New Year's Revolution

As 2014 draws near I’ve come to a conclusion, and one that is something of a strange one to admit to. For many years I’ve played Sports Interactive’s Football (previously Championship) Manager Series, but despite being very successful I don’t think that I’ve often been very good at it. 

I started out with the 97/98 incarnation of Championship Manager, albeit that I picked it up a couple of years after its release as a bargain bucket purchase. I was hooked. Back then it seemed that all you needed to do was pick a formation and get the right players for it. There wasn’t a lot more to it than that; I picked Ipswich, added in Björn Heidenström and Ibrahim Bakayoko, and that was as good as job done. Okay so I may be over simplifying a bit, but it is only a bit.

I didn’t stick with 97/98 for long, moving on to the classic 01/02 edition as my first ‘new release’ purchase. A 22 season rampage with Blackburn Rovers saw the beginning of my support for that particular club – I’d always been an armchair neutral until then – and shortly after I began a save with Northampton Town which saw me begin writing about the game.

My writing was largely creative, for the SI Games forums – specifically the Stories Forum. I found it a great way to immerse myself in the game and make it come more alive. In 2010 I hung up my keyboard on the stories forum, having enjoyed great ‘success’ on the writing front, and mixed results in the game(s).

There were many highlights, including but not limited to; a calendar year unbeaten with West Ham Utd (CM 01/02), qualification for the group stages of the Champion’s League with Cefn Druids (CM4) – they managed  1-1 home draw with Galatasaray but were otherwise thumped, and a run with Spurs that saw a rescue from The Championship culminate in five successive Premier League titles and European domination (FM 2005).

I’ve continued to play the games since, although somewhat on and off. I’ve owned almost every iteration since CM 01/02, but in recent years have barely played any of them except FM 2012 and now FM 2014. In the former I was doing quite nicely with Rovers until a date bug recently ended my progress, just as I was in with a serious shot at the 2015/16 Premier League title. It’s the latter, however, that has finally led me to admit that the bulk of my success in the past has probably been as much down to luck as judgement.

I never had a huge interest in the tactical side of the game, although I never resorted to downloading others’ tactics, and I did occasionally work some formations around my squads that came (very) good. West Ham was a case in point, with what I now recognise was a ‘Half Back and Wing Backs’ defensive setup.

FM 2012 was where that started to change, and it was some reading of the work of the late Steven Fraser (SFraser) that really started to unravel some of the mysteries for me. My 2012 Rovers save was the result of reading his excellent piece on the development of his version of the now ubiquitous 4-2-3-1 formation. Putting my own slant on that, and starting to look at players to fit roles (not just positions on the pitch), paid dividends. Here’s how my squad shapes up around the time that the game crashed – this is a side that has won two Europa League titles, and has elbowed its way into the top four.

Alongside that game I recently started an FM 2014 save down in the third tier of the French leagues. That’s where my FM 2005 career game started, the one that eventually saw me arrive at Spurs. It seemed obvious that the squad I inherited at RC Strasbourg Alsace wouldn’t have the necessary technical ability to play the style of football that my Rovers were, so I began to explore ideas and draw inspiration from some well written pieces online.

My start point was a piece from Darren Smith over at Football Manager Stories. I forget how I came across it, but I found it interesting reading. I thought that I could take the principles therein and apply them to Strasbourg, designing a seemingly ‘flat’ 4-5-1 that could push into a more adventurous formation by way of Player Roles.

After a decent pre-season we kicked off with three draws in the league, one at home and two away. We scored a total of 2 goals from our 4-5-1 formation, creating very few clear cut chances and only troubling the keeper a handful of times. Then with a slight tweak of tactics the run started, eight consecutive wins, mostly by the odd goal or two although there was a 6-2 thumping of Paris FC in there too. The team was obviously starting to gel, but an injury to Dimitri Lienard – our defensive winger on the left, and our only really decent option there – caused me to reassess. 

We were mid way through that run of victories, but with minimal funds for transfers/wages I couldn’t buy anyone in, so I needed to work on my tactics more. At the same time I was digging around on Twitter, and the SI Games forums, and came across a name that I recognised in the shape of Cleon (@Cleon81), a prolific and intelligent writer on FM tactics. His forum piece on designing, creating, and maintaining a formation is excellent, and in addition some of his snippets on Twitter made for interesting ideas. Having suffered the injury I started to play around with some of Cleon’s ideas that ultimately led him to a strikerless asymmetrical setup. The latter adjective there, asymmetrical, is something that I’ve never really felt comfortable with at all but it intrigued me and again made me think about player roles as the defining part of the tactic.

Adapting some of Cleon’s basic ideas, whilst still running with a lone striker, I started to introduce the new formation and our run continued despite the fact that there was clearly a lot of work to be done by the squad to adapt to the new shape. What was working really well was possession, but we’ve not always been able to get create good chances. 

The run continued for a while, before a goalless draw at home. Since then we’ve reached the midpoint of the season with only one league defeat, and an exit from the French Cup at the hands of second tier opposition. We’ve suffered a couple of disappointing draws though, and despite the fact that we dominate our games it often feels like we’re getting lucky wins.  
Long term injuries to some key attacking players haven’t helped, but our squad is still sufficient for us to be considered favourites for the majority of our league games, home or away. The match that summed up my frustrations was a 1-1- home draw against Vendée Luçon Football. We enjoyed 56% of possession, with 18 shots compared to their 5. We’re the top rated passing side in the league, but despite that we could still only make space to create a couple of clear cut chances and stick one of them away.

We’re capable of some excellent play, see this goal for example...

...however, whilst that might be representative of how I’d like us to play, it’s the exception rather than the rule. Most of our goals come from speculative efforts from the edge of the box, or from set pieces. 

That frustration, along with a desire to better appreciate what I’m seeing when I watch real life matches, is what has led me to this point. 

Essentially all of the above is my verbose way of saying that I’ve decided that it’s time for me to try and educate myself more about the tactical side of football, primarily in terms of the Football Manager game but also the real deal. I have no illusions of becoming a tactical wizard, or of being able to hold court on the subject, but I'd like to be better informed when discussions do arise. 

I thought that it might be interesting to track what I’m learning in this blog, to refer back to references that I've taken in and also to track the progress of my game(s) in Football Manager. It might not last long, and if it doesn't then I apologise, but then again it might.

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