kbogusz

Well I don't think it would be a long career, because 1. it might get boring quite quickly because at FM08 database Chelsea team is very strong with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Ballack, Essien, J. and A. Cole, Malouda and so on... If it will turn out to easy, then I might not have a lot of interest later 2. the retro database is not the best for long-term save, because it doesn't cover a lot of leagues and the lack of realism might discourage me from playing a lot of seasons. Nonetheless, my goal is to, by using Mourinho's approach and tactics (or atleast highly inspirated by it) achieve what Mourinho unfortunately didn't at Chelsea - win the Champions League. And do it before Di Matteo did it IRL (that's a whole different story BTW). It means quite much to me, because as a Chelsea fan, the lost 2008 final was by far my biggest heartbreak to date back then. Well I was 10 y/o when it happened, so I think it can be said that I want to go back to the past and fulfill my "childhood dream"

Oh, well just as I was tempted to play with MadScientist 07/08 database on FM24 and continue Mourinho's work in the season he was (in my opinion) sacked too soon. Now you have encouraged me ever more to do it.

Should I upload my save file too If i encounter the same issue?

I remember back then when you could choose tactics 'fluidity' in FM and tactical creator was a novelty, I remember that I read somewhere (I think it was even written in the creator), that more rigid tactics divide the team to two units, where some players focus only on the defence and some only on the attack. The more fluid the tactics, the less strict that divison is. Those were the times when Guardiola was working at Barcelona and fluid football was in vogue. Is rest defence and attack connected with more 'rigid' philosophy or is it about something really different?

Well we made it through the playoffs, but it hardly was an "defence-first football": Fun fact: we were winning 5-0 after 22 mins in 1st leg... Anyways, we managed to get promoted. Our wage budget is now 2x higher and we have nearly 1 mil euro in transfer budget. So I'll switch the tactic to 4-4-1-1 now and hopefully build some really good team (with faster CBs) and show some really defensively solid football. We have to, because La Liga 2 is a lot higher level than 3rd tier.

Thanks, appreciate that you confirm that my thinking is right. I'll try even higher line of defence. I see one risk as my CBs are really slow, but like you said no other way than testing it really! As for the attributes importance - I'm very aware of that and as we are a middle-table team and don't have the best quality, many shortcomings may be due to that fact alone. Managed to get a very good BWM on loan in the winter so hopefully he'll improve our defending. FInances are looking better and better every month so I expect to strengten the team in the summer and sign some players with right attributes for this style of play. I'm very excited for the future mainly because of this thread. Feel that I am getting better as a manager tactically too.

Well, so far so good as we sit 2nd in the table just after half the season. We were expected to be a middle table team, so I'm very happy with the results. Offensively we are really effective with our counter-attacking football and I don't see any issues right now. However, we are not the best defensively and having the tactic principles in mind - this is quite underwheling. Not that I worry much as like i said we are exceeding expectations, but you know how it works - I want to constantly progress and try to take my team to the next level. From what I have understood, you have gone from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-1-1 variant because it gave you that desired defensive solidity and probably that could help me too, but right now I don't have right players to switch the formation, besides I think it would be quite irrational looking at our results. So I have decided to stand by the 4-2-3-1 till the end of the season (unless some disaster happens). Going to the point - we are rarely getting clean sheets, but my biggest disappointment is that we are 18th/20 in OPPDA. I understand that this isn't high-pressing tactic and I can't expect that we will dominate this stat, but still 18th is very low. Secondly - not that much of an issue but we have some pretty low tackles won % and that alone wouldn't worry me that much. BUT the most dissapointing fact is that our main 2 central defenders - Alex Galvez and Raul Navas (ex Sociedad player BTW) whose mental stats are the best of the team and both have a Tackling attribute of 14 (mind you it's only Spain 3rd tier) are effectively letting us down on that stat. From what I understand, a tackle is "won" when your team effectively regain the possesion, so after the tackle there must be someone from your team to take the ball after the tackle was made. That's why I thought that maybe by pushing the line of the defence even more to "much higher up" while leaving the mid block, we could be more compact and the midfielders could help CBs regaining possesion after their tackles. Secondly, I though that switching from AP(A) to AM(S) with "Get further forward" (like you did in your next variation of the tactic) would help our low OPPDA stat a little bit as the role would demand much more from him in the defence. In fact I feel like AP is not performing that good anyways, so I'm more than curious to change the role to AM. Do you think these 2 changes are the right direction or is there something else I could try? Love the thread and your updates.

Interesting read as always @crusadertsar . It is very true what you wrote about satisfaction after winning with this particular tactical principles and how it feels much better than high-pressing attacking tactics. Played with 3-5-2 last year and its defensive solidity and counter-attacking potential certainly brought much joy. I'll try to implement the defence-first approach to the oldest club in Spain - Recreativo de Huelva to bring them from tier 3 to La Liga. I may not have the best players for this right now, but hey, building a team to suit your style is a process too! Waiting for your next update! Also, what pitch dimensions you think would be the best to suit the Valverde inspirarted tactic? I'm assuming a long one, because it gives space for quick forwards when counter-attacking. While limited width would help our compactness in defence and make greater use of funneling the opposition to wide areas, where they don't have that much space. Correct me if i'm wrong please.

What's interesting is that one of my CBs has the best passing stat in the whole team - 13, which is quite exceptional at this level (similar to Vanarama National). However, he has Composure of 6, which rather discourages me from using him as BPD. Generally our front three have Headers Won Ratio of ~30%. Midfielders 57-70%, WBs ~40%. For CBs it's 80% for one of them (the 'exceptional passer' one) and just 63% (!) for the second. Choosing Low crosses is obvious, forgot to write about it. I am also a little bit worried about quite low percentage for the second CB. I think i should think about selection in that position, but our 3rd CB has just 69% despite having 14 Jumping Reach and 12 Heading, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Few things about crossing. Sometimes I also feel that we are isolated in the attack (hence poor ratings for wingers) and because of not having other options we make hopeless crosses into the box. It is especially done by Right WB as he is most common crosser in our team by a mile - 8 crosses per game. I think that this 'isolation' of front three is a major reason for most of the issues but im not sure how to deal with it.

Hello, I've been a lurker to the forum lately, although I had an account earlier that I have lost access to. I'm somehow back to FM after long years of break (last time I played full season it was FM15). I fell in love with the Data Hub and detailed stats in the newer versions. And I feel that comparing to the older versions of the game, now I have to be more adaptable with my tactic. Which is obviously great as it provides a bigger and more interesting challenge. Without further ado, I have some 'issues' with my tactic and a lot of dillema how or even if should I fix it. I've read some of the threads and articles and have some ideas, but any help would be appreciated. I'm playing with a team in Polish II Liga (3rd tier). I wanted to try to implement a high-pressing 4-3-3 (boring I know) at this level. Took the inspiration from Rock's End FM The Byline post and Johnny Ace 4-3-3 thread and created this: Halfway through the season and we're a big surprise sitting 1st despite media predicting us to fight relegation and finish 14th. But as stupid as it is I am not happy with the way we are playing. Most of times we are winning 1-0 or 2-1 (we have scored 3 goals in one match just once!) and it's painful to watch. I mean none of our players have an average rating of at least 7.00! As we have a winter break right now, I dived deep in the Data Hub and statistics and to my surprise, we are at the top of many charts (must be the overall low level of this league lol). However, I've found a few problems and not sure how to deal with them. Some a little bit worrying shooting data. Not much, but still. -0.30 Goals Overperformance being 14th/18 teams in the league and just 11% Conversion Rate (12th). However I must say, we missed 3 out of 6 penalties we've had... Still, comparing to the amount of shots we take and chances we create (both 4th) it is frustrating. Question is can some tweaks fix it or I shouldn't be much bothered and blame the individual abilities of my players? Passing, Stat-wise we rarely lose the ball (3rd in Possestion Lost). However, I'm so frustrated by my CB's hoofing the ball forward to the head of a striker like he's a TM. Often they have an option to pass the ball easily to WB's or Midfielders and they'd still choose to play a long and high ball forward. We are one of the best teams when it comes to Passing Accuracy but we are making a little below average number of passes compared to the rest of the league. Poor heading. As a team we overall win less headers than average. It wouldn't bother me that much but my Striker attempts 27.22 (!) headers per game and winning just 27% (!!!) of them. Crosses. We attempt nearly 30 crosses per game and although we have succesfully completed the most in the league, the accuracy is still about 13%. Mix it with the heading issues and the conclusion is obvious. Tackling. 75% Tackles Won Ratio being 11th in the league. Not sure if it is worrying and what should I do with it. I feel that the biggest issue is although we don't loose the ball often, we do it unnecessarily, while as a team we are capable of passing the ball quite well (looking at the Passing Accuracy graph). The two obvious instructions to implement seem to be Work Ball into Box and Play Out Of Defence. This way I'd hope to limit the amount of high passes from the defence and crosses. Maybe I should lower the tempo and set passes to 'Shorter' too? Or 'Be More Disciplined'? Would 'Holding Shape" after winning possesion be useful too? As I have quite good player at DLP I think I'll try to distribute the ball to him. Maybe that way I'll limit long balls from the CBs? I have a feeling that a change or few of roles and/or duties would be needed too to make the TI work, but I have no idea what could work. BTW my biggest disappointment right now are the wingers with average rating of 6.63 (IF) and 6.72 (IW). They have the attributes to be the key men and they often seem to be invisible (apart from missing a good chance from time to time haha). Let me know If you have any suggestions to what I could do to make this team play better. Hope someone else will be able to learn something from this thread too.