Building A Club - Inspired by Sir Bobby Robson

[myrvoldmartin]

Building a club - Inspired by the great Sir Bobby Robson

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After playing many saves with Newcastle United over the last few versions of Football Manager, I've now decided to try to take my football management a step further. Gone are the times with just trying to make a tactic work and quickly rushing through season after season. In this thread I will try to build a club based on my principles of play - and develop both players and facilities.

The objective? Making Newcastle United a real threat again in English football and improve how I play the game.

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Inspiration

Spoiler

 

And my inspiration is pretty clear. After reading about Sir Bobby Robson and his five seasons at the club I can't help but to get inspired by him. So many players and managers mention him as one of the best managers they've encountered in their career. Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas both worked under Robson during his time in Portugal, and Sir Alex Ferguson regards Robson as one of the best managers in history. Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoine and Alan Shearer all thank him for making their career.

His time at Newcastle came after his spell at Barcelona where he won three titles and then suddenly got moved out of the managerial role when Louis van Gaal came through the doors. He then took over a Newcastle side struggling in the league after a horrendous spell with Ruud Gullit. In his first two seasons at the club, Robson guided Newcastle to mid-table finishes. In his third season the club found themselves again fighting for a place in European football.

In this thread I will look to take small bits and pieces from Sir Bobby both when it comes to his tactical style and his belief in development of players.

"Business is similar to football if you think about it, you need great strategy and tactics but it’s the continuous development of great people and the team that ensures long term success” Sir Bobby Robson

I would also like to mention that I have taken a lot of interest in @Ö-zil to the Arsenal!'s posts here on the forum, as well as @Experienced Defender's.

 

 

My goal

Spoiler

 

Short-term

• Identify which players that suit my principles and build a team around those
• Stabilize the club in the Premier League
• Improve facilities and recruitment

Long-term

• Challenge for the Premier League title
• Take Newcastle back into European football
• Build a top youth setup that supplies the first team with great players

 

•  

 

So how does the club look at the moment?

The club is predicted to be 17th this season by the media. The board expects a mid-table finish in the league as well as fifth round in the FA Cup and fourth round in the League Cup.

All very much achievable in my mind.

Facilities

Spoiler

The facilities at the club are OK but clearly sub-par by Premier League standard.

Poor Youth Recruitment and average Youth Facilities will need to be improved quickly.

 

 

First day

Spoiler

 

On my first day at the job I had a few priorities. First and foremost I saw a need for a complete overhaul of the coaching staff for both the first team and the U23s. McGuinness and Arteaga were brought in as first team coaches while Sylwestrzak, Robinson and Beattie all came in to the U23 staff.

These changes gave us a good improvement with 8 out of 10 training groups now having 5 or higher star rating. We still need to improve coaching for Tactical in both Possesion and Attacking, but the  board is currently limiting us from doing so. That will be something to look into as the season progresses.

 

 

Defining a playing style

Spoiler

Three simple principles that define how I want my team to look like:

- High tempo football
     - I want there to be a bit of urgency into everything my team does, be it a pass or even our movement off the ball
- Quick transitions
    - After winning the ball I want my team to be quick when we have the possibility to hurt the opposition with a counter. The same goes for the transition after we loose the ball
- Solid defensive foundation
    - Utilising the two solid banks of four I want my team to work as a unit and keeps short distances between themselves

These three simple principles may sound easy enough, but my chosen formation will require a lot from all of the players. We will get into trouble if one player can't track back or is out of position.

Now that I've defined a few simple principles of play I need to identify what attributes my players need to have.

- Mentally strong
    - Good anticipation will make them equipped to predict and react to actions during the game
    - Good concentration will keep them focused for all 90 minutes even though they are tired
    - Good decision making will ensure that they make the right choice both in and out of possession
    - Good movement off the ball will help us in attack
    - Good positioning will give us a solid defense as they position themselves better out of possession
    - Good team work will ensure that they follow the tactical instructions

- Technically good
    - First touch, passing and technique all play an important part

- Physically capable
    - To keep my team staying compact and moving as a unit I need players with good stamina
    - Strength is important since I want a team that is tough to beat

Putting all of this together now let's move on to how I will set up my team formation wise:

Formation

Sir Bobby always played a 4-4-2 formation, and that will be the starting point for me as well.

 

-Ball Playing Defender (Defend) takes more risks and will try to pass through balls for us to launch a counter-attack

- Inverted Wing Back (Defend) tucks inside and gives us good cover in front of our Central Defenders

- Wing Back (Support) will have license to go forward and provide width on our left hand side

- Deep Lying Playmaker (Defend) holds his position and creates a strong cover in front of our Central Defenders together with our IWB

- Box To Box Midfielder will support our attacking players with runs as well as doing a job in defence

- Inverted Winger (Support) will cut inside on our left hand side and make room for our WB

- Winger (Support) gives us width on our right hand side

- Deep Lying Forward (Support) will try to link our attack and midfield and hold up the ball

- Pressing Forward (Attack) will be our main goal threat with his runs in behind the opponents as well as runs into channels

Overall a very simple and straightforward set up.

 

Team Instructions

From the start I want to keep things quite simple so that I can quickly adapt to what I am seeing in-game.

The only two TI's that we will be using is Higher Tempo when we are in possession and Counter when we are in transition. Both go well with my principles of play.

In some bigger games, especially away, we might lower our mentality slightly.

Depending on the opposition I might also add other instructions like Hit Early Crosses and Get Stuck In.

 

 

So then... I've set some principles of play, identified what I look for in a player and decided on how I want my team to set up.

Now let´s take a look at my current squad and see how these players fit into it all.

 

Squad analysis

Spoiler

 

From the get go it was clear that several players didn't have good enough mental attributes to be involved this season. Shelvey was let go because of his lack of determination and work rate. Atsu and Muto left because of their poor concentration and decision making.

Midfield issues

With Shelvey leaving that left us with these five players fighting it out for the two positions in the central midfield. The two will be absolutely crucial for us and good Work rate will be key. Imediately you can see that Bentaleb could prove to be an issue in the central midfield with his lack of Concentration and Work rate. Since one of my goals for this thread will improving young players, I am going to go for Matty and Sean Longstaff for the most part. Hayden and Colback will operate as rotation players. Ajer was brought in as well, and he can do a job in midfield though he will play primarily as a central defender.

Attacking issues

Up front we lacked both numbers and quality. Carroll and Gayle are injury prone and have holes in their mental attributes. Therefore I went out on the market and brought in three (!) strikers that fit better with what I'm trying to implement. Maric and Aboubakar was brought in permanently while Grey joined us on a season-long loan.

 

Key players

After analyzing my current squad I have identified a few key players for us this season.

Martin Dubravka - Goalkeeper (Defend)

Spoiler

A good and reliable goalkeeper with good aerial reach and reflexes. One thing that I will be looking to improve is some of his mental attributes; mainly Concentration and Decision Making.

Kristoffer Ajer - Ball Playing Defender (Defend)

Spoiler

 

Ajer is a real leader at the young age of 21. He's got a sound set of defensive attributes but also good technical abilities. His Pace and Acceleration is the only thing lacking and that will be my main focus on improvement for him going forward.

 

Allan Saint-Maximin - Inverted Winger (Support)

Spoiler

 

A quick winger with loads of tricks up his sleeve. ASM will occupy the Inverted Winger role in our tactic. He still has large holes in some of his attributes, mainly his mental attributes. Since he's only 22 years old I do have faith in that I can improve many of these with the right training.

 

Mirko Maric - Deep Lying Forward (Support)

Spoiler

Mirko Maric has very good technical abilities as well as great movement off the ball. He will fit perfectly into the DLF(s) role.

 

That's it for now. In my next posts I'm going to explain how I approach training and developing my current players.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by myrvoldmartin

[coach vahid]

Cool thread.👍

[EnigMattic1]

Looking forward to the updates. Not a Newcastle fan but I feel sorry for the fans having to watch a waste of space run their club into the ground.

I must admit, after that opening post, I'm tempted to start a Newcastle save now. 

[HanziZoloman]

Very interesting opener! I will follow the road of the magpies with you, eager to learn something (especially training)

Great!

PS what about Joelinton, he is one of my favs ? 

[myrvoldmartin]

On 19/03/2020 at 19:59, coach vahid said:

Cool thread.👍

Thanks!

On 19/03/2020 at 21:55, EnigMattic1 said:

Looking forward to the updates. Not a Newcastle fan but I feel sorry for the fans having to watch a waste of space run their club into the ground.

I must admit, after that opening post, I'm tempted to start a Newcastle save now. 

Totally agree! The club has so much potential with all of it´s fanbase and history. Surely, with the right investment, they should be challenging much higher up than what they do IRL.

12 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

Very interesting opener! I will follow the road of the magpies with you, eager to learn something (especially training)

Great!

PS what about Joelinton, he is one of my favs ? 

Thanks! Joelinton is definetly in my plans, as you will see in my next post.

 

Will post a new update later today!

[LPQR]

cool stuff, i took on Newcastle as they were languishing last in the table in November in 2022 in my journeyman save - been a very enjoyable save so far (4 seasons in with them). The Longstaff brothers and Ajer are the absolute bedrock of this team

[HanziZoloman]

1 hour ago, myrvoldmartin said:

Thanks! Joelinton is definetly in my plans, as you will see in my next post.

Woo Woo  looking forward 

in FM19 I had convinced him playing for Dresden in 2. Bundesliga .. terrific

[myrvoldmartin]

2019/20 season

 

First Team

Spoiler

 

We finished the season a bit lower on the table than expected at the start of the season. After an OK start we ended up in a terrible run of 13 games without a win. After a real hammering away at Anfield, where we lost 7-0, the poor run of form ended with a 4-2 win against Arsenal in front of our home fans at St James Park.

The season ended with a 13th place in the Premiership, while we went straight out of the cups in the early stages.

We struggled for goals this season and that will be my main focus for improvement next season.

Some of the players that I highlighted in my opening post hit the ground running, others did not. Ajer was the standout performer out of the four players I mentioned. He saw a nice overall improvement in his attributes and I'm especially pleased with his improvement in Pace and Acceleration.

Allan Saint-Maximin struggled with injuries and did eventually go out on loan to Everton. The same can be said about Maric, who only made 7 starting appearances this season after problems with his ankles.

Behind the scenes at the club, big things went down. Paul Baker bought the club from Mike Ashley back in December. The new owner had apparently made a promise to buy Van de Beek and Morelos after taking over the club. Van de Beek declined the offer to join, but Morelos signed a four year deal for The Magpies.

Morelos is an aggressive forward with great Finishing and overall technical attributes. His Concentration and Teamwork is an issue, but with the right training I'm already seeing improvements.

 

U23s

Spoiler

 

The U23s struggled in the Premier League 2 Division 2 this season and ended up dead last with only 6 wins in 22 matches.

I treat the U23s as 1) an arena for some of the first team players to regain match fitness, and 2) a bridge for some of the younger players to make the step into the first team. This season we sadly haven't had the quality of players for the team to challenge in the league.

Current Squad

Almost all of the current players in the U23s will be let go after this season, as none of them have good enough Potential Ability to play for the club in the future. Only Goudmijn, Morilla, Watts and Turner will be kept on. Goudmijn and Morilla was brought in during the January window, and both of them will feature for the first team next season.

 

U18s

Spoiler

 

The team did quite well in the U18 Division 1 North and ended up in a 6th place. They disappointed in the FA Youth Cup and went out with a 3-0 loss to Barnsley in the 3rd round.

Gilchrist had a nice development this season and and increased his Current Ability. In 43 apperances he bagged an incredible 27 goals. His Leadership saw an improvement and he captained the U18s this season. If he turns out even half as good, as the last local striker who captained the Magpies, I'll be happy.

Thomson did not improve his CA this season and I suspect that it has to do with his injuries and lack of games from start. He did have an overall improvement in many of his abilities though, so I am confident that he'll still be a future player for the club.

Anderson developed nicely and just like Gilchrist improved his Current Ability. He is currently being retrained as a striker, mainly because of his promising Pace, Acceleration and movement Off The Ball.

Current Squad

Both Gilchrist, Anderson and White will be moved up to the U23s for next season.

Thomson, Gracie and Dodd are the three players with the best potential of the remaining U18 squad. The main focus for next season is obviously to improve this group of players, but also to go further in the FA Youth Cup.

After nagging the board for investment in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment we are seeing great improvements.

We'll hopefully see a good crop of players coming into the U18s during next season.

 

 

Training
At the start of the season I set up my training schedules, both for pre season and in season. A great tool that I've been using is the FM20 Training Planner by FMScout. Using the spreadsheet you'll get a better look into what attributes the different sessions works on.

Spoiler

 

During season

This has been my main training schedule during the season. This particular schedule works especially on improving the mental attributes and some technical attributes for the defenders. For attackers the schedule works on mainly their technical attributes aswell as some mental attributes. The session with defending corners has changed during the season, all according to the opposition.

For the coming season I will try to improve my training setup and incorporate more focus on some physical attributes. I'm aiming for 2-3 different schedules that I can alternate between according to our fixtures and opponents.

Individual training

I try to tailor the individual training to what each player needs more work on. Here's an example of how I approach this:

Morelos is being trained as a Pressing Forward (Attack) since this is the only striker role that works on Concentration, which he clearly lacks.

Joelinton on the other hand does not have the same lack of Concentration so he's being trained as a Complete Forward (Attack), which works on a wider set of attributes. Since Joelinton lacks Anticipation and movement Off The Ball he is given additional focus on Attacking Movement.

Every player in the club has been assigned a role/focus tailored to them. I do this for the first team, U23s and U18s as well.

 

That's it for now! I have been moving very slowly on this save, but my next post will be focusing on the upcoming 2020/21 season, and how I'll try to improve my tactical setup to combat the lack of goals this season.

[HanziZoloman]

Great postings for a beginner like me! The most inspiration I got from the approach to build up a squad with some traits. I had done this also but inconsequential. I will do it now with more focus and I will spend more time with my youngsters. 
How do you get rid of players wich don’t fit your ideas?

[myrvoldmartin]

15 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

How do you get rid of players wich don’t fit your ideas?

That has been a problem for me both during last season and this transfer window! One thing I have found effective, when I'm struggling to get players sold, is to use the loan market. There seems to be more clubs interested in season-long loan deals. I usually ask for 100% of the wages covered aswell as a monthly fee. The monthly fee I'm asking for is dependant on the quality of the player but I usually start quite high, and then lower the fee it if there's no interest.

One thing to note is that even tough the player is deemed surplus for my team, I still want him to get a good amount of playing time. Therefore I do not loan out a player for less playing time than Regular Starter.

[myrvoldmartin]

Hi everybody! Moving very slowly but here comes my next chapter in my Build a Club-project

2020/21 season

Last season we had big issues with our attack. We only scored 35 goals in the Premier League, whch oviously won't take us very far.

Maybe it was down to the quality of players in the squad, but I still felt that the tactic needed some small tweaks to make it better suited to the way I want to play.

Small changes

While working on my setup I went back and watched some of Newcastle's matches from both 2001 and 2002.

From those matches I got a few ideas that I thought could work.

Firstly their left fullback, Bernard, was more involved in the attacking phase than what I had seen from our fullback last season. Sir Bobby played a more conservative fullback on the right, but not one that drifted inside like my initial IWB (Defensive).

Those changes led to an Fullback (Attack) on the left and a Fullback (Support) on the right.

Up front I did try out several combinations during pre season with very mixed results. In the end I opted for a combination of a Complete Forward (Attack) and Advanced Forward (Attack). A combination that I think is not to different from the Shearer - Bellamy partnership that Sir Bobby Robson found very useful.

In terms of TI's I only added Higher Defensive Line, as our defenders are mentally good (Anticipation, Decisions, Positioning) and fairly quick (Acceleration, Pace).

 

First team

Spoiler

 

Although the small tweaks in our tactical setup gave us more goals this season (45), we still ended up lower on the table.

Again we fell short in the domestic cups, which I used to give some of our younger players first team opportunity.

Next season will be key as I look to implement some of the younger talent at the club!

 

Sean Longstaff continues his great development and he's looking more and more like a complete player. I trained him to Tries Killer Balls Often because of his great Passing, Vision and Decisions.

 

 

 

U23s

Spoiler

 

Squad

League

12 players were let go from the U23s this season and that meant I had to make big efforts in the transfer market. Our scouting staff had worked hard before pre season and I had a shortlist of young players in the age of 17–19 to work from. 8 new players was brought in in addition to a few players being promoted from the U18s.

Some players have seen great development this season, and this could give me some headaches come next season.

Andrea Papetti

Quick, strong and good abilities in Heading, Marking and Tackling. His Determination stands out aswell.

Dirk Proper

Proper went out on loan this season, and after coming back he's looking like a very well balanced central midfielder. Again his Determination stands out.

 

 

U18s

Spoiler

 

Prior to this season our Youth Level was demoted from Category 1 to Category 3. That meant that our U18s would play in the U18 Division 3 North-East against teams like Lincoln, Scunthorpe and Grimsby. I did fear that the poor opposition would lead to a worse development for our youngsters this season.

Fortunately it looks like training, coaches and facilities does have have a bigger impact in the development at the age 15–18. Stephenson and Dodd scored a lot of goals up front for the U18s, and Thomson and Gracie continued their great development.

Squad

League

Cup

After many requests the board finally agreed to put money into our Youth Level, and we will once again play in the Premier League U18 next season.

 

 

Youth Development

Spoiler

 

Change in personnel

I made a change of HoYD this season as Joy Joyce simply was not good enough in either attributes or personality.

After some searching I went for Vincenzo Vergine who has excellent attributes in the knowledge and mental department

 

Joe Joyce                                                                                                                          Vincenzo Vergine

Youth Intake

A quite balanced Youth Intake this season, but sadly only Grainger and Lumsden look like future first team-players.

 

 

The next season will be crucial now as I look to implement a number of the youngsters into the first team.

Have a great saturday everybody!

[HanziZoloman]

On 22/03/2020 at 22:32, myrvoldmartin said:

This has been my main training schedule during the season.

How do you prepare for the season?

well seems like you need some time to develop the club!  Great how you developed Longstaff. Did other go well, too? And is Joelinton still at the club?

Nice read!

Edited March 28, 2020 by HanziZoloman

[myrvoldmartin]

17 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

How do you prepare for the season?

well seems like you need some time to develop the club!  Great how you developed Longstaff. Did other go well, too? And is Joelinton still at the club?

Nice read!

Thanks, @HanziZoloman!

Joelinton has been really good so far this season, and after 11 games he has bagged 7 goals. Overall he hasn't seen huge improvements in his abilities, as he's PA is limited.

Not that many players left from the original squad tbh. Lascelles, Rose, Longstaff, Hayden, Saint-Maximin, Lazaro and Joelinton are the ones left, and most of them don't have that much room for improvement. Lascelles has been a regular, alongside Ajer, in our central defence and he's really solid.

For pre season I've used this schedule:

The schedule is quite heavy on my players and I do make some small tweaks according to the amount of matches in pre season. During pre season I am for only one match per week, as I want my players to build up a good physical base for the season. The schedule works heavily on the fitness attributes; Balance, Jumping Reach, Natural Fitness, Stamina and Strength. For mental attributes; Anticipation, Decisions and Workrate.

[HanziZoloman]

Brilliant! 
I had started a new save with Kaiserslautern in German 3. Division. A traditional club with no money left but a World Cup stadium and great history. They were the only club which captured the league title directly after promotion (1998).

I am inspired by your postings! 
thank you

[HanziZoloman]

On 29/03/2020 at 14:48, myrvoldmartin said:

Overall he hasn't seen huge improvements in his abilities, as he's PA is limited.

By the way, some of my players are decreasing in their abilities but are not that old (27-29) how about that?