The Special Way

[Bernkastel]

One thing that has always intrigued me is the possibility of Mourinho lasting long enough in a club and caring enough about the academy to raise generations of players trained and molded in his principles of play.

Can you build a club around such principles and train youngsters in a counter attacking football?

This idea has been roaming around my head, urging me to turn on my computer and take a swing at it.

Sadly I am currently on my phone so all I can do is read up on Mourinho and think about training routines and tactics to use. Once I am back from the holidays I will clean up this post and get to work on this project.

Club DNA-

I divide club DNA in general and specific attributes. General attributes are those that every player on my team should have. In this case this are l:

Composure, Concentration, anticipation and Workrate.

( I will talk more about them in the near future)

Specific attributes categorized between defensive line, midfield, spear head and wings. 

Defensive line: Aggression, marking, Heading, Positioning, jumping reach and tackling.

Midfield: Positioning, Decisions, Passing, Vision, Marking.

Spearhead: off the ball, acceleration, first touch, heading and balance.

Wings: pace, dribbling, acceleration, off the ball and crossing.

(Wings are combined with other categories depending on position and role. The Amc is another beast entirely that demands its own post)

Having identified the attributes that would make a Mourinho like DNA it is now a matter of building a training regime adequate to these. But all of that will have to wait till next week. I am simply writing this to convince myself I am not wasting time.

I am currently debating which team to use for my experiment. It would need a good youth setup and an initial squad that is at least somewhat compatible with a counter attacking style of football. 

I might talk about my team choice either later today or tomorrow.

 

 

[Rashidi]

Mourinho is also very specific with his player instructions. So if you want to be a purist, you may end up being more disciplined and/or using a lot of PIs.  Underdog teams may be fun to do. Parma?

[Bernkastel]

1 hour ago, Rashidi said:

Mourinho is also very specific with his player instructions. So if you want to be a purist, you may end up being more disciplined and/or using a lot of PIs.  Underdog teams may be fun to do. Parma?

You are absolutely right of course. I intend to talk more about it when I am able to build a tactic. Parma would be a great choice but their youth system is quite poor. I am currently debating between Atalanta, Porto, Southampton, dynamo Zagreb or some Spanish team.

[Bernkastel]

The first team that came to my mind when I came up with this idea was Arsenal. Good youth setup, money to burn, European Football and the possibility of making them win a Champions League for the first time, with a homegrown squad. But I discarded it because, frankly, it would be too easy. I don't want a great challenge that stops me from properly speaking about my adaptation of Mourinho's ways into a youth focused club but if it is too easy then the whole thing would be a waste of time.

My second choice was the Fiorentina. But I don't remember them as having a good youth set up and again it seemed to easy with Chiesa, Simeone, Lafont, and Milenkovic all easily becoming top 5 in their respective positions. 

Managing in Spain where several B teams have the possibility of of playing in the second division was a promising prospect. I thought of Malaga, Real Sociedad, Espanyol and Celta. This were all nice teams but I couldn't see myself managing anything else than Bilbao.

With that candidate in my scope I went looking for other teams. 

Oporto would be poetically appropriate but they were too good in their own league.

Southampton are an interesting team but I don't want to deal with brexit.

Dinamo Zagreb are by no means an easy team but they are favorites in their league and that is not the kind of challenge I am looking for.

Rashidi suggested Parma but their youth setup is lacking. 

Atalanta were my main choice in Italy with their well known youth focus and enviable facilites.

So it is know a duel between athletic Bilbao and Atalanta.

If there is any other mid table team with good youth facilities I have missed feel free to point it out. When I have time I will dwelve into my understanding of Mourinho's philosophy. 

[Ali2112]

1 hour ago, Bernkastel said:

If there is any other mid table team with good youth facilities I have missed feel free to point it out. When I have time I will dwelve into my understanding of Mourinho's philosophy. 

AZ is a good choice. or Sporting. AZ finished 4th in the league and Sporting 3rd So not exactly mid table teams but both have good Youth facilites.

[davidbarros2]

Have you considered Villareal, Feyenoord or Lille?

[Bernkastel]

I have ultimately decided to go with Athletic Bilbao. At the end I had identified 7 candidates: Porto (too thematically apropiate to miss) Bilbao (the team I support IRL but which I have never managed in FM), Atalanta (that extensive youth intake was tempting), Zagreb (Decided to save them for a different save, maybe in fm2020), Hoffenheim (mid tier youth focused German team), Southampton (Brexit aside the Premier is a great league to manage in) and Lille (no other than Eden Hazard was part of their academy).

I searched for a random selector and Athletic Bilbao were the chosen ones. 

Luckily for me I am very familiar with their squad in real life so I can begin to think about the Tactic without my PC.

Next post I will talk about Universality vs Specialization and about a key part of Mourinho's philosophy known as Tactical Periodisation.

[Bernkastel]

Everyone who enjoys football knows, one way or another, about universality. It has received many names but it is always the same concept: my strikers are my first defenders, my goalkeeper is my first outfield player.

Great minds such as Lobanovsky or Cruyff have built some of the most mystifying teams in history around this concept. 

Universal players need to be very complete footballers, confident both with and without the ball and capable of playing as a team.

The opposite of universality would be specialization. Players have a well defined individual duty during all phases of play and the combination of their individual effort with the other different tasks asigned to other players produces a team effort. In this case, however, each player aids the team in a different way. Mourinho's teams are highly specialized.

As a rule a specialized player outperforms an universal player in the aspects of football he has specialized in but is out performed in all other areas. Makelele a highly specialised defensive midfielder outperforms Modric, a universal midfielder, as a defender but can't compete with him when in possession of the ball.

Makelele and Lampard in combination outperform Modric in every aspect of the game. Now comes the big question: in a situation of 11 universal players vs 11 specialized players who outperforms who?

First of all. Universality and Specialization are a spectrum, there is no such thing as a purely specialized or universal team. Ajax players in the 70's weren't uniformal and indistinguishable and even Mourinho's teams have to deal with certain parts of the game the same way.

Having said that, there is no clear answer to that question. You can search for evidence in favor of both methods and there is no easy way to conduct the comparison without external factors.

Inspired by the contributions of Ö-zil to the arsenal I have built teams of universal players in the past but this would be my first time building a specialized squad.

 In order to build a specialized team while remaining true to Mourinho's ways I will need to use Tactical Periodisation but this is such a complicated subject to both understand and explain that I will dedicate a post just to it.

[Bernkastel]

Disclaimer, this is my first time trying to explain a very complex subject. I will do so by filtering my knowledge of it and cutting out all the parts that do not necessarily translate to FM. You will NOT truly understand Tactical Periodisation by reading this post.

Tactical Periodisation is a quite new method of training developed by academic Victor Frade in Portugal.

Under Tactical Periodisation the game is divided in four distinct parts: Offensive organization, transition from attack to defense, defensive organization and transition from defense to attack. 

Every training exercise should focus on one of this areas.

Additionally, every training exercise should help a player in developing his physical, mental and technical game without isolating any of these aspects.

Thus, an exercise should provide a player with a way to deal with a particular situation in game while developing his skills, mind and body.

This is the most over simplified, schematic, just sort of laconic explanation I can give. 

In fact Tactical Periodisation is based on a number of principles.

The first is the principle of Specificity that I have roughly explained above. No matter what the training entails, it should be linked to the way our team plays.

The second is the principle of operational play. In very rough words it means that exercises should prepare the player for situations found in the pitch and provide him with a solution to these situations compatible with our style of play.

Next is the Principle of horizontal alternation. Weeks should be structured in such a manner as to not overload the player and make him fall victim of fatigue. To achieve this there is a system of weekly distribution of sessions in which the day after the match is an off day in which everyone rests, the first day of training is a light "recovery day" and the day before the match is an activation day in which players focus on the upcoming match. The remaining days are the acquisition days or days of general training.

The last principle I will talk about is that of performance stabilization. In order to stabilize the level of performance of a player training weeks should be established and maintained so that a cycle is formed (the game/off-day/recovery/acquisition/game- preparation pattern I mentioned above) 

This established pattern should remain invariable so that fatigue and match sharpness never peak or drop drastically aside from injuries.

So here it is, my attempt at explaining the most important parts of Tactical Periodisation. Whole books have been written on the matter and any of Frade's pupils would probably chew me out for giving such a poor explanation but for FM this should suffice.

Next time I will talk about Mourinho's style of play.

[davidbarros2]

Loving the thread and its concepts so far!

Just wanna make a small observation regarding tactical periodisation: the day after a matchday isn't an off day on the traning cycle or microcycle (theory). That day should be active recovery, what you called a light recovery day.

This is according to science and the ideal conditions on theory. What happens in real life is the mental part of the game, where players don't have the appropriate mindset to rest in the night after a matchday and get up early the day after in order to travel to the training ground to do some recovery work... so, real life does not match the theory.

In real life most managers nowadays do what you described, swapping the 1st and 2nd day of the training cycle/mycrocicle to accomodate the mental part of the game, letting the players rest the day after matchday,

Keep up the good work, and I think you did a good job explaining tatical periodisation in a simple way so everyone can understand it, FM related or not

 

[Bernkastel]

Having talked about tactical Periodisation in my last post I think the best way to talk about Mourinho's tactics is to talk about the four phases of the game. 

Transition from defense to attack: Mourinho's teams like to give their fullbacks time to go higher up the pitch so the goalkeeper often passes the ball to the back four. From there the ball will reach the midfielders who will find a forward pass to put the ball in the final thirs. Transition achieved. Mourinho's teams do not play hoofball but are very efficient in their transitions to reduce the number of mistakes they might make.

Offensive organisation: Mourinho's typical attacking unit consist of a wingback, an inside forward, a striker, a n°10 and a winger. The ball is passed horizontally and a successful attack ends with the striker or inside forward taking a shot. The n°10 usually possesses a good long shot but this means of scoring is secondary. 

Transition from attack to defense: while this approach has varied depending on team and year Mourinho's teams are most known for their swift regrouping. The front players will usually press the back line to force a long ball but will end up regrouping for the defensive organization phase along with the rest of the team.

Defensive Organization: Mourinho's teams, ever since his time with Inter, defend in an aggressive, compact, low block that aims to restrict space in their own half while inviting the opposition to maximize the space they leave behind them. In Port his approach was different. He used a high offside line and relentlless pressing in a mid block. 

Apart from this four phases of the game Mourinho's teams also utilize set pieces heavily. When he won the Premier League back in 2015 his defenders scored more goals than some attacking units.

Lets talk now about the kind of player Mourinho likes for each position. 

Goalkeeper: before anything else Mourinho likes shot stoppers. He has no time for the time wasting sweeper keepers. A keeper's main duty is stopping the other team from scoring and nothing else.

Defender: Mourinho likes tall defenders who are strong in the air and possess great marking ability. This is not to say they don't need some level of technique. If you happen to be a Smalling type of defender you will be forced to make long especulative passes and give away possession, which would be counter productive. So a Mourinho defender can't be just a mountain of a man with no finesse but he doesn't need to have the technique of Beckenbauer.

Fullbacks: Mourinho has always played with a more conservative and a more adventurous fullback pair. His more adventurous fullback often overlaps with the inside forward but must not forget his defensive duties.

Midfielders: when Mourinho plays an inverted triangle or a diamond he places an anchorman at the base who is tasked with helping the defense and giving short simple passes to the other midfielders. He will also play a more offensive midfielder like Lampard with a box to box midfielder. The solidity provided by the anchorman allows these two to venture forwards. When Mourinho plays his 4231 he plays two holding midfielders, a more defensive one like khedira or Cambiasso next to a deep playmaker like Alonso or Fabregas. When he wants to be more aggressive he switches the deep playmaker for a more adventurous Box to box midfielder who will go further up the pitch and link with the n°10.

Winners: Mourinho is known for playing strikers in wide areas and instructing them to play narrower. This inside forward usually bags as many almost as many goals as the striker along with some assists. The other winger provides with on the other flank and is much more traditional in his behaviour during the attacking organization phase. Both wide players must drop deep to help when the team is out of possession.

N°10: the most technical player on any Mourinho side. He must possess good vision, excellent technique so he can work in tight spaces, a good longshot and the work rate to help the team when out of possession.

Strikers: Apart from Benzema (a very peculiar striker regardless of the team or manager he plays for) Mourinho's strikers are physically powerful players who concentrate on scoring goals and battling for loose balls and crosses. Whether by strength or by speed a Mourinho striker imposes himself thanks to his superior athleticism and scores from inside the box.

This covers both the base of his tactics and the kind of players he likes but does not paint a full picture.

The true strength of Mourinho lies in identifying and exploiting the weaknesses of the opposition and in retaining enough flexibility in his systems to adapt to each challenge.

Next post I will finally talk about Athletic Bilbao.

 

[johnnyyakuza78]

Great posts, I’m excited to read more and for someone to take over Jose’s mantle now he himself seems to have lost his own powers 

[Bernkastel]

Being Basque myself I have a great deal of love for Athletic Bilbao but I have never managed them in FM.

Why? Because I disagree with them on the subject of Oriundos (players of Basque descent but south American nationality). Currently we don't sign them while I think we should. Going any further would result in a rant.

A Bilbao save is always special. The Basque only policy means you can only sign players with Basque nationality or 16 year old Spanish players. This means that you must focus on youth development in order to achieve anything. 

My longest in fm19 must have been a youth focused CSKA Moscow where I played a high pressing aggressive style of football. In that save no youngster with less than 3'5 star potential ever got as much as a glance from me.

When playing with Bilbao you must look at all you players because you don't get to be as picky, you either sign them when they are 16 and haven't been contracted by their club or they are part of your youth intake. Because players aren't guaranteed to reach the full potential you must develop any youth with a modicum of talent.

Bilbao are an aging squad. Susaeta, Raul Garcia, Aduriz and Beñat all need a replacement. Some of them are evident, but others are yet to appear.

The good news is that the squad is not too incompatible with the style of play I want to give them. 

The 11 I will try first are:

Goalkeeper: Unai Simon

Defenders: San Jose, Iñigo Martinez.

Fullbacks: Yuri, De Marcos.

Midfielders: Iturraspe, Beñat 

Wingers: Muniain, Susaeta

N°10: Raul Garcia

Striker: Williams.

I have not make a decision yet regarding the roles and still have some tactical issues to think about until next week but this should be my strongest eleven.

The youngsters have varying potential so I can not speak about them as of now.

This is pretty much all I can do without my PC so unless I think of something important that needs to be said I won't be posting again until the 31st of July.

 

 

 

[Strikerir]

5 hours ago, Bernkastel said:

 

This is pretty much all I can do without my PC so unless I think of something important that needs to be said I won't be posting again until the 31st of July.

 

 

 

oh really :c i just have a question are you going to use the wingers in the mid slot or attacking mid slot?

[Bernkastel]

14 hours ago, Strikerir said:

oh really :c i just have a question are you going to use the wingers in the mid slot or attacking mid slot?

Very good question. I am going to guess you know that mid slots are more defensive than attacking mid slots and that your formation of choice is roughly your defensive shape. That being said you can't expect a lazy winger to track back even when placing him in the mid slot.

The main attribute that decides that is workrate and it turns out to be most important for wide players. I believe teamwork also plays a part to a lesser extent.

A second thing to consider is that by sitting deeper in defense the player will take longer to reach the final third. 

I don't usually utilize a low block when out of possession so I can't say for sure but I dont recall ever having problems with the attacking midfield strata when defending apart from one time I used a very technical but lazy AP with CSKA Moscow.

To answer your question I think I will first try the Attacking midfield slots with specific position Marking and will drop them to the mid strata when I fill the situation calls for it.

The great thing about formations is that by choosing tie correct roles you can get a 4231 shape out of a 4411, a 451 a 433 wide and even a 442 (some are trickier than others but it can be done)

A piece of good news, I miscounted the days in my previous post and will be returning home the day after tomorrow so I can start a day earlier than I thought. 

The first thing I will talk about is the proper structure of a club focused on Youth development and the backroom staff.

[Strikerir]

4 hours ago, Bernkastel said:

Very good question. I am going to guess you know that mid slots are more defensive than attacking mid slots and that your formation of choice is roughly your defensive shape. That being said you can't expect a lazy winger to track back even when placing him in the mid slot.

The main attribute that decides that is workrate and it turns out to be most important for wide players. I believe teamwork also plays a part to a lesser extent.

A second thing to consider is that by sitting deeper in defense the player will take longer to reach the final third. 

I don't usually utilize a low block when out of possession so I can't say for sure but I dont recall ever having problems with the attacking midfield strata when defending apart from one time I used a very technical but lazy AP with CSKA Moscow.

To answer your question I think I will first try the Attacking midfield slots with specific position Marking and will drop them to the mid strata when I fill the situation calls for it.

The great thing about formations is that by choosing tie correct roles you can get a 4231 shape out of a 4411, a 451 a 433 wide and even a 442 (some are trickier than others but it can be done)

A piece of good news, I miscounted the days in my previous post and will be returning home the day after tomorrow so I can start a day earlier than I thought. 

The first thing I will talk about is the proper structure of a club focused on Youth development and the backroom staff.

Thats good news im really interested how you are going to set up. Im comfused by specific marking do you mean that they going to be in the attacking mid as attack and ask them to mark specific players like oposing winger or fullbacks, because in support i cant see them rushing foward on counter attacks. Ive seen mourinho in many games asking is wingers to mark the oposing wingers to free his fullbacks so they defend in the box and ready for the oposing fullbacks crossing .

 

[Bernkastel]

To celebrate my friend and I managed to leave the hell of driving through Genoa behind I would like to talk about the 4231, which I intend to use as my main formation during this save.

As far as English football is concerned the 4231 was born with Eric Cantona in the 90s. The DLF kept getting deeper and deeper until he could no longer be considered a Forward and thus the n°10 is born. The south American continent emploid the formation much sooner where it evolved from the Brazilian box in search for wider attacking options.

It is perhaps the most flexible formation known today and can be tinkered with to serve both an aggressive and a defensive side. 

Like the two formations it was born from it achieves to reduce space in the center through the defensive square of two defenders and two holding midfielders. Packing the center of the final third means that opposition attacks are funneled to the wings where the only two avenues of attack are the skillful dribbling of an inside forward or crosses.

The formation can be then divided into a defensive unit of 6 outfield players + keeper and an offensive unit of 4 players + midfielders (who form part of both units)

This sets up two possibilities. The first is to play a high defensive line and use your advanced defensive unit to choke the opposition and lay siege to the opponents half. The second (the one most explored in this project) is to close gaps, concede space and use the attacking unit to hit them on the counter. 

Because it is a lone striker formation and because of the way I am setting it up my other players have the job of providing the ball to my forward and because of the two holding  midfielders one of my wings needs to be quite aggressive which has some implications for the other roles.

 

                  Gk

Wba - CD - CD - Wbd

          Car        Bbm

Ifa.             Ams.       Ws 

                  Pfa

This is a possible role set up of his time at Inter.

Who is the playmaker? The carrilero of course. Anyone who has seen them play knows that Cambiasso was the playmaker.

Why doesn't Cambiasso have a Playmaker role? He doesn't need a playmaker role to be a playmaker. Toni Kroos is a playmaker because he has 20 passing, 18 vision, 17 anticipation, 18 decisions and 18 teamwork along with the traits dictates tempo and likes to switch ball to the other flank. Giving him a Dlps role doesn't make him a better playmaker, it just makes him a ball magnet with the minuses and pluses that entails. 

Isn't the right flank too risky? Not with Cambiasso drifting wide to close the gap. If you want a very attacking combination in a flank you absolutely need the midfielder in that flank to be more conservative. The carrilero has the additional instructions to move wide which makes him an ideal cover.

You are going to need some individual instructions to make this tactic play like Mourinho's Inter but the two points I wanted to make have been made.

A playmaker doesn't need a playmaker role and a very attacking flank requires a conservative midfielder.

If only I could use that formation. Alas, I lack the players. The modern game has no Cambiasso, try to think of a single midfielder with his defensive capabilities and passing range.

So what tactic will I be using? That will have to wait, despite my feat of remembering the attributes and traits of Kroos he is my go to n°1 playmaker who I always bring back to Bayern. Of course I am going to remember my beloved.

I have no idea what attributes SI has given to the players at Athletic and can only make an educated guess from seeing them play IRL.

And like I said, before we go into tactics I need to talk about the club structure and the backroom staff. 

 

[coach vahid]

So brilliant...i hope so more. 👍 

[Strikerir]

5 hours ago, Bernkastel said:

To celebrate my friend and I managed to leave the hell of driving through Genoa behind I would like to talk about the 4231, which I intend to use as my main formation during this save.

As far as English football is concerned the 4231 was born with Eric Cantona in the 90s. The DLF kept getting deeper and deeper until he could no longer be considered a Forward and thus the n°10 is born. The south American continent emploid the formation much sooner where it evolved from the Brazilian box in search for wider attacking options.

It is perhaps the most flexible formation known today and can be tinkered with to serve both an aggressive and a defensive side. 

Like the two formations it was born from it achieves to reduce space in the center through the defensive square of two defenders and two holding midfielders. Packing the center of the final third means that opposition attacks are funneled to the wings where the only two avenues of attack are the skillful dribbling of an inside forward or crosses.

The formation can be then divided into a defensive unit of 6 outfield players + keeper and an offensive unit of 4 players + midfielders (who form part of both units)

This sets up two possibilities. The first is to play a high defensive line and use your advanced defensive unit to choke the opposition and lay siege to the opponents half. The second (the one most explored in this project) is to close gaps, concede space and use the attacking unit to hit them on the counter. 

Because it is a lone striker formation and because of the way I am setting it up my other players have the job of providing the ball to my forward and because of the two holding  midfielders one of my wings needs to be quite aggressive which has some implications for the other roles.

 

                  Gk

Wba - CD - CD - Wbd

          Car        Bbm

Ifa.             Ams.       Ws 

                  Pfa

This is a possible role set up of his time at Inter.

Who is the playmaker? The carrilero of course. Anyone who has seen them play knows that Cambiasso was the playmaker.

Why doesn't Cambiasso have a Playmaker role? He doesn't need a playmaker role to be a playmaker. Toni Kroos is a playmaker because he has 20 passing, 18 vision, 17 anticipation, 18 decisions and 18 teamwork along with the traits dictates tempo and likes to switch ball to the other flank. Giving him a Dlps role doesn't make him a better playmaker, it just makes him a ball magnet with the minuses and pluses that entails. 

Isn't the right flank too risky? Not with Cambiasso drifting wide to close the gap. If you want a very attacking combination in a flank you absolutely need the midfielder in that flank to be more conservative. The carrilero has the additional instructions to move wide which makes him an ideal cover.

You are going to need some individual instructions to make this tactic play like Mourinho's Inter but the two points I wanted to make have been made.

A playmaker doesn't need a playmaker role and a very attacking flank requires a conservative midfielder.

If only I could use that formation. Alas, I lack the players. The modern game has no Cambiasso, try to think of a single midfielder with his defensive capabilities and passing range.

So what tactic will I be using? That will have to wait, despite my feat of remembering the attributes and traits of Kroos he is my go to n°1 playmaker who I always bring back to Bayern. Of course I am going to remember my beloved.

I have no idea what attributes SI has given to the players at Athletic and can only make an educated guess from seeing them play IRL.

And like I said, before we go into tactics I need to talk about the club structure and the backroom staff. 

 

I set up just like you but im making more of a RM replication than Inter. I have a question regarding the IF (A) how do you make him track back because as im rememberimg etoo did not neglet his defensive duties

[Bernkastel]

After unpacking my things and dealing with some PC updates I inmediatly opened FM19 and loaded a save in Spain with no other country to make things go faster. 

Just as my save loaded and I had edited my profile in exactly the way I wanted I clicked my way to the following page and shed a tear when I looked at this:

What on earth is this? Is this the guy meant to bring new players to my team? As you can already guess this is not good enough at all. So I searched for someone much more capable for the job that was willing to work for us:

After comparing and contrasting several options this ex-member of our staff is the best we can get. He could have a better personality and his formation is not even similar to ours but he is a good coach and has a great eye for talent so until our reputation increases or a better option is available I will be using him as our Head of Youth Development.

When looking for a HoYD you want to look at two attributes before anything else: Working with youngsters and Judging player potential. This two attributes determine the ability and potential of the newgens he will bring. Next you should look at his personality since that will influence the personality of the newgens. His playing style also affects newgens so if you can try to find a HoYD which fits your philosophy. As you can guess the very best of the best are not willing to work for a relatively modest club like Athletic BIlbao so this man with balanced personality and a completely different playing style is the best I can get.

With that sorted out I immediately checked the staff in my U19s, my B team and my C team and convinced the board to expand the number of coaches in my B team. I was pleased to find that I had several good coaches taking care of players in both my B and U19s squad which are those I am going to focus on. Better youth coaching means my youngsters will progress faster and further so every season you should look for coaches that might better your staff.

After that came the tedious duty of organising my B team.

You see, in order to properly focus on youth you can't just make do with the current club structure at any given club. While in real life competition drives a player forwards and it is therefore encouraged to have several players fighting for the same position in the youth squads, in FM the youth squads are full of dead wood who are never going to make it and are going to steal minutes from your precious wonderkids.

If you are going to build a team of players by using your youth squads to build them you cannot be sentimental about it. The different squads must mark different stepping stones for your players who must get there by a given age. Those players who are not good enough to make the jump can be given a last opportunity by means of a loan to another club but that is it, if a player won't make it then he must be let go. Deadwood players cost money and take minutes from players with a future so you must get rid of them as soon as possible. Because my club has yet a C team I am moving all these talentless players there until I sell them or their contract runs out.

I quickly went to my B team and chose a starting eleven formed by the strongest youth prospects I had.  Sancet, Villalibre and Arberas are my brightest prospects which is good since it means I already have a defender, a playmaker and a striker for the future. At a club as Athletic player potential is most likely randomised so I have been quite lucky to have found eleven players with first team football potential. This eleven players where then reinforced by a fullback, a defender, a midfielder, a winger and a striker for a grand total of 16 players. Some may say that this number is too low but I want to maximise the amount of football played by my most promising players.

Those players who had promise but had not developed enough to be part of the B squad went to my U19s squad where I again reduced the number but this time to 22, two players per position. By the time they hit 18 or 19 they will move to the B team whose coach follows a tactical philosophy almost identical to mine. This ensures I have two or three years to mould a player into a cog in our machine before he finds playing time with the B team. Our B team is currently playing in the spanish third division known as Segunda B and I hope they can move to the second division either this year or the next.

This gives me a total of 38 youngsters to fight for a place in my first squad. I have not promoted a single player to the first team. Because we are not playing European competitions (which I aim to set straight this season) and because we already have at least two players for every position I decided that my 3 squads were set and done.

In my next post I will finally be talking about tactics and my first team.

[Bernkastel]

I have a confession to make. I am not used to playing direct football. I tend to favor a high line and a more possession hungry strategy. Because of this I have been tinkering a lot with my tactics during pre season and even now I am not 100% convinced with my tactic.

The first thing I noticed is that while my wingers did backtrack they gave away a lot of fouls in dangerous areas so I moved them to the mid strata and adopted a 4411 in defence. Because they are both in attack duty I still get the 4231 shape in attack but they don't commit as many fouls while in defence. The starting eleven is only provisional and will vary match by match.

I have chosen the cautious mentality because it offers some further solidity when compared with balanced mentality.

More direct passing is an instruction based on Mourinho's belief that the team that has the ball has fear. It is meant to make my team efficient on the ball. Pass into space is an instruction that makes my team more direct and works well with my three attacking roles (why would you pass into space if no one is going to move into that space?), Hit early crosses seemed to me as a bit of an overkill but I have mostly faced stronger teams this pre season and it is a good instruction against teams that play a high line, Because my players aren't genius footballers with mental attributes off the roof I have told them to be more disciplined something that also aims to imitate Mourinho and lastly I have increased the tempo because Mourinho's teams are known for their quick movements on the ball.

Distribute quickly + counter + regroup is the combination that best results in quick counter attacking football and Unai Simon while not the best distributor has enough ability to pull off a long kick or a good throw to my more advanced players.

The Lower line of engagement is meant to make our defence tighter and invite the opposition to concede space behind them and the combination of mark tighter + get stuck was devised to get the ball back quickly without breaking our defensive shape.

This will most likely crash and burn against a parked bus but is working well enough against both better and similar teams.

I will most likely update this by the end of the season.

[Strikerir]

7 hours ago, Bernkastel said:

I have a confession to make. I am not used to playing direct football. I tend to favor a high line and a more possession hungry strategy. Because of this I have been tinkering a lot with my tactics during pre season and even now I am not 100% convinced with my tactic.

The first thing I noticed is that while my wingers did backtrack they gave away a lot of fouls in dangerous areas so I moved them to the mid strata and adopted a 4411 in defence. Because they are both in attack duty I still get the 4231 shape in attack but they don't commit as many fouls while in defence. The starting eleven is only provisional and will vary match by match.

I have chosen the cautious mentality because it offers some further solidity when compared with balanced mentality.

More direct passing is an instruction based on Mourinho's belief that the team that has the ball has fear. It is meant to make my team efficient on the ball. Pass into space is an instruction that makes my team more direct and works well with my three attacking roles (why would you pass into space if no one is going to move into that space?), Hit early crosses seemed to me as a bit of an overkill but I have mostly faced stronger teams this pre season and it is a good instruction against teams that play a high line, Because my players aren't genius footballers with mental attributes off the roof I have told them to be more disciplined something that also aims to imitate Mourinho and lastly I have increased the tempo because Mourinho's teams are known for their quick movements on the ball.

Distribute quickly + counter + regroup is the combination that best results in quick counter attacking football and Unai Simon while not the best distributor has enough ability to pull off a long kick or a good throw to my more advanced players.

The Lower line of engagement is meant to make our defence tighter and invite the opposition to concede space behind them and the combination of mark tighter + get stuck was devised to get the ball back quickly without breaking our defensive shape.

This will most likely crash and burn against a parked bus but is working well enough against both better and similar teams.

I will most likely update this by the end of the season.

I Have a couple of suggestions.

1. Try changing de cm (d) to a carrilero, why? because a support duty tends to be tighter to the opponents midfield and thats exactly what you want

2. Change the AM to attack ussualy mourinho's Ams stay foward and are the main instigators for the counter attack him or normally a strong striker if he has one, one of them holds the ball to wait for the on rushing wingers and make that final pass.

3. Mentality cautious meh, yes it does provide defensive solidity but its really bad for a counter attacking stratagy (at least thats what i believe) so my suggestion is yes defend deeper or in mid block but increase that mentality because mourinho's team are really risky on the ball they dont give a crap if they lose it because defence its the best weapon.

This comes from a fellow portuguese who was obsessed with emulating jose mourinho at all costs and id say ive been decently sucessfull.

Edit: if you worry that the midfield duo on support leaves a hole in between mid and def try using one defender stopper and one cover its a portuguese thing we just like the stopper cover combination 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Strikerir

[trgtoztrk]

On 04/08/2019 at 03:13, Strikerir said:

I Have a couple of suggestions.

1. Try changing de cm (d) to a carrilero, why? because a support duty tends to be tighter to the opponents midfield and thats exactly what you want

2. Change the AM to attack ussualy mourinho's Ams stay foward and are the main instigators for the counter attack him or normally a strong striker if he has one, one of them holds the ball to wait for the on rushing wingers and make that final pass.

3. Mentality cautious meh, yes it does provide defensive solidity but its really bad for a counter attacking stratagy (at least thats what i believe) so my suggestion is yes defend deeper or in mid block but increase that mentality because mourinho's team are really risky on the ball they dont give a crap if they lose it because defence its the best weapon.

This comes from a fellow portuguese who was obsessed with emulating jose mourinho at all costs and id say ive been decently sucessfull.

Edit: if you worry that the midfield duo on support leaves a hole in between mid and def try using one defender stopper and one cover its a portuguese thing we just like the stopper cover combination 

Can u share ur own Mourinho emulation tactic please? 

[Strikerir]

45 minutes ago, trgtoztrk said:

Can u share ur own Mourinho emulation tactic please? 

Yes and as a bonus i can give my thougt process in the making of the tactic

[Strikerir]

So this is the tactic.

I went for a 4231 instead of a 4411 because i didnt like using them as Midfielders they were too defensive and i wasnt getting the best out of counter attacks.

To make the raumdeuter track back i use oposition marking. atention dont make this for both wingers.

i didnt use stopper/cover combo because i didnt really feel the need for it.

both fullbacks on support? but isnt supposed to have one more adventurous?  good question and the awser is simple its yes my right fullback has get further foward has ppm and some pi's that make him more adventurous. If your fullback doesnt have get further foward maybe try him on attack.

midfield: i went with a carrilero and a dlp (d), this is my interpertation of xabi alonso and khedira in his real madrid team alonso was supposed to cover ronaldo(the raumdeuter) and he rarely ventured fowards. Khedira was a cover for di maria but he was more adventurous than alonso soo the carrilero choice

Wingers: Raumdeuter and winger nothing to explain really ronaldo and di maria pretty much

AP: i decided to go with ap on attack because i want him to be a ball magnet and start counter attacks and get deep to receive the ball and stay foward when we defend to create that 4411/442 in defense. Most importante player in this system. 

Foward: Pressing foward i want him to press the opposition defense to force them to get foward so that i can get counter attacks and i think thats benzema's role at the time.

PI's

Sk (D)- No PI's

CD and BPD- Pass shorter 

RFb- take fewer risks, cross more often,cross from byline,cross aim far post,shoot less often, close down more

LFb- take fewer risks, cross more often, cross from deep,cross aim far post,shoot less often,close down more

dlp- close down more

carrilero-close down more, take fewer risks 

W (s) -close down more

Ap (A) - get further foward, move into channels

RMD- drible more, close down more, mark specific player

PF (A) - no pi's

i made the central mids and wingers and fullbacks press more because im trying to double up on the wings and win the ball there. 

I thinks thats all i dont remember anything more to say and sorry for my writing being all over the place i rarely write stuff.

Edit: i change mentality and defensive line dependent on opponent

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Strikerir

[trgtoztrk]

3 hours ago, Strikerir said:

So this is the tactic.

I went for a 4231 instead of a 4411 because i didnt like using them as Midfielders they were too defensive and i wasnt getting the best out of counter attacks.

To make the raumdeuter track back i use oposition marking. atention dont make this for both wingers.

i didnt use stopper/cover combo because i didnt really feel the need for it.

both fullbacks on support? but isnt supposed to have one more adventurous?  good question and the awser is simple its yes my right fullback has get further foward has ppm and some pi's that make him more adventurous. If your fullback doesnt have get further foward maybe try him on attack.

midfield: i went with a carrilero and a dlp (d), this is my interpertation of xabi alonso and khedira in his real madrid team alonso was supposed to cover ronaldo(the raumdeuter) and he rarely ventured fowards. Khedira was a cover for di maria but he was more adventurous than alonso soo the carrilero choice

Wingers: Raumdeuter and winger nothing to explain really ronaldo and di maria pretty much

AP: i decided to go with ap on attack because i want him to be a ball magnet and start counter attacks and get deep to receive the ball and stay foward when we defend to create that 4411/442 in defense. Most importante player in this system. 

Foward: Pressing foward i want him to press the opposition defense to force them to get foward so that i can get counter attacks and i think thats benzema's role at the time.

PI's

Sk (D)- No PI's

CD and BPD- Pass shorter 

RFb- take fewer risks, cross more often,cross from byline,cross aim far post,shoot less often, close down more

LFb- take fewer risks, cross more often, cross from deep,cross aim far post,shoot less often,close down more

dlp- close down more

carrilero-close down more, take fewer risks 

W (s) -close down more

Ap (A) - get further foward, move into channels

RMD- drible more, close down more, mark specific player

PF (A) - no pi's

i made the central mids and wingers and fullbacks press more because im trying to double up on the wings and win the ball there. 

I thinks thats all i dont remember anything more to say and sorry for my writing being all over the place i rarely write stuff.

Edit: i change mentality and defensive line dependent on opponent

 

Thank u for ur sharing. I have some questions about ur tactic:

1- First of all ur tactic seems pretty good however I wonder about if I revert it to the left, does it still work? Because as we all know, Ronaldo played in left wing etc.

2- How do u make ur Ronaldo track back which specific position do u make him mark(lb/rb, ml/mr, aml/amr)? 

[Strikerir]

48 minutes ago, trgtoztrk said:

Thank u for ur sharing. I have some questions about ur tactic:

1- First of all ur tactic seems pretty good however I wonder about if I revert it to the left, does it still work? Because as we all know, Ronaldo played in left wing etc.

2- How do u make ur Ronaldo track back which specific position do u make him mark(lb/rb, ml/mr, aml/amr)? 

Yes if you move to the other flank it still might work i just made it on the right because it suited my players.

i make him mark either mr/ml or aml/amr depends on what the opposition plays.

the tactic is far from perfect still needs improvements im working on it

[trgtoztrk]

10 hours ago, Strikerir said:

Yes if you move to the other flank it still might work i just made it on the right because it suited my players.

i make him mark either mr/ml or aml/amr depends on what the opposition plays.

the tactic is far from perfect still needs improvements im working on it

Well I tested it for few matches, I used Fmrte to make the tactic familiar with my team, its winning however the counter attack finisher usually AMC or ST, my Ronaldo role not scoring enough (I'm using Viktor Fischer for that role maybe he's not fast enough to be a counter attack finisher idk) and most of the goals are not coming from counter attack but coming from in possession. It might need some tweaks but actually Idk what to tweak. BTW I never changed mentality or lines. Thanks again. 

[Bernkastel]

1 hour ago, trgtoztrk said:

Well I tested it for few matches, I used Fmrte to make the tactic familiar with my team, its winning however the counter attack finisher usually AMC or ST, my Ronaldo role not scoring enough (I'm using Viktor Fischer for that role maybe he's not fast enough to be a counter attack finisher idk) and most of the goals are not coming from counter attack but coming from in possession. It might need some tweaks but actually Idk what to tweak. BTW I never changed mentality or lines. Thanks again. 

Mourinho's teams weren't simply counter attacking machines. When in possession they quickly sent the ball towards the final third and moved in order to open space tp then pass the ball to a player running into that space.

Strikerir does mention he is trying to replicate the Real Madrid team but the inside forward has usually always been a second striker in Mourinho's teams. In Madrid the strange combination of Ronaldo's natural gifts as a striker and Benzema's nº10 like talents inverted the order when it came to who scored goals. 

on the subject of Viktor Fischer I took a look at his attributes and his physical attributes are indeed not good enough especially his lack of Pace and Balance.

[trgtoztrk]

58 minutes ago, Bernkastel said:

Mourinho's teams weren't simply counter attacking machines. When in possession they quickly sent the ball towards the final third and moved in order to open space tp then pass the ball to a player running into that space.

Strikerir does mention he is trying to replicate the Real Madrid team but the inside forward has usually always been a second striker in Mourinho's teams. In Madrid the strange combination of Ronaldo's natural gifts as a striker and Benzema's nº10 like talents inverted the order when it came to who scored goals. 

on the subject of Viktor Fischer I took a look at his attributes and his physical attributes are indeed not good enough especially his lack of Pace and Balance.

U r completely right, but in my game Amc role is scoring more than Fisher, maybe I would try this tactic with the recent Juventus squad, playing Ronaldo on the left and Mandzukic on the striker. Ronaldo is still Ronaldo I think or it might work with the recent R. Madrid squad, Hazard on the Raumdauter role. As I said earlier tactic is still winning and that's the most important thing I think. In addition my carrilero also scored more than Fisher, even though my right wing Emre Akbaba scored more than Fisher. Actually, this shows that the problem is Fisher not the balance of tactic

[Strikerir]

Im actually tirelessly working to make the tactic the way i want it to be and im itching closer to the disired effect, im currently testing with newcastle and i got atsu(the raumdeuter) scoring some goals i will post the updated tactic once im done testing

[Strikerir]

3 hours ago, Bernkastel said:

Mourinho's teams weren't simply counter attacking machines. When in possession they quickly sent the ball towards the final third and moved in order to open space tp then pass the ball to a player running into that space.

Strikerir does mention he is trying to replicate the Real Madrid team but the inside forward has usually always been a second striker in Mourinho's teams. In Madrid the strange combination of Ronaldo's natural gifts as a striker and Benzema's nº10 like talents inverted the order when it came to who scored goals. 

on the subject of Viktor Fischer I took a look at his attributes and his physical attributes are indeed not good enough especially his lack of Pace and Balance.

Yes i know the inside foward is a second striker thats why im using a raumdeuter wich in portuguese is translated "Ponta de lança aberto" translating back to english word by word means "Wide Striker" so i think the raumdeuter does it or im just being fooled by the translation to my language :o

[Experienced Defender]

On 08/08/2019 at 12:39, Strikerir said:

im using a raumdeuter wich in portuguese is translated "Ponta de lança aberto" translating back to english word by word means "Wide Striker" so i think the raumdeuter does it or im just being fooled by the translation to my language

The original (German) meaning of RMD is "space investigator", but the role can be best described as the wide poacher.

[Strikerir]

Bernkastel when are u writing again im curious about you adventure i cant wait xd

[Coleman]

Is this topic still live? I am at the beginning of a Villa save and want to try to emulate the Mourinho method to stay up and build the team into a contender. I would love to read more!

[Strikerir]

27 minutes ago, Coleman said:

Is this topic still live? I am at the beginning of a Villa save and want to try to emulate the Mourinho method to stay up and build the team into a contender. I would love to read more!

Unfortunately it's dead 😭

[mattmccready]

On 14/12/2019 at 23:37, Strikerir said:

Unfortunately it's dead 😭

Did you keep on perfecting your tactic???