Troillongan - a Football Manager 2021 Tactic

[jtaylor1409]

Troillongan – a Football Manager 2021 Tactic

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Jamie Taylor

Around three weeks have passed since the release of my first tactic for FM21 and largely based on reports I’ve seen, the Einaudi tactic has gone down well. The main focus of the tactic was to play attractive, attacking football and I think it certainly achieved that.

Today I am going to introduce you to the first tactic that followed on from Einaudi, which I’ve given the name Troillongan. For those of you unfamiliar with the Norwegian language I’ll save you a trip to Wikipedia. It’s the nickname of my Rosenborg side and means “The Troll Children.” It can also be translated to “Trolls” and/or “Troll Kids” based on a quick Google search.

Where did the idea for Troillongan come from?

Whilst the Einaudi tactic continued having success with my Rosenborg side. I began to feel the tactic was becoming less effective and our performances were beginning to fade a little. Matches became harder to dominate and in truth, it felt like the AI had worked out the puzzle Einaudi presented.

At first, I fiddled around with a couple of different styles without any real improvements. Sure we still won games but the style of play just didn’t fit in with the Die Maschine Philosophy that I required all my sides to adopt.

Just like the Einaudi tactic before it. Troillongan is based on the principles of the Die Maschine Philosophy I wrote about back in early January. I want my team to play attacking football and look good whilst doing it.

That doesn’t mean to say however that my aim is to simply outscore the opposition. Quite the contrast, as I am a firm believer that every great side is built on a solid defensive base. This is something which is essential when adopting the Die Maschine Philosophy to your side.

What is the formation?

The Troillongan formation is a little different to the majority of formations which have currently been released for download for FM21. I want something different from the various bog-standard Strikerless iterations or 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress which have dominated the scene since release.

Tactical Style

We play with a Positive mentality, looking to play the ball out of defence our wing-backs. Players are instructed to run at the defence and to overlap down the right-hand side only. We play with a higher tempo, with a counter-press style of play. Our attackers take a much higher line of engagement, and the whole team have an extremely urgent pressing intensity. If we lose the ball we want it back immediately.

What players suit the Troillongan style of play?

To enable this tactic to play to maximum efficiency there are a few important things we must consider when forming a team.

The team will need to have a high degree of Positional Intelligence as they will be expected to find pockets of space to help initiate our attacking phases and overloads. For this, I have devised a calculation which will help to recruit the correct players to fit the Troillongan style.

Passing, Tackling, Anticipation, Decisions, Off The Ball, Vision.

Above are the attributes to look for to assign your Intelligence rating. The easiest way to calculate this would be to add up each attribute, divide by 6 and then multiply by 5. If you use Excel you can AVERAGE function the values and then multiply by 5 instead.

The rating you are looking for will differ greatly based on the quality of your side. A decent Premier League side should be looking for a rating in excess of 65.

Another calculation I like to do is to assess Tactical Ability. This enables me to get a handle on a players ability to perform, under the parameters I’ve set for the Troillongan style.

For this rating, I am looking to assess the following attributes as I believe they are pivotal in maximising the efficiency of this tactic.

First Touch, Passing, Anticipation, Composure, Decisions, Off The Ball, Positioning, Teamwork, Vision, Stamina.

Once again the easiest way to calculate is to add up all of the attributes above, divide by 10 and multiply by 5. If you use Excel you can AVERAGE function the values and then multiply by 5 instead as per above.

As you can imagine this rating will differ based on the quality of your side. I’d be hoping a Premier League side once again should be looking for a rating in excess of 65.

Testing Troillongan with Birmingham City

This morning I ran a last-minute test prior to writing this article. I’d made a couple of minor adjustments since the two tests I ran yesterday on Twitter of Troillongan. As such, I felt like I needed to run some final checks. Like the two simulations yesterday, this was with no transfers and the manager put on holiday mode for the entire season.

For this test, I decided to choose Birmingham City. A team who are predicted to finish 18th in the SkyBet Championship at the start of the season. I wanted to see how the tactic performed without my input and whether it could outperform the predicted finishing position.

This as you can imagine vastly exceeded my expectations. They won the league by a ridiculous margin of 21 points!

Birmingham not only walked the league they outperformed their xG by 66.84% scoring 103 goals compared to expected 68.85. Not only that their attacking and defensive stats stood up magnificently against the league. Which is to be expected given the level of outperformance of their expected pre-season position.

Troillongan in Action

In the screenshot below the attack begun on the left-hand side of the pitch, my IW switched the ball over to the right flank. Here we have the side moving the ball around in a triangular shape near the corner flag.

In doing so this has drawn out 3 defenders and has left two very open possibilities on the edge of the box. As it turned out we lost possession but by creating that overload down the right-hand side, we pull teams out of shape.

In the next photo the ball has come across to the right-hand side of the pitch at the top left is our IWB who is sitting narrower. Ahead of him is our BPD, the BWM(D) drops back to provide extra cover with the CD(D). Allowing the WB(A) to press up and join the WP(A) and potentially look for an overlap opportunity should they win the ball back.

The video below shows an incisive breakaway. The ball once again started over on the left-hand side of the pitch. With the opposition side all flocking over to that area of the pitch. The IWB(S) switched the ball across the field towards the WB(A) who runs with the ball before finding my Poacher, who then lays off the Trequartista. He then spots the advancing Inverse Winger who cooly slots it in the back of the net.

How does it work?

The theory behind the Troillongan style is that the players all work together as a unit. Interchanging positions with the aim of playing narrower on the left-hand side the pitch. Creating overloads on the right-hand side with the wing-back overlapping our Wide Playmaker. Who himself is a vital part of the formation working successfully.

Implementing this style will produce beautiful to watch football whilst regularly disorganising your opposition and forcing them into making mistakes.

This, as you can imagine, will improve significantly when maximising the efficiency of the tactic by using players rated to perform within this system. Even standard players will do well, as per our season-long test with Birmingham City shows.

Any other success?

Using this tactic has enabled me to dominate with Rosenborg in the save I have been posting regular updates from on Twitter. You can see the progress of that here if you’d like.

Below are the two most reason seasons I’ve played league tables.

Eliteserien 2030 Season Eliteserien 2029 Season

Using this tactic I haven’t lost a league game in six seasons, that’s over 180 games unbeaten in that time. We’ve won 11 Eliteserien titles. 6 Champions Leagues in a row. 6 UEFA Cup Cups in a row, and 1 Fifa Club World Cup amongst other minor domestic trophies.

Follow me on Twitter @jtaylor1409

 

 

You can download the Troillongan tactic by visiting this link.

 

[gooders11]

Really interesting. I plugged it in for a tough champions league game and battered them 3-0.  Just looking at your attribute guide and i won't download your spreadsheet as im rubbish at things like that. Are the positional and tactical attributes for all players? For instance would a striker still need a high score on the positional intelligence as much as a defender or midfielder? I hope that makes sense. 

[jtaylor1409]

40 minutes ago, gooders11 said:

Really interesting. I plugged it in for a tough champions league game and battered them 3-0.  Just looking at your attribute guide and i won't download your spreadsheet as im rubbish at things like that. Are the positional and tactical attributes for all players? For instance would a striker still need a high score on the positional intelligence as much as a defender or midfielder? I hope that makes sense. 

Thanks for the comment. I think it's down to your preference and the players you have at your disposal. For example my Rosenborg side my strikers score as highly as my defence so I think it's quite uniform to use across positions. There is an argument to suggest using Positioning instead of Off The Ball for defensive positions but that's something I need to look further into.

[killerkoala]

Interesting tactic with a quirky mix of roles, which I like. Might give this a try. 

Also like the name, as I'm currently living in Trondheim, where Rosenborg are from 👍

[kevm250]

total noob when it comes to the attributes but do you click on each you recommend in player search then divide by 6 and multiply by 5?

[kevm250]

7 minutes ago, kevm250 said:

total noob when it comes to the attributes but do you click on each you recommend in player search then divide by 6 and multiply by 5?

what i mean is if you go player search and pick then each one starts at 15or do you find a player for a position then look at the attributes 

[jtaylor1409]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean but it doesn't sound right to me.

 

When you are looking for players are you looking for them to fit the Positional Intelligence, Tactical Ability or the principles of the Die Maschine philosophy?

What you need to do is add up the attributes for each area listed for each player then divide by however many there are in that area so Die Maschine has 12 attributes it looks for (then multiply that figure by 5). Positional Intelligence has 6 so same as previous example (then multiply by 5) and 10 for Tactical Ability.

Depends what route you want to go down with it really. Or you can download my spreadsheet completely free at https://www.jamiektaylor.com/football-manager/fm21-player-roles-spreadsheet/ which if you follow the steps listed in that article you'll be able to export and bring your squad into a spreadsheet and it'll calculate everything for you.

[poobington]

Have to say this is a fantastic tactic. Ofte with tactics you might get good results, with pretty much the same exploitative goals scored over and over. I have tried this tactic with 3 different teams and the goals have been really fun to watch. Another thing is that there are loads of great highlights to watch, even when watching on key highlights.

 

Good job!

[basheer]

Who u manage? Which team?

[poobington]

I have tried this tactic with Everton, Leicester and now Newcastle. I have taken Newcastle to 5th, with a few signings to boost areas we were lacking. Diego the 35 yr old brazilian who used to play for Werder Bremen has been excellent as a Trequartista. The striker in the poacher roles is lethal. Needs to have pace.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by poobington

[WI5ARD]

Like the look of this but play fm touch - could you screen shot the tactics screens please 

[poobington]

Edited February 15, 2021 by poobington

[poobington]

Some results with AS Monaco below. Predicted 6th. Currently sitting in 1st. Only the 1 loss to PSG, and they are so far ahead of everyone else in the league. AS Monaco have a better standard of player than Newcastle so the results are more consistent. Didn't watch any of the games, this was all done on holiday. No signings.

 

Poacher - Wissam Ben Yedder - 21 goals and 5 assists in 18 Appearances

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by poobington

[Majick]

Just wanted to add my support for this tactic. Playing as Cagliari in Serie A, predicted a bottom-half finish, I only signed DR/MR Luca Vignali to add to the existing squad.

We never had any particularly long winning streaks, but at the same time our worst runs were 2 defeats in a row, and a DLDD where the loss was to Juventus in the cup. We got revenge on Juve late on in the season, with overwhelmingly our best performance of the season coming in a 5-0 away win that was kickstarted by their referee panicking under a long throw and fumbling the ball into his own net, the only time I've ever seen that happen that I can recall. 4 goals and a 10 rating for Giovanni Simeone were the icing on the cake for that match!

For most of the season we were playing one match a week which surely helped with our squad not being overexerted. Only a few of our players finished above a 7 average, but our top three were centre back Daniele Rugani (a loanee from Juventus, sadly), trequartista Joao Pedro (8 goals and 15 assists in 35 appearances) and striker Giovanni Simeone (33 goals in 37 appearances). Thankfully Cagliari have talent up front! Most of the rest came in above a 6.8, which isn't terrible but isn't great either. Come season's end, though, that combination of decent squad performance and excellence in attack led to a second place finish, albeit 11 points back from champions Milan. Not bad, given I spent all season being asked if I was happy to avoid a thrashing on the rare occasions that we lost.

Fielding orthodox ML/MR players wasn't easy - trying to only sign Italian/home grown players as an added challenge made it that much more so! Nahitan Nandez is the only decent MR in the Cagliari squad, but he's also one of the best for either MC spot in this tactic. It's a challenge to find the right players as I head into my second season, to which can be added left backs capable of playing as an inverted wingback. Even with Champions League football as a draw, I suspect I'll be looking to the loan market to find the right players for those spots; Emerson from Chelsea looked ideal... but they'd already exceeded their maximum number of loans, and meeting his wages wouldn't be easy either.

Not having played a full season in Serie A in years, I was surprised by how many loans in and out there were - for Cagliari there were 7 players loaned in and 7 players loaned out from the first team squad. Bizarre!

Edited March 15, 2021 by Majick

[LovelyJoey]

Hi, I've been wanting to use this tactic on my fm save but I'm playing on the Xbox one edition so I can't download it. I was wondering if this has any player instructions on it as I can see none in the pictures attached