[FM24] This May Get Complicated

[dirkgently1066]

How We Got Here

After a bright start to life on FM23, my save went the way of so many others during my Champ / FM life, any hopes of a long term career going up in flames as I fell victim to the perfectionist mindset. Successfull starts were thrown away as I veered wildy between formations and tactical philosophies, each change necessitating a complete restart, all the flexibility of thinking I established with FM20 forgotten.

As ever, I hadn't intended to buy FM24 but my brother's usual Christmas cajoling wasn't required in the end. I racked up over 2,000 hours on FM23 and yet never made it past season 4. Time to leave it behind.

As a parting gift, I completed one final season, winning the league with 90+ points and giving me the basis of a starting point for FM24. As usual though, even this came with some mental tribulations.

Deep, Deep Down

4231.

Once my default formation during the Rafa years, I moved away from it with FM20, switching between a Klopp-inspired 433 and a Gegenpress 424. It came back to the fore in FM21, leading me to my best ever league performance of 110 points from 36 wins and 2 draws, smacking in a mighty 135 goals.

I tried it again on FM22 but ended up back with a 433. Given how many restarts I have undertaken on FM23, it was inevitable that some of these would use a 4231 and indeed I had success with it.

The thing is, my idea of a 4231 was always with 2 CMs whereas it was clear that the game now favoured 2 DMs instead. I got the rational. In truth, I recognised that this was how Rafa always set up with Alonso and Mascherano but I couldn't bring myself to embrace it. Using DMs just felt too defensive and anyway, most of my midfielders were CMs, not to mention the fact that the Analysis tab on the Tactic screen just looked wrong.

Inevitably then, I stuck with my CM-based 4231. It worked too, spanking in goals, but the drawbacks were obvious. On the In Transition screen, the 2 CMs would join the counter attack, leaving us exposed at the back whilst also meaning that my wingbacks lacked defensive support, impacting their performance. I stubbornly soldiered on but finally, I decided to give the new DM template a whirl.

Well, I should have tried that sooner.

It's not that we suddently went on a super run but we just looked more solid and the players moved how I wanted them too. My interpretation needed some tweaks (we played City five times in all competitions and lost 4 of them) but I had a template and a base to start from.

This change of formation also saw a change of style. I had usually favoured either Gegenpress or my own style, a high tempo, short passing game. Both worked but also had theior limitations. Having had success without passing into space on FM22, I decided to try it again here, moving to a Positive Vertical Tiki Taka. The focus on passing through the middle seems to retain the speed of passing once we decide to move but at the same time, we take our time before starting a move. Chance creation is lower but arguably of better quality and as our final FM23 season showed with 107 goals, scoring is not a problem.

Edited January 3 by dirkgently1066

[dirkgently1066]

Season 1 Review

A solid start to my FM24 campaign as we secure the league title, together with the FA Cup and Europa League.

The league campaign was a tight one. We got off to a bright start and opened up a sizeable lead by City just wouldn't quit, drawing level with us on points and threatening to topple us. Both sides dropped points but as the season drew to a close, we had the opportunity to seal the title at Anfield with a win over City themselves. After going 0-1 down, we roared back to a 3-1 lead and in the midst of a hectic fixture schedule, I opted to take a couple of star players off early. Big mistake; City hit back and levelled the game at 3-3.

It was simply delaying the inevitable though, the title effectively sealed in the next game, a 3-1 win at Everton, although mathmateically it went down to the last game of the season.

Having knocked us out of the League Cup, City would again stand in our way in the FA Cup Final. Despite some tight games along the way, including an incredible comeback penatly win at Newcastle, the final was rather dull, a single Luis Diaz goal enough to give us the trophy.

Meanwhile in Europe, Liverpool's chaotic 2022/23 season gave us the opportunity to compete in the Europa League for a change. The calibre of opponent was clearly a step below the Champions League, allowing for some player rotation, the final again a relatively straightforward affair as Salah netted twice to complete a treble.

Performances

As ever, it was the tactical side of the game that caused me the most anxiety.

On the face of it, things could not have gone much better. Our league record of 29 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats is pretty reasonable for a first season. With 111 scored and 27 conceded, we were the best team in both an attacking an defensive sense whilst we also had the league's top scorer (Salah - 25), top rating (Tsimikas! - 7.39) and assister (Trent - 16). We were likely only denied the best clean sheet performance due to Alisson missing a chunk of the season with wrist and shoulder injuries. And yet...

I was continually frustrated during the season. As the name of the thread implies, the intention with this save was to go with a Vertical Tiki Taka approach, a deliberate move away from my previous reliance on either Gegenpress or my own style. Results wise it worked but within games, I was often frustrated by the number of chances created. After 30 games, I couldn't quite understand where our 100 goals had come from. Indeed I have to look back over my fixture list to remind myself of the 7-0 over Burnley, 4-0 over Man United, 5-0 at Wolves and 8-0 over Everton. By any measure, a triumph.

And yet still I wondered. Could I do better? Perhaps I should have used Gegenpress or could have done better with a 433.

It didn't help watching the crazy Liverpool vs Newcastle game last night and seeing the number of chances as xG, another prompt for me to wonder what if...

I recognise the usual signs of perfectionism as well as the danger of black and white thinking. Added to that is the constant need for cudgement, looking back at my previous saves and insisting on comparing myself unfavourably to my own previous efforts, discounting the positive that this was achieved in one save as I felt my way through a new tactic and instead focusing on the negatives even though the comparison to a multi-time restarted and refined tactic is clearly a skewed one.

Individual player ratings were on the low side but given that we accounted foer the top two performers in the division and 5 of the top 9, this feels less like under performance on our part and more that the rating criteria are a little more demanding. Particularly pleasing was the performance of Trent. He seems to have replaced Steven Gerrard as my obsession for ensuring their individual performance is maximised, any under performance automatically assumed to be a result of the tacit I have employed and therefore my fault and clearly a failure. Pleasingly then, Trent's 7.28 rating and 22 assists across all competitions was at the higher end of the performance scale, helped enourmously by the decision early in the season to switch his wingback role from support to attack.

There are some improvements I will look for. I potentially played a little safe with player roles, fear of failure holding me back from trying a Regista over a DLP or a Segundo instead of a more bog standard DM. I never quite nailed down the AMC role either, and then in turn the striker role that would best complement it. I have to be careful not to go too far the other way of course and embrace fancy new roles just for the sake of it, but there is a likely a balance to be found by taking measured risk.

Transfers

Another common area of anxiety and a fear of failure.

I deliberately kept transfer busieness fairly modest in the first year, only Nat Phillips being allowed to leave on a permanent deal and that on completion of a successful loan and Thiago allowed to leave on expiry of his contract.

Incomings too were limited to yougsters with potential. Yaser Asprilla will join from Watford for next season at £11.25m, joing by Simone Pafundi on a free, a promising looking AMC from Udinese. I have eyes on adding another centre back and long term, hope to bring in either Scalvini, de Ligt or Silva. Short term though, I could do with a left footer and have activated the £18.5m release clause of Mika Marmol of Las Palmas, who looks like a decent squad addition for the fee, contract demands dependent.