Chevie
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Posts posted by Chevie
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Oldham Athletic - Season 3 - Part 1 - Transfers, Pre-Season and Early Season Form
Transfers:
In:
Out:
My main aim with this transfer window was to build a bit of squad depth with Under 23 players who had the potential to play for the first team in the future. I lost first choice goalkeeper Nienhuis to Leicester but managed to replace him with the experienced Stockdale and Man Utd's O'Hara. O'Shea, Benteke and Fane were expendable after struggling to break into my first XI to to be able to get some cash for them was too good to turn down. I'd say my biggest coup was to get Latibeaudiere on a free from Man City. He's already my best central defender and has the potential to be a Premier League one in the future. His decent leadership for such a young age makes me think he could potentially be a captain of the future.
Pre-Season:
To start pre-season, I decided to play two big names to get some cash into the club. Having done that, the two results were not disheartening either (especially the first one against Man Utd!). Then came an excellent win against the Juventus Under 23 side followed by 2 easy wins to boost morale.
Early Season Form
Overall, an OK start to my first season in the Championship. All of my defeats have been by just a single goal and managed to absolutely hammer Nottingham Forest. Good EFL Cup progression too has got me a home tie against Gillingham in the third round so there's some expectation that this could continue!
Standings and Stats
Just where I want to be, outside the relegation zone! Hopefully over the next few months I can pull away from the bottom three as my team gels and gets used to the new quality level.
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Oldham Athletic - Season 2 - Part 4 - Wembley Heartache but Promotion Joy
Results
Dropping 7 points during March really scuppered my title bid as Portsmouth (who won all 5 games this month) moved into a commanding lead at the top of the table. The month also ended with a defeat to Tottenham's Under 23 side in the EFL Trophy final, a game in which we were arguably the better side. Geronimo Rulli in the opposition net was not an ideal opponent to come up against! Fortunately, we didn't let this average month to derail our season and a strong April / May consolidated a rather comfortable (in the end) second place.
Competition Results
A very, very successful season for a team who were predicted to finish 21st at the start of the season. My first cup run in this career was also highly enjoyable, even if it did have a bitter end.
Player Stats
As I thought might be the case at the beginning of the season, Novakovich was indeed my top goal scorer. Unfortunately, the goals did dry up in the second half of the season which I hope isn't a long term problem going into the Championship. Second top goalscorers were Baxter and Surridge with 10 each and in joint third were Pringe, McKendry and Ihiekwe with 7.
I'm not sure Ihiekwe is showing as my highest average rating since Christopher Missilou got an average of 7.05 during the course of the season? Ihiekwe was in fact 5th on the list!
Most of Pringle's assists were from corners, a route to goal my team enjoyed a lot this season (18 in total). This is what lead to my central defenders scoring 14 in total during the course of the year. Second was Baxter with 10. Finally, Third was Bowler and McKendry with 7 apiece.
All this meant highest goal involvements this season were: Baxter 20 (10 goals/10 assists), Pringle 19 (7/12) and Novakovich 18 (14/4).
Team Stats
Two seasons on the trot with the best defensive record in the division is exactly what I wanted when I set up my low block tactics at the start of the first season. What is more pleasing is the fact we were higher in the goal scoring charts this time around. Although we scored 8 fewer, we went from 8th to 3rd top scorers. A good disciplinary record is also very nice to see for a defensive side.
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13 hours ago, warlock said:
That's a great performance, and a fantastic run of results in Jan/Feb - always my toughest months of the season. Hope you can secure promotion ASAP!
10 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:Great work mate. Glad to see you've continued your strong run this season and have enjoyed a good run of form. No reason why it can't continue - back-to-back promotions are on the cards!
Cheers guys! Unfortunately my form hasn't quite continued into March and Portsmouth keep winning (they've just confirmed minimum of a play-off spot) so I think my title challenge my be over. Still in second place though so can hopefully hold on! Play offs wouldn't be the end of the world though and would give me a chance for a second crack at Wembley but don't particularly want that risk of disappointment
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Oldham Athletic - Season 2 - Part 3 - January Transfer Window, Early 2020 Form, Current Standings and Youth Intake
Transfers
In:
Out:
I didn't plan on doing any business during the window but I can always be tempted into something. I forgot to mention that Giles Coke had left in my last update but after 10 appearances in 18 months he wasn't exactly happy and even though Ashton didn't take any wages off my hands I was just happy to be rid of him (he'd rejected a couple of permanent moves in the summer even though he'd asked for a move). Rob Hunt was also not completely happy with the amount of football he was receiving so I decided to cash in on him with just 6 months remaining on his contract and not looking like he'd be signing one anytime soon. Tom Hamer, who has higher potential than Hunt anyway, was recalled from his loan to provide the right back cover for the rest of the season so hopefully he can develop more at his parent club. Benteke and McCourt were also playing very few games each so wanted out. I was glad to get McCourt off the wage bill and Benteke can get some game time elsewhere and hopefully return a better player. To cover the loss of a striker, I used the money from Hunt on top of the spare wages budget to bring in Brown from Bolton who looks like a very useful player for my AF (At) role:
Hopefully he can form a great partnership with Novakovich.
Early 2020 Form
Being a Manchester United fan, beating City's Under 23 side was highly satisfying and then qualifying for the final with a nail biting penalty shootout win over Burton nearly gave me heart attack. However, after all this, we booked out ticket to Wembley! This is not a stadium I expected to be playing at so soon into my career at Oldham.
They may not be performing to their pre-season billing of league winners, but Sunderland are still a big team at this level. A dominant performance against them was very nice indeed.
An eight game unbeaten run going into the final three months of the season is form I hope we continue with.
Current Standings
3 points clear at the top! Ipswich's form has plummeted since the turn of the year, with 5 defeats and 2 draws in their last 7 games, which has allowed me to overtake them and push 9 points clear. Portsmouth have been in good form since the turn of the year so are now the team pushing me for the title.
Youth Intake
One player here who I will be promoting into my first team squad to hopefully get them some minutes - Defensive midfielder David Hughes. This works well after getting rid of Jak McCourt so will free up some time in the cups for him.
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@warlock @DefinitelyTaylor thanks for the support!
It's been nice to get back into this save after a couple of months away.
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Oldham Athletic - Season 2 - Part 2 - First Half of the Season - Potential Surprise Title Challenge?
September / October
The strong start continued into September with 3 league victories and also 1 in the cup. The highlight was definitely winning away to Sunderland! Disappointingly, the only defeat this month followed, however this was with a much rotated side after the tough match we'd just had. A friendly to build the match fitness of some fringe players was also arranged and won very easily. Although October wasn't quite as spectacular, if you would have offered me 50% win ratio in the league at the beginning of the season I would have been delighted. The good start in the EFL Trophy also continued.
November / December
Another early cup exit, surprise, surprise. Fortunately we didn't let it impact our league form at all and managed maintain unbeaten run until just after Christmas.
League Table and Stats
As you can see, my form so far this season has put me just one point off Ipswich at the top of the table. This is definitely beyond my wildest dreams of what I could have expected at this stage of the season. My pre-season media prediction was 21st so to be 19 places and 27 points clear already is very, very pleasing. My summer signing Novakovich has 11 goals already and is thankfully justifying his high wages! Surridge and Baxter have 7 each so luckily I'm not relying on one player too much.
Hopefully my season continues on this trajectory. With back-to-back promotions now a realistic possibility I have to be careful to not get too carried away.
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Oldham Athletic - Season 2 Part 1 - Summer Transfer Window, Pre-Season and Early Season Form
Summer Transfer Window
So to start, I released 17 players from their contracts alongside Andy Taylor who retired after getting quite a bad injury. Most of these players did absolutely nothing in my team last season so they were no loss at all.
So now onto actual transfers. As you can see I managed to bring back last season's top goalscorer Sam Surridge on loan. I also decided to get Callum Lang in for another season after he got 10 goals after mainly playing from the bench. Unfortunately I was not able to get Danny Rowe back from Ipswich as, even though he was transfer listed, they did not want to let him go on loan. My main idea here was to not rely on as many loan players as I did last season. I was very happy to bring in Andrija Novakovich from Reading. Even though his wages are very high, I was impressed with his stats for this level and I'm hoping he can push my club to the next level.
I now have two players able to play in each position across my three tactics, so 24 in total as I have one tactic with two forwards, and I'm hoping we should be able to deal with most injuries that come our way, although as you will see later that idea hasn't worked out perfectly, although I still managed to get the result I wanted.
Pre-Season
Overall this was a successful pre-season. My main goals here were to improve match fitness and hopefully build up a bit of form. Although no results were particularly mind blowing, the consistent performances were pleasing and I'm not going to complain at 6 wins out of 7!
Early Season Form
I am very happy with the start we have made at this level. Sitting 5th with 4 wins already is more than I could have expected so I really hope this continues. I was especially pleased with the opening day 2-0 win against Bristol Rovers as we managed to keep a clean sheet despite having 3 of my 4 first team central defenders out injured. An away point against local rivals Bolton and a win against one of the promotion favourites Rotherham have me dreaming of back to back promotions. I was hoping for a nice little cup run to boost finances but unfortunately came up against far superior opposition in the Premier League side Bournemouth and to be honest were lucky to score zero!
Long may this continue!
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Thank you very much @DefinitelyTaylor, @warlock And @Jogo Bonito! Hopefully season 2 won’t be a relegation scrap as I feel the quality jump between the leagues isn’t too bad (I’ve jinxed myself now - out by Christmas!)
I’ll have to check when I’m home who made Yeovil so good and who ruined Grimsby!
1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:Great stuff! That is indeed a very good defensive record, something I’ve never been able to achieve. Did you play a deep defensive line as well?
Yeah it was a deep defensive line and a deeper line of engagement. My tactics are on page 5 of this thread if you want to check them out
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Oldham Athletic - Season 1 Part 3
Champions!
After one year in League 2 I have managed to return Oldham to their home. Back to League 1 we go! We set a record points tally, number of wins and number of defeats.
We sealed the title in game number 45. With a 3 point lead over Exeter City we traveled all those miles south to St James Park and with one of the most satisfying performances of the season we grabbed a deserved 1-0 win to seal the title.
One thing I was most proud of was the low amount of goals conceded. My tactic was set up as low block, designed to keep tight at the back and, as you can see, I was very successful here.
On loan Sam Surridge and Danny Rowe were my top scorer and assister respectively with 16 each. I will be looking to potentially get these two on loan again next year after their performances in my system.
Onward to League 1 we go.
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@Dong21 thanks for the welcome! Hopefully I can turn Oldham into a real force in return.
@Jogo Bonito Luckily the squad I inherited had a few very good players already (Jose Baxter is certainly above this level) and the loan signing of Simpson and Rowe have helped push me into promotion contention.
Oldham Athletic - Season 1 Part 2
September
September was a really good month for us with 5 wins from 6 games. The 5-3 win against Crawley definitely standing out as an anomaly result since we've not had anything similar since. The only defeat came against top of the table Colchester, a result I believe was not fair on my players as we probably shaded the balance of play.
October
Unfortunately, Ocotber wasn't quite as good but we have ended the month in 3rd place and, therefore, in the automatic promotion places. The highlight being a 2-1 win away at promotion rivals Northampton and the low point definitely conceding a 94th minute equaliser against Carlisle.
Current Table
As you can see, it's currently very close with only 3 points separating myself and and 8th placed Swindon. The aim at the start of the season was to finish in the play offs so I'm very happy with how the season is going so far.
Another update will be provided in 2 months time!
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Oldham Athletic - Season 1 Part 1
With Oldham playing outside of the third tier of English football for the first time since 1997, I decided it would be good challenge to try and rebuild the side and, eventually, return them to the promised land of the Premier League after they were one of the founding members in 1992.
Transfer Budget: £0
Remaining Wage Budget: £139
As you can see, I didn't have much room to manoeuvre here. So I only made a few loan signings (Tilley, Simpson, Rowe and Bossin).
Tactics
I am running with three tactics, all based on a low block and set up to try and break on the opposition if we can catch them over-committed:
Each one is used for different opposition. The 4-4-1-1 is for teams of similar quality, the 4-1-4-1 is for stronger opponents and the 4-4-2 is for when we are the favourites.
Pre-Season
Although the results were pretty mixed, overall it was a positive pre-season. The three defeats we suffered were against teams from the division above and all the games were very close. The other four were nice confidence boosters as the players got used to the style of play I'm attempting to implement.
August
August was a, well, slow month. Only 4 goals scored and 3 conceded in 6 matches is hardly exhilarating football! At least the low block I am attempting to employ to frustrate the opposition seems to be working, I just hope my attacks begin to click soon and we start to score some more goals or else this could be a long season.
However, it's still an unbeaten start in the league and being out of the League Cup this early could be a blessing in disguise as the squad can now concentrate more on the league.
So that's where I am so far, hopefully we'll hit some form before my next post!
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Result so far:
Not the greatest at all. I may be being harsh considering the level of opponent I have played so far but the idea of strikerless was to exploit the space big teams gave me and this has only happened once (even then, Tottenham were admittedly the better team).
Also, the tactics above haven't had the desired style of play even though Obiang now has the trait Tries Killer Balls Often. I've now got him learning the PPM Dictates Tempo and will start him on Comes Deep To Get Ball once he is done as I feel these will help get Obiang playing the style I want from him.
However, back to the tactic, he has only been playing 1 key pass per game ... MAXIMUM. This was not the idea I had. I've been using the 3-1-4-2-0 so far as I felt in pre-season that this was performing the best.
This may be because of the role selected. Although it allowed for the most direct passing of all the roles with a defensive mentality, the half back hardly screams creative. Because of this I have decided to change to a Regista as I hope this will make Obiang the central figure in my tactic.
I also think that the space required for Obiang to pass into currently isn't there, for whatever reason, so I hope this new tactic I have designed will create an overload on one side of the pitch for a killer pass to exploit the space on the other.
As you can see, I hope all my support duties on the right side draw the opposition across to create space for my left back and left midfielder who, in turn, should supply my attacking midfielder.
The wingers on either side in my old tactic also left me very vulnerable down the sides so this formation should be a little more solid in defence.
The original one tactic will remain to give me a choice but the above will become my new first choice.
I'll update again soon to say if this goes any better!
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@MBarbaric for the games where I'm favourite, I'm hoping that my deeper defensive line (and therefore deeper team) and lower mentality will tease the opposition into creeping slightly forwards and creating space that way.
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One almost perfect bit of play from Obiang here:
As Fabianski throws the ball out to the right sided defender, you can see that Obiang (Number 14) is deeper than the central defender, waiting for the ball. So the Half Back choice working as I wanted in terms of positioning. Yarmolenko (Number 19), in the now amended AM (A) role, starts a forward run into the space.
From this deep position, Obiang send a long pass into the space that Yarmolenko is moving into.
Yarmolenko gets on the end of this pass but is fouled by the covering defender (under his name on the screen grab).
If moves like this continue and start leading to chances then I'll be very happy!
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4 hours ago, herne79 said:
The Treq being lazy is a bit of an urban myth
Lazy was probably the wrong way of putting it on my behalf.
Quite naively, when choosing this role and seeing it only comes with only an attacking duty, I assumed this meant it had Get Further Fowards as a PI. When checking back it actually didn’t and it’s also blocked out as something you’re not able to choose.
My idea was to have this player pushing into one of the 5 zones which needed this PI. Hence the change to an AM (A).
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Early Tactical Re-Think
Having watched and analysed the stats from my first three friendlies, I already wasn't happy with how the tactic was performing so I made a couple of changes. Hooray for friendlies!!!
Remove Shorter Passing - Obiang's passing, although more direct than the rest of the team, was still not as long as I wanted when I can up with the style of play I was aiming for:
In place of this, I have given PIs to the players who surround Obiang to shorten their passing and encouraged them to play fewer risky passes. In my mind this will keep the team playing it simple to Obiang who will then hit it long into space. As you can see, his passing directness is now a lot higher:
This will hopefully be reflected in the upcoming friendly matches.
Add Drop Deeper - Making my team drop slightly deeper will hopefully encourage more space in behind the oppositions defence.
Add Lower Tempo - Along with the TI to Drop Deeper, I hope that this will tempt the opposition to creep forwards and leave me more space to exploit. It will also give my players who are attacking from deeper positions a chance to get forward.
Trequartista to Attacking Midfielder (Attack) - As you can see, my Trequartista wasn't threatening in behind anywhere near enough:
I watched this player's movement after @zlatanera's comment about how lazy this role was. This was even when I used a player with the PPM Gets Forward Whenever Possible. Changing to an Attacking Midfielder means this player now has the PI Get Further Forward which should make them a threat in behind.
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1 hour ago, Jommelb said:
Noticed one thing: why a HB with 3 central defenders?
I was hoping with one defender on cover that the HB would still drop in and almost create a back 4 all at CB but from my first couple of friendlies this certainly hasn't been the case
4 minutes ago, zlatanera said:Maybe try DLP for that system?
The passing directness of a DLP, although close, is shorter than for a HB:
HB:
DLP:
So even though it won't quite have the desired effect in terms of positional play it should help with the style of passing I'm hoping to achieve.
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The Idea
Not only did I want to try this strikerless challenge, but I also have an idea of the style of football I'd like to play.
Hopefully the formations and mentality I choose will tempt the opposition defenders to creep forwards, leaving masses of space in behind. To exploit this, I want to use a deep midfield player to ping long passes in behind for my players breaking into that space.
This is the one position where I'm not sure what role to choose. I'm trying to decide between a Half Back (Defend) or a Deep Lying Playmaker (Defend). Both will have the PIs More Direct Passing and More Risky Passes to encourage this ball in behind the defence (coupled with a few PPMs but more on that later).
The Tactics
I've created the following three tactics:
My thinking about these was pretty much completely inspired by @westy8chimp and his 7th season at Leverkusen where he planned to have a player attacking each of the 5 zones. In the 3-1-4-2-0 I have the Winger, Trequartista, Shadow Striker, Mezzala and Winger. In the 4-2-2-2-0 I have the Wing-Back, Trequartista, Shadow Striker, Segundo Volante and Winger (This tactic has also taken a lot from the France tactic suggestions from this year's World Cup Interpretations thread). In the 4-3-2-1-0 I have the Wing-Back, Inverted Winger, Shadow Striker, Segundo Volante and Winger.
Mentality - Counter - This should make my team sit deeper and a little more compact compared to default.
Team Shape - Structured - From what I've read on this forum, I may have understood wrong, this shape should mean that my players with attacking duties concentrate on attacking more than they would on fluid. This will hopefully help me exploit the 5 zones with my 5 attacking mentalities.
Shorter Passing - This encourages the team to focus on shorter passing meaning that it should mainly be my Half Back / Deep Lying Playmaker who is aiming to find the space with his passing which is my vision for how I want to play.
Pass Into Space - Passing that ball in behind a defence that has slightly pushed higher. Exactly what I want.
Not many PIs. Obviously I have the two I mentioned earlier for the DMC and I've got a couple on the goalkeeper for his distribution.
The Team
The main reason for choosing this team is the player they have for my HB/DLP:
Here are his attributes and PPMs. Before I decided on who I wanted to play here, I earmarked three PPMs which I thought would be perfect for the player in this role:
Likes to Switch Ball To Other Flank - A PPM that encourages longer passing. This one could be useful when my HB/DLP is slightly to either side of the pitch and a Wing-Back or Winger has space to attack.
Tries Killer Balls Often - Killer Balls. Ideal.
Tries Long Range Passes - Rather obvious this one. My idea is for this player to knock the ball long into the space behind the oppositions defenders.
As you can see, this player already has two out or three of these desired traits (and the final one will be trained ASAP). I also like the attributes he already has. 14-15 for Passing, Technique and Vision which will hopefully improve with training which focuses on these attributes.
This player is Pedro Obiang - This guy will, hopefully, be a key cog in my team - Therefore, I have gone for West Ham. I am on an updated database with summer transfers so I won't be making any transfers on for this save.
I will update at intervals during this season, hopefully all goes well!
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In Honor of Sir Alex Ferguson -- Reviving the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge!
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted
The Challenge Begins - Southampton
League Table:
Manager Profile: