The Bristol City 2 TI and 5 player IN

[Ciderarmy]

So this challenge has caught my imagination as im very guilty of using lots pi although I do only use a max of 3 ti so was interested to see how this would work.

So taking the challenge I will use my beloved Bristol City and the board will be happy if finish around 15th which seems pretty reasonable.

I will try a safe 4-4-1-1 on standard/flex or fluid system and knowing my squad its not bad in terms of size but the concerns are up front and in goal as we are very weak and with not much money to spend this may be my key problem.

So the 2 team instructions are short pass and close down more and the 5 pi are lb,rb close down more,lm cross more,cm hold pst and af shoot more.

The one thing I have notice is with so many less pi the players seem to do more of what I want them to do and you studied the game more as if im losing after 65 mins I normally start changing pi or ti in the hope something will change but this way you really have to figure out whats going wrong and already I notice my dlp was sitting to deep and we were getting over run in midfield so changed him to cm on support and we look more soild.

Well pre season is over and not to shabby pld 6 won 3 drew 3 lost 0 scored 7 conceded 2 although most of pre season was against Spanish teams so not sure how to judge this.

Only areas of concern are not enough shots on target so maybe moving my ap from support to attack might be worth looking at.

Ill update in blocks of ten but quite excited about this challenge and im also going for less oi to.

[herne79]

14 minutes ago, Ciderarmy said:

The one thing I have notice is with so many less pi the players seem to do more of what I want them to do and you studied the game more as if im losing after 65 mins I normally start changing pi or ti in the hope something will change but this way you really have to figure out whats going wrong and already I notice my dlp was sitting to deep and we were getting over run in midfield so changed him to cm on support and we look more soild.

Exactly why I set the challenge .

Using less tactical instructions can help you see what looks good and what doesn't and (importantly) can help you identify what to change.  You've done just that, great stuff .

[Ciderarmy]

So first 10 games played and its been a bit hit and miss with home form being fantastic but away form being worse than awful

At the moment im not convince its any worse or better with few pi im going to play till the end of the season to see how it plays out here are some sats like I said away form is where we have struggle and any tips would be great.My final game away at Norwich I did play with an extra midfielder and it did makes us more solid and we won 2-1 so this may may be a way forward anyway heres some sats.

Home PLD 5 won 3 drew 1 lost 1 scored 10 conceded 4 pts 10,  99 shots 35 on target opposition 40 shots 17 on target

Away PLD 5 won 1 drew 0 lost 4 scored 5 conceded 10 pts 3, 48 shots 26 on target opposition 73 shots 28 on target

So as you can say I need to improve away from home at the moment I am 11th I am tipped to go down but the board expect me to finish 15th so not to bad any feedback most welcome

[Ciderarmy]

So to update on the last ten games it's been very inconsistent we were headed towards the relegation zone at a 100 miles an hour but steadily improved to be unbeaten in the last 4 with draws against sheff we'd and hull with wins against boro and Preston which on paper should have been my toughest games.

Some stats 

Pld 10 won 3 drew 3 lost 4 scored11 against 12 points 12

we conceded most from headers and through balls so if anyone can throw some light on this that would be appreciated 

With conceded headers I don't understand why as my cb are monsters 

At the moment we sit 14th

[herne79]

I'm not around for the next few days so can't contribute much atm.

A couple of quick things though:

1) Manage your own expectations.  The Board's only expecting you to finish 15th.  Yes it's good to be ambitious and hope to over achieve, but there's nothing wrong with that being a more long term goal.

2) In terms of actual tactical suggestions to try, we don't know how you're playing.  Post your full tactical system and give us some idea of the type of players you are using in key positions.  Are they suited to the roles you've defined?

3) Just because your CBs are "monsters" doesn't mean anything if they don't know how to position themselves properly or anticipate crosses and so on.  If you're expected to finish 15th, the quality of your players are going to be far below the players in other better teams, so it shouldn't be a surprise if strikers sometimes get the better of your monsters at the back.  This goes back to 1) above.

4) You started off well identifying issues and remedies.  What can you see that's not working well now?  You say you concede most from through balls and headers, how are through balls getting through?  Are your CBs stepping up at dangerous times?  Midfielders not covering properly?

[Ciderarmy]

Thanks Herne I'm not the best at identifying what is exactly wrong but a couple of things I have noticed is we can be suspect down my right side this could be because my right back is not the most quickest and balls over the top again it's maybe cause both my cb are on the slow side.

If we defend high crosses we are great low crosses can cause a problem I was thinking of dropping my d line but worried if that would create a gap between my defence and midfield as I don't play with a fm.

On to my next block of ten we're progressing slowly and with 16 games to go we may sneak into the top ten 

my last ten are

Pld10 w 5 d 3 l 2 scored 17 conceded 16 

we are looking solid but in this last ten we're hammered 5-0 by wolves and lost to mk in the cup

[Ciderarmy]

Hey right reaching the business end of the season with 6 to play and amazingly we sit 12th and only 7 points off the play offs.

What can I say about my last block of ten just more frustrated and shouting at the pc

The first 4 were horrific but the last 6 we played liked Real Madrid just can't understand why as I'm sticking to the challenge 

My last game of the block of ten was against Brentford and we played some of the most amazing football I've seen and won 3-1 where in my second game in the block of ten played Leeds and lost 4-2 and it could of been a cricket score it was that bad

Anyway here are the stats

Pld 10 won 5 drew 1 lost 4 scored 18 conceded 17

[Ciderarmy]

So after a very long and emotional weekend finally finished the challenge 

The big question is does few ti and pi work 

At the moment I'm undecided as to finish 8th is great but playing my usual style I finished around the same spots but playing this way it is easier to spot what is going wrong and the players seem to play better 

All in all happy with the season as I was predicted to go down and the board expected me to finished 15th so to finish 8th is fantastic and the problems I found conceding goals may be down to me not being able to sort it out as I still conceded from crosses and balls over the top but even playing my normal style I still struggle with this.So the stats are 

Pld 46 won 20 drew 9 lost 17 scored 65 conceded 64 points 69 finished 8th

4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 caused me the most  problems 

I conceded 41 goals from placed shots but scored 40

I conceded the most from crosses 12 and 12 from through balls but crosses and through balls is where I scored most of my goals