Kind of a new experience

[soft tofu]

Every time I started a save, I always have the attribute masking off and I will start my save at Perak FA in Malaysian Super League. Rather than trying to make a tactic around the best player in the team, I always try to implement my own style which is control possession. Hence, at the first transfer window I will try to find and sign the best technical local players.

What make it kind of hard is that at the start, there are six non-Asian player in the team. But the league rule stated that only four foreign players are allowed to play in a match and a maximum number of three non-Asian players are allowed. So I can only field three out of the six non-Asian player that I have which all of them are the best players in the team. Most of the time, I will try to offload all of them at the first transfer window or at the end of the season. But, after watching Zealand's video on his new long term save, I thought this need to change.

First, play with attribute masking.

Second, build a tactic that suits the player that I have at the start of the save.

Third, slowly build a more technical and possession based team.

The first objective is pretty simple, just turn on the attribute masking but for someone that have play with it off, it is pretty hard for me at the start. As I would like to save money as much as possible and generally the quality of the staffs aren't really good, I would offer two weeks trial to every interested free agents. The first priority is to find an Asian foreign player but they need to be better than the players at the club.

I have always play in a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or a 4-1-4-1 but to satisfy the second objective, I would need to look at Careca, a Brazilian midfielder.

At the first glance, I know I will play him at AM but he can certainly play at AMR as inverted winger. If this is my normal save, I will play him as the left Mezzala.

The next player is Guilherme, Brazilian striker.

He can definitely play most of the striker role, but I want to start simple so I play him as the Poacher. The other foreign players I have is another striker, another attacking midfielder, a defensive midfielder and a defender. Aside from the defender, the other three players will need to be offload.

As for the tactic, I want to play a direct style which is completely different than my preferred style. So, a two bank of four with one attacking midfielder right behind the striker. I want the team to invite pressure and play on the break.

As time went on however, only the goalkeeper, central defenders, attacking midfielder and the striker are having a good average rating so I changed.

This tactic is doing wonders at the moment for me. Gulherme is averaging 1 goal per game and not only that, all the players have a good average rating.

And since the change, we scores more. And as shown in the schedule, We won games with 1-0 thanks to Gulherme and Careca.

Third objective is still ongoing. As this is a different approach than the one I usually plays, I am quite satisfied with the result. So if anyone is afraid of playing the game different as I did before, give it a try. You never know if you didn't try.

[soft tofu]

The first season ended quite well with the team winning the league with only one loss. The 5-4-1 really did wonders. But on the last game, I started to experimenting with a more possession based tactic which led to our first defeat in the league.

Cup competition however is a different story. We exit early in the first cup competition and then were knocked out in the group stage for the other. For the second cup competition, I used possession based tactic for the entire run.

[soft tofu]

We had a pretty bad start for the second season as we're adapting to possession style. Experimented with 4-1-4-1 but the results were dissapointing so I switched to 4-3-3 with two attacking mezzalas. At the start, I have my right footed winger play as the right inside forward and my left footed winger play at the left but as the season went on, I switch their place.

Second half of the season went better with the team are now familiar with the tactic. We were challenging the title but the last day draw means we lost the title on goal differences.

Looking at the 2021 season, we conceded less and scored more as we are more patient in possession.

Guilherme's goal output has also taken a dip as he's playing on support.

We again falls short on Piala FA exiting at the third round. The defenders were making a lot of missed passes and didn't intercept what I think an easy ball.

But thankfully, we went all the way in Piala Malaysia.

So the second season ended in a pretty good fashion. As for transfers, we brought in a lot of wingers who are better with possession while Careca left us for a Brazilian Serie B club.

[soft tofu]

The tactic I used majority of the second season.

It is pretty much based on Pep's Man City. With two inverted wingback occupying the midfield, two wingers hugging the touchline and two midfielders occupying the half spaces. I use attacking mezzalas rather than on support as I want them to be a threat in the opponent's penalty box. Throw in are taken by the wingers as I saw that when the wingbacks are taking the throw in, they will push up more taking up the wide flank.

[abulezz]

Nice start to the save, although shame you couldnt repeat as champions. I like the tactic!

[soft tofu]

18 hours ago, abulezz said:

Nice start to the save, although shame you couldnt repeat as champions. I like the tactic!

Thanks. That last day really was disappointing but at least we got a silverware. That's nice.

[soft tofu]

Another difficult start to the season. Now I have TEN players on international duty and they're going to miss EIGHT games in the span of TWO months. Fortunately the local competitions don't need registration so I can play even trialist but with the team seating only on 4th, I would need more from the team to change for the better.

They already miss two games and only expected to return on 17th July.

And the goals have been scarce this season. We only managed to draw most of the game.

I have not really watch the game IRL but losing 10 players for two months is too much.

[soft tofu]

Thank god the national team failed to qualify. Now all players have returned.

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2023 season finally ended.

We did not have a good start to the league at all. We did turn it around after winning 3-1 against Pahang (a rival) but even with the momentum, we failed to  win some games that we should easily won. The match against Johor Darul Takzim dictate the league champion.

In the end, we only able to finish at 3rd although we were predicted to finish 1st.

In the cup competition however, we were pretty successful, winning both Piala FA and Piala Malaysia.

We were also unbeaten in the group stage of Asian Confederation Cup and we made it to the final only to lose 2-0.

Unsurprisingly, we had the most possession in the competitions.

League

Piala FA

Piala Malaysia

Asian Confederation Cup

There have been a minor tweak to the tactic. At first, I used a Tiki Taka, Vertical Tiki Taka and Gegenpressing tactics but in the end, I just use this one tactic.

We ended the season with 20 different goal scorers in which the top scorer is my left winger who scores a lot as IW but can't seem to score when playing as IF. He's been scoring a lot in the cup competitions.

Guilherme, the team's top scorer in the first season who is retiring at the end of this season have been drop to the bench in favor of a more creative player Pandi Lestaluhu.

Pandi isn't a natural finisher nor he is a natural striker but his movement and creativity in the final third is needed. He still scores 15 goals this season so that isn't bad.

There are some youth players that seems to be ready to make the jump into the first team so at the moment, the objectives that I have laid in the first season is going well. If we can get the next season off to a good start, then we will probably able to finally win the league.

[soft tofu]

Had a board takeover mid season and it seems the new board want the team to play direct football. Well, disappointment incoming.

[soft tofu]

Doing pretty well now.