mclarke1987 Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I've read alot about FM Challenges and been taking part (eccentrically) in the Dafuge challenge, to which Hastings just won the Premier league. Although im continuing with it I need a break from Hastings. I want to develop a tactic that is suitable for any team and I enjoy the challenge concept as it gives me motivation to continue. I looked everywhere and the one considered the hardest is the Pentagon Challenge. So the target Start Unemployed, Sunday league rep. Win all 5 of the continental Champions Leagues. Additional Rules I wont be doing the home-grown rule Sustainable Management - Stay within budget, make transfer profit each year (or 0/0 no loss) APLA - No English players. First Come/First Serve - Whichever club I get in a nation will be the one I win the champions league with, so 5 clubs throughout the career for 5 league cups. Additional Target I will be creating 2 tactics from scratch which will be the 'Icepack', designed around a solid defence (underdog) and balanced offence (close/fav). I don't expect it to form instantly but I'll be using the challenge to perfect and test it in various environments. If I succeed in developing a great tactic it will be released to the public. After each season there will be a sub-section on my notes to show the changes made to the tactic Leagues - Starting June 2012 (2star game speed) AFRICA: South Africa ASIA: China, Australia, South Korea EUROPE: Iceland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden NORTH AMERICA: Mexico, USA SOUTH AMERICA: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay Updates will come sparingly as this is a heavily tactic creation orientated project I'll be watching comprehensive highlights of all the games in a fairly slow state so I can see exactly what breaks up play or creates it. Upfront I will state that completion (if attained) will not be for a v.long time and many will be playing the next FM when I do finish, but I'll keep things updated along the way. The save will be made available at the end of each Champions League win, I'll be using auto save every 3months, although I'll probably have 5-6 saves a year given the time it will take with extended viewing. First Club - Chungju Hummel in the Korean N League media prediction 7th. Lovely contract lasting... until December 2012 (6 months ) Manager - Michael Clarke (info) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 About the tactic Since my challenge is mostly about developing a tactic suitable to any team in any country I figured I should probably explain it. The formation itself is 4-1-3-1-1 See it here (linked as picture to avoid scrollbars) The goal of the tactic is a solid defense, control the midfield and still have offensive channels. So not aiming for the one more than you approach but the cleansheets. Defense I use a flat 4 on the defense as all the downloadable tactic's I've used benefit from this, the DL/DR are both acting as Wingbacks and will make runs up the side to off-load the ball into midfield or down the right wing - as well as the standard stat's good pace/acceleration and passing would be beneficial for these. We have an anchoman in there to help progress the ball from defense into midfield as well as help intercepting during attacking movement. Standard DM stat's will do fine for this player but I'd recommend getting a solid DM and not just finding a subby MC and dropping him back, fluent in the position will be pivotal to good transitions between attack/defence. Midfield This is where I got a little creative, I've put 3 midfielders in play along with a winger. Now the winger can go either on the right or the left just switch his position, however make sure you switch the MCR/MCL around as well. The idea is that the MCL will move from defense up towards the left wing to create opportunities, whereas the Winger is already out on the wing ready to receive the ball and cross it into the box or try to run through the defense. I find it doesn't matter how solid your defense is if you only have a small % of possession so the idea here is to have enough strength in the middle of the field with the DM and Winger able to help out. Standard stats for players, I'd recommend focusing on dribbling for the MCL and AMR as you want them to try and dribble the ball before making a run to the box or crossing as this allows time for other players to move into attacking positions. Striker A nice T in the box, will get involved in all aspects of the offense and midfield play. I was initially planning to use a TM (which the tactic is set to use) but I want him more involved in the transition and trying to cut out any counter's that may occur. Not to mention holding up for more offense to arrive. He basically has to be a good all-rounder. I haven't used a T before so this may eventually changed. Round-up This is version 0.1, it hasn't been used in anything formal before just something I've messed with on other saves. I want it to take the next step though and use it as my main strategy. I'm basically looking for solid defense, control of possession, good break-aways but also the ability to control the offense against a weaker opponent whilst providing support against a counter. So quite a bit to hope for from one tactic. Over the many season's ahead it will be refined, players may be moved etc. I don't expect it to instantly work and judging by my initial team I'll need to use the transfer window next season to bring in suitable players. However, I can still use the weaker players to find drastic holes in the meantime. First game lost 1-0, they had 1 shot the entire game whilst guarded by 3 defenders We had 10shots, most from the edge of box being saved by keeper - 421passes with 82% completion. - Although this team's defense is horrendous (Assistant evaluations them as half a star ) not too bad of a result for 1st game with no practice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 23, 2013 Author Share Posted May 23, 2013 Michael Clarke - Year 1Chungju Hummel League Table | Fixtures| Transfers | Finances Well I didn't get long with the squad but I did achieve our goals and get a new contract. We exited the play-offs in an ugly fashion though. When I took over the squad had a weak defense and weak GK. I have an "ok" keeper and decent DC's but DL/DR and DMC need work. One advantage in this league over the English leagues is no squad registration so my free transfers are welcome any time. I adjusted my transfer budget to accommodate a little more wages which allowed me to fix the defence a bit but more work needs to be done, when I came in this squad was useless. Unfortunately I didn't get time to fix it before the first match. 11won, 8drawn, 7losses for the season as a whole with +11 goal difference. I'm responsible for 6wins, 5draws, 3losses we conceded 9goals, scored 14. So pretty on par with where this squad would of been headed. I'm confident with a signing or 4 though that it will be capable of much more. I am playing the version of my tactic with the AML since I don't have an AMR on the roster. Approximately the beginning of august I started adding individual player instructions to the midfield and offence. I'll be taking care of defense/gk instructions during the off-season for v0.2 of the tactic. Based on the parts of it I've seen we do well against counter attacks we've been caught out once or twice with long balls and lack of pace on the wingbacks means they aren't getting back in time, but with the players being switched out they'll be fixed. Our defense has been ok since the new players got brought in but could use some extra instructions as they struggle to hold possession, they are playing to many long balls to the opposition. Player instructions to come to resolve that. Attack wise i'm slightly disappointed, not with the tactic though with the players. We've been creating alot of opportunities, working the ball past defence, passing into space during counter attacks and doing great. Unfortunately my striker and AML and AP can't hit the target to save there lives and that's when they aren't under pressure from defense and are shooting from 5feet on an open goal! So next step, bring in some new players to help bolster the defense, maybe a new striker and AMR/AML if I can find them affordable on the market. Add player instructions for defense & gk to resolve the flaws in that part of the tactic. Then run through the season. Goal has to be to gain promotion through the play-offs but I'll settle for a top3 spot in the league since play-offs tend to be "hit & miss" regardless of how well the team does. Tactic Stats Goals/Shot Attempts - 16/123 Shots on Target - 54 Passes Complete/Attempted - 5223/6838 Tackles Won/Attempted - 579/704 Crosses Succeeded - 36/316 (mostly defensive wingbacks) Mistakes leading to goals/mistakes - 4/333 (concerning number of mistakes but not fluid with tactic so ignoring until next season). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 23, 2013 Author Share Posted May 23, 2013 After a bad start to the new season, 5games 1pt (conceded 11goals) I made some tweaks to the tactic, mostly to do with the wingbacks distribution of the ball. Also switched from Control mentality to Standard, the result phenomenal. 10games, 8wins, 2draws - scored 24 conceded 7. This includes a 3-1 win in the Korean FA Cup against a team currently 2nd in the division above us! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Michael Clarke - Year 2Chungju Hummel League Table | Fixtures 1 & Fixtures 2| Transfers | Finances Well we started of badly, I made a big mistake on the wingbacks distribution of the ball and we paid the price, 5games we drew 1 lost 4. I took the time to redo there instructions completely and make some minor adjustments to the DMC. Since then a huge improvement. I won't "exclude" the first 5 from the tactic stats but for the purposes on discussing the tactic as it stands I will. What has the new tactic accomplished.... a 10match unbeaten run, a 5match unbeaten run, another 10match unbeaten run lol Infact, 1 league loss since the changes were made, against the team who won the league. If we include the non-league competitions since the new changes I have scored 48 and conceded 19, if we just look at the league its 36 scored and 10 conceded. We finished 3rd in the league (despite a 5game no win start to the season) we wen't out in the play-offs in an ugly fashion conceding 2penalties! Finances, I spent £500 of my wage budget (£18.43k), more than compensated for by the wages saved. I removed more players than I brought in and some of the old squad members were moved to the reserves, I had 16players in my senior squad. So far I'm extremely pleased with the tactic, there's a concern regarding crossing but the highest crossing stat in the team is 10 so mistakes to be expected I guess. I'm looking to bring in 6-7players next season and will be renewing 9 of my existing senior team contracts (if they let me). I'm hoping we can take 1st in the league to avoid the play-offs. My big goal though, is to conceed less than 10goals in league games next season. Tactic Stats Goals/Shot Attempts - 50/308 Shots on Target - 138 Passes Complete/Attempted - 9783/13212 Tackles Won/Attempted - 1070/1345 Crosses Succeeded - 109/718 (still concerning me) Mistakes leading to goals/mistakes - 10/581 (50% of goals conceded from mistakes) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccer.joel Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Hummel, I managed that team in my failed FM10 pentagon attempt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Oh snap I made a mistake, despite going out in the play-offs not knowing the Korean system I didn't realize we still had a shot at promotion. We had a 2 leg K-League Relegation play-off against Goyang Kookmin Bank, we drew the first leg 1-1 away, then won the second leg 3-2 at home. So promoted into the K-League! New goal for next season, strengthen the squad strive to stay clear of relegation & mid-table position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclarke1987 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Michael Clarke - Year 3Chungju Hummel League Table | Fixtures 1 & Fixtures 2| Transfers | Finances Went quicker on this season than I had planned but mostly because I knew the squad had issues and it wasn't really as much about checking tactical faults as I had originally planned. According to the team comparison for every GK stat were bottom 3 in the division, also for every defensive & midfield stat. Our only saving grace is our offensive stat which is approximately 8th. So by this logic we should get relegated, we should get hammered almost every game and have no hope of survival. I'll start by explaining how the league works as it is odd, and people reading may not have played on this style before. Basically you play each team twice, totalling 30games. Then the division is split into 2 groups, the top 8 being Group A and the bottom 8 being Group B. From this point the best Group B can hope for is avoiding relegation. Each of the groups will play each team in there group twice (14games). After this the teams in Group A go through a play-off process to declare the winner. Group B has the bottom 2 team's relegation to the N league, and the third from bottom (14th overall) goes into a play-off with a N-League team, if they win they stay in the division, if they lose they get relegated. I achieved 11th place which put me in Group B after 30games. At this point my goal was simple, 20pts from the 14games (we got 24) to give us a decent finishing position in the league & escape from relegation (we finished 11th!). Finances I did well, Kept £17.48k in my transfer budget and stayed £1.5k under the wage budget. Overall comments, well we had several issues. Obviously we had a weak team as is the case when a team gets promoted into a new division. However, there was a lack of depth. Most of the season I had to use a MC in my AML and DM position due to injuries. The team was quite injury prone which caused issues for us as a whole but generally speaking I think as a new team to the division we did well. Next season we need to strengthen the squad and add a bit of depth but finances will limit us. My goal is to solidfy our place in the league and achieve a Group A position. I don't really care if that means sitting in 8th then getting hammered by 7 teams for 14games, I just seems like the next logical target. I also want a positive GD as this season's was a little disappointing (although -1 wasn't bad). I have faith in the tactic though so will not be looking to tinker next season. It did well when we were a "decent" team, then kept us afloat when we were a heavy underdog. Tactic Stats Goals/Shot Attempts - 57/401 Shots on Target - 148 Passes Complete/Attempted - 13301/17964 Tackles Won/Attempted - 1574/1953 Crosses Succeeded - 96/1059 (Need to find a good winger & good crossing MC) Mistakes leading to goals/mistakes - 18/805 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duffy89 Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Hey mclarke1987, got a couple of questions for you mate: I've just completed ri916's youth challenge in Italy and am thinking about what to do next. Would I be able to take part in this challenge using my current save and loading up the nations needed? The only problem would be that I didn't start unemployed. I was a Sunday League rep manager but as part of ri916's challenge I took over a newly promoted team. Would that be an issue? Also, with my high rep I guess I could get most jobs in the world which would make the challenge a bit easier, but then I gues I have earned it from 20 seasons in the youth challenge! Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccer.joel Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Hey mclarke1987, got a couple of questions for you mate:I've just completed ri916's youth challenge in Italy and am thinking about what to do next. Would I be able to take part in this challenge using my current save and loading up the nations needed? The only problem would be that I didn't start unemployed. I was a Sunday League rep manager but as part of ri916's challenge I took over a newly promoted team. Would that be an issue? Also, with my high rep I guess I could get most jobs in the world which would make the challenge a bit easier, but then I gues I have earned it from 20 seasons in the youth challenge! Cheers If your using the same manager it probably would be against the rules. If you create a new manager it should be fine though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestroik Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Hmm, the K-League sounds similar to the Belgian Jupiler League. Perhaps in my current save in the Uzbek League if I still don't crack the Asian Champions League, I'll make my way there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tactically_inept Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Good luck !!! ... I've seen videos on youtube about the pentagon challenge I do not think many people have completed it, It is a very big ask :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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