The Sarri Experiment for FM18

[Run DRC]

2 hours ago, Lobaeux4 said:

Run DRC, I’m going to experiment with the same setup.  

Cool, let me know how it turns out. I am currently in 5th after a somewhat difficult first half, but still confident that this team will turn out great when everything settles in. It took the team quite some time to adapt to the offensive style of play. I lost Azpilicueta to Barcelona for 57€ and in came Thomas Meunier for 25€. I also landed Dries Mertens for 30€ and Jorginho for 45€. Victor Moses and Danny Drinkwater will hopefully leave in january.

[robterrace]

Using a Sarri influenced tactic at my Doncaster Rovers side in 2020 has produced this sort of look. Which, I like. 

[RocheBag]

On 17/07/2018 at 22:30, warlock said:

Which is what pass into space is there for.

Pass into space increases through balls which is definitely a feature of a Sarri side.

However, no system meant to emulate Sarri should ever have lower tempo.

[RocheBag]

On 23/01/2018 at 01:29, Ji-Sung Park said:

It would be very strange if this worked for Sampdoria. Drop a line to let us know!

As of January Jorginho has 4 assists in 12 matches. His position is directly behind the forward 5 players (Insigne, Mertens, Callejon, Hamsik and Allan) when attacking. Position wise it is very similar to real life stuff, although by having Hamsik as an AP they very often are too close together. This is a problem.

The regista role is absolutely perfect for Jorginho. It's the only role that makes him the absolute heartbeat of the team like he is in real life.

[RocheBag]

On 17/07/2018 at 11:31, blehq12 said:

Sarri's Chelsea 18/19 ?

BWM doesn't do Kante justice. He needs to be a BBM or a CAR. He's much more than just a destroyer.

Golovin shouldn't be a playmaker. Those roles make other players look for them and the attack isn't going to run through him. Jorginho needs to be the only playmaker in the side.

Speaking of Jorginho, I would move him back to DM and make him regista. In their preseason game yesterday he completed 90+ passes in 45 minutes. He is the absolute heartbeat of the side and the best way to make him that in FM is with the regista role.

There's also no way you should have lower tempo on. The biggest trait of Sarri teams is the one touch, up tempo football.

[robterrace]

I like a bit of Sarri style.

 

[poma]

11 hours ago, robterrace said:

I like a bit of Sarri style.

 

Nice! What setup do you have?

[robterrace]

Just now, poma said:

Nice! What setup do you have?

Very much echoing the first page, just tweaked slightly to have fullbacks on support either side. It works, but, a lot of that is down to the PPM of some of the players.

[poma]

That feeling when you teach "them" a lesson 

Dominate every single inch of the pitch, pinpoint passes and clinical finishing!

Awesome 

[mt123]

Has anyone got an ideas on the best team way to replicate the way Napoli block passing lanes?

I'm thinking that having lots of players with good anticipation and positioning would be the best way but is there any team or player instructions that would help this?

[xavierm]

Le 24/07/2018 à 14:18, robterrace a dit :

Using a Sarri influenced tactic at my Doncaster Rovers side in 2020 has produced this sort of look. Which, I like. 

Sorry, a little question : I just can't find where this kind of stat / graphics is. Would you be kind enough to point me where I can find it ? thanks.

[robterrace]

1 minute ago, xavierm said:

Sorry, a little question : I just can't find where this kind of stat / graphics is. Would you be kind enough to point me where I can find it ? thanks.

That one comes up on the post match analysis page, 

 

It can also be found on the passing combinations section within the analysis of a single match.

[xavierm]

Oh thanks ! Sometimes I feel stupid 

[poma]

Anybody who had a closer look at Sarri's Chelsea setup?

[herne79]

I've become more interested in Sarri recently.  I have to admit this thread had pretty much passed me by and was about to start a new one, so I'll carry on from here.

Disclaimer - I'm no Sarri or Napoli expert by any means, and as a West Ham fan I don't tend to spend too much time watching Chelsea.  Most of my knowledge (or, more accurately, lack of) comes from watching European games and the odd Serie A match last season on the TV.  I have however found a really interesting article on Sarri & Napoli here.  So what I'm attempting isn't intended as a full recreation, more of an inspiration and following some core principles.

With that out of the way, these are the core principles I'll follow primarily taken from that article I linked above:

-  Possession heavy with lots of pressing

-  A high defensive line

-  A focus of play down the left, with the left back getting forward

-  Build up play starting from the back 3 of the two central defenders and the defensive midfielder

-  The left "winger" (generic term) frequently being the furthest forward player / cutting inside, with the left sided central midfielder sometimes running into that space vacated

-  The right "winger" and right back in more supportive roles

-  The "striker" coming deep and involved in build up play

-  A ball winner in central midfield

-  Verticality of passing at a fairly high tempo

-  A compact vertical shape in a 433 formation (no, not 3 strikers ) aka 4123DM

My starter for 10:

And some explanation (following the core principles outlined above):

Possession heavy / lots of pressing - Ball retention could be an issue at first with the chosen settings, roles & duties.  Going to have to experiment when I start playing matches.  You'll also notice a lack of "Closing Down" in the TIs.  This is because I've targeted pressing to certain positions using PIs (and a BWM in midfield).

High defensive line - TI selected.  I went with "very high" as when using a player in the DM position the def line gets pushed a little further back than normal.  Balls over the top / through balls to a pacey striker could be an issue, so using a Sweeper Keeper (which I think fits with Reina's play anyway?) and Koulibaly has pace to spare.  I may experiment with the Offside Trap if problems occur.

Left sided focus - Exploit the left flank, GK instructed to distribute to the left sided centre back, an attacking MCL and a Trequartista at AML should all help.  The choice of role at AML is an interesting one here.  An Inside Forward is perhaps the obvious choice for Insigne, or possibly even an AP to help focus passing however from the article above I picked out the following quote from Sarri himself:- "The coach spoke of this in the aftermath to the Partenopei’s Europa League win over Legia Warsaw in October, which was only his fifth game using the 4-3-3. “I am intrigued by the role of the trequartista,” he told reporters. “But despite the change of system we are still making certain movements with the wingers that basically let them function as a trequartista."  The downside here is a quite risky looking left flank (3 attack duties) so it's something I'll watch and alter if needed.  The chosen Mentality isn't overtly aggressive though and should help with this aspect.  The quality of player at left back will also be vital, and luckily Ghoulam has plenty of Work Rate, Determination and Stamina.

Build up from the back - Play out of defence, GK passing instruction, DLP should all help here.  Both CBs are instructed to use shorter passing which may surprise some bearing mind that both Koulibaly and Albiol are quite capable of making longer passes when needed or coming out of defence themselves, but a couple of things:  1) The passing PI is a tendency, not a "do this at all times" instruction, and the tendency of the CBs is to pass it short between themselves and the DM; 2) they both have interesting Traits.  Koulibaly has "gets forward whenever possible" and Albiol has "brings ball out of defence".

Left "winger" / left midfielder - AML has an attack duty, striker is an F9 which should come deep to vacate space.  I'm toying with the idea of so-called "strikerless" but I'll start with this especially as the "striker" is still the main goal scorer anyway.  Looking at the player mentality bars, the AML has a much higher mentality than the F9 already - the chosen Team Shape helps here (more on that later).  For the central midfield role I've chosen the Mezz (attack) role - it's coded movement plus additional PIs I've given the AML (sit narrower/cut inside) should in theory see the movement I'm after.  My reservation here is Hamsik's Work Rate which sucks.

A more support focussed right flank - Callejon tends to play wider with the fullback staying deeper.  I'm not really happy with the Winger role as I'm concerned this may generate too many crosses and have the player stay too wide too often, so this may end up being an IF(s).  Callejon does however have a Trait to cut inside from the right wing and I've instructed him to make less risky passes which may help reduce crosses, but we'll see and something to watch.

A striker coming deep - the F9 role chosen for this reason.  Mertens is too light weight to play much of a physical hold-up-the-ball type game.

A central ball winner - BWM picked at MCR.  Allan has great attributes for this and should provide a nice foil to Hamsik's more forward game.

Vertical passing / high tempo - A higher mentality was my initial thought here, but that would bring with it other issues which I don't really want.  I have however increased the Tempo setting to help move the ball quicker, along with (hopefully) decent positioning of roles and duties.  Depending on how ball retention pans out, I may switch to a short passing TI, so a high Tempo will offset the associated tempo reductions from the TI.  But Tempo just helps the ball move quickly, which includes from side to side, so I may also experiment with more direct passing (ie., verticality) and generate greater possession (if it's an issue) by other methods.  Something for the future perhaps (possession is my main worry at present).

A compact vertical shape - The main reason why I'm using a Very Fluid Team Shape.  The effect would probably be higher if I used a higher team Mentality, but that would bring other issues.

Anyway, that's most of my thought process so far.  Some may disagree and believe Sarri sets up differently and that's fine.  Remember I'm not after a full re-creation here, just some inspiration and following some principals based on my own interpretation.  I'll update once I've got into a few matches.

 

[herne79]

Initial Impressions

I'm still in pre-season, played a few friendlies against low quality opposition and decided to give the system a more thorough going over against AC Milan:

We won 1-0 (largely irrelevant but nice all the same).

Positives:

-  Possession was good, better than I expected.  I won't change anything yet, but I feel we could perhaps go a little more direct whilst sacrificing some possession.  Something to keep up my sleeve.

-  The number of crosses was ok.  39 in total may seem like a lot but that includes 10 corners.  Callejon only attempted 11 crosses before subbing him on 70 minutes, with Ghoulam the next highest on 7.

-  Pressing was ok, forcing ball turnover on several occasions, with Milan's pass completion below 80% despite them seeming to play a pretty slow, patient type game.  I may tinker with a TI, but again not until I've seen more.

-  Shot accuracy and length are fine, with most shots coming from inside the area.

-  A small favouring of the left flank in attack is nice.  More would be better but so long as the majority is there it's fine.  Insigne had a great game as a TQ, Mertens was a bit naff though so one to watch.

-  Limited Milan to just 2 shots all match, so defensively fine for now.  They did manage to get one ball over the top behind my defence but Koulibaly's pace got him back in good time.

Negatives:

-  Crossing completion is rubbish, but perhaps unsurprising seeing as we have no height in the box.  I may tinker with that to encourage drilled crosses rather than floating them in.

-  Hamsik was a bit meh as the Mezzala as was Mertens as an F9.  I think Hamsik is hampered by his poor work ethic and I'm not convinced by the F9's link up play yet.  No changes for now, but two to watch.

-  Possession was good but too many sideways passes.  I could probably be more direct so something to perhaps tinker with in future.

Overall I'm satisfied at this stage of pre-season.  I won't be drawing any conclusions until competitive matches start as friendlies aren't the same thing, but a decent start .

[NabsKebabs]

@herne79 I'd try using Insigne as an AP(s) and Callejon as a Ramdeuter. I believe this would both replicate Sarri more closely and probably work better in the game. 

[herne79]

5 hours ago, NabsKebabs said:

@herne79 I'd try using Insigne as an AP(s) and Callejon as a Ramdeuter. I believe this would both replicate Sarri more closely and probably work better in the game. 

Yeh I understand what you're saying.  With the Insigne role I'm taking Sarri at his literal word (the quote above) and so I'm happy to carry on with the TQ role - at least for now.  An AP could make a decent alternative if it doesn't work out.

For Callejon I'm less clear and am experimenting.  I've already said I'm not keen on the Winger role as he simply isn't a Winger.  This leaves me with choices - an AP, TQ or WT, all of which I discount as they could detract from the left flank focus.  So I'm left with a Winger, an IF or a Raum.  He doesn't really have the dribbling skills for a Winger or IF (although I will experiment with the IF role as a right footer on the right flank), which leaves the Raum role.  But I hesitate with that for 2 reasons:

1) Whilst in game the role is basically just a label given to a bunch of PIs, this system is intended to be inspired by real life.  And in real life (imo) there is only one Raumdeuter, and he's called Thomas Muller.  He invented the term to describe himself.  So calling somebody else a Raum in this particular case doesn't quite sit right with me (stop being a pussy herne, suck it up).

2) I will experiment with the role at some point, it just gives me a sense of potentially unbalancing the side as the role only comes with an attack duty.  Plus a Raumdeuter needs feeding to get the best out of him - he moves into pockets of space in anticipation of a pass - so who's going to pass to him?  The F9 and that's about it.

Of course I could well be talking complete nonsense and I should simply get on with it.  It is something I'll be trying out, I just don't like the principle but at some point you have to compromise .

[westy8chimp]

@herne79 agree with your observations and subsequently the choice or roles and duties in defence and midfield. Not sure about the front three, same doubts as you... Basically crying out for a wm kind of role in the amr slot.

Surprised by your possesion stat given the high tempo... But i found high possesion stats are driven just as much by the high dline and closing down as any passing ti you can have...so maybe itl be consistently high. 

55 minutes ago, herne79 said:

And in real life (imo) there is only one Raumdeuter, and he's called Thomas Muller

He may have coined the term, and fm pounced on it like an 8yr old with the latest dance fad at the moment... But hes certainly not the only player to perform the role... In its boiled down principles. Id discount it purely that it isnt a support role tho. 

I reckon more direct TI will affect overall pattern of play too much...perhaps use PI instead to isolate a few players to up the tempo from nice play out of the back safety to quickly unlocking the defence. Not sure how direct passing ties in with f9 tho. Cf-s could be a solution to a few quandries up top

Look forward to seeing if you need to tweak much and if you do, where you go with it. 

[jc577]

7 hours ago, herne79 said:

  Possession was good but too many sideways passes.  I could probably be more direct so something to perhaps tinker with in future.

Sarri is an advocate for vertical possession football but i’m not sure to what extent that’s possible in FM currently. From what i’ve learnt of Sarri’s Napoli, they played a sideways/backwards passes only to draw the opposition in to press/if there were no vertical passing options, play through that press and almost create a ‘counter-attack’ through possession... I know this isn’t a replication, but if you can get that going, i’ll be severely impressed 

[herne79]

9 hours ago, westy8chimp said:

Basically crying out for a wm kind of role in the amr slot.

My thoughts exactly.  But without this I have to compromise in some way to see what works best with the roles around it.

9 hours ago, westy8chimp said:

He may have coined the term, and fm pounced on it like an 8yr old with the latest dance fad at the moment... But hes certainly not the only player to perform the role... In its boiled down principles. Id discount it purely that it isnt a support role tho.

Yeh I'm just getting caught up on labels.  Call it a WM in the AMR slot and give me the option for a support duty and I'll be happy .

8 hours ago, jc577 said:

Sarri is an advocate for vertical possession football but i’m not sure to what extent that’s possible in FM currently. From what i’ve learnt of Sarri’s Napoli, they played a sideways/backwards passes only to draw the opposition in to press/if there were no vertical passing options, play through that press and almost create a ‘counter-attack’ through possession... I know this isn’t a replication, but if you can get that going, i’ll be severely impressed 

Yeh.  At present I'm seeing very similar possession stats and number of passes Napoli were achieving in Serie A last season.  It's generally forward thinking passing: there's definitely some good stuff going on in the final third and the GK, CDs and DLP make some nice interchanges, but not sure I'd label it completely vertical.

[Tyrinko]

On 06/09/2018 at 13:55, herne79 said:

I've become more interested in Sarri recently.  I have to admit this thread had pretty much passed me by and was about to start a new one, so I'll carry on from here.

Disclaimer - I'm no Sarri or Napoli expert by any means, and as a West Ham fan I don't tend to spend too much time watching Chelsea.  Most of my knowledge (or, more accurately, lack of) comes from watching European games and the odd Serie A match last season on the TV.  I have however found a really interesting article on Sarri & Napoli here.  So what I'm attempting isn't intended as a full recreation, more of an inspiration and following some core principles.

With that out of the way, these are the core principles I'll follow primarily taken from that article I linked above:

-  Possession heavy with lots of pressing

-  A high defensive line

-  A focus of play down the left, with the left back getting forward

-  Build up play starting from the back 3 of the two central defenders and the defensive midfielder

-  The left "winger" (generic term) frequently being the furthest forward player / cutting inside, with the left sided central midfielder sometimes running into that space vacated

-  The right "winger" and right back in more supportive roles

-  The "striker" coming deep and involved in build up play

-  A ball winner in central midfield

-  Verticality of passing at a fairly high tempo

-  A compact vertical shape in a 433 formation (no, not 3 strikers ) aka 4123DM

My starter for 10:

And some explanation (following the core principles outlined above):

Possession heavy / lots of pressing - Ball retention could be an issue at first with the chosen settings, roles & duties.  Going to have to experiment when I start playing matches.  You'll also notice a lack of "Closing Down" in the TIs.  This is because I've targeted pressing to certain positions using PIs (and a BWM in midfield).

High defensive line - TI selected.  I went with "very high" as when using a player in the DM position the def line gets pushed a little further back than normal.  Balls over the top / through balls to a pacey striker could be an issue, so using a Sweeper Keeper (which I think fits with Reina's play anyway?) and Koulibaly has pace to spare.  I may experiment with the Offside Trap if problems occur.

Left sided focus - Exploit the left flank, GK instructed to distribute to the left sided centre back, an attacking MCL and a Trequartista at AML should all help.  The choice of role at AML is an interesting one here.  An Inside Forward is perhaps the obvious choice for Insigne, or possibly even an AP to help focus passing however from the article above I picked out the following quote from Sarri himself:- "The coach spoke of this in the aftermath to the Partenopei’s Europa League win over Legia Warsaw in October, which was only his fifth game using the 4-3-3. “I am intrigued by the role of the trequartista,” he told reporters. “But despite the change of system we are still making certain movements with the wingers that basically let them function as a trequartista."  The downside here is a quite risky looking left flank (3 attack duties) so it's something I'll watch and alter if needed.  The chosen Mentality isn't overtly aggressive though and should help with this aspect.  The quality of player at left back will also be vital, and luckily Ghoulam has plenty of Work Rate, Determination and Stamina.

Build up from the back - Play out of defence, GK passing instruction, DLP should all help here.  Both CBs are instructed to use shorter passing which may surprise some bearing mind that both Koulibaly and Albiol are quite capable of making longer passes when needed or coming out of defence themselves, but a couple of things:  1) The passing PI is a tendency, not a "do this at all times" instruction, and the tendency of the CBs is to pass it short between themselves and the DM; 2) they both have interesting Traits.  Koulibaly has "gets forward whenever possible" and Albiol has "brings ball out of defence".

Left "winger" / left midfielder - AML has an attack duty, striker is an F9 which should come deep to vacate space.  I'm toying with the idea of so-called "strikerless" but I'll start with this especially as the "striker" is still the main goal scorer anyway.  Looking at the player mentality bars, the AML has a much higher mentality than the F9 already - the chosen Team Shape helps here (more on that later).  For the central midfield role I've chosen the Mezz (attack) role - it's coded movement plus additional PIs I've given the AML (sit narrower/cut inside) should in theory see the movement I'm after.  My reservation here is Hamsik's Work Rate which sucks.

A more support focussed right flank - Callejon tends to play wider with the fullback staying deeper.  I'm not really happy with the Winger role as I'm concerned this may generate too many crosses and have the player stay too wide too often, so this may end up being an IF(s).  Callejon does however have a Trait to cut inside from the right wing and I've instructed him to make less risky passes which may help reduce crosses, but we'll see and something to watch.

A striker coming deep - the F9 role chosen for this reason.  Mertens is too light weight to play much of a physical hold-up-the-ball type game.

A central ball winner - BWM picked at MCR.  Allan has great attributes for this and should provide a nice foil to Hamsik's more forward game.

Vertical passing / high tempo - A higher mentality was my initial thought here, but that would bring with it other issues which I don't really want.  I have however increased the Tempo setting to help move the ball quicker, along with (hopefully) decent positioning of roles and duties.  Depending on how ball retention pans out, I may switch to a short passing TI, so a high Tempo will offset the associated tempo reductions from the TI.  But Tempo just helps the ball move quickly, which includes from side to side, so I may also experiment with more direct passing (ie., verticality) and generate greater possession (if it's an issue) by other methods.  Something for the future perhaps (possession is my main worry at present).

A compact vertical shape - The main reason why I'm using a Very Fluid Team Shape.  The effect would probably be higher if I used a higher team Mentality, but that would bring other issues.

Anyway, that's most of my thought process so far.  Some may disagree and believe Sarri sets up differently and that's fine.  Remember I'm not after a full re-creation here, just some inspiration and following some principals based on my own interpretation.  I'll update once I've got into a few matches.

 

After trying almost everything to replicate Napoli 17/18 I started to study Napoli game more detailed and trying find to key aspects in match engine (mentality, shape). So for me key aspects are: 
Compactness, attracting opposition to attack them and leave the space behind their´s defensive line/ create space between midfield and defense, low risk passing, attack with through balls (mostly from Jorginho).  You can see a lot of this in this video. 

So for me mentality is definitly Defensive because - 

[OJ403]

On 06/09/2018 at 12:55, herne79 said:

Interesting read @herne79

How does the wide Treq function for you? Its a role I've often considered using, but I'm not 100% sure what it'd really offer an IF or W wouldn't.

Cheers

[Cam8]

Anyone tried using 4-1-4-1 with Insigne as a WP and Callejon as a WM?

[Scutinio]

Help me with a tactic of sarri who realy works in fm 2017 plssssssss....

[poma]

On 06/09/2018 at 13:55, herne79 said:

I've become more interested in Sarri recently.  I have to admit this thread had pretty much passed me by and was about to start a new one, so I'll carry on from here.

Disclaimer - I'm no Sarri or Napoli expert by any means, and as a West Ham fan I don't tend to spend too much time watching Chelsea.  Most of my knowledge (or, more accurately, lack of) comes from watching European games and the odd Serie A match last season on the TV.  I have however found a really interesting article on Sarri & Napoli here.  So what I'm attempting isn't intended as a full recreation, more of an inspiration and following some core principles.

With that out of the way, these are the core principles I'll follow primarily taken from that article I linked above:

-  Possession heavy with lots of pressing

-  A high defensive line

-  A focus of play down the left, with the left back getting forward

-  Build up play starting from the back 3 of the two central defenders and the defensive midfielder

-  The left "winger" (generic term) frequently being the furthest forward player / cutting inside, with the left sided central midfielder sometimes running into that space vacated

-  The right "winger" and right back in more supportive roles

-  The "striker" coming deep and involved in build up play

-  A ball winner in central midfield

-  Verticality of passing at a fairly high tempo

-  A compact vertical shape in a 433 formation (no, not 3 strikers ) aka 4123DM

My starter for 10:

And some explanation (following the core principles outlined above):

Possession heavy / lots of pressing - Ball retention could be an issue at first with the chosen settings, roles & duties.  Going to have to experiment when I start playing matches.  You'll also notice a lack of "Closing Down" in the TIs.  This is because I've targeted pressing to certain positions using PIs (and a BWM in midfield).

High defensive line - TI selected.  I went with "very high" as when using a player in the DM position the def line gets pushed a little further back than normal.  Balls over the top / through balls to a pacey striker could be an issue, so using a Sweeper Keeper (which I think fits with Reina's play anyway?) and Koulibaly has pace to spare.  I may experiment with the Offside Trap if problems occur.

Left sided focus - Exploit the left flank, GK instructed to distribute to the left sided centre back, an attacking MCL and a Trequartista at AML should all help.  The choice of role at AML is an interesting one here.  An Inside Forward is perhaps the obvious choice for Insigne, or possibly even an AP to help focus passing however from the article above I picked out the following quote from Sarri himself:- "The coach spoke of this in the aftermath to the Partenopei’s Europa League win over Legia Warsaw in October, which was only his fifth game using the 4-3-3. “I am intrigued by the role of the trequartista,” he told reporters. “But despite the change of system we are still making certain movements with the wingers that basically let them function as a trequartista."  The downside here is a quite risky looking left flank (3 attack duties) so it's something I'll watch and alter if needed.  The chosen Mentality isn't overtly aggressive though and should help with this aspect.  The quality of player at left back will also be vital, and luckily Ghoulam has plenty of Work Rate, Determination and Stamina.

Build up from the back - Play out of defence, GK passing instruction, DLP should all help here.  Both CBs are instructed to use shorter passing which may surprise some bearing mind that both Koulibaly and Albiol are quite capable of making longer passes when needed or coming out of defence themselves, but a couple of things:  1) The passing PI is a tendency, not a "do this at all times" instruction, and the tendency of the CBs is to pass it short between themselves and the DM; 2) they both have interesting Traits.  Koulibaly has "gets forward whenever possible" and Albiol has "brings ball out of defence".

Left "winger" / left midfielder - AML has an attack duty, striker is an F9 which should come deep to vacate space.  I'm toying with the idea of so-called "strikerless" but I'll start with this especially as the "striker" is still the main goal scorer anyway.  Looking at the player mentality bars, the AML has a much higher mentality than the F9 already - the chosen Team Shape helps here (more on that later).  For the central midfield role I've chosen the Mezz (attack) role - it's coded movement plus additional PIs I've given the AML (sit narrower/cut inside) should in theory see the movement I'm after.  My reservation here is Hamsik's Work Rate which sucks.

A more support focussed right flank - Callejon tends to play wider with the fullback staying deeper.  I'm not really happy with the Winger role as I'm concerned this may generate too many crosses and have the player stay too wide too often, so this may end up being an IF(s).  Callejon does however have a Trait to cut inside from the right wing and I've instructed him to make less risky passes which may help reduce crosses, but we'll see and something to watch.

A striker coming deep - the F9 role chosen for this reason.  Mertens is too light weight to play much of a physical hold-up-the-ball type game.

A central ball winner - BWM picked at MCR.  Allan has great attributes for this and should provide a nice foil to Hamsik's more forward game.

Vertical passing / high tempo - A higher mentality was my initial thought here, but that would bring with it other issues which I don't really want.  I have however increased the Tempo setting to help move the ball quicker, along with (hopefully) decent positioning of roles and duties.  Depending on how ball retention pans out, I may switch to a short passing TI, so a high Tempo will offset the associated tempo reductions from the TI.  But Tempo just helps the ball move quickly, which includes from side to side, so I may also experiment with more direct passing (ie., verticality) and generate greater possession (if it's an issue) by other methods.  Something for the future perhaps (possession is my main worry at present).

A compact vertical shape - The main reason why I'm using a Very Fluid Team Shape.  The effect would probably be higher if I used a higher team Mentality, but that would bring other issues.

Anyway, that's most of my thought process so far.  Some may disagree and believe Sarri sets up differently and that's fine.  Remember I'm not after a full re-creation here, just some inspiration and following some principals based on my own interpretation.  I'll update once I've got into a few matches.

 

Would you play the same way with Sarri's Chelsea?

[Rub Me]

Loved this tactic in FM18. Be interesting to see how closely people can get to Sarriball in FM19 with the new tactic modue

[Ji-Sung Park]

21 hours ago, Rub Me said:

Loved this tactic in FM18. Be interesting to see how closely people can get to Sarriball in FM19 with the new tactic modue

The pressing is greatly improved in FM19, so it should be easier to replicate it. Tbh, I found the FM17 version easier to replicate than FM18 for some reason.

I like @herne79s version on this page, if you get the desired results from both player roles and the setup it shouldn't matter much how you set it up in terms of roles. The only thing that stands out for me is the playing out from the back, which is crucial to Sarri. So I would put one or both CDs on BPD and make sure they link up with the DM and the wingbacks. Like Herne I don't watch many Chelsea games, but against United they really didn't look like the Napoli version of Sarriball. I also watched against Liverpool and it really lacks the pounding attack play of Napoli.

I guess this is due to Sarri using a weird constellation in midfield, with Kanté in the Hamsik role (wtf?).

[NabsKebabs]

49 minutes ago, Ji-Sung Park said:

The pressing is greatly improved in FM19, so it should be easier to replicate it. Tbh, I found the FM17 version easier to replicate than FM18 for some reason.

I like @herne79s version on this page, if you get the desired results from both player roles and the setup it shouldn't matter much how you set it up in terms of roles. The only thing that stands out for me is the playing out from the back, which is crucial to Sarri. So I would put one or both CDs on BPD and make sure they link up with the DM and the wingbacks. Like Herne I don't watch many Chelsea games, but against United they really didn't look like the Napoli version of Sarriball. I also watched against Liverpool and it really lacks the pounding attack play of Napoli.

I guess this is due to Sarri using a weird constellation in midfield, with Kanté in the Hamsik role (wtf?).

1. How has pressing "improved?"

2. BPD's look for long through balls not play it short.

3. Kante doesn't play the Hamsik role. He plays the Allan role. Kovacic or Barkley have been playing the Hamsik role.

[mhaffy]

Been trying vertical tiki take in fm19 with Chelsea..... one thing that is noticeable versus real life is that passing stats are way down on real life....thread raised in ME bugs but no SI response yet......

Looking forward to getting Sarriball working in FM19...

[poma]

The "vertical tiki-taka" or sarriball doesn't work at all in FM19!

[mhaffy]

1 hour ago, poma said:

The "vertical tiki-taka" or sarriball doesn't work at all in FM19!

Would be interested to understand how you arrived at this conclusion and what it is based on. Which aspects of sarriball do you consider are not working etc.....sharing your insight would be useful!

[poma]

6 hours ago, mhaffy said:

Would be interested to understand how you arrived at this conclusion and what it is based on. Which aspects of sarriball do you consider are not working etc.....sharing your insight would be useful!

All Chelsea players are underated since FM17.

[denen123]

On 03/11/2018 at 14:54, Ji-Sung Park said:

The pressing is greatly improved in FM19, so it should be easier to replicate it. Tbh, I found the FM17 version easier to replicate than FM18 for some reason.

I like @herne79s version on this page, if you get the desired results from both player roles and the setup it shouldn't matter much how you set it up in terms of roles. The only thing that stands out for me is the playing out from the back, which is crucial to Sarri. So I would put one or both CDs on BPD and make sure they link up with the DM and the wingbacks. Like Herne I don't watch many Chelsea games, but against United they really didn't look like the Napoli version of Sarriball. I also watched against Liverpool and it really lacks the pounding attack play of Napoli.

I guess this is due to Sarri using a weird constellation in midfield, with Kanté in the Hamsik role (wtf?).

1. "They don't look like the Napoli..." Might just be that all round quality players are not the same. Not trusting Morata to execute a good Mertens/Higuain  role or Willian to be my Callejon (maybe Pedro can, but the running back challenge he does is too wierd). Kante tries, but a little more push will do. Barkley/Kovacic/Cheek all missing at least an element in their game to replicate the job Hamsik did at Napoli. Jorginho=Jorginho. Azpi is suffering. Clearly see how they depend on Hazards quality to raise the team from average (which they clearly are, to top qualify). Chelsea are over performance by a country mile., To be honest.

Bottom line, the lines & Dynamics of play are the same, but the pace & Technicality with which they are executed cannot be achieved at this moment in time.

2. I also had the same reaction when you assumed Kante played the Hamsik Role. Nope, he plays the Allan Role. Still adjusting, to be fair, but Jorginho had kind words for him & encourages their new found partnership.

Hope this helps.

[thegoon65]

12 hours ago, poma said:

All Chelsea players are underated since FM17.

You can replicate this with other teams you know?

I use this with my Orient save a simplified version but with the advanced training set ups much easier to train a squad to a tactic.

[Cuncix382]

ddd

[kingjericho]

Using FM19's tactics creator, would you consider Sarri's in transition movement to be Counter-press/Regroup, and Counter/Hold shape?