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[Jambo98]

November

EPL - Aston Villa 1 v 4 QPR - A cruised away win. We led 3 nil after half an hour so no tweaks needed. We seem to have found our goal scoring touch!

EPL - QPR 3 v 1 Everton - An important win against a side who we might just about be able to compete with in the table. We were by far the better team and didnt need to tweak again

EPL - Arsenal 4 v 1 QPR - The real big teams continue to be too good for us, away in particular. We were the victim of 3 stunning goals, but to be fair even without them, Arsenal were much better than us. We didnt tweak as the game was always beyond us

EPL - West Ham 2 v 3 QPR - Important bounce back away win, with a topsy turvy game. We went a goal behind, roared back to 3 v 1 ahead, then with 15 to go it go nervy when it went to 3 v 2 - Switched to defensive at that point to hold out

Summary

Another good month sees us up in the heights of 5th place. The restrictions of this single tactic/minimal tweaks really shows against the biggest sides i think, but we are learning all the time as our team gels more and more. As we head into December, we now face another challenge which will hit over achieving mid table sides. 5 of our players (Caulker, Gil Romero, Kusk, Sarabria and Jurado) are all now targets for various bigger sides. Financially we are not in a good place (10mill in the red) so we might be pressured to sell, with the additional issue being that we will see little of any transfer fee (only retaining 15% because of the financial situation).

[Sammie B]

Brilliant thread!

Just a quick question, what was the reason behind changing the roles in the midfield to the ones used in your 451 thread?

[First Name Last Name]

I can't believe you abandoned your Morton save, how could you resist the lure of keeping it simple in Europe?

Seriously though, great thread, very interesting to see how you managed to take on the whole of Scotland with one quite basic tactic

[Jambo98]

December

EPL - QPR 3 v 2 Chelsea - Finally a result against a big side, and what a result. 2 down after 33mins, but this side showed character. A goal just before half time got us back in it, and at 70mins we go "attacking" to try and get an equaliser. 3mins later Jurado gets it for us, and switch back to "standard". With 4mins to go, the young sub striker Zrelak pops up with a massive winner. We are in the top 4!

EPL - QPR 1 v 1 Southampton - One of those games. We created chance after chance and spurned them, gave a way a silly penalty on a rare Saints attack and had to rely on another late, late Zrelak goal to even get a point. Should have been an easy win based on the performance but these days happen. We had gone attacking at 75mins to chase the game and it paid off deep in injury time.

EPL - QPR 2 v 0 Newcastle - Comfortable home win, always in control and no requirement for any tweaks. Rodrigo back amongst the goals

EPL - Stoke 0 v 0 QPR - Always tough to go to Stoke and a draw was fair. We had more possession but didnt great much and needed a couple of good saves by Perin to keep us level. Went "attacking" with 15 to go but no impact today

EPL - Crystal Palace 1 v 1 QPR - Another away point, but this one somewhat more disappointing. We took the lead and were always the better side but gave away a bad goal and never really regrouped enough to chase a winner. Chose not to tweak in this game as we started to look a bit vulnerable to the counter attack

EPL - Man Utd 3 v 1 QPR - Our nemisis team. This time we ran them a lot closer, even took the lead and played reasonably well, but just out done in the second half. No tweaks as the goals came fairly close together and chase at 3 v 1 would have been to risk another hiding from them

EPL - West Brom 1 v 1 QPR - More points thrown away. Ahead through a Rodrigo penalty, we dominated and created some good chances. Then with 10 to go, a simple long ball over the top and the speed of Berahino undid us and he beat the keeper at his near post to deny us what would have been an important win

Summary

On the face of it, not a great month. 1 loss and 4 draws. However a crazy busy month. In the space of 10 days over xmas we had 4 games, all away from home. Thats some harsh fixture work. We only pulled 3pts from that sequence and we should have won at West Brom and probably at Palace. That said, this time last year some of these draws would have been lost, and also no way last years squad would have coped with so many games in quick succession. We were able to rotate a fair bit and no weaken our side much.

We still sit 5th after 20 games as the calander flips over into 2016. Thats an over achievement by any standards. The top 4 is too much, but if we battle tooth and nail, and dont suffer any major losses in the window, we might just about be able to fight for top 6 and a Europa place.

[Jambo98]

Brilliant thread!

Just a quick question, what was the reason behind changing the roles in the midfield to the ones used in your 451 thread?

Hey Sammie,

I guess it comes down to comfort. The "original" 451 from the thread was something i absolutely know works. For this level, the tactic i created for Morton just didnt feel right. I couldnt get enough bodies in the box against better class opposition. I also started to get a chance to pick up the type of player to really make the WM(a) and central winger roles work.

I can't believe you abandoned your Morton save, how could you resist the lure of keeping it simple in Europe?

Seriously though, great thread, very interesting to see how you managed to take on the whole of Scotland with one quite basic tactic

Ah the Morton save isnt abandoned, its on hold for now I might go back to see how the mighty Morton get on in Europe

Yeah i think the idea is that a) the basic tactic has to be very well thought out and solid to begin without that and b) You need to give the absolute focus to all other aspects of the game to counterbalance the simplistic tactical approach.

[Jambo98]

January

FA Cup - QPR 0 v 0 Derby - The spate of draws continues, again heavy rotation and best side but couldnt break through. Didnt tweak, but i probably should have in hindsight

EPL - QPR 1 v 1 Liverpool - Another draw, but one i am happier with. We played well, were on top but went behind on 70mins. We hit back quickly with a Kusk goal on 75, and when Skrtel was sent off a minute later i went attacking to sieze the win but Liverpool held firm and we take a point

FA Cup - Derby 3 v 1 QPR - Oh dear. My reserves in essence, but they got well beaten here. Never in the game. Major disappointment. No tweaks as we were just so out of it.

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 Fulham - Good win to get us back on track. We scored in the first minute with Rodrigo, and were never threatened but couldnt get the second goal either so it got a bit tense. Added "retain possession" for the last 15mins.

EPL - Spurs 5 v 0 QPR - Sheez. We actually played ok, matched them in possession, created our share of chances. But everything they hit when in, and we folded like a deck of cards midway through the second half. Painful defeat. No tweaks as it was over before i could react.

EPL - Swansea 0 v 4 QPR - More like it. Without both my recognised strikers though injury, but we still completely bossed it and took our chances nicely. No need to tweak.

Summary

Cup exit aside, a fairly good month. Draw with Liverpool was encouraging, and although we had a major blip at White Hart Lane, the rest of the month was good. We sit in 5th, although Arsenal behind have games in hand and can overtake us. We have a 5pt gap beyond that so we have a Europa place in our own hands. Some difficult games to come though.

Transfer Window

By far my quietest window in this save, or even in this experiment. I was really happy with the balance of my squad, the depth and quality. Financially we are still in a poor place so had to be prudent. The main thing was no bids for any of my "wanted" players. I did try and offload Leroy Fer, who has become an expensive backup, but no takers.

In

Bernardo Silva - £2.8million from Monaco - I had about £2.5m and some wage balance to play with, and when an agent offered this guy i decided to spend it. An interesting player, a little buried at Monaco. He can operate again in any of my 3 attacking mid roles, and still has potential to grow according to 3 different scout reports i did. Already a very similar level to what i have, but just adds depth and potential for future improvement means he could be a little bargain.

Fabrizio Cacciatore - Loan from Sampdoria - Non descript signing really. Needed a backup RB on deadline day, went to the loan list and "regular loans" and this guy was on it. Never going to be a started but good enough for back up and also versatile as can play either side or CB in a pinch. Wont be with us past the summer but plugs a gap at no cost

Outs

Victor Moses - Terminated Loan - The signing of Silva meant i had no place for Moses on a depth chart. He did a job for us as a 4th winger, and covered up front once or twice but sent him back as he wont get game time now

Pedro Lopez - £100k to Eibar - Veteran backup RB was unhappy at lack of time and unsettled in the country so i let him go home, hence the loan inwards noted above. Did a solid job whenever called upon, but no great loss

[Jambo98]

February

EPL - Wigan 0 v 1 QPR - A good away win, not as comfortable goals wise as i would like but a commanding performance. We did add "retain possession" with 15mins to go for a bit of security

EPL - QPR 3 v 0 Burnley - Routine. 3 nil up by HT and no tweaks needed, We are on a bit of a roll now.

EPL - QPR 2 v 1 Norwich - ANother good win as we keep rolling, 2 nil up by HT and cruising, they got one back with 2mins remaining and i didnt even have time to switch to defensive to see it out. Good result.

EPL - Man City 1 v 2 QPR - Superb result at the league leaders. We led at HT through Rodrigo, and i actually went defensive really early, at 50mins. We then scored a classic counter attacking second to go in real control. Aguero hit back with 18mins to go and a minute later Sandro got sent off meaning a nervy finish, and i added "waste time" and we held out for a great win

EPL - Everton 2 v 2 QPR - The winning run comes to an end, but still a good point. We led early, then pecked back by 2 wonder strikes. We battled level and went attacking for the last 15 since we were in such good form but had to take a draw in the end.

Summary

A great month overall, with the win at City a huge highlight. We are now in a wierd place. We are 6pts behind the top 4, who are out of reach, but we have opened a crazy 10pt lead to 6th place Arsenal! 5th is ours to lose right now............

[Jazz]

Great read Jambo, love the simplicity (although, also fan of your athletic thread )

Seems that with greater players you do not suffer the December/January/February form slump?

Bernardo Silva seems a bargain, never played with him but I've seen him become a decent top 4 PRL player in one of my saves!

[Sammie B]

Hey Sammie,

I guess it comes down to comfort. The "original" 451 from the thread was something i absolutely know works. For this level, the tactic i created for Morton just didnt feel right. I couldnt get enough bodies in the box against better class opposition. I also started to get a chance to pick up the type of player to really make the WM(a) and central winger roles work.

Makes sense, does that mean you are using both full backs as Complete Wing backs on attack as well?

[Jambo98]

Great read Jambo, love the simplicity (although, also fan of your athletic thread )

Seems that with greater players you do not suffer the December/January/February form slump?

Bernardo Silva seems a bargain, never played with him but I've seen him become a decent top 4 PRL player in one of my saves!

Thanks, glad your enjoying both. Showing very different ways to play the game and enjoy it either way.

I still did have a bit of a slump with the games over Xmas. Personally, i think the game needs a little tweaking in the way it depicts the slumps - I get the bit about teams adjusting, and i also think every team (almost) has a form slump. It just feels a little too...."engineered" at the moment - Its always around the same phase.

In terms of doing better this year around it, i think as much as having better players, its about having a better squad depth. In season 1 if i took even 2 starters out, my team was much weaker. Now i have a good strength in depth and can rotate a bit more, which helps manage slumps a bit better

[Jambo98]

Makes sense, does that mean you are using both full backs as Complete Wing backs on attack as well?

Yup, exact tactic from the 451 thread, except with a couple of PI added to the F9 to combat the issues caused by last patch.

[Jazz]

I still did have a bit of a slump with the games over Xmas. Personally, i think the game needs a little tweaking in the way it depicts the slumps - I get the bit about teams adjusting, and i also think every team (almost) has a form slump. It just feels a little too...."engineered" at the moment - Its always around the same phase.

In terms of doing better this year around it, i think as much as having better players, its about having a better squad depth. In season 1 if i took even 2 starters out, my team was much weaker. Now i have a good strength in depth and can rotate a bit more, which helps manage slumps a bit better

I believe most teams do have a form slump now and then, I agree with you on it being around the same time of year, although, it seems to be mostly in leagues that continue over the winter (I guess this is where moral management and squad depth kicks in to combat it).

[Jambo98]

March

EPL - QPR 3 v 0 Aston Villa - Back to winning form with another fast start. 2 nil by half time, 3 nil by 51 mins and all over. I absolutely love watching this formation in action at times, now that i have added PPMs to most of the key players it is so fluent No tweaks today

EPL - QPR 3 v 1 Arsenal - Huge. I mentioned we had built a good gap back to Arsenal, but if they won this they would have started to claw it back. As it happened, never in doubt. We swapped Pens with them in a first half which we dominated, and more of the same after the break, Balanta and Zrelak (in for the injured Rodrigo) get the goals. Didnt even need to sit on it near the end as we were so fluent.

EPL - Chelsea 4 v 2 QPR - A tough one. For the first hour it was even stevens, trading goals to sit at 2 v 2 with 15mins to go. Then 2 brilliant Diego Costa goals just undid us, the second of which was in the last minute after we went attacking to try and grab something. We probably just about deserved a point, but the class of a guy like Costa won it for them.

Summary

Another short month but but the win against Arsenal all but seals our 5th place. We now sit 13pts clear of them, albeit they have a game in hand. We are only actually 3 behind Man City in 4th, but they have played 2 games less so that will be too big a gap.

We also had our youth intake and for the second season it was awful. Our Youth level is only "3" and this is getting to be a huge issue, since i barely have a home grown player in my entire squad. For Europe, we are going to have squad issues. 2 years of nothing better than a one star prospect in the intake is hurting us. Unfortuntaely all attempts at upgrades are kiboshed by the financial situation. We need to bank the big bonus for the high league finish, not go crazy in the market and use some of the funds to upgrade for the long term stability of the club.

[Sammie B]

Yup, exact tactic from the 451 thread, except with a couple of PI added to the F9 to combat the issues caused by last patch.

Thanks, assuming that means gone very fluid and short passing now then. Which PI's you added? I've tried PPM's to try get the role to act the same as pre patch

[Jambo98]

Thanks, assuming that means gone very fluid and short passing now then. Which PI's you added? I've tried PPM's to try get the role to act the same as pre patch

Yup same settings as the 451 thread.

I added "hold up ball" and "shoot less often", and i also target the PPM "Comes deep to collect" on the striker. I have said a few times that i think one of the knock ons of the fix in the last patch around support duty strikers was that the F9 doesnt act properly in possession but it can be worked around. In many ways the PPMs and behavior from the WM and CM can solve the problem.

[Jambo98]

April

EPL - QPR 1 v 1 West Ham - Dropped points here. Well on top, the better side and one up when we gave a way an easy goal from a corner on 71mins. Went attacking after that but still ended up with a somewhat disapointing draw

EPL - Southampton 2 v 1 QPR - Oh dear, an end of season wobble? We were ahead but then an OG and a stunning freekick set us back. In all fairness, we played poorly and Saints easily deserved their win. We went attacking at 70mins.

EPL - QPR 5 v 1 Stoke - Wobble? What wobble.......accomplished performance and always well in control. No tweaks needed.

EPL - Newcastle 1 v 3 QPR - Another good road victory. Behind in the second minute but we came back to get ahead midway through the second half then quickly put the game to bed. No tweaks again

EPL - QPR 2 v 3 Man Utd - Expected outcome, but wierd game. 3 down at HT, and completely played off the park. We added "exploit the flanks" and "more direct passing" at HT and 2 Sandro goals almost got us an unlikely point!

Summary

A busy month as the season draws to a close. We have officially wrapped up 5th place and the Europa league spot. Arsenal are 9pts behind with them having 2 games to play (just the one for us). One more game then we can reflect on perhaps the biggest over achievement season so far!

[johnnyyakuza78]

Whats interesting is that your side has very little consistancy when it comes to clean sheets, or the amount of goals you let in. Do you think you could isolate one thing opposition teams are doing that makes you more likely to let in goals, or keep clean sheets? Is it just sides who are better than you, or is that they exploit the tactical weakness of your formation better?

[Jambo98]

Whats interesting is that your side has very little consistancy when it comes to clean sheets, or the amount of goals you let in. Do you think you could isolate one thing opposition teams are doing that makes you more likely to let in goals, or keep clean sheets? Is it just sides who are better than you, or is that they exploit the tactical weakness of your formation better?

I think its a little bit of each. The system is quite attacking by definition, and when you choose to go that route and not adapt to the opposition at all, and you already dont have as good a team or squad, at times you will struggle. I think i mentioned a few times in the updates, where this approach (the simplicity) will really fall down a bit is when you have to attempt to regularly beat a team of better players. For QPR to beat Man Utd, given the respective player quality, we would need a tactical edge in some way and playing the same way for 90mins, and in the same way as i do against Wigan, is making that hard to achieve.

Not that im complaining - the point of the experiment was to show a level of over achievement over a sustained period. With better players, the approach might win a league but i dont see it with QPR. Top 4 would be a massive over achievement, and even 5th place is pretty much better than anyone would expect in season 2 with QPR without tweaking or AI exploiting.

[johnnyyakuza78]

Yeah its definitely a good over achievement with minimal tweaking and effort, I really like it. Maybe just starting on counter or defensive against bigger sides wouldn't be considered over tweaking?

[Jambo98]

May

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 Crystal Palace - Nice to end the season with a home win. We played well and were never really threatened in what was really a dead rubber

Summary

Well, one game, one win That rounds off quite possibly one of the biggest over achievement seasons i have had in FM15. 5th place for a QPR side in only season 2 is pretty incredibly with any approach, let alone with simplicity.

Will post up a full season summary with screenies etc shortly

[Jambo98]

Season Summary - Season 2 - QPR

Well that was quite a season. We got the key things right:

- Solid and consistent base tactic in place, and familiar from pre-season

- Got the recruitment right. We had enough room to maneuver and whilst we couldnt bring in world class, we concentrated on the right type of player with the right skillset at affordable prices. Also young players were targeted but not unproven sorts

League Table

5th place, almost as close to the top 4 as we were clear of 6th. Finishing ahead of Arsenal is no small achievement given the huge disparity in budget and player quality. Can see that we scored plenty goals, although defensively we were a little below par compared to the big teams.

Past Positions

Showing how consistent we were all season. Always in or around 5th and a long run in that position in the second half of the season.

Squad Stats

Big difference from last season is the goals. Although Rodrigo top scored with "only" 14, great supporting figures from Jurado as the CM(a) and from my 3 players who rotated around the WM slots. Also very good figures from the backup striker Zrelak - thats what squad depth can do for you. Also casting my eye a bit lower down, nice assist figures from my fullbacks

Moneyball ?

So the team with the 4th lowest annual salary manages to finish 5th Thats how you get bang for your buck.

Other Random Things

I won Manager of the Year!!

3 of the 4 midfields in the team of year come from QPR

And we are getting a new stadium

Is it worth carrying on the experiment for another year? How far can you really go with this approach? Im not sure top 4 can be achieved without perhaps at very least a second tactic for big games, but i think i will plow on and just more carefully consider the big 4 games, perhaps away in particular. I did original say that for the QPR save i would go with 2 tactics so thats still an option

I really hope its helpful to some people and people can take something from this. Patience is key, understanding your players and the player types equally so. I see so many reasonably well thought out tacttics on here which will just never function with the players picked.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

I just discovered this thread today, and I'm very glad I did. Jambo, the approach to playing and enjoying Football Manager you describe here is very much like the experience I want to have with the game.

I'm a fairly new FM player, and because I didn't grow up playing or watching the sport myself, I didn't come to FM with much knowledge about it. I've learned as much about real football from FM as the other way around, and my interest in football and Football Manager have been steadily growing in tandem. However, at this stage in my life, I don't want to invest the hours and hours it takes to develop and maintain precise, complex tactical systems.

The more I've learned, the more inclined I've been to tinker with my tactics too much, and when you don't have the time to fully learn what works and why, that is a recipe for frustration. Adding 8 or 10 team instructions to my base tactic and over-reacting to game situations weren't working...no wonder, is it? The result was an ugly mix of contradictions and over-kill. Instructing my team to play an Attacking style, while giving them team instructions like Retain Possession and Lower Tempo? Yeah, I'd do that, and probably worse.

I enjoy finding and developing players very much, and the concept of creating an uncomplicated tactical system and getting players that are well-suited to that system really appeals to me. You're demonstrating very clearly that an approach like this can work very well.

I'm going to apply the basic concepts of your "project" to my current FM14 game. I'm using one of the edited databases from the Steam workshop, and I'm managing Third Lanark in the 8th level of a re-designed Scottish pyramid. They're an amateur club; I hope I'll be able to achieve some success using a similar approach to the one you've used with Morton and QPR.

Thanks for a very enjoyable, enlightening thread.

[Torskus77]

To be fair mate, the top four there have a huge points total, I have won the league with 77 points some seasons, 74 points will get you in the top four a lot of seasons, looks like the top four are really strong at the moment. Man City in particular have had some terrible seasons in some of my saves, even when they've signed top quality players.

[Jambo98]

Yeah there are some crazy good teams in the league at the moment in this save

I wlll push on for season 3, it will be interesting to see if progress does plateau at some point with this approach at a smallish club. I would expect it would at top 4 at best.

Usuall stuff in the offseason - Never get complacent or forgetful - Do all the basics, check in on the staff, manage the training, set up pre-season properly. And of course recruitment.

I had not intented to be overally busy this window, but the best laid plans and all......

Outs

Fayal Fajr - £500k to Middlesbrough - Cheap squad piece for the last year but hardly any game time made him unhappy. Not quite the quality i need so let him go

Fede Cartabia - £19m to PSG - He had a buy out clause in his contract which PSG met. I didnt want to lose him, but considering i paid £6.75m for him less than a year ago, good business since the £19m is all upfront

Leroy Fer - Free to Herenveen - Struggled to get him off the wage bill. He wasnt in my plans and used very sparingly last season. Not a bad player, just not the right one for me and my system

Sandro - £7.5m to CSKA Moscow - A hard decision as he did have a good season and was still at a good age, but i saw a cheaper option available on the market with arguably more upside, so i reluctantly let him go

Adam Zrelak - £2million to West Brom - A bit of a surprising one on the face, as he had a great season off the bench and £2m isnt much. However at 22 he had some holes in his game and wasnt likely to develop much more, and i had a younger and in my eyes better prospect in my squad so i took the cash

Lucho Gonzalez - Released - Contributed the odd game last season but probably a poor judgement signing. Needed the wages to squeeze in my last incoming signing so let him go

Eder Alvarez Balanta - £20m to Napoli - Gutted. Board accepted this one for me, all up front cash. I didnt want to lose him but thats a £13m profit in just 1 year again, and i do have 2 other equally good CB options so i suppose not the end of the world

In

Sergio Diaz - £500k from Cerro Porteno - This was actually a deal done last year but he was U18 so could only sign now. South American scouts flagged him as a really good prospect but the message was the club wouldnt sell so i didnt bid. A few months later, because he was still on my shortlist, i got a message saying Real had bid £500k. I immediately got in on the act and pumped up the wage a bit and he chose us over Real. Leading PL potential and already good enough to be a backup

Rodrigo - £5million from Valencia - Made the loan move permanent after his impressive season. Is he truley good enough to get us into top 4? Not sure, but i dont have loads of money to throw around for a better player so for £5m he is good value and keeps continuity

Giancomo Bonaventura - £5.5m from AC Milan - A fave player of mine since his days at Atalanta. Once Cartabia was gone he was my number 1 target to replace. He is perfect for a WM role in my system and plenty good years left in him yet

Mattias Kranevitter - £7million from River - A great young argie, who had developed well over the last 2 years at River and probably already a better player than Sandro on the comparison, with still some growth room left according to my scouts.

Oriol Romeu - Loan from Chelsea - Good addition to the squad. With Sandro and Fer gone, needed someone to rotate in the DLP slot and a regular loan for him with only 50% wage is low risk. Will mainly back up DLP(d)

Richairo Zivkovic - £5m from Ajax - Huge prospect who i have seen develop to be world class. I could only get the deal done with a 1 year loan back, and its a chunk of money to spend for no immediate benefit but its still worth it IMO

Gabriel Palleta - Loan from AC Milan - Depth to cover for Balanta. The balanta deal happened on deadline day so time was short and i looked on the "regular" loan list and was available for nothing and only £8K wage contribution. Still a good enough player as well for a 3rd choice DC

Overall i am happy. I didnt plan for the Cartabia or Balanta departures, but they bring in a huge amount of money for the club which helps our long term stability. We are now £31m in the black overall which is a big difference from being in the red the last 2 years. Bonaventura for Cartabia is no downgrade and although balanta is a loss, Noguera and Caulker are almost equally good and it solves a bit of a log jam.

Is the squad materially better than last season? Not my much, but its another year of development for youngish core players and we have added some nice parts in Kranevitter and Bonaventura, as well as the perm signing of Rodrigo so i have to be happy with that. The cash in the bank has also allowed a youth recruitment upgrade, a youth facilities one (with a view to getting the youth level up) and junior coaching increase so long term the moves are helping us.

lets see if we can break that top 4.........

[Jambo98]

August

EPL - Southampton 1 v 2 QPR - A good way to start the season, 2 Rodrigo goals had us ahead, somewhat against the run of play.Saints got one back just on HT. I added "retain possession" at HT then went defensive at 75mins as we were not overly comfortable in the game. Happy to take an away win at a top 8 side from last year

EPL - QPR 4 v 1 Man Utd - Now thats how you beat the big clubs! We completely limited Man U. We went 2 up on the hour mark, and i switched to defensive. We then added 2 more goals to be 4 nil up after 78mins. A late rebound from freekick FM classic didnt even make me nervous.

EPL - QPR 2 v 2 Norwich - Isnt that just always how it goes.....2 nil up and cruising in this one, Norwich not in it at all and suddenly they get one back. I didnt tweak and i should have with hindsight, and they equalised with 15 to go. I went attacking at that point but too late. Points dropped

Summary

A good start, the Norwich result annoyed me but these things happen. The win over Utd was huge. Interestingly they changed managed, singed Bale and ditched the 4312 which always destroyed me. Our new signings are settling in and Rodrigo is on the goal trail already with 4 in 3 games.

[Jambo98]

September

EPL - West Brom 1 v 2 QPR - Another fast start had us 2 up inside the first 10mins. West Brom got one back before half time but we were comfortably on top. Went defensive at 75mins just to make sure.

Europa - QPR 2 v 1 Ac Milan - Giants of the European Scene? Pfffft, welcome to fortress Loftus We rotated almost our entire time, took the lead but were pegged back on half time despite being on top. We continued to have marginally more of a fairly poor game in the second half and with 3mins to go the young striker Sergio Diaz popped in a winner. No tweaks

EPL - Spurs 1 v 1 QPR - A sore one. We led in the first half, were on top, missed a pen in the second half. I didnt tweak which was an error, and in the 91st min we gave away a silly Pen which costs us 2pts.

Cap 1 cup - Cardiff 0 v 0 QPR (QPR win 4 v 2 on pens) - What a surprised, Pens for us in this competition.......we rotated the full side again, dominated but couldnt score in 120mins. For once we actually win a shoot out though!

EPL - QPR 2 v 0 Liverpool - Another great win against title contenders. We got a good goal in the first half and battled hard to match Liverpool. We went defensive early, 60mins, and werent under huge amounts of pressure. We scored a nice counter attack goal with a min to go to put the icing on the cake

Europa - Monaco 1 v 2 QPR - Our rotated side steps up to the plate again in europe. 2 of our first teamers who did play (one from the bench) got the goals and we held our own. Defensive at 75mins, and a late consolation didnt cause us any panic

Summary

Another really good month and we sit top 3 at the moment in the league, and top of our Europa group. The fixture calander has been reasonably kind to us, but Utd, Liverpool and Milan have all now come to Loftus road and left with their tales between their legs......

[Torskus77]

I love this thread a lot, almost as much as your 4-5-1 one with Liverpool

Looks like you are ready to challenge the top 4, those annoying results are well... annoying, when you know you should have won and get a draw from what was a winning position. I hate going to bed on one of those results !

I think what stands out for me, as well as you having a solid tactic to begin with, you are excellent at squad building, not to say you don't get any players that don't work out, but you are never afraid to off load them either. I think a lot of people sign players cos they look good players, without too much thought of how much they are going to fit in to the system. In fact I think a lot of real life managers do this too ! You always have a clear idea of what you are looking for in a player, and I think this helps massively when trying to play the game simple.

Good luck for the rest of the season, I can feel some silverware coming maybe ...

[wwfan]

So we won the league One of the things i had to do here was to take a slump, and address it without panicking and assuming that my tactic was all wrong and needed changed. We didnt change. We used other tools like the squad, training and team meeting to improve things, as well as appropriate team talks. We are still not bang in form, but we are over the mini slump i think.

Perhaps the most important paragraph you've written.

To be honest, how your are playing is pretty much how I play. I think people assume the tactical gurus make spectacularly intricate decisions every five minutes. We really don't. Your tactical changes pretty much mirror mine. If anything, you are more likely to change things around that I am. Learning to trust the overall system is the key, which includes taking the odd bad performance on the chin and working out how to get out of a mini-slump before it becomes a full blown one.

[Jambo98]

I love this thread a lot, almost as much as your 4-5-1 one with Liverpool

Looks like you are ready to challenge the top 4, those annoying results are well... annoying, when you know you should have won and get a draw from what was a winning position. I hate going to bed on one of those results !

I think what stands out for me, as well as you having a solid tactic to begin with, you are excellent at squad building, not to say you don't get any players that don't work out, but you are never afraid to off load them either. I think a lot of people sign players cos they look good players, without too much thought of how much they are going to fit in to the system. In fact I think a lot of real life managers do this too ! You always have a clear idea of what you are looking for in a player, and I think this helps massively when trying to play the game simple.

Good luck for the rest of the season, I can feel some silverware coming maybe ...

Thanks Torkus, the tactic ends up the same but the approach slightly different

Squad building is absolutely key. I was reading some of the other threads lately about the amount of incoherent tactical setups we see on these forums, which is absolutely spot on, but i also notice a lot of perfectly fine tactical concepts which fail because they are used with the wrong players. People often forget just how important not only having good players is, but having players suited to your system. My 451, which has brought me all this success, would not work without the right players in the WM and F9 positions in particular. Likewise with some like Van Der Vaart in the CM slot, it wouldnt work. You need to understand the key areas in your setup and what type of characteristics you want from a player in there.

Charlie Austin in this save was a perfect case in point. Is Austin a better striker than Rodrigo? Quite possible. However in my system Austin was very poor, where as Rodrigo is an integral cog. Its because of the type of player i need to make my system work. I identified that, then go out into the market to find someone who fits that mould. At QPR i cant simply go and get the best players out there. I had to be willing to settle for "less than perfect" - Whether that is a guy like Jurardo who is getting older, playing in an unfashionable league, or someone like Sarabria who has past the point of being a "Prospect" and playing at a smaller market club.

Search for value. Look at players for what they can bring to your system rather than comparing them directly. And of course never forget PPMs

Perhaps the most important paragraph you've written.

To be honest, how your are playing is pretty much how I play. I think people assume the tactical gurus make spectacularly intricate decisions every five minutes. We really don't. Your tactical changes pretty much mirror mine. If anything, you are more likely to change things around that I am. Learning to trust the overall system is the key, which includes taking the odd bad performance on the chin and working out how to get out of a mini-slump before it becomes a full blown one.

Thanks wwfan I agree, its possibly the part which is most changed in me over the years. Like others, i used to want "quick win" solutions and if i lost 2 games in a row i would be ready to rage quit and blame the game. A big part of things is setting expectations. The biggest teams in the world lose sometimes. Its just what happens. Just because you lose a couple of games, it doesnt mean you suddenly need to change everything or throw away the things you know and trust.

[Jambo98]

October

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 Swansea - A first half Rodrigo goal sends us to the top of the league, even after everyone has played the same amount of games! We went defensive with 15 to go as we only had the one goal lead, but we were well on top in chances and possession.

EPL - Middlesbrough 1 v 2 QPR - The bandwagon keeps rolling. Again on top comfortably and 2 nil up by the hour mark. A late goal from boro didnt even spook me, no tweaks as we remain at the top of the table.

Europa - Metalist 1 v 2 QPR - A clean 9pts from 3 games in europe. 2 early goals had us in command here and although metalist actually had the better of the game after that, and we went defensive with 20 mins to go, always felt in control. This was again almost full squad rotation.

EPL - Stoke 0 v 0 QPR - A disapointing draw to drop points, and most worryingly injuries to 2 key players (Rodrigo and Sarabria). Both set to miss 4 - 6 weeks . We went attacking with 20mins to go but to no avail.

Cap 1 cup - QPR 0 v 0 Newcastle (Newcastle win 3 v 1 on pens) - What is it with my team and pens in this tournament! I think its our 4th shootout in 3 years. We played an entire backup team, were the better side but couldnt score. Didnt tweak and we were knackered by ET and poor pens cost us.

EPL - QPR 1 v 1 Crystal Palace - The mini slump of draws reaches 3 games and starts to be a concern. We were on top, scored but then conceded a silly quick equaliser. Attacking for the last 20mins was fruitless. We need to break out of this slump, we are now off the top of the table

Summary

Not as great a month as the last 2, but we still remain unbeaten over 90mins the entire season (The shoot defeat is our only one so far). We sit second in league at the end of the month which is still amazing.

The injuries hit a bit, particularly Rodrigo. It left me exposed as my decision to go with 18yr old Sergio Diaz as my only backup striker. Beyond him its a 16yr old, or playing someone out of position. With the injury being the best part of 2 months, i was forced to look at the free agent market. There were surprisingly quite a number of serviceable strikers available, i considered Stevie Naismith and Asymoah Gyan, but in the end went for a cheap low risk deal for Jonathan Viera until the end of the season. He has great PPMs for te F9 role and some nice attributes which suit my style of play.

[Jambo98]

November

Europa - QPR 1 v 1 Metalist - Another draw!! another game we were well on top for, and we have already qualified so full rotation again. 4 draws in a row now is a touch worrying. We didnt actually tweak this time

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 Man City - Get in! We outplayed the big team but it looked to be heading for yet another stalemate until a 92min winner from young Berndado Silva gave us a precious 3pts and put us back top of the table. No tweaks

EPL - QPR 2 v 1 Aston Villa - 2 first half goals from Kusk set us on our way, and even though they got one back before HT we were never threatened really. Again no tweaks

Europa - Milan 3 v 0 QPR - Our first defeat in any competition in 90mins this season, comes in mid November. We rotated even more heavily than before, including some U18s because we have a huge game 48hrs later and this was a dead rubber. No tweaks

EPL - Chelsea 2 v 3 QPR - The strategy pays off as we go to the bridge and pick up a massive win in a great game. We led 1 nil, pegged back, 2 v 1, chelsea miss a pen. Kusk then completes a glorious hattrick just into the second half to put us clear, and we go defensive for the rest of the game, Late costa goal prompts me to add "waste time" and we hold out to stay atop the league

Summary

This is getting kinda crazy. Another month ends with us top of the league. Everyone has played 13, and we are a point clear of Liverpool, and 5 clear of 3rd place Arsenal. 5th place is 7pts back, so a CL spot is somewhat within our grasp at this early stage. We still have to hit the horrors of xmas and the jan slump, but the board also just handed me £23million transfer kitty as our finances are so much better.......

[wwfan]

Might be worth reducing the training to minimal for Xmas and January to keep fitness levels up and consider a more direct game if conditions are bad.

[Jambo98]

Might be worth reducing the training to minimal for Xmas and January to keep fitness levels up and consider a more direct game if conditions are bad.

Thanks wwfan, thats an interesting point re the training. Not something i have seen a lot of people talk about. From the last reading i did, the exact effects of training levels on fitness levels was a bit murky? EG suggestion was that moving to "high" did not actually ever reduce your players fitness, or even slow their return to fitness after a match?

The direct passing bit is a good tip. It is something i employed 3 or 4 times last season during games played in heavy rain and/or snow. It can certainly help a tiny bit, and sometimes the tiny bits are what you need

[Torskus77]

Over the Christmas period where you get 3 games in quick succession I rest players before and after games. This always seems to give me players that are at a fitness level that is playable at least. I've never reduced training levels, although it's an interesting idea. You seem to have a squad that you can rotate a little more than previous seasons, so this will help a lot too I would think.

I have suffered the mid season slump a fair few times too, I've found if you know the general personalities of your players, having individual chats with them can help keep morale up, I don't do it all the time as it's quite time consuming, but I do feel it has helped drag me out of a few slumps. To be fair a lot of my slumps have come when I have been an under achieving team that teams suddenly start to notice that we're not a bad side, and they adjust how they play against us. I know you are savvy enough to know all that, and would adjust accordingly anyway.

To elaborate about the individual chats, I will with professional personalities give them a kick up the ass if their last game was bad, have to be careful not to over do the praise with some players when they are playing well.

Some players require the shoulder around the arm, well done approach, when they are doing well. You soon get a feel for what works with which players, if you can be bothered to go in to it all.

[felley]

I will usually schedule rest days during periods with lots of fixtures. I had a situation once where my team played Friday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday. Scheduling double rest days between each game got all my players back to 90-100% fitness. Sure, we took a hit on general training that week but I seem to remember we won 3 of the 4 games, beating opponents that were starting the games on 65-85% fitness.

As mentioned with the weather conditions and private chats, it's the small advantages that can pay off as they add up. The way I see it, the basics of squad management should be tactics, morale and fitness. Get the three things running smoothly and you will at the very least meet expectations and keep your job.

[Jambo98]

Yup cheers lads, those all good ways to manage slumps i think. I use most of them myself. I tend to use team meetings more often than individual chats - A well timed team meeting can raise morale across the board and almost always leads to an immediate small "boost". I also think team talks are important - use the "dont get complacent" one wisely.

The big challenge a the moment is to go further than meeting expectations. This season the media expected 7th place, and we are now suddenly in an honest to god title fight. At the exact midpoint in the season we are top of the league, 2pts clear of Chelsea and 3 clear of Liverpool. Trying to maintain at that level really needs everything to be managed correctly, particularly when i am "giving away" somthing in not tweaking tactics.

The fixtures this year over xmas were not actually as intense as normal, the only really bad bit is 2 games in 48hrs over new year, which i am about to hit. Lets see if we can avoid the "proper slump". We are going to drop some points, every team does but if we can emerge at the end of Jan still in with a shout of the title, and in a strong place to secure top 4, that will be some achievement

[Jambo98]

January

EPL - QPR 0 v 1 Southampton - Oh dear, not a good way to start a new year. Our first league defeat of the season. It was 50/50 throughout the game they got a first half goal and we laboured a bit. Went attacking for 20mins at the end but couldnt take the couple of chances we did create.

FA Cup - Man City 2 v 1 QPR - Cruel cup draw, and we did rotate a bit. Even with that we matched City throughout, just losing to 2 world class goals from Aguero and Gervinho. We went direct and attacking for the last 15 in search of an equaliser but nothing doing

EPL - Man Utd 1 v 1 QPR - A really tough place to go on the back of a couple of bad results, but we scored first and although they had a lot of shots, not many clear chances until a cracking goal from RVP with 9mins to go. We had already gone defensive at 70mins but couldnt hold out today. We are off the top of the league now

EPL - Norwich 0 v 2 QPR - A good win to get us back on track. 1 goal in each half and whilst we didnt dominate, showing perhaps confidence is down a touch, we were equally never worried so no tweaking

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 West Brom - A big win, because we totally dominated the first hour without scoring, then had a man sent off. 4mins after the red card we did make the breakthrough and then went defensive to hold out with our 10 men

EPL - QPR 2 v 0 Spurs - Third big win and third clean sheet in a row. We are back in form. 2 goals before HT had us comfortable and spurs never got near getting back in the game. We didnt even tweak

Summary

A bit mixed. The saints defeat rounded off a poor spell over new year for us. Wasnt arsed about the FA cup, sods law to draw City only a couple of days before having to go to Old Trafford in the league so priority had to be decided. Ending the month with those 3 wins was vital. We are back on top by 3pts from Chelsea, although they have a game in hand and better GD.

Transfer Window

So with all that money to spend, i did go a little over the top......

In

Kurt Zouma - £4m from Chelsea - Potential bargain of the season. He got transfer listed in November and i tied the deal up well before the window opened. Genuine quality and still untapped potential.

Oliver - Loan from Athletico - A toyed with bringing him in during August but didnt, but i really like his attribute balance and a cheap loan, with an option to buy meant an upgrade in quality early in the window.

Hirving Lozana - £800k from Pachuca - 5 star prospect my scouts found a year or so back but wasnt available to me until now. Also has 4 star CA so can come right into the first team. 21yr old Mexican international

Nathan - £15m from Athletico Paranaense - The big splash. I might have overpaid, caught starey eyed by a young, brilliant brazilan AMC who could replace Jurardo in the long term. Gives me 6 months to bed him in and at 20 he is ready for this

Andrija Zivkovic - £4.3m from Partizan - The second 5 star prospects had found. I wanted him in the summer but had no cash. He is already rated one of the best in my team, i just have to figure out how to fit him in.......

Guilherme Siqueira - Loan from Juve - 2 days before the window closed Cresswell went down for 3 months, and the backup (Jack Robinson) is poor so i needed a short term LB and this guy was on the loan list. Nice quality to get on loan...

Out

Fabian Noguera - £5m to Porto - A bit disapointed to not make a profit on this guy, who developed a lot with us but hit a plateau and wasnt needed with Zouma arriving. I seem to struggle to get good value when selling players this save

Jonathan Viera - Released - Short term signing filled the need, but with my excess of AMRLC types now, i will use some of them for striker depth so had no need for him any more

Pablo Sarabia - £1m to Braga - A strange one, he was brilliant last season, but in and out with injuries this. he was out of contract in the summer and refused to discuss a new deal. Braga got him on a pre-contract and £1m was all i could extract with the "sell now" button. I have enough depth in those positions that i didnt want to keep him around once the pre-contract was done

There were at least 3 others i wanted rid off, but even trying to sell them for zero, got no offers. And these were not ageing players on high wages. Wierd that i struggle to sell as QPR

[Torskus77]

Zouma for 4 million ! Steal of the century ! Chelsea sold him for 35 million on my long term save, to Wolfsburg. Was actually tempted to sign him myself, cos I had the funds,but it went against my transfer policy a bit, and I found another French Regen that looked like he could make it, so signed him instead.

Going to be a great run in on your save I feel, you have got some results against the big boys this time around, which could make all the difference.

[Jambo98]

February

EPL - Liverpool 1 v 2 QPR - Massive win for us. We were behind early to a Cavani goal and although we created a couple of chances, Liverpool were just about value for the lead. At HT Rodrigo was playing very poorly, and i just had a little incling to bring on Nathan, a player who was bought for CM(a) but play him up top, get a bit more creativity. He came on at HT and within 4mins he had us level. I decided not to tweak, a point was good but felt we could win. We battled on without ever dominating, until in the 93rd minute Nathan picked up a pass on the edge of the "D", shuffled round his marker with one touch and with the second smashed it into the far top corner. Superb. Worth the money!

EPL - Swansea 0 v 1 QPR - We were not at our best today but still had more of the game. A set piece goal in the first half had us in front but we couldnt add to it. Went defensive at 75mins as we only had that single goal advantage

Europa - QPR 3 v 0 Zenit - Knock out stages begin with a comfortable home win. We did some rotation, as we now have a bit of a bloated squad in midfield in particular. We were always in control so never tweaked

Europa - Zenit 1 v 1 QPR - Bit of a non even with us being so far clear, we rotated even more and led early but a red card on 49mins put us under pressure and they eventually equalised. Didnt bother to tweak as the tie was over

EPL - QPR 1 v 0 Middlesbrough - A tight affair, without many chances, We scored just before HT and the weather was horrible so i added "go more direct" at HT. We then had Palletta sent of on 66mins putting us in jeopardy so i went to defensive to see it out

EPL - Crystal Palace 0 v 1 QPR - A game we were well on top in, but for a long time it looked like a frustrating draw. After 55mins i actually changed a TI that i havent tweaked this save yet - i added "drop deeper" and then on 80mins i went "overload" and it paid off, with just 4mins to go Bonaventura fired in a vital winner. I woke the neighbours up jumping to celebrate this one i think......

Summary

A great month which started with the brilliant comeback win over Liverpool and then went on with nothing but wins domestically. We have now won 7 in a row in the league. We are 4pts clear at the top of Man U. Arsenal and Chelsea both sit 6 further back than Man U, but both have 2 games in hand. A net 4pt lead over all 3 teams for us. Some huge games to come with City away and Chelsea at Loftus road being 2 of our next 3 league games. Those could well determine if we are still fighting for the pot come May.

[Jambo98]

March

Europa - QPR 1 v 0 Dynamo Kyiv - Another good performance in Europe, again with a bit of rotation but with no game between the 2 legs again we could afford to play some of our top men. We totally dominated but only a single Rodrigo goal to show for it. No tweaks needed

Europa - Dynamo Kyiv 1 v 1 QPR (AET) - They made us battle. We were behind to an early goal, then they had a man sent off on the hour but we couldnt break through. I added "exploit the flanks" when they went down to 10. In ET we finally got the goal with 9mins to go to avoid pens, and we went to defensive right away just to hold out. We are through to the quarters to play Wolfsburg

EPL - Man City 1 v 0 QPR - Back to domestic duty and a potentially very damaging defeat. We were not at our best and against City away you have to be. We went attacking with 15 to go to try and equalise, but our chances were scuppered by a red card with 5mins to go.

EPL - QPR 4 v 1 Stoke - Needed to get back to winning ways and we did that. 3 nil up by 24th minute and the game was over. We added a 4th after they got one back from a corner. No tweaks and a real cruise.

Summary

Continued European progress is nice but not at the expense of that City game. That could have been so crucial for us as we had just about started to open a cushion. It leaves us now only 1pt ahead of chelsea with the same games played, and them coming to loftus road next. Utd a couple of pts further back.

Amazing to still be in the title fight at this point with this squad and the approach, i fear we might run out of legs in the dog days of April, but we will keep giving our all.

[Jambo98]

April

EPL - QPR 2 v 1 Chelsea - Absolutely massive. After the loss to Man City, this could have defined our season. We even came from behind after Jackson Martinez scored early, but we fought hard and slowly took control of the game. 2 second half goals from Rodrigo put us infront, and we went defensive at 80mins when Kranevitter got a second yellow to leave us in a tricky position. I also added "waste time" as well as moving to defensive, and we held out for what could be a huge 3pts

EPL - QPR 0 v 0 Everton - Sods law. Produce a great win then drop points in an "easier" game. We dominated but couldnt create enough clear chances. Attacking for the last 15mins yeilded no results. Back down to earth

Europa - QPR 2 v 3 Wolfsburg - Woefull keeper performance costs us in europe. We completely dominated, they had 4 shots on goal and scored 3, 2 of which were absolute chuck in's from the normally excellent Perin. Up against it now to qualify

EPL - Aston Villa 0 v 0 QPR - We are in danger of throwing away that hard earned win against Chelsea another performance lacking a bit of composure in the final third. We went attacking with a full 30mins to go but nothing happened. Now its tight at the top

Europa - Wolfsburg 3 v 3 QPR - What a crazy and soul destoying game. Needing to win by 2 goals, or at least 3 v 2, we managed to get into a 3 v 1 lead with 10mins to go. We went defensive only too concede 2 crazy simple goals to send us out. We got what we deserved over the 2 legs from really poor defending, plus throw in another rebound bug goal and i get rather frustrated at this ME........ No wins in 4 games now, right at the business end of the season

EPL - Arsenal 0 v 2 QPR - Huge bounceback. We would have been off the top without a win here, but an early Rodrigo Pen and a nice second half goal from Jurado gives us a comfortable win where i didnt even need to tweak at all. back to 2pts clear of Utd now.

EPL - QPR 4 v 1 Watford - A cruised win in the end with no tweaking. 2 goals in each half meant we never felt under any pressure and a nice composed performance with so much on the line. Utd dropped points as well

Summary

A wierdly mixed month. Great wins over Chelsea and Arsenal, but then a couple of silly nil nil draws and a poor exit from Europe. However, when all is said and done, we end April 4pts clear of Man Utd with 3 games to go. Chelsea are 1pt further back. We have this so close now. We have to play Huddersfield at home, who are fighting for their lifes and sit 17th, then Burnley and Newcastle both away both of whom are top 9 sides at the moment. We can afford one slip up from 3 games and still take home the big pot.

Squeaky bum time!

[Jambo98]

May

EPL - QPR 3 v 0 Huddersfield - We defied the pressure to cruise to a win, which combined with Utd dropping points again puts us within a single point of the title! 3 nil up by 34mins we were cruising so i didnt tweak a thing. Surely now we cant throw this way.....

EPL - Burnley 3 v 2 QPR - Oh FFS!!! Are you kidding me? Needing a point to win the title, we manage to screw up big time. We ended up 2 v 0 down at HT and i was raging. We pulled one back quickly but then on 63mins Cresswell puts us right in it by diving in for a straight red. None the less, we pile forward without a LB and with 10mins remaining Zivkovic gets us an equaliser to put us within grasp of the title! I immediately bring on an LB for the CM(a) and go to "contain" and "waste time" and "retain possession". Imagine the rage when with 3mins to go we gave away a soft pen to throw away the title today..........oh well, never the easy way!!!

EPL - Newcastle 1 v 1 QPR - CHAMPIONS! We needed a point, although as it turned out we didnt as Utd dropped more points, but none the less we didnt want to end with 2 defeats. We scored on the half hour through Zivkovic and were always on top. It got a bit nervy when Colback smashed in a freekick on 70mins. I didnt trust my team to go defensive so i just added "retain possession" and used some subs to freshen up. We held on easily for the point which would have given the title regardless of results elsewhere. Elation!!

Summary

Well we made it a real sweat, and we were helped by Utd throwing points away, but we did it. QPR - Champions of England. The ultimate vindication for "simplicity". I honestly didnt think it could possibly take us this far.

a

I will do a season summary post showing the end results and some stats etc, but there you go. Absolutely proof that you do not need to micro-manage tactics, or have 4 different tactics to switch between, in order to have long term success on Football Manager I hope some people can see this and take heart etc

[RTHerringbone]

Good stuff Jambo98 An enjoyable thread and absolutely in keeping with my view that that the game really isn't as hard as some people make it out to be

[wwfan]

How does the enjoyability stack up with how you previously tried to play?

[THOG]

Terrific thread that I've been thoroughly enjoying, Jambo. The concept and execution is brilliant.

One thing I would say is that you shouldn't sell this approach short in terms of being an interesting tactical challenge. You can play a very tactical game while leaving TIs, roles, etc. virtually untouched. Team selection is itself a powerful and versatile set of tactical options, and especially at lower levels of play where managers rely on a more basic approach, choosing the right XI for the job is what it's all about.

[Jambo98]

Good stuff Jambo98 An enjoyable thread and absolutely in keeping with my view that that the game really isn't as hard as some people make it out to be

Thanks RTH It would be a bit hypocritcal of me to say the game isnt hard to me - I have had my share of problems and failures over the years. I think that its easy to get caught up on one aspect of the game though and not properly manage the others. If anything, what this does is re-inforces the scale of impact that things like squad management, scouting and recruitment can have on the game. I made some prety crazy looking choices early in terms of the debt i incurred by releasing rubbish players, but it was all part of a bigger plan to build a squad and team of the right quality and type. Thats what brought this success, was the squad building and management. Finding a guy like Rodrigo who wasnt wanted at his current club as a winger and making him my main striker. Taking a guy like Jurado who was hitting 30 and playing in Russia and seeing his PPM's and attribute balance fitting into my sytems. Taking a guy like Sarabria and accepting his weaknesses because his strengths and price outweighed them.

If you can do all those things in the game, and not fall into bad squad management traps, you can succeed without tactical micromanagement. You do, however, always, need a very good solid tactic in place and the 451 gives me exactly that. It has never failed me, from Liverpool to Hearts, Morton to QPR, Bilbao to Crewe.

How does the enjoyability stack up with how you previously tried to play?

Now that is a really good and pertinent question! I enjoyed the success of course, and i have always been a great lover of the scouting and squad management aspects of FM, however i did fell a touch less "invested" in this save than for example in my Bilboa DNA approach. Partly because as well as tactical simplicity here i also tried to keep training basic and not focus loads on youth development (Just as well as QPR are awful in that area!)

Overall i think i still prefer a bit more depth in my approach, but the flipside is i didnt have any frustrations around failed tweaks or doing things which dont seem to make a difference

Terrific thread that I've been thoroughly enjoying, Jambo. The concept and execution is brilliant.

One thing I would say is that you shouldn't sell this approach short in terms of being an interesting tactical challenge. You can play a very tactical game while leaving TIs, roles, etc. virtually untouched. Team selection is itself a powerful and versatile set of tactical options, and especially at lower levels of play where managers rely on a more basic approach, choosing the right XI for the job is what it's all about.

Cheers THOG. Using team selection as a tactical tool is something i really got into at Bilbao. I started to use very different player types to change a role completely. Alternating my striker between Raul Garcia and Iker Munian could completely change things without any tactical tweaks.

Interestingly in this save i did that quite a bit less. A lot of my squad building was more "identikit" type players who replicate each other. Partly down to whom was available, and perhaps as i started to build the final squad i had some more variation, but guys like Kusk/Bonaventura/Sarabria were all quite similar, as was Jurado to Bernardo Silva and even the various backup strikers i signed i never went for a more strong type in the way i did with Raul Garcia. I have to be honest and say on reflection, i might well have missed a trick there in this save.

[Jambo98]

Ok, a bit belated, but here is the screenshots included season review

Season 3 - QPR - Champions

Final League Table - I have to be fair here, 80pts was an exceptionally low number to win the league with. Last season that would not even have got us into the top 4, but they all count Part of the reason that the other "big" clubs didnt get such high points totals is that we did very well against them

Past Positions - Showing how we led from the front for most of the second half of the season

Some stats - Passing % - Interesting that we had the second highest average possession of the division. I dont intentionally set out to be extreme in retaining possession, but the formation lends itself to this with 2 DLP in the middle

More Stats - Goals Conceded - The best defensive record in the division, proud of that. Not exactly a world beating back 4, with Caulker and Cresswell in there, but we had stability, signed a top man in Zouma and have such a solid midfield setup aided by hard workers out wide to double back

More Stats - Net transfer Spend - See, we didnt need Fernandez big bucks to gain success On a more serious note, this reflects the squad management aspect - taking value when you can (even if my biggest sale was board enforced!)

Yet more Stats - Salary per Annum - Now thats real moneyball. 14th highest payroll in the league, and champions. We spent £20m less this year on wages than Stoke, who got relegated. More amazingly, we spent around 1/5th of what the Mancs clubs did and we beat them. Talk about finding value in the market place.......

Player Stats - Pass Completion - This is what the 2 DLP do - They pass, pass, pass and so rarely give it away. This is why the 2 of them are in the top 6 pass completion % in the division

Player stats - Distance covered/90 - And this is why attacking players from midfield are so good, and how you make them good. Lazy flair types wont get it done in these roles, at least not in all 3. These 3 all are hard workers as well as being good going forward which shows in how much distance they cover

Player stats - Interceptions - This is what a big guy at the back does. He wins everything and keeps the backdoor shut. Caulker is a rock, and first choice for his country now

The squad summary - A real spread of appearances, goals and assists. Rodrigo was, of course, vital. But the wide men, Kusk and Bonaventura were also imporant. Sarabria contributed plenty before his January departure as well

[LEEMOD]

Another fantastic thread Jambo!!

Shows there is more than one way to skin a cat!

[CowShedBarmyArmy]

Fantastic thread Jambo, I'm a Morton fan so thats what got my attention initially but the tactical system was the thing that struck me the most. I often have a slump, change tactics and end up making things worse.

I love the idea of your 4-5-1 with so many options to tailor it for my needs.

Keep up the good work!

[Jambo98]

I think the thread now has a new greatest achievement. Not winning the league with QPR. No sir. Finding two morton fans in the same place :D

Funnily enough i went back to this save just yesterday. I decided to try and see if i can use simplicity to do something i havent done since around FM12 - Win 4 "big leagues" in one save. Having secured the EPL, i want to try and go on and try and capture La liga, Serie A and budesliga - All sticking to the simplicity principles in this thread.

I wont update the thread month by month again as i think thats run its course and would bore people. But after the end of the QPR season i looked to see what was available job wise. Italy stuck out, as 3 big clubs had sacked managers - Milan, Napoli and Fiorentina.

I have managed Milan a few times before, and the squad is always a mess of old players and too many players overall, so i steered clear. Fiorentina i like but they didnt have much quality. So looked at Napoli and they seemed quite well suited to my system. Few players that fit in perfectly and are good quality (Alvarez Balanta, Jorghino, Hamsik, Insigne, Higuian). So off i go to Naples to see if we can "simply" win Serie A