Starting again (and looking decent)

[Ranger81]

First off, I am not claiming this as specifically MY tactic. Yes, I put it together myself, but I have taken a lot of advice from these boards so it may well be an unintentional replica of another tactic.

Having been sacked for being too defiant, I had to start again but changed a few things around for my tactic.

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I normally start defensive then switch to contain if I take a lead, but I find that I play better with contain so might start games with it. Pre season has gone well, with wins over Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United (I should point out that I had been playing with WB’s, one BWM, one CM (attack duty) and IF's instead of Wingers before the Man United game. Reason I made some changes is that after Arsenal, the following away games were nowhere near as comfortable as they may seem. I checked stats for the other games against Cambuslang and my Under 20’s and they were also tighter than they looked). Only pre season, I know, but some good wins against some strong sides (stat details of which can be found on 'Post your successes')
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I had left OI up to my assistant, but he had always been complaining about players being allowed too much space so I’m giving it a go myself.

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Still room for improvement in terms of more efficient closing down, and I think the key might be in my OI but it’s not my strongest point (hence why I delegated). Any ideas/suggestions would be very welcome.

One final thing about OI’s – if I set them before the game, do I still need to set them on the opposition instruction screen where my coaches offer advice on what might be effective? Seems odd that I do my own then get advised about everyone else’s, even though some of it already applies.

 

[WJ]

Don't place too much importance to results in friendlies. The AI teams won't be giving it their all.

What's the idea behind the tactic?

 

[Ranger81]

Yep, pre season and actual season are two different things. Still pleased with the Chelsea, United and Arsenal results having said that (bought me some brownie points with the fans as well as bringing in a lot of revenue). The key objective behind it was to have patient, careful play that springs into life when the opportunity presents itself. So far, so good – but again, it’s only pre season. Successful pre season, but pre season nonetheless. That’s why I’m looking to see where I can improve before the real stuff begins.

 

[Ranger81]

First competitive game of the season, a 4-1 away to Morton. Good football, some impressive individual ratings, but the closing down (or lack of) could have cost me more than one goal. It was a bad goal to lose, but I was lucky that it was just one.

 

[Ranger81]

Made some OI changes - less players being closed down looked to help the team shape as in the last game my players were caught in bad positions, more than likely my doing. Less convincing result, but more convincing performance.

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[Ranger81]

For the first league game of the season (Hearts at home), I decided to make a few more tweaks.

1. No set OI's, except the pre game advice from my coaching staff
2. Removed 'Close Down More' as a team instruction and picked 'Close Down Less'
3. Removed CDM as a player instruction for those who had it, except for my DM
4. Gave my wingers a support duty

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Again, I started defensive but alternated between defensive/contain depending on how the game was going and in game team talks were always calm and either encourage/concentrate. Late on in the game, I selected play safer and waste time from team instructions. Cammy Bell sometimes forgot who to distribute to and Kris Boyd seriously misjudged where the ball was going to land on more than one occasion, but thankfully I got away with those.

p.s 4th after a 4-1 win?!

 

[Ranger81]

Tried 'Overload' for a Challenge Cup tie since the fans and board don't really care about that competition so much, so it's no biggie if I get knocked out, and also since I've been scoring a lot of goals. Played direct passing too. Won 4-1 at home but it was very vulnerable defensively and not so great going forward since my team's natural shape seemed to be suffering. Three of my goals came when I had switched back to the tried and trusted defensive/contain mentalities.

 

[Ranger81]

First month (used Diablo for Falkirk)

View attachment 299333All wins and manager of the month. Got to be happy with that. The Dumbarton game was the first time I had fallen behind in a game, and it took two late goals to win it. I was two up and cruising against Dundee, had been playing contain and play even safer but let them back in with two soft goals late on (one was a cross that my full back could and should have dealt with). For QOS I sent out a patchwork team considering my injury list, it was a struggle to find enough fit players in my under 20's to fill the bench, but it was the same story. Two up, coasting to victory, they took possession and hit a counter attack. My player didn't just miss the opportunity to clear, but he ran away from it. Their second was sloppiness on my team's part. Closing down has been an issue in both those games, so that's something I'll have to look at. Giving them space is fine if my players are looking to time their tackles, but not when they're standing off.