[FM17] If you think you're too small to make a difference you haven’t spent a night with a mosquito

[Benjoe]

That Feeling, When You Don't Even Know What The **** You're ****ing Feeling. ****!

Nelson and Mumbu taped the camera to the drone and tested it. First test went as expected. Horrible. 

Next attempt, more tape, and a steadier video as result. This would do. The camera from high above would give Nelson an almost 2d layout of the pitch and his players positions on the pitch as well. This would help him direct the players in terms of spaces to cover and run into. Following their next match against last placed Manzini Sea Birds the camera would be used for the first time. 

The match ended with a bitter 2-1 defeat, despite a well playing Malanti Chiefs team. Work began now with the camera video as material and the players spent ungodly amounts of hours with Nelson in a little, dark, closed room. Unbearable. 

The work would prove itself useful in the following game against Young Buffaloes who were sitting at 6th place. A tough opponent, but with the new changes from Nelson they kept their only third clean sheet, but failed to score themselves as well. 0-0, their first draw of the entire season. Nelson felt some newfound hope. His task was to prove that they could improve, and he had been given one month to do so. This was the last match of the month, and considering they'd beaten the leading team of the league and drawn one as well he felt he'd done just that.

He slept well that night, but the following morning his Twitter feed had gone mad. 

[Benjoe]

[Benjoe]

21 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Th right back prospect has a ppm of dwells on the ball, yet his first touch 3, decision 3, vision 5, technique of 5.

FM can be unnecessarily mean

Yeah, not the best combo. Dwelling on the ball, when you're the quickest player might not be the most effective strategy either..

21 hours ago, Keano16 said:

'If I dive exactly the same again I should save it.'

*dives*

'No, ok let's try again'

21 hours ago, noikeee said:

The perfect word for describing the clips of your Swazilandian players attempting to play football.

That's way too correct. I'm saddened, that I missed the opportunity to use it for that rather than for the youth intake.

20 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Nice to see Claudio Bravo still in business.

Brutal. I mean, my keeper has had his good moments as well!

16 hours ago, DodgeeD said:

@Benjoe - credit where it's due, you tell a great story in this thread that has amused me greatly.... but those two clips of the 'keeps having some kind of fit and Ndlovu having some kind of RKO out of nowhere moment have set a new bar for involuntary nasal beverage spraying on these forums.

Looking forward to more high jinks from Swaziland!

Cheers for the kind words, @DodgeeD! I was so very infuriated at first, but for each time I look at it I ease up a little. Can't really get mad when it's that ridiculous.

15 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Jokes on us when you take them to Club World Cup glory

Yeah... About that joke... Think I forgot it somewhere *shuts down pc* *leaves room* *finds dark place to cry alone*

[ranbon99]

Match fixing rampant in that league

[Benjoe]

19 hours ago, ranbon99 said:

Match fixing rampant in that league

Could have been quite the scandal if people in Swaziland cared enough.

[Benjoe]

The second firing of this save, *sigh* also means that Nelson and Mumbu is looking for a new club - and exclusively I can reveal that they're on the lookout for a new country as well. 

[Benjoe]

Here I Go Again

Having been fired for the second time in his brief managerial career Nelson's determination, confidence and beliefs were at an all time low. Offers were scarce. Very scarce. 

The glories of his 2017-2018 title winning Wawi Star side was long forgotten and his reputation in his homeland was ruined when Malanti Chiefs fired him so bluntly. 

He was about to accept a managerial position at a second divison Swaziland club when he got an offer. The first offer since forever it seemed. And what an offer it was.

"Pack your bags, Mumbu! Were going once again!"

[Benjoe]

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there

 

Arrived at destination:

Kingdom of Lesotho    'Muso oa Lesotho (Sotho)

Sotho for 'Peace, Rain, Prosperity'

Lesotho, about twice the size of Swaziland with an area of 30,355 km² and a population of circa 2.1 Million people. 

Much like Swaziland, landlocked by South Africa, and with no coasts. Fantastic nature still though.

Nelson and Mumbu have signed a deal with the 2nd placed Lioli Football Club who reside in the city of Teyateyaneng. 

[Benjoe]

Contract Details, History Facilities, Squad + Tactics and Fans

Contract Details:

History:

Facilities:

First team:

U20s:

Tactics:

Fans:

More Fans:

Spoiler

 

[Benjoe]

Very promising debut, but Roma Rovers are a team in the bottom half so we were expected to win tbf. 

[Keano16]

Love the badge, and all the fans, they're very cool. 

[BoxToBox]

Ahhh, amazing!

[kidthekid]

Are there some cool names in this league.

[Benjoe]

19 hours ago, Keano16 said:

Love the badge, and all the fans, they're very cool. 

It's fantastic! Glad you like the fans. 

16 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Ahhh, amazing!

I'd probably say it'd been more amazing if I'd gone ahead and won everything with Malanti Chiefs.. but under the circumstances then I agree. 

14 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Are there some cool names in this league.

Hmm..

LCS = Lesotho Correctional Services

LDF = Lesotho Defence Force 

Personally I like Sky Battalion and Mphatlalatsane the most. Bantu Utd too if it's pronounced by someone with a thick accent so it sounds like Banter Utd perhaps. 

[BoxToBox]

Matlama could be a really odd family pet.

[Benjoe]

1 hour ago, BoxToBox said:

Matlama could be a really odd family pet.

Or the name of your pet lama. Matt the lama. 

Those Irish relatives of yours give funny names, aye?

[BoxToBox]

17 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

Or the name of your pet lama. Matt the lama. 

Those Irish relatives of yours give funny names, aye?

That first bit is what I was getting at, a llama would be quite the odd family pet!

[Benjoe]

51 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

That first bit is what I was getting at, a llama would be quite the odd family pet!

Haha! I like how in-sync we were there, but I still failed to get the last piece to fit.  

[Benjoe]

Khotso le Nala - Peace and Prosperity

And as such we have the name for our tactical invention for our Lesothoan adventure. 

As the name would insinuate we want something that ensure peace, and prosperity. This means, we don't want to be overly aggressive, but rather we want to be calm and collected, but when we have the ball we want to make something out of it; the prosperous part of the tactic.

How do we do this exactly, and with the player material at hand? 

Goalkeeper:

Let's just get the keeper out of the way quickly. He is good for our level, and he is good with his feet too. This is something we'll be using so he is instructed to distribute to CBs and to take short kicks.

Centre Backs

What I have envisioned is a formation with three defender and two wing backs. Far too often we'll meet opponents who field 3 strikers and our usual 4-man defence gets stretched and to fight that we'll put an extra body into the central defence. Maybe, if we meet opponents who uses 1 or 2 strikers, we can move him into the defensive midfield to use his body further up and congest the midfield, but for now he'll be a central defender and since he is our weakest and slowest link, I'll be having him on cover in a limited role to have cover for him and limiting his potential risky passes.

  

Wing Backs:

For our flanks we have our wing backs. We lack true backs and wingers, so limiting our wide players to just one in each side reduces the quantity needed of wide men - but also raises the quality needed to some extent. To give balance we have a fast wing back on our right side, who can't defend or cross the ball, but he can run. And on the other side we have a defensive midfielder used as an inverted wing back as he is right footed and poor when it comes to beating his marker and crossing. Better to have him come centrally in such case.

 

Central Midfielders:

We want our midfield to produce some industrious work as well as being creative. They are important in terms of getting the ball to our offensive players, but also very important in terms of breaking down opponents attacking moves. To get this effect we'll start off with a ball-winning midfielder and an advanced playmaker, looking to aid the attack with creative passing. (These roles have been changed though, which will be explained later in another post)

 

Attacking Midfielders:

Our attacking midfield duo will consist of a runner/scorer and a passing type. We want dynamic types to have our offense flourish and as such an attacking mid shadowing the striker, and an attacking midfielder looking to roam wider to pick up the empty space on the left flank would seem beneficial. 

 

Striker:

In front we want a player who will be passive when our opponent has the ball and ready to break the offside trap when we gain possesion. We have no demands as to technical ability, we just want a guy who can score, and preferably he has pace too but that is usually not a requirement we can demand at this level. 

 

So, how does all this look together? 

Meet Khotso le Nala v.1

 

[Keano16]

Interesting to see how it goes. 

[ManUtd1]

Good luck in Lesotho, man. Sorry to come back to Nelson getting fired again...

[Benjoe]

First match using Khotso le Nala v.1

Looking at the result alone it is pretty remarkable. We absolutely crushed them and our striker scored 4 goals, one of them being this one from own half. 

Creating 6 CCC and 7 Half chances, that's pretty impressive, especially when we had 50/50 possesion in the game. Much unlike our other tactics we took fewer long shots and got inside the box to finish a lot more. Usually no matter the instructions we went for the long shots at Malanti Chiefs. This seems to be very much an effect of hitting Butha-Buthe where it hurt, and quickly. They never stood a chance. 

Beautiful passing combinations. The quick tempo allowed some quick combinations either from our goalkeeper or from a midfielder to the next link. Quick and incisive and usually ending with an unmarked player breaking through on goal. 

Our 419 completed passes. A lot of passes in their half. Actually really it seems a bit ridiculous how many passes we had in a slim space - from the centre circle to the edge of the penalty box is where most passes happened. 

A heat map that clearly shows how much time we spent in their half and specifically in the area I pointed out just before. We rarely spent time in our own half making our opponents attacks limited since they'd be pushed far back when we lose possesion. Also we'd have many players left behind the ball to contest. 

 

Twitter was at it again.

[Benjoe]

3 minutes ago, Keano16 said:

Interesting to see how it goes. 

Just now, ManUtd1 said:

Good luck in Lesotho, man. Sorry to come back to Nelson getting fired again...

Thanks man! You back from vacation or still enjoying the relaxation? Yeah, unfortunate he is, that guy Nelson. 

[ManUtd1]

Just now, Benjoe said:

Thanks man! You back from vacation or still enjoying the relaxation? Yeah, unfortunate he is, that guy Nelson. 

At the airport, waiting to catch the first of two flights. We'll get home very late tonight.

At least Nelson lands on his feet. Cat-like reflexes.

[Benjoe]

1 minute ago, ManUtd1 said:

At the airport, waiting to catch the first of two flights. We'll get home very late tonight.

At least Nelson lands on his feet. Cat-like reflexes.

That sounds a little bit exhausting. Where have you been? 

Cat-like reflexes with the body of a hippopotamus. It worked though.

[ManUtd1]

17 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

That sounds a little bit exhausting. Where have you been? 

Cat-like reflexes with the body of a hippopotamus. It worked though.

With the wife and kids on a Disney cruise. Beautiful weather, nice and relaxing 

[DodgeeD]

9 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Personally I like Sky Battalion and Mphatlalatsane the most. Bantu Utd too if it's pronounced by someone with a thick accent so it sounds like Banter Utd perhaps. 

If accents and pronunciation come into play, I'd go for someone who sounds out 'th' like a hard 't' for Butha-Buthe Warriors

[Benjoe]

23 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

With the wife and kids on a Disney cruise. Beautiful weather, nice and relaxing 

That sounds absolutely terrific! Glad you've enjoyed it, and the weather could have been a real moodkiller so thanks to the Gods for good weather!  

8 minutes ago, DodgeeD said:

If accents and pronunciation come into play, I'd go for someone who sounds out 'th' like a hard 't' for Butha-Buthe Warriors

My brain is toast, and I've given up on figuring out if that would make the words sound like other words that would make it funnier. Like Butha could be heard as 'puta' and buthe as 'booty' but really not sure if that's what you mean?  

[Benjoe]

Second and third match using Khotso le Nala v.1

Matt the Lama provided a lot of pressure and managed to control and threaten way too much. 

They played a linear 4-4-1-1 and gave us trouble in the wider zones stretching our defense and then going narrow between the lines and into the channels. We were in deep trouble at times but our keeper did great and kept us from falling. 

We were far from lethal in this one and we should have moved our 3rd defender up into a Defensive midfielder role and perhaps have dropped our wing backs to provide better cover and pressure since they only had one striker to worry about. 

Once again we struggled to create chances like in the first match with the new tactic, and we gave away far too many chances - and this time to a team we had planned this tactic against; A team fielding three strikers. 

We had more half chances created, but we let Litsolo get 4 CCC's. Unacceptable. Luckily our keeped pulled out another great performance, and we were lethal the few times we got finishes off, even despite being one man down. Funny enough, our best period came when we were one man down. 

[kidthekid]

36 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

With the wife and kids on a Disney cruise. Beautiful weather, nice and relaxing 

You should have waited 2 years and taken them to the Messi Universe http://www.espnfc.us/barcelona/story/3137884/lionel-messi-theme-park-set-to-open-in-china-in-early-2019

[DodgeeD]

12 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

 

My brain is toast, and I've given up on figuring out if that would make the words sound like other words that would make it funnier. Like Butha could be heard as 'puta' and buthe as 'booty' but really not sure if that's what you mean?  

Apologies - language teacher by trade, tried to explain the pron stuff without the terminology and failed miserably

'Butta Butty' was what I was going for

[Benjoe]

4 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

You should have waited 2 years and taken them to the Messi Universe http://www.espnfc.us/barcelona/story/3137884/lionel-messi-theme-park-set-to-open-in-china-in-early-2019

Jesus christ. That sounds horrible imo.

Quote

The Messi Experience Park (MEP) will open in Nanjing in early 2019 and will boast over 20 attractions that will "enable visitors to immerse themselves [in] all things Messi."

Quote

The park will use virtual and augmented reality to re-run highlights of the Argentina international's career and take people through training sessions with a "Virtual Reality Messi."

Sounds like something Cristiano God-Naldo would do in @ManUtd1's world. 

[Benjoe]

3 minutes ago, DodgeeD said:

Apologies - language teacher by trade, tried to explain the pron stuff without the terminology and failed miserably

'Butta Butty' was what I was going for

Haha oh well, I was sort of not-really kinda close with 'Puta Booty'.

[kidthekid]

I was surprised when I heard it, this is something Ronaldo would do, but I guess the money was just too insane to pass up. I assume another letter to the Catalans warning them not to visit this place is in store @ManUtd1

[Benjoe]

Khotso le Nala v.2!

Following the struggles in the previous two matches number 7 and 9 respectively, we made changes to some of the roles to provide better balance. 

Changing the midfield roles provides a playmaker from deeper who will basically be a stationary shield for our defence, and having him paired with a central midfielder on support provides both some defensive stability/movement, as well as some support offensively. Furthermore I've asked my AM(at) to roam and move into channels, and my Poacher is asked to do the exact same thing. My Shadow striker, however, is not asked to do any of those two things. I want him to go straight for the jugular.

 

[Benjoe]

The first match with V.2 has been played. Sadly, I won't have time to update for a while now, so feel free to try to guess the result lads!

Have a good evening!

[Sir_Liam]

I think your change of roles should provide better balance as I felt the original tactic had all the more attacking players down the right side.  The new one should hopefully see the CM on the left get forward too.

You've also moved to a back 3 for one of the reasons I have on both my saves, the AI's 3 up front formations.  It wasn't my only reason but I feel a back 3 deals with 3 central strikers much better than a back 4 in this FM.

[Benjoe]

15 hours ago, Sir_Liam said:

I think your change of roles should provide better balance as I felt the original tactic had all the more attacking players down the right side.  The new one should hopefully see the CM on the left get forward too.

You've also moved to a back 3 for one of the reasons I have on both my saves, the AI's 3 up front formations.  It wasn't my only reason but I feel a back 3 deals with 3 central strikers much better than a back 4 in this FM.

I believe so too, and the first match using the second version were a very dominant one against the 3rd place. 

I have more reasons than just to deal with three strikers as well, slow defenders would be one for example which I find is 'hidden'/covered better with the two partners centrally, but it usually helps against the 3-striker formations thrown around. 

[BoxToBox]

Strange, when playing with a spread defence like that, I'd be looking for especially pacey defenders.

[Benjoe]

2 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Strange, when playing with a spread defence like that, I'd be looking for especially pacey defenders.

I usually place my slowest defender in the middle and then have the pacier ones flanking him. That seems to be working quite okay. I get why it sounds 'flawed', however, to try to 'hide' slow defenders in a three man defence when usually, they'd get forced to run more but since we don't close down practically at all from TI's I don't believe that should become as glaring an issue. This is all just blabber and theories I have until I have either debunked or proven it with this tactic though.

[BoxToBox]

That's what I done at Brondby with Olsson, if I remember correctly, slow lad in the middle and the quicker ones on the sides.

[Benjoe]

My PC has lately been really slow as in slowly dying slow, and today it takes it about 10 seconds to allow me to make gifs with Gyazo, which is making the act of snapping a gif of a highlight quite the tiresome and difficult task...

 

 

[Benjoe]

Khotso le Nala v.2 - Peace and Prosperity

This will be one of the last posts about tactics before I will return to some story of Nelson's exploits in Lesotho. 

As seen above Lioli are top of the table after winning 3, drawing 1 since Nelson joined. With just two games left meeting 3rd placed Liphakoe and 12th placed Sky Battalion in the last match hopes are high, since it can all be done this next round should LCS lose and Lioli win. 

As you can see, the tactic worked like a charm. They score on both of their only chances that hit the target, but tbh I can't really be bothered. We can't limit them completely and their chances were just as much flukes defensively as it was just quite effective attacking moves. Hit us on the counter and then attacked the first post beating our slowest defender to the ball. Keeper was sold at each occasions. Our own attacking moves were a true delight to see, and really promising. 

We had many shots that hit the target, and we had 5 CCC's and 6 half chances. Once again our possesion was just about even with our opponent but we played at such a tempo that we had just about 100 attempted passed more than they, and we succeeded with 10% more as well. So we are quick and precise to a far extent. Really impressive given the player material at hand. We don't win a lot of chances do, and still gets more cards than our opponent in this match. This is a mix of things I would assume. Not closing down allows them to dribble at us and we are not good tacklers so mistakes and poor tackles will happen, but I feel more confident in letting them attack us with the ball rather than attacking without the ball in the open spaces we leave when we close down ineffectively. I'd also assume we lose out on tackles since we don't close down as hard as our opponent so we lose challenges due to them coming with more power and then beating our players to the ball. We do win most headers, however. 

I would have liked to go through how this tactic worked on a more analytical point, but for some reason all categories under 'Analysis' is blank, so that won't be happening. 

I will show some of our best moves though.

This move shows just how quick our transitions can be, and how effective as we go from our DCB at the half line, to our striker at the edge of the box who plays a through ball to our AMCR who is completely open (was he offside, though?) but sadly hits the keeper. 

Another one. A quick pass from our own half sends our striker running through on goal. He is composed and beats both marker and keeper and scores. Haing the high tempo of the TI's and some players with attacking roles makes this move happen. The high tempo is cutting out a lot of other easier options like the wide midfielder on his left and having *pass into space* active, makes the Poacher (this role is important too as he was ready to find the gaps and attack them) the focal point of the passer rather than an easy option nearby. He plays a high risk pass rather than dribbling or passing a safer ball. This ends up with a score, and despite it being high risk, there was not a big risk of getting a counter right after the pass as it was sent at the edge of the opponents box so early, so we still had many players behind the ball. 

I really like these small but quick passes in the opponents half. The last pass cuts through their ranks and then we have created trouble for them. 

Nkabane receives the ball and attacks the unsettled defence and gets a shot off, but it's saved by the keeper. 

There were more, but gifs are taking forever this instance, and I have to leave the apartment now. 

The league was settled, though. 

[BoxToBox]

Smashing stuff.

[wynter]

Nice work! Restoring that reputation

[kidthekid]

Does this mean champions league football and new coaching badges?

Or does it mean on to better things?

[Benjoe]

3 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Smashing stuff.

 

3 hours ago, wynter said:

Nice work! Restoring that reputation

 

30 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Does this mean champions league football and new coaching badges?

Or does it mean on to better things?

Cheers fellas!

Yes, terrific to get some reputation back after that brutal sacking.

I won't reveal anything, but I will quote a title I've used a couple times:

The antelope that is constantly moving will fall in a pit.

 

 

[ManUtd1]

4 hours ago, wynter said:

Nice work! Restoring that reputation

Doesn't "restoring" imply that there was one to begin with?! 

Poor Nelson...

Kidding aside, congrats, man!

[Benjoe]

25 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Doesn't "restoring" imply that there was one to begin with?! 

Poor Nelson...

Kidding aside, congrats, man!

Ohh, how you like to provoke, tall man with perfect hair and beard and nice Swedish genes. I shall prove you wrong! YES I SHALL!

Thanks, man!

This feels like a really good move, and that at a time where it was slowly getting a bit... boring is not the right word, but some what dull at the other clubs. Now it feels right, and I got a good grip on the squad already and what needs to be improved and how to achieve it - to some extent. Of course it helps, that we have a - relative to the league - solid foundation, but we still have glaring issues. This new tactic have also really lighted some fire in me. I really like the fact, that it has worked this well with the shouts I have paired. "Much higher tempo" and "Close down much less" I wouldn't have expected to - seemingly - work this well together. We'll see if it was all just a purple patch next season though. 

Of course, I still have one final game of the season that needs to be played before we are officially crowned. 

[ManUtd1]

If you're not enjoying it, it is hard for a save to last. Glad you've gotten there, man!