[FM2017] Schalke – Centre Forwardless

As mentioned in the blurb, I felt compelled to play a save using a strikerless formation. Although it is usually best to decide upon a tactics based on the players available at the club and not attempt to force an approach upon a group of players who may not be suited to it, I’ve chosen to play as Schalke partly because I feel they have the kind of squad that should suite this approach quite well.

Another motivation to play as Schalke is that they are a big club, in a tough league, who’ve not won the league for a long time (1958) and have never won the Champions League.

Time to write myself into the history of FC Schalke 04.

Assessing the Squad:

• Goalkeepers: Honestly, I’m not 100% convinced by Fährmann. He’s ok, but not world class and not really a sweeper keeper, which I would prefer.
• Left Back: Kolasinac is very good but not the most attacking and only has a year left on his contract. Rahman is more the style of player I would like but he’s only on loan and I’m probably not going to be able to buy him at the end of the loan. Aogo is up for sale but may have a role to play this season.
• Right Back: Problems here; Riether is the only fit first team right back I have and although capable he isn’t great. Coke is decent but also not stellar and he’s injured most of the season. Uchida also has a long injury but in truth I’ll likely look to move him on. I see it as a possibility to train Caligiuri as a right back.
• Centre Backs: To be honest, I’m spoilt for choice. Höwedes, Badstuber and Nastasic are all excellent and Naldo is getting on a little but still a very good player. Not an area I’m likely to need to strengthen right away.
• Centre Midfield: Another very strong group of players; Goretzka is a star player and can play almost any role in centre mid as can Bentaleb who, although on loan, joins permanently at the end of the season. Stambouli is a very good defensive midfielder and Geis is a very creative midfielder with good set piece abilities. For more advanced options, Meyer is a superb advanced playmaker and Schöpf is a versatile attacking midfielder who can cover a few roles. As with most strikerless systems I intend to play a lot of central midfielders so it’s good the club have depth here. I’m also likely to keep Aogo, for now, as additional cover for the centre of midfield; I won’t get much for selling him so I may as well keep him as cover unless (until) he complains about a lack of first team football.
• Attacking Options: The tactic I’m planning to play employs two shadow strikers (hense centre forwardless) and I do have some players who should be able to perform this role quite well. Goretzka is a perfect option, but for now I would prefer to play him in a deeper role. Embolo should be able to be trained easily to play this role effectively as should di Santo. I kinda have to try to train Konoplyanka to play that role as he’s going to join the club at the end of the season. I’m not sure he’s really all that suitable, but we’ll see. Caligiuri is another who I feel could be trained to play as a shadow striker as he has a versatile skillset if I choose not to use him as a right back. Burgstaller probably isn’t really a shadow striker but he may come in handy. Huntelaar won’t be needed despite still being a good player. He’s already up for sale and only has a year left on his contract, I’ll try to sell him but I doubt that’ll be possible with his high salary. Choupo-Moting isn’t the type of player I need and I’ll be selling him.

Tactics:

I almost always feel that a two tactic approach is best, a more attacking/controlling tactic and a more defensive/counter tactic, for use in different situations. Where possible, I like to try to keep the same or similar formations in each tactic and for the most part keep the similar roles. The Formation for both my tactics is the same, 4-1-2-3 (DMC, 2 MC, 3 AMC)

I’ve read a lot about strikerless systems in FM17 but haven’t attempted one since FM15. My two starting tactics are a combination of ideas from a number of tactics I’ve seen online and some ideas that worked for me in the past (on FM15). But these are untested and are merely my starting points for the beginning of preseason.

Control Tactic: Centre Forwardless – Control

The idea here is to employ a high press as it’s the most logical broad approach without the ball in a game you want to control. With the ball, a more patient passing game with a lot of off the ball movement is needed. The Idea will be to get the ball back high up the pitch and keep the ball and wait for an opening employing a core of fairly static players with lots of movement around them. Ultimately this tactic will be played against teams with a deeper defensive line and little space in behind to be exploited. Therefore a strikerless system to counter this will need to be patient and wait for a gap to appear by pulling the defense around with off the ball movement to make space and holes.

Counter Tactic: Centre Forwardless – Standard

It's not really a counter tactics as such, although I think it can perform as one at times. This tactic is to be used against stronger teams who will player higher up the pitch and will aim to exploit the space in behind their defense (hopefully). Defensively it’ll be more about funneling the opposition into the middle of the pitch where I should have superior numbers and to try to maintain our shape rather than chase the opponents.

Note: This tactics has been heavily inspired by one I saw online called The RaumDiamond by DistanceCovered, only I’m playing Shadow Strikers rather than Raumdeuters. The only other change I’m going to make from the start is to remove the Cross Less instruction from the wing backs as I wish to see if my Shadow Strikers are able to get on the end of crosses.

Expectations:

The minimum expectation was to achieve Europa League football for next season but I’ve decided that a top 4 finish should be possible and set that as the goal for a little more money to spend. We’re in the Europa League this season and the expectation is to get to the quarter finals. The German Cup expectation is also to get to the quarter finals.

This all seems achievable with the squad I have. I'm actually hoping for a top three finish to avoid a potentially difficult Champions League qualifying match and maybe even a run in one of the cups too. Title isn't out of the question, we'll see.

Decisions:

• Selling: I’m going to look to sell Huntelaar and Choupo-Moting as they really don’t fit the way I wish to play but keep Aogo as midfield cover. I’m sure Aogo will get fed up being backup at some point but that won’t be until later – I’ll let him leave then.
• Buying: I’m going to look at bringing in a specialist Shadow Striker. Although I’m confident that given time I can train both di Santo and Embolo to be very good Shadow Strikers, it’ll take time and I would prefer to have a player comfortable of playing the role from the start (other than Goretzka who I want to play as a box-to-box midfielder primarily). As you may have noticed from my tactics pics, I've already signed Davy Klaassen at the time of writing this.
• Key Loans: I’m going to proactively look for a first team loan opportunity for Kehrer as I don’t think playing him in the second team will benefit him all that much at this stage. I would like to improve his det (which is 10) but there isn’t really a good way to do that as tutoring him would mean I’d have to play him in the under 19 (if he’s even eligible) as there aren’t going to be any first team opportunities with the squad of defenders I have.
• Contracts: There are two contracts I want to try to sort out. I’m going to aim to resign Kolasinac, whose deal expires in a year. Although he’s not exactly the perfect style of full back I want, he is a very good player and it would be sad to see him leave on a free. I’m also going to try to get Höwedes to sign a new deal. He has a rather low release clause (about £15 off the top of my head) in his current deal which I would like to get rid of (or at least increase).
• I am going to try to train Caligiuri as a right back as it’ll mean I don’t need to either loan or buy cover (as Riether isn’t enough on his own). His marking is the biggest issue (as it’s 7) but other than that I think he’ll make an adequate attacking wing back. It may be the case that I’ll play Caligiuri more in the control tactic and Riether in the more counter tactic, we’ll see.
• I’m going to bring in a few young Portuguese players who I know of from previous careers that start off on a youth contract, often develop into good players and can be picked up for very little. It feels a little naughty to do this (as I’ve not scouted them in game at all) but the footballing world can be very tough and every advantage needs to be taken.

Transfer Window:

The transfer window is now closed and I’ve managed to achieve most of what I wanted.



Choupo-Moting went to Leicester for a straight up £6m. As I expected, I wasn’t’ able to sell Huntelaar but did arrange a season long loan for him to Ajax; they are only paying 40% of his very high wages but it frees up a little salary room, more than had he stayed. I secured a loan for Kehrer to get him some first team football; it’s actually a 2 year loan deal to Hoffenheim, I’ll be keeping a close eye on his progress.

My only first team signing was Klaassen for a straight £11.5m, which I feel is a reall good price for him. His wages are higher than I would have liked as I had to fight Liverpool for his signature but I’m very happy with the signing, I think he’ll be a great player for me. He scored on his league debut and was banging in the goals for fun in preseason. I have managed to bring in a few young players for the future as well.



I've managed to sign Kolasinac to a new contract and on a modest £30k a week wage - pretty good as he's a good player. I haven't be able to arrange a new contract for Höwedes as he just wanted too much to resign. I'm just going to have to hope no one activates his £15.5m release clause.

I've also started training Caligiuri as a full back... and he's not happy. Honestly, I think I may have made a mistake here. I'm now somewhat unconvinced that he's going to be able to play the role. I'm going to persist with it for a bit, partly as he doesn't really have any other role to play in the team (other than tutoring) and partly because I have no one else, other than Riether, to play right back. Still, I think I'll be playing Riether as first choice for now.

Control Tactic Analysis:

I’ve tinkered with this tactic a little after looking at how it performed in preseason and the opening games of the season. Ultimately the very high press isn’t working that well without a centre forward (I had feared as much); the press doesn’t seem to be effective at stopping long ball counter attacks which, if launched out wide especially, are very damaging. I did manage to win my cup game against Trier without allowing them a single shot at goal, which is great except that I'm such a stronger team than them and I'm not foolish enough to consider this evidence that the tactics is a success (they had a rather slow centre forward, at least compared to my defence). The Mainz game really showed me the gaps in the tactic – they launched a number of counter attacks at my goal and although I was unlucky not to score more, I was equally lucky not to concede more. A draw was fair in a game I would have expected to win. The preseason games told a similar story. I’m not exactly sure how to combat this frailty, it may be that I got this tactical approach totally wrong or I may have to accept that the press will start a little less high up the pitch, pull my D-line back a bit and try to offer a little more defensive stability. For now, I’ve done the latter.

I’ve pulled the defensive line back from Higher to Slightly Higher (before it looked like my centre backs were trying to play the offside trap 10 yard into the opposition half). I’ve dropped the CM (with Hold Position PI) for a second B2B mid and changed the Regista to a DLP (Defend). The CM wasn’t really doing anything at all and the additional B2B mid will replace the pressing from the Regista. The DLP will hopefully offer a little bit more defensive support; if this doesn’t work I may swap him for an even more defensive DMC (Defensive Mid or Anchor Man, probably the latter).

Counter Tactic Analysis:

I’ve not used this all that much yet, but will likely play it in the next game against Ingolstadt as I’m away from home and this early into the season I would prefer to use a little discretion. I have noticed that it too is vulnerable out wide – something that I had suspected it might be. I’m not going to make any changes yet though, too soon.

8 League games in and things are going fairly well. We're top of the table, albeit partly due to other teams poorer form. Bayern are unbeated but have drawn 4 games, Dortmund too have had a couple of defeats. I'm happier that the tactics are working well now. There is a lot of good interplay between my forward players, in particular the shadow strikers and the AP/Enganche. Biggest surprise to me so far is the form of Konoplyanka who has score 5 goals in all competitions. I hadn't expected him to be as effective in the Shadow Striker role as his work rate, finishing and composure are below what I would like, but he's proving me wrong.

The one very disappointing game so far was away to Wolfsburg. They scored three goals early in the game, two from deep crosses and their first from a gk/defense mistake and then sat back. We created a reasonable number of chances, particularly second half, but weren't able to break them down. It was always going to be a tough game and it's one that I'm not too upset about loosing, especially based on the performance which was better than a 3-0 defeat. Deep crosses are annoying and are a potentially exploitable weakness of the way I'm playing but as it's not happening all that often I'm not going to make tactical changes at present.

My experiment to train Caligiuri as a right FB has not worked. He just isn't getting any better at the position and in truth doesn't really have the attributes to play the role effectively. I'm going to aim to train him as a shadow striker, which he should be pretty good at, but I'm not convinced he's going to get a lot of playing time as there are several players ahead of him.

Half way through the season and about to go on the winter break. Overall I couldn’t be much happier, sitting second in the table and 8 points clear of 5th place. We have the best goal difference in the league with only one less goal scored than Dortmund (and Aubameyang has more than half their goals).

Bayern’s form has been incredible; they’ve won 8 of their last 9 games, remain unbeaten and have only conceded 6 goals all season. My only defeat since my last update was against them, 3-1 away. The game was fairly even in terms of chances but they took theirs whereas we didn’t, it’s disappointing but certainly not disheartening. I was concerned that I didn’t have a tactic which would work well in the tough games (despite beating Leverkusen away earlier in the season), that was until the last game before the break…



5-0 home to Dortmund in the Revierderby and deserved; they played a very high line and my team was constantly able to exploit it by playing balls in behind, creating one-on-one chances, most of which were taken.

Other really good victories against Leipzig, Koln and Hoffenheim have demonstrated the attacking strength and intent of the team. We also won a silly game 6-3 against Freiburg where it seemed as though every shot at goal went in – Embolo scored 4 in this game.

We’re through in the Europa league without losing a game drawing Fenerbahce in the next round.



We have the highest pass completion percentage and overall possession stats in the league, not surprising when both my tactics are driven by the idea of playing out from the back and keep hold of the ball until an opportunities presents itself but to be the best in the league in both these categories and have the second most goals is extremely pleasing. We also have the highest ratio of headers won in the league. I believe this is really because we don’t cross the ball all that much (and when we do, they are usually low crosses).





Player stats really highlight how well my front players have been performing this season, particularly in front of goal. Embolo, Konoplyanka and Klaassen all appear on the league’s top scorers as well as being 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the league for average rating. This is even more impressive as they don’t usually all play together. Typically, I’ll play 2 of them (in rotation) in the SS roles with Meyer or Schöpf as the playmaker. Meyer broke his ankle in late November and is out for three months but Schöpf has been superb (better in terms of goalscoring) when he’s replaced him, albeit, many of his games have come against Europe League opponents (i.e. weaker teams). But, this has led me to view the AP/Enganche position in the team differently. Meyer, who’s played very well, isn’t a great finisher, whereas Schöpf is more of a SS than an AP really and his high number of goals from the AP/Enganche position is interesting. What often happens is that the AP is almost as likely to be the player who is running in behind the defence, put through by one of the SS (a reverse of the designed behaviour). I think this is due to the Very Fluid shape of the team. I hesitate to use the phrase ‘Total Football’ but it appears to me that SS and AP roles are bluring as the front three all look to break beyond the defensive line and put one another through on goal. The 2 MC players, particularly the BBM, are also heavily involved in playing through balls and are often the ones making the runs too. In the 5-0 win against Dortmund I played Klaassen in the Enganche role with Embolo and Konoplyanka and it worked great. Klaassen assisted on 3 and had chances to score himself.

But, the form of these 5 players have meant very little playing time for Caligiuri, di Santo and Burgstaller, all of whom have complained about their playing time. Di Santo picked up a 3 week injury early in the season and simply hasn’t really had many chances since. I’ve already arranged a transfer for Caligiuri and will also be selling the other two in January; there simply isn’t a place for them to play regularly. Goretzka has also been having a superb season in the box-to-box midfield role and has created the most goals in the league so far, exactly what I was hoping for. His excellent form has meant I needed to sign him to a new, expensive, contract but it’s well deserved.

Nastasic has had his head turned by Man City and I had to promise to sell him if a £25m(ish) offer comes in. It’s not surprising as he’s having a really good season and it’s inevitable that I’ll need to sell some of my best players in time; if we’re successful then the bigger clubs will come knocking. Aogo also complained about a lack of fist team football earlier in the year, but he’s subsequently dropped his complaint. He’ll be leaving at the end of the season as he’s out of contract and I really don’t need him long term, but I’m pleased that he’ll be sticking around for now. I only have 4 first team players who are comfortable in the 3 deeper midfield roles (DMC and 2 MC) I play and he acts as adequate cover for now. I may look at giving Daniel Bragança some first team football in the second half of the season as he’s progressing really well and I don’t have natural cover for Geis at DLP other than Bentaleb, who’s better played as a BBM, although I have been playing Stambouli as the DMC occasionally, but as an anchor man.

In the end only Sociedad made any offers for Nastasic; both of which were laughably low and rejected immediately. Towards the end of December Kolasinac mentioned that he’d like to join Arsenal (as they were interested, much like real life) in order to play in the Champions League – an easy request to overcome but saying he could leave if we didn’t quality this season. Arsenal even came knocking in January, but only with an enquiry, which I rejected outright – no comeback.

Caligiuri went to West Brom for a rather low £3.6m, well below his value. I probably should have kept hold of him as it’s a poor deal really but as I had no use for him and my eye on a signing, so I went through with the deal. Di Santo also left, to Hull, for a slightly better £4.1m. Neither of these deals were great but some money is better than none and these two transfers allowed me to buy.

I payed Hoffenheim £7.5m (with an extra £5m of future payments and a 15% profit resell) for the services of Nadiem Amiri. It is a transfer that I am really pleased with, he’s a talented young player with room to develop further, already perfectly suited to playing the Shadow Striker role and the price is pretty good for a talented young player in FM17. It leaves me with a lot of forward players to choose from. I now have 6 first team players for the three forward roles in the team; the depth is great but I’ll need to use all my managerial talents to keep them all happy.

I wasn’t able to sell Burgstaller (even for £0). I did arrange a loan for him on deadline day to HSV which includes an optional future fee of £0 – we’ll see what happens. I also sent out Avdijaj on an 18 month loan to Freiburg to get some first team experience. I had thought about keeping him this season to develop him at the club (as he has a couple of lacking stats) and perhaps use him in the first team next season but he hasn’t really improved this season much; I suspect he’s at the point in his development where he needs a higher level of football to progress, so a loan to Freiburg should be good for him. It means I won’t be able to use him next season but with all the attacking mids I have at present in the first team, I'll likely not need him yet.

Into early March and generally performance has remained very good. We had a run of games against Mainz, Gladbach, the cup against Braunschweig and Hertha where my forwards seemed to go missing but thanks to some strong defending and goals from less likely places (like Stambouli) we were able to come away with reasonable results despite the offensive wobble. It’s picked up a lot since then including a key win over rivals Leverkusen and a great win in the cup against Mainz (I was starting to fear that Mainz would be my bogie team as they managed to draw both our league encounters).

One very sad moment a couple of weeks ago was a cruciate ligament injury to Badstuber putting him out for 8-9 months and causing Bayern to recall him from loan. He was having a great season for me and it’s sad to see him get an injury like that (even if he is just a PC simulation). Leaves me with only 3 first team centre backs and no real young cover, but Naldo is a good player and baring more injuries we should be ok for the rest of the season (Stambouli can stand in if we’re desperate).



There really is no stopping Bayern in the league, since the winter break (6 league games) they have only dropped 2 points (in their last game), have only conceded one goal and beat Dortmund 5-1. Still, we now have a huge margin over 5th placed Hertha and are now almost certain of making the Champions League for next year, the priority in the league now is to finish second and try our best to keep some pressure on Bayern.

I'll likely be putting more focus on the cups from here on as we are in the latter stages and we're in a good place in the league (and unlikely to win it the way Bayern are playing). We drew Shakhtar in the Europa League, a tricky tie but one I feel we can win if I put out a full strength team. The cup semi final is yet to be drawn but I'll likely look to field a strong team in the rest of the competition too having played slightly weakened teams in the other rounds (I think Aogo has started every cup game).



Very early on I asked the board to invest more in Junior Coaching, Youth Recruitment and Youth facilities, all of which was agreed as it matched the philosophy of developing players from the youth system (the youth facilities will take a while to be finished – Oct, I think). But this investment seems to have paid off as there are three players from my first youth intake who look very interesting:



Heubach looks like a potentially superb prospect to train as a ball playing defender (despite being rather short). He’ll need some tutoring as his Det stats is rather poor but I have some good tutors at the club so I’m confident we can get it up to a good level quickly. One thing I don't actually know about FM17 (or any version) is whether young players get any taller, you would think that at only 14 he still had some growing to do. Some online research suggests that they do get taller but it's something I'm going to have to keep an eye on as he's currently very short for a centre back.



Demir looks like another great prospect, very much like a young version of Meyer and already has great technical ability. He’ll also need some tutoring.



Mayer is another with some promise as a good centre back. He already has good decision making, especially for a 14 yo and superb stats for both Bravery and Aggression. Also on height, he's 14 and 6'2'', so already a good height for a centre back; it'll be interesting see if he gets any taller.

Not been great since the last update, but at the same time it hasn't been a disaster. We've been knocked out of the Europa League and in disappointing circumstances. We dominated the first leg but just couldn't find a goal, the second leg was equally annoying as they scored early and sat back (their second was very late in the game once we had gone into overload). We had chances and the best of the game but if you don't score you cannot go through.

We lost to Bayern, again, but this time it was cruel. We had far and away the best of the game creating lots of chances, hitting the woodwork twice but no goals; then they stole the win in the 81st minute. It's frustrating but it happens, we'll just need to get revenge next season. Other than the Darmstadt match (just one of them where everyone played poorly, both teams) results have remained good, I was particularly pleased with the win over Leipzig - despite having less possession than them, we were a constant threat on the counter attack taking the best chances we had and restricting them to mostly long ranged efforts.



5 Games to go and It's time to put any title dreams to bed for good - Bayern aren't going to lose it from here.I'm pleased that we've managed to pull clear a little in second as it would be great to finish runner up.

Initial budgets have been set for the new season and it's time to start summer planning. We've been handed a budget of £21m and a wage budget of £1.55m per week (probably about £250k a week spare after out of contract players have left). Not bad, but not enough on FM 2017 to make huge changes. I'm going to look to bring in the following assuming I don’t have to sell anyone (which I probably will):

• Right Back: It’s not been the strongest area of the team this season and it needs improvement. Riether has performed well but is retiring at the end of the year, I was tempted to ask him to reconsider but in truth he’s not really Champions League quality. Neither are my other two right backs Uchida and Coke. Coke just isn’t very good especially his Passing and Marking, both 10 and although Uchida is probably the best at the club, I don’t see him as a long term option. I may keep him another year as backup but not beyond that. Coke, I’ll likely keep, but not all that much longer. In summary, I need to buy a first choice right back this summer.
• Left Back: Rahman is on loan and not someone I’m going to buy (he’s good but I cannot afford him), so I’ll need someone new to backup Kolasinac. I’m not going to spend a lot of money on cover as Kolasinac is a good player; I may look at another loan.
• Centre Back: I would probably like to bring in another centre back for next season, ideally someone who can share playing time with my existing core of defenders; probably an experienced defender with Champions League quality. I'm sure someone will put an older player up for sale for a small transfer fee. Alternatively, I may also look at loans.
• Centre Midfield: I might look at a new central midfielder but only if the price is good. It’s not a position I desperately need to strengthen but a little extra depth would be good. I’ll likely be promoting Daniel Bragança to the first team properly next season but a more defensive centre mid would certainly be beneficial too.

Season 2016-17 Review




My first season at Schalke comes to an end and overall I’m fairly pleased with all that we’ve achieved this season. Second in the league is a good achievement, especially when winners Bayern went the whole season unbeaten. They also won the cup, beating Dortmund in the final.

As you can see, we lost the semi to Dortmund, a little disappointing as we went in 1-0 up and overall had the better of the early game. Two breakaway goals from Aubameyang consigned us to defeat. Disappointing but nothing compared to the silliness that was our final game of the league season. We were 3-0 up at half time, bossing the game, in complete control and then the second half happened, firstly they score from an own goal, then again from a misplayed back-pass. They wrapped up the win with a later winner in the 85th minute. It was all very silly, second half come backs like this are far too common on FM (don’t get me wrong I’ve had them in my favour in the past too). Still, it didn’t really matter, as I had already secured second place in the league, ahead of Dortmund.

Around Europe, Tottenham beat Lyon to win the Europa League and the Champions League was won by Barcelona beating PSG in the final. In England, the Premier League was won by Arsenal, with Chelsea finishing second and Man City third. Spanish champions were Barcelona with Real third behind Atletico. Serie A was won Inter (hahaha) with Milan third (also hahaha) behind second placed Juve. PGS won the title in France ahead of Marseille and Monaco in second and third respectively.





I was a little disappointed that not only did Klaassen not get a single end of the season award but that he didn’t even finish second or third in any category either even though he had the highest avg rating. Most of the player awards went to Aubameyang except the players player of the year which went to Embolo. I didn’t get in the top three for Coach of the year which is a little disappointing, but not the end of the world.

Season 2016-17 Review Pt2



Reviewing the Squads Performance:

• Goalkeepers: Fährmann has done ok this season much as I thought he would. He’s still not really the goalkeeper I want but I’m reluctant to spend a lot of money replacing him. I may look to sign another fairly inexpensive keeper to try to create some competition for the first team.
• Left Back: Kolasinac has been better than I initially expected, partly because I’ve actually ended up using the full back position differently than I had originally predicted. At first I had imagined marauding full backs running the lines and creating chances directly. But the reality is that I’ve played more reserved full backs who aim to join in the link up play rather than run the line. For this, Kolasinac is well suited and has, as a result, played very well. Rahman has also played well when needed, I’ll miss him.
• Right Back: After the failed experiment to teach Caligiuri the role, Riether ended up being rather good as was Uchida once his injury was over. Like above, tactical changes had an impact on what type of player is suitable. Coke is now the one looking out of place and although I’m not going to actively sell him, he won’t be first choice from here.
• Centre Backs: The Injury to Badstuber was a huge shame but overall all 4 of my starting centre backs played very well. I’ll be very surprised if I start next season with Nastasic; he’s just making too much noise about leaving. I’ve managed to get Höwedes to sign a new contract with a much higher release clause (£27m) but also much higher wages. I’ll likely sell Naldo and bring in either a younger player or a better older player, I have a few on my radar at present.
• Centre Midfield: Goretzka has certainly lived up to my expectation, having an excellent year and leading the club in assists (with Konoplyanka of all people) – he tailed off a little towards the end of the season but still had a great year overall. Geis is probably the player I’m most impressed with, he’s certainly exceeded my expectations and forced his way into the German national squad as a result. Both Bentaleb and Stambouli have been very good and even Aogo played his part well. I will probably look to bring in another first team central midfielder in the summer to offer some extra depth.
• Front Three: Klaassen, Embolo and Konoplyanka have all been superb this season. Klaassen and Embolo are both exactly what I wanted from Shadow Strikers when I started to put my tactics together; Konoplyanka was not, but it works. He plays very differently in the role to the others, running with the ball far more often; but this variation is play is often what initially breaks downs a team’s defense and offers unpredictability to our play. Schöpf has also exceeded my expectations, particularly with his scoring. Looking at the above stats you could think that Meyer has been rather poor compared to the others (5 goals and 5 assists), but those stats don’t tell the whole story. Embolo may have finished the season with the most key passes (another very impressive stat for him) but it was only 2 ahead of Meyer and he missed three months with Injury. Meyer plays the AP/Enganche role is a more pure way and is usually the one starting attacks. He may not make the final pass in an attack but he often makes the most important one.

Season 2016-17 Review Pt3

I'm not really sure exactly what to post about at the end of a season, this being the first time I've written up any of my careers. I've found it very useful personally though as it makes me more reflective of the team and it's performance, something I probably don't do enough of usually. But I thought it a good idea to review and write down some thoughts on my tactical approach over the past season, as it is a big reason why I started this career in the first place.

Tactical Analysis: Control Tactic

Generally, this is the tactic I’ve played, from the start, in home games. The exception is home games against the other three teams in the top four with me this season (Bayern, Dortmund and Levekusen). This approach has been very successful as I’ve had very good home form this season, only losing one game (to Bayern which I deserved to win and played the other tactic anyway) and drawing two (which we would have won had we taken our chances). I have started some away games with this tactic, but only those I expected to win easily; mostly this has been cup/Europe games against much weaker teams and only a couple of league games. I do switch to this tactic is away games I’m controlling but cannot find a breakthrough. Overall, it’s works very well.

After a couple of tweaks early in the season, it now performs almost exactly as I want. Winning the ball back high up the pitch and patiently keeping hold of the ball until we can work an opening. I have changed the focus of the pressing a little with a change to my OI. Now I use the same OI in both tactics, closing down any wide player (but no close marking) and showing them inside (where I have superior numbers). The TI is still to close down much more, it's merely a tweak to the standing team OI, at the start of games I let my Assistant set player specific instructions which I'll only override if they chose a 'green' one or an instruction that conflicts with my philosophy of showing wide players inside. The press starts as soon as the ball reaches the approximate DC/DMC position of the opposing team or the FB areas (dependent on how high a line the opp are playing). Then my team descends very quickly to take the ball back. It can still be a little vulnerable to long passes but now that I have a slightly deeper line (slightly higher with control mentality), my centre backs are nearly always well placed to win back the ball from long passes immediately.

Tactical Analysis: Counter Tactic

I’m fairly pleased with how this tactic is working. I made a change to my starting point fairly early in the season, changing the width from Narrow to Fairly Narrow. This gives the central midfield a little more space to work with but still holds the teams together in a fairly compact formation.

Offensively, I’m pleased. The tactic plays well on the break if there is space behind to exploit but also well if we need to build slowly, for an away/counter tactic it’s great with the ball; where some improvement can be made is in how it operates defensively. We conceded 24 goals in the league away from home last season, almost all of them against this tactic, and that is more than I would like.

For next season I will be changing the mentality of this tactic from Standard to Counter, in an effort to retain a little more defensive stability in this system. I’m confident that the counter potential of this system can still be effective with the lowered mentality but it's a fairly big change and one I'll be monitoring closely. I’m also likely to play the control tactic a little more in away games next year as I now consider myself one of the leagues top teams.

Season 2017-18 Start of Preseason

I’m at the start of preseason, with my players returning from holidays. I feel as though I could have had them return a week earlier but perhaps the additional rest will be beneficial (I still haven’t really worked out how long a preseason to set, in truth).



The transfer window has been very busy already and although it’s not over yet by any means, I think most of my big moves in and out have been completed (I hope so at any rate).

Departures

• Off the top of the screen Nastasic has gone to PSG for £22m plus £5m future payments and a 20% resell. Despite Nastasic being a great player, I’m glad he’s gone in truth. He had his head turned in Nov/Dec last season and I’ve kinda just been waiting for it to happen. I’m pleased enough with the fee I got for him in the end.
• Kolasinac has also gone to PSG for £18.5m plus £2m future payments and a 30% profit resell, I had hoped to keep him. Just after the end of the season he wanted a chat about their interest but as it was driven by money I promised to offer him a new deal, which I did. PSG made an offer anyway and he still wanted to leave. In the end I had to sell him really, I don’t like unhappy players, I got what I could for him but am very sad to see him leave. It also leaves me without any actually left backs at present (more on that later).
• Tottenham have purchased Schöpf for almost exactly the same deal as I got for Nastasic (except with a 30% profit resell instead). At the time I arranged the sale, I had decided that I didn’t really need 6 top options for the front three at my team and was accepting of selling Schöpf for a good price (despite the fact he’s had a great season) and spending the money on other areas of the team. In the end I have replaced him, but I wasn’t planning to at the time (more on that below too).
• I let Naldo leave on a free to WBA as I didn’t really need him any longer and (at the time) had planned to replace him with a loan or young player; another plan that changed as June went on (also more on that below).
• I sold Sam for a small fee as I had no need for him and he was on £66k a week wages (I still have to pay £26k a week of them for the next year; not ideal but better than paying all of it).
• Several players left on free transfers as they were out of contract, the most notable of them were Huntelaar and Aogo.
• I still cannot find a way to sell Burgstaller as he keeps rejecting contracts from any team I can find to buy him; he’s also rescinded his transfer request. I think my only option now is to look to keep him until January by which time his likely zero playing time might motivate him to actually accept a contract from another team. His wages are low (about £16k a week) so keeping him for now is not a problem.

Arrivals

• Konoplyanka and Benteleb were prearranged transfers from the start of the save. They were both great last season so I’m really glad to see them join.
• The first transfer I finalised was Varela for £1m from Man U. He’s a good player who played pretty well on loan at Frankfurt last season in the Bundesliga and at £1m I cannot really lose. He’ll probably begin as my first choice, albeit with Uchida as his backup and a rotation option. Coke is still at the club but I think he’s behind the others in the pecking order at present.
• The second transfer I arranged was Cahill from Chelsea for an equally reasonable £2.1m. I had him on my radar most of last season as an intended replacement for Badstuber, who was only ever on loan even before his injury, Despite being 31 he’s still a very good centre back and 31 isn’t old for a centre back anyway. The way the summer has panned out he may have slipped down the pecking order a little but we’ll see, either way his experience may well come in handy.
• I used the money from the Schöpf sale to buy Thiago Maia. My thinking at the time was to get additional cover for my deeper midfield trio (DMC and 2 MC) as I could always use Goretzka as an AMC AP or SS If needed. I’m going to train Maia as an MC BBM as it suits his attributes the best but it may take him a season to master the MC position. Still a hugely talented young player I’m really pleased to have signed despite the price being a little higher than I would have liked. I tried from towards the end of last season to get him to request the transfer with the usual destabilising tactics (media statements, enquiries, offers, etc) but it didn’t work so I had to pay a higher price.
• One signing that is almost entirely a result of destabilising tactics was Kai Havertz. I’m not really sure why he wanted to join me so badly when Leverkusen are also one of the league’s top teams and qualified for the Champions League too but I’m not complaining. I hadn’t really expected to sign him and I wasn’t planning to sign another AMC to replace Schöpf but at £10m plus £2m if he gets 20 international caps (which won’t be for a while) I couldn’t really turn down the chance, despite the fact that it may mean I cannot get the left back I want as I’ve already spent too much. At 18 he should still have plenty of room to develop and he’s already a strong player – I’m going to look to train him as an AP.
• Jorge Meré may have joined Koln in real life for a rather modest fee but in FM17 he’s a genuine wonderkid (he kinda is in real life too but not to the same extent… yet). He was wanted by all the big clubs and was always going to cost a lot. He had a clause in his contract to be allowed to join a Champions League club for £23m, a lot of money but I think (hope) it’s worth it for probably the best young centre back in the world (I’ve seen this kid develop in the game in other careers and he’s a megastar in only a couple of years). It’s this transfer which has left me with a lot of centre backs and probably more quality centre backs than I need. My first offer failed in contract negotiations as he wanted far too much so I left it and made the transfer below. After that deal had been finalised his agent came back to me about reopening negotiations. I thought about this for a long while as it would use up all the rest of my transfer budget (and required moving salary, this was before the Kolasinac transfer) but I decided to try again and his agent’s demands this time were far more reasonable. I’ve probably over spent on centre backs (£37.85m in this window) and possibly on Meré too but it does leave me with great options at centre back (albeit no left backs).
• Edoardo Goldaniga also had a release clause to Champions League clubs and £12.75m is a pretty good price for a very talented young (23) centre back. He was probably my third choice after Meré and Niklas Stark (but Hertha weren’t in a selling mood at all) but he’s still a very good player and another ball playing defender (like Meré and Cahill) which I prefer as I look to play out from the back in both my tactical systems.
• The other two signing I’ve made (Borowka and Buczek) are both cheap young newgens who my scouts really like.

Contract Renewals

• There has been a lot of interest in Leon Goretzka, which I knew there would be. I had to offer him a new contract on a lot more money even though he only signed his current deal in January. The new deal has a much higher salary (which is what he wanted) but also comes with a lower release clause of £51m and even signing a new deal hasn’t put off his suitors. As he has just signed a new deal I don’t really expect him to leave in the summer but it’s only a matter of time until he does. I’ve already started a specific shortlist of players in case he goes (more likely to be in January) as he’ll be impossible to replace exactly but I should get a lot of money for him which I’ll need to use well.
• I have managed to sign Höwedes to a new contract which has a higher release clause of £27m. At 29 I’m hoping this value will be above anyone’s valuation of him but it makes his wages very high meaning that on top of spending tonnes of money on centre backs in transfer fees I’m now paying them all a lot of money too.

Still to do

• I really need left backs as I currently have none in the first team squad and no one anywhere near good enough in the under 19s or second team. I’m about to sign Federico Dimarco from Inter, on loan (a good cover option but not quite a starter for a team in my position). Aarón Martín from Espanyol is my first choice for a permanent signing but I probably won’t be able to afford him albeit I think Espanyol are probably asking for too much even if I did have the money. Goldaniga is an emergency option as he can kind of play the role but even if I get Dimarco (which I should) I don’t really want to start the season with him as my reserve left back. I’ve not got all that much money left to spend and this will restrict what I can do but there are a couple of other options I’m following – plenty of time left in the window.
• I don’t expect anyone else to leave and as always, I’ve made a concerted effort to get my transfer business done early (something I always strive for). Goretzka is the only one of my first team players being courted by other teams (Bayern and Real) but with his new contract I’m hoping that it won’t happen right away; not because £51m is more than I think those teams will spend on him but because I would hope his new contract will mean he doesn’t want to leave right now… we’ll see.

Transfer Deadline



The transfer deadline has passed and thankfully I’ve not been pressured into selling any additional players. In the end there weren’t any additional offers and I haven’t had any other players come to me regarding interest from other clubs. That’s the good news.

But, I’ve not managed to purchase a left back. There were a number of players I looked at and a few I made offers for but all those I really wanted were too expensive and not prepared to kick up enough fuss at their present clubs, so I was left looking at cheaper options. In the end I decided that none of the cheaper option were better than Dimarco, who I had already brought in on loan, and that paying £6-7m for a player I didn’t really want was a bad choice. So, I resorted to looking at bringing in a second loan player to cover left back and did so, on deadline day, in the form of Luke Garbutt. I’m not overly pleased with not being able to buy a left back and having both left back options on loan; but, I feel that in Dimarco and Garbutt I should have enough quality and cover for now. I’ll certainly be looking at options in January, especially If I end up having to sell (which is likely).



Bayern, not surprisingly, were the biggest spenders amongst my competition in the Bundesliga spending £113m, including £56m+ on Reus.



Dortmund haven’t really invested the money they got from Reus in new players. Stindl and Toprak are decent signings but they’ve not brought in a replacement for Reus or brought in a marque signing.



Leverkusen have also spend sparingly despite selling a few players but savvy spending is the Leverkusen way.



Looking at the big transfers across Europe, PSG have been the big and busy spenders including the signing of Hazard (but not Neymar). The biggest deal being Man City buying Dybala for a whopping £118m – the world record in this save. Probably a good signing for them as I’ve seen Dybala become the next Messi and Ronaldo combined winning all the Ballon d'Or awards once those two retire.

It’s been a while since my last post and many things have happened in my personal life that has prevented me from posting. I’ve played half a season since my last update and much has happened.











At the half way point in my second season we are once again second in the table behind the almost unstoppable machine that is Bayern, but they have at least lost a league game (unlike last season) and we are only a point behind. We are also looking great in terms of stats – most goals, best goal difference as well as leading the league in possession and pass completion (also completed headers, once again).

I was a little worried after we had a lukewarm start, drawing with Inter and Gladbach and losing to Leipzig (in a game we didn’t deserve to get anything from) and despite the two good home league wins I decided it was time to tweak the tactics a little (more below) and I think it’s helped a lot as the side looks better balanced now. Despite the more balanced side we lost away to Bayern, they were better and deserved to win really. But on the plus side we completely tore Leverkusen to pieces in an 8-1 win which was very pleasing.

We also lost to Inter in the Champions League, they took the lead early and held us off the rest of the game (but we didn't really create all that much), still we finished top of our group and now face Sporting in the next round - a game I feel we can win.

In terms of player performance, it’s been mostly great. Klaassen is in outstanding form this season, especially in the league where he’s second in both goals and assists and has the highest avg rating; This has been all the most pleasing after Konoplyanka did his achilles a few weeks into the season (he was destroying everyone at the time too) and will be out until late march.

The most surprising performances though, have come from DiMarco, sure he looks good on paper but he’s a rock both defensively and contributing offensively – it’s a shame I cannot get Inter to agree to sell him to me (and I’ve tried).

Cahill got an injury fairly early in the season too, which I guess meant I didn’t have too many centre backs to keep happy – he’ll be back in early Feb, in time for the Champions League restarting, which is handy. Mere has had a bit of a rocky start, mostly he’s been superb, but he’s had most than one really bad game but he’s still young and both Howedes and Goldaniga have superb so we’ve managed fine.

One small concern I do have is the performance of Meyer, he’s added some goals this season which is good, but he’s not recorded a single assist this year which for a player who exclusively plays as an AMC advanced playmaker/enganche surrounded by two Shadow Strikers is a little concerning. In the past few weeks Havertz has been keeping him on the bench, but I’m confident he has the quality to turn this round.

The tactical changes I’ve made (so far) are solely to the roles within the team, I’ve not changed any team instructions or the formation.



Previously, I had been playing two BBM in the MC postions with a DLP(D) behind them and both my wing backs on the support duty.

The first thing I noticed was that much of the time both the BBM and all my front three were huddled together and essentially playing in the same part of the pitch. The second was that my wing backs weren’t really offering the width I needed when we were attacking. Thirdly, that the DLP(D) in the DMC postion was really ‘creating’ anything essentially, he was playing short passes up to the BBMs defeating the purpose of playing a deep creator.

I changed the mentality of the wing backs to attack, this brings them much further forward and provides the attacking width I really need in an otherwise narrow tactic. To compensate for the more attacking nature of my wing backs I’ve changed the DMC from a DLP(D) to a Defensive Midfielder, both Thiago Maia and Stambouli are very well suited to the role and the closing down nature of the role covers for the attacking wing backs nicely. Finally, to remove one of the BBM, I’ve swapped in a DLP(S) to replace the deeper one; in this more advanced role the DLP plays more passes to the AP and out to the more attacking wing backs – I get a lot of balls in behind out wide for my WB(A) to run on to – in short the player is actually creating chances and building attacks rather than just playing short simple balls and Geis in particular is revelling in this new role. Overall, I think It’s a huge improvement, the structure looks much better and, it’s creating more chances; even the best parked bus isn’t getting in the way too much.



My main motivation for reviewing my tactics was that this tactic, which I had been using in most away games. In the end I made quite a lot of changes to my more attacking tactic (which was working well anyway) and very few to this one. But I feel like the changes to the other tactic make it more stable and I’ve been using it more often overall and I’ve been using this tactic much less (only really in tough away games).

I tried tweaking the width a little and the defensive line as well as playing with a counter mentality, rather than standard. But I’m not sure that any of those changes were an improvement and I went back to how it was.
The only change I’ve made in the end was to swap the CM(S) for a DLP(D). I had already changed the DMC in this tactic from a DLP(D) to an Anchor man. This change was to bring the tactic close, in terms of roles, to my more attacking variant and to provide a clearer line of passing forward.

Jury is still out really and it’s a tactic I’m still tweaking to get right.

Heading into the January transfer window I’m pleased with the first half of this season and I feel as though I’ve got the best out of this group of players. There may be some improvements that can be made to the away form, but I think tactically I’m in a strong place. But, I have a feeling that this January could be a make or break time for this season.

Firstly, Coke and Ushida are both leaving for small fees after being upset about their lack of first team football; that’s fine as they weren’t part of my plans really and Varela has been keeping them out of the team on merit, but it does leave me with no natural cover for right back. A couple of my centre backs can play the position well, but they cannot play the role I want effectively. This means I’ll probably need to bring someone in. Varela has been really good this season and he’s the right style of player I want but he’s not a world beater and the most sensible thing to do is to try to bring in a top-quality RB as I feel this is one of the few ways I may be able to genuinely improve the team. That is easier said than done, great RB’s don’t grow on trees and I have only a small transfer budget left, but that may change…

It’s seems almost certain that I’ll lose either Goretzka or Embolo, possibly both. I’ve spend much of this game fighting off interest in Goretzka and offering him one new contract after another but this time he wants to go, and no amount of higher wages is going to dissuade him; all I can do is hope to get a good price. Embolo is being courted by both the Spanish giants and I had to agree to sell him if I get £50m, I do see this as slightly less likely than the Goretzka transfer but we’ll have to wait and see.

If I must sell Goretzka, I won’t be directly replacing him. I feel as though I have more than enough depth in the centre of midfield to handle his departure from a depth point-of-view but there’s no escaping the fact that he’s the clubs best all-round player – 6 goals and 7 assists from 20(1) games from a BBM speaks for itself. The same goes for Embolo, I don’t think I’ll replace him directly as I have plenty of options in the Shadow Striker role and I’m not certain he would be a first choice at present anyway. Also, I had to give Amiri a run in the first team as he kicked up a fuss about playing time but as this coincided with Konoplyanka’s injury I said yes. He played really well but now I know he’s a troublemaker, which is annoying. One more outburst will likely result in him leaving – Havertz is better, anyway.

So, if one or both leave I’ll be investing all the money in full backs, both a left and right. Despite how well DiMarco has played (and Garbutt has been great too, when he’s played) it’s far from ideal not to have any contracted left backs in the first team. Aaron Martin remains my top target, but Espanyol are still playing hardball, so we’ll have to wait and see.

As I had expected Goretzka’s time at the club has come to an end with Arsenal making a non-negotiable offer I couldn’t really turn down on the 1st Jan. It’s less than he’s worth and less than I really wanted to sell him for, but it wasn’t insulting and it has allowed me to bring in some new players to strengthen my squad. In the end no offers materialised for Embolo or any other first team player. I also finally managed to sell Burgstaller after more than a year of trying.

Bringing in some new players was tough work and it wasn’t until deadline that the transfers were confirmed. Aaron Martin was a tough transfer indeed; I really didn’t want to spend that much money on him, but Espanyol didn’t want to talk, and I wasn’t able to destabilise the situation with offers and media statements so, I had to pay his full release clause. At £21.5m it’s a lot for certain but, I think that he’s got a lot of quality already and my scouts all tell me that he has room to improve so hopefully it’ll be money well spent in the end. For this season, I don’t need him to be omnipresent (his squad status is as a rotation player) as I have DiMarco; next season will be his big test.

As for right back, my plan was to bring in a top-quality player to improve the first team but that just wasn’t possible. Any player considerably better than Varela was either far too expensive or unlikely to want to sign and I was tempted to wait but during my second winter break friendly, Varela picked up a 6 week injury meaning I really had to bring someone in; Goldaniga is a pretty decent defensive right back but he doesn’t have the offensive capability I need. After even more disappointment trying to bring someone in, I settled for buying Espanyol’s other full back Inigo Lekue – also activating his release clause (sorry Espanyol). I think that £8.75M is a decent price as he’s at least as good as Varela and gives me some competition at right back.



The only other big transfer domestically was Hahn’s move to Dortmund, he’s a player that has caused me more than a few issues in prior meetings with Gladbach so I’m not all that pleased that he’s moved to my arch rivals Dortmund.



In the wider world poor Sevilla lost a couple of their better players without any big replacements and Guangzhou spent a lot on Allan from Napoli.

On another note, Bayern drew their first game back after the winter break against Frankfurt and as we won our last two games we now sit top of the table – still a long way to go.