[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Hey @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! I’m looking at starting a career with Man U (generic I know) but will be trying to develop the younger players rather than buying too many players. To get a positive/attacking style of possession football with aggressive pressing (similar to your benfica) how would you recommend setting up man Uniteds attack and midfield? It seems like it would be difficult to fit players like Rashford, martial, Daniel James and mason Greenwood together when they’re all reasonably similar i.e. they only seem suitable on the wings as none of them scream “complete forward” to me 

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Hi @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! I’ve been following this thread religiously since it started and it continues to provide inspiration for my own saves. I’m playing FM 20 with arsenal, trying to build the team around a core of club grown players i.e. bellerin, Maitland-niles, willock, nelson and smith-Rowe. I’ve gone for 2 variations of the 4-3-3, one with a HB in the DM spot when facing 4-2-3-1 and a flat midfield 3 with a DLP when the opposition has no AM. I play positive football it’s intense pressing (quite similar to yourself).  I was wondering if you have any preference for PI’s depending on player positions? I have players like willock and Maitland-Niles with no PI’s at all. I use willock as an attacking midfield who I want to make driving runs from deep and Maitland-Niles is normally rotated between both fullback positions. I also have nelson, smith-Rowe and saka who will all play as inside forwards but I’m not sure what PI’s would suit them best to make them high scoring inside forwards? Maybe get into opposition area? Gets forward whenever possible? Any help appreciated. 

[[FM20] Sheffield Wednesday]

Great to see someone taking the challenge of my beloved Wednesday. Eager to see how you get on. Good luck! 

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Hi @Ö-zil to the Arsenal!  absolutely loving this thread, fascinating insight into regular squad transitions. I’m trying something similar with Tottenham - trying to build the team around players such as Harry winks, Kane, Walker-Peters and gradually integrating players like Oliver skipp, Oakley-boothe and Troy parrott. In regards to you using a Bielsa themed tactical style, do you use certain tactics to counter opposition like you did in the Bielsa thread I.e. using a 3 man defence vs 2 man strike force, using a player in the DM spot against an AM etc? 

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Hi @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! Absolutely loving this thread, it’s inspiring to see such a long term career based around youth development. I’ve started a career with arsenal on FM19 and am having trouble building a tactic suitable for the players I want to build a future around (like you have had to do many times). I have bellerin, torreira, Maitland-niles, willock, nelson and smith-Rowe that I would like to focus on but to fit those along with players like aubameyang, ozil etc seems tricky!

As an example, bellerin would be my first choice RB playing as a WBs, to then play nelson in front who seems like an ideal winger would seem unbalanced width wise whereas I want smith-rowe on the left as an IF cutting in and using his vision etc meaning I would probably play tierney as a left WB. 

I think the only signings I could justify are probably centre backs. Thanks for any help 👍🏻

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Would definitely like you to give the premier league a crack. Would be interested to see how you would manage your playing and development philosophies whilst satisfying ambitious owners!

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

A great read as always! @Ö-zil to the Arsenal! what do your other tactics look like alongside the 4-1-4-1 (i.e. alternate and overload)? are they they same but with different mentalities? Do you tend to give player instructions based around who is playing in your starting 11 or are they fixed for all players? I'm thinking of giving this kind of save a go with arsenal and establishing players like Reiss Nelson, Guendouzi, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah etc. as first team players.

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

15 hours ago, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

Looking at the Financial Fair Play rules, our expenses need to be less than €5m above our revenue over any 3-year period.

In that case we are OK for the next 2-years whilst the large chunk of transfer revenue is within the 3-year period.

For anyone in a similar position it seems I made two fairly sizeable mistakes.

1. Selling so many players in the same financial year.
   • Around £95m is going to meet the FFP requirements for the next 2-years.
   • After that, it'll be outside the 3-year window and no longer counted towards my revenue.
   • It'd have been much more efficient to either negotiate transfer fees spread over 2-3 years or to have staggered the sales.
2. Not re-investing enough of the revenue.
   • I could also have kept enough revenue to cover our costs for the year and re-invested the remaining revenue in players to develop and sell to generate future revenue.

To add to the good news the UK has announced Brexit and all EU players now need a work permit to play in England.

I guess this is why I am not an accountant! 

Tactics, I'm a bit more comfortable with. Yes, the 4-1-4-1 is still largely unchanged.

England is tough. The Premier League is very unforgiving for young players. A Championship or League One club with a budget would be interesting, scavenging all the wasted talents unable to get game time at the top clubs. Around Europe, there's a few I've noticed - Benfica (obviously), Porto, Sporting, Lyon, Leverkusen and Dortmund have incredible talented young players it'd be fun to develop.

Leicester, maybe?

I suppose player sales is a must then unless you manage to win something like the champions league (I assume that makes a difference).

Yes, i find that too but i like the challenge and familiarity of the English leagues, although the academy's probably don't have as many prospects per team as teams you have mentioned.

Leicester is a good shout, they have a few decent youngsters too in Ben Chilwell, Demarai Gray, James Maddison etc. They do have slab head too...

Leeds would also be decent as there are a couple of youngsters there that look good, plus the fact you could eventually buy back home grown players such as Lewis Cook, Sam Byram, Danny Rose and Fabian Delph. It would be satisfying to play as many home grown talents as possible with them even though they may struggle if promoted, but with a 2-4 quality players to link with the youth would be do-able. I think a Bielsa styled 4-1-4-1 would be a must, although I'm not 100% sure how to put that into practice, i may have to revisit your Bielsa thread. Perhaps:

                   G (D)

WB(S) CD(D) CD(D) WB(S)                           

           DM(D) or HB(D) ???

WM(S) MEZ(S) CM(S) (W)

                  CF(S)

Perhaps Fluid/attacking with PI's: play out of defence, close down more and pass into space. What do you think to this?

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

1 hour ago, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

Thank you very much.

I do have an idea, yes. However a lot depends on how players develop and how long we can afford to keep them. Something I wasn't aware of at the start was that Benfica have £164m in debt and are making interest only payments of £1.5m per month - sounds like they've taken a loan through wonga! - and means we run at a monthly deficit and we are hugely reliant on transfer income to stay afloat and meet the FFP rules.

Having made so many sales and replacing with youth last year our wage costs were very low but even then we turned a monthly loss.

This year the young players wages have doubled or even trebled - though still not massive - now they're established in the first team and bigger clubs are looking so I am expecting bigger losses.

Assuming I still have players, the 4-1-4-1 certainly has potential. The diamond was for a specific purpose - covering a season with limited wingers and accommodating Talisca - which I think now has been achieved as Felipe and Trincão look ready and just agreed to sell Talisca to Monaco for £26.5m.

Wow, I had no idea they were so far in the red. Have you tried reducing the % made available for transfers after you have sold a player? 

Have you made any changes to your original 4-1-4-1 i.e. roles or team instructions?

To be honest I try and use the 4-1-4-1 for most saves as i think it is so flexible and solid. I just change the mentality depending on the opposition if I'm not an all conquering team. I also normally try and create a back 3 formation to counter the 4-4-2 etc. but have struggled to do this successfully on FM 18.

I'm inspired to start a youth development save, similar to this, but am honestly struggling to think of a team with a decent amount of potential first team players, ideally in an English league. 

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

Great update. Your writing is excellent. Do you have an idea as to where you would like your tactics to end up in the future? I.e. do you think you’re likely to stick with your current formations? Do you plan on going fluid and eventually very fluid when certain players have developed/been upgraded? 

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

1 hour ago, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

Thank you for the kind words 

Not at this moment. As you can see the system handles pressure very well so I don't mind the opposition having players close to my Deep-Lying Playmaker. Further improving anticipation and movement should help even more.

That said, I am potentially looking at an alternative back-3 shape but it's early days yet.

I suppose the quality of the player helps greatly too. One of the best DLP's I have ever used, probably mainly due to his intelligence, is Julian Weigl from Dortmund.  Although his work rate (12) and vision aren't amazing (13), his attributes such as Anticipation (17), Composure (18), Concentration (16), Decisions (18), Positioning (15) and Teamwork (19) seem to make him the ultimate holding midfielder in most roles. You could say hes the next Busquets...

I'm currently experimenting with a back-3 formation as I tend to struggle against the 4-4-2 and its variants. I'm currently using Everton (focusing on developing the academy players to the first team, similar to your SLB save) and my bogey team seems to be Bournemouth due to them always playing a fast paced, counter attacking 4-4-2! I'm not currently on my laptop that has FM installed so i cant post a screenshot but, I think my current formation is something along these lines:

 

                     SK (s)

    CD (d)   CD (c)   CD (d)

WB (a)  DLP (d)  DM (s)  WB (a)

                     CM (a)

               F9 (s)   CF (s)

 

If I'm facing a team that try and camp in my half, i switch my 2 outer CB's to BPD's to try and play a quicker, more direct pass forward to bypass their attackers and remove any playmaker roles.

Off the top of my head I know my team instructions are similar to your Cruyff thread with a couple of tweaks so suit my players. I also only use flexible or fluid at the minute due to my players not quite being intelligent/rounded enough. When playing teams like Bournemouth who look to counter I tend to drop my back line too.

I do tend to struggle to find 'complete' players to play these kind of systems (any suggestions very welcome!) but my gem for Everton has been Kristoffer Ajer (who you know well) who is an absolute monster in the DM (s) role or as a CB.

As for retraining positions, I do think they take a little longer this year. Though if I am trying to retrain a sub player to a new position, I make them available for the U-23's (played in the desired position) and try to use them as a sub in first team games as much as possible, as it wont really matter if their condition is only 85% if they are only playing 20-30 mins. Its working so far!

[Caixa Futebol Academy: Youth Development & Adapting Tactics]

yet another brilliant read. Your threads have inspired countless FM ‘projects’ for me. I can’t wait to read more when written. Out of curiosity, do you feel the need to adjust anything in this tactic to different opponents? I.e. to switch the DLP(D) to a DM(D) when facing 4-2-3-1?  Or anything else?

[Pep's Barcelona (Very Fluid)]

@Ö-zil to the Arsenal! absolutely brilliant work yet again. I enjoy reading all of your work, cruyffs 3-4-3 was a particular highlight. Do you think you would consider reviewing allegris juve tactic given their exploits this season using a rather unique tactic?