SteinkelssonFM Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 Couldn't agree with you more here, the more and more I see these tactical recreations, and YT content. The use of TI and PI to create overpowered tactics aligns well with the amount of salt and vinegar I put on my fish and chips. One thing I have learned most from FM23 and FM24 is that less is most certainly more. Using a TI if you want to actively drive a certain metric, other than that you can simply trust your players to play the brand of football you desire, especially if they align to the playing style. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 On 15/12/2023 at 21:17, MattyLewis11 said: One thing I have learned most from FM23 and FM24 is that less is most certainly more. Using a TI if you want to actively drive a certain metric, other than that you can simply trust your players to play the brand of football you desire, especially if they align to the playing style. This has been the single biggest bit of learning for me since I decided to change how I play FM! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 The end of the season is upon me and, to be fair, it kind of fizzled out into nothingness but our performances in the first half vs second half of the season show that we are still, very much, a team on the rise. As you can see from the recent matches below, we've found winning hard but - with just one league defeat in fifteen and the second best defence in that time - things are slowly and surely progressing in the manner that I want them to. The bonus, though, was the youth intake, with an absolute diamond in Oscar Johansson coming through. The youngster has already gone on to make his first team debut for the club and becomes, potentially, another jewel in the crown of this academy that has already produced me first team players Filip Aberg and Patrik Palsson as well as up and coming stars Begovic, Svensson, Rosenberg and Torstensson. As you can imagine, watching these games hasn't always been the most exciting and late goals, missed chances and silly errors have been infuriating at times but we're getting there. We still absolutely lack a goalscorer, as seen by our measly five goals in the last eight games, with only one of those coming from a striker and, the last goal of the season, in injury time, securing our eighth place finish, coming from the backup full back - Andersson - who is leaving the club. If I wasn't so settled, I'd absolutely be looking at a repair job with Brommapojkarna, a team who embody my style of player development and, actually, have the record for the most youth clubs in all of Europe - with something like 300 of them. In game, this is modelled by a ridiculous number of promising youngsters and a huge number of ex-players plying their trade across Europe. They have, sadly, sacked Olof Mellberg, so - unfortunately for them - I now completely disagree with their principles. How could they do that to such a man?! Two other big sides - Ogryte and Halmstads - have gone down too with the other promoted side, Varnamo, just about staying up. At the top, Elfsborg won their first title in thirteen years, at a canter, too, improving from their runner up slot last year. Hammarby, on the other hand, have had a shocker and were miles off retaining their title. It does feel that there are five or six really good teams at this level with Goteborg and below all vying to be the best of the rest. This label is actually something that the board want us to achieve in the next couple of years so, hopefully, this season won't lead into that difficult second season! This time of the year is the one where I put even more consideration into squad building, so I've - initially - delved into a chart I've used before and I've recently seen used really well by @MattyLewis11 - the age vs minutes comparison scatter: My three mid-season signings (Emil Forsberg, Roger Lofber and Saidou Bah) aside, there is a huge gulf in minutes played this season with barely any rotational options - just a first team and some backups. This is not going to work in the longer term if we really want to continue our upward trajectory. However, the number of players with serious amounts of minutes who sit underneath the median age is brilliant; I can build around Fofana, Aberg, Palsson, Navik, Forsberg and Kusu and, hopefully, in the years to come, they will continue to grow, develop and push us further on. However, that does come with its downfalls too - Forsberg, Lundgren, Gracia and Blomqvist are all above thirty but, looking forward, none of the experienced heads, Emil aside, are actually going to be guaranteed first team football - with the ending of Gracia's loan and Lundgren's departure at the end of his contract. Whilst youth development is - always - at the forefront of how I play, there needs to be a consideration that experienced heads need to enter this team, too: and not just as backup players. With that, it also gives me a nice opportunity to reflect on my transfer plans. This is what I wrote last off-season: Quote Immediate: Goalkeeper: I talked about Jonsson’s lack of command in the centre of his goal so ideally wanted a bigger, more commanding keeper with better reflexes than my current number one. Left winger: I wanted a flair player who was able to progress the ball into dangerous areas, either to shoot or lay off to a team mate and one who may also draw us fouls in dangerous areas. Defensive midfielder: A man who could step into Salaou’s shoes and win the ball back before progressing it. Centre back: A man who could step into Perez’s shoes and complete all defensive duties but also be able to help us play out from the back. 6-12 months: Striker: With Damus and Mattson both untested at this level and Engblom no longer at the club, I could easily find myself lacking an actual goalscorer. I want to trust them but I need to be busy creating a list of alternatives for when, or if, the time and price is right. Centre Back: Captain Blomqvist is getting no younger and his lack of passing ability may grow to hamper us at a higher level. I'll be on the look out for right footed centre backs, or, should my left footed centre back search not be fruitful, continue that one. Left Back: With Team Leader Olsson not interested in renewing, I'm left with converted midfielder Andersson in this role. He could be great but he showed last year that he might not be. One certainly to watch. 12-18 months: Right Back: Forsberg was, on paper, the weakest performer and is tasked with quite a tough job in the IFB role. I want to tie him down a bit longer as he develops but do have some reservations. Johansson came in and has performed really well - although I still have my reservations about his handling ability, given that the number of shots parried to held ratio is considerably different to what I had with Jonsson last season. Tankovic and Forsberg have been decent additions to the left wing slot but Gracia and, to some extent, Frej have been disappointments in the centre back area. I jumped a little earlier than planned to bring in Bah and I think, overall, he's settled well - it'll be just up to him how he pushes on next year. However, the shopping list that included both full backs will probably be amended as both Aberg and Forsberg have made it into my top four players, as seen below: Both full backs operate very differently, with an inverted wing back and an inverted full back but I am equally happy with their performances and how both have grown into key members of the first team. Navik has been rejuvenated following the move to the 433 shape, excelling in the CM(a) role after finding space tough to come by as an AM(s) in the 4231 shape. He's ended with thirteen goal contribution this season, a team high, and is still developing into a really strong 8/10 hybrid. Palsson's directness embodies our style in attack and - with twelve goal contributions - he's contributed everywhere, leading the average rating for those with over five hundred minutes played. However, to improve this club, I need to consider where we sit as a team. The easiest way to do that is to draw up some positional comparison with the remainder of the league. Whilst my metric bars and the pizza charts, above, compare against the top leagues in the world - the Allsvenskan isn't one of those and, as such, I may be missing a trick by not seeing where the strengths and weakness of the teams that we face weekly are. For context, this chart compares any players in the Allsvenskan who are natural in the above roles and have played over 1000 minutes this season. For my own team, it is those who have played in these roles and have amassed over 500 minutes (given my issues with comparative data having no rotational options). I'm quite surprised to see that my strikers have performed so well against the rest of the league, considering that I didn't have anyone reach over ten goals this season. However, it's clear to see where our strengths lie in the AF(a) role - not heading or creating. Whilst I'd love to bring through a more complete striker, or, even just a taller advanced forward, I think that I'm quite happy with the outputs here from Bah, Mattsson and Lofberg. My happiness of continued with the attacking midfielders and I hope that the slight change to the team tempo will bring down the amount of rushed, long shots and improve - at least - the conversion rate of them. Elsewhere, they are progressing the ball and creating above what the rest of the attacking midfielders in the league are doing. My central and defensive midfielders are doing ok - but, on deeper inspection - are actually doing well given that they are making less clearances and blocks - suggesting less overall defending (we rank tenth in the league in overall possession won and mid table for box passses against). The centre back area is the one where I need to create the most change in the off season. Our aerial woes are clear to see but we seem to be getting by by intercepting more and being safer in possession; something has to change here! The goalkeeper stats, whilst green (I couldn't quite work out if saves tipped was a positive or a negative!) show the concern that I have, with Johansson - on average - parrying 0.3 more shots per game than the other keepers. Only in-game experience will tell you that this concerns me, given where the second ball is being won or lost. What this does do though is create some nice benchmarks for recruitment, particularly from within this country. Financially, we aren't in a great situation and I think that my non-exploratory signings will mainly be from the domestic market, so I can begin to apply my knowledge to things. For example, a new centre back: Over 70% header win ratio, completes more than five progressive passes per ninety, over 80% tackle ratio. With that in mind, it's off to scour the land in search of replacements to make ourselves that little bit better! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) On 15/12/2023 at 17:42, _Ben_ said: I’ve been giving our playing style a lot of thought lately - scribbling ideas down on paper, playing with tactical boards like the ones you can see below and consuming as much formation based content as I can. I've learnt a lot but my main takeaway and the hipster thing at the moment is that formations don't really exist, and I should just be looking at defensive, offensive and transitional shapes. Whilst this is somewhat in jest, it does hold firm in that fact that there are so many factors that have implications on how or why we are doing the things that we are and I can't just assume that one playing style or one instruction fits all. I know that, in this regard, the FM engine is somewhat limited as things like familiarity are significant within the match engine - when, in real life, we'd drill and drill and drill these but, here, I just must accept that there will be a slight drop off in effectiveness if too much has changed in and between games with my setups. I think my deep dive is partly due to some defensive woes but also due to the fact that, whilst we have a squad that is not the strongest at this level, there’s been a bit of a departure from my playing style in order to just do enough. Now, I’m not tough enough to die on my hill of beautiful, free flowing football at all costs, but we’ve become something of nothing really – far too easy to score against and somewhat subdued in our offensive play. Up until this iteration of FM, I’ve been reluctant to play a natural double pivot because of the space that it affords in the central areas and I think that I’m really seeing this two-fold this year. Firstly, teams are able to build up through us and, even when I managed to shut down the wide corridors, they were able to play through balls between the defenders and, secondly, because it doesn’t quite align with my counter attacking principles. With four players almost always ahead of the ball, I’m building, essentially, through the three-two shape – perfect, but, at the same time, not ideal when all my most creative players are ahead of it. I’d actually like to keep the natural double pivot (and I use the term natural because I can make one through using an IWB as opposed to two defensive midfielders) and it features in two thirds of the tactics that I think I’m going to lay down as the kind of base shapes. For me, what is important is consistency, where possible, with roles and with instructions – I’d never go for one tiki taka tactic and one long ball tactic, nor would a midfield duo of destroyers make up one shape and another one has two technical playmakers: I simply do not have the rounded personnel to achieve this. Therefore, I’ve drawn up three new shapes, all of which still build of the positional principle of a 3-box-3 and all of which will, hopefully, allow me to return – slightly – to the more fluid attacking style whilst keeping tighter defensively. Each image leads to an in-game screenshot of the formation, at this point in my development. Overall, I think that these shapes will help us stick to our core principles better. We will always be able to build up from the back with as there will be a spare man against any shape that isn't a flat three (and I don't think the AI can use that) or a really aggressive 433 or 4231 shape where their forwards and/or attacking midfielder occupy our three defenders. If that is the case, it'll open up holes behind them for us to play through. Therefore, I don't want to use the Play out of defence instruction as that'll slow our counter attacking as it (to quote) encourages defenders to pass their way out from the back rather than look to clear it long. I don't want long ball, but I do want vertical, fast paced football when the opportunity arises. Additionally, I think that the use of BPD(d) and (c) may further help with the development of playing out from the back without officially playing out from the back! With roles such as IF(a) and IW(s) as well as CM(a) and BBM(s), I will already be encouraging players to dribble but I want to really emphasise that with fast, tricky players in the majority of these roles adding traits to further encourage progressive ball carriers, so this forms part of the DNA - an inbuilt team instruction that remains whatever shape we are playing and, unless we are trying to see out a game, for the entirety of the ninety minutes. The run at defence instruction is the only 'In Possession' instruction that remains for the team as I have made the decision to remove the higher tempo from our game. I believe that our low shot xG and rushed chances come from this and, with the roles we have anyway (disregarding the mentality entirely at this point), our movement is already quite fast, plus, this may actually help slow the pace down and draw the press when we are in our early stages of transition. Whilst, to some, it may feel that I'm being tactically inflexible - putting all my eggs into one style of attacking, I think that there is significant difference between a CM(a)/BBM(s) combo and a VOL(a)/F9(s) combo atop the box in the middle. It also makes sense to attack in quite a similar way when, at this level, I'm not exactly blessed with well-rounded players who can perform multiple roles and styles. That means that my transition and out of possession styles become a lot more opposition dependent. For my next game, I've set up in a certain way, as seen below, but these are likely to change depending on scenarios. I'll change to longer kicks if I feel unconfident at evading an attacking press and I'll easily change up the speed of distribution from the keeper as and when is necessary. I tend to use regroup but it's not a given, as, against teams with a poor first touch and anticipation, I may choose to counter when the ball is turned over, hoping to further build on my overarching style. I am, however, conscious that this approach is more risky and wouldn't want to leave it on for all games as it'll leave our defence more open. Out of possession, the use of a mid block is another that is common but absolutely not set in stone. It's unlikely that I'll deviate to a low block, given my woes with aerial battles, and that they'd then be even closer to our goal but a high block may come in of use when I'm not overly worried about pace or long balls in behind. The decision to trap inside or outside and whether I (attempt to) stop crosses or not is often based on opponent strengths as I feel that this is somewhere where I can pre-empt as opposed to react during the game. --- So, how has it worked? Pretty well! The table has us as the form team and all but safe from relegation now. I do not think we have enough left in the tank to push any higher than we are now, really, but the turnaround has been nothing short of fantastic. Yes, we've conceded seven goals in the last five games - back to the same ways of crosses and corners with five headers in that time, too. I must say that confidence is wearing out with Gracia, who still cannot achieve a header win ratio anywhere near what Frej and Blomqvist are doing - which puts that spot up for grabs in the summer. Despite the the tactical changes, I am confident that I can use this season to create some really strong benchmarks for performance across the roles within the overarching style that we play in order to go into the summer prepared and ready to build on this. But, before that, there's still eight games to go! I do love posts like this. I always find it interesting to see see the logic behind what you do similarly to me and what you do differently. One of the key differences is you always opt for an AF or similar high forward, whereas I prefer to collapse in with the counter and draw space for the wide players. Do you ever find that AF is just completely isolated and hardly ever gets involved in the game? How many passes does he typically make / receive per game? I think it's what suits your style, and dictates some of the other choices around him, but just curious whether that AF is just removed from the build up play completely - other than keeping the defensive line honest and preventing too much compression in the middle. Edit - exemplary timing there as you just posted above the forward... Edited December 17, 2023 by Shrewnaldo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 17, 2023 Author Share Posted December 17, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Shrewnaldo said: I do love posts like this. I always find it interesting to see see the logic behind what you do similarly to me and what you do differently. One of the key differences is you always opt for an AF or similar high forward, whereas I prefer to collapse in with the counter and draw space for the wide players. Do you ever find that AF is just completely isolated and hardly ever gets involved in the game? How many passes does he typically make / receive per game? I think it's what suits your style, and dictates some of the other choices around him, but just curious whether that AF is just removed from the build up play completely - other than keeping the defensive line honest and preventing too much compression in the middle. Oh, absolutely! I don't think it'll be too hard to pick out she strikers here when looking at passes completed per/90 (given that the two on the left are my goalkeepers). I find that they get completed isolated are are of little to no use in the build up, as you can see here from three heatmaps: --- My general reasoning is that I like to use my striker to ‘pin’ defenders back and open up spaces for my midfielders to carry the ball into - adding to the bias towards dribbling and progressive passes. But, I'm concerned that they aren't good enough to actually take part in the counter, and are certainly not good enough if we are forced wide and to cross. I do think, however, that there is scope to explore this in pre-season now that I have a solid base of who my strikers are. I'll initially start with a DLF(a) because I do like the element of high risk, last defender play, given their pace, but I could easily deviate from that and use their pace as a method of quickly pulling defenders out. Nice thought! Thanks Shrew! Edited December 17, 2023 by _Ben_ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted December 19, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 19, 2023 With little money to speak of here at Sundsvall, I could be excused for finding the transfer window somewhat of a chore. Instead, I've chosen to dig deep into the baseline statistics that I gathered and shared in the previous post and attempt - within my restricted parameters - to recruit players that would give us the best chance of getting that little bit better. There are no marquee signings, or even risky imports to name of here, instead, some homegrown depth and assurances. And I think I like that. With money comes the ability to expand my scouting horizons and, like many Scandinavian clubs have excelled at, import from wider undervalued markets such as Africa or Eastern Europe. This is absolutely part of my longer term planning, either here or later on in my career but, as of now, I don't even have a sellable asset that would offset the extra €400k that the world scouting range would give me. Add that the fact that, sans the African Cup of Nations - held in December for an odd reason and won, even more oddly, by DR Congo - there are no international or even continental competitions in full swing throughout January and February that'd be worth a scout so I'm not even getting that much live data and must rely on what I can collect from the 2025 season. Likewise, I can't rely on anyone outside of my scouting team as, like expected, agents are willing to negotiate deals with me but, as you can see below, the players tend to be hugely unsuitable: Four players, of whom all would cost extra to scout. Additionally, costs for these players would far surpass what I could afford in both transfer offers and wage budgets. Therefore, normal procedure was followed with my own scouting missions. I do have to bend the realms of the game here and tend to find players through scouting and filtering in a save I create at the end of the previous season, given the 'reset' of the stats. I then use that save to quality assure these by watching as much footage of players as I can. Yes, I have even watched full matches, trying to get a deeper insight into a player's strengths, weaknesses and how their attribute balance sets them up to perform. Given this huge bias on domestic players, I also feel that this somewhat sharpens the knife in terms of knowledge I have of the other teams in my league. After negotiating the exits of a few rotation players, I was able to splash the entirety of the €6k p/w that we had spare to bring in the five players, below: My favourite signing of the month must be Jetmir, who joins after the conclusion of his AIK contract to become the new key component of my build up play. Last season, his 6’2” frame allowed him to retain an above Allsvenskan-average tackle and header percentage as well as being one of the most progressive passes in the league. Combine that with the added bonus of a strong dribbles completed metric – remembering that this mini overview chart takes into account all defenders, including full backs – and I think I’ve found myself a real star in the making. Jetmir’s use off the bench last year and move to a more important role was surely part of the reason why I was able to snag him but did make my usual scouting missions quite tough - half an hour here and there were difficult to monitor but I was able to watch enough of him through re-watching footage of him to make up my mind. Both his attributes and the left-sided preference are perfect for what I need: quick, good in the air and versatile. However, I was completely sold by his traits – Runs with ball often and Brings ball out of defence – a surefire sign that he was, once upon a time, a wingback. This has really given me a nice tactical idea that I will look to explore in the early months of next season. Johan Rapp was the next man through the door and joins on a free transfer from second tier Landskrona. Rapp was originally second on my sign a centre back list (which, the DoF did with Haliti) but I decided to make a move for him anyway as I was particularly interested in his skillset. Attribute wise, Rapp is good in the air and, at 6’4”, he’s the exact build of a player I sorely missed at the heart of my defence last year. There are, obviously, some concerns that he's not actually performed that well (again, taken with a pinch of salt because Landskrona were upper-mid table and did little defending) in areas such as clearances and interceptions as well as the fact he's stepping up a level to join us. Like Haliti before him, the two traits make him an ideal adventurous defender in my build up play and I see a drop down in quality between the two of these less of an issue given the extremely similar skill set of them. Continuing the height theme, Joseph Ceesay - a bit-part player at Djurgardens last season, joins on loan. His attributes, work rate aside, are decent for what I am thinking for my right back role. The numbers from last season need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt given the huge lack of minutes but, at 27, Ceesay is in the peak of his career and will be looking to get it back on track a little. With an expiring contract, I may be able to make this deal permanent for nothing, should he impress. For now, he's definitely a backup but he's good to have around. On the left hand side is Yayha Kalley, whose attributes are, again, possibly more suited to an attacking player but, believe it or not, the near-nine nineties that he played for Norrkoping last year were all at left back. Like Ceesay, the other part-Gambian full back has lost his way slightly but brings about a game full of pace and grit, which will hopefully come in useful to stop crosses coming into our box, even though we've upgraded the players that are within the box now! Again, maybe not quite the quality I wanted to bring in but, as a player who is happy to be second fiddle to Aberg this season - I don't feel that I can complain too much. The fifth of my defensive signings is - for want of a better phrase - this lump of a man, Jamal Deen Haruna. At 6'5", he completely fits the bill for a brute of a defender, even if he attributes do leave me thinking that he's a little one dimension. A regular in the Brommapojkarna side that was relegated last year, he has converted pretty well following a move over from Norway - at Raufoss - which, in itself, came quickly after a move from Ghana. At 26, he's in the peak of his career and I'll be looking for him to contribute at both ends, given his excellent work in the air and, to his credit, his ability to retain possession of the ball, even if he's far safer than that Rapp or Haliti, who he will likely partner. A third loan deal and a fifth new face in the defence is, obviously, not ideal for me but I think that this recruitment drive will be completed safe in the knowledge that I have done the utmost to alleviate our aerial issues from last year! --- I've become the tactical hipster that I read about online. Every thought now comes about our initial build up play, whether that's in a 2-3 or a 3-2, how and where we create pockets of space to progress the ball from, the make up of the midfield box and how many half spaces we create. I could go on with all the technical jargon and probably create something that sounds like I really know what I'm doing and have a deep tactical knowledge. However, the truth is that I'm still very much in the learning phase. The learning phase this year brings particular focus on two areas: A different style of transition Movement of my striker in build up play As soon as Haliti was identified as a potential target, I had a dream. I've long lamented the wide defensive structure that I used last season - pulling Aberg into the DM role from the left wing back in a surprisingly aggressive IWB(s) role. That will now change. Enter the time of the Libero. My thoughts are that I can still create a 3-2 build up - my favoured style for a bit more possession retention in the back line and safety from turnovers - but create that differently. I was never too concerned about the aerial prowess of Forsberg - he won headers and defended nicely so I fancied utilising two inverted full backs and a Libero, as seen below: I've currently gone for a L(s) role but that can always change to a L(d) once I get a deeper understanding of how aggressive he is. Initially, what I've seen is really promising, as here, he's stepped up and created a double pivot with Kusu, the DM(d), creating a lovely overall position. His ability to take the ball out of the defence and dribble with it, whilst incredibly more aggressive than we've had previously, should allow a new avenue for a central build up. It also means that, when retreating, both Forsberg and Aberg now need to shuffle wide rather than 'back and wide' - a possible area that we were getting caught out in with long balls and quick switches in play. Possibly not the most efficient formation against a forward pairing, giving the higher likelihood of the Libero being caught out of position but, again, something that I want to watch and build upon - maybe utilising a 3-2 from a HB(d) and two IWB(s) as I have done in previous iterations of the game. Im less convinced on a striker role, yet, but will engage with some analysis as the early cup competitions and league play start. --- I'm not loving working on a shoestring and do feel that Sundsvall may not be the final stop here in Sweden as the gulf in quality is quite significant. However, I do feel that I've moulded a team, initially, around a style of play that I wanted and now - really importantly for my own managerial development - reinforced it based upon knowledge that I've gathered and reacted to. I don't, realistically, feel that we're going to be up there, challenging for the title but the board do want a top half finish and I will work hard to deliver that with potentially a deeper analysis of my career path at the end of the season following what will be three full seasons here. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 I just think it's very funny how often I come read your thread and find parallels to my own game - traits, signing tall players, uncertainty around the role of the 9... Great minds etc And speaking of similarities, how is Kusu? I've looked at him a few times and his statistical output in Sweden has been really good but my scouts aren't that keen for Serie A. Reckon he could do a job? Lastly, what leagues are you running in full detail? I'm also using saves from the end of previous seasons to allow me and check deleted statistical output. But the ability to watch actual games is restricted to Serie A games or anything I load in full detail. So far, I haven't done so due to processing concerns even though I've got a really handy unit. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 19, 2023 Author Share Posted December 19, 2023 53 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said: I just think it's very funny how often I come read your thread and find parallels to my own game - traits, signing tall players, uncertainty around the role of the 9... Great minds etc There are certainly parallels with our styles, which is lovely to see! I'm a sucker for an interesting set of traits and love to develop youngsters through giving them as many traits as I can, minimising then on team instructions to allow them to play a natural game that is individual to their skillset. I just don't know what to do with the 9 at the moment. I'm a little too early in the season to really draw data driven conclusions from the DLF(a) but the eye-test isn't really filling me with confidence. I like the more irregular update styles as opposed to my old monthly updates as it gives me longer to explore these things. 58 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said: And speaking of similarities, how is Kusu? I've looked at him a few times and his statistical output in Sweden has been really good but my scouts aren't that keen for Serie A. Reckon he could do a job? I love him. He's no nonsense and sits at the bottom of our pivot breaking up play quite nicely. His traits haven't quite been noticeable yet - the dwells on ball in particular. I want to see him baiting a press a little more and sitting next to Haliti, sometimes being the safer option. Genuinely, I think he'd do a job in Serie A! 1 hour ago, Shrewnaldo said: Lastly, what leagues are you running in full detail? I'm also using saves from the end of previous seasons to allow me and check deleted statistical output. But the ability to watch actual games is restricted to Serie A games or anything I load in full detail. So far, I haven't done so due to processing concerns even though I've got a really handy unit. Just the top Swedish tier, which, at the moment, is great, because I can't scout any further away than that anyway. I've always been reluctant to add too many full detail leagues, especially as I have thirty-odd loaded with 150k players, not wanting to slow things down any more. It's a bridge I'll cross when I get to it though... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 I had wanted, originally, to write match by match updates, providing screenshots and match stats as I have done before. However, once the season started, I found myself absolutely glued to the games - watching the first ten minutes as a full game and then dipping in and out of comprehensive highlights, note taking and analysing as I went. With that, I'd end the game - assess the impact of my team talks, making more notes and then spend the time between matches working on morale, positive interactions with the team and creating a training schedule to boost tactical familiarity and player attributes, closely monitoring and taking notes of development, happiness and unhappiness. By the time I clicked out the game, I'd played eight games and didn't fancy going back to collect the minutia I'd need to update in that style. Therefore, I'll start with this: Svante is pretty much spot on. We sit fourth in the league for average possession this season, at 55%. This is way more than I'm used to in my sides over the previous years in FM but I'm feeling that this sense of control in our build up is so necessary as we look to dominate in places and areas where we really shouldn't. Our shape is developing, some minor tweaks - such as the SK moving to SK(a) from SK(s) to provide us opportunities for a fourth centre back as you can see from the previous screenshot, are more ways in which we can dominate. Likewise, I'd noted a potential gap in the build up, and that was from the runs made deeper by the AF(a). A simple change to a DLF(s) meant that I was able to create more third man runs, such as this one from Navik, which was - unfortunately - just offside. In this attack, Mattsson receives the ball in a slightly deeper position allowing both midfielders - remembering that only one is on an attack duty - to break through. My most recent change was switching the roles of the wide men - using an IW(a) on the right hand side and an IF(a) on the left. With a striker on support, I felt that it was important to pin full backs back with attacking wide men but, given our preference, due to roles, to build up more down the right, I wanted an option where a switch in play could create an overload on the left hand side. The PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE though was this goal from Libero Haliti, who just decided to go break forward with the ball, take everyone on and finish with aplomb. Importantly, for me, was the development of areas that we struggled in last year, namely our defence. WIth Rapp, Deen Haruna and Haliti brought in to sure things up centrally, I wanted to see improvements. The image above charts them. I am pleased to see growths in our first phase of transition - meaning that both the tactical change and the recruitment of more technical defenders in Rapp and Haliti has allowed us to be even better at building. We're safer and progress the ball more after winning it more. The most important metric though is the improvement in our header success rate, with us now all but nullifying the threat from crosses and corners this year - conceding no goals from either area. Obviously, there is still scope to improve that here and I'm still conscious that we are clearing not building from the back, but it's beginning to fall into place. Once again, this leads into the 'well how is it going?' question. Quite well... Despite us crashing out of the cup against a team that'd normally be a strong opponent (3-0-0 record in the league against them), we've turned in a pretty strong start to the season and sit just about where I'd want us. 10 goals from exactly 12.0xG isn't great nor is out 9% conversion rate, leaving us in fourteenth in the league for that measure. However, our defensive record has significantly improved with us looking a lot stronger at the back. There is another underlying issue though - against Elfsborg, we conceded after going 1-0 up, with their goal in the seventieth minute - a soft penalty. Against Kalmar, a defensive mix up allowed them to score in the eighty-fifth minute. Against Hammarby, we were overran and their winner came in the 90+3 minute and, lastly, against Djurgardens, we conceded in the eighty-third minute. We've been behind once this season, and that was for just ten minutes against AIK, but we aren't able to see the game out - maybe through poor conversion skills - or to stop being overpowered by bigger teams chasing the games late on. My use of converted full backs Ceesay and Kalley as wide midfielders in a 4-1-4-1 shape when trying to see the game out seems to be inviting pressure, rather than allowing us to shut up shop. I fully expect the likes of Elfsborg, as reigning champions, Djurgardens and AIK to come good as the middle third of the season takes shape but I'm showing and feeling that constant development - just a little bit better here and there, every single day and every single game. One player who is particularly embodying that mantra is Oscar Johansson, who, at sixteen, is already pushing to be a regular starter within my midfield trio. In my search to continue to get better, I'm looking for a striker. Ideally, I want someone who can both link play and get in behind (Lofberg, for example, favours the latter) and, therefore, someone who is on the taller side. With a focus looking at strikers over 6'0" tall, I must say that the results are limited and I really need to be clever in how I proceed. We are projecting to end the season €700k in the red, so adding another €200k for a bigger scouting package feels wrong but I will need some other sources of inspiration; a simple search of strikers not playing Sweden returns only 942 hits, with nearly 20% of them having played less than 90 minutes of first team football this season. I feel laser focused on what I want to achieve here and, with the holiday season approaching, can't think of a better way to spend my time when not with family and friends... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 23, 2023 Author Share Posted December 23, 2023 Just going to tease my new signing... I wonder who can guess who it is?! Then we can question how on earth I've pulled this one off! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lasson Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 2 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Just going to tease my new signing... I wonder who can guess who it is?! Then we can question how on earth I've pulled this one off! Ilaix Moriba? If true, that's a massive signing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 23, 2023 Author Share Posted December 23, 2023 1 hour ago, Lasson said: Ilaix Moriba? If true, that's a massive signing! One start in three years and not kicked a football since his Leipzig contract ended nearly a year ago! For the narrative, I'd love to say that Emile Forsberg - also ex-Leipzig - encouraged him. He won't be around for long but it's still a massive coup! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 Incredible stuff as always Ben, the depth you go to is special. The amount of effort put into the save is true dedication, I actually get upset when I read to catch up as it hammers home how much am missing FM. Great promotion and a solid first season in top flight. Things look to be progressing nicely. I haven’t had much FM24 time how are you finding the match engine? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 Re the late goals you're conceding - are you sure it's a tactical issue rather than attributional? Typically Determination and maybe Concentration would affect late game performance? It was also an issue for me at Feralpisalò but it was neither tactical nor attributes. It was just that the subs I had to bring on late game were not of the same quality as the starting XI. And with 5 subs, the bigger teams just have such an advantage in fresh quality. The teams you're conceding to don't seem to be the better squads though? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 24, 2023 Author Share Posted December 24, 2023 13 hours ago, SixPointer said: Incredible stuff as always Ben, the depth you go to is special. The amount of effort put into the save is true dedication, I actually get upset when I read to catch up as it hammers home how much am missing FM. Great promotion and a solid first season in top flight. Things look to be progressing nicely. I haven’t had much FM24 time how are you finding the match engine? Thanks mate! I am absolutely loving it. Each year, I've been able to find something new to dig into and, with the development of my own skin - built to my specifications - I've been able to share that over the past three years in better and better ways. My time at GIF has been remarkable - mainly because I had intended on a short stay to kick start my career before moving to what I'd assume would've been greener pastures. However, I'm nearing three years at the helm and love the club from top to bottom. There are, of course, things that need to be developed but we have built a brand new style of football and, as is always my mantra and goal, improved a lot of players we had at the club. 8 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said: Re the late goals you're conceding - are you sure it's a tactical issue rather than attributional? Typically Determination and maybe Concentration would affect late game performance? It was also an issue for me at Feralpisalò but it was neither tactical nor attributes. It was just that the subs I had to bring on late game were not of the same quality as the starting XI. And with 5 subs, the bigger teams just have such an advantage in fresh quality. The teams you're conceding to don't seem to be the better squads though? I think you've got a fair point here Shrew. My demand for utility backup players has probably caught me out a little. The chart below show our attributes that, in my eyes, are vital for seeing out late pressure and the box indicates whether it is above the league average or not, with the three players circled being the most commonly used late-game subs - as Pichkah is a 'safer' option in the DM role and Kalley and Ceesay are attacking full backs, but, by nature, are defensive wide men if needed. You can see that all three struggle there. However, possibly more importantly at this point is that Kalley and Ceesay are new to the club so haven't got the tactical familiarity of Pichkah either and, as you say, they probably aren't quite of the desired quality overall. That being said - the teams are stronger than us and I'm not entirely sure my tactical changes are the most appropriate because it removes an outball and, essentially, any threat of a counter. But that's to delve into further as time goes on... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted December 25, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 25, 2023 The transfer window: As we entered the summer window, I was conscious that we had several areas that I really needed to work on, and work on immediately. However, money struggles meant that I would have to sell before being able to increase my scouting package, let alone sign new players. However, my prayers were answered when – after identifying one of Bah or Carstrom to be my most sellable asset and utilising an intermediary – I saw that there was Saudi interest in my wingers. I rejected the immediate offers and offered Saidou out, to which Al-Fateh’s bid met my expectations. A huge deal for a man who came in on a free and really hasn’t impressed as I had intended. Just a few days later, Newcastle came in for Lofberg and, at four times our previous record, I couldn’t say no. Again, a lad who came in on a free and, whilst he has led the line, hasn’t quite been the player I wanted – plus, he returns on loan for the remainder of the season. €4.4m for a club of our stature is absolutely groundbreaking: improvements to structures across the entirety of the club as well as improvements on the pitch can happen and we are now predicted to be over €2.5m in the black at the end of this season, before any performance related income is factored in. With that in mind, my first intention was to improve our scouting package from our current knowledge of just Sweden to something more extensive. However, before I did that, I wanted to develop the scouting team and claim as many free bits of knowledge as I could – through staff knowledge. Under Cedergren, a man who can motivate other staff, we have a full knowledge of Scandinavian countries, which is probably a given for anyone with these nationalities. He’s quite vanilla with what he does but leads the team for me. As time progresses, I will look to employ a chief scout who can specialise in those final reports - whereby I fully trust his judgement to make the final call after those who work beneath him have uncovered him. My process is laborious at the best of times with an insistence for me to actually take in as many minutes of a player's performance as I can during the recruitment phase but he will be needed to see the things that I can't see - namely the potential ability of the player and whether what I see is just a flash in the pan or is a consistent determiner of their current ability. Ethiopian Tuji brings us widespread knowledge of Eastern Africa. Not exactly a hotbed of talent but there are the likes of Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast which he has, at least, good knowledge of. His attributes are quite similar to what the other three have – and are more here for their identification rather than true judgements. Zamble, a player who has spent his career between Africa and Norway brings me more knowledge of Western Africa, with places such as Burkina Faso and Togo on his list. Blaise has spent his entire career in Sweden but, given his US citizenship, comes with a huge knowledge bank of strong nations such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica; all three of these nations way overperform with youngsters given their overall quality within the game. Lastly, Marcus Bring comes with a little bit of central European knowledge. Not a priority right now, if I’m honest, but the best of the remaining bunch from my ongoing applicant search. With any further increases to staff sizes, I’ll look to recruit someone with knowledge of Eastern Europe and this, along with the other identified nations, provides us with cheap, young quality who see Sweden as a stepping stone and who we see as an opportunity for financial gain. As my scouting team grows, I will continue to place adverts that allow me to bring through realistic applicants - i.e. these are all players who have played in the country and speak the language - and gain that free knowledge, eventually, hopefully, leading me to create strong working relationships with teams in these countries, cherry picking promising youngsters and having a core of, for example, Kosovan, Ivorian and Burkinabe players alongside my Swedes, who have either been developed at the club or procured based on their statistical outputs. Yet, even with that long term thinking in place - my recruitment still came very close to home. These projects will take time and I don't feel that I'll be truly in a position to raid these low cost players for another twelve months or so. In the meantime, shortlists will be created with those players they do find so that I have a database ready for when I analyse and look at areas where we need to grow and develop. Gustaf is a signing who really intrigues me because he is just so different from what we've had before. Fresh from a spell at USG in Belgium, he's scored quite prolifically, at nearly one in three games and put up some good stats last season - particularly in front of goal. Before that, he's played in the 3.Liga in Germany - slightly lower than the level I'd like to pick up talent from but that move did come from the Danish top tier, where his performances had been rewarded with a national team call up. He is a typical target man - 6'6" tall, good in the air and powerful with his shot. However, for this level, he's pretty mobile too and has good technique on the ball. He's not the forever forward but is so different from Lofberg that it'll be a really nice experiment in terms of seeing what he brings to the style of play we have. Another player joining on a free following a spell in Belgium is Tolinsson, a centre back I've been tracking for some time. He moved from Goteborg to Belgium for €2.5m so obviously has some quality, even if he's found his time there quite tough. In both 2023 and 2024, he spent time back on loan in this league at Norrkoping, where he did much better of the course of twenty five games. He was a mainstay in the Lommel team that finished sixth last year in the Belgian league - which may indicate the relative low amount of defending he's done. Sitting at just under 70% for both tackling and heading outputs, it scores lowly on the overall comparison but sits just below the league average here in Sweden from last year. Combine that with a nice report whilst on trial and he feels like the perfect choice as a Fringe Player - sitting behind Haliti, Rapp and Frej in the pecking order with Deen Haruna now fighting for a permanent deal to stay here. Originally a trialist, I was already shocked enough when Ilaix would even talk to us following his agent, Jesus Toribio, reaching out to the club. For him to then accept the contract and become a fully fledged member of my project here is beyond belief. I am conscious that his wage sits at €1.7k p/w higher than anyone else and that this could quite easily lead to an influx of requests but, given the income already across July, this becomes more feasible and forms part of the bigger picture here. Despite all my excitement, however, this is not the Ilaix of the real world. I've seen this lad go on to achieve world domination in the heart of the elite midfields but, this time around, for whatever reason, he's accrued just sixteen appearances at Leipzig, with only one as a starter. After nearly a year unemployed, following the ending of what must have been a lucrative contract, it appears he has been desperate to get back into the game and agreed a move which, given the €1.6m release clause inserted by his agent, will surely be a short term affair. However, within that deal, I've got myself a dynamic, box to box player who is definitely good enough for this level and, judging by the potential he has been known to have, one who could really improve quickly once he's playing first team football. I envisage that, in the short term, he'll provide competition with Yaya Fofana, both of whom share a striking footballing resemblance to Yaya Toure, which I detailed previously, before taking the reigns and, almost inevitably, attracting interest from more suitable places. --- The league: We are, to put it bluntly, not the most exciting of teams at the moment. Worryingly, we have only scored more than once in a match on three occasions this season. Granted, our defensive form is great - just four conceded in this block of ten games and we've not conceded more than once all season: a meteoric rise from the instability we had at times last season. Our position is solid and I really fancy us to improve on the eighth place finish that we recorded last year. Whilst we have seen drastic improvements in the quality of player we have: Moriba, Forsberg, Nilsson, Palsson, Fofana and Navik are all strong for this level - I still feel that there are tweaks to be made to our setup. We are scoring below our expected goals and still rank within the bottom four with our 9% conversion rate. These, for me, are short term things that will ebb and flow and, one day, we'll hit that purple patch. However, that purple patch is impacted by our overall chances created metric, which sits well in the bottom half. Until we can create at an above average rate, we're never going to be breaking scoring records. The last ten games of the season will see this being a deeper focus for me. --- At the end of the day though, FM sometimes likes to throw curveballs at you... Aston Villa jumped to appoint Copenhagen's manager, which prompted them into poaching Jimmy Thelin, the then Elfsborg manager. This is an opportunity to interview for a team who, should they win both games in hand, be top of the league, reigning Champions and, at the time of writing, one leg away from featuring in the Champions League group stage. My plan has never been to stay in Sweden, especially at Sundsvall, for a long time but I've kind of fallen in love with my team. However, I am acutely aware that there is a glass ceiling that we are pretty much at; regardless of the €4.4m we've just brought in, poor facilities and a really small fanbase will mean that, for the years to come, we'll always be punching above our weight to achieve what we are doing now. I have, however, built so much and enjoy this building phase immensely. Yet, Elfsborg are a big side at this level - albeit with only one title in the last fourteen years. Whilst their infrastructure is significantly better, that comes with the added pressure - no longer will I be able to be as experimental in my methods or replace seasoned pros with untested youngsters - success will have to be ingrained and start immediately. Would I have that time to get to know everyone, build scouting networks, bring in some of my own players and still be in a job if things don't go to plan or, conversely, would I find joy if things go too well and we walk the league with a squad that I've not touched? Then comes the next issue. Should I get this - do I want to taste Champions League football now and, somewhat undeservedly, take over a team with about ten games to go and, maybe, win the league. Or, do I take the job at the end of the season and run the risk that their interim boss may not do a great job and they may, actually, miss out on Europe all together. Part of me sees the name Elfsborg and, as I'm playing this on Christmas day, just hours after the household Elf has returned, feel like this is somewhere close to fate... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteinkelssonFM Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 4 minutes ago, _Ben_ said: Part of me sees the name Elfsborg and, as I'm playing this on Christmas day, just hours after the household Elf has returned, feel like this is somewhere close to fate... I was just about to say something along the same lines, it has to bed done! Wishing you a very merry Christmas! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 26, 2023 Author Share Posted December 26, 2023 The season has come to an end here in Sundsvall and we have achieved something that has never been done before in the club's history. We have equalled our best ever finish, joint with the 1988 season and, with the Svenska Cup final to be held next summer, may even have secured a route into European football. Yet, once again, the league table and the round of fixtures doesn't feel too inspiring: Five wins from ten is on a par with what we've achieved across the year but, again, goalscoring haunts us. To end the season with just over a goal per game and an xG underperformance of over seven goals is only kind of ok by the fact we've had, by far, the best defence in the league, conceding at a goal every other game and overperforming our xGa by a mammoth fourteen goals. We endured a bit of a tricky run against Hacken, then above us, and Norrkoping, who completely bottled the title at the last and, including our loss at home to Goteborg too, suggest we cannot yet quite mix it with the big boys. Malmo, in this equation do not count - we've won all four games against them in my two years in the to flight and we also overcame huge underperformers Djurgardens. The issue comes, and has been aware in pretty much every game other than the Varnamo tie, when we just don't kill the game off. Creating an average xG of just 1.53 with 72 chances (2.4 per game - 14th in the league) means that we need to ensure that, when playing like this, each and every shot goes in. Our 9% conversion rate puts us dead last in the league, some eight percent below joint-top scorers Sirius, who lead the way on this metric. Second in dribbles per game and fifth in cross completion would suggest that we are doing the build up right, but sixty-three box passes per game, tenth best in the league, still suggests that the final ball and final moments aren't quite right. In terms of players, the first team put in some decent showings, but my best performers were Palsson and Johansson, below: The former is my standout winger but he, himself, has found goals hard to come by - netting once this year, some six less than last time out. I changed the role from IW(a) to W(a) after the Nilsson signing, looking to utilise his aerial threat but, realistically, I should've favoured Palsson strengths, which lie in his ball carrying and not his delivery. The surprise man on the list is seventeen year old Johansson, who I hadn't even considered to have played over half of the minutes available to him. As the youngest player in the setup, I've been delighted to see how he's linked with Ilaix Moriba, Yaya Kader Fofana and Ludvig Navik, becoming one of the most valuable outfield players. Five goals and an assist actually put him as my second top scorer, a real signal of these offensive woes but one which builds a huge foundation for him to work from. Sadly, the youth intake this year doesn't appear to be able to create more of these graduates who can slot into my first team soon. But... I signed the contract and my time at GIF will come to an end in a matter of days. My time here concludes with fifty-seven wins and forty-one draws from my 117 games, scoring 196 times and conceding 85. In that time, I've reshaped the club, creating a brand new style for the level we were at, winning the Superettan in my first full season and then recording two top half top flight finishes in the two seasons that followed. At the club, I've been able to bring through youngsters from the academy: Palsson, Aberg, Rosenborg, Begovic, Svensson, Johansson and a number of now-released youngsters have made their senior bows under my tenure; one of my core principles as a manager. Furthermore, I've recruited well - yes there have been almighty flops but Yaya Kader Fofana, Manasse Kusu and Marko Johansson are all quality players, plus, I've managed to convince Ilaix Moriba and Emil Forsberg, two heavyweights of the European game, to spend time at the club. With over €4m in the bank, we're now considerably more financially stable and have a strong backroom team that the next manager can look to build upon. Realistically, our glass ceiling had been hit and there was no way that I'd be able to smash through it in the next couple of years. Any further success at Sundsvall would still have been classed as a giant-killing. But now, now that I have a foothold in Swedish football, I - Torbjorn - must push on in search of league titles and European success. To do that, I need to be here: 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 Wow, interesting move to Elfsborg! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteinkelssonFM Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 I think it is fair to say that you have surpassed the infrastructure set-up at Sundsvall, no doubt becoming a club legend along the way. Elfsborg are the fourth biggest club in Sweden, in terms of market value. If you can put them on the map in terms of continental success, you would have gone a significant way in terms of raising the profile of the Swedish game. I wish you all the best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 I like it. It feels like a realistic move and, like you say, when you hit what is a natural glass-ceiling then most successful managers would move on for personal ambitions rather than stick it out for the years it will take to progress. The latter is very much an FM-ism. Solid effort with Sundsvall though, clearly leaving them in a better position than you left them - with a foundation for continuing that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 27, 2023 Author Share Posted December 27, 2023 22 hours ago, john1 said: Wow, interesting move to Elfsborg! 21 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said: I think it is fair to say that you have surpassed the infrastructure set-up at Sundsvall, no doubt becoming a club legend along the way. Elfsborg are the fourth biggest club in Sweden, in terms of market value. If you can put them on the map in terms of continental success, you would have gone a significant way in terms of raising the profile of the Swedish game. I wish you all the best. 21 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said: I like it. It feels like a realistic move and, like you say, when you hit what is a natural glass-ceiling then most successful managers would move on for personal ambitions rather than stick it out for the years it will take to progress. The latter is very much an FM-ism. Solid effort with Sundsvall though, clearly leaving them in a better position than you left them - with a foundation for continuing that. Thanks all! I was sceptical about it - at first - but I have grown to agree with my decision, particularly after they failed to win the league. It feels like there is a bit more scope for developmental stuff now that this is the case, although the board have expressed their desire for a top two finish next year. What I'm most impressed at though is the infrastructure - everything is just better. Our youth prospects are better for their age with higher ceilings and our backups are, more than likely, better than the starters at Sundsvall. I'm in the process of putting together a backroom team that is also really strong and will allow me to make the most of player development. It's always exciting (now that I've incorporated it into how I play) to move clubs as you have the 'starting again' feeling: training, mentoring, tactical ideas and then even the graphical stuff like newgen faces and kits. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 1 hour ago, _Ben_ said: Thanks all! I was sceptical about it - at first - but I have grown to agree with my decision, particularly after they failed to win the league. It feels like there is a bit more scope for developmental stuff now that this is the case, although the board have expressed their desire for a top two finish next year. What I'm most impressed at though is the infrastructure - everything is just better. Our youth prospects are better for their age with higher ceilings and our backups are, more than likely, better than the starters at Sundsvall. I'm in the process of putting together a backroom team that is also really strong and will allow me to make the most of player development. It's always exciting (now that I've incorporated it into how I play) to move clubs as you have the 'starting again' feeling: training, mentoring, tactical ideas and then even the graphical stuff like newgen faces and kits. It can so often go wrong though, particularly when you're still "into" the old club. Some of the "starting again" stuff can just feel like a drag - particularly staff and not having a scoob who any of the youth players are etc Good feeling when it lands, though. And I think you can tell pretty quickly when it's not going to be something you can get into Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 27, 2023 Author Share Posted December 27, 2023 21 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said: It can so often go wrong though, particularly when you're still "into" the old club. Some of the "starting again" stuff can just feel like a drag - particularly staff and not having a scoob who any of the youth players are etc Good feeling when it lands, though. And I think you can tell pretty quickly when it's not going to be something you can get into Yeah - true. I think this one has landed though! Little things like using custom faces for my most promising youngsters means I can click through, see the kind of image below, and be like 'yeah - I need to check in on his progress' etc. For me - the place that I lose it is when I decide that I must utilise the transfer market and that scouring comes for any players and that happens before I've even analysed my own squad. I have found myself going down rabbit holes looking for the next big bargain when, realistically, I already have two or three players in that area. I'm through ten days at Elfsborg now and have remodeled the backroom staff, set up the training calendar, added all of the individual training work, tweaked the tactic that I've brought over from Sundsvall and prepped for our first game - which is a Europa League tie, despite the domestic league already being finished. I have, as of now, not even entered the player search area. That - for me - is a really big thing as I'm going to deeply analyse what I have here before adding to the squad and that feels like a realistic and not 'game breaking' entry to a club for me. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 The biggest problem for me when changing teams even though I enjoy the "Fresh Start" is resetting up the Data Hub to give me the reports I want in the right order. I wish that could be saved somewhere so that I could just load it up instead of spending an hour or so on it. Also, I don't go down Scouting rabbit holes until I have at least had a cursory glance at the squad! LOL! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keeper#1 Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 I faced a similar issue in my save about staying or going while playing last night. But chose to stay at the "smaller" club because I would have had to set everything up again at club with many financial cracks starting to form. I did not want to set everything back up while watching everything slow fall apart because of finances. I'm in a good place with Lens and job offers will come at clubs with better finances. But your situation was clearly moving to a bigger club in a better situation and I would have made the same move as you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted December 27, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2023 Feet under the desk. Hard work begins. With just twelve days before I would be encountering my first set of games as Elfsborg manager and, also, my first ever foray into European football - a home tie against Famalicao in the Europa League, I had a lot to do. All of the admin stuff was completed, for example, a home kit and away kit was created, with a focus on giving the club a sponsor that tied in with their current sponsors or built upon something I've been reading about and will endeavour to implement further as my time here goes on: charity ties with Africa - namely Kenya. In the end, I settled for some nice kits that are sponsored by Effektiv, one of their current sponsors, with Unibet as a their shirt sleeve sponsor, again, a real-life official partner. Furthermore, I added newgen faces to all of my promising youngsters and built in training and development pathways for them. Some of these players feature further down in my first team squad analysis. Now, a slightly contentious part. In my interview, I was told that I needed to improve my media handling skills as, clearly, the board didn't like that I'd delegated everything. Therefore, I've gone down a slightly different route with the ideology that I can improve both that and my player interactions. I already group attributes based loosely on their numerical value and, in the past, have spent hours and hours working through what the combinations of personality and media handling bring - solving to the single attribute for what each hidden attribute shows. I simply don't have the want for that any more but still want to be able to most effectively talk and interact with them. Therefore, I have utilised a similar route that I have done with attributes - banded (1-5 shows a silver star and 15-20 shows a gold star) each hidden attribute with the focus, in my first team, being on Temperament, Sportsmanship and ability to handle Pressure. I recently listened to the Stuart Broad podcast on the High Performance Podcast and his views on mental ability and mental stability hit quite hard. If I can create a squad that, whilst still showing as balanced, can handle pressure - we can surely invoke those marginal gains and get the best out of the squad. For clarity - I won't be sharing (and don't know) any single hidden attribute values and these stars are only used on the Team Squad panel, as you will see below, but you can always look away if that's not your cup of tea! For those unaware of Elfsborg, they have won seven Allsvenskan titles but, 2025 aside, last tasted league success in 2012 but have been an ever-present in the Swedish top flight since its inception in the last nineteen-twenties. We are now chasing our fourth successive Svenska Cup title to add to some previous success at the turn of the century. In game, the club has struggled to compete with Europe's best, having not won a two-legged playoff tie and have only succeeded in making the group stage this year thanks to 'dropping down' from the Champions League. However, league phase wins over APOEL and Slavia Prague, as well as a draw at Besiktas and a narrow loss at home to Juventus mean we are placed well to build past Christmas as we faced Famalicao and Dinamo Zagreb at home before a trip to Rome and then a home tie versus Gent. With good youth facilities and youth recruitment and great training facilities and a 16,200 seater stadium in their home town of Boras - Elfsborg are a club perfect club for my ambitions. One of the key things that required work on was the backroom team. Precisely zero of my staff at Sundsvall wanted to make the move to Boras, so I was left with picking through what I already had and supplementing it with what was available to me. With such a rush to finalise before the first tie, I utilised the Staff Search area but added parameters to ensure that it felt like a fair and realistic recruitment process. Below is the backroom team that I have quickly assembled, in far from its final form: The desire to add experienced pros and those who can already speak Swedish or have playing history in this area was paramount to this recruitment drive. Managing to snag both Toure brothers feels like a purposeful move to build up knowledge in Cote D'Ivoire and being able to bring in ex-Arsenal player Marcus Svensson, who spent time at ASPIRE academy, brings up our Middle Eastern knowledge, too. Rasmus Elm and the one and only Zlatan Ibrahimovic join Bakayoko, Hyden and Jorgensen, who were here before my arrival but are solid staff members. The recruitment area is not hugely changed - with Bob Bradley (and his son Michael, who joins the youth coaching setup) coming in following a previous scouting job in Scandinavia. A linguist and a man with as much knowledge as you'll ever find, he's a great coup. Swedish record holder with 148 caps and Elfsborg legend Anders Svensson, who was already at the club, leads the scouting department that does, honestly, still feel a little light. However, with the Toure's knowledge, as well as the half Congolese Ibrahim and the half Eritrean Nicklasson, we have secured some extra free knowledge into Africa. I've currently got adverts out for a Performance Analysis team as well as another Recruitment Analyst as I look to ensure that we can identify and track statistical behaviours as best as we can. --- The squad I have inherited is so many steps above the one I'd left at Sundsvall that it is barely believable. We have talent in the reserve team that'd make an important player where I came from, showing the fact that both teams were at the wrong ends of the performance scale. I have spent a fair bit of time assessing the players, looking at their suitability to fit into my tactical ideology - safe in the knowledge that I'm not precious over it and will need to adapt to meet the demands of a largely better squad and also setting up all individual training. My aim, from the off, is to develop positions that they play in, especially if they are past the developmental phase - anchoring that with additional foci of either defensive or offensive positioning as these train the core mental attributes I value so highly. At present, there is some leeway with my youngsters as I want to take in as many games as possible to understand their style and ability before I decide permanently where they should play. Already announced are a lot of player departures, so I've been able to replace these squad players with youngsters. Below are my top four players as well as three youngsters involved in the first team and three from the youth team that I like the look of. Full profiles can be accessed by clicking each thumbnail. Malcolm Jeng could be the answer to the full back position for a number of years. His height and his ability on the ball, combined with his want to always stay back means that he, in my eyes, is the perfect Inverted Full Back - making a back three when we attack. He'll play next to Paulo Vitor, the man who has amassed the highest average rating across the entire league this season. I see him to be in the same mould and Haliti from Sundsvall and he could be quite potent in the Libero role as he looks to bring the ball out of the defence. At 25, there still may be time to further hone his game here. Jeppe is, for some reason, a Swedish player despite Transfermarkt and other sources telling me he's Danish as he was born there, played there and has represented them at youth level. However, he's a strong winger and a team leader and I'll look to build our attacks around him. Soderberg is a strong holding midfielder and the club captain will form the fulcrum of our attacking box. I've been lucky enough to be able to promote these three youngsters to the first team: Rahm, an exciting winger, Kallander, an inside forward and Wallgren, potentially a nice left back. In Rahm, we have a winger very much in the Palsson mould, who is direct and will run at players. He's a little rough around the edges and isn't as mentally strong as I'd like but I'll look to give him minutes where possible. Kallander has wonderful flair and technique, meaning he could be a real threat unlocking defences and driving forward with the ball. He needs some work on the final product but looks strong. I think Wallgren could use his height to his advantage as an inverted full back who could really assist us in the initial transitional phase. Lacking a little in his positioning skills - but, for a man who can also be a winger, understandably so - he is technical, brave and decent in the air. I look forward to his development. Elias could become a great keeper, which is a good focus for me as I've been historically poor at developing them. There's no real weak area within his goalkeeping abilities and he's got a decent frame to build it on, too. I feel like Junior may be known as 'JBK' if he ever makes the first team but the young dual-Congolese national is a little fox in the box: agile and nimble as well as being quick off the mark. I'll need to develop his intelligence and mentality but there is promise in there. The second persson on this list is Collins, a half-Kenyan midfielder who, solely down to the fact they share a nationality, reminds me a little of VIctor Wanyama. He can run all day and, if I can channel that into progressive carries, he's not weak offensively or defensively. I'll need to have a little look at his fickle personality but, again, there is a player in there somewhere. After a good look at the squad, I set about naming a provisional first team for the Famalicao game. This isn't necessarily my strongest team nor the permanent first choice, but players who I've decided are good enough. As you can see, the hidden attributes are on show and we are lacking players who are really great under pressure but, at least, only have one player with questionable traits, and that is keeper Macagno's temperament. I'll need to look at how I talk to him and will need to get him on side as soon as possible so that I am able to have those tough conversations with him, should his performances not be up to standard. As I learn more and more about the players and the first team squad, I will start to look at ways in which I can mitigate areas of weakness - either personality driven or attribute driven - but, first, I need to navigate two European ties... --- Full match reports can be found by clicking on each thumbnail. Two wins from two against some decent European sides is a great introduction to the club and means we've qualified for, at minimum, the playoff into the knockout round.Conscious of our attacking issues last year and, given that Sundsvall's average possession sat joint highest - with a team that really does not having the passing quality that other teams have - meant that I felt we'd have even more of the ball and, potentially, be even less clinical going forward. This was made even more of a difficult thing to work around in these first two games, so quickly into my reign and without any kind of time to work a new system, simply because of the tactics used before my tenure started. For the previous twenty games, Jimmy Thelin lined up with a 442; sure, it wasn't a 442 with the ball as he too utilised an inverted full back and an aggressive player - mind, he was wider and I'll do that centrally - and we just don't do that. As you can see, I tinkered a little in the two games, moving between a 4231 and 433 with even a hint of a 4141 in the dying minutes against Dinamo so I must concede that familiarity isn't where I wanted it to be. Nevertheless, a header from Riasco and then two nicely worked goals from the midfield duo gave us two wins. As I alluded to, my worry is the passiveness in defence and how we don't get the ball forward. I've never been a 'possession for possession sake' manager but, by using a 3-2 build up, we almost always have spare players at the back and are finding ourselves more and more passing it between us. Against Famalicao, 63% of all completed passes came from our back five, as you can see below. For context, I'm looking at forward passes from the match engine rather than progressive passes but I'm delighted with how often Mbacke played it forward, although feel that a BPD(d) still acts as a ball magnet and, as such, could be changed to avoid reliance on finding him. To try and put the emphasis on a ball magnet further forward, Baidoo moved to be an RPM(s) but the biggest changes I made were to remove Dribble More. I've watched and watched and watched and I genuinely now think that these dribbles are becoming a little more forced than they need to be, and, as we're not actually that good at them, we're often losing the ball and recovering it in the defence, adding more passes to those numbers. Also, the addition of Focus Play Through The Middle was intended to bring the ball to those midfielders with Play out of Defence another instruction intended to increase passing numbers in a shape that still heavily relies on dribbling-focused roles. The changes against Zagreb were promising. 66% of the ball feels too much and too safe, if I'm honest but those increase in passes also came further too, with the exception of Okkels, who had a torrid game (of which I'll try and dig into). The biggest change, despite the intended removal of Play out of Defence in future, was the huge increase in the amount that Soderberg got on the ball. It's clear that I need to get the ball to the progressive midfielders more and more and then, rather than just dribbling and - often - losing it, watching them progress the ball with passes. Both goals came from through balls in which the two midfielders got on the end of - with surely a link to their increased mentality that comes with the central play instruction. We're down three percent in terms of cumulative passes for defenders, which I'll look to decrease further and hope that Play out of Defence does that. --- So, two games, two thousand five hundred words! I write all of this in a Word Document before I post and I've surpassed the thirty-thousand work mark inside five seasons, which, for those who don't like reading, is insane! I feel like this one could stick: I know the team, I know what I want to achieve on and off the pitch. I spent a year or so more than I expected at Sundsvall but, should this go well, it could be my ticket to the bigger leagues, with my eyes on the end goal of the Bundesliga! 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted December 27, 2023 Share Posted December 27, 2023 Great work......I try NOT to write that much and just sort of make slide show style presentations because I remember my grad school days of writing many thousands of words about topics I didn't care about. But I respect someone who is passionate and resolute enough to do so for FM! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 Great move and a great start. Two very solid scalps in Europe. Doesn’t look like it will take long for the team to get to grips with your tactical philosophy. A bunch of highly promising players for your to nurture already is always a welcome bonus when moving club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lestri Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 I must admit, I enjoy logging onto the forums and seeing there's an update, as I know I'm in for some detailed, great analysis. Intrigued to see how you go with a "more established" top tier team! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 29, 2023 Author Share Posted December 29, 2023 On 28/12/2023 at 00:56, SixPointer said: Great move and a great start. Two very solid scalps in Europe. Doesn’t look like it will take long for the team to get to grips with your tactical philosophy. A bunch of highly promising players for your to nurture already is always a welcome bonus when moving club. Absolutely! Part of the deal, for me, was to make sure that the squad would - at worst - be mouldable to what I want them to be. We've made a decent start and I'm enjoying the football that we're playing. I am, at last, taking each game as a 'learning experience' and really creating a style of football that is building on my previous learning.. I'm still deep into exploring the in-game management but, that is really not fun to write about! On 28/12/2023 at 04:40, Lestri said: I must admit, I enjoy logging onto the forums and seeing there's an update, as I know I'm in for some detailed, great analysis. Intrigued to see how you go with a "more established" top tier team! Thanks - my writing is just an extension of my thinking and I'm certainly a procrastinator! I've found that, over the festive season, I've been far too immersed in this game! For my own (edit: my families) sanity, I'd say this amount needs to decrease! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted December 29, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2023 With the first couple of games secured and the season ticking over into the 2027 season, I was able to ease expectations by choosing the lowest targets that I could. As time goes on, I’ll push these as my demands for excellence are clearer but, in the meantime, I’d rather not be sacked! My jobs for the pre-season revolved around setting up our longer-term vision for training and development pathways, with a new found love of the target system acquired. I have been able to create widespread accountability through training targets, which, on review, has created some fantastic training outcomes across the squad. I've also expanded our scouting scope and am looking at youth tournaments in Africa as a feasible place to scout youngsters. With a couple of months of working with the players, I decided to dip into the transfer market. By that, I mean, instruct my recruitment squad to do so. Initially, the plans were to just replace, and improve the quality, of a couple of players in my squad. For each signing, the recruitment team narrowed in on the target before my DoF submitted a transfer bid. First in, and hopefully synonymous with my transfer ideology, is young Swede Di Pievre Ilunga. It’s important that I am able to attract the best domestic players and Di Pievre had just been made available to us. With Thomas Boateng, the outgoing midfielder, wanting a new challenge, I felt that this was – at the cost of just €600k (€800k for Ilunga with a recouped €200k for Boateng) – the perfect time to solidify this area for the coming years. Di Pievre is possibly not an upgrade yet but hopefully will grow to be one. The second upgrade is returning Swede, Mayckel Lahdo, who my DoF was able to secure on a free, even though he was still in contract at AZ until June. Replacing Thomas Amang, I may have lost a bit of endurance and sheer physicality, but I’ve gained a winger with far better ability on the ball as well as a €525k profit. Lahdo fits another one of the recruitment areas I have – bringing back Swedes who haven’t set the world alight when moving abroad. Mainly restricted to just Jong AZ football, at 24, Mayckel is entering his prime and could turn into a shrewd acquisition for us. My last signing and a deadline day deal – so arriving after all of the matches I’ll detail below – is our record signing, Isak Brusberg. In 2005, the club paid €1.5m to bring back Anders Svensson from Southampton – or, at least, that is how the game tells it, even though my research leads to news articles that state he returned for a nominal fee- and I've bettered that with the €1.7m that Isakc ost us from local rivals BK Hacken. Despite the cost, Isak is not a signing for now – even with him actually being one of the best players we have here. Whilst he has some flaws in his game – one footed and not the greatest in the air – he is potentially the answer to the striker role that I’ve been looking for. Currently, I’m using a T(a) role (again, more on that a little later) and want a creative hub who can also score goals. In comparison with Morgan Guilavogui, he’s that bit more technical and actually a better attacker and is fast, agile and creative with a decent eye for goal. My plan is to work on his development this season, using him a little more off the bench and it easier ties before looking to build an attacking fulcrum around him in years to come.That leaves my squad looking complete, as you can see in the image below. This 'X' thread by forum user @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! really piqued my interest and something that I guess I have inadvertently tried to do over the past few years, without the ability to put into words my thoughts. This squad is too big and by that I mean positions can be covered by the following players: Full Back: Barros Schelotto, Karlsson, Rapp, Wallgren, Jeng Centre Back: Mbacke, Jeng, Wester, Paulo Vitor Defensive Midfielder: Paulo Vitor, Wester, Soderberg, Wilkman, Coumbassa, Ilunga 8/10: Wester, Wallgren, Baidoo, Soderberg, Wilkman, Coumbassa, Illunga, Brusberg, Ouma Wingers: Rapp, Brusberg, Ouma, Okkels, Bernhardsson, Lahdo, Guilavogui, Kallander Forwards: Brusberg, Guilavogui, Kallander, Riasco This, if my counting is correct, gives us thirty-five options and a lot more than the 16-18 players who are good enough, rotating well around the roles. Granted - Kallander and Wallgren are both youth layers and, to be fair, neither of them are quite up to scratch just yet but I am possibly a little heavy in the central mid area and the striker area - with the likelihood that Guilavogui may not earn a new deal, should Brusberg's retraining work. Likewise, in the middle, Coumbassa feels like my weakest option. Some time will need to be put into the next few transfer windows as I will require some more cover defensively as well as having to slowly upgrade the quality of those who are already at the club. --- I have played eleven competitive games and a spattering of friendlies such the last update: Overall, I'm pretty happy with the direction that we're moving in. Despite two losses, including an annoying loss to a Gent team really struggling at home, we made the playoff round for the knockout part of the Europa League. Obviously, our biggest weakness here is that it's our off-season and it is mid-season for virtually every other team. That being said, we were really great away in Denmark against a strong Midtylland side, only conceding from the most annoying last minute concentration lapse. To settle the tie with a strong performance at home, sandwiched between some heavily-rotated cup performances was great, too. The Juventus line-up demonstrated the gulf in quality between the teams but a resolute home performance, utilising a very restrictive 4-2-3-1 (with all three midfielders not in the AM strata), we nullifying their attacking box and really should have come away with more. Sadly, in Italy, they had too much for us and ended our great run. This is the kind of problem that I want to be solving here, every year. As for the domestic cup, we kept up our scoring record and clean sheet record despite heavy rotation - with two goals from youngster JBK and two assists in two games from Collins Persson, the young midfielder. So far, three players have really stood out to me: Riasco has 0.56 goals per 90 from 0.52xG/90 so, in my opinion, I think he can kick on even more. However, it is his creativity - 0.30xA/90 and 1.24 open play key passes per 90 which are the real victory here for my striker role, which I've detailed below. Jeng has been a rock at the back - 72% header success rate and 83% tackle success, with good progressive passing, too. I would actually love to create a carbon copy of him to uplevel the centre back role: Mbacke doe it well but is far more limited in his passing range than Malcolm, who has, so far, played the most minutes of any player. Lahdo has been great and is completing over eight progressive actions per game, when combining passes and dribbles. He's nippy and direct and, even though his sits in the bottom 20% of possession lost stats, isn't afraid to try something with the ball from the wing - which is exactly what I want in this slightly tweaked shape: Again - I am a minimalist with instructions. We're now pressing a little bit more than previously, given our weakness on the flanks in early transitions but the main changes come from the attacking fulcrum, Riasco. I'd previously employed a RPM(s) on the left side of the midfield duo but felt that, still, it attracted the ball further away from the goal in less dangerous areas. Using a Trequartista, importantly with the Hold Up Ball instruction - which I saw in @MattyLewis11's thread - gives me an opportunity for an attacking pivot high up the pitch, allowing so many third man runs from midfield and, even, the Libero (Paulo Vitor has two assists and Jeng scored whilst playing in this role from a move that involved him being that third man). As always, it's a work in progress but it's done us well in the first few competitive matches of the season and I look forward to further analysing. --- I am very much lost in the game at the moment - taking in every sight and every opportunity to learn. I've no idea whether we're title material or not but I'm going to enjoy the ride! 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 I love the idea of minimalist TI's even though I use the "out of the box" Gengen press TI's for my team. Also, like that you have created a 3-4-3 with just your roles. I saw that Trequarista in @MattyLewis11 's thread and was intrigued. I mostly use the Treq role as a more mobile #10 in the Attacking Midfield when I use it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 I think nowadays squad rotation is so important, the amount of games alone now outs so much demands on players especially if your in continental games and international starters. Im very much a man of a clear first 11 and prospect backups as cover. Usually all players are the same types for each position suited for the one role. When I get started this year i think it’s key to build a rounded squad with different options with rounded quality. Thus allowing freshness and ability for subtle tactical tweaks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 On 29/12/2023 at 21:31, Hootieleece said: I love the idea of minimalist TI's even though I use the "out of the box" Gengen press TI's for my team. Also, like that you have created a 3-4-3 with just your roles. I saw that Trequarista in @MattyLewis11 's thread and was intrigued. I mostly use the Treq role as a more mobile #10 in the Attacking Midfield when I use it. Yes. I've loved the positional play elements of this match engine. It's something that I feel I'll have even more fun with once I can get to a point of being creative with how I make that 3-4-3 shape, or even a 3-3-4 or 3-2-5! On 29/12/2023 at 21:38, SixPointer said: I think nowadays squad rotation is so important, the amount of games alone now outs so much demands on players especially if your in continental games and international starters. Im very much a man of a clear first 11 and prospect backups as cover. Usually all players are the same types for each position suited for the one role. When I get started this year i think it’s key to build a rounded squad with different options with rounded quality. Thus allowing freshness and ability for subtle tactical tweaks. I agree. Early minutes this season have shown me that the squad is bloated in certain areas, so I'm looking forward to addressing that. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 A strong start: Through ten games of the regular season now and I must admit that I am quite happy with the progress we are making. Each game provides an opportunity to learn and to develop our style and the players at the club - some of whom are detailed below. The league is shaping up nicely, with a bit of a gap opening at the top between the four of us back to Malmo in fifth, who can score but also concede at a highly concerning rate. Further down, AIK are seemingly settling for mid table obscurity, just four years after winning the title - with a ninth placed finish from last year not looking too much worse than where they'll be this season. At the bottom, it's almost a credit - to me - to see the job that I'd done with Sundsvall, given their current plight. They spent quite a bit of money (in context) over the summer but have failed to score anywhere near enough goals to get points on the board. We got off to a strong start against Djurgardens as Paulo Vitor nodded before Okkels took full advantage of a third man run - complete with shocking full back play - to put us two up just after the break. A horrific mistake by Macagno, passing directly to their forward, who slotted it into the empty net made a more nervy last twenty than I wanted and, with only 39% of the ball, I possibly would've wanted a more controlled start to the season than this. 1.35xG vs 0.71xGA - with a huge proportion of that coming from their goal - was a decent starting point though. We then visited AIK where Vitor, again, netted from set pieces, sandwiching a goal for Brusberg. He wasn't intended to be thrust into the team so early but an injury for Riasco left me no choice. I always try to use penalties as a way of improving games for new players, particularly those - like Isak - who are on scoring droughts. If the player has good body language and is doing ok, I'll choose them - which, in this instance, worked really well as the record signing opened his account for us in an easy win where we only allowed 0.22xGA. Concerningly, our match momentum, from three nil up, shows us absorbing a lot of pressure, albeit not shots, and, in future, I'd like us to be able to find a way to exploit these numbers thrown forward. Okkels' wonder goal opened the scoring before his shot, that cannoned off the post, was tucked away by Kenyan Noor Ouma, who had enjoyed a strong start to the season. In the last minute, we conceded from a corner but that was no more than a consolation. Brusberg, again, from the penalty spot, opened the scoring before substitute Rapp doubled the lead with a drive and low finish from a half cleared corner but, again, another lapse in concentration - like from he corner in the Norrkoping game - saw Hacken score in the last minute from a cross headed into the net. Macagno had been barely tested before the high xG chance that took away a second clean sheet in the space of eight days. The winning run was ended by a tough Sundsvall team, who registered just one shot on target to our three. A problem, again, of a deep, resolute defence that I can't break down - that is aside from a fluke from Brusberg, as he converted a clearance that was smashed, literally, into his head from six yards out. April was wrapped up with a much more convincing win over Varnamo, with that man Vitor rising highest at the back post, Bernhardsson beating three men before unleashing a powerful left footed strike and young subs Wallgren and Kallander combining with the winger placing a lovely shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. Another resolute defensive display cost us two points as we started May with a draw against Sirius, despite creating 2.17xG from our seventeen shots. We controlled every element of the game, restricting the visitors to just three shots and, unsurprisingly, it was their goalkeeper who walked away with the player of the match award. Back to winning ways away at bottom of the table Mjallby - even though we, again, created more xG than our total goal count. Okkels converted a rebound from a nice move that had left Brusberg in the open and, honestly, in a position where it was easier to score. He did, however, convert when Okkels' cross found him on the penalty spot. Our third corner concession of the season came before a cross was tapped in by Nour Ouma as we sealed the win late on. Brusberg converted from close range as we dominated the first half against Malmo, not letting them even attempt a shot. Their reply, to their credit, was a lovely worked goal as their left back cut in and unleashed a powerful shot into the corner in what proved to be their only shot on target all game. Sadly, our impetus slowed as the game went on and we weren't able to capitalise further. My first major final ended in defeat thanks, partly, to a red card. Kallander had opened the scoring from the penalty spot, again, utilising the choice of confident players to take kicks, before Baidoo was sent off on thirty five minutes for a rash tackle. It forced me into pessimist mode and we went in our shells a bit, with Hammarby getting level just after the hour. They too had a man sent off in extra time but, at that point, given that the timing of this wasn't ideal for either club, meant that neither of us really had the legs to go for it. For the shoot out, I choose my five - based on confidence, performance and then penalty taking, before speaking to them. I wanted to instill some passion into my first taker, Ilunga, but - sadly - that made him anxious. What followed was the tamest penalty I've ever seen. Going one down on the first spot kick is difficult and we never recovered. An even showing in the big derby away at Goteborg, where Okkels had us off to a strong start before Jeng's first mistake (quite literally) of the season allowed their right winger in to finish from inside the box. 0.72xG vs 0.80xG is a fair representation of the equality shown within this game, so, for me, it was a good point. A little bit disjointed in May and a set of very close expected to actual performances but we doing well. Credit must go to Bakayoko, my set piece coach, for our goals from corners but we must also factor in more time to work on the defensive ones as we still do look frail, at times. This, along with some work to do in central defensive areas, means I'm going to be a very busy coach over the next portion of the season! --- Developing the 'third man run': I have been loving the progress of Isak, who is statistically performing wonderfully and has just recently become known as a Wonderkid, my first within this save. However, both a low involvement within the game and some passing examples that aren't quite what I want leads me to some thoughts about what comes next. The quote below from Coaches' Voice explains, in more detail than I can write, what I want one of his key jobs to be: Quote What is a third-man run? Progressing the ball forward is one of the simplest but most important tasks a football coach faces. The third-man run is one of the most prominent mechanisms used to break lines and achieve this. A third-man run happens when the team in possession attracts an opponent towards the ball. Two players exchange passes before a third makes an off-the-ball run into space to receive. Third-man runs are therefore crucial to finding a player in a better position who cannot be found with a direct pass. Third-man runs can help create a numerical advantage where there was previously a two-on-two. Building overloads relies on co-ordination between teammates, as well as good timing of passes and movement. Players need to have a good understanding of their teammates’ games so that they all move and pass in unison. This includes players who aren’t even involved in the combinations, because off-the-ball movements of others can help to create space for the three players involved – including, crucially, the third man. How do teams use third-man runs? Teams can find the third man through a variety of means. One is through the team’s shape during periods of possession, with players positioned at different heights and never with two players on the same passing line to create angles to pass. Using the full width of the pitch is also important in pulling the opposition apart. For third-man runs to work, a player must first draw an opponent out of position by moving forward with the ball (above). Once an opponent has moved out to engage the ball-carrier, a teammate can move into the space they have vacated. A pass can then be played to another nearby teammate, who can then find the teammate who has moved into this gap in the opposition’s structure. Alternatively, a player can take up a position between the lines to receive the first pass. They then move the ball to another player who has moved on the blindside of an opponent. Whilst the progression of his ability to learn the striker role has been fantastic, I feel that the next job is to develop him to be able to do this and continue his fine record of five goals in nine appearances at 0.64 per 90. At just 0.77 key passes, some 4% of his total passes are key - not bad but could be much better (Okkels, for example, has 11% for this measure) and I think that comes not from being more creative but just being on the ball, more. I'm currently asking him to learn how to play killer balls and then may go as far as asking him to play with his back to goal, in a way for him to link play then use his other trait (Gets forward whenever possible) to break into the box. His breakthrough, thanks to an injury to Riasco, has meant that I was able to hire an intermediary to complete the sale of Guilavogui - who would've been able to leave for a free in June anyway. He's off to Turkey for a fee that could bring me around €650k. Whilst I do now have two quality strikers fighting for this role, I am realistic and know that a wonderkid aged twenty and a Venezuelan of just twenty-three are both going to attract attention and also not want to spend their career here. Sadly, our own recruitment, so far, has been tough. High wages are the issue, with both Sulemana and Datro Fofana, interested, for example but unwilling to go below €50k per week, some €45k more than my next highest earner. I have looked at one lad in a bit more detail though: Hugo Bolin would be a signing based way more on traits than anything else. He likes the ball played into his feet and then will play killer balls from that including one twos and will then move into the box before placing his shot. Granted, he's not actually a striker - but neither was Brusberg - and he's a little limited to only his right foot. But this season, he's assisted more (0.22 per 90 to 0.13), created more open play key passes (0.88 to 0.51), dribbled more (2.21 to 2.04) and - as expected for a player playing deeper, has more progressive passes too. Whilst I don't necessarily see him as the striker that can take us to the next level, he could be a perfectly good stop gap for right now should I lose either of my current forwards and will really give me a great insight into how this role would play out. --- Building stronger 'early-transition' foundations: We currently are averaging 55% possession, the fourth best in the league, but the perfectionist in me wants a bit more quality rather than this quantity. I feel that we are still too safe in our early transition, the parts where we have won the ball back within our own half. With the eye test, I could see why but wanted some numbers to back things up. The above shows our three players and one Anton Eriksson (but more on him later) compared against all players capable of playing as a centre back this season and having played more than five hundred Allsvenskan minutes. I am delighted to not be having an issues with my heading and still have nightmares of my centre backs inside the first percentiles at Sundsvall! It's clear to see the difference in roles here - Vitor is aggressive on the ball and doesn't progress is that much through passes, more with dribbles. He's also more risky and, thanks to his Libero role, loses the ball higher up the pitch trying to make those key passes. Compare that to his partner, Mbacke, who is so much safer in possession yet makes a lot of clearances (in my mind, these are not safe passes) and, game by game, has high passing numbers. Enter, this: My plan is to introduce the aforementioned Eriksson, currently of Norrkoping and shift Mbacke out to the right back slot. His safety in passing and his lack of an eye for a progressive pass (78% percentile vs 50th and 34th vs 60th) when compared to Anton is telling. Likewise, Eriksson is far more composed when in possession, clearing the ball much less. It is my hope that, as we build up in a three, and can be exposed with long balls into the channels immediately after losing the ball, that the height of now Jeng and Mbacke will counteract this as well as helping us from set pieces. Current right back Barros Schelotto has done little wrong but may be a useful bit of income for further changes in the summer. WIth Mbacke already competent, retraining -shouldn't be an issue. I couldn't think of a way to demonstrate the process of this bit of potential recruitment without posting that table twice, therefore, introduced my signing before explaining my process. I've had my scouts out for some time looking for a player in the mould and had shortlisted the following: Rekik and Eriksson were the top two choices - players in their peak at reputable clubs who could come in and improve my team. Also added to the list for the DoF was Samir, a player who I feel could hold down the spot for the next ten years and then the bargain option of Sutalo, who is available on a free, but very much a left field option as a man who has spent more time as a wing back or in a three this season rather than where I want him to be. Concerned with Rekik's wage demands, I handed over authority but was pleasantly surprised when my DoF negotiated a great deal with his contract and transfer fee. In terms of leading transfers, he's among the biggest but we are still a level below the top spenders here, although this will be the third highest deal between Allsvenskan teams, and we also hold the second! However, I feel that this is imperative to help us take those next steps and build better from the back. He'll join in July and I will look to settle him in and then really dig into what he brings to the team. --- Things are feeling really good at the moment - hopefully we can continue to push but leave enough in our tank for a push in the Conference League, which we'll be entering in September. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etothe2power Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 On 27/12/2023 at 11:13, _Ben_ said: Feet under the desk. Hard work begins. With just twelve days before I would be encountering my first set of games as Elfsborg manager and, also, my first ever foray into European football - a home tie against Famalicao in the Europa League, I had a lot to do. All of the admin stuff was completed, for example, a home kit and away kit was created, with a focus on giving the club a sponsor that tied in with their current sponsors or built upon something I've been reading about and will endeavour to implement further as my time here goes on: charity ties with Africa - namely Kenya. In the end, I settled for some nice kits that are sponsored by Effektiv, one of their current sponsors, with Unibet as a their shirt sleeve sponsor, again, a real-life official partner. Furthermore, I added newgen faces to all of my promising youngsters and built in training and development pathways for them. Some of these players feature further down in my first team squad analysis. Now, a slightly contentious part. In my interview, I was told that I needed to improve my media handling skills as, clearly, the board didn't like that I'd delegated everything. Therefore, I've gone down a slightly different route with the ideology that I can improve both that and my player interactions. I already group attributes based loosely on their numerical value and, in the past, have spent hours and hours working through what the combinations of personality and media handling bring - solving to the single attribute for what each hidden attribute shows. I simply don't have the want for that any more but still want to be able to most effectively talk and interact with them. Therefore, I have utilised a similar route that I have done with attributes - banded (1-5 shows a silver star and 15-20 shows a gold star) each hidden attribute with the focus, in my first team, being on Temperament, Sportsmanship and ability to handle Pressure. I recently listened to the Stuart Broad podcast on the High Performance Podcast and his views on mental ability and mental stability hit quite hard. If I can create a squad that, whilst still showing as balanced, can handle pressure - we can surely invoke those marginal gains and get the best out of the squad. For clarity - I won't be sharing (and don't know) any single hidden attribute values and these stars are only used on the Team Squad panel, as you will see below, but you can always look away if that's not your cup of tea! For those unaware of Elfsborg, they have won seven Allsvenskan titles but, 2025 aside, last tasted league success in 2012 but have been an ever-present in the Swedish top flight since its inception in the last nineteen-twenties. We are now chasing our fourth successive Svenska Cup title to add to some previous success at the turn of the century. In game, the club has struggled to compete with Europe's best, having not won a two-legged playoff tie and have only succeeded in making the group stage this year thanks to 'dropping down' from the Champions League. However, league phase wins over APOEL and Slavia Prague, as well as a draw at Besiktas and a narrow loss at home to Juventus mean we are placed well to build past Christmas as we faced Famalicao and Dinamo Zagreb at home before a trip to Rome and then a home tie versus Gent. With good youth facilities and youth recruitment and great training facilities and a 16,200 seater stadium in their home town of Boras - Elfsborg are a club perfect club for my ambitions. One of the key things that required work on was the backroom team. Precisely zero of my staff at Sundsvall wanted to make the move to Boras, so I was left with picking through what I already had and supplementing it with what was available to me. With such a rush to finalise before the first tie, I utilised the Staff Search area but added parameters to ensure that it felt like a fair and realistic recruitment process. Below is the backroom team that I have quickly assembled, in far from its final form: The desire to add experienced pros and those who can already speak Swedish or have playing history in this area was paramount to this recruitment drive. Managing to snag both Toure brothers feels like a purposeful move to build up knowledge in Cote D'Ivoire and being able to bring in ex-Arsenal player Marcus Svensson, who spent time at ASPIRE academy, brings up our Middle Eastern knowledge, too. Rasmus Elm and the one and only Zlatan Ibrahimovic join Bakayoko, Hyden and Jorgensen, who were here before my arrival but are solid staff members. The recruitment area is not hugely changed - with Bob Bradley (and his son Michael, who joins the youth coaching setup) coming in following a previous scouting job in Scandinavia. A linguist and a man with as much knowledge as you'll ever find, he's a great coup. Swedish record holder with 148 caps and Elfsborg legend Anders Svensson, who was already at the club, leads the scouting department that does, honestly, still feel a little light. However, with the Toure's knowledge, as well as the half Congolese Ibrahim and the half Eritrean Nicklasson, we have secured some extra free knowledge into Africa. I've currently got adverts out for a Performance Analysis team as well as another Recruitment Analyst as I look to ensure that we can identify and track statistical behaviours as best as we can. --- The squad I have inherited is so many steps above the one I'd left at Sundsvall that it is barely believable. We have talent in the reserve team that'd make an important player where I came from, showing the fact that both teams were at the wrong ends of the performance scale. I have spent a fair bit of time assessing the players, looking at their suitability to fit into my tactical ideology - safe in the knowledge that I'm not precious over it and will need to adapt to meet the demands of a largely better squad and also setting up all individual training. My aim, from the off, is to develop positions that they play in, especially if they are past the developmental phase - anchoring that with additional foci of either defensive or offensive positioning as these train the core mental attributes I value so highly. At present, there is some leeway with my youngsters as I want to take in as many games as possible to understand their style and ability before I decide permanently where they should play. Already announced are a lot of player departures, so I've been able to replace these squad players with youngsters. Below are my top four players as well as three youngsters involved in the first team and three from the youth team that I like the look of. Full profiles can be accessed by clicking each thumbnail. Malcolm Jeng could be the answer to the full back position for a number of years. His height and his ability on the ball, combined with his want to always stay back means that he, in my eyes, is the perfect Inverted Full Back - making a back three when we attack. He'll play next to Paulo Vitor, the man who has amassed the highest average rating across the entire league this season. I see him to be in the same mould and Haliti from Sundsvall and he could be quite potent in the Libero role as he looks to bring the ball out of the defence. At 25, there still may be time to further hone his game here. Jeppe is, for some reason, a Swedish player despite Transfermarkt and other sources telling me he's Danish as he was born there, played there and has represented them at youth level. However, he's a strong winger and a team leader and I'll look to build our attacks around him. Soderberg is a strong holding midfielder and the club captain will form the fulcrum of our attacking box. I've been lucky enough to be able to promote these three youngsters to the first team: Rahm, an exciting winger, Kallander, an inside forward and Wallgren, potentially a nice left back. In Rahm, we have a winger very much in the Palsson mould, who is direct and will run at players. He's a little rough around the edges and isn't as mentally strong as I'd like but I'll look to give him minutes where possible. Kallander has wonderful flair and technique, meaning he could be a real threat unlocking defences and driving forward with the ball. He needs some work on the final product but looks strong. I think Wallgren could use his height to his advantage as an inverted full back who could really assist us in the initial transitional phase. Lacking a little in his positioning skills - but, for a man who can also be a winger, understandably so - he is technical, brave and decent in the air. I look forward to his development. Elias could become a great keeper, which is a good focus for me as I've been historically poor at developing them. There's no real weak area within his goalkeeping abilities and he's got a decent frame to build it on, too. I feel like Junior may be known as 'JBK' if he ever makes the first team but the young dual-Congolese national is a little fox in the box: agile and nimble as well as being quick off the mark. I'll need to develop his intelligence and mentality but there is promise in there. The second persson on this list is Collins, a half-Kenyan midfielder who, solely down to the fact they share a nationality, reminds me a little of VIctor Wanyama. He can run all day and, if I can channel that into progressive carries, he's not weak offensively or defensively. I'll need to have a little look at his fickle personality but, again, there is a player in there somewhere. After a good look at the squad, I set about naming a provisional first team for the Famalicao game. This isn't necessarily my strongest team nor the permanent first choice, but players who I've decided are good enough. As you can see, the hidden attributes are on show and we are lacking players who are really great under pressure but, at least, only have one player with questionable traits, and that is keeper Macagno's temperament. I'll need to look at how I talk to him and will need to get him on side as soon as possible so that I am able to have those tough conversations with him, should his performances not be up to standard. As I learn more and more about the players and the first team squad, I will start to look at ways in which I can mitigate areas of weakness - either personality driven or attribute driven - but, first, I need to navigate two European ties... --- Full match reports can be found by clicking on each thumbnail. Two wins from two against some decent European sides is a great introduction to the club and means we've qualified for, at minimum, the playoff into the knockout round.Conscious of our attacking issues last year and, given that Sundsvall's average possession sat joint highest - with a team that really does not having the passing quality that other teams have - meant that I felt we'd have even more of the ball and, potentially, be even less clinical going forward. This was made even more of a difficult thing to work around in these first two games, so quickly into my reign and without any kind of time to work a new system, simply because of the tactics used before my tenure started. For the previous twenty games, Jimmy Thelin lined up with a 442; sure, it wasn't a 442 with the ball as he too utilised an inverted full back and an aggressive player - mind, he was wider and I'll do that centrally - and we just don't do that. As you can see, I tinkered a little in the two games, moving between a 4231 and 433 with even a hint of a 4141 in the dying minutes against Dinamo so I must concede that familiarity isn't where I wanted it to be. Nevertheless, a header from Riasco and then two nicely worked goals from the midfield duo gave us two wins. As I alluded to, my worry is the passiveness in defence and how we don't get the ball forward. I've never been a 'possession for possession sake' manager but, by using a 3-2 build up, we almost always have spare players at the back and are finding ourselves more and more passing it between us. Against Famalicao, 63% of all completed passes came from our back five, as you can see below. For context, I'm looking at forward passes from the match engine rather than progressive passes but I'm delighted with how often Mbacke played it forward, although feel that a BPD(d) still acts as a ball magnet and, as such, could be changed to avoid reliance on finding him. To try and put the emphasis on a ball magnet further forward, Baidoo moved to be an RPM(s) but the biggest changes I made were to remove Dribble More. I've watched and watched and watched and I genuinely now think that these dribbles are becoming a little more forced than they need to be, and, as we're not actually that good at them, we're often losing the ball and recovering it in the defence, adding more passes to those numbers. Also, the addition of Focus Play Through The Middle was intended to bring the ball to those midfielders with Play out of Defence another instruction intended to increase passing numbers in a shape that still heavily relies on dribbling-focused roles. The changes against Zagreb were promising. 66% of the ball feels too much and too safe, if I'm honest but those increase in passes also came further too, with the exception of Okkels, who had a torrid game (of which I'll try and dig into). The biggest change, despite the intended removal of Play out of Defence in future, was the huge increase in the amount that Soderberg got on the ball. It's clear that I need to get the ball to the progressive midfielders more and more and then, rather than just dribbling and - often - losing it, watching them progress the ball with passes. Both goals came from through balls in which the two midfielders got on the end of - with surely a link to their increased mentality that comes with the central play instruction. We're down three percent in terms of cumulative passes for defenders, which I'll look to decrease further and hope that Play out of Defence does that. --- So, two games, two thousand five hundred words! I write all of this in a Word Document before I post and I've surpassed the thirty-thousand work mark inside five seasons, which, for those who don't like reading, is insane! I feel like this one could stick: I know the team, I know what I want to achieve on and off the pitch. I spent a year or so more than I expected at Sundsvall but, should this go well, it could be my ticket to the bigger leagues, with my eyes on the end goal of the Bundesliga! So much great content this year that I really appreciate, your save included 😊 I’m curious about the media handling portion of your takeover post, particularly this bit: In my interview, I was told that I needed to improve my media handling skills as, clearly, the board didn't like that I'd delegated everything. Therefore, I've gone down a slightly different route with the ideology that I can improve both that and my player interactions. I already group attributes based loosely on their numerical value and, in the past, have spent hours and hours working through what the combinations of personality and media handling bring - solving to the single attribute for what each hidden attribute shows. I simply don't have the want for that any more but still want to be able to most effectively talk and interact with them. Therefore, I have utilised a similar route that I have done with attributes - banded (1-5 shows a silver star and 15-20 shows a gold star) each hidden attribute with the focus, in my first team, being on Temperament, Sportsmanship and ability to handle Pressure. If possible, can you elaborate on this, or point to your previous work? I delegate media handling not realizing the potential benefits it can have on the team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 I like the idea of third man run's. I think my formation and roles are creating them organically for my MCL-MEZ-A and MCR-BBM-S. I am playing a 4-3-3 with a deep playmaker behind them and he often passes to them running into the box. I have my wonderkid midfielder playing MCL-Mez-A and he has 7 goals in 16 matches. The AML is an IF-S but the AF often pulls the CB out of place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 13 hours ago, Etothe2power said: If possible, can you elaborate on this, or point to your previous work? I delegate media handling not realizing the potential benefits it can have on the team. I may have oversold a little with that description! Essentially, I didn't handle any media stuff at Sundsvall nor did I really interact with the players. I'm taking my time trying to create a media-persona that gives answers that provide the little 'Pr' symbol to say it's had a positive impact. I also talk to my players as often as I can - praising or criticising specifics from performances and their training, re-training and overall development. I'm at the point whereby the lowest training rating is over 7.00 and I'm able to criticise a 6.6/6.7 performance in a particular area with little to no comeback, but, on the same note, know when and who to push. It's a little time consuming but has really paid off. 19 hours ago, Hootieleece said: I like the idea of third man run's. I think my formation and roles are creating them organically for my MCL-MEZ-A and MCR-BBM-S. I am playing a 4-3-3 with a deep playmaker behind them and he often passes to them running into the box. I have my wonderkid midfielder playing MCL-Mez-A and he has 7 goals in 16 matches. The AML is an IF-S but the AF often pulls the CB out of place. My next job is to create third man runs in different places and then to also create a striker role that doesn't use that, so I can effectively switch between styles and modes of game play when required. That is where my managerial money will be earned! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 On 31/12/2023 at 23:05, _Ben_ said: A strong start: Through ten games of the regular season now and I must admit that I am quite happy with the progress we are making. Each game provides an opportunity to learn and to develop our style and the players at the club - some of whom are detailed below. The league is shaping up nicely, with a bit of a gap opening at the top between the four of us back to Malmo in fifth, who can score but also concede at a highly concerning rate. Further down, AIK are seemingly settling for mid table obscurity, just four years after winning the title - with a ninth placed finish from last year not looking too much worse than where they'll be this season. At the bottom, it's almost a credit - to me - to see the job that I'd done with Sundsvall, given their current plight. They spent quite a bit of money (in context) over the summer but have failed to score anywhere near enough goals to get points on the board. We got off to a strong start against Djurgardens as Paulo Vitor nodded before Okkels took full advantage of a third man run - complete with shocking full back play - to put us two up just after the break. A horrific mistake by Macagno, passing directly to their forward, who slotted it into the empty net made a more nervy last twenty than I wanted and, with only 39% of the ball, I possibly would've wanted a more controlled start to the season than this. 1.35xG vs 0.71xGA - with a huge proportion of that coming from their goal - was a decent starting point though. We then visited AIK where Vitor, again, netted from set pieces, sandwiching a goal for Brusberg. He wasn't intended to be thrust into the team so early but an injury for Riasco left me no choice. I always try to use penalties as a way of improving games for new players, particularly those - like Isak - who are on scoring droughts. If the player has good body language and is doing ok, I'll choose them - which, in this instance, worked really well as the record signing opened his account for us in an easy win where we only allowed 0.22xGA. Concerningly, our match momentum, from three nil up, shows us absorbing a lot of pressure, albeit not shots, and, in future, I'd like us to be able to find a way to exploit these numbers thrown forward. Okkels' wonder goal opened the scoring before his shot, that cannoned off the post, was tucked away by Kenyan Noor Ouma, who had enjoyed a strong start to the season. In the last minute, we conceded from a corner but that was no more than a consolation. Brusberg, again, from the penalty spot, opened the scoring before substitute Rapp doubled the lead with a drive and low finish from a half cleared corner but, again, another lapse in concentration - like from he corner in the Norrkoping game - saw Hacken score in the last minute from a cross headed into the net. Macagno had been barely tested before the high xG chance that took away a second clean sheet in the space of eight days. The winning run was ended by a tough Sundsvall team, who registered just one shot on target to our three. A problem, again, of a deep, resolute defence that I can't break down - that is aside from a fluke from Brusberg, as he converted a clearance that was smashed, literally, into his head from six yards out. April was wrapped up with a much more convincing win over Varnamo, with that man Vitor rising highest at the back post, Bernhardsson beating three men before unleashing a powerful left footed strike and young subs Wallgren and Kallander combining with the winger placing a lovely shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. Another resolute defensive display cost us two points as we started May with a draw against Sirius, despite creating 2.17xG from our seventeen shots. We controlled every element of the game, restricting the visitors to just three shots and, unsurprisingly, it was their goalkeeper who walked away with the player of the match award. Back to winning ways away at bottom of the table Mjallby - even though we, again, created more xG than our total goal count. Okkels converted a rebound from a nice move that had left Brusberg in the open and, honestly, in a position where it was easier to score. He did, however, convert when Okkels' cross found him on the penalty spot. Our third corner concession of the season came before a cross was tapped in by Nour Ouma as we sealed the win late on. Brusberg converted from close range as we dominated the first half against Malmo, not letting them even attempt a shot. Their reply, to their credit, was a lovely worked goal as their left back cut in and unleashed a powerful shot into the corner in what proved to be their only shot on target all game. Sadly, our impetus slowed as the game went on and we weren't able to capitalise further. My first major final ended in defeat thanks, partly, to a red card. Kallander had opened the scoring from the penalty spot, again, utilising the choice of confident players to take kicks, before Baidoo was sent off on thirty five minutes for a rash tackle. It forced me into pessimist mode and we went in our shells a bit, with Hammarby getting level just after the hour. They too had a man sent off in extra time but, at that point, given that the timing of this wasn't ideal for either club, meant that neither of us really had the legs to go for it. For the shoot out, I choose my five - based on confidence, performance and then penalty taking, before speaking to them. I wanted to instill some passion into my first taker, Ilunga, but - sadly - that made him anxious. What followed was the tamest penalty I've ever seen. Going one down on the first spot kick is difficult and we never recovered. An even showing in the big derby away at Goteborg, where Okkels had us off to a strong start before Jeng's first mistake (quite literally) of the season allowed their right winger in to finish from inside the box. 0.72xG vs 0.80xG is a fair representation of the equality shown within this game, so, for me, it was a good point. A little bit disjointed in May and a set of very close expected to actual performances but we doing well. Credit must go to Bakayoko, my set piece coach, for our goals from corners but we must also factor in more time to work on the defensive ones as we still do look frail, at times. This, along with some work to do in central defensive areas, means I'm going to be a very busy coach over the next portion of the season! --- Developing the 'third man run': I have been loving the progress of Isak, who is statistically performing wonderfully and has just recently become known as a Wonderkid, my first within this save. However, both a low involvement within the game and some passing examples that aren't quite what I want leads me to some thoughts about what comes next. The quote below from Coaches' Voice explains, in more detail than I can write, what I want one of his key jobs to be: Whilst the progression of his ability to learn the striker role has been fantastic, I feel that the next job is to develop him to be able to do this and continue his fine record of five goals in nine appearances at 0.64 per 90. At just 0.77 key passes, some 4% of his total passes are key - not bad but could be much better (Okkels, for example, has 11% for this measure) and I think that comes not from being more creative but just being on the ball, more. I'm currently asking him to learn how to play killer balls and then may go as far as asking him to play with his back to goal, in a way for him to link play then use his other trait (Gets forward whenever possible) to break into the box. His breakthrough, thanks to an injury to Riasco, has meant that I was able to hire an intermediary to complete the sale of Guilavogui - who would've been able to leave for a free in June anyway. He's off to Turkey for a fee that could bring me around €650k. Whilst I do now have two quality strikers fighting for this role, I am realistic and know that a wonderkid aged twenty and a Venezuelan of just twenty-three are both going to attract attention and also not want to spend their career here. Sadly, our own recruitment, so far, has been tough. High wages are the issue, with both Sulemana and Datro Fofana, interested, for example but unwilling to go below €50k per week, some €45k more than my next highest earner. I have looked at one lad in a bit more detail though: Hugo Bolin would be a signing based way more on traits than anything else. He likes the ball played into his feet and then will play killer balls from that including one twos and will then move into the box before placing his shot. Granted, he's not actually a striker - but neither was Brusberg - and he's a little limited to only his right foot. But this season, he's assisted more (0.22 per 90 to 0.13), created more open play key passes (0.88 to 0.51), dribbled more (2.21 to 2.04) and - as expected for a player playing deeper, has more progressive passes too. Whilst I don't necessarily see him as the striker that can take us to the next level, he could be a perfectly good stop gap for right now should I lose either of my current forwards and will really give me a great insight into how this role would play out. --- Building stronger 'early-transition' foundations: We currently are averaging 55% possession, the fourth best in the league, but the perfectionist in me wants a bit more quality rather than this quantity. I feel that we are still too safe in our early transition, the parts where we have won the ball back within our own half. With the eye test, I could see why but wanted some numbers to back things up. The above shows our three players and one Anton Eriksson (but more on him later) compared against all players capable of playing as a centre back this season and having played more than five hundred Allsvenskan minutes. I am delighted to not be having an issues with my heading and still have nightmares of my centre backs inside the first percentiles at Sundsvall! It's clear to see the difference in roles here - Vitor is aggressive on the ball and doesn't progress is that much through passes, more with dribbles. He's also more risky and, thanks to his Libero role, loses the ball higher up the pitch trying to make those key passes. Compare that to his partner, Mbacke, who is so much safer in possession yet makes a lot of clearances (in my mind, these are not safe passes) and, game by game, has high passing numbers. Enter, this: My plan is to introduce the aforementioned Eriksson, currently of Norrkoping and shift Mbacke out to the right back slot. His safety in passing and his lack of an eye for a progressive pass (78% percentile vs 50th and 34th vs 60th) when compared to Anton is telling. Likewise, Eriksson is far more composed when in possession, clearing the ball much less. It is my hope that, as we build up in a three, and can be exposed with long balls into the channels immediately after losing the ball, that the height of now Jeng and Mbacke will counteract this as well as helping us from set pieces. Current right back Barros Schelotto has done little wrong but may be a useful bit of income for further changes in the summer. WIth Mbacke already competent, retraining -shouldn't be an issue. I couldn't think of a way to demonstrate the process of this bit of potential recruitment without posting that table twice, therefore, introduced my signing before explaining my process. I've had my scouts out for some time looking for a player in the mould and had shortlisted the following: Rekik and Eriksson were the top two choices - players in their peak at reputable clubs who could come in and improve my team. Also added to the list for the DoF was Samir, a player who I feel could hold down the spot for the next ten years and then the bargain option of Sutalo, who is available on a free, but very much a left field option as a man who has spent more time as a wing back or in a three this season rather than where I want him to be. Concerned with Rekik's wage demands, I handed over authority but was pleasantly surprised when my DoF negotiated a great deal with his contract and transfer fee. In terms of leading transfers, he's among the biggest but we are still a level below the top spenders here, although this will be the third highest deal between Allsvenskan teams, and we also hold the second! However, I feel that this is imperative to help us take those next steps and build better from the back. He'll join in July and I will look to settle him in and then really dig into what he brings to the team. --- Things are feeling really good at the moment - hopefully we can continue to push but leave enough in our tank for a push in the Conference League, which we'll be entering in September. Nice piece about third man runs, I think now more than ever we should be able to create these situations in game. Overloads and third man runs thanks to the work done on positional play. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 (edited) 8 hours ago, SixPointer said: Nice piece about third man runs, I think now more than ever we should be able to create these situations in game. Overloads and third man runs thanks to the work done on positional play. Absolutely. Whilst some things in the match engine continue to infuriate me and there are specific starts that I literally know we will concede from, I do love how the positional play works. However, it does feel a bit ‘forced’ - I am someone who has always wanted that fluidity but not everyone actually wants that. I have yet to experience the ME at a really low level but can’t imagine non-league centre backs having the intelligence to move into certain areas OOP, which are different to those in possession! But I am not going to moan. This, like pretty much every game before it, is on track to be my ‘most played FM’ and I’m completely addicted to my save, my ideology of the game and the principles I’m trying to instil to these computer generated dots! Edited January 2 by _Ben_ 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Absolutely. Whilst some things in the match engine continue to infuriate me and there are specific starts that I literally know we will concede from, I do love how the positional play works. However, it does feel a bit ‘forced’ - I am someone who has always wanted that fluidity but not everyone actually wants that. I have yet to experience the ME at a really low level but can’t imagine non-league centre backs having the intelligence to move into certain areas OOP, which are different to those in possession! But I am not going to moan. This, like pretty much every game before it, is on track to be my ‘most played FM’ and I’m completely addicted to my save, my ideology of the game and the principles I’m trying to instil to these computer generated dots! I’ve only really started to experiment with the roles and positional play. Last year I went down a different tactical route as I had became a little frustrated with positional play. But I’m going full tilt into it now the happel challenge is done. I don’t think we will ever get a perfect ME footballs to fast moving, but I agree with you that we have to enjoy the good parts and try look past the bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 Some stutters but we roll on... Two thirds of the league season completed as well as some mileage as we visited Slovenia and Israel in our quest to conquer the Europa Conference League, thanks to the fourth placed finish last season. With the season coming to a head, there's a few things that need clearing up over the last ten games, such as the difference between our home record of 5-4-0, which puts us fourth and our away record of 8-3-0, which puts us nine points clear at the top.I need to rethink the game plan when playing at home and ensure that we are able to break down teams that are now sitter deeper and more compact than ever. Worryingly, our continental jaunts have impacted our recent form: our last five games saw us taken eleven points, the fourth best behind Hammarby, Djurgardens and Malmo, who've caught up to the front runners, somewhat. Elsewhere, Sundsvall have made a fantastic mid season recovery whereas Norrkoping - who, as a reminder, came second last year - are still floundering towards the bottom end. N.B - I've altered my writing style here as I have gone back and watched all the highlights from these games again rather than write as I go along. It's allowed me to see a snapshot of how things have panned out in more of a 'highlight reel' fashion. We finished May off with a slightly disappointing draw at home to Hammarby; Noor Ouma and Brusberg combined (I don't have the records for it but I'd say that either Noor Ouma or Okkels have provided 90% of the assists for Brusberg and I love their interplay) to put us ahead before a defensive mix up allowed them to equalise almost instantly.Jeng's poor aerial challenge allowed the visitors to steal a lead early in the second half before my Kenyan hero laid on Okkels to rescue a point at the end. Statistically, we dominated - nearly three times as many passes in the final third, nearly double the xG and a control of most of the match - but we succumbed, like many of our goals conceded, to switches off. I need to remedy that. Two in May, starting with Brommapojkarna where academy graduate Berndtsson nodded in his first career goal and Brusberg raced through from Okkels' through ball but, again, a sloppy error costs us the clean sheet. Paulo Vitor, in his Lib(s) role, is far too advanced and some relatively simple movement from their forward allows him acres of space to finish a low cross. Really basic. Kallander struck a low, sweet shot to get us started against Degerfors, before the famous Nour Ouma/Brusberg link up put us two ahead. The former of that pair unleashed a thunderbolt to make it three, moments before Mbacke decided to just 'not' defend, allowing the loss of another clean sheet. He did make amends with a bullet header but 2.90xG vs 0.33xG (their only shot of the game) should make for a much more comfortable scoreline than it really did. July started strongly with a demolition of Halmstads: Noor Ouma, Brusberg from the spot and a really well worked free kick tucked away by Bernhardsson amounted to 2.73xG, with us allowed three shots at a total of 0.29xGA. We then left it very late against GAIS as we underperformed, conceding 1.47xG - our highest total for some time. Brusberg was the hero as his goals sandwiched yet another low cross that found its way into the six yard box and was met not by one of our two defenders, but by an attacker to finish a really easy chance. Normal service was resumed with a dismantling of AIK despite going behind to a very tame effort from the edge of the area. Jeppe Okkels was sublime, with a fantastic hatrick and great link up play with Noor Ouma, before Eriksson netted his first for the club, climbing highest at the back post. A much rotated squad made the trip to Slovenia but Kallander showed his class from the right hand side, cutting in to score twice. We amassed 3.02xG but were very wasteful in front of goal, particularly Riasco, who hadn't scored since March. A dour draw was played out against our title rivals, with us accruing just 0.21xG - by far the lowest of my tenure here. Another bit of rotation saw Wester, the backup libero, score a wonderous curling strike from thirty yards and Brusberg and Noor Ouma also net in a convincing win. 2.07xG created against Norrkoping but, somehow, they held on for the draw as Baidoo seized on an error early on before Jeng clumsily gave away a penalty. Okkels accrued 1.12xG himself but failed to find the net. Fortunately, Djurgardens were unable to close the gap as they drew, too. Straightforward stuff in Israel as a thunderbolt from Ilunga came before a lovely worked goal finished by substitute Noor Ouma. Beitar didn't trouble Ronning - the backup keeper - at all. A much better performance post-Europe against Hacken as another twenty-five yarder from Ilunga sealed the win after a mazy Bernhardsson run and a glancing header from Paulo Vitor set us up well. Widespread changes for the Beitar game led to a slightly disjointed performance but Rapp got us off to a strong start before the Israeli's hit back thanks to a lovely passage of play that saw us on our heals. Ilunga went three-in-three for twenty-five yarders, somehow, and then Riasco and youngster Bashiru scored before Macagno was beaten far too easily at his near post from range, taking the shine off the win a little. I do wonder whether ten or eleven changes after these games is making us a little disjointed as we certainly were against old side Sundsvall, having Brusberg to thank with a double. Yet again though, we were carved open far too easily and Forsberg, my ex-full back, scored a goal from a shot that really should've been saved. Looking at our goal concessions and assist locations, I have two lines of enquiry: a) is Macagno good enough for this project? b) Is Paulo Vitor's role appropriate. Because of our slightly different league calendar, I've compared him to all other Scandinavian leagues of a similar stature (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) and have looked at keepers with over 1000 minutes, which, I think, rules Denmark out of it due to their adjusted season cycle. Interestingly, I brought up an issue with Johansson, my keeper at Sundsvall in regards to the amount of saves he does not hold - my findings had him ranked in the 100th percentile for the % of his saves that he'd parried or tipped. It wasn't a me problem! Somewhat unexpected for a team that are higher up the league, Macagno is making more saves than a lot of the other keepers, and is holding less than 40% of them. This is a lot - 0.95 saves held is in the ninety-fifth percentile for this value and, importantly, compares the number of them not the quality of them (i.e, a shot that a keeper has no right to hold on to). I think there are some concerns around him, if I'm being honest and I may look to see what I can do to improve this role. As for part b - I'm not actually sure whether Vitor is justifying this support role. A completed dribble every five games and the lowest defensive minded player for progressive passes, having laid on a quite impressed three assists, joint highest in my defensive area with Jeng. What he does do really well is hold a good position in our attack, ready to recycle the ball but I am still concerned that he's defensively quite weak and exposed here. Despite decent tackle and header success rates, he's barely attempting a tackle and a lot of his headers are offensive, partly to credit for his six goal return to date. Likewise, he's not making interceptions or winning and kind of duals - which kind of makes him a luxury player - which is not something I'd ever considered saying about a defender! Hopefully, I can address this little area for concern within the last ten league games at no cost to our title chances. --- Transfer business Full profiles can be accessed by clicking on the above thumbnails. The aforementioned signing of Eriksson was completed and I've been really impressed with the start he's made to the club, allowing Mbacke to move out wider and for us to penetrate a little more with our early transition. I was able to add one more signing to that over the summer window - that of Yasin Ayari. He is a player I am aware of as he currently plays for Brighton and has been tipped for big things, but, in FM, his chequered recent history had led to him being available on a free transfer. In the months before his contract expired, I looked at him but was put off by Premier League wage demands - however, once on trial, his agent negotiations were very reasonable. Another solid option for the middle of the park - a young, international level Swede returning home because first team chances were few and far between: a real area that we're trying to exploit in our recruitment process! I have hit a wall with my next bit of recruitment though: a nine and a half. Brusberg brought on the preface that he was tall and somewhat creative, rather than a true playmaker and a true finisher. The concept of a 'nine and a half' has been around for many years, with Marco Van Basten being one of the first. Essentially, I was hoping that the T(a) role would be perfect for that - someone to link play and also to score. My wonderkid has done that, but the role has come at the expense of Riasco really excelling there - 0 in 3(7) for the Venezuelan vs 13 in 16(3) for the man who usurped him during his injury layoff. Originally, I had my eyes on Hugo Bolin but, completely unknown to me, Elfsborg fan and forum member @JogaBonito sent me a message with some information about him... 1 hour ago, JogaBonito said: It's fun that you mention and highlight Hugo Bolin. He is actually from Borås but didn't go through the youth system of Elfsborg. He went to the Swedish giants and developed (it's not the usual route here in Borås) . We (Elfsborg is my team at heart) had the chance to secure the league title on home ground before Malmö. We only had to beat second to last placed Degerfors who were fighting for relegation. Hugo went out on loan this fall to Degerfors as well as fellow Malmö player Gwargis. Both of them crashed the party on our home ground and next week we got beat in Malmö on a controversial penalty kick. In the highlights you can see Gwargis score and Hugo Bohlin be the last player who wants to defend in min 103 or min 3.00 in the video. This ending of the season crushed me. So please don't sign that traitor Hugo for Elfsborg. That guy isn't welcome back to Borås anymore. This is the most sickening match I have ever witnessed in my life. Here is the link to the video! The narrative, for me, was all about a return to his hometown but, given this fantastic bit of real life connection, he's very much in the bin and won't be coming home! Last year, I found myself watching a documentary on Trabzonspor, but today I've delved into match footage of Elfsborg, with the 'oooh, I know him - he's playing for me!' comments every so often. It's interactions like this and knowledge acquisition like this that make FM so good for me! If anyone else knows anything about these players - please let me know... I did, however, allow some players to depart during this window: The sales of Barros Schelotto, Wilkman and Coumbassa came as part of my thinning of the first team squad. Even with a load of fixtures and - hopefully - more to come if we qualify for the group stages of the UECL, we had too many options and couldn't afford them the minutes that they desired. Part of my work with media and morale has also led to me paying more attention to a happy squad and therefore, these moves, bringing in just shy of €2m, offsetting the Eriksson deal, made sense to me. --- Developing youth: Given our u19 team performance, I took the opportunity to loan a few players out - mostly, to our feeder in the second tier, Skovde. By making Persson accountable for his performances - something I don't seem to be able to do with these forced moves to affiliates - I can put another layer of development there, after he was successful in maintaining a high training rating following a target set previous to this. The three departures are players who have all excelled at this level and, to kick on, need to experience first team football. I'm hoping that, by setting JBK's position to a left winger, he'll get some more experience in a role that, overall, I think he's probably more suited to. That left some holes in our youth sides so I filled them thanks to some clever, cost effective recruitment. Full profiles can be accessed by clicking on the the thumbnails. The four lads above cost a grand total of €43k and, for me, these types of players are just as exciting as the potential world class players. For such a cheap outlay and, for me, a chance to play with two Libyans, which I don't think I've ever done before, means I can put detailed training schedules together - for example, a push for Al-Ruwaili to become a nimble inverted winger, making the most of his ball control and agility. Whilst it is unlikely that these players will move on for eight figure sums to Europe's best, seeing them continue their fledgling international careers and, maybe, making a career for themselves here in northern Europe, is a great win for me! I won't, however, go overboard with these - either in costings or amounts as I want give chances to my own academy players and also not stifle results on the pitch by too much silly rotation of them! --- Ten league games to go plus, hopefully, a group stage set of fixtures in the Europa League should we overcome Farul, of Romania, in the next knockout round. There'll also be my youth intake and a lot more recruitment and player thoughts, too! 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted January 7 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 7 We move up the list of champions as the title is wrapped up - my first top flight title of this career and an outstanding achievement in my first season at the club. We record a record points total in the Allsvenskan, but know that both second and third would've won the league in three of previous four seasons (minus 2025 where we won it with 70 points, which was the previous record) - a real testament to the quality of the two in the chasing pack. As for other records, we also recorded the most goals scored and best defence since game started as well as the fewest league defeats in a season since 1950 and, in player awards, the most assists by one player (Bernhardsson - 10). A truly remarkable season but, surely, there will be some summer changes for the likes of Malmo - the richest team in the league - and Norrkoping, Goteborg and AIK, all of whom have significantly underperformed. It's nice to see that Sundsvall got over their bad start and to finish one place and eight points worse off than last season, but, clearly, still haven't got over their scoring issues, with only Sirius - draw specialists, finishing above them with less goals. This success has, obviously, turned some heads: job offers from Hoffenheim, FC Utrecht and Valencia.have all come in the days immediately after the GAIS win but, as of right now, there is no interest in a move. I don't want to go from building a club in the Swedish tier, focusing on being sensible with money and exploring tactical routes to a club, like Hoffenheim, where money seems to be no object. Not until I've hit the glass ceiling here, at least. Whilst we're still in the Conference League for now, next August will see us enter the premier European competition - the Champions League - in the playoff pathway, just two games from the league stage windfall and reputation boost. Our Conference League playoff got off to the worst start as we battered Farul but they scored with their only shot of the game after a brisk counter attack, worthy of 0.89xG. We created over 2.00xG but really struggled against a side who, for once, out passed us in the final third: sixty-four to fifty-five, having over 60% of the ball, too. I did, however, feel that we'd have the upper hand away from home. Back to league action and goals from Okkels and Mbacke, both from well worked free kicks from Bernhardsson was the difference between us and Varnamo, who, in the flip from Europe, had less than 30% of the ball. We visited Romania and our expansive style continued as they mustered just one more shot, this time not going in. Three first half goals, two from Brusberg and one from Noor Ouma meant that my largely-rotated team continued into the next round. We book ended our goals against Sirius as Paulo Vitor’s early run and strike gave us an early lead before we were pegged back from a shot that I really feel Macagno should save. Substitute Riasco made the most of a counter attack after their keeper had gone up for the corner to round off the win in a rare xG loss. Into September, and a second string put five past Vasalunds with Libyan Al-Ruwaili following in the footsteps of many as the 'needs to score' penalty taker, getting his first for the club as we racked up nearly four expected goals. Another xG battering against Mjallby, where nearly four xG again resulted in just two goals: a beautiful through ball from Bernhardsson finished well by Brusberg before Baidoo's cross was met by Ayari who shot low and hard to double the lead. Some soft defending allowed Mjallby to get a cross in, which was converted just before the twenty minute mark. Following that, we went berserk but couldn't find any more goals to add to our tally. We also netted twice against a poor Malmo side, underperforming our xG for the second game in a row but restricting them to just three shots for a total of 0.11xG themselves. Ayari and Brusberg scoring the goals for the second game in a row. The duo combined again in our first league phase game against a good Zurich side who bettered us in most metrics, except the goalscoring one! Kallander joined the Ayari/Brusberg party against Goteborg with a twenty yard net-buster. October started with a tough draw away at Hammarby; we controlled most areas of the game but were unable to apply quite enough pressure to put space between the then-second placed team. The goals did flow against Bromma, as four xG, including a penalty, rained down on our opponents as Lahdo found the net for the first time since his broken leg. Olympiakos showed that Europe is still our 'target' in a plucky win as we out-xG'ed them by 3:1, as they scored from half of their shots. Farul all over again! A team who want the ball but don't particularly create or finish well but then drop into a super compact defensive shape seem to be our nemesis and we must learn how to overcome them! Against Degerfors, two penalties from Al-Ruwaili (again, same tactic used as before), laid the foundations for a beautiful bit of build up play, finished by Brusberg. A guard of honour led us out for the Halmstads tie as we'd wrapped up the league and we certainly put on a show - zero shots on target for the opponents with Brusberg's double and a Noor Ouma strike sealing the win. Another Conference League battering with nothing to show against Slovacko, the side from Czechia. Bernhardsson started us off well but we squandered too many good chances. We did the same in the final league game against GAIS, but Noor Ouma came to our rescue in injury time, poking in a low cross to finish the season with another three points. However, we still have three tough European ties to come: We currently sit in 20th place, good enough for a playoff slot, but, ideally, wanting more. All of our opponents feel very much like FM clubs - those that can be relatively quickly turned into domestic champions and allow a focus on Europe, very similar to ourselves actually. --- It’s a squad game… One of the things that I have made a concerted effort to build on this year is using the entirety of the squad but not building myself into the rigidity of two players per position. This, for me, has often led to unhappy players and unrealistic demands from them. Below shows the comparison between our players based on the minutes that they have been at the club for. I, sadly, can't work out how many they were available for, taking into account injuries but it does correctly allow me to compare the starting squad with the additions of Eriksson and Ayari, who came in July. I don't want to be all Mikel Arteta about the rotation of keepers but I would really like a cup keeper and I don't feel Ronning is good enough for that. Likewise, I do have my concerns about Macagno and certainly don't feel that he'd happily settle for second choice if I was to upgrade him. There are some questions about this area, particularly with Persson returning from his loan at relegated Varnamo, having experienced top flight football. In defence, there is a stark drop off between my four starters: Vitor, Jeng, Mbacke and Eriksson to the four backup players. I did some looking into this and, actually, they are more successful than the starters, if using the Team/Conceded per90 metric to gauge that. However, they are often used for our weaker ties in the league and were used extensively in the Svenska Cup and early rounds of the UECL. My feelings are that I can't really trust them even though, statistically, nothing hugely stands out. Paulo Vitor has the most amazing statistic this season though - his key tackle numbers (15 this season) account for over 40% of his total tackles. Truly a man who we can rely on. This, too, may be an area I look to focus on over the break - bringing through some more quality to rotate defensively with. In midfield, the choice to replace two players - Coumbassa and Wilkman with one, Ayari, seems to have paid off. I have been able to rotate but also give considerable minutes to the form players - namely Ouma, who, in turn, has developed into one of the best in the league. Unfortunately, Lahdo has missed most of the season with injury and has somewhat been left behind with my tactical moves. There is interest in him, and, whilst broken leg isn't a recurring injury, I do have some questions to ask about his long term future. Up top, the minutes have been shared quite evenly. I didn't expect Brusberg to be this involved this early on but an injury to Riasco saw him miss a good chunk at the start of the season and Isak has never looked back, finishing as the league's top scorer this year. I do feel that there is an opportunity to now cash in on Riasco, should a player a little more suited to my style become available. This squad game has also led to a really nice sharing of goal contributions this season, as seen here: My first thoughts are linked to just how long term this can be. I compared our data with any Allsvenskan player with over three goals or three assists and the average xG performance was +0.05, whilst the median xG performance was +0.04. We have eleven regular scorers above those measures. Whilst I am delighted with the outcomes now, my task is to keep these players performing as well as they are. The likes of Rapp, Riasco and Wester - all non-first team players, are performing really well in these metrics and I must ensure that we maintain the competition and drive for first team places and, where needed, stretch things - weaker opposition, penalty taking etc feel great ways to do this - to ensure that we're not settling for mediocrity and a prescribed first XI and backups. --- All shapes and sizes: With greater results comes a greater emphasis on getting greater results still. Therefore, I need to be able to consider my approach against a variety of opposition, being able to effectively tackle any scenario we are faced with. Our main shape builds in a 343 with a central box, but, whilst that allows us possession at the back and the ability to create space and overloads going forward, it's not always the most effective, particularly against teams that are forcing us wide. I've managed to create two further shapes that have had a little bit of play time so far this season: 2232 shape – this shape gives me a trapezium in midfield, and the narrower left winger creates a strong overload up top – yes, we are losing possession here but that is a risk that comes with this defensive build up. We recovered with Jeng as the covering defender. This utilised the L(s) - as usual - with two WB(s) on each side. 253 shape – utilising a Lib(s) and HB(d) to create more rushing when transitioning from the back. Two WB(s) provide width whilst IW(a) and IW(s) cut in as ball progresses. The middle is packed and I need to get players onto the ball. 2v1 in our favour with Vitor and Wester, which is easiest way to progress and draw defenders out. However, the issue with both of these is that by current full backs, Jeng and Mbacke are not naturally offensive players, hence utilising a more central build up. I currently have Rapp as an excellent example of what I've been working on with both Okkels and Bernhardsson - seeing two players with no potential left to fill being repurposed as full backs so that I can do this if I want to. Judging by their defensive attributes, they're actually no worse than Karlsson, who has sat in as the backup full back. However, in the longer term, I think the utilisation of the back three - IFB(D), BPD(D), IFB(D) - is probably the way forward with the squad that I've got but, I'm also exploring the use of the CAR(s) role to create faux-wide men that allow us, maybe, to bypass a central block. As part of my skin creation, I was able to build this information into the competition panel but now, by extracting each season, I can start to back up my desire for tactical fluidity with historical data for the teams I will play. Each metric is coloured on a scale from green (best) to red (worst) below: There are some really nice things to see here: we, on average, end the game with our xG 1.26 higher than our xGA, head and shoulders above everyone other than Djurgardens, who do it from a similarly strong defence as ours. It'll be interesting to see what they do offensively in the off-season to try and move away from Hammarby. We are the best team with the ball once we have it in terms of our possession differential (poss lost - poss won) but - actually - could use it to create a little more in terms of high quality chances, allowing us to hit the target more often. You'd also expect draw masters Sirius to face more issues next year but look at Hacken who are just in need of a goalkeeper who can keep the ball out or Goteborg who are just in need of someone to create chances for their forwards, before the table starts to look very different. With this information, I am able to compile more detailed reports on teams I am facing and managers. I can, conceivably, create notes that look like: "IFK Varnamo: concede lots of goals - 17 placed shots and 11 headers. Push them wide, as their crossing accuracy is also poor. Concede most before half time. Weak against 433 shapes. Most goals come from their left back area but significant number from corners. Score mainly with placed shots - high xG chances. Most goals come early in the game. Not scored after 60 minutes in last twenty games. Goals shared between ST and MC. Manager likes 442 counter attack with no specific tendencies." I feel that I need this deep sense of understanding about how teams play against us in order to best prepare to play against them. This is so much more than just assembling the best team - this is me trying to push the boundaries of my tactical knowledge to get the best out of the playing squad that may or may not be the strongest. --- Preparing for the future… Our youth intake arrived and there are several players who I am looking to take a closer look at over the coming years: Salih Erkol | Patrik Ortorp | Besnik Daci | Emmanuel Linden | Enzo Moller These will join the highly successful youth team whereby I'll monitor and discuss their development with them, working towards a loan deal in the next two to three years. --- What a first season I've had here at Elfsborg! I love the club and I think that there is so much more we can explore. I'm elated, if a little surprised, at our league performance and do not want it to become a chore whilst I look to progress in European competition. I do hope that teams successfully strengthen over the winter break and there is some more competition, given that I've not lost in the league since arriving over a year ago and have the first invincible season for nearly eighty years! 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I like the team metrics you've produced there and the opposition analysis it allows. It's a shame that it's so labour intensive, rather than easily available in-game for all these things. One question - what's the "box passes" that you've referred to? Is that short-hand for final third passes? Also congrats on the invincible league season - that's some achievement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lestri Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Similar to Shrew above, love the work you've taken there to go to that level of granularity when it comes to the opposition. Looking forward to seeing how the next season starts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 5 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said: I like the team metrics you've produced there and the opposition analysis it allows. It's a shame that it's so labour intensive, rather than easily available in-game for all these things. 4 hours ago, Lestri said: Similar to Shrew above, love the work you've taken there to go to that level of granularity when it comes to the opposition. Thanks both. The opposition stuff is fairly simple - it’s still a CTRL+P from the competition page as I’ve created a panel with them all in - but there is a bit of fiddling to align and add headings once inside Excel. It’s a labour of love though, as, as you say, it allows that granular level of analysis, which is the route I want to take and want to write about. 5 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said: One question - what's the "box passes" that you've referred to? Is that short-hand for final third passes? Yeah, it is. When they released a patch, they amended it to a per90 metric rather than a total one but the short text string seems to have not been amended to match the long one. 5 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said: Also congrats on the invincible league season - that's some achievement. 4 hours ago, Lestri said: Looking forward to seeing how the next season starts! Thank you! I certainly didn’t expect it that early on. Realistically, it takes a year, maybe, off my time here but I’m still really exciting to see what I can build over the off season, with a couple of deals already having been arranged. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Oh well, I don't really know where to start, I began writing about my career with Reggiana in order to get back to appreciating FM as I did in the past, when a slightly more naive approach allowed me to overlook the weaknesses of the game itself, then finding the time to read some of the threads on this forum I discovered ways to enjoy the game that are completely different even if in some ways complementary to my own The attention to detail, the extrapolation of the data and the use you make of them shows how much fun you are having playing and writing about the game, as well as demonstrating how many levels of depth there are to appreciate it. Truly great work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 15 hours ago, _Ben_ said: All shapes and sizes: With greater results comes a greater emphasis on getting greater results still. Therefore, I need to be able to consider my approach against a variety of opposition, being able to effectively tackle any scenario we are faced with. Our main shape builds in a 343 with a central box, but, whilst that allows us possession at the back and the ability to create space and overloads going forward, it's not always the most effective, particularly against teams that are forcing us wide. I've managed to create two further shapes that have had a little bit of play time so far this season: 2232 shape – this shape gives me a trapezium in midfield, and the narrower left winger creates a strong overload up top – yes, we are losing possession here but that is a risk that comes with this defensive build up. We recovered with Jeng as the covering defender. This utilised the L(s) - as usual - with two WB(s) on each side. 253 shape – utilising a Lib(s) and HB(d) to create more rushing when transitioning from the back. Two WB(s) provide width whilst IW(a) and IW(s) cut in as ball progresses. The middle is packed and I need to get players onto the ball. 2v1 in our favour with Vitor and Wester, which is easiest way to progress and draw defenders out. This is what am talking about Ben! Right up my street! Great ways of creating overloads, I love the new positional play I must say. I’m having real fun with it and trying to master it. I thought I took every game serious with my analysis of the opponent but your on another planet never mind league. i do wish the reports where more detailed that we receive. Instead we have to pick apart certain aspects ourselves in the end we end up doing what I feel our analyst team should be doing. Yes they only provide information and it’s up to the manager but i feel like the analyst page is so basic. This team for example allows so many entrances through the final third. Or they only allow so many touches in box. I find that all very vague. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 10 hours ago, higgins said: Oh well, I don't really know where to start, I began writing about my career with Reggiana in order to get back to appreciating FM as I did in the past, when a slightly more naive approach allowed me to overlook the weaknesses of the game itself, then finding the time to read some of the threads on this forum I discovered ways to enjoy the game that are completely different even if in some ways complementary to my own The attention to detail, the extrapolation of the data and the use you make of them shows how much fun you are having playing and writing about the game, as well as demonstrating how many levels of depth there are to appreciate it. Truly great work. Thank you. These words mean a lot to me! 10 hours ago, SixPointer said: This is what am talking about Ben! Right up my street! Great ways of creating overloads, I love the new positional play I must say. I’m having real fun with it and trying to master it. I thought I took every game serious with my analysis of the opponent but your on another planet never mind league. i do wish the reports where more detailed that we receive. Instead we have to pick apart certain aspects ourselves in the end we end up doing what I feel our analyst team should be doing. Yes they only provide information and it’s up to the manager but i feel like the analyst page is so basic. This team for example allows so many entrances through the final third. Or they only allow so many touches in box. I find that all very vague. Thanks! Yeah, the report makes me kind of feel like the Head of Analysis, as well as the Head of most other things! Still, I love the depth I can dig into and find out things - even if I'm still very much learning about how to change them for us. In terms of my latest shape thoughts - the idea of overlapping wing backs is great but, should I actually use the retrained wingers, I then have no wingers left! Enter the Libero/Inverted Wingback/Carrilero idea... I can create a bit of false width with those players, hoping that the opponent's midfielders follow them, allowing for most progression options from the IWB(a) role, moving into midfield to be the main like with the Trequartista - in very TAA territory! Unfortunately, I don't have a TAA, nor has this idea made it past the tactical board and onto the pitch as I'm busy making some transfer moves! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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