oakesypvfc Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 The Wonder of You - A Port Vale Career I have been a Port Vale fan my whole life and never have I had a successful career with them on FM. This year I intend this to change. Taking over on the most recent update, we have a squad that has just lost the spine of the team in the January transfer window and are predicted to finish 20th in League One. I take over at the start of the season, with all the current loanees with the club until the end of the season. I have made a couple of edits in the database to justify how valuable the players are in Vale's squad in real life (nothing ridiculous) and also to adjust little things such as average attendance, which is around 1,000 spectators over what it is in real life. Just a brief overview for now though, I will let you know more soon. The next update will likely detail you more about the playing squad I have to deal with. Ciao for now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakesypvfc Posted March 18, 2017 Author Share Posted March 18, 2017 Pre-Season Progress Friendlies We played plenty of friendlies for two reasons. Reason one was to build our fitness levels up for the entirety of the squad and number two was to give us some confidence for the season ahead. I believe that with ten wins out of the twelve games played, all featuring a different lineup in order to get our full first team fit, we achieved this. Hopefully this means that we can hit the ground running. Tactics and Squad Update For the first time in my Football Manager career, I have chosen to go with a pretty defensive set up. My style of play is going to be based on being solid and very difficult to break down, playing a possession game and hopefully nicking the old goal against the head. The reason I have decided to play this way is because two of my best players are the centre halves that are with the team. The first being Nathan Smith. The other being Remie Streete, a former graduate from Newcastle United's academy. We will also be relying on the energy of Sam Foley and Sebastien Amoros to be the runners from midfield. Foley is the man for now but Amoros has a very bright future ahead of him. We have made no transfers for the season ahead as we are very short on money and losing money every month. Season Two will come the real challenge when half of this squad are out of contract. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We have a fairly challenging start to the season with an away game at promotion chasing Bradford but home games against Southend and Rochdale make me hopeful of grabbing early points. Of course, we have the early season cup games to come once the draws are made. Join me next time as we begin our assault on League One! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
majesticeternity Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Looks interesting! I'll be following. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakesypvfc Posted March 18, 2017 Author Share Posted March 18, 2017 Winter Update Fixtures We began the season with an away trip to promotion favourites Bradford and a draw was a very nice result to take away. A steady 1-0 win at Notts made me happy enough and was followed by two home league wins which would make the fans very happy. An away goalless draw at Swindon followed as we continued to keep it tight at the back. We exited the League Cup at an early stage but Sunderland were far superior. We ended the month with another home league win and got our own back on Sunderland by taking out their Under 23s. September was a month full of league games as we looked to jockey for position early. Two away trips to begin saw us come away with just a solitary point before we managed to grab our first win of the month, once again at Vale Park. We were back to losing ways when we travelled to Bristol before ending the month with a bore draw at home to Milwall. Two home games started us off this month and as good as we were in one, we were as bad in the other as we scooped up three out of the six points. A rearguard effort to beat MK Dons, largely thanks to not one but two Kiko free kicks was a refreshing win away from home. We continued this on to get a great draw away to promotion chasers Sheffield United. Both the Sam's were on target as we took down Charlton at home but unfortunately a 90th minute goal prevented us from the win at home to Oxford. At Bolton, we were second best throughout. We rested a few key players for the visit of Gateshead and paid the price when they earned a replay. An away win at Cambridge means we will progress in the Checkatrade trophy. League leaders Fleetwood visited us next and came away from Vale Park with all three points. At Gateshead we were awful and we see an early exit from the FA Cup, very disappointing. Two goalless draws followed, we are really struggling for goals this month. At least we end November on a high with a win at Shrewsbury. Another game at Shrewsbury followed as we advanced even further in the Checkatrade. After that game, I decided to change our tactics a little bit, we weren't getting enough goals and I feel where we are standing currently, a bit of extra onus going forward, we can still snag a playoff place. This seemed to take immediate effect with three wins in four games and significantly more goals to show for it. Eight goals in these four games was unheard of and we move closer to the summit of the table and prove the doubters in the media wrong. Tactical Changes We make a few changes on the tactical front. Defensive mentality is adjusted to Control and Team Shape is changed from Structured to Flexible. I feel like this lets us take a few more risks as we were far too rigid and the striker was often getting far too isolated up the pitch. Already, I can see him getting more involved. Full backs have been given a duty of support rather than automatic which means they are contributing to attacks going forward aswell as defending. One last change is taking away the 'Retain Possession' shout and adding the 'Pass into Space'. I feel that this gives our team more freedom and allows us to play with a bit more fluidity. Early signs are that it is a change for the better. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Massive thanks go to everyone in this thread for help with my tactical worries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 On 18/03/2017 at 01:36, oakesypvfc said: I have been a Port Vale fan my whole life You poor sod. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
argento Posted March 26, 2017 Share Posted March 26, 2017 Will be following your progress with this, good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakesypvfc Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 @Nobby_McDonald I know pal, I am starting to question my decisions in life after this season @argento Cheers dude! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ End of Season Report Results We started off the new year with a whimper as we fell to two defeats on the outskirts of Manchester, the second of those knocking us out of the Checkatrade trophy. We followed this with another defeat at home to MK Dons before finally picking up our first win of 2017 over strugglers Bury. We followed this with another win at Coventry and then ended with a solid draw at Scunny. Goals galore in February as we began with two 2-2 draws on the bounce, taking us on a little unbeaten run. A great win at Milwall followed and we were starting to look up the table again. We carried on the form beating Bristol Rovers with both Sam's in the goals and ended the month with back to back 1-1 draws. An unbeaten February. Our unbeaten run continued into March when we travelled to Southend, coming away with a really solid point. The rest of the month went down a real treat though with home wins against both Swindon and Shrewsbury, with a win in the trip to Northampton sandwiched in between. On the weekend of the 25th, we found ourselves with no game for two weeks after Shrewsbury, so I took it upon myself to arrange a nice, easy friendly to keep fitness and morale at an all time high. Our unbeaten run continued when we beat AFC Wimbledon at home, thanks to a late one by young full back James Gibbons. The fifteen game unbeaten run came to an abrupt end though when we travelled to Walsall. From absolutely nowhere, they absolutely hammered us. I shall have to go back and watch that game again and see what did go wrong. When we travelled to Chesterfield, I was very happy to come away with a draw and a clean sheet after the previous horror show. A home win against Sheffield United put us right on course for those magical playoff positions. The final three games came by and we shut up shop all three of them, not conceding a goal and coming back with five points from three tricky games. So where did that leave us? Fourth place and in the playoffs, what an absolutely brilliant season. Win or lose, this has been an awesome season for a team predicted to finish in 20th position. We have lost the least amount of games in the entire division and have the joint best defence, I am very impressed with the lads. We will play MK Dons in the semi finals of the League One playoffs, win or lose, I couldn't have been prouder of the boys. This also came up. Sam has been awesome all year and been our player of the season and down to votes, been the best player in the division. He has really made that CM-Attack role his own and has been a driving force behind our success. Next time, you will see if we can pull off the unthinkable, promotion to the Championship! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 27, 2017 Share Posted March 27, 2017 Port Vale v MK Dons. A very rare occasion I wish it were possible for both teams to lose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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