Managing the Miners

SEASON I

The Group Stage:-

I last left, with my 2-0 victory at home against Chelsea. I still had 2 matches left. I was top of the table then and I intended to keep it that way. I had a match away at Celtic and at home against Helsingsborg. I ended up winning both of them. 1-0 at Celtic Park (very scrappily I must say) and 2-0 against Helsingsborg. Now, since I finished top of the table, I expected some Champions League minnow to come up. But guess which team came up?

AC Milan. And their legacy in the Champions League needs no introduction. But I thought of this as an opportunity. After all, this was an AC Milan team on the wane but were still strong with the likes of Pato, Kevin Prince Boateng and Robinho. Unfortunately for us, the first leg was going to be played at the San Siro. Now, people may not think of this much but I consider the first leg at home a huge bonus. Anyways, back to the football.

The first match ended a surprising 1-1. Milan had many shots on goal but most of them were long shots. We put on some really good defending and prevented them from scoring the decisive goal. This scoreline put us in a good position with an away goal in hand.

1st leg stats:-

Clearly dominated in terms of shots attempted, but with a massive shots off target, we did quite well.

The second leg came upon us and we only needed a draw or a win to put things in our favour and go to the next round. So what was the score at home?

A resounding 3-0 victory! That’s what! I put on my 4-3-3 Counter tactics as I was scared that my opponents would go all out to search for the victory. But some excellent finishing and brilliant assists courtesy of Willian and Mkhitaryan who completely monopolised the midfield from beginning to end. We were into the next round courtesy of a 4-1 aggregate victory!

A massive 6 CCC’s created! It was a shame that we only got onto the end of just 3 of them! :p

The next draw had teams like Fenerbahce and Schalke so I was crossing my fingers to get one of them because beating Barcelona or Real Madrid would be too difficult.

The draws came out. And I got the defending champions and familiar foes, Chelsea. Chelsea are a very tough to beat. Not only do they have the devastating and pacy midfield trio of Hazard, Mata and Ben Arfa, they also have a Torres who actually manages to put the ball into the back of the net. The only positive I could take away from this was that the first leg was at home so it made things slightly easier, but only slightly.

I was optimistic. Last time Chelsea came to Ukraine, we had defeated them 2-0 so I was expecting a somewhat similar victory.

We ended up losing 1-0.

While we did get more shots away, Chelsea not only created more chances but were determined to play a ruthless game, indicated by the 20 fouls that they conceded. Since the home game was lost I had lost all hope in the second game at Stamford Bridge. The least we could do was to go down fighting.

And we went down fighting! A 1-1 draw which was more evenly matched than I thought it would be!

We were outplayed, possession wise but whatever few chances we had, we didn’t take full advantage of. Fortunately, the same could be said about Chelsea.

That put an end to my Champions League and we went out 2-1 on aggregate. We reached the Quarter-Finals this time and it is huge achievement for my first season. Hopefully I will be able to better it next season.

Cheers,

SFM

Spoiler —– -I am able to better it.

I am really happy to say that my experiment of representing real life football on FM13 has worked out to some extent. In my previous post, I wanted to replicate the slick, fast passing style of Shakhtar Donetsk and also get results at the same time. My main challenge though would not be domestically but it would have to be in the Champions League. Domestically, since Shakhtar are superior to any other team (with some exceptions of course), I would not be able to test my tactics to the fullest extent. My tactics would be REALLY tested if I pit it against the biggest teams in the world, and boy! What a Champions League Group I got!

POT 1 – Chelsea

POT 2 – Shakhtar Donetsk

POT 3 – Celtic

POT 4 – Helsingsborg

So yeah, pretty tough group that. Chelsea are obviously the toughest but Celtic are no pushovers either. Yes, they may be weaker without Wanyama but they have one of the best finishing strikeforces in the world I think. Miku and Hooper are terrorising defences in the Champions League and as a result are the top scorers in the Champions League.

Let the results be shown!

22 Games

16 Won

4 Drawn

2 Lost

Not bad right? Well, my tactics seem to working out pretty well. They were good enough to hand Celtic a 3-0 drubbing at home and defeat Chelsea 2-0 at home as well. However there are some negatives to be taken away from this.

My side for some reason switches off completely at major away matches. Case in point, the Helsingsborg match. My side defensively switched off and despite setting an attacking command, we still sat back and let the opponents attack us.

We enjoyed greater possession than them but we ended up losing one of main defenders, Dmytro Chygrynskiy in the 75th minute. We were thoroughly frustrated by Helsingsborg and I am pretty sure that if we met them at home, we would have drubbed them by 3 to 4 goals atleast.

Anyways, my second loss in my career happened against a very fast, Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge.

Once again, my defence had no answer to the fast Chelsea attackers. We carelessly gave away corners, passes and deliberately made it hard for ourselves. I have tried looking at it in the tactics section but so far, I have not found any such remedy.

But other than that, it has been smooth sailing more or less. We took our revenge on Chelsea at home and a battling midfield and strong defence(always at home) ensured a priceless victory for the Miners. It was a see-saw battle and it was an even match but ultimately we ran out winners.

Most of Chelsea’s shots on target were courtesy of Frank Lampard who is a danger outside the penalty box. If you don’t close him down fast enough, one of his shots is bound to land up in the back of the net. Also note that we won majority of the tackles and headers because my fast midfield was able to counter Chelsea’s slow defence. Also, Hazard and Mata don’t track back (like in real life) so it usually leaves Azcipilicueta and Cole at the back to guard the wingers.

Another noteworthy Champions League result came against Celtic who we defeated 3-0. It was a really good match and I hope we can do an even better performance away from home.

Look at the number of shots off target! I instructed my defenders to tightly mark Celtic’s deadly duo up front and it paid off as we were able to keep Hooper and Miku quiet the whole night. My strikers also contributed to the match by being really clinical in front of goal. I mean, 12 shots on target out of 19 is not bad!

And finally, the league table:-

We have a 10 point lead and I intend to keep that way. Note that we are still unbeaten in the league atleast, so maybe I could go all the way?

We also did pretty well in the transfer market.

Shakhtar’s Brazilian contingent got 2 new arrivals in the form of Ademilson and Doria. Both were signed lower than their market value’s due to low release clauses in their contracts. Ademilson is definitely one of the best young strikers in the game and should be on the top of your list if you need a striker. Doria is also one of the best, young centreback’s in the game and at 525k, which (if done right) can potentially rise to a 20 million bid, it is a very profitable transfer. Oskar Hiljemark is also a really good and tenacious central-midfielder. Andrievskyi and Osman are part of the most talented Ukrainian youngsters and with no such options in the youth squads, I had to pay big sums of money to get them to the club.

Anyways, I hope we enter the next round in the Champions League! At the moment we are second behind Celtic (who surprisingly defeated Chelsea 4-1 at Celtic Park) but all this could change if I defeat Celtic in my next encounter. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

SFM

Yes, it is none other than Ukrainian powerhouse, Shakhtar!

I’ve been a huge admirer of Shakhtar and their football ever since I first caught a glimpse of them (out of curiosity) when they bought one of my favourite players, Eduardo from  Arsenal. I’ve been closely watching them since and Mircea Lucescu has really made them into potential Champions League winners should they manage to keep their main stars.

My aim is the following:-

1) Win everything domestically in every season (The Super Cup is not counted).

2) Win Champions League by 3rd season.

Tough asks? Not too tall in my opinion. If proper transfers and tactics are used, Shakhtar can truly be one of the best teams in the world.

My tactics are going to mirror the way Shakhtar play in real life, quick football with a lot of direct passes, Fernandinho making those amazing runs in the middle of the park and Willian and Douglas Costa weaving their magic and Henrik Mkhitaryan dictating play.

This challenge though domestically is not that easy as you think. The Ukraine Premier League dictates that only 7 foreign players may be on the pitch and by foreign they mean every player who is NOT of Ukrainian nationality. And in FM, Ukraine doesn’t produce that many great/world-class players.

Well, I started my Monaco save 3 days back and we were comfortably on course to win the Ligue 2 title but unfortunately, the game crashed.

Now, I didn’t know what else to do. I decided to take on a club who were a dominant force at home but were minnows abroad.

My next post will reveal all.

Cheers,

SFM

Sorry.

I am here to announce that I will not be managing my favourite club, Rangers in FM13. As you all know, last year, I played Rangers extensively and even managed to win the Champions League with them. Then I played with East Stirlingshire, taking them all the way to the SPL. This year, however, with Rangers all the way down to division III, I do not think I will be able to commit myself to yet another long division III to the SPL challenge. I am sorry guys but I will be managing some other club in a completely different league, and try and bring them to the pinnacles of football.

This club was once a major force in European football and even reached the finals of the Champions League once. Now however, they are in the second division in their country and are far from the dominant position they were in.

Hints:-

• They were managed by the legendary Arsene Wenger and were also managed by current France national manager Didier Deschamps.
• They are one of the most successful clubs in their country, having won 7 major domestic titles and 5 major domestic trophies.
• This club has had many fine players play for them ranging from the eccentric Fabien Barthez to the magnificent George Weah, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram etc.

And the biggest hint:-

• They are in France.

Still haven’t found out?

AS Monaco FC is the club!

They are currently slumming it out in Ligue 2.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES:-

• Get into Ligue 1 in the first season itself.
• Get atleast Europa League qualification by the third season.
• Get Champions League qualification by fifth season.
• Win the Ligue 1 by the seventh season.
• Win a European trophy by the eighth season.

MINOR OBJECTIVES:-

• Get an offer to manage an International Team which is in the top 25 of the FIFA rankings.
• Get World Cup qualification.
• Win the World Cup.

This is going to be really hard because Ligue 1 is all the more tougher to win because of the financial power of PSG and the domestic dominance of Olympique Lyon and Marseille.

Cheers and apologies,

SFM

Please drop in a comment regarding the date/tentative date you are buying FM13!

I will be starting a new Rangers story which will rival celticman’s blog. This time round, it will be twice as much fun because

1) This time Rangers will be starting in SDIII and it will be more of a challenge than before and

2) Unlike last time, me and celticman will be starting our stories hopefully, more or less at the same time. That way it will be easier to compare and see which side of Glasgow wins.

This decision will be taken by you before the release of FM14 where you will get the chance to vote and decide which side wins.

Cheers and Best of luck celticman,

SFM

Well, as you may know, I am starting a new series which is primarily based on resurrecting ground-breaking tactics. This is the first in the new series and this showcases one of the oldest and most innovative tactics in football history. I present to you, Herbert Chapman’s W-M Formation.

ABOUT CHAPMAN

He is widely regarded as one of the most influential managers in the game. He is responsible for renaming “The Arsenal” to “Arsenal FC”. He is also known for championing innovations like floodlighting, European club competitions and also numbered shirts.

HISTORY

While the entire world had still not known of the sport known as football, it was making huge waves across Europe and obviously the country of its origin, England. The first formation in football is widely acknowledged to be the 1-2-7 and later the 2-3-5. This was the standard formation in most clubs in the world and was the ONLY formation used. At around the same time, Arsenal had signed a new manager who was making waves in English football called Herbert Chapman from Huddersfield Town to replace the sacked Leslie Knighton. At the time, Arsenal were a small club, regularly competing in relegation battles in the league and were operating on a shoestring transfer budget of 2000 pounds. When Chapman came in however, he demanded a change in the tranfer policy of the club which the chairman, Sir Henry Norris reluctantly accepted. Chapman immediately made an impact signing, 34 yr old Charlie Buchan for 2000 pounds with an additional 100 pounds paid for each goal Buchan scored in his first season. Then the change in the offside law was introduced. This change was a radical one. The change had reduced the number of opposition players that an attacker needed between himself and the goal-line from three to two (including the goalkeeper). Buchan’s idea, implemented by Chapman, was to move the centre half from a roaming position in midfield to a “stopper” position in defence. As a result, the inside forwards were brought back to help the midfield and cover up the space left by the roaming centre back. This changed the formation from the 2-3-5 to the 3-4-3 or the W-M referring to the shape it looked like when viewed from above.

The old 2-3-5 formation

The new 3-4-3 formation a.k.a the W-M

Some highlights of the formation:-

1) Direct passing game

2) Inside forwards act as main playmakers.

3) Fullbacks stay behind the halfway line at all times.

4) Inside forwards also go ahead and assist the CF.

Now, I tried playing the game using the same type of play that Herbert Chapman used in the day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The game has changed a lot since and my old formation couldn’t keep up with the modern formations. I managed to get slaughtered every time and this wasn’t what I had in mind. So, I made some modern tweaks.

First of all, here’s what the tactic looks like on FM12:-

As you can see, I have tried as hard as possible to stick to the basic W-M. However, if you haven’t noticed it already, this tactic is in CLASSIC MODE. I used to use the normal system of making tactics but I personally feel that Classic is a better mode because it allows you to dictate runs.

1) The centre back pushes up, therefore acting as a stopper who eliminates troubles as fast as possible.

2) The DMCL acts as a deep lying playmaker, and also occasionally, comes forward to help the attack and put more bodies in midfield. The DMCR, on the other hand, stays back and assists the defence in warding off opposition attacks and often acts as a centre back.

3) The AMCL is the main playmaker on the field and is the transition from midfield to attack. He is responsible from kickstarting the teams attacks and often provides assists. The AMCR on the other hand is more attacking. Its role is to burst forward, to help the forward and also score goals therefore reducing the burden on the lone forward.

4) The wingers cut inside, further reducing the burden on the lone forward. They score and assist goals, though their focus is primarily on the latter.

WHAT YOU MIGHT NEED FOR THIS TACTIC TO BE SUCCESSFUL:-

1) A good finisher is a must. Even though I have tried a lot to reduce the burden on the lone striker, you still must have a good finisher. Try looking for a player with high finishing, composure, anticipation and off the ball stats.

2) Since this has a direct passing game, you might need fast players, especially in the wings and the forward line. This will make it a lethal force in counterattacks.

3) The goalkeeper, has made to rush out to kick out any through balls that could have gone past the defence.

To test this tactic, I used a mid-table team, to see whether it would work against stronger opposition. Hence, I chose Everton.

As you can see, Tim Cahill, my AMCR finished top scorer with 15 goals. Louis Saha and Denis Stracqualursi finish behind him. Even a defensive player like Rodwell was able to get on the scoresheet 4 times.

Some highlights of the tactic:-

At its peak:-

We trampled over Wigan, winning 4 goals to nil with Tim Cahill bagging a hattrick.

At its defending best:-

We did well against Man City, winning 2 goals to nil. Good defenders like Jagielka and Heitinga successful warded off City’s attacks whereas Saha and Stracqualursi didn’t disappoint at the other end of the field.

And at its finishing worst:-

In both the above matches, we had more possession, more chances to score. But I was let down by poor finishing, thus underlying the requirement of an excellent finisher. Incidentally, we drew the match against Man Utd. 2-2 and lost against Liverpool 3-2. Some excellent finishing by Carroll sealed the match.

One thing that I have noticed that despite employing a very direct passing game, this formation also has the ability to retain possession and at the same time, enjoys short passing bursts.

Oh and before I forget, you can download the tactic here.

I hope you enjoy playing with this. If you find it successful, don’t be hesitant in giving feedback and also spread the word!

Cheers,

SFM

Well, now that FM13 has finally reached some sort of deadline i.e “before XMAS”, I pondered on what to blog  about in the time that is there between now and its release, hopefully around October 31st.

Since, Tactikzz left FMcrowd, he left a void. A void which I hope to fill. I have always wanted to write about and discuss tactics and over the next few weeks/months I hope to put in as many tactics as possible before the tentative release of FM13.

I hope I can do some justice to the role Tactikzzz formerly held.

Cheers,

SFM

Well, not entirely paused. Only the “story” bit has been paused. Meanwhile, I will be holding discussions about various new features of FM13.

Cheers,

SFM

After finishing off the signing of new players, it was time to organise my pre season. Normally I do not pay much attention to pre season form because it really does not affect my team that much. But this time, I needed to test out my new formations(yes I went back to the table). One formation tries to ape the famous fluid formation of Total Football. The other is a standard 4-5-1 with one anchor man and two deep lying playmakers. So lets see how the pre-season went:-

A very successful pre-season I think! My “total football” philosophy is working quite well! We first beat more or less a Rangers reserve side 3-0. The next match was also going to use the TF strategy and this was a mild success against a very good Barnsley team. In the next two matches, I am planning to use the other 4-5-1 formation. That also worked equally well, although I admit I was a little disappointed by our loss to Sunderland Reserves.

We start our season now. Since we are now in the SPL, we don’t have any matches in the Challenge Cup.

My team was playing well, we were in good form, there’s no way we would get relegated right?

Wrong. 3 games, 0 points and the only thing that made our month slightly more bearable was a win against Airdrie United. The match against Kilmarnock may look close but it wasn’t. We were able to score 2 goals and that also against the run of play. Well, so far, the only positive I can take from our first three games in the top flight is that we atleast scored a goal in each match! But seriously, I guess I have to do some minor alterations to my tactics again.

One thing that was common in both my formations that I noticed was that the gap between the defense and the midfield was far too much, despite the presence of an anchor man. I pushed the defense up a bit and set one CB in a stopper role and the other CB in a cover role. So lets see what that brought up:-

Yes! Thats right! We got our first points AND our first victory! In an amazing match against Aberdeen at home, we won 6-4.

At halftime, we were leading 4-2, and the match finished 6-4. It would have been less but my defence became cocky when we were leading 6-2.

If you have a Jamil Adam in your squad, you can’t do any wrong! The reason we won is because of our clinical finishing. Look at that stat! 8 shots on target and 6 goals. The defense still needs a bit of work though.

We got our second consecutive win again at home against St. Mirren. We hung on to our 1 goal lead. Our run in the Scottish League Cup finally ended with a 3-1 loss against Dundee. We were just not good enough. Ignasi Miquel and Mebrak were having nightmares in front of goal and were really poor. So was Adam McHugh. We did not end the month on a losing note thankfully, getting a 2-2 draw against Livingston. We were actually leading 2-1 but in the 86th minute, Livingston scored.

Well, 7 points from a possible 12. Not bad eh? Lets hope that October is as good as this September:-

Nah, back to the same old losing grind. We grinded out a brilliant draw against Celtic in an amazing defensive display by the club. Christian Gerard and Van Kouteren were amazing and they were the rocks at the back.

They dominated it. And yet again, you can see the clinical efficiency in front of goal. 2 shots one goal.

We finally got revenge over Dundee United and won against them at home. The next two matches were disappointing to say the least. We deserved to win against Hearts and deserved ATLEAST a point from 12th placed Motherwell. I think it is time I start using my 4-5-1 formation more.

Next month is a really busy month with 6 games to be played. But the international break is also there so it might give us some breathing space.

We again lost 2-0 against Kilmarnock. But then, followed an absolute Epic match in which we ran out 4-3 winners at home. After being disappointing for a long time, Jamil Adam took matters in his own hands and put all 4 goals past the Inverness keeper.

Fantastic stuff.

But after that, we were sent bouncing back to Earth with a 4-1 whipping against Rangers. God knows how I can beat them. I just can’t! That was followed by a hard-fought draw against Hibs. I then organised a friendly against Linfield due to the international break to give some of the club’s young stars a run-out. It was a good one as we ran out 5-2 winners. We followed up that win with another good victory against Aberdeen. Goals weren’t as easy flowing as the first but it was a match we easily won.

December was looming and so was the transfer window. This is the month I usually allot for looking and buying new players before everybody starts scrambling for players in the transfer market.

I managed to get a huge fee of 70k for Sam Whittall. He had not lived upto his potential and had an average rating of 6.03 in 13 games. Bad.

I had a target, Victor Nilsson. He was a player who could play on both wings and also as a striker. He was fast and had good finishing. The only bad thing about him was his composure. But no matter, here was a versatile player and with the departure of Whitall, I needed a backup striker anyway. The only hangup was that I had no money in the bank and he was worth 40k. I spoke to the board and they graciously took up the challenge of buying Nilsson.

Thank you Les Thompson!

Now, onwards to the last month is this post. The dreaded month of December. December is a month that has always been bad for me. Whether it was my first loss in SDIII or my losing streak in SDI, December has always disappointed me. Will this time be any different?

5 games and just one loss? And including a victory over Celtic? Not disappointing at all!

The first two games were really disappointing. I still haven’t figured out how to crack open Livingston whereas the match against St. Mirren was just disappointing finishing. The match against Celtic however, was much more different.

Not as one-sided as the first match! We had more possession and our defending was really impressive. Ignasi Miquel and Frank Van Kouteren stood out here, both having a hand in both our goals. Ignasi Miquel’s header hit Rogne and went in, whereas Van Kouteren also scored from a header. Anthony Stokes scored a goal in the 86th minute, ensuring a nervy ending. But it was a good display from the Shire.

We then lost against Hearts before sadly playing against Motherwell on New Years Eve. But we ushered in the New Year with a fine performance, with Will Keane getting 2 goals and 1 assist.

We ended the year with a good standing in the league table:-

As of now, we sit in an impressive 7th place, 7 behind Kilmarnock and 5 ahead of Livinston who are 8th. Perhaps we can make a final push before “the split” takes place?

Another job offer, this time from South America

Really tempted to sign for Cruzeiro and to start a parallel save, one in which I am at Cruzeiro and one where I was at the Shire. But right now, I want to focus on one and one club only.

Some encouraging news:-

Now I can scout anywhere in the world! Woohoo! I was also given the option of increasing my wage budget and I took the option because earlier, I was spending 7.9k a week on a 7k p/w budget.

Well, we shall see whether we are able to keep up this fine form.

Cheers,

SFM