Stourbridge - tactical support/ramblings thread : lower-league 3-5-2

[noikeee]

First season - counter-attacking 4-1-4-1

 

Hello, I'm doing a Dafuge Challenge with Stourbridge and a Career Updates thread about it. I don't wish to spam the whole forum about it, but I figured a thread here about my tactics could be interesting either to help users, or for people to give me ideas.

I've just finished season 1 in which we played a 4-1-4-1. This was wildly successful at first, but our second half of the season was poor and we finished 12th.

 

On 25/10/2016 at 01:32, noikeee said:

 

GK: Dan Wallis (19, ENG) - 45 apps, 12 clean sheets, 6.86AR

 

DL: Louis Moss (25, BRB) - 14 apps, 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.11AR

 

DC: Gradi Milenge (21, ENG) - 42(1) apps, 2 goals, 1 assist, 7.05AR

 

DC: Joel Bonner (19, ENG) - 34(3) apps, 2 goals, 6.91AR

 

DR: Ryan Auger (23, ENG) - 38 apps, 2 goals, 6.89AR

 

DM: Lloyd Kerry (30, ENG) - 35(3) apps, 2 goals, 2 assists, 7.04AR

 

MC: Jacob Evans (20, ENG) - 33(11) apps, 2 goals, 2 assists, 6.97AR

 

MC: Greg Tempest (24, ENG) - 27(12) apps, 4 goals, 2 assists, 6.87AR

 

MR: Daniel Emerton (26, ENG) - 41(2) apps, 1 goal, 11 assists, 7.04AR

 

AML: Wilfred Gnahore (22, CIV) - 39(3) apps, 4 goals, 8 assists, 6.92AR

 

ST: Charles-Anthony Weston-Hayles (20, ENG) - 44(1) apps, 23 goals, 3 assists, 7.09AR

 

 

The basic concept was:

 

- we were massive underdogs and we could rely on opponents coming at us most of the time. It made sense to stack up as many bodies behind the ball as possible and exploit the space they'd give us. Therefore the base shape was something extremely similar to Cleon's Art of Counter-Attack.

- The Art of Counter-Attack was most fitting for a more supporting striker like a DLF/S or a DF/D, but I had a poacher-esque pacey striker that was too good for me not to use him. Therefore I made him a DLF/A and pushed up Gnahore from ML to AML to give him a little more support (this also suited Gnahore at the beginning who couldn't play ML before retraining).

- Slightly rising up the defensive line worked better in pre-season to avoid us getting cornered all match. Not too much because we don't have pace at the back and we need space to counter.

- With no aerial threat upfront, low crosses made sense.

- I believe there's a small issue with the ME at the moment with players taking too many long shots. Obviously many of our players are too poor to take the right decision, and are often isolated offensively, but Work Ball Into Box helps a little. This also decreases crosses which suited us.

 

However, there were problems:

 

- Massive over-reliance on Weston-Hayles and his pace, personified by his 23 goals yet the next top scorer was on 4 goals. We were extremely one-dimensional. Unlike Cleon's setup, we hardly ever setup actual counters, and didn't create enough opportunities for the players rushing in from midfield when not on the counter. It'd occasionally happen but my midfield players aren't good enough to convert consistently, and with Weston-Hayles on attack duty, we lacked the forward dropping deep to drag defenders out of shape.

- Unsurprisingly, as the season went on, we stopped being underdogs and the opposition started giving us less space to attack. With the plan relying on space for Weston-Hayles to run into, our attack crumbled apart. We were particularly awful at chasing games, and alternative tactics didn't work much better.

- An unforeseen consequence of the AI rating us higher, was that they attacked us better. I believe at the beginning of the season the AI rated us so low they came at us with overly attacking mentalities, and just ran into our bus ineffectively. As the season went on, they started to figure out how to patiently pull us apart. We started getting cornered more often (not helped by our midfield being packed with players that are too passive), and conceding more goals both by the ground (through balls or square passes), and a lot of crosses and headed goals in set pieces.

 

[noikeee]

Ahead of season 2 - Plan to switch to 3-5-2

 

I believe, as our club progresses in reputation and expectations, this setup is not suitable anymore for us to move on to the next level. I am also losing my AML Wilfred Gnahore whose contract is expiring, and I'm not finding a suitable replacement. Therefore, my plan for the new season, is a 3-5-2:

 

 

Benefits:

 

- A striker partner stops Weston-Hayles from being as isolated as he was. Hopefully this will lead to higher variance of goalscorers, and for easier transitions from defence to attack.

- An extra central defender should help us defend better the space in front of goal, both by shutting off passing angles better, and by helping to clear aerial balls.

- Unlike a flat 4-4-2 variant we tried sporadically this season, a 3-5-2 allows us to retain a trio of midfielders, which we really missed in the 4-4-2 to control the midfield compared to the 4-1-4-1.

- I believe this gives us extra cover to free up Evans from a DLP/S to a AP/S role, which hopefully will improve our game when trying to unlock stacked defences, and/or when chasing games. This need to take more initiative is also why I'm ramping up mentality from Counter to Standard.

 

Potential problems:

 

- Obviously a narrow formation will always be weaker down the flanks. Since we were already conceding goals from crosses, I don't believe this is going to be a massive downside compared to our previous setup.

- I want to retain Daniel Emerton in the side as he's too good to be dropped, and he can play wingback, but I'm concerned he's just not a good player defensively at all. We need to watch out to see if we're too easily exploited down our right flank.

- I'm struggling to find a good striker partner for Weston-Hayles in the transfer market. Ideally I'd like someone with good passing/vision, and good jumping (so we can drop the low crosses instruction, and add some variety), but the best I've found is a guy that suits a defensive forward role better.

- I'm unsure how to best balance roles left-to-right, specially the midfielders and the strikers, and whether I should add some variety to my CB roles. Some advice would be appreciated.

[herne79]

Kinda busy atm and I'm away for a few days from 2nd November, but I plan to take part (when I'm back) in Dafuge's challenge this year for the first time.  Interested to see how people approach this, so thanks for posting. 

Now if only I can get Folkestone Invicta (my nearest team) loaded...

[noikeee]

28 minutes ago, herne79 said:

Kinda busy atm and I'm away for a few days from 2nd November, but I plan to take part (when I'm back) in Dafuge's challenge this year for the first time.  Interested to see how people approach this, so thanks for posting. 

Now if only I can get Folkestone Invicta (my nearest team) loaded...

In the Dafuge Challenge thread there's a guy managing Folkestone, I'm sure you can get them.

[Wenger6]

Great post. Looking forward to this. Any insight on the kind of striker you want to sign? 

[Ceching You Out]

Admittedly knowing none of the players, the formation looks decent on paper. I would want my paciest DC on the right of the three since that's where I'd expect there to be space for quick counter-attacks.

If you can't find a DLF(s), another possibility is looking for an AM or SS to sit a little deeper but still link. Could make you weaker on crosses but more of a threat on the ground and a little more defensive.

[noikeee]

5 hours ago, Wenger6 said:

Great post. Looking forward to this. Any insight on the kind of striker you want to sign? 

Ideally, high vision, passing and aerial ability. That's the main priorities.

1 hour ago, Ceching You Out said:

Admittedly knowing none of the players, the formation looks decent on paper. I would want my paciest DC on the right of the three since that's where I'd expect there to be space for quick counter-attacks.

If you can't find a DLF(s), another possibility is looking for an AM or SS to sit a little deeper but still link. Could make you weaker on crosses but more of a threat on the ground and a little more defensive.

That would be similar to what I had in an alternative plan in a 4-4-1-1 with Gnahore as AMC/S behind Weston-Hayles but it just didn't work.

[noikeee]

First impressions about the 3-5-2 from pre-season are good. It played out almost exactly like I expected. My only tweak was to make the AP/S a AP/A as I felt the midfield was too far from the duo of forwards, I wanted him to link up play higher up the pitch.

And in Adam Boyes I think I picked up almost the perfect player for what I wanted in the DLF/S position.

[Wenger6]

12 hours ago, noikeee said:

First impressions about the 3-5-2 from pre-season are good. It played out almost exactly like I expected. My only tweak was to make the AP/S a AP/A as I felt the midfield was too far from the duo of forwards, I wanted him to link up play higher up the pitch.

And in Adam Boyes I think I picked up almost the perfect player for what I wanted in the DLF/S position.

Those mentals are pretty solid for a big man. Tell us how that new striker partnership gets along. 

[noikeee]

On 26/10/2016 at 13:23, Wenger6 said:

Those mentals are pretty solid for a big man. Tell us how that new striker partnership gets along. 

They get along pretty decently.  

[noikeee]

Plan A: the 3-5-2 works as intended

 

Mid-season we're comfortably 1st place (we have a 12 points lead, although 2nd place Hednesford has 2 games in hand) and I can definitely say the 3-5-2 has been a success.

 

 

As you can see, I'm still sticking to what's almost exactly the planned shape, with the only exception being the switch from AP/S role to AP/A role to link up midfield and attack better. I use absolutely no TIs and PIs, the most average team shape and mentality, and the only thing that's customized are the set piece instructions. This is as bog standard as it gets, and it works.

 

That being said, I have experimented with some variations as this isn't ideal for every single match.

 

 

Plan B: Overload the middle on a 3-6-1

 

Whilst the 3-5-2 is not as dependent on the opposition being agressive and giving us space as last year's 4-1-4-1, it still works best under those conditions. A common issue we face, mostly against teams that are patient against us, is that they not only don't give us much space to attack, but also win the possession battle and corner us in our area, often thanks to having free fullbacks that we cannot defend against due to our narrow formation with lack of cover on the wings. Whilst our defensive shape is fine and I can trust my players not to concede too many goals even when cornered all match long, the sheer lack of possession makes it extremely difficult for us to score apart from fleeting long-ball breaks for poacher Weston-Hayles.

 

Someone else in this thread has suggested making the 2nd striker a shadow striker and this is exactly what I've done for these matches.

 

 

The shadow striker basically is a striker that starts up as a AMC, specially in the early stages of buildup. This is particularly useful because often our 2 strikers in plan A are positioned high up against the centre-backs, and are too easily beaten to the ball whenever we attempt transition from defence to attack. An AMC instead of a 2nd striker allows us to transition better, therefore retain more possession, therefore create more chances.

 

Please notice there's another slight variation here: the poacher has been turned into a DLF/A, further overloading the middle. This is a tweak I decide on a match-by-match basis, as sometimes I feel retaining a man on the shoulder of the last defender (as poacher) is more useful. However, in occasion, the extra overload of the middle with a DLF/A instead, can be extremely effective. The next video depicts how we picked apart AFC Telford's 4-4-2 in the FA Trophy, due to both strikers dropping deep and completely overwhelming Telford's lack of players in the middle of the pitch:

 

 

 

Plan C: When desperate for a goal, we move to a 2-6-2 (sort of)

 

It should be clear enough in both plans A and B that our main priority, regardless of how we intend to attack the opposition, is to retain a solid defensive shape. Indeed we have only conceded 17 goals in 26 league matches so far, a record I'm delighted with. Nevertheless, sometimes priorities change: what if we're losing and just need to get a goal by all means possible? I have been experimenting with a more aggressive shape for these situations:

 

 

Technically, this isn't really a 2-6-2. It's a lopsided 3-5-2, or a 4-4-2 diamond with a wingback high up. The name comes to highlight that the main change from plan A, is that we drop a centre-back for an attacking midfielder. With my RWB being really a winger that can't defend, and my LWB being more of a defender, I decided to push the LWB back to LB position to be ever so slighly more solid on what otherwise would be a ridiculously attacking formation. The mentality has also been increased, and I've added further aggressive TIs in "close down more" and "get stuck in".

 

I've not yet truly clicked with this formation, it hasn't been effective in many occasions (although, thankfully, since we've been winning most matches, we haven't had to switch to plan C that often that I get to test it much!). The idea is simply to have more men upfront and be more forceful. However, recently against Hednesford we managed to use it to turn a match around from a 0-1 defeat to a 2-1 win, with two goals in minutes 79 and 84. Our 2nd goal in particular should show how the extra man upfront can be useful:

 

[noikeee]

Another tweak I've been doing occasionally, is to drop down the duties of both wingbacks - to WB/D on the left and WB/S on the right. I find this particularly important when trying to close out matches, specially when teams are going all-out-attack against us, or simply matching/outnumbering us with tactics such as the 4-3-3 narrow (with 3 strikers, 3 midfielders and 2 attacking fullbacks). This prevents us from being counter-countered by committing too many men forward when the opposition is leaving so many men upfront themselves.

[CityAndColour]

As I posted in your career thread, I am also using this formation (or a variation of it) and really enjoy it. I find it produces some really nice football and also covers most areas of the pitch defensively - obviously the weakness as with any 3-5-2 is the flanks but having the three centre halves and also a DMC tends to at least load the centre if/when crosses come in. I also use the "prevent short GK distribution" shout to try and prevent the AI playing out through their full backs.

Will follow this thread with interest. My system has the following points of difference:

1) My left wingback is a CWB on attack (I am Hungerford so I have Nicky Shorey there, who is still excellent), which is balanced by having the left centre half on a cover duty. The right side is simply as WB on support - like you i switch them to support and defensive later in games.

2) I play a sort of 1-1 up top, with a shadow striker in the AMCL spot and a TM(s) as the right striker. I really like target men in this version as they come deep to get the ball really effectively, however also still get on the end of chances in and around the area.

3) My CM combination is an AP(s) on the left and an CM(a) on the right. The AP obviously holds his position and will often play the CWB in, while the CM is my top scorer due to his habit of getting into the box. When the ball goes through the TM he often has two team mates rushing to get into the box, and the WB on the right as options.

The only downside so far is I am not getting many goals out of my SS, but his ratings are still good and he has the most assists.

[noikeee]

35 minutes ago, CityAndColour said:

2) I play a sort of 1-1 up top, with a shadow striker in the AMCL spot and a TM(s) as the right striker. I really like target men in this version as they come deep to get the ball really effectively, however also still get on the end of chances in and around the area.

As you can see above, my "plan B" 361 also involves a shadow striker (as AMCR), and I've found myself switching to this plan B more and more, to the point I'm now using it in the majority of matches. So we're on the same page here.

I still prefer starting on the 352 shape, because if we succeed at dominating the midfield and possession on this shape, it's 2 targets upfront instead of 1 (although unlike yours, my Shadow Striker does score a lot of goals too in that role!). I also find this 361 way more effective vs teams that don't put too many bodies in the middle of the park (ie the flat 4-4-2); whilst if I face a team that stacks the centre of midfield (ex: narrow 4231), I might as well just bypass it and go direct instead of trying to even out numbers in there by dropping the striker to AMC. To do this, I'll sometimes switch my 2nd striker to TM/S (retaining the other guy as poacher).

 

Quote

3) My CM combination is an AP(s) on the left and an CM(a) on the right. The AP obviously holds his position and will often play the CWB in, while the CM is my top scorer due to his habit of getting into the box. When the ball goes through the TM he often has two team mates rushing to get into the box, and the WB on the right as options.

You know what, I actually really like this idea. I'm struggling to get goals out of my midfielders, if you look at my statistics in the career thread you'll see that my goals were almost all scored exclusively by the 2 strikers Weston-Hayles and Boyes. I might as well switch my 2 MCs to this combination of roles and see what happens. It's not as if I need the supposed extra cover that a BBM gives over a CM/A or a AP/S - I've got 4 guys behind him in DM and CB.

 

Thanks for the ideas!

[CityAndColour]

No problem - I am still experimenting myself anyway.

I initially had the DMC as a support duty, but found that as he would push up when we had the ball, when the inevitable turnover happened (both due to the level of play and my insistence of playing short passing/work ball into box) the AI would just clear it to the middle of the pitch, where a striker would drop deep and collect the ball unchallenged. Switching him to a defend duty has at least reduced this, while not losing too much in an attacking sense.

I love 3-5-2 formations but haven't gotten one to work for an extended period of matches since FM13. Only 14 matches in so time will tell!

[noikeee]

3rd season struggles

 

After getting promotion to the Vanarama National, I'm now suddenly struggling big time and am dead last after 6 or 7 matches. I need to analyse this more in detail, but I wonder whether there's been some subtle changes to the ME in recent patches to the Beta and in the move to the fullgame. What I've witnessed:

 

1) a lot of very daft mistakes by my defenders. I think I conceded at least 2 goals due to horrible backpasses straight to the opposition forwards.

2) slightly scrappier midfield passing, I never had huge possession numbers but am struggling to make my 3rd midfielder count even against teams with just 2 CMs, previously the extra passing option was a VERY noticeable advantage.

3) big man beating my centre-backs in the air is a recurrent theme, occasionally the odd unmarked guy getting at the end of a cross as well. I do have a quality big CB right in the middle of my trio of CBs, but they're not dealing with the threat well enough. Which is concerning as I thought this was the strongest area of my squad after some recent signings!

4) less clean breaks for my poacher, he used to get a lot of them before, particularly against such attacking teams like I'm facing at this level (as we're heavy underdogs for most matches). I'd expect defenders at this level to be slightly quicker, but it's still not as effective to boot it up for the poacher to run onto it as I expected.

 

The plan is all crumbling apart, really. The reason I think it might be ME changes, is because all 4 problems are things I would've expected to see at lower level but wasn't seeing. There wasn't enough silly mistakes, passing was too slick, a 3rd CB made a little too much difference to keep crosses out, and a poacher was a little too effective vs a high line. This is more realistic and perhaps I was exploiting a little flaw here and there. Now I'm not sure what to do. I might insist a little further to see if it's just a bad run of form and new signings not having gelled, but I may need a serious rethink of system.

[CityAndColour]

I am having similar issues. I was promoted using this system first season with Hungerford Town, which probably came too soon given the low reputation of the club. The result was taking only three points from my first 11 games in the Conference (albeit a very tough fixture) before I have stemmed the tide somewhat with a 4-4-1-1. I want to go back to my usual system at some point but right now simply don't have the players to do so.

[Rashidi]

On 25/10/2016 at 20:41, herne79 said:

Kinda busy atm and I'm away for a few days from 2nd November, but I plan to take part (when I'm back) in Dafuge's challenge this year for the first time.  Interested to see how people approach this, so thanks for posting. 

Now if only I can get Folkestone Invicta (my nearest team) loaded...

This is your first time? Wow, you should do the challenge, its highly engaging.

[noikeee]

7 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

I am having similar issues. I was promoted using this system first season with Hungerford Town, which probably came too soon given the low reputation of the club. The result was taking only three points from my first 11 games in the Conference (albeit a very tough fixture) before I have stemmed the tide somewhat with a 4-4-1-1. I want to go back to my usual system at some point but right now simply don't have the players to do so.

I'll report back at the end of season to confirm whether I managed to avoid relegation or not (it's looking like a 50/50 chance now - what a tense season!), but the measures I took meanwhile that appear to have improved us, are:

The main reason we're struggling so much is a huge amount of conceded goals from crosses. This makes sense given our lack of cover in wide areas, with attacking fullbacks particularly effective against us as they're completely free. 

* So my first tweak was to push up the DM to MC, making it a trio of MCs which pushes the outer MC wider and gives out less space on the wings. I also ticked "play wider" hoping it would help (although I've been told before this only affects attacking shape, not defensive shape, I'm not 100% entirely sure of that yet). I noticed a slight improvement with this and no evil side effects.

* That was still not enough to kill off the crosses though, so in desperate times I used an old trick back from my FM12 days when I played a 4-3-1-2, which is to tell my strikers to directly mark the fullbacks. By now both my strikers already had "close down much more" and "mark tightly" too.

* However this meant the strikers track back marking the fullbacks into VERY deep areas. Which is a problem as we essentially had all of our 11 men around our box, and obviously struggled to transition to attack (it also negates the chance of a long/direct ball being played for the poacher to run onto, which is rare but produces some great chances). I need someone to sit higher up, so I pushed my MCL to AMCL (usually on AM/A role), to help. This also makes us much more dangerous in possession, because that triangle of AMCL-ST-ST is much more effective at dragging defenders out of position, and certainly lets us score more.

We can still be far too deep with the AM the only man up high, though; so I evaluate things on a case-by-case basis. If we desperately need a goal, I might give up on the strikers tracking back the fullbacks.

* I'm also starting to experiment with 4-3-1-2 variants for certain situations, usually when we need a goal. With my WBs capable of playing as FBs; and at least one of my CBs even better suited to midfielder than CB (though he's a DM not a MC which is what I would've liked), this doesn't necessarily mean having to waste a substitution.

[CityAndColour]

We are six points from safety with 21 matches played, with a quite embarrassing record of 2-6-13. However, the fact our goal difference is only -15 and we've only shipped 34 goals points to the fact we actually haven't played all that badly, we just seem to be on the wrong side of the odd goal constantly. Have also had some bad luck, missing a penalty in a 0-0 and goal-keeping errors when I was 1-0 up in consecutive games (they ended 2-2 and 1-2), and no less than four equalisers against in the last five minutes. Once morale goes it's tough to get it back, especially without the player quality.

Last match I took an early lead, then had a player sent off for two yellows in the 28th minute, held on until the 92nd before one of those annoying missed headers by a centre half meant a long ball down the middle found a striker to score.

Surprisingly, I haven't been hit with crosses much. The most common chance I concede is losing possession on the edge of the area, and the AI immediately goes long to a striker who drops in between midfield and defence unmarked. I am really struggling to find a solution to this, even with three centre backs, a DMC and now the "push higher up" shout ticked.

[noikeee]

40 minutes ago, CityAndColour said:

We are six points from safety with 21 matches played, with a quite embarrassing record of . However, the fact our goal difference is only -15 and we've only shipped 34 goals points to the fact we actually haven't played all that badly, we just seem to be on the wrong side of the odd goal constantly. Have also had some bad luck, missing a penalty in a 0-0 and goal-keeping errors when I was 1-0 up in consecutive games (they ended 2-2 and 1-2), and no less than four equalisers against in the last five minutes. Once morale goes it's tough to get it back, especially without the player quality.

That was very similar to my experience at first. Oh, we've not been that terrible, there's been too many unlucky events, the system is fundamentally sound, my luck will turn... that was I told myself. But then I realized I had to rise up my standards and change things, fight and adapt, otherwise we would very definitely be going down (and that's still a very serious threat).

I think I also lost some points with experiments, and some plain poorly thought out tactical tweaks. At some stage against a narrow 4-3-3 I tried telling my wingbacks to mark the opposing fullbacks, which made for a disastrous defeat: my WBs went way high up to follow the FBs, and we became 3 vs 3 at the back. Oops. 

 

Quote

Surprisingly, I haven't been hit with crosses much. The most common chance I concede is losing possession on the edge of the area, and the AI immediately goes long to a striker who drops in between midfield and defence unmarked. I am really struggling to find a solution to this, even with three centre backs, a DMC and now the "push higher up" shout ticked.

What you're describing isn't a chance though, it's the beginning of a chance. What happens afterwards, does the striker dropping deep pass the ball to someone rushing past him? I think your idea to "push higher up" might be counterproductive - sure he has less space to win the ball at first, but after he does, your defenders might be too keen to close him down, and by consequence gift space behind them. I would just let him win the first ball, and patiently wait in your strong defensive shape.

Alternatively you might try adding another body to the DM area. So perhaps a flat 4 and 2 DMs instead of a back 3, a DM and WBs.

[CityAndColour]

He generally turns and plays in his strike partner. I am finding my defenders, particularly the three central guys, are very passive in this situation. If they are going to allow the first ball to be taken down, they should be trying to reduce his passing options, but I'm not seeing that which is why I am reluctant to sit back. I might try dropping deeper instead of pushing up to see if this makes a difference.

[noikeee]

On 16/11/2016 at 11:49, noikeee said:

I'll report back at the end of season to confirm whether I managed to avoid relegation or not (it's looking like a 50/50 chance now - what a tense season!)

Nope. 

I think telling the strikers to track back in most occasions, made us too negative for the remainder of the season. I went on a very very long winless run and we went down.

Whilst 3-5-2 is what got us promoted to the Vanarama National in the first place, I might abandon narrow tactics and go back to something more conventional like a 4-1-4-1 again.

 

[CityAndColour]

46 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Nope. 

I think telling the strikers to track back in most occasions, made us too negative for the remainder of the season. I went on a very very long winless run and we went down.

Whilst 3-5-2 is what got us promoted to the Vanarama National in the first place, I might abandon narrow tactics and go back to something more conventional like a 4-1-4-1 again.

 

I might be joining soon - at the halfway point we remain rooted to the bottom, five points from safety. Last three results have been draws though, and the gap is still close enough that a good run somewhere might save us, but there is not much room for error.

I switched to structured for my last game and got a credible home 2-2 draw with Forest Green, a game in which we were very much their equal. I am going to stick with the 3-5-2 as I really like the formation, and will more focus on the roles within and how my team sets up.

 

[CityAndColour]

A strange season for me.

After posting the above, I played Braintree at home in the FA Trophy, and had a man sent off and two serious injuries. This kicked off a torrid run where we seemed to get an injury or a red card every game (at one point I had 10 of a 23 man squad unavailable), and a run of nine defeats in ten all but consigned us to relegation. For a lot of this time I switched to a 4-1-4-1 which kept things tight, but inevitably we didn't have the quality to keep a clean sheet and/or score goals.

We staved off relegation until the penultimate round by going 6-3-2 over the final 11 matches, but it was too little too late. That 11 game run was achieved by going back to my normal 3-5-2 however so I am going to keep using this system in my attempts to bounce back.