Bringing Murderball Back to Leeds

[Guest]

This save is heavily inspired by the Bielsa-led teams from 2018-2022. When I was first getting into football tactics, Bielsa was, and still is, the main man in terms of my football philosophy. I watched every single full match in their Championship winning season in 2019-2020, and some of their matches in the Prem the next season. (games are harder to find/watch in the US) The manager of this save is going to be my favorite player from that season, Pablo Hernandez. (He hasn't retired in real life yet, he's playing for Castellon in Spain) Hernandez was a maestro in that team, engineering almost every attacking move for that season.

Aims of the save:

Create Bielsa-esque tactics. (Note they will not be direct replicas, because they also need to work in FM)

Instill a club DNA

Bring Leeds back to the top of English football

[Guest]

This post is going to be a long one, where I show everything I do on day one in charge of Leeds.

Squad Review:

It's not a bad squad, still some players left over from Bielsa's Championship side. Some decent potential players here, that will be getting lots of playing time. Going to try and get rid of Rodrigo and his contract ASAP.

Tactics + Projected XI's:

Three tactics that will be used pretty much interchangeably. We desperately need an attacking midfielder, someone in the mold of Pablito himself.

Transfer Targets:

Max Kruse is that man. He's never played in England before, but he's the best option available.

A contract has also been offered at 49.5k per week to Isco.

Both of these players were signed purely for their personalities.

Training Schedule:

This will be the schedule I use for this save.

[Guest]

We lose out on Isco.

We also lose out on Kruse, so now we panic.

Our new attacking midfielder comes in.

[Swaban]

looking forward to this save. Hopefully you can emulate El Loco

[Guest]

Match one away to Everton

We win the opening game of the season, albeit we got slightly record with a red late into the game. Our 2.4 XG is a welcome sight.

[rich ruzzian]

Some interesting tactics.  Cant you sue Rodrigo in the amc position? He plays midfield in real life a lot if i am not mistaken. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by rich ruzzian

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Swaban said:

looking forward to this save. Hopefully you can emulate El Loco

Thank you! Hoping to do so as well.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, rich ruzzian said:

Some interesting tactics.  Cant you sue Rodrigo in the amc position? He plays midfield in real life a lot if i am not mistaken. 

I would if necessary, but he doesn't have the greatest playmaking attributes.

[LUFCspeni]

The team I support, managed by my favourite player of the last decade, emulating my favourite manager of all time 

Will definitely follow this with interest. Your tactics look interesting, although you're missing one where the DM drops back to create a back 3, a la Kalvin Phillips. Any opposition instructions to recreate the man to man aspect? And how are you choosing which formation to use in each game? Sorry for the questions, you can probably tell I'm quite passionate about the Bielsa years!

[AmericanMilanista]

Great start to the story @Fudal.  I started in January digging into RDZ's tactics and wanted something more aggressive as I start my save with Como in Serie B months later in the FM23 cycle.  Trying to piece together all the videos and tactics created over the past few years of FM to properly initiate my first season with Murderball tactics given how stressful it can be on a roster not setup for that type of playing style.

Curious what traits you all look for out of players suitable for playing this style be it 3ATB or 4ATB reciprocal?