Shrewnaldo

I guess the biggest problem is when Flora then splash the cash on foreigners. Although, given the earlier chat about national youth rating, maybe that would help everyone else get a boost? Not knowing Estonian leagues at all, why Narva?

What about taking over a club in a bigger league and forming a de facto affiliate scheme with Flora? That'd help develop some of your players quicker If not, then a new club would be interesting

Ah that'd make sense. Obviously with the focus on recruitment and the decision to abandon youth completely, I'd have got rid of the HOYD immediately. Already a double for Nunez on debut, albeit only against Forest in the Cup but he's immediately been listed as the squad's key player, which is always nice for a new signing

What I find most interesting about these are the repeated strong connections between centre backs and the CM(A)s. Is that primarily passing from your own half in terms of building out from the back? Or in the opposition's half once possession is being recycled and the centre backs acting as playmakers? I'm guessing from the way the connections look stronger in the graphics where your team is deeper, it's the former? Also, surprised by how wide the wingers appear to be from these graphics - now you've moved them to AML/R, do you not find they play narrower than ML/R?

I'm thinking primarily of trying to find an inside forward who has relatively high output in a poor side. So whilst he might not be scoring 1 in 3, he's clinical when presented with a chance (low xG per goal) and/or creates good chances for himself (high xG per shot). For the winger, I've been thinking about something similar but trying to work out how often he turns possession into a more dangerous sequence, either by making a key pass, completing a dribble or getting a shot away. If I could just get a "passes received per 90" metric to then create calculations for "dribbles per possession" or similar. Just some embryonic thoughts for now

I really like this hybrid-4-3-3ish shape. My major problem with it was when the opposition were established in the offensive phase and we had retreated into a defensive shape, that the AMs wouldn't protect the edge of the box well at all. If the DM got pulled wide, and with the IWBs obviously playing in their defensive wide positions, then we just ended up getting exposed to shots from the edge of the area over and over again. Have you have any issues with this is you've used "the conductor" against stronger sides?

Thanks! Really glad to hear you enjoyed it. Sorry about Tinion though. If I remember correctly, he was the assistant at the start of the game? His attributes must just have been too poor for me to keep him on. I just had a look and he's available to bring back as a Chief Scout. Maybe I need to do this to appease the fandom...

December 2027 I wanted a new tactical system to introduce some change to the squad, make the game a bit more interesting. But I didn't want to completely abandon the successes of the diamond. The squad had been moulded to suit it and, whilst the new system should require a bit of recruitment to freshen up the side, I didn't want to impose a huge turnover of personnel. Picking out what I really liked about the diamond, it was obvious that Le Fée had to stay at regista. I just love the way he's been controlling games from deep yet still able to offer a decisive, creative output. I'd been screening him with a pair of BWM(D)s - a role that I hadn't really used much in previous versions of FM but which I now really like. But goalscoring has been our main issue and keeping two ball-winners in the middle is probably unnecessary. A combination of having better defenders and teams playing less offensively against us means we should manage with just a single ball-winner in the middle. Meanwhile, Alex Scott had developed into a really good scoring midfielder playing from the 10 slot, primarily as a AM(A). But knowing that I wanted to play with a regista, it's not really possible to also use a 10 outside of the diamond shape we were leaving behind, or a strikerless system that I wasn't keen on. Primarily because Tyrese Campbell had excelled over the last two seasons as a poacher, bagging 40 goals last campaign. The midfield runner, therefore, would shift to CM(A) alongside the ballwinner and push us towards a classic 4-3-3 shape. An inside forward on the ball-winner's side and a winger on the CM(A)'s side should provide variations in the attack without cramping each other's space. The instructions - going with an attacking mentality tempered with some conservative TIs such as lower tempo and work into box - is simply my attempt to find the best balance in what I find to be an un-necessarily restrictive tactics engine. With the introduction of wide players, some shopping was in order. This suited me fine as I'd become frustrated with the lack of consistency in my attacking options - perhaps excepting Tyrese. Whilst there were no offers for Nick Batzner or Joe Gelhardt, out went Erik Shuranov and Abdulkadir Omur, along with surplus ball-winners Tom Davies, Denis Zakaria and Kristijan Jakic. The run to the Europa League final last season was a lot of fun, but it did directly cause our slump in league form - to the extent that we failed to qualify for continental competition this year. All of which meant we now had over £100m in the transfer kitty and, because we can afford another season with a small squad, only a few positions that needed filled. The flanks were obvious positions to strengthen but I wasn't entirely sure what a "good" metric would be for either position - without previous seasons' stats of my own players to compare against, I'd simply be going with "higher is better". So my initial move was to take newgen wonderkid Pedro Cabezas on loan from Man Utd, figuring we'd play it out with borrowed players then target permanent signings against that baseline. But then two players that I'd targeted for other roles became available at reasonable prices and I decided to take the gamble. I'd liked the look of Haissem Hassan when he was at Villarreal, impressed by his goal-scoring output and dribbling capability in a good league. He was earmarked as a potential replacement for Reiss Nelson as a midfield runner before I moved to two up front and Hassan instead moved to Porto. He's again impressed in Portugal, this time a creator more than a goalscorer - behind only PSG's Mikkel Damsgaard and Chelsea's Yusuf Demir for assists/90 in the major European leagues. This combination of scoring and creativity had me sold and for £16.5m, he's my left-wing option. On the other flank, there's Kelvin Yeboah. I'd tried to sign the Italian-Ghanaian at the end of the 2022/23 season after two impressive campaigns with Sturm Graz. Sadly, he chose Liverpool instead - a move which, all too predictably, saw him sit in the reserves then head to Stuttgart on loan. That was followed by a successful four-year spell at Gladbach where, playing on the flank, he's notched an impressive enough 1-in-3. What sold me, though, was the combination of speed, movement and traits - ideally suited to the narrow inside forward that I want on the right flank. With the key positions filled, we were left with two 'nice to have' bits of shopping - a first-choice 'keeper and a creative full-back. In goal, Andreas Linde has been consistently excellent. He is, however, 34 and unrated by my coaching staff / the game. Whilst I figured that a top-class option would be worth a £40-50m outlay, I just couldn't find anyone who betters the Swedes elite attributes for Aerial Reach, One-on-ones, Reflexes and Positioning. So I decided to park that idea, extend Linde's contract and keep scouting for an elite newgen goalie. At full-back our first choice options have been Omar Richards and Ethan Laird, signed for £2.4m from Ajax and £4.4m from Man Utd respectively. Laird has proven to be the more consistent attacking threat - regularly topping the dribbles/game league charts and producing over 0.6 chances per 90. Richards, though, has lagged a little behind his compatriot, typically creating about half Laird's output and, being three years older, was a more obvious candidate for replacement. So when Luke Thomas, formerly of Leicester but having moved to Man City in 2025, was transfer-listed it was a simple decision to throw £30m at a genuine upgrade. All of which leaves our strongest XI looking something like this: It will require a bit of revision to the recruitment strategy and a new look at what 'good' means, particularly for the wide players and the midfield runner. My initial thoughts are that I'm essentially looking for both the inside forward and CM(A) to score at least 1 in 3, with the 9 scoring at least 1 in 2; whilst the regista, the winger and the wingbacks should be assisting, or at least creating chances, at least 1 in 3. There will be more detailed stats behind each profile but those are the headline figures that I'm looking for to improve our offensive output. So far, things have been going well - we've the best defence in the league so far but still lagging the big teams in terms of goalscoring. We've already made moves, largely driven by the incessant nagging of my son Shrewnaldinho, to strenghten in January with Benfica's Darwin Nunez arriving for £32.5m. We're just that tiny little bit behind the big teams and a final push to get through the glass ceiling and into the Champions League will boost our rep and allow us to pick up the final bits of quality we need to regularly compete. Hopefully.