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Career Resurrected: Farm to Treble (now with more analytics)


veerus
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I typically play on medium speed w/ extended highlights which is still slow enough without putting me to sleep (like slow speed does).  Pay attention to how your players are moving when on offense or defense and adjust accordingly if they're leaving any big gaps on the pitch.  Look at # of shots (on target) your team is generating, possession and pass % (these last two should be above 50% and 75% ideally).  Don't be afraid to make changes, FMM players don't remember how well they played under a different tactic.  Take some time to read recent threads in this forum - there has been some quality content posted in the last month or so.  

It's not an easy process in the lower leagues because the players aren't very good.  That is the problem I'm currently having.  Feel free to read through the discussion above on how I'm trying to deal with it.

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@Irwan Hadi What @veerus said!

Though to be honest, I spend most of the time on Key and Very Fast to get through the game quickly, but just go to Extended occasionally to see if there are any obviously problems with the tactics and then fine tune them if I see anything. For example, here are a couple of things I noticed:

1. When I was using 4 2 3 1, the striker and the central attacking midfielder were running around together like they were holding hands and generally getting in each other's way. It was a 1KC attempt, so I didn't want the AM taking goals from the striker, so I changed to a formation that didn't have a AMC.

2. When I was playing 3 at the back, but leaking goals, I noticed that it was because the opposing wingers basically had no one to stop them and were ripping us apart, so I moved to a formation with 4 at the back.

And there have been plenty of other things I've found that I would never have known if I hadn't taken the time to see what's actually happening.

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@veerus @scratch99 honestly, prior to your explanations and prompts on viewing the match on Extended and Medium, I had no clue as to what to look out for while viewing matches and how the tactic I set up works :laugh: my basis for the above-mentioned tactics were simply to keep things simple (knowing Lower League players aren't that good) and basic. Now I will try to view the matches properly and take notes perhaps.

By the way, how often do you guys "spy" on the opposition tactics/instructions throughout the duration of the match? I find it troublesome to continuously check every once in a while just to make sure my players are not being overrun. Any thoughts or words of advice on this one? :(

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2 minutes ago, Irwan Hadi said:

By the way, how often do you guys "spy" on the opposition tactics/instructions throughout the duration of the match? I find it troublesome to continuously check every once in a while just to make sure my players are not being overrun. Any thoughts or words of advice on this one? :(

Don't worry about it if your in-game possession % is around 50% or better.  If your possession is 35-45%, then it's worthwhile to look at the opponent's tactics and try to adjust.  

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Again, sorry for the delay everybody. At the time of the last update, we were just outside the playoff spots and struggling to find a tactic that would generate an effective attack. As you may recall, I considered several potential things I could try, which would escalate in craziness if playoffs became unreachable. So let's see how far down the tactics rabbit hole I went...

Advanced tactics: trequarista 

I started by making the more obvious changes I discussed above - went to attacking mentality and changed my two CM/AP to BBM with a DLP behind them to hold down the fort. My DLF also became a trequarista to give him more freedom to float and create.

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In the first game, the formation started off hot!... for 11 minutes before a straight red to my T in the opposition box off a corner (never seen a red like that given before). I continued to play the same formation with 10 players and, uh, this happened. 

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I even channeled my inner Mourinho by adding a 3rd defender after the two goals. :laugh:

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Advanced tactics: that wasn't part of the plan

With my best third forward suspended, I went back to the original 41212 except with two BBMs in the middle and attacking mentality. It worked really well and we dominated the game. But we missed a PK and two clear-cut-chances ("CCC") and the match ended 0-0. It was 2 points dropped for us.

Next match, we went back to the 4123 with the trequarista Oller back from suspension.  And we got absolutely destroyed by a 4222 - 39% possession, 0 SOT. We only lost 1-0 (which also halted a 9-game streak without a loss) but it made me completely scrap the current formation. In addition, my main DLP picked up his 5th yellow card resulting in suspension for the next game. One more loss like this and playoffs may be out of reach...

Advanced tactics: back to the basics

I wanted to try something different but wasn't ready to go completely out of the tactical box. All season I've been saying I didn't feel like we had enough width but upon closer examination, that's not entirely true. Many of our best APs could play on the flanks (and remember we did sell the one true winger we had in January). So fresh off our defeat to this formation, we decide to try a 4222 of my own. When we used it in the past, the feedback was "lack of steel in midfield" however our two BBMs have been playing well in the last few games so let's try it.

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Pressing off to make sure my 2-man midfield doesn't over-extend.

With a key away clash against the first placed team coming up, the result of this match would dictate how the rest of our season goes. 

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Eureka!! This worked better than I ever expected. Best game of the season. The attack created chances and got a lot of shots on target. Could this be it? Did I find my formation holy grail?...

Next match we win 2-1 but defense seemed to struggle in an even-ish game, but we still got 3 points. And then this heartbreaker happened. 

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Two back breaking points dropped! Even the game agreed we were unlucky not to score! But the formation is still clicking and we reach 4th winning the next game 3-1. 

Playoffs? You kidding me??

Throughout this season I've said many times that I don't expect playoff berth, I just want to get a good handle on the team. But now that I'm sitting in one of the playoff spots with 3 matches left, I want us to reach post-season! And while we do have 2 home games left, they are against the 1st and 5th placed teams. Nerves...

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For one of the few times this season, our goalkeeping fails us. This became a signature of these last three games as I got the "poor shot stopping from GK" message in both of the next two matches. 

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Hat trick by our young bright star including two goals from free kicks rescues the result! He's my Messi of free kicks - of his 12 goals this season, about 5 have been from FKs. 

The 5th placed team fails to keep pace before our last match of the season guaranteeing playoff qualification!! However, we go into this last match with a small chance of getting 2nd place and with our confidence running high!

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Disaster!!! Our IF who had been instrumental to making the formation work, goes down and is out for 3 weeks guaranteeing that he misses the first round of playoffs at least. On top of that, we almost lose a match where victory would've given us 3rd. Let's call this 2 points dropped which makes 6 total for those counting at home. Let's look at the final table. What if we had 6 more points?....

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....we could've been champions. :( 

Our punishment for all those points dropped is a first round matchup against Real Madrid B. My stated goal was to unseat the top Spanish clubs so may as well pick on their little brother first. 

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Advanced tactics: conclusion

So is this 4222 my go-to formation? All signs point to yes. Despite allowing 8 goals in the last 4 matches (after allowing a league low 30 in the previous 34), the fault is with my GK not the outfield players. The defense allowed 0(!) CCC in the last 6 matches. On the other side of the ball, we generated 17 CCC in the 7 games played under this formation (2.4 per game) after averaging .9 CCC the entire season before the switch. Shots on target (7.4 to 3.7 per game) show a similar story. 

Player highlight:

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Meet our best forward who has been playing as a Target Man alongside a AF/P in a primarily 2-man front. The last 7 matches in the 4222 have been kind to him - he scored 6 goals!

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Let's talk about the target man role. I feel like it has a bad rep around Vibe. I played this guy as a TM because he has the stats for it and it's his preferred role. Paying attention to the highlights, he tracked back further than the DLF/T/AF/P roles he played with. He just missed out on winning the golden boot. In addition, he was also a fantastic provider of assists!

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Do you believe in miracles?

When El Ejido got promoted to the Second Division, they did it as an underdog 4th placed team. Could we do it again? Wish us luck!

Edited by veerus
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Enjoyed reading about your tactical headaches :) I'm inclined to use a TM more often than I do at the moment since he does so well for you.And the T, must be worldclass imo otherwise just very inconsistent.

Now get Real's lil brother!!

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When I was playing 4222, I noticed an interesting interaction between the IF/TM.  The most common passing combination I saw was the IF passing back to the WB and then immediately running into the box to sit between the TM and P (oh yeah, btw, I changed my AF to P in the last few games because Corral didn't seem to perform as well in the AF role).  With TM hanging back a little, this actually didn't cause the three forwards from sitting on top of one another in the box, and almost looked as if the TM and IF swapped positions but not quite as extreme because the TM was still near the edge of the box.  This made the attack seem very fluid as there was always a decent passing target for the WB with the ball.  For this reason, I would highly advise playing IF/TM on the same side of the pitch.

By comparison, when I played a front 3 line of TM + T/DLF + P, the three usually moved into the box as a group.  This meant that scoring chances were only coming from intricate Barcelona-like 1-2 passing combinations to get through on goal.  It seemed to make the attack very ineffectual because there were always 3 guys in the box and not enough support from midfield/flanks.

I haven't tried your TKO formation yet but how did your front 5 play in attack?  Did they all swarm the box or was there some spacing around it?

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41 minutes ago, veerus said:

By comparison, when I played a front 3 line of TM + T/DLF + P, the three usually moved into the box as a group.  This meant that scoring chances were only coming from intricate Barcelona-like 1-2 passing combinations to get through on goal.  It seemed to make the attack very ineffectual because there were always 3 guys in the box and not enough support from midfield/flanks.

I haven't tried your TKO formation yet but how did your front 5 play in attack?  Did they all swarm the box or was there some spacing around it?

I suppose I should start giving a lot more credit to the TM. I see him as a static guy who fight defs off the ball but the more technical ones sure can be very useful.

As for my TKO. 5 forwards / 6 att. minded players (2IFs, 1CF/DF, 1DLF, 1P, 1AP) but the crux was to never have more than 3 in the box. When one of the IFs moved into the box the DLF/DF would drop to make space for the other 2 strikers and incoming IF depending on what flank the attack was going over.

Thru the center I would often "surround" their box with IFs on either flank, the AP and DLF/DF on the edge of the box and the CF and P in it.

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Nice going! Hope you win the playoff!

I used to use the TM / P combination a lot but have stopped doing that in recent years (no particular reason, just not that many top quality TMs around). However, I had a lot of fun with TM Mitrovic at Newcastle in FMM 2017, before I abandoned that career for my 1KC attempt. And I've wondered how a TM would go using my 1KC tactic (it gives Armstrong lots of goals, but also a bunch of missed headers). I might come back and try that sometime  Anyway, 'm definitely not against TMs, in the right formation, they can be great.

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Playoffs... It's a concept largely foreign in European football. Sure, all the Cup competitions are in a playoff format but they're not real. They don't count. League position is the only thing worth playing for! Years of playing FM in England have conditioned me to be instantly rewarded by promotion when I finish in the top spots. In Spain's 2B division, you have 16 teams battling in a (slightly convoluted) knockout tournament lasting 3 rounds for 4 promotion spots. Survive all 3 and you're in. El Ejido went through a similar gauntlet last season. Can we keep our nerve and do it again?

Our first match is against Real Madrid B who finished 2nd in Second Division B2 (2B2). I had worked myself up for this matchup. My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy. I almost threw up all of my mom's spaghetti. I was nervous but on the surface, I had to look calm and ready for my team...

I pressed "continue" with trepidation and started the match. My little virtual player dots must've sensed my anxiety. We were down 1-3 at halftime in the home leg of the playoff. We were a bit unlucky to concede twice on deflected free kicks but the result meant that hope for an away goals tiebreaker was dead.

2nd half started off better with my two super players, Oller and Merido, scoring in the first 7 minutes of the second half. But that result was short lived...

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Even-ish game on the stat sheet, but a seemingly unbeatable gap in the score. According to the post-match report, our midfield was too open without the ball against their 4231 (on top of a 3rd message in a row of "poor shot stopping from GK"). 

I choose to not alter my tactics for the away leg despite the game giving us 13-2 odds to win. We played them even at home with that formation and, despite the midfield weakness, I had faith in our front men...

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...and my faith was rewarded! 2-0 at half time and a relatively easy and nerve-free 3-1 result gives us a 6-5 win on aggregate and keeps our dream alive!!!

Next round sees us go up against Alcoyano - a team which finished 1st in 2B3 but lost its previous knockout round (champions have to lose twice apparently). They line up like us, in a 4222. We've typically not had problems with that formation so I am expecting an easier match than the previous round. 

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Ollie and Merida are on the score sheet again! It was a routine win however there are so causes for concern for the away leg - Merida picked up a yellow resulting in a 1-game suspension, my first choice right back got called for international duty (wtf I thought - before realizing I'm playing meaningful league games in June!), and my loanee and star of the first half of the season, Javi Llor, got injured. But he has been playing poorly in my new scheme and his playing time has been limited lately so this isn't the end of the world. image.png

With a grey regen target man stepping in for Merida, my formation is unchanged.

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And in the absence of my talisman striker, my other striker and captain (who I thought would be my talisman in preseason) comes through to secure the easy 6-0 aggregate win and a date with Ponferrada in the final round.

Ponferrada is also a 4th place team from 2B1 so either way, this result will be a storybook ending for one of us. They play a 4231 which, historically, has given my 4222 problems. I start getting that sweaty palms feeling again...

...and there goes mom's spaghetti as we go down 0-2 in the first 35 minutes. Merida pulls one back for us but things don't improve as we are down 1-3 with 15 minutes left. But then......

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Ollie, you beautiful dot! Pulls the game even before an own goal gave us the lead in stoppage time!!! This was the pause the game - put the phone down - clap - fist pump kind of a goal. Followed by a put the phone down so you don't throw it through a wall kind of a goal.

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Unlike in the match against Real Madrid B, this one didn't feel even so a tactical change had to be made. Win or lose, it would be the change that defines this season. 

So we line up as follows. Poacher Corral is dropped, Cara is back from injury and back in his left IF spot where he was originally while his substitute Oller is moved to the midfield.  He has been playing in that left IF position for the last 5 games (yellow dot btw - I know we had a discussion on this in another thread - yellow is still good IMO). I wanted to keep an attacking lineup so, while Oller was an AP, his central presence would help keep the midfield even against the middle 3 in the 4231 I was facing. Lastly, Javilillo on the right changed to IF instead of his usual AP to give us another threat in the box. I was considering this formation against a 4231 for a while but it was my first time deploying it. I was optimistic but the bookies hated us - we're 7-1 to win.

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We start in the worst possible way - Ponferrada scores on the 4th minute! Game commentary lays it on thick with a taunt - "This is not the start El Ejido envisioned!" 

Then Merida continues his amazing run by scoring on 21st and 59th minutes to give us the lead! With the aggregate now in my favor, I start substituting offensive players for more defensive players while keeping the same general shape. And then the clincher! An own goal on the 80th minute to seal it!! At which point I take off Merida for another defender (side note: a debut for my January signing, Smitarello) to ride out the miraculous comeback!  7-5 on aggregate. Scenes......

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Merida and Oller both scored 6 goals in 6 games. This is the stuff of legends! And both are only 23!

Are we ready for this?

As the celebrations fade late into the night, I can't sleep. I'm too excited! But also scared. Is my squad good enough to survive the Second Division? My attacking 4222 with an inferior squad is likely going to get blown out of the water... I can't go through those heart attack inducing playoffs again. Please don't let me!

I also haven't had any luck signing anyone great. And I don't really have any worthwhile prospects. Besides, with the promotion, my shortlist is basically trash now. But so what? We've moved up in the world, baby! 

On the bright side, I've been able to sign everyone on my team I wanted to keep and they all have 2-4 years left on their contracts so I can concentrate on finding new players next season.

Date on the calendar is June 24. New season starts in 6 days with friendlies not far behind. Hopefully my team gets enough rest. They earned it!

Side notes:

  • 3 OGs on the new patch. Bug or luck? Anyone else see an increase in OGs?
  • This doesn't fit the narrative but must be said - I believe my miraculous run was helped by the improved but still shoddy AI on this patch which seems to revert back to a variation of 442 after conceding. Coincidentally that's a formation my 4222 usually wins against. 
  • Target man and IF on the same flank, boys... Amirite?!

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Great write-up! We know exactly what is going through your mind during those make or break moments so having those detailed and humorous bits included makes for a very enjoyable read. Love it.

Re ..<scrolling back for spell- check>..El Ejido you got most guys on longterm contracts which is perfect. Opponents are going to be stronger so your formation, tactics and players are going to be put thru a tougher series of tests in a higher division. I'm confident you'll come up with the right answers. 

Looking forward to more of the same and goodluck next season.

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Again I have really enjoyed reading this.. And I like how you change your tactics I always stick with one tactic but after reading this I have changed my mind. 

I need always to react and do something thanks for letting me change my mind and letting me start to think deeply about the tactics I'm going to use 

Keep it up mate 

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I wanted to post a quick season review saluting my boys.

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This has been a season for the ages. The playoffs made the promotion harder and infinitely more satisfying. Top 5 players on the list by rating are my attacking 5. Cara was sidelined by injuries for most of the season but his return is what enabled us to find our best formation. Next 5 on that list are all defenders who had the joint best defense in the league and fewest losses despite all the tactical confusion in front of them.

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All season, we never went more than 2 games without a win! It didn't feel like it and, in hindsight, it's pretty impressive given the fact that the team didn't really click until the final 2 months of the season.

Immediately after the final game, I decided to extend contacts of some of my younger stars, who originally signed short-sighted 3 year contracts at the start of the season. Despite being right under max wage, I was able to get the board to approve 4 raises all at once (which wouldn't be possible if I did it one at a time - the board members must not be familiar with how math works apparently). :laugh: I also did this before the game starts the new season as I'm sure their wage demands would be higher once they slept off their celebratory hangovers and realized they're now playing in the Second Division!

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And with this, we close the book on a magical season.

Epilogue:

As you can tell, I don't play very fast. My play settings are extended highlights on medium speed. Which means each match takes approximately 10-15 minutes depending on how many adjustments I need to make during the match. This makes me VERY invested in the outcome of each match and allows me to tell a more detailed, and much longer, story. If I'd played on faster settings and just clicked through the game, I probably would've lost interest a long time ago.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. This season has been a joy to narrate. As always, feedback is welcome. 

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I know what you mean. I couldn' t play matches that long tho but I certainly feel invested like you do when a particular career goes beyond 10 seasons. I haven't posted all of them, which I regret, but the ones I did are here and available for me or anyone to be reread at any given time. I don't do that often tho but reliving the journey is great and can work as an inspiration to the next memorable career.

Your stats looking good btw. Most consecutive defeats: 1. Nice job there!

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A Fantastic read mate well done on your promotion and the in depth analysis on your tactics gives me a great climps into how lazy I have been

On the TM front I have used them since i first started using the game, I know they are hard to come by but i think they give the offense something to aim for (as long as you have wide players)

@scratch99 mentioned about his 1K, when I did mine with Barbosa last year at one point I switched to my 442 and used a TM alongside Barbosa (who I set as the primary attacker) and the TM was instrumental in helping me achieve the 1K as his assists were brilliant 

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11 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Your stats looking good btw. Most consecutive defeats: 1. Nice job there!

I think we all learned something here. Regardless of what's going on elsewhere on the pitch, 2 LDs with a DLP in front of them are going to be very solid defensively. I only started leaking goals when I went to 2 BBMs in the midfield at the end. My goals allowed per game went from .83 to 1.5 after the switch. Which tells me my 4222 formation may crash and burn within a month in the Second Division. Then again, my goals scored went from 1.4 to 2.4 so maybe every game next season will end 4-3... We'll see. 

9 hours ago, Taff said:

when I did mine with Barbosa last year at one point I switched to my 442 and used a TM alongside Barbosa (who I set as the primary attacker) and the TM was instrumental in helping me achieve the 1K as his assists were brilliant 

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I'm shocked at how well my TM did. Everything I've read about the role basically makes me think of Fellaini - big, tall, slow, sucks at passing, only good when wins headers. But in reality, he interchanged with the IF really well, tracked back effectively, and always made an impact on the game. 

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Fantastic read! I, as a rule, don't read careers. In fact, I've read all of five in my years here. The match-to-match detail, the style from a FMM player's point of view (not in-universe narrative) really drew me in. I really liked how this so far seems about the journey and not "can I dominate Europe in 6 years."

I could almost feel how invested you were in your players and their performance. It readily came across in your writing, quite eager to read about your adventures in the second year. You've given me pause to consider whether I might want to turn my game speed down once and a while. 

Hope you don't plan to speed up the next season. The anticipation of how a crucial match would turn out made this a real must-read. It really was about the journey, and I'm eager for the next leg.

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Thanks for the kind words.  I do not plan on changing the writing style or the pace for the next season.  As you said, it is about the journey.  However... 

9 hours ago, BleedsBlue said:

and not "can I dominate Europe in 6 years."

Hopefully we CAN dominate Europe in 6 years... :)  We still have ambitions, ya'know!

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Hi all. We're back for season 2! Sorry for the long delay but I was busy running tests on primary outlets and attackers and trying my hand at some basic FMM analytics. I will be referring to xG in my posts so I'd suggest getting familiar with the concept. Plus it's a fun way to compare things across different seasons and formations.

As a way of an introduction, I thought I'd run some quick xG stats from season 1. Most of the first season was unimpressive in a few versions of a narrow formation - in 32 games played, our xG was 41.8 (1.31 per game) and we scored 46 goals. In the 17 games (most at the end of the season) where we played an attacking 4222, our xG was 38.31 (2.25 per game) and we scored 36 goals! So clearly, my tactics are set for the upcoming season...right?.....

New Blood

But first, let's touch on the transfers a bit. The transfer budget was generous at $1.6 million. And with the entire team signed to long term contracts, I had only a few needs to address:

  • BWM - I needed a rock in the midfield with high tackle, so I ended up buying one, a bloke named Dani Santigosa. But he has NO green role traits as BWM, and 3 greens as DLP but he was the best I found so it is what it is. I usually play him as a DLP to keep him positionally sound.
  • CD - I struck out here as I didn't want to overpay. (A mistake perhaps?)
  • A versatile W/AP and/or WB. I ended up getting a decent AP who can't play on the right side (so much for versatility) but it was better than spending 600k on a prospect WB. 
  • GK - I really wanted to upgrade my GK but there were few targets on the market and I couldn't get anyone worth starting. As you'll see, this is going to be an ongoing issue. 

Lastly, I bought Javi Llor (last year's star loanee who faded late in the season) from his old club which got relegated. He continues to be inconsistent but his stats are great! I bought him for 250k and he's worth $1.1mil already so if nothing else, I'll sell him for a profit next year. 

Spoiler

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Bonus screenshot: my future golden boy from the youth academy! He's out on loan at a Second Division B team and is tearing it up!

Season 2

Pre-season was a bit rough as we were forced to play two games in three days a week before the season started. Combined with the off-season conditioning drops, it took us about 6 games to get the whole team to match-ready fitness. However, those first 6 games went pretty well anyway...

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But it was not as easy as it looks for our dots. We needed a lot of luck in some of the matches. 

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These matches were becoming the norm. Not a good sign.

Back To The Tactic, part 2

Last season my defense was stifling but, this season, we're already giving up goals like a mid-table team. Is 4222 really the future? I wasn't so sure. With upcoming league matches against 1st and 3rd teams, I decided to tweak the formation slightly to 4321 by dropping the TM and adding a DLP. 

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I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to lose the midfield. It is a tactic that worked well for us in the playoffs last season. But would it work here?...

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...err, no. We conceded as many goals in these two matches as in the previous six! Both were away fixtures, but still. Whatever hope I had for us of winning instant promotion again went out of the window. Our defense is just not good enough to be mentioned in the same sentence as the La Liga. 

Sandwiched between these two matches, we had a home match against an 18th placed team which was the perfect opportunity to try this tactic by @kts365, especially on the heels of his success with FC United. My result was, uh, not quite that good. 

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We were lucky not to lose.

Is this the end already?

After that tactical adventure, I am starting to seriously consider riding my standard attacking 4222 to a mid-table finish. This may sound like I'm giving up a bit, and maybe I am, but let's be real. I need time to improve the squad so it doesn't get embarrassed in the First Division. I'm ok being an Everton for a year. Gotta walk before I run and all that.

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We're tied for 2nd in goals scored and 10th in goals conceded. We're generating 1.54 xG per game (a drop of nearly a whole expected goal from last season in this formation) while allowing 1.73 xG per game. Even in wins, we would often get outplayed.

Overall though, it's not too bad but the team (especially defense and GK) need to be improved significantly before we can take the next step. As the club gains reputation, we'll be able to attract a couple stars. I hope. 

Spanish Cup

Since I'm not worried about getting demoted, I decide to focus on the Spanish Cup. We field strongest teams possible in both matches (both against fellow Second Division teams) and narrowly win both matches at home. This earned us a date with Vigo from the First Division. It's time to get our first Giant Killing scalp!

Training Unhappiness

I wanted to make a quick note about training unhappiness. I've ranted about it in another thread but let's just say I think it's stupid. image.thumb.png.9fb0c34714e43cf066f6d17158535996.png

This offseason, this nonsensical "feature" claimed our star TM from last season, Pedro Merida, as well as one of our best midfielders. Merida's stats are still ok-ish but the midfielder, Ivi, refuses to do anything and I'm out of training schedule slots to make an individual one just for him. His stats suck now so he's been offered for sale and I expect him to depart in January. 

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7 hours ago, veerus said:

 

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Any formation is going to be tough if your players aren't of good enough quality to get you the results.

 

Something you may want to consider is this:

Simple Defs playing as Limited Defenders - They're the simple version of good central defenders so this is supposedly their best role. But fact is that there's simply no or hardly any build up from the back, especially playing two, so they strike it upfield giving you a 50-50 chance of retaining possession, maybe less even since defending these sort of long balls is way easier than keeping it in the team. It isn't great but I understand the coice if you haven't got any better.

Simple Defs playing as Central Defenders - They're the simple version so assigning them the role of central defender may be risky. True, but the way I see it so is yanking balls forward. At least now you have a chance of a decent build up but of course losing possession here is very costly. True LDs lose possession more often than true CDs, that's obvious, but if your players aren't total dimwits I think the occasional loss of possession could be taken for granted if you get some decent flowing build-ups in return. It'll up your attack by lots. Question is..how bad exactly are your defenders?

Something to think about.

Edited by BatiGoal
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6 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Question is..how bad exactly are your defenders?

They're not terrible. I play them at LD to make sure they stay home and defend. My 6 outfield players are pretty decent so possession isn't an issue most games. Besides, I don't know if it's the EME or the player but I've noticed my LDs occasionally take a trip into the midfield with the ball so they don't just always hoof it.

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And anyway, I think I stumbled onto a new tactic last night that may be working well. Stay tuned...

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We just played our last game before the 3 week holiday break in Spain. It was an up-and-down trip to get to this point. Immediately after the last update, we played a 20th placed (at the time) team, Alcorcon, and it didn't go well. 

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Our favorite 4222 got crushed by a 4231 which, if I'm being honest, was always a possibility as our 4222 never did consistently well against that opposition tactic. But this was a spanking! At one point we switched to 3 CD which seemed to stop the bleeding and gave me an idea. Which brings us to...

Back To The Tactic, part 3

Yeah, me not tinkering with tactics wasn't going to last. I decided to experiment with 3 CD formations which would allow us to use an extra midfielder and to fix the annoying match feedback of "Wingers failed to track back" that popped up in nearly all our losses this season. 

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This seemed to improve things slightly. In the next four matches, we went 2-1-1 with average xG of nearly 1.8 (compared to 1.54 in 4222). This was the highlight match during that stretch.

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Then came the match-up in the Cup against First Division's Vigo. Expecting to get slammed, we lined up very defensively. 

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And it worked great! 1-0 loss while only allowing 2 SOT. But now we needed to chase the game away and the formation was tweaked to be slightly less defensive but still a 532. 

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Again a 1-0 loss but in a much more even match. I kept tweaking the formation as the match went on as we chased the two goals. At the end the formation resembled our 3322 from above but Vigo's quality was too much. However a 2-0 aggregate loss was a really good showing. Next season we won't be so defensive..

Perennial Underdogs

This is probably a good pace to mention that the game's oddsmakers keep considering us underdogs in basically every match. In game terms, this seems to translate to nearly every team coming out with an attacking mentality. As a result, I have toned down our instructions to "balanced" which hasn't caused any obvious attacking deficiencies we experienced last season while improving our conceded xG slightly.

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Maybe it's how I play the game, or maybe it's the quality of my team but every match's outcome feels like a coin flip. And we've just been getting a bit luckier as we sit at 10-2-7 going into the Spanish winter break. The difference is in the smallest changes on the margins so I will keep tinkering with the system until it clicks or I can buy better players (not a whole lot of good prospects out there at this level though). 

Despite performing well overall, our recent record against teams placed 16-22 in the above screenshot is 1-0-3. As a wise man once said, sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you. :)

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Halfway through the season, we're still 6th. I want to get us into the playoffs. The team isn't completely overmatched in this division despite my early season assumptions. I'd say there's an outside chance of promotion and it would be nice to achieve that!

Training Unhappiness

Since the last update, two more players suddenly have become unhappy with the training regime they've had for 1.5 seasons. Now nearly a quarter of the team is unhappy thanks to that random nonsensical bullshit. 

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Going to have to have a fire sale in the January transfer window. Hopefully the extra funds will allow me to buy a superstar defender or goalkeeper.

Spoiler

Bonus game! Persistence of Dani Cara pays off in this unusual match with 3 disallowed goals!

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You're going through a bit of a rough time at the moment trying to get the best formation for your unhappy lads but still a decent league position. 

Hope your hard work starts to pay off soon. Hang in there!

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Welcome back for another installment of my adventures on the southern coast of Spain.  The format here will be a little different as this is an update about the rest of the second season.  Today's story will be about getting lucky and getting unlucky.  Kind of like Leicester City.  In my previous update, El Ejido were flying high in 6th place and I said the following:

Quote

And we've just been getting a bit luckier as we sit at 10-2-7 going into the Spanish winter break. The difference is in the smallest changes on the margins so I will keep tinkering with the system until it clicks or I can buy better players (not a whole lot of good prospects out there at this level though). 

Well, this half of the story will be about what happens when that lucky streak runs out.

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The wheels of my train of joy came off very soon after the winter break.  Our finishing had abandoned us and we started losing the close matches we were winning in the first half of the season.  I tried numerous tactics with variations of 3 or 4 in the back but the results were roughly the same.  On the bright side, the game considered us underdogs in nearly every match (home and away) and feedback after each match was that we played fantastically - this kept morale fairly high during winless periods.

All in all, a mid-table finish in our first year is a good achievement.  We were tied for 6th in goals scored (despite the finishing slump, more on this later) while tying for 16th (out of 22) in goals allowed.  We finished 9 points away from playoff spots, a goal that can be reached next season with a few strategic player acquisitions.  I'll come back to this but first I'd like to discuss a few key transfers that took place in January.

Goalkeeper Of The Future!

I've been saying that I need a better goalkeeper for a while now.  Well, shortly before the match against Barcelona B, my youth scout notified me that their young GK is unhappy AND within my price range!  I pounced on this immediately...

Spoiler

Before my offer could be accepted, our match had to be played.  Our young GK target was in goal that day and we won convincingly.

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The next day, he signed for us (convinced by our victory, I am sure) which boosted the entire team's morale to Superb which lasted for all of one game (see above for our "streak" after the Barca B match)...

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Transfers - shipping out unhappy players

I've complained about random unhappiness from long-term training before and that is part of the reason this update took so long as it was making me annoyed and angry at the game.  I had to sell two of my starting midfielders who had their stats drop below acceptable level after a prolonged, and unfixable, unhappiness period.  After receiving $1.1 million for Javillilo and Ivi, I decide to bank the money until next season because my scouts couldn't find any targets who could improve the team and were willing to sign.

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However, it seems the game has a quota for unhappy players on a team as two of my four wingbacks (thankfully one from each flank) caught the unhappy disease before the end of the season and will likely have to be shipped out in the summer. 

A Story of Javi Llor

As you may recall, Javi Llor was a loanee last season who played a key role in the midfield.  Upon returning to his original team, which got relegated to the Second Division, he was unhappy so I was able to buy him for $250k.  While he never seemed to be as dominating as his stats would suggest, I knew he had a ton of room to grow.  I was right...

Spoiler

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From a $250k star-in-the-making, he turned into a $3.9 million superstar!!!  While he played almost every game, usually as a part of a 2-man midfield, I kept getting comments about "lack of steel" in the midfield.  He finished the season with a decent 6.97 rating and is, stat-wise, by far my best player this season but he has no "green" stats for most midfield roles...  After his sudden jump in leadership from 2 to 20(!!!), I made him our team captain anyway.

Star Players

Unlike last season, when several players contributed greatly, this season our (often) sole striker and old captain did the heavy lifting - Samu Corral.  I don't know if my game bugged out because I didn't see a message about a player of the season but he was surely a contender for the title.

Spoiler

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Note Pedro Merida's (a star of last season's playoff run) lack of meaningful contributions.  He became unhappy with training early in the season and spent most of it on the sidelines.  It's likely he won't be back with us next year.

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Leicester City Type of Season

This is the analytics portion of the update.  Like the legendary rollercoaster of Leicester City over the last two years, El Ejido's season was similar (in pattern, not scale).  By that I mean, first we were HOT, then we went COLD.  Such variance is typically called regression to the mean.  Leicester won the Premier League last season because they seemed to score at will sometimes and briefly flirted with relegation this season when they couldn't buy a goal!  Our highs and lows weren't quite as drastic but still significant - after a 10-2-7 start, we went 7-7-9 to end the season.  Looking at the underlying stats, our finishing went COLD.

For the following analysis, I split the season into two halves based on our goalkeepers - Alvaro and Ezkieta.

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The "bad" second half of the season came on the heels of outstanding goalkeeping.  Despite facing more shots and shots on target (likely a result of frequent formation experiments and loss of two starting midfielders), Ezkieta was great!  On the flip side, despite generating more shots on target and clear-cut-chances, our finishing became so poor that we were producing nearly half a goal less per game, under-performing xG by more than 10 goals in 17 games!  If we can finish our chances and our young goalkeeper keeps improving, I see no reason why we can't reach playoffs next season!

I am glad I am keeping track of this type of data.  Without it, I would be much more down on how this season ended.

Shopping List for Next Season

The team is pretty decent and will mostly stay intact for next season so my shopping list is simple. We need a:

  • Star Striker to score more goals (this is most important)
  • Wingback or two since two of my current ones are unhappy and suck (I could get away with 3 CD formations if I can't find replacements)
  • Defenders or Midfielders if I can get a good deal

Nuggets and Tidbits

Spoiler
  • After scoring 5 free kicks last season, my young phenom, Fran Oller had 0 this season :(
  • Both of our coaches who were bronze passed their coaching exams - now all three of our coaches have silver badges allowing us to keep the same backroom for the foreseeable future
  • As you can gather from my commentary, I keep fairly extensive notes on formations.  Since the pre-match formation scouting is bugged and almost always wrong, I have started to refer to my notes instead for prior opponent formations.  This earned me a couple extra wins where I went back to a formation that worked in the first match despite the fact I was currently playing a different formation in prior matches
  • A BWM I bought last summer had no green role traits for a BWM but 3 greens for a DLP.  During the season, his recommended/preferred role actually changed to a DLP - I'd never seen this before
  • Manager firings have been a bit random in this year's version.  In my "world", both Guardiola and Klopp have become somewhat "journey-men" coaches as they got sacked at least twice in a year and a half.
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The End

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Thanks for reading.  Sorry for the long delay between updates.  I'll be honest, if I didn't feel a commitment to keep telling my story here, I probably wouldn't have gotten this far by now.  Hopefully I'll be able to pick up steam in future seasons.

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Great to see how invested you are in your career. It really is inspiring.

I think the majority of your players/starting team are lower league, right? I mean still the original team that got you promoted to the current division? Ime it's really hard on any team to get promoted without going all revamp to gain any sort of respectable league position in the "new" division. It's big step up and a lot of players simply can't handle that, or need time. 

Hope you get the players on your shopping list and start the season with an improved team. Looking forward to more El.. -scrolling up- .. El Ejido.

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Thanks BG. I have a new goal - to make you remember the team's name by the time I'm done here. :)

And yes, you're right, most of my team still consists of original players from the lower division. However, as is the case with human controlled teams, their current stats are on par with players from the Second Division. This is a big part of what is making scouting and signing new players difficult at the moment. Since I have the top four leagues loaded, the list of players who have better stats and/or better PA and/or affordable wage demands and/or actually want to come play for me is very small. 

The hot start this season got me excited prematurely that promotion to the La Liga would be easy. But the truth is, even if we did get promoted now, we would likely go straight down. My most clear path to success is to continue to look for 4-5 star prospects who will likely be younger players who need a couple seasons to grow. So far, I have a decent base. 

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The three players on this list without ratings are all youngsters who are 18 or younger:

  • Lorenzo was just purchased in the summer window (primarily as a future investment given his growth potential)
  • Nilsen was a young player I bought in the winter and immediately sent out for loan to the Second Division B where he had a 6.82 rating in 17 games. Board is excited about him as well and he carries the "mercurial" player description on the coach report. The only other player on my team with this description is Fran Oller who is my favorite player (and I am his favorite person! <3)
  • Rami was a youth team graduate last summer who spent the entire season on loan in the Second Division B where he had a 6.87 rating in 34 games (14 goals & 9 assists)

Basically I need to be patient and continue building a strong core. And hope it doesn't get undone by training unhappiness...

Given this focus on team building, should I be devoting more of the narrative to the development of  our youngsters? Let me know if anyone has a preference. 

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53 minutes ago, veerus said:

Thanks BG. I have a new goal - to make you remember the team's name by the time I'm done here. :)

I did remember till you took off for a month :P

 

57 minutes ago, veerus said:

Basically I need to be patient and continue building a strong core. And hope it doesn't get undone by training unhappiness...

Very frustrating indeed especially when managing small teams with small budgets where options are very limited. It's a problem that has too random a solution which could potentially ruin a save. This definitely needs looking into too sooner rather than later.

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