kvasir said: Seems like you're doing great. Excited about the rest.
Do you ever change the team mentality late in the game? For example: you were leading City by 2 goals in minute 80 - in this situation could it be beneficial to change your team's mentality from "balanced" to "very defensive"? In theory, they should try less risky balls, translating in less passes being intercepted and thus less chances for the opposition.
I'm yet to play FM 23, but I'm doing this in FM 22 with your ZaZ - Green. If I'm up by 1 goal in minute 85, I just go Very Defensive (from Positive) and set time wasting to the maximum (from none).
Wonder what you think. Expand
No, I don't change mentality. I tried already other mentalities, but they seem to concede more (or at least as much) than balanced. Instead, when I have a good lead, I switch to Light Water. In some matches, I also switch the sides of wingbacks and inside forwards to give them match experience, because I like them to be good at both sides for versatility (in fact, all my wingbacks and inside forwards are training for the opposite side, and not the side they play in).
About Green very defensive, I'm not sure if it brings much benefit, since I didn't test it. The tactic was already solid enough in the back to me.
Ten more matches gone, and things have been a rollercoaster. First I got several victories in a row, including against teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. Then I entered a bad spell with five matches without a victory. Usually those spells last around five games, so I hope my team recovers very soon.
A few notable matches are below. - Victory against Chelsea at home with only 32% of possession. I think goals are way more important than possession, but I know some people disagree. - Victory against Leicester at their home. I picked this one because if you win bigger sides by two or more goals, you need to be sure to tell your team to not get overconfident. - Victory against Arsenal at their home. - A draw against Aston Vila, in which we were winning until 94 minutes, then my goalkeeper passed the ball to their attacker when there was no danger. - Epic victory against Manchester City at our home. I will comment about this match below.
In this match against City, they were winning at half time. Some people like to ask me what to do in this kind of situation, so I picked this match to explain what I usually do and took some screenshots.
The first thing to do is to motivate your players with team talk. Usually, I like to let the players know how disappointed I am, so they understand they need to put more effort in the second half.
Second thing to do is to make the right subs. In this case, I removed the player with yellow card and nervous, as well as the lowest rates of the match. For their places, I picked the two motivated players with perfect morale, and the option that was not very happy with his playing time (have to think about the rest of the season). After that, I told them individually that I have faith on them.
Finally, I used shouts whenever available to give that last push. My rules are simple: - Encourage if not winning (drawing or losing). - No pressure if winning on the edge against stronger team. - Praise if winning for more than 10 minutes. - Berate if losing by large margin (two or more) for more than 10 minutes.
Those steps don't guarantee that you will comeback, but it make your team play better than during first half, which increases your chances of winning. Remember to tell they did a good job if they manage to comeback!
Other interesting things that happened during those matches were a proposal for a friendly tournament, paying me 110k euros, which I promptly accepted. It doesn't matter if your players are doing well or not, you can always play with youth team if needed. I also like to add friendly matches for the U21 one day after matches from main team, so I can give match fitness to players that didn't participate in the match day.
Since my form was good and I got some money, I decided to upgrade training facilities and youth facilities. That doesn't contribute to the goal of winning the UCL in three years, but I like the idea of leaving the club in a better situation than I received, because success is not guaranteed.
I guess that's it for now. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions! I will probably finish this first season next weekend. For anyone interested in checking players or teams on this run, here is the save file.
keithb said: I get that. I just feel the way they have tried to make the game harder, well its how it appears to me, is with stuff like this. Expand
For me, the biggest problem of the game right now is the number of interceptions. It seems like opponents get a boost of speed when they are running to intercept the ball, and the ball is also attracted to their feet when they stretch, allowing them to not only block the pass, but also gain possession. I think it's the thing they will fix on next patch, allowing other tactics to also play through the middle.
keithb said: Holding onto leads and keeping clean sheets as an unerdog seems so hard this year. Your result away to Newcastle is the kind of thing im talking about. I went 3-1 up at Anfield and lost 8-4 LOL. All my defenders got 6.2+ hahaha, except lb who got a 5.9. None of them scored. I dont understand any of that.
Anyway enjoying your thread and good luck with the rest of the season. Expand
Thanks! We have to remember we are actually underdogs, which means the other teams are usually stronger. That means they often start losing because they are nervous, but after they start scoring, they gain a boost of morale that makes them have higher chance to score again, especially since they have better players.
Sane said: @ZaZ Hey, are you using the solid version similar to fm 22? For example, when you win during the match by 2+ goals.
What is the best way to keep the score or play against the strongest favorites in this fm? Expand
Other than changing tactic completely, I didn't find many ways to concede less yet. I know you can change IF to support duty, and volantes to DM on support, but I didn't do experiments on that yet.
kvasir said: Do you use any opposition instructions? Just to make sure I got it right - no Genie Scout allowed, yup? Good luck, curious to see if you can make it.
I was wondering the same thing. The logical conclusion I came up with is that the only way to achieve such thing is by adapting your tactic permanently taking in consideration the players you have available and the opposition . I really can’t see a plug&play tactic make Bournemouth win the title in the first season, although I’d love to because I’m not a great tactician. Expand
I don't use opposition instructions, and leaving those to the Ass usually makes tactic worse somehow. I know if you understand what you are doing, then you can improve the tactic, but I don't have a set of suggestions that always work.
About Genie Scout, it's not like it is forbidden, but it's kind of pointless since I set a rule to only make transfers through the new scout focus system. They usually bring a small list of players, so it's not hard to check them and filter manually. I mean, in this first season, I didn't even have money to buy players, and the ones I tried to sell didn't get any offer. (P.S.: I won't use Genie Scout.)
Played the first 10 matches of the season, and things went pretty well. I changed Blue 5.0 so both wingbacks and inside forwards are at default width, and removed shorter passing, because results at testing table were poor.
One of the things I do every single week is sort players by training rate and praise the development of each player with 8.05+. You can see the difference in morale in the pictures below (before x after). It might not look like much, but it is the easiest way to keep morale high during the season.
I got two good suggestions of defenders to hire by scout team, with pictures below. I offered contract to both for loan (not enough money for transfer), and Mason Holgate accepted to play on my team this season (the other accepted another offer). That was the only transfer for the season, and he is on the same level as the other three defenders (but I prefer two others for main team). The player he will substitute is James Hill, with a picture also below.
I have separated a couple of notable matches to comment. - Against Crystal Palace, we started conceding at 4 and getting a player sent off at 31, but we managed to turn around in the second half with one less player. - Against Newcastle away, we were winning until 90 minutes, then they scored 3 in a row, which was very frustrating. - We managed to defeat Liverpool away! - We also smashed Manchester United in our home, which felt very good.
In the end, we lost Carabao Cup in the first match, but things are going very well on the league. As you can see, we are together with the top pack, and there is a chance we might score UCL in the first season (I don't believe in title, though). If anyone wants to see more details about players or anything else, the save is in this link.
P.S.: Another important thing I do but forgot to say is to create some friendlies with U21 in the day right after matches (in weeks with only one match). That allows me to use all players that didn't play and need match fitness on that friendly, giving enough time for them to recover before next match.
Let me know your thoughts, questions or suggestions!
If I understand correctly, narrow WB with wide IF would favor Underlaps, which are not working very well in this patch. I just wonder if it's better to have neutral WB and IF, or if they are better both wide to stretch the field away from midfield (in a context without overlap team instruction). By my observations, the biggest problem in this patch is that interceptions were buffed, so passes through the middle have high chance to concede possession.
Zippo said: I just want to be clear my knowledge about how the overlap TI works is from the devs BUT it might be outdated because it was the previous FM versions and they might change the way it works for FM23.
BUT still I think it's useful to know how it worked before ( it still might work the same right now ). Expand
Well, I changed only two things in my updated Water, and the decrease in quality was noticeable (still in the limit of RNG, but still a big decrease). Since I don't think the cause was shorter passing, I assume it's the narrow for WB. The only changes were those two.
I've been noticing that an intensive testing of different width combinations for wingers and fullbacks happens here.
So I just want to share with you my thoughts and experience about it.
First of all, in order overlap runs happen the wingers must sit narrower than the fullbacks otherwise overlap runs won't happen.
And I'm almost sure that when you add "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI then this happens:
- the wingers get their width setting set at "Narrow"
- the fullbacks get their width setting set at "Wide"
- the wingers get their "Forward Runs" setting reduced
- the fullbacks get their "Forward Runs" setting increased
(some other things might happen under the hood)
As we know, TIs override PIs, which means if you have "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI then any PIs that change the width setting for the wingers and fullbacks won't have any effect.
Btw, the test results kinda prove that because the difference between different width settings for the wingers and fullbacks when there are "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI are present is just less than 1 point, which is within the margin of error for 6K matches test.
So I suggest when you test PIs then make sure you don't use any TIs that might override the PIs.
Cheers. Expand
That explains why my personal tests for width were so inconsistent with table results, since I don't use overlaps.
Sane said: @ZaZ I have a lot of injuries with training and rest in this fm, did you notice this? Expand
By the end of season, does your medical team say you had more or less injuries than average? They always give a report, and usually they tell me I got like 40-60% less than expected.
To evaluate my team and decide who stays and who goes, I will check position by position which players are good, which are bad, which have potential and which don't. Then I can use that info to sell players, send youngsters back to youth teams, and to identify where I need transfers.
There isn't much magic for this selection of players. I mainly check for key attributes, like pace, acceleration, jumping reach for defenders, reflexes for goalkeepers, and so on. I also check players age, because they grow very fast up to 18, slightly fast until 21, slow until 28, and then it stops growing until decaying. That means players with high attributes at young ages (especially under 18) have high chance to become stars in the future, so they should get special attention. If two players have similar attributes, then the youngest one is most likely better. Also, remember to check coaching reports to get hints about their personality, avoiding anyone that is not professional.
In the end, my initial team looks like below, with two players per position. There is another player per position in the U21 team that can be used as backup.
From the initial team, there are two players in long term injury, and only one to be sold off (29 yo striker with 11 accel and 12 pace, which means he is not suited to the role). Checking my finances, I have only 1 million euros for transfers, and barely 2 millions left for salary, meaning I cannot change much in my team this season. I could sell players to make cash, but I'm pretty satisfied with my current squad. Since I have only one fast defender, this will be my priority for transfer before the season.
I also checked my board expectations to see if they have some policy for hiring, but they have none. They want me to play possession based football, but that is definitely not happening since I couldn't make a single tactic with high possession to work.
Unsurprisingly, the board did not accept my proposal to add a goal to qualify to UCL next year. They think it is unreasonable, so I have to prove them wrong.
About friendly matches, I always pick very easy matches, because the main goal is to improve morale and fitness. About individual training, I'm training wingbacks and inside forwards in the opposite side to increase my options, and I'm also training all players under 28 years old on Quickness (GK on Reflexes).
Daz said: Can't wait to see how it goes! Also, do you think it's possible for a club like Bournemouth, with transfers, to win the league in the first season? Expand
It is possible, but highly unlikely. Considering I will do this first season with only one transfer (scouts searching for a central defender), I will be happy if I get a spot at Europa League.
First important decision in the game comes right before you start playing, picking up leagues and the team you want to play. I picked Bournemouth because it is the weakest side of Premier League, and I decided that by checking the lowest squad value on "Create a Club". I chose to have only English league, and only Premier Division available, since this is a quick run of three seasons.
The second division is your managerial style, or picking up your attributes. I picked the attributes below.
I chose one category of training (technical attacking) and maximizing rate for it. I also maximized working with youngsters because I will be running the youth teams. All other coaching attributes are useless since I will only be training one category (you can also train two or more, I just prefer to have more specialized training). Keep in mind that Goalkeeper Coaches and Fitness Coaches are shared between main team, U21 and U18, so I prefer to hire a good one for that position instead of doing myself.
Staff responsibilities: I want to do all talks related to transfers and contracts, and manage everything about the three categories (Main, U21 and U18). I will delegate all tasks related to media and scouting to the staff. I will also take control of picking friendly matches, but delegate playing those matches.
Schedule, Arrange Friendly: I cancel all my friendlies, then set up one new friendly per week for both main and youth teams.
Training, Rest: Go to Training > Rest, then set "No pitch or gym work" for anyone below excellent condition. That will allow you to have a heavier training schedule, while avoiding most injuries of the season, which are caused by training with low condition. Repeat to the youth categories, but set double intensity on excellent condition, since the focus there is growth, and young players usually suffer less injuries.
Training, Calendar: I set up my training schedule for the whole season (including pre-season), for both main and youth teams. Unfortunately, you have to copy and paste it everywhere. The schedule is in the picture below, and attached to this message for download.
Training, Coaches: Set your coaches to maximize stars in all categories, for both main and youth teams. Notice that some coaches can be used in all three teams, like GK Coach, Fitness Coach, U21 Manager and yourself. Make sure that those shared staff are very good at coaching to optimize your resources.
Tactic: I will be using Water 5.0 and the light version in this run for main team. U21 will use Fire, and U18 will use Earth, so I can watch the tactics playing.
Staff, Search: Find the best coaches available, scouts, physios, and set them properly on training when they arrive. Priorities should be for two good fitness coaches, since physical attributes are the most important. Also, hire a good U21 manager, since he can be used to train in all teams.
To search for staff, simply search for the role and key attributes, and only realistic results will show by default. Adjust the attributes to show between 5-10 options, then pick the one you like the most (remember you can offer contract to all of them, then stall until the one you want decides if he will join or not, and cancel the rest). For coaches used for multiple teams (including youth), remember to include a good level of "Working with Youngsters".
To hire staff for the youth teams (especially a manager, since he can be used to train main team), I first unmark the option to include staff for main team (I want realistic people for youth only), and put filters for either technical or tactical training (either is fine, as long as it has good working with youngsters and either attacking, defending or mental). Keep in mind that I couldn't care less for the management ability of youth team managers, only about their coaching abilities, since I will be controlling the matches anyway.
I offered contract to the people below. I always hire Dennis Bergkamp since I really loved his football.
Next part is about picking up squad, selecting who should go and who should stay, as well as transfers, contracts and so on, so I will do in a separate post.
Hi! Time to run my public career to share experience with other users. All decisions will be explained, and I'm keen to hear comments and suggestions about those decisions.
I will play Bournemouth, weakest side from Premier League, and my goal is to win Champions League within three seasons. I also expect to win Premier League in the second season, and qualify to Champions League in the second season.
The plan is to use scout meetings for transfers. I will tell what I want, then make choices based on their suggestions. No individual scouting or setting up custom assignments for main team. Trust the staff!
I will also control and hire for youth teams, and my goal is to have third reserve of each position from the youth team by the second season. That will require me have scouts on assignment for youth players (under 18). That doesn't conflict with previous rule (not using scouts), because players under 18 are very unlikely to contribute much to winning UCL within three years. I also want to have top youth setup within three years. Note that this doesn't help with the main goal, it's more of a fun goal because I think every team should have strong youth settings.
Finally, I will use Water tactic because it's my highest rated, but I might use another tactic on the youth teams for testing purposes (nice to see the movements in game).
pixar said: In fact, these small touches created a lot of effect, from 57 averages to 61 averages. From this perspective, I think the difference is not small. Expand
I'm not complaining with the result, I'm just saying that the difference between the best and worse of those tests is still within the margin of error of FM-Arena. That means it's not an evidence that wide IF and narrow WB are better than the other options tested. Obviously, it's still the best result we have and we can use it as reference, but we also have to keep in mind that even the same tactic tested several times will have some variance.
As an example of what I'm saying, IF-wide has gotten 59 points in 0.6, but also got 61 in 0.8. WB-Narrow hit 61 result here, but in 0.9 it was 58. In other words, we should be careful to not draw conclusions based on what can be variance, as there is no statistical difference between the top tactics.
P.S.: I have no problem with other tactics being on top, I am just trying to point out to not take the result as definite truth and ignore the other options on future testing.
Gratz for the top, but keep in mind that if you run the same tactic several times in a test with one point of precision, it's only natural that a few runs will end up one point above and a few will end one point below. That means what you tested might very well make no difference, and what we see is just statistical noise. Even running the same tactic, the best run and the worst could have two points of difference in between (the best run one point above, the worst run one point below).
Mornon said: First of all, I hope your wife is recovering from the surgery.
About your career, I'd suggest to start in an european country like Greece or Norway from 2nd division and try to hire only player with your country nationality.
About the tactics, maybe you can avoid to use the same role twice for adjacent players (for example BPD, CC, VOL, CA) just to make it more realistic. Expand
Thank you! About the suggestion, I will keep it in mind for a future run, but right now I will do this one with Bournemouth.
I will play Bournemouth, weakest side from Premier League, and my goal is to win Champions League within three seasons. I also expect to win Premier League in the second season, and qualify to Champions League in the second season.
The plan is to use scout meetings for transfers. I will tell what I want, then make choices based on their suggestions. No individual scouting or setting up custom assignments for main team. Trust the staff!
I will also control and hire for youth teams, and my goal is to have third reserve of each position from the youth team by the second season. That will require me have scouts on assignment for youth players (under 18). That doesn't conflict with previous rule (not using scouts), because players under 18 are very unlikely to contribute much to winning UCL within three years. I also want to have top youth setup within three years. Note that this doesn't help with the main goal, it's more of a fun goal because I think every team should have strong youth settings.
Finally, I will use Water tactic because it's my highest rated, but I might use another tactic on the youth teams for testing purposes (nice to see the movements in game).
I will create a new thread for that once I sort out a last version of Fire, Water, Wind and Earth, then I will start the run. All decisions will be explained, and I'm keen to hear comments and suggestions about those decisions.
This is not a trivial suggestion, so it's something for later if devs think it's a good idea.
The problem: There are too many tactics that are too similar, from the same author, to brute test instructions. They clog up the table and hide tactics from other authors and other formations.
Proposed solution: Only display the best tactic from each thread in the table. For example, if I post Water 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.2, only the top one would be displayed in the table (in this case, 4.2). There might be a "+" sign to display other tactics from the same thread.
Expected result: Table will be cleaner and will emphasize the best tactics from each author. If an author wants different shapes to appear in the table, they would need to create a new thread, but if they just want to update or test something on the same tactic, then only the best of that thread would show, and that would help players find the best variant easier instead of using something outdated.
Almost the same, except that IF is not set to wide.
Milakus said: Good thread, I'm looking forward to your result.
Thanks! Nice to have you here. I wish there were more people sharing their runs here in FM-Arena as well.
Do you ever change the team mentality late in the game? For example: you were leading City by 2 goals in minute 80 - in this situation could it be beneficial to change your team's mentality from "balanced" to "very defensive"? In theory, they should try less risky balls, translating in less passes being intercepted and thus less chances for the opposition.
I'm yet to play FM 23, but I'm doing this in FM 22 with your ZaZ - Green. If I'm up by 1 goal in minute 85, I just go Very Defensive (from Positive) and set time wasting to the maximum (from none).
Wonder what you think.
No, I don't change mentality. I tried already other mentalities, but they seem to concede more (or at least as much) than balanced. Instead, when I have a good lead, I switch to Light Water. In some matches, I also switch the sides of wingbacks and inside forwards to give them match experience, because I like them to be good at both sides for versatility (in fact, all my wingbacks and inside forwards are training for the opposite side, and not the side they play in).
About Green very defensive, I'm not sure if it brings much benefit, since I didn't test it. The tactic was already solid enough in the back to me.
A few notable matches are below.
- Victory against Chelsea at home with only 32% of possession. I think goals are way more important than possession, but I know some people disagree.
- Victory against Leicester at their home. I picked this one because if you win bigger sides by two or more goals, you need to be sure to tell your team to not get overconfident.
- Victory against Arsenal at their home.
- A draw against Aston Vila, in which we were winning until 94 minutes, then my goalkeeper passed the ball to their attacker when there was no danger.
- Epic victory against Manchester City at our home. I will comment about this match below.
In this match against City, they were winning at half time. Some people like to ask me what to do in this kind of situation, so I picked this match to explain what I usually do and took some screenshots.
The first thing to do is to motivate your players with team talk. Usually, I like to let the players know how disappointed I am, so they understand they need to put more effort in the second half.
Second thing to do is to make the right subs. In this case, I removed the player with yellow card and nervous, as well as the lowest rates of the match. For their places, I picked the two motivated players with perfect morale, and the option that was not very happy with his playing time (have to think about the rest of the season). After that, I told them individually that I have faith on them.
Finally, I used shouts whenever available to give that last push. My rules are simple:
- Encourage if not winning (drawing or losing).
- No pressure if winning on the edge against stronger team.
- Praise if winning for more than 10 minutes.
- Berate if losing by large margin (two or more) for more than 10 minutes.
Those steps don't guarantee that you will comeback, but it make your team play better than during first half, which increases your chances of winning. Remember to tell they did a good job if they manage to comeback!
Other interesting things that happened during those matches were a proposal for a friendly tournament, paying me 110k euros, which I promptly accepted. It doesn't matter if your players are doing well or not, you can always play with youth team if needed. I also like to add friendly matches for the U21 one day after matches from main team, so I can give match fitness to players that didn't participate in the match day.
Since my form was good and I got some money, I decided to upgrade training facilities and youth facilities. That doesn't contribute to the goal of winning the UCL in three years, but I like the idea of leaving the club in a better situation than I received, because success is not guaranteed.
I guess that's it for now. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions! I will probably finish this first season next weekend. For anyone interested in checking players or teams on this run, here is the save file.
For me, the biggest problem of the game right now is the number of interceptions. It seems like opponents get a boost of speed when they are running to intercept the ball, and the ball is also attracted to their feet when they stretch, allowing them to not only block the pass, but also gain possession. I think it's the thing they will fix on next patch, allowing other tactics to also play through the middle.
Anyway enjoying your thread and good luck with the rest of the season.
Thanks! We have to remember we are actually underdogs, which means the other teams are usually stronger. That means they often start losing because they are nervous, but after they start scoring, they gain a boost of morale that makes them have higher chance to score again, especially since they have better players.
What is the best way to keep the score or play against the strongest favorites in this fm?
Other than changing tactic completely, I didn't find many ways to concede less yet. I know you can change IF to support duty, and volantes to DM on support, but I didn't do experiments on that yet.
kvasir said: Do you use any opposition instructions?
Just to make sure I got it right - no Genie Scout allowed, yup?
Good luck, curious to see if you can make it.
I was wondering the same thing. The logical conclusion I came up with is that the only way to achieve such thing is by adapting your tactic permanently taking in consideration the players you have available and the opposition . I really can’t see a plug&play tactic make Bournemouth win the title in the first season, although I’d love to because I’m not a great tactician.
I don't use opposition instructions, and leaving those to the Ass usually makes tactic worse somehow. I know if you understand what you are doing, then you can improve the tactic, but I don't have a set of suggestions that always work.
About Genie Scout, it's not like it is forbidden, but it's kind of pointless since I set a rule to only make transfers through the new scout focus system. They usually bring a small list of players, so it's not hard to check them and filter manually. I mean, in this first season, I didn't even have money to buy players, and the ones I tried to sell didn't get any offer. (P.S.: I won't use Genie Scout.)
One of the things I do every single week is sort players by training rate and praise the development of each player with 8.05+. You can see the difference in morale in the pictures below (before x after). It might not look like much, but it is the easiest way to keep morale high during the season.
I got two good suggestions of defenders to hire by scout team, with pictures below. I offered contract to both for loan (not enough money for transfer), and Mason Holgate accepted to play on my team this season (the other accepted another offer). That was the only transfer for the season, and he is on the same level as the other three defenders (but I prefer two others for main team). The player he will substitute is James Hill, with a picture also below.
I have separated a couple of notable matches to comment.
- Against Crystal Palace, we started conceding at 4 and getting a player sent off at 31, but we managed to turn around in the second half with one less player.
- Against Newcastle away, we were winning until 90 minutes, then they scored 3 in a row, which was very frustrating.
- We managed to defeat Liverpool away!
- We also smashed Manchester United in our home, which felt very good.
In the end, we lost Carabao Cup in the first match, but things are going very well on the league. As you can see, we are together with the top pack, and there is a chance we might score UCL in the first season (I don't believe in title, though). If anyone wants to see more details about players or anything else, the save is in this link.
P.S.: Another important thing I do but forgot to say is to create some friendlies with U21 in the day right after matches (in weeks with only one match). That allows me to use all players that didn't play and need match fitness on that friendly, giving enough time for them to recover before next match.
Let me know your thoughts, questions or suggestions!
If I understand correctly, narrow WB with wide IF would favor Underlaps, which are not working very well in this patch. I just wonder if it's better to have neutral WB and IF, or if they are better both wide to stretch the field away from midfield (in a context without overlap team instruction). By my observations, the biggest problem in this patch is that interceptions were buffed, so passes through the middle have high chance to concede possession.
BUT still I think it's useful to know how it worked before ( it still might work the same right now ).
Well, I changed only two things in my updated Water, and the decrease in quality was noticeable (still in the limit of RNG, but still a big decrease). Since I don't think the cause was shorter passing, I assume it's the narrow for WB. The only changes were those two.
I've been noticing that an intensive testing of different width combinations for wingers and fullbacks happens here.
So I just want to share with you my thoughts and experience about it.
First of all, in order overlap runs happen the wingers must sit narrower than the fullbacks otherwise overlap runs won't happen.
And I'm almost sure that when you add "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI then this happens:
- the wingers get their width setting set at "Narrow"
- the fullbacks get their width setting set at "Wide"
- the wingers get their "Forward Runs" setting reduced
- the fullbacks get their "Forward Runs" setting increased
(some other things might happen under the hood)
As we know, TIs override PIs, which means if you have "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI then any PIs that change the width setting for the wingers and fullbacks won't have any effect.
Btw, the test results kinda prove that because the difference between different width settings for the wingers and fullbacks when there are "Overlap Left" TI and "Overlap Right" TI are present is just less than 1 point, which is within the margin of error for 6K matches test.
So I suggest when you test PIs then make sure you don't use any TIs that might override the PIs.
Cheers.
That explains why my personal tests for width were so inconsistent with table results, since I don't use overlaps.
By the end of season, does your medical team say you had more or less injuries than average? They always give a report, and usually they tell me I got like 40-60% less than expected.
There isn't much magic for this selection of players. I mainly check for key attributes, like pace, acceleration, jumping reach for defenders, reflexes for goalkeepers, and so on. I also check players age, because they grow very fast up to 18, slightly fast until 21, slow until 28, and then it stops growing until decaying. That means players with high attributes at young ages (especially under 18) have high chance to become stars in the future, so they should get special attention. If two players have similar attributes, then the youngest one is most likely better. Also, remember to check coaching reports to get hints about their personality, avoiding anyone that is not professional.
In the end, my initial team looks like below, with two players per position. There is another player per position in the U21 team that can be used as backup.
From the initial team, there are two players in long term injury, and only one to be sold off (29 yo striker with 11 accel and 12 pace, which means he is not suited to the role). Checking my finances, I have only 1 million euros for transfers, and barely 2 millions left for salary, meaning I cannot change much in my team this season. I could sell players to make cash, but I'm pretty satisfied with my current squad. Since I have only one fast defender, this will be my priority for transfer before the season.
I also checked my board expectations to see if they have some policy for hiring, but they have none. They want me to play possession based football, but that is definitely not happening since I couldn't make a single tactic with high possession to work.
Unsurprisingly, the board did not accept my proposal to add a goal to qualify to UCL next year. They think it is unreasonable, so I have to prove them wrong.
About friendly matches, I always pick very easy matches, because the main goal is to improve morale and fitness. About individual training, I'm training wingbacks and inside forwards in the opposite side to increase my options, and I'm also training all players under 28 years old on Quickness (GK on Reflexes).
Daz said: Can't wait to see how it goes! Also, do you think it's possible for a club like Bournemouth, with transfers, to win the league in the first season?
It is possible, but highly unlikely. Considering I will do this first season with only one transfer (scouts searching for a central defender), I will be happy if I get a spot at Europa League.
The second division is your managerial style, or picking up your attributes. I picked the attributes below.
I chose one category of training (technical attacking) and maximizing rate for it. I also maximized working with youngsters because I will be running the youth teams. All other coaching attributes are useless since I will only be training one category (you can also train two or more, I just prefer to have more specialized training). Keep in mind that Goalkeeper Coaches and Fitness Coaches are shared between main team, U21 and U18, so I prefer to hire a good one for that position instead of doing myself.
Now, comes the list of things to do as soon as you start a new career, as described in the link below.
https://fm-arena.com/thread/2643-top-10-to-do-list-when-starting-a-new-save/
Staff responsibilities: I want to do all talks related to transfers and contracts, and manage everything about the three categories (Main, U21 and U18). I will delegate all tasks related to media and scouting to the staff. I will also take control of picking friendly matches, but delegate playing those matches.
Schedule, Arrange Friendly: I cancel all my friendlies, then set up one new friendly per week for both main and youth teams.
Training, Rest: Go to Training > Rest, then set "No pitch or gym work" for anyone below excellent condition. That will allow you to have a heavier training schedule, while avoiding most injuries of the season, which are caused by training with low condition. Repeat to the youth categories, but set double intensity on excellent condition, since the focus there is growth, and young players usually suffer less injuries.
Training, Calendar: I set up my training schedule for the whole season (including pre-season), for both main and youth teams. Unfortunately, you have to copy and paste it everywhere. The schedule is in the picture below, and attached to this message for download.
Training, Coaches: Set your coaches to maximize stars in all categories, for both main and youth teams. Notice that some coaches can be used in all three teams, like GK Coach, Fitness Coach, U21 Manager and yourself. Make sure that those shared staff are very good at coaching to optimize your resources.
Tactic: I will be using Water 5.0 and the light version in this run for main team. U21 will use Fire, and U18 will use Earth, so I can watch the tactics playing.
Staff, Search: Find the best coaches available, scouts, physios, and set them properly on training when they arrive. Priorities should be for two good fitness coaches, since physical attributes are the most important. Also, hire a good U21 manager, since he can be used to train in all teams.
To search for staff, simply search for the role and key attributes, and only realistic results will show by default. Adjust the attributes to show between 5-10 options, then pick the one you like the most (remember you can offer contract to all of them, then stall until the one you want decides if he will join or not, and cancel the rest). For coaches used for multiple teams (including youth), remember to include a good level of "Working with Youngsters".
To hire staff for the youth teams (especially a manager, since he can be used to train main team), I first unmark the option to include staff for main team (I want realistic people for youth only), and put filters for either technical or tactical training (either is fine, as long as it has good working with youngsters and either attacking, defending or mental). Keep in mind that I couldn't care less for the management ability of youth team managers, only about their coaching abilities, since I will be controlling the matches anyway.
I offered contract to the people below. I always hire Dennis Bergkamp since I really loved his football.
Next part is about picking up squad, selecting who should go and who should stay, as well as transfers, contracts and so on, so I will do in a separate post.
I will play Bournemouth, weakest side from Premier League, and my goal is to win Champions League within three seasons. I also expect to win Premier League in the second season, and qualify to Champions League in the second season.
The plan is to use scout meetings for transfers. I will tell what I want, then make choices based on their suggestions. No individual scouting or setting up custom assignments for main team. Trust the staff!
I will also control and hire for youth teams, and my goal is to have third reserve of each position from the youth team by the second season. That will require me have scouts on assignment for youth players (under 18). That doesn't conflict with previous rule (not using scouts), because players under 18 are very unlikely to contribute much to winning UCL within three years. I also want to have top youth setup within three years. Note that this doesn't help with the main goal, it's more of a fun goal because I think every team should have strong youth settings.
Finally, I will use Water tactic because it's my highest rated, but I might use another tactic on the youth teams for testing purposes (nice to see the movements in game).
Let's do this!
I'm not complaining with the result, I'm just saying that the difference between the best and worse of those tests is still within the margin of error of FM-Arena. That means it's not an evidence that wide IF and narrow WB are better than the other options tested. Obviously, it's still the best result we have and we can use it as reference, but we also have to keep in mind that even the same tactic tested several times will have some variance.
As an example of what I'm saying, IF-wide has gotten 59 points in 0.6, but also got 61 in 0.8. WB-Narrow hit 61 result here, but in 0.9 it was 58. In other words, we should be careful to not draw conclusions based on what can be variance, as there is no statistical difference between the top tactics.
P.S.: I have no problem with other tactics being on top, I am just trying to point out to not take the result as definite truth and ignore the other options on future testing.
About your career, I'd suggest to start in an european country like Greece or Norway from 2nd division and try to hire only player with your country nationality.
About the tactics, maybe you can avoid to use the same role twice for adjacent players (for example BPD, CC, VOL, CA) just to make it more realistic.
Thank you! About the suggestion, I will keep it in mind for a future run, but right now I will do this one with Bournemouth.
The plan is to use scout meetings for transfers. I will tell what I want, then make choices based on their suggestions. No individual scouting or setting up custom assignments for main team. Trust the staff!
I will also control and hire for youth teams, and my goal is to have third reserve of each position from the youth team by the second season. That will require me have scouts on assignment for youth players (under 18). That doesn't conflict with previous rule (not using scouts), because players under 18 are very unlikely to contribute much to winning UCL within three years. I also want to have top youth setup within three years. Note that this doesn't help with the main goal, it's more of a fun goal because I think every team should have strong youth settings.
Finally, I will use Water tactic because it's my highest rated, but I might use another tactic on the youth teams for testing purposes (nice to see the movements in game).
I will create a new thread for that once I sort out a last version of Fire, Water, Wind and Earth, then I will start the run. All decisions will be explained, and I'm keen to hear comments and suggestions about those decisions.
The problem: There are too many tactics that are too similar, from the same author, to brute test instructions. They clog up the table and hide tactics from other authors and other formations.
Proposed solution: Only display the best tactic from each thread in the table. For example, if I post Water 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.2, only the top one would be displayed in the table (in this case, 4.2). There might be a "+" sign to display other tactics from the same thread.
Expected result: Table will be cleaner and will emphasize the best tactics from each author. If an author wants different shapes to appear in the table, they would need to create a new thread, but if they just want to update or test something on the same tactic, then only the best of that thread would show, and that would help players find the best variant easier instead of using something outdated.