TheJanitor

It was stronger than me - I started another save in the new patch. Going with my own tactics this time: SK/a - Alisson, Mignolet FB/s - Alexander-Arnold, Gomez CD/d - Gomez, Matip BPD/d - van Dijk, Lovren WB/s - Robertson, Moreno DLP/d - Fabinho, Henderson BBM/s - Wijnaldum, Milner IW/s - Lallana, Keita IF/a - Salah, Shaqiri SS/a - Mane, Origi DLF/s - Firmino, Sturridge So far going well in pre-season. Hoever, Jones, and Woodburn promoted for tutoring sake.

Finally had some time to play, and what a match! My biggest win for this year Tadic playing an absolute stormer here.

Decided to give Ajax another go in the latest update. Last time, I suffered because we were poor in attack. This time I aim to recreate van de Beek-Tadic partnership up front. I'm playing the default Vertical Tiki-Taka 4231 with the striker set as DLF/s and the attacking midfielder as a SS/a. I really like Ajax team this season. It's a bit different after the update. Of course, De Jong will sadly leave at the end of the season, but still got de Ligt, who I think was boosted. Tadic, Mazraoui, and Tagliafico also got a decent boost. Gravenberch still looks like the brightest prospect outside of the first team and hopefully will help us forget De Jong. Hennie Henrichs still looking to leave the club, I thought it was a mistake in the original database?

@MarcSodie Kimmich is a beast, but check Gelson Fernandes from Benfica. A midfielder but I think he could be converted into a great fullback. Eder Militao as well, if you want someone more defensively minded. Dalot didn't develop? He's amazing for them in my Liverpool save. Anyone got an opinion on Timo Werner for £48m? Beginning of 3rd season, £140K p/m. If not, a goal-scoring right winger for Liverpool would be welcomed.

2020/21 Season - Some pre-season nonsense! So, Manchester City new coach is announced: Immediately he brings his old friend and our assistant manager Peter Krawietz to be his number two. We receive a cool £3m out of this and promote Pepijn Lijnders to be our new assistant manager. Even more intriguing, they make a massive offer for Kylian Mbappe! If they will bring him they will be a major contest for us. In other news, Arsenal made a £17m offer for Timo Horn and he wants to move. I'm trying to fetch Angus Gunn from relegated Southampton but they want quite a fee for him- about 20/30 should be enough. I'm considering promoting Kamil Grabara, but not sure if he is good enough. Might go for an experienced veteran with a good personality. Reina should be available fairly cheap. In the meanwhile, here are the three new signings we made: Pick of the lot is Ever Martinez, already a Paraguay international at the age of 18: Exactly the kind of CB I like, in terms of attributes, and a great personality. Needs to improve his ball-playing ability but I don't worry about that too much. I think he could be my long-term Van Dijk replacement. Joining from South America is Colombian midfielder, Camilo Ortiz. Doesn't look as impressive as Martinez, but a good all-rounder who could be molded into various roles. Got a great personality as well. Rounding up the Spanish-speaking trio is the only non-regen of the group, Robert Navarro. The former La Macia graduate was unhappy in Monaco and was available for £1.8m. Even if he doesn't develop as I want, I'm confident he would be able to fetch quite a fee in the future.

Finally finished the second season. Quick recap, in the first season we won a domestic treble and reached the quarterfinals of the CL. Premier League Never have I been so dominant when winning a league. Led most throughout most of the season and never looked like dropping it. Guardiola was sacked even though his Man City team were excellent for both seasons. Despite being a great season, we had our only loss of the season in the last game to Huddersfield! So disappointed missing out on an invisible season, but at least it is still something to look for. Other than Guardiola, Chelsea, Man Utd, and Tottenham also got new managers. Chelsea recently fired Sarri and haven't appointed anyone yet. Joe Edwards is the interim manager and doing quite well, winning all of his matches including a 6-0 beating of Fulham and winning 3-2 against Tottenham, who now have Jurgen Klopp as their manager! United appointed Zidane as their replacement for Mourinho. Aubameyang is the Golden Boot with 29 goals, some way of number two- Sadio Mane with 19. Willian got the highest assists with 13. Champions League Despite missing out on an invincible season, we finish on a high with the Champions League in the bag! We had a lot of luck throughout the competition. Finished first in a group the included Lyon, Stuttgart, and Porto. Fairly easy knockout stage, beating Benfica, Napoli, and Leverkusen to meet Atletico Madrid in the finals. Won in dramatic fashion, with Gomez and Keita scoring twice in the final minutes of the extra time. Lewandowsky won the Golden Boot with 8, Salah got the most assists with 6. First time ever winning the Champions League Transfers Only showing those that include cash, but we also sent out Oxlade-Chamberlain, Grujic, Origi, Sturridge, Solanke, Wilson, and a few more out on loans. Out of that list, Sturridge already signed with Benfica and will join next season on a free. The rest will probably be sold, as I don't have a place for them in my team (Grujic looks great though). Out of the out-goings, a few of Brendan boys are gone. Migs was basically replaced with Horn who is young and more fitting to the system (despite some suspect performances). Clyne was sold after Arsenal offered a good fee on him. Lovren didn't play at all and I was happy to cash in on him, and Allan was never going to become a first-team player. Our signings were mostly for the future. The one who probably did the best was Ryan Sessegnon with 2 goals and 5 assists in 19 starts. Still, I feel like I over-payed on him and I'm not quite sure how to play him. Fiete Arp also did decently, developing and scoring 3 goals in 9 starts, but my favorite is Paul Wood: He is developing into a complete midfielder. I played him mostly as the most offensive player in a midfield three, but I think he will be my long-time replacement for Wijnaldum as a DLP. Need to get that Teamwork up though. Andy Tucker is another regen I brought. Developing nicely but is still very much a project. Next Season I'm mostly pleased with my squad and think most of my signings will be of young players. I already completed three transfers for a combined fee of less than 5 mil. All are under 18 and might not make it in the long-term, but at least we will be able to make a profit on them. I prefer to keep a short squad, so we might sell some of the older players. Lallana and Milner are on their last year. Good personalities and I like to keep them as staff members, but a good offer will see them go. Henderson and Wijnaldum will end next season at 30, but unless a stupid offer will come, they will stay. Matip and Shaqiri are most likely to depart, as we have better options in their positions - Gomez and Van Dijk in defense and Mane, Firmino, Salah upfront. We also got Fiete Arp, Woodburn, and Ajer as upcoming wonderkids.

We aren't very far in terms of tactics. Do you find you AMR crossing a lot? And does he move into the box often? I would probably play an IF/s with Stay Wider instructions. Also, having an AP/s on the left side wouldn't draw play to the left?

Great idea for a thread I always liked this video: It shows a goal Aubameyang scored for Dortmund against Augsburg in 2013. The video is just this one clip, and I obviously recommend watching it all as the uploaded provided some annotations at various moments of the play. Dortmund overloaded the right side, in order to create on the left for the LB (Schmelzer) to exploit. He crossed the ball in and thanks to Lewandowsky supreme movement, a simple goal was scored. This video really got me to think about overloading. I'm afraid it is still a concept I'm trying to figure out in this game, but I like simplicity and this play is simple but incredibly effective. Play on one side of the pitch -> Create space on the other side -> Exploit it.

I'm playing with Liverpool right now. The second season, I still got Salah and Mane around and I wanted to get the best out of them, so I went for a similarly direct approach with a deep block. Up until December, we did well in terms of results, as we remained undefeated with only 2 draws. However, we had luck and ground a lot of results. Our performance was meh. Salah - my best player and the one I wanted to be my leading goal-scorer - scored twice and assisted once. I swapped to the default Gegenpressing tactics, to balance ourselves as this was the tactics we used in the first season, and since January we are operating with a more "controlled" strategy. It's not perfect, as we still have some bad moments, but overall we're doing much better now and in the last 11 games, Salah got 9 goals and 6 assists. Pacey attackers can still be very different. Messi is pacey, and so is Joshua King, but one of them is technically world-class and can break even the tightest defenses, and the other is more reliant on his sheer speed and needs space to use it. I find that when you are a powerhouse, defending deep doesn't automatically create space behind the opposition lines. They are still content with sitting deep themselves and being passive with the ball. And Spartak Moskow is definitely a powerhouse, especially after a championship season. So if you want to get the best out of your quick attackers, understand to playing deep and direct isn't automatically the right strategy. The combination of passing into space and playing at a quick tempo might not be ideal, as teams will give you as little as they can, and you are basically instructing non-playmakers to try and exploit whatever space they are giving. Sometimes it's best to be patient to create better space for your attackers. Anyway, this is just my take on things and how I solved the issues my Liverpool had early in the season. I'm still confident that playing your way is still viable, but perhaps not the most ideal and easy to achieve. Also, if you are struggling to get started, try the default Genepressing tactics if your team is hard-working enough. I found it great for pacey attackers.

@Constantine yep between us I think we covered most of the Spanish teams Gravitating towards Levante but might try Betis eventually. How Joan Jordan is doing for you? irl his numbers look great.

I really want to start a save in Spain. I want to avoid the usual teams - Betis, Villarreal etc. Contemplating Levante, Girona, Getafe, Rayo, Numancia, and Sporting Gijon. Levante probably has the most interesting starting squad, but I'm really not a fan of the Barcelona-esque kit. Rayo got the best kit, but the squad is so imbalanced. Anyone got recommendations?

I really enjoy your writing style!

Kaduregel Shefel Can't wait to read more.

I think you can call 3 over 23 players for the Olympics. How Duncan is doing for you? Could you post a screenshot?