Sunderland 4-2-3-1 Need help

[Kourner]

Hello everyone,

I am a complete beginner in football manager but quite a veteran in other managing football games (such as top eleven or goalunited in the good times). I started the run with Sunderland and I managed to win the sky 1 and the next year I managed to end 3rd and win the play offs to the premier. All those seasons I used 4-1-2-2-1 with quite ruling the possession and playing in an offensive counterpression (however the AMC position was quite empty because I was sending my striker quite forward). Then in premier the first half of first season I managed to reach UEFA position but from christmas I started going down down down and I ended barely saving the descend, however next season while I won few of the firsts games (one 2-1 against manchester united) then I went down until being second but from the bottom. 

So now I am starting Championship and I started pretty hard after making few changes (the main in tactics and my wings) winning 3 games and one draw, but since then I losed 3 in a row (on of them against the last team in the league) and one draw against the 19th. I have absoletly no idea what is going on. I use a 4-2-3-1 now and in preseason I ruled, did not lose any game (even against teams of the spanish league such as Atletico de Madrid) but now I do not know what happens that I am going down. The moral is high and I have the best striker of the league and I believe I have a pretty solid team (half is international). My way to go is searching young players and rising them up, right now I have none older than 27

I play the game in another language so I do not know the positons names good, and also some of the players are generated so I will tell the stars and some traits of each player. Sunderlarland in my go reached 3.5 stars

The tactics with posession is standard intensity and short passes playing through center and delivering to the wingers that should overlapp to the laterals. And standard shooting and centers (no idea if its called like this the high passes). In defens the striker line of pressure is in the middle of the field and defense just in front of the area. I use counterpression and counterattack and try to avoid the goalkeeper to deliver short. I make my goalkeeper to pass in short.

Okay so my team is the following:

Goalkeeper

1. R. McCroire, age 26, 3 stars, pretty good at 1 vs 1 and to be honest the savoir of maaany games

28. M. Kovar, age 24, 2,5 stars, terrible, I have him playing in the sub23 and looking to sell him.

Left laterals or Backforwards

26. J. Panzo, age 23, 4 stars, his stats ar quite good and I play him in the offensive way, but loses some balls in risky passes (I have set to him to not try risky passes but however...) sometimes however makes AMAZING games

20. O Richards, age 26, 3,5 starts, when I play him he always answers but never makes huge star play, but is steady

Right laterals or Backforwards

2. H. ter Avert, age 27, 3 stars has good connection with the winger and i play him in the more defensive way

17. G. Scholz, age 24, 2.5 stars, he was supposed to become a huge star (cpu generated) from borussia, last season played it almost all as the first option due to injuries, was a huge pain...

Centrals

19. M. Morik, age 19, 3,5 stars, my fav central and also can play as midfielder, the only complain is aereal game.

5. K.Bryan, age 27, 3,5 stars, with me since beginning and this season is standing out, if not for him and the goalkeeper we would average 3 goals per game

29. M. Fahrmann, age 18, 3 stars, the future of the team right now making some star of the game, good player for the backup

8. C.Kyprianon, age 21, 3 stars, I used him as midefield defender when I was playing 4-1-2-2-1 but now almost never plays so I'm sending him for the sub21 for most games

Midfield

10. G.Dobson, age 26, 4 stars, my main men in the middle, focus in the defense but also scored one goal in the few games we played already.

6. L.Fernandes, age 24, 3,5 stars, Mezzala, I expected him to be the main man but he never ended exploding however I do not have any complain, makes his job.

7. M.Roric, age 24, 3 stars, Midfield pure, good passer but thats it I expected a lot and isn't performing enough

   S. Uhde, age 18, 3,5 stars, Midfield, raised in sunderland cost 0, stunning performance is playing better than any of the team, but due to promises to Fernandes and Roric I can't make him play all games

Left Wingers (the source of main ofensive problems)

G. Racine, age 20, 3,5 stars, Is pretty average at everything except speed that is awesome, is 1,85 and scored couple of goals from the head. Comes from liverpool and I expected him to be the key of the offense this season... Absolute failure, drains loses... And last seaso happened the same with anotehr winger in the left side. I do not know why but my offense in the left is terrible. Average 6.1 while other average 7.1

12. L. Kan in age 23, 3 stars, has like 18 in dribbling and I expected him to be kind of Neymar... but same of Racine drains loses, last seasons AML, this season I am playing him more like AMC

Right wingers.

11. A. Saelemaekers, age 24, 4 stars, my "star" some games rules it others is a disaster, has good stats, bought him for 5M now are offering me 18M in just one season, I think the attack should go through him but when I give him some of the main role just doesn't work...

16. J. Clarke, age 23, 3 stars, barely plays but is not bad, can also play as AML

AMC

30. J. Kade, age 25, 3 stars. Scores sometimes 2 goals in like 10 games and average good ratings but in game I never see him doing anything special...

Strikers

9. P. Klimala (is a really forward striker but I am considering making him to back up quite) age 25, 3,5 stars. He is supposed to be the best striker in league (the bets say so), made 6 goals in 8 games and right now is in the top of the scorers table, but the lasts 3-4 games is not touching the ball... barely gets a 6.3

14. A. Moser, age 19, 3 stars from Borussia Dortmund, my future "star" when plays makes good job nut never better than Klimala.

Thanks for reading and I appologise for the mistakes as english isn't my first language :( I hope someone could helo me because I am loving the game but it is highly frustraiting not winning any game in a row. 

 

 

 

 

[petertr]

I also play as Sunderland (my home team), and for the first few seasons, assuming you're doing well, its almost a full new first team each season as you rapidly jump up from League One, then quickly climb the Championship.

I found the team really struggled to gel for the first 3 months or so, then came together.  Only for me to break it all again the next Summer when it was time to take the next step!

I'm on season 6 now, and this is the first season that I only added a few players, rather than making big changes.

[Experienced Defender]

Post a screenshot of your tactic so that we could analyze it and tell you if there is anything glaringly wrong.

P.S: the roles, duties and instructions in the screenshot need to be in English.

[Kourner]

Hello everyone,

21 hours ago, petertr said:

I also play as Sunderland (my home team), and for the first few seasons, assuming you're doing well, its almost a full new first team each season as you rapidly jump up from League One, then quickly climb the Championship.

I found the team really struggled to gel for the first 3 months or so, then came together.  Only for me to break it all again the next Summer when it was time to take the next step!

I'm on season 6 now, and this is the first season that I only added a few players, rather than making big changes.

Yeah from the firsts season I just keep one player, Dobson and each season I change pretty much half squad

12 hours ago, Experienced Defender said:

Post a screenshot of your tactic so that we could analyze it and tell you if there is anything glaringly wrong.

P.S: the roles, duties and instructions in the screenshot need to be in English.

Okay here they are

After reading quite around I decided to keep going and make some changes. The thing that made change my playing was a message that said most people tries to play too offensive, so I realized that this was my mistake, I made couple adjustments and since then I am first in the league. However I do not feel that I am playing good and when I played any premier team in the cup, they swept me by 0-3 and 0-3 (and where bottom league in the premier). Also lately I am struggeling to score and to win... I rely too much in Racine and Klimala (the last one the lasts games is not scoring). Any tips are welcome

[Starsurfer]

1 hour ago, Kourner said:

After reading quite around I decided to keep going and make some changes. The thing that made change my playing was a message that said most people tries to play too offensive, so I realized that this was my mistake, I made couple adjustments and since then I am first in the league. However I do not feel that I am playing good and when I played any premier team in the cup, they swept me by 0-3 and 0-3 (and where bottom league in the premier). Also lately I am struggeling to score and to win... I rely too much in Racine and Klimala (the last one the lasts games is not scoring). Any tips are welcome

This screen alone is pretty self-explanatory. The reddish squares on your MCL and MCR clearly indicate there are issues with their roles and duties. It is obvious there is no player playing as a pivot in your 4231, which essentially is a 2 pivot formation. IMHO your whole setup is rather unbalanced too.

Hope this helps you to understand what is wrong. Many a times, the game does tell us where the flaws are if we know where to look. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Starsurfer

[pheelf]

A few tips:

- Don't make any major changes now, you are heading for promotion to the Premier League. Making large changes are likely to affect your tactical familiarity and could potentially do more harm than good in the short term. Get over the line, then once you have secured your promotion then perhaps use the final few meaningless games to experiment a bit.

- When it's safe to do so, I'd have a serious look at your team instructions. You need to question why you are selecting them and have a valid reason for doing so. In order to do that properly you need to define your vision for how you want the team to play in greater clarity. As it stands, there are a lot of ideas there, some good but some which don't necessarily fit together (for e.g. playing shorter passes while also playing wider).

- As mentioned by @Starsurfer you need a defensive pivot in your central midfield. I can't stress enough the importance of this not only to provide cover for your aggressive left flank but also to enable the team to more effectively recycle possession in the midfield by having a player hold position deep in the midfield. The change would entail putting your MCL on a defend duty and picking a defensively minded midfielder to play in the position.

- I wouldn't personally choose a BBM as one of the pair in the central midfield of a 4-2-3-1. Both your central midfielders need to be more defensively secure, they don't need to offer as much offensively given there should be 4 players ahead of them at all times. The concern with playing a BBM would be that if you were to lose possession with the player in the role up in the opposition box as would be expected from him then I think it would be very difficult for him to recover his defensive position quickly enough especially if the opposition plays more direct. This is exacerbated by dropping the defensive line which makes an even longer distance for him to have to run back when the ball is lost.

- A Sweeper Keeper with a deeper defensive line doesn't really make much sense. The whole idea of a sweeper keeper is to 'sweep' up behind a high defensive line, aiming to intercept balls played over your defensive line. Given that you aren't playing the role for the playmaking aspect of the role either (more direct passes) then I can't see why you wouldn't just use a standard goalkeeper.

There is more but I think what I've mentioned are the most critical aspects that could be improved.

Hopefully, what I've written is of help to you.

Best Regards

Edited June 18, 2020 by pheelf

[Experienced Defender]

3 hours ago, Kourner said:

 

3 hours ago, Kourner said:

After reading quite around I decided to keep going and make some changes. The thing that made change my playing was a message that said most people tries to play too offensive, so I realized that this was my mistake, I made couple adjustments and since then I am first in the league. However I do not feel that I am playing good

The tactic has some obvious weaknesses IMHO, but if you are 1st in the league, then making changes is generally not advisable (at least as long as the tactic works).

[XuluBak]

As others have said, don't change much until you've secured the jump. That said...

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve tactically so don't know how to advise. There are quite a few contradictions between your formation, roles, and TIs. How do you envision your team playing? 

[Kourner]

Finally the league was not decided until the last game... I played against the second (we had the same amount of points) and we drawed but the 3rd won and managed to win the league. My left winger was injured and missed the last 3 games which made pretty hard to deal with...

2 hours ago, Starsurfer said:

This screen alone is pretty self-explanatory. The reddish squares on your MCL and MCR clearly indicate there are issues with their roles and duties. It is obvious there is no player playing as a pivot in your 4231, which essentially is a 2 pivot formation. IMHO your whole setup is rather unbalanced too.

Hope this helps you to understand what is wrong. Many a times, the game does tell us where the flaws are if we know where to look. 

Thanks for your tips  however I do not understand what you mean with pivot... I can not find this position.

2 hours ago, pheelf said:

A few tips:

- Don't make any major changes now, you are heading for promotion to the Premier League. Making large changes are likely to affect your tactical familiarity and could potentially do more harm than good in the short term. Get over the line, then once you have secured your promotion then perhaps use the final few meaningless games to experiment a bit.

- When it's safe to do so, I'd have a serious look at your team instructions. You need to question why you are selecting them and have a valid reason for doing so. In order to do that properly you need to define your vision for how you want the team to play in greater clarity. As it stands, there are a lot of ideas there, some good but some which don't necessarily fit together (for e.g. playing shorter passes while also playing wider).

- As mentioned by @Starsurfer you need a defensive pivot in your central midfield. I can't stress enough the importance of this not only to provide cover for your aggressive left flank but also to enable the team to more effectively recycle possession in the midfield by having a player hold position deep in the midfield. The change would entail putting your MCL on a defend duty and picking a defensively minded midfielder to play in the position.

- I wouldn't personally choose a BBM as one of the pair in the central midfield of a 4-2-3-1. Both your central midfielders need to be more defensively secure, they don't need to offer as much offensively given there should be 4 players ahead of them at all times. The concern with playing a BBM would be that if you were to lose possession with the player in the role up in the opposition box as would be expected from him then I think it would be very difficult for him to recover his defensive position quickly enough especially if the opposition plays more direct. This is exacerbated by dropping the defensive line which makes an even longer distance for him to have to run back when the ball is lost.

- A Sweeper Keeper with a deeper defensive line doesn't really make much sense. The whole idea of a sweeper keeper is to 'sweep' up behind a high defensive line, aiming to intercept balls played over your defensive line. Given that you aren't playing the role for the playmaking aspect of the role either (more direct passes) then I can't see why you wouldn't just use a standard goalkeeper.

There is more but I think what I've mentioned are the most critical aspects that could be improved.

Hopefully, what I've written is of help to you.

Best Regards

Thanks! I changed quite a lot I add the photos and the tactics here.

1 hour ago, XuluBak said:

As others have said, don't change much until you've secured the jump. That said...

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve tactically so don't know how to advise. There are quite a few contradictions between your formation, roles, and TIs. How do you envision your team playing? 

My main idea is to play in the sides in quite a posession/counterpression style. I will use the left winger to dribble inside the area, he is the player of the league that made more dribblings through season so is pretty good at it and managed to score good. Also I I have the WB to give support and try to overlap and in the right winger I want him to be delivering long passes to the stiker or if needed also to try to shoot.

The main problem I have is that my team is quite bad at passing so I prefer to focus on short passes. Also the striking abilities of my strikers are pretty poor (both with feet and head) which it makes many times to shoot but keep missing.

Now season ended and I will not play more until having some tips  also which position you think I should reforce, I believe that my strikers and midfield should need a couple of new signings.

Thanks a lot!

[Starsurfer]

10 hours ago, Kourner said:

Thanks for your tips  however I do not understand what you mean with pivot... I can not find this position.

As shown in your latest setup, I think you now better understand the idea of using pivots. Kudos to @pheelf for the explanation.

The CMde and BWMde are now acting as your pivots to hold the team formation and shape together during transition and attacking. 

[pheelf]

16 hours ago, Kourner said:

My main idea is to play in the sides in quite a possession/counter pressing style. I will use the left winger to dribble inside the area, he is the player of the league that made more dribbles through season so is pretty good at it and managed to score good. Also I I have the WB to give support and try to overlap and in the right winger I want him to be delivering long passes to the striker or if needed also to try to shoot.

The main problem I have is that my team is quite bad at passing so I prefer to focus on short passes. Also the striking abilities of my strikers are pretty poor (both with feet and head) which it makes many times to shoot but keep missing.

Now season ended and I will not play more until having some tips  also which position you think I should reinforce, I believe that my strikers and midfield should need a couple of new signings.

Thanks a lot!

This represents an improvement on what you had before which is great.

Some more tips:

- You correctly identify that the 'Shorter Passing' team instruction is all about risk reduction and choosing it because your players are poor passers of the ball is sound reasoning but then you have also selected 'Pass Into Space'. That instruction is all about making your players take risks with their passing. This is in addition to the passing risks already 'baked in' with some of the roles you have chosen (Deep Lying Forward, Advanced Playmaker, Ball Playing Defender and Sweeper Keeper). This could be problematic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it works against your vision of playing a possession style as it risks losing the ball more frequently. Secondly, you don't really have any central runners (where it hurts the opposition most) that will look to run into space to receive a pass (both your AMC and ST want the ball played to them). Striker roles which are more adept at that kind of off the ball movement are the Poacher, Advanced Forward, Pressing Forward (Attack). Playing your striker in one of those roles also helps to give your AMC more space by pinning back the opposition defensive line with the threat of running in behind. In the DLF role, he wants to drop into the pocket when off the ball which interferes with your AMC who wants to use that space when driving from deep.

- I don't see how you can play a possession style well while also instructing play to go down the wings in your system. Especially since you have players on the wings in roles which are all about being individualistic and taking their man on and trying to dribble past them which risks losing the ball. Additionally, the gaps between your wide players are the biggest in your formation. I'd imagine it would be difficult for the players on your left flank to be in close enough proximity to link up together with any regularity. Ideally, in a possession style you need to provide your players with as many passing options as you can. Shorter Passing restricts this especially in formations which have players spread over the full width of the pitch.

- I'm not sure that playing this particular formation with a deeper defensive line is such a good idea. I think you may have gotten away with it in the Championship facing a lower quality of opposition while being able to dominate games more with better players. In the Premier League, however, I think that increasing the space available to your opponents in the 'golden zone' by dropping off is a huge risk. I would think about pushing it along with the line of engagement up a bit to compress the gap between your defensive line and central midfield. By bringing the two lines closer together and making more of your players responsible for pressing it should make your pressing game more effective. There should be less space for your defenders to cover while also helping when you are in possession of the ball by allowing your defenders to more easily transition the ball into midfield. Of course every decision you make has potential downsides, in this case. a higher line will grant space behind your defensive line but if you want to create a possession/pressing style then I think you have to take that chance. Besides, you have the insurance of a Sweeper Keeper to mitigate the risk slightly.

- As for where you should strengthen, well everywhere you can but I think a pair of quality fullbacks should be top of your shopping list. They need to be fit, quick, energetic players that can contribute at both ends of the pitch. I'd also look to bring in a quality AMC considering that he is going to be one of your main creative outlets in the team. He will need to be excellent off the ball, have a great first touch and be capable of spotting a pass while having the technical ability to carry it out. He will like all of your other outfield players need to be physically strong (stamina, acceleration) to be able to press as you'd like while also needing the mental strength to sustain it (work rate, determination).

- As you are likely to face a lot of formations with defensive midfielders I think it would be a good idea to allow your AMC more license to roam by giving him that player instruction. If he gets marked out of the game that severely dents your ability to build attacks through the middle.

- The best piece of advice I can offer is to watch your games in detail with a critical eye. Use your pre-season friendlies to assess your tactic. Ask yourself whether the players are doing as you are instructing and if not, why not?

Good luck

Edited June 19, 2020 by pheelf

[Kourner]

23 hours ago, pheelf said:

This represents an improvement on what you had before which is great.

Some more tips:

- You correctly identify that the 'Shorter Passing' team instruction is all about risk reduction and choosing it because your players are poor passers of the ball is sound reasoning but then you have also selected 'Pass Into Space'. That instruction is all about making your players take risks with their passing. This is in addition to the passing risks already 'baked in' with some of the roles you have chosen (Deep Lying Forward, Advanced Playmaker, Ball Playing Defender and Sweeper Keeper). This could be problematic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it works against your vision of playing a possession style as it risks losing the ball more frequently. Secondly, you don't really have any central runners (where it hurts the opposition most) that will look to run into space to receive a pass (both your AMC and ST want the ball played to them). Striker roles which are more adept at that kind of off the ball movement are the Poacher, Advanced Forward, Pressing Forward (Attack). Playing your striker in one of those roles also helps to give your AMC more space by pinning back the opposition defensive line with the threat of running in behind. In the DLF role, he wants to drop into the pocket when off the ball which interferes with your AMC who wants to use that space when driving from deep.

- I don't see how you can play a possession style well while also instructing play to go down the wings in your system. Especially since you have players on the wings in roles which are all about being individualistic and taking their man on and trying to dribble past them which risks losing the ball. Additionally, the gaps between your wide players are the biggest in your formation. I'd imagine it would be difficult for the players on your left flank to be in close enough proximity to link up together with any regularity. Ideally, in a possession style you need to provide your players with as many passing options as you can. Shorter Passing restricts this especially in formations which have players spread over the full width of the pitch.

- I'm not sure that playing this particular formation with a deeper defensive line is such a good idea. I think you may have gotten away with it in the Championship facing a lower quality of opposition while being able to dominate games more with better players. In the Premier League, however, I think that increasing the space available to your opponents in the 'golden zone' by dropping off is a huge risk. I would think about pushing it along with the line of engagement up a bit to compress the gap between your defensive line and central midfield. By bringing the two lines closer together and making more of your players responsible for pressing it should make your pressing game more effective. There should be less space for your defenders to cover while also helping when you are in possession of the ball by allowing your defenders to more easily transition the ball into midfield. Of course every decision you make has potential downsides, in this case. a higher line will grant space behind your defensive line but if you want to create a possession/pressing style then I think you have to take that chance. Besides, you have the insurance of a Sweeper Keeper to mitigate the risk slightly.

- As for where you should strengthen, well everywhere you can but I think a pair of quality fullbacks should be top of your shopping list. They need to be fit, quick, energetic players that can contribute at both ends of the pitch. I'd also look to bring in a quality AMC considering that he is going to be one of your main creative outlets in the team. He will need to be excellent off the ball, have a great first touch and be capable of spotting a pass while having the technical ability to carry it out. He will like all of your other outfield players need to be physically strong (stamina, acceleration) to be able to press as you'd like while also needing the mental strength to sustain it (work rate, determination).

- As you are likely to face a lot of formations with defensive midfielders I think it would be a good idea to allow your AMC more license to roam by giving him that player instruction. If he gets marked out of the game that severely dents your ability to build attacks through the middle.

- The best piece of advice I can offer is to watch your games in detail with a critical eye. Use your pre-season friendlies to assess your tactic. Ask yourself whether the players are doing as you are instructing and if not, why not?

Good luck

Wow thank you for awesome explanation!

FInally I signed an striker, a AMC and a goal keeper, all where really young but in future I expect to be star players (they costed me 60M all the budget) also I sold few players.

Regarding tactics with the new signings I decided to put passes in standard instead of shorter, removed deep passes, gave more freedom to AMC and ST and finallyI pushed up the defensive line. In preseason I went to spain and won against Sevilla and Athletic de Bilbao easily and not allowing them to even shoot. The new incorporations look really good both being top scorers, however the main problem right now is my AML that last season was the leader in offense... He got injured in the England Sub-21 for 6 weeks, just arriving for the last preseason game, I decied just to make him play half game (even though that fisio told he was able to play 60 minutes I think), however at minute 30 he got badly injured and will be 3-4 weeks out... leaving me with the second AML which isn't good... Also played the first game against Swansea (which was first in the championship las year but I won both enounters last season) and I only managed a draw 1-1, I really had the possession but not the shooting... I hope that was just a bad start and everything will start going better...

[petertr]

On 18/06/2020 at 00:29, Experienced Defender said:

P.S: the roles, duties and instructions in the screenshot need to be in English.

Or as close as you can get in Mackem ;-)

[petertr]

FWIW I've seen many people point out that a high line is very useful in FM20.

Dobson makes a very good BWM, that's how I used him unil I got promoted and someone offered crazy money for him.

[pheelf]

On 20/06/2020 at 10:10, Kourner said:

Wow thank you for awesome explanation!

Finally I signed an striker, a AMC and a goal keeper, all where really young but in future I expect to be star players (they costed me 60M all the budget) also I sold few players.

Regarding tactics with the new signings I decided to put passes in standard instead of shorter, removed deep passes, gave more freedom to AMC and ST and finally pushed up the defensive line. In preseason I went to Spain and won against Sevilla and Athletic de Bilbao easily and not allowing them to even shoot. The new incorporation's look really good both being top scorers, however the main problem right now is my AML that last season was the leader in offense... He got injured in the England Sub-21 for 6 weeks, just arriving for the last preseason game, I decided just to make him play half game (even though that physio told he was able to play 60 minutes I think), however at minute 30 he got badly injured and will be 3-4 weeks out... leaving me with the second AML which isn't good... Also played the first game against Swansea (which was first in the championship last year but I won both encounters last season) and I only managed a draw 1-1, I really had the possession but not the shooting... I hope that was just a bad start and everything will start going better...

Glad to see that it has been of help. Sometimes you can get really unlucky with injuries and it can threaten the efficacy of your tactic especially when the injury is to a key player in your system. That will improve once you increase the depth of the squad. Survive a couple of seasons in the Premier League and you should have the money to do that. Also, bear in mind when making large changes to the playing squad that it can take some time for the new players to bed in and familiarize with the tactic so you may need to be a bit patient especially since you are likely seen as one of the favourites for relegation in your first season up.

Cheers

Edited June 22, 2020 by pheelf

[Kourner]

Hello everyone!

Since the last post I played 2 seasons and oh my... the firsts games in league where a huge drama... But I decided to make a huge tactical change and forgot about possession and decided to play to more direct football with a 4-4-2, and I managed to end in the doors of europe, was an amazing run when at the beginning of the season looked like I would go back to the championship. Was a big pity that finally I couldn't make it to europe because was ana amzing climbing from 19th to 9th and was a hardly fought season. Also I used that season to put juveniles from my academy and one of them now is my main player in the middle of the field. But the next season is when the magic was done... I ended 3rd! With a the 3rd worse team in the league and winning games like 3-0 vs Manchester United. Most of season I was 2nd and even a couple weeks 1st but Manchester city and Arsenal where a stone in the road. I am really happy of ending 3rd however and in the middle of the league the england national team offered me their manager position! (with them I am strugling a bit but it is okay).

Here I add some photos of my tactics and league board.