AceCream

Counter-attacking Masterclass: In 04/05 Chelsea played Barcelona in the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League producing one of the most memorable fixtures in the competition's history. Like @Litmanen 10 stated "the tactical approach with quick counters destroyed Barcelona in the beginning of the game". (Match statistics after 20 minutes in the R16 game between Chelsea and Barcelona at the Stamford Bridge in 2005) In just 20 minutes Chelsea were 3-0 up despite only having roughly 30% possession. The full match can be seen here for free, and I highly recommend people to watch it: https://footballia.eu/matches/chelsea-fc-fc-barcelona-champions-league-2004-2005 I will now attempt to demonstrate our counter attacking system in FM2005 with a 3-1 away win against Manchester United. Unfortunately we had to change into a 4-4-2 because of injuries in midfield, but the overall play style was the same. I decided to have the mentality of the team defensive with the slider to about halfway down to the left and with the "Counter Attack" box ticked. We started off rather poorly with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a freekick early in the first half. However on the 31st minute Joe Cole won the ball back on the half way line, skipped past Giggs and found Robben wide open on the opposite side who squared it to Mutu with Drogba firing in the goal from the rebound. 1-1. (Drogba scores the equalizer on the 31st minute) On the 82nd minute Gallas headed the ball into midfield finding Kezman who quickly found Duff open on the right flank who used his immense speed to dribble through on goal and score. (Duff finds the winner on the 82nd minute) Mateja Kezman then sealed the victory with another devastating counter attack. (Chelsea secure a massive victory at Old Trafford)

Team Shape: In the tactics creator in FM2005 it can be kind of hard to implement detailed team and player instructions. There are no "roles", no team instructions like "Play out from the back" and team instructions override player position instructions at times. So I have to personalize every player position to the way I want to play. I am going to try and keep things simple and aim to just get the right players in the right positions to begin with. Like I stated earlier, I want to see clearly a flat back four at all times with Makélélé just in front. I have been watching old games from the 04/05 season and here is a still image from the League Cup semi-final game against United in 2005(please excuse the quality): (Chelsea build up from the back against Manchester United in the Carling Cup Semi-final in 2005) Here we can see the team shape in build-up. A flat back 4 with Makélélé in front. It is rather easy to create this shape in FM2005. With specific player instructions telling the DM to stay in position as well as the full-backs not to run forward we create this shape: (2 banks of 5 showcasing the defensive 5 and the attacking 5) We can see the team clearly divided into the defensive 5 and the attacking 5. With the ball higher up the pitch we can see we hold this shape as well: (The same shape, but further up the field) In defense the shape narrows making in very difficult for the opposition to find space in between the lines. Here is a still image from the semi final game against United where we can see just how compact the midfield was: (Chelsea defend narrowly against Manchester United) (Our narrow 4-3-3 shape in defense)

It's an absolute classic. The tempo in that match is insane. This match is one of the matches I watched back the most while figuring out how I want my team to play. Chelsea's electric counter attacks are peak Mourinho. It can be viewed in full here for those interested: https://footballia.eu/matches/chelsea-fc-fc-barcelona-champions-league-2004-2005

Thank you! Its going well. I am focusing on keeping things very simple and just trying to create the correct shapes in attack and defense. I will write an update when the season is half way done. A great thing about the older games is that you absolutely fly through the seasons. No press conferences, no team talks, nothing.

Go for it! How will you continue on Mourinho's success?

Players, roles and instructions: If I were to create this team in Football Manager 2024 I would start off by use these roles and team instructions. In attack I am aiming to see a 4-1-2-3. I also want to obviously see the team split into 5 players defending and 5 players attacking. (How I would set up Mourinho's Chelsea in FM2024) The back four: Starting from the back, the whole of the back four will stay back, including the fullbacks: (Player instructions for every player in the back 4 and the Makélélé role) John Terry: (The captain John Terry's attributes) Carvalho: (Mourinho's loyal servant Ricardo Carvalho) Midfield: Now for one of the most important parts of the tactic. The Makélélé role: I want Makélélé to stay in front of the back four, rarely running forward, winning the ball back and playing it to either Lampard or Tiago. Who better to use in THE Makélélé role other than Makélélé himself: (The legendary Claude Makélélé's attributes) Thiago will link the defense and midfield while Lampard will be employed as a shuttler, bombing forward and aiding the attack. (Player instructions for the Lampard role) Lampard: (Mr. Consistent Frank Lampard's attributes) Attack: Drogba will be our main attacking outlet, with Duff/Joe Cole/Robben running in from wide and crossing the ball. Drogba: (Powerful striker Didier Drogba) Robben: (The tricky winger Robben) Duff: (Electric Damien Duff) Now that the team is set up, the next posts will analyse our results and how we play in the ME.

Premise: This years' Football Manager marks 20 years of our beloved football simulation game and I have been thinking about how I want to replay all of these games. The first game I played was Football Manager 2005, I got it as a Christmas present in 2004 and have been hooked on these games ever since. I have recently been reading/listening to books on the evolution of modern football tactics. Most notably: Jonathan Wilson's "Inverting the Pyramid" Jonathan Wilson's "The Barcelona Inheritance" Michael Cox's "Zonal Marking" These books go into detail on how tactics have evolved throughout the years. Reading about Cruyff's Barcelona, Sacchi's Milan and Ferguson's United got me thinking about how I would set up their teams in Football Manager. But instead of recreating famous teams in the most current Football Manager, I thought why not play each and every game of the series, starting with Football Manager 2005 and picking the most exciting/revolutionary/successful team from that season and play using their play-style, players, formations and signings. A sort of historical reenactment, if you will, of legendary teams' seasons in the Football Manager game from that specific season. Not unlike people role-playing as soldiers in historical battles from the civil war, I will roleplay as managers from historic seasons. Wikipedia's definition sums it up nicely: I would describe myself as an amateur hobbyist and football history enthusiast. However instead of physically dressing up in historic uniforms (bar the occasional kit when I'm feeling extra motivated) I will dress my teams up tactically and historically accurate and try to recreate their success. Method: I plan on role-playing as the manager that was at helm during that season, creating a manager with the same name, D.O.B., reputation, attributes (if available), nationality and so on. If possible I will tick "disable first transfer window" and only use the players that were at the club. Therefore there will be no recruitment, unless I am enjoying myself a lot and continue into the 2nd season and beyond. Regarding tactics I will research the team's play style, formations and player roles using Transfermarkt for team sheets as well as watching old games and reading/listening to articles/books/podcasts. Each Football Manager installment usually had some sort of "META", whether that be a specific formation, type of player or play-style and I will try not to abandon the tactical principles of the team I am reenacting too much to cater to the META tactics. However, I would also like to try to replicate the success(and enjoy myself) of each team so I will need to find a balance between theoretical tactical ideology and realistic implementation of said ideology in the game I am playing. I do not plan on dwelling too long on each game and going into too much detail on how they play. I intend on keeping things rather simple tactically, only focusing on major factors of the team's success and finishing seasons rather quickly. I really admire tactical discussions and posts on this Forum, especially @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! "Very Fluid" series and @crusadertsar tactical experimentations and writings. They have highly influenced me in their approach on playing these games and will use many of their posts as inspiration. Here is a proposed plan on reenactments I intend on trying and examples on objectives for each one: FM2005: Mourinho's Chelsea. Can I match the 15 goals conceded record and win the Premier League using the 4-3-3 with Makélélé in the Makélélé role? FM2006: Rijkaard's Barcelona. Can I win the UCL/La Liga double with Ronaldinho being the main man while introducing Messi to the world? FM2007: Ancelotti's Milan. Can I win the UCL with an aging Milan squad using the famous Christmas Tree formation? FM2008: Ferguson's United. Can I win the Premier League and UCL using Ferguson's fluid 4-4-2 getting Ronaldo to score 30+ goals in the league? FM2009: Guardiola's Barcelona. Can I win the treble establishing Messi as the best player in the world in a legendary Barcelona 4-3-3? FM2010: Mourinho's Inter. Can I win the UCL using a pragmatic 4-2-3-1 with Wesley Sneijder in the #10 role? FM2011: Guardiola's Barcelona vol. 2. Can I be the most dominant team in the world implementing a tiki-taka system with Messi in the false 9? FM2012: Klopp's Dortmund. Can I implement a very high pressing "heavy metal" system developing a young Götze and Lewandowski and winning the Bundesliga? FM2013: Heynckes's Bayern. Can I win the treble using a high pressing 4-2-3-1 with Robben and Ribery excelling as inverted wingers? And so on You get the idea. The intention is to also retroactively review each installment of Football Manager, highlighting pros and cons of each installment while viewing them through a somewhat critical lens on their ability to create tactics. Maybe even eventually ranking them when I have played 1 season with all of them. I want to note that the early days of Football Manager did not have nearly as sophisticated tactical options as today's games, and instructions are implemented as sliders. This can at times feel like a "black box" and you're not really sure if what you're changing has any effect on the teams play-style, which I guess also applies to todays game to some extent. I will however do my best in implementing the teams style and welcome any and all feedback, comments and critiques. So without further ado, lets start off this series by trying to reenact Mourinho's Chelsea in FM 2005. Part 1: Mourinho's Chelsea in FM2005 Background: (Mourinho's first press conference at Stamford Bridge) Mourinho joined Chelsea in the summer of 2004, after remarkably winning the Champions League with Porto. Tactically Mourinho's Porto were solid and organised in defence, using a 4-3-1-2 and deploying a high press. His Chelsea Team however did not press as high as Porto and used a 4-3-3 instead. Below are the formations he used in the beginning of the 04/05 season according to Transfermarkt. (Chelsea's fixtures in the 04/05 season) He started off by using a 4-2-3-1 with Lampard in the number 10 role, but quickly pulled Lampard deeper into midfield. He instead opted for a holding midfielder and in that position was none other than Claude Makéléle, who made the role his own. In today's game the role is seen as an essential part of every top-side but in 2004 in England the 4-4-2 was used almost exclusively. According to Jonathan Wilson's The Barcelona Inheritance Chelsea's football started off a little dull and scratchy. Discipline was however strict and he quickly had imposed his methods. Damien Duff and Robben flanked the powerful striker Drogba while Lampard was in a shuttling midfield role in which he excelled and scored 13 goals. Mourinho was more cautious than he had been at Porto, most notably with the fullbacks Paulo Ferreira and Wayne Bridge who rarely advanced further than the halfway line. His side did not press anywhere near as high as his Porto side, in part because of John Terry's lack of pace. However Chelsea conceded only 15 goals in 38 games, a Premier League record, while also finishing the season with 95 points. Also a premier league record. (Chelsea's team shape in Mourinho's first two seasons in 2004-2006) So in the first reenactment I aim to answer the following questions: Can I replicate Jose's performances and win the league by 95 points and only conceding 15? I doubt it, but who knows Can Football manager 2005 accurately depict the tactics used by Mourinho's Chelsea? How does FM 2005 hold up in 2024? Implementation in FM2005: First off, lets take a look at the squad: (The Chelsea Squad in FM2005) Feeling nostalgic? I really love the clean and less cluttered look of the old games. Below is the formation used: (My starting XI and proposed shape) And the team instructions: (Team instructions) Like I said, it is rather hard to implement team instructions in FM2005, but my thought process is an attacking high tempo side looking to break on the counter with a solid defence. Watching Chelsea's league cup final game vs Liverpool we can see the played rather directly and did not focus on playing out from the back. There defensive line was never really high up and they pressed only in their own half. Apparently I'm running out of space and will continue below... References: https://dictatethegame.com/4-3-3-role-guide-the-back-four/#Mourinhos_2004-2006_Chelsea Jonathans Wilson's "The Barcelona Inheritance"

@CitytilIdie excellent work! I really enjoy asymmetric or staggered formations like your 4-4-2. Also interesting recruitment with the aged elite Italians in Verratti and Immobile. Wasn't it hard to offer Verratti wages? It feels very old school 90s Milan under Sacchi with the Dutch influence in Gravenberch. What is your experience in using Wide Playmakers?

During Ancelotti's time at Milan they usually switched between a 4-4-2 diamond, a 4-3-1-2 with Sheva and Inzaghi up top or the famous "Christmas Tree" formation which had effectively two number 10's. Out of curiosity, why are you interested to replicate Milan from the 05-06 season? I highly recommend you listen to or read Carlo's biography "Quiet Leadership". He talks in depth about his time at Milan and goes into how he tried to fit Pirlo, Kaká, Gattuso, Inzaghi, Ambrosini, Seedorf and Rui Costa into the starting XI. I also recommend the Athletic's Football Tactics Podcast with Michael Cox. In this episode they talk about the Christmas Tree formation: It is important to note that these formations and systems were developed by Ancelotti more out of necessity due to the players he had rather than some tactical ideology like Total Football or Gegenpressing. In 05-06 they mostly used the 4-3-1-2 because Berlusconi infamously wanted him to use 2 strikers and a number 10. According to Transfermarkt, Milan used the 4-3-1-2 exclusively that season and here is an example of their starting eleven: The team was less system based and focused mainly on getting all these players onto the pitch together without losing to much defensive balance. His teams usually lacked attacking width and played narrow, however the elite fullbacks of Cafu, Serginho, Jankulovski and Oddo provided some additional width in the attacking phase. This TIFO video details the the way they played: They are referring to the 4-3-2-1 here, but many of the same principles still apply. Here is a quick draft for a 4-3-1-2 tactic using this formation and their style of play: This tactic requires excellent attacking fullbacks as we as deep-lying midfield orchestrator in the Pirlo role. I love tactical recreations and let me know how this goes!

Hi! Does anybody know how I can change Napoli's 3-letter name from "PAR" to "NAP"? I have already done the real-name fix from FM scout but it appears to not change the 3-letter name. Thanks in advance!