How to you play when you're newly promoted?

[djpdavey]

When you're a newly promoted team and you start your season well but you know it wont last. Do you just play he same tactic every game or adapt slightly every game? Also if you lose do you just shrug off losses as newly promoted or do something more drastic beyond different line up?

[stockwellpete]

Nowadays, I am trying to keep the same tactic and the same mentality - always 442 with a "cautious" mentality. In the season before, when we got promoted as champions by 26 points, we always played 442 with a "balanced" mentality. My squad now is 50% "good" players for the division we have just come out of - and 50% "decent" for the higher division we are now in. When I can increase the % of "decent" higher division players in my squad to around 75% then I will go back to a "balanced" 442 again. But this may take a season as we have very little money to spend. We are still part-time, while most clubs in the division are fully professional. Even so, we have won 3 out of our first 4 matches so far.

 

What I have stopped doing now is jumping about from one mentality to another during a game and I very rarely change my formation either. Sometimes, away from home, when defending a lead late on in a game, I might take a forward off and go to 451 or 4141. I think I did it twice in the whole of last season (around 25 away games). Doing this allows the players to learn the system really well so you get a high "familiarity" rating.