It is full of legends! From Serie B Torino to the unknown.

[Death Ball]

- Half season 2016-2017

The visit to Arsenal is played with the defensive tactic used against Barcelona and it succeeds in keeping the British at 0 goals, but neither Sturridge or Paloschi fail to make their few chances count. For the second leg I decide to play the first half the same way and go a little more offensive during the last half hour. The plan goes well, until the slight offensive turn, by which Crisetig is caught in possession and the through ball reaches Chamakh for a goal. Then we turn it to the 5-3-2 offensive tactic and get a goal, but too late to get a second and we're out to EURO Cup. The draw, to top it off gives us a group with an easy Karpaty and then Málaga and Manchester United.

The comic moment came when after the first leg, played very defensive and hoofing balls to the front I read the news to find this:

The start of the season is in no way promising, starting with a 4-3 defeat at Atalanta, later a 1-0 at Lazio, though it's followed by a 3-0 comfortable win over Inter. A team I expected to be a tough team but that after nine matches has only won once, while we've done that five times now. And though we get a shock result beating Manchester United 3-2, which places us as group leaders with 6 points, Málaga second with 4, Manchester third with 1 and Karpaty fourth with 0, next we fail to defeat Catania In part due to some too much rotating to give minutes to some players, and a couple (Pasa and Juanfran) asking for playing time. That is the definite confirmation the squad is too big and some sales have to be done for the winter window.

The first two to be put on sale are Juanfran and Pasa. The later needs a few tweaks to get teams to bid. Then there's a few names that are added: Mateo Darmian, who's useful but for two positions that are well covered and has not had as many minutes as he probably deserves, Sean Murray and Cristian Nita, as they don't get any playing time and that's making them not develop, as no loan offers approppriate for that had been done. It's a shame specially for the later, Nita could very well be a leading advanced playmaker, but he's not enjoyed the time to develop. Another sale will be Vuckevic, as after past season's injury his physical traits have suffered and part of his great season the one before was due to his more than decent pace, now lost. The objective to be achieved for next season is to have a squad of a more reasonable size. Ideally the composition should be thus: group used positions by pairs, for each pair have two quality first choice, one quality sub and either one promising youth or one acceptable backup. No more than that. Depending on how the season goes until the end of december, I may decide to make an overhaul in this very winter window and use the second half of the season for squad gelling and return next season strong to challenge for everything.

Pasa's money is rejected, but no new offers are presented, so he's finally released on a free

The defence would not see any new faces, Juan has not been too convincing, but that's a matter of blending and will solve in time. Bartley-Coates-Juan-Cathcart is more than enough for the two centreback positions. Islas-Strinic + De Silvestri-Vidanov should be enough for the full backs. Gale looks suited to emergency backup if there's injuries. Figueroa will not stay next season.

Being seventh after eleven games, though not far from the top, helps me decide to make the cleanup. Juanfran is sold due to him becoming unhappy at the lack of fist team time, Colback has not been bad, but his lack of further development adds him to the sales list, after finding a very promising young Irish William Sullivan, Krhin is added to the list. Vukcevic is offered at first, but his wish to remain with us, lack of offers and a couple good performances takes off the list and may even see his contract, that ends this season, extended further. Darmian is offered, but there's no offers coming after several weeks.

In the league the tough part of the first leg, which is the matches against Napoli, Inter, AC Milan and Juventus ends with a positive balance, Inter is a comfortable win 3-1, the Napoli is lost in the last ten minutes after being 1-0 up, but then AC Milan is thrashed for a 4-1 after in response to his manager's comments I tip them as winners of Serie A and the next win I do the same with Juventus plus answering to press conference with them as title favourites and it gives me a 1-0 win at their home!. First win after three or four seasons without getting anything against them.

In the Europa League things are hard and though we manage to pull a shock 3-2 win against ManU at home, Málaga manages to edge our game there and at our home we just draw. The Málaga win over ManU the day we thrash Karpaty 7-0 is practically irrelevant toward our last game chances to go through, since the only difference it makes is we lose the 0,00000000001% chance of going through losing to ManU with a Málaga defeat to Karpaty.

So, in two weeks, there's the vital game against ManU, so a problem arises: do we put everything there and rest Andzouanna so he comes back fired up against ManU while giving time to Di Nunzio in the two league matches in between or do I keep Andzouanna all thorough the season?. The final decission is to keep the team against Sampdoria and rest some key players seven days later against Cagliari just before the European game. So in that game Andzouanna, Juan (Nunes), Kakuta, Nangis, Sturridge and Kasami start from the bench, with Coates staying at home, their places taken by Di Nunzio, Bartley, Cathcart, Zambotto, Tapoko and Martinho. Kakuta, Sturridge and Kasami had playing time as the team was lacking edge, though, but no more than half an hour to get the win with a long shot by Gaël. Di Nunzio wasn't tested but for a random bounce close to the small box. However, the match is awful and ManU passes over us with a not so easy 4-0, his two goals hard worked then other two when we have to go all out for it.

The previous league result means a new record for the club, as we win seven league games in a row to bring us to third place just one point from the top two. When Darmian, Colback, Krhin and Juanfran have already seen their sale confirmed and Simone Pasa released on a free. With Di Nunzio likely following, as I've found a British young keeper, Raeri Lafferty, who is of the same current ability but better potential are more fit for our playing style; but the contract offer is rejected and he chooses QPR. A 17 year old Marc Walker has been tied to come at the end of his contract for the U20 side as he looks promising and the U2 side lacks any quality goalie.

Young Juan Fernando Fernández Gallardo is offered a contract for when his ends, but he ends choosing Real Madrid, who entered the bid after our offer becoming known.

And a new decision is made, because I have a several youngsters that have not developed adequately due to lack of playing time, some of whom could've been so good pleayers by now (Nita, Pasa, Skou, Marzio), instead of fielding my best players with one youth in the bench or starting rarely in the easier matches, I shall start a new policy to call up players for matches: starting XI that may have youths in a few cases, but the bench shall be used better and the subs be the sub goalie, strong defender, midfielder and attacker per usual and then one of each of young players, if the game is being won easily, sub the youngs in. It may still not give a lot of time to them, but they should definitely get a good deal of it.

- Transfer market:

- GK: Andzouanna, Di Nunzio. Youths. Set, really.

- DC: Juan Nunes, Bartley, Cathcart, Coates. Youths. All set, there may be a chance of bringing a world class centreback for either Bartley or Cathcart or both, but it's not very likely.

- FB: Islas, Strinic. De Silvestri, Vidanov. Youths. Set, could bring a world class right back for Vidanov, but it's not needed.

- MC: Kara, Crisetig, Sullivan, Skou, Zambotto. Set and Crisetig is world class. Wanted by Hotspur who threaten to pay his release clause, new contract is in order as soon he accepts to negotiate.

- AML: Gaël Kakuta and Simon Vukcevic. Yes, Simon is staying, has had some great performances, as has Kakuta.

- AMR: Enzo Pérez, Lenny Nangis. Nangis is more of a lightning fast striker.

- AMC: Juan Albín, Kevin Tapoko, Nabil Tisserand. Covered position.

- ST: Sturridge, Paloschi, fast. Martinho, strong. Tucci young with some fast speed.

We would need a right winger, who should be a world class (yes, I speak of world class for any new player, because that's the only kind of player I think would improve); but that would place Nangis as striker and cause us to have too much fast ones. Tucci is one of the players who've not developed as much as he should, so he doesn't seem as a guaranteed bet for the future, yet I feel reluctant to sell him. Paloschi would be the obvious sale from the shift of Nangis, as he's not been productive this season; against that is his high mental attributes and on paper quality, Nangis has not scored but two goals, one in Serie A and one in Champions League, but that's more because he's been played as right wing, which isn't his prefered position. One way to decide would be play him as striker and see what he does until January, then sell either and buy a right winger. Maybe one strong striker, but Tapoko can play that too.

The transfer window doesn't go completelly as expected. Though we find a right winger in Sidney Sam after Almaraz's deal fell through due to the non-EU signings being done already, we receive a good I deem good enough for Strinic, who is sold and in place I sign Natalino, who's right sided, which in turn leads to the decision to sell De Silvestri as he's 28 and his main strength is the physical attributes. Our full back positions become then Daniel Islas (whose complete ownership I'll try to get) and Figueroa (who may stay after all) in the left, Natalino, Vidanov (who may play both sides) and Gale in the right. Juan is staying as he seems settled in the club and the only sale in the centreback possible is Cathcart. There's a superb looking striker offered by Betis, who's very expensive but looks very much worth the expense, that may push to not renew Paloschi contract and to sell Nangis, who's not done all that good yet. There's another young, not so brilliant, whose offer has been taken with sight on selling for a profit. And Pau Domingo who's loaned after being offered by Barcelona with an option to buy.

Related to transfers, Catchart's buy clause for games played was activated and a million had to be paid.

The good late run has turned what looked like a poor start into a very good first half of the season that keeps alive our hopes to reach the title, though it's not going to be easy. And it serves to be hailed as a tactical genius once again. There's two good outcomes of the new use of the young players. In the first one, we went through to the quarter finals of the cup against Atalanta with Karac and Gale in the backline, plus Zambotto in midfield, though we needed a lucky penalty shoot out in which I only had four decent penalty takers and we were on the verge of losing it. The other when in the last game of the first half against Fiorentina I trusted in Ferdinando Tucci, bringing him to the right wing and swapping Sam (he's had a great start, scoring and grabbing MoM in his first match and assisting in this his second) to the left (we played 4-2-3-1) when 0-1 down: he scored the first by pushing a cross from Sam and was involved in the second when his shot at the goalie was deflected to Vukcevic, that man of the match worth performance gave us second place in the league.

Our facilities expansions were finised during autumn and new training expansion are going to be performed this year.

Internationally, the only bad result in official match was a disappointing 1-0 loss to Slovenia and in friendly losing the 2-0 advantage against Ireland for a 2-2, in the plus side, we were the team that created the good chances in our match against Spain.

And now, some statistics of the league so far:

Maybe I should not be so shy with hard tackling, but it's something I don't quite like.

 

[Death Ball]

I discovered a few games that are taking away time from FM12. Plus the new season approaching with the groups up mean I'll be preparing the Spanish complete database for FM13. Because of that the next update may take a while to arrive, since I'm playing slowly, rarely having time for more than one game when I get to it (I play them full and take nearly one hour from one match to the next).

So I'm making an update with a little video to show a little of Nuno Martinho's play, the only Target Man I've ever had playing how I wish to see from such type of player.

I tried making a video because I wanted it quick and thought the usual format of text with screenshots would take much longer to make.

As I say at the start of the video, it's been seventeen years since the last time I had to speak English, so expect some hideous pronountiation. I hope at least you can understand what I say. I also spoke a bit too slow as my first attempt when I tried a more natural talking speed the result was complete gibberish (plus microphone apparently was worsely placed and was messing the sound). Also to note my capture software doesn't sync video and sound right, the sound coming a bit faster than the video.

[video=youtube;JKdIKfKgl-4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKdIKfKgl-4&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Death Ball]

- Second half of season, quick report

As intended in winter, the bench in each match will consist of second goalkeeper, three experienced players that are one per line or the expected wanted subs and three youngsters. This method has allowed to give, in nine matches more time to youths like Karac, Tucci and Gale more time than in all the 19 previous matches and the full season before.

Figueroa got a six month injury in Febreuary, so when Natalino had a three weeks one, I had to sign some back up on a free, choosing Ogbonna, who had been waiting for a club possibly since start of season.

Results wise, the second half of the league has not been bad, but two loses and one draw to beatable opposition (Cagliari and Inter, the latter getting their second ever win against us) and failure to get more than one win (Juventus) against the tough opposition costed us not only the chance to win the title but the second place, though at least we achieved my target of Champions League group qualification.

The low point was losing 6-2 at Palermo when that could have put us two points behind and the high was not only beating Juventus, but doing it comfortably by three points with a good offensively oriented tactic.

The league win over Juventus wasn't the only one though, as in the Cup semifinal we beat them in the first leg by 2-0 at home and in the second held them to a draw, earning the place in the final, where we were to meet Palermo. Since they had beat us so easily in the second league match, I went with the defensive tactic that has served me so well (and about which I will write in a new update soon). I kept the usual focus on teamwork and in the last two days I changed it to attacking set pieces. The results paid off, with Kara heading in a corner nearing half time. Palermo equalized in the second half thanks to a lucky ball to a striker in the corner of the are. But when it seemed to be a game to reach extra time Kara sent a precise pass to the back of the Palermo defensive line, at the area's edge, that was picked up by Sam and shot into the net for the winner!. My first ever title ((which is my first ever not counting a game with Porto and a couple with Real Madrid)). And that opens up the chance to win the second at the start of next season.

That success served to get a boost to our sponsorship income, though we're still below the Serie A's average, through our increase in prestige. We also climbed up in the rich list.

This as other long lists are different screenies cut and pasted one over the other

Our position in the league was described as an overachievement, which I hoped would not be; but that may have a point, after all, considering only Kakuta with his average rating makes it among the top in one of the main categories. Still, I'm fairly happy with how many players have been performing with average ratings above 7.00. That turns us to be fourth favourites to win the next season, for which I've expressed as objective to qualify for Champions League, as something close enough to title challenge (my real target) without putting too much pressure on my players. On the bad news, there'll be only three places available next season due to poor performance of Italian teams in Europe. Lorenzo Crisetig was justly elected Fan's Player of the Year.

With the fixtures of the new season announced, I would have a decent amount of optimism, as it looks to allow us to first easy half of each round to build up confidence and results to face a harder end with some margin for errors, without really have much congestion of tough matches, beside the AC Milan-Juventus-Napoli trio. Among the friendlies, two already set through invitation to an English tour thanks to our reputation over there.

Some planning, that will be explained soon - hopefully -, was made regarding transfers. The plans involved making room for youngters to have some decent playing time substituting, or preparing to substitute, some of the aging players and removing excess in some positions, some sales were worked, as well as some purchases that are left for the upcoming update. Opening room to look for a truly pacey centreback led to selling Juan Nunes, as he was a little less consistent than Bartley, opening up space for youngster was the sale of Kasami, the wish for an offensive rightback and a decnet defensive leftback for cover lead to letting the contracts of Vidanov and Figueroa to run out. With that, some money is had for signings of new younger and talented players. Seems like this summer will bring a new half overhaul of the squad. Paloschi was sold and Albín will as there's too many strikers, some may be loaned out. Pau Domingo didn't accept a permanent move, sadly, so he also went out.

And a few miscellaneous screenies:

For comparison with what was chosen, this was based on Europa League Qualification

The expectations set, again.

Finances at June.

A lot of money, around ten millions more than past seasons.

Homegrown before return of Lascelles and Barnbock (the first should be at the club, not the latter).

 

[Death Ball]

- On squad

One of the issues the team has suffered in the past season is that, no matter how successfully or not I got the transfers limited to a decent squad size, I haven't been making plans on how I want to play, but rather adapting to what I think the squad can do and then improve over it, without a set plan. That's something that needs changing, and probably can't be done all that easily.

So I need to make a plan about what style of football I want to play and then make the signings around that.

For a start, I want a squad able to keep the efficiency of the defensive tactics that has given us the Italian cup, the pass to semifinals beating Chelsea on a 6-3 aggregate, the 1-0 win at the Camp Nou. That means a team who shuts down the middle, forces the opposition wide to play crosses, sits deep and sends long balls to a fast front three to run behind the opposition defence. Requirements: aerially strong back four, pace is not needed, midfielders defensively strong, that are good in positioning to cover any hole, and a trio of wingers and striker that are fast off the mark. This tactic has an anti 4-3-1-2 variant in which the defense is made by the flanks, wingers on fullbacks, fullbacks on strikers and makes the attack through the centre, so it needs midfielders that are fast and can get into receiving positions.

But that is something I want to be the tactic for special matches against the tougher opposition or matches where not conceding may be the main focus. I want my standard game to be different. With our reputation grown so and the issues it possibly will bring with teams playing more defensively, we need to look for a dominant style. High defensive line to have more bodies to deny workin space between lines and more bodies for possession recycling, which means I need a centreback who's truly fast, one midfielder to cover ahead of them who can provide deep support, another that can provide a little higher support in second line of attack, I want to slice the defence with deep passes behind the defence, so fast wingers who tuck inside, good passers in the midfield and an offensive fullback to stretch the play in a side at least.

Goalkeepers:


A quality starting one, another with a clear weakness with high shots and one for the U20 team. One solid backup is wanted, and it is Serge Merle, who's been offered a contract.


Has been offered a contract and he's currently studying offers. Some good teams have offered and I'm not offering him a key position, so I'm not too optimistic about getting his services.

Centreback:


The latter two aren't trusted yet and will enjoy not too much time, the last probably going to be sold if possible. None is really fast, so one is to be signed. To ensure Karac will not be lacking playing time one of the players used as cover is to be sold, while Nunes' best performances are better than Bartley's, the latter is less prone to poor matches and mistakes leading to goal, so Nunes was the chosen to be sold. Due to the rarity of quality fast centrebacks, a high fee will have to be involved. The chosen is indeed expensive, costing nine million, but I know him from England team:



Fullbacks:

One offensive leftback, one substandard and one whose contract will be let to run out, no offensive rightbacks. In order to have time to give to Gale, Vidanov's contract is not renewed, as Figueroa's. Ogbonna will not be sold because of his club homegrown status and will need a bit more to accept leaving, as we signed him so late. An offensive rightback and a defensive leftback are required.


A player for the U20 team to be club grown, a young defensive oriented leftback and a offensively decent right back. Making the leftback the more usual offesnive of the fullbacks.

Deep Midfield:

Well covered position, with good chance to give Zambotto plenty of time and some to the other youngsters. Barnbock will likely have some minutes as centreback. Skou is being sold or loaned, depending on what offer he decides to take. Loans for some youngsters are on the cards to be offered. But I want Zambotto in the team.


Expensive, but young and looking good for the future. Couldn't help but buy him. Problem is that it's a bit too many players.

Most of the attacking midfield players can play any of the sides and also as strikers, categorized by the main position I'll use them, though it may not be their preferred, as it's central for most.

Right Wing:

It seems well covered except by the fact Sam requested a transfer and I'm planning on fulfilling my side of the promise. His place may be filled with players from other positions. Kasami would be a solid player, but as I used him almost always as midfielder, I sold him for funds and time for Zambotto. Too late to back from the deal.

Left wing:

Vukcevic is not too fast, which I'd prefer in the middle of a possible 4-2-3-1, which would also be his preferred position, plus that making a veteran available there instead of two young players. Not convinced about Pacavira future, a decent offer is accepted and likely will be out.


Very fast, good crosser and able to make goals, looks a good addition to fight for the first choice. The problem is his personality isn't the best to fit in quickly.

Advanced midfield:

Two young players and a veteran who's likely to be sold. Though Tisserand is pending a decent loan offer from Lille. Nita and Murray sold as they've not developed enough through lack of playing time.

Strikers:

Everyone can play in a wing, Tucci and Sturridge on both, which opens room to have enough time for them in a one striker formation moving them there and the wingers placed on the center; but still there will be a two striker formation to be used to give them time in their right positions. Albín could probably do listed here, as in the end of this season once he was placed as striker he began to get the goals. As with the central attacking midfield, there's no plan to sign anybody here.

________________________________________________________________________________
- Next will be a tactics post.
- Just found in boardroom the new stadium progress has vanished. It was scheduled to finish next autumn, I'll save shortly before; if I don't get a new stadium, which I've needed for a long time, and seeing how the new stadium petition to board was greyed out because of one being built, I'll call it a bug and will use FMRTE to give me a new one as a matter of negating a bug's effect.

 

[Death Ball]

- On tactics

Two new tactics to combine are what I want to make: one based on the 4-5-1 for those instances where more defensive stability is desired and a 4-4-2 for the easier matches, to give room to two strikers, that should work as closely as possible to a 4-2-3-1.


4-5-1 Variant
Utilizing the team report, what I find is that we got the most ability for central attacking midfielders, so the 4-5-1 will be the narrow 4-2-3-1 with three central AMs, with some games in which some can be moved to the wing depending on needs. The deeper will be reserved for Kara when he plays, as a defensive midfielder, but when he's not the defensive player there, it will be taken by Crisetig as a deep playmaker, with the other player taking the duty to recover the ball high as a ball winner.



Though the set pieces will have to be changed based on the footing of the players, a working point shall be created. Setting a few more takers for when the main aren't used so no poor takers are picked. Free kick takers will take into account the long shot ability as well, maybe more than crosses or passing. In past seasons I liked to order best header and far post, due to the poor results in general, I'm changing the first to cross centre for the right side, where the first choice taker is better croser and in the left where it's better passer to long. When it comes to free kick defending, I'm tempted to start placing men in the posts, but I don't want to depopulate the area or negate offsides. I do, however, one change: this season I'll put in the walls the best jumpers, even if they're the centrebacks. The throw in taker will hopefully be taught to make flat bullet throws. Unfortunately, there's nobody who really excels at it. Both sides will be long.


I must have pressed F9 too light so didn't get the screenie for attacking freekicks, anyway I'm going to attach the tactic

Since the main offensive fullback will be Islas on the left, he'll be set as a wingback. When playing fast centrebacks, we'll use offside and in general I like counter attacking when there's a chance.



The creator assigns a base mentality for the covering centreback to 10, 14 for the stopper, so the right fullback, that has the same as the left wingback is set to in between, and some freedoms are to be cut. To consider: All centrebacks are decent passing, I want the deep midfielder to cover holes and not to see the stopper getting too ahead, their closing down is tweaked. With a leftback running up the side, the corresponding centreback is instructed to hug the touchline. The inside forward, who's usually a good crosser, as there will be Vuckevic/Fleck/Kakuta, will be set to cross/through/run with ball often at all so the long shooting doesn't get crazy from them, even if they can hit it from afar. Striker set as poacher to cross and pass ball some times as to not let him get too egoistical. I remove some hard tacklings as I'm not fan of it and tell the trequartista to not forget completelly from a little harrassment of opponents in defense.



4-4-2

The 4-4-2 will also have an offensive orientation, but not so much, and will not give as many freedom to the players.



Set pieces is roughly like the previous, with just a few changes to see effects of different instructions. As before, they should be reviewed each match to adapt to chosen squad.



The defensive line will not be too high, in a start, as to avoid the stopper temptation to go high too much. In that regard I'll use the philosophy regarding aggreasion inverse to usual: I'll work with the idea higher aggresion doesn't promote his role as much as helps the player get it to an excess, so when playing this I'll use there a lower aggresion player so as to keep the closing down to reasonable levels. In the previous tactic it was done by mentality, this by kind of player. As before, I tell the team to counter when it can, but I won't be playing offside with this.



The base mentality is 8 for cover defender and stopper to 12. Again, fullbacks will be set in between... which they are by default. Some settings will be changed for each match depending on player, like long shots, something Kara isn't good on paper, though he's scored a few, but others are very good at. It will vary between rarely and sometimes. The leftt winger, the side of the target man (changed due to stopper side), will be instructed to move into channels to overload the side and work with the target man. Probably the side to use the attacking fullback, set a little higher as to move closer up to the defensive midfielder as the winger is being moved further up.



Defensive 4-5-1

This has two flavours: the general-wing play and the anti 4-3-1-2 center play.

The first is the one I use when facing teams that are much stronger than us or that, not being too stronger, are still stronger or in a good form and the game is important. It is a 4-2-1-2-1 that tells the back four to remain back at all times, two defensive midfielders to stay in front of the back four, a center midfielder who's allowed to make a few runs to support the attack when there's no counter attack possibility. The wingers and the strikers are set to be fully attacking, as being the only ones to go in. Passing will be long into space for them to run into in counterattacks, trying to get behind the defence and run for the goalkeeper. Often the shout to exploit flanks and play narrower are used. The team is to play with the striker as target man supplied with balls to run into. The team shall drop deep to provide always men between goal and ball. The tempo and time wasting are around average, as it works well, but at times it may be made to be faster.

The screenie for the rightback was corrupted, the instructions are the same as DL but with everything on the right slides set to rarely, except crosses and through balls that are sometimes or often depending on player, some matches the leftback has same instructions as the right



These screenshots correspond to the tactic used in the supercup. In here Daniel Islas is changed from the keep back at all times as an offensive proficient fullback and is allowed to run forward. You can see I forgot to allow Holz to shoot from distance.

The anti4-3-1-2 is basically the same, but it exchanges the wingers and central midfielders. The back four has to stay back, now not letting any fullback to run forward ever, as they will take on a man marking of the strikers, with the objective of making a 2vs1 of DCvsAMC so the three central midfielders deal defensively with the three deep. The wingers now are tasked with traking their fullbacks so as to not give them time on the ball for precise crosses. The more defensive midfielder is still ordered to remain back covering the defence, but it's now the other defensive midfielder and the central midfielder who are told to run forward to support the striker, the attacks being focused on the center. Unlike the main variant, these attacking midfielders aren't freed from their defensive duties. This tactic was created near the end of the past season; it failed miserably against Palermo's 3-4-2-1, fullbacks on AMCs, but worked superbly when used against Juventus' 4-3-1-2.

Only screenshots for those that are not the same as in the original flavour of the tactic


Both need a very fast striker, but while the first needs wingers that are as fast, this variant will need wingers who're decent at defensive duties, some decent tackling and marking and good work rate and determination. Aggresion is something I wouldn't do much to look as it wouldn't be easy to find too good tackles and I would not want them making penalties.

TWEAKING

The 4-5-1 variant seems to work as intended, with the only point of worry being the less offensive fullback moves up the field more than wished. His forward runs will be set to rarely. The amount of players going forward creates spells of big dominance and forces the opposition players to drop much deeper than they used to in past seasons, which is as a good defensive feature as the men staying back before, though there's more accourences of delicate moments from opposition counters. Because of that, the central midfielder can either be dropped to defensive midfield position with a little ore attacking mentality, his mentality simply reduced or his runs forwarrd set to rarely and be his positioning what allows him to be a supporting option during the attack.

The 4-4-2 doesn't quite feel right. The main issue is the target man not providing the desired support to the midfield. Lowering his mentality will be the first attempt at getting it right. There's also many good left wingers who have no experience as left midfielders, so another tweak will be to move them up the wings, but lowering their mentality a little so they don't disconnect from defence, and reducing their runs forward so they're available in the start of the attacks to receive the ball.

Tactics as of end of September 2017, with more tweaks to be done, downloaded here They are True Counter 1 (the original), True Counter 2 (anti 4-3-1-2 version, man markings must be assigned before match start and after confirming squad), Two striker and Lone striker.

Brief preseason report

Some information from preseason, that has gone rather well. Only real news is Merle chose Sampdoria so I went for West Brom's Noel Jordan and hired a bunch of youngsters for the U20. After the window closed I've picked some more free transfers for the reserve team, so players in need ot match experience can play friendlies without the reserve manager having to pick U20 players. Not seen is Kasami's transfer (€4.1M worth, I think). Sam was offered to fulfill the promise to sell him, but he demands money, so I prefer him to give us titles.

Good results with some good playing and as highlight my second ever title!. We defeated Palermo with the standard defensive tactic without being dominated, which makes me somewhat optimistic ahead of the season.

In Europe, we once again got handed a tough group. And found we don't have enough homegrown players in the national kind (or club either), so the ECC registration had to be left with two holes.

And in the international scene, Tisserand returned, just after recovering from an injury, with another long term injury, which makes me consider trying to sell him, as he's getting injured too often. Regarding England, we beat Lithuania comfortably and Bulgaria snatched a draw against Spain, which puts us leaders of the group with one point ahead of Spain and two matches to go: Spain and Bulgaria. ((As always, I forgot England screenies, d'oh))

In Serie A, the fixtures announced are to my liking, though there's some accumulation of tough matches, they're at the end, which hopefully will allow to reach the end with the chance of having built a decent lead, though the start and middle aren't free of tough matches.

 

[Death Ball]

-2017 part of the new season

This firts part of the season has left a disappointing taste. Some bad results that depended more than anything on luck, matches that could have gone either way but went against us because it was the opposition that took one of their chances instead of us, such was the case of Juventus or Napoli. Just one match in the other way around, that being Palermo draw, a match in which we went two behind and then the changes of the second half worked enough to get two back and have a great chance in the last minute to get the win, with Albín shooting from the edge of the area with half the goal at his mercy but sending the ball wide. We should have lost that match.

Specially annoying was the loss against OM at their home, as it came through a throw-in in the last minute that might not have happened if in the previous Daniel Islas didn't decide to send the ball to the only player that was absolutely alone without a defender in twenty yards... being a OM player ((Oh, so tempted to reload! Having no free options to send and the ball being intercepted, but sending it directly to the foot of the isolated opponent? Come on! lol. So should have been a draw)). And then the goalless draw against Anderlecth, a team we should have rolled over, but Sturridge kept missing the most ridiculously easy chances. And that is why I have sold him for €6M and didn't feature anymore in my teams. His average rating this season has been very poor, around 6.5. That result was also the difference between a draw being enough in the last macth of the group and needing to win. The latter got us to take more risks in defense than adequate against Atlético de Madrid, and with a penalty wrongly given to the colchoneros we couldn't make it past the group stage again.

The other outstanding poor result was the 1-6 loss against Cesena, the surprise team of this season. And that's fully my fault. After the easy 4-0 win against Udinese, one of our bogus teams (the other being Juventus), in which I used my 4-4-2 with success even when Udinese changed to a narrow 4-2-3-1, I underestimated Cesena and thought their position was due to the easy matches they had up to then, and despite them fielding a narrow 4-2-3-1 I went with the 4-4-2 instead of my 4-2-3-1 tweaked to face that formation. We went rapidly two below and thought of changing, but then Romano scored and I thought the team was improving and could let things be to get the next goal. Then their third goal arrived and I changed to the 4-2-3-1; but since there was two goals to recover from I made it as offensive as it is by natural and hence the defence wasn't at all strengthened, so when the fourth arrived I just gave up and let things as were in case the offensiveness might produce some miracle, but it didn't do more than to keep the defensive weakness.

A bit annoyed that after the loss against Lazio I realized several instructions of the 4-2-3-1 were wrong and had been changed. I don't know why did it happen, I didn't make changes after match start. Perhaps in a change of tactics I loaded and older version without realizing I had not saved it after the last changes. The DMC and MC weren't told to cut inside but had normal wide play instruction, more seriously the right fullback was instructed to make forward runs often, when it should be set to rarely. I don't know for how long that went on, but I don't think it was relevant to our less good than hoped for run. The right fullback has a tendency, no matter who I pick, to run forward even when set to rarely. And there's only one goal, that I'm not sure if it was one of Palermo's draw or Ascolí's consolation goal that could have come because of the defensive midfielder not cutting inside, which would have pulled him to the left instead of marking the player who made the assist from the right-centre of midfield ahead of our defence.

My ploy to tip Cesena as title favourites have only half worked: they've dropped five points in the last two games, but so have we. The league table doesn't look any good, with Napoli running strongly for the title fourteen points ahead of us, sitting just in fourth position. Which is out of Champions League qualification.

The situation in the league is somewhat disheartening and is making me feel like I've got Torino as high as I can, which is taking off my motivation to keep managing the team ((And FM13 coming soon, with work on my Spain database having being neglected¹)). The recent news of AZ's boss resignation makes me ponder whether I could try to get that job. In favour: I've not done at all what I intended with the transfer market here, which has given me a bloated squad that lacks homegrown players, there I could build from their current squad and truly keep to one or two signings, they're in a great position to win their league and qualify; against: it may be bloated and poorly designed, but my squad has some great players that are valid to be at least runners up this year and be serious contenders in Europe next year (as long the group doesn't give us Real Madrid, Manchester United and Anderlecht).

Regardless, during the autum and december, there's been some movement in the transfer section. As said, I've sold Sturridge. Sam was offered, but at first I refused to keep paying him €37Kp/w two more years, now that I see our balance is low and I think I should have taken that, nobody wants to offer €15M anymore and his value is dropping fast, so I'm stuck with him. Kakuta got a serious viral infection that will keep him out until the end of the season, so I signed Gerard Deulofeu, who looks decent but is highly considered, for €2M. And I'm planning on going for broke, without really depleting the bank completely and I'm trying to get Mexilhão; but Lokomotic Moskow is asking €30M for him with a partition that's not acceptable and goes beyond the budget limits. Not very likely we'll get him. Also a €5M transfer clause for matches played was activated for Romano.

In other news, Hernán Romano is our top goalscorer and one of the best in the league, also in average rating, as I expected would happen with the new systems. Our training facilities have been improved once again. Against Ascoli Romano beat the record of fastest goal scoring after fourteen seconds. Vukcevic has retired from international competitions. We lost against Spain so we finished second in the WCQ group, the draw for the play offs set us against Holland, the only hard team of the other seven participants (with Denmark and Switrzerland being the only decent among the rest). We lost 1-0 away and won 2-1 at home. Then I resigned. And Crisetig was third placed in the Italian Serie A player of 2017.

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¹ I'm going to use more of the time I played FM12 to work on the Spain database for FM13. With FM13 coming so soon and the time it takes me to play a season with matches in full, there's a chance this being the last update to this story, though I'd like to at least finish this season. I will likely change to extended/key matches.

 

[Death Ball]

It felt like a very very long six months and a bit

Well, after all this time, the Torino bug bit me again and I wanted to at least finish the season. Slowly playing a few games in different moments that I had just time for one in key mode, I finished the season. And started a new one.

I decided to go with the 4-2-3-1 that I was using as the results seemed to start coming my way, and it was a good choice. There was a great string of results that led us to climb up the table. The only blemish was to lose against A.C. Milan, a reasonable result against a team that was strong in the season, but that prevented us to finish second of the league.

With that we find needing to go through a two leg round to qualify for next ECL group stage.

With some players like Albín and Vukcevic leaving the club at the end of their contracts, there was a big rebuilding of the squad. There were more outs than ins, and with the new squad Deulofeu was sold as no wingers will be used.

The new preseason was very promising, with some easy win and a marvellous one made with the attacking 4-2-3-1 narrow (3xAMC) formation, which will be the main along a secondary 4-3-1-2. The fixture list for the new season has a rough patch from Atalanta to AC Milan, but I hope the team is strong enough to get through. We also qualified for the ECL group stage. Of course, the group couldn't be any harder.