Creating a tactic from scratch, relying on common sense rather than tactical knowledge..

[ashlfcowen]

Hello,

I am 13 seasons into a save with Wrexham AFC. In our long career, we have only added two trophies to our cabinet: The Vanarama National League in 22/23 and the FA Community Shield in 31/32. 

We have been close to silverware a few other times, but our young squad faltered at the times when it mattered most.

For example, in the 32/33 season, we lost the league by a single point, and were knocked out of the Champions League by Spurs, who overcame a 4-0!!! deficit on the second leg to win on penalties. 

In the years before that, we finished 3rd, 5th, 2nd, 4th, 4th, and 14th.

We have been to a Champions League final where we lost to Madrid 1-0.

And we’ve always done OK in the domestic cups. 

The fact is, we are a young team. The average age of our strongest starting 11 is only 21 years, 9 months. 

But it’s now got to the point where I’m sick of not winning…

Ryan and Rob are still at the helm, but over the last season, there has been a lot of talk of them wanting to move on so I want to deliver them something special before they do.

So I’ve decided to rip up the tactical rulebook that has always worked quite well for us, and instead try and create something NEW in the hope it inspires the squad to win win win.

I also wanted to share it with you here. Not because I hope to teach you anything new, because I promise I won’t - I don’t watch enough real-life football and I do not read any tactical analysis pieces to admit I know enough to create something that will inspire any of you.

But what I will do is try and apply common sense, based on years of playing the game in the hope it creates something that will take my game up another level.

Happy reading.

So, the first thing is first, HOW do I want to play?

Jurgen Klopp said in an interview this pre-season,

"I would love to be that team where everyone thinks 'oh God, Liverpool...'."

"I want us to be a high-press team. Specialists in possession, specialists in high press. Best in the world in counter-press."

And that’s exactly the philosophy I want to apply at Wrexham for the upcoming 34/35 season.

It’s also what the board and fans want… and given it’s our final year in at The Racecourse Group before we move to the 47,000-seated Joey Jones Arena, I am willing to give them what they want. 

As a small, personal ambition, I would really like to do something about this…

9/12 times is a joke and I believe our soon-to-be Superstar Lewis Astley can topple Haaland. I’d also quite like to topple him in other persona accolades because in the last 12 years, Haaland has also won the Balon D’or 8 times! It’s my personal mission to ruin his legacy. I’m coming for you, Erling. 

I want him to be the goalscorer, the guy who ends most seasons with 40+ goals in all competitions. He is going to be the guy who puts everything away. In fact, 40 is too low. I want 50, in each season he plays.

He has everything Cleon writes about in this article here (https://www.viewfromthetouchline.com/2023/01/23/fm23-the-secrets-of-successful-goalscoring/)

So the focus on the roles and duties in this tactic has to be on support and supply.

So what happens next…

Well, let’s talk about the team instructions first. 

In Possessions:

Play out of Defence

I think it’s important to be realistic when you want your team to play a certain way, but equally, knowing that they don’t always have the correct skillset to do it.

My defenders are great, at defending… 

But they lack composure, with the average of my fullbacks and centrebacks being just 12.5

The passing average is 11.75, the first touch is 12.

But as I said, they are young and have lots of room to improve so I’m going to let them ‘mature’ into their responsibilities.

So I will be careful to ensure that for any team that presses high and presses well, we will aim to bypass this. 

Shorter Passing

Looking at the squad comparison, our average first touch across the whole squad is 12.83, our passing is 12.91, composure is 12.36, decisions 14.36 and off the ball is 11.40

At this point, I’m thinking square peg round hole but I’m gonna stick to my guns and try to give the fans what they want… we will see.

Dribble Less

I want the team to keep the ball only as long as they need to before making the next pass. I don’t mind players, who have personal traits such as running with the ball more often and doing what they want to do, but otherwise, I want this limited within the team instructions. 

Fairly Narrow

This is where our playmakers are - in the middle of the pitch - so that’s where I want the ball.

In Transition:

Distribute to Centre Backs: It makes sense that if I want to retain the ball and focus on building from the back, then there should be no wild distribution from the GK.

Slow Pace Down: I want to counterattack, but only when the moment is right. I read somewhere that this TI can just calm things down slightly so that’s why I’ve selected it.

Counter: Based on my personal goal of wanting Astley to score a bucketload, it makes sense to sometimes… just sometimes, when the moment is right to bypass the need to want to make 50 passes before scoring a goal and simply just get the ball to him as quickly as possible if the space is there.

Counter-Press: “Whatever we play, counter-press will be a big part. I hope we don't have to use it that often because I want us to keep the ball and then in the end of possession, shoot it in the back of the net!” - Jurgen Klopp

Out of Possession:

Higher Defensive Line:  Ahhhh something my team might actually be able to play looking at the average attributes needed to play this demand successfully.

Average anticipation: 15.75

Average pace: 15.75

Average positioning: 14.25

Average concentration: 14

With lots of room to grow/improve too.

High Press: My base tactic is 4-2-3-1, so with 4 players stationed high, it makes sense to start pressing high. Do my team lack the necessary skills in order to do this? Well, we certainly wouldn’t be the worst team in the league trying to do this… 

More Often: I think this just makes sense given I went to be an absolute nuisance without the ball.

So how does this all tie together?

A few thoughts:

I really do want to build from the back.

So, with a sweeper keeper on defend, and with the team instruction to ‘slow pace down’, I’m hoping for the most part, when he’s got the ball he will play it out to the centre-backs but if there is a clear opportunity to counter, he will go for it…

I want full-backs instead of wing-backs because I want them to offer passing options when playing up the pitch. I do not want them to shoot forward as soon as we are in possession. I don’t know if this would be the case but on paper, the wingbacks do sound like they would be more aggressive.

I want my left back to offer width and balls into the box to Astley, so I’m hoping the overlap left shout will make him a little more aggressive. It might not be necessary with him being on an attacking duty but we will see…

I like the idea of both my CMs being in the DM strata to help with that build-up and I’m hoping with them both being on a support duty, they will move up with the ball.

I want my winger on the right to hold the width, but he has a trait of wanting to cut inside from the right, so I’m hoping he will play like Grealish does in real life.

My AM is instructed to be riskier with his passing

And my left-inverted winger I expect to supply goals and assists. 

So yeah, let’s see how this plays out…

 

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by ashlfcowen

[ashlfcowen]

Everything in the post above is my perception of how I think things work...

I'h very Happy to be corrected and told otherwise.

[dazza11]

I think that’s a really solid start, there isn’t a lot out of place there. My biggest concern is the only real goal threat is your AF, if he gets marked out the game or has a stinker, goals will be hard to come by. Personal preference would be to have one of your wide players as an IF to help the AF with goals. Again, if chasing a game needing a goal, you may want to consider switching one of ur dms to something like a vol to get more bodies into the box. 
But give it a good run, looks a solid base to start, good luck. 

[bosque]

3 hours ago, ashlfcowen said:

Counter: Based on my personal goal of wanting Astley to score a bucketload, it makes sense to sometimes… just sometimes, when the moment is right to bypass the need to want to make 50 passes before scoring a goal and simply just get the ball to him as quickly as possible if the space is there.

This comment is based on my experience playing but activating counter, for me, equals to your team looking to counter all the time and not just sometimes. I think if you want to counter sometimes just left it unticked and the match engine will generate the counters when the situation is right.

[Johnny Ace]

That looks decent enough @ashlfcowen

One thing is, I'd swap the two DM roles around, so that the holding DLP is on the side of the more offensive Fullback