[FM20] Doing things right in Porto

[afailed10]

Hello guys,

I've been managing Porto in FM since CM3 days but this time I want to do things in a more organized and structured way. It's easy to win with Porto but the plan is to deal with the 209M debt, the poor football strategy of recent years and the growing unhappiness of the fanbase.

The goals of this save are the following:

• Financially self-sustainable, without the need to sell our academy jewels
• Win the league and challenge in the later stages of UCL
• Play attacking and entertaining football
• Grow the fanbase

The first thing I did was to get rid of most of the existing staff and replaced with better ones and with positive personalities.

 

They didn't give us much time to tinker.  We went past Krasnodar after a 0-1 defeat at home. Then we changed to a 442 and battered them in Russia.

 

The idea is to have firepower in front. And stretch the field both vertically and horizontally. A few notes:

SK-S: Marchesín. In a support role he has the freedom to choose how we start a transition.

FB-S: Just a simple FB to give enough space for the WM-A/right winger to operate and also cover for the CM-S

WB-S: Alex Telles, our best player. He will overlap and have space to cross or pass.

CM-S: The tank of the team. The role for Romário Baró once he's ready. But for now it will belong to Danilo.

DLP-S: The maestro. Needs a player with strong vision, composure, decisions, balance and, ideally, the right PPM's such as dictate tempo. We have Sérgio Oliveira and Mateus Uribe who are decent options for the role.

IW-S: Many players can play here and offer different things. But all of them are right footed and the idea is to explore the space vacated by the DLP and, especially, the PF-A.

WM-A: Usually Marega. With speed, strong off the ball and the PPM to cut inside, he'll be a 3rd striker. With his inhuman physicals he can pull it off and still keep the flank solid.

DLF-S: I couldn't live without a number 10 attempt. I like number 10's who are complete footballers. Vision, physicality and goals. Vincent Aboubakar can provide it if he stays off injuries but Zé Luís is an interesting one too, although left footed.

PF-A/AF-A: He'll be harrassing defenders, stretching play and hopefully scoring goals.

The tactic will be tweaked, flipped depending on the personel available.

Later on I'll add a 3CB version and a 4231/433. But for now, we need to survive August!

 

Players

No transfers are planned this season unless there's some kind of emergency or a key player gets poached (pls stay Alex). The plan is to make the most out of what we have, increase the value of the players and sell those who aren't good enough or won't develop more.

Youngsters under 18 will stay in u19s while those older than 18 that can't play regurlaly in the first team will play for the B team. Some of these will be in the main team to be mentored. The ones to keep an eye for the future are:

Obviously Fábio Silva, 17, will lead the line in the B team. David Vinhas, 16, an exciting young CB, Francisco Conceição (16) and Rodrigo Pinheiro (16) will stay in u19s.

In the B team, besides Fábio Silva, there's the left back Leandro Dias, who's only 16 but since there are no options in the B team he will take the place. He has a lot to learn though.

In the main team i'll highlight the beautiful Tomás Esteves, 17, he'll be available for the B team but he's under mentoring, with Pepe and Telles. Then there's Diogo Costa, the next Baía and Baró, who i can see becoming a force in the midfield.

 

Scouting

Mostly in South America for now but we will expand to Africa and Asia!

Next challenge, besides the crazy fixtures against PSV and Benfica is organizing the players throughout the u19s, the b team and main. We have lot's of players but they can't all have enough game time, so there are decisions to be made before September comes.

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by afailed10

[afailed10]

We survived August and PSV. We lost in the first leg once again and i noticed we gave them too much space. So against Benfica we used a more compact version of our tactic and easily outshot them even though we had to rotate the squad.

Then at home we battered PSV 3-0 and assured the CL entry money. One issue that some fans may not like is a lack of possession stats. But it doesn't mean we don't control the match. Against PSV they had 61% possession but just 3 shots on target against 18. With a 442 against 433 and the likes you have to let them have the ball in some area of the field otherwise there will be holes all over.

 

Once our next generation of more technical players come through we then will change into a more possession based system but for now this is what we have. Players that may lack a bit in technical attributes but will give it 200% every game.

[afailed10]

Season 1 winter review

First half of the season is gone and it went better than expected! Only conceded goals twice, once against Gil Vicente and another vs Sporting. We were 2-0 down, made some small changes and scored 4 goals in the 2nd half.

We had a worrying start in the UCL. Draw and defeat at home against a very interesting Atalanta. We adjusted our systems a bit and ended up 1st, beating Chelsea twice, and convincingly to be honest.

As you can see in the schedule, we've been using mostly a 4231 and a 2DM variant on tough games.

This is the main system but the instructions aren't set in stone. Sometimes we play wider or shorter passing, depends how things are going. This tactic allows us to have more control than we could with the 442. It's not too different anyway. We have Otávio pushing DM's back giving space to the 2 center mids. Marega has been a force with 9 goals in 11.

We used this against Chelsea. Kept the overall individual mentalities while reducing risks and increasing compactness.

We got Spurs next. But our priority is to be league champions and then sell all these older players with bad or average personalities. Benfica won't let go and, sometimes, it's just 1 slip (that's right Steve) that dictates winners or losers of this marathon!

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by afailed10

[afailed10]

Season 1 2019/2020 review

The league was a walk in the park but we lost a lot of the firepower after the winter break.

There's 2 reasons for that, at least. Firstly, the Chinese from Guangzhou came in January and beat Marega's and Baró release clauses, 30M and 40M respectively.

Marega was on 20 goals for us but the plan was to sell him by the end of season. Baró is one of the brightest prospects in world football but we couldn't offer him +300k euros per month so soon. So he went to rot in the east.

Losing Marega was a big blow. He was key to us. Goals, defending, stretching and creating space. We changed into a more patient build up by unticking 'counter' and using more technical wide attackers. 

Secondly, we gave more game time to youngsters, namely:

and our only transfer (4.8M)

Both are ready in terms of personality, just need game time to improve. 

We also won the cups where we played our 2nd strings often.

We had a great run and after a 0-0 in Turin I thought we could make it. We even were winning 1-0 at HT but Higuain scored against the run of play and then CR7 punished us on the break when we were going all out. Our slow CB's kind of limited our options and of course we badly missed Marega's pace and power.

It's vital I can keep Alex Telles. A FB with 17 crossing makes it much easier against parked buses. There's no Marega to get to the end of those lovely crosses though and we will be on the market for that kind of forward. 

We'll also try to profit on some players who are well valued but don't fit in the long term project. We'll also be on the market for a class right back and a CB perhaps, while blending in some of the youngsters.

I really enjoyed playing the whole season on a "balanced" mentality. We didn't rush things but kept opposition pinned back while we looked for openings. We didn't have the players (especially without Marega) to play a faster or more direct game so I just tried to get the best of the players we have and also keeping in mind the type of youngsters that are coming through. They certainly fit a more technical style but it doesn't mean we will only play short passing and Messi wannabe's. No, Barcelona also had a Pedro that gave width and pace to the team. In modern football you need a plan A, B and C. So perhaps I'll add a 3CB system next season.

The difficult part starts now!

Edited June 27, 2020 by afailed10