TheJanitor

Yes Wij and Hendo don't get high ratings for me as well, but considering they don't score/assist much, it should be expected. I think I might even consider two CARs and more aggressive fullbacks.

@diddydaddydoddy Hi mate. I think last season, Liverpool midfield was more supportive a bit out of necessity. This was because of injuries to Keita and Ox, we lacked a penetrative midfielder. This season I expect to see them taking more of an offensive role in midfield. Back to your original question, I think the combo of DLP/d, CAR, and BBM of the default Gegenpressing tactic worked quite well. Not overly aggressive, depending on the player, but well balanced. Edit: just to make clear, in the classic combo, Fabinho is DLP/d, Wij is CAR and Hendo is BBM.

Pre-Season + August 2021 Pre-season went well, mostly winning against mostly lesser opposition. We kicked off our third Premier League campaign decently, winning against West Ham and Watford, as well as progressing to the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup after beating Ligue 1 side Lincoln with a line up filled with youngsters and backups. Average performance against Fulham saw us salvaging a point in the 70th minute, while against Stoke we dropped a 2-0 lead. Player of the month: who else but Erling Haland. 6 goals in 4 games for the Norwegian striker saw him end August as the Premier League leading goalscorer, drawing with Tottenham's Justin Kluivert, who actually scored 4 as they beat Norwich 9-0, with Harry Winks scoring 4 as well. Speaking of Norwich, they took quite a beating this month, conceding 18 goals and scoring just 1, they are last with 0 points after 4 games. This also happened this month: \ Bright future at Leeds!

20/21 - Starting Squad Goalkeepers Ellery Balcombe is probably my best signing at the club. Transfer-listed at Brentford, we plucked him for £3.5m in the 19/20 season and he initially rotated with Kiko Casilla. The later was sold in the next season and Balcombe took his place as our first goalkeeper. He did remarkably and developed well, so I'm definitely keeping my trust in him. Alex McCarthy is a new arrival from PAOK. I looked for a capable backup with good personality, and McCarthy was solid, cheap and home-grown. WIll start in cup competitions and offer a trusty pair of hands in case Balcombe wouldn't be available. Centeral Defenders Our starting combination this season will be John Souttar and Jorge Mere, while captain Pontus Jansson and Matt Clarke will offer reliable backup, as Luke Ayling is available in case of emergency. Souttar joined last season and was an absolute rock at the back. He's an amazing BPD with great PPMs as well. Mere is a new signing from Koln, and he will take over Jansson position at the heart of our defence. The later will be a rotational figure and kept despite an offer from Roma for his personality and reliablity. Finally, Matt Clarke joined from Portsmouth the previous season and didn't get a lot of game time. Still young, he will make a few appearances in cup competitions. Right Backs This summer we made our record signing from Burnley, bringing Max Aarons from the relegated club for £34m. He is a complete attacking fullback and help provide us with more attacking edge next season. Luke Ayling is a relic from our Championship days, and current vice-captain. Not very impressive offensively, and getting on a bit, but he will offer good backup for Aarons. Jamie Shackleton was trained to play as a right back as I tried playing with an IWB. Didn't really catch on, but he still provide us with an emergency backup when needed Left Backs Jamal Lewis was one of our first signings upon achieving promotion and developed into an absolute star. Every window I'm bombarded with offers for him and I always reject them. Incredible going forward and defending. Iago Gomez is the first regen who got a chance in the first team. Joining from Real Madrid for £1.7m last January and establishing himself as Lewis backup. Haven't develop much yet, but the future is still bright for him. Central Midfielders In my 4231, I tend to play with a DLP and a CM/d. Kalvin Phillips is locked at CM/d, but at DLP, homeboy Jamie Shackleton and PSG loanee Leandro Paredes offer two great options. Shackleton is a better player, and home-grown by club, but Paredes offers threat from set-pieces and always performs great. Tried to make his deal permanent, but his wage demands are outragous. Got him on loan for another season instead, paying only 30% of his wages. Bogusz was in our U23 at game start and developed quite well. A useful option, but doesn't really fits our tactics. Will still get game times either in CM or higher up the pitch. Attacking Midfielders Jack Grealish joined us during our first season in the Prem from struggling Aston Villa. I hoped he would offer us the creative edge we lacked. He was positive, but not quite what I hoped. Last season, he improved massively, scoring 4 goals and assisting 9 times. He will be one of the first names on the team sheet. Samuel Chukwueze and Ruben Loftus-Cheek joined in January and contributed with 9 goals and 2 assists combined. Chukwueze in particular scored some important goals. They will compete for spots with Jack Harrison and home-grown Jack Clarke. Harrison's influence since his debut season dropped, but he's still a reliable figure. Clarke developed a whole lot in his debut season, but haven't progressed much since. I'm still trying to find a way to get the best of him. Center Forwards Erling Haland. What a player. Not much to say otherwise, he's a complete attacker with 33 goals in his first two seasons, before even turning 21. Ryan Edmondson will get his chance as Haland back after impressing 36 goals in two loan spells at Colchester and Charlton, winning the League 1 Golden Boot last season RLC is emergency backup. Some Regens Iago Gomez Previously mentioned, our back up LB who joined from Real Madrid. Jack Houghton Best player to have come up from our academy. Was loaned out to Crewe last season and scored 9 in 19. This season he will be in our reserves as I want to use him in cup competitions. Manolo Garcia For some reason, I keep finding amazing Spanish regens. Manolo joined last season from Rayo Vallejano and developed nicely. Some problematic attributes like his Composure and Dribbling, but I want him to develop into a Roaming Playmaker.

Decided to start updating on a current save I'm playing with Leeds United. Seeing as the Leeds thread is a bit dead, I'm starting a new one here. To get everyone up to speed, here is a quick jaunt through my first 3 seasons with the club: 18/19 Season League Table | Team of the Season Finished our first season by winning the league with 95 points and of course achieving promotion. The second half of the season was quite difficult, as we recorded 5 of our 7 losses post January. Thankfully, other teams also failed to capitalize and Manchester City's loanee Jack Harrison dragged us to glory. We played a possesive 4231 that lacked a bit of bite going forward. Harrison was our leading scorer, with 13 goals while Klich was second with 8. Bamford, Roofe (who left us in January for Newcastle), Clarke scored 20 between them. The Roofe money was used to make Harrison's stay permanent and our solution upfront was signed after the season ended. 19/20 Season League Table | Team of the Season The most difficult season I think I ever endured. Start brilliantly, spending most of first half of the season in midtable. However, a run of 14 games without a win saw us getting closer to relegation. We managed to survive and finished 15th, 5 points from relegation. The only shining light was our new striker, Erling Haland, who netted 13 times in his debut season. That's like Bamford and Roofe combined. Tactically, we went for a more defensively minded 4141, but it didn't fit some of our key players and I think that was part of the reason for our poor season. 20/21 Season League Table | Team of the Season A much better season as we finished 7th, missing out on European competition by goal-difference (ignore to EL next to us in the table, for some reason we aren't in the EURO Cup despite Tottenham winning the competition and getting a CL spot. We started with a 4123, but poor form in January saw us change to a 4231 with amazing results, along with the signing of Lofuts-Cheek and Chukwueze. Haland finished as our top scorer again with 20, just two off Golden Boot winner Eden Hazard (who replaced Sadio Mane at Liverpool). I'm currently nearing the end of August 2021, and I think I will update monthly from now on. First monthly update will come next, but before I will post a quick squad overview as a lot have changed since the start in the Championship.

I always start with Liverpool, but I think Wigan, Bologna, Real Sociedad and Leverkusen would be really interesting next year.

Transfer listed at Real Madrid, £1.7m, accepted a contract from my Leeds team: I'm actually contemplating, because of his personality. I also got a solid (if not as amazing) regen from one of my intakes. He just looks like a potentially world-class player.

19/20 Summer window is over: Outs: Not much happening here, sold a few of the loanees from last season, Saiz, Anita, De Bock, Sacko and Cibicki, as well as important figures from last season Alioski and Klich, who I couldn't find a place for them in the Prem. Ironically, they both left to another promoted club, Derby. Peacock-Farrell and Coyle signed long-term contracts and sent on loan. I don't expect either one to feature for us soon, but they look like they could develop into decent squad members. Ins: Erling Haland - First time I sign everyone's favorite Norwegian wonderkid, he walks into our first team, and hopefully will provide us with the offensive bite we lacked last season. Jamal Lewis - Another youngster who will be given a run in our first team, ahead of Barry Douglas. Picked him right before Norwich won their promotion match against West Brom, which I think helped us getting him cheaper. Krystian Bielik - Transfer listed at Arsenal, will rotate with Liam Cooper and maybe will usurp his place in the first team depending on how he develop. This was the one position I hoped to make an upgrade on, but couldn't find the right player. Went for Dedryck Boyata but his demends were too much for me. Of course he accepted a lower offer from Bordeaux later. Tomas Soucek - I want to play with an Anchor Man this year and he fits the bill perfectly. Great in the air, mentally and defensively solid and good personality. Still young as well. Ellery Balcombe - Surprised to see him listed at Brentford and snapped him up quickly before the end of the window. Will be given game time in cup competitions and will gradually take over Casilla as our #1 keeper. Another deal that was finalized and not mentioned was Woodburn loan for another season. Enquired about him but Liverpool was having none of me. First game of the season coming up, and it's obviously Liverpool at Anfield

Finished my first season with Leeds, took me ages but it was the most fun I had in this year's game. I really like the squad and it fitted nicely into a possession-based 4231. Won the league, even though our form was very shakey in the second half of the season. 5 of our 7 losses happened after January. Jack Harrison dragged our team through this period, even though I think Jack Clarke and Kalvin Phillips deserve a spot over Alioski and Klich in the team of the season. Crashed out of the League Cup and FA Cup in the 3rd rounds, lossing to Reading and Burnley respectively. Didn't took those competitions too seriously and gave young players game time. The first transfer window was off, so I made do with the starting squad, minus Izzy Brown who had is loan canceled. I used the money to renew contracts for some of our young players like Clarke, Phillips, and Jamie Shackleton. In January, we made a few deals: Roofe was sold after a disappoint first half to the season. I didn't plan to sell him, but when Newcastle accepted the negotiated offer I was happy to let him go. We also sold Forshaw and O'Kane, who barely got any game time behind the excellent Klich, Phillips and Shackleton. In terms of incomings, Alexis Saelemaekers is an offensive wing back who joined cheaply after being highly recommend by our scouts. Didn't get much game time, as I preferd the more defensively solid Ayling during our difficult second half of the season. Ben Woodburn joined after Pablo Hernandez complained about being home-sick and request a leave of absense. He was generally positive and I hope to keep him for next season as well. Most importantly, we tied Jack Harrison for a long-term deal for a nothing fee from City. Upfront, Bamford, Roofe, Roberts, and Temenuzhkov were given chance but neither was consistent. I hope our first signing for next season will help fix this:

How about Altinordu? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zMo6faGBsM

Cracking post! I don't have much to add about the Enganche role, as I haven't played it before, but the Raumdeuter is one of my favorites. I always got a save going with Liverpool and Mo Salah is the ideal player for this role (attributes + PPM). I'm now playing as Fiorentina, and I want to play Chiesa in this role. He looks great as well.

I have a question about reserves and under 19 squads. Let's say I have 5-6 goalkeepers in the under 19 team. Would it be beneficial to take the one who is the best - both in terms of current and potential ability - and promote him to the reservers squad, where I only got one keeper who is older and of equal current ability (I'm thinking about promoting that one to be the first team 3rd keeper and promote another keeper from the under 19s as well)? The idea is that, with 5-6 goalkeepers, most are bound not to play, hence not develop as much. It sounds reasonable, but maybe there is something I am missing?

Good luck, sounds like a great idea and their stadium and kits looks nice.

Just wanted to pop in again and say how wonderful this thread is. Probably my favorite in this forum, a lot thanks to your writing style. Keep it up, I hope to see much more of this.

@Experienced Defender thanks for your reply, you're always quick to answer Any reason for your choice of WBs over FBs and sweeper keeper? I'm just really trying to understand the logic behind choices as it seems like I lost my mojo recently and I must get it back! I came to a conclusion that behind Napoli, and playing in the Italian league, teams will be defending narrow against me often. Also considering I'm using two narrow wingers, I thought it would balance things out for us. I really like the idea of overloading a flank in order to create space on the other flank. I don't think it's a bad concept, just clearly not executed well by me.