The Coventry City Project: Building a Championship side from Scratch

[VillaSmith]

I think you must terminate the loan, although I may be wrong.

Thanks I think i might just terminate them

[Shakey]

Great thread LincolnCanary, although you seem to have lost interest due to the lack of discussion.

I won't try this as it isn't a challange but will share my championship experiences. Firstly i find you need to have a settled team and don't always need to spend money, find yourself a good tactic and stick to it. I also find the need to have no more than 25 player first team and reserves, and even loan a couple of those out. I always try to keep people on short term contracts, one to two years really unless i really like them. I recently took over Wolves in the first season, McCarthy had just been sacked in March they were 15th i think. I managed to try out everyone and see who i wanted that season. Then the following season i won the play-offs, but really struggled in the premiership. Back in the champonship i had a bad start but finished second, now battling away in the premiership and finding it easier.

I agree you need good pacey attacking full backs, to start with i had mulgrew and rob edwards, now i have mark little and fabio aurellio, his set pieces and assist are a great bonus, have ryan betrand as back up. Strong center halves, Brian McClean and Jack Hobbs were my choices. Defensive midfield i had Richard hughes, who was very good - replaced him with club captain Tobias Linderoth, i do like scandinavian players.

Attacking wise, first season it was wingers who got me promoted, Stephen Ward on the left and Kightly on the right, Eastwood and Keogh up top. Keogh is good as he drops deep and creates a lot of chances. I always have a target man as a sub for throwing on, or starting against those lower teams. I had Tomas Pekhart on loan as he has good heading and jumping, christian Nade is also very good.

The second promotion i changed to 4-3-3, with Mauro Zarate(who signed when in the premiership) in the center as a target man into feet. With Eastwood and Keogh alongside him, Christian Nade was back up. The three in midfield i found i needed one defensive, Linderoth with a backward arrow, one pacey midfielder who can push forward, and can break when counter attacking, i had Giles Barnes and Kieren Dyer who got released, both created lots of assists and scored plenty of goals. The other midfielder i needed had to be more of a technical player, i had landrea kinston (sp?), Ghanian and signed from Hearts. He can be defensive, good passer, lots of assists, corner taker and scores lots of goals.

Away from home i would play 4-5-1, keeping the same three in center midfield but either eastwood or zarate as solo striker, right wing barnes or dyer and left wing andy reid. Keeping the other two stikers on the bench ready to pounce if needed. I always look at the transfers screen looking for free transfers from higher divisions, as i find these low risk. I've had richard hughes, Nade, Gaveson, Benayoun.

The one closing comment i would make is to build a squad to survive in the prem, the first time i didn't do this and did really well in championship but was awful in the prem, second time i built a prem team, didn't walk the division, infact struggled at times but am faring much better in the prem.

For example your signings of Morris and Malcolm, they can only be classed as short term to stay in the division, and hopefully you haven't given them anything longer than one year deals. If you did get promotion and they are tied to contracts you may struggle to shift them. Anyway i look forward to reading this thread with interest.

[A True Fan]

Only got a few players left to sell now. I've currently recieved £3.7m. From that I get to spend around £1.5m. I've spent £250k so far. And looking to spend a lot more.

[tomllew]

TG! KUTGW!

In my eyes this is one of the best reads I've stumbled across on this forum for a while.

After reading it I too seem interested and inspired to start my own work .........

By the way, I believe a solid defensive line and a talented striker always helps in the championship

[Zellix]

I'm going to give this a shot just to see what it throws at me. I always feel English talent is very much overpriced, even at lower levels so this could be interesting. For the championship I think some strong physical players would be needed, as their is a lot of that in the championship irl, so my small creative players would be used sparingly (that is of course if you can get enough players in to choose what type of players you want). I support Derby and I remember when we had lots of young kids in the championship and we'd get destroyed, but then when we had our big experienced strong lads on and Georgy Kinkladze in the hole it was amazing, but still he got cropped a lot and didn't play much. Fast players on the wing was good against the big guys, if they were skillful enough to get round them since once they're past the big guys they're gone. In real life I like the little man big man combination, even in the championship but I think in game a lone striker with other players behind the ball will work best (especially in a weak team). So a big strong TM up front with a pacey player in rotation. A good lad working lad in the heart of midfield (well, either DM or MC) is essential for the championship, imo. Seth Johnson did this very well for Derby before.