My Hearts save ❤ (ready for deconstruction)

[Ghost77]

Dear model citizens,

based on my previous discussion with one and only @Cloud9 in quickfire questions thread I will try to present to you my running Hearts save with all my aims, decisions, transfers, tactics and mistakes. If you have any specific tip or something to add regarding my dubious management, feel free to reply. All good and educating tips will be highly appreciated. Sorry for a long reading, but I need to pour out my HEART a little bit (haha, brilliant joke ).

 

Why Hearts?
This one is kind of obvious. With sweet memories of my fellow countryman Rudi Skácel and his beautiful strikes in my mind I want to end the Old firm hegemony in Scotland. Make Hearts the best club in the country with possibly the highest number of Scottish internationals at Tynecastle and play in Champions League on regular bases. Eventual offer to manage Scotland national team would be the sweetest candy in the pack, but generally I would like to stay fully commited to the club.
 

Staff:
Won't be long here. Staff is important for me and majority of the current coaches left. I brought in some on-the-pitch experience in form of Sol Campbell, Lee Wallace or Mark Chamberlain, international knowledge mediated by scouts Daniel van Buyten and Vicente Rodríguez and some pure beauty as a few ladies joined the medical team. Of course I had to give a ring to the legend of the club Rudi Skácel and offer him an U18 role. His attributes are breathtakingly awful, but hopefully the licence studying will make him better before the board notices. 

Overall I brought in over 40 people, but we have one of the best coaching teams in the competition, including the youth staff. Lee looks excited! 

 

Squad:

At first glance I would say the team is good enough to fight for the 3rd place in the first season, which is also the board’s aim. Some well known and experienced Scottish players with a few half-decent Englishmen and Australians in the mix. Craig Gordon will be no. 1 for at least one more season and Zander Clark is probably the best backup GK in the competitition. With young talented Harry Stone in the stock, the goal is more safe than the safe hands of David Seaman. For now.

In the attack Lawrence Shankland - backed up by a cheeky loanee Stephen Humphrys - is a quality and with the pace of Josh Ginnelly and creative sparks of Barrie McKay, attacking phase could be working well enough. Liam Boyce, Alan Forrest, Yutaro Oda and ultrafast Garang Kuol will do the job in attacking midfield. Not worried there.

Beni Baningime and Cameron Devlin are my personal favourites. Iron-willed fighters in centre of the pitch. Will have to take care of Devlin’s aggressivity, though. He reminds me of Roy Keane more that I or Alf-Inge Haaland would have liked. And there is also 35-year-old Robert Snodgrass, who has a grandad pace but some good teamwork. He will play in a deeper position and hopefully add a quality pass or cross at the right moment. Kiomurtzouglou, Grant  and Haring will make a solid backup.

Defence has also some good names like Craig Halkett and Kye Rowles. These two will probably be the best choice for starting line-up. Alex Cochrane in the role of attacking full back on the left sounds good. Australian Forrest Gump with poor technicals but amazing running ability Nathaniel Atkinson will do the work on the right. The thing which worries me is the backup here. Lewis Neilson has some potential, but doesn't seem ready for the tougher matches. And while Toby Sibick has no important defensive technicals, Andy Halliday and Michael Smith are ageing and Peter Haring is more of a midfielder. That leaves me with James Hill - 20 year-old guy on loan who is already cutting corners at the training - and Stephen Kingsley who looks generally good and has set-pieces to offer, but lacks the Cochrane acceleration and directness for a full back on attack and he also doesn't have needed attributes for a role in the centre of the defence. Pfff, tough decision.



With the view of Europa/Conference League group stage (Hearts are automatically in the EL play-offs, going straight to ECL group stage in case of losing) I will have to dive into transfer market mud, although I didn't want to in the first season. With almost no transfer/wage budget, it will be fun.

Transfers out:
Ross Stewart (27), GK - Liverpool (150K): Backup of the backup GK, there were no hard feelings as Liverpool surprisingly poped up and snatched up our third choice. Good deal.



Michael Smith (33), RB - Wycombe (Loan/100%): Old full back is a fan favourite at Tynecastle with decent mentals. But he couldn't offer much in attacking phase and his contract is expiring in the summer. His wages are gone with the loan and he will leave the club after return.

Toby Sibbick (23), CB - Luton Town (Loan/100%): Not sure, if he is able to get better attributes in technicals. I will look at him after he comes back from the loan. For now his wages are gone.

Peter Haring (29), CM, CB - Odense (230K): Similar story to Smith. His contract expiring in the summer, won't be any younger and I am probably faster than him. Decent money in, another wages gone.

and last player to go out:
Stephen Kingsley (27), DC/L - Bristol City (1M): The player I can regret selling, but he made us the best money and I just couldn't find a position for him. His set-pieces will be missed. His face that is disturbingly similar to my own not so much, I guess.

 

Transfers in:
Alex Mighten (20), AMR/L - Nottingham (Loan/100%): Quick winger able to play on both sides with some trickery in his pocket. On higher wages but well received by the fans and me as a Forest fan as well. The loan contract has no option to buy him, but I will probably try use my personal charm to make him like me. Last time I tried it, one of the female physios left the club, though.

Tom Pearce (24), DL - Wigan (230K): Quite fast and surprisingly tall full back that can make a good backup to Alex Cochrane. And I feel he can get better with more playing time. Personally looking forward to those crosses.

Lewie Coyle (26), DR - Hull (115K): Once upon a time a talented player that did not fulfill his potential. On the other hand he looks like a good all-rounder. Solid backup to Nathaniel Atkinson for 115K? I am OK with that.



Cameron Burgess (26), DC - Ipswich (125K): Another Scottish Australian with the ability Stephen Kingsley lacked. 194 cm with Heading 16 and Jumping Reach 16, Guess who will be attacking the near post at corners. His mentals are little bit worrying, though. We will see.

The rest of the money was invested in new contracts for Harry Stone and some young talents in U18. There is also still something to spend in winter if needed.

 

Tactics:
After short and sweet introduction let's get to tactics. As you see I went for 4-2-3-1 and I want to play faster, more direct counter-attacking football, which I feel can have place in Scottish football and goes well with the board demands. I start mojority of the matches on balanced so I was little bit more adventurous with the duties. On the other hand I defend in mid block with more aggressive pressing at my own half. (Honestly I am oversaturated by all the gegenpresses everywhere)

This is the base, but of course when needed I tinker with some of the roles. When trailing I usually go on positive and change my PF-A to AF-A. Sometimes the left FB-A is upgraded to WB-A. When leading by two or more I usually tone done the PF-A to PF-S, eventually change the W-A to W-S.

The trio under the PF-A has specific man marking applied. They mark opposition full-backs and defensive midfielder.

I also tried the popular deeper position of my central midfielders, but not with significant improvement. Also Robert Snodgrass and Jorge Grant are not able to play that deep, but were "deeply hurt" when I played them "out of position" in a friendly match  Cute.

Snodgrass is playing in CM-S role with the Take more risks PI. Didn't want to use playmaking role as I tried to avoid slowing down the game and attract the opposition to him.

When Cammy Devlin comes into the line-up, I have to change his role from BMW-D to CM-D and tell him to ease off the tackles. Otherwise he would get a red card after 2 minutes and would probably bite off a hand of the fourth referee when leaving the pitch.


How am I doing?
Well, not awful. But definitely not as good as I naively thought I would. I managed to beat Dynamo Kyiv in Europa league play-offs (which I am still not sure was the good news) and got a tough group with Fenerbahce, Rennes and Crvena Zvezda. Drew 0:0 with the Istanbul side and had some good results in the domestic cups. But what bothers me is the league form.

Although I am generally praised for a good defence, I am able to lose to Dundee United (missed penalty on my side), FC Livingston (another missed penalty on my side) or Aberdeen (third missed penalty enriched by two sudden free kicks for the Dons on the edge of my area, which are both scored). Than I smash Celtic 4:1 at Tynecastle. Results in the Premiership are deeply inconsistent and my main striker Lawrence Shankland does everything, except scoring.  



Not lying, Shanks, am I?

Fortunately at least my back-up striker Stephen Humphrys is scoring consistently and my decision to move Shankland deeper to the SS-A role in the last matches paid-off with better performances. Pigeons and seagulls sitting on the rooftop of Tynecastle are relieved there will be no more Shankland's inaccurate shots. He finally scored a few from the attacking midfield and is getting better.

It didn't solve my bad league form, though, and I am 7th. The board is getting impatient and is thinking about giving me an ultimatum. Fans organized a fundraiser to buy me a clown boots to better represent my managing skills in the technical area. Good days.


Why am I doing not so well?

That is actually the question which motivated me to make this thread. I have my own ideas where did I go wrong and of course I would like to hear yours.

My explanation has a few points:

1) Team cohesion. Although I managed to cram in nine friendlies into pre-season, have a team bonding and match reviews every week, my team cohesion is more red then my face after 3:1 spanking from Ross County. Defenders are making terrible mistakes (yes, Lewie Coyle, talking to you) and are often caught out of position (right, Lewis Neilson, I knew I should send you on loan, sorry Clyde FC). Another visible problem is that the players generally don't pass accurately enough in easy situations and sometimes the runs on the opposition half are absolutely mistimed.  Honestly don't know what to do with the cohesion. New arrivals didn't help it for sure. I know it takes time to gel, but the board obviously doesn't care much.

2) Rotation is great. I embrace it. But when you play UEFA games on Thursdays and Premiership games on Sundays (domestic cups inbetween) - at Hearts - it's starts to be a problem. Sooner or later you have to field a pure backup squad, which (after all my transfers) probably still isn't good enough. They lose 1:2 there, draw 0:0 elswhere. Losing large ammounts of points.

The funny observation: in literally the same second I only think about puting someone from the first team in the line-up of the Sunday game, he in a flash of flashes ruptures his cruciate ligaments and other three players injure themselves within the first half. Yes, Bobby McLuckie, I know you are still only 16, but you will play against Rangers at Ibrox next Sunday as I don't have anyone else. Looking forward?

3) The tactics. Of course, problem could be also in my tactics. But I generally like what I see. There are moments of brilliance and beautiful build-ups to the goals. Alex Cochrane is immense on the left side. Josh Ginnelly is scoring consistently. I personally feel the low cohesion + high rotation + not the best backup are the main problems. What do you think? It's possible my tactic is average at best. Any critique is welcomed.



FINALLY, that's all I wanted to share with you. As I said above, feel free to reply, ask anything you want to know, post any good tips and tell what stupid things I have done and should have done better. I will try to "save this save" (nice), but will probably start again with some new gained knowledge from you.

Have to go now, Cammy Devlin tackled a ball boy which was "staring at him stupidly". God, help me.

Cheers and thanks for your interest!




 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Ghost77

[Cloud9]

15 hours ago, Ghost77 said:

Dear model citizens,

based on my previous discussion with one and only @Cloud9 in quickfire questions thread I will try to present to you my running Hearts save with all my aims, decisions, transfers, tactics and mistakes. If you have any specific tip or something to add regarding my dubious management, feel free to reply. All good and educating tips will be highly appreciated. Sorry for a long reading, but I need to pour out my HEART a little bit (haha, brilliant joke ).

 

Why Hearts?
This one is kind of obvious. With sweet memories of my fellow countryman Rudi Skácel and his beautiful strikes in my mind I want to end the Old firm hegemony in Scotland. Make Hearts the best club in the country with possibly the highest number of Scottish internationals at Tynecastle and play in Champions League on regular bases. Eventual offer to manage Scotland national team would be the sweetest candy in the pack, but generally I would like to stay fully commited to the club.
 

Staff:
Won't be long here. Staff is important for me and majority of the current coaches left. I brought in some on-the-pitch experience in form of Sol Campbell, Lee Wallace or Mark Chamberlain, international knowledge mediated by scouts Daniel van Buyten and Vicente Rodríguez and some pure beauty as a few ladies joined the medical team. Of course I had to give a ring to the legend of the club Rudi Skácel and offer him an U18 role. His attributes are breathtakingly awful, but hopefully the licence studying will make him better before the board notices. 

Overall I brought in over 40 people, but we have one of the best coaching teams in the competition, including the youth staff. Lee looks excited! 

 

Squad:

At first glance I would say the team is good enough to fight for the 3rd place in the first season, which is also the board’s aim. Some well known and experienced Scottish players with a few half-decent Englishmen and Australians in the mix. Craig Gordon will be no. 1 for at least one more season and Zander Clark is probably the best backup GK in the competitition. With young talented Harry Stone in the stock, the goal is more safe than the safe hands of David Seaman. For now.

In the attack Lawrence Shankland - backed up by a cheeky loanee Stephen Humphrys - is a quality and with the pace of Josh Ginnelly and creative sparks of Barrie McKay, attacking phase could be working well enough. Liam Boyce, Alan Forrest, Yutaro Oda and ultrafast Garang Kuol will do the job in attacking midfield. Not worried there.

Beni Baningime and Cameron Devlin are my personal favourites. Iron-willed fighters in centre of the pitch. Will have to take care of Devlin’s aggressivity, though. He reminds me of Roy Keane more that I or Alf-Inge Haaland would have liked. And there is also 35-year-old Robert Snodgrass, who has a grandad pace but some good teamwork. He will play in a deeper position and hopefully add a quality pass or cross at the right moment. Kiomurtzouglou, Grant  and Haring will make a solid backup.

Defence has also some good names like Craig Halkett and Kye Rowles. These two will probably be the best choice for starting line-up. Alex Cochrane in the role of attacking full back on the left sounds good. Australian Forrest Gump with poor technicals but amazing running ability Nathaniel Atkinson will do the work on the right. The thing which worries me is the backup here. Lewis Neilson has some potential, but doesn't seem ready for the tougher matches. And while Toby Sibick has no important defensive technicals, Andy Halliday and Michael Smith are ageing and Peter Haring is more of a midfielder. That leaves me with James Hill - 20 year-old guy on loan who is already cutting corners at the training - and Stephen Kingsley who looks generally good and has set-pieces to offer, but lacks the Cochrane acceleration and directness for a full back on attack and he also doesn't have needed attributes for a role in the centre of the defence. Pfff, tough decision.



With the view of Europa/Conference League group stage (Hearts are automatically in the EL play-offs, going straight to ECL group stage in case of losing) I will have to dive into transfer market mud, although I didn't want to in the first season. With almost no transfer/wage budget, it will be fun.

Transfers out:
Ross Stewart (27), GK - Liverpool (150K): Backup of the backup GK, there were no hard feelings as Liverpool surprisingly poped up and snatched up our third choice. Good deal.



Michael Smith (33), RB - Wycombe (Loan/100%): Old full back is a fan favourite at Tynecastle with decent mentals. But he couldn't offer much in attacking phase and his contract is expiring in the summer. His wages are gone with the loan and he will leave the club after return.

Toby Sibbick (23), CB - Luton Town (Loan/100%): Not sure, if he is able to get better attributes in technicals. I will look at him after he comes back from the loan. For now his wages are gone.

Peter Haring (29), CM, CB - Odense (230K): Similar story to Smith. His contract expiring in the summer, won't be any younger and I am probably faster than him. Decent money in, another wages gone.

and last player to go out:
Stephen Kingsley (27), DC/L - Bristol City (1M): The player I can regret selling, but he made us the best money and I just couldn't find a position for him. His set-pieces will be missed. His face that is disturbingly similar to my own not so much, I guess.

 

Transfers in:
Alex Mighten (20), AMR/L - Nottingham (Loan/100%): Quick winger able to play on both sides with some trickery in his pocket. On higher wages but well received by the fans and me as a Forest fan as well. The loan contract has no option to buy him, but I will probably try use my personal charm to make him like me. Last time I tried it, one of the female physios left the club, though.

Tom Pearce (24), DL - Wigan (230K): Quite fast and surprisingly tall full back that can make a good backup to Alex Cochrane. And I feel he can get better with more playing time. Personally looking forward to those crosses.

Lewie Coyle (26), DR - Hull (115K): Once upon a time a talented player that did not fulfill his potential. On the other hand he looks like a good all-rounder. Solid backup to Nathaniel Atkinson for 115K? I am OK with that.



Cameron Burgess (26), DC - Ipswich (125K): Another Scottish Australian with the ability Stephen Kingsley lacked. 194 cm with Heading 16 and Jumping Reach 16, Guess who will be attacking the near post at corners. His mentals are little bit worrying, though. We will see.

The rest of the money was invested in new contracts for Harry Stone and some young talents in U18. There is also still something to spend in winter if needed.

 

Tactics:
After short and sweet introduction let's get to tactics. As you see I went for 4-2-3-1 and I want to play faster, more direct counter-attacking football, which I feel can have place in Scottish football and goes well with the board demands. I start mojority of the matches on balanced so I was little bit more adventurous with the duties. On the other hand I defend in mid block with more aggressive pressing at my own half. (Honestly I am oversaturated by all the gegenpresses everywhere)

This is the base, but of course when needed I tinker with some of the roles. When trailing I usually go on positive and change my PF-A to AF-A. Sometimes the left FB-A is upgraded to WB-A. When leading by two or more I usually tone done the PF-A to PF-S, eventually change the W-A to W-S.

The trio under the PF-A has specific man marking applied. They mark opposition full-backs and defensive midfielder.

I also tried the popular deeper position of my central midfielders, but not with significant improvement. Also Robert Snodgrass and Jorge Grant are not able to play that deep, but were "deeply hurt" when I played them "out of position" in a friendly match  Cute.

Snodgrass is playing in CM-S role with the Take more risks PI. Didn't want to use playmaking role as I tried to avoid slowing down the game and attract the opposition to him.

When Cammy Devlin comes into the line-up, I have to change his role from BMW-D to CM-D and tell him to ease off the tackles. Otherwise he would get a red card after 2 minutes and would probably bite off a hand of the fourth referee when leaving the pitch.


How am I doing?
Well, not awful. But definitely not as good as I naively thought I would. I managed to beat Dynamo Kyiv in Europa league play-offs (which I am still not sure was the good news) and got a tough group with Fenerbahce, Rennes and Crvena Zvezda. Drew 0:0 with the Istanbul side and had some good results in the domestic cups. But what bothers me is the league form.

Although I am generally praised for a good defence, I am able to lose to Dundee United (missed penalty on my side), FC Livingston (another missed penalty on my side) or Aberdeen (third missed penalty enriched by two sudden free kicks for the Dons on the edge of my area, which are both scored). Than I smash Celtic 4:1 at Tynecastle. Results in the Premiership are deeply inconsistent and my main striker Lawrence Shankland does everything, except scoring.  



Not lying, Shanks, am I?

Fortunately at least my back-up striker Stephen Humphrys is scoring consistently and my decision to move Shankland deeper to the SS-A role in the last matches paid-off with better performances. Pigeons and seagulls sitting on the rooftop of Tynecastle are relieved there will be no more Shankland's inaccurate shots. He finally scored a few from the attacking midfield and is getting better.

It didn't solve my bad league form, though, and I am 7th. The board is getting impatient and is thinking about giving me an ultimatum. Fans organized a fundraiser to buy me a clown boots to better represent my managing skills in the technical area. Good days.


Why am I doing not so well?

That is actually the question which motivated me to make this thread. I have my own ideas where did I go wrong and of course I would like to hear yours.

My explanation has a few points:

1) Team cohesion. Although I managed to cram in nine friendlies into pre-season, have a team bonding and match reviews every week, my team cohesion is more red then my face after 3:1 spanking from Ross County. Defenders are making terrible mistakes (yes, Lewie Coyle, talking to you) and are often caught out of position (right, Lewis Neilson, I knew I should send you on loan, sorry Clyde FC). Another visible problem is that the players generally don't pass accurately enough in easy situations and sometimes the runs on the opposition half are absolutely mistimed.  Honestly don't know what to do with the cohesion. New arrivals didn't help it for sure. I know it takes time to gel, but the board obviously doesn't care much.

2) Rotation is great. I embrace it. But when you play UEFA games on Thursdays and Premiership games on Sundays (domestic cups inbetween) - at Hearts - it's starts to be a problem. Sooner or later you have to field a pure backup squad, which (after all my transfers) probably still isn't good enough. They lose 1:2 there, draw 0:0 elswhere. Losing large ammounts of points.

The funny observation: in literally the same second I only think about puting someone from the first team in the line-up of the Sunday game, he in a flash of flashes ruptures his cruciate ligaments and other three players injure themselves within the first half. Yes, Bobby McLuckie, I know you are still only 16, but you will play against Rangers at Ibrox next Sunday as I don't have anyone else. Looking forward?

3) The tactics. Of course, problem could be also in my tactics. But I generally like what I see. There are moments of brilliance and beautiful build-ups to the goals. Alex Cochrane is immense on the left side. Josh Ginnelly is scoring consistently. I personally feel the low cohesion + high rotation + not the best backup are the main problems. What do you think? It's possible my tactic is average at best. Any critique is welcomed.



FINALLY, that's all I wanted to share with you. As I said above, feel free to reply, ask anything you want to know, post any good tips and tell what stupid things I have done and should have done better. I will try to "save this save" (nice), but will probably start again with some new gained knowledge from you.

Have to go now, Cammy Devlin tackled a ball boy which was "staring at him stupidly". God, help me.

Cheers and thanks for your interest!




 

Great writeup

Bits of feedback on the tactic itself:

• Make sure you have someone giving width on the left hand side (like run wide w ball on the fullback)
• PF(a) works best in a high lines system, AF work better in a mid block
• I would make sure the 9 and 10 positions don't have matching roles (S/A)
• Can anyone make progressive passes from your defensive third?
• BWM(d) I like to pair with another holding midfielder, they tend to charge out of position 

On squad rotation, pull a player when his fatigue goes to Red (add it to squad selection). This way you can prevent injuries and burnout in the starting 11. You can still play them in the Red, but it's always a risk for injuries when you do.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Cloud9

[Ghost77]

8 hours ago, Cloud9 said:

Great writeup

Bits of feedback on the tactic itself:

• Make sure you have someone giving width on the left hand side (like run wide w ball on the fullback)
• PF(a) works best in a high lines system, AF work better in a mid block
• I would make sure the 9 and 10 positions don't have matching roles (S/A)
• Can anyone make progressive passes from your defensive third?
• BWM(d) I like to pair with another holding midfielder, they tend to charge out of position 

On squad rotation, pull a player when his fatigue goes to Red (add it to squad selection). This way you can prevent injuries and burnout in the starting 11. You can still play them in the Red, but it's always a risk for injuries when you do.

 

 

Thanks for your feedback, I'll tackle each of your tips.

• My left full back has a stay wider PI and the width on the left is his job. Have to say he is one of the best performing players in the system. But for sure I can tinker with run wide with the ball instruction.
• You are absolutely right on this one. Used AF for a few times with good results. Generally AF-A in FM23 works much better than on previous versions. He comes deeper a works more "for the team".
• This one is hard. I know where are you coming from, but I don't feel I have a striker with attributes for supporting role. So it is AF-A on top, therefore the AM slot should be on support. As far as I observed except the SS all the roles come really deep and have not enough attacking sharpness. SS is also coming deeper and helps with the build-up, but still is a good attacking threat. And in defensive phase he makes our formation defend like 4-4-2, which is desired. Honestly I don't like two attacking roles under each other too, but on the pitch it works better than it looks on the paper. SS is also receiveng a good proportion of longer balls and wins headers for the top striker. Not sure support roles would be in that position.
• There I am not sure. Full backs are both good runners, dribbling up the pitch on thier respective sides. Central defenders from time to try a longer pass up the pitch. There are some lost balls, but sometimes they acutally find the winger on the right or the SS (as I stated above) and I already scored a few thanks to these long balls. But both CDs have pass it shorter PI to minimase the lost balls. Would you use BPD at one of the slots?
• Yes, I know BWM are more adventurous, but when Beni Baningime plays, he holds the position, is helping out the CDs very well and I think it works. Cammy Devlin is less reliable in this respect and I usually use CM-D role for him, or push him deeper with DM-S role.

Regarding the rotation, I acutally do it almost exactly as you say. With the option to sub 5 players, it's easier. But due to UEFA and Cup games (sometimes three matches in one week) I was in situations where all my subs were on let's say 80% condition and only my starting line-up (backup) was physically ready. After 60-70 mins of the game some of the players started to get tired and I had to put in the subs. That is were they got injured (usually the subs).  I already ditched the training for these weeks and gave the players some rest days inbetween the matches. It helped with the condition, but not a huge impact on the injuries.

Anything you see regarding the transfers? When you look at the players from outside, would you consider the transfers I made necessary or does it generally make sense to you?  (I guess @Gee_Simpson could maybe help me with that?)

Thanks!

Edited April 26, 2023 by Ghost77