_Ben_

Having a lot of fun with creative players much deeper - in the full back slots - and then wider - creating hybrid ball carrier/creator/wingers. He’d fit in perfectly as a CM(a) for me with a bit of work on Dribbling and Finishing.

Hasenhutl is just a monster! What a player you've got there: just remind me again of his history please? I know you brought him to Sparta at a really young age but have forgotten the bits around that. I think he's a cracking signing! Just the kind of player that you described in your needs, too. You mention your keeper conundrum and I can't help but think that, if ever I was in doubt, I'd not recruit anyone new. Just how I've always been in the transfer market. It needn't be said but I'm loving the updates and invested in your save - keep it up!

Really like the look of him Jimbo! Going to be a physical beast at 20. Please tag me when you revisit him in years to come as he is, for me and my FM style, the perfect midfielder.

December 2038 FC Groningen 1-1 Fortuna Sittard A really disappointing start to the month as we dominate the game but fail to come away with three points. The xG created is, always, a positive, but we were unusually lacklustre at the back, allowing more xG than we'd normally do. However, David Veght has build himself a decent side on a budget and they are sitting nicely in the league. Our shooting, whilst not the best, at least shows that we didn't fall into the trap of just shooting from in front of their defence, still maintaining our style of getting in behind but we must do better, as this graphic shows: Homing in a little more - the numbers 3 (Sigurdsson) and 5 (De Wit) are of interest. Both of these players are only ever really upfield when we are attacking corners or freekicks as is number 4, Diallo. It's interesting to see that, aside from Gunnar hitting the bar, there is not a great number - four in total - nor a great quality of shots from these players, which, on further viewing, are all headers. A bit more Attacking Corners and Chance Conversion on the menu for training... --- Shakhtar 0-3 FC Groningen Quite the performance away from home to wrap up a really strong group stage for us, where, actually, just one Inter goal would have seen us progress in unlikely fashion. Bjarni Jonsson netted three times from low crosses into the box as we exert a bit of revenge and break the cycle of teams doing it to us. Shakhtar played a back five and, for me, that makes the margin of victory even sweeter given that it's a shape that we've struggled to score freely against in the past. You can see that we lined up a littler narrower and that allowed Thijssen opportunities to attack the half space, putting him, where possible, one on one with their wider centre back - an option that really needs to be investigated a little further. Our reward is a tough German tie: ---- Reading about Graham Potter's use of Alexis Mac Allister as, essentially, either a 10, 8 or 6 depending on the opposition as well as Pep's use of Cancelo as an auxiliary wing back or basically a central midfielder. It got me thinking about how I want to develop my own playing style and my own players within it. Most of the time, I play with two inverted wing backs - usually Schuur and a mixture of Kokora or Couto with Pavlovic backing them up and, when needed, they can swap sides. But I think that I want more flexibility than that. One of the biggest things I want to achieve is being able to coach a side to perform great things and that is, usually, why I have an aversion to the bigger leagues and certainly have an aversion to hoovering up the top, most expensive talents. The below table kind of indicates what I'd like to start developing in terms of tactical fluidity. I am completely aware that versatile players eat up CA - meaning that if I have a player natural, or even accomplished, in two positions, my experience and experiments previous to this save, tell me that their CA is probably greater than someone, with identical attributes, who is only natural in one area. Yet I'm now way past that CA min/maxing approach and I'm judging players on merit: statistical analysis and the good old eye test. In an ideal word, every winger I have would be able to also play as a full back, every full back as also an centre mid (note - this is a secondary position so I wouldn't want a winger to be a full back and then, because of that, be a centre mid too) but you've only got to look at someone like Jay ter Burg and see that only his Positioning and Concentration, from those key defensive attributes, are at a level whereby I even consider them meeting baseline and I certainly don't foresee a time when he's playing at full back. However, take someone like Szkudlarek, who can play as a central midfielder or an inverted winger. This season, he's made eight appearances at centre mid and a further five on the left wing, given his stronger right foot. This is exactly the kind of thing I want and, more than that, given that each player brings their own 36 attributes and traits, he's so different to others: My best free kick taker, so could be used anywhere, solely for that. Arrives late in the area could be a great trait against a full back who is super defensive and not shifting from his role but, similarly, could be strong in central midfield just to offer a bit more support against a quick transitioning team. Dives into tackles could work really well against a full back with poor composure or who isn't match sharp or brave but is also ok higher up the pitch in midfield against a playmaker. As you can see from just those three ideas, I can not only change how my full backs work, and, as such, then change the style of overload, but I can also change how the team performs those duties by playing different players in different roles. That is the kind of squad development I'm now pushing for. Below are six players who are forming the first part of this experiment and, by clicking on their thumbnail, you can see their attributes and their new training schedule. Schuur is already a good passer and pretty quick so, actually, fits in as a full back who can play both inverted and overlapping; he's also a winger too but his attributes aren't too strong for what I'd like there. However, as a CM, I've then added quite a combative, mentally and physically well rounded player. Cespedes is on his last chance really and, maybe, an inverted wing back could be it given that he's by far the strongest defensively of all my wingers. Asante is, similarly, on his last chance and doesn't look too impressive here but I need to work out how to get the best from him. Verveer and Kartal are both young and I think it'll help them with the roundedness of their attributes - following that total football ideology - by having them training elsewhere. Lastly is Thijs Pander, the only one on there moving from a midfield position to an Inverted Winger kind of role, which might suit his Dribbling and Flair against the right opponent. It's a really long term thing and, should I want to recruit, I'm looking at the likes of Felipe Martinez or Sergio Joao, who are both going to break the bank at this stage so, in my opinion, it's probably best being developed from within and then fine tuned with recruitment, rather than the other way round. --- Half way through the season so, as I await my KNVB Beker cup tie against Excelsior, it feels like a good time to review my new additions from the summer. Jordi Thijssen - A+ Jordi is exactly the type of player I wanted at the club and he's been integral in our performances this season. He's second in Dribbles/90, surprisingly maybe behind Szkudlarek but with eleven goal contributions overall, he's joint second with Jonsson, five behind the impressive ter Burg. I feel that the combination he's created with the other Dutch winger has been the biggest bonus of this. I now have two pacey, skilful wingers who can both score and assist for others and they are surely nearing national team call ups. My transfer priorities, due to this success, are very much about harvesting the best of the rest domestic talent: being aware I can't take first team players from Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord but I've now pretty much got free reign on the rest, especially as AZ - the other side near our reputation - sit bottom of the league right now. Dariusz Szkudlarek - A+ The experienced Pole has just been outstanding and has really found his level with us after a bit of a tumultuous time at Twente following their relegation. Back in the international fold, the midfielder has been excellent with six goal contributions, which is no mean feet given his use off the bench and somewhat limited minutes. If it wasn't for the performance of the aforementioned Thijssen, he'd be starting on the left wing and if it wasn't for the continued performances of Bouma and Konté, he'd also be starting there. It's really now about me letting him have his chance to keep the fine run of form up without defaulting to those who are, probably, better players on paper. Benjamin Kokora - B A really strong start when you look at the combination of key metrics: interceptions, dribbles and key passes are all really high for his full back role and he's growing into the type of player I want. There was an initial fuss that I didn't further strengthen the midfield - an error on my part as the DoF negotiated his contract and I missed this promise - but he eventually came back round and displayed Couto once again. As one of my two Africans in the squad, I'm about to lose him for a month and I think that's when we'll really see whether he's had a big impact on the first team. Garvey Julians - C A little bit hit and miss - often caught out for being short, which is, to be fair, what I expected. Not any better on the ball than any of my natural centre backs so I think this one has probably been a bit of a failure. Still, he's young, Dutch, has a decent value and is progressing so all is not lost with Garvey - although I don't quite feel that he's got what it takes to usurp either of my full backs. We'll see if he kicks on in the second half of his debut season. Jesper Pihl - D I seem to be cursed with fourth choice centre backs after my similarly statistical, risky pick with Rocha last year. Pihl has been hugely out of his depth and, to be frank, I just don't trust him in the team. Managed another international appearance but is unlikely to feature heavily for us going forward and it's just a shame that we haven't got the quality coming through to phase them in. €1.6m wasted but I'm not going to win them all doing it this way. Dejan Pavlovic - C+ Despite the lowest average rating, I've been relatively impressed with Dejan when you factor in his cost, too. He's also recently become a full international and is completely happy to play second fiddle behind my other three full backs. Not quite the technical abilities I want in my full backs going forward but there is definitely scope for developing the quality of players there over the next few years and, as a stop gap, he's done nothing wrong or nothing to make me rush those choices. ---- FC Groningen 0-0 Excelsior (FC Groningen win 4-2 on penalties) Wow. We were bad. I think that the backline of Cespedes - trying out his new role - along with the not-so-imperious Julians and youngster Quaye made us very susceptible to anything that Excelsior could throw at us. To be fair, the xG is a bit of a lie and the story paints it better - two big chances for them and, as has been the way this month, quite a lot of poorer ones for us. But, optimistic head on, it gave these youngsters, including Verveer in his new position, a good 120 minutes of football and we held our nerve, with even more inexperience off the bench in Dyonatas and Kampman, won the penalty shootout. Hardly a classic, but we're in the draw for the next round and that, at this point, is the main thing. --- FC Groningen 3-1 FC Utrecht My focus for this match was to keep tight defensively: firstly because of the Ajax game coming up and secondly because we were very loose against Excelsior. We pretty much achieved it and, probably, went a little too far, somewhat stopping the free flowing football that we can play - with one big chance leading to their goal at a pint where we out of sight. Never the less, it's a strong win over a team who are near the top - but play a formation, with two inverted wingers, that is advantageous to our defensive setup. We've been running a session of Defensive Corners and Engaged Defending since my thoughts last month and, whilst the second apparently has no impact on game performance, it does just feel a little tighter although that may be down to opposition quality. I was, however, really impressed with our movement which nearly led to a fourth goal - with the interplay between Cespedes and Szkudlarek really causing an issue for the defensive midfielder. Clearly caught in three minds: closing Cespedes in case of a pull back, closing Szkudlarek as he enters the box or just getting back to avoid the one on one with Jonsson. In the end, the weight of cross from Konté was fantastic but ter Burg was unable to put the icing on the cake. It's the second time that Ariel has played at left back since my previous thoughts in this post and I've been pretty happy with what I've seen. He's never going be good enough defensively to be called upon in the Champions League ties but, against easier opposition, his ball carrying and offensive prowess may be useful. At just 20, he's got plenty of time left to develop and hone his skills and, hopefully, he'll be able to find the next gear that he really hasn't shown as a winger - being outperformed handsomely by ter Burg and Thijssen and even by the backup players like Neira. --- FC Groningen 1-1 Ajax A game of such fine margins. An error from Leino, missing the punch an allowing Buizert a simple tap in allowed a fairly average Ajax side back into a game that, if the mightily-impressive Szkudlarek had been a little more composed twice, we would have been out of sight in. I really like the 4-4-1-1 that Ajax line up in because it gives me a headache in how I want to play. Normally, and I will do in the away tie, I'd push back to a 4-1-4-1 but that's exactly what they want me to do, removing my attacking threats to combat theirs and sit deeper, not allowing them the chance to counter so I went for the standard line up and it worked, largely although you can tell the quality difference facing world class full backs like they have. I'm chuffed that we didn't lose and not too disheartened that we didn't win as we enter the break, nearly half way through the season, still undefeated. --- It's hotting up nicely at the top as we slightly dip back but do have two games in hand. The gap between us and PSV is wonderful and they've got a pretty poor goal difference so it's essentially a ten point gap: talk about splitting the big three! My concerns around fixtures lead to the last two months of the season where we play the other members of the top four but, with at least two more European fixtures coming, there is a worry about fixture pile ups and fatigue setting in. However, we'll ride the wave we're on and see what happens. --- I must admit to being a bit lost in recruitment at the moment because I've been so deeply entrenched in the ideology of coaching and developing what I already have at the club. This is what I feel is the closest aligned to the Head Coach role - however, I still want to push forward with my statistical analysis rather than handing over the reigns to a DoF, who I'll still trust to make the signings from a shortlist I choose. Looking at the first team, below, I'd say that we're in fairly good shape: However, the vultures are circling with 'Wnt' signs next to no fewer than eight of the players - worryingly Dortmund are interested in de Wit and Real Madrid, Bayern and Man City among the eighteen after ter Burg. I'm going to stick to my guns that I won't be selling these players unless they specifically ask to move and their asking price is met. Anything other than that is absolutely unrealistic even if it means we may end up with another €30m+ in the bank by the end of January. Should I be able to keep my current crop, the perfectionist in me would like to see improvements in the following areas: A right footed centre back who can add some extra physicality to the side A left back can add a bit more creativity to the build up A left footed right winger who can, initially, be an understudy to ter Burg but eventually compete with him. Time to take the short winter break in and continue what has been a great start to the campaign!

I managed this a while ago.. In pitch with tactics container.xml <container> <container class="pitch_with_tactics" id="pitc" name="pitch" width="400"> <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="all" /> <real id="pitch_perspective" value="0.000000" /> <string id="icon_flags" value="show_name,show_extra_details,use_overview_icons,drop_initial_if_possible,show_position_role_duty_suitability,show_selection_image,show_number,show_role_duty_labels,show_familiarity" /> <string id="show_extra_details_buttons" value="true" /> <string id="pitch_draw_grass" value="true" /> <string id="pitch_base_appearance" value="custom/texture1" /> <string id="pitch_pattern" value="" /> <string id="vertical" value="true" /> <integer id="pitch_vertical_padding" value="5" /> <integer id="partnership_vertical_inset" value="22" /> <string id="vertical" value="false" /> <string id="pitch_alignment" value="can_scale" /> <real id="maximum_player_size" value="0.220000" /> <string id="pitch_line_colour" value="white" /> <string id="3958779584" value="tactics normal run" /> <string id="3958779616" value="tactics darkened run" /> <string id="3958779648" value="tactics dragged run" /> <integer id="pitch_touchline_width_percentage" value="20" /> <integer id="line_width" value="1" /> </container> Line 27: <string id="vertical" value="false" /> Changing that from true to false changes from vertical to horizontal.

If you get the code working, can you share a screenshot of with the menu bar at the bottom please? I'm intrigued...

Yep, exactly. I'm trying to find a solution that is realistic and, therefore, doesn't break the match engine to both score more and stop more going in myself. I've looked at zonal stuff, man marking etc but - from what I'm starting to find - the attacking team are relatively smart at changing their own routines and throwing more, or less, people forward when the time calls. I don't want to be micromanaging corners and throw ins throughout the game but need to start to look out for those triggers, too. Fitness first, always. From there, I look at training rating, form and, more so than ever before, the opposition. I'll play my fastest wingers if the defenders are slow as long as they are fit, training and playing well. I have got the first two pretty much nailed - our Jong and U18 teams are widely used to match fitness - it's now all about ensuring that form, or, probably more importantly, player type are utilised properly. Ter Burg didn't need to play against ADO - Cespedes, despite being in poor first team nick, has had a great run in the Jong side, scoring, assisting and playing well. His fresh legs might have been the difference there - plus, he's a slightly more direct winger rather than a converted forward and that may have been the decider. I'm opening my mind to so many more of those small decisions - rather than just accepting the draw saying that 'my team was poor' or something!

They chose him. I interviewed and was realistic - stating that I didn't need the entire €90m transfer budget and I'd be happy to work with the DoF, but, clearly, he was more suited. I know I said that they were the end game but, since I've got really in depth with this, I think I'm happy to stay here until the end of this cycle. I'm loving the day to day stuff but also have been able to put down some really strong roots, which I want to stay and reap the fruits of.

I'm not too au fait with them but it's got 4x the number of processors, a top of the range graphics card and it came boxed as a gaming laptop! My wife thinks I'm a nerd for that alone; little does she know what I do outside of Football Manager about Football Manager!

I would say that getting this squad balance, that can play in a multitude of styles under your ideology, that fit a profile and affordability for your club is probably the hardest thing and FM or real life manager can do! I’ve played saves whereby I’ve had 20 odd players suited to a possession game but, in that occasion where I need big man, have been left short. Likewise, I’ve inherited squads with a variety of player types but zero cohesion, a mish-mash of personalities and a financially sketchy backdrop. I really want to read your process and thoughts about how you’re going to do it because, I think, it needs to go above and beyond a normal ‘recruitment drive!’

(Early) December 2038 Not part of my full monthly plans but the below news means we can continue to discuss all things Groningen. I feel kind of relieved that I can continue my journey without having to make what is absolutely the realistic option and head to Germany.

Hi Jim - you can do that now... In Preferences > Skin colours, do this: Change the 'a' to 0, then you'll have this: Players, staff, humans - no numbers anywhere!

November 2038 The first action of the month was the announcement of Goal50 - showing that the little old Eredivisie is actually home to the best player on the planet, Giorgios Trigas. It also shows the shift in dominance away from Bayern in Germany and Spanish teams as a whole. Whilst we're never going to be in a position to have players on this list, I am looking forward to March and the NxGen list as we do have some very promising young players at the club. --- Liverpool 2-0 FC Groningen A tough game and, to be fair, an expected loss - however, there were a few things that my now-tactical-thinking brain feels we could have done better against. Their first goal, above, from a corner some six minutes in. I've thought a lot about defending corners but what I actually haven't done is removed the player from the far post in the contain tactic I have that employs a 4-1-4-1 against the bigger teams like this. It was not that man that caused this though: instead, a combination of poor marking from Szkudlarek at the near post and then even poorer positioning by the man on the post, Schuur, meant that Leino had little chance of keeping it out. Annoying, considering that we do train defensive corners and I do have a quick look before the match to ensure that we're not hugely overran or underpowered in these situations. Against big teams in big games, like this, conceding cheap goals isn't something we need to do. However, my overall game plan did work - we sat a little deeper and a little more compact, allowing their centre backs as much possession as they wanted, limiting balls into their lone striker: restricting him to just five touches in our box. However, one of those touches was their second goal as our compactness got the better of us, giving their attacking full backs miles of space to receive the ball and deliver a pinpoint cross. I think that I got my reaction to this wrong - always the pragmatist, I had visions of goal difference and, as such, didn't attack, shutting up shop positionally and hoping to keep it respectable, which, in the end, it was. The defeat was compounded by news that Inter had won, too - leaving the group like this: I should beat Shakhtar and I imagine that Liverpool will do so, too. Therefore, it looks improbable that we'll be able to finish second but dropping into the Europa League is certainly not a bad outcome from our first venture into Europe under my management. --- Between games, we announced a link with Gamba Osaka, spent €5m on training facilities and improved our junior coaching. With the link set up with the Japanese side, I've decided to send some scouts out to snap up a couple of youngsters in the hope that they can become financially viable for us going forward. Japan is an area of the world that I have little footballing knowledge of - and that is hugely down to the restrictions that are imposed on FM but I know that they are capable of producing good youngsters and being able to add the 'youth training' option to the deal makes it even sweeter for me. --- FC Groningen 2-1 Go Ahead Eagles Immediately, I saw that their tactic was to keep their wingers high and, given their attributes, to push inside - so I countered that by pushing them on to their outside foot. However, for the first ten minutes, the ball didn't go near them: we kept possession high up the pitch and Escalona netted his first thanks to some really strong player, breaking through a couple of tackles and finishing and his second from a knock down by Bouma. The youngster should have had his hattrick but for a great saving tackle on the line early in the second half. It was a strange game, really. We should have opened the floodgates, going two nil up inside the first ten minutes but we never really threatened aside from the big chance in the second half and conceded a silly goal, allowing them to overload down one side and put in a cross that we just didn't deal with. More concerningly, it's another failure for Ariel Cespedes, who featured in this game only due to it's perceived difficulty - hoping ninety minutes could kickstart his season. Both Thijssen and ter Burg play the same role but statistically, he was just not a threat with only two touches in their area and one shot that hit the post when he really should have done better. I also have serious concerns over his lack of progress, which may see Kawamani recalled from his loan early, if he continues his recovery from a fractured upper arm. Last season I drew with Go Ahead, at home, in the final game of the season and had this to say: So - the negative to this is that I need to find a way to get the better of an Anthony de Klerk side but the positive is that, with a similar performance, we got three points rather than one. Marginal gains. --- Again, building on the Gamba Osaka link, I took the international break to take in three Japan games personally, enjoying my new graphical experience and also doing a little bit of scouting. Early reports of a Japanese influx aren't promising, nor is the ability of their actual squad. It's such a shame that there are just a small number of players in their pool as, without a visible league, the production of newgens is hugely off. Suzuki is on trail from Freiburg and I have concerns around he and Nitta, solely based on height. Someone like Arai might be investigated further as his relative two-footedness is something I like on the wings and someone like Haga is always going to be a tough steal from a domestic rival. As well as that, I made the decision to recall Thijs Pander from his second loan at NEC, given the fact that he's now better (attributes and report) than Alfred Asante, who is likely to head out on loan again in the January window. Alfred has not quite hit the heights that I wanted and his unusual style - tall, mentally strong but not the best either offensively nor defensively and, more importantly, two whole years older than Thijs. I don't quite foresee this turning into another Herman Swager affair - a man who'll never play first team football again for us after a poor showing on loan and a terrible reaction to it, now on loan in the third tier of Portuguese football - but I'm accepting that maybe Alfred won't develop quite into the player I want from him. He does, though, have time on his side still and a good loan deal will certainly help him. I watched the Jong fixture where they were paired in the CM(a) role and, as has been the case across most football played since my arrival here, Thijs outperformed his teammate. --- Feyenoord 1-2 FC Groningen We won. And we should be happy with that. But there are a few things I want to analyse a little deeper here. Firstly, we used a new defensive corner setup that put our three biggest players (De Wit, Sigurdsson and Zambrano) on their three biggest players whilst everyone else zonally marked. In the first corner, you can see that we've done a decent job on Mofokeng (6'2"), Fuchs (6'1"), and Putignano (6'6"). However, the sheer height and power of their tallest player meant he was able to, quite simply, beat my Icelandic defender. That's a man on man issue and not a set up issues - however, two occurrences: one unmarked and one marked by Couto, who is 5'8", really have annoyed me in terms of the defensive set up. There is only so much I can program and train with these players but that is virtual suicide in terms of stopping them from scoring. You can see that we've conceded three times from corners in the last fifteen matches - again, marginal gains reduces that to one or even none and we get another clean sheet, another point etc etc. The first half though was dominated by this: A man, who has never missed a penalty for us, misses two inside thirteen minutes! 1.5xG just wasted and neither penalty was particularly good but has clearly played a part in their keeper, Kouakou, winning Man of the Match. Luckily, we scored twice through Jonsson - back to full fitness - and a strike by Konté, assisted by Pander within minutes of making a return to our first team. There goal is also something I want to dig into but I believe this to be a personal mistake. You can see that, on the linked actions, they scored directly from kick off following Lassana Konté's goal for us. Already annoying enough. When Becerra picks the ball up, I'd not class him as being in a dangerous position. Also note Romanos' position here, too. Because Becerra has been booked, I tend to trigger a press on players in that situation but, clearly, need to avoid doing that for more offensive players because, by the time he releases the ball, he's made up a lot of ground - which is ok - but has been flanked by two or three of my players, completely ignoring Romanos' run, which, actually, is a really nice bit of football. We regroup but aren't forceful enough at stopping the cross and I really think that Konté needs to improve his defensive positioning here as our spare man, Schuur, is too close to the ball to actually provide any defensive cover should a cross reach the penalty spot. Soriano, who is both in form and very well suited for this kind of job, is just faster to the ball than a tired Sigurdsson. Again, this a type of goal isn't uncommon as we conceded this type of goal against both Go Ahead and Liverpool. I know that, if I was their actual coach, I'd be drilling this kind of thing but, Defensive Shape match prep aside, I don't really have the tools to dig deeper into this kind of thing. --- FC Groningen 1-2 Inter Two more defensive thoughts: Why have a defender on the post and do this? I think that, by the age of about five, I was taught to defend on the half turn - yet we can't do it here, making a through ball really easy. However, we really played really well and deserved something from the game. To run Inter as close as we did, controlling the game in large parts despite very little of the ball, getting into their attacking third sixty-eight times and restricting them to just four shots from their own eight-five entries is a really strong return. We're not meant to be able to go toe to toe with a team like this but we have done. Our €12m yearly salary compared to their €356m salary - our record buy of €8.25m to their €118.5m - our 22k seater stadium to their 75k seater. We have not embarrassed ourselves at all in this competition (I say this with one game left) and, should we avoid defeat, we will enter the Europa League, joining the likes of Man Utd, Spurs, Marseille, Valencia, Atalanta and Hertha. I'm very proud of these computer animated men! --- ADO Den Haag 1-1 FC Groningen Points dropped! We edged the game in non-Pen xG after giving away a silly foul early on but it was probably the first time we've suffered from a continental hangover. Another concession from a corner and an inability to deal with their long ball style game made this a far closer tie than it really should have been. I made a big decision, making three changes at the break and giving opportunities to Etim, Verveer and Escalona, in place of more experienced, but tired heads. Bjarni Jonsson was a ghost, making just fifteen touches in his forty-five minutes, less than half of the amount that Escalona registered. Additionally, the tired legs of ter Burg and Jonsson completed just thirteen passes between them in the time they were on the pitch - a clear sign that both my squad rotation needs to be better but also my squad needs to be stronger, which will enable more rotation in the first place. I think the graph shows where the next steps are: A lot of players are bit part players, essentially. We're doing well with injuries but just not really sharing around the minutes, with significant numbers of players in that 60% to 40% bracket and only two real first team players - Leino and de Wit. The longer term strategy and, as always, the goal of any football club, is to get a cohesive squad who are all performing well, together, at the same time! --- We enter December top of the pile and working really hard to iron out any of the issues that we are facing. I am still shocked at how we've been able to progress since I took over and have loved every challenge that the Eredivisie has thrown at me. I have, however, been offered a very tempting opportunity from out of the blue. It was always my intention to end up in Germany but, at the same time, I'd kind of become happy and settled to see FM22 out with Groningen, considering that we haven't actually won anything, at all and the speed and depth of my playing and writing mean that I'm unlikely to finish the five or six more seasons I may have done previously. I've been instilled as 5-1 favourite to take the job and interviewed, out of interest rather than anything else. I feel that I need to sit and think this one over. It's a huge move but that is exactly what it is - a huge club with a €2,500,000 per week wage bill and a host of elite players. Whilst it'll really test my recruitment philosophy and I do really enjoy the building phase of a club, it's also everything that I hate about football - money, money and more money!

Annoyingly, missed the offer that was £250 cheaper by a day or two but ordered, arrived and set up. Many thanks @kevhamster!

I am using Windowed mode now but have gone from 1024x768 to 1920x1080 and, because I tend to default to this anyway, have gone for 85% zoom so there's just mammoth amounts of space around the edges. It does give me a chance to build in a few new things that didn't fit into my old skin, just slows down the processing time. I also don't have Office installed on here yet so I'm not really writing and collating images as I've got nothing sturdy enough to use! I'm just moving all my views, filters etc over, exploring all the things I had never seen before on the panels and enjoyed a full match with my new graphics card!

The biggest laptop issue I've found is that the resolution is completely different so I've spent all afternoon working on skinning bits that I made specifically for my old setup! I don't think so because I envisage that I'll lose to to both Inter and Liverpool - however, a win over Shakhtar and it'll be tight with the fall back to third cemented. Going to have a bit of a dig over the next month or so! Will write down some notes as I play through and try and present it in a balanced way...

They come to us at the end of December but it is more the last two months that worry me, should we be in a title fight... We play two of the big three at home and are away in Amsterdam on the penultimate day!

<layout class="vertical_arrange" vertical_layout="305,70,395,600" vertical_gap="10" /> Literally, the top line!

Complete brain fart - forgotten some easy code here... Trying to put five to ten pixels of space between the containers - so I've got a horizontal panel, small space, horizontal panel, small space etc. I've used it before but mind is blank! Can anyone help please?

October 2038 We reach the halfway point of the Champions League, with away ties at Liverpool and Shakhtar to come and Inter visiting Holland left to come and have reached ten games in the Eredivisie with things looking very good indeed. --- Vitesse 0-2 FC Groningen I watched the first section of the game on 'full' as their 5-2-1-2 shape is something that I often struggle to break down. My thoughts, pre-match, were to exploit the poor relationship between their centre backs, but, closer inspection saw that I may be able to exploit their right hand side - where they had a more adventurous centre back paired with a playmaker in front of him. I fielded a 4-2-3-1 'deep' with a DM pair of Konté - SV(s) and Asante - DM(s) with Thijssen playing as a W(s) to exploit and overload this space. Straight from the off, I saw that the shape was right, with Poeketi, their WB whose name is cut off in my screenshot, being their most advanced man and a slight stagger of the backline evident. my first change was to move Szkudlarek to man mark their centre back, Memic, as a way of further overloading: it didn't work defensively, leaving me wide open in their transition but it did create a nice overload when we transitioned. The below image and the analysis above paints the picture of the game: Time and time again, Thijssen got in behind Poeketi, causing all sorts of problems - registering eight dribbles in the game with Schuur, at left back, adding another four down our left hand side. This time, late on, he got ahead of the wing back and all that he could do was lunge in for a rash challenge and a straight red card. Whilst he wasn't directly at fault for either of Jordi's goals: the first coming from a block from an Escalona shot that fell straight into his path and the second from a rash challenge on Schuur that my winger put away the penalty but it does feel like a tactical victory. In the past, I would, maybe, focus on trying to overload or draw out their centre backs but - as I'm becoming more tactically aware - find myself able to draw conclusions and create different types of opportunities to overload, create space or create chances and it's something I'm quite proud of. I'm not going to get ahead of myself in terms of this winning streak, which now stands at seven games, but we've started this season really well. --- In between games, during the international break, I've been stepping up my scouting protocols. Right now, with my recruitment the way it is, I want to use my scouts to basically uncover as many attributes as possible. During international breaks, I get reports on as many teams - particularly youth sides - as I can. My recruitment is essentially split into two areas: statistical based first team players who are performing well in similar systems or maybe underperforming their attributes and young players, who I can develop for the future. I'm still unsure how to realistically approach the latter, with my scattergun approach of just knowing a large amount of players not the most realistic. From there, I'm trying to either trial these players - watching them in my Jong or U18 games to see their quality or using statistical analysis of their youth leagues (although this cannot be correlated to find percentiles etc) before signing players. However, as our reputation has grown, I've started taking interest in other youth leagues in addition to those in Holland. The Spanish U19 competitions seem to be a bit of a hotbed for talent, particularly those youth clubs that play alongside the U19 teams of the bigger teams. Whilst my scouts were looking at some of the Danish youth players, they came across Hans Daugaard, a young Dane playing for Alzira, who are in the U19 Division. He's currently on trial as I was intrigued by his height and ability to use both feet well - an initial coach report gives me some further info about his personality and (lack of) agility. For potentially just €60k, he's the kind of player that, at this point, I want to be bringing in to the youth team and developing. Currently, we are in the process of increasing the number of players that fit into the above 'pool' - here are the current players: None of these will necessarily go on to be world beaters, but, there is some clear potential and my job will be to develop them and give them opportunities to impress. The shortlist of players that fit the bill of young, intelligent players continues to grow as does a simple player search of players deemed to have Home Grown Status at the club - a total of 60 players, excluding any that still play for us, sorted by their transfer fee away from Groningen and highlighted on a shortlist if I have personally sold them on. --- FC Groningen 1-1 Heerenveen The Het Noorden derby sees the end of our winning streak and continues a fairly poor streak of us not winning after going behind into a second season. I was somewhat annoyed that our defensive shape left us 2v2 defending a cross as, to me, we should always have a spare man in our defensive areas. I'm also a little disappointed that Marco de Wit was beaten to the ball by Keren Tal, who I'd earmarked as someone that I really didn't want to allow near the goal given his really good record across his career, mainly in Israel. What I am impressed with though is the role that I've utilised for my wide men - who, between them, received 36 progressive passes in the game, showing that they're still my 'outball' even though they are more of a 'supporting' player. --- FC Groningen 0-0 Liverpool Again, watching the game early on saw me see a different side to their 4-4-1-1, essentially creating a narrow diamond with a huge skew to the right hand side. It would be marshalled by Cuero and spearheaded by Cristian Diaz but I felt that the opportunity to exploit them would be down our right, so made amendments to the roles - looking to overload with a WB(s), Mez(a) and W(s) in the gap vacated by the IW and, hopefully, by their wing back. It very nearly worked as, early on, ter Burg was gifted a great chance but couldn't beat the keeper. We kept going until half time, allowing them and their superior quality a couple of chances but defending rigidly. On the seventy minute mark, they made a change to their shape, moving to a midfield three that I felt could be exploited - so I pushed back to two CM(a) and focused the play through the middle. We came under a little more pressure but held our ground, again, and recorded an incredibly important draw! --- FC Groningen 2-0 Heracles I've never been scared of giving minutes to young players and this was no different - with full debuts for Dyonatas and Quaye with a first league start for Verveer in a much rested team, with even more youth on the bench. Heracles play a 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree shape but I had worked out my aim within five minutes from looking at attacking shapes like this. I was concerned by their three attackers so opted for my double pivot shape, as you can see, effectively gifting control of the midfield to them as it was 1v3. A couple of early tactical tweaks to switch the IF(s) to IF(a) and to then focus the play down both of the flanks meant that we always had an outball and always were able to cause trouble in the gaps left by their very offensive wing backs. Both goals came from crosses and, in particular, early sub Szkudlarek thrived in the wide open space down the right wing, scoring and setting up Escalona for his fourth of the season. As the game went on, I experimented with using both Bouma and Konté as DM(s), using their attacking Player Traits to impact the game from deeper - such is my want for a fluid squad. --- FC Groningen 4-1 Almere City We ended the month with a strong showing against newly promoted Almere, although conceding a goal - our fourth in ten compared to fourteen in thirty-four last season - always blots the copy book, somewhat. Offensively, we did our usual and still need to work on being clinical against lower level teams as we often get stuck either going wide and crossing to small forwards or shooting from distance - and our shot map here shows the former. Almere's flat 4-4-2 played out as essentially four different lines of defending players, with four defenders behind two very defensive centre mids, two wide players and then two cautious attackers and, from the average positions, you can see how deep they were - allowing very little on the counter. The only avenue I successfully explored was that of their attacking left back but neither of Jay ter Burg's goals could really be attributed to exposing that. --- I took the plunge and brought a new, top of the range, laptop that will both allow me to play with super high graphics but also load a wide range of leagues in full detail. The laptop is arriving at some point this week so expect a slight lull as I move everything over to the new system...

Double post, so I'll use it instead to ask for some updated screenshots, if I may: Hassenhutl Mijnans Misheouy Thanks!

Enjoyed that deeper dive into the statistical side - some really strong performances from your boys, particularly Van Axel Dongen. I'm also really looking forward to seeing how you approach this summer without that huge clearout you instigated last time around.

Absolutely. I think I'd class them two as both now integrated within the first team meaning that they, along with Marco de Wit, Dennis Bouma and Bjarni Jonsson, are the five academy graduates in my first team. That's a big aim of mine at any club and I think I'm doing a pretty decent job of it here. He's certainly growing into the team style. I find that sometimes my wingers go missing and I'm trying to really dig into what causes that tactically to alleviate these poor ratings he sometimes gets. As for statistics, he's not quite hit the same dribbles/90 as last year, yet, but I think a part of that is the fact he's on a support duty and he's not the only member of the team tasked with progressive carries. Haaland doesn't fit in with my transfer ideology! Ter Burg is really performing well and has recently attracted some suitors. I'm probably going to be at a crossroads in January: offer him a new big deal, probably breaking my wage structure, or move him on for €20m+, which is not bad for a €1m acquisition. I'm actually in the market for one now but in the space of two days, the sale price increased by nearly £200, so I'll hold fire for now, hoping to get something new for FM23.

Thanks all! I'm not getting carried away even though we're top and have a 100% record. When I won the league at Kransodar, Zenit fell apart and that's not happening with Ajax, they're just one late goal away from a 100% record too and I know that I have to face them twice, still. Thank you. I am absolutely loving the deeper dive into tactical analysis and it's really been that missing link between development and performance for me. I'm now more able to understand what's happening on the pitch so I can recruit, train, praise/criticise etc more appropriately. It'll certainly last and, after a few days away on holiday with a lot of FM-thinking, will probably be my last stop on the FM22 edition, given the depth and the time it's taking me to progress through the months. Plans for FM23 are well underway though - even if I'm tempering expectations given the current playing speed.

Thank you. Not heard of the brand before but reviews looks good!