Career mode - Conference South

[Bambrox]

Ok, so I have decided to do a Career and noticed that on many of the football manager forums they do not really discuss lower league teams, I am hoping that this will help people who like myself would like to be as true as possible to life and start at the very bottom, After all not every manager can start at Barcelona or Manchester United

I have chosen Conference South with the nearest team to my home town of Brighton which at the moment is Eastbourne

I have opted for a 5-2-1-2 formation as I feel that this gives me good cover in defence as well as nice width with the Wing backs
I have gone for Fluid, Control and short passing as I want the team to work as a unit to control the tempo of the game and keep possession
I have chosen to "Press More" as I want my team to win the ball back as soon as possible this I believe will help maintain possession and may force errors in my opponents play
Finally I have gone for More Roaming as I feel this gives the team more options for passing and Zonal Marking will allow them the freedom to roam and not be stuck marking an opponent

View attachment 293267


You'll notice that I have also slowed the tempo down to slow, this I have set on the highest slow tempo which I hope will make the team play the ball about patiently probing the opposition.

Positions I have gone for
2 wing backs with attacking roles, this is my width
3 Central Defenders for a strong defence
2 Central Midfielders with supporting roles, these will help hold the middle of the park
1 Attacking midfielder with an attacking role, the idea is that he will get forward to help the attackers
2 Advanced Forwards with attacking roles, I basically want these guys to stay up and score goals

My hope is that I can dismiss the theory that low league teams all have to play hoof and hope football but can instead play attractive passing, possession football like Barcelona, Swansea and the Liverpool of old do/did

I will post results as I get them

 

[Bambrox]

Dorchester 0 - 3 Eastbourne

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A nice convincing win for my first game of the season, some nice versatility in the passing too which is what I was aiming for, I like the width to the passing I feel it shows me that my wing backs are doing their jobs

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 1 - 0 Bromley

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Not quite such a convincing victory but I like the fact that the team kept a clean sheet and the passing was again varied, I also noticed that in this game several players managed over 25 completed passes each, not bad for a conference south team

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 0 - 0 Billericay

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Another clean sheet, I feel I got unlucky in this game, the passing was again high and versatile but the team lacked in the final third

 

[Bambrox]

Dover 0 - 0 Eastbourne

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Still not conceded a goal but a second game without scoring, I'm not sure two games without a goal is a significant problem but I think if I have a third consecutive game without scoring I may tinker with the attacking side of my tactic

 

[suthy30]

Have you got a download link pleasE?

 

[Bambrox]

Hi Suthy30, I hope this helps, I have changed 1 thing slightly and that is the left Advanced Forward to a Deep Lying Forward, it seems to have helped as scored 3 in my next match after two previous 0 -0 draw

Nicks 5-2-1-2.tac

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 3 - 1 Maidenhead

View attachment 293305

A slight change to the tactics after those two 0 - 0 draws sees the left Advanced Forward changed to a Deep Lying Forward, It appears to have had an effect as you can see, hopefully it will continue to help with goals, time will tell

 

[Bambrox]

Welling 0 - 0 Eastbourne

View attachment 293327

Hmmmm, another 0 - 0, definitely going to have to have a play with the attacking side of the tactic, it seems to be lacking, the team only had 5 shots all game and 0 on target....

 

[Bambrox]

Salisbury 2 - 0 Eastbourne

View attachment 293330

Well I guess we all have to lose at some point, My first loss, a bitter pill to swallow, I tried to dabble a little with the team on this one, not sure if that had any effect on the outcome, I pushed my wingers up further to support the attackers and changed the left forward to a poacher, going to give it a few games like this to see how it works and if its successful I will link the tactic

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 2 - 1 Basingstoke

View attachment 293331

The team seemed to play quite well in this game, you could say that I got lucky with the penalty but on the flip side a goal was disallowed earlier in the game so overall I feel it evened itself out

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 3 - 1 Eastbourne Town (FA cup 2nd round qualifier)

View attachment 293421

A nice little win, not as comprehensive as I would have liked but at least the team scored some goals, I tried a shout for this match that I am going to incorporate from now on "Play out of Defence, Pass to Feet, Retain Possession" I have done this as I wasnt happy with the percentage of possession the team were having overall


I am wondering whether any of the fm pros think I am dabbling with the tactics too much or whether it is good that the tactic is evolving? some feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated

 

[Bambrox]

Weston-Super-Mare 2 - 1 Eastbourne

View attachment 293453

Well, my second loss of the season though to be fair I expected it as from the start it said I was huge underdogs, as you can see the team picked up alot of yellows so the determination was there at least, Still not convinced with the possession though and the players still seem to be hoofing the ball way too often for my liking on the 3d match...

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 3 - 2 Tonbridge

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Bouncing back with a win is always nice though I am very aware that the team have now conceded 8 goals in 5 games which is a little worrying considering I had only conceded 1 in my previous 6

 

[Bambrox]

Tonbridge 1 - 3 Eastbourne (FA cup 3rd round Qualifier)

View attachment 293468

I dropped my defensive line back 1 notch for this game as was unhappy with conceding the 8 goals in 5 games, am hoping this helps to plug up the leaky defence, overall watching this game I felt it was the best performance of the season, scoring 3, hitting the woodwork once and two unlucky misses 1 on 1 with the keeper showed me that the team were creating chances at the very least, still not happy with the percentage of possession though so am going to have to address this

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 0 - 0 Sutton Utd

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My first clean sheet for a while, I adjusted the marking for this game setting all defensive players (3 central defenders, both wingbacks and 2 central midfielders) to tight marking, I also set the closing down tab to the furthest up the bar it will go on "own half" without being on whole pitch (i hope that makes sense) Despite the fact the team didnt score it was nice to see plenty of chances and shots on target

 

[Bambrox]

Eastbourne 2 - 0 Whitehawk (FA cup 4th round qualifier)

View attachment 293496

Another clean sheet (sigh of relief) though this time the team managed to convert some of the chances, I was also pretty happy with the possession percentage in this game though I will have to see if this can be carried over against a more formidable opponent

 

[Bambrox]

I am determined to sort this possession (or lack thereof) out, I have been researching some of the other users tactics eg Raikon etc but there seem to be alot of conflicting opinions, I am not sure how tight marking with zonal marking would work for one, surely if a player is marking tightly it is man to man? so I have dropped that from my tactic and set them all to "Closing Down - The Whole Pitch" my hope is that this will allow them the freedom of movement when on the ball but that they will quickly close down the opponent when I have lost possession, I have also added the "Play through Defence" to my shout in the hopes that a few more of my chances will be on target instead of wild shots from 20yds out

 

[Bambrox]

AFC Hornchurch 0 - 2 Eastbourne

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Well I am not sure how successful a tactic can be judged to be after one game but a clean sheet with 2 goals is a good start I guess, will see how the next few games go without touching a single thing....

 

[lordofavp]

I've just applied my new AVP tactic with Hayes & Yeading who are in Blue Square Bet South just to see if it works with lower tier teams as well.
Below are the results currently achieved: