Football Manager 2013 Stories

If you missed part 1 on the transfers made, you may watch to catch it to understand what’s going on at Celtic this 6th pre-season.

During the initial analysis I presented 3 tactics, each with a different aim.  During my pre-season friendly matches, I aimed to test out these tactics, while getting the players match fit.

Tactic 1: 4231 Wide Attacking

Above is the 4231 Attacking tactic I had initially created.  I had this tactic in mind for playing in the SPL or those European matches at home where I am significantly stronger than the opposition.  So I tested it out with a quick match against the U19s squad and through a tour of Belgium.

As you can see we won every match.  In spite of this I noticed early on that the tactic did not allow me to have as much possession as I might have anticipated.  With that came the first change – from a “More Direct” to a “Default” Passing Style.  This worked and my possession statistic went up.  In fact, I made this change just prior to the Charerloi game, and the result is clear for all to see.

Another decision was to employ a Cover/Stopper combination of Centre Backs.  I hope this will make us more solid defensively and fit in with the personnel I have.

On top of this, I also employed the tactic during the Celtic Park Tournament (more on that later).  This made me decide on another adjustment; Closing Down was reduced from “More Pressing” to “Default” too!  I had noticed during the above friendly matches that we were committing a large number of fouls and initially made Tackling “More Cautious”.  But this did not work and I [...]

I’m embarking on the end-of-season retrospective to help make me a better football manager player and to understand my game world better.  I’m doing this in four parts

The players
Finances
Myself/results (this article)
Competitions/awards

Please do take the time to read the first two parts if you can.  Each part refers to and builds upon the last.

This time I’ll be looking at my own performance and the club results in their competitions.  Specifically I’ll analyse;

Transfers
Youth Development
Tactics
Finances
Results

Transfers

First up lets look at the transfers I’ve made this season.

There’s a very simple conclusion here – FAIL!

The reason for this is I spent £17.5m on players, bringing in just £5.5m.  I can’t afford an extra £12m each season.  What was I thinking?

But lets evaluate the ins and outs.

Ins
Good

Matthiew Chapuis, Kane Funnell, Horst Henke, Franck Rodriguez were all good players for the U19s, attaining average ratings well above 7.00 in U19 games.  Furthermore they all have at least 3.5 star potential and will be home grown in 2-2.5 years.

Ok

Michael Johnsson (7.16 overall; 6.6 in Europe) and Rivaldo (7.22 overall) were ok.  They were both backup players who played well when called upon.

Bad

Danny Wilson, Aron Gunnarsson, Christoffer Persson were all bought (and expensively at that) as first team players.  That none of them obtained an average rating greater than 6.52 in Europe speaks for itself.  Furthermore Danny Wilson didn’t play enough games to justify his huge salary while the Gunnarsson transfer single-handedly made be go into debt for the first time!

Outs

Of all the permanent transfers, I feel that only Efrain Juarez moved onto a better or equal reputation club (Kaiserslautern).  There he achieved only 6.22 average rating.  The rest moved onto smaller clubs, and although some performed well for [...]

As I said in March, mostly I just want this season to be over, with the SPL title and, hopefully the Scottish Cup too.  Well another month down, let’s see how we’re doing with respect to the latter two desires.

Results

Only two games mattered this month – St. Johstone in the SPL and Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final.  We had a resounding victory against St. Johnstone which delivered our 5th consecutive SPL title!

Even better is to know that we’re in the group stage of the Champions League already!  This will give me more time to prepare the squad for next season.

After this came the experimental disasters.  Against Falkirk I played 451 counter attacking with young players.  They simply couldn’t cope.  It is a worry but then, I cannot possibly sell all of my senior players.  Can I… ?

We bounced back in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Motherwell with an easy victory.

Before a slightly-less experimental side drew to Motherwell in the SPL.  For the Hibs match, I strengthened the squad slightly, but brought in Paolo Buggin (U19s Target Man) and we drew.  In truth I couldn’t care less about the SPL games now, I just want the Scottish Cup.

The SPL table has now split; Celtic are confirmed Champions, Hamilton are relegated.  The biggest surprise is former football club Rangers being in the bottom half.  Ally McCoist, their manager, will be sacked at the end of the season in my opinion.

Players

I took a screen capture of the players ratings after the SPL win.  This is because I know we’ll do much worse from here on due to my experiments.

From this Fernandez, Forster and Thomson should go.  Thomson’s contract is up at [...]

I’ve just watched Spain win the European Championships again.  In doing so I have regained some motivation.  I realise that by constantly hoping to win the Champions League, I forget about what I love about Football Manager

Playing attacking football
Developing youngsters

This is how Spain have dominated football for 4 years now.  At the very least, I can gain some enjoyment from trying to replicate their methods, even if not with the same success.

As it happened, in February 2016, I rotated the squad extensively, giving younger players a chance to impress.

Results

So as you can see it was a perfect month for us.  I started by playing a fairly strong side (Kauppinen was the exception) against St. Johnstone in the Scottish Cup, winning 3-0.  We will now play Falkirk (away) in the quarter finals.

From there on I just kept rotating the squad, giving players a chance.  I also setup reserve matches as many of my players were not match fit.  Have a look at the different line-ups.

Against St. Johnstone – a strong side but Kauppinen getting a chance as well as George and Kleanthous off the bench.

Against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Moritz, Johnsson, Rivaldo, Wilson, Wanyama and Toussaint came into the team.

While most of the team from Inverness kept their place, Mulgrew, George and Kleanthous started.

To finish the month off, Rivaldo came back in for Mulgrew and Laursen for Kauppinen.

I also looked at my set pieces, aware that we seemed vulnerable after attacking ones.  I’ve made them a little more conservative, especially in my backup 451 and 42121 formations.  I’ve also reduced the amount of tackling my team does in  442 Attacking because I was picking up too many bookings.

We’re still top with an [...]

December brought to an end my Champions League campaign, something I knew as a certainty since last month (check it out if you haven’t already).  It made me think – it is time for a revolution?

Champions League

There was just one game left to play – Barcelona at Camp Nou!  While unlikely, I knew a draw or a win, combined with a PSG win against Young Boys would put me in the Europa League.

New Tactic

I tried a new tactic to play Barcelona.  It is a modified 451 with two defensive midfielders, a shape I’ve seen others do with some success.  The difference for me was it was setup to be defensively solid.

Overall it has 5 players on Defend duty, 3 on Automatic, 1 on Support and 2 on Attack.  It is;

Rigid: the Philosophy is “Rigid”; however Creative Freedom is “More Disciplined” and Roaming set to “Stick To Position”.  Combined these ensure my players do not get caught out of position.
Direct: As well as Passing Style being “Direct”, I’ve Focussed Passing “Down Both Flanks” in the hope that the attacking wingers can latch onto any long balls in event of a counter attack.
Careful: With Closing Down set to “Stand-Off More” and Tackling “More Cautious” my players will only make challenges when they are really needed.  This should ensure greater tackling success and less space for opposition players.

I’ll note my thanks to Dan who recommended Guide To Football Manager – Tactics which allowed me to create this tactic.  I learned some surprising concepts from it.

Barcelona (Away)

As you can see Barca lined up with a 4231 which I thought my modified 451 would counter because of the increased bodies in defence.

But it didn’t work.  [...]

When I reflect back on an unusually quick November, it is just be one match I really think of.  It was one Champions League match, at Celtic Park where we got far less than we deserved.

Champions League
Young Boys (Home)

After a credible 1-1 draw in Switzerland, we played Young Boys at home.  It was the first match of the month and a must-win if I wanted to even get to the Europa League knock-out round.

Not surprisingly, I lined up with the 451 formation which worked so well away from home.  However I played James Forrest on the left knowing he could cut inside if I wanted.  Johnsson was also chosen ahead of a poor-performing Adam Matthews.

After a calamitous start which saw Young Boys take the lead through an own goal, we made a swift reply to even the match.  Chances for both teams were few and far between but a penalty in the 2nd half allowed us to take the lead.  The final 15 minutes were nervous though as substitute Freddy Toussaint managed to get himself sent off.  Thankfully we won – see the highlights below.

After this match, I was delighted to find myself in 2nd place!  Could we manage an incredible turn-around to go through?

PSG (Home)

Against PSG I knew a win would put us in the last 16, while a loss would make it very difficult to qualify.  It was certainly a high stakes match.

So again I lined up with a 451, this time playing Persson on the left and Forrest (for the underperforming Fernandez) on the right.  Annoyingly, Victor Wanyama was away on international duty, meaning Scott Allan (who I had just agreed in a private conversation to sell [...]

Press-3-1-3-3.tac (1 KB)

Based on a 3-4-3 system, using the ideas of True and Tactizz. (thankyou to those two)

Has been successful for the last 18 months.

Relies heavily on the following:

1: Fast Players. Everyone has a pace of 15 or more. Your backs must be quick to cover all situations.
2: Central Attacker: Your central attacker is the primary goal scorer, and thus should be fast (16 and higher), and possess high attributes in decisions, composure, finishing, first touch and off the ball. I would reccomend 15 or higher for these.
3: PPM’s. I can’t stress this enough. Your CM should be trained in tries killer balls often. This alone is worth significant amounts of assists. there are plently of posts around about PPM’s and suitability for particular positions, so I would regurgitate such here.

Remember this is not a plug and play tactic, and nor is it a miracle one. Players must be bought, and developed to suit the tactic.

Enjoy, and let me nknow how it goes.

Bartman

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