SixPointer

Ten games have flown by, time flies when you're having fun, while eight wins and two losses from ten sounds fun, the most fun part has been finding our feet tactically and really starting to impose our positional play at the club, throw in a colossal andean clash and it's worth a little write up. A key principle of Positional Play is the concept that players should occupy space on the field in a rational way in order to achieve certain superiorities, e.g numerical, qualitative, positional. Put simply, numerical superiority is about overloading and outnumbering the defenders in the area where the team has possession of the ball. If we can create situations where our player's abilities and characteristics give us advantages over the defenders, then we have achieved qualitative superiority. The team that is better positioned will have the benefits of time and space and create more chances to score is key to positional superiority. The changes to FM24 is something I have wanted for a long time. Anyone who has followed previous posts when I have tried to create these patterns of play will know only too well the work I have done to try and achieve them. For instance creating the Salida Lavolpiana (CB's split wide and DM drops in to make a three to overload the press) now is simple the half back role works as it should, before you needed to use higher wing backs and it would only happen from time to time. The Carrete system has this very mechanism, but much like modern football times change no longer do the wing backs just play wide, the twist is the right sided wing back moves into the midfield to make a 3-2 box shape to allow progression through numerical superiority. Now with the lone forward outnumbered the midfield line has a decision to make, either join in the press and neglect the double pivot, or allow the defenders to advance the ball down the sides where the wide players are stretching the team and getting 1v1 creating that qualitative superiority. Focusing play down the left and using a standard WB, DLP and IW all on that half of the pitch creates its own triangle capable of drawing the opposition into the overload when the ball has bypassed the initial press and moved into the second tier. The inverted wing back once again shines here, linking the left hand side overload to the right hand side with all the space. As you can see from the build up to the 3rd goal against Huachipato the right hand side truly exploits the space. The space being exploited by the RCB is purely down to the fact we have shifted the opposition to open up the space, while inverting our wing back to further draw his marker away. The extent in which he can progress is due to the opposition full back being pinned by the IF 1v1 and leaving him with a huge predicament, at the exact moment he decides to press the RCB plays the IF in behind and he cuts back to the PF to finish off a perfectly executed team goal and to put the game beyond doubt. The forgotten free man The evolution of tactics is usually matched by the evolution of counter tactics, for some time inverted wing backs, dropping defensive midfielders had become the best way to overload the press. Teams had caught onto the idea and many started doing what Pep had been doing for a while, but with that teams have worked out how to defend against it. Enter Pep, the most innovative coach of our time? Or simply someone who can bring football past times back to life. John Stones earned the moniker the Barnsley Beckenbauer, mainly due to Pep shifting him to a modern day Libero role but why? The transition phase of play is always a weak spot in which you can be quickly countered, now and inverted wing back has to drift inside which means in order to regain his defensive shape he must transition outside, many teams worked out this was the area to exploit right after the turnover, so to counter that moving one of the CB's into the midfield allows for the overload in possession but also out of possession he is centrally placed to stop a counter before smoothly transitioning into the defensive shape. The Caleta System (meaning to much) brings the libero back, while Los Azules are no stranger to deep creative players having brought through Marcelo Diaz, who earned the nickname of "South American Xavi", as both of them have a great ball control capabilities and excellent passing skills he operated more at the number six and dropped into the defence line. Now Rivaldo Hernandez would be asked to do the opposite. The 24 year old looks more than capable of playing the role, and if his marauding run as a simple ball playing defender is to go by he should excel. Flair and vision could well be a little better but his football intelligence is sublime as a whole and he has the physical ability to get up and down the pitch. In his first game in the role he supplied a lovely ball in behind for the first goal against Santatiago Wanderers. Our passing was off the charts that game but it was the LCB dropping deep that excelled in linking the play that day as we ran out convincing 4-0 winners. After beating Paraguayan side Libertad over two legs, 3-0 at home then 1-0 away the reward was a true Andean battle. Deportivo Independiente Medellin could well have been a place Fabricio ended up after Venezuela as he had been touted for the job at times, however they stuck by their manager, Fabricio was keen on the idea, the city's underdog team seeing as their rivals are Atlético Nacional the most successful team in the country, of course this is not the only fire power the city is famous for Pablo Escobar supported Independiente. The first leg started so well going 1-0 up inside the first ten minutes, then it came. Loyola deceded a two footed leg breaker on 17 minutes would be a good idea, the Colombians took it up a gear and equalised but, Colcoccini through men forward and took the lead again but in the end the collapse came and the club went back to Santiago with their tails between their legs after a 6-2 defeat. Giving up two penalties with ten men was absolute suicide. Enter the Forgotten man............. What a turnaround to make the Copa Libertodroes group stages. 24,000 faithful turned up and boy were they rewarded as Fabricico Coloccini's men put on a show and came away with a famous comeback victroy. The star of the show was the Libero Rivaldo Hernandez, netting twice, a nice strike om the second phase of a corner and then heading home at the back post from a freekick. The in possession shape shows how he nicely steps up to form the double pivot, creating that 3-2 shape once again. This move from Fabricio shows his tactical fluidity and that he can now build up in different ways but still create the same build up structures with subtle changes. I wouldn't be surprised to see him create something like a 2-3 shape in the near future to cover all bases. He moved to an AP on the right flank to help create a box-like shape on that side of the pitch, perfect for overloading. The central presence is clear but that once again its dominance has focused the opponent and has now created 1v1's across the back line, and especially out wide. No wonder La U's manager is being lauded for his clever planning. The wide 1v1's allowed for exceptional passing combinations down the sides, so the focus of the overload in the centre by adding the Libero has paid off, but mainly because its drawn so much attention that other players are allowed to be free and in space. Using the DLP at the base ensures that both number 8's can get wide and into the half spaces while the ball magnets sit in the pivot and dictate play. The sheer number of passes leading to Henriquez goal is incredible, i can't even count how many, but once again it shows the ball circulation will eventually create the space, the main thing to be mindful of is not passing for the sake of it. Possession isn't the aim, it's mainly a byproduct of trying to shift the opponent around and make the space to exploit. For anyone interested in positional play at more depth, this article from Eagleclaw club is always my go to. I have linked it so many times when I do these types of tactical ideas as it's a great example of it without being too over the top, it's also fantastic what they are doing on the whole. Los Azules are top of the pile, and really should still be unbeaten, a poor decision to go for broke against Deportivo Nublense cost them a 1-0 defeat. They smashed Colo-Colo in the sold out superclasico, and on the overall have been very pleasing on the eye in the early part of the season. The Copa Libertadores group will be very interesting, Club Universitario de Deportes from Lima could well be classed as Andean but i'm not sure how strict that is as they are Andean coastal club, I didn't have Lima on the list as am unsure but it's probably close enough. They will be looking to make their mark as their great rivals Allianz Lima won this in 2023 and then the Copa Sudamericana last season. Emelec comes from a nation on the rise, Ecuador. With Independiente del Valle winning back to back Copa Sudamericana 2022 & 2023 it's perhaps time for another team to make a statement, mind you they haven't won a domestic league title since 2017 as well. Talleres won the league cup in argentina but while their great rivals Belgrano won the league they also have a huge chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

Survival is survival 👏🏻

Thanks dude! Appreciate the support

Very solid first season to build on. Always hard letting go of key players but 55 million in his last year is a huge sum of money. Very Atalanta thing to do as well.

Thanks man. A pretty heavy step within the hierarchy of South American football. If all goes well we should be challenging on a continental front!

A slow evening at work has allowed me some time to gather my thoughts at the start of the first full campaign in Santiago, Chile’s capital and largest city and has a population of 7 million, representing 40% of Chile's total population. The city sits in a valley surrounded by the snow-capped Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, Most of the city is situated between 500–650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above sea level. Santiago is home to some of Chile's most successful football clubs. Colo-Colo, founded on 19 April 1925, has a long tradition, and has played continuously in the highest league since the establishment of the first Chilean league in 1933. The club's wins include 30 national titles, 10 Copa Chile successes, and champions of the Copa Libertadores tournament in 1991, the only Chilean team to have won this tournament. The club hosts its home games in the Estadio Monumental in the commune of Macul. Universidad de Chile has 18 national titles and 5 Copa Chile wins. In 2011 they were champions of Copa Sudamericana, the only Chilean team to have won this tournament. The club was founded on 24 May 1927, under the name Club Deportivo Universitario as a union of Club Náutico and Federación Universitaria. The founders were students of the University of Chile. In 1980, the organisation separated from the University of Chile and the club is now completely independent. The team plays its home games in the Estadio Nacional de Chile in the commune of Ñuñoa. Club Deportivo Universidad Católica (UC) was founded on 21 April 1937. It consists of fourteen different departments. This team plays its home games in Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo. Universidad Católica has 13 national titles, making it the third most successful football club in the country. It has played the Copa Libertadores more than 20 times, reaching the final in 1993, losing to São Paulo FC. Colo Colo fans may protest, and not without reason, at seeing themselves relegated down the pecking order; but even FIFA marks the Clasico Universitario between Universidad de Chile and Universidad Catolica as the nation's most traditional derby. The derby's roots come from the early 20th century, when the two teams really were made up from students of Santiago's most prestigious universities. Catolica and La U have gone on to meet a total of 223 times in all competitions, with 89 U wins to 66 for their rivals. Catolica fans, however, can point to a 5-0 thrashing in 1954, which was the biggest victory in the history of the derby. Universidad de Chile's rivalry with Colo-Colo, is the so-called Chilean Classic or Chilean Superclásico. Although the first confrontation between the two clubs dates back to 1935, the rivalry began to develop in the 1940s and 1950s. Colo-Colo is the most popular football club in Chile , Universidad de Chile is the second largest following club in the country, with 21% of the total Chilean football fans according to research and surveys from 2018, published in September 2021. Fabricio Coloccini's arrival in Santiago perhaps came a little sooner than i would have liked, Peru looked like a much more realistic avenue, with some really big clubs in the Andes. Nevertheless The U have been going through a dry spell and after his first six games the Argentine steadied the ship, now with a pre season and a transfer window under his belt his first full season has started promisingly. The end of last season showed a glimpse of his plans, but with a squad bloated with substandard players the overhaul was always going to happen, no fewer than twenty two players were released from the club, even the newly formed B-Team wasn't capable of holding such poor quality players that offered nothing. This would now allow Fabricio to focus on quality over quantity, a first team squad of twenty five players with five of them being promising talents who will be called upon but be allowed to play in the under 18's to help continue their development. Coloccini has moved quickly to secure the spine of his team, Assadi, Campos, Hernandez and Palacios all signed new deals, the only real position he really lacked a huge player in terms of the spine was the holding midfield role, while the Argentine is yet to fully stamp a tactical ideal, something that's been clear in his early years is how vital a good number six is to him, the heartbeat of the team whether that be creatively or defensively he looks for his number six to be his on pitch manager. Abraham Bahachille became this at Deportivo tachira it would now be Felipe Loyola signed for 1.6 million pound from last season league runners up Huachipato. He ranked 2nd in possessions won, 15th in interceptions, 21st for pressures attempted and completed 67 pressures overall. A far cry from the creative hub he used previously it would appear he now wants a six to protect and allow others to flourish creatively. While Loyola has been known to lose the ball for over playing when in trouble he does play the simple pass, this coupled with his excellent football intelligence should allow him to sniff out counter attacks then recycle the ball. Antonio Diaz is perhaps the one player that could turn out to be an overspend, the LWB area was a real weakness and with a foreign limit to players i had to take my pick of the best home grown options. It was down to him and Christian Riquelme and the younger man was going to cost an extra 1 million on top of Diaz and was only marginally better, and with the bargain of the year Paolo Reyna was already set for first choice as a more defensive option i opted for the attacking Diaz. Segovia comes in as a back up goalkeeper after a great season that saw him named goalkeeper of the year in the team of the year, along with Kevin Duarte who made the team and then made a 275k switch after making his loan deal permanent. Esteban Alvarez is one of a number of young chilean talents that Fabricio is keen to bring to the club, he has opted to try before you by mainly down to the large fees that could be involved as he looks to secure the best Chilean wonderkids to supplement the great work from our own academy. Kervin Andrade follows from Venezuela and is one of a host of players that was linked to his former manager. He was signed already to Deportivio and flourished under the argentines guidance and became a fully fledged international, now his manager has come back calling and looking for him to make a similar impact in the Chilean capital.

Ruthless in front of goal against West Ham. Sounds like Armstrong has struggled to make the step back up. Everyone likes to get on your back in a bad spell.

Inspiring player development Shrew, as I always state something I really lack at. Naturally leads me to a few questions. When is the right time to give them there first team shot? Right now I’ve got a 16 year old who has already made some waves in senior games, but is it to soon? Is there an element of throwing them in the deep end to early? Or is it a case of if your good enough your old enough? Individual training, I’ve seen a few approaches. Some people use the most completed roles for positions and try to hit as many attributes, others train them in the exact role they plan for them (most realistic to me) then other train the weakest part of their game say a no nonsense defender for a defender who needs to work on the basics but is good technically for ball playing.

Seems like your caught between a few tactical ideas. Finding it hard to settle on a system and tinkering all the time, I’ve found myself to be here so many times in fm24

Am nightshift so overtime played right into my hands nicely!

I was the same. Super Bowl killed my momentum on the game. Mahomes is unreal. He would make a fantastic libero

The last six games of 2026 are done and the initial period at the club for Fabricio Coloccini went really well, he went unbeaten winning four and drawing two, a late goal saved his bacon in his first Clásico Universitario. The form was enough to secure 4th place and with it a shot at qualifying for the Copa Libertadores & the Copa Sudamericana, so now the Argentine has the foundation to build on and bring a title back to the club and find some consistency. The six games allowed him time to evaluate his squad, and while he's found some real talent which you would expect when you look at the clubs infrastructure, and some of the best players in Chile’s he has also acquired a lot of deadwood. His squad is bloated with it and with only an under 21’s team below the first team it appears the previous regimes have been stockpiling poor players, a huge transfer window coming up, and we have a hefty budget for it. The talent i touched on puts the future in good state and more than ever am determined to have a go at some real youth development, this will have an effect on transfer dealings as i need to for the first time create player pathways, in his short time Coloccini has already gave some very young players their chance and the biggest standout being Simon Ordenes in his three games he scored in one assisted another and got man of the match for his second half performance. Coloccini has four outstanding players to build his team around, Cristóbal Campos Chile’s number one, Rivaldo Hernández who looks to be one of the best defenders in the country and could well give me a Liberio, on the attacking front Carlos Palacios & Lucas Assadi are phenomenal wide men. Looking through the team, GK he has a clear number one and prospect so backup needed. In defence LWB is a real area of weakness, middle of the park is thin on quality as well, up front Henriquez will have one more season even after low XG but with Valencia hitting 5 in six for Coloccini he looks like the main option.

Stellar summer window bro. Just catching up. Great first half of the season back in the elite level!

Already looks like some high potential players are on the way. In terms of build up shapes I usually go with the 2-3-5 as I feel it covers well against counters, but with the improved positional play the 3-1-3-3 you have looks very good, i think you can make the build up shapes so fluid now with the the IWB’ IFB and LIB. Could potentially have a HB rotating in there as well. So many moving parts. i really can’t wait to get stuck into some game time tomorrow you’ve spiked my tactical thinking and now at a better club it could take on a new shape

I think this years FM is when you can truly make these build up shapes. For a very long time I have been trying these things but never worked. This closest I could get was HB and wingbacks in the DM - slot. Now we have so many options. I’ve yet to find a player in my Andes save capable of playing the libero role well, but I would say this is the most exciting role in terms of build up shapes. Lawrence was a goal machine for me at the near post in Austria in FM23. He is basically a corner exploit. The hammarby philosophy is something very interesting Ben, I feel as a modern day fan we are more interested than ever in club tactical style. It used to only be about getting three points now we want to win three points a certain way!

They currently sit 5th in the league with six games left to play, 12 points of the top spot. Which was deemed enough to sack Leonardo Madelón just like Mariano Herrón and Mauricio Pellegrino before him. All this points to a real period of underachievement. No league title since 2017 and bar quarter final appearance in the copa sudamericana 2025, continental football hasn't fared great either, failing to make the qualifiers 2023 & 2024. They also got knocked out of the Copa Libertadores this year by Metropolitanos from Venezuela at the qualfiying stages, so maybe this is the reason for it being a side step, after all Deportivo have been in the knock stages three times after Coloccini arrived.

Thanks ,man, just hope it's not too big too soon. Can't really head to Bolivia or Peru now but maybe later on after hitting the big time I could be a wind down who knows..... I could get sacked here. I'm sure you will find a save idea that gets you interested again dude.

What a comeback that is

It does feel like a step up, which is why I thought it was a weird it was being billed as a side step. Ideally I would have went Bolivia or Peru but nothing came up, and off the three big Santiago clubs this was always first choice. They haven’t won a top flight title since 2017 nearly ten years and we’re sitting 5th in the league. I only just accepted the job late on yesterday so never had a chance to deep dive into them and update.

Thanks 👍🏻

Where can I find the update for the skin Ben. Now it has attributes and I’ve changed clubs it maybe time to give it a go!

Things had been going well in Táchira, unbeaten at the start of the season, the board backing Coloccini. His tactical shift to a 433 had worked wonders, as had some more shrewd business. But he hadn't forgotten how close the board had come to getting rid of him and he felt a sense of disloyalty from them, not allowing him time to put his master plan into place. So when a top club from Santiago, Chile came calling it was a no brainer, and while the media claim it to be a side step he feels like it's a step forward. A move to a massive city, with the second largest support in the country and a budget he could only dream off in Venezuela. When looking back on his time in Venezuela am sure he will take pride in his work, he won the league and cup, made it to knockout stages of both continental competitions, found some real talent in the country, and leaves the club financially sound, top of the league and producing national team players. He felt betrayed by a board that he left a rival club to join and the first chance as he believed in their club and after all that feels they dont warrant his loyalty now.

Both look good additions, yeah assuming once you step up and money starts to flow you’ll be able to Cherry pick players

Magical idea, drawing inspiration from two of the very best FM career updaters is always a good way to go. Groningen is perfect for your plan as well. I just don’t like them cause they play in green and white (colours of my real life rivals) Best of luck

I fellow Andean journeyman! A huge accent you’ve already made. Great work. Following along