[FM21] Parma - The Forgotten Seventh Sister

[english_lizard]

Hi All,

Having just bought FM21 this is a project that has been some time in the making. Here it goes:

Prologue: 

Being born at the start of the 90's, my earliest memories of watching football was of Channel 4's brilliant 'Football Italia'. The era of Italian supremacy in the sport, where the great minds of Capello, Lippi and Ancelotti strived for tactical dominance. The almost mythical-like figures of Serie A graced our television sets - Batistuta, Rui Costa, Maldini, Del Piero, Ronaldo (the list goes on). But ultimately, there was a unique competitive nature that saw six different champions across the decade that made the league so gripping to watch. 

 

The majority of success throughout this time was concentrated in the fittingly named "Seven Sisters" of Italian football - Juventus, Inter, AC Milan, Fiorentina Roma, Lazio, and Parma. Since the turn of the century, 6 of these sisters have had enduring success to varying degrees, with Juventus clearly enjoying the lions share of trophies. However, not many clubs in football have seen a demise over recent years than the once proud team of Parma.

 

The team that won eight trophies over ten years and once boasted a starting 11 that included Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram & Crespo was sadly crippled to the point of near extinction. Financial meltdown resulted in the club having to re-emerge from the ground level. Yet much like the phoenix it became, Parma soared through the lower Italian leagues to establish itself as a consistent Serie A performer, with a solid mid table finish in the 2019-2020 season. The seventh sister has returned. 

 

Aim

To go one step further than the great Parma team of 1996-1997 and win the first league title for the club. Learning from the mistakes of the past, the club must always maintain a strong financial position working within its wage budget at all times.

Management 

In order for the seventh sister to seize her throne, the team will need to share the vision and belief in Parma. To achieve this, not only must I demand the very best from each and every individual but the players must also challenge and push each other. Healthy competition will be promoted amongst the players - letting them know that no one is ever guaranteed a starting place. As my tactics will show - fitness, determination, versatility and (most of all) teamwork are all needed for my system to work. As such, a positive atmosphere is crucial and any bad apples will be dealt with immediately.  

Needing a right hand man who shares this mindset (and who also speaks Italian!) is Andrea Barzagli, who I have brought in as my assistant manager. Roy Keane has also been parachuted in as a coach to counteract any egos that may develop. 

Formation & Lineup

Right - with not much of a preseason in place every day is precious. The legacy of the old Parma runs strong in our approach play, as we look to build on this system and perfect it. A reminder of how this appeared:

 

 

My reinvention is not a replica of this but uses it more as a template for our long road to glory ahead:

 

First and foremost, I want us to play attractive football that looks to attack in a variety of ways, channeled through our ever developing "Tridente" (or "Trident") of our front three. For those of you unfamiliar with the term I suggest reading the below:

http://www.footballitaliano.co.uk/p6_66_93_understanding-italian-football-part-i-fantasia.html#.X7rLsmj7TIU

Our three man defence consists of two central defenders (Iacoponi and Gagiliolo) who, as we play a fairly high line, absolutely need to be competent with good physical attributes to contain opposition attackers. The middle defender (Alves) will be slightly more aggressive in his play and look to bring the ball forwards and link up with the two central midfielders. 

The complete wing backs (Pezzella and Busi) are crucial components to the team. They will provide the width both offensively and defensively, will look to cross from deep and provide options for our build up play in midfield. Fitness and determination are a must with these players. 

In midfield we have a sitter (Hernani) who holds his position in the middle of the pitch as to not to leave the defence too exposed, he must hold good anticipation skills to break up opposition play in the middle. Beside him a box to box midfield (Brugman) who will keep the midfield ticking as he looks to transition the play from defence to attack. 

The "Tridente" then consists of our beloved trequartista (Brunetta) drifting between the lines, our intelligent deep lying forward (Inglese) spearheaded by our pacey advanced forward (Gervinho). We want these three terrorising opposition defences throughout the league. 

Tactics

Our system will be defined by two main features - compactness and creativity. 

 

Firstly in attack, we recognise that most games we will be the underdog (at least in our first season) so passing will remain fairly short / mixed but with a higher tempo to capitalise on any space we can exploit. We will want to get the ball up to our front three fairly quickly, but tempo will not be so high as to waste possession and against teams where we are the favorite we will likely have a more patient build up. Players are instructed to be more expressive in their play - we have the numbers to allow for this so should take full advantage of individuality up front. 

In defence we want to minimise the space between the lines and as such, our defence will be high with a lower line of engagement to crowd out that midfield, again emphasising the need to be tight and compact forcing our opponents wide:

 

We fully recognise we are not blessed with the defensive titans of the 90's such as Cannavaro and Thuram, nor with the dazzling trio of Veron, Chiesa & Crespo up front, but I am confident if we can perfect this system we can form a solid base as which to build from. The seventh sister has returned. 

 

Season updates to follow.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by english_lizard

[scarp]

I was always a huge fan of Parma even since I read an article about their golden generation in ProFootball magazine back in around 2003 when I was just a little kid so I will be following this thread! Good luck 

[abulezz]

This looks great - can't wait to read up on more updates. 

[english_lizard]

Update - Season 1

A season has passed and probably one of the most thrilling and competitive seasons I have ever experienced on football manager! To put simply - Parma are back amongst the other sisters and they are back with a vengeance.

 

• The Tactics

After a rocky start to the season losing 2 of the first 3, I soon realised the formation which replicated that of the legendary 90's team did not suit our players, whose strengths instead lay in their ability to stretch opponents. I adopted a 4-3-3 wide formation as shown below. Having the anchor hold his position in front of the defence allowed the wing backs to push forward and pull the other team wide. Two central midfielders would support them, with one often pushing forward to join the attack. The wingers I soon found to be the key to success of this team as the pace and trickery were deadly on the counter - topped off by a complete centre forward who could handle himself in the air but was versatile enough to act as a lone striker. 

• Transfers

In the first few weeks of the season, both main strikers Inglese and Cornelius had quite bad injuries and I was unwilling to wait for them to return as there were crucial games early on. It was always going to be a loan player coming in and Carlos Fernandez from Seville fit the bill perfectly, not too much of a wage burden yet possessed the needed stats to play as a lone striker. What a signing he turned out to be - my main goalscoring threat and worked perfectly as either a single man upfront or paired just behind Cornelius. Another immediate area to address was the right back area, after much scouting I spent the majority of my £4 million budget on Ghiglione who has turned out to be a solid reliable wing back and at only 24 his best years are ahead of him. Finally, in January with 38 year old Alves going downhill very fast and my young Argentinian Valenti not yet ready to step up to the starting 11, I decided to raid Seville's squad yet again and signed the centre back Joris Gnagnon who has become one of the first names on the team sheet - a strong, capable, reliable defender, good in the air and commanding. 

 

• The Results

 

Parma defied all expectations and finished runners up to first time winners Atalanta. It was a wide open season in Serie A 2020/2021 and I couldnt be prouder of the way my team performed. Against top opposition, the team held a lower line and Gervinho & Karamoh were lethal on the break. The back four worked as a unit and Hernani provided that additional assurance as the anchor. When playing lesser teams, we would push higher up the pitch but maintain our expansive wide style. When approaching games we expected to win, or when chasing a game, the anchor would be swapped for a deep lying forward (Cornelius / Inglese) and Fernandez would drop slightly back to be a shadow striker, which was highly effective when coming from behind to beat the likes of Milan, Roma, Inter and Napoli. 

For the first half of the season, Juventus sat comfortably top and I assumed it would be another runaway season for them. However, the old lady soon dropped off when Ronaldo had a long term injury and they plummeted. The other favourites for the title - Inter and AC Milan, could not maintain the consistency. It was here where Parma & Atalanta filled the power void left by the other fallen giants of Italian football. Atalanta pretty much wrapped up the title with 5 games to go, before playing Parma where thanks to a Brugman (who pulled the strings all season) double sealed victory that would spur on a very late title challenge. 

Although it came down to the wire (you can see Atalanta's form above), the fantasy was not to be for Parma but to achieve 2nd place was nothing short of astonishing for a team which was largely expected to be mid-table. Parma are now back on the European stage where they belong - as mentioned in the prologue, the specter of financial ruin still haunts the club and the main ethos of the club now is "Sustainable Success" - we will not spend beyond our means, we will invest in the future of the team, building our youth facilities, coaching and scouting capabilities. 

Onwards to our bright future - for the next season we are not getting ahead of ourselves, our rivals will be spending big to push back into Europe and we know what we face. Our goal will be to maintain the momentum surrounding the club and give a good performance in Europe, spending wisely on signings for the long term.

Forza Parma. 

[DaveMUFC]

Great write up mate, I've been a long time admirer of Parma, mainly getting into then around 09/10 when they had Giovinco and Paloschi  and I've been to watch them a few times, both in serie C and A. 

Would love to keep reading more updates. 

[Jogo Bonito]

Great thread, I absolutely loved that Parma team shown in your first post and the C4 show with James Richardson was amazing back in the day where there was virtually no live English football on TV.

I really wanted to take on Parma in FM21 but (as always with Italy) I just can't do it with the amount of players they have within the club. Well done on a fantastic first season.