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[FM10] When The Saints Go Marching In - Crouchy's Mighty Saints Save!

crouchaldinho

By crouchaldinho,
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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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Glad you won at least one trophy last season, but a shame it wasn't one of the ones you were really after. Looks like it's just a matter of time now, you're clearly good enough, just need to keep plugging away until it comes together!

Thanks SnakeXe.

The squad is still very young so I will be looking to add experience if I can in the summer.

The thing that I am finding difficult is being able to compete with the top sides for the best players. Right now, the best avenue open to me is to bring in younger players with potential, while Arsenal and Liverpool go out and spend big money on world class players (who wouldn't join my club). Arsenal, in particular, spend a lot. They spend more than me every summer and bring in some real quality.

I don't know why people say that the AI isn't very good at transfers and team building. That's not my experience. Liverpool and Arsenal both have some awesome players in my save. I'm finding it a big challenge to compete.

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SnakeXe

SnakeXe

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I don't know why people say that the AI isn't very good at transfers and team building. That's not my experience. Liverpool and Arsenal both have some awesome players in my save. I'm finding it a big challenge to compete.

What I found on FM10 was the big sides would build amazing squads whilst you were trying to make it to the top, but once you were there they seemed to kind of give up. Staying at the top was far too easy on that game for me, in real life the chasing pack would keep improving to get back on a par with you, like what happened when Mourinho's Chelsea raised the bar.

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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What I found on FM10 was the big sides would build amazing squads whilst you were trying to make it to the top, but once you were there they seemed to kind of give up. Staying at the top was far too easy on that game for me, in real life the chasing pack would keep improving to get back on a par with you, like what happened when Mourinho's Chelsea raised the bar.

Well, right now, they are doing a fine job of putting together good squads, although Liverpool should certainly be more consistent in terms of a title challenge.

We'll have to see how it pans out in the long run. I think it'll be another tight year in the league and I believe Arsenal are still superior.

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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I think the main problem still, is scoring enough goals. 55 goals in the league isn't good enough in my experience, as much as it might hurt, Arsenal deserve it more due to the better goal difference. Address that issue and I'm sure the title will be yours :thup:

I agree WS and you'll shortly see what I have done to address this problem! ;)

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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20091026011547!St_albans.png

PRE-SEASON 2023/24 TRANSFERS:

Click here for the transfers I made this summer.

First of all, let's deal with the outgoing players. I decided not to let too many players go and to keep things fairly consistent this summer. Out went Ben Kearns, who was basically a fringe player. Then I also decided to let Victor Yegorov, who had scored 77 goals in 157 league appearances for the club, go to Fenerbahce. Those were the major outgoing transfers.

I went into the transfer window with a slightly different attitude and plan this summer. I took the decision to take a new strategy. First of all, I wanted to make one major 'big name' signing. Secondly, I wanted to invest in young players with potential for the future. After that though, I really wanted to look for any bargains I could get. I basically wanted to add depth and plan for the future.

The priority, in terms of the big signing, was to improve the firepower up front to give us the chance to compete with Arsenal. So I went out and spent a record fee of £28m on Dutch International striker Michel Vermeer. This was the current European striker of the year. He had started his career at AFC Ajax, making a total of 53 league apps and scoring 35 goals. Then, he joined Dortmund, and scored 61 goals in 78 league appearances. He joins our club at the age of 22 and looks to have a fantastic future ahead of him. I'm very excited by this prospect and I hope to work with him for a long time into the future.

In terms of the bargains, we signed up Aaron Ramsey on a free, which I thought was a great signing. He is now 32, so this isn't a long-term signing, but he brings valuable experience and is still a quality player. I was also happy to bring Jack Wilshere back to England from AC Milan. I don't think this qualifies as a bargain really, at £7.5m, but he still has a good few years left in him, brings more experience and I couldn't resist the opportunity to sign an England International of his calibre.

I spent a lot of money on young players, bringing in the most promising players I could find, and sometimes paying over the odds as well for young English talent. I guess it is a risky strategy but currently our youth facilities are poor and I want to ensure the long-term stability of the club so I have resorted to buying young talent for now. It is a priority to keep improving the youth facilities until we start getting through some proper academy talent of our own.

All in all, I felt we did some great business in the transfer market and I also feel we are in a strong position to compete again this season. The squad is still young but, most importantly perhaps, we brought in some really excellent experience. Also, with Vermeer, we might now have the goals in this side to really challenge the top teams.

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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This is my anticipated starting XI for the first game of the season:

StAlbansCity-3-10.png

So, a bit of tactical consistency from me. I'm sticking with the 4-3-1-2.

Shlomi Soffer will start in goal.

In the fullback positions, Dean Smith and Cristobal Alonso will continue in their roles as per last season. Our centre-back partnership of Brazilian Marco Oliveira and Italian Massimo Maffei also remain in place.

In the midfield, Aaron Ramsey will come in to join Lorenz (the defensive-minded player in the middle), with Englishmen Michael Ball and Tom Stansfield fighting it out to play the attacking midfield role.

Harry Kane continues as second striker alongside his fellow new signing Michel Vermeer. A complete forward alongside a poacher respectively. Behind the strikers, Jack Wilshere will come in as our new signing. We also have the likes of Jose Manuel Hoyos, Aleksandar Dimitrov and Steffen Norgaard competing for places us front!

So it's three new signings coming into the starting XI. The other new signings will form part of the larger squad, or will start on the bench, to be eased in as the season progresses.

COYS!

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crouchaldinho

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ST. ALBANS CITY - SEASON 2023/24

20091026011547!St_albans.png

UPDATE FOR AUGUST, SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER - GREAT START TO LIFE AT CLARENCE PARK FOR VERMEER:

AugSepOct2023.jpg

Manager Comments:

We started off by losing the Community Shield for the first time in our history. The less said the better really. We just had a collective nightmare against Arsenal. It was quickly forgotten and we moved on.

Michel Vermeer had an outstanding league debut, scoring a hat-trick no less, against Bolton at Clarence Park. He carried on scoring goals and playing well during these first months of the new season, also seemingly bringing out the best in his striker partner Harry Kane.

Our first real test was Man Utd at Old Trafford, which is always a difficult fixture no matter how far United have fallen lately. Towards the end of the match we found ourselves 2-1 down against the run of play but luckily Norgaard saved us late on to salvage a point. These kind of games, where losses turn to draws, and draws turn to wins, are vital to a title challenge, even at this stage. Disappointment followed against West Brom, as we failed to score and ended up with a 0-0 draw. Shades of last season's struggles at times. We really need to work on breaking down defensive sides at home.

Beating Liverpool at home so convincingly in the middle of September was a real bonus. Vermeer was just unplayable, as he scored a brace and tormented the Liverpool defence. Other highlights in the league included a 4-0 thrashing of Stoke, with a Harry Kane hat-trick.

We had a couple of big tests at the end of October. Man City and Arsenal both came to Clarence Park and both matches followed a similar pattern. We were the better side in each match really but we couldn't manage to pull off wins in either of these games. It's not the end of the world, of course, against these kinds of sides, but it would have been nice to have an early advantage, especially on Arsenal.

All in all, it has been a slow but steady start in the league and I am happy enough, whilst also knowing that we can get better.

In the League Cup, we made good progress beating Brighton and Blackburn to get through to the quarter-finals.

We'll deal with the Champions League update in the next post, so stay tuned! ;)

Current League Position:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team         |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Arsenal      |       | 10    | 6     | 4     | 0     | 18    | 8     | +10   | 22    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 2nd   |       | St. Albans   |       | 10    | 5     | 5     | 0     | 20    | 7     | +13   | 20    | [/b]
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Liverpool    |       | 10    | 6     | 2     | 2     | 14    | 9     | +5    | 20    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Tottenham    |       | 10    | 6     | 1     | 3     | 12    | 8     | +4    | 19    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

COYS! gialloblu.gif

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Update:

We were drawn in a tough group with Real Madrid, Galatasaray and Young Boys.

So far, we started with a decent 1-1 draw in Madrid, beat Young Boys at home and thrashed Galatasaray 4-0 in their own backyard.

This is the table:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 1st   |       | St. Albans  |       | 3     | 2     | 1     | 0     | 6     | 1     | +5    | 7     | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | R. Madrid   |       | 3     | 2     | 1     | 0     | 4     | 2     | +2    | 7     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Galatasaray |       | 3     | 1     | 0     | 2     | 2     | 6     | -4    | 3     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Young Boys  |       | 3     | 0     | 0     | 3     | 2     | 5     | -3    | 0     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Qualifying would seem to be a formality. It is between us and Real for first place in the group but we have the advantage of them coming to play us at CP.

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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Finally, this is our new hero at CP:

9MichelVermeer.png

Not a bad return so far!

The good thing is that he should get better too, as he is only 22 and has a few years left of development.

I don't want to speak too soon but I hope he might be able to break the goalscoring record at this club. One of my main aims in this save is to break the club records for league apps and league goals. Saints legend Steve Clark currently holds them both at 488 and 322 respectively. I need to keep Vermeer at the club for as long as possible and hope that he scores tons of goals to fulfil that ambition!

He has had a good start to life at CP anyway. :thup:

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crouchaldinho

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Good Luck! I wanna see if you start pasting the opposition with goals! :)

Not bad so far, quite a few threes and fours. Better than last season right now anyway and hopefully more to come as the new signings settle.

Vermeer looks a fantastic signing KUTGW

I'm pleased with him. He is strong and powerful, a great finisher and an intelligent striker. The one weaknesses is his composure but hopefully that will pick up as he grows older.

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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Very tasty start from Vermeer! I find often you sign a great-looking striker and he struggles to get going, so it's great to see him hit the ground running.

When you say, ' I find often you sign a great-looking striker and he struggles to get going...', do you mean me specifically or just generally on FM?

It's true I've certainly had a few struggles. Jose Manuel Hoyos didn't set the world alight last season as I had hoped he would.

Vermeer is definitely doing the business though and Harry Kane seems a better player alongside him also.

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crouchaldinho

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Bah, he can't defend. Useless waste. :D

True. Actually, you say that, but we could really do with some more strength and depth at the back. It's the weak point of the squad now.

BTW, your update talks about 0-0 to West Brom away, but the screenie says Baggies came into your place and held you there. :eek:

Ah, yes. Fixed now. :o

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SnakeXe

SnakeXe

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When you say, ' I find often you sign a great-looking striker and he struggles to get going...', do you mean me specifically or just generally on FM?

It's true I've certainly had a few struggles. Jose Manuel Hoyos didn't set the world alight last season as I had hoped he would.

Vermeer is definitely doing the business though and Harry Kane seems a better player alongside him also.

I meant generally! I'm terrible at buying strikers :(

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crouchaldinho

crouchaldinho

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ST. ALBANS CITY - SEASON 2023/24

20091026011547!St_albans.png

UPDATE FOR NOVEMBER & DECEMBER - SAINTS STILL GRINDING OUT THE WINS:

NovDec2023.jpg

Manager Comments:

We are still going rather nicely in the league, still picking up narrow victories here and there, and still undefeated so far this season! Kane and Vermeer, in particular, seem to have a great partnership going at the moment.

We have also progress in the League Cup, beating Newcastle United to send us through to the semi-finals stage where we will meet Leicester City.

European update coming up next.

Current League Position:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team         |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 1st   |       | St. Albans   |       | 19    | 13    | 6     | 0     | 38    | 12    | +26   | 45    | [/b]
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Arsenal      |       | 19    | 11    | 5     | 3     | 35    | 13    | +22   | 38    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Blackburn    |       | 19    | 11    | 5     | 3     | 26    | 17    | +9    | 38    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Man City     |       | 19    | 11    | 4     | 4     | 30    | 16    | +14   | 37    | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

COYS! gialloblu.gif

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crouchaldinho

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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2023/24 UPDATE:

See above for the results.

We secured our qualification with the win over Galatasaray, then went and thumped Real Madrid 5-0 at Clarence Park to secure first spot in the table!

This was the final table:

| Pos   | Inf   | Team        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
[b]| 1st   | Q     | St. Albans  |       | 6     | 5     | 1     | 0     | 15    | 3     | +12   | 16    | [/b]
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Q     | R. Madrid   |       | 6     | 4     | 1     | 1     | 10    | 8     | +2    | 13    | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Galatasaray |       | 6     | 1     | 1     | 4     | 3     | 11    | -8    | 4     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Young Boys  |       | 6     | 0     | 1     | 5     | 4     | 10    | -6    | 1     | 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

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crouchaldinho

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As usual, January and February are going to be pretty huge for us in terms of our overall season and how things are going to pan out.

In January, we face Chelsea at Lampard Park and Liverpool at Anfield in the league. We also have the two legs of the League Cup Semi-final to play.

Going into February, there is a tough looking game away to Arsenal to play. We will also have the small matter of our Champions League 1st knock-out round tie. We have been drawn against CSKA Moscow.

So, it's going to be a crucial couple of months for our hopes this season!

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crouchaldinho

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Tactical Changes:

Going into the New Year, I've decided to make a couple of changes.

First, we're going to be playing a proper 4-4-2 Diamond formation, with this as my preferred line-up:

StAlbansCity-9-4.png

I also want more free flowing football and more goals from my squad, so I'm switching to a Fluid philosophy for most games, in order to give my players some more freedom. In short, I want more goals and more beautiful football, although I'm likely to switch to a more controlling philosophy (i.e. rigid) if playing a top side). We'll see if this new tactical strategy pays off. I feel the squad is probably good enough now to play in a more fluid manner.

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crouchaldinho

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I make that 12 wins in a row - awesome!

Yeah, pretty sure I broke a record actually.

We've yet to play most of the big sides away from home. The likes of away matches at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Blackburn etc. are all coming in the second half of the season. It's going to be tough.

Good luck with the new system crouchy, I switched from a flat 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 recently and it's really reaping dividends, hope yours is as successful :)

Fingers crossed. I just want to play some more attractive football and score some more goals now that I have better players.

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DSYoungEsq

DSYoungEsq

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Wouldn't Manuel at the DM position make more sense? Or do you think Kalashnikov has the physical presence to make that position work for him?

It's great to see you trying tactical changes. Makes me think you'll be enjoying FM11 when you finally come on over to the light. :D

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crouchaldinho

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Wouldn't Manuel at the DM position make more sense? Or do you think Kalashnikov has the physical presence to make that position work for him?

Manuel is back-up for that position but he is also a great utility player and can play in any number of positions. He's also young and still developing, so he isn't quite ready for the first-team on a regular basis.

Kalashnikov is being retrained at DM. I'm hoping he might learn it more quickly than MC, hence the change. Kalashnikov basically has the perfect attributes to be a DLP, so that's the role I am using for him.

It's great to see you trying tactical changes. Makes me think you'll be enjoying FM11 when you finally come on over to the light. :D

Might be some time before that happens to be honest. I've decided that I really want to keep playing this save until I have reached several long-term goals, including breaking the league appearances and league goals records, winning everything there is to win and then doing it again and a gain, and also getting a new stadium with my name on it! :D

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crouchaldinho

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Yay, go narrow formations!

Flamers

I actually wanted to switch to an orthodox 4-4-2 but I don't have the personnel at the moment. I like the diamond from an attacking football point of view because I can then play with two forwards and an attacking midfielder behind them! At some point, I'll be switching to 4-4-2 as I really fancy playing a fluid and attacking 4-4-2.

I've used quite a few different formations on this save: 4-2-3-1 Deep, 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, 4-5-1 briefly, 4-1-3-2, 4-3-2-1 Xmas Tree, 4-3-1-2 and now the 4-4-2 diamond. I'm firmly a four at the back man on FM, as you can see. :D

Do you like the 4-4-2 diamond then Flamers?

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crouchaldinho

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I prefer the 4-4-2 diamond as it has 3 attacking players, which I am a big fan of. If you haven't guessed :p

Flamers

Fair enough. I like playing with an AM but I also prefer to use two strikers, so it fits the bill for me too. :D

To be honest, it's not much of a change as I was playing 4-3-1-2 before anyway, so I've just moved one of the CMs back to DM. Essentially, in real life terms, there isn't really any difference between the diamond and the 4-3-1-2 anyway in a theoretical sense.

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Flamers

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I use a slightly strange set of instructions in mine. I have a Deep Lying Playmaker in midfield and my DM is a Defensive Midfielder, In effect it gives me 5 defenders when defending but a smooth counter attack :)

I'm playing a 4-1-2-3 ;)

Flamers

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crouchaldinho

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I use a slightly strange set of instructions in mine. I have a Deep Lying Playmaker in midfield and my DM is a Defensive Midfielder, In effect it gives me 5 defenders when defending but a smooth counter attack :)

I'm playing a 4-1-2-3

Flamers

Sounds interesting. :thup:

Blimey, nothing for ages then all this! Nice to see the save continued :thup:

I didn't play much over Christmas. Sort of went a bit off this save. I almost started a new one with Luton Town actually but didn't get very far. Then I almost decided to head to Ireland or Northern Ireland for a total change but that didn't take off either. :D

Didn't get FM2011 for xmas then crouchy?)

I have got FM11 installed actually but just haven't got the desire to start a save on it yet.

I'm going to carry on with this save for now. I have quite a few long-term aims to see out with the Saints on FM10.

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SnakeXe

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I use a slightly strange set of instructions in mine. I have a Deep Lying Playmaker in midfield and my DM is a Defensive Midfielder, In effect it gives me 5 defenders when defending but a smooth counter attack :)

I'm playing a 4-1-2-3 ;)

Flamers

Sounds very cool! I have a 4-2-3-1 with a standard back four with attacking fullbacks, then a destroyer and almost a box-to-box player as the 2 DMs. He's set as just a supporting Defensive Midfielder, but he has the PPM "Gets Forward Whenever Possible" which helps bridge the gap between the back 6 and front 4.

I then have 2 pretty normal wingers, and an Advanced Playmaker with the support role, so he drops a little deeper than the other 3 to find space and pick a pass. The lone striker is an advanced forward, which really stretches the opposition and creates space for the aforementioned playmaker. Produces some very tidy football at times :)

Anyway, I'll stop hijacking your thread crouchy ;)

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