Wolverhampton wonders - in Sir Alex' footsteps.

[Purplejesus]

So it begins...

Alright, so i've been lurking in the shadows for quite some time, 'studying' and following the many tactical approaches, trying to figure out how to conquer FM throughout the years. 
So now, i'm going to share a little myself. My favorite posts, are always the ones trying to replicate real life tactics, whether they turn out to be victorious or not. Trying to do this myself have often resulted in frustration and sudden hairloss (not really though). This time, however, i feel like i have actually made something work to a level that is above satisfactory. Not perfect, but definietly on the right path. My recent discovery of the youtube channel, Tifo Football, has been a big help and has a lot of impressive content, analysing and breaking down several different tactics. My focus lies on the winning tactic of the Manchester United team 07/08, guided by Sir Alex Ferguson.

To get the basic knowledge i used this video: 

And this article as well: http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/03/20/teams-of-the-decade-3-manchester-united-2006-09/


Now to set the stage of my save, i'm actually a few years into the game. I started out managing my danish heart club, FC Nordsjælland, getting a 2nd place, and a 3rd place for my two first years. Then heavily underachieving the next half year changing venues to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Being in the bottom half, they were looking for someone to get them going again, and i was the right person for the job. I did succeed, getting them to the Champions League on the last matchday of the season. Changing a lot of the personel over the summer-window, my performance seemed great, at the start of the 4th season of the game. The results however, were no were near what was deserved, and i decided to leave with a little bit of dignity, before getting kicked out. 
Alright, so so far, 3½ years had gone by, and i still haven't found the perfect match for me. And that's when it happened. I was hit with an orange cloud of excitement, as the Wolverhampton Wanderers offered me a contract. 


Tactical keypoints
Being a big fan of the 4-4-2 (in terms of FM tactics), and the fact that i was about to manage an english club, i knew right away that i wanted to give this Manchester United tactic a go. 
Alright, so some keypoint i got from the tactic breakdown, were the following: 
- Staying in formation, rather than pressing.
- Very seldom press on the opponents half. 
- The defending 5, is the bedrock of the formation. 
- One of the centerbacks, need good pace, composure and anticipation. 
- One central midfielders, will be in charge of starting attacks. 
- Three man forward, in charge of making the goals. 


Setting up the formation
Alright, so now knowing the basics, i did my initial setup, which came to look as the following:

Alright, so challenge number one, which I just realised taking the screenshots, my game is in danish. I will try to explain as much as i can, but feel free to ask about specifics if i forget anything.

So the back four, not looking at Man U, the backs were Patrice Evra and Wes Brown for the majority of the games. The fullback defend, is simplifying this players role on the team. I want him to stay back and make simple passes. A real no-risk player to aid the centerbacks. On the other side, i wanted a back that would actually contribute, overlapping the inverted winger. Didn't want him to forget his defensive responsibilities, ending with a Wingback support. 
The centerbacks, i have one regular, on defend. In my case, he's a strong, tall defender, looking to win every airball thrown at him. Paired up with the more speedy intelligent defender, set to cover, making him fall a little bit back ready to snatch up any through balls, both behind the centerback and the wingback. 

The mid four, or three if you want, consists of the right midfielder, who is a hardworking warrior. In the United setup, this was played by Hargreaves or Ji Sung Park, players with great defensive abilities, as well as an incredible work rate. This was set to wide midfielder support. Now looking at the centermidfield, their task was very specific. Their role in defense, was to protect the centerbacks, making sure we stand compact and hard to break down. Going forward, i needed one midfielder to take the ball of the hands of the defense, and the other being ready to receive the ball and send it to attack. This was the primary dynamic of Carrick/Scholes. I chose a deeplying playmaker on defend, for the carrick role, and an advanced playmaker support, for the role of Scholes. 

The spearhead of my formation, was the front three. Like the article mentions, these three players should all be very intelligent, moving in and out of spaces on the final third. In real life, these three players, were responsible for 70% of Man Uniteds goals, and 41% of the assists. So starting out with my left wideman. To keep the defensive shape, i wanted him to be part of a 4-man midfield, yet as soon as we get the fall, he should be looking to make forward runs. I also wanted him to seek inwards, just like Ronaldo would, playing from the left side. To me the new role of inverted winger on attack, fitted this perfectly. Now for the last two, i wanted one to fall back, and act as an extended midfielder, setting up goalscoring chances as well as being a threat himself, so i chose a Deeplying forward, set on support. This paired up with an Advanced Forward on attack. 

In order of instructions, i wanted to keep it pretty simple. Both in generel terms, as well as getting familiar with how the tactic was gonna act out. I chose a counter mentality. The reason for this being that in naturally makes the pressing less intense, and the passing a little more patient. So it should support me in getting the ball from the back four, and up to my two playmakers without any sudden stress balls forward. My shape is flexible, for the simple reason that i'm not quite sure yet, what to go for, so a middleway seems fine for now. 

The team instructions picked, are play out from defense, once again aiming to get the ball to my playmakers through short, simple passes, and letting them dictate the tempo. Also play much wider, as i wanted to use the full width of the field and the counter mentality by default contradicts this a little bit. 
For now i left out any personal instructions. 
 

Transfers
So taking over the team in january, gave me the option of making a few changes. Wolves have a lot of transfer money, as well as wages. And in general, their squad fit this tactic pretty well. Not perfect, but without doubt good enough for it to be deployed. Now there were some specific roles i did not have the players for, as well as losing my Goalkeeper to Rubin Kazan leaving me without a decent option. So i signed a total of four players. 

For the Wolves Rio Ferdinand, i signed Kadri Mohammed. Now once again, i apologize for the game being in danish. I have however highlighted the key attributed for the roles they're playing. 

Acceleration: 14
Anticipation: 15
Concentration: 15
Positioning: 15

Now in the perfect world, he would be a bit taller, but for now, he's an amazing signing.

For my right midfielder, i only really had real wingers, which were to attack minded for my liking. Luckily, Marc Albrighton were on sale, or practically free. 

Work rate: 18
Tackling: 11
Crosses: 15
Positioning: 13
Teamwork: 17
Stamina: 14

On the other side of the field, i did have a decent inverted winger, but just like Albrighton, Junior Stanislas had been blacklisted by his current club, joining me for far under his true value. 

And last but not least, i brought in a new goalkeeper to fill out the void in the back. 

Initial results
So having read a lot of the inspiring posts from Cleon, i wanted to let this tactic play for three games without making any changes apart from substitutions. My first game, gave me a 2-1 victory over Derby, putting a smile on my face as it is always great to win your first game with a club. Next game was away against Norwich. Having a 4-0 lead at the halftime, i ended up winning 4-2, letting go a little in the second half. Third game was a disaster. Just as I thought i was headed for the stars, Middlesbrough just tore me apart, ripping out my heart 5 times in a row, before letting me score just one goal, ending with a 5-1 loss home at the Molineux. 
Alright, so being a team far down the table, almost facing relegation, i felt that getting 6 points, in three games was actually really good. It was a quick morale boost and the tactic seemed to be doing something right. 
Looking back though, the Man United team, had an amazing defensive record, conceding only 22 goals. I had already conceded 8, in just three. 
Taking a closer look, to what exactly went wrong, i found that my midfield, especially the advanced forward, would often drift very far away from his original position, trying to press the opposition. This of course left a massive gap in the middle of the field. Another thing, was the keeper having a real bad passing accuracy, which suggested that he was kicking it far, instead of letting my defenders carry it out to the playmakers.
So in order to fix this, i told my keeper to distribute to central defenders. My new keeper even has good attributes for passing, so this is gonna help a lot. 
Now the other problem was a bit more tricky to be honest. Studying the opposition, and seeing how they took advantage of the space my playmaker left behind, i could see that often, the fall would be recycled back to their CM or even DM pushing forward, having almost infinite time to do as they pleased. Therefore, i took my deeplying forward and made him an attacking midfielder. Now hopefully, he should put a little bit of pressure to the other teams CMs. Hopefully, my AP  would fall into place a bit more, seeing how he didnt have to cover as much space anymore. In order to still maintain the attacking midfielder, as a real goalthreat, i gave him the PIs get further forward, more risky passes and roam from position. He should still be making an appearance inside the box a lot, or setting up his teammates with through balls. The roam from position was actually inspired from the front three in United, being able to switch positions very often. This could also benefit my otherwise very defensive right flank, making him drift out wide at times. 


The next three games went on. I lost 0-1 out against Fulham. Then a 0-0 draw against Aston Villa, followed by a 3-0 win against Hull. (Hull being a big contenter for the promotion playoffs). So in terms of raw stats, this was way more of my liking than before. Managing to only concede one goal, in three games and even scoring three myself. The goalkeeper accuracy improved a lot. It's funny how a team becomes way more dangerous in front, having the right kind of distribution at the back. So having bettered the results and stability, i now had just two main concerns left. The AP was still drifting a bit much. Also, now that i only had one real forward, i wasn't sure if my attacks were too easy to close down. In case of my attacks, i felt like three games weren't enough to make any final decisions. So for now, my focus would be on getting a leash for my AP. So to me, there seemed to be to tactical changes i could choose. Either Hold position or press less. I'm not sure if hold position actually tells the player to stay in place in terms of defence, or if it is just a making sure he doesn't get too far forward in attacks. So being uncertain, i went with press a little less, as I imagined this would make him chase the ball less, and stay in shape more. 

So going forward, i ended up playing the rest of the season without further changes. Once again, this tactic still needs work, but so far i'm very pleased with the results. Praying to God that this isn't just a fluke. 

So as marked, i took over just before the Derby game. My first tactical adjustment was between Middlesbrough and Fulham. Which in terms of conceding goals, clearly shows. Letting in a few more towards the end of the season unfortunately. The team managed to grab the 8th place, starting from the 18th position when i was brought in. 
In terms of goalscoring, i watched my Wolves score 37 times. 34 of those, were put in by one of the front three players. 

So now the work for next season starts, and hopefully this will be the final buildup before promoting to the PL. 

I will make sure to upload some actual match examples to showcase the tactic at a later point. Also, i can go through the other players in my start-11, if interested. 
Feel free to give me any kind of critique, both tactical as well as editorial :-P


EDIT
Alright, so just a quick visual example of how one my attacks were setup. Of course this attack is handpicked, to show the idea of what my tactic aims to achieve. (From the new season)

So we just retrieved the ball back, due to two things. First off, great placement from my fullback, winning the air ball back. And secondly, a great run back from my AM to both cut off the opposition passing options, as well as placing him self, giving an extra out for the fullback. Now turning the play around, he makes a short pass for my deeplaying playmaker, and instantly starts running up the field to make himself a threat. 


  

The DP safely passes on the ball to my main creative man, the AP. Now honestly, this may seem like the opposition has me closed down quite well. However, his vision should not be underestimated, and he manages find a gap in the halfspace, between their center and fullback, which Stanislas has already read and is making his move. 

With a quick first touch, he flicks the ball further on, to the Izzy Brown, who is pretty much alone with only the goalkeeper to beat. The goal secured me a very important away win against probably the best team in the Championship, Newcastle. (They were relegated the season before, and with Izzy Brown being unhappy, he made a move for my club instead. Must feel good right about here.)

 

So yeah, there it is. Now of course this is not how all my attacks are setup, but this is as close as it gets, in order of what I'm trying to achieve. Winning back the ball due to great positiong and anticipation. Letting my midfielders dictate the tempo of the game, and leaving my AP to setup the defence-splitting pass, ending out with my front three taking home the fame and glory. 

[Purplejesus]

Yet another update on how things are going. As of now im halfway into the new season, having played 23 games in the league. During the summerbreak, i brought in 4 (5) new faces for the first team. Only one real contender for the starting-11 though. Since the season in Championship is filled with matches, the rest was providing some width, so a otherwise very small squad.
To just share one of them with you, this was the only guy i actually didn't put a bid on myself. I favor having the DoF looking for good youth players, and this time he really hit a hole-in-one!

Assadez Wa. This guy is a physical beast, and very well developed for a 20 year old. The technical abilites are not too good, but i can overlook this for now for two reasons.
1) Being that he provides something up front, that no other player does, which is his aerial presence.
2) His quick, and great off the ball, so i have complete faith that he'll get the chances he need to score. 

In terms of my tactic, i wanted to start out with the same tactic, as last season just to see where i stood. 
Once again, following the ways of Cleon, i gave it the first three games and then went back for an analysis. A 3-1 win, 0-2 loss, and a 1-0 win. Now that's a pretty good start, yet after a good nights sleep and a fresh pair of eyes, i still felt the AP was drifting a bit much when defending. So, as suggested, i opted for a DP(s). 
Three more games. 0-0 draw, 2-0 win, 1-0 win. I managed to get 3 (4) clean sheets in a row. And i felt like my defensive shape was much more solid this time around. So i was happy. The goals seemed a bit hard-earned though, but overall nothing to be concerned about, so i decided to take a much bigger sample, before making any further changes. In fact i didn't touch my tactics at all before matchday 21. A lot of mixed results, but the table showed me in 5th place. So following the games, and looking back afterwards, one of the reasons for the lack of goals (which was a continuing theme up to now), was my top AF(a) being completely absent. The two players i used on rotation, had a total of 3 goals and 0 assists 20 games in. TERRIBLE! So time to make some changes. At first it was actually really hard for me to see what was wrong, until i reviewed the latest game against Sheff Wed. So i was actually both impressed and speechless. Albrighton had manages 24 crosses, and not a single one, had hid the target. WTF! So needless to say, i took a much deeper look into this. Turned out a lot of the crosses were put to the near post, with not a single Wolves player in sight. The IW and the AF would both be moving between the near post area and the center, so naturally i changed his cross-aim.

No wonder my attacker was having trouble busting the net. 20 matches in, and my team had only managed to score 23 times. The following three games, with the new change applied, were a completely different story. 2-1, 3-1 and 3-0, all wins. Not just that, but my AF position made 6(!!!) of the 8 goals. Adding 8 goals in three matches, to the 23 in 20, is quite a big deal. That combined with a seasonlong solid defense, and i find my self in 3rd place, halfway through the season. 

[Purplejesus]

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[Purplejesus]

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[Purplejesus]

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[goqs06]

@Purplejesus This looks good, can't wait to see more. However, I feel that BOTH Carrick & Scholes played as deep playmakers. Scholes was definitely not marauding as an Attacking playmaker in this team and would never in his career have taken up a role where he was required to dribble often. I'd say Carrick = cm d, scholes = dlp or cm (support), ferdinand = bpd.

[jc577]

15 minutes ago, goqs06 said:

@Purplejesus This looks good, can't wait to see more. However, I feel that BOTH Carrick & Scholes played as deep playmakers. Scholes was definitely not marauding as an Attacking playmaker in this team and would never in his career have taken up a role where he was required to dribble often. I'd say Carrick = cm d, scholes = dlp or cm (support), ferdinand = bpd.

I’d even argue Carrick’s role was an Anchor Man - he didn’t really close down the opposition much but used his superior positioning/football intelligences to make interceptions rather than tackles.

[howard moon]

Agree about Scholes, DLP (s) is probably more appropriate; you’ll want a player with the PPM of ‘comes deep to get ball’. 

I would also think about changing the Advanced Forward to a Complete Forward (support) and having the attacking midfielder on an ‘attack’ duty (either as a ‘shadow striker’ or ‘attacking midfielder’). That will mimicking Rooney and Tevez better - there wasn’t really a focal-point in attack, instead the forwards dropped deep and used intelligent movement to open teams up.

Great write-up though 👍

[Purplejesus]

1 hour ago, goqs06 said:

@Purplejesus This looks good, can't wait to see more. However, I feel that BOTH Carrick & Scholes played as deep playmakers. Scholes was definitely not marauding as an Attacking playmaker in this team and would never in his career have taken up a role where he was required to dribble often. I'd say Carrick = cm d, scholes = dlp or cm (support), ferdinand = bpd.

Well the AP(s), actually doesn't encourage dribling, and watching the games i haven't seen this as being a thing. That being said, it's a good point and i'm definietly going to try him as a deeplying on support duty. I do feel like he should be told to do more risky passes though, but only time will tell i guess! 

Now my reasoning for not picking a CM(d) (i did consider it!), is the default PI of close down more. In general this actually confuses me a lot, that its linked to this role, but never the less, that's why i want to avoid it. 
 

23 minutes ago, howard moon said:

Agree about Scholes, DLP (s) is probably more appropriate; you’ll want a player with the PPM of ‘comes deep to get ball’. 

I would also think about changing the Advanced Forward to a Complete Forward (support) and having the attacking midfielder on an ‘attack’ duty (either as a ‘shadow striker’ or ‘attacking midfielder’). That will mimicking Rooney and Tevez better - there wasn’t really a focal-point in attack, instead the forwards dropped deep and used intelligent movement to open teams up.

Great write-up though 👍

I completely agree with the shadowstriker. And that is something I'm going to try out for the new season. The first half year at the club though, the players suited for this position were mainly tall, strong guys, who were basically neanderthals without any technical abilities, which is why I went for a more hardworking supporting option. 
I will start out with keeping the AF, but will definietly also look into the complete forward option. I'm not quite sure my main striker is quite good enough for the task though :-( 

Interesting points though, and much appreciated feedback!  Thanks a lot!

[Purplejesus]

Alright, so just a quick visual example of how one my attacks were setup. Of course this attack is handpicked, to show the idea of what my tactic aims to achieve. (From the new season)

So we just retrieved the ball back, due to two things. First off, great placement from my fullback, winning the air ball back. And secondly, a great run back from my AM to both cut off the opposition passing options, as well as placing him self, giving an extra out for the fullback. Now turning the play around, he makes a short pass for my deeplaying playmaker, and instantly starts running up the field to make himself a threat. 


  

The DP safely passes on the ball to my main creative man, the AP. Now honestly, this may seem like the opposition has me closed down quite well. However, his vision should not be underestimated, and he manages find a gap in the halfspace, between their center and fullback, which Stanislas has already read and is making his move. 

With a quick first touch, he flicks the ball further on, to the Izzy Brown, who is pretty much alone with only the goalkeeper to beat. The goal secured me a very important away win against probably the best team in the Championship, Newcastle. (They were relegated the season before, and with Izzy Brown being unhappy, he made a move for my club instead. Must feel good right about here.)

 

So yeah, there it is. Now of course this is not how all my attacks are setup, but this is as close as it gets, in order of what I'm trying to achieve. Winning back the ball due to great positiong and anticipation. Letting my midfielders dictate the tempo of the game, and leaving my AP to setup the defence-splitting pass, ending out with my front three taking home the fame and glory. 

[Purplejesus]

Yet another update on how things are going. As of now im halfway into the new season, having played 23 games in the league. During the summerbreak, i brought in 4 (5) new faces for the first team. Only one real contender for the starting-11 though. Since the season in Championship is filled with matches, the rest was providing some width, so a otherwise very small squad.
To just share one of them with you, this was the only guy i actually didn't put a bid on myself. I favor having the DoF looking for good youth players, and this time he really hit a hole-in-one!

Assadez Wa. This guy is a physical beast, and very well developed for a 20 year old. The technical abilites are not too good, but i can overlook this for now for two reasons.
1) Being that he provides something up front, that no other player does, which is his aerial presence.
2) His quick, and great off the ball, so i have complete faith that he'll get the chances he need to score. 

In terms of my tactic, i wanted to start out with the same tactic, as last season just to see where i stood. 
Once again, following the ways of Cleon, i gave it the first three games and then went back for an analysis. A 3-1 win, 0-2 loss, and a 1-0 win. Now that's a pretty good start, yet after a good nights sleep and a fresh pair of eyes, i still felt the AP was drifting a bit much when defending. So, as suggested, i opted for a DP(s). 
Three more games. 0-0 draw, 2-0 win, 1-0 win. I managed to get 3 (4) clean sheets in a row. And i felt like my defensive shape was much more solid this time around. So i was happy. The goals seemed a bit hard-earned though, but overall nothing to be concerned about, so i decided to take a much bigger sample, before making any further changes. In fact i didn't touch my tactics at all before matchday 21. A lot of mixed results, but the table showed me in 5th place. So following the games, and looking back afterwards, one of the reasons for the lack of goals (which was a continuing theme up to now), was my top AF(a) being completely absent. The two players i used on rotation, had a total of 3 goals and 0 assists 20 games in. TERRIBLE! So time to make some changes. At first it was actually really hard for me to see what was wrong, until i reviewed the latest game against Sheff Wed. So i was actually both impressed and speechless. Albrighton had manages 24 crosses, and not a single one, had hid the target. WTF! So needless to say, i took a much deeper look into this. Turned out a lot of the crosses were put to the near post, with not a single Wolves player in sight. The IW and the AF would both be moving between the near post area and the center, so naturally i changed his cross-aim.

No wonder my attacker was having trouble busting the net. 20 matches in, and my team had only managed to score 23 times. The following three games, with the new change applied, were a completely different story. 2-1, 3-1 and 3-0, all wins. Not just that, but my AF position made 6(!!!) of the 8 goals. Adding 8 goals in three matches, to the 23 in 20, is quite a big deal. That combined with a seasonlong solid defense, and i find my self in 3rd place, halfway through the season. 

[davehanson]

Firstly, this is brilliant. I love the work that has gone into this and the time and effort you have spent on developing this, excellent. I don't normally post in here much anymore, guess a little out of playing the game for so long and not really needing to come in here much anymore. However, this week I have been away with work and have found myself reading loads of threads on here and yours took my fancy, being a Man Utd fan and honestly loving  that era of Man Utd. The 2009 semi-final away to Arsenal will always stick in my memory for one of the best counter attacking goals I have seen. The pace of it was just frightening.

 

Anyway, I play in much the same way to you, as Man Utd. My shape is different I think and some of my player roles are different. I alternate quite a few of my roles depending on which players I select, so Fellaini won't play the same way as Mata does in an AMC position, but both are equally effective as long as you can set the players around them to suit. One thing for me that doesn't change however is my 2 central midfielders - they are a DLP-D and a DLP-S. I found, like you, that a lot of other roles seem to pull them too far away from where I wanted them. The only other role I did consider was a standard CM-S instead of a DLP-S wth a few PI's, but to be honest the DLP's together seem to work well.

 

Defensive wise we have been good, I seem to allow quite a few long shots at me, but that seems to be born out of frustration from the opposition not being able to find a way through rather than anything else.

When I get home at the weekend I will put some screenshots up and go into a bit more detail about it. Please keep posting if you can - it's a really good read and very interesting to me.