Creating the Next Gen: Inspired by the Legends

[pmoli12]

Hi everybody. Before starting my writing, I would like to give a little introduction of myself so you would be able to understand why I'm writing this. Firstly, I'm a 15 yo from Belgium so excuse my poor English. I'm young as I've wrote and I started watching football 'seriously' at 13 By seriously I mean more in depth with a love for tactics. And obviously, that fact lead me to Football Manager. I then tried to expand my tactical knowledge through some tactical-dedicated websites and with FM.

My preferred coach is Mourinho, not only because of my love for Chelsea but also because of his tremendous intelligence and tactical awareness. I liked his fast counterattacking football played in Madrid and now I'm enjoying him making Eden Hazard a worldbeater (though he's not yet at Messi/Ronaldo level). I found someday a quote by our beloved Portuguese saying that he has trained the 'real Ronaldo'. I then wanted to know what kind of player could even make CR7 quoted as a 'fake' (don't take it literately)

I'm 15, ive never seen Ronaldo, Falcao, Bekenbauer, Maradonna on the pitch (a shame isn't it?!) bar some Youtubes clips. I then found someone - an an absolute fan of Madrid and now a friend of mine - who has most of Madrid biggest matches recorded (a family rite or something) and could see WHAT a fine player Il Phenomeno was. Then I saw Zidane (that i only saw from 2006 WC, and now one of m'y favourites), Beckham, Roberto Carlos and all the galactics and I was amazed. I knew al of them but never understood why they were nicknamed like this. Then I understood and I can understand why so many players want to be called the next X or Y.

This led me to FM. I'm playing FM for two years now, having start with FM12. I had a great experience as a Chelsea manager (my beloved team) and I was enjoying seeing Torres scoring for fun. I'm now as a Chels manager in october of my second season with FM 14.3 and I think the game is tactically at his peek. Some things cannot be emulate on the game but most of real-life tactics can be done.

At the end of the summer window came a young boy that I love to call Gabigol - Gabriel Barbosa as some may know - who is a future world beater on the game but for the moment he is totally undeveloped since he just arrived. And one day, I saw in his profile - Could be the next RONALDO. I've saw him in previous save but it's the fist time the comparison was raised. I don't like FMRTE and stuff but I wanted to know if I had THAT special luck. And yes, Gabigol has got the most potential ability that he can got. And then, a wild dream came to me: turn the boy into the next Il Fenomeno.

Now that's the essence of my post. Gabigol can improve drastically so I've hope. Ronaldo was the archetype of the central scoring striker in which you had the Brazilian trickery. Gabigol is also fairly complete. I can't post pics atm but I'll do and you'll understand. When i try to recreate an old legend, I usually watch the FM profile of that player. That's how turned Oliver Torres into the new Riquelme (my favourite player of all time), by trying to focus his individual training on Riquelme strengths and then taughting him the PPMs.

In Ronaldo-Gabigol case, I found out that Ronaldo retired in 2011 so hasnt got a FM player counterpart - which is normal. So I tried to use the profile of someone who's close to Ronaldo on the pitch, and I found out that the Torres of Liverpool was close. This is my view of course. Back to FM12 then, cause it's the last FM where you can get a top-class Torres. For the PPMS, I noticed that Ronaldo liked to got round the keeper. He was also running a lot trough the middle while playing some one-twos in the process. He liked to knock the ball past I opponent I think and his shots looked well placed. Move into channels is a must of course. So: 1. Go round keeper, 2. Move into channels, 3. Run with ball through centre, 4. play one-two and maybe 5. places shots/first times shot and 6. knock ball past opponent?

Now my questions are: "Is Torres a good 'template' to turn Gabigol into Ronaldo-esque player", "Who is close by stats and PPMs to Il Fenomeno in FM14 (Luiz Suarez, Karim Benzema, anybody?)" , "Judging by Barbosa starting stats (he hasn't much improved during the first year), which is the legend he is looking the more alike on the pitch? (Hope you understood)", "What are the wonderkids closing down the most with the likes of Maradonna, Zico, Socrates, Falcaô, Brazil '82 team stars, etc...?" and "What kind of player can I make with Lucas Silva, a 5-stared Chalobah (Yaya Touré), and a 4.5-stared Jeremie Boga (CR7)?"

The title of that thread is about a generation, not Gabigol, so I'll probably tried to turn some of my best youngster into new version of old legends, and you can do aswell. Thanks for the reading

PS: excuse the Apple autocorrection

[SJ234]

Chalobah to me looks like a future CB.

Also have to ask are you trying to playing Mourinho style football? If so trying to make a new Riquelme doesn't make sense as he just doesn't suit it at all.

Also not sure you can recreate players of old exactly but you can turn them into players who play in a similar sort of style. Boga isn't a CR7 type player he is nearer Messi in terms of style.

[pmoli12]

Thanks for your reply. No I dont want to emulate Mourinho, sorry for the confusion.

Its very difficult to recreate a player and i know that, i just think i can try to turn a player into the kind of player i want by taking a legend as a model.

Here are some screens.

Chalobah is to weak in the key defensive area. I think he could be better used in the midfield.

Lucas Silva is fairly balanced for now, but he is looking comfortable on the ball.

[SJ234]

The players you should want are the ones which fit your system. For me Chalobah if you want to turn him into a box to box would have to work on dribbling, agility, finishing and tackling. However some of that is down to personal preference. As I like my midfielders to be pretty agile in particularly those going forwards. However what you want depends on preference and system.

Silva you could theoretically turn into anything however the lack of outstanding attacking or defensive attributes to me suggest he could be a support player so box to box, cm support, dlp s or ap s.

Barbosa is a phenomenal talent and really you can do pretty much anything you want with him.

Another key point is that you should be looking to create the system and then shaping the players to suit that. Rather than trying to create a zidane, riquelme, ronaldo etc as that would in reality leave to an unbalanced system and they are all different styles and type of players and potentially may not work together.

[pmoli12]

I can see you point and you're right. My team could be unbalanced and could more look like a bunch of world beaters rather than a world beating team. The thing that i can do is to recreate one of these legend and then design my team around that guy. As you said, Gabigol is an outstanding talent and he will be the key. I've put Chalobah on a B2B schedule, he'll then develop as a balanced midfielder.