Love thy neighbour? Not this Angel!

[smp20]

Before I go into detail with the tactics and squad building, I thought I'd finish up the 2017/18 season with a review . Two competitions entered, two won. The match of the season is an interesting choice as I'd place both Real Madrid games and the 5-3 vs Barcelona above that, the 3 games that ultimately won us the title.

Player Stats

This is a stats overview of our whole first team, in all 47 games were played. Top goalscorer and creator Penaranda was ever-present in La Liga and lead the rating charts, closely followed by Ro-Shaun Williams. His high rating comes from his incredible amount of interceptions, 705 in 37 games, an incredible 19 per game average and nearly 200 more than the next highest in the league (Sergio Ramos 525, Tiago Ilori 519).

Awards 

Facilities

We've upgraded our Training & Youth Facilities so we're looking pretty good now. Not had the option to upgrade the Junior Coaching / Recruitment again yet.

Finances

A very solid financial position which is likely to get even better when we get the new sponsorship & TV deals.

Interesting times ahead for the club!!!

The Stars

 

 

[smp20]

Getafe - The Philosophy

Tactic

 

Additional Individual Instructions: GK - Roll it out, Distribute to Full Backs, DMs - Play more risky passes, All Players - shoot less often

Attacking Strategy

A very fluid, attacking approach lends itself to an aggressive, creative style of play. Our very fluid shape gives each player a high level of creative freedom, which is something that I want to encourage. We play at a high tempo, looking to move the ball forward quickly into dangerous. However, I also don't want to waste possession of the ball, so we aim to keep it on the ground (short) for the most part and play it out from the back. Our primary attacking aim is to get the ball into our strikers who can link up with each other or with the wingers breaking into the final third, hence the fairly narrow approach, but I don't want to be too restrictive in the way we do that and the players have the creative freedom to choose their attacking style. Whether that's getting the ball into the strikers feet asap and playing 1-2s, bombing down the wing and delivering, playing through balls from the DM or any other way they can think of I don't mind, variety is the key. And of course, there is the deadly counter attack.

Defensive Strategy

The combination of the very fluid shape and high line brings the lines of the team together. Also opting for DMs instead of MCs gets rid of any central gaps making it nigh on impossible for teams to break through centrally, providing there are no individual errors. We press very high up the pitch with the aim to win the ball high in the oppositions half. If a team progresses into our half we organise with two solid banks of 4, complete with tight marking giving no player the time or space to exploit us. Our key area for winning the ball is in the DM area, where we press aggressively to prevent the opposition being able to take on our back 4. If, for whatever reason, the opposition can play a long ball over the top / through ball or they dribble past our DM strata then we rely on the pace of our back line (particularly our CBs). Our pressing style acts as a machine, where there is little room for individual error. We spend most of the season concentrating our match prep on 'Defensive Positioning' - Arrigo Sacchi would call this shadow play.

Squad Building

Rather than screenshot every single player, I've highlighted the first eleven's physical and mental attributes. We recently lost Pepelu to Inter for £20m release clause, but we had already picked up a good DM, Marcos Llorente, on a free. A creative type. Overall I will look to have 2 strong players in every position, with a balance of all-rounders and those that have a bit more flair/creativity, although not at expense of the requisite attributes: Determination, Work Rate, Teamwork and Pace/Acceleration. These are the foundations of the side, as you will see below:

Attacking Strategy in Action

Lethal Counter

A large amount of our goals will come from deadly counter attacks. Often we will win the ball in the DM strata and launch an attack utilising 2 or more of our front 4.

Wing Play

With a tactic using two attacking wingers it would be nonsensical to not utilise them fully. Here you can see  our left winger beating his full-back 1v1 and whip a ball into the box. Typical 4-4-2 wing play at it's best.

Front 2 Link Up Play

Here we have two examples of when our two forwards have linked up to score using a high tempo, pace and good off the ball movement. The complete forward drops deep, playing the advanced forward through on both occasion. The four goals you've seen so far were all from the 4-1 win vs Real Madrid at the Bernebeu.

DM Through Balls

Here is an example where our DM, Pepelu, plays a risky pass over the top between the full back and central defender. This is a very common way for us to score goals. The DMs don't get that many assists, but they are often very involved in the build up play; the assist to the assist being their speciality.

Defensive Strategy in Action

The High Press

Here is a great example of our high pressing style. First our strikers put a lot of pressure and win the first time round, lose it, but our DMs are pressing high and win it back. You missed Penaranda tucking it away...

Winning the Ball in DM strata

Here are some examples of us winning the ball in the DM strata, often leading to deadly counters.

Aggressive Centre-Back Play

Here is an example of Ro-Shaun Williams playing as an aggressive centre back, leaving the back line to win the ball in the opposition half, recovering when the ball is lost and tackling Inaki Williams shortly after before he can break into the final third. This is typical play from our centre backs.

CBs soaking up Through Balls

This is where the pace of our centre backs is crucial. If we haven't managed to get pressure on the ball quick enough (no 14) and the opposition can play it through/over the top then our centre backs spring into action and soak it up - as you can see Ilori doing here.

The Machine In Action

Here you can see our machine in action. Double-teaming (pressure, cover), including tracking runs from the striker (no. 9), stop the team from breaking us down through the middle and the tight marking stops them from being able to play it wide or over the top. We won the ball soon after. These clips are from the 6-0 cup win vs Bilbao.

 

 

[ManUtd1]

The amount of thought you put in, no wonder you've climbed to the top of La Liga so quickly! Very well-written/explained. I feel like I'm hitting the sweet spot right now, but couldn't articulate it this clearly.

[the--dud]

Amazing post regarding your tactics! Brilliantly explained!

Have you read the Torino thread on the tactics forums? He also uses very high pressure with high work rate players. It's seems to work fantastically for yourself. 

The Torino thread also explains so well how mentality works in FM. 

Keep up the good work my man! 

[BillHoudini24]

That's more than I could ask for! Thanks a lot for this post, it got me thinking of my tactical approach.

I noticed something very interesting in your squad building process. Your squad is Determined, Brave, with very good Positioning, Work Rate and more than decent Physicals. I'm looking for those attributes too in my players, even though they're hard to find in the Lower Leagues.

Your choice to focus in these attributes shows how the game truly works. It's more effecient to have a decent (technical) player with great Mentals and Physicals in order to see your vision on the pitch, rather than a very skillful player who lacks the other 2 aspects of the game. Very enlightening post and thread in general.

[JWVG]

Very nice season review and tactics explanation.

I like to play a similar style, but I usually split duties in central midfield. Like a CMd and a BBM.

Have you tried more attacking fullbacks? I noticed that they didn't get a lot of assists, but I guess it gives you more

defensive stability.

I'm interested where this is going, next year you win the Championsleague?

[smp20]

12 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

The amount of thought you put in, no wonder you've climbed to the top of La Liga so quickly! Very well-written/explained. I feel like I'm hitting the sweet spot right now, but couldn't articulate it this clearly.

Cheers @ManUtd1 - it is a system I've been developing since FM13 so I've had time to think about it. On the other hand, I could never be as creative as you are with your thread so kudos to that!

 

8 hours ago, the--dud said:

Amazing post regarding your tactics! Brilliantly explained!

Have you read the Torino thread on the tactics forums? He also uses very high pressure with high work rate players. It's seems to work fantastically for yourself. 

The Torino thread also explains so well how mentality works in FM. 

Keep up the good work my man! 

Thank you very much, I will check out that thread for sure!

 

1 hour ago, BillHoudini24 said:

That's more than I could ask for! Thanks a lot for this post, it got me thinking of my tactical approach.

I noticed something very interesting in your squad building process. Your squad is Determined, Brave, with very good Positioning, Work Rate and more than decent Physicals. I'm looking for those attributes too in my players, even though they're hard to find in the Lower Leagues.

Your choice to focus in these attributes shows how the game truly works. It's more effecient to have a decent (technical) player with great Mentals and Physicals in order to see your vision on the pitch, rather than a very skillful player who lacks the other 2 aspects of the game. Very enlightening post and thread in general.

 Glad you enjoyed it . I think that this approach works well when you are using a very fluid shape - with other styles you can have more of those low work rate / physical types that have bundles of creativity/flair/technical ability. With this system, if one or two players aren't willing to put a shift in for the team, then the whole strategy collapses.

Squad building in lower leagues is tough, but it's all relative. I'd look for pace in the back line, work rate in midfield and a big man/quick man combo up top using this system.

 

[smp20]

1 minute ago, JWVG said:

Very nice season review and tactics explanation.

I like to play a similar style, but I usually split duties in central midfield. Like a CMd and a BBM.

Have you tried more attacking fullbacks? I noticed that they didn't get a lot of assists, but I guess it gives you more

defensive stability.

I'm interested where this is going, next year you win the Championsleague?

Cheers @JWVG - I've found that the full backs get forward quite well even on support duty - the attacking/fluid strategy takes care of that. I don't change the roles in the DM strata, but I would change the personnel. I like to have 4 DMs, two more creative and two of your solid defence types, and make my team selection / substitutes based on what kind of partnership I want for that game. A lot of the time it's like for like substitutions when there are on yellow, which is often!

Next season will be very interesting. The Champions League (could we? )  will add a lot more games to our schedule and force us to change our pitch size (currently short and wide, as you can see above!). I can see sides setting up against us differently also. I wasn't planning to make many big changes, but my arm has been twisted. Season Preview / August Update to come soon.

[BillHoudini24]

35 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Glad you enjoyed it . I think that this approach works well when you are using a very fluid shape - with other styles you can have more of those low work rate / physical types that have bundles of creativity/flair/technical ability. With this system, if one or two players aren't willing to put a shift in for the team, then the whole strategy collapses.

Squad building in lower leagues is tough, but it's all relative. I'd look for pace in the back line, work rate in midfield and a big man/quick man combo up top using this system.

 

4-4-2 and it's variations (4-4-1-1, 4-2-4,etc) is my favourite system but I couldn't get it to work this year. In FM16 I finally got it with a very hard working team. I guess that's the key to a successful 4-4-2, it needs Work Rate, Positioning, Off the ball and good Physicals, just like the English teams play it.

I will try to build my squad around these attributes and see how it will turn out. Thanks for the inspiration!

[smp20]

22 hours ago, BillHoudini24 said:

4-4-2 and it's variations (4-4-1-1, 4-2-4,etc) is my favourite system but I couldn't get it to work this year. In FM16 I finally got it with a very hard working team. I guess that's the key to a successful 4-4-2, it needs Work Rate, Positioning, Off the ball and good Physicals, just like the English teams play it.

I will try to build my squad around these attributes and see how it will turn out. Thanks for the inspiration!

Great to hear you are doing something similar

I think it's possible to have a 442 without these characteristics, but it takes a lot of fine tuning. for example, if you want a pure creative CM who doesnt defend or have good physicals, he'll need a beast of a partner to do his leg work for him. Whereas in a 3 man midfield, you can have more variety.

In keeping with the structure similar to what im using, if i wanted a real luxury player, id switch to fluid and drop one of the strikers to AMC and probably play them as a Treq.

[LUFCspeni]

Loving the tactics and the way you build your team, I do very similar! I tend to have my DM's sent off a lot, which is annoying. I can't take off the tackle harder instruction due to their position. Do your DM's get sent off a lot? Or do you think this could be because of my inferior players (Portuguese 2nd division).

[smp20]

On 11/12/2016 at 18:31, LUFCspeni said:

Loving the tactics and the way you build your team, I do very similar! I tend to have my DM's sent off a lot, which is annoying. I can't take off the tackle harder instruction due to their position. Do your DM's get sent off a lot? Or do you think this could be because of my inferior players (Portuguese 2nd division).

Cheers I find it's a very satisfying way of playing the game! Yes they do, I tend to sub as soon as a DM is carded if after half time. I need a good cohort of DMs for the rotation needed.

[noikeee]

I was going to mention the really tiny pitch! Was that meant to try to give the least possible space to your opponents, as theoretically they'd be much stronger than you? (though obviously not as per the league results!)

[the--dud]

@smp20 I'm trying to implement something similar tactically as you have in my own save:

Maybe you could have a browse through my post and give me your thoughts? I'd really appreciate any hints or thoughts  

I suspect my 4 defenders + 2 DM players aren't fast enough and good enough to play with a fully pushed up defensive line so I've been playing with it only "slightly pushed up". This causes my team to be far less compressed vertically than yours - from what I can see from the gifs you posted anyway. I also have some players with really terrible workrate/teamwork who will have to be shipped out sooner than later.

Maybe for season 1 I'll have to accept a somewhat "light version" of the extreme pressure system then maybe once I have more suitable players in season 2 I can refine it further...

[shaunwwfc]

Very interesting stuff smp20

Just as a matter of interest - do you see your games out the same way as you start? ie, your away from home, 2-0 up, 30mins left, do you stay the same way on such a very fluid, attacking nature? Or do you make some changes, like I suspect?

[smp20]

Sorry guys, this one is on hold for a while. I had a break from FM due to some masters work deadlines, but when I returned to FM I had new ideas in my head. These tactics are now being used in Northern Ireland in a youth challenge!

@Shauny1990 - If I feel that we are under pressure then I am likely to switch to standard or counter, or drop the defensive line to standard but I wouldn't change anything else. 

@the--dud - I will check it out  

[Sheriff7]

Beautiful tactical analysis....

[QSF25]

On 1/1/2017 at 06:32, smp20 said:

Sorry guys, this one is on hold for a while. I had a break from FM due to some masters work deadlines, but when I returned to FM I had new ideas in my head. These tactics are now being used in Northern Ireland in a youth challenge!

@Shauny1990 - If I feel that we are under pressure then I am likely to switch to standard or counter, or drop the defensive line to standard but I wouldn't change anything else. 

@the--dud - I will check it out  

how did this go? I wanted to an academy challenge