Building a Wide 442 Diamond

[Joey Numbaz]

A little background. I am not a tactical genius. I never watched anything but the World Cup before 2010. I didn't grow up with the game, so there are massive gaps in my knowledge that you guys take for granted. I can help you out with baseball at least if you want to learn that.

I love experimenting, and rarely use the same tactic for more than a single season. Sometimes I run through 2-3 tactics in a season, just because I get bored, or see something that looks fun. I am especially prone to hipster stuff like the Libero, unorthodox formations and the like.

So knowing this about myself, I always have versatile players, guys that can play multiple positions well. I generally train fitness in July, and then ball control August-December and tactical January-May. This helps to develop intelligent, technical players.

So I saw Cleon's post about the 4-4-2 and the wide diamond looks pretty fun. Big gaping whole in the middle, this can't possibly work. Everything I read says to flood the midfield! Control the center, like a chess-master!

I mean obviously there must be some way to make it work, or Cleon wouldn't have posted the picture, right?

The base I'm starting with is the 4312 that Ozil used his Benfica Academy thread. I had great success with this last season. 4th in the league (it was a tight race for 3-5 that came down to the last day of the season), and made it to the Champions League Final. Where we faced our nemesis, Manchester United. United were gunning for a second consecutive treble (PL, FA Cup, Champions League) and we were all that stood in the way. Last year they knocked us out in the semifinal 1-0 aggregate. This time, we were scoreless into extra time. We scored a goal at 96' and I could see the confetti about to fall. Then United scores at 106' and we hit 3(!) posts during penalties. Devastation. But I digress.

So this year it's time to come back and win some trophies. I mean we've won 3 out of the last 5 League Cups (and an FA Cup, and the PL a few years ago), but that's not the kind of trophy we want.

The 433 had a *great* front three. That combination was absolutely amazing. AFa-CFs-AMs

Pietro Pellegri as the complete forward, now 21 years old, scored 27 league goals, had 15 league assists, won the Champions League Golden Boot with 11 goals and broke the record for highest rating in Champions League history (we are starting 2022-23, so 'history' for that is 5 seasons, but still).

Sandro scored 22 goals and had 16 assists in the league as the Advanced Forward. His previous career highs were 11 and 9. His average rating was 7.53. Basically he and Pellegri were the two best players in the league. Save for maybe Timo Werner.

So I am not touching that until I see a need to change it up. The AMs was kind of a rotation, Pulisic played there the most and was nothing special at last ratings/numbers wise.

The midfield 3 was a Carrilero-CMd-Carrilero combination. Twin Carrileros is perfect for satisfying my hipster streak. This worked very well. But I've got young wingers that need to be freed and introduced to the team. Pulisic is much more suited to a winger role than an AMs where he was a bit of a square peg in a round hole. As an inside forward in 2019-20, he was the EPL player of the year as a 21-year old, with 9 goals, 14 assists, 6 PoM and a 7.39 rating. The following season he was hurt and only played 20 games, but still posted a 7.42 rating from the wing. Last year, 6.91, just 4 goals and 3 assists as the AMs. He needs to be sold or we need to go back to some wingering type stuff.

So changes will be to move the Carrilero's out to the wings (ML/MR strata), and drop the CMd back to a Regista.

The wingbacks on support were great, especially the right wingback, Almamy Touré. An aging club legend and our captain, Seamus Coleman needed help for 2020-21. Touré just won the job outright. As a WBs this past season he put up a 7.42 rating, had 8 assists, played great defense and big enough to play DC, which is great, especially in terms of set pieces, I like having big players everywhere. Which is funny since I am 5' 3".

I tend to not like to use the WB role when I have wingers up ahead. FB will still get forward plenty, especially with look for overlap and a higher team mentality. So we'll switch them to FB.

So here is the before:

And now my changes:

Same instructions. Except that I changed exploit the middle to exploit the flanks, because look at the formation, duh.

Note a few things mentality wise.

• The mentality of the DC's is lower, since I am no longer exploiting the middle. Probably a good idea, considering the gaping hole in the middle of the pitch.
• The FBd has nearly the same mentality as the WBs when exploiting the flanks.
• The DMs has a higher mentality than the CMd did. I am hoping to bring in Amadou Diawara for the Regista role. He has 15 vision/passing, but also 16 work rate/tackling/positioning, 15 marking, 15 aggression. I want him to be my Registrating-Destroyer. Basically N'golo Kanté and Andrea Pirlo all rolled into one.
• The wingers basically have the same mentality as the Carrileros did.

The defensive winger on the right ... I am going to attempt to slide Sergej Milinkovic-Savic out there. He's awkward already, so he should learn the position pretty quickly, since he's not starting from scratch. I have thought about just keeping him as a Carrilero making the Regista a Segundo Volante or keeping him as a Regista and shifting the diamond more to the left:

Yeah, I kind of like how that looks. Is that crazy? Probably need an amazing DCR-WBR combination to make that work. I could switch to the other formation mid-game if it looks like the opposition is just killing me down my right flank I suppose too. That's why we have 3 tactics slots, right?

It's June 22, 2022. The players who aren't in the World Cup report back in 4 days. I have 13 friendlies lined up, mostly against good teams to see if this will work. Open to suggestions, I'll let you know how it goes.

[Joey Numbaz]

Also, the mentality images come from this amazing link: https://theresonlyoneball.com/2018/01/23/a-mentality-and-team-shape-calculator-for-football-manager-2018/comment-page-1/. Thank you @fmFutbolManager!

[Joey Numbaz]

Uh, testing this out properly may be an issue now. I guess we'll see how it works without one of the best strikers in the world. Pellegri out for a month and a half with a World Cup injury. He's probably not going to be ready for opening day now. Jeez.

[jc577]

I had great fun using a 442 wide diamond earlier on in FM18, it kind of requires you to think tactically and keep an eye on midfield in certain games to see if you’re giving up too much space. I don’t wanna say too much as figuring out how the tactic works is a lot of fun 

[Dfs]

Hello,

I know its a bit riddiculous to give someone advice with my first post but one thing I ve experienced is that wingers on support (especially without work ball into box TI) cross a lot and often from deep. In your tactic on the receiving end of those crosses you have a complete forward on support who oftentimes wont be in line with defence. Those crosses are easy to defend thrn. I d suggest either changing winger support to attack (so that he d be crossing from byline where cfs will be much better positioned to finish them) or swapping afa and cfs (afa will be further forward with better chance to finish deep crosses).

Good luck!

[Joey Numbaz]

21 hours ago, jc577 said:

I don’t wanna say too much as figuring out how the tactic works is a lot of fun 

It is fun. Wide open, up and down play so far. Figuring out how the tactic works is fun, but I don't mind speeding the learning curve a little! Any advice, or pointing out gaping holes in what I'm doing is appreciated. I still have to qualify for the Champions League again, I can't take too long to figure this out!

3 hours ago, Dfs said:

I know its a bit riddiculous to give someone advice with my first post

Not at all. Thanks for taking the time.

3 hours ago, Dfs said:

wingers on support (especially without work ball into box TI) cross a lot and often from deep

Two friendlies in, we crossed 67 and 101 times. Tranmere played a deep 3-5-2 on contain in the 101 cross game. We managed 30 shots and 6 goals, but only 11 on target and only 3 CCC (but 5 half chances). So yeah *a lot* of crosses. We completed 13/17% in each game.

I've been trying some different combinations with the wingers. I tried (left side first, remember the CFs is on the right):

Ws - Ws

IWa - Ws

DWs - DWs (I turned them both to cross less often)

DWs - WPa

Nothing has jumped out at me as one of these being incredible or another being awful. I've also being trying some Cover/Stopper for the back two because why not? Maybe that would be fun.

Even the CFs likes to drop out wide and throw the occasional cross in.

That being said, I've still got a bunch of players at the World Cup, so I've been playing with 5-6 first teamers and 16-17 U23s.

A few of the negative things I've noticed ...

• The Regista loves to shoot. I need to give him shoot less often. Not really, as Cleon would say, I need to figure out why he feels like he has to shoot so much. Or maybe change the role.
• Definitely prone to balls over the top. But I'm not playing with superstar center backs yet either.

As far as stats - the first game was against Saint-Étienne, 14th place in Ligue 1 last year. Outshot them 18-5, they had no chances and 3 of their shots were long shots. This was played entirely with the Ws-Ws combination. We put up 18 shots, got 9 on target, only 4 long shots and 3 went in. They played a 4-1-4-1.

We also scored 23 seconds into the game, which isn't bad for a new tactic. In the second game we were worse, scoring an entire 36 seconds into the game. That's a 50% decline.

I loved the passing. We completed 89% of our passes. Of the 18 shots, 4 were CCC and 7 were HC. That's pretty solid. These are some pretty pictures.

The second game I messed around a lot more. Tranmere are a middle of the pack League Two team. But things didn't go nearly as smoothly. I started with the IWa-Ws combination, with the IW on the left side with the AFa.

Here's the first half passing, before I started subbing people out. It's not nearly as pretty a picture.

And the heat map and shot chart.

Yeah, that goal on a cross attempt (top of the screen) was kind of hilarious.

Tranmere managed 3 goals from 4 shots, the first was on a corner. The second a very long ball over the top and the stopper just couldn't keep up with the recipient of the pass. He ran into his back 2x and bounced off. The 3rd goal was a keeper mistake on the edge of the box.

Very open to any feedback, thoughts, suggestions, etc. We have 11 friendlies left. 7 are against decent to really good teams - Grêmio, Lyon, Boca, PSG, Barcelona, RB Leipzig, Bayern. Four are part of a US tour against second tier US teams.

Another thing. Even on defend, those fullbacks get forward. Between the exploit the flanks and look for overlap shout, their mentality goes up a bunch, despite what those heat maps show.

[Joey Numbaz]

Friendly number 3 against Grêmio. We were severely outgunned in this one. Grêmio is a pretty good team typically a top 5-8 squad in Brazil's Série A, playing a defensive 4-2-3-1. Lots of players rated 45-65 by my scout. We only started three first teamers and our backup keeper. Three of our U18's started the game.

I went with DWs-DWs for this one.

Once again we got off to a good start, scoring a goal in the 5th minute. Exponentially worse than our first two friendlies, but still not bad considering who we started. We picked up another goal in the 18th minute, which frankly shocked me. The corner went outside the box and after a pass to the left edge of the box, my CF (who is really an advanced playmaker playing out of position) made a beautiful pass on the ground through traffic to the far post where my DWR just walked it into the goal. This undermanned squad was playing really well.

As the game wore on, Grêmio's superior quality started to show through. We brought on three of our other first teamers for the second half, but they just replaced the first teamers that were already in the game. We ended up getting outshot 24-7, but 15 of their shots were long shots. So it's kind of cool that we were very outmanned and the tactic hung tough.

We ended up conceding 2 in the second half, one in stoppage time.

Late in the game (75') I decided to pack it in up 2-1. I made both wingers DWd. Dropped the mentality to defensive and highly structured. Made the Regista a DLPd. Turned on waste time. We were exhausted. Grêmio switched to a narrow 4-1-2-3 with three strikers and a CM-DM-CM midfield late which is part of why I went more defensive. Our players' condition was in the 50s, theirs were in the 70s at the end of the game. Grêmio is four games into their season already and we are still just 9 days into preseason.

It looked like we were going to see it out when they finally broke through. Both of their goals came from play around the box, the second was a deflection of a shot from a headed pass that seemed kind of flukey in the animation. C'est la vie. Despite being outshot 24-7, we each had one CCC. They also had three half chances.

Side note - this where I wish the game had a little more context. It would be nice to tell the players they were severely outmanned and played really well. Instead I have to tell them that this is unacceptable and there is much work to do.

The passing wasn't as good, just 74% this time. We crossed much less, and were worse at it, just 3-for-35. How about this for a crazy passing chart:

Nothing in the middle and the Regista is on top of the AMCs.

Up next Lyon and their 4-2(DM)-3(ML-CM-MR)-1, playing on counter/structured. Let's see how we do on the balls over the top.

[Joey Numbaz]

Lyon report.

This time around I went with WPs-DWs on the wings.

The offense is just getting worse and worse to start games. First two games we scored in the first minute. 3rd game was the 6th minute. This time it wasn't until the 7th minute that we broke though. For such a wide tactic, this was just RW pass to Regista who was kind of forward in the middle. He passed to the AMC who passes to the CF at the edge of the box who passes to the AF deeper in the box who punches it home. After the first pass it was straight down the middle. It helps that Sandro is back from the World Cup as the AF. I only started 4 first teamers in this one and 3 were involved with that goal.

Once again we were exhausted relative to our opponents.

Ashford and Simpson would be proud, because this is looking solid as a rock defensively. This time around the opponent did not get a shot off in the first half. We managed 10 including 5 on target.

I subbed out 3/4 of the team at halftime and we still played pretty well. Second half shots were 7-4, and they did manage one CCC, but overall we dominated the game. Outshot them 17-4, 66% possession, 87% passes complete. No late heroics for the opposition this time. Just a solid 1-0 win against a decent team while we were playing with mostly U23s.

Lyon's striker was completely isolated, so much so they weren't even attempting balls over the top. Only one made the comprehensive highlights game viewing.

It does look a bit like the Regista and the AMs are getting in each others' way when we are on attack. I saw them run into each other a couple of times. I'll try out giving the AMs move into channels, but I am loathe to change anything related to the front three. Although, if I think about it some more, the AM wasn't really all the great last year. It was the strikers who were world beaters. So maybe there is some room to mess around with that a little bit.

[Joey Numbaz]

Our last friendly before the US tour, at home against Boca. Another good South American club. Boca played a classic 4-3-3 with a DM and two wide attacking midfielders.

At least the offense was back on track early. After slumping the last two games, failing to score until the 6th and 7th minute, we scored in the 3rd minute this time, a clear cut chance right through the middle where the AMs dished it off nicely to the running WPs coming from the right in the box with a nice clean finish.

I've been switching the WPs/DWs to either side based on the players playing. When I put the playmaker on the left, I flip the AFa and the CFs as well.

Once again, only 3 first teamers started the game they aren't even starters, more like rotation players. The Regista this time is not much of a defensive player, which is the first time I've had that type of player there. He doesn't does have good positioning, but nothing special work rate, marking and tackling.

Boca was getting shots off but all from long range. Meanwhile we picked up another goal ... on a long-shot from the 20-year old Regista. It was a nice clean look and his 10 long shots rating was good enough I guess.

So here is something I like. Because we play so much on the flanks, when the opponent does win the ball, it's typically out on the flank. Where I've got numbers and they have moved out to win the ball. So even though we don't have anyone in the middle, neither do they. And I still have the DM shielding the solid back line just in case.

32' we pick up another goal off of a corner another long shot this one from the DW, who has 14 long shots. I guess they called it an own goal.

At halftime they have They have 10 shots, 9 long, one on target. We have 7 shots, 4 of which have been on target and 1 CCC and 1 HC. They finally had a shot on target in the 40th minute. Our whole team is in the 50-65% condition range at halftime. They are in the 70s.

So for the second half 10 new players, and some of our big guns now. Five first team starters come in. The WPs and DWs switch sides so it's a flip of the tactic.

I am leaving the cover CB on the WP side, with the Stopper on the DW side. I figure the stopper has the help of the defensive winger and the cover can help on the side that isn't as strong. Does that make sense? Or is my thinking backwards? Since the DW closes down a lot, should I have cover there, with the stopper on the Wide Playmaker side?

Very uneventful second half the first 27 minutes saw two shots for Boca and one for us. Then the 20-year old U23 DW tears down the line (hugs line and runs down the right, 17 crossing), he crosses from the byline to the AFa (18 years old U23 squad too) for the easy header and a 4-0 lead.

The final numbers were 15-10 Boca wins shots, but we had 6 on target to their 1, and they had 11 long shots, just two half chances. We had 1 CCC and 2 HC and obviously excellent finishing in a 4-0 win.

That young Regista I was worried about? He was the man of the match!

The crosses were down again as well. Only 30 this time. I think I'm going to stick with this WPs-DWs on the wings until further notice. I really didn't like the 100 crosses with Ws-Ws on the wings.

Weird passing chart. Can anyone interpret this? The fullbacks stayed back and the AM and the strikers didn't link up much.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

We start the US Tour, 4 games against second level American squads, as we sell the heck out of Pulisic jerseys.

OK, this is getting ridiculous. 1:28 into the game ...

Anyway, most of the starters are ready to play finally so if this tactic actually works, we should be winning some games on this tour by big margins. I'll report back later, but couldn't resist getting this up there. For those scoring at home in our 6 friendlies so far we've scored at 1', 1', 6', 7', 3' and 2'. That's just crazy. 17 goals so far and 6 were in the first 7 minutes of the games.

EDIT Klaassen just punched in another at 7'. He completed his hat trick at 26'. Fourth goal for him at 32'. Three assists from Sandro, the AFa. Klaassen is the CF today btw, since Pellegri is still 2-3 weeks from returning. Teams had better come ready to play against us as we come out firing from the opening whistle!

 

 

[Joey Numbaz]

So here's an interesting tactical thing. I think of brings ball out of defense as a CB trait, not a FB trait.

I am in my 6th season coaching this team and Brendan Galloway, who I've developed into a pretty good FBL. He gets forward and brings ball out of defense.

Never before have I noticed him dribbling the ball from the FB position as deep into opponent territory as with this tactic. He dribbles half way into their half of the field, if there is open space now. That is pretty awesome for how this works, and he's doing it with a FBd role duty and the Wide Playmaker on his side of the field. It really helps to jump-start the attack.

[jc577]

Keep going with the updates mate, very intrigued to see how it's coming along. Seems that you're doing quite well, analysing and tweaking which is good to see! I've been busy all day today, so haven't been able to digest all your posts, but one thing that did stand out was changing your wide players from two wingers on support, adding in a WP, awesome  Didn't wanna give this away, but I initially started out with two wingers, one on support and the other on attack, and we didn't play through the middle at all which was quite concerning. We literally crossed and crossed, and crossed some more, which doesn't really work against packed defences. Changed one of the wingers to a WP and the whole dynamic of the tactic changed entirely. 

[jc577]

If I pick this save up again, this is what I'd like to experiment with for next season:

https://gyazo.com/5ae725fbce1231ee159c197e02844b58

The TIs + team shape are all centred around reducing space between the lines, so we're more compact in attack + defence. The winger on support could easily become a winger on attack, which would result in the IWB-A changing to a support duty, or even a FB-S. 

[noikeee]

I'm surprised if this would work with a regista, on this formation you need the DM to pretty much hold the midfield on its own, whilst the regista is pretty damn adventurous. Although I see you're going with restrained wingers, maybe they can help out a little.

If you just want a shortcut to what works (well obviously you don't since you're mentioned you want to enjoy the process of building this up, but I'm gonna mention this anyway ), look up @dafuge's career, he plays a wide diamond every version of the game, I had some fun back in the FM15 days trying to emulate his tactics. His version is essentially restrained fullbacks and DM, attacking wingers, almost splitting the team between a front 5 that attacks, a back 5 that defends - but that does indeed put a ton of pressure on the DM. In my FM15 career I used to have my DM picking up like 15 yellow cards per season.  Replaced him at half-time every other match.  

[Joey Numbaz]

13 hours ago, jc577 said:

Changed one of the wingers to a WP and the whole dynamic of the tactic changed entirely. 

Excellent, glad I stumbled on to that! Thanks for confirming it before I might have stumbled off of it 

So I finally have a nearly full squad working and we had an awful game at Harrisburg on the US Tour. Pulisic is from Hershey, so it was cool for him to go home (I went to college just outside of Harrisburg, 10 minutes from Hershey) and he scored!

But while on the surface, outshooting the other team 29-3 seems good, even if we only won 2-0, only 6 of our 29 shots were on target. Just 2 CCC (5 HC). 11 long shots. Crosses were way up again too, 77 attempts.

Harrisburg played a deep Brazilian Box. 4-2-2-2 with 2 DM and MC. For the first half, essentially every highlight was of us taking a corner and missing a header, so maybe that's not so bad. 

Looking at the shots more ... Pulisic, playing the WP on the left took 8 shots - the only one on target was the header that went in off of a very nice cross from the DW. The Regista didn't take a single shot, so that was good. Here's the chart:

Ok, looking at the crossing - the main culprit was Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, playing somewhat out of position as the defensive winger in the first half. 16 crosses, none completed. Alan Hill (an 18-year old wonderkid with 17 crossing already) played the same position in the second half and attempted 33 crosses! He at least completed 5 of them.

Checks the tactic ... crap, forgot to turn on "cross less" for that role.

Oh damn! I also forgot to flip the CF/AF to get the CF on the same side as the WP. OK, feeling a little better now.

For now, I am going to treat this as a one-off, and make sure I set the tactic up properly next time ... but I am concerned about this game.

13 hours ago, jc577 said:

https://gyazo.com/5ae725fbce1231ee159c197e02844b58

The TIs + team shape are all centred around reducing space between the lines, so we're more compact in attack + defence. The winger on support could easily become a winger on attack, which would result in the IWB-A changing to a support duty, or even a FB-S. 

Interesting take. Why the inverted WB when you already have a DM? Not saying I don't like, would just like to understand what the purpose is, maybe I could apply that too.

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

I'm surprised if this would work with a regista, on this formation you need the DM to pretty much hold the midfield on its own, whilst the regista is pretty damn adventurous. Although I see you're going with restrained wingers, maybe they can help out a little.

The specific Regista I'm planning to use is Amadou Diawara, who I picked up from Barcelona for a whole bunch of pounds, 68 million of them, plus incentives. He has 16 positioning, 16 work rate, 16 team work, 15 marking, 16 tackling, 14 concentration, 15 acceleration, pace, and strength. He also has stays back at all times (he doesn't in the role, but I think it keeps him back more than a typical Regista).

So the idea is that even as a Regista, he is a *very* defensive minded and defensively solid player. I want him to be Pirlo and Kanté all rolled into one. But more Kanté.

That being said, I could see myself changing him to a DLPd instead.

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

If you just want a shortcut to what works (well obviously you don't since you're mentioned you want to enjoy the process of building this up, but I'm gonna mention this anyway ),

Thanks! It's fun to try to figure it out on my own, but seeing what others have done helps a lot too. Especially for confirming when I'm on the right track. Anything along the lines of that's right, that isn't is welcomed.

[Joey Numbaz]

10 hours ago, noikeee said:

@dafuge's career, he plays a wide diamond every version of the game

Interesting that he uses the playmaker in the AMC slot, whereas I was using him out wide.

I have had a lot of trouble scoring on this US tour. Tons of shots, allowing nothing at all, but not great shots.

That being said, the U23 just played a friendly with AMs for the AMC position with IWs-WPs for the wingers, and won 5-0, outshot the other U23 team 27-0 and had 9 CCC. I guess I should give that combination a fair shake. We are playing PSG next, so that should be a good test.

[Joey Numbaz]

So we are off to a great start against PSG. Back to our early dominating ways, goals at 2' and 10' and 4 shots, 1 CCC and 1 HC in the first 10 minutes.

Another goal to go up 3-0 31' 8-6 in our favor shot-wise, 2-0 CCC, 3-1 HC. 5 on target.

Maybe this just doesn't work well at breaking down awful teams that park the bus. But against a great team playing a 4231 not too shabby. This is just beautiful in transition when we win the ball.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

So that was fun. We beat the snot out of PSG. The score was 5-3, but it wasn't that close. They got a goal on a corner, and another when Seamus Coleman messed up a pass back to the keeper. Although we got one when Sandro stole the ball from the keeper too.

We outshot them 20-14, 10-4 on target. 6-2 CCC, 6-3, HC. We each had 8 long shots, but for them 57% of theirs were long, only 40% of ours were. We only committed 3 fouls, they committed 13. Only 28 crosses attempted, which is much more my speed.

And this wasn't PSG playing a rotated side. They started Mbappé, Neymar, Eriksen, Mané, Soler, Verratti, Grimaldo, Kimpembe, Lindelöf, Hysaj, and Oblak.

We were playing at home, but I'll take it. Feeling much better now. Maybe the boys were just out partying in the States a lot. Pulisic must have shown them some of the clubs around Harrisburg and then they spent the week hungover.

Next up, Barcelona comes to Goodison.

[Joey Numbaz]

That Barcelona game sure was interesting. For a little background, we beat the holy hell out of Barcelona in the champions league last year. I'm talking 12 CCC in one game beat them. 2-0 at home (outshooting them 37-10) and 4-0 on the road and the 4-0 was the game we didn't play as well in. It's not like they are bad. They won La Liga.

So here's the stats from this friendly. Interesting that Messi at 35 was playing as a Trequartista in the STC position. They played a flat 4-4-1-1.

And yet we lost, 1-0. On a penalty kick. Oh well. I'm pretty happy with how it played. We could have won 4-1. Barcelona was 0-for-22 on crosses! We had 11 chances, 5 clear cut and 35 shots, 15 on target! 60% possession. 26% of crosses completed. Their keeper Ter Stegen deserves a medal.

We had many, many balls over the top. Sergej was playing as the CF and he'd get the ball around midfield and just boot it forward to a charging Sandro. Just couldn't finish any of them.

Went with IWs-WPs again for the wingers. I think I'm sticking with that until further notice.

8 offsides. Yikes. Not really sure how to reduce that. I feel like this is a gap in my knowledge from not having grown up with the game. Like there is some simple fix, but I don't know it and can't intuit it.

Passing chart looks pretty again.

Notice that de Ligt (5) to Sandro (11) combination though. That's pretty cool. Maybe I should make him a BPD ... Sandro has comes deep to get ball also, so maybe that's all it is?

So far so good ... and guess what. Pietro Pellegri comes back tomorrow (July 31). He should be ready for opening day. Whew.

Three friendlies left before we open up with Crystal Palace. Real Madrid, FC Bayern and Sporting Gijón. I think we're ready, but who the heck knows until we start playing games that count.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

That's what I'm talking about! Less than 2 minutes into his return, Pellegri finds the net.

It was beautiful. Pulisic as the MR-WPs gets the ball to the right of the center circle. Touré the fullback (on defend duty I might add) breaks down the line, Pulisic passes to Diawara the Regista who launches a long ball for Touré who dribbles downfield, hits Pellegri with a nice soft lofted cross and the header is perfect.

Sandro punches in another at 15' while I am typing this.

It's not all fun and games though. It's an up and down game and Madrid with their flat 4-4-2 are getting the better of the chances, including a nice goal from the RW Isco. They have 3 CCC and we have 3 HC at halftime, even though we've outshot them 11-9 with 6 on target to their 3. Completely different than the Barcelona game. Maybe against 2 strikers I should make the Regista a DLPd?

Isco scores again 55', when they transition sometimes it feels like we are playing with 9 men.

But we go up 3-2 with a nice header off of a free kick. Crazy back and forth action here.

At about 85' I move Milinkovic-Savic to DM and make him a DLPd. Yeah, that worked out ... here's the icing on the cake. Breakaway and once Donnarumma commits, Davies (AMs) passes it over to Onyekuru (ML-IWs) for the easy winner. The game stats are in that screenshot also. Fun, wide-open game. This is a fun tactic when working. Though the 5 CCC against were a little nerve-wrecking.

Passing picture too.

Bayern are next!

[Joey Numbaz]

I have played along a little, but haven't had time to write up, though I'll try tonight. I am about to play my 4th game of the regular season, first after the international break (September 10 game time). It's a huge game. United has won back-to-back trebles - FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League. You may recall they eliminated us 1-0 in the CL semi's two years ago and 1-1 on penalties in the final last season. They have put up 92-92-94 points in winning 3 of the last 4 Premierships. The one year they slipped to 81, I snuck in with 83 to win it all. We are 1-5 with 3 draws in the last 9 games against them, and that win was 2-1 in a Community Shield.

They are an amazing team right now. They are 3-0-0 outscoring their opponents 16-0 this year. This isn't a friendly at home against Real or PSG. This is an away league game against the best team in the world. Lukaku is basically a sub at this point, he comes in to score for the last 20-30 minutes of games. Jeez. We'll see what happens.

*****

Here's something from a 'right type of player' perspective about this tactic.

It's a nice to have if your CFs in this scenario can cross. He ends up out in the channel or even the right touchline with the wide playmaker a fair amount and will cross in when he thinks it's on.

During the first 3 games of the season Pellegri has attempted 25 crosses (completing just 3 (12%), partly because he's not on the other end of them , he does have 12 crossing).

The rest of the team is 19-for-66 (29%!) when crossing, which is pretty outstanding.

I am still not sure if this is:

1. a necessary evil, but I should try to minimize it - although you never know the unintended consequences of that. Or;
    
2. a potential area to improve and exploit - get that crossing up a few point and see what can happen. Maybe get an attacking midfielder, advanced forward, and/or inside forward left who are bigger to take advantage of this.

*****

Oh yeah, no Pellegri for this one. Out another two-three weeks after getting hurt on Italy duty again. What the heck are they doing to him out there?

Our U18s just beat the tar out of United earlier today 5-0 and we outshot them 23-3. In front of 185 die hards at Finch Farm. So maybe that's a sign of good things to come!