HanziZoloman

If your striker is fast try standard directness in passing with a poacher and pass into space.

If I understand correctly your main focus on scoring and creating goals is given to the front three. I‘d say now you have to think about how to complement those with your triangle in midfield. The left striker is scoring and will attack the box, you‘ll need a player stretching the pitch and a player for cover. You could play a WB and MCs or a MEZ and a FB if you keep it simple. The BWM will roam a lot chasing opponents around in his area which would require an extra cover. On the right you have a creating role cutting inside so again you‘ll need someone to stretch the pitch (WB or MEZ). If you‘re about to use two WB for width then you’ll need cover in the center like an DMd or an Anchor. If you‘ll use a WBs and a FB you could use a Mezzala in MC and a DMs keeping it close together. In your first setup you could just switch the right FB into a WB. in your second set up I‘ll switch the right FB into WB and the DLPs into a DMd or DLPd (but with the BPD you won’t need it really). but: you could also play the IWs as a Ws (left footed on the right) and have a similar effect but with an APa or MEZ by his side which works great. With a DLF up front you could as well play a MEZa or MCa which can make it real hard to defend.

Naaaah impossible

We concede much, any suggestions to make my team harder to break? My Defense is by far the worst part with young inexperienced players. A FBa instead of the WBs (?) or the FBs on FBd (?)

My YAC setup looks like this: Rhys Platt is leading the Goalscoring stats of the league. It's very simple and works amazing.

@Johnny Ace thank you, your work helped me enormously. Just now I am having success again after switching back to a 433 in the YAC. The one with the APa / Ws combo. it’s my favourite till now just one role to give the trio a spice of flair. If I hadn’t such a good AP I‘d try the one with BWM/ MCs/DMs which looks so plain beautiful.

Haha sure about that! my focus was the midfield trio. I guess they are so plain that they’ll fit many roles in front of them.

I guess you can easily change the roles up front fitting a less capable team and it has a BWM. Thank you!

Hee guys, always coming back to this one. So much good advice. in my recent youth academy team my best player is a BWM (DM/MC) how would you develop a 433 around that one? he is aggressive, a lot of stamina, off the ball and great positioning (12 in Vanarama South). Strong physicals. if that were your best player how to build a midfield trio around him?

Great choice @DazRTaylor

Thank you so much @VillaSmith those are very encouraging words! What does "focusing on the cups" mean, do you have specific routines or preps?

@VillaSmith what a wonderful update. Read everything with interest, especially the part about former players. It’s such a long way to go. would you mind telling what the turning point in Vanarama has been?

"Congratulation." Earl of Grey Season 7 - 29/30 We survived again but didn't make any progress. We're still a mediocre team now losing the best players, keeper Bullman and defender Neil Cox. Cox was expected to become the captain of the team but we could not meet his financial demands. Bullman wants a new challenge. We can't replace them because they were the best we had. It's stupid, feels like we're stuck in Vanarama forever. The Earl is really frustrated drowning his sorrows in beer in the local pub. Our under 18s won the league again 3rd time during the reign of the Earl. The youth intake was crap .. "Guiness is the best beer in the world" Earl of Grey

Great job 👏🏼

*******!

Man @XaW Great achievement! I am happy for your success, well done! @Johnny Ace where did you find the finances? Found it ☝🏾

"We had put in the work and gathered the results we were looking for. I am satisfied for once but the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next." Earl of Grey Season 6 - 28/29 We did challenge the play off spots first time and dropped out of it just the last match day. This season feels like a huge step forward. It seems like getting rid of those work rate 4-5 players was a good decision. We had our casts of bad form but find out of it much earlier. Again Billericay is a spot for strikers we have so many, we can't play them all and if we do, they score. Nothing changed my approach is still the one which I did describe a few postings above regarding tactics and squad DNA. We sadly can't develop our facilities but the Earl is bagging badges. After a take over we are now in a positive bank balance which is really strong. The Earl managed to avoid first time mistakes with the money and we could finish the season financially positive as well. Under 18s Our junior team won the league title again. Last year we were second behind Dulwich who we put in second place this year. There is a rivalry growing between us and Dulwich Hamlet because of the title challenges in the last three years. It's great! As with the last intakes in general this year was no different a bit disappointing. No elite talents and no one strong enough to challenge for first team. We go into next season with the same team. Goals for oncoming season "We want a play off spot! We can't stay in this division forever." Of course we are relegation candidates still ...

Wow fast climb! How would you explain that, what were the keys to your early success? remarkable story, chapeau!

That’s not very satisfying. I like the part of the challenge that you can’t just buy a better player but have to support those you have. I am thinking of @XaW and his miniature CBs … lol …

Guess we have to live with that at these levels. It‘s not driving me crazy anymore but the first few seasons I was like aahhhhh I can’t do that anymore. Especially red cards and penalties.

Nice prospects @Traldon I am envious especially the defender looks aggressive and big!

How is the experience with Scotland?

Earl of Grey - Nottingham Forrest - May and June '28 "I had to go into the woods to see more clearly. There is WiFi in Nottingham Forrest and I watched a lot of Netflix. You know this Jordan Series? It's called the last dance. That's the story of how the Super Bulls developed in the 90s and how they become the best Basketball Team in the world. I need to translate that into Football Manager into my Ricays. There is a lot to see in those movies, I like the Detroit Pistons with Isah Thomas and the young Rodman. They completely the bad guys they are bad ass tough and hard to brake through. It becomes more and more clear that MJ alone will win no championship to his franchise like he had promised and that he will need a team to do that. There is no 'I' in team but there is one in 'win'." The Earl of Grey For our Billericay Team it means that we will build towards a squad DNA which is nothing new to the game. We have a great pool of youngsters all sorts of players. Talent whatsoever will not be a main part of our DNA. We will look for hard, tireless workers, strong players, determined, aggressive and brave. We need some chiefs and a clan to support them. We want to let our most talented and most gifted players shine like MJ and Pip and we want to surround them with people who help them because they are teamplayers. Plus, we want to compensate in their weaknesses because at this level and every level beyond 'nobody is perfect'. Billaricay - July '28 Who will be our guys to go the ones who will shine? When I take a look at the reports, there are Neil Cox (youth intake 25), Kavangh Williams-Bowers (yi 25), Kem Bullman (yi 24), Mike Eboh (yi 24), Louis Baker (Legend) and Jaydn Mundle-Smith (Legend) who all have 4 stars or more ratings. Let's decide to have one in each part of the line-up, we now place the responsibly of driving the team forward in the hands of our Keeper Kem Bullman, BPD Neil Cox, midfielder Williams-Bowers and striker Rhys Platt. Why does Louis and Mike drop out? Because Louis is playing IWs but is not the best dribbler and always has a hard time there and Williams-Bowers as you will notice in his stats is a true aggressive leader and Mike Eboh needs to many chances to score and Rhys Platt is less talented but more reliable. Neil Cox: He will be our future Captain if we can hold onto him. He is just great and maybe the best player who came through the ranks of our academy Williams-Bowers: He developed just great Rhys Platt our first academy player who was pushing for first team and he is a reliable shot. I like his physical presence and movement. Ok that are the ones to shine, you notice that with Platt it's already working out. We need to define a system which will be easy to learn but also compliments the favored roles of the players. We will definitely play with a BPD (Neil) and a B2B (WB) and well Platt likes the TFs but he will play as our main goal threat because of his movement a Poacher (he can't dribble). Long story short this is how we play: Our 'famous' 424 Neil Cox is good at everything but a little short his sidekick needs to be big and jumpy (Mensah - who is just that), Williams-Bowers is always aggressiv and mental monster he needs an experienced and more calm player by his side (Stylianides), he can pass, tackle and is composed. Rhys Platt will need support and balls to finish. The most creative player Baker (IWa) is on his side, Mundle-Smith will overlap and is a fast good crosser, a TFs on Platts right and a Wa out wide. Stylianides will cover the aggressive running around of Williams-Bowers and Jay Patterson is just an ordinary FBs. Squad DNA: I had a lot of talented and gifted players with strong athletics or wonderful technique but I need Clansmen, guys who do the dirty work around my stars. As 8 is the number to go in that league I will only accept first team players with a work rate of 8 in my team. If they are 6 they have no chance if they're 7 they need to improve and they have a year or so for doing so. I'm fed up with all those talented but useless and lazy guys carrying around year after year just dumping my balance. In consequence some starters from last year left our club. I can't work with someone who doesn't want to work (work rate 4 or 5). Also I rate high: Teamwork, Stamina and Strength for my teamplayers. The stars however need to be rolemodels and be better in work rate and they need to give the team something special, like flair or exceptional team play or finishing. Training: I focus on physicality like the Detroit Pistons I want my players to be strong (which almost everyone is now training), those who already are strong train complimenting areas like quickness or other weaknesses. I hope to get every first teamer on strength 8 by the end of the season. Tactically, like Detroit I'll play with get stuck in and won't take this off (period). If we collect cards, we'll collect cards I have no problem with that. I want to develop a hard, tough team. That's the mission. We started the season exactly like the year before but that was rather successful, we're now trying not to drop in form but challenge for the play off spots. Of course we are still overwhelming relegation candidates (24th - 250:1).

@libbyshuss good luck as we all need a bit of it

"He who knows nothing will find a way through." Earl of Grey Season 5 We started so well, blowing opponents away with the 424 counterattacking play. Rhys Platt (26) and Michael Eboh (18) scoring loads and even the newcomers Darin Magri and Glenn Beasley were having a good time in front of the goal. It dried out in November and after we experienced long periods without even scoring including shameful moments like the 7:1 defeat against Maidenhead. The Earl thought it was a matter of time the run of bad luck with red cards and penalties couldn't last forever. It almost did only after switching into a 433 wide with an additional DM in front oft the back four we managed to stable the patient from dying finishing a respectful 14th place. Needless to say that we're still overwhelming relegation candidates. "In autumn the Ricay world looked so well, I'm really sad", said the Earl in his last interview before holidays. He will go into Nottingham Forest, chopping wood and thinking about everything to push back in summer. On the last matchday the Earl couldn't resist and let the lads play again in the fast 424 shape and managed a win against stupid Gloucester. The Intake btw was described as a golden generation by the Hoyd but the Earl doubt it. George Brand is talking again always selling fish on the markets. Just look at him, he's the best: We have a lot of work to do to ever reach the play offs in this damned league of losers. The positive news the Earl is bagging badges like stamps and we had a positive financial result (we're only 350.000 in the reds now). a shame ...