Managing an Underdog? - Think About Space!

[bababooey]

I've always feared managing teams that were either promotion candidates, or relegation candidates. It seems like a Herculean task to take a team from a lower division into a higher division (or to save a team who looks destined to go down a division).

Recently, I decided that I've gotten to a point where I feel I need to do this. I love German football, and the Bundesliga is by far my favorite league to manage in for FM. I chose to manage Hamburg after learning a bunch about them. What a lovely city, and a truly historic club! 

We easily earned promotion in the first season, winning the 2.Bundesliga, so that was great.

But staying alive at the top flight was a whole different beast.

Leaving out the man management stuff + morale stuff, I want to focus on tactics here.

What Is Your Team Capable Of?

Ultimately, managing expectations is every bit as important as managing players. You have to know where you stand! How do you stack up to the other teams? As a newly promoted team, you're probably going to suck compared to most of the other clubs. That's okay.  There is an advantage there, but it's not obvious to everyone.

The advantage I'm speaking about is: space.

Space!

Think about this...

This is quite typical of what you'd expect to see when playing opponents who are much better than you.

Imagine the team in red is Bayern, and the team in white is whatever underdog you want.

Fundamentally speaking, football is just a bunch of battles across the pitch for space. Teams that are dominant want to enforce where you're "allowed" to play, often by holding a high line and pressing high.

In the above example, Bayern would be doing exactly this. A high press, and a very attacking shape (4-2-3-1).

The advantage you have here, if there is one, is all the space in behind that team!

Think about it as if the roles were reversed here, and now your team had to play like that, defending so high with all that space in behind.

What are the types of things you would do to protect it? Try to push up and be compact + catch runners offside? Be more forceful in the tackle and not allow the other team any time on the ball? Etc.

Once you know what to expect, you can observe it, and then you can exploit it.

Okay - But How?

Well, first thing is that you're going to get beaten up sometimes. That's just reality. If you think your team can defend perfectly every single match, you're being unrealistic. So there are no perfect solutions.

What you can do, however, is start exploiting the spaces other teams give to you.

In the diagram above, I've added green movement lines to players that could very easily cause problems for the red team. Obviously, it's not limited to just those players, but for the sake of this post just roll with it.

How would you set this up?

Maybe you have a guy in defense who can play a long ball to your striker. Maybe your keeper can kick it long into the channels. Maybe you have a deep lying playmaker who can release a pass to one of your wingers. Etc

There are so many options!  But one thing that I believe really helps is making adjustments as needed. There will be times when, for example, your striker is being dominated by a center back who is simply much better. You can try to fix this in a number of ways.

See the number 9 here in white? He's being marked out of the game by 2 aggressive center backs. Your team is desperately trying to get him the ball, because he's your release valve, and you need him to hold it up and allow players to get forward.

Well... Look at the green lines I added to the 10.  What you can do in this case, is change the 10's role to be one that bursts forward, particularly an attacking duty like SS-A, or AM-A.  The idea being, the defense is doubling up on your striker, but that's not such a great strategy if the striker has someone supporting him VERY closely like an SS-A. Now you've changed the game because your striker has help, and if he gets it right, he could easily release a ball for the SS-A to get onto and run into space.

This is why a lot of underdog type clubs will play with 2 strikers, or they at least ensure that a lone striker has proper support from midfield.

Dont be afraid to change shape!

One of the things I think you'll need to get comfortable with is understanding how different shapes work, and how they can be effective (or ineffective) against other shapes.

Here's an example of what I mean. The red team is still playing in a 4-2-3-1.  The underdog side is now playing a 4-4-2.

Notice the green spaces I've highlighted? And notice the black lines linking players together?

This is to emphasize what I mean by understanding how different shapes match up.

In a 4-2-3-1 one of the main weaknesses is how it defends the flanks. If the high press breaks down, and the white team is able to progress the ball forward, they actually have some numerical advantages here.

You could try to overload the flanks with overlapping runs from deep. You could play direct balls into the channels for your wingers to run onto. You could also have those wingers tuck inside to help keep possession, and then have the full backs bomb forward and receive a pass out wide in a dangerous area.

All it takes is ONE mistake from one of the red players defending in a 1v1 situation, and you can create a scoring opportunity as a result.

This is how you turn the tides against bigger teams. You have to figure out a way to increase the chance that the other team makes a mistake, or loses out on a 1v1 battle, etc.

Making things easier for your team!

Now I want to talk more about putting ideas into practice, rather than the theoretical.

The way my Hamburg side plays is a very simple 4-3-3 system that is based around a mid-block, with average to less than average amount of risk tolerance (meaning, sometimes we play with "defensive" or "cautious" instead of balanced mentality).

The goal of this system is to try and tilt the odds towards us, because we're going to be up against it most of the time. Even though we're now in our 2nd season back in the top flight, and we're not expected to get relegated, we're still WAY down there, and not nearly as good as the top half.

The way we attempt to tilt the odds in our favor is to prioritize a few key things:

A.) Being responsible with the ball

B.) Fighting like hell to win the ball back

C.) Dictating the space opponents have to play in

For part A, I've gone for some very supporting/balanced roles and duties. We have 5 support duties in the team, which is plenty to help keep the ball.

We use standard fullbacks because we don't want to be too adventurous down the flanks, and we can easily adjust their PI's if needed (like to add "cross more often", which we've done)

We really don't have ball playing center defenders, as they're super expensive. So what do we do? We get creative! We use a DLP-D and a SK-S to help us play out from the back. The keeper here, Fernandez, has amazing throwing, and the DLP-D is quite comfortable under pressure. The CD's are left to just be responsible, and it works very nicely. The 2 supporting fullbacks also really help us build up play, and avoid the high press. We need options to play out from the back properly, and they give us that.

If for some reason things break down, we can always send a ball to the AF-A or one of the AML/R.

Here's a cool little wrinkle...   We have "fairly narrow" as our width setting. Why? Because we want to make sure IF we lose possession, we lose it in the middle where we have numbers, rather than on the flanks, where we could easily get beaten by superior players. It also serves us well defensively! This is because we are more likely to lose the ball in tight spaces where we can quickly pounce on the ball to try to win it back. If we lost it out wide, we'd have to cover more space to get it back. I don't want my players having to do that often. Being compact is key!

Now look at the defensive and in transition instructions.  This is where part B. and C. from above come into the picture.

Let's look at the areas on the pitch divided up into colors, based on where we want to defend.

The green area is where I'm happy to let the opponents have the ball. The idea is simple, basically... if they have the ball in that area they can't hurt us directly.

The yellow areas are where I'm less happy to let the opponents have the ball. Ultimately, it's going to end up there at times, that's just reality, but when it does, I expect the team to fight to win it back.

The red areas are where I am EXTREMELY serious about defending. I don't want the opponent to have any time on the ball in those areas. As close to zero as possible!

So this is why we have "higher line" + "mid block" because it creates a compressed area (shaded in red) with shorter distances between our own players. This makes it easier for our team to press aggressively and win the ball back. If we had to press deep into the green zone, it would stretch us out a lot, and that would favor our opponents who are generally better / more talented / more physically superior.

We use "step up more" to further cement the block into place. This is sort of like the old offside trap instruction, IIRC. It really does help with ensuring  your midfielders are getting defensive support from the back line.

Of course, we have also selected "counter-press" because we're trying to win the ball back as quickly as we can.

Counter, also self-explanatory.

In Game Changes?

I think to be successful in FM you have to be willing to make changes. Whether they're subtle, like changing a duty, or drastic like changing formation, you probably will run into a situation where this is required.

One of the things I like to do is use the mentality option as a throttle. So, we go into EVERY match at "balanced" because I believe this gives us the ability to see how things are unfolding.

Then, as I watch highlights, I determine whether we need to adjust that mentality level. If the other team is throwing bodies foward and overwhelming us, I will look to lower it down to cautious, or possibly even defensive.

I haven't really needed to raise it above balanced, yet. Again, we're a heavy underdog still.

The other thing you can do is look at which players are hurting you in the match. If there is a pesky wing back who is causing trouble down the flank, maybe consider using OI's and PI's to lock him down. Sometimes you'll see, for example, a team building play through a specific player. In a recent match against Hoffenheim, I noticed that their 4-4-2 sort of hinged on getting the ball into their left central mid (a mezzala). If he couldn't recieve a pass easily, their build up play broke down quickly. So we adjusted to this at half time and marked him specifically, and it worked a treat.

So it's little things that can often times make a big difference. 

 

 

 

 

[Konfuchie]

Very nice read. Thank you!

[Irn Rvd]

Lovely stuff! Thanks for sharing

[HanziZoloman]

Great read thank you. 
I’m in 1st division now with Munich 1860 and still with the guys from 3rd and some prospects. We will need every point for survival. 

[fuzbalino]

I like to manage weaker teams and impress my board and fans alike. In FM 2023 this is even harder then before I think . Tried possesion system and gegenpress but they all failed for logical reasons. This strategy is working so far (15 games). First the set-up and thinking behind it makes sense. Teams without transfer budget with players of limited individual quality can only play in certain ways so  that the team can hide lots of their weaknesses. You play vs better teams and some monster teams all season long and it can be frustrating if you lose a lot and the team morale is zero. I got some big draws away vs big teams which was pleasing but I think you also have to engage with shouts and good opposition instructions to improve your odds and also to prevent big losses that can kill the spirit of the team.

This strategy is promising. Bababooey thank you for saving me lots of frustration and you should continue with this topic especially how you tweak it after a while and what kind of recruits should be a priority after 1st and 2nd season. It is  a delicate task as we know the budget will be a problem with smaller teams for some time and next few transfer periods are crucial.

I found out that you need to have a bigger squad for rotation and due to more yellow/red cards. Also I noticed quite a few teams got red cards playing against my team so it helped to get good results.

[bababooey]

On 02/06/2023 at 04:29, fuzbalino said:

I like to manage weaker teams and impress my board and fans alike. In FM 2023 this is even harder then before I think . Tried possesion system and gegenpress but they all failed for logical reasons. This strategy is working so far (15 games). First the set-up and thinking behind it makes sense. Teams without transfer budget with players of limited individual quality can only play in certain ways so  that the team can hide lots of their weaknesses. You play vs better teams and some monster teams all season long and it can be frustrating if you lose a lot and the team morale is zero. I got some big draws away vs big teams which was pleasing but I think you also have to engage with shouts and good opposition instructions to improve your odds and also to prevent big losses that can kill the spirit of the team.

This strategy is promising. Bababooey thank you for saving me lots of frustration and you should continue with this topic especially how you tweak it after a while and what kind of recruits should be a priority after 1st and 2nd season. It is  a delicate task as we know the budget will be a problem with smaller teams for some time and next few transfer periods are crucial.

I found out that you need to have a bigger squad for rotation and due to more yellow/red cards. Also I noticed quite a few teams got red cards playing against my team so it helped to get good results.

 

Hi Fuzbalino,

I really believe the tactical side of the game is the least important part of managing a weak club / small club.  Man management and planning for the future are arguably more important.

I would say the best thing you can do, without knowing what club you're at, is developing your own players that you can eventually sell for big profits. This is something I would do at any club, regardless of finances, but it's super important for clubs that don't have big money coming in from sponsors, merchandise and TV rights deals.

As for what I would do in the future, and what type of recruits... This is hard to answer because it depends on so many variables. Your best bet is to figure out what type of football you want to play moving forward, and looking for players who suit that style. It's really that simple if you want it to be.