4132 - Strikerless Mayhem with a Solid Defence

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Now that the tax returns are finally done, I can get back to playing some more FM!

No major updates since last, however after playing around with the mentalities over the last month or so, I definitely feel counter suits my side the best (and maybe other lower league sides?).
As the side is nearing the maximum tactical familiarity, I have found they have become much more defensively solid.

Had a rough period a few weeks ago with an insane number of injuries, which my limited squad struggled to handle, but have looked much sharper in last few matches as nearly all the first team players have returned.

My side, unfortunately, appear to be totally useless when it comes to penalties. Lost 2 penalty shoot outs already, and numerous penalties missed aswell.

Miles clear in the league, and still in FA Cup & Checkatrade, so season going very well so far.
 
View attachment 107089

finished our first season in the premier league with great success, winning the community shield, efl cup, euro cup and the premiership, having only lost the fa cup in the final 1-0 to united

View attachment 107088

regarding changes to the tactic, i added close down more to the anchor man and close down less to the CB's - also changed the WB's to FB's on automatic duty which i believe makes the team much sounder defensively, however i'm still looking for the best combination of offensive settings here. appart from that added dribble more to WM's.

played a standard mentality for 90% of the time, although i did change to counter when i felt we were losing posession (less that 50%-55%) and control of the game, although ususally only when we already had the lead. also used it after going up by 2 goals in tight matches against tough opponents - but this comes down mostly to your own intuition and understanding of your team and the way the tactic plays

in regards to training, used team cohesion and teamwork from the msot part of the season

i'll upload an updated version of the tactic at the end of this post - however i'm not adding ot to the OP yet as i still want to make a few more tests

View attachment 107087View attachment 107086

scored 123 goals over the past 50 games, conceeding only 32, creating a CCC every 38 minutes and conceeding one only every 146 minutes

View attachment 107085View attachment 107084

the league was really tight all the way to the end and only managed an 8 point margin over spurs in the last few games.

we had the best attack in the league with 80 goals and the second best defence with only 32 goals conceeded

won the euro cup emphatically, winning 5 out of 6 in the group stage where we didnt concede a single goal and plaoughed through quite a few really tough opponents, although we were a little lucky away to juve

getting 5 past wolfsburg in the final was really special though

View attachment 107082View attachment 107081

only lost 6 gamesin all competitions all season and we had some real highlights, such as beating city 6-2 twice, beating dortmund 4-1, inter 4-0, liverpool 5-3, among a few other great performances for a newly promoted side

View attachment 107069View attachment 107068

this success was achieved using a young and upcoming squad composed mostly of english and portuguese players. a few of these players deserve particular highlight, such as yuri medeiros, ivan cavaleiro or luciano vietto, however i can't stress enough how amazing marcus edwards is. he has been our best player and top scorer in both seasons, winning a golden boy, the english players player of the year and the young player of the year on the way, at just 19 years old!

i'm gonna shut up now and get on with trying to win everything next year, including the champions league XD

i leave you with the updated tactic that i'm currently using: View attachment 107067
 
Veez,

How are you finding it when you face teams with 2 Def Mids and generally sit in packing the defense looking for a counter?
do you have a plan B or do you simply change to the attacking version or control?

with that situation i sometimes go counter with the hope i draw them out, works most of the time but sometimes i just can break down a defense. various teams and versions of your tactic.
 
veez said:
View attachment 1101464

finished our first season in the premier league with great success, winning the community shield, efl cup, euro cup and the premiership, having only lost the fa cup in the final 1-0 to united

View attachment 1101465

regarding changes to the tactic, i added close down more to the anchor man and close down less to the CB's - also changed the WB's to FB's on automatic duty which i believe makes the team much sounder defensively, however i'm still looking for the best combination of offensive settings here. appart from that added dribble more to WM's.

played a standard mentality for 90% of the time, although i did change to counter when i felt we were losing posession (less that 50%-55%) and control of the game, although ususally only when we already had the lead. also used it after going up by 2 goals in tight matches against tough opponents - but this comes down mostly to your own intuition and understanding of your team and the way the tactic plays

in regards to training, used team cohesion and teamwork from the msot part of the season

i'll upload an updated version of the tactic at the end of this post - however i'm not adding ot to the OP yet as i still want to make a few more tests

View attachment 1101466View attachment 1101467

scored 123 goals over the past 50 games, conceeding only 32, creating a CCC every 38 minutes and conceeding one only every 146 minutes

View attachment 1101468View attachment 1101469

the league was really tight all the way to the end and only managed an 8 point margin over spurs in the last few games.

we had the best attack in the league with 80 goals and the second best defence with only 32 goals conceeded

won the euro cup emphatically, winning 5 out of 6 in the group stage where we didnt concede a single goal and plaoughed through quite a few really tough opponents, although we were a little lucky away to juve

getting 5 past wolfsburg in the final was really special though

View attachment 1101471View attachment 1101472

only lost 6 gamesin all competitions all season and we had some real highlights, such as beating city 6-2 twice, beating dortmund 4-1, inter 4-0, liverpool 5-3, among a few other great performances for a newly promoted side

View attachment 1101483View attachment 1101484

this success was achieved using a young and upcoming squad composed mostly of english and portuguese players. a few of these players deserve particular highlight, such as yuri medeiros, ivan cavaleiro or luciano vietto, however i can't stress enough how amazing marcus edwards is. he has been our best player and top scorer in both seasons, winning a golden boy, the english players player of the year and the young player of the year on the way, at just 19 years old!

i'm gonna shut up now and get on with trying to win everything next year, including the champions league XD

i leave you with the updated tactic that i'm currently using: View attachment 1101485
Click to expand...
Training and OI's? :P great results!
 
Stepea said:
Veez,

How are you finding it when you face teams with 2 Def Mids and generally sit in packing the defense looking for a counter?
do you have a plan B or do you simply change to the attacking version or control?

with that situation i sometimes go counter with the hope i draw them out, works most of the time but sometimes i just can break down a defense. various teams and versions of your tactic.
Click to expand...


those are the toughest opponents to break down - i usually change to counter too, although i stick with standard most of the time because we usually end up breaking them down at some point. i only use counter if we are actually not creating chances at all or have too much posession and very few shots.

i've found that changing to attacking against those teams is a waste of time in most cases and the amount of highlights is even reduced, although it has won me some games in the past!
 
Just won the Chinese First Division with Tianjin Quanjian started Season 1 Jan 2016, Undefeated so far.
Played 24 - W23 D1 Goal Diff - 62
scored 3 or more in 15 of those games.
WM-L & WM-R are beasts in this formation.

The match i drew was against bottom team, typical FM situation where i dominate the **** out of them, loads of attempts, leading 1-0 comfortably then get a red card, they then score a wonder free kick from resulting freekick, then 5 mins later they score a penalty. pull it back on 74 min to draw 2-2.

doing what you've said Veez, mostly play standard and adjust as the match plays.

cant say this enough, well done dude!
 
Stepea said:
Just won the Chinese First Division with Tianjin Quanjian started Season 1 Jan 2016, Undefeated so far.
Played 24 - W23 D1 Goal Diff - 62
scored 3 or more in 15 of those games.
WM-L & WM-R are beasts in this formation.

The match i drew was against bottom team, typical FM situation where i dominate the **** out of them, loads of attempts, leading 1-0 comfortably then get a red card, they then score a wonder free kick from resulting freekick, then 5 mins later they score a penalty. pull it back on 74 min to draw 2-2.

doing what you've said Veez, mostly play standard and adjust as the match plays.

cant say this enough, well done dude!
Click to expand...

cheers mate! those sound like some pretty awesome results, and that one you described is quite the classic lol sometimes you even see those coming a mile away

what was your media prediction?

would love to see some screenies if you can :)
 
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After being predicted to finish 24th in SkyBet League Two, we get promoted with 10 games to go!
Managed to beat Arsenal (U23s) away from home in Checkatrade Semi, which takes us to Wembley again.
A terrific win at home to West Ham in the FA Cup 5th round has been critical for us. Not only did we win 2-0, we received a healthy prize money and 250k in TV revenue, which has helped us to go in the black for the first since arriving.
Sadly, I don't think we will be getting any further since we have an away tie to Chelsea coming up...
The EFL Cup ended earlier on in the season with an extra time loss to Southampton.

For the lower league managers, Danny Whitehead has been excellent for me. He scored 4 goals in one first half against Blackpool earlier on. Sadly, my computer went loopy, and in the re-match, I could only win 1-0. Grrr!

Now I have the tough task of trying to get the board to increase the stadium; 3778 spectators just does not cut it for me!

A lovely tactic that seems to excel away from home, and at home to the tough opponents.
 
QuirkyFaranger said:
After being predicted to finish 24th in SkyBet League Two, we get promoted with 10 games to go!
Managed to beat Arsenal (U23s) away from home in Checkatrade Semi, which takes us to Wembley again.
A terrific win at home to West Ham in the FA Cup 5th round has been critical for us. Not only did we win 2-0, we received a healthy prize money and 250k in TV revenue, which has helped us to go in the black for the first since arriving.
Sadly, I don't think we will be getting any further since we have an away tie to Chelsea coming up...
The EFL Cup ended earlier on in the season with an extra time loss to Southampton.

For the lower league managers, Danny Whitehead has been excellent for me. He scored 4 goals in one first half against Blackpool earlier on. Sadly, my computer went loopy, and in the re-match, I could only win 1-0. Grrr!

Now I have the tough task of trying to get the board to increase the stadium; 3778 spectators just does not cut it for me!

A lovely tactic that seems to excel away from home, and at home to the tough opponents.
Click to expand...

brilliant! reading that has just given me a lower league itch i'm gonna have to scratch sooner rather than later XD i was actually looking into starting a new save with vigo to try to challenge real and barça for the title
 
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veez said:
brilliant! reading that has just given me a lower league itch i'm gonna have to scratch sooner rather than later XD i was actually looking into starting a new save with vigo to try to challenge real and barça for the title
Click to expand...

Honestly Veez, it's a bit ridiculous, but a lot of fun!
How's this for a result?

Match was played on contain/highly structured - no other changes. I was actually aiming (read: hopelessly hoping) for a boring goalless draw to bring back to a home tie, and hopefully some more TV money to finally convince the board to spend some fricking money, but was very surprised by the end result!

Once I took Kingsmill off, I sped the match up and went downstairs as I couldn't bear to watch the final 10 minutes!
 
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QuirkyFaranger said:
Honestly Veez, it's a bit ridiculous, but a lot of fun!
How's this for a result?

Match was played on contain/highly structured - no other changes. I was actually aiming (read: hopelessly hoping) for a boring goalless draw to bring back to a home tie, and hopefully some more TV money to finally convince the board to spend some fricking money, but was very surprised by the end result!

Once I took Kingsmill off, I sped the match up and went downstairs as I couldn't bear to watch the final 10 minutes!
Click to expand...

:O:DXD

that's immense!

who did you draw in the semi-final?
 
veez said:
:O:DXD

that's immense!

who did you draw in the semi-final?
Click to expand...

Southampton - they beat me in the EFL Cup, but feel like i know the players a lot better now.

Now have to consider whether to use the contain/highly structured tweak again or whether it was a one-match fluke. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

One random problem I am having, Veez, is this:
My left back.
Often he gets into a decent position on the left wing. He gets passed the DR player, he has space to cross, but doesn't. He pauses, and passes it back - often to the half back. What contributes to that? Do you have any idea? I am thinking it may be because his crossing skill is not great.
Have you encountered a similar issue?
 
QuirkyFaranger said:
Southampton - they beat me in the EFL Cup, but feel like i know the players a lot better now.

Now have to consider whether to use the contain/highly structured tweak again or whether it was a one-match fluke. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

One random problem I am having, Veez, is this:
My left back.
Often he gets into a decent position on the left wing. He gets passed the DR player, he has space to cross, but doesn't. He pauses, and passes it back - often to the half back. What contributes to that? Do you have any idea? I am thinking it may be because his crossing skill is not great.
Have you encountered a similar issue?
Click to expand...

atm the full-backs are the only part of the tactic im not that happy with. we usually only concede through crosses, usually when the full-back dives into a tackle and leaves the wing wide open. i also think they should contribute much more with assists, just havent found the right balance yet though. still working on it but i'll keep you updated. i hope you do too with that cup run! :P
 
veez said:
atm the full-backs are the only part of the tactic im not that happy with. we usually only concede through crosses, usually when the full-back dives into a tackle and leaves the wing wide open. i also think they should contribute much more with assists, just havent found the right balance yet though. still working on it but i'll keep you updated. i hope you do too with that cup run! :P
Click to expand...

The cup run unfortunately didn't end so well.
Lost in the Checkatrade final to Crewe on penalties.
Then in the FA Cup Final I lost to Man U in extra time - the ref was a Man U fan yet again!
Not that I am bitter...

So no cup trophies, did get promoted comfortably though, and the cup runs helped the bank balance considerably.
 
QuirkyFaranger said:
The cup run unfortunately didn't end so well.
Lost in the Checkatrade final to Crewe on penalties.
Then in the FA Cup Final I lost to Man U in extra time - the ref was a Man U fan yet again!
Not that I am bitter...

So no cup trophies, did get promoted comfortably though, and the cup runs helped the bank balance considerably.
Click to expand...

Mark Clattenburg was the ref then?
 
After seeing a few suggesting doing lower leagues I thought I'd give it a go! Started unemployed and took the Grimsby job, predicted finish. This should be fun!

How do I upload screenshots on here?? I tried saving it as web page, text file and printer. None of these is a valid file for this forum??
 
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