yay

[ambi!]

Hi all,

I am enjoying my Athletic save immensely and my team is performing pretty well (3rd in the league) but this has mostly come through good results away(playing counter attack). At home I am however unable to dominate against inferior opposition. The opposition always has way more possession and and I can mostly scrape a draw. (I play control or attack when the odds favour me big time) Can someone offer me some advise?

I play a flat 4-4-2; GK Iraizoz, LB Koikilli, RB Iraloa, DC San Jose, DC Amorebieta, MC (ball winning midfielder) Orbaiz, MC Martinez (box to box), ML (winger attack) Yeste, MR(winger support) Susaeta/Prieto, FC Munian (poucher), Llorente (target man support). Note that I have Ander in my team but he has performed average.

[fighting irish]

Weak teams will just try to sit deep and play keep away which is why their possession will get up to 60% for large portions of the game. Usually you don't see this in the highlights but my last Euro Cup game against PSV the AI displayed a highlight of them just passing around the back for over 2 minutes.

Tell your team you expect them to win (but not if its a relegation opponent toward the end of the season, say after April or May). Push higher up and Hassle opponents to force your team to challenge them while they are playing keep away. I also find that using an Attacking mentality seems to shift my team higher up the pitch which helps with possession %, but I actually tend to not score this way.

Once you neutralize the opponents gameplan, switch to brief periods after about 30 minutes each half where you either (a) Get Ball Forward and Pass into Space (which will work nicely with Ander or Yeste at AMC...you get lots of passes into the box just behind the defense. If I use Munian in this role as Trequarquista he seems to want to dribble through the center more, even if I shout Pass into Space) or (b) Play Wider, Work Ball into Box (which works great with Prieto at AMR who will get the ball a lot more and draw defenders away as he dribbles).

I have played three seasons using the same players and the same tactic that now I don't even have to do this anymore. Most games I can just stay Standard with no touchline shouts and the team will perform fairly well. The adjustments I make now are usually psychological by criticizing or benching my key players while using the 18 y/o regens as substitutes to spice things up. My non-regen fringe players are not helpful for these tactical substitutions.

I would also like to reiterate taking corners to the far post which is about the only thing that has ever worked for me. I am usually 2nd in the league at goals from corners every year. That can help in these needlessly tight games against smaller opponents. Iraola provides great service (as does Raul Garcia if you can get him). Xabi Prieto standing on the far post with Amorebieta or Luis Prieto does nicely attacking the far post.

Looking at your line-up, you really want Prieto with an attacking mentality so that he will dribble to the touchline, whereas Yeste does better in a supporting role with his superior passing and creativity. I currently have a 32 y/o Yeste playing ML, wide midfielder, support and he is having a great season.

I found that Llorente actualls plays better for me as a complete forward. It makes him drop deeper and oftentimes my AMC trequaquista will get ahead of him, but my team gets better possesion, better link play into the box and Llorente is still my leading scorer. Likewise, even though it seems like Martinez is perfect for Box-to-Box, I got him to perform better as simply a central midfielder, support.

But I play with the assymetric formation. The trick is giving the right players enough space and support without crowding out their own opportunities by teammates that are either too close or too far away. Martinez is an awesome MC, so he plays well when he has a lot of space. He is my only MC and so I want him to stay there and own that space. Likewise Prieto is such a good dribbler that I want to put him in a lot of space all by himself so that he will choose to dribble and not pass laterally. So I push him up as a AMR and tell him to attack and get forward even more into that empty corner. Gabilondo is more of an average all around player, so I want him to stay at his ML spot and just be a supporting role. Llorente is one of my best players so I want him to get involved as much as possible, hence the complete forward role. Munian can't defend and Ander can't shoot, so I just want them to find space and stay out of other people's way, so I play them at AMC, Trequarquista. My defense is always a little shaky, so I use a DMC, anchor man to provide cover (Gurpegi & Orbaiz, who are also good at my MC role, and Murillo is good at Anchorman role.

[ambi!]

@Fighting Irish,

Thanks for your detailed tips! I will try and put this to use and I will let you know how it works out. Also for next season I will give the assymetric setup a go as it is the only way I can incorporate Ander and Martinez together. For now I will stick with my flat 4-4-2 as Ander just does not perform when I play him as AMC in a 4-4-2 daimond.

PS You are spot on with the far post setup at corners. I have Llorente attacking the far post and he has scored a big amount of goals this way.

[fighting irish]

Checking in with the status of my third save gave with Athletic:

2009/10: Finished 3rd with 20W 8D 10L (68pts) 61GF 41GA

- I bought Xabi Prieto in January for 8.25M after Iraola failed to impress as an AMR

- I was actually in 6th or 7th for most of the season, but since crashing out of Europe and the Cup early, I could play my best players every game down the stretch and won 6 of my last 7 to sneak into third on the final day of the season

- Llorente was 3rd in Spanish goal scorers and was the best player for Athletic

2010/11: Finished 5th with 19W 9D 10L (66pts) 58GF 40GA

- bought Azipilicueta for a ridiculously low 4.5M just before the first season ended

- Bought Ander for a failry low 12M in January

- Won the Spanish Cup over Real Madrid and beat both Barcelona and Madrid in regular season play

- Iraola was the best player for Athletic

2011/12: Finsheed 5th with 19W 12D 7L (69pts) 61GF 33GA

- bought Raul Garcia for 20M in August

- Bought Luis Prieto for 1.5M in August

- won the Euro Cup over Liverpool 2-1 thanks to Xabi Prieto's 2 goals and with Steven Gerrard not playing due to injury

- I was solidly in 3rd for most of the season, but deliberately rested my first team for much of April and May in order to win the Euro Cup. I lost my last three league games.

- Munian finally won the Young Player of the Year even though he had better seasons the previous two years. A regen DL of mine was second in the voting.

- Iraola and Llorente are starting to get caps for Spain about 50% of the time.

Raul Garcia still hasn't settled in yet and has a rating below 7. Ander is just starting to play well regularly after 1.5 seasons. Xabi Prieto had a marvelous season and seems to be the best 3 star rated player on Football Manager. All set to move in to the new stadium for next season with a solid first team at every position except for being fairly old at ML. Lots of rated regens need to get some playing time as their development on the B team in the league Adelante was not as good as I had hoped.

[Preemo]

Hi, I have a question. Can I change in editor this rule about only Basque players? I would like to start game with Athletic but I would like to have in my squad players from other countries too.

And I'm sorry for my English.

[ambi!]

Hi, I have a question. Can I change in editor this rule about only Basque players? I would like to start game with Athletic but I would like to have in my squad players from other countries too.

And I'm sorry for my English.

Why would you want to do that? This is the main reason that playing with Athletic is such fun, it is what makes it such a different challenge.

[Conman14]

I used pretty much all my budget on Dani Aranzubia from Deportivo, but he's been a beast until he got injured also signed a couple of youngsters who are already newgens. sitting 9th after 12 games, and im 3 pts off Europe with 2 games in hand.

Muniain has been a beast too. Put him straight in the team as a Poacher and he's got 18 goals in 18 games in all competitions...

[grimness]

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/229548-RELEASE-Spain-6th-Level-league-system-update-for-FM2010

Just downloaded this mod for database. Finally affiliations can be useful for getting new players and also developing current ones in playable leagues. Loaded this one with all French leagues and only few days ago I realized that I can select Basque as second nationality. Something fun to play till FM11 and maybe beyond if game is full of bugs.

[ArranoBeltza]

In 2025, I won my third straight league title...plus a bonus:

Also, I beat Inter in the final. Therefore, I found my former player's comments to be kind of funny, considering where he is now:

Time to retire my FM10 save- it's been great and I hope to see you all in the FM11 thread!!!

[Falahk]

I only made it to 2012 on my Athletic save, but im pretty happy with geting my hands on all possible titles atleast once during those 3 sessions playing all in basque galacticos (I spent freely to propel myself into succes, with Xabi Alonso being the only one out of reach out of the players I wanted to sign).

Maybe I will go back to it at some point (if i keep fm10 on my lap) but I dont think I will be posting updates in here with fm11 grabing most of my attention.

will strive to drop by on regular basis in the fm11 thread, once I feel comfortable on the new ME and the other new stuff