Justified

Like I mentioned earlier, you know your team better then me. If Fayet is playing every match, and performing well, he might inevitably ask for a higher status in future anyways. Nothing wrong with players being in lower Playing Time groups as long as you're aware if they perform well and playing regularly they'll see no reason not to ask for a new contract. With Rocha it does sound like you need a plan in place there. Is he good enough for a first team spot? If not, 300k for a rotation fullback is steep, If anyone comes in for him I would consider bids and look into getting someone who is more suited to a rotation role on the appropriate wage. If you're heavily in debt you could always tweak the structure. Lower the wage budget on the spreadsheet to 4.5m and see where you land. That way you're way under and not crippling the club. The youth group wages you can get from the finances screen on the wage tab. If you scroll down you'll see what you're spending per player type.

Let me give an example. So if I start up a new game with Aston Villa for example, this is what is set : Disclaimer - Moreno was set as a key player and Douglas Luiz was a regular starter however I've already "demoted" them to squad players as they wouldn't start in a 4231 which would suit with Coutinho operating behind Watkins. So the good thing here is all 3 categories are green and also we're 113k under our youth budget which is positive so there is wiggle room for the season however moving forward there are a few things to be addressed here moving forward - Martinez - I'm not a huge fan of having Goalkeepers as Star Players and tbh Martinez is not far off the max wage for a regular starter so I would probably check and see if he would agree to step down. Most of the time goalkeepers do seem receptive to moving from Star to Regular Goalkeepers so I would suggest doing it as it would then mean any contract talks going forward they're not requesting Star Player wages. Coutinho Conundrum - He's not getting younger and although technically gifted, he lacks mentality and pace. Here I would probably weigh towards looking to sell if anyone would take him and then reinvest in the team. Digne Star? - In this team, is Digne a key player? I'd argue yes as he is a good Left Back for this league and he also has a good free kick so he does offer a bit in this Villa team so there is a case to push up to Key and if Martinez is moving down anyways then that's a bit a of swap. Carlos injured - As you can see there are 8 regular starters in there but Carlos is out for pretty much the whole season so for now this stays but in the summer we'll have to make a decision on what to do with the centrebacks. As neither Konsa or Mings earn too much over the 64k mark for a squad player one could easily go down one box. Dendoncker - Is he worth those wages within this structure? Hell no. He'd definitely be on my list to go as I could easily find someone equally as good for less wages. Forever Young - This is an interesting one. Is Young going to be a starter? No he's on the decline. However there will come times where you have senior pros who are great mentors for youngsters and they earn more because they used to be a key player for you. This is ok as long as overall you are under your budget because the gains from having such a pro mentoring and shaping your youngsters is invaluable and I will always stretch it a bit to fit this in. Obviously if you can get them to have lower wages then the better. And tbh in this example it's not like we're breaking the bank to have a player like Young in the team. He could easily mentor Ramsey and Duran in this team with his Professional personality and once the season is over he will ride off into the sunset (unless you decide it's worth to keep around for another year). Hopefully that gives a bit of insight about how I think in regards to wage structures. The key thing is being green for the three player types (4 including youth budget) and if one of those is red then you know you have to do some changes. In an ideal world you would want green across the board but you can always make exceptions if you feel it's the right thing to do (and you have the budget).

Looks like you're under your wage budget, which is always good @PandaIsland. I don't know your team at all but a few things stand out to me. Firstly you have, according to the sheet, 13 players you consider regular starters. Might need some tweaking there in the post-season. Really identifying who are your key players and who are you regular starters and move from there. Is there any scope for any of them to move from one category to another? In the squad player bracket you have Rocha and Jordi who are on quite high wages for that particular group. Do you need them? Or is there any in the regular group that could step down as squad players and fit into the 159k budget? Only you know your squad but I'd say if you have any squad players that are on 200k+ then I'd start making a plan of how are you going to address this? Move on and get some young squad players who can then start moving up as the grow their ability? I noticed you didn't update the youth sections so hard to say if you have scope to get some younger players in on prospect contracts. Hopefully that all makes sense?

Hi All, I just wanted to share a recent Wage Structure Excel I created for those that are interested. As you can see I've populated with Liverpool players and budget as an example. The yellow boxes is what I populate first (just copy what FM says for total wage budget allowed and then the youth categories I just copy what we are spending on those player types) and after that I input the players and their current wages which will then give me an overview of our wage structure at the club. Don't worry, I've locked boxes you can't edit so you shouldn't be able to "ruin" any of the formulas in the sheet. All the values are based on that you have 4 Key/Important players, 7 regular starters and 10 squad players. I've left a few blanks here and there if you want to move players around at your own leisure but the Max Wage values are based on those numbers. On the top right you'll see how much your Youth Budget is (10% of allowed wage budget) and what you're currently spending according to the values you put in. On the far left you have your current spending for each player type category, which will flag red if you're overspending according to the calculations. Each category is given 30% (as you can see at the top where it says Max Wage Per Player Type) After each player wage you'll get a recommended max wage per player in that type. Hence why Salah, Alisson and Henderson are flagging red as they are currently above that value. However the group as a whole is green so you might want to consider that element as well. The grey categories after that are a bit extra for those that REALLY want to micromanage and have a play as you pay wage structure system. As you can see, there is a suggested max wage, max app fee and also a max bonus (clean sheet, goals, assists) suggestion for the player type in those categories. I just added as a bit of fun to see what that looks like and I usually just play the game using the Max Wage rather then pay as you play. Hopefully you all find it useful Happy to answer any questions anyone has. Wage Structure.xlsx

Have you tried IFat on the left and IWsu on the right? Seems the most logical change regarding roles.

Key thing to remember when using playmakers, Engange's and Treq's is you need to centralize you thinking around him and create as much movement as possible. I'd be tempted to try a few things to see what gets the best out of him. Johnny's suggestion of swapping the MC's is good. I'd probably try a DMCde and the FB on attack. Reason is you get the FB up to occupy space the IF leaves and the DMCde would help secure defensively. Hopefully this means when your Treq is on the ball he has a runner outside him (WBsu), a striker dropping deep, the Mez making channel runs, a winger running into the space the striker leaves and the FB as a slightly wider option. That should give him loads of options to chose from.

Personally I'd prefer if SI just concentrated on polishing the game rather then introducing something new. I get some players might get annoyed by this if there was nothing new however the core is there, just need some dedicated time to get things better. The biggest for me is AI team building. This seems to have got worse throughout the series and is very apparent in this years game. It starts off competitive but due to the AI's inability to build a team, you have a huge advantage over the game. As they favour the older players as well you can pick up youngsters pretty easy from them as well as they want to play. Other things that need a polish, or even re-vamp, are Set-Pieces and International Management. This has been mentioned for quite some time and get's overlooked.

Maybe it should tie into how the board review your performance. If the club decide to have a DoF and you don't follow his advice on signings and you underperform then the likeliness of them sacking you would be higher. Likewise if you follow some or all of his advice and you underperform then they'll be more lenient.

Some of these principles can be applied to the 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 as well. I'm not a huge two banks of four person however sometimes you end up at a club who can't facilitate playing a 4-3-3. If I do end up going that route I do play it as a 4-3-3 within the 4-4-2. One of the fullbacks would be attacking to get the width, the 2 MC's + one of the wide players would be my 3 i midfield. The other wideman would be my attacker. The make-up of the 2 up front can vary in terms of what you have but usually one is attacking the opposite side to the wide-man bombing into and the other player up front or in the AM strata would be supporting pulling it all together. Vice versa you could have the AM attacking and the lone striker up front is supporting. The makeup of your midfield would have to be suited to what you do up front but the possibilities are indeed endless to fit your team.

Actually, it's suggestion isn't half bad. Potentially I would swap the strikers around as a IWsu moving in behind a poacher and the winger on attack crossing into the far post for the poacher to latch onto could work quite well.

He's not going to last very long on the pitch with that Stamina. Impact player I'd say. If your TM isn't having a good game it could be good to throw Messi on with 20-30 mins remaining up front.

First I'd go up to Positive to make my play more direct and enable my players to take more risks. Next I'd move the DLPsu down to the DMC spot and change the MC role to B2B. This is so I get an additional runner moving forward. I'd change the CMat to MEZat and change the FBsu on the same side to FBat to create an overload on the flank. This an all out attack on my behalf and I only do this if desperately chasing. If you just want to be more adventurous I'd do the same apart from the DLPsu to DMC spot shift. I would simply just change the DMCd to DMCsu so he gets more involved in the build up. The DMC will push up into midfield and create a sort of double pivot but also be more expansive in his passing. This is due to DMC's on defend duties + PooD meaning he helps play the ball out of defence. On support he'll be more direct in his passing.

Let me open a thread in the training and tactics forum this evening. I don't want to derail Ben's excellent thread. I have changed a few things from the above as I was playing through the season so I will post my findings there as well.

Ish. From memory I actually play even more simplistic since then. Still use a split press but TI's are only PooD, Higher Tempo, Distribute to the Defence, Counter-Press and a high block.

Don't want to hijack the thread at all but just on the subject again about the Tactical Periodisation, I think I've settled on something I like. Just want a bit of opinion as it's modelled on yours Ben but I like where I've landed. It's all based on my preferred way of playing with Sub and Sub Sub exercises. For transparency, in possession I play out of defence and have a higher tempo. In transition I counter-press and distribute to the backline and I have a high block out of defence. So if we work from the Match Day, we have a complete rest the day after. The day after that is active recovery and I keep Play out from the back every week because regardless of how we set up, we always transition to attack in that way from the goalkeeper. I might not always have PooD selected however we always distribute to the defence. Team Bonding I kept there as well as I like it as a sort of Mental Fatigue restorer. After that we start our countdown to the match. Tuesday (or MD-4 as it's called) we have Resistance and Defending Engaged training as Sub principle and the Transition - Press is the sub-sub principal of this day. Theoretically if I am setting up more cautious tactic (drop counter-press) I will change it to Defending Disengaged. The reason why I'd keep Transition-Press is because I play with a split press in a 4-3-3 so the point of that is the forward line press so the rest of the team find position. On Wednesday I've kept the same as Ben has but swapped in Attacking as my philosophy is to score goals. I think that slot can be anything you want to focus on depending on what your tactic is lacking or if you think you need to focus on something specific for the next game. Thursday we start tailing off, I have Tactical training and Attacking Direct as Sub principles here as this day is about mental and movement speed. So things like Off the Ball, Decisions and Anticipation are highly rated here. Attacking direct as this is a unit exercise and that unit is always looking forwards. Chance Creation is my sub-sub here because we're pressing high up so when we win the ball we need to be able to create those chances. If, for example, I played more direct I'd definitely swap this out for Ball Distribution because we need to be more precise with longer passes. Friday is the activation day so only focus on the next match. I really like Teamwork as a match prep when a high pressing side. Set Pieces could go in here as well depending on situation. Let me know what you think. I'm happy with how it works and is very tweakable to the style you wish to implement in the match ahead. I've even managed to create a Week 1 pre-season version of this as well which the team enjoyed.

I'd also add you need a role who stays wider in the build up for that to work well. If you have a IF you'll probably get a congested channel.

True but I would say that the "Rest Day" within Tactical Periodisation has been described as both physical and mental rest and I can't see Match Review fitting in with that. However, it could fit in with the "Recovery Day" theoretically.

From what I've read, and it could be wrong of course, the allocated "rest day" after a match after a whole weeks training is the whole squad. However this doesn't apply to double match weeks where the "Recovery Day" is applied. They're two different things as I've understood as Recovery Day is when the players who didn't play train at full intensity. Happy to be corrected on this as I'm only just learning more about it.

Question, apart from potentially Pre-Season, do you feel "Match Review" is in keeping with Tactical Periodisation? I feel that with everything I've read it'd be a no-no however it depends if you're "playing the game" or sticking to the principal. From what I've read, the game is gone so focus should be back to training ground not on what's happened previous. Pre-Season I'd understand because you're working towards tactical understanding and "Match Review" would be a part of that so players can analyze performance and get better.

I started to dig into Tactical Periodisation after seeing Ben using it and came across an interesting piece around how it adapts around 2 game weeks. There seems to be a higher intensity on the recovery day in the midweek (I'm assuming this is so players who didn't play the match or played very little have high intensity training whilst the others recover) and then there seems to be a favorability around having the "Speed" day which is around not only physical speed but mental speed ie decision making.

I pretty much play the same way and always have in FM. I prefer having "my style" as I know how to tweak and adapt around it. I always have a higher tempo then default as I like to move the ball around quickly. Around that it depends on my team and the opposition. If I'm a good team and expect to dominate possession I will play with a Balanced mentality, push up (High LOE and DL) and have Counter Press + PooD. If I need to tone a bit because of my team or opposition I will remove the higher lines, PooD, Counter Press and tick counter. This means I sit deeper and don't press as high and play more direct. If I am expected to be dominated against I will go Cautious and add a more direct passing style. This means I sit lower still, more risk adverse, more compact and play even more direct. Yes I don't have a lot of instructions selected however I can't detail every move I make because there are so many variables but the above is the jist anyways.

I feel that you @goalash are overcomplicating things. The best way to find out what it looks like is playing the matches, not trying to figure out where the D-line is on different mentalities on that tactics screen. Even if they visually look the same on the tactics screen, that doesn't mean that's where they line up in game.

Are you essentially good enough to play the way you do in the Prem? In your first tactic you're throwing your team forward and asking them to play adventurously. Might end up being some entertaining games but tbh the opposition could literally just sit back and hit you on the break constantly as you leave the centre and the flanks exposed. The 2nd tactic I think you'll get stretched vertically too much. High press and counter press with a standard D-line means your front five could be quite disjointed in transition. In terms of player roles. Your right flank is exposed due to the CMat and WBat. The left isn't so bad actually although an IFat and AFat will run into the same spaces and in your system, they will mostly just run into a wall due to pressing and playing high up the pitch. Either have a support role striker or an IFsu and you could see quite a difference. Only time I would consider an IFat and AFat is in a direct counter system where you do want to exploit space behind an opponent.

I think this is a very good point and not very often highlighted. I never play with more then 6-7 TI's, sometimes I only have 4-5 selected and I find that the best way to play the game. I can see when someone has like 10-15 selected why they could potentially work but you need to know what you're doing to get it right. Usually in those circumstances, when it goes wrong it goes terribly wrong and you end up trying to plug holes in a sinking ship.

Great updates Ben. I've had to play a bit of catch up but have gone through it all now. On the subject of the "in possession" instructions you discussed earlier. Have you tried standard passing but with Counter ticked? Might be worth trying in pre-season to see if you like it. I've always found higher tempo and direct passing on balanced mentality a bit too long for my liking. I don't mind it on Cautious mentality so much as players are bit more risk adverse anyways but balanced seems to be a bit to long for my liking.