[FM22] Aston Villa - Patience is a Virtue, Apparently

[GIMN]

"Hopefully it'll give us a bit of luck on the night, but I'm not really a superstitious person."
--Steven Gerrard

Every edition of FM, there are certain things I always do.  My first save is always with the team I support, Aston Villa.  My last save is always the team I support, but this time I'm able to apply the things I've "learned" over the course of the year and, perhaps more importantly, escape from the mundane reality of yet another mediocre Villa season.

This year, however, is different.

I'm still going to manage Villa.  I'm not bold enough to steer from that course.  But, as a fan, I know the team well.  I know which players I want to build around, and those I want to jettison out of the squad at the earliest opportunity.  So, rather than start from day one, I'm going to holiday through until Steven Gerrard leaves, whether that be for greener pastures having guided Villa to the heights of the Premier League or, more likely, having been unceremoniously sent packing as he sends Villa spiralling towards the Championship.  The hope is to inherit a squad that won't be so far removed from that which I'm familiar with, but will present a different set of challenges for FM22's final hurrah.

For those that have read either of my other two careers, there are a small handful of self-imposed rules that I go by:

• Use a graphical-attribute skin for players & staff
  • Attributes are shown by colour rather than numbers*
• Can only sign players who have been scouted
  • I can request scout reports for players it is reasonable for me to know (e.g. it's realistic to believe I am already aware of Cristiano Ronaldo; it's less realistic if I claim to know who Ivo Mammini is)
  • DOF responsible for all negotiations - I'll add players as transfer targets
• Coaches to be hired from:
  • Applications via Job Centre
  • Former Villa players (or whichever team I am managing at the time)

*It might help, if I add a key:

Finally, there is a Google Data Studio Report for Player Profiles here.  This might make it easier to find who is currently in the squad and how good/bad they are without having to scour through every post for screenshots!

Of course, first, I have to wait...

Edited October 16, 2022 by GIMN
Added rules, added key, changed title, added Data Studio link

[GIMN]

2021-22

Season 1 has run it's course, and Steven Gerrard remains in positions as Aston Villa's manager.  A 12th placed finish is respectable, but perhaps underwhelming given the players at his disposal.  47 points is a drop from his predecessor, Dean Smith's, final season in charge, and surely the board are starting to contemplate if he is the right man for the job.  Or at least, I would hope they are.  Sadly for me, his position is considered stable and a mid-table finish is hardly thrusting him into the spotlight for a supposed "bigger" job.

Danny Ings lead the team with 11 league goals; the only player to reach double figures, whilst Lucas Digne's 8 assists were enough to secure himself a £47m end-of-season transfer to Newcastle.

True to real life, Man City defended their title from Liverpool, whilst Norwich and Watford returned to the Championship.  Burnley massively outperformed reality, and that consigned Brentford to relegation.  Sheffield United, not Nottingham Forest, joined Fulham and Bournemouth in promotion to the Premier League for the 22/23 season.

Elsewhere, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich won their respective leagues.  Man City finally managed to get their elusive hands on the Champions League trophy, AS Monaco were Europa League winners, and Tottenham secured the inaugural Europa Conference League.

The wait continues...

Edited October 1, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

2022-23

It is often said that "it is not what you know, but who you know".  It certainly feels that way, as Gerrard's friendship with Villa chairman Christian Purslow shows no signs of strain despite a season of regression.  Villa plummet to 15th and an uninspiring points tally of 43, yet there are no signs that Gerrard's position is in any danger.

A slight defensive improvement on the season before, bolstered by the summer signings of Joe Rodon and Ethan Pinnock, came at the expense of attacking output, as Villa barely mustered a goal per game.  Emi Buendia finished the season as top scorer with 9 goals.  Ianis Hagi, Quincy Promes and Vincenzo Grifo all came in to fill the spot vacated by the end of Coutinho's loan, and they managed a whopping 3 goals and 2 assists between them.

Liverpool returned to the summit of the Premier League, with West Ham a shock 3rd place finisher.  Crystal Palace, managed at times by former England manager Gareth Southgate, tumbled into the championship alongside yo-yo specialists Fulham and an abysmal Sheff Utd.  Nottingham Forest secured their promotion to the Premiership, just one season later than real life, with Watford and Brentford also making their return.

Bayern Munich won their 11th consecutive Bundesliga, and were crowned champions of Europe, whilst Juventus also successfully defended their league title.  La Liga headed back to Real Madrid now managed by Jorge Sampaoli.  Porto and Lazio were winners of the Europa League and Europa Conference league respectively.

France retained the World Cup, demolishing Belgium 3-0 in the final, in a competition that was perhaps most notable for only 1 non-European team, Mexico, making it to the Quarter Finals.  Despite being knocked out in the 2nd round by Norway, Luis Suarez finished as top scorer with 7 goals.

I'm still waiting...

Edited October 1, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

2023-24

The 3rd Premier League season has concluded, and Villa continue to regress despite strong flirtation with the relegation zone.  A 36-point tally saw Gerrard's position become insecure, but Villa stuck with him through the season.  Whilst it would've taken an unprecedented 12-goal swing in on the final day for things to change, Villa's safety was eventually confirmed as Leeds fell 2-0 to Brighton.

Yet another season without a double-digit league goal scorer, it was this time Ollie Watkins who lead the way with 9 goals.  John McGinn's 5 assists lead the team, but it was arguably his early goal against Liverpool in a 1-0 win that was his most important contribution - giving Villa their final win of the season before they sputtered to a winless 4-game streak.

Man City regained the league title, on the back of their £134m striker, Erling Haaland, whilst Bournemouth and Brentford joined Leeds in dropping to England's second division.

Juventus made it 3-in-a-row in Italy, whilst Barcelona were victorious in Spain.  No prizes for guessing who won the Bundesliga, as Bayern Munich continue to dominate the German scene.

Before European cups could be wrapped up, however I wanted to take a look at Villa's performance over the season, and Teflon Steve's ability to keep his job.

Astonishingly, Villa had been in the bottom 6 since GW14, yet confidence in Gerrard only started to wane towards the latter stages.  Defeat to Chelsea in GW32 was the first time Gerrard's job security dropped below stable despite Villa having found themselves in the relegation places prior to then.  It was also short lived, as wins over Brighton and Villa quickly restored that security.  A superior goal difference meant Villa went in to the final game of the season having virtually secured Premier League football the next season, and it seemed that Gerrard's job was safe as long as he avoided relegation...

...or not.  Finally, the moment I've been waiting for has arrived.

Edited October 1, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

A Hero Returns

With the club in turmoil, Villa's next managerial appointment is truly make-or-break.  Julen Lopetegui was by far the most high-profile candidate, but has no experience of English football, Marco Silva has gone through 7 clubs in the last 10 years and Gabriel Heinze hasn't had many suitors since leaving Atlanta United in 2021.  MK Dons manager, Liam Manning, has a growing reputation, but what has he actually achieved?

With the Gerrard experiment having failed, there was a growing nostalgic sentiment for Dean Smith amongst large portions of the fan base.  Sure, towards the end of his tenure and after Grealish had been sold, Villa lacked an identity.  The same fans who are now remembering him fondly, were the ones clamouring for his dismissal.  But hindsight is a wonderful thing.  Villa had made a statement with the signings of Buendia, Bailey, Coutinho, etc... and there was great optimism that the team could push for European qualification, and Smith just hadn't shown that he was the man to do that.  But, he was one of us. A Villa fan.  Part of the Claret & Blue army.  No-one could deny his affinity with the Villa faithful and, in an age where fans feel increasingly disconnected from their teams, this was invaluable.

With this in mind, the Villa board turned their hand to finding someone whose connection to the club runs deep.  Step forward, Ian Taylor.  A lifelong fan, and iconic former player was the perfect candidate.  As club ambassador, he was already well regarded within the Villa hierarchy, and having completed his training badges in secret, he was ready to be their saviour in this time of need.

Of course, it is not without risk.  Taylor has no managerial experience and the fans' grace will only last so long if results are not forthcoming.

A Squad in Stagnation

With 3 seasons having passed, it would be expected that there has been a lot of changes to their squad.  Whilst there's been a lot of movement, perhaps the most telling situation is that the Best XI I've inherited is not far removed from what I would've expected at the beginning of the game:

Alex Meret, Jamal Lewis and Ianis Hagi come in for Emi Martinez, Lucas Digne and Phillipe Coutinho respectively.  In each scenario, these players were signed after their predecessors were sold.  I think it would be fair to say that all 3 are a downgrade.  Whilst none of them are bad players, it's pretty easy to see why the team has regressed over the last 3 years.

And this isn't through a lack of trying.  Looking just at the senior team, 13 players have been signed and 13 have been sold (3 of which are future transfers).  There are some good players, too.  Devyne Rensch and Ronnie Edwards are both young and versatile whilst Harry Winks is an upgrade (in my opinion) on Douglas Luiz.  Vincenzo Grifo looks like a really good squad player, too.  Here's a summary of the changes:

One of the most noticeable things is we have a very large squad.  When I include youngsters who I would want to have in and around the first team, there's 31 players in the senior squad.  That is, without a doubt, too many.  Whilst I have a sizeable war chest - £52m (185k wages) - I'd be keen to cut the squad down first before strengthening.  Generally speaking, I consider 4 groupings for outfield players; DEF (centre backs), WB (full backs and wing backs), MID (defensive midfielders, central midfielders and attacking midfielders) and ATT (wingers and strikers).  In this current squad, we have 13 players I would consider belonging to ATT which is not just excessive, but perhaps embarrassing considering the teams underwhelming attacking performances.  This is going to be the area with the most casualties.  I am actually happy with my DEF, whilst WB and MID just need a little trimming.  Obviously this all depends on finding buyers for the deadwood, but my current intentions is to play a 3-4-3.

In an ideal world, the squad would end up looking like this (with some players being able to play in multiple positions if needed):

Ethan Pinnock and Ollie Watkins would be further casualties if I can find the right marquee players to replace them.  This does mean, however, there are a lot of candidates I'm trying to push out the door:

Purple (contract expiring)
Red (transfer list)
Green (loan list)

One thing is for sure - it promises to be an interesting summer.  I tend to veer more towards evolution than revolution, so being in a situation where an overhaul is needed brings a nice challenge to the table.  Furthermore, the backroom is looking pretty empty, and with the self-imposed restrictions in place, I'm glad I'm able to start the job in May.  Gives me a little bit of time to build some shortlists!  Once I've got a better idea of the squad going into the season, I can hopefully have a firmer idea on the tactical approach, too.  I have an idea around having a central philosophy, but with the positions and roles changing depending on personnel available (or maybe trying to exploit a specific opposition weakness).  But that can be for the next update.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by GIMN
Remove extraneous images

[13th Man]

Good to see you back!  I enjoyed waiting for Gerrard's sacking even if it was just a handful of updates read all at once.  Nice gradual decline until his position was untenable...

[GIMN]

2 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Good to see you back!  I enjoyed waiting for Gerrard's sacking even if it was just a handful of updates read all at once.  Nice gradual decline until his position was untenable...

Cheers, glad to be back (the usual work/life getting in the way) - I'm reading through the other threads at the moment.  Ironic that I've managed to return in time for Ben to wrap up his big save.

It actually took me 3 days to set up this save.  Essentially on holidaying 1 week at a time, in case he was appointed at a different club.  First couple of times, he got sacked within the first season, and I felt that wasn't enough of a wait.  Then, we he finally survived the first season, he seemed untouchable.  There wasn't even a hint of pressure in the season he finished 15th, and with the board seemingly placated after the win against Liverpool, I thought he'd managed to keep the job for at least another summer.

[GIMN]

A Summer of Change

When Gerrard was shown the door, his backroom staff left with him.  Gone was Gary McAllister, Michael Beale and Tom Culshaw.  It was clear that the buck stopped him with him.  Or, so it was thought.

Shortly after, DOF, Johan Lange was also given his marching orders along with almost the entire recruitment and medical team.  All of their contracts were due to expire at the end of the season, and now seemed like a good opportunity to make wholesale changes.  I was quick to promote Sean Verity and Mile Jedinak from the U18 coaching set-up to Senior Assistant Manager and coach respectively; whilst Mark Harrison was the only senior member of staff (HoYD) to have his contract extended.  Sean Verity had been part of the backroom setup since 2007, seeing the development of players like Jack Grealish, Jacob Ramsey and Carney Chukwuemeka.  Jedinak had joined as a player in 2016 and played a pivotal part in our return to the Premier League, eventually taking up a coaching role after his retirement.

Keeping those guys around was important to maintain a little semblance of continuity whilst I wait for the job applications to come in.  6 weeks and 23 new hires later, we have a backroom staff.

There are 3 hires, in particular, that I hope will shape things to come.  Firstly, Guillermo Amor,  the former Barcelona player and director - I'm hoping his La Masia education will shine through in his scouting focus, and we'll see a plethora of technically talented youngsters unearthed to help catapult us back up the league.  José Boto comes in as Director of Football, having previously been an integral part of the set-ups at Benfica, Shakhtar and PAOK.  Like Amor, he has a penchant for passing Tiki-Taka football, and I'm hoping to that we can align the backroom staff all towards a common goal.  And that brings me to Björn Hamberg - he's followed Graham Potter all the way from Ostersunds, and will play a key part in coaching the mental aspect of the game.

Guillermo Amor

Spoiler

José Boto

Spoiler

Björn Hamberg

Spoiler

Whilst the staffing overhaul was underway, a similarly ruthless approach was being taken with the players.  Those players identified in the previous post were transfer listed and offered out to bidders.  I did have a change of heart when it came to Ollie Watkins however.  Or, perhaps more specifically, I noticed he was considered a Team Leader and I chickened out.

We found suitors for every other player, with  Douglas Luiz being the only player I had to compromise on asking price.

14 players sold or released (Smith, Nakamba, Wesley and Traore arranged before I took over), £102m received.  Not a single player signed, although a £1.4m bid has been tabled for Man City's Gavin Bazunu to join as 3rd choice/U23s goalkeeper.

If Bazunu joins, that will bring the senior squad to 23 players (including the few youngsters I want to have in and around the first team), which is a much more manageable size as far as I'm concerned.  New contracts were given to Leon Bailey (removed a release fee clause) and Emi Buendia (stave away interest from Arsenal) who I hope will be the two players I build the team around.  Tyrone Mings was also extended, whilst youngsters Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey and Carney Chukwuemeka were also tied up on long term deals.  We've yet to reach pre-season, but things are going to plan.  And things going to plan means, I can unleash my tactical revolution upon the unsuspecting world.

"Tactical revolution" might have been hyperbole, but sometimes you have to be your own cheerleader.  It's pretty straightforward, in possession I want us to progress the ball methodically whilst giving the attacking players the freedom to do their own thing.  With intentions to utilise a 3-2-5 in build up, I have bodies up top to engage in counter-pressing, although there will be some slight quirks in how we plan to approach this.  The biggest thing, however, is that the formation and roles are likely to change depending on players available and who we're playing against.  As such it's difficult to provide one tactic here, but below are some of the combinations I'm thinking of trying at various points throughout the season:

In all scenarios, however, the wing-backs are instructed to Close Down Less.  Despite the counter-press, I am aware that the flanks are vulnerable and I want them to drop back when we lose the ball, leaving the onus on the double pivot to help apply pressure alongside the strikers.  Ignoring the final example, the 3 at the back are expected to stay deep, providing spacing for recycling the ball and protection for when we do lose possession.  With that extra man in the backline, there is less of a need for a defensive minded midfielder.  There's a risk we're going to conceded quite a few goals, but I'm confident we'll be able to score a far few, too.

The tactic also sees the return of my much beloved off-set false 9s which have, without a doubt, become my favourite role in this year's game.  Initially a response to the combat the ease with which opposition players were keeping Inverted Wingers on the outside, I've found the false 9 to be a great way to get my technical wingers into the half space and able to drive either inside or out depending on the situation.  Whenever a player lines up in either the STCR or STCL slot, they'll also be required to defensively mark the opposition full-back, helping to give protection down the exposed flank.

Of course this is all theory at the moment.  A pre-season training camp in Germany is mere days away and, as always, that should give a lot of insight into how the above might change.

I expect that the key to success here will be flexibility, and this is why I want to build around Bailey and Buendia.  Both are technically capable and can fill multiple roles within the attacking third.  I see Bailey being able to play as a Winger, a False 9 or an Advanced Forward.  There may even be some situations where he's played as an Inside Forward off the right.  Buendia slots in more as a False 9 or Trequartista, as well as a winger on the right.  Watkins can even shift out into one of those wider roles in case I need a more physical presence through the middle.

Leon Bailey

Spoiler

Emi Buendia

Spoiler

Whilst those two will hopefully be the stars of the show, I'm a sucker for the squad players that really help to give you options.  The real driving force behind this approach is Devyne Rensch.  He's a completely average player (with scope for growth) who is comfortable with both feet and can play a number of positions.  He's not strong enough aerially, however, to play CB, and his crossing is poor.  This makes him a great candidate as an IWB or in a supporting CM role.  As with the first tactic example, an IWB on the left gives me the opportunity to push Bailey out wide and create space for someone like Jacob Ramsey to take on a more attacking role from the central midfield position.  For attacking versatility, I have Vincenzo Grifo.  He's not a player I think I'd ever sign, and he's unlikely to start many games, but he looks like he can be an impact player from the bench in a multitude of positions, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that will allow me to tweak things during games.

Devyne Rensch

Spoiler

Vincenzo Grifo

Spoiler

Nothing left to do now, but play out pre-season...

[13th Man]

Fascinating setups - love the shapes I can imagine happening and the various combinations.

Like my narrower 3atb shapes the weakness is, as you say, the flanks (except the 5-2-3/3-4-3 wide). Interesting that you have the WBs close down less - I ended up going the opposite way over time to not allow any space to attack, but I think you might be wise in that you’ll almost always have 3 very attacking players.

Whats the thinking behind the HB in the 3-4-1-1 to the far right? Seems like that would almost create a back four - though I guess you have the WCB on attack bombing forward ahead of him?

All should make for some interesting football!

[_Ben_]

On 01/10/2022 at 08:48, GIMN said:

Ironic that I've managed to return in time for Ben to wrap up his big save.

Ahh, but you see - I'm a Villa fan so I'm all over this! All I ask is that you actually create a style of play and give opportunities to our young players, because that's what I've been missing! If you feel the need to bin off Carney, I'm not overly fussed, either!

I was really tempted to start a save with Villa again for a month or so but I think waiting until the newer version - probably on the Beta - sounds like a better option. I can watch this from afar and enjoy, anyway.

[GIMN]

5 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Fascinating setups - love the shapes I can imagine happening and the various combinations.

Like my narrower 3atb shapes the weakness is, as you say, the flanks (except the 5-2-3/3-4-3 wide). Interesting that you have the WBs close down less - I ended up going the opposite way over time to not allow any space to attack, but I think you might be wise in that you’ll almost always have 3 very attacking players.

Whats the thinking behind the HB in the 3-4-1-1 to the far right? Seems like that would almost create a back four - though I guess you have the WCB on attack bombing forward ahead of him?

All should make for some interesting football!

Yeah I was tempted to do as you said, in making the wingbacks close down more, but as I'm not really relying on any truly defensive midfielders, I think I'm going to need them to drop back quickly.  In my head I imagine it almost like a cantilever when we lose the ball.  The wing-backs drop as the central midfielders come up to engage the counter-press.  This may actually make things worse, as that's a lot of central pressing, which might encourage the opposition to go wide.  Although with my wing-backs dropping back maybe that's okay.  I'm confusing myself now!

Correct with the HB, too.  I'm keen to maintain that 3-2-5 approach, and with Tyrone Mings already having runs with ball down the left, I envision he will essentially act more like a traditional wing-back.  The HB can drop in to form the back-three, whilst the DLP and IWB create the midfield pivot.  Theories and practice, however, don't always go hand-in-hand, and the one time I did employ this in pre-season it didn't quite work.  Mings did provide the attacking width I wanted, but the IWB didn't seem to tuck in as much as I expected and the two got in each others way.  There seemed to be the space for the IWB, too, so it might just be a case of tweaking a couple of things.

19 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Ahh, but you see - I'm a Villa fan so I'm all over this! All I ask is that you actually create a style of play and give opportunities to our young players, because that's what I've been missing! If you feel the need to bin off Carney, I'm not overly fussed, either!

I was really tempted to start a save with Villa again for a month or so but I think waiting until the newer version - probably on the Beta - sounds like a better option. I can watch this from afar and enjoy, anyway.

Some good news, then! - Ramsey, Chukwuemeka (sorry!), Philogene-Bidace and Archer all look like they're going to feature in some capacity after impressive pre-season performances.  Kaine Kessler and Josh Feeney are also in the senior squad now, and whilst Kessler will get some game time, I don't think Feeney is ready yet.  Ideally, I would've been included Kerr Smith as well, but his contract was allowed to expire by my predecessors and Hibs snapped him up on a pre-contract deal.  I'm pretty gutted about that as he's looking like he's going to develop into a pretty decent player

Spoiler

I wasn't going to write about this save, initially, as I'm only just getting back into FM and I'm not sure of the longevity of it with 23 around the corner, however...

...it looks like I'm going to be working in India around the time the beta/full game is released, so I'm not going to be able to get wrapped up in the hype as I inevitably do each year.  With that in mind, I might not buy FM23 as soon as I get back, so they're could be some legs in this yet.  It's all ifs and buts at the moment, but I'll guess I'll find out when it happens!

[GIMN]

Something is Better Than Nothing, Right?

José Boto was tasked with negotiations for Man City's Irish goalkeeper, Gavin Bazunu.  A £1.4m bid and offer of a backup role was enough to prize the youngster from the Etihad, and we have our first signing!

Spoiler

 

A solid back-up, with room to improve, but it's highly unlikely he's ever going to be first choice.  He is an improvement on Lovre Kalinic and will likely take a bench spot unless there's a clash with an U23 fixture (I'd prefer he plays for the U23s over sitting on the bench).  More importantly, it means I now have 3 goalkeepers as none of the youth prospects looked up to snuff.

With pre-season now wrapped up, he remains our only signing, although I do hope to change that.  I'll get to that a little later.  Until then, a quick look at the friendlies:

Let's face it, it's difficult to really determine if things are working in pre-season as the majority of the games are about building fitness and cohesion.  Nonetheless, 7 wins and 25 goals is an encouraging sign.  Tactically, we looked solid and I was seeing the things I wanted to see.  We progressed the ball sensibly, not afraid to pass sideways or backwards if the situation called for it, but when we are able to get one of our attacking players into space, they were looking to drive towards goal. Sadly the Data Hub and/or analytics is a little bit useless for this, as I was often changing between different set-ups multiple times in the game as I looked to see how different players handled different roles.

I don't think I've used the Run At Defence instruction ever before now, or, if I have, it's many years ago.  The majority of teams I manage end up near the bottom of Dribbles Attempted, and I was looking to rectify this as there are a number of talented dribblers, or "dribbly bois", in the team.  An unexpected benefit has been a surfeit of penalties, with us winning a spot kick in each of the last 4 games.  It may, of course, just be coincidence.

Perhaps surprisingly, the biggest challenge came in the form of Holstein Kiel. 

They fielded a narrow 5-2-2-1 and our centre-backs seemed to struggle with handling third-man runs from the attacking midfielders.  I tried to respond using the HB variant to little success, but instead found some joy by giving some lopsided marking instructions to enable me to have a free man in the back-line.  On the left side, where I had a winger, they were responsible for the opposition wing-back, whilst my IWB was given marking instructions on the AMCR.  On the right side, my WB was responsible for his counterpart with my F9 given the task of dropping into the midfield to disrupt their deeper options.  They did score, but that was more of a reflection of the poor marking skills of 19-year old, 6th choice CB Josh Feeney.  Against Barnsley we came up against the same formation, and this time using what we learned we ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against what is, respectfully, a better side that Holstein Kiel.

Due to injuries, we did shift to a 3-4-1-2 with a Trequartista behind two Advanced Forwards and used it again in spells against Napoli to good effect.  Going forward, I've settled on two/three formations:

Whilst I expect there will be some game specific tweaks, I think these are going to represent the main base that I'll be using (there is a flipped version of the first tactic, too).  There are some role specific instructions:

IWB - Close Down Less, Take Fewer Risks
WB - Close Down Less, Take Fewer Risks, Stay Wider
CAR - Tackle Harder
CM - Dribble More
F9 - Move Into Channels
AF - Dribble More

Of course tactics are only half the battle, and with an opening fixture against Everton just 8 days away, there's quite a few personnel decisions to be made.

In defence, Ethan Pinnock has played his way into the starting line-up ahead of Joe Rodon for the middle CB role.  Whilst Rodon's average rating has been higher, he's made fewer tackles and Pinnock does a better job of carrying the ball out of defence when the opportunity presents itself.  The same could be said of Ronnie Edwards, who has impressed me playing as a WCB.  His ability to play in midfield, too, means he's likely to see a reasonable amount of game time.  There is one problem, though.  Pinnock is unhappy with his game time (a carry over from last season), which is understandable considering he's played 15 games in the last 2 seasons.  Whilst he's slated to start, it is a position I'm actively scouting for and it might be best to cash in on interest in him from Sampdoria and Genoa.  I've managed to placate him so far, and I'd prefer to keep him around and sell off the Joe Rodon Experience, as he's also attracting interest and will fetch a considerably higher fee.

Carney Chukwuemeka and Jacob Ramsey are fighting it out for the CM - Att role (when I use it).  With Ramsey missing some games due to injury, Chukwuemeka was impressive both in his ability to break into the box and in his willingness to harass opposition and win the ball-back.  His aerial presence in an otherwise diminutive midfield is an additional plus.  To be honest, 4 games into pre-season the starting spot was his.  Once he returned, however, Ramsey might've wrestled that place back.  He's not been as good breaking forward, nor defending, but he's been more effective with the ball - taking advantage of the snowball-effect from beating his man to play in one of the players ahead of him.  Neither player appears to be particular special, attribute wise, but both look like they'll be able to contribute this season.

Jacob Ramsey

Spoiler

Carney Chukwuemeka

Spoiler

Up front, Leon Bailey and Emi Buendia are almost certainly going to start every game when fit.  Whilst Vincenzo Grifo's stats look amazing, it has been bolstered by penalties and corner assists.  Buendia should have had more assists, had it not been for some poor finishing, as he's been excellent at dropping into midfield and playing angled balls over the top for his team-mates.  Bailey has just been a joy whether he's played as a False 9 or Winger, seemingly causing problems whoever he's up against.  His shooting has been a bit on the wasteful side, but I know that's not the strength of his game.  Jaden Philogene-Bidace was also impressive, but is unlikely to get the start ahead of the other three.  I do expect him to feature, though.

That leaves one spot, and this is probably the biggest conundrum.  Ollie Watkins missed the first two games due to an abdominal injury and was working his way back to fitness.  In his absence, Cameron Archer was phenomenal - he might've played 40% more minutes, but he scored 200% more goals, including 2 to wrap up the win against Napoli.  That alone should be enough to suggest a passing of the guard, but it's key to point out that Watkins has done a much better job of both pressing and maintaining possession.  To complicate matters further, Emiliano Garcia, a 20 year-old Mexican signed last season from Puebla, scored twice in just 50 minutes of football.  He was away for the Olympics meaning I didn't get much of an opportunity to see him in our system, but there is certainly the possibility that he could move up the pecking order.

This quandary, whilst unlikely to be solved by the opening fixture, may be remedied another way.  For all of their work-rate and attacking instinct, I do lack an element of physicality up front.  I had considered selling Watkins, then decided to keep him, and I'm now starting to favour trying to sell him once more.  Although this is dependent on finding the right man for the job.  Pietro Pellegri has been suggested by my scouts, and an impressive 25 goals in Ligue 1 last season definitely works in his favour.  His injury proneness causes me fewer concerns than it should, as I just see that as an opportunity for the youngsters to get more starts.  There are two other players, however, that have also been brought to my attention:

Right now, Ivan Toney is my preferred option.  Despite being older, and slightly worse both mentally and physically, his better passing and technique feel more appropriate for what I'm trying to do.  Both players, however, have the pace and work rate to be effective in my system, and I think they'd both offer the steel I am otherwise missing in the team.  Having made wholesale cuts to the squad over the summer, affordability is not an issue, as I sitting rather idly on a £128m transfer budget and a £610k wage budget.

An upgrade on Ethan Pinnock is also being scouted, with the shortlist having narrowed to 3 players.  It was 4, but whilst I waited for my scouts to do their thing, CSKA Moscow's Igor Diveev signed a new contract.

Ilya Zabarnyi

Spoiler

Diogo Leite

Spoiler

Manuel Akanji

Spoiler

The team currently lacks anyone that excels at marking, so Akanji is the obvious choice.  He's transfer listed by request and is the most experienced.  He's also only got a slight interest.  Same for Leite, who according to the scouts is currently the best and also is left footed, which would give me balance/cover for Mings at LCB, too.  Zabarnyi is probably the most exciting, given his age and mental acuity.  Whilst he is the weakest marker out of the 3, he does have elite concentration which, one could argue, is even more important.  He is probably my first choice for those reasons, but he is also courting interest from Tottenham and if they bid for him, I doubt we'll have a chance.

For both positions, I'm happy to go into the season with what I've got and exercise some patience.  With years of regression, I am wary that Villa are in a weak negotiating position compared to other Premier League teams, so I'm hoping that I may be able to pick one of these guys up on transfer deadline day by leaving other teams little to no time to react.  It's a risky strategy, not just because it isn't guaranteed to succeed, but also because it gives me very little opportunity to offload the players they would likely replace.

Next up...the season is finally here.

Edited October 2, 2022 by GIMN
Etihad, not Emirates. Oops!

[GIMN]

An Implied Behavioural Contract

I can neither remember the exact details nor the source, but many years ago I read about how attempts to impress in the early stage of a relationship can create an implied behavioural contract that will often set the tone for its entirety.  Not the grand gestures, but the small little things that can almost become a millstone to the relationship.  Bringing your significant other coffee in bed every morning, making the same corny joke when a regular thing happens, and so on.  As time passes, some of these routines can drop off, and without consciously knowing it can be perceived as an indicator that the love is no longer there (whereas in reality, it's that you forgot or some other event has taken precedent).  I don't know how valid the thesis was but, nonetheless, it has me thinking about how sometimes you can set out to do something that you ultimately no is unlikely to continue forever and how, if that isn't communicated, that can be perceived by others.

Thankfully, in the world of Football Manager, the players have absolutely no idea about your intentions or efforts outside of the limited interactions the game allows.  So when I attend Everton's last friendly in preparation for our season opener against them the following week. there is no implied contract that I will be paying this level of attention to every opponent going forward.  Which is good, because whilst I'd love to do this for every game, I'm pretty certain I'm going to get bored of it quickly!

But, with that in mind, let's take a look at Everton.

Frank Lampard is still in charge, and guided Everton into the Europa Conference League for this season after finishing 7th.  They're big signing (that doesn't appear here because it happened before the season change over date) is Pedro Porro from Man City, and with Mykolenko sold, it looks like he'll slot in at right back and Amir Dedic will be playing on the left.  As Dedic is right footed and more defensively minded, this makes them quite lopsided - very narrow on the left, and very wide on the right.  Watching their 3-0 victory over PSV in pre-season, there was a clear pattern emerging with them building up on the left, playing it back to Abdoulaye Doucoure at MCL, who would then switch play out to the right.  Two of their goals were scored from this, so I'll be looking to press whoever plays in that midfield role in the hopes of cutting it off at the source.

Everton are also a tall team.  Morten Thorsby looks like he will slot in as the more defensive-minded midfielder, and he adds further height to a team that is already likely to feature Calvert-Lewin as a target in the box.  I've set extra focus this week in training on the aerial aspect of the game accordingly.

Going forward, I'm in two minds: either of the IWB variants are plausible.  On one hand, I could play the IWB and W on the right - this is perhaps the more attacking approach, as I'll be looking to exploit Dedic being on his wrong side even though he is defensively quite capable.  This would have Bailey as a F9 on the left, who'll be able to drift into the space vacated by Porro, and potentially be a significant threat on the counter attack.  It will, however, leave us with only 1 player on that left flank, and that might be too risky with Porro and a winger on that side.  The IWB and W on the left would perhaps be more pragmatic, matching up against their formation a lot better, although it means we'll be more reliant on individual brilliance than tactical mismatches for our chances.  Given we are the away side, and Everton are better than us, this is likely the route I'll choose (despite being the boring option).  This does mean that we might create fewer chances than I'd like, so we'll have to be clinical in front of goal.

With all that in mind - here is this week's prep:

If we can avoid injuries during the week, this is my likely line-up.  Archer gets the reward for his pre-season performance - his goals against a strong Napoli side gives me confidence he might be able to perform against Premier League defences.  Chukwuemeka to get the nod ahead of Ramsey, mainly for his height - it's not as if he is particularly good in the air, but the rest of our midfield are definitely vertically challenged.

In defence, I'm thinking of handing Ronnie Edwards his debut.  As mentioned before, I like his ability to carry the ball out of defence, and whilst Ethan Pinnock impressed me during pre-season, I'm scared about his ability to hold up against Dominic Calvert-Lewin, so I'm keen to deploy Mings in the centre, where his greater athleticism might be needed.

Thankfully, the week played out with no incidents, so come match day we were able to see the plan, as intended, in action.

An absolutely cracking match to start the season!  We rode our luck, most notably with Meret saving Alli's penalty, but there was a lot to be encouraged by.  Removing the penalty from the equation, we restricted Everton to 0.07xg per chance, whilst average 0.2xg ourselves.  This is kind of what I was expecting going into this game - they were the better team, and we set up to restrict Everton rather than trying to impose our will.  We can disappointed that, despite our work on the training field, their goal was scored from a corner.  We did, however, respond immediately with Bailey getting a free header inside the 6 yard box to head home Matty Cash's deep cross.  Cash could and should have had more assists, as he twice set-up Chukwuemeka who was denied both times by Pickford.

The winner came courtesy of a set-piece of our own.  Archer rising at the far post to force a good save from Pickford, before smashing home the rebound.  I hadn't realised it, but that was Archer's debut in this universe, as he had been left in the U23s by Gerrard up until now.  Philogene-Bidace also made only his 2nd senior appearance, coming on for Bailey early in the second half after the Jamaican winger had picked up a slight knock.

As identified beforehand, a lot of Everton's chances came from switching play to the right flank, and despite our set-up we can see they had a lot of chances from this side.  That said, most of these were in the 2nd half and entirely my fault.  In addition to bringing on Philogene-Bidace, Jamal Lewis replaced a tired Matty Cash and I pushed Rensch into the RWB spot.  This necessitated a change of roles, which left the other debutant, Ronnie Edwards, too exposed.  Everton substitute, Anthony Gordon had a couple of great chances that would've been goals had it not been for Meret's heroics.  On another day, I would've been punished for those changes.  Eventually, I brought on Winks for Chukwuemeka to help add some more defensive support, and that seemed to be enough to see out the game.  Hopefully a lesson learned.

There were a couple of moments in the game that really stuck with me, in terms of how I want to see the tactics to play out, that I want to focus a bit more on.

Firstly our Chukwuemeka's chance in the opening 5 minutes.  Everton had an opportunity to counter, when Sarr switched the ball out to the left and Cash misjudged his header.  Rather than pursuing Harit down the wing, Cash dropped back, whilst Konsa came out to engage and the other centre-backs shifted across.

Whilst there's a big gap between the LCB and LWB, there's no route for Harit to get the ball there, and Rensch is well positioned to track any run that Sarr might make.  Instead Harit's only option is inside to Szymanski.  Fortunately for us, Buendia is there to cut out the pass, turn and run down that right flank, draw the Everton defence towards him, before laying it back to Cash.  Archer's movement has dragged Mina over and created space for Chukwuemeka to break from deep, and within 8 seconds of Everton losing possession we have a gilt edged chance to score.

Cash's delivery was pinpoint, dropping the ball over the defence to about the penalty spot.  Pickford was well placed, however, and able to get enough of a touch to keep out Chukwuemeka's volley.

Midway through the 2nd half, there was a moment I thought we were in big trouble.

At the bottom of the pitch, Everton have two men over.  Philogene-Bidace (#35) has abandoned his man and started to move inside.  Dedic, who is right footed is in a good position to shift the ball-inside and either play an ambitious ball over the top into that right channel, or square it across to Thorsby who has the space to try and do the same.  Buendia is able to apply pressure from inside, however, forcing Dedic to play into Harit on the left wing, and give us time to recover our shape.

It's not perfect, as Everton still have a possible overload on the right flank, but there isn't an easy route for the ball to get there.  Rensch is now in position to prevent the ball over the top, and the cross field pass is going to give time for Philogene-Bidace to get back into his spot.  Instead, Everton have to work the ball through their central midfielders to get Dele Alli on the ball.  By that time the overload is gone, and Rensch is able to easily intercept the attempted through ball (although this owes a lot to Alli's poor pass)

Of course it didn't all go this well - after all Everton had 21 shots!  These were just a couple of moments that stuck out, and I remembered well enough to be able to find again after the game.  What's encouraging, however, is that we were effective at denying opportunities for Everton to exploit space when it did open up.  There's always going to be space somewhere, but if we can effectively kite the opposition into less dangerous areas and restrict their passing options, we've got a chance of being a lot more defensively solid than I expected.

Next up, my home debut, against Leicester (don't worry, next updates will be multiple games in far less detail!)

[GIMN]

Pull The Trigger

After the last game, I had a nagging concern about the CB position.  The fact that I felt I couldn't trust Pinnock against someone like Calvert-Lewin expedited my plan to sign a new centre-back.  I noticed that Tottenham were no longer showing an interest in Illia Zabarnyi, so my DOF was given the green light to do what it takes to get him.  I don't know if I'd missed an email, or it was kept private, but it transpired that Lazio had already submitted a bid.  Thankfully, with a war chest bolstered by our summer clear out, we were able to meet Dinamo Kyiv's asking price and Lazio dropped out of the race.  Terms agreed and work permit granted, Zabarnyi was mine.

I have no qualms over the fee, but Jose Boto was definitely feeling generous when it came to wages.  Zabarnyi comes in as our highest paid centre-back, surpassing the £85k a week earned by our captain, Tyrone Mings.  There's been no complaints from Mings, but I certainly would have had sympathy for him if there were.  The deal was wrapped up the day before the Leicester game.  He's in good condition, but I will probably give him a little bit of time to acclimate before throwing him into the starting lineup.  Pinnock has been transfer listed, and a £2m fee sees him depart for Rennes.

The upcoming Leicester game is a bit of an unknown quantity.  Antonio Conte was their manager last season, but after England were knocked out by Israel in the 2nd round of the European Championships, Conte was poached for the national team.  Vladimir Petkovic, the former Levante manager, was appointed Leicester Manager 2 days before their season opener against Newcastle, an entertaining 0-0 draw.

As with Everton, I wanted to try and match up against Leicester's formation as I ultimately thought they were the better team.  Mings moved out to DCL and Rodon came in for Edwards at DC.  Lewis and Winks came in for Rensch and Chukwuemeka respectively, as they were more appopriate for the formation.  It worked a treat, again creating high xG chances whilst conceeding low xG chances.  Not really much more I can ask for.  Bailey was an absolute menace and could have had 4 goals, had it not been for a tight (but correct) offside and some spurious finishing.  McGinn scored an absolutely worldie, carrying the ball from inside his own half before striking it top bins from outside the box.  Rensch's red card 3 minutes after coming on as a substitute dampened the mood a little, but we held on comfortably.

A Carabao Cup match against a struggling Brentford side was an opportunity to ring the changes. Zabarnyi made his debut, whilst Kaine Kesler Hayden was given the start at RWB and Grifo made his first start in place of Buendia.  Watkins scored the winner against his former club, a back post header from a Grifo cross, in an otherwise pretty uninspiring game.  Bailey had to come off at half time with a knock to his achilles, and he's touch and go for our next league game against Liverpool.  Our reward for victory is a home game against Bristol Rovers.

Ollie Watkins kept his place in the starting lineup after the Brentford game, and repaid that faith by constantly being offside.  Chukwuemeka once again started alongside McGinn, and it was his cross that took a big deflection of Andy Robertson and nestled inside the near post after 12 minutes.  Lewis came off injured shortly after, and with Rensch still suspended, we had to flip the formation and send Cash over to the left wing-back slot.  Despite the disruption, we were good value for the lead at half time.  Contextually, at least.  It was an even contest, and if you can go toe-to-toe with Liverpool, I feel you deserve any luck that comes your way.  Salah eventually scored a second-half equaliser, gathering a Henderson cross before side footing it into the far corner.  It was the first time Liverpool had the greater xG, but there could be little complaints as it had been coming.  Again, the blame probably lands squarely at my feet, as I was slow to react to their changes, which saw Henderson come on and TAA move back to right back, and I hadn't updated Opposition Instructions accordingly.

Jacob Ramsey was thrown on in the 76th minute and 4 minutes later he'd picked up some space 25 yards out and played a beautiful through ball to Grifo.  The Italian, starting in place of the not-quite-fit Leon Bailey, took a touch before firing high past Alisson.  Liverpool could, and should, have equalised - Salah heading straight at Meret from about 4 yards out.  That said, we could've scored more ourselves, with Alisson saving from Buendia and Archer late on.

It's been a cracking start to the season, especially considering all of our league opponents finished in the top 8 last year.  The games have been very open, and it's definitely entertaining.  3 games is not a large enough of a data set to reach conclusions, but we've averaged 0.15xg a chance, which is quite astonishing.

The first international break is upon us, and the transfer window closes in the next couple of days, so this seems like a good place to stop for now.

[13th Man]

Love the gameplans and fantastic start to the season.  Riding your luck a bit, but also seem to be getting the results from the tactical tweaks.

Good to see your shapes working out well for you.  I was never comfortable with that gap between the WCB and the LWB that you described - so I've tended to opt more and more for WCBs instead of WCB(d) - but if it's working it makes sense.  Also as a team looking to be solid at the back it's wise to stick with the defend duty I guess.  Seem to be making your chances count at the other end too.

[GIMN]

8 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Love the gameplans and fantastic start to the season.  Riding your luck a bit, but also seem to be getting the results from the tactical tweaks.

Good to see your shapes working out well for you.  I was never comfortable with that gap between the WCB and the LWB that you described - so I've tended to opt more and more for WCBs instead of WCB(d) - but if it's working it makes sense.  Also as a team looking to be solid at the back it's wise to stick with the defend duty I guess.  Seem to be making your chances count at the other end too.

We've definitely had the rub of the green and could quite easily be looking at only 3 points rather than the 9 amassed so far.  I think I would've probably felt hard done by if we'd lost both the Everton and Liverpool games, but wouldn't necessarily have been able to complain.  A draw in both would've been fair.

Definitely agree on the gap between the CB and WB; quite frankly, it makes me nervous.  But...so far, at least...it hasn't actually caused any major problems.  When opposition have been able to switch play, the back 3 are usually able to shift across quickly and reset their shape.  I can't help but have a feeling though there's going to be one game where it all comes crashing down.  In fact, I think all it might take is an opposition winger with the Likes to Switch Play to Wide Areas trait and that gap is going to be seriously tested.

[GIMN]

Deadline day is upon us, and I finally have a semblance of a plan.  The will-I-won't-I try and sell Ollie Watkins issue has been resolved.  There appears to be no firm interest in him and, with his high station in the squad as a Team Leader, it looks like he's going to be a part of the squad going forward.  I still want to pursue a more physical presence up front, and I'm wary of the knock-on effect that will have for some of the youngsters.  As a result Philogene-Bidace and Archer have been listed for loan.  They both have a part to play in my long term plans, but I'd rather they get first team opportunities elsewhere and come back as part of the squad next season.  Ivan Toney remains my first choice, and he is now transfer listed by request.  Unfortunately, that also means there is plenty of interest in him from better teams, most notably Leicester and AC Milan.

Otherwise, there's been some interest in Rensch and Meret, and I'll see if bids are forthcoming.  Despite his recent red card, I'm keen to keep Rensch around.  He's young and can be play in multiple positions, and I hope he can be a key part of what we're trying to do.  I'd similarly like to keep Meret, but I'm open to a deal if RB Leipzig are willing to exceed his market value.  I've earmarked Nantes' Alban Lafont and Chelsea's Kepa as possible replacements if needs be. 

Before any of that, however, the first deals have been finalised for the youngsters:

Surprisingly, both have gone abroad (into un-simulated leagues), but should get a lot of game time this season.  As always, I'm sure the board will be unhappy with the lack of financial benefits from the Philogene-Bidace loan, but that's just the way things are.  Of course with those moves wrapped up, that really adds to the pressure of making sure I get someone in.  There's 11 hours remaining, but I don't want to move too soon and get usurped by those bigger clubs.

Interest has waned in Rensch and Meret, and the only player getting attention right now is Joe Rodon.  Everton are the ones snooping around, although they've recently signed Omar Aldrete so I doubt they'll make a bid.  On the Ivan Toney front, Leicester and AC Milan are no longer interested.  With 6 hours remaining, and only Notts Forest, Burnley and Crystal Palace as competition, now seems as good as ever to give my DOF the green light.

£32m might seem a steep price for a player who only managed 5 goals in the Premier League last season as Brentford were relegated.  For that reason, it's probably best I make a confession.  I wanted Villa to sign Toney back in 2020 whilst he was still at Peterborough.  I have a friend who supports Posh and I've been to a few of their games and he stood head and shoulders above the rest.  Instead, we went for Ollie Watkins who, in fairness, had just had an excellent season of his own converting from a winger to play as a striker.  Nonetheless, this is my way of righting a perceived wrong.  That is, of course, assuming we get the deal done.

Whilst we wait, Swansea and Wigan have made loan bids for Kaine Kessler Hayden, which have been rejected.  Might be very short-sighted, but he is pretty much guaranteed to start the next game with Lewis injured and Rensch suspended.  Realistically, he's the fourth choice wing-back, but the 3-4-3 is pretty brutal for that position, so I still expect him to get decent game time even when all players are available.

With 2 hours to go, we've got our man.  Welcome Ivan...

Whilst the fee is high, I think José Boto has done a good job on the contract negotiations.  £68k p/w for a starting striker feels cheap, and there's no wage rises or release clause.  Pretty solid business.  It's the 2nd biggest Premier League deal of the day, only behind Man Utd's £41m signing of 23-year-old Austrian centre back Emanuel Aiwu, although more than double what Leicester have paid for everyone's favourite wonderkid Benjamin Sesko.  Nonetheless, I'm happy, and that wraps up the transfer window.

As mentioned early in the process, I wanted to trim the squad down, and feel that's been achieved.  It's a 23-man squad, with some of those players unlikely to see much game time - most notably 3rd choice keeper, Lovre Kalinic, and 6th choice centre-back, Josh Feeney.  Whilst some players are able to play multiple positions, and my personal depth chart likely to look a little different to this, below is the Squad Depth for the season:

 

This should be good enough for mid-table and, if we can keep our luck going, I think there's a decent chance of sneaking a top-10 finish.  With only 3 players over 30 (Mings, Kalinic & Grifo), there's a pretty good balance of players in their prime and some still developing, so hopefully this can be the core of the team for the next few seasons.  Realistically, if we want to start pushing for Europe, I do feel we're going to need to improve at wing-back, and I'd definitely like an elite central midfielder (wouldn't we all) to eventually replace John McGinn.

Next up, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

[GIMN]

Back to Reality

With the squad now set until January, there's nothing left to do but get on with it.  A home game against big spenders, Newcastle, is sandwiched between trips to London to face Chelsea and Tottenham.  I doubt we'll maintain our 100% record, but I think if we continue as we have so far, we should be able to pick up at least 4 points.

Our first defeat of the season, and a deserved one at that.  Chelsea dominated the first half and took the lead on the half hour mark, when Havertz's run was found by Lukaku and the German forward eased the ball into the bottom corner from just inside the area.  Matty Cash was the responsible defender, but it's difficult to be too hard on him.  Deployed as the IWB on the left hand side, he was both playing out of position and given the mammoth responsibility of marking Havertz when I know full well that the defensive side of his game isn't exactly his strength.  In hindsight, Mings might've been the better option, but I didn't want to lose him from the centre of our defence.

We rallied in the 2nd half, though, and Buendia twice struck the woodwork.  I can hardly bemoan our luck after the start we've had to the season and it was ultimately a fair result.  Watkins struggled up front again, and I'll be happy to have Toney available for our next game against Newcastle.

Back to winning ways against an inconsistent Newcastle side currently managed by Erik Ten Hag.  For all the big bucks, they've yet to finish in European places and defeat leaves them with only 4 points in their opening 5 games.  It was actually quite an even first half, but once Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring on 49 minutes - a neat volley from just inside the area after a Bailey knock-down - the floodgates opened.  Ivan Toney dinked the ball past Uğurcan for a debut goal against the team he made his first ever Premier League appearance against, before substitute Grifo headed home from close range in the dying moments.

Carabao Cup time, and a chance to give some of the fringe players a game.  Felt like a friendly, with us 3-0 up at half time courtesy of a brace from Grifo and after Watkins had given us the lead.  Bristole Rovers had a couple of chances in the 2nd half, but by that point our thoughts were already on to the next round.  I was able to bring Jamal Lewis on at half time for his first game since a back injury and it couldn't be better timing, as Matty Cash looks like he might be out for the next 2 weeks.  Everton away in the next round.

 

This one stung a little.  Tottenham maintain their 100% record to start the season, with Andrea Belotti having an absolute field day.  The 30-year-old striker, laid on the opener for Kane before bagging a brace for himself, but all 3 goals were avoidable.  Zabarnyi will shoulder a lot of the blame, especially for misjudging the flight of a long ball forward for the 2nd goal, but our defensive rotations were generally poor throughout.  When one of the WCBs engaged, Zabarnyi would shift across (as he should), but the 3rd defender time and time again didn't do their part.  It's something to keep an eye - as I can't be certain if this is a flaw with the tactic, a limitation of the ME, or just players still familiarising themselves with the system.  Toney did bring us level for a bit, from the penalty spot, which ultimately inflated our xG, but I otherwise thought we went toe-to-toe with Spurs and could've got a draw if not for defensive errors.

That wraps up September.  Only 3 points from a possible 9, but considering who we've faced so far I can't be too disappointed.  That leaves us 8th after 6 games, although it's far too early to really assess the table.  We've got Arsenal next, but after that the fixtures get a bit easier, and it'll be nice to see how we fare against teams that are considered around the same level as us.

Edited October 8, 2022 by GIMN
Oops - forgot to change the name of the team in one of the images

[haier_fm]

Glad to see you back, I enjoy how you describe and explain your ideas behind tactics, signings, and identifying talent. I have actually done something similar with Arsenal on FM20, using Alexandr Hleb as manager. Admittedly, had to wait for a very long time for Arteta to be sacked (3 seasons to be exact!), but it was tonnes of fun. 

Would love to see you keeping going at it - you've got a nice, solid foundation for a new save!

[GIMN]

5 hours ago, haier_fm said:

Glad to see you back, I enjoy how you describe and explain your ideas behind tactics, signings, and identifying talent. I have actually done something similar with Arsenal on FM20, using Alexandr Hleb as manager. Admittedly, had to wait for a very long time for Arteta to be sacked (3 seasons to be exact!), but it was tonnes of fun. 

Would love to see you keeping going at it - you've got a nice, solid foundation for a new save!

3 seems to be that magic number.  It's like the game knows your intention and strings it out for as long as possible!

[GIMN]

Bouncey, Trouncey, Ouncey, Pouncey, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun

Not overly keen about facing Arsenal after defeat last time out, but once that's out the way we enter into a run of games that are considerably more winnable.  Hopefully we'll be able to bounce back and put together some good results against Notts Forest & Fulham.

Welcome to the Matty Cash show.  The Polish wing-back was sensational, making 5 key passes, one of which was a delightful cut-back to Chukwuemeka around the penalty spot which opened the scoring late in the first half, and gave the 20-year old his first senior goal.  The key moment was 10 minutes after the break, when Cash raced onto McGinn's through ball into the channels, shrugged off the challenge from Bukayo Saka and fired an absolute rocket of a strike into the top corner from just inside the area.  More impressively, however, we restricted the league's top scorers to a whopping 0 shots on target.  Zabarnyi was immense, going toe-to-toe with Joaquin Correa all game long, holding the Argentinian to just one shot, which he duly blocked.  A great bounce-back win, and we head into the international break on a high.

Rodon comes into the starting lineup, after Zabarnyi picked up a minor knock during International duty.  We were effective with the ball, carving Forest open on multiple occasions; Buendia sent Toney racing through from deep for a deserved opener.  Bailey doubled the lead early in the 2nd half after he was played in by Chukwuemeka.  With a lot of tiring players, through a mixture of international exertion and some strong Forest tackling, we took our foot of the proverbial throttle after our second goal - dropped the tempo and played within ourselves a little more.  Forest did throw everything at us, mustering up 60% of their shots in the last 20 minutes or so, although nothing so significant to cause concern.

Fulham played a huge part in kickstarting our summer, paying £31.5m for Matthew Targett and Danny Ings.  Both players had a miserable time as we ran absolute riot.  2 goals and an assist for Ramsey's opener, was enough to give Leon Bailey a perfect 10.0 rating.  His second goal, a well timed run onto a perfectly weighted Mings through ball, being the best of the day.  Watkins came on early to replace an injured Buendia and scored a late 4th, before Toney wrapped up the win with out first goal from outside the box this season.  Whilst I was wary of the potential this game had for an upset, I shouldn't have been concerned.  Fulham's combination of inverted wingers, wingbacks, a mezzala and an advanced playmaker all behind deep-lying forward, Ings, made for a bizarre tactic that somehow simultaneously had 6 attackers, and yet none.  All 5 of their shots were from about 25 yards out (2 of them free-kicks).  They're a shoe-in for relegation.

The last game in October saw us return once more to Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, as we faced Everton in the Carabao Cup.  Truth be told, I kinda wanted to lose.  We're getting to the point in the season where the fixtures come thick and fast, and I'd be happy for fewer games if possible.  This all changed when Grifo laid the ball into the path of Jamal Lewis to give us the lead just before half time.  Even more so, when into the final 5 minutes we were still good value for the win.  Perhaps it was karma, but Amir Dedic, the inverted left back I largely maligned ahead of our season opener, rifled in an absolute banger of an equaliser with just a few moments left.  Penalties ensued, with Meret saving the first from Gauld.  Everton were perfect thereafter, and misses from Bailey and Rensch sealed the win for the blue half of Mersey.  In a weird way, I got what I wanted.  Shame that by that point I'd changed my mind.

It was an otherwise perfect month.  3 wins, 3 clean sheets and 9 goals in the Premier League, and the plaudits were coming our way, as Villa players clinched both the Player of the Month and Young Player of the Month awards.

It's still too early to draw any conclusions from the league table, but we're amongst exalted company right now.  A tricky away trip to Brighton is up next, and a home fixture against Man City looms at the end of November, so I very much doubt this run of form is going to last much longer.  But let's enjoy it whilst we can!

Edited October 16, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics (and some other stuff)

We're roughly 25% of the way through the season, so this feels like an appropriate time to reflect on how things are going and have a look at some data.  I want to start by taking a closer look at Devyne Rensch and how we've made some tweaks to one of our formations based on his performances.

With a rating of 6.7 in the Premier League, he is by far and away our "worst" performer, yet he is essentially doing exactly what I want him to do.  He's keeping possession ticking over and winning his tackles.  Even though the aerial part of his game is a known weakness, he's even winning a respectable 71% of his headers.  Whilst his tackle success rate is perfect, it is worth noting that he is only averaging 1 tackle and 2 interceptions per 90 minutes.  Part of this can be attributed to his low aggression, and instructions to close down less when we're out of possession, but he's definitely lagging behind our other wing-backs in terms of his ability to win back to the ball, whilst being considerably more reliable in possession.

Ultimately, he's winning the ball more than he loses it, and that can only be a good thing, but we'd certainly like to see more from him.  There's also basically no creative output from him whatsoever.  Whilst his job is to primarily recycle possession, he's got decent enough vision, passing, etc... to at least be a little bit more progressive.  Again, tactically I've hindered him, as all wing-backs have Take Fewer Risks as an instruction.  This can be really useful for a regular wing-back, who may at times find themselves isolated on the flank and try to do too much, but doesn't seem quite as necessary for an IWB.

With all that in mind, and considering the comment of @13th Man, there's been a slight adjustment to the IWB Left variant of my tactic.  Gone is the Take Fewer Risks instruction, and in it's place Rensch will be advised to Tackle Harder.  More over, he's been swapped to a defend mentality, whilst the WCB, which will ostensibly be fulfilled by Tyrone Mings, has been changed to support, helping reduce that gap that can occur between those two players but also (hopefully) allowing each to play more to their strengths.

This does mean, sometimes, we'll end up building up in more of a 2-3-5 formation.  Hopefully this means we'll be able to be a little bit more situationally dynamic, but I'll have to keep on an eye out for the impact this has on our defensive shape, especially in transition.

Onto those damned statistics now, and it's a good time to take a look at how we compare in the division:

Pretty good reading, right!?  We lead the league in Shots on Target % and Fewest Goals Conceded Per Game, whilst performing well above average in all areas.  Well, all areas but 1.  We have the worst Tackles Won Ratio in the league, and have made the 2nd fewest tackle attempts only behind Liverpool.  This would be fine if we were playing a high possession system, but at this point we've averaged 51%.  This doesn't necessitate any tactical changes right now, as we're doing a reasonable job of restricting teams in a more disengaged manner - we're 5th for clearances, 6th for blocks and 9th for interceptions.  However it is worth noting that only 3 other teams have higher numbers in both those areas, and there all teams that are expected to fight for relegation.

I think it would be fair to conclude that good teams - and by that I mean teams who are consistently in the top-half - don't rely on last ditch interventions as their primary defensive approach.  This is definitely something to keep an eye on as the season progresses, and I fear it may result in my wing-backs having to engage more, and looking at other ways to keep the flanks protected.

Time for a quick glance at the xG table.

We're outperforming expectations both offensively and defensively, but it seems on the balance of things we're in roughly the right place so far.  It's quite nice, after their attacking woes a few years ago IRL, to see Brighton almost doubling their xG!  Although I can't be too enthusiastic about that, as we face them next.

Finally, as with my other write-ups this year, I've made use of Google Data Studio to help display some info.  Currently I've just added player profiles whilst I have a think on how I want to display other stats/data.  If you want to see a bit more info on a player, this might be the easiest place to find it (rather than having to look through the thread to see if I've uploaded a screenshot yet!).  I've tried to keep the layout slightly consistent with the skin, so unfortunately that means attributes are still obscured!

Link here (and I've added it to the opening post, too)

[GIMN]

We're Unstoppable...

In only has 6th game for us, Ivan Toney has already matched last season's goal output.  It's somewhat of a relief that his poor scoring exploits in the Premier League seem to have been tactical rather than ability.  His penalty put us 2-0 up before half-time, after Bailey had opened the scoring, latching on to a first-time through ball by John McGinn.  Manor Solomon pulled one back for Brighton early in the 2nd half, and they can probably feel hard done by to have not got an equaliser.  Despite the win this was easily the most frustrating game so far.  Brighton manager Andrea Pirlo seems to be an impatient man, changing positions and formations what felt like every 5 minutes.  There was a 4-4-2, a 4-2-3-1 and a 5-2-1-2 at various points of the game.  Alexis Mac Allister played as a BWM, AP, MEZ and DLP.  It felt like an exhausting game of cat-and-mouse.  He might've lost, but Pirlo won the mind games.  F*** that guy!

Oh, also Rensch finished the game with 3 tackles (100%) and 4 interceptions.  It's only 1 game, but a good sign nonetheless.

A good performance almost marred by wasteful finishing.  The McGinn-Bailey partnership was again crucial, as our Jamaican star raced onto a delightful ball over the top in the 43rd minute to slot home.  Whilst Bailey and Toney both contrived to miss from inside the 6 yard box, it was otherwise a pretty complete performance, despite a clear game plan by Southampton to disrupt our rhythm through fouling.  6 yellow cards for the Saints, and I feel like they got away lightly.  Rodon once again stepped in for an injured Zabarnyi whilst Grifo reprised his starting role whilst Buendia recovers.

Bad team are bad.  Unlike Fulham, this isn't some kind of tactical suicide, Blackburn just don't have any players of the required quality for this league.  Craig Dawson, Luke Ayling and Solly March may have been okay as squad players in their prime, but they're not in their prime anymore and are arguably Blackburn's best players.  We'd been forced into a few changes, too, with Bailey picking up a thigh strain whilst on international duty and Matty Cash suspended for 5 yellow cards.  Buendia returned and excelled in the Trequartista role, setting up 2 goals - the opener for Watkins and Toney's 2nd in what would be a 4-goal haul.  His first was a penalty in the 10th minute, that put us 2-0.  Two more goals early in the 2nd half - a header from a Lewis cross, and a cheeky dink over the onrushing keeper after Watkins through ball - put us firmly in coast mode for the rest of the game, as we looked to conserve energy in the build up to the Man City game.

A word about Ollie Watkins.  He got the start today, as the natural choice up top whilst Bailey is out injured.  His goal and assist brings his tally to 5 combined in 10 appearances (7 from the bench).  Yet somehow he was again offside 5 times.  He has the 11th most offsides in the league despite not being a starter. It felt like the only times he was able to time his run correctly, it resulted in a goal.  At 28, he's unlikely to develop much, but training focus on Attacking Movement is a priority.

Our 6-game win streak is over.  And deservedly so.  Man City were too much for us and should've won by more had it not been for a heroic performance from Meret.  Lewandowski was the catalyst, playing in Haaland and Sterling for goals either side of half time.  Both were absolute clinical strikes, powered into the top corner.  We rallied late in the game, and a flurry of chances certainly means the stat line flatters us a little.  We did restrict De Bruyne to only 1 key pass.  So that's something at least.

Arsenal have jumped above us, but we hold onto 3rd place as, despite them comprehensively beating us, Man City had a pretty indifferent November.  With Tottenham, Chelsea and Man Utd all stuttering (the latter have just sacked their manager, Zinedine Zidane), it looks like European places might be achievable.  There's just the small matter of 7 games in December, and then we'll probably have a good idea of where we stand.  This is likely to be the biggest test of my decision to go with a relatively small squad, and I'll be keen to see how things shake out when I can't put as much focus during the week on training specifically for the upcoming game.

Edited October 8, 2022 by GIMN

[_Ben_]

Wonderful writing @GIMN, with, obviously, a really strong connection for me as a Villa fan. How have the loanees - Philogene and Archer - started? Any nods to other up-and-coming players like Tim or Aaron Ramsey or are they underrated due to lack of a breakthrough before the game was released.

I'm enjoying the tactical play and your thought process - you've built a style and it's working really well for you!

[GIMN]

6 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Wonderful writing @GIMN, with, obviously, a really strong connection for me as a Villa fan. How have the loanees - Philogene and Archer - started? Any nods to other up-and-coming players like Tim or Aaron Ramsey or are they underrated due to lack of a breakthrough before the game was released.

I'm enjoying the tactical play and your thought process - you've built a style and it's working really well for you!

The Good

In a talented, albeit aging, Beşiktaş side, Jaden Philogene-Bidace is more than holding his own.  He's had 3 starts in those 11 appearances, and even has some Champions League experience under his belt.  Whilst he's not setting the world alight, he's getting game time, and performing well enough.  He's probably the player that developed the most during Gerrard's tenure, having been away on loan at Stoke and then Bristol City.

His lack of determination is probably the main thing holding him back, but otherwise he's a firm part of my plans going forward, and would've been part of the squad this season if I felt I could've moved on Watkins without any major disruption.

Spoiler

Cameron Archer has had the completely opposite experience.  Once his loan to Preston had ended, he was left to sit in the reserves without even a cup appearance to his name.  As a result the loan to Minnesota was his first taste of regular first team football in 2 years, and he's been okay.  Like Philogene-Bidace, he hasn't been sensational, but 2 goals in 7 games and a 7+ average rating is a decent return.  He'll be returning in January, as the loan was until the end of the MLS season.  Unfortunately the season has concluded already, so he'll play no games throughout December and is likely to return a little short on condition but, once that's been worked on, he'll likely take Emiliano Garcia's spot on the bench.

Given the lack of game time over the last couple of years, I can't help but feel he's going to fall short of his potential, but thankfully he has some standout attributes that should mean he can still contribute.  Elite pace and finishing is a solid combo for any striker, so I still have reasonable hopes

Spoiler

If we ignore the standard of competition provided by the Nigeria Professional Football League, then Tim Iroegbunam is the stand-out loanee so far.  2 goals and 3 assists in 11 games is a pretty nice return for a player I would've otherwise expected to contribute more defensively.  This is his second season on loan to Nigeria, after spending time at Enyimba Aba the year before, and his performances are improving.  I think he may have been given a little boost in January's data update, as he has more potential than I remember him having when FM22 was first released - although that could just be luck of the roll against one of those pesky random range PAs.

Despite the positive performances, it's got to be noted that his attribute distribution is a little all over the place, and I'm not sure he's got the talent to usurp our more attacking options, nor the discipline to play in a more defensive role.

Spoiler

The Bad

Much like in real life, Louie Barry's career seems to have sputtered ever since those FA Cup heroics against Liverpool.  Now at Rotherham, he's failed to get many games under his belt, thanks in part to a couple of injuries which have essentially robbed him of the last 2 months.  He can perform at League One level, as shown by a solid loan at Walsall a couple of years ago, but he failed to make the step up in the Championship for Barnsley last season.

He did make his return from injury 2 days ago, so we'll see how the season pans out for him, but it's looking increasingly likely that he's not quite going to make the grade.  He's considered a better prospect than Archer, has decent attributes, and still is only 21, so maybe I shouldn't be writing him off just yet.

Spoiler

Joining Barry at Rotherham is Aaron Ramsey who, despite no injury woes, has only managed 2 substitute appearances.  These are his first senior games since an underwhelming loan spell at Cheltenham in 2021/22.  With potential a possible 3.5 stars, it looks like he might have not been completely underrated, but his lack of a mental game is a severe hinderance.  He's not going to make at Villa in this universe, and I have serious doubts he'll ever be even a Championship calibre player.

Spoiler

The Ugly

A much celebrated signing from Fleetwood Town as a youngster, Josh Feeney, is not going to make the grade.  Whilst he is currently my 6th choice centre-back, in case of emergencies, that speaks more to the dearth of young defensive talent in this team.  He has absolutely zero technical ability.  In situations like that, you've got to hope he's an absolute man mountain and, whilst it would be unfair to expect a 19-year old to compare to his more senior peers, he is not that.  Caolan McBride and Kyrie Pierre are the only other players remaining from the U19s squad at the beginning of the game, and neither are troubling the first team anytime soon.

The real ugliness, however, lies in the other prospects who are no longer with the club.

Ben Chrisene was sold at the earliest opportunity, and is currently part of Bournemouth's U23s.  Dominic Revan is currently plying his trade at League One's Burton, whilst his brother, Seb, is unable to get a game for Hartlepool.  Arjan Raikhy, who I thought was really impressive in our 2021 FA Youth Cup victory, left on a free for Bengaluru.  Ajani Burchall had shown no signs of development and is now at Coventry in League One, whilst I had to release Sil Swinkels and Lamare Bogarde as they were unable to get work permits.  The same might have been the case for keepers Ákos Onódi and Viljami Sinisalo who were sold to Honvéd and SCP07 respectively.  Finally, as mentioned before, Kerr Smith's contract was left to expire, and by the time I inherited the squad he had already agreed a move to Hibernian despite looking like a genuine talent.

Sure, most of these players probably weren't going to become Premier League regulars.  Some, like Iroegbunam, will have certainly had an awkward distribution of attributes that made it unlikely they'd be able to fulfil a specific role.  Others, like Aaron Ramsey, may have lacked the mental fortitude to ever make use of any technical talent they might possess.  Nonetheless, they are almost all 21 or younger, and should really still be within the club's system in some capacity.

[GIMN]

Just 14 Players

When Villa last won the league in 1980/81, only 14 senior players made appearances, 7 of which were ever present.  By comparison, we've already used 21 this season and that's the 2nd fewest in the league (only behind Liverpool's 20).  Only Alex Meret, Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa have played every minute, and that might be about to change with 7 games in December.  Obviously a lot has changed in 40+ years, and I'm grateful that the larger squads allows me both the flexibility to employ different formations, but hopefully also get through this month without too much disruption.

Whilst I'm certainly enjoying this luck, I wish it wasn't confined to the world of FM.  I wouldn't mind winning the lottery.  Or stumbling upon a genie-filled lamp.  Maybe Dua Lipa's type happens to be overweight, hirsute Anglo-Grecian's approaching middle age?  Regardless, I'll make do with what I've got, and what I've got is a 76th minute Jacob Ramsey winner.  The goal was made by the subs bench, with Harry Winks (who'd replaced John McGinn) switching play to the left flank for Grifo to flick into Ramsey's path.  Grifo had come on to replace Jamal Lewis, who was playing as a left winger in Bailey's absence.  It was a bold decision, as I felt he'd have the pace to be a threat whilst also giving us further support in containing Bowen, and ultimately a poor one.  Lewis struggled to make an impact in an attacking or defensive capacity, but at least I now know that's unlikely to be an option again in the future.  West Ham ramped up the pressure into the final 10 minutes, and despite a rash challenge by left-back Renan reducing them to 10 men, they should've equalised - with both Jack Harrison and Dennis Man spurning great chances.

This is it.  The big game.  The home derby.  Harry Winks was rewarded with a start after his impact mid-week, and he made the difference curling a sublime effort from the edge of the area off the underside of the bar.  Things could have been different, though.  As an even and entertaining first half ran into injury time, Mings was a bit too handsy and pushed Raul Jiménez.  The dependable Mexican stepped up to the spot, but was denied low to his right by Alex Meret.  Meret had been a doubt for the game with a slight knee injury - although thankfully it was nothing a cortisone injection couldn't sort.  We rang the changes at half time, as Wolves seemed to be getting joy down their left hand side.  A swap to our IWB Right formation saw Rensch and Ramsey (unlucky not to start after last week's heroics) came on for Cash and McGinn, and we were very much in the ascendency.  A straight red for Jiménez pretty much summed up his day, and the rest was a formality.  Although it took another 10 minutes for us to open the scoring, Wolves were under the cosh and will probably be thankful they only lost by 1.

A hat-trick of 1-0 wins, this time courtesy of a Tyrone Mings header from a long-throw.  I felt it was a deserved win, as Nick Pope was in inspired form, twice denying Toney from point blank range.  That's now 4 games without a goal for our striker, whose scoring exploits seem to have deserted him since his perfect game against Blackburn.  Whilst the goal contributions have dried up, he's still performing well, so no need for panic.  Yet.  Ronnie Edwards also made his first league start since the opening game of the season, coming in for Konsa who had a slight thigh injury.  It was a composed performance from the youngster, who fared well against Dwight McNeil (who was surprisingly deployed as a striker).

Time for a little aside.  I write these updates as I play the game.  After a game finishes, I copy and paste the score/stats into the little crib sheet, upload the image and write the game summary.  I then do my scouting/prep for the next game and start work on the next crib sheet.

All of this to say: Ivan Toney's goal drought has come to an end.  This wasn't a set-up.  The previous summary wasn't some kind of knowing-nod.  It was a fine goal, too - running between the two centre-backs to get onto an angled ball over the top by Mings, taking a touch to get the ball out from under his feet, and taking the roof of the net off as he spanked it in at the near post.  It was a much deserved equaliser, after we'd gone 1-0 down early.  Stretching to cut out a pass wide, Mings deflected the ball into the path of Daniel Bragança who drove forward and gave Utd the lead on 5 minutes.  Things could've been worse as Adeyemi had a goal ruled out for offside only moments later.  From then on, however, it was all Villa.  Watkins hit the post from about 3 yards out, whilst Toney was repeatedly denied by Diogo Costa in the Man Utd goal.  It's definitely a case of points dropped, but I'll take it.

A great performance against a rather lacklustre Crystal Palace managed by former player and much-maligned England manager, Gareth Southgate.  Grifo was the star man, coming in for Buendia who picked up a calf injury in the last game.  The experienced Italian winger was a constant thorn in their side, finishing the game with 8 successful dribbles - 1 in particular where he looked like he showed inside, deftly turned 270° to leave Tyrick Mitchell for dead, and drove to the outside - and 6 key passes.  2 of those key passes were assists for Ivan Toney, who know surpasses Danny Ings for most league goals in a single season (in FM) since the Gerrard era started.  Leon Bailey made a late appearance, and marked his return from injury with an assist of his own, dinking a lovely cross right onto the noggin of Ollie Watkins for our final goal of the afternoon.  A job well done.

Well that was humbling.  An abject Boxing Day performance gets the result it deserves.  Watford started brightly and took full control.  Emmanuel Dennis set up Mavidi for the first, before racing through himself to score the 2nd minutes later.  I expected Watford's threat to come from the other flank, and by the time I made changes it was too late.  Watford did a great job of mitigating the weakness that is Antonee Robinson, by not playing him.  Whilst we did get more of a foothold into the game as it wore on, we never really managed to create any decent chances.  No time to lick our wounds however, as we have Nottingham Forest in just over 48 hours time.

A good bounce-back win, which owes as much to the mismatch in squad depth as anything else.  Both sides made 6 changes, but whilst I was able to call on the likes of Bailey, Buendia and Jacob Ramsey, Nottingham Forest had to turn to Scott McKenna, Richie Laryea and Jonathan Panzo.  The difference in quality told, as Ramsey broke from deep to slot home from a Winks through ball, before Toney took full advantage of Joe Worrall's wayward pass to make it 2-0 at the break.  Forest did pull one back - an absolute worldy from the edge of the area by Christian Bassagog - but no sooner had they scored, they were 3-1 down.  Winks got his second assist of the game, this time putting through Emiliano Garcia to score his first goal for the club.

That brings 2024 to a close, and it's definitely been a productive 6 months in charge. 

The table makes for some very pleasing reading, and I think we can be confident we're competing for a top 7 finish.  I'm sure there will be people reading this thinking I'm being insincere or pessimistic.  Whilst there's been a lot of deserved wins, we've been very fortunate to pick up points at home against the big clubs.  The return fixtures against Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal & Man Utd are all away and we'll be doing very well to come away with 3 points combined from those fixtures.  Our luck is also going to change at some point, and those tight games against other top-half teams are likely to see us drop further points.  That said, my personal target was to reach 55 points, the amount that Dean Smith managed in his final first season with us, and we look like we're going to smash that pretty comfortably.

Next up: a midseason data review and transfer plans.

[Sonic Youth]

Enjoying reading this. Took me a while to catch up though. Reminds me that stats +skills paint a better story than just looking at skill numbers alone.

[GIMN]

 

A work excursion with only a chromebook at my disposal means there's been no FM for a few days.  I'm getting older (that is how time works, after all) and I can barely remember what happened yesterday, let alone last weekend, so it is perhaps fortunate that I committed myself to do some data diving as it allows me to get back into the swing of things.  I'm excited by the new Data Hub additions announced for FM23, and I hope one day we'll also get more options for editing the layout, so I can group the visualisations exactly how I want them.  Anyway, I digress...

On The Front Foot

We know we've performed well so far this season, and it's good to see that play out in the stats.  Leading the league in most successful dribbles is obviously encouraging, especially as this is something I don't usually try to do tactically, and it hasn't come at the cost of ball security.  It's also good to see that we are consistently creating and converting good quality chances.  Our xG per attempt is just over 0.12 which means we've regressed closer to the mean after a pretty electric start to the season, but we're still above the average.  Perhaps more importantly, our goal output is inline with our xG so from an attacking perspective we might not have been as reliant on luck as I've previously suggested.

The bit I'm more interested in, however, is our Crossing numbers.  We lead the league in crosses attempted, yet are the 6th worst at finding our target.

If we exclude Rensch & Watkins due to their relatively low sample size, we can see only 1 player who is completing crosses above the league average 25%, Matty Cash (although Kesler Hayden isn't far off).  On the other side, however, Jamal Lewis has struggled in this regard.  When he plays, he is deployed as a regular wing-back, and the formation is flipped accordingly so should have the same type of support around him.  Both players are considered good crossers of the ball, and are very comparable in attributes you'd expect to be relevant for the role, so this might just be an indicator that Cash lands towards the upper end of the range for crossing, whilst Lewis is at the lower end.  Nonetheless, this is something that needs closer attention, and I'll be looking at this more closely during the next few games to see if this is poor execution by Lewis or some other contributing factor.

Buendia, Bailey and Grifo are also lower than average.  My initial suspicion is this is the result of them being designated set piece takers.  I have been lazy so far, and not set up routines yet.  This is obviously next on my to-do list.

"If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It"

It would be safe to say that, so far, we have been a defensive anomaly.  We have only conceded 6% of shots faced, whilst the next best team is at 9%.  Whilst it has improved since the quarter-way mark, we're still rather poor at winning our tackles and conceding free-kicks.  This probably explains why we don't attempt them much, either!  None of this feels particularly sustainable.  What does stand out positively, however, is our interceptions, as we seem to be very effective at winning back the ball before it reaches our box.  Our wing-backs lead the way, and I can only imagine this might be an indicator of our tackling numbers.  With both wing-backs, regardless of role, encouraged to Close Down Less, it's clear that we're restricting space more effectively than we are at engaging the opposition.

When we consider where we're winning possession, it's also clear that the Counter-Press instruction isn't working well to cause turnovers in dangerous positions.  That's not to say it's not forcing the opposition to progress the ball quickly into areas that we're then able to win the ball, but it does ask the question: is it necessary.  With a home FA Cup fixture against QPR a couple of weeks away, I might try a change - specifically maxing out the pressing for the 5 players who I consider to be part of the attack (who this will be will depend on the formation chosen).  This is going to mean at least one flank is going to be very vulnerable, so I'm keen to see how it plays out (and too scared to do it in a league game just yet).

Get It In The Mixer

The last bit I want to look at is goals and assists.  Nothing ground-breaking or insightful here - just that it's good to see that we're creating our chances in the area that matters most - the width of the goal posts.  For all the pomp and posturing about tactical philosophies, the main aim is to score goals, and the best way of doing that is by creating chances in the most dangerous positions.  It should probably go without saying, but the best way to create those chances, is to make sure we are a threat in multiple areas.  Whilst it's good that there's a balance of assists from different locations, improving our crossing numbers should help this distribution further.  At the moment we are possibly too reliant on creating centrally, and a well organised defence would be able to shut us down.

Keeping The Band Together

Heading into the January transfer window, I'm not overly inclined to make any moves.  The squad is at a size I'm happy with and, with the exception of a couple of easily-placated stirrings of unhappiness over playing time from Joe Rodon, everyone seems to be in high spirits.  "Best laid plans" and all that, I might not be the one who gets to dictate how the transfer window will unfold.  There is interest in a handful of players:

Alex Meret (West Ham and Inter)
Joe Rodon (Watford)
Ezri Konsa (Real Madrid!?)
Jamal Lewis (Tottenham and West Ham)

Konsa isn't going anywhere!  Or at least, I hope.  The highest average rating of my back-3 and still only 27 years old, a new contract has been offered to try and stave off interest.  Rodon, on the other hand, is available at the right price.  He's valued just under £20m and is a good player, but he's ultimately a back-up.  For the money we might be able to get, I can probably get a decent young-ish replacement.  Having only been in charge since May, the scouting pool is a little light, but the following players seem like possible candidates should the need arise:

It seems crazy to say this, but it might be a similar situation with Meret.  Despite keeping 11 clean sheets already this season, he is not the best distributor of the ball.  If Inter are willing to pay £35m+, I'd seriously consider letting him go.  It would have to be big money, too, as a replacement wouldn't be cheap.  Kepa and LaFont, who had previously been earmarked, are still on my radar but neither are transfer listed anymore.  I also have my scouts running the rule over Wolves' Altay Bayındır and Tottenham's Arijanet Muric, who are both currently back-ups but look like good tactical fits.  Ultimately, I hope no bid is made for Meret so I don't have to make a decision!

Finally, Jamal Lewis.  This could, perhaps, be the most difficult decision.  His crossing woes aside, he's been solid.  He's also the only out-and-out left wing-back I have, but I've used the IWB Left variant of my tactic more regularly than any of the others.  If Lewis was to be sold, would I be able to find someone good enough who will be happy as a rotation player?  Should I go all in on the IWB formation and instead look to find a starter who would improve on Rensch?  I've thought about retraining McGinn as a LWB.  He has the pace and the technical ability that I feel he could work as a WB or IWB, and I'd love to target a truly elite player to fill the carrilero role, with Guendouzi and Bruno Guimarães on my shortlist - the latter of which is currently transfer listed.  But...McGinn is performing very well - and do I really want to move him out of a role he is effective at for what ultimately amounts to an experiment?

That's a lot to say that I've essentially narrowed down possible replacements to a confusing mish-mash of very different players.  There's relatively unknown left-backs, possible candidates for inverted wing-backs and regular midfielders who might result in a chance elsewhere.  Furthermore, some of the scouting on these players is far from done - Noussair Mazraoui might be the most interesting player on that list.  He's certainly got the profile, but I don't have enough accuracy from his scout report to know whether he's truly an option.  Hopefully, like Meret, there'll be no bid and I won't have to find out.

[GIMN]

11 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Enjoying reading this. Took me a while to catch up though. Reminds me that stats +skills paint a better story than just looking at skill numbers alone.

Good timing.  Or maybe not, because there's now more to read.

Not sure if I've said it on this thread or another, but I really enjoy how obscuring attributes broadens the pool of players I'd be willing to play/sign, and I think it's helped make my saves more varied (especially as I don't tend to play lower league).

[Sonic Youth]

3 hours ago, GIMN said:

Good timing.  Or maybe not, because there's now more to read.

Not sure if I've said it on this thread or another, but I really enjoy how obscuring attributes broadens the pool of players I'd be willing to play/sign, and I think it's helped make my saves more varied (especially as I don't tend to play lower league).

And I’ve caught up again   

[GIMN]

Respite

A couple more games to finish off the hectic Christmas-New Year period, and then we can start getting back to proper training and playing our "strongest" XI.  I've given more importance in this save to the idea of training schedules being match specific (even if that is not how it works in game), so these weeks where all you can do is play games and recover feels a little like wasted opportunities.

Controversy at the Emirates!  Nedim Bajrami scores the winning penalty after Dodo was fouled by Leon Bailey.  It looked outside the box to me.  VAR says it was inside though, and that was enough to complete the turnaround for Arsenal.  We'd taken the lead inside 2 minutes, thanks to Emi Buendia's first goal in 35 hours!  It took two attempts, too, as he initial struck the post from McGinn's square ball before poking home the rebound.  Scott McTominey equalised, rising to head home a deep free-kick mid-way through the second half.  It was quite an end-to-end affair, with both sides enterprising but maybe lacking a bit of quality, until the penalty.  Meret was sent the wrong way, and it was all Arsenal from thereon in.

Cash, McGinn & Bailey rested.  Kesler Hayden, Winks & Watkins in.  It was the latter who made the headlines scoring 1 and setting up the other as we finally made our pressure count.  Watkins was a thorn in Brighton's side throughout, giving Brandon Williams a torrid time as he stood in for the injured Lamptey.  A lot of credit should go to Chukwuemeka, too.  Within a minute of coming on as a substitute, it was his run that opened up the passing lane for Winks to find Watkins.  8 minutes later, Chukwuemeka picked up Watkins flick, surged through the Brighton defence and slotted away the second.  His directness against tiring Albion legs made a huge difference, and we could have arguably scored 2 or 3 more in the late stages of the game.

Fate, unfortunately, is a cruel mistress.  A twisted ankle in training just a few days later means Chukwuemeka is now out for the next 3-4 weeks.

FA Cup time, and an absolute goal fest.  Penalty for Grifo opened the way before Watkins added another 2 - the second of which was created by a lung bursting run down the right by Jacob Ramsey.  At 3-0 down, QPR came alive.  Or perhaps more accurately, Joe Rodon fell asleep.  His misjudged header allowed Batshuayi in behind to lob Meret from 25 yards out.  Mings and Garcia wrapped up the win, either side of a Mitja Lotrič strike.  Complacency was definitely a theme, as QPR seemed to have a lot of joy through the middle in the last 20 minutes or so.  From me, included.  We were safely ahead, so I didn't really make any changes other than bringing on McGinn for Ramsey.  Perhaps disappointingly, we attempted fewer tackles in this game (compared to Brighton) despite greater pressing intensity.  Back to the drawing board, it seems.

A little transfer window aside - Inter have had a bid rejected for Meret.  After the inevitable player unhappines, I have agreed to sell him IF a bid of £30m comes in.  Otherwise, no other bids have been received, but Ampadu has agreed to a free transfer to RB Leipzig and Mazraoui looks like he might be joining Real Betis.

After impressive outings in the last two games, Watkins got the nod up front with Toney nursing a slight knock.  He returned the favour by being perennially offside.  It's clear he's much stronger in the other forward positions.  Thankfully, Buendia was there to save the day, netting a hat-trick which gave us a win that was far less comfortable than the scoreline suggests.  A tap in from a Bailey cross opened the scoring, and the two combined again for our 3rd as Buendia ghosted in from the left to bend the ball into the bottom corner.  In between he was the recipient of favourably defending as Igor needlessly gave away the ball just outside his box.  Whilst Fulham caused problems with their pace throughout, their goal was frustrating.  Alex Fernandez came on as a substitute for the injured Harry Wilson, and despite updating my OIs immediately, he'd scored before they were applied.  Would it have stopped the goal?  Probably not.  But I've got to find something to moan about!

Transfer news: Real Betis, unhappy despite just signing Mazraoui, have tabled a non-negotiable £19m bid for Rensch.  A little unexpected, and well below what I'd be willing to consider.  Rejected, and no sign of player unrest.  Elsewhere, Lyon have submitted a bid for Lafont.  I may consider offering Meret out to see if someone will bite, so I can try and pip OL to the Lafont signing.

Revenge is ours.  After a humbling defeat at Vicarage road a month prior, we made amends with an impressive second half performance.  It was a pretty terse affair in the first half, with few chances created, and play breaking down in midfield.  After one too many errant passes to kick of the 2nd half, Ramsey was hauled off.  In his place, Grifo - who I've mainly used in attack, but with Chukwuemeka still recovering from injury, I'm a little light on attacking central midfielders.  The game turned almost immediately.  Grifo drew the foul from Janelt that lead to Toney's penalty, dispatched easily past the excellent Safonov.  We managed to find space down their left side on multiple occasions, and whilst Watford defended resolutely, they couldn't stop Grifo from adding two assists from corners - one for Konsa and one for Watkins.

As mentioned in the previous post, corners were going to be an area of focus, and I've been playing around with setups over the past few games.  The concept is simple, two attackers, four bodies, and a guy to mop up the pieces.

The first corner is crucial.  This allows me to see how the opposition lines up - which of their zonal defenders is the weakest, are they leaving a player unmarked, is there a mismatch to exploit.  Then I change delivery instructions and takers accordingly.  With Janelt responsible for the far six yard box, and Miranchuk matched up on Konsa, I swapped him to attack the far post, and aimed my corners there.  We'd come close with a couple of out-swingers, which Mings managed to reach before it even got to the far post, but eventually we got the goal.  It love it when a plan comes together.  For transparency, Watkins was not designed.  The corner was sent a little too deep, and we got lucky.  Still gonna take credit for it!

With Watford out of the way, our January games are wrapped up.  Arsenal aside, it's been a relatively kind slate of games, and things are looking pretty spicy at the top of the table:

With no major transfer updates as of yet, I'll see what the run up to deadline day brings and, if necessary, put up a post for it.

Edited October 15, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

We've reached deadline day with no movements so far.  Lyon's bid for Lafont was rejected, so I didn't try and force a move for Meret, although interest remains in him, as well as for Rodon and Lewis.  Perhaps more worryingly, Juventus and Chelsea are starting to snoop around Cash and Buendia respectively - but I am happy to fight to keep those two.

With Cameron Archer having returned from Minnesota, we've managed to get some loan interest for García, and hopefully he'll be able to get some more first team football under his belt.  The former Villarreal striker has acquitted himself well when called upon and, truth be told, I think he's got a better chance of making the grade than the aforementioned Archer.  A loan bid for Edwards could be interesting, as he would also benefit from more first team opportunities despite impressing when he's had the chance.  For their to be any movement on that front, I'd be keen to keep Rodon around.  Liverpool's Rhys Williams has emerged as my preferred option if I do NEED to sign a centre-back.  The 23-year old centre-back is transfer listed by request, likely to accept a rotation role, and can cover both the CD and WCB positions.

There is another option, however.

Bruno Guimarães asking price has dropped to £11m, and the Brazilian playmaker's still only 27-years old.  Despite an impressive first season for Newcastle, he's been the victim of their gung-ho-big-money-marquee-signing policy and found limited opportunities since.

He's an improvement over Harry Winks, offers a greater aerial presence in midfield and could be a situational emergency centre-back.  It may also give us the opportunity to trial out McGinn in the LWB slot.  I had intended on this transfer window being purely reactive; merely looking to try and tread water and only bring in replacements if the need arises.  Maybe it's just an itchy trigger finger.  Nonetheless, José Boto has been given his instructions to bring Bruno's talents to Villa Park.

No sooner had a £10.75m bid been tabled for Bruno, Bristol City came knocking for Ronnie Edwards.  They're fighting for promotion in the Championship and reckon Edwards would be an Important Player.  Seems like a no-brainer.  Bid accepted.

Hertha Berlin also wasted no time.  An initial £20m bid was tabled for Alex Meret.  Negotiations got that up to our asking price of £30m, so it looks like we need a keeper.  The options have been narrowed to two, and neither will be a surprise based on previous updates.

Alban Lafont

Spoiler

Arijanet Muric

Spoiler

There's a clear difference in quality, just as there is also a clear difference in price tag.  Lyon had a bid of £26.5m rejected by Nantes, so it looks likely a bid will need to be near the higher end of his valuation, although I'm hoping that Nantes rejected because they didn't want to sell him within the French league.  Regardless, it seems likely that Lafont is going to cost all of the money we'd receive from Meret.  He does, however, have the 3 attributes I most want in a keeper: Agility, Positioning & Reflexes.  I've signed him before in my Sassuolo save - ironically, in part, because I was unable to afford Meret - so it's hard to ignore that I know he will do what I want of him.  Boto is once more given his instructions, and if the deal is too dear, I'm happy to have Muric as a fall-back option.

Before we get that far, however, the Bruno deal has hit a snag.

Over £90k does seem steep for a squad player, especially when it would make him the 3rd highest paid player in the squad.  It would also represent a massive pay-cut compared the £160k he's earning at Newcastle and probably a good deal given the talent he has (although I am basing that on real-life more than in-game).  I've spent more time than I should admit contemplating whether to take over negotiations.  The rules I put in place are entirely self-defined, but:

On 01/10/2022 at 04:01, GIMN said:

DOF responsible for all negotiations - I'll add players as transfer targets

I should have set a maximum wage when adding Bruno as a transfer target.  That said, I knew his wage demands thanks to my scouts, and put him forward based on that knowledge.  For the DoF to essentially ignore that seems questionable and in real-life I'd expect there to be at least some conversation between us regarding the negotiations, where I'd be able to say that I am fully aware of his wage expectations and that I believe he is worth that.  So...I've taken over negotiations, on the proviso I can only sign him if I can get him to agree to wages under the lower bound of £93k p/wk.

In perhaps a more confusing development, it appears José Boto is just feeling a little big rogue-ish today.  I did set some constraints on the Lafont bid.  Namely, for a maximum fee of £30m.  With this in mind, Boto tabled his first bid.  For £31m.

Once again, I'd expect there might be some form of conversation, where I'd obviously not make too much fuss over an additional £1m - but it does seem that my DoF is a bit of a maverick.  It is probably worth noting that the fees for Zabarnyi and Toney also seemed to be on the higher side of their asking price, so it looks like he might not be the most savvy of negotiators.

Apart from a late Bristol City loan bid for Kaine Kessler Hayden, which was rejected, there was no other bids received, and it was just a case of wrapping up the pending deals:

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with that.  A net £1m to improve my goalkeeping situation (a very subjective opinion there) feels pretty good, whilst Bruno adds further quality and depth to our midfield.  Getting game time for two youngsters who look to have bright futures can only be a good thing, too.

It was a pretty quiet transfer window, in general.  Man City did go big with a £114m signing of Jurrien Timber, whilst Tottenham shelled out £26.5m on the unproven Man Utd forward, Facundo Pellistri, and Brighton brought in Francisco Conceição for £22.5m.  A lot of players left for other leagues, though.  Connor Gallagher (Chelsea > Inter), Facundo Torres (Brighton > RB Leipzig), Çağlar Söyüncü (Leicester > Juventus), and Ryan Gauld (Everton > Nice) being the most notable departures.

[GIMN]

Brevity is the Soul of Wit

Every time I embark on one of these updates, I set out with the intention of trying to keep them concise.  Fewer images would probably be the route to go, but sadly I'm an idiot.  Instead I'm going to try and condense more into the images.  Please let me know if you think this is better or worse.

The Man Utd game actually happened on 1st March, but was included as it brings us up to the 28-game mark, which is a nice point for another data dive.  It does put a little bit of a damper, however, on what was an otherwise outstanding month which has catapulted us to the top of the league.

There's no time for celebration, however, as the fixtures have been reasonably kind to us so far this calendar year.  We've played a lot of teams near the bottom of the league, and when we've faced the bigger teams we've lost.  With Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool & Tottenham still to face in the final 10 games that doesn't bode too well.  From a neutral perspective, it does look quite exciting, though.  4 points separate the top 4.  Man City probably have the easiest run in - with their only top half opponents being Arsenal, Everton and ourselves.

Perhaps more interestingly, at the other end of the table, the fight is on for Blackburn to avoid being the worst team in Premier League history.  They've just registered their first win of the season, 2-1 away against Fulham, and need just 5 points to avoid the ignominy of matching (or worsening) Derby's record of 11 points.

[GIMN]

A Not So Deep Dive

Going to start by first looking at the areas for improvement identified last time around: Crossing & Tackling.  As can be seen above, they're still weaknesses but we have started to move a little closer to the average.

Our crossing accuracy has improved, most notably Jamal Lewis has gone from 16% up to 19%, whilst Buendia, our main corner taker has improved by 1 percentage point also. 

One thing that has jumped out from the numbers above, is that players on the right have better accuracy than players on the left.  It's purely speculation, but I imagine this is partly because when crossing from the left, the player attacking the far post is most likely to be the diminutive 5'7" Emi Buendia, whilst from the right Leon Bailey (who wins 15% more headers) is the far target.  It is also worth noting that Cameron Archer has been truly hopeless in the air - winning only 30% of his aerial battles.  Whilst he's got good jumping reach and heading ability, this is probably the result of his low bravery and might impact how we view his best position going forward.  Hopefully, by tailoring crossing instructions accordingly, we should be able to see further improvement in this area.

Our tackling has also improved marginally.  Despite it not being overly successful against QPR, I have persisted with increased pressing frequency from the players who make up the front 5 when in possession - largely in response to games where we've struggled for possession against cautious opposition.  The end result?  Approximately 1 tackle more per game, and improved tackle success rate by about 0.5%.  Arguably, those are figures we might have seen without any changes.  Interestingly in the 20 games before we would win possession roughly 93 times per game, and conceded 0.65 goals per game.  In the 8 games since, this has dropped to 91 times, yet we're conceding at a slightly lower rate of 0.625 goals per game.  I don't really know what to make of this right now, but I'll be keen to see how those figures shape up once the season is over.

I do want to take a look a little closer at the player who has been far and away our best, Leon Bailey:

Time for some honesty.  If he wasn't already a Villa player, I wouldn't sign him.  Despite his obvious technical talent, high determination and desire physical attributes, I would balk at his poor decision making and teamwork.  Not to mention his injury proneness!  Regardless, he's been exceptional - averaging 1.1 goal contributions per 90 minutes in the Premier League.  For comparison, his best season under Steven Gerrard was 4 goals & 8 assists in 35 games.

Whilst we know Bailey is a "dribbly boi", he's not been much of an outlier in that respect.  Rather, it's been his all round game that's impressed.  2.6 key passes per 90 (plus the 8 assists) shows he's able to contribute creatively, whilst he's keeping company with the likes of Adeyemi, Lukaku and Lewandowski as a striker.  More impressively to me, however, is his defensive contribution.  He attempts 50% more tackles per 90 than his peers, and wins more than double the number of interceptions.  Poor teamwork my a***!

[GIMN]

10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

Rather than breaking down these updates by month, I'm gonna do it by # of league games.  So without further delay, the next 5 league games (with an FA Cup tie thrown in, too)...

No real surprise in losing to Man City, but the points dropped against Southampton has us looking over our shoulder.  Maybe I shouldn't have been so glib about being knocked out of the FA Cup!

I fully expect Liverpool and Arsenal to win their games in hand.  There's plenty of time left for things to change between now and the final day, and whilst I anticipate it will end up a battle between Liverpool and Man City, all 4 of us are still very much in it.  The final European spots also look to be hotly contested, whilst the relegation battle looks all but concluded.

A final aside: we had our youth intake in March.  It was rubbish.  It appears it has been rubbish for a number of years now.  I'll be going into more detail on the youth setup in the offseason.

[Sonic Youth]

5 games left, but more importantly 6 games for Blackburn to take over The Record 

In all seriousness, top 4 looks pretty likely at a minimum and now it’s just getting over the line now to finish the season.

Also think your transfers were decent for what you needed, though was weird with your DoF and his negotiating style. Are you considering replacing him?

[GIMN]

11 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

5 games left, but more importantly 6 games for Blackburn to take over The Record 

In all seriousness, top 4 looks pretty likely at a minimum and now it’s just getting over the line now to finish the season.

Also think your transfers were decent for what you needed, though was weird with your DoF and his negotiating style. Are you considering replacing him?

You've got to think that Blackburn are going to at least match Derby now.  That 2nd win of the season over Crystal Palace has pretty much spared their blushes.  Although I'm definitely hoping they fail.  Nothing personal against Blackburn IRL - but this is a very bad FM squad.

José Boto's job is safe for now.  Behaviour's definitely been odd, but we all make mistakes - and ultimately, we've managed to secure the signings we wanted.  Essentially it's "no harm, no foul" at the moment, although I will be keeping an eye on this a little bit more.  Realistically, he's probably got at least another year in the job before I even consider replacing him.

[GIMN]

The Final Countdown

So here it is, the final stretch.  Right on cue, FM provides the the fixture run-in for the top 4 teams, saving me the effort!

If we are to pull off an upset, we'll have to do it without Bruno Guimarães, as the Brazilian has picked up a knee injury and is set to miss the next 3 weeks.  It's a blow, but we're otherwise healthy for the conclusion of the season.

The results have been far better than expected, and with one game we're still in with a chance.  It's an extremely small chance.  To win the league the following needs to happen:

• Villa win
• Man City lose at home against Southampton, and there is an 11 goal swing in goal difference
• Liverpool fail to win at home against Crystal Palace, or;
  • Liverpool win, but by 8 fewer goals than us

Essentially we need to win 10-0 at St. James Park.  It's not impossible, but if it were to happen I'd rather save up that luck for the lottery.  As a result, there's no need to stop here and create a dramatic final day post.  Or is there...

...Nope.  We failed to hold up our end of the bargain, so results elsewhere were of no consequence.  Actually, that's not true - if Liverpool somehow conspired to lose against Crystal Palace we could sneak 2nd place.  If Liverpool won, they could still win the league, but would need Man City to lose and a 4 goal swing in goal difference.

None of those things happened.

Man City retain their Premier League title and Liverpool finish 2nd.  Blackburn win on the final day to avoid the ignominy of being the worst Premier League team in history.  3rd is a phenomenal result for a team that (technically) only avoided relegation on the final day of last season.

Talking of records, LEON BAILEY matched two club records - most League goals in a Premier League season (19 - Christian Benteke 2012/13) and most Assists in a season (10 - Digne 2021/22).  Or, he would've matched two club records.  IVAN TONEY became the first Villa player in the Premier League era to score 20 goals a season, finishing the season with 21 goals in 34 appearances.  BUENDIA fell 1 goal short of being the 3rd player to reach double figures for league goals, as we made a vast improvement on our goal-scoring woes under Steven Gerrard.

And with that, the first season is done.

 

[Sonic Youth]

Anticlimactic is definitely the right word for that last game.

Top season I think you’ve had. A good platform to build from for the next season.

I imagine confirming qualification for next season’s ECL changes your transfer plans.

[GIMN]

37 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Anticlimactic is definitely the right word for that last game.

Top season I think you’ve had. A good platform to build from for the next season.

I imagine confirming qualification for next season’s ECL changes your transfer plans.

Yes and no.

I still intend to stick to some core principles - maintain a "small" squad, and give young players a chance.  Here's the squad at present:

Red = not part of my plans
Yellow = probably not part of my plans

Bruno Guimarães signing means I'm not looking for reinforcements in midfield, but I am still looking for a back-up central defender to replace Joe Rodon. 

A top quality IWB for the left hand side is my main focus, however.  After consideration during the course of the season, I prefer deploying the IWB as it gives me the license to deploy a more attacking central midfielder.  Neither Ramsey or Chukwuemeka have necessarily made that role their own, but that's down to them both performing well rather than a need to improve upon them.  Lewis improved considerably in the second half of the season, laying on 6 assists, but he'd also be quite profitable to sell.  Kesler Hayden is a defensive liability, and seemingly refuses to improve in that area, so I wouldn't be adverse to moving him on if there's no interest in Lewis.  Depending on what's out there, there's always the possibility both leave!

The writing's been on the wall for Watkins since I took over, and both he and Grifo's contract expires next year.  Archer has been underwhelming and might have reached the end of his Villa career, especially as García did well before being sent out on loan.  I'd like to sign someone who can provide relief for Buendia and/or Bailey - and this is probably the most significant change to my plans as a result of ECL qualification.  Philogene-Bidace will get a chance, but if I'm honest, he's probably not good enough, and I'll need some real quality as that rotation option.

There is another consideration - which is possibly training Ramsey as a F9, and using him in relief of Buendia.  In that situation, Philogene-Bidace might not get a chance, and instead I will also look at bringing in a back-up attacking midfielder.  I suppose a more concise answer would have been: I don't know!

The biggest difference that ECL will make, hopefully, is the quality of player I'll be able to attract.

[Emozil]

This is such a good read (Villa fan here) - Makes me want to do my own Villa save career update for FM23 to be honest. Can I drop you a message to ask a few questions?

[GIMN]

48 minutes ago, Emozil said:

This is such a good read (Villa fan here) - Makes me want to do my own Villa save career update for FM23 to be honest. Can I drop you a message to ask a few questions?

Of course - no need to ask!

I'm always amazed at how many Villa fans seem to be on these forums, until I remember how awful we've been this century - we need FM to escape reality!!

[GIMN]

More Than One Way To Skin A Cat

When I took over, Villa had a massive squad with a lot of bloat.  As a result, my initial focus was on trimming down numbers and adding just one or two pieces that would compliment the way I want us to play.  With the unnecessary restrictions I add to player recruitment, I also had a relatively small pool of players to target.  This season, however, is different - and we've been able to utilise a much wider set of approaches to help bolster the squad going into our second season.

Cat-Skinning 1: Ego

Manager knows best, right?  One of the avenues I can use is asking my scouts to run the rule over players it is plausible that I already know.  What this means is practice is that I pick out players I like in real-life and think would be suitable.  That's ultimately why we signed Ivan Toney.  His performances at EPL level hadn't been good up until then, and whilst he had good attributes for what I wanted, the main motivator behind signing him is that I think he's a good player.  The same could be said for Bruno Guimarães - whilst he had already been scouted, it's what he's done in real-life that drove the signing.

It's worked before, so why change course?  Like Bruno, Dominik Szoboszlai was already in my scouted players pool and rated a solid B+.  As the transfer window opened, RB Leipzig put him on the transfer list, and that was the catalyst I needed.  My desire to sign him is largely fuelled by his performances at RB Salzburg many seasons ago - with a small smattering of him having a similar attribute profile to Vincenzo Grifo.  José Boto was awakened from his slumber, and duly delivered me a £15.25m Hungarian:

Spoiler

I'll be training Szoboszlai as a False 9 so that he can play in either of the roles performed by Bailey and Buendia, whilst also being an option as the attacking central midfielder.  At 24, he's got his best year ahead of him and I feel confident he represents an improvement on Ollie Watkins.

Cat-Skinning 2: Delegation

The most obvious approach - let your scouts get on with the work, and trust the results.  LaFont and Zabarnyi were signed this way, and this will probably be how most of my business is conducted.  Currently my scouting pool is 754 players, and this is where I've found most of the players I've shortlisted, even if they don't always end up being the final player signed.

Alexis Mac Allister is an A-rated player, who had (also) been transfer listed.  Not necessarily fitting the profile of what I was looking for in a winger/striker, the thing that stood out to me was his high aggression and decent tackling.  In what appears to be developing into a theme here, he looks like a player who could be retrained to fit into my tactical approach.  At £40m, however, he is a bit too rich for my liking.  Thankfully, Brighton are impatient, and within a month that price had come down by more than half.  My DoF arguably has a very easy job - every now and then I give him a poke, ask him to throw some money around, and then he can go back in hiding.  A £19.25m bid was tabled and a new IWB arrives at Villa Park:

Spoiler

There are some reservations about his desire to arrive late in the opponent's area, as he will be mostly expected to create from deeper positions, but if this becomes a problem I can always try and coach this out of him.  Like Szoboszlai, he's able to play in central midfield if the need arises.  If we include Rensch and Cash in that mix, too, we now have a lot of cover for the area of the squad that might otherwise appear thinnest.

Cat-Skinning 3: Journalists

When it comes to putting forward players I would plausibly know, I used Ivo Mammini as an example of a player I would never come up with naturally.  From what I recall, I randomly looked at some Argentinian squad and picked out a player I hadn't heard of.  In game, however, there's a wealth of information constantly raising awareness of players you'd never otherwise consider.  I've lost count of the number of times I've been asked in press conferences about a player I'm not sure even exists.  "That's the first I've heard of it" is the most honest answer I've ever given.  And I've given it repeatedly.

When the NxGn 50 drops, however, it only makes sense that I ask my recruitment team to do their due diligence.  Whilst I'm primarily looking towards the future, and bolstering a youth team setup that is currently underwhelming, my desire to run a small squad and give youngsters a chance means there might be first team opportunities if the right player comes along.

4 players came to my attention: Enzo Llamas, Ariel Meza, Brian Frazer & Kim Johansen.  It's José Boto time.  Frazer wanted playing time guarantees a bit too much above his station, but the other 3 were secured for a combined £14m:

Spoiler

The brilliantly named Enzo Llamas looks an absolute steal!  His mental acuity at only 19 years old suggests we've got someone who has the potential to be a mainstay in this team for a very long time.  He's not quite a star yet, but will almost certainly get opportunities providing relief at WCB.

Spoiler

His compatriot, Ariel Meza, is also a solid acquisition.  He's not quite as refined, but already has standout attributes in key areas to play as a Winger in our system.  More work on the mental side of his game and he'll be a star.

Spoiler

Kim Johansen is the furthest away from first team football, but looks like he could eventually be a capable CD.  He needs to improve physically, and could do with some work on his first touch and composure, but otherwise there's a solid base to work from.  There's an exciting possibility that Llamas, Zabarnyi and Johansen could make up our central defence trio for the next 10 years!!

Maybe not a surprise given their age, but all 3 players are a complete blank slate when it comes to traits.  Whilst I have no concrete plans, this is a great opportunity to truly tailor them to my system.

Cat-Skinning 4: Data

None of the above is particularly ground-breaking.  Neither is the 4th approach, to be fair, but it is unduly time consuming.  After exporting stats for all Premier League players last season, and removing anyone who had played less than 450 minutes of football, I was able to set up a table of players in Data Studio who I could then filter based on whichever combination of metrics I liked.  This was primarily done to help identify potential IWBs - looking for specifically for players compared against Rensch in the following areas:

• Greater tackles per 90
• Greater tackle success %
• Greater interceptions per 90
• Greater header success %
• Within 5% pass success %

There were some interesting candidates.  Jakub Moder had underperformed last season, but was comfortable in the LWB position.  £30m was too steep for me.  Yangel Herrera was an affordable option - he was transfer listed - and despite a lack of experience in the position, had an appealing distribution of attributes.  Unfortunately he was unlikely to get a work permit.  Finally, James Justin - he was a natural LWB, right footed, and had all the right attributes.  He had previously shown interest in joining in January whilst transfer listed.  Times have changed, though, and he's now happy with his squad role at Arsenal.  Eventually, I decided Alexis Mac Allister was the option I wanted to pursue.

There was one other player, though.  Fredrik Bjørkan had struggled last season for Southampton, and was a more traditional left wing-back which wasn't what I was looking for.  He did, however, have the ability to play on the right hand-side.  Like many others in this write-up, he was also transfer listed.  Bring forth the DoF.  Instructed to negotiate a loan, Boto once again delivered:

Spoiler

I'd actually glossed over his tendency to cut inside from the left wing, which might be an issue if I decide to deploy him in a more traditional capacity on the left.  That said, he is a depth option who I expect will likely play more often as an IWB on the right.

Exodus, Part II

With 6 players in (so far), there had to be some casualties.  We moved early transfer listing players who I'd earmarked for departure and were already generating interest.  In all honesty, this was probably just a continuation of the cull that started last offseason - and whilst some of these players had done nothing wrong, they were never likely to become the bedrock of my plans going forward.

Jamal Lewis is probably the exception here.  I liked the flexibility that he gave us by being an out-and-out wing-back, and his performances in the 2nd-half of the season were very good.  The problem was that I increasingly preferred playing an IWB on the left, I wanted to improve that position, and he would ultimately fall down the pecking order through no fault of his own.  It was better to cash in now, than wait for his value to drop.

Ollie Watkins, Vincenzo Grifo and Harry Winks can all feel hard done by, too.  They all contributed during the season, but in the case of the first two - both had 1 year left on their contracts and were not important enough to warrant extensions - it was about maximising value.  Watkins was the only player we were unable to get our asking price for, eventually having to settle for £5m less than what we wanted.  Winks, on the other hand, was a victim of circumstance.  The availability of Bruno meant he was essentially 5th choice for a position where only 2 players play.

To call-back to the weird cat thing going on earlier, Joe Rodon appears to be the cat with 9 lives.  Despite saying I'm going to try and move him on in every transfer window, he's still here.  There was no interest heading into the offseason, and I have yet to come to a concrete decision as to who may be his replacement.  Until the latter happens, I see no need to try and force him out.

Onto loans: the return of Emiliano García meant there was competition for the back-up striker role between him and Cameron Archer.  Vancouver made that decision easy, by submitting a loan bid for Archer.  The arrival of Enzo Llamas allowed me to extend Ronnie Edwards loan at Bristol City, whilst Jaden Philogene-Bidace is also going back out on loan, this time to Arminia Bielefeld.  It was between him and Meza for what would essentially be 6th-choice forward, and I think JPB needs regular first team football at this point in his career.  Kesler Hayden has been loan listed, and is in negotiation with a number of League One sides, likely to be wrapped up in the next few days.

£85m recouped, and only £50m spent - it's been a pretty satisfactory transfer window.  There is still plenty of time left - the new season is 3 weeks away - but I am happy with business so far.  Whilst I'm still looking for an upgrade on Rodon, I'm quite content with him as a backup, and we've already brought in more players than I'd initially intended.  More importantly, we haven't had to fight to keep our core players.  Buendia was the subject of a £66m bid from Juventus, but he had no interest in joining them so I could reject without consequence.  Chelsea are monitoring Konsa, and I might've been spared from bids for Bailey courtesy of an injury during the Gold Cup (likely to miss the season opener), but otherwise there's been no serious worries.

Perhaps I should've waited until the season starts, in case things do change, but nonetheless this is how the squad looks right now:

(Twenty) 3 is the magic number.  There's a significant risk that we might find ourselves a little thin with a UCL campaign to consider as well, but it certainly makes game time management a lot easier.  There should be plenty of opportunities for the likes of Llamas, Garcia and Meza, which I hope will provide significant boosts in their development.

[GIMN]

"You Can't Win Anything With Kids"

When Alan Hansen said those now infamous words, it was after Man Utd had lost 3-1 in the opening game at Villa Park (incidentally, it was our in-game manager, Ian Taylor who scored the opener that day).  Alex Ferguson and his golden generation went on to prove everyone wrong, and Alan Hansen was condemned to forever be the man who got it wrong.

Fast Forward 30 years, and the question for me is: Can I win anything with kids?  Our youth system is a bit of a mess.  I've touched on it previously, but we have a number of once-heralded youngsters who've failed to live up to those lofty expectations.  Aaron Ramsey and Louie Barry struggled at League One Rotherham last season, Archer and Philogene-Bidace have been unable to get a regular first-team spot, Iroegbunam seems to have found his level in Nigeria and Kerr Smith has departed for Hibernian.  Unfortunately, football is not an industry that allows you time to grieve the failures of the past, as the focus swiftly turns to the next crop of youngsters who are surely destined for greater things.

Let's start with how this next generation is getting on:

Underwhelming is probably being generous to last season.  This obviously doesn't give the full picture, but is a good indicator of where we sit currently.  The most damning indictment is that across the two squads, there is currently only 1 player I think may eventually be able to reach the first team and I'm not confident he will be more than a rotation piece.

Leo Collins

Spoiler

A promising winger, with less-than-ideal speed and an awful trait, Leo Collins has played in some of our pre-season friendlies and been solid.  He is by far and away the best prospect to come through the academy, and whilst I'd like to keep him around until at least January to have more control over his training, the plan is to start getting him first-team exposure through loans.

That's it.  That is the sum total of our academy's hard work, and one of the driving factors behind signing 3 youngsters from the NxGn 50.  It is also why I am continuing to ask my scouts to do their due diligence on basically any prospect they recommend who is under 19.

There are some things we can control in the meantime.  Last season, I allowed the managers to use their preferred formation/tactic.  This is no-longer the case, and both youth teams will now be playing a slightly adjusted version of the Zen (Treq) formation, whilst I will also take over individual training.

The main differences to the senior team set-up, is players are no longer encouraged to Dribble More Often, and the individual roles have been shorn of all instructions (except stay wider for the wing-backs).  Results are ultimately less important than developing players who can fit into our tactical style, but that doesn't mean they have no importance.  Winning and good performance obviously impacts morale, and we want to grow a squad of players with a winning mentality.  It's going to be a balancing act, especially for the U23s as ideally if a player is good enough for first-team football somewhere, they are likely to be sent out on loan.

When it comes to training, players will be trained in the role I think they will be most suitable for.  As with Buendia, Mac Allister, etc... this might not be a position they are already comfortable with.  Some of these players are not going to become professional footballers, so this might end up being a case of whichever role I think they'll suck at the least.  Individual focus is where it gets interesting.  For the youth teams, I will not be tailoring this to developing perceived weakness.  Instead we will be treating it as monthly themes.  E.g. in October everyone will be working on their Quickness, or in March everyone is working on ball control.  I don't know if this will be effective, but ultimately I want players to broaden their all-round game in ways that will work in our system.  That means Ball Control, Defensive Positioning and Passing will feature heavily in that rotation, although for the U18s there may be a greater focus on physical attributes.

It's also worth adding that I don't want, nor need, youth teams filled with potential superstars.  Having just one or two prospects that might make the grade is fine.  This isn't a youth-only challenge, and realistically most improvements to the first-team are going to come in the form of transfers.  What I do want, however, is to have the youth squads supported by players with good personality traits who have an opportunity to develop into players at a Championship/League One level.  This means I will be looking to my scouts for players who aren't necessarily going to be long-term pieces.  Regrettably, I should have set my sights on doing this before July, so part of that process could have included players who were released by other clubs.

Par For The Course

I'll squeeze in pre-season results here, too.  Don't want to spend too much time on it, as it's mostly just about fitness/conditioning.  A trip to Austria saw us mix and match senior and youth players in both halves.  The main takeaways being that Meza (2 goals, 3 assists) and Garcia (5 goals) looked quite good.  Luton and Millwall gave us quite a few troubles, although I put this largely down to perhaps being a bit too conservative with the number of friendlies I squeezed in and those teams being further along in their pre-season preparation.  There was a noticeable difference in player condition.  Ajax was probably the only "real" game, and we played them off the park.  Two goals disallowed and the woodwork rattled twice, we could have won by 3 or 4.  Bruno and MacAllister ran the game from the base of midfield, with the latter getting the winner.

More importantly, we're on the cusp of the new season, and we can get back into the swing of regular updates!

Edited October 18, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

Season 2: GW 1 - 5

 

Match details & league table in spoilers

Spoiler

A solid start to the season, with Ivan TONEY running absolutely rampant in the opening fixtures.  This has been a somewhat consistent experience with this edition of FM for me, that my central striker starts the season hot.  The challenge has always been to find a way to maintain that over the course of a whole season.  SZOBOSZLAI has been effective but, with the exception of the goal on his debut, has been wasteful with his shooting.  We experienced this with Buendia last season, and I expect this is part of the growing pains of retraining him as a striker.  MAC ALLISTER has been my favourite signing, however.  A respectable 7.12 rating and 1 assist in 5 games is not too bad.  More importantly, his 16 key passes shows that he can be effective as an IWB and that Rensch's low (relative) average rating last season does not need to be an indicator that the IWB doesn't work in this set up.

Despite feeling settled going into the season, 2 new players have arrived.  After the Newcastle game, I spotted that Hull's Jacob GREAVES had been transfer listed for £5m.  He was someone we'd scouted last season as a possible back-up should Rodon leave, and the favourable value meant now was as good a time as any.  RODON was finally transfer listed (after alluding to it for the last 12 months) and LOSC swooped in immediately with a £13.5m bid.

Spoiler

GREAVES is a slight downgrade on RODON, but arguably more appropriate as a back-up player.  The -£8.5m net spend makes it a pretty good trade as far as I'm concerned.

One more player came in on Transfer Deadline Day, and this was essentially to rectify a mistake I made.  By the end of the Tottenham game, it was clear that Matty CASH doesn't have the stamina to play 90 minutes every game.  With KESLER HAYDEN out on loan, and my remaining options being more comfortable as IWBs, I needed to bolster that right WB slot.  I tried to go big, but Wilfried Singo rejected our advances having just signed a new contract with Stuttgart.  Celta Vigo's Sergio Carreira was another target, valued between £14-21m.  My DoF went straight in with a bid of £29m, which I immediately withdrew.  Third time's a charm, however, as a £17m bid was enough to bring Pablo MAFFEO to Villa Park:

Spoiler

I'm pretty certain I don't understand transfer values.  MAFFEO was not transfer listed, and his value was in the £22m-26m range, yet we were able to get him for considerably less.  We did have to pay him quite handsomely, although there's a good chance he becomes the de facto starter, and £105k per week is not unreasonable in that case.  Furthermore, as a Man City academy graduate, he counts as "homegrown" in England.  Even with all that considered, however, he is definitely a panic buy.  That does mean we have 5 WBs now...or at least 5 players I am considering as wing-backs.  I'll see how BJORKAN gets on, because if he plays well when he does get the opportunity, it might mean the end of RENSCH's career at Villa.

Edited October 20, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

Season 2: GW 6 - 10

In the sea of FM23 posts this is likely to get lost, but I am ploughing on with this career whilst everyone else is enjoying their shiny new toy (I'm not jealous at all, honest!)

Match details & league table in spoilers

Spoiler

I forgot to export the image for the PSG game.  THEY DESTROYED US.  Vlahovic & Neymar put them 2-0 up early, and the rest of the game was just like watching a cat play with a dead mouse.  We can be grateful we didn't lose by more.

As expected, Champions League means fixtures are coming thick and fast.  We've only played 3 more games than this time last year, but we've needed to make full use of our squad already - partly due to fatigue, partly due to indifferent form.  BUENDIA is the player who has caused the most concern, as he had a run of game where he struggled to create chances.  Just the 1 league assist for him so far this season, and he's lost his starting spot to SZOBOSZLAI in recent weeks.

When there's a creative void to fill, it means other players have to step up, and thankfully MAC ALLISTER and BRUNO have done exactly that, combining for 9 assists already this season.  BRUNO in particular has pretty much wrestled the starting spot from MCGINN, proving to be both dependable defensively and so vital in helping us unlock teams that are setting up a little more defensively against us.

TONEY continues to be an absolute bully up front and currently leads the Premier League goalscoring charts with 10 goals in 10 games.  The September Player of the Month award duly went his way, with CHUKWUEMEKA picking up the Young Player award for the same month.

Finally, Jacob RAMSEY has signed a new 5-year contract.  This ties up all our first team squad until 2028, except 3 players:

• Lovre KALINIC - the 35-year old third-choice keeper's contract expires after this season and will not be renewed; he is unlikely to get a work permit even if we did give a new contract, so may be sold in January (assuming anyone is interested)
• Tyrone MINGS - at 32, Mings is still a key player and the club captain, and we'll be looking to extend his contract by another year at the end of the season
• John MCGINN - whilst he's lost his starting spot for the time being, he's a useful part of the squad and I'd be keen to get him extended, but I want to see how things develop over the next few months first

 

Edit: Moments after I posted this, I had a power cut.  I hadn't saved since the Southampton result, so that game had to be replayed.  A 5-1 win this time around.

Edited October 22, 2022 by GIMN

[GIMN]

Season 2: GW 11 - 15

Match details & league table in spoilers

Spoiler

Somehow I've done it again, and not exported the PSG game, so have this instead:

It was bloody incredible.  SZOBOSZLAI scored after 29 seconds, paving the way for a counter-attacking masterclass.  Even after Pavard's sensational 30-yard half-volley (he seems to have a penchant for a wonder goal) halved the deficit, we remained rampant.  BRUNO, who set up the opener, got his first goal for the club with a fine strike from just inside the area, and even Emi GARCIA got on the scoresheet.  Now I can go back to the usual format.

Despite Man City spoiling what was going to be a perfect update, we have reached the top of the Premier League.  Properly this time.  None of that game-in-hand nonsense that gave us brief moments of euphoria last season.  Momentum is a glorious thing in FM, and we definitely rode it in those first few games.  If we add the replayed Southampton game into the mix, we scored 18 goals in 4 games and TONEY only scored two of those.

We've had a couple of significant injures, but thankfully not to our starters.  BAZUNU sprained his knee ligaments and will be out until the new year, whilst BJORKAN picked up a foot injury (very vague!) straight after being out for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.  MAC ALLISTER (knee ligaments) and CHUKWUEMEKA (hernia) have also spent a reasonable amount of time on the physio table, but we've otherwise been quite lucky during this busy period.

A new contract was offered by the board, and we successfully negotiated an additional 10% plus a 4th year.  Ian Taylor is here for the long term.

6 more games (4 in the league) to come in December, and then we'll do a mid-season review/data dive/transfer plan.

[AlfieLucas]

Great stuff so far, really enjoying it. What tactic you currently using? As i'm Villa in an online game, trying to figure out what's best to play, considering i don't really know the team.

[GIMN]

12 hours ago, AlfieLucas said:

Great stuff so far, really enjoying it. What tactic you currently using? As i'm Villa in an online game, trying to figure out what's best to play, considering i don't really know the team.

I'm in India at the moment, and not quite set-up yet to continue playing, but the tactics I use are in the match reports (open the spoilers) for each game.  I change depending on the opposition and players available, but the most used variant is probably this one:

On 23/10/2022 at 07:02, GIMN said:

Mentality: Positive
In Possession: Shorter Passing, Play Out of Defence, Run at Defence, Be More Expressive
Transition: Counter-Press
Mentality: Higher Defensive Line, More Often

Those in italics are the ones I may be more likely to turn off situationally.  As for individual instructions:

WB: Stay Wider, Take Fewer Risks, Cross Aim Centre, Close Down More
CAR: Tackle Harder
CM: Dribble More, Close Down More
W: Cross Aim Near Post
F9: Move Into Channels, Mark Specific Position (the nearest full-back)
DLF/AF: Dribble More

The Crossing instructions are usually added if I'm playing Buendia in the F9 role, as I want them to ignore him as a possible target.

From what I remember, I employ some variation on that formation about 60% of the time; then roughly 20% on a flipped version (IWB and W on right), and another 20% of a 5-2-1-2 with a Trequartista behind two strikers.  The tactical instructions stay the same.

Edit: whilst I am still playing, and will be updating this thread again (currently got another 3 updates lined up) - I probably won't be updating this whilst I'm away.

Edited October 27, 2022 by GIMN

[BlueScreen]

When you target a player for your DoF to buy, do you set a maximum wage cap? 

I decided to use my DoF to offer a contract to a player whose contract was running out, with a maximum wage of 3000 and he offered him 6500. And the worst part he finalized the transfer, I couldn't do nothing to cancel it.