The Chalkboard Diaries

[Cleon]

You can find all these articles and much more on my blog at

www.thechalkboarddiaries.com

The Chalkboard Diaries

Introduction

THE LINK FOR THE DISCUSSION THREAD CAN BE FOUND HERE;

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/352484-The-Chalkboard-Diaries-THE-DISCUSSION-THREAD?p=8694105#post8694105

A couple of weeks back I thought it might be a good idea to write about all the tactics that I use across various saved games I have. Then I thought why not put them all in one place under one thread and make it into a series or articles. I have many saved games, far too many in fact and some of them won't be getting played anymore. But the tactics I’ve used are still worth talking about because I’ve had success with every club I have managed. To give you an idea of some of the teams I have saved games with here is a quick list;

• Newcastle United
  
• Sheffield United
  
• Sheffield F.C
  
• Paysandu
  
• Ajax
  
• Palmeiras
  
• Tottenham
  
• Santos
  
• Rangers
  

That’s just off the top of my head I do actually have more. All the ones I’ve mentioned though all have more than 4 seasons played. So these will offer quite a bit of information about the tactics I used and why.

I wasn’t going to do this as it is a bit ambitious and will take up a lot of time but I really do like the idea and I like the name The Chalkboard Diaries so thought I’d give it ago. This is a very ambitious project though so I’m not sure how the content will flow or how often I’ll update. I have a lot done already but there is also a lot that isn’t done yet and will take some time to write about.

The idea is that I’ll keep all the information in one thread that is locked and then create a separate thread for the discussion. This will allow the information to be accessed easier and be more visible as each post in the locked thread will contain information about the tactic. This way people don’t have to look through page and page of comments to find the immediate content. I’ve done threads in this style in the past and they’ve worked really well so hopefully this can carry that on

Each tactic I write about for the team I used will be done differently and some will end up a lot more detailed than others because I’ve played them longer so have more talking points.

Some people who read this might think I have cheated due to my results and fair enough everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However please don’t post saying such things and ruin the discussion with such accusations. I’ll be showing how I played every single game so hopefully you’ll understand why I am so successful. So if you think I cheat you are probably best avoiding this discussion.

Welcome to The Chalkboard Diaries!

[Cleon]

The Sheffield United Years - 3-5-2 to 3-7-0

I class my Sheffield United saved game as my one true proper save now and its likely this is the only game that I’ll be carrying on and playing from now on. So I thought this would be a good place to start for that fact because everything is still fresh in my mind. Not only that but my tactics have evolved a lot and I think people will find it interesting. I’ve already mentioned it a few times on the forums and twitter and when I do people always ask if I’ve wrote about the tactics anywhere and I always say no. But that is about to change.....

This saved game will probably be the most in depth with the exception of my Ajax one. So there might be a lot to read on the 3-5-2/3-7-0 because I’ll be discussing a lot.

What the Thread Will Contain

Just to give you an idea of the things I’ll be discussing in this thread here is a very quick overview of what I currently have in mind.

Vision - Even though I am in League One, in the back of my mind I know what type of football I want to be playing and what type of player’s I would need. I’m a long way from been able to achieve that though but that doesn't mean I can’t start the ball rolling now. I want to be able to play a game that doesn't over focus on possession but rather a style that allows me to use the best of the possession to be a threat. I’d rather concentrate on having possession in a dangerous area as that is much more effective than having a high possession percentage in my own half. Creating quality of quantity is the most important thing for me.

The end goal - I’d write a little bit about where the club currently is and share my long term vision for it. This would purely be about tactics and the type of players I’d need to get to that level. As I’m down in League One finances are none existent so it’ll be a tough challenge once I’m out of League One. The tactics I’d use at the start of the game would be very different to what I see us using in the Prem after a few seasons. So I’d outline my current approach and explain why then tell how I want to play 6-10 years down the line. For example I might use a more generic 451/442 or something to start off with but as I get more finances and can bring slightly better players in, I’d be building to the formation I see the club playing long term which would be a 352 strikerless Libero.

Squad Building - This would follow on from the above and focus on the type of players I’d be buying and why. It would also include training and tracking the players development. I’d only do this for the long term players I buy though and not the players who I buy just for a season or so. I’d still tell why I bought them though but it would be pointless to track the development.

Pre-season - How I plan from the first day I take over the club and the build up to the first competitive match. This will include transfers, training, player searches, tactics etc.

Tactic - A look at how I came to use the current tactic and why.

Beating formations - This would take a look at how I beat all the different kinds of formations I come up against.

Analysis Tab - I’d highlight and show how I use this both during and after a game to keep on top of things and see if I can find any issues and try and offer solutions to fixing them.

Preparing for the step up - If I got promotion the second season would be a big step up so it would show my approach with dealing with that while at the same time keeping an eye on how I eventually want to play, so again this would be a step towards that. Everything I do is all a build up and a stepping stone to the end product. I’d also do the same again should I reach the prem the season after.

Development - Every season I’d show the development of the players who would be at the club long term. I’d show schedules/PPM’s training/retraining and even who tutored them.

There is a lot more I’d like to do and probably will but this is just a basic outline to show the type of thinking and direction I think it’ll go in.

So what do you think? If you think something is s**t or should be done a different way then say, I won’t be offended

I’m pretty sure you have loads of ideas too and you could easily fit videos in to incorporate the above.

That is what I’m thinking so far. But they aren’t set in stone and could change or turn into other ideas.

While it might seem a lot to take in and a bit overwhelming, I assure you the actual playing speed that I play at will be very quick and hopefully I can show you that it takes minimum effort to win games and gain promotions. All you need is logic, common sense and a basic knowledge of football to achieve what I’m setting out to do.

[Cleon]

The 3-1-4-2

For any of you who've followed any of my threads on previous version of Football Manager you’ll see that I am a massive fan of back three formations. Normally it is the DR/DL/DC variation though as I always felt that offered the best cover on the flanks due to the three central defender versions been to static and not going wide enough at times to cover. However I feel this has changed somewhat for FM13 and it is now viable to create a solid flat back three formation.

With this is mind I decided to go with something like this to start off with;

This isn’t the tactic that I want to play long term though but due to the lack of attacking midfielders I have and with having no money that is something I’ll have to do at a later date once I can bring in the players I want.

Ignoring the roles, ideally this is how I’ll be playing in the very near future;

That screenshot is the long term goal and the shape that I will be playing the majority of my saved game with. People seem to struggle with Libero’s, back 3 formations and strikerless ones, so I decided that I will incorporate all 3 to give people an insight into how I’d get it to work.

But for now I’ll be using the formation set out in the first screenshot.

I've done many threads before about how and why I create a tactic so for now I’ll not go into great detail about the current shape I’ll use (the first image in this post). But once I change shape and see it evolve I’ll go into more details and specifics then. This way you’ll see how it differs and get an understanding of my thinking especially with the roles I’ll choose and how they’ll all work together.

The reason behind this is I’d rather focus on other areas to begin with and you should still see why the tactic works (or doesn't) from the analysis and the stats we’ll be looking at. Plus if I’m being honest I just want to get to the Premier League as fast as I can because for me, that is when my game will really start.

[Cleon]

Pre-Season

Pre-season is one of the most important times at the club because if you get this right you can start the season in the right frame of mind and hit the ground running. The majority of my success on FM is down to how I approach pre-season as I believe I set up the best I possibly can for me and my club and the style I play. So why is it important? Well let me show you how I approach it and then you can see why

I break preseason down to;

• Morale
  
• Fitness
  
• Tactic Familarity
  
• Team Cohesion
  

The above is what I class as really important and are all the things that will make the biggest difference over the season especially at the beginning.

Morale

Having players with high morale is always a bonus and its a really good idea to get it as high as possible straight away. To achieve this as soon as possible what I do is make sure any friendlies I play are against extremely weaker opposition. The reasons behind this is I want the team to score a lot of goals. I don’t see the point in playing hard friendlies and risking affecting a players morale. So setting up the correct friendlies is vital for me to allow me to build on morale. the more goals you score in pre-season the better imo.

Fitness

Every player at the club must be match fit before the season starts. If not then you’ll find they tire more quickly and increase the risk of picking up injuries or little niggles from games. I can do without this so I ensure everyone is fit all the time. By getting everyone match fit it means you can throw them into the first team should you suffer injuries/suspensions early on in the season and don’t have to worry that they aren’t fit. It also becomes easier to maintain throughout the season

Tactic Familiarity

Probably the most important thing to concentrate on for me. The sooner everything is fluid the better because it means your tactic will play better and the players are used to every aspect of it. You can get tactic familiarity fluid before the start of the first game of the season if you play properly. It takes around 11 friendlies to do this and while this might seem like an excessive amount of games to play, it isn’t really. Remember that I am picking very weak opponents to play so this means it doesn’t matter if I have to play my youths or not. No matter what side I put out I should win. I tie this in with getting everyone at the club match fit. So I tend to play a game every 2-3 days to get both fitness and tactic familiarity up.

I’ve seen people post saying they set general training focus to tactics to get familiarity levels up however that doesn’t actually work despite the misleading name. What you have to do is set the match training focus to tactics. This is what gets tactic familiarity up.

Team Cohesion

If I’ve promoted players from my youth/reserves team into the first team or bought any new players then I focus on this heavily as the general focus once my players are fit. It helps them settle into the team quickly and get an understanding. This is vital because it helps with language barriers if you have foreign players who might not understand the language of the country you play in and his team mates.

Those are the things I concentrate on. But to show you how it all plays out in FM here is my pre-season took from my Sheffield United saved game.

Friendlies

This is how I’ve set up the friendlies, as you can see there is quite a few in a short space of time which is more beneficial and allows me to make sure every single player is match fit and plays games.

I could squeeze more games in if I wanted but I think anything around 10 is fine. I do realise I’ve only got 9 but that’s because I am playing in the Community Shield, I don’t take that competition serious and class it as a glorified friendly.

Another thing you could do which I haven’t done is set up friendlies for the reserves/u18’s as well if you have very large squads. That way you can get players up to fitness quickly. Plus if you do reserve friendlies you can add some of your first team to the side just to gain fitness. It’s a great way of utilising them for people who have larger squads.

Training

It’s important that you change the slider to how it is in this screenshot if you want to learn tactic familiarity as quick as possible. If you don’t need to learn tactical familiarity then you don’t have to have it as extreme as this 50/50.

As you can see I am concentrating on fitness for the general training and tactics as the match training. I don’t have what I class as a large squad so I expect my players to be match fit with-in 3-4 games. So by the 10 day I can then change the focus onto team cohesion for the remainder of pre-season.

This is how my familiarity currently looks;

I expect almost all of these to be fluid before the first game of the season.

After three friendly games my match fitness levels for the players is as follows;

I should point out here that I went on a training camp which the board arrange so while you are at a training camp things learn slightly faster than they do during the time you don’t go to a camp. So if you don’t go to a camp it normally takes around 4-6 games rather than the 3. Nonetheless the basics are still the same.

After four games my tactic familiarity now looks like this;

And at the end of pre-season this is what it looks like;

And that is it, my approach to how I handle pre-season

[Cleon]

Season One Analysis

There was no real surprises and League One went the way I thought it would and the way it should have gone. But I did learn a lot, probably a bit more than people anticipated. While it can be seen that I had a strong campaign I still learned things about my players, the way I play as well as the strengths and weaknesses of my side.

Lets take a look at the league table;

As you can see I keep a lot of clean sheets, this means that I don’t have to score loads of goals because I am confident that I can hold onto a lead. If I conceded more goals then inevitably I’d need to also increase the amount I score to offset them. If you can keep a clean sheet then you have half the battle already won in my opinion.

The majority of the games went my way which was expected and no doubt about it, that next season things will be a lot tougher when I’m not the favourites for games. But on the flip side this also means I should see more space to exploit so that is something to give me hope.

We’ll be taking a look at the games I lost in a lot more detail in the analysis part of this topic as I’m sure we can all learn something about how I’ve set up.

Let’s take a look at my stats for the season’

The stats show that my goal to shots percentage is very poor at sits at 16.5%. While my shots on target is 44.3% which isn’t that bad. I’d like it to be a lot better but as you saw earlier in the thread, my players aren’t the greatest especially the strikers. But out of shots on target I score 37.3% which is kind of what it should be. There is definitely room for some improvements though

These are the types of goals I scored;

And these are the times of the goals;

As you can see most of my goals conceded are between 46-60 minutes. This could be down to a number of reasons like,

• AI changing shape
  
• Bad team talk
  
• Tiring players
  

Or it could be something else. When I do the analysis tab part I’ll try and figure out what my reasons for conceding in this time period are.

You’ll notice I don’t score much between 76-90 minutes either. The reason for this is I tend to have shut up shop by now and keep my current lead rather than look for the big score lines. I’m a firm believer of protecting my lead especially late on in games when players are tired.

These are the assists;

This is how I expected it to look in all honesty. As I rise through the ranks I expect this to change slightly as I get better wide players. But for now this is fine and expected. It seems like all my play is centralised but its not in all honesty. However this is the area’s I tend to be strongest in and with one of the strikers as a deep lying forward on a support duty, it makes perfect sense that most assists would come from here.

[Cleon]

The league One Years

It’s a misconception that people think that I micromanage for every single game that I play. I actually play at a really fast speed once I’m happy with my tactics. I’ll be talking about how I look for tactical issues and use the analysis tab to identify issues a little later on. But before that I want to show you exactly what I change before and during a game so you can see how simple I keep things.

All I do is imagine my formation on the top of the oppositions and this will highlight the immediate dangers. It’s so simple but you’ll see instant where you’ll struggle and be vulnerable as well as showing you the strengths of your own shape.

The Brentford Games

Home - 3-1 win

As you can see my midfielders in the centre of the pitch will be key for having any success here. So with this in mind I decided to play narrower (the use of shouts). I also had my DMC specifically man mark Brentford’s AMC and had my wide players do the same with their wingers.

This was all done before the game kicked off on the pre-match screens.

Shouts Used

Play narrower

These are the match stats;

These are the player stats;

In game tactical changes

None

Away - 0-2 win

They actually lined up the same as the first game;

So I decided to do what I did when I played them the first time around in terms of shouts and specific man marking.

Shouts Used

Play narrower

Match stats;

The player stats;

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Bury Games

Home - 2-0 win

I man marked the wide players and I had my central defender specific man mark the lone striker to isolate him. The reason why I choose the central defender was so the outer ones could cover any wider threads should the opposition full backs and wingers try and overlap the flanks.

Shouts Used

None

After about 10 minutes I decided I’d go control due to them offering very little in terms of attacking movement.

As you can see in the stats above my players were passing the ball around a lot due to me trying to control the game. If you’ve noticed its my DLC/DMC/MLC who have the most passes. This is because they were creating triangles and keeping possession between themselves and dictating the game

In game changes

Changed strategy to control after around the 10 minutes mark

Away - 1-2 win

I repeated what I did above but during the game after 15 minutes I decided to go attacking because Bury didn’t look like attacking me so playing counter attack was pointless.

Shouts Used

None

Match stats;

Individual stats;

I didn’t keep possession as good as I did in the first game but thats because we were more attacking this time around.

In game changes

Changed strategy to attacking after 15 minutes

[Cleon]

The Carlisle Games

Home - 1-0 win

As a home game I felt I could beat Carlisle without really straying from my own game plan. So the only change I did was play a controlling strategy from the off to try and be patient.

Away - 1-1 draw

The season was already over when this game took place as i'd already won the league by this time. For those reasons I stayed default and just played my normal game.

[Cleon]

The Colchester Games

This is an interesting formation to play against because it is very strong in the centre so that means it is highly unlikely that I’ll be able to play through them. So I decided to play around them and used the following shouts;

• Play Narrower
  
• Exploit Channels
  
• Push Higher Up
  

The reasoning for this is they offer little threat going forward from the center so by going narrow I keep the advantage and by pushing higher up the pitch, I should put pressure on the lone central midfielder. That should stifle his game and make him less effective.

Exploit The Flanks – It gives the fullback/wingbacks and wingers more attacking and focuses the play down both flanks. It also tells them to run from deep and cross the ball more often. If you use central midfielders then it’ll tell them to hold up the ball. You should use this if you find the middle over crowded or if you have good wide players who can cross.

Away 2-1 loss

I didn’t do anything for this game as I felt I had enough to win the game. It turns out I didn’t though and lost the game. I just didn’t take my changes and on another day the result could have been different.

We’ll take a look at this game in a little more depth later on in this series and see what we can learn from this defeat.

[Cleon]

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]

The Coventry Games

I like playing this formation normally because I like to isolate the striker by specifically man marking him with my central defender and thats what I did in this game. I had a fair few injuries for this game and the central midfielders are the weak link I feel. None the less, I can only work with what i’ve got.

After going 2-1 up I decided to switch strategy to control rather than play a counter attacking game as I felt the game was won and thought knocking the ball around would be a good idea rather than allow Coventry to attack me.

Away - 0-2 win

This time they decided to go with a 442. So I decided to push higher up to crowd the middle as I outnumber them 3 to 2 in this area so I should control this area. I also decided to exploit the centre for this very reason.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Cleon]

The Crawley Games

Home - 3-0 win

I have a far stronger squad than the opposition so I thought I’d use an attacking strategy from the start and do nothing more.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

When it got to around the final 30 minutes of the game I changed strategy from attacking to control to try and close the game out and preserve my lead. I didn’t see the point of carrying on with an attacking strategy as I run the risk of been caught out on the counter attack.

Away - 0-1 win

I just played my standard counter attacking game for this match and didn’t do anything else.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Crewe Games

The only change I did for this game was use an attacking strategy because I felt I was the stronger team and been the home side meant I should be able to win this game by been more aggressive.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 0-2 win

I was in two minds before this game whether to attack or stick to my counter attacking game. In the end I stuck to the counter strategy because I felt Crewe would attack me quite a bit and I didn’t want to be exposed by playing attacking myself.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Doncaster Games

Doncaster are a really good side and will cause me problems. I’m also playing a few people who still aren’t good enough for the first team yet so I needed to be more cautious. For those reasons I stuck with the counter attacking approach.

I man marked the wide players and I had my central defender specific man mark the lone striker to isolate him. The reason why I choose the central defender was so the outer ones could cover any wider threads should the opposition full backs and wingers try and overlap the flanks.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 2-1 loss

I played my usual counter attacking game and tried to focus play through the centre to take advantage of the 3vs2 in my favour.

Shouts used

Exploit the Middle

On another day I could have this game 3 or 4 nil. I seemed to miss a lot of chances but as you saw earlier in the thread, I don’t have good strikers and the attributes they currently have is still poor, even for this level.

In game changes

After going 2-1 down I changed to a more attacking strategy as I was chasing the game and felt I could still win the game. It didn’t happen though. In hindsight I should have probably used some shouts or tried to control the game. But at the time I felt I was actually playing well and was creating chances, its just we didn’t take them.

[Cleon]

The Hartlepool Games

Home - 1-1 draw

Being the better side and playing bottom of the league, I thought I’d use the attack strategy as I thought I had enough to beat them.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

After 15 minutes I thought I was being wasteful in front of goal. I felt my players were been far to attacking and this was causing them to be very wasteful. With this is mind I changed to a control strategy which did help. But it was just one of those games and it was a bad day at the office. It was a game I should have won but I didn’t take the chances I did create.

Away - 0-1 win

I stuck to the counter strategy and decided to see how the game was going and changed based on in game events.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

After 25 minutes I felt counter attacking wasn’t really working so I decided to switch to the control strategy instead. The game was very poor in all honesty and when I grabbed I decided to use the following shouts;

• Retain possession
  
• Stand off opponents
  

This allowed me to try and keep the ball and at the same time keep my defensive shape by standing off the opposition. As any kind of space that opened up could have led to the opposition trying to counter this, so I wanted to reduce the risk of losing my shape.

[Cleon]

The Leyton Orient Games

Home - 1-0 win

The key to beating this formation is to cut off the supply of the attacking midfielder. He’ll look to link up with the striker so if I can cut this out I’ll isolate the striker. Now initial thoughts would be to use my defensive midfielder to mark the attacking midfielder out of the game but I’d like him to stay free and pick up any runners from midfield. So instead, I will use my deep lying playmaker, Kevin McDonald to specifically man mark the attacking midfield.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

As you can see by stopping the attacking midfielder from playing I cut off the supply and they offered very little going forward. it was a really easy game in the end and I could have easily won this by 4 or 5 goals on a different day.

Away - 0-3 win

I decided to stick with that I did above for the away game because it worked ever so well in the home game.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

After going 0-2 up I changed to a control strategy so I don’t sit as deep and allow Orient to come back into the game.

[Cleon]

The MK Dons Games

Home - 1-1 draw

The key to beating this formation is to cut off the supply of the attacking midfielder. He’ll look to link up with the striker so if I can cut this out I’ll isolate the striker. Now initial thoughts would be to use my defensive midfielder to mark the attacking midfielder out of the game but I’d like him to stay free and pick up any runners from midfield. So instead, I will use my deep lying playmaker, Kevin McDonald to specifically man mark the attacking midfield.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

I didn’t change anything as I believe the game was pretty even and I didn’t want to panic and change things when they didn’t need it. In hindsight this probably cost me the 3 points as I should have done something to create more quality chances. However at the time I felt we had enough to win the game and had done enough, especially in the tackling department.

Away 2-3 win

I’ll use McDonald to man mark the AMC again and leave the DMC free to help cover the threat from the wings.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

A penalty and a poorly defended corner almost cost me this game even though I dominated and created plenty of good chances. Sometimes even if you play well the game is close due to set pieces and giving away penalties, that’s football and these things happen.

[Cleon]

The Notts County Games

Home - 2-1 win

I’ll use specific man marking here on my two wide midfielders and get them to mark the oppositions attacking left midfielder and attacking right midfielder. I feel that is all I need to do for this game.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

When I grabbed the second goal I went to a control strategy again so I wasn’t as deep. I should have perhaps used a control strategy from the off as I felt I sat a bit too deep for this game. But at the same time I was playing okay. So its hard to make a decision sometimes, do you panic and change things or have faith in what you are using? There is no right or wrong answer that’s why it is so hard.

Away - 0-1 win

Pretty much rinse and repeat what I did in the home game.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Oldham Games

Home - 2-0 win

The key to beating this formation is to cut off the supply of the attacking midfielder. He’ll look to link up with the striker so if I can cut this out I’ll isolate the striker. Now initial thoughts would be to use my defensive midfielder to mark the attacking midfielder out of the game but I’d like him to stay free and pick up any runners from midfield. So instead, I will use my deep lying playmaker, Kevin McDonald to specifically man mark the attacking midfield.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

When I got the first goal I decided that I was sat a bit too deep so I changes the strategy to a more attacking one just so I could try and take the game to them more. This was also my first game of the season.

Away - 1-3 win

I didn’t do any changes for this game or anything specific, I decided to play my own game rather than try and adapt to Oldham.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

After 15 minutes of the game it was obvious Oldham were sitting very deep so there was little point in counter attacking because there was nothing to counter attack. If the team don’t attack then I won’t have space and out number them. So I changed to a control strategy as I felt I could dictate the game in terms of shots and create quality chances.

[Cleon]

The Pompey Games

Home - 2-0 win

The only change I did here was to play an attacking strategy from the off. As I am the home team I felt like I could beat Pompey and they seem to have a really poor squad.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None at all

Away - 0-1 win

I stayed counter attacking for this game and that is all I did.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Preston Games

Home - 5-2 win

I’ll use McDonald again to specific man mark the attacking midfielder for the same reasons stated previously

Shouts used

None

In game changes

I felt I was far too deep so went attacking after 5 minutes to take the game to Preston. Later on in the game around 70 minutes Preston pulled 2 goals back from a set piece and a player mistake. So I changed to control strategy yet again to see the game out and ensure I wasn’t to attacking and allowed them to get back into the game.

Away - 1-2 win

I man marked the wide players and I had my central defender specific man mark the lone striker to isolate him. The reason why I choose the central defender was so the outer ones could cover any wider threads should the opposition full backs and wingers try and overlap the flanks.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Scunthorpe Games

Home 1-0 win

I did the exact same things that I posted about in the reply above this one

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

Away 0-1 win

I wanted to see how the game went before deciding on if I needed to do anything specific. The reason for this is Scunthorpe have had some bad form recently and aren’t doing too good in the league. So I want to see how my own set up plays first.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Shrewsbury Games

Home - 2-0 win

I man marked the wide players and I had my central defender specific man mark the lone striker to isolate him. The reason why I choose the central defender was so the outer ones could cover any wider threads should the opposition full backs and wingers try and overlap the flanks.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 1-1 draw

I did the exact same as I did in the first game.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Stevenage Games

Home - 2-0 win

If you remember from earlier in the thread for the Colchester games, I faced this very formation. So this is what I posted earlier in the thread and also how I set up for this one;

This is an interesting formation to play against because it is very strong in the centre so that means it is highly unlikely that I’ll be able to play through them. So I decided to play around them and used the following shouts;

• Play Narrower
  
• Exploit Channels
  
• Push Higher Up
  

The reasoning for this is they offer little threat going forward from the centre so by going narrow I keep the advantage and by pushing higher up the pitch, I should put pressure on the lone central midfielder. That should stifle his game and make him less effective.

Exploit The Flanks – It gives the fullback/wingbacks and wingers more attacking and focuses the play down both flanks. It also tells them to run from deep and cross the ball more often. If you use central midfielders then it’ll tell them to hold up the ball. You should use this if you find the middle over crowded or if you have good wide players who can cross.

In game changes

None

Away - 0-1 win

This was the first time I’d come up against this shape so I didn’t really know how to beat it in all honesty, so I decided to play my own game with no changes and see how it went.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

We’ll be looking back at this match a little later in the thread to see what I learnt and how we can do things different the next time I face this shape.

[Cleon]

The Swindon Games

Home - 3-1 win

I’m pretty confident in how my formation plays against the 4-4-2 so I don’t tend to change much if possible. With this in mind, I stick to my normal game plan.

Shouts Used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 0-2 win

I got my wide players to specifically man mark the oppositions left and right attacking midfielders

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

[Cleon]

The Tranmere Games

Home - 2-1 win

You should all be familiar with how I set up against this formation by now. If not then;

I man marked the wide players and I had my central defender specific man mark the lone striker to isolate him. The reason why I choose the central defender was so the outer ones could cover any wider threads should the opposition full backs and wingers try and overlap the flanks.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 1-1 draw

I didn’t change anything and just went with my normal approach.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

I noticed after about 20 minutes that Tranmere’s right midfielder was causing a lot of problems. So I got my left midfielder to specifically man mark him so he tracked him and could stop him from dictating the game as much.

[Cleon]

The Yeovil Games

Home - 1-0 win

I didn’t change anything at all.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

None

Away - 0-3 win

Again I didn’t change anything here.

Shouts used

None

In game changes

After 10 minutes I changed to a more attacking strategy as I felt counterattack wasn’t working out as I was too deep and inside my own half. Yeovil offered nothing going forward so it makes it really hard to counterattack.

[Cleon]

The Analysis Tab

Let’s take a look back at one of the games I lost and see what I could have done differently and to see what I actually learnt from the game.

Away - 2-1 loss

I played my usual counter attacking game and tried to focus play through the centre to take advantage of the 3vs2 in my favour.

Shouts used

Exploit the Middle

On another day I could have this game 3 or 4 nil. I seemed to miss a lot of chances but as you saw earlier in the thread, I don’t have good strikers and the attributes they currently have is still poor, even for this level.

In game changes

After going 2-1 down I changed to a more attacking strategy as I was chasing the game and felt I could still win the game. It didn’t happen though. In hindsight I should have probably used some shouts or tried to control the game. But at the time I felt I was actually playing well and was creating chances, its just we didn’t take them.

That’s how I set up for the game and what I did. But let’s take a look at the Doncaster stats and have a closer look at how I lost the game by using the analysis tab.

Here are Donny’s individual stats from the game;

[Cleon]

Average Positions

In all honesty I don’t think the heat maps show you enough about how you’ve played. It can give a little indication of how the game might have gone but I wouldn’t pin all my hopes on this part of the analysis tab like some folk might do.

As you can see from my average positions though, my defensive wingers take positions up like wingbacks would. This is why I prefer them over wingbacks because they actually offer better protection and are more effective when attacking.

It also shows that I held my shape rather well which is important because if they didn’t then my players would get dragged about and caught out of position. That would be a bad thing because gaps would appear for the opposition to expose.

Now if we look at Doncaster’s heat map you can see the space in the centre between the central midfielders and the right midfielder. In hindsight I should have exploited this more somehow and changed the role of one of my midfielders to try and take advantage more. I’m not sure what I would have choose though but it is something I failed to pick up on during the game.

There also seems to be a gap between the defenders and the right defender. Again, I should have probably tried to switch the roles of the strikers to overload the right side more as the gap seems slightly bigger than the left side. This approach would have worked well with the midfield changes above.

So what this part of the analysis tab highlights is my own tactical failings as I didn’t pay enough attention to the details. I’m not sure it tells me any more than I’ve already mentioned though.

[Cleon]

Crosses

I don’t really play a crossing game so I expected this to be low for me and the team not to attempt that many. So for crosses I don’t really pay attention to the details of my own as its a pretty worthless stats.

However these are my stats;

As expected though Donny had quite a few;

I actually expected them to have a fair amount and stretch me more than they did but my left and right midfielders did their job of marking and closing down Donny’s wingers. The 442 relies heavily on wide play. If you cut off the supply from the wingers then in my opinion you’ve already gone 70% way of winning the game. The 442 offers very little threat from the middle of the park so the big threat comes from out wide.

Looking back I think I did a good job of dealing with that threat.

[Cleon]

Fouls

This part of the analysis tab can be great to see what kind of areas you are been fouled in and the areas you are giving away the fouls in. It really is this simple and while it might not give you lots of information the little this page does cover can be vital.

I’m more than happy with those areas that I give fouls away in. They can’t hurt me with freekicks from that kind of distance. If more fouls were in dangerous areas then I’d consider looking at a the player marking, closing down and tackling type to try and determine the root cause. Luckily though this isn’t an issue.

There isn’t much more to say about this aspect though in all honesty.

[Cleon]

Headers

I use this part purely for the defensive side of things. It can be used for attacking purposes too but seeing as I don’t use crosses much then I don’t see the point of using it for that.

After viewing some of those clips back from the midfield area its clear to see that I am winning a lot of clearances from Donny’s back four and the keeper. It also shows me that Doncaster attacked down the right more due to my out left defender winning more headers. I viewed the clips back and it seemed to confirm this.

As I don’t use crossing much I expected to lose the headers I did in and around the box because they are all in a similar area. Especially when I had a front two who are very weak in the air to begin with, so I never expected anything.

I’m quite happy with this side of the analysis and it doesn’t really highlight much wrong.

[Cleon]

Interceptions

This also goes hand in hand with fouls and tackling. All three of them combined tell the defensive story of your side. So pay close attention to all of them.

If you see a lot of yellow dots on this section then you have real problems. It means you aren’t keeping your defensive shape and bad player positioning. This can cause many problems for the team as a whole and give the opposition a free run at goal if you’re really unlucky.

Things that can cause missed interceptions are bad positioning from the player. That could be caused by poor attributes or too high closing down. You could also check to make sure he isn’t tackling too hard. Even if he’s set to normal tackling and missing a lot of interceptions don’t be afraid to give him easy tackling to increase the likelihood of him tackling when he’s confident of winning the ball 100%.

As you can see all my players are involved with defending at times,it really is a team effort. There are a fair few that I am not happy about missing but looking at the clips backs and the players involved it seems to be an attribute issue rather than a tactical one. But it is something to keep an eye on in future games to make sure it is a one off.

[Cleon]

Passes

This gives you a clear picture of where your player is passing from. So you know where he is when you’re in possession of the ball. You want to see lots of green dots here as that indicates your players have passing options. It also tells you the length of the pass. That’s why this part of the analysis is really important as this is where all the moves are made. So you have to look at passing closely to see what kind of passes are been attempted.

If you see lots of red dots here check what types of passes they are and then if it’s a familiar problem game after game then try and fix it. Is a player doing long passes and missing? Is this because he has no passing options around him? Both of these are really important things to check. Once you’ve identified the issues you can try and fix them by altering passing styles of the guilty players.

If it’s a case of players not having passing options available then you’ll have to take a look at the other players in the squad and try and alter their roles and duties to give the passer more options. There is nothing worse than a player who is isolated with his passing options, it could be the difference between a championship winning side and relegation threatened one. It really is that important to make sure players have options.

You might find out it’s just a player giving possession away cheaply for no apparent reason. This could be down to his attributes and decision making. You could try using the shouts in game to try and retain possession more.

I gave away far too many passes in my own half for my liking judging by the screenshot. Not a single one of my defence is good at passing though so there isn’t much I can really do. Maybe in hindsight I should look at having my DMC drop deeper to help out and be a better passing outlet for the defence to aim for.

[Cleon]

Scoring Chances

This goes hand in hand with shots and tells you what type of shots they were. Ideally you want the scoring chances in good places and the more green dots the better. You really should view the clips here as you’ll see why someone is shooting and be able to understand the player a lot more.

As you can see I didn’t have any clear cut chances but that isn’t the be and end of all. In fact how CCC’s are worked out on the game are very complex and doesn’t exactly mean the chance was clear cut like the name suggest. Some have lobbied for this changing and I think it’s only a matter of time before this happens.

I always view the chances back after a game I lose because it tells you a lot about your attacks. The chances were actually good and a better striker should have done better and at least forced the save. I’ll be posting my strikers up so you can view them a little further in the thread. Then you’ll see how poor they are and it’ll go someway to explaining why I am wasteful at times.

[Cleon]

Shots

If you don’t want players making long shots then make sure they are set to rarely. If they are still shooting then take a look at their passing options from above. If a player is shooting and he’s not instructed to then it can be one of two things. He either has no passing option or his creative freedom is far too high.

It’s also worth checking out the oppositions stats on this page too. So you can see what types of shots they are having and from what kind of range. If they’re having a lot of close shots in dangerous areas then you need to sort out your defence more. It might be a case of you having to close down more heavily if there close range shots. Or try and cut the pass supply off to the players who are shooting.

The quality of my shots was poor so looking back at all the stats so far from the game, this was a game that I was always going to lose due to the quality of them. If you don’t create quality chances then you are less likely to score.

The yellow dots inside the box could have easily been goals but the ones outside were never going to be scored from those ranges in all honesty. I know I’m stating the obvious but I really should have paid more attention and paused the game for a few minutes while I checked all the stats when I felt the game wasn’t going my way. I feel I could have scored a few more had I done this and the result could have easily gone in my favour.

[Cleon]

[TABLE]

[TR]

[TD]

Tackles

This is a very important bit of the analysis to determine how the defence is working and to see the positions at which tackles are been made by players.

As you can see in the screenshot above I lost one tackle in an important area. It’s nothing to worry about and perfectly normal. You only want to worry if you see red dots in important areas or close to goal. That indicates that your defensive players aren’t doing their job properly and is a real cause for concern.

The reason why I say its not that important is because it was just a one off. If there was loads of red dots in those areas then it would be a massive worry for me.

I know I keep saying it but click the dots and watch the clips back. You can learn so much from viewing key incidents during a game.

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Cleon]

Making The Step Up

I have a squad that is a mixture of youth and experience so the first thing I needed to do at the end of the season was decide who stays and who goes. How I selected this was simple, all the big waged players had to go so I can free up wages to spend on loan signings and attracting better quality players for less money. I’m losing money so it makes little sense to have massive earners at the club. My board decided they’d give me £2.4 million to spend for the step up to the Championship. That is a decent amount but I’ll have to spend it wisely as I need a lot of new players.

The idea was to go strikerless at the beginning of this season but sadly I couldn't do that due to not been able to find two suitable attacking midfielders. Which was a real disappointment as the aim is to go strikerless.

You can see from the transfers out I let a lot of players go. The more notable would be Robson, Kitson, Hill, Williams and Miller. From these players alone I saved around £27k in wages per week. It might not sound a lot but it does mean I have a little to play around with now and can offer slightly better wages to better players.

The players that I brought into the club were all either reinforcements to add depth or better than I already had. A lot of them were on the transfer list to begin with so it made it easier to buy them and some were also free transfers. The youths I signed were all scouted and recommended by my scouts.

Declan Rudd

Seeing this player on the transfer list for such a low price made me buy him. He is young and looks very good. I also thought he was a better long term proposition than my current keeper;

Rudd is on a bigger wage but I think this is worth it as I see him as my keeper for the next 5 or so seasons hopefully. Plus all the other available options seemed to want around the same wage while the attributes they had were quite poor.

[Cleon]

Abdi Ibrahim

This player was brought to my attention by one of my scouts midway through last season. Since then I’ve been keeping an eye on him and would have bought him sooner, had I had £130k. Luckily for me he was also transfer listed by Manchester City.

The midfield for me is important so its vital I have quite a few players who can play there to allow me to rotate but also, so I have different options should I need them.

Shola Shoretire

I’d never heard or seen this player before but when my scouts made me aware of him he’s been on my shortlist ever since. My scouts rate him very highly as do my coaches, so I thought he was worth a gamble. For 90k and a 15% sell on fee I think it was a bargain price. He looks like he has the potential to become a good player especially for the level I currently am. I’m quite confident I’d make a profit on him should I sell him down the line.

Jack Barmby

I don’t really know why I brought this lad in other than to give me some depth should I be really struggling to field players. He was a free transfer so I have nothing to lose. The first thing I did was to loan him out with a call back clause in case of emergency. I doubt he’ll be at the club more than 1-2 seasons.

[Cleon]

Dedryck Boyata

I’ve seen him become good on other saves and there wasn’t many options around for centre back that I could afford. So when I saw he was on the loan list I didn’t hesitate in approaching him and signing him for the season.

He might not be the best centre back but he can jump, head, tackle and is strong. He should also have a lot of potential to get better with first team experience. He will compliment Harry Maguire when they play together and both are young.

Matthew Briggs

Another loan option. I’ve also been tracking him since the first season as I knew no matter what happened I’d be needing who can tackle on the left flank and he fit the bill nicely for the budget available.

Emmanuel Frimpong

I put a cheeky loan bid in for him and was surprised when Arsenal accepted the bid and then he actually agreed to join. I really didn’t think he would come to Sheffield United. The fact that he did was a huge bonus for my side, he is quality. Such a strong hardworking player, the exact type of player I need for the upcoming season.

There is no doubt he is the best midfielder at the club and has the legs to be the defensive midfielder. He is way better than anyone who was already at the club so he will be an integral part of the club this season.

[Cleon]

Owen Hargreaves

He was a free transfer so I thought I’d bring him to the club in the hope of him being a decent tutor for the younger members of the squad. Hopefully he will provide excellent back up cover too if I pick up injuries/suspensions or get tired players. He isn’t capable of playing a lot of games in succession though, but as a tutor and cover he is worth the £1.4k wages I am paying him.

Chris Herd

I spent more than half my budget on this player. The reason why is I wanted someone who could be defensive to play on the right side of my midfield. He is on big wages at £10k but hopefully his performances will justify the fee and wages. My wide areas will be important this season as I am no longer the favourites in the league, so I need hard working players in the squad. Especially in the important areas of the pitch and the wingers are vital here.

Denny Johnstone

Another player brought to my attention by the scouts. I got him on loan and didn’t have to pay any wages. I don’t expect him to play a lot of games but again, its all about having cover and options. The fact he can play multiple positions is also a big plus as it means he can fill in a number of roles when called upon.

[Cleon]

Alex Nimley

I am short of strikers especially ones with pace, so I thought I’d take a gamble here and sign him based on my scouts reports of him. Someone who can exploit space created is always good so I expect him to be an important player this year. He might be poor technically but I’m confident my side will create the chances he needs and play to his strengths. So I expect him to score quite a few goals.

Stevie Paterson

One for the future. He’ll get some game time but this purchase is more long term. Although I plan on going strikerless very soon so he might be one who is sold for decent money depending on how he develops.

Rivaldo

Even at 41 years of age he is a quality player for this level. He doesn’t have the fitness or stamina to play every game but that doesn’t matter as he can also be used to tutor. When called upon he should be more than capable of doing a killer pass. I’ll probably use him as an MC and utilise his technical and mental ability by allowing him to run the show from the middle of the pitch.

[Cleon]

Season Two Summary

Season two was quite a challenge and not as easy as the screenshots below suggests. I did bring in some quality players and they definitely proved their worth. I’d actually go as far as saying they were the reason why I was promoted. That and the ability to keep clean sheets which is always helpful. So here is a quick overview season two;

Click to enlarge

As you can see my strikers scored majority of the goals which was expected because nothing really changed compared to last season. I still play the same way so the goals come from the strikers. That doesn’t mean the other players aren’t involved, it just mean they have other responsibilities and play an important part in the build up play rather than the actual finishing of chances.

Click to enlarge

The league table looks a lot more impressive that it actually is. While the points amount is high I didn’t score many goals in all the games. In fact I had 15 results of the scoreline 1-0. In fact I was the 7th best in the league in terms of goals scored which isn’t great. But I had the best defensive record which meant that it off set the lack of goals. You’ll remember I touched upon it in the season one when I said I didn’t set up to score bucket-loads of goals. Out of the 46 games played my defenders got 27 man of the match awards between them. At first this might seem like I was under heavy pressure defensively which wasn’t the case.

My defenders like to pass the ball around (although they don’t all have the required attributes to do it successful 100% of the time) and play out from the back. So they tend to see an awful lot of the ball. They do a lot of defensive work as well though which is expected with it being a flat back three currently You can see the actual number of interceptions they do on the screenshot at the top.

Click to enlarge

The stats here give you a quick overview about how my season went and show where I can improve for next year (which will all be discussed in greater depth in a different article).

Click to enlarge

As you can see I score a lot of my goals in the first half of games or just after half time. This makes it a lot easier to shut out a game as I feel I have the best midfield in this league. So if I score early I don’t need to chase the game looking for a result. As you’ll see in the individual game analysis that I’ll be doing for season two. I can just play it safe and switch strategy or use shouts to shut up shop so to speak.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The above screens tell me what I already know, that I mainly play central with majority of my goals coming from passes. I already knew this and its not something which will change until maybe next season when I find the players who can allow me to play striker-less.

That is it for this update, I know its short and not really in-depth but hopefully that’ll change in the next update. I just wanted to get the brief overview out of the way while I had a few minutes spare.

Remember to check it out on my blog if you prefer individual articles www.thechalkboarddiaries.com

[Cleon]

Squad Building

For me squad building is one of the most important parts of Football Manager and allows me great success in the years to come by planning who and what I want before hand. It’s not always easy though especially if you have little money to spend or are stuck down the leagues. But nonetheless you can still buy the right kind of players.

Sometimes things might not go how you plan due to a players development stalling, injuries or maybe another club comes in to buy the player. Or sometimes you sell a player so you can make the team better and strengthen other areas. At times it can feel like robbing Peter to pay Paul. So with all of this in mind I have decided to do a series of articles which looks at how I squad build, this will also include selling players and explaining why. It will be split into three pieces that focus on defence, midfield and attack.

Introduction

Before I can squad build I need a clear picture of how I want to play, without this in mind then I wouldn’t know which players I’d need and bring into the club. As we know, I play a 3-5-2 formation with the view of going to a 1-2-5-2-0 (I actually made the switch a long time ago but not updated the blog this far yet) so the players I bring in need to fit this shape. That doesn’t mean that I’ll only buy players who are already natural in these positions. First and foremost I buy a player based on the attributes I think they need for the role they’ll be playing for me. So if I found a certain type of player that fitted my system and had the required attributes but lacked the position, then I’d simply re-train him. Both the shape I currently play and want to play are very similar so the players I do sign should be able to play both systems no problems.

We’ve defined the shape so what about the rest? Well I see myself playing a possession based game but a possession game in what I class the right areas. So I’ll be looking at utilising good possession in dangerous areas rather than focusing on the amount of possession if that makes sense. I’ll also be looking for lots of movement between the lines and players who can work hard and link up well with others.

Now we are getting a clear picture of what type of players I need. Here is a short overview of the attributes so far I’ll be looking at developing on players;

work rate, team work, stamina, technique, decisions, passing, composure.

Those are the what I class as the base attributes that I will need majority (not all, but most players) of players to have. Then there are other attributes required too but that will be more position specific depending on what I actually want from the player. I’ll touch upon that a lot more further into the article.

Remember not all these signings are from the same season.

Meet The Keeper

Click to enlarge

This player was found by my scouts so I was tracking him for a season before I actually had the finances to buy him (I’ll probably do a bit about scouting if there is enough interest at some stage). This keeper was an absolute steal for £1.6 million and was my first buy once I won promotion to the Premier League. There was other candidates but they were more expensive and didn’t have the attributes that I felt I would need for the coming season.

I had my scouts set to scour Europe for a goalkeeper under the age of 25 and set the following criteria for his search;

Click to enlarge

I set the filters at those attributes because all good keepers need handling and positioning, that goes without saying. Then I set them based on what I thought was going to happen so I choose aerial ability as I expect a lot of crosses into the box and I need to be confident the keeper can collect the ball. Communication is important too as I need someone who is able to organise the defence for me. It’s also important not to set the filters too high if you are a small club like myself as you can miss out some very good players. The same can be set for the amount of filters you decide to use. I personally like to keep them to as few as possible so I don’t miss a lot of good players.

As a newly promoted side with a weak squad it is vital I get a strong defence as I will be giving away a lot of chances and possession. So I feel I needed a strong base for which I could build upon. Now if we take a look at his attributes we can see that he has good agility, balance, anticipation, composure, positioning, reflex and throwing. His balance along with agility and reflexes means he should be a good shot stopper especially the blank range shots. This is really important as I expect a lot of team would carve me open, especially the bigger sides like Man Utd, Chelsea and City. He is only 18 so has lots of room to improve and is rated very highly by my staff.

Strength’s

Shot stopping, Movement, Awareness, Organisation and Aerial ability

Weaknesses

Workrate and Speed

His strengths far outweigh his weaknesses for me. Having him better at pace and acceleration would have been a nice bonus though but I’m confident I can get that to raise over a few seasons with the right training programme. All of his strength’s that I have listed above are what I need as a relegation battling side. If my keeper can cope with stuff my defenders fail to clear or when they get beat then I have a very good chance of staying up. Due to me playing with three at the back the keepers job is even more important because at times my defenders might get exposed. So when this happens I need to know that I can rely on my keeper been able to do the best he can.

Without giving any spoilers away to my save game (as I’ve not wrote about it yet on the blog but will be doing) I had a great first season and did better than expected. I then followed this up the season after and managed to improve yet again. This was down to my defence and the way they all played together. My keeper though was outstanding as you can see below;

Click to enlarge

He was very solid and kept a lot of clean sheets. But this did actually have a downside which I’ll explain.

This is what he looks like at the age of 20;

Click to enlarge

As you can see he had a brilliant season especially with the clean sheets. You’ll also notice that his attributes have increased a lot too compared to image earlier in the post. This is down to focusing on his attributes via training and the exposure to first team football for the past 24 months. On the above screenshot you will see his is transfer listed though.

That wasn’t by choice, I’ve had clubs bidding for him for the past 6 months and I kept rejecting them. But Real Madrid have just had a bid turned down for him of around £20 million. The player asked to be transfer listed and said he wants to move to a bigger club. I don’t really want to sell him but if I can get a good offer for him then I will allow him to leave as the money will allow me to reinvest it in other areas. I already have another keeper on my shortlist who I can sign for around £9 million as a replacement. For this to happen though it would take an offer of around £30 million to prize Miroslav away from my beloved Sheffield United. If and when this happens I’ll do an update.

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Everything in this thread can be found on my blog at www.thechalkboarddiaries.com and can be viewed as individual articles if you find all the images a bit too much to view all in one go. You also have the option to subscribe for when new posts are added. All posts on the blog will also be made available on here too.

[Cleon]

The Yorkshireman, A Libero and No Strikers (Part One)

Everyone has an ultimate goal in Football Manager. For some it’s buying a certain player, for others it’s about developing players, and for others still it might be about playing a particular style of football. My holy grail is using a libero and playing striker-less in the same formation.

As I didn’t have the players to play this way when I first took over Sheffield United, it’s something I’ve had to build towards over a number of seasons. I’ve highlighted elsewhere on the blog how I played early on in the game but I’ll just do a brief recap for those who might not have seen it.

This is what I used;

Click to enlarge

As you can see it is just a basic 3-1-4-2 with nothing really special about it. This formation served me well and I finished second in the Premiership at the first attempt due to a strong defence. I’ll be doing a separate article about that as there are some interesting points to expand on.

Evolution

This is the shape I decided upon using;

Click to enlarge

People might think that the tactic doesn’t play nice free flowing football because I am very rigid in style. However, that is not so and the team plays really good football. A lot of people tend to think style dictates the style of football you play but that assumption is wrong. Let me try and explain a little bit further behind the thought process of the style I’ve selected. If we go by this logic;

Very Rigid: Each player is given a job and is supposed to stick to it (usually 5+ different roles across a team)

Rigid: Players are assigned a role that contributes to a specific element of play (Defence, defence & transition, transition & attack, attack)

Balanced: Players focus on their duty (Defend, Support, Attack)

Fluid: Players are given instructions to focus on defence or attack

Very Fluid: Players contribute to all aspects of play

This is the mentality structure it gives me by using a very rigid approach;

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I’m using very rigid because I use five specialised roles. The style you choose (as a guideline) should come down to specialisation vs generalisation. Logic relates to non-specialists requiring more creative freedom to create, whereas specialists should be able to do it in a rigid framework. In theory, the more rigid the philosophy, the more specialist roles it can accommodate.

If we take a look at the creative freedom framework very rigid gives me, it looks like this;

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Now lets compare this against a very fluid framework;

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As you can see it gives people greater creative freedom. I need specific players to do specific jobs or my whole tactic will be undermined, so I’ve chosen against it. I have player roles set that will influence my play rather than having everyone do a bit of everything.

In the tactic above, I have 5 players doing specialised roles. Non-specialist roles pretty much describe a position on the pitch, i.e. central defender, defensive midfielder, central midfielder etc. If the role focuses on what a player does, rather than the position he plays in, i.e. anchoring the midfield, being a playmaker, poaching etc, then it is specialist role.

wwfan helped design and create the tactics creator and here is what he classes as general and special roles;

“I consider the following to be specialist:

Target Man

Poacher

Trequartista

Advanced Playmaker

Deep Lying Playmaker

Ball Winning Midfielder

Anchor Man

Libero

These five roles can fit in either camp, depending on your interpretation.

Complete Forward

Defensive Forward

Defensive Winger

Box to Box Midfielder

Ball Playing Defender

Generic roles:

Advanced Forward

Deep Lying Forward

Attacking Midfielder

Central Midfielder

Defensive Midfielder

Inside Forward

Winger

Wide Midfielder

Wing Back

Full Back

Central Defender

Sweeper

I don’t include keepers.”

Specialist roles explain what the player does, i.e (playmaking, anchoring, poaching). Generic roles focus only on the players’ position.

Now the above are only guidelines and you can work outside of those parameters. But ideally if you are not comfortable with how the game works or find yourself struggling then you should take the above into consideration.

If we now look back at my own shape we’ll see I have a Libero, deep-lying playmaker, advanced playmaker and a ball-winning midfielder. Now that is only four and I said I used five. The other one I use is defensive wingers who can fit into either catergory depending on how you define them. In my set up they are specialised because they need to do a certain job and play a certain way down the wings. My wings are vulnerable to attacks so if they don’t do a specific job I’ll get teams creating a massive headache for me. That is why I class them as specialised.

I could have got away with playing just rigid and it should work but I want to ensure my specialised roles are the focal point of the tactic and that they dictate how I play. I want to emphasis these roles so going very rigid allows for this more so than the other style options.

I think I’ve babbled on enough about style now, but hopefully it makes you think about it a bit more the next time you are choosing a style. Take a bit of time and look at your player roles and duties and see how it all fits together.

Making Life Easier

To make things a bit easier during games as I tend to change strategy during a game quite often, I load up the same tactic three times. But I have a different strategy and different settings selected. I’ll show you what I mean with the screenshots below;

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As you can see the settings are different in both these and the one above. It just makes things a lot easier for when I do need to change the strategy during a game as the players will know the new instructions. Those are the three main strategies that I use and its very rare if at all than I use any other.

To stop this being too large for one article I’ve decided it will be best to split them up into three articles for now. There is this one above then the next one will focus on the players and their strength’s and weaknesses. Then the third one will be about the analysis side of things