Update: Second season with the Milan team done (2019/2020).
Result: Champions League (Won), Serie A (Won), Italian Cup (Semi Finals, Loss).
Squad average age is just 22.
Season Overview:
Going into the second season, I decided to continue focusing on a youth only policy, as I always do in Football Manager. This involves
1)Buying 18-22 year olds who can either start for me right away
2)Investing in 15-17 year old (regens) with the potential to be world class (scouting each for at least 3 months with my top scouts)
3)Selling players without world class potential, even if they are young, if the right offer comes along
Here, you can see the transfers (in and out) that I have made. In just 2 seasons, I have been able to raise over 350M from player sales, without weakening my team (a special thanks to the AI for making ridiculous bids for average players)
My starting lineup and squad now looks like this. Besides Romagnoli and Caldara (who I love in real life as a Milan fan), the rest of my starting lineup are all 23 or below (Note - I played J.Felix as a False 9 rather than a PF(S), since his skills are much better suited to this role). The difference is that after dropping deep to get the ball, he looks to look up and dribble/pass quickly, instead of holding it up, a skill better suited for physical, strong forwards with balance/strength):
Results in Champions League:
Serie A table:
Player performance:
Pietro Pellegri, who I bought in the January window (as an 18 year old, advanced forward) has been absolutely incredible for me. Averaging a goal per game, winning headers, providing assists. This has taught me that
jumping reach is critical for the AF, considering the tactic sends in plenty of crosses.
Leon Bailey, my starting Left Winger, won the Ballon D'or and world player of the year at just 22:
I bought Kai Havertz for the WP role, who also had a fantastic season, despite being a new purchase:
Finally, my support striker: Joao Felix. In addition to goals and assists, he also provided several key passes, and several pre-assists, and was generally key to my system:
Summary and Takeaways:
Overall, considering my youth policy, and the fact that 90% of my squad hasn't reached their potential yet, I was honestly not expecting to win the champions league. While I only beat Liverpool on away goals, I beat them 11-1 in terms of clear cut chances, so it shouldn't have been this close. If I can keep this team together, they are only going to get exponentially better over the next 2-3 years. I also have some very exciting 15-17 year olds in the youth ranks.
1. Make sure the Advanced forward is tall, can head, and is on the same foot as his side (a large amount of goals were scored using through balls and first time shots) - so, right slot, right footed.
2. Support striker - should be creative, should be able to score, should also be right footed (just works better, from a large sample size). For mirror tactic, both AF and support striker should be left footed).
2. CMs - I've noticed for a 2 man midfield, in addition to work rate (which is critical), and a well rounded skill set, jumping is also very useful, as it helps you win those aerial duels and prevents the ball from reaching the defensive line.
3. Even "average" players (Piatek, Suso) who have a CA of 150-155 performed well in this tactic, so I think for any EL level team or higher it should work. IMO it should work in lower levels as well, but it's critical to have the right players for each role
4. Pay meticulous attention to the player characteristics in each role. I think it makes a massive difference, for any tactic. For this tactic, since I had a clear idea in my head about what I want from each player, I was able to mould my team perfectly to my needs. In certain situations where I didn't, but had a high potential player (J.Felix), I tweaked the role to better suit him without compromising the tactic.
Anyway, I hope this was helpful and gives you more confidence to try the tactic. In addition to being selected as the league overachieving team in season 1, I also won the CL with such a young team, far away from their potential, in season 2.
PS - This isn't meant to be a brag post, but rather one to shed more light into this tactic, and encourage people to use it. I personally feel it is a wonderful tactic, and adheres to a lot of football fundamentals about utilization of space, runners vs. creators, defensive balance, and a coherent tactical philosophy.
Ancelotti's Napoli actually use a similar interpretation of the 4-4-2. This video explains a bit more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7dsTxuMCk4
is your left winger also left footed?
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