Hoofenballen

No guides as such. Just take your time to get to know the players with tactics that arent too intricate at first. Trust the opinions of the coaches for now. Test the players in friendlies etc

@Alejandro_FM love the thread so far, Valencia is always a great project to work on within football manager and I was lucky enough to attend the Mestalla stadium tour and a match vs Real Valladolid a few years ago so I do have a soft spot for the club. Setting the ground work for future success with great tactics and transfer activity. Keep up the good work!

I find if you ask your FB/WBs to sit narrower but then run wide/run inside when in possession you get the best of both worlds for covering space in front of the defensive line and for not leaving space in the half spaces

Thanks @Alejandro I managed to recoup about £80 million in the summer, all in up front payments and managed to free up a good chunk of wages. Whilst ive spent a lot of money, theyre on very structured deals that will be paid off over a number of years. Im really interested in seeing how Boselli performs, I had tracked him for a long time and with the low value release clause I felt it was definitely worth bringing him in for the versatility he brings and as a successor to Savic. Really looking forward to season 2 now I feel weve got quality in each area, feel weve got a really good blend of youth and experience now. Im excited

POSSIBLE TAKEOVER ON THE WAY? It would certainly make life easier!

SEBASTIAN BOSELLI - CENTRE BACK/RIGHT BACK COVER; RIVER PLATE A young Uruguyan at just 20 years old, should provide great centre back and right back cover, for only £8 million very good value and comes off the back of an impressive season for River Plate, and an impressive scouting report. Aiming to develop him and give him plenty of game time. GIORGIO SCALVINI - CENTRE BACK/DEFENSIVE MID COVER; ATALANTA I wanted this player from the moment I took the club over. Will be my centre back rock hopefully for a decade to come. Had a tremendous season for Atalanta, 5 star potential for growth, delighted to have him. GUIDO RODRIGUEZ - DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD/CENTRE MIDFIELD; REAL BETIS This was a no brainer. A free transfer that provides cover, but also gives the potential to switch to a system with a DM and 2 central midfielders if necessary. Small wages, and a good rotational option to have around KALVIN PHILLIPS - CENTRE MIDFIELD; MANCHESTER CITY I overpaid for him, but i think he really embodies what I, and the club need in a central midfielder. Tenacious, committed, decent on the ball and will let the more creative players do their thing. JULIAN ALVAREZ - ATTACKING MIDFIELDER/ATTACKING MIDFIELDER RIGHT/STRIKER; MAN CITY Household name. Brings goals, creativity and hard work with versatility to play in a number of forward positions. Board are delighted as he will generate a significant amount of shirt sales. A bumper deal which will never reach its full value

ATLETICO DE MADRID - SEASON 2: THE REBUILD @Alejandro_FM @FMbeginner thank you for your contributions to the thread I had a good look through the squad in the post season, and believe the "core" of the squad is one that can still take us to challenge for honours. When viewing the rebuild, I had a few ideas in mind: I want the rebuild to be gradual. I want to keep continuity within the squad by not having too high a turnover of players. In particular, I dont want to sell too many influential players from the dressing room all in one go. I want to keep the rebuild realistic. I want to sign players who I believe fit the "DNA" of the club, and that for me is players who are prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty, players who will block, tackle and head all game. Players who will run all day, yet stay switched on tactically. Players who display world class levels of work rate and determination. I want to gradually lower the average age of the team. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing to have players at their peak, but it would be good to gradually inject some new blood into the team. The breakthrough of Sergio Carmelo, and the return to the club of Joao Felix (who proved to be un-sellable) will aid the lowering of the average age of the squad. Players who display desirable scout report characteristics. Particularly those who will find it easy to settle into the club and culture, players who perform consistently, and determined, resloute characters. In terms of settling in, ive preferred players who can speak spanish, ideally spanish or spanish speakers i.e. south americans. TRANSFER ACTIVITY INS AND OUTS The transfer activity has been well received by the board and fans. The transfers in are structured and will not cost as much as they potentially could, the transfer fee will not hit its top value. I was disappointed I couldn't get more income but some of my players proved very hard to shift, through a combination of age, high wages, and just lack of demand. I felt there may be more Saudi interest, but only Greizmann wanted to leave and I feel like he has left too cheaply. There was nothing I could do that would shift the likes of Joao Felix, Mario Hermoso, Stefan Savic, Saul and that was disappointing. I also didnt get much back for Rodrigo Riquelme, but I just dont feel he has the development potential I want. Not disappointed to get rid of Azpilicueta's wages. INS OUTS

Hello Everyone Is it worth doing a save as an international manager? I like the thought of being an international manager, as it gets right to the nitty gritty of tactics, managing the matchday, tactical flexibility. Im concerned about the gaps between matches and the amount of watching matches it takes to keep the talent pool up to date. Id like to try and qualify (and ultimately win but its a long shot) for a world cup with BOLIVIA. Any thoughts?

LA LIGA RESULTS CONT. COPA DEL REY RESULTS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RESULTS FINAL LA LIGA TABLE THE GOOD POINTS Huge goalscoring potential in the team, the most potent in the league Brilliant home form Rodrigo De Paul and Javi Galan vastly exceeding xG totals The emergence of youngster Pablo Barrios THE BAD POINTS WOEFUL away form A very old squad, with only £2.8 million budget for improvements, which will mean selling to invest in youth Tactical refinement required Would be grateful for any thoughts on where it went wrong in season 1, and how it can be turned around. In terms of building the new squad, nothing is off the table. EVERY player except De Paul, Memphis Depay, Javi Galan and Jan Oblak can leave for the right price. In terms of tactics, would love your thoughts. The tactic did stick to the low block, low possession, counter with pace philosophy i wanted, yet somehow let us badly down in the 2nd half of season 2. Im not a great player of the game but i must admit, im finding this team very enjoyable, very frustrating and a real challenge all in one, which is how it should be

ATLETICO DE MADRID SEASON 1 Transfer Activity With a kitty of £0, we were left to shop in Lidl. I wanted to keep the existing squad together and early season form led me to keep with the squad left to me by Diego Simeone. Thomas Lemar and Antoine Griezmann were initially transfer listed, but performances convinced e to keep them. The squad was slightly bolstered by the arrival of Fabio Vieira, a versatile player who came in and did very well from the number 10 and wide left positions. Tactical Basis Given the board and fans desire for "defensively solid football" and "direct football", an interesting set of demands for a top club but one rooted in the philosophy of outgoing manager Diego Simeone, I tried to develop a home and away tactic which had undergone quite a few revisions throughout the season. Its fair to say the home tactic was an unequivocal success, winning all but one home game at the Metropolitano and being the top scorers at home in the process. Away from home, despite a very positive start to the season, to end up winless in 9 on the road after the winter break, collecting just THREE away points in the 2nd half of the season was utterly abysmal, and there was no indication such a collapse was coming. Home Tactic A simple idea, to defend with two banks of four in a compact shape, denying space in the middle of the pitch and remaining disciplined without the ball. When losing the ball, players told to immediately get back into defensive shape rather than look to win the ball back, and as we are trying to win the ball back in our own half, players are instructed to immediately look to counter attack, with high tempo, and to run their way up the pitch by dribbling. This tactic proved especially good at home where we comfortably won all but one of our matches, dispatching Barcelona and Real Madrid in the process. This tactic in particular really got the best out of the main man, Rodrigo De Paul, with Memphis Depay, Thomas Lemar and Javi Galan all chipping in with goals in addition to those of striker Alvaro Morata Away Tactic The away tactic WAS working very well in the first half of the season, until inexplicably, it fell apart. The tactic was broadly similar but with an increased tempo to get the ball forward with more urgency, Morata acting as a target man to hold the ball up and to get bodies around him quickly from two narrow sitting wide men, the number 10 and the advancing De Paul. A ball playing defender was used to launch direct passes towards Morata as an outlet, whilst the full backs were told to hang crosses in the air to Morata, with the intention of winning second balls high up the field. Goalkeeper Oblak was instructed to initiate counter attacks via direct passes to the wings SEASON STARTS WITH HUGE PROMISE, ENDS AS A COMPLETE NIGHTMARE For the first half of the season, performances in both la liga and the champions league were unexpectedly out of this world. With an aeging and somewhat threadbare squad, champions league progression was assured, topping a group of Bayern Munchen, Lens and Red Star Belgrade without losing a game, and a joint top position at the mid season break was beyond expectation. Despite progression in the Copa Del Rey, ultimately losing to Barcelona 3-1 in the final, league performances dipped markedly. The imperious home form was still on show with some impressive displays, but the away form bordered on meme potential, with ex players coming out to slag off me and the players, and disgruntled fans. And who could blame them. To not see the side win a single away game in the entire 2nd half of the season was nothing short of disgraceful.

I think for my skill level and amount of time i can put into the game its too big of a project for me. I finished 4th in la liga, we were league top scorers with best home record, made the copa del rey final but lost to Barca but out the champions league in round of 16 to Napoli I was using a rigid 4411 low block soak it up and counter formation. We were joint top at the mid season break then after the break we won every home game but lost every away game. I was using: Oblak (gk d) Galan (fb a) Savic (cb d) Soyuncu (cb s) Gimenez (fb s) Memphis (wm a) Koke (cm d) De paul (bbm s) Correa (wm a) Greizmann (treq a) Morata (p a) Cautious mentality, low block, low defensive line, regroup and counter with pace. 1st half of season was beautiful to watch. Goals galore. Id scouted loads of players like Aursnes, scalvini, barco, joao neves, wantes olly watkins as backup to morata but i need at least a little cash even if i need some sales

Atletico Madrid seems a very hard save in FM24 The squad is incredibly old, and needs to be rebuilt. Theres no money to spend at all in season 1 or at the beginning of season 2 and youre quite a bit worse than Barcelona and Real Madrid. Who realistically are you going to sell? most players are over the hill or soon will be. Maybe move Felix and Oblak on although Oblak is one of the main men within the team. Id say by end of season 1 you would need a new centre back, a new central midfielder, a new right winger, possibly a right back and back up striker. How can you get all those with no money and no one worth selling?????