I want to be like Mourinho...

[lilljons]

Normally my ideological preference is the ajax football, but lately i've been appreciating the football of Mourinho(and Simeone in Atletico) as well. The tight at the back and deadly transitions!

So now i've started a save with Basel, they got a solid team based on what i wanna implement.

They got no fuss central defenders in Ivanov and Schär. They have defensively sound fullbacks who can contribute to the attack as supporters. The central midfielders are hard workers who can tackle and still pass the ball. On the wingers we (still) got Salah who's fast and unpredictable, we also have Stocker who lacks a bit of speed but compensate that with work rate and other all-round skills. On top we have the old reliable Streller, tall and strong and knows where the goal is. We have fast Giovanni Sio who's got pace and a good amount of work rate.

With these players available to me i've chosen to go with a Simeone-esque 4-4-2 instead of the typical Mourinho choices 4-5-1(4-3-3) and 4-2-3-1. My plan is to train all of these.

The TI's i've gone with are:

Go route one (Love this one, often catch the opposition off-guard with the fast transitions this one creates)

Pass into space

Play out of defence(I don't want my defenders to hoof it mindlessly)

Run at defense(For those times when the opposition are happy to sit back)

Drill crosses(Due to the wingers in fm14 all too often dribble down to the byline only to let the defenders catch and result in a blocked cross)

Drop deeper

Get stuck in

Be more disciplined

I use balanced/rigid philosophy with a counter/defensive mentality. I've read in CCC for fast transition a more attacking menaltity is preferred and i agree with that, but in this case this seems to work good.

My roles for this 4-4-2 are:

GK:d (Distribute to defenders)

FB:s x 2 (Mark tighter, tackle harder)

CD:d x 2 (Mark tighter, tackle harder)

MCl: DLP d (Mark tighter, tackle harder)

MCr: DLP s (Mark tighter, tackle harder)

ML: Wide midfielder s (Sit narrower, Get further forward, cuts inside with the ball)

MR: Wide midfield a (as above)

STcl/AMcl: F9, AF, AM a or SS a (Move into channels) Role is dependant in wether i play a striker or midfielder.

STr: Def. forward s (move into channels, dribble more)

The above is heavy based on Jamieadams3 thoughts in http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/377131-An-Exploration-Into-Diego-Simeone-s-Counter-Attacking-442, thx

In this next part I'm gonna discuss the different roles according to my and Mourinhos philosophy :

GK (Chech): Not much to discuss. I want a good shoot stopper due to the opposition is mainly restricted to chances outside the box.

FB (Ivanovic): Here i primarily want fb's able to handle their defensive duties. Primary stats:

CD (Pepe, Terry): They don't need to be fast, but if the are that's good. I want defenders with good positioning, marking, tackling and i value high concentration due to we are going to defend a lot.

MC (ramires, alonso, khedira and Lampard): They should be able to defend and win the ball but also be a threat offensively.

MR/ML(Hazard, Willian, Ronaldo, Di Maria etc): This guys should be fast and always threaten on the counter. These guys should be able to do their man or hit decisive passes. So these guys doesn't have to be as disciplined defensively as the other guys. But at the same time some defensive work is needed.

FCl/AMCl (AMC Oscar primarily, STCl Eto'o, Benzema, Milito): Good passers who work hard in the defensive phase. Or in the cases where this is the 2nd forward he should have good off the ball and good finish and threaten the d-line with offensive runs.

FCr (Drogba, Torres :o) Strong and hard working, preferably a big guy. Able to link up with on rushing wingers and central midfielders.

What's the community's take on above? What attributes would you look for if you were Mourinho?

As for training, a long time ago i read a blog post. Think the guy called himself "The boy done good". He did a post and discussed his approach to training in FM13. What he did was that he shifted the team training every three months. He played as chelsea and he wanted his team to have good tactical knowledge, be physically strong and be able to defend at all positions. So during the season every three months he changed team training accordingly Fitness, Tactics and lastly defending. During each of these categories he also had individual focuses accordingly the team training. For example when Fitness was the team training one player's IF could be Quickness or Strength. And i liked this approach so this is what I'm planning on doing. The question is; how hard should the team training be to create a good balance between TT and IF? Or is this approach not good at all?

Think i've written all i intended to do. Thanks for reading.

[lilljons]

So last part of july and august is in the books.

Got off to a good start, managed to go unbeaten but got in a bit of a slump in the end.

Results:

In my opinion the goals we concede are a bit random. Corners, ping-ponging in the box. Free-kicks, individual mistakes. Only one of the goals did i feel that we were outplayed. So it looks promising!?

I got two players in window. Both of them were back up players but i think they can perform for me when asked upon.

Ruben Schaken AMr:

Decent physical attribute, mentals and good technique. Think he will do a good job.

Christian Dorda DL:

A bit slow, but that's alright. For a back-up player i think he has good defensive attributes for the current level. He might be let down by his low concentration.

That's my two first transfers "thinking like mourinho", what do you guys think?

[gishhhhh]

Good results thus far, make sure to keep updating the thread so we can see how you get on. The Mourinho style is something that I'm also trying to get working, although I seem to stumble against weaker teams frequently. Moreover, I'm not scoring on the transition as much as I'd like, any advice?

The two signings look very good, they'll both do a really good job in your system. I really like the look of the full back, his attributes suggest he will be very reliable and solid i.e. Arbeloa and Ivanovic. The AMR also looks like a very good purchase as well, good pace and anticipation/off the ball means he'll be a great asset on the counter attack.

[lilljons]

Thx for the reply! Unfortunately i've hit quite the slump! The champions league draw was very tough, Bayern Munich, MArseille and steua bucharest. The morale has taken quite the drop, and atm every win seems hard fought.

Will post some pics and other stuff tomorrow!

[gishhhhh]

Ouch, that's a rough group! I'm sure you'll manage to claw some points from the home games and might sneak through to the knockout stage.

Looking forward to what you post tomorrow!

[Mailman44]

Remember you are the Special One! No fear!

[lilljons]

A little update from my work...

I won the league pretty comfortable in the end, ditched the 4-4-2 and went with 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1. Ended 3rd in my CL-group and got to play EL-quarter finals. It was against Genk, should've won it but my players were completely impotent over the two matches.

I did some heavy shopping in January and in the summer mercato, hey i wanna be like Mourinho gotta have a big squad! Can't remember them all now but i'll sum up my current squad below.

My star GK Sommer is being targeted by numerous clubs so i started looking for a replacement. Found it this columbian guy Bonilla, 4½ star potential 21 years old. Good stats. Season came and Sommer stayed so i decided to loan out Bonilla for some playing time (Lex Courtois), he's now in bundesliga with Braunschweig. 7 games in and he's a good reason to why they are 2nd atm, only conceded 4 goals!

My RB is the young albanian international Xhaka, well rounded. A bit short, one of the Degen brothers wasnt cutting it as a back-up. Got Luthi from Thun, he's quite similiar to Xhaka. So a bit bad squad building. I've changed my left side totally, from Safari and budget purchase Dorda to Planas from Barca B and Jonathan Silva from Estudiantes LP. Planas is the more offensive one, whilst Silva is my Ivanovic - more of a CB playing FB.

In my central line i stumbled upon Santiago Vergini, also from Estudiantes LP. My CD from previous season, Schär and Ivanov did a solid job. Although they did some stupid things that lead to easy goals for the opposition. So when i scouted Vergini and saw that he was on a outgoing contract i pounced. He's been solid so far keeping Ivanonv mostly on the bench. Got a promising from spain, loaned him out to Thun immidiately to get to know the swiss league.

As my anchorman back-up i got Funk from Stuttgart, Die's poor decision making is pushing him further and further towards the door. But all the time i call upon him he does a good work, so it's hard to bench him!

In my CM bracket i got Mahlangu from Helsingborg, solid and good attributes all round. Guess he's my Ramires?! El-neny got bought by Marseille for £10m, the offer was too good to turn down. So for the nest season i wanted a similar player; solid defensive stats but could also play decisive passes. Ended up deciding between Mario Bolatti from Internacional and Veroljub Salatic from the league rival Grasshoppers. Similar age and similar stats. Did the Mourinho thing, bought Salatic and weakened a rival in the process!

In the AML/C/R strata ive gotten Rasmus Falk and Emil Larsen from OB in Denmark. Both back-up players for now, but they have been both been solid when called upon. Also got Yann-Erik de Lanlay from Norway as a back-up to Salah. He's proven to be a real bargain now when Salah been injured. But not being able to rotate him enough have started to taking its toll on him.

Up front i got the swiss talent Orham Ademi back from Germany, showed some real lethal finishes during the friendlies. But Ademi is having an hard time out-working Streller, who is still keeping the swiss defences on its toe, at the age of 33, and is still my number one.

So, transfer wise i think im keeping to the mourinho philosophy. All-rounded strikers. Pace on the wings but still not forsaking defensive attribues. Good defensive workers that can pass the ball well in the CM strata. No fuss central backs and full backs whom does a good defensive job primarly!

This goes to show in the league where im on top after a quarter played. Im not afraid to rotate my squad due to the squad being well balanced. In Cl i got the in the same group as Barca, Juve and Steua Bucharest. Aiming for 3rd there with hopes of doing an upset in the EL, althoug it started good. Had 2-2 at Juventus stadium, lost it in the late game 3-2. Hammered Steua at home with lethal counter-attacking.

A lot of text and little concrete information, will post screenies at some point.

At last, wanna thank http://www.zonalmarking.net/2013/09/17/new-managers-mourinho-at-chelsea/ for enlighten me on how to be like Mourinho.

[lilljons]

Here are some pics as promised:

My two transfer windows so far. The numbers are in swedish kronor but if you divide it by 10 you roughly get what it is in pounds.

These are the two tactics i alternate between. Note: This is not my ordinary starting XI, this is how it was when i print screen.

I dont tend to tinker with this one. This is my protect a lead or up against bigger opposition tactic. I play normally on attack. When I'm desperately hanging on to a result i drop the mentality to counter and change clear ball to flanks hoping for a lucky break whilst being solid at the back.

This is my more dominant tactic. If I'm playing a much worse club i have both cm's on support duty often b2b. Other wise i drop one to bwm d or dlp d while the other is one some kinda support duty. The wingers are always set to IF even if it's a right footed on the right side. Been seeing good performances from this so i haven't had any reason to change them to wingers. When I'm up against a tough domestic opposition i drop the cm's to dm. Then i play someone as DLP d and the other as DM s.

The table at the moment.

Im the one at the top. As you can see i have already a good margin. But i do think i concede too much considering my squad. Most of the goals are from set-pieces, the odd one is from a break when my players over commit to the attack. One thing that seems to cause most mistakes in my defense is when the CD's step up to press, only way I've managed to avoid this is when i play with two dm's.

And finally how the squad have performed

This is only league stats, but i think that I'm quite good with my rotation. Although in the last game against Thun the rotation almost cost me the victory, managed a two-goal come back to seal the win.

So this is how i do in order to be like Mourinho.

Questions? Suggestions?

[llama3]

You need more width down the flanks to overlap the wide men coming inside on both systems. On your 4-2-3-1 you will have a very crowded centre as AP(S) will not roam and the 2 x IF(A)'s will congest that area of the field. A BWM(D) & BBM(S) will not provide a defensive shield - if they don't win the ball quickly you are exposed.

[davidmn27]

I have a decent tactic that plays out similar to what you have, probably with a little more width. How do I post a screen shot of it????

[llama3]

Use an upload site like imageshack and you can either post the link or embed the image with the code generated after upload.

[davidmn27]

i cant find how to take a screen shot to save as an image??

[davidmn27]

I dont know where they're saving after pressing F12

[llama3]

Steam will have a screenshots section - click on your steam name on the top bar, on the right is some options below your steam name, 1 of these is "screenshots"

[davidmn27]

[davidmn27]

definitely havent got the hang of this!

[THOG]

Remove the html. Just have the address of the image between the vB image codes.

[davidmn27]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/843/4y6o.jpg

It say invalid URL when trying to add an image.

[davidmn27]

The trouble I'm finding with my set up is I'm struggling to create chances for my strikers, they're scoring a few but generally getting low ratings. I'd have thpught with creative players around them they'd have lots to feed off

[lilljons]

My goals mainly come from transitions. Hence, my AMC can be regarded as a transporter. Think Özil and his ability to dribble. And today Mourinho likes his AMC to work for the team and being able to defend. I have them both in my Basel save i reckon. Frei is my Oscar, hard working but still able to pass. Rasmus Falk is my Özil type, good dribbler and can spot those key passes.

And as a reply from earlier, me using two IF; yes it can get a bit crowded in the middle but considering what i want from them it works well. I want them to bombard towards goal when the opportunity rises. Most of the time my AMR will sprint along the side line anyways.

And i know that bmw and b2b isn't a good shield, that is my cm set-up when up against bad opponents which I'm gonna dominate.

[davidmn27]

Has anyone managed to get an advanced fwd or poacher to work upfront alone in this formation?

[llama3]

Has anyone managed to get an advanced fwd or poacher to work upfront alone in this formation?

Advanced Forwards on work as lone forwards with good AMC or Wide support. Poachers are awful lone forwards, they get too isolate and contribute too little build up play.

[davidmn27]

I have Timo Werner 5 years in with excellent AF attributes, play a creative player behind him, a winger and and an IF on the flanks but he just doesnt get involved and only scores roughly 1 in 3

[llama3]

1 on 3 is not a poor goal return. Are the rest of your players contributing?

[davidmn27]

My winger isnt, he got 4 goals in the season despite being a good finisher, quick etc. He stays too wide (i know he's a winger!) but I'd like to see him burst into the box a little more. Dont want to change him to an IF as that'd cost my width.

My IF hasnt score too many either, nor my T / AP S. A lot of goals come from set pieces, which I know is a common problem for a lot of people.

Many of my crosses get blocked and I cant work out why, I've read lost of posts, tried different options (drill, early, etc)

I just dont see enough angled through balls to my pacey fwd.

The trouble too is my board want me to play Direct so I have to factor that in.

[THOG]

Has anyone managed to get an advanced fwd or poacher to work upfront alone in this formation?

Adding a bit to what Llama said, a lone AF will only work consistently if you're mainly planning to play balls behind the opposition defence, but that's really only going to work consistently against sides that are willing to push up against you. A Poacher is what you might think of as a limited specialist intended to keep technically or mentally weak strikers from being too ambitious when the ball is in deeper positions. He's told not to do anything but shoot when the time comes so if he gets the ball ahead of the final third, he's only going to play simple passes and won't offer much creatively.

The problem seems to be that your entire tactic is based around providing deep support to one player, but this allows the opposition central defenders to focus all of their energy on him. One of the most important aspects of creating chances for any striker is to have other players getting forward and drawing off defenders to create space for him. Your Winger might do that if the leftback is coming forward with the ball, but the Anchor Man/Regista/Treq trio are all going to be inclined to sit back. Meanwhile, the IF-S coming in means you have three players in central areas trying to provide support to one player getting forward. Either use the Treq as an Attacking Midfielder-A/Shadow Striker or put the IF on an attack duty so you have someone else making runs at the defence.

Basically, playing a single striker formation is intended to provide more numbers in midfield in defence and the transition to attack, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't have someone trying to play the attacking role of the second striker. Playing 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 makes it all the more important that you have midfielders and wide forwards coming forward/inside to help create gaps for the striker to exploit.

[davidmn27]

Thank u for your tips, interesting stuff. I understand the poacher role but unfortunately inherited a squad with 2 strikers that can only really play a limited role.

I'm going to work on the set up for hose around him, maybe trying an IF A and W S instead and a SS or AM A that can grab some goals. I just don't want them staying upfront too much, they need to contribute to the defence, which is what I'm worried about. When defending I'd basically have a 424!

When I reach per season I can reshape my squad with a false 9 or CF S

[Luizinho]

I too am I keen admirer of Jose. The system I'm using isn't a recreation of his, yet more in his style perhaps. Keeping things solid at the back and breaking fast. Haven't had much luck so far. Was wondering if anyone can see any gaping holes/issues?