SteinkelssonFM

Will be following this one along as have family connections in Trieste. Wishing you all the best. 💪

Looking forward to you getting stuck into pre-season and then onto the competitive fixtures. Your tactic is very aggressive, with those midfield runners and wing backs it will look like a 2-3-4-1 when in possession, expecting lots of goals! I also prefer to recruit staff through placing job adverts, there is something about the realism of picking candidates that actively applied that I enjoy.

An excellent first season at the helm, will you plan to loosen the iron fists defensive grip in the forthcoming season?

November 2022 Three games is all that separates me from the World Cup, two of which are played at home against 16th placed Mallorca and 18th placed Girona. Hopefully, we can secure six points which would take us up to seven games without loss. I don't want to talk too much yet about end of season expectations as there is far too much football to be played. However, I will say that I am pleasantly surprised with our defensive efficiency which has us above average in terms of both shots faced per game and opposition conversion rate. OGC NICE 1-1 Villarreal OGC Nice may have slightly edged this one, the home side were a little more clinical in relation to their shooting on the night. However, they seen less of the ball and finished the game on the back foot...not ideal for the home fans, who would expect Lucien Favre's side to have given it a late surge to secure the victory. Gaëtan Laborde opened the scoring for Les Aiglons, only for Dani Parejo to maintain his 100% strike record from the penalty spot (3/3) after a Jean-Clair Todibo mistake. MOTM: Gaëtan Laborde (1 goal) We qualify for the 'Round of 16' thanks to the UEFA Europa Conference League rules which favoured our goal difference over OGC Nice, as previously reported this outcome has secured us an additional £560k income, along with a further £99k in unallocated match prize money. --- Villarreal 6-1 Girona You know one of those games where everything seems to click within the 'ME', this was it. We scored some beautiful goals, ones that were fluid in terms of the build up included some excellent off the ball movement and short, sharp interchanges. 20 key passes to nine 10 clear cut chances to two The stand-out of the day was our Trequartista, showing his ability to not only progress the ball through passing/dribbling but with some lovely 45 degree passes which split the defence like a hot knife through butter. MOTM: Yeremy Pino (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 key passes, 4 dribbles made, 3 clear cut chances) Thanks for the inspo @_Ben_ The above shows the shape which were are often in when in possession of the ball. We have zone 14 on lock down, with our four most advanced players positioned on each corner. Behind them we have a flat line of four, the wing-backs having sole responsibility of the flanks, whilst the 'Magic Rectangle' provides the solid foundation/protection to ensure there are two bodies available to recycle possession/protect direct access to the central defence. The central overloads are causing opposition problems @GIMN which is highlighted in Girona's visualisation without the ball, forcing their fullbacks to play narrow to deal with the additional bodies which we have within zone 14. --- Villarreal 3-0 Mallorca We secured four wins in a row in La Liga after shutting Mallorca out of the game for the majority of the match. goals were scored from all areas of the pitch (Defence, Midfield, Attack). MOTM: Pau Torres --- Focus on Fer The game against Mallorca was Fer Nino's first game drawing a blank after 14 goal contributions (13 goals and 1 assist) in the last eight games. Below are his per 90 statistics. The striker is the perfect example to highlight just why 'Start Ratings' aren't the be all and end all of scout reports, at three starts the Spaniard is in the form of his life. He has 16 goals to his name and boasts an average xG per shot rating of 0.20. I wanted to see just how good this was by comparing him against the leading scorers from the top five competitions, the results are as follows. La Liga - Robert Lewandowski 0.19 Serie A - Lautaro Martínez 0.11 Ligue 1 - Wissam Ben Yedder 0.11 Premier League - Roberto Firmino 0.08 Bundesliga - Tiago Tomas 0.07 Now I would be a fool to kid myself and believe the following a) Fer Niño is as good as Lewandowski, he clearly isn't anywhere near the calibre of player which is clear from the attribute analysis. b) the players form will continue throughout the duration of the season..not many players can outscore their expected goals when factoring in a large sample size. What the data does show me is that Nino is not a volume shooter, he is taking his shots only when in good goal scoring positions, now whether that is a great ability to read the game or is more luck than judgement only time will tell. --- We are performing well against one of the supporters expectations, 'finish above Valencia in the league'. We currently find ourselves in second place, a point clear of Atletico Madrid and two clear of Barcelona, whilst Valencia are five points adrift in sixth place.

October 2022 Villarreal 5-0 Sevilla Yes, you are reading the score line correct, we managed to put Sevilla to the sword thanks to first-half goals from Yeremy Pino and Giovani Lo Celso. Fer Niño was introduced on the 69th minute, the Spaniard exploding onto the scene, scoring a hat trick, our first of the save. We did make one of the above tactical tweaks, the change of the Defensive Midfielder (Defend) to a Ball Winning Midfielder (Support), with the view to provide a little more support in the progression phase of play. The comparison shows how the two roles differ in the attacking half, with support duty selected there are more passes made deeper in the progressive phase of play. MOTM: Fer Niño Hat trick, 100% shots on target (3/3), xG 1.4 --- Hajduk Split 1-5 Villarreal A few days before the trip to Croatia we were notified that Gerard Moreno had suffered a twisted knee in training and wouldn't be available for 7-10 days, this injury would likely rule the striker out of both fixtures against Hajduk. For the second game in a row we have managed to score five goals. What's more impressive is that the last six shots taken for Fer Niño have resulted in the ball hitting the back of the net. Assists have been diluted across the team ((Deep Lying Forward 3, Wide Playmaker 2, Full-Back2 (both left and right), Advanced Forward 1, Segundo Volante 1) which is again another plus point, highlighting a diverse supply-line. Alberto Moreno featured from the bench, securing his first minutes since damaging his cruciate ligaments for the second time back in March 2022. MOTM: Fer Niño Hat trick, 100% shots on target (3/3), xG 0.8, 1 assist --- Villarreal 3-1 Hajduk Split We enjoyed another dominant performance against Hajduk, who appeared distinctly average even though we decided to field a rotated side. (Femenia, Mandi, Cuenca, Morlanes, Baena, Morales). The victory has ensured that we qualify from the group stage with two games in hand, OGC Nice hold the exact same points as us, matching us result for result. We face them in the final group game, which looks like it will decide who tops the group and secures passage to the Round of 16 and £560k. MOTM: Fer Niño the striker made it 7 shots and 7 goals before ending an impressive run of form in front of goal. --- Espanyol 1-2 Villarreal Winning ugly was certainly the phrase for todays result. A goal from Fer Nino and Dani Parejo was enough to see us come from behind to beat Espanyol, after Marin Braithwaite opened the scoring for the home side. Espanyol will no doubt will be questioning their bad luck, they outplayed us and had the majority of attacking momentum. Looking at the oppositions 'Shot Map' you can see how many attempts they had within the box, Espanyol averaged an xG per shot of 0.08, they failed to create any clear cut chances which had to have been their downfall. Our defensive partnership of Torres and Albiol lost only 7 aerial duels from 52, if it wasn't for such a dominant performance from the duo we would have likely succumb to defeat, which on reflection was absolutely the fair result. MOTM: Dani Parejo (1goal, 1 assist) --- Celta 2-2 Villarreal The game against Celta was always going to be tough due to Eduardo Coudet's side great home form (only lost once to Sevilla). The home team set up in a 4-4-2 and liked to build play from the back. This is evident in their pass combinations which shows a high proportion of passes made across the back line. Both teams failed to hold leads for over 5 minutes and in reflection the draw was the fair result. MOTM: Fer Niño (1 goal) --- Villarreal 2-1 Osasuna We dominated the home game against Osasuna, this is reflected in both the match momentum and xG visualisation. We had more possession (593 passes completed vs 289) and created significantly more shooting opportunities, although the 0.10 average xG per shot value is a tiny bit low for my liking. Maybe we were a little trigger happy which reflects in only creating one clear cut chance. It was in this game that I opted to play Gerard Moreno as a Complete Forward on Support duty as after 11 games in the Deep Lying Forward role he had only scored two goals and contributed with one assist. MOTM: Arnaut Danjuma (2 assists, 4 key passes, xA 0.6) --- Villarreal 3-1 Omonoia Now this is what I am talking about, check out the Shot Map of our 25 shots. Unlike the above we averaged an xG per shot of 0.21, crediting our ability to carve out high quality shooting opportunities, this can be seen in our clear cut chances. The score line absolutely did not do us justice today as we accumulated an xG of 5.33, the highest to date on the save. Alex Baena with five key passes from Inverted Winger making an impact in the left-side half-space. MOTM: Alex Baena --- Elche 1-3 Villarreal What a way to end the month, 25 goals scored and only eight conceded, the tactical tweaks look to be paying off nicely...although I am not going to write too much about them at the minute as I would like to see us play a few more league games. Three goals in three games from Gerard Moreno has made me opt to make his switch from DLF to CF concrete as it is likely to remove some of the goalscoring burden from Fer Nino. The five game analysis also makes for a good read, showing our dominance in central areas along with the importance of Pau Torres. MOTM: Étienne Capoue --- Some detailed stats takeaways. 7th highest possession (4% off second placed Barcelona) Second best discipline (10 yellows) Only performing over xG by 0.49 2nd highest non-penalty xG Sevilla are in a bit of a crisis, Jorge Sampaoli's team have been highlighted as having the worst defensive record in La Liga in relation to statistical outputs, with them sitting in ninth place it could not be long before the Argentinian is out of a job. Three games left to play until we break for the World Cup, January will separate the men from the boys with fixtures against three of the top four. --- I am using the megapack which FM Stag kindly put together for us all, what a gentleman! Glad to have you along for the ride my friend, I have good feelings about this save and am already emotionally invested...as we know, this is key for longevity! I will look to delve a little more deeper into the tactical side of the game in a few more posts, I will look to carry out a bit of an analysis into some of the key roles and also provide a comparison surrounding players and outputs.

Was going to say what hell is he doing, not working as a unit in that example...if only the defend engaged worked on providing marginal gains within the ME rather than focusing on the attributes. Just out of interest what set pieces are you using? Just been trying to set up some shorter corners after reading an article on The Athletic, wish you could watch what you are attempting to create in the set piece hub to aid creation.

You must have dreaded each time you pressed continue. Hopefully 🤞 you can bounce straight back and not lose too many players.

I couldn't agree more, those results showed me that we have the defensive stability that is needed to ensure we have a strong campaign. However, my gut feeling is that a few tactical tweaks need to be made to ensure we become more effective in the final third. I will need to play a few more games before making any tweaks but this is something which I will be focusing on. The shape in relation to the in possession is exactly what is expected. However, we often are looking to play an early pass through the wide playmaker (in the half space) over the top for the AF to run onto. Whilst this has created quite a few chances I think it could have something to do with a lack of a shorter pass due to the DM being on 'Defend' which as you will know comes with the 'Hold Position' maybe switching this to a support duty will provide a better passing option and reduce the need to play the riskier pass on a heightened frequency.

All that hard work looks to have paid off, you had a great run across January. Thanks for sharing the 'relationship' screen, I have no idea how I haven't seen this, but it is new for me. What site did you create the position against zones on? Another nice touch 👍

Can't believe I have missed this thread, absolute top top drawer. 👏

Good luck with the save, nice to see another 🇪🇸 adventure.

Keen to see what you implement to achieve the above. I am certain you will be looking to play compact and look to force the opponent outside, for the cross. Knowing that headers generate a significantly lower xG than a shot. Trying to become a Brighton/Brentford of this world 💪

September 2022 Villarreal 2-0 Rayo Vallecano Yeremy Pino put in an exceptional performance, showing just how effective he can be in the role of the Wide Playmaker, the Spaniard played six key passes (five from open play). The introduction of substitute Nicolas Jackson paid dividends as the Gambian was benefactor on three occasions, thanks to his pace (16) and acceleration (16). In all honesty the Gambian could have walked away with the match ball, he had one goal disallowed and also hit the woodwork. Kudos must also be given to Gerónimo Rulli who manged to somehow keep out Randy Nteka on multiple occasions, the Argentinian manged to pull of four saves (three held, one parried). We have manged to keep five clean sheets in a row, MOTM: Yeremy Pino (1 goal, 1 assist, six key passes). --- Derbi de la Comunitat For basically the entire 20th Century, Valencia had things almost all their own way in their region of Spain. While city rivals Levante have become a more regular top flight fixture in recent years, regional neighbours Villarreal have been the team to emerge as their main 21st Century rivals in the Valencian Community, eclipsing the likes of Elche, Hércules and CD Castellón. The Yellow Submarine have risen from virtually nowhere, admittedly with the help of some significant financial backing, to take the fight to Valencia, regularly finishing above and beating their big city neighbours. They’ve even started pinching their players with Dani Parejo, arguably Valencia’s best player at the time, moving to the Ceramica in 2020. At the time of writing, Villarreal are unquestionably now the strongest side in this part of Spain, even winning their first major trophy in 2021 with a memorable Europa League triumph. If you have a spare 15 minutes I urge you to watch this documentary from the Copa 90 Stories series Derby Days - Battle of the Brothers as it will provide you with all the history and insight from the fans surrounding the derby. * I thought the above screen was a nice little new touch within the game. --- Valencia 1-1 Villarreal This was always going to be a MASSIVE game with Valencia also boasting a 100% record. Their attack is spearheaded by Edinson Cavani (four goals in four games), whilst their defence also has yet to concede a goal. Rotation went out the window as for the first time I fielded what I believe to be my strongest eleven, excluding Fer Nino who was unavailable due to being away with Spain U21. The below stats go a little way to show you just how dominant Valencia were. 2.61 to 0.91 xG 3 clear cut chances to 1 579 passes completed to 483 Rulli played an absolute blinder saving six of the seven shots he faced, including denying Cavani from the penalty spot. MOTM: Gerard Moreno (1 goal) --- I wanted to gain a deeper understanding as to what Gattuso's side did to deny us from playing our usual possession based game. I opted to compare the performance with that of Rayo Vallecano given that both teams operate in the 4-2-3-1 formation. The one statistic which jumped out significantly was the increased amount of passes which were intercepted by Valencia. As you can see there was a 5% difference, an increase of 200%. A large proportion of these interceptions were on the peripherals of the final third. Valencia through the likes of Gabriel Paulista (10 interceptions), Mouctar Diakhaby (5) and Thierry Rendall Correia (5) were capable of denying us progression and therefore in turn denied us of as many touches closer to the opponents goal than seen before. --- Villarreal 1-1 OGC Nice With only three days separating this fixture and the La Liga match against Club Atlético de Madrid, it was important to field a side which could compete despite not being at full strength. A midfield partnership of Team Leaders, Dani Parejo and Manu Trigueros paired up with Jorge Cuenca and Aïssa Mandi at the base of the rectangle, opting to prefer age and experience (excluding Cuenca) for this tie. Both teams shared a similar level of dominance in the opening game of the group stage. We opened the scoring after Samuel Chukwueze was fouled inside the box, Parejo converting the penalty. However, looking at the xG story it was us, the home side which should have opened the campaign with all three points. Aaron Ramsey continued his form of bad luck picking up an injury within the first 15 minutes, this was unfortunate for us as Ross Barkley replaced him and scored the equaliser. We had 14 attempts on goal and generated an expected goal figure of 2.33. MOTM: Ross Barkley --- Villarreal 0-0 Atletico Madrid We used the intelligence gathered from one of the opening pieces to aid squad selection, the criteria 'Big Game Players'. (trying to make those marginal gains) This was a game which had me biting a few of my nails as we all know Diego Simeone likes his side to suffer, before delivering the killer blow. The final bit of white within the match momentum was that moment where Atletico had three corners back to back, despite having Marcos Llorente sent off in the 71st minute for a second yellow. Looking at the xG story you will see a massive spike in the second half, here Jan Oblak showed that he is world class to make an excellent double save from Yeremy Pino (0.36) and Nicolas Jackson (0.24) It could be argued that the conversion rate was disappointing as we manged to create six shooting opportunities from inside the opponents box compared to their one. However, when looking at xG per shot that simply was not the case...Atletico xG per shot 0.05, our xG per shot 0.07 Pau Torres picks up an honourable mention, the defender won 16 headers in an aerial dominant performance. MOTM: Gerónimo Rulli --- We are now three matches without victory, this is a game which we can/should win and I will be looking for the team to deliver as we travel to Cyprus. Omonoia 1-3 Villarreal Veni, vidi, vici is not quite the phrase I would use for the result over Omonoia. We secured the three points and picked up a nice pay check of $431k along the way. After Samuel Chukwueze opened the scoring in the second minute and dominating the match momentum, it took two late goals from Arnaut Danjuma and Fer Nino to secure the result. Nino and Nicolas Jackson had goals disallowed for marginal offsides, which should have provided us with that feel good factor result. MOTM: José Luis Morales (1 assist) --- OGC Nice secured a 1-0 victory over Hajduk Split in the other group game, the decisive goal was scored by Nicolas Pépé from the penalty spot. --- Taking a moment to look at our strikers outputs, currently only Fer Nino is having an impact on the pitch. The youngster (the surprise package) has an xG per shot of 0.2 whilst EVERYONE else is under 0.07. The Spaniard also leads the way in terms of his conversion rate 20% which when compared to the likes of Robert Lewandowski (34%) shows there is significant room for improvement. We need to become more clinical in front of goal, especially if we are going to continue to pick up more decisive victories. --- Athletic 2-1 Villarreal All good things must come to an end, we were outplayed by Athletic Club who picked up the deserved win. We were second best to every action on the pitch today, conceding in the second minute to Raul Garcia certainly didn't help our case. Gerard Moreno pulled one back for us before our opponents shut us out in the second half and also restored the lead through Iker Muniain. MOTM: Arnaut Danjuma (4 key passes, 1 assist) --- we close the month is 9th place, with a game in hand, which could see us rise to as high as joint third. Things as they stand are pretty tight, only three teams remain unbeaten, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manuel Pellegrini's Real Betis. Elche are the only side yet to secure a victory. We still have the best defence in the league. However our plus five goal difference is no match for the super powers who are on +15 and +14. October is one hell of a busy month, we play eight games in total which the thought alone scares me. Time to pick the squads wisely. --- Think you may have been my Achilles heel. I couldn't agree more, I think the Fernando Roig has a good handle on his recruitment policy and picked a coach which he knew could continue to build on the success that Pellegrini brought to the club without too many drastic changes. I think you will see more of the same from Quique Setien, their latest appointment...I just don't think they have the depth to compete on all fronts.

August 2022 The wait is finally over, my first squad selection which included the shock inclusion of Fer Niño after the youngsters impressive pre-season form. Real Valladolid 0-3 Villarreal The Yellow Submarine kicked off the La Liga season with an away victory over newly promoted Real Valladolid, the result was never in doubt as shown by the xG match story. The focus of our play was mainly down the right as highlighted within the heat map with Juan Foyth and Yeremy Pino combining well. Foyth was actually our most creative player, racking up a total of five key passes whilst Pino topped the progressive passes charts with eight. Defensively, our centre-backs weren't really tested, this is really highlighted in the aerial challenges analysis, showing only two of the total headers (won/lost) were inside our box. 612 passes completed to 394 13 key passes to 5 110 high intensity sprints to 71 I think the above peppering of some take away statistics goes to show you how we dominated the ball. Fer Nino rewarded me for putting faith in him by putting on an attacking display from the top drawer, a goal and assist was more than enough to see him pick up the 'Player of the Match' award. --- Next up, our first game at home, although fixtures will not be held at the Estadio de La Ceramica until 31/12/2002 as it is currently going through a £30m renovation, (funded from last seasosn's Champions League success). The number of seats will remain the same, However the following new features will be added. A state-of-the-art array of photovoltaic panels will be constructed on a new roof, meaning it will be self-sufficient and beneficial for the environment. A new stand will be built in the corner, this will see the ground completely closed off. Two new 21x7m scoreboards, as well as a new sound system, LED lighting and an installation of the highly-popular Sky-cam A function room will be set up, whilst remodelling of the Entrelineas Restaurant will also be carried out. --- Villarreal 1-0 Wolfsberger The result was secured in the UEFA Europa Conference League fourth round qualifier, the goal was scored by Pau Torres from a corner. However, the performance wasn't a continuation of the last game, particularly in the attacking third as we should have scored more goals. Jose Luis Morales was the main culprit, the striker left the field with an accumulated xG of 0.8, of which two chances were worth 0.35 (hit the post) and 0.31 (into row z). Defensively we did well limiting the Austrian side to one half chance , the result means that we still have a job to do in the reverse fixture. MOTM: Samuel Chukwueze (0.74 expected assists, 2 clear cut chances) --- Wolfsberger 0-2 Villarreal A rotated squad was fielded for the second leg, opting to play the majority of players who had a lighter match load, leaving some heavy artillery on the bench if needed. A narrow first leg win was indeed followed up by an away victory at the Vorwärtsstadion. The match, despite the result was again a close encounter, although goals from Fer Niño both early on and in the dying seconds made the result flatter ourselves. Wolfsberger managed to have six attempts on goal in our penalty area, totalling 0.5 xG. This equates to each shot averaging 0.08 xG per shot, highlighting our ability to limit them to low chance scoring opportunities. MOTM: Fer Niño (two goals, 100% shots on target 3/3) --- UEFA Europa Conference League Draw As I look to sink my teeth into this save the game throws up a little gem to help me buy in, a draw which places us in the same group as OGC Nice (still to this day the FM save which I am most attached to) and Hajduk Split (a strong contender for a save in FM23, a side which I watched a few fixtures with over the summer and will be no pushover). We have a tough group, but one which I can not wait to test ourselves in. --- Cadiz 0-1 Villarreal A fixture that I was almost certain would end up with us being FM'ed, our shot map tells the story. We completely dominated the ball and territory in this fixture and had already racked up 10 shots before Pau Torres scored with a back post header (yes another set piece goal). However, I cant really complain it was not like we were taking pot shots from all over the gaff as only four attempts were from outside of the box. The key pass analysis also shows that we were effective at creating shooting opportunities from all over the field, maybe the 'patient attacking' training is paying off. The pass map is a good example of how many combinations this tactic enables, this is one of the bonuses of implementing the double pivot. MOTM: Dani Parejo (111 passes completed, 92% pass accuracy, one clear cut chance created). --- The league table at the end of August is starting to take shape, currently there are eight teams who remain undefeated. We have two games in hand (one postponed to play European qualifiers). Barcelona and Real Madrid are leading the XG table and both are currently outperforming their figures, we find ourselves in 8th place and underperforming by one goal. We do have the best expected gaols against figure, although given that the sample size for us and the others is small this data doesn't hold too much value at present. September is a busy month which in which I am going to target four points in the league and four points in Europe, we have some tough fixtures and I think a victories over Rayo Vallecano and Omonoia could be the only ones which we secure in the calendar month.

This was cooking up nicely, until the shocking news that you would lose Celik for four months!

The journey begins, after waiting for the Sortitoutsi 'Real Name Fix' we are finally in position to start what I hope will be an epic journey with Villarreal. I opted for a fairly decent sized database which consists of approximately 121,000 players - I intend this save to go pretty deep and wanted to make sure that the playing experience was a little more realistic than simply running with a few of the major leagues from the continent. Training Camp (Geneva, Switzerland) The first month in charge would see us travel to Switzerland for the annual pre-season training camp, as you can see from the map below the trip is a short flight from Valencia to Geneva. I doubt the squad will be travelling on EasyJet of KLM. However, if there were a simple 'Google' search shows us that the trip costs from £102 for what is a two hour journey. I manually set up four fixtures (Olympique de Geneve, Old Boys, Lausanne and Etoile Carouge) to span the 11 days (all Swiss opponents, of course). We want to make sure everyone has enough game time to ensure we can hit the ground running come the start of the season. I have no intent on covering these or any of my pre-season fixtures in a lot of detail, I will mostly be looking to see if the tactic is playing how it should in terms of both strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to see how the players operate within the match engine, no detail to outputs or performances will be taken into consideration due to the frequent changes of playing staff. Pre-Season Friendlies Seven games played, 21 goals scored and two conceded...not a bad start. However as stated above I am not reading too much into these games due to the increased rotation of playing staff. The one surprise from pre-season was the form of Fer Nino , the 21 year old scored six goals along with picking up three player of the match awards. Scouted Football published a nice interview with the player earlier this month if you would like to read a little more on the player. Looking at some of the feedback from within the 'Data Hub' over the last five matches we have some nice takeaways. A large proportion of the goals have come from positions close to the penalty spot, this highlights our ability to work the ball into the box. You can see from the next visualisation the 'Magic Rectangle' is paying dividends, helping us to remain compact in the central area, which in turn is leading to us regaining possession well in the middle of the pitch. Finally, we are limiting the number of touches which the opposition are having in our penalty area, I am putting this down to the effective block. Tactical Tweaks Believe it or not, I have ended up making a few tweaks to the tactic at this very early stage. Two of which have stemmed from overthinking, with no analysis of the match engine and the other one a little more informed. 1) Space - I have opted to swap my striker positions over, having the Advanced Forward play in front of the Wide Playmaker. My thoughts behind this are that doing so will help to provide the playmaker with a little more space to operate and hopefully become more effective. As you can see from the above, the DLP often comes deep into the space where the playmaker operates, whilst this can help with build up play it limits a vertical option for the playmaker. The Advanced Forward will most likely be our teams biggest goal threat, moving him in front of the playmaker will not only occupy defenders but provide the playmaker with an easier pass to him, providing a better supply line. 2) Shape - @Shrewnaldo will be pleased to see that I have also changed the midfield partnership from a Half Back to a Defensive Midfielder (currently on Defend) as our average position with the ball wasn't what I intended with the Half Back. This is due to the Half Back role which sees the player drop deeper than a standard defensive midfielder in possession, this caused us to not maintain that rectangle shape, forcing the defenders wider, which IMO is too risky if we lost possession from within the build up phase of play. In other news, Pau Torres commits his future to the club by signing a new five-year contract extension, the Spaniard will be paid an additional 1k per year, along with pocketing £2.2 million through a loyalty bonus. The contract includes a minimum fee release clause which sits at £84m, an increase of 55%. We have five fixtures still to play across August, like with previous threads I will look to provide monthly updates and try to capture my though processes on paper along the way,

@04texag @Deisler26I am not 100% sure if you have stumbled across any of my previous blogs? I created on called How to create a squad profile using Tableau, the method behind the madness in this piece can be followed to get you to grips with Tableau Happy for you to have a read and if you get stuck with anything, please feel free to drop me a DM on here or via Twitter @SteinkelssonFM Believe it or not mate, we are open 24/7 365! Good to have you on board.

Agree with you comments and thoughts behind the 4-3-3 as this too is a formation which I often find myself reverting back to. I do love the 4-3-3 but want to avoid it in this edition. Keen to see how your tactical tweaks impact performance both for and against as you progress through the periods. One question, do you have the personnel at your disposal to play each system, knowing that a quick google search can easily highlight the strengths and weaknesses. Nice to see Danjuma pick up the Golden Ball from a personal note.

Tableau So we are now only a few more days away from the full release. I can't wait to get stuck into this save, especially after reading so many quality threads both in here and over on Twitter. Given the amount of time I have had on my hands I thought I would carry out a bit of work on Tableau to help provide you guys with a brief overview of the type of players which I have available to my disposal at the club, based purely on their attribute profiles. This piece has been created using a visualisation which I found in FMStag's save with Védelem, it focuses on players 'Attacking Value' and 'Defensive Value' by comparing how both play off against each. Attacking Value = Dribbling, Finishing, First touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Flair, Off the Ball, Vision, Agility and Balance. Defensive Value = Heading, Marking, Tackling, Aggression, Anticipation, Bravery, Concentration, Positioning, Jumping and Strength. Analysis: 1. Pau Torres is the strongest defender in the squad 2. Arnaut Danjuma is the strongest attacker in the squad. He is below average for his defensive value, this may lead me to play him as the Advanced Forward, instead of the Inverted Winger due to my need for the role to have an impact without the ball. 3. Etienne Capoue - the fact that the 34 year old is the most rounded of all players within my squad could be the decisive factor on him getting the green light to play in the role of the Segundo Volante. 4. Kiko Femenia on paper is the player who offers the least when comparing the attribute values, a bit of a strange one considering he only recently joined the club from Watford (£850k). Of course all of the above won't necessarily lead to these individuals producing the good on the pitch, which is why I will use this visualisation as a refence point as we progress through the season to see if there is a correlation between attributes 'on paper' and impact on the pitch. I also carried out an analysis of the outfield squad's attributes, looking to find the average ratings for all players to see which attributes can be tagged as our DNA. You will be pleased to know that the highest averages fell under the following attributes. 1. Technical = First Touch (14), Passing (14) and, Technique (14) 2. Mental = Work rate (14) 3. Physical = Natural Fitness (14), Pace (14) and, Stamina (14) The above makes for great reading when considering out game model covered earlier, we clearly have the individuals who are comfortable on the ball. This paired what is often referred to on the rugby pitch as one of the non-negotiables (Work rate) and Natural Fitness and Stamina informs me that we have the ability to play for the 90 minutes. We are a fit side which will help us get up and down the pitch and hopefully be able to exploit opponents who fatigue quicker. There is no substitute for Pace, never has a truer word been said, I am a winger so not biased at all. If I look to place a greater emphasis on these core attributes when considering recruitment later in the save, this will again provide me with a benchmark. Another good reason for carrying out this type of analysis is that it can be used for helping to build a custom skin which can add more value to your save. If we know that for us 'Excellent' attributes are 14 then this can be altered within the 'Custom Skin Colour' to reflect. Dropping the threshold down from 16 to 15 makes it easier to see players with attributes above Villarreal's best. Our average attribute score across all averages was 12, therefore I have opted to set the good baseline to 12.

Not the ideal start but one which no doubt has you spending a little more time in the analysis screens than usual. With regards to the DM tweaks, was this simply 'take more risks'?

I have instructed both wide midfielders to mark the opponents DR/DL, this is something which I have experience using from FM21 with my save with Gornik Zabrze. I found that it helped with maintaining a compact 442 shape in defence. I think having a higher defensive line and mid block helps with these player instructions as I can imagine if we were looking to press with a higher line of engagement it could well lead to dog-legs within the initial block and make it easier to gain access to the back-line. If you would like to read over the theory @cocoadavid did a lovely post on it last year with A guide to defending like a real 442.

The xG Against taking a rapid spike as you progress through those initial fixtures. I know you have pinpointed 'mistakes' as the mean trigger point for those chances, has your GK been making great saves or is the finishing not been clinical from the opposition as from the data I would have predicted at least one defeat. I am also frustrated that the in game data doesn't cover progressive passes/pressures within the analytics screens as this is one area which I was really excited about. You did put a smile on my face with the mention of a 'Monchi' recruitment focus...where have you positioned the scouts for the initial phase? How are you finding this edition?

Training Drawing inspiration from the following video from Tifo Football and the article by Ridi Dauti which can be found on Spielverlagerung. I have adapted a training schedule using Tactical Periodisation. Tactical Periodisation is a football training methodology which since its creation is one of the modest widely used methodologies worldwide, I am sure most of the readers within the forum would have stumbled across this methodology before, if not I would suggest spending some time in the above links or watching this YouTube video which I made back in 2021. Each training week is built around a cycle which leads up to the game with the peak of physical activity occurring usually three days from match day. this schedule is built on components which stem from the below four moments of the game. Attacking Organisation: the moment where a team is in possession of the ball, and the opponent is in their organised defensive shape Defensive Transition: the moment where a team has just lost the ball and is not yet organized defensively. This moment lasts until the team becomes organized defensively. The counterattack is part of this moment, if the opponent takes advantage of the situation while the team is unbalanced. Defensive Organization: the moment where a team is not in possession but is in their organized defensive shape. This moment can start anywhere on the field and lasts until the team regains possession. Attacking Transition: the moment where a team has just regained possession and the opponent is not yet in their organized defensive shape. This moment lasts until the opponent becomes organized defensively. Not every attacking transition moment is a counterattack, but rather, the counterattack is part of this moment, a team can choose to explore this option or decide to take the ball out of pressure and start an organized attack. *Remember this schedule is built around your game model so in order to apply this in FM you will need to have a tactic and clear understanding of how you want your team to play in order to maximise its effect. I will now talk you through my implementation using the game model identified within the last blog. I will be creating two schedules, one for playing weaker sides and the other for playing stronger sides as the dynamics of these games will change significantly. The key sessions which I feel the training must include are as follows. In Possession 1. Play from the back - this session is focused on developing technical play from defensive areas. 2. Ball Distribution - specific work on distributing and keeping the ball effectively. 3. Possession - a session focused on ball possession. 4. Ball Retention All four of the above have a clear focus, keeping the ball, this is something which is a core pillar in my tactical philosophy so these are staple for both schedules. Here is where we switch things up. 4. Attacking Patient - a session dedicated to a patient attacking approach. This fits well with the 'Team Instruction' of 'Work Ball Into Box'. Against weaker sides we will likely be attacking against an organised defensive unit and therefore we must practice being patient, moving the ball around waiting for the right opportunity to play a smart pass which hopefully leads to a clear cut chance. Supporting this session is one on 'Chance Creation' However, against stronger sides this switches to... 5. Attacking Overlap - a session focused on attacking overlapping play in wide areas. Given the fact we will likely see less of the ball during these matches we want to focus on creating those overloads in wide areas to look to exploit the opposition. I was tempted to throw an 'Attacking Direct' in this slot but I felt it deviated too far away from our game model. This is supported with 'Chance Conversion' as we want to make sure we put away our chances, which are likely to be limited. In Transition 1. Transition Press - specific work on transitioning from defence to attacking through pressing the opponent. This will be the focus when playing weaker sides, as you can see from the 'Team Instructions' we have counter press selected so this is a close fit. We will be looking to be dominant in the transitional phase and look to win back possession quickly through pressing. However, against stronger sides this will switch to... 2. Transition Restrict - a session focusing on restricting the space in which the opposition can play. I want the team to limit the stronger sides ability to progress the ball, hopefully giving ourselves the time to get into the 442 defensive block, making us harder to break down. Out of Possession 1. Defending Engaged - one for the weaker side, the view is to engage the opponent when not in possession linking with the above view to press. We want to be more aggressive here without the ball. 2. Defending Disengaged - one for the stronger opponent, this session focuses on maintaining defensive shape out of possession. The view to make sure we are well drilled in our defensive block with correct positioning, anticipation and teamwork. Both schedules have duplicated session in a Friday, these may be removed to work on specifics which I identify from watching the games. For example we may need to work on the set piece therefore this can be added in.

Thanks for the link @Shrewnaldo I am keen to see how this plays out when I start the save. I too had reservations in relation to the wide midfield roles but opted on starting from wide rather than narrow as my initial thoughts were that it would be easier to get them to move from out to in rather than vice-versa. I also opted for the midfield strata over the AM one to make the transition into the 442 easier when without the ball. I don't think Senna did do this, watched a few games the other day but feel the need to offer a little more protection due to the match engine, again time will tell if my thoughts on paper are what is needed for the game itself.

Looking forward to this one mate, especially if you manage to get in a similar groove as last season with Bristol City.