Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - An Inky Situation (FM 2014 English Level 12)

Izulde · 01-03-2015, 10:36 AM

What if I built purely for speed? Or maybe I simply don't have the right players for the roles? Let's dig deeper.

GK
Joe McLoughlin (24) - 3/5
Martin Grice (16) 2.5/5
Paul Langford (17) - 2.5/5

My assman keeps starting Grice, even though I promised McLoughlin starting time. That needs to change.

DL - Fullback
Gareth Younie - 1.5
Michael Ricketts - 1
Jordan Street - 0.5
Thomas Morgan - 3.5 silver
Chris Black - 3.5 silver
Lewis Smith - 2 silver

Note that many of these guys are considered 4 and 5 stars, but they're not matching the player role I need from them.

DC - Central Defender
Gareth Younie - 4
Jordan Street - 3.5
Tom Clarkson - 2.5
Chris Black - 2
Thomas Morgan - 1
Dean Strutt - 0.5

So I've been giving PT to the completely wrong players here. I should be running Younie and Street out every single game, with Clarkson and Black as secondary guys.

DR - Fullback
Lewis Smith - 1
Jordan Street - 0.5
Thomas Morgan - 2.5 silver
Chris Black - 2 silver

Weak here, too.

MC - Central Midfielder
Joe Ward - 2
Liam Bright - 1.5
Dean Strutt - 0.5
Lee Blackshaw - 0.5
Benn Minshull - 4.5 silver
Lloyd Edge - 0.5 silver

Again, having them play completely the roles they're unsuited for. I'm starting to realize why we've been doing so poorly.

AML - Winger
Lee Blackshaw - 2
Benn Minshull - 4 silver

AMC - Attacking Midfielder
Benn Minshull - 1
Lee Blackshaw - 1
Brian Haule - 0.5
Simon Bloor - 4.5 silver

AMR - Winger
Lee Blackshaw - 0.5
Benn Minshull - 2 silver
Simon Bloor - 2 silver

ST - Advanced Forward
John Wigglesworth - 2.5
Garry Shephard - 2
Brian Haule - 2
Lee Blackshaw - 1
Benn Minshull - 4.5 silver
Simon Bloor - 2.5 silver
Lloyd Edge - 1.5 silver

ST - Deep Lying Forward
Garry Shephard - 1
John Wigglesworth - 1
Brian Haule - 1
Lee Blackshaw - 0.5
Benn Minshull - 5 silver
Simon Boor - 4 silver
Lloyd Edge - 1 silver

Very weird that Haule was able to dominate Level 12 then. But now I know why we're struggling so much.

One thing I noticed is that almost all my strikers are Target Men for at least 2.5 stars. Doing some quick reading suggests that Playing To A Target Man would be a good offense to run, with a structured format.

After some more tinkering, I come up with the following:

Defense
DL - Complete Wingback (A)
DC - Central Defender (D)
DC - Central Defender (D)
DR - Complete Wingback (A)
DM - Anchorman (D)
CM - Box-To-Box Midfielder (S)
CM - Ball-Winning Midfielder (S)
AML - Inside Forward (S)
AMR - Inside Forward (S)
ST - Target Man (A)

Team Instructions
Shorter Passing
Work Ball Into Box
Play Out Of Defense
Exploit the Flanks
Look for Overlap
Push Higher Up
Stick To Positions
Hassle Opponents
Use Offside Trap
Be More Disciplined

This is the ideal tactic. The problem is Liam Bright and Dean Strutt are out 2 to 3 weeks and Joe Ward is out 2 to 3 months. IOW, my midfield is decimated.

Transfer In - DM/MC/DR Tutu Henriques - 32
He can play all 3 positions and roles of DR/DM/MC flawlessly relative to the rest of our players, so this veteran is a major coup for the club and the new system we're working on.

Transfer In - MC Neil Barnfield - 30
Slightly better box to box midfielder over ball-winning, but with our injuries, he's a key capture.

17th vs Cleator Moor Celtic (12th)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Jordan Street/Gareth Younie/Tom Clarkson/Neil Smith
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull
AM: Lee Blackshaw/Simon Bloor
ST: Garry Shephard

2 - In the first minute, McLoughlin trips on the grass and drops the ball, but fortunately he's able to get it *just* before the opponents get there. Then a minute later, Blackshaw hits the corner to Younie's head for the score. Already it's looking better than our last two games. 1-0

29 - Forgot to set a second PK taker, but Bloor hits it anyway. 2-0

We're seeing missed shot after missed shot from Shephard and he's struggling, so Haule hops in at half.

56 - This time Blackshaw's corner has no luck, but Barnfield puts himself in perfect position to score a debut goal on the clearance! 3-0

Barnfield almost added a second goal, but the crossbar robbed him. What an amazing performance by everyone. Maybe it was the element of surprise with a new tactic, but we'll see how it goes.

7.5+
Gareth Younie - 8.1
Neil Barnfield - 7.8
Lewis Smith - 7.7
Jordan Street - 7.6
Simon Boor - 7.6

This makes me doubly happy since it's a home-brewed tactic based on the players I had, rather than the downloaded one I won promotion last season with. There's a ton of ground we have to make up, and I still need to devise a second tactic. But for now, this works.

I release Tony Morgan after the game. He just never fit here at all.

Transfer In - AMR/ST Harry Beckley - 21
2* Inside forward, but that's a big upgrade over what we have now on AMR. Not really suited to the Target Man role, but he's one of several strikers we have capable of playing a False 9, which is a wholly new role to me. But to do that, we'd need people capable of being a Shadow Striker, which is an awesome name and AMC role. It's a pairing designed for a possession-based tactic, so something to think about.

Transfer In - AML/AMR Jason Wood - 31
4* AML IF? Yes, please! This lets us move Lee Blackshaw over to AMR, or become a reserve. We're getting much better depth and strength on the wings now.

Transfer In - DR Steve Bantock - 26
2.5* Complete Wing Back, which isn't the greatest in the world, but slightly better than Lewis Smith with 2. It also gives us authentic depth there.

With all these new signings, we're going to work on Team Cohesion instead of Balanced over the next few weeks.

Transfer In - DL/DC/MC Nathan Jukes - 35
3.5* Complete Wingback, 5* BWM, 3* BBM. He's a lot like the Tutu Henriques signing - a versatile veteran we can slide all around the lineup, but one who will shore up a weak area to start with.

14th @Yarnton (10th)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Neil Smith
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: Garry Shephard

It's weird... ever since we switched to the new tactic, we've been underdogs by the oddsmakers.

The first half doesn't see any excitement, but I do pull Younie and Shephard at the half for Clarkson and Wigglesworth. Shephard is just not fitting in the new scheme at all.

87 - Red card for Clarkson and a PK. They've dominated us this half anyway. 0-1

93 - Blackshaw to Minshull to Wigglesworth. Shot's blocked, but Wigglesworth grabs his own rebound and scores the dramatically late equalizer!!! 1-1

I'll take that point. We played very much like a team with a lot of new players learning a new system today. That puts us still 14th and the promotion places are a long ways away at 9 and 10 points respectively. But we can gel together and there's still a ton of games left in the season. We've only had 9 so far, for goodness' sakes, and there's 29 matches to go.

14th @Collegiate Old Boys (2nd)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Neil Smith
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: Garry Shephard

Good Trains
Garry Shephard

Bad Trains
Michael Ricketts

$2.64k profit and my job security has been downgraded to Secure, the Board merely pleased. We need to start turning things around, so I think that'll be it for signings for now. Liam Bright resumes full training, by the way.

14th @Collegiate Old Boys (2nd)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: John Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth is the more exciting and dynamic player, so he'll get his chance to be the star up front after Shephard's struggles.

45 - And of course *right* before the half, Wigglesworth is knocked out. Haule in.

48 - Minshull in for tired Bright

68 - YOU FUCKING IDIOT, MCLOUGHLIN! YOU FUCKING GAVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THEM!!!!

0-1

78 - We'll take that won goal 1-1

90 - Fucking rejects. WE SHOULD HAVE FUCKING WON THIS GOD DAMNED MOTHER FUCKING GAME!! 1-2

That was just fucking terrible. We had them outplayed all game and two fuckups bury us.

15th vs Driffield Juniors (6th)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: John Wigglesworth

15 - Nice recovery by Blackshaw just outside the box after Bright's dispossessed. Lucky shot is lucky by Blackshaw, and I'm hoping keeping the same lineup and tactics for multiple games will help the team gel. 1-0

60 - Black for Street; Minshull for Bright.

An ugly win, but at this stage, every 3 points count.

Uglier: Gareth Younie is stolen away for a small money contract. This sucks, as he was our best defender.

Transfer In - DM/MC Junior Lewis - 41
He's ancient, but he's a great backup option for Tutu

13th vs Thirsk Falcons (10th)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Tom Clarkson/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: John Wigglesworth

Lewis in at DM at half. It's been a dull game so far, with a couple offsides calls. Nothing like last year's or even the time before this's goal scoring bonanzas.

82 - Ugh. Double yellow for Bantock. Black in at DC.

I notice when we go to Rigid, we played a lot better, so maybe we'll try that from now on. Anyway, we grind out a draw.

13th @Waterlooville Social Club (8th)
G: Joe McLoughlin
D: Nathan Jukes/Tom Clarkson/Jordan Street/Lewis Smith
DM: Tutu Henriques
M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright
AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw
ST: Garry Shephard

14 - Nobody cleared. 0-1

27 - I hate this setup 0-2

I replace Shephard at the half for Haule

53 - Great feed by Barnfield for Haule and the clawback 1-2

56 - Minshull in for Bright

68 - Second fucking straight game. Double yellow for Jukes.

85 - Whatever. 1-3

At the rate we're going, I'm going to be lucky to survive the season, even with promoting us last year.

01-03-2015, 10:36 AM	#14
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	What if I built purely for speed? Or maybe I simply don't have the right players for the roles? Let's dig deeper. GK Joe McLoughlin (24) - 3/5 Martin Grice (16) 2.5/5 Paul Langford (17) - 2.5/5 My assman keeps starting Grice, even though I promised McLoughlin starting time. That needs to change. DL - Fullback Gareth Younie - 1.5 Michael Ricketts - 1 Jordan Street - 0.5 Thomas Morgan - 3.5 silver Chris Black - 3.5 silver Lewis Smith - 2 silver Note that many of these guys are considered 4 and 5 stars, but they're not matching the player role I need from them. DC - Central Defender Gareth Younie - 4 Jordan Street - 3.5 Tom Clarkson - 2.5 Chris Black - 2 Thomas Morgan - 1 Dean Strutt - 0.5 So I've been giving PT to the completely wrong players here. I should be running Younie and Street out every single game, with Clarkson and Black as secondary guys. DR - Fullback Lewis Smith - 1 Jordan Street - 0.5 Thomas Morgan - 2.5 silver Chris Black - 2 silver Weak here, too. MC - Central Midfielder Joe Ward - 2 Liam Bright - 1.5 Dean Strutt - 0.5 Lee Blackshaw - 0.5 Benn Minshull - 4.5 silver Lloyd Edge - 0.5 silver Again, having them play completely the roles they're unsuited for. I'm starting to realize why we've been doing so poorly. AML - Winger Lee Blackshaw - 2 Benn Minshull - 4 silver AMC - Attacking Midfielder Benn Minshull - 1 Lee Blackshaw - 1 Brian Haule - 0.5 Simon Bloor - 4.5 silver AMR - Winger Lee Blackshaw - 0.5 Benn Minshull - 2 silver Simon Bloor - 2 silver ST - Advanced Forward John Wigglesworth - 2.5 Garry Shephard - 2 Brian Haule - 2 Lee Blackshaw - 1 Benn Minshull - 4.5 silver Simon Bloor - 2.5 silver Lloyd Edge - 1.5 silver ST - Deep Lying Forward Garry Shephard - 1 John Wigglesworth - 1 Brian Haule - 1 Lee Blackshaw - 0.5 Benn Minshull - 5 silver Simon Boor - 4 silver Lloyd Edge - 1 silver Very weird that Haule was able to dominate Level 12 then. But now I know why we're struggling so much. One thing I noticed is that almost all my strikers are Target Men for at least 2.5 stars. Doing some quick reading suggests that Playing To A Target Man would be a good offense to run, with a structured format. After some more tinkering, I come up with the following: Defense DL - Complete Wingback (A) DC - Central Defender (D) DC - Central Defender (D) DR - Complete Wingback (A) DM - Anchorman (D) CM - Box-To-Box Midfielder (S) CM - Ball-Winning Midfielder (S) AML - Inside Forward (S) AMR - Inside Forward (S) ST - Target Man (A) Team Instructions Shorter Passing Work Ball Into Box Play Out Of Defense Exploit the Flanks Look for Overlap Push Higher Up Stick To Positions Hassle Opponents Use Offside Trap Be More Disciplined This is the ideal tactic. The problem is Liam Bright and Dean Strutt are out 2 to 3 weeks and Joe Ward is out 2 to 3 months. IOW, my midfield is decimated. Transfer In - DM/MC/DR Tutu Henriques - 32 He can play all 3 positions and roles of DR/DM/MC flawlessly relative to the rest of our players, so this veteran is a major coup for the club and the new system we're working on. Transfer In - MC Neil Barnfield - 30 Slightly better box to box midfielder over ball-winning, but with our injuries, he's a key capture. 17th vs Cleator Moor Celtic (12th) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Jordan Street/Gareth Younie/Tom Clarkson/Neil Smith DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull AM: Lee Blackshaw/Simon Bloor ST: Garry Shephard 2 - In the first minute, McLoughlin trips on the grass and drops the ball, but fortunately he's able to get it just before the opponents get there. Then a minute later, Blackshaw hits the corner to Younie's head for the score. Already it's looking better than our last two games. 1-0 29 - Forgot to set a second PK taker, but Bloor hits it anyway. 2-0 We're seeing missed shot after missed shot from Shephard and he's struggling, so Haule hops in at half. 56 - This time Blackshaw's corner has no luck, but Barnfield puts himself in perfect position to score a debut goal on the clearance! 3-0 Barnfield almost added a second goal, but the crossbar robbed him. What an amazing performance by everyone. Maybe it was the element of surprise with a new tactic, but we'll see how it goes. 7.5+ Gareth Younie - 8.1 Neil Barnfield - 7.8 Lewis Smith - 7.7 Jordan Street - 7.6 Simon Boor - 7.6 This makes me doubly happy since it's a home-brewed tactic based on the players I had, rather than the downloaded one I won promotion last season with. There's a ton of ground we have to make up, and I still need to devise a second tactic. But for now, this works. I release Tony Morgan after the game. He just never fit here at all. Transfer In - AMR/ST Harry Beckley - 21 2* Inside forward, but that's a big upgrade over what we have now on AMR. Not really suited to the Target Man role, but he's one of several strikers we have capable of playing a False 9, which is a wholly new role to me. But to do that, we'd need people capable of being a Shadow Striker, which is an awesome name and AMC role. It's a pairing designed for a possession-based tactic, so something to think about. Transfer In - AML/AMR Jason Wood - 31 4* AML IF? Yes, please! This lets us move Lee Blackshaw over to AMR, or become a reserve. We're getting much better depth and strength on the wings now. Transfer In - DR Steve Bantock - 26 2.5* Complete Wing Back, which isn't the greatest in the world, but slightly better than Lewis Smith with 2. It also gives us authentic depth there. With all these new signings, we're going to work on Team Cohesion instead of Balanced over the next few weeks. Transfer In - DL/DC/MC Nathan Jukes - 35 3.5* Complete Wingback, 5* BWM, 3* BBM. He's a lot like the Tutu Henriques signing - a versatile veteran we can slide all around the lineup, but one who will shore up a weak area to start with. 14th @Yarnton (10th) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Neil Smith DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: Garry Shephard It's weird... ever since we switched to the new tactic, we've been underdogs by the oddsmakers. The first half doesn't see any excitement, but I do pull Younie and Shephard at the half for Clarkson and Wigglesworth. Shephard is just not fitting in the new scheme at all. 87 - Red card for Clarkson and a PK. They've dominated us this half anyway. 0-1 93 - Blackshaw to Minshull to Wigglesworth. Shot's blocked, but Wigglesworth grabs his own rebound and scores the dramatically late equalizer!!! 1-1 I'll take that point. We played very much like a team with a lot of new players learning a new system today. That puts us still 14th and the promotion places are a long ways away at 9 and 10 points respectively. But we can gel together and there's still a ton of games left in the season. We've only had 9 so far, for goodness' sakes, and there's 29 matches to go. 14th @Collegiate Old Boys (2nd) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Neil Smith DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Benn Minshull AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: Garry Shephard Good Trains Garry Shephard Bad Trains Michael Ricketts $2.64k profit and my job security has been downgraded to Secure, the Board merely pleased. We need to start turning things around, so I think that'll be it for signings for now. Liam Bright resumes full training, by the way. 14th @Collegiate Old Boys (2nd) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: John Wigglesworth Wigglesworth is the more exciting and dynamic player, so he'll get his chance to be the star up front after Shephard's struggles. 45 - And of course right before the half, Wigglesworth is knocked out. Haule in. 48 - Minshull in for tired Bright 68 - YOU FUCKING IDIOT, MCLOUGHLIN! YOU FUCKING GAVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THEM!!!! 0-1 78 - We'll take that won goal 1-1 90 - Fucking rejects. WE SHOULD HAVE FUCKING WON THIS GOD DAMNED MOTHER FUCKING GAME!! 1-2 That was just fucking terrible. We had them outplayed all game and two fuckups bury us. 15th vs Driffield Juniors (6th) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Gareth Younie/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: John Wigglesworth 15 - Nice recovery by Blackshaw just outside the box after Bright's dispossessed. Lucky shot is lucky by Blackshaw, and I'm hoping keeping the same lineup and tactics for multiple games will help the team gel. 1-0 60 - Black for Street; Minshull for Bright. An ugly win, but at this stage, every 3 points count. Uglier: Gareth Younie is stolen away for a small money contract. This sucks, as he was our best defender. Transfer In - DM/MC Junior Lewis - 41 He's ancient, but he's a great backup option for Tutu 13th vs Thirsk Falcons (10th) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Tom Clarkson/Jordan Street/Steve Blantock DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: John Wigglesworth Lewis in at DM at half. It's been a dull game so far, with a couple offsides calls. Nothing like last year's or even the time before this's goal scoring bonanzas. 82 - Ugh. Double yellow for Bantock. Black in at DC. I notice when we go to Rigid, we played a lot better, so maybe we'll try that from now on. Anyway, we grind out a draw. 13th @Waterlooville Social Club (8th) G: Joe McLoughlin D: Nathan Jukes/Tom Clarkson/Jordan Street/Lewis Smith DM: Tutu Henriques M: Neil Barnfield/Liam Bright AM: Jason Wood/Lee Blackshaw ST: Garry Shephard 14 - Nobody cleared. 0-1 27 - I hate this setup 0-2 I replace Shephard at the half for Haule 53 - Great feed by Barnfield for Haule and the clawback 1-2 56 - Minshull in for Bright 68 - Second fucking straight game. Double yellow for Jukes. 85 - Whatever. 1-3 At the rate we're going, I'm going to be lucky to survive the season, even with promoting us last year. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)