Outsider23

Hard to say, we played against a 4-1-4-1 today, but they pressed high and wide instead of sitting in a low block so we beat them pretty easily. Maybe the two banks of four was a bit of a red herring, perhaps I just need to build my squad in such a way that I have more direct options to punish passive teams. In the meantime, I suppose I just have to suffer against those 4-4-1-1 route one types, but we're still on track to go up as champions.

By all means look for bargain permanent transfers, just don't get your hopes up. I took Dresden from the third tier to the Bundesliga and I was surprised by the players who turned their noses up at joining my team. The thing is, we all know that, as the human player, you are a pretty good bet to stay up, but as far as all the NPCs are concerned, you're booking an express ticket straight back to the second tier. Put simply, no one, probably not even your own board, will have even the slightest bit of faith in you. It will take a while for your reputation to catch up with your performance and in the meantime you should, in my opinion, focus heavily on high quality loanees. It does cause a little chaos and uncertainty in your squad and the knowledge that your best players, the ones you rely on, aren't really your players and never will be can hurt a bit, but it is the surest path to long term stability. In my Dresden save I was wary of relying on loanees, I was tired of being bled dry by the big clubs, tired of developing players for them to sell for big fees, but looking back I should have relied more on loans. I made some excellent permanent signings, but I made bad ones too and I didn't have the resources to correct my mistakes. One season, I spent big on upgrading my defense, only for my expensive new signings to flop horribly. Let's just say that in my current save I plan to take things a little slower and take full advantage of the flexibility the loan market can offer. Scouting players who are currently out on loan at other clubs is a good strategy. More generally you should look for talented players over the age of 19 who are making few or no appearances for their club. If the player is based in a foreign club it might be a good idea to make sure they have good adaptability as they won't have time to settle. Signing cheap players can be good, but just try to exercise a little restraint otherwise you can end up with a lot of deadwood . Don't be seduced by expensive signings with (allegedly) high potential ability either, you don't have the luxury of buying lottery tickets. Don't sign anyone permanently unless they are a clear upgrade on a player in your squad.

I frequently lower the tempo even further and it usually improves things a lot. It gives more time for my players to move off the ball and in many cases it draws opposing players further out of position, though sometimes it will lead to frustrating moments such as players dwelling on the ball in the opposition box. I find it also increases pass completion which is good for my team since keeping the ball is our main form of defense. Generally, if the other team is athletic and aggressive I can't lower the tempo because it results in stagnation and losing the ball more frequently and if the team is much more athletic I may even have to raise it, but thankfully this is a rare occurrence in the second division. I often kick the mentality up to positive when my team is dominating possession, but not creating much, but I find it helps a lot more on the defensive side of things. On cautious and even balanced mentalities my players are too passive in their attempts to pressure the opposition, especially out wide. I prefer conceding a few more free kicks than watching my players get passed around as if they were plastic cones. I hardly ever change directness. I don't see any point in lowering it as I feel like it would put too much strain on the attacking movement as well as the decision making of my players. I would increase the directness more frequently, but I feel I don't have the right players for this style, especially since my main striker is a crafty, but slow veteran. Sometimes though, when I increase width I also increase the directness as a way of encouraging bigger switches out to the flanks. Of course, if I start the game and everything is working perfectly I just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The only playing instruction I have on by default is "stay wider" for my full backs. I adjust mentality and tempo depending on how the game is going. Christian Rodriguez has been my best player by far this season. He can also play in central midfield, but he seems less influential there.

I'm in my first season as manager of Malaga in the Spanish Second Division and the promotion push is going very well. At the start of the season I devised a short passing 4-2-3-1 based around the idea of harnessing the power of a wide triangle to drag opposing players out of position and open up space for my CAM and my overlapping fullback. One of my motivations in choosing this style of play was to compensate for a horribly imbalanced squad, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked with just a few tweaks and, interestingly enough, it seems to dominate other 4-2-3-1 possession systems which are very common in the league. Anyway, with the system creating tons of chances as well as being reasonably solid defensively we started to dominate, the board loves me, the players love me, but there is a problem. I have lost four times this season and three of those losses have come at the hands of teams playing a low block with two banks of four. It doesn't matter whether it is a 4-4-2, a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-1-4-1, my offense, which ordinarily is the best in the league, just seems to shut down. We have trouble progressing the ball and mainly seem limited to low quality crosses as far as chances are concerned. I am genuinely worried that if the AI "figures out" how much I struggle against these systems and every team lines up that way against us, it could jeopardize our promotion chances. In the latest game I tried out some tactical changes. I switched to a 4-3-3, increased the directness and went extremely wide. They were defending narrowly and I wanted to force them to move around more. The changes created an improvement, but it wasn't enough. We bent their 4-1-4-1, but we could not break it and then lost 1-0 to a set piece goal. In theory my team had been superior, we had notably higher XG after all, but the trouble is that my squad is garbage and cannot win without a flood of high quality chances. Are there any tactical changes that would make it easier to play against two banks of four? Additionally, despite my limited resources, I am capable of bringing in a couple of loanees during the January window. Since the ultrawide 4-3-3 seemed to work the best I could look for players who suit that system more, perhaps a highly technical DLP and a pacy striker or maybe a giant target man. What do you guys think?

I've generally had pretty bad luck with youth intakes. It seems like every time December rolls around I check my inbox and see a giant wall of yellow text and immediately know that the HOYD is telling me that this group of players is poor and that I shouldn't expect much. I was bracing myself for something similar in my latest save, but the preview is really good, in fact, it's the best I've ever seen, but I'm not posting about it to brag. I'm a bit worried actually. We've all seen five star prospects turn into two star fringe players and bitter experience has taught me that, in this game, you should never count your chickens before they've hatched. What I'm wondering is: should I get my hopes up? Am I risking Disappointment? How wrong can the HOYD be in these previews? Also, I am in my first season in the Spanish second tier so the squad is bad, does that mean that this latest generation is only "golden" compared to the scrubs I have currently? Finally: can other teams poach them before the intake happens?

I started a new save recently and decided to focus on scouting Poland early on and recruiting cheap youth prospects there, but my club began with very low nation knowledge of Poland so that scouting there is painfully slow and difficult. I decided to work around this problem by hiring a performance analyst who had 100% knowledge of Poland, but now that he has arrived my club's knowledge of the country seems unaffected. I swear this strategy has worked in the past and that even staff members like physios can contribute to the scouting knowledge level of a country. Have I made a mistake or do I just need to wait for the game to update my club's knowledge?

I've only tried doing it a couple of times mostly just to see how it works. I'm usually afraid to do it based on the logic that if I ask a club about a player and they are unwilling to sell it just gives them an opportunity to stall and maybe even offer the player a new contract while I'm waiting to hear back. Am I wrong to see making enquiries as such a risky move? If so, then when is the right time to do it?

The shouts system is difficult to work with because it is pretty opaque and unintuitive. Using the wrong shout at the wrong time can have adverse consequences. I have even experienced moments where using the wrong shout appeared to cost me the game. Most recently my defense utterly collapsed because I told the team "no pressure" and yet despite this I have been experimenting more and more with these shouts because I want every edge possible. I don't spam encourage as much as I did before, because it seems to have diminishing returns and it seems to have the greatest effect when your team is either losing or under great pressure. Demand more is tricky. I have been hesitant to use it lately because I have had players earn straight red cards after I demanded more from them. It could be a coincidence perhaps, but I do think it can make your players a little too aggressive and reckless. I think you should only use this one if your players are being to timid in their attempts to win back the ball. Calm down seems mostly to work on players who are angry or frustrated, but not much otherwise. Praise is weird, I would only use it when you are starting to dominate xG in a tough game otherwise there is too great a risk of them becoming complacent or something else terrible.. I've had a lot of luck berating my players lately, when we are behind on xG against weaker teams, but you have to be careful about berating your players late in the game, because they may be more vulnerable psychologically then.

I wonder if the front three are incredibly effective at disrupting opponents who like to try and maintain possession in central areas.

It's when you sell your worst players to your close rivals, thereby weakening them while enriching yourself. I did it quite frequently in my previous save; Everton was particularly susceptible (not surprising). I'm in the Bundesliga this time so I think this time I'm gonna see if Schalke will take the bait.

There have been a few times lately where referees have halted promising counterattacks of mine for offside calls on opposing attackers. It is quite frustrating and even downright insulting to have a potentially excellent chance taken away from me in exchange for a useless free kick. It is somewhat rare, but referees to play advantage on offside calls in real life and sometimes it is crucial. Admittedly this is a small issue that does not detract much from my enjoyment of the game, but it would be nice to see this feature added in the future.