llama3
-
Posts
8,164 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Content Type
Forums
Articles
FAQs
Online Manual
Support: Blocks
Support: Games
Bug Tracker
SIGames Manual (beta)
Profiles
Posts posted by llama3
-
-
Arsenal (2020)
So I thought I would share how I was getting on with Arsenal. I've incorporated a lot of the principles outlined here re: positional play, with the principles I usually adhere to in Pairs & Combinations.
So, the theory:
- Despite the fact that Partey is actually a more complete player, than the way I am using him - he's very balanced, takes account of Xhaka's lack of mobility. The DLP(s) & CM(d) shields the centre backs really effectively, which is good considering my wing backs are getting forward and we hold a high line. We're less likely to be outnumbered on the break. Sometimes trying to push one of the central midfielders forwards can actually restrict your own space when getting into the final third too, so this works nicely.
- The right flank has Pepe staying wider, with Bellerin getting on the overlap later on. The IW doesn't get into central areas as quick, or early as the IF - he stretches play a little, but then cuts in around the corner of the penalty area. Bellerin will get to the byline, offering an overload and an overlap. Bellerin can drive along the byline, cross, or lay it back to Pepe who may be in space.
- The left flank has a few variations. My preference is for Saka staying high and wide, stretching play, using his pace and trickery to get to the byline. Basically the opposite of the right flank in that the winger gets to the byline, with the WB(S) the out-ball to lay it back to. Sometimes when I am lacking a bit of central penetration, I move Aubameyang there as an IF(a), to get closer to Lacazette in the middle.
- Final third has Ceballos there as the AP(s) - by being close to the DLP(s) it can mean play can slow down if you're not careful, but what it does here is it draws opponents in as we retain the ball centrally - before spreading it to the wide areas, where I have most quality. Let's be clear - Pepe, Saka, Bellerin, Willian etc., offer more creativity than Ceballos, Xhaka and Partey. In a nutshell - draw them into the middle, then punch in wide. Aubameyang as a CF(A) is the mixture between getting in behind and linking play. It encourages movement into channels too. It's a good role to play both possession and dynamic systems.
- Not much to say about the centre backs and keeper. They retain and distribute the ball well, looking for passes into the feet of central midfielders, or to play it into space on the flanks as we try to punch a hole in the opponents. If we wanted to focus more on retention I'd be using a central defender in there, rather than 2 x ball playing defenders.
- I use the Control Possession template primarily - this is a little less extreme than Tiki-Taka. It allows us to play comparatively a touch wider (which suits the fact my wide players are my best attacking creators), dribble at the opponents a little more as well - which is useful to break down sides which sit deep and compact.
A couple of set piece bits that are quite crucial.
Throw in's - the focus is on retention of the ball, so same as we want 2-3 good passing options in open play, there's no reason to change that for a throw-in. See how I keep the forward and opposite winger forward, the opposite side central midfielder in a central position as out-balls, as well as my other defenders in a good position to cover if we lose the ball. I have 3 x players all available to receive the ball - the central midfielder, attacking midfielder and winger of the same side.
Corners - we keep at least 2 x players back, along with one of the central midfielders. I have a player outside the area, who both helps cover defensively if the ball breaks out, as well as to recycle possession or take a ranged shot if needed. We keep a mixed aim, as we have players attacking each post, along with a couple of other players in the box, and a short option. We remain defensively secure at all times.
So in the league our record is very strong:
As you'll see we don't concede many goals and have got more prolific in attack. We're yet to lose a league game, with only 2 away draws.
We're overperforming our xG (scoring 2.31 per game, expecting 1.86), we're also slightly overperforming defensively too (conceded 0.62 compared to expected 0.72) - we may well regress to the mean at some point. We're taking plenty of shots per game, keeping the ball well.
We're getting shots in good areas as you can see, converting most of our high xG shots.
Defensively, we're not allowing many shots in dangerous areas. Most of those that are have been saved.
Essentially, the stats are backing up that we're playing well. We're mildly overperforming, but nothing to suggest this is going to come crashing down.
5 -
On 29/11/2020 at 13:35, bigman said:
Not sure if this is the right place but my post was deleted from
another thread
I have a quick question about my 433 with arsenal. I’ve not played for years until this season so I want to know or gauge peoples opinions on my basic set up of a vertical tiki taka
st - Laca dlp attack
lw - auba if attack
Rw - Pepe if attack
lcm - ceballos mez support
rcm - partey b2b support
dm - xhaka dlp defend
lb - tierney wb support
lcb - Gabriel cb defend
rcb - luiz bpd defend
rb - bellerin wb support
Gk - Leno dl defend
my main question is mez over ap or roaming playmaker. Does it make more sense as I have xhaka as a dlp?
Also, Laca as attack or support? Does a formation with two inside forwards have to use a deeper f9 or dlp to flourish?
thanks
Hi @bigman- I'm making some assumptions that your team instructions are all default vertical tiki-taka... Basically it's generally quite close to being just right. I think your front 3 all on attack duties, all trying to occupy narrow areas is a bit of an issue. If you could vary that by mixing up the duties a bit, and/or changing a wide player into an IW, it just opens up some different angles of attack. I really like the Mezzala on the same side as the Inverted Winger. Basically the way to think about how the duties behave (in general, there are some exceptions - notably playmakers) is that attack duties will make runs ahead of the ball, support duties will stay with play and want it into feet, defend duties hold position. If your front 3 are all on attack duties, it can mean your front 3 get separated from your midfield. One of your attackers needs some link with the midfield. I'd consider making Lacazette a DLF/CF(s), forming a diamond with midfield, Aubameyang an IF(a) and Pepe an IW(s) - but frankly there's so many variations in there you could use.
1 -
The spread of home to away fixtures is very unusual in the Premier League - there are too many consecutive home/away fixtures. In real life there are no more than 2 consecutive home or away games, most often it's 1 and 1. I'm seeing several chunks of 3 home or 3 away in a row.
0 -
Europa League fixtures - I have played away twice in a row in the group stage (20/21) to open my fixtures. Teams away in matchday 1 are always reversed for matchday 2 and vice versa.
0 -
@santy001its a loud minority giving us a bad name.@Dan Ormsbyhas done an excellent job with the data. He always does and there is very little reason to gripe.
It’s bang on that we (the paying customers as a whole) should remember a little more courtesy when talking online. I think we’re privileged to engage over ratings with a researcher in the way you can’t for many other games.
6 -
Same issue too, when trying to add real fixtures - can't test them because of issues relating to total teams in other leagues
0 -
36 minutes ago, Alerion said:
Sorry if this has already been brought up but I am just curious as to why the injuries in the Liverpool squad arent up to date ? VVD atleast because he has been out for weeks now, but Gomez aswell ?
Cheers.
Injuries are only included if the player was injured at the start of the season - VVD & Gomez were fit at the start of the season.
0 -
12 hours ago, Pete Sottrel said:
Sorry @llama3 - I must have missed that post on the beta thread. I'll make those changes in the database, now. Thanks very much for the help.
Hi @Pete Sottrel,
Bit of an odd one, screenshot of the sponsors in-game...
Now the editor (straight load, no changes):
Most of that actually looks correct. It's missing stadium sponsorship. In-game it's listing main and away kit, although the values and durations match up well with the "kit sponsor" and "kit sponsor secondary" entries in editor. Club membership is the same too, although it's missing the general sponsor already in the editor too, which might be because the expiry date is after the season starts (should be changed to 2021) - equally it should be labelled "shirt sleeve" which is an option itself.
So, decided to experiment, by removing the total commercial income entry, correcting the end date and labelling for the sleeve sponsorship, updating the stadium sponsorship, plus most crucially, I re-labelled the income type for the Emirates and Adidas deals - it looks like having "kit sponsor" plus "kit sponsor secondary" automatically changes it to "main kit" and "away kit" in-game. I referred to Adidas as kit sponsor and Emirates as general sponsor. In-game it now looks like this:
Which in the editor looks like this:
I think it would be a useful change in-game to have the label "kit supplier" or "kit manufacturer" to go with "kit sponsor" - i.e. differentiating Adidas from Emirates in this case.
This then got me looking at our debts/loans - these were re-structured by Kroenke in July, to significantly reduce the annual burden on the club. So according to pieces by the Arsenal Supporters Trust & Swiss Ramble (both excellent sources):
- There is an existing £15m debt for debentures and £24m for derivatives (which we have reflected in-game)
- The rest of our debt has been re-financed, so the £112m & £48m (worth £160m) should be removed, replaced by a loan of larger value, but costing a much smaller rate of interest
- AST estimates this to be £184m owed to the ownership, estimated that we'll be reducing debt servicing & interest costs from £20m a year to £5-10m a year on highly favourable interest terms. Most likely on extended terms.
- This is something that you'll need to judge yourself, but I'd estimate that it should be a £184m loan, with no or negligible interest (as the penalty payments to take this loan are included in it's value), extending it's date of completion in order to reduce the annual cost. So, probably 20 years from now looks in the right ball-park.
So, in my view, it should look much more like this:
Contract expiry and Chips Keswick bits still need adjusting, but the finances bit needs some work.
1 -
On the beta thread I gave updates on some of the sponsorship and financial things that were incorrect at Arsenal. Sadly they've not made it into the full edition. The changes needed were:
- Chips Keswick has now retired, we don't have a chairman anymore
- Emirates Stadium capacity is 60,704 (Premier League handbook - Arsenal pages 3-4)
-
The sponsorship page lists our sponsorship as £40 main kit and £60m away kit - our sponsorship should look like:
- Main Kit (Adidas) £60m a year for 5 years (2019-2024)
- Other Kit (visit Rwanda) £10m a year for 3 years (2018-2021)
- Stadium (Emirates) £2.8m a year from 2006-2021 then it becomes £4m a year from 2021 to 2028
- General (Emirates) £40m a year for 6 years (2018-2024)
-
Contracts, according to Transfermarkt:
- Chambers expiry date at 2022
- Sokratis expires in 2021
- Maitland-Niles, Smith Rowe & Nelson all expire in 2023
2 -
- Popular Post
All of you at SI should be really proud of yourselves for producing this in trying circumstances. I loved FM20, but what a great improvement this is - hats off and hope you all get a well deserved rest!
17 -
16 hours ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:
I'd like to pinch your opinion;
Just considering, if I went with a three man midfield (4-3-3, you know the one!) I was considering something like:
DM/D - AP/S - B2BM (Defensive / Creative / Movement)
They would have a front three of an AF, backed with an Inside forward (attack) on the left, alongside the AP and on the other side a Winger (support).
In my head, the way I visualise it, the AP should be getting the ball, being able to fire it forward (or rather, through ball it) to the IF, AF, or alongside to the Winger or B2B, or back to the DM or Wingbacks (both on support, so should be taking up a midfield position).
Do you think my visualisation would be on the right track?
I've been considering the AP, it's not a role I usually use, I tend to go for DLP and when I do play an AM, I tend to use Treq; but I was sucked into reading old "number 10 is dead" threads and they've been making me consider using the role for once. I'm trying to make sure he has lots of support without getting players in the way, as it seems he needs to have space in order to be the star of the show. What do you reckon?
So, in theory - yes. What you need to think about is if the roles and duties match the instructions you’re using. So, for example - if you’re playing quite route one, is an AP what you’re after? Most possession based systems will be ok with an AP. The issue I could foresee is if the AF pushes high, against a deep line, the AP might struggle to find him. So, if you’re attacking space, that AP will have options to look for.
0 -
Have a think about if the issue is with the roles and duties, or with the team instructions. it's often a small tweak or change that makes a big difference
2 -
@ashlfcowenthey're all sensible decisions though, based on exactly what I'd said above - data, solid tactical logic and using your eyes. Fingers crossed.
0 -
It's broadly pretty balanced. What kind of issues are you identifying?
0 -
19 minutes ago, ashlfcowen said:
Agreed @llama3. I think my days of wanting to plug and play, and space-bash my way through the game are over - it's how I used to play and for that reason I quickly got bored. (Hence why I decided to manage Atalanta and not my usual team Liverpool)
Honestly? From what I can see, my team play nice football , especially when we have the ball.
I think sometimes we are toothless in attack, but then in the league we average 2 goals per game, so maybe not.
In fairness, my team's weakness is that sometimes we come up against a deep defence and don't always find a way of creating enough good quality chances to break them down. I think the changes to "focus left/centre/right" instructions has been really useful, it's allowed me to help channel the build up where I'm getting most joy. I've always found that sometimes I can go down a rabbit hole, and actually need to step back, survey the scene again and go back to my core philosophies.
I used the xG data to confirm what my eyes could see that we didn't get enough good chances. Used the xG match story to review how some in-game changes had worked, and it gave me a good basis to work from.0 -
Pires was more of an Inverted Winger - he started wide, did most of his build up there, but came inside late in the move around the box. He rarely for example made direct runs in behind in the way that Henry for example did. Ljungberg's role is really hard to pick out, was a bit of a winger, a bit of a playmaker, bit of a wide midfielder and a bit of a raumdeuter at times. Certainly right side was more "solid", but still plenty of late overlaps from Lauren, and late central runs from Ljungberg.
0 -
I don't think it's ever "done" because sometimes players get injured, in and out of form, etc. and you need to switch things up a bit. Sometimes a new player can actually change the balance of the team and how you play. So, I've always got ideas on how to adapt. There's really nothing better than results and performances - how well are you outperforming your expectations and consistently generating good performances? On FM20 I had a 106 point unbeaten season and really I just left everything each week, because it worked, momentum was there etc., as I progressed on I found I was struggling in Europe in the late knockout matches and my approach switched a bit to try and find ways of overcoming those difficulties - we were a less dominant league side, but we finally put away the Champions League.
A long winded way of saying - if your eyes are telling you it's all working, balanced, and your side is settled - then leave it alone. If your eyes are telling you it's not right, got some clear weaknesses, keep making sensible tweaks based on what you're seeing, sound tactical logic and preferably backed up by data. Each change should be for a clear reason, rather than just trying it.
2 -
It's an extremely aggressive setup as a whole. The very best thing that team needs for balance is a CM(D) to just sit, break up play, keep the ball ticking over and being a sensible out-ball. A DLP(S) & CM(D) is a solid pair, which will help account for your aggressive, lone wide players.
In terms of your wide players, my rule of thumb for lone wide men is - the higher they start, the lower their duty should be. You need these wide players to track back as they are lone wide men. A Winger-Attack is going to have very little inclination to actually defend. As a consequence, your centre backs will get pulled wide a lot (especially as stoppers), leaving the centre more exposed. You'll be very vulnerable to a switch of play on the counter. By having your lone wide men either a duty less (i.e. support), or moving them back, their defensive position and behaviour in transition will be better.
0 -
3 hours ago, 04texag said:
Thanks. Feel free to post in either thread about your successes and what you're trying that might be different from me.
So I've looked at instructions of a Tiki-Taka system, to recreate the short passing, with lots of close options available, which supports counter-pressing etc. too - in combination with ensuring that roles and duties stretch the pitch and offer width. Specifically the key parts here are my Winger (Attack) on the left flank, playing higher and wider, forcing the opposition full back to come and shut him down, with the Wing Back (Attack) on the right, doing much the same, but coming from a deeper angle. It's all about stretching play, whilst retaining the key central, close passing options. I need my striker to come short, link, move into channels and spin in behind. I like the balance of the DLP(d) breaking lines into AP(s) too. Lots of good switches from Xhaka (whose PPMs are really useful as a slightly more direct distributor from deeper positions). Primarily if I make changes, it's defensively working out if I am forcing opponents outside, or where I am focusing my passing.
Formation below, with some annotations to denote key movement... (personnel are key options, lots of alternatives I can use)
Specifically note Pepe's internal movement into advanced half-space areas on the right, so Bellerin aggressively drives late to offer width, and get to the byline for low crosses or cut backs. Xhaka sitting deeper and spreading the ball often finds Saka and Bellerin. So we draw people in with the close passing of Xhaka, Ceballos & Partey, before switching it. Ceballos will drift slightly left of centre when Saka goes in behind, so him and Tierney offer deeper and more central out-balls.
4 -
Interested to see results here. I'm trying a few things out on Beta with Arsenal before starting a full save. Found a nice balance (so far) of good combination play, possession and aggression.
1 -
@Rashidido you like using Stopper/Cover options, or keep a flat backline?
0 -
I liked a lot of your ideas from the Juego de Posicion thread, thinking about how to implement some of them with Arsenal. Had a really strong Arsenal side on FM20 in a long career save, which had a lot of fluid movement and possession football, but not quite sure how I'm going to go about it in FM21 - got a few ideas I'm going to try out.
2 -
Lots of great concepts which apply well to teams at all levels.
1 -
3 hours ago, PequenoGenio said:
So what is the best? IF or IW?
There’s no “best” - it depends on your style of play, personnel etc
1
FM21 - Total Football, A club dna project with positional play
in Tactics, Training & Strategies Discussion
Posted
I prefer the width offered by Saka on the left, stretching high and wide - Lacazette the casualty of that approach. The CF(A) is for when you want the best of both worlds - link play and a threat in behind. The AP(s) is not as much of a chance creator for me as I would expect in previous years. I know the flanks are where I create most, so the 10 is effectively a decoy to attract attention.