Shrewnaldo

I would 100% take a team consisting of only Model Professionals or Model Citizens. I don't mind boring Schulz is a funny one. Looks like he's going to be great but the output technicals look just a little short to have him really produce - crossing, finishing and passing all being just below what you'd want for an elite player. I know passing is in your DNA and if you're looking for him to be the DLF will that be your training priority? The work rate would concern me for a DLF

Thanks, always appreciate the feedback. It's not taken the 4-4-1-1 long to evolve into a 4-2-3-1. The way I was using the wide midfielder on the right just made us way too one dimensional playing through the middle third so I've jettisoned that idea for now. I'd certainly that, Barca aside, I'd associate 4-2-3-1 with Spanish sides. The variable wage cap in the league really helps the big sides too (not that I'm using anything approaching our cap limit). Real's salary per annum is currently £318m, Barca's £282m and Atléti £186m. The next is Villarreal on £70m and we're on £35.5m. That's just a crazy disparity. Yeah I was sad to see Polo leave but I think I've got to that point where I have to look past the nostalgia. He was probably good enough as a squad player but I have so many Mareo options coming through that could use that game time and then end up far better than Polo that I just had to let him go. When I played Real in the final they had a full strength side - David Raya, Buongiorno, Bellingham, Valverde, Vini Jnr, Rodrygo, Osimhen... it's tough. But there's definitely scope to get lucky and hit them at the right time. When Real got knocked out by Villarreal last season, they'd played Levante in the previous round just 3 days previously. That fixture congestion meant they played a (relatively) weakened team and, crucially, a B-team goalkeeper which ended up costing them. Having said that, the big three tend to take the Copa del Rey seriously - evidenced by the three of them winning it in every season so far. Albeit with just one final, in 2025, where two of them played each other. Us, Betis, Villarreal, Girona and Getafe have all been losing finalists... surely one of us has to buck the trend soon.

Pushing On A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón At some point we will have to turn potential into delivery. All of this development of the Mareo graduates has to have some sort of end goal. Sporting are famous for being 'nearly men' in Spain, never having a single senior trophy. We came close in 2029, losing to Real 3-0 in a final blighted by Chiquete's early red card. We've reached the semi the following year and a Europa League quarter-final in 2028. This season, I really want to push for silverware. That absolutely will not come in the league - Real, Barca and Atléti are just far, far too strong to catch. Fourth is still a realistic goal for us but I'm absolutely going to prioritise the Copa del Rey and the Europa League - competitions at which I feel we should have a realistic chance of winning. To get there, I'll be relying on what we've developed so far, with very little in the way of transfer activity this summer. Christian Hernández becomes the latest arrival from Mexico - walking a fine line between ability to supplement the B-team and wages that won't bust the £75kpw salary cap for LaLiga2. In the opposite direction goes the first of the Mareo newgens for decent money - Francesc Polo being one of the first to break into the first-team and performing admirably as a wide playmaker or a deep-lying forward. He scored 26 goals across 2028-30 but was just too streaky to become the consistent 20+ goalscorer that we need - whilst he was never quite as creative as I'd hoped he'd become with those attributes and traits. £13.25m and 20% of any profit if he's sold back to Europe represents a healthy intake and covers two seasons' worth of the Youth Setup costs. One of the factors in letting Polo leave was the desire to move to a new system that would see us get the best out of Ander Aguirre. My previous post highlighted the concern about the big boys circling to pick off my best players but we managed to get Aguirre, Javi and Carlos Rojas - the subject of the most elite club interest - all to sign new deals that should keep them here for at least one more season. All three are key components that I would like to build the team and the system around - something which I spent most of the close season thinking about. So I started building some basic blocks around which to premise a tactic. I will bow to the inevitable and prioritise the 9 as the goalscorer, using an AF that primarily looks to stay high and threaten in behind the defensive line I really like double 10s on the ball. This doesn't mean that I need to have two AMCs on the tactics screen - only that two players should get into these positions with their in-possession movement Javi necessitates the use of a winger and isn't suited to being a wingback. That means two wide players in the defensive shape I rarely play with a two-man midfield in the defensive shape as I feel it leaves us too exposed. A three-man midfield and two players in the wide areas makes it clear it's a 4-man defence and 5-man midfield. I don't like how slowly attacking wingbacks move up into advanced positions when playing through the thirds. This leads nicely into my general preference for minimising transition distances. When I first came up with my idea of using inverted wingbacks (before they were even in FM), this was the primary driver - pulling fullbacks into the middle means they are much closer to their natural positions to recover into a solid defensive shape. This is equally true for the players that I want to perform the high and wide roles. This is easy on the left with Javi being a natural winger but will be something I look to do on the right too. Keeping the wide midfielders wide, means the fullbacks can come inside in possession to form the holding shape (I truly despite the term 'rest defence') In the past I'd had a preference for a 2-3 build-up shape but I've really liked the way the wide players in the 3 play in a 3-1 or 3-2 shape. In the 4-3-3 we were playing for the last few seasons, I've been using a 3-1 in build-up but I've found that the 1 often has to recycle the ball backwards which gives the opposition time to shift across and fill gaps. Add another into the second line to make a 3-2 shape allows a quick shift of angle without retreating with possession and, in conjunction with the double 10s, allows for simpler 'progressive passes' through the lines to bypass a pressing midfield - something that would have been classed as 'packing' in German statistics, I guess To get there, I started off with this idea. Nothing complicated but two banks of four in defence and into the 3-2-5 shape on the ball. The AM moves to the right to allow for the segundo to come in as the second 10 on the ball. The wide midfielder on the right is asked to 'hold position' and play more risky passes - the intention being that he will draw the press from the opposition left-back and allow the AM or AF to exploit this space, something which I used very effectively at Hellas Verona. This hasn't worked very well and so I've decided to switch the positions of the holding pair - moving the segundo to the right, allowing him to provide the mobility and run from deep to exploit the space created by the WM. The AM then moves to the left and provides a much better link to the winger, allowing for one-twos into space. The fullbacks then also switch with the covering centre-back moving to the left. So far it's been.... frustrating. We've probably deserved to win both these games but have failed to consistently create quality chances. Defensively, we've been great and only conceded in Seville from a combination of a defensive mistake and poor goalkeeping. From that base, I *should* be able to work out the attacking prowess and how to create better quality chances. To do this, I'd like to create some key metrics for the output I would like to see from each of the players on the ball - minimum shots and xG/shot from the 9; minimum number of passes I'd like to see from the 10 and a percentage of those passes which create chances / shots. For now, I'm relatively pleased that this should get us into the shape that I want on the ball and allow our best players to play in their best positions. Aguirre as an AF makes sense, Saúl and Rojas as a DM pairing is outstanding, Javi out wide. I've also set up a much more conservative system using the same shape which will keep the defensive 6 back and then allow the front four to be the counter-team - for use against Real etc. The only concern for me is at 10 and Mario Martínez. Undoubted potential, he showed some flashes of genuine output two seasons ago when playing in centre-mid. I feel like he should be an excellent 10 but has struggled to make much of an impact in pre-season. A switch of role might help and I'm keen to just give him the game time in order to help him develop his clear potential. That, though, might run contrary to the desire for some silverware and a need for output now. On wider club matters, I let my 72 year-old assistant Paco Ayesterán leave the club this summer - imagining that this was a good time for him to retire. To replace him, I went through the staff at our Orlegi affiliates and appointed former Man Utd midfielder Quinton Fortune. In a nice bit of game narrative, Fortune has 'graduated' through the system - first being Assistant at Atlas Guadalajara, then Santos Laguna and now Sporting. In a rather lovely touch, Santos have replaced him with the other option I considered - Atlas' Rubén Guerreo. Conscious that I've written a lot I should probably just stop there! Tl;dr - I've switched up tactic for the next 10 matches before I switch back to 4-3-3 and generally lose the will to live.

The other issue I have with this bit is the 3 non-EU limit in Spain. So it's hard to take a player straight into the first team. Mexicans, like other Hispanic countries, only take two years to be given Spanish passports (think it's 5 years for others) so I try to have an overlap going. One year in the B-team to prove themself then second year in the first team and then they've got a passport and the next one can come in. Someone like Saul obviously goes straight into the first team. Spoiler - I've kept all the priority players. Totally not a spoiler - I'm still not happy tactically

He's got Determination 15 though? I'm assuming you got that from one of the fan sites? Some of them are, shall we say, less than reliable

I forget what exactly Fickle implies but isn't it just low Loyalty? Does it also imply low Professionalism? Because apart from that Sulley looks like a banger. Looking at his starting attributes and your strategy for forsaking role training and focusing on the additional foci, will you still go with the rotation for Sulley? Like you say, his physicals will naturally increase but that Pace is the only thing which would appear to be holding him back for your DNA. With the others already amongst his highest attributes, it will be interesting to see how fast they would grow and whether or not that 'costs' more CA than improving something like his Dribbling. I really like the calculation for annual increase for the DNA score - but I wonder if it would help to have the non-DNA score annual increase too, perhaps excluding Set Piece attributes and stuff which doesn't increase with training such as Bravery and Aggression? This would give you a comparator to prove that the improvement to DNA-score is caused by the training strategy and not just random variation or overall improved growth

I did know that but I thought that it was just a generated thing for homegrown status? i.e. the players aren't identified 3-4 seasons out My understanding from the Evidence Based FM videos is that the 'draft' for the newgen allocation takes place at the preview event - and that the parameters which affect this 'draft' can change up to the day before that 'draft' and still affect the quality of your intake. i.e. I can upgrade the Youth Recruitment level up to the day before the preview. The CA/PA is only set at the actual youth intake day (or the day before it starts for the highest rep club I think) and the factors affecting that can be changed up to the day before that event. So I could change my HoYD the day before and he would impact the personality of the players that come through. Although the EBFM indicate that the HoYD does not impact CA/PA, I don't recall him doing any experiments about the influence of the HoYD's scouting knowledge. And this is where I'm wondering if I've screwed up. One formation, two styles at the moment. Basically a 4-2-3-1 shape but with the wingers pulled back to the midfield line so I can use the WM(S) role that I've been enjoying recently. Maybe more on this and the counter-version in the next post. There's a lot of good newgens kicking around for sure but I've got a few constraints - one of which is, like you say, the age limit and Mexicans being unable to move abroad until they're 18. The other main problem is the wage cap for the B-team. As they're in LaLiga2, there's quite a tight cap - currently £75kpw for the squad. Mexico is definitely a hotbed of talent but it's also a high-paying league compared to a lot of the places I'd traditionally steal newgens from. Take this guy, for example - only 18 and on £33.5kpw. I could bring him into the first-team but I'd ideally like him to have a year at least in the B-team. But there's no way I can do it when he'd bust half the budget. Regardless, this is where I'm doing all my shopping. We're short of defensive prospects more than anything - although I am a little concerned about the lack of prospects currently in the under-19s. I'd say there's only two players who I expect to make it. The B-team definitely has some good options but there's a bit of a dearth coming up behind. Hopefully the intake this year gets us back on track, if not it'll be back to Mexico.

Re Fabbian's key headers - is he on near post zonal duties for corners? Key headers are just those inside the 6 yard box iirc so this and his aerial prowess could account for the seeming anomaly

I really like this shape that you've shown - particularly the way the two wide players are stretching the play high but with acceleration space for the through ball without going offside. What roles are you using for these guys? I really like the look of Ammer. What are you thinking in terms of training priorities? Physicals?

Vultures A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón After a shocking start to the season, I managed to right the good ship Sporting Heritage and steer her to a solid enough 6th placed finish and Europa League football next season. Still disappointing after two consecutive fourths and a deterioration this campaign of 7 points, scoring 6 fewer and conceding 7 more. Real regained the title from Barcelona in spectacular fashion, hitting 104 points; city rivals Atlético unlucky to miss out after amassing 99 points that would have taken the title in any of the last four seasons. They could content themselves with a Copa del Rey victory (let's not talk about our exit at the first time of asking) whilst Barcelona have reached the Champions League final and may consider that justification for a poor domestic campaign. For our part, I'm afraid that I've lost myself in a not-untypical tactical meandering - desperate to get the best out of our undoubted attacking talents. I'm switched from the standard 4-3-3 to a 5-3-2 to counter-act Arsenal's 4-2-4 and then 4-4-2 to counter-act Atlético's advanced 4-2-2-2 box. Both worked well for a total of zero points and later in the season I started going with varieties of 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, 4-1-4-1 and 4-3-2-1. Partly, I just can't help myself and partly I feel like I'm not maximising the ability of the talent at my disposal. Javi necessitates the use of a winger, González has proven himself undroppable as a midfield runner at CM(A) and Aguirre, whilst handy at inside forward, really needs to be played at AF for us to get the most out of him. These are just three examples of what I, just like every manager, need to work around. For youth focused saves, though, that necessity is even more restrictive. Whilst I feel I've been doing a good job with Javi (6G, 9A), González (14G, 7A) and Aguirre (15G, 5A) it's how the system around them works where I'm underperforming. Yes, some of that will be my insistence on prioritising PA over CA for long-term gain, but I also just have to accept that I've got it wrong. And inconsistency in approach is as much to blame, as I've not only switched system but haven't really committed to an ethos that underpins the system. These were the simple principles that I wanted to apply at the start of the save and I feel I need to both commit to this and then, inspired both by Ben's principles of play and Trequinho's video on his blueprint, expand upon it to get back to how I want to play the game. The remaining question is going to be which good players are prioritised within this expanded framework because, sadly, the vultures are beginning to circle. Javi is attracting concrete interest from Real; where he may be joined by Aguirre - the latter also the subject of rumours linking him with Bayern and PSG. It's possible that their release clauses will prove prohibitive but Javi has already indicated he doesn't want to sign a new contract thanks to the interest shown in him. I'll be really depressed if they both leave - not only are they two of my best players, they're also two of my favourites. With very little required in terms of recruitment, I think this summer will mostly be one of trepidation every time I open the Inbox.

Eighth Intake A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón Yuck. I may have made a huge mistake in sacking the old HoYD and appointing Caers because... yuck. We took this, which was bad enough.... And turned it into this... So what are these no-hopers actually like? (by the way, no Mexicans. But a Welshman, a Romanian and Frenchman. Because reasons) Top Talents Luis Hernández - Yuck Personality - Balanced Oh my dear lord, what in the name of the wee man is that. Let's move on. David - Slightly less yuck Personality - Light-hearted I like the Determination, Technique and Work Rate obviously. His physicals for getting up and down the line are ok and he can dribble but the low Crossing isn't great, nor are the low values for Marking, Tackling and Positioning. I can't see him amounting to much but better than Hernandez. Galder Alonso - moderately yuck Personality - Perfectionist OK, I like the personality and it's REALLY nice to see some pull through from the HoYD's personality. SI think he's better than David with significantly better, if still less than ideal, starting points for defensive attributes and better Crossing ability. His Dribbling could do with improving and he's no doubt got a long way to go but I can see a squad player in there. Good Talents Javier Espejo - not as yuck as I expected Personality - Fairly Determined Maybe this is the striker the preview talked about as our 'A' prospect. Physically he's just fine for 16 but he's certainly lacking on the technicals and mentals. Decent Determination, Technique and First Touch but his finishing lets him down for a striker and his Vision for a creative player. Possibly something there but he's a long way behind what we've got in-house. Pablo - still pretty yuck Personality - Fairly Professional Ok, again a better personality. Physicals are poor but he's only 15. I like his starting point for the playmaker Technicals as First Touch should improve nicely and his mentals aren't that far off. Add 4 to each of them by the time he's 21 and he could be a handy back-up. I'd prefer him to be stronger on both feet but there's a bit of potential there. Callum Wilkes - Welsh yuck Personality - Fairly professional Again, personality is a bonus and he's got a bit of pace about him but his technicals are abysmal. Defensively he's a non-starter with Marking 4 and Tackling 6; offensively Dribbling 4, First Touch 6 and Passing 8. Nope. Hugo Andrés - Physical yuck Personality - Light-hearted Technically and Mentally there's an awful lot to like about Andrés. An awful lot. He's also a young 15, not turning 16 for another 9 months. So those physicals have additional potential to increase. I reckon Andrés has potential for sure, if he can improve his movement and those physicals then the only remaining concern is Anticipation of 4. But are those physicals just too low? I've seen players add 7 to individual attributes but even with 7 added to everything then Andrés is going to be just about good enough. That's a tough ask. Manu - so yuck I'm not adding his screenshot. Jordi Núñez - young yuck Personality - Fairly Determined Scraping the barrel again but Núñez is another young 15, despite already being 6'4". 9 months to improve the physicals is going to see him compete easily - so that really just leave a handful of mentals and his Heading that are worries. So I reckon he's a possibility. -------------------- I'm sorry but the rest are so yuck that I'm not going to sully these hallowed pages with their presence. That is an awful, awful intake. Truly abysmal. Come back Feliu Marquez! What's nice to see is that Caers' personality has pulled through but the quality of the intake is absolutely shocking. Is this down to the HoYD? Or is it just luck? Has appointing a HoYD with no scouting knowledge of the area completely screwed me? His 'scouting knowledge' of Spain is still only 'average'. Genuinely I don't know. I'm going to give Caers another intake to prove his worth - the personality pull-through is encouraging and these things can happen with RNG so we'll see. Meanwhile, our current stable of wonderkids continues to produce the goods: Mouriño - third in the world this year - just got his first call-up to the senior Spain squad; making him the first Mareo newgen to get a senior call-up. I also then got the 'hilarious' April Fools injury notification for Javi, one of my favourite newgens. People who know me will know that I don't like jokes and don't find anything funny. Certainly not this. And certainly not after that intake. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be part of the 'joke'.

I always enjoy people's random rants on FM so don't worry about that. Particularly tactically. I'm with you on the traits - definitely very powerful and I had a post a while back where I looked at the traits that I'd like for each of the profiles in the 4-3-3. Our systems are quite similar but I think I have an opportunity to refresh things this summer. I've been held into using an attacking right-back because of my captain. But he's ageing and very injury prone so I'm considering this as an opportunity to rethink things. Taking a leaf from Ben's book and starting back to front in terms of how I want to play out. I really, really hate non-inverted fullbacks positioning in the defensive and middle third during possession. Something I can probably get rid of now.

Fit's 'Gan Doon A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón As requested by @El Payaso, I thought I'd just do a bit of an update on what's happening in the rest of the wider save world, starting with... Spain No great surprises as Real, Barca and Atlético have dominated - making up the top three in various orders across every save so far. Real have won three titles, with Barca winning three on the bounce in between and the latest title in 2030. Villarreal, first under Tite and then Vincent Kompany, have tended to be the strongest of the also-rans but the usual suspects have usually been there and thereabouts. Whilst Xavi has remained in charge of Barca, the Madrid clubs have changed between managers. Mauricio Pochettino took over from Ancelotti in 2026 and has been in charge since - winning the 2029 Champions League alongside the La Liga titles. Atlético, clearly the least successful of the big three, appointed Nuno Espirito Santo when Simeone left for the Man Utd job. Simeone went on to win the Champions League with Man Utd before being sacked and taking over the Argentine national side, then Real Sociedad and now Ecuador... quite the career path. Other interesting appointments are André Villas-Boas at Athletic and Ruben Amorim at Rayo Vallecano after stints with Granada, Portimonense and Strasbourg. In terms of player moves, probably the most interesting was Bruno Fernandes turning up at Atlético. Now 36, I'll be glad to see the back of him when he retires in the summer. He's been absolutely phenomenal for Atléti and tore us apart when we played them. Continentally, in addition to Real's win in 2029, Barca won the Champions League in 2027 - winning an El Classico final at the Camp Nou of all places. But none of the second string teams have been able to do anything in the Europa or Conference. England Whilst Man City secured a fourth title in 2024, they've only won two of the next six. However, not much interest as it's been the usual suspects in Chelsea (2), Liverpool (1) and Arsenal (1) who took the other titles. Indeed, only Newcastle has disrupted the traditional top 6 and no-one particularly interesting has been promoted - single seasons from Bristol City and Stoke being the most unusual. In terms of managers, De Zerbi succeeded Arteta when the latter left for Bayern in 2028 and Chelsea have made their way through Luis Enrique and Zidane to now land on Marco Rose. Liverpool sacked Klopp in 2029 after 13.5 years and appointed Arne Slot - only to sack the Dutchman less than a year later and appoint Vincenzo Italiano. Pep is still in charge at City, Eddie Howe at Newcastle whilst Man Utd went from ten Haag to Simeone to Pioli to Inzaghi and now Diego Martinez... the former Olympiakos manager bringing the "three cups" but really just the Europa League. France PSG have won the league every season and brought back Thomas Tuchel. And that's enough about France. Except maybe Filippo Inzaghi being Auxerre manager is quite cool. Italy Two Lazio scudetti and one Milan are sandwiched between four Inter titles. Juve are slowly coming back to the top and finished just a point behind the nerrazurri last term, whilst Roma are slipping down the league and this term are just two points above relegation. Italy is also the most interesting league for managers with Klopp now at Inter, having replaced ten Haag who in turn replaced De Zerbi. Thomas Thomasberg, who is apparently a real person, is now in charge of Juve having started the game at Midtjylland whilst Danielle de Rossi has taken over at struggling Roma just 7 years after real life - hoping to improve on the fortunes of Mourinho, Laurent Blanc, Rafael Marquez and the definitely not pasta Mattia Croci-Torti. And whilst Russell Martin has turned up at Torino, my favourite random appointment is the cultured David Moyes being entrusted with the Milan job. Delightful. Germany One Leipzig title in 2027 is all that's stopped Bayern from 18 consecutive titles - Marco Rose being sacked for his failure to win the title and being replaced by Arteta. Germany hasn't really produced much in the way of interest. Others Bayer Neverkusen no more after they won the 2030 Europa League and even Everton and Spurs won trophies - taking the Conference League in 2028 and 29 respectively. Sparta Prague were unlikely runners up in 2027. Sturm Graz finally broke the Red Bull monopoly in Austria and it looks like Hansi Flick's Salzburg may miss out two seasons on the bounce as Rapid lead this time round. Gus Poyet is currently managing AE Kifisias in the Greek Super League. No, me neither but they had a South Korean tycoon take over in 2025. Portugal also saw it's 6th-ever different title winner with Braga winning the league in 2025. It's in Portugal where we once again meet Mr ten Haag who, having been sacked by Man Utd in December 2023, lasted 7 months at Nottingham Forest before choosing to join PSV. Having taken the Eredivisie title back to Eindhoven, he departed for Benfica and won two titles before opting for Inter. He's now the Dutch national coach having decided two Serie A titles were enough. And, as always, international management is where FM brings its greatest randomness. Brendan Rodgers being German manager, for example. Sean Dyche leading the Turkish national side. Ancellotti being sacked as England manager after losing to Portugal in Euro 2028 quarters. England won Euro 2024, by the way - beating Serbia in the final; France beat the Netherlands in 2028. The Dutch using the heartbreak as motivation to win the 2030 World Cup, usurping 2026 winners Ecuador. Yes, Ecuador. This was before Simeone arrived. The guy who won the World Cup with Ecuador couldn't get a job and retired in 2028. Only in FM.

Yes, both newgens. I use the newgan facegen thing from Susi and some of them are just great. I'm very happy to give a 'state of my world' post. Coming up soon. Thanks! At the moment, I'm sticking to various forms of 4-3-3. My problem is always, ALWAYS that I just don't feel like I get the most out of my players offensively. Part of the problem is that I'm so loathe to use an AF because it's just kind of boring. But I think I'm going to have to accept it. Every so often, I just need to write down my tactical thoughts and work things out. I might to do that again this summer.

I finally decided to spend some money. Feel a little bit unwell after splashing £9.75m on Cabeza from Internacional and a quite disgusting £29.5m on Adán from Liverpool. This should fill the gap that we have within the Mareo graduates - Mouriño being the only centre back option available at first-team level just now (and likely more of a right back) and the two developing options being only 16.

DMs to fullback are the classic example. For some reason, I've always found fullbacks lacking in FM and, as you both say, the DM profile tends to suit what I'm after perfectly. This was true even before I invented the inverted wingbacks. Re liberos and IWBs, my concern is mostly about the transition to defence - with these players looking to return to their 'natural' defending position, how quickly does that DM area get vacated as you transition to the defensive space? This is one of the main reasons I'm so keen to keep a static DM in there, protecting the most vulnerable area of the pitch in front of the defence.

First of all, thanks - much appreciated. Re the B-team - anyone who is registered in your senior squad cannot play in the unders sides. You can't move them to the b-team etc once you've registered them - I don't know if you can 'make available for the under-19s' but pretty sure you can't for the b-team. It's a bit of a pain - it always works slightly differently pre- and post- the January transfer window. Up to 31 Jan, I can add under-19 and B-team players to my match squad using the filters. Post-31 Jan, I can't do this any more as they are not registered. Very annoying. You also have to watch out for wage caps for the B-team. These are pretty low in LaLiga2 and it's easy to bust them with player you're keeping on decent contracts before they're called up to the senior squad.

I was thinking about that 3-2 in early possession and the tendency to just knock it about - I wondered whether it's just for lack of options to play through. Looking at the 3-2 set-up you posted earlier, I'm wondering if you're ever tempted to leave more players further forward? Or perhaps just wide? I know one of your principles is to have at least one extra player in the build-up but there you're effectively play 5v2, or maybe 5v1.5. I know it's just a snapshot but if you play the ball into your "2" of the 3-2 and the defence's front 1.5/2 are the ones to close them down, that leaves the two banks of four undisrupted and difficult to play through - at least centrally. Would you be tempted to leave a player or two further forward or wide? I think someone else mentioned it above, but leaving one of the wingbacks as a non-inverted option then allows you to play out down the flank and maybe develop a 3v2 in the wide area - or at least just stretch the play to pull the banks of four wider? I'm absolutely certain that this will have occurred to you and you've thought it all though, just interested in your thought process (apologies if this is somewhere in the thread above)

Here's us: :-D So yes, very much fighting against the odds. But isn't that how we like it? At the moment I'm using a CM(A) and AP(S) in central midfield with a DM(D) behind but I'm scrutinising this at the moment and considering going with two runners - the thinking is that perhaps the playmaker in midfield is pulling the ball away from the DLF. HOWEVER, I like my playmaker to be facing the goal and, as much as I love a striker dropping off and flicking passes round the corner, I think I'd still rather have my most creative player facing goal with runners ahead of him. Clearly Polo isn't of the level of quality that you have with Havertz but you've definitely got a point about how many options he has. If we play quickly then he's only really for the inside forward to hit early and the CM(A) on a slight delay. If we play slower then he's crowded out and can only really pass backwards. I think my biggest problem is something that's probably come thru before - I really don't feel that the team has an identity. Compare it to my Feralpi and Verona sides - we knew what we were. Big, physical sides playing with a low block and looking to hit on the break and exploit counters. I'm still not really sure what my Sporting side is supposed to be excelling at, except developing youngsters.

Looks like you're smashing it Have you adjusted those metrics for possession, compared to your average from last season? It would be useful for some of the passing and defensive metrics.

I agree that it seems entirely hit-and-miss, maybe even haphazard. I've had mixed success - with no predictability to when it works and when it doesn't. To add to that, I feel like it isn't any more effective than the entirely uncontrollable 'mentoring' effects that randomly occur without any actual mentoring groups. Players outside of mentoring groups change personality and inherit traits from seemingly random selections of players, with absolutely no ability for the manager to control or predict, and often quicker than will occur within the directed mentoring groups. Whilst I agree that the old system was too effective, this current system is awful in my opinion.

All good questions. In terms of the league, we're 9th but only a point off 6th. With the top 3 being so far clear of the rest, there's usually 1-3 teams that have a mini-league for 4th spot and then the rest in a bunch. This season we're in the bunch. The xG table says we're one goal ahead of where we should be, conceded two more than we should and bang on the money in terms of both points and position. To me, it's clear that conceding a goal and a half a game just isn't what we're looking for and it's defensively where our biggest issues are. That said, we also get games like this one against Betis. Having absolutely battered them, we've underperformed our xG by a goal and a half despite creating chances at 0.16xG/shot. These, though, are individual game issues and, taken as a whole, the problem to me looks more defensive. Regarding Polo, the creativity just hadn't been there. As far as I recall, he's only laid on one assist for Aguirre - this is exactly the sort of thing that I would be wanting to see on a regular basis, but this goal against Vallecano is the only example I can think of. Dropping off, pulling the defender with him and then playing Aguirre into the channel between centre back and full back. Perfect. But rare. My B-team do play the same system and that's prompted me to look at the creativity of Fernando - the primary DLF for the second string. Really not a great deal in it. But that brings me back to the defensive side of the game being the bigger problem within our current system. The B-team have scored 30 in 21 games (1.42/90) and conceded 14 (0.66/90). The first team has scored 27 in 18 (1.5/90) and conceded 27 (1.5/90). Ok, 9 of those have come against Barca and Real but taking those out, it's still 18 in 16 games (1.125/90). So I'm thinking defensive stability is the primary personnel issue and the Polo-shaped conundrum (no "playing in the hole" jokes here) is perhaps more a system problem.

A struggle A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón It's been a really difficult start to the 2030/31 campaign. The start of the season was bumpy as we struggled in a couple of away games against Getafe and Betis, which put us in a weak position for a really tough run of fixtures where everything went against us. Defeats to Barca and Real can happen but we were really, really poor and it compounded an already sticky start to the season. We recovered somewhat through October, November and December but I can't say we've been convincing in the majority of those games, with only the 3-0 win over Zaragoza being something of a cake walk. Even the 5-1 win over Sociedad was just one of those games where everything we hit went in. The struggles culminated in an entirely predictable defeat to second-tier Granada - a team who aren't even flying in LaLiga 2. In a reverse of the Sociedad game, Granada took their much weaker chances whilst we scraped to only match our xG - wasting an awful lot of shots off target. There's a fair shout to point at 20 year-old 'keeper Carlos Gil as the culprit. Yet such is the risk that I've been taking - accepting that results like this will happen in an effort to maximise the potential for the guajes. And where Gil has continued to struggle, the first-team game time continues to work wonders for a handful of other players who continue to cement their places in the squad. Aguirre has started attracting interest from Chelsea and Barca, so I've one eye on his replacement should the inevitable occur. The rest are attracting interest from what I would term second-tier big clubs such as PSV and I'd remain confident that we can keep them here. Whilst these players continue to impress, I have become increasingly concerned by the performances of first-choice DLF Francesc Polo. Having come through the first intake, Polo was the pioneer newgen - breaking into the first team and performing well both at 9 and when I played a wide playmaker. He's always been a bit streaky and has just come off the back of an 8 game barren spell. He's underperformed his xG by just over 2 and has become a very low-volume striker - taking just 1.2 shots per 90, with 0.4 of those outside the box. Sadly, he's not making up for it with creativity either - making just 25 passes per 90 and averaging 0.14xA. I'd have preferred to rotate Polo out of the team and perhaps experiment with a different sort of 9 - but injuries have restricted the choices available to me. Diego López, in particular, missed 3 months of the season after tearing his calf muscle. Similarly at the back, we've been without Mouriño, Gragera and Rafael González for lengthy period. None, though, can match the injury record of Guille 'sick note' Rosas. Note the scroll bar on the right. Rosas' absence is often key - he's both our captain and one of the few experienced players that we have, not to mention his quality. I've brought José Carlos Ferrer and Gabriel Vera into the first-team squad to provide cover but neither are of the quality to hold down the right-back spot long-term. Mouriño is the obvious option and has played 13 of his 20 games from right-back - but that means I lose the cover centrally and forces additional game time on Gragera and González. With some many games before christmas, both centre backs have shown signs of early fatigue and no doubt contributed to our poor defensive record. The obvious solution is to recruit additional defensive cover in January. I don't have any Mareo graduates ready to step up, with Carlos and Pablo Castillo two or three years off first-team readiness. So it looks like I'm going to need to spend some of my £114m transfer budget - potentially breaking the Spanish / Mexican duopoly that currently exists in the squad. The other developing gap, at 9, will be filled by guajes. We have a host of quality newgens coming through and I'd like to experiment a little with roles to decide what long-term profile is going to be needed. Is the DLF no longer the right option or is it just that Polo simply isn't good enough? Meanwhile, it looks like I may have made another mistake - with the intake preview indicating that the new Head of Youth Development has had a shocker. The first intake which hasn't been dubbed a 'golden generation', that could be a big problem for this game style. Just as well we have a stable full of talents already. The B-team are currently winning LaLiga2 which feels absolutely ludicrous. You can see our 'arch rivals' Real Oviedo down there in 10th - 9 places behind our B-team in the second tier. Not much of a rivalry that one.

As we will shortly see in an update to come, I may have (again) gone too far. Been a struggle this season. Appreciate the input but I don't have a great deal of choice. I'm not really sure how to develop goalkeepers, to be honest - at what point should they be loaned out, at what point should they get first team football. It feels like he really needs first-team top-tier game time to take the next step. His Reflexes have increased by only one since he was spawned - so I'm hoping that will increase by another 4, maybe 5, if he gets the right game time and 'keepers do indeed develop technically between 20 and 25. I'm happy to give him a season to test him and, if he fails, then I move on and look at Corominas as the next one up. I do have those types of partnerships. I didn't at the start of the game but I managed to successfully negotiate it. The ties were then cut and I decided to use the editor to add them back in as permanent deals of that sort - just to reflect the Orlegi ownership structure IRL.

I'm loving the recruitment posts... maybe a little bit too much as they're prompting a bit of nostalgia for my Feralpi/Hellas save. I don't get the opportunity to do this sort of recruitment much in my Sporting save... giving me some thoughts of a return to Italy... I'm also loving the bar charts you've done on cost per minute played. Really effective way of showing which players are over-valued and should be moved on. Would you think about doing something similar with other statistics? Goal contributions would be the obvious one but I wonder if it would also work with selected statistics for specific roles? Progressive passes and xA for deep creators, for example?