Last time out I talked about trying Henri Lansbury out in the central midfield slot, the Central Winger of sorts. Marcel Büchel was performing well, but it was noticeable that he wasn’t delivering what was probably the key part of @JLAspey’s original idea – i.e. the penetrating runs on the ball; Büchel was averaging less than one successful dribble per match.
I dropped Lansbury in for a few games to assess how he would perform, and what impact his absence might have on the flank. Our form continued through three league games – Lansbury in the centre for two of them, as well as our DFB-Pokal 3rd Round tie as a late substitute. Averaging over two dribbles per game was an improvement, although when reverting to the flank he made three. He made two or three key passes without registering an assist, and netted a couple of goals to help extend our scoring run – earning me Steam’s “Attack!” achievement in the process (‘Your team scored a goal in 20 consecutive competitive matches’).
It’s a fairly small sample size, but as things stand I feel like he’s more important to us out wide where he offers more threat than through the middle; Dennis Mast filled in for him, and did so pretty effectively. What it does tell me is that I can mix it up a bit, and Lansbury may be a good option on those rare occasions that we don’t face a defensive midfielder, but long term I prefer the Büchel/Lansbury combination with the Austrian through the middle. I’m also keeping an eye out for a potential upgrade in this position if it should become viable.
The victory in the DFB-Pokal earned us a quarter-final draw at FC Bayern, but only after a Düsseldorf twice pegged us back, held us through extra time, and then scored 23 consecutive spot-kicks before Dahl finally saved one for us to secure a 24-23 result. All things considered, with a league tie coming three days later, I think I would’ve preferred a result either way in the regulation 90 minutes.
We were somewhat depleted, on the fitness front, for the trip to Bochum. As I’ve been doing quite frequently, I tweaked the 4-3-2-1 to play with a Counter mentality. I’m finding it quite solid at the back and we consistently produce a good number of shots on goal, often more than our opponents (home or away) so I don't feel for one minute like we're inviting trouble.
Bochum’s lack of width in midfield saw us free to attack their fullbacks – cue “Play Narrower” and “Exploit the Flanks”. You could argue for playing wider, in order to try and pull Bochum out of their starting positions, but I’m not sure how effective that would be. I prefer to let them play their way, and create a log-jam in midfield to reduce their opportunities for a telling ball through the middle – meanwhile we turn the ball over and then hit the spaces out wide.
Büchel, restored to the central role, promptly put Micanski through to open the scoring, and Lansbury’s solo run from half way doubled our lead inside half an hour. Here’s the halfway stats, I’ll take those every time for an away game playing on the break...
Perhaps one of my failings in FM is that, when things are going well, I tend towards the school of doing nothing. Frequently, in the situation that I found myself in here, I’d simply set the second half going and leave them to it. Coming into this game we’ve drawn on seven occasions in the league this season, and on all but one of those occasions we’ve had to come from behind to grab a point – knowing that we can do that, you’d kind of think that I’d be aware that the AI can achieve the same thing, right? If you were to go back and watch me play over the years though, you’d probably notice that I haven’t always heeded that advice.
Instead of just sticking to Plan A, with Bochum making a couple of their best chances early in the second half I tweaked a couple of Role/Duty combinations (nothing major, just a little more licence for my fullbacks given the lack of wide midfielders), and dropped the overall team Mentality to Defensive – why keep chasing goals as long as we were sitting on a clean sheet? I’d rather take a more conservative position before they make a breakthrough, than let them grab one and get their tails up.
In the past my assumption would be that we wouldn’t make many chances from such a defensive base, even against opponents who are at the other end of the table. Shows how much I know...
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| Further encouragement to look at following the current trend in the FM Twitter community and developing a 'defensive' tactic. |
So with the winter break looming, and us occupying a quite remarkable 4th place, we’re just one win away from the survival points total that I initially set ourselves in the previous campaign. Only the second placed side (Dortmund) have beaten us so far, but with Bayern next up I’m comfortable with the idea that we’ll go into the break on the back of our second defeat.
When we take a 67th minute lead you can imagine, therefore, the thoughts going through my mind. As it’s only a single goal, and we’re doing well statistically, I let things ride on this occasion – but with fingers itchy I swap to Defensive from Counter with 5 minutes to play; three minutes later and it’s level. Clearly I’ve yet to perfect the art of proactive tactical changes.
STICK OR TWIST?
It was around this time that a scout report pointed me in the direction of a possible option to upgrade upon Büchel in the centre of the park, or to at least give me another option there who could also operate out wide - I'm a sucker for versatility in my midfield, and feel like I can never have too many options to mix things up.
I posted a screen-shot of his attributes on Twitter, choosing to strip out his other details to prevent any pre-conceived opinions from colouring people’s judgement. The feedback I got was similar to my own thoughts, he’s definitely an upgrade in some departments, although maybe not enough of one in others to warrant a massive investment. Here’s the player in question.
Looking at him in terms of a direct alternative to Büchel, the most telling area is his ball control; Dribbling of 16 compared to the Austrian’s 12. Add in some nice upgrades in mental and physical departments (albeit a small number), and there’s plenty to like. As in the case of Lansbury, Büchel offers more defensively, but again that supports my fondness for having different options available for the same slots.
The issue is going to be the financial implications, given that Williams is currently drawing £20.5k/week as a Key Player for Palace. The estimated transfer fee of £5.5-7.5m isn’t a massive switch-off, but wages of £30-42k/week are. Currently only two Karlsruher SC players, Donk and Micanski, earn more than £20k/week, and our highest earner (Micanski) is on £27.5k/week.
Büchel is on £17.5k, and as @MrEdsFM asked, am I really prepared to potentially double that for what is largely an upgrade in one attribute? A fair question, and one that got me thinking about the bigger picture of our finances and our future - not for the first time, I hasten to add.
At some point, assuming that we consolidate and build upon our Bundesliga status, I fully accept that wages will climb and that £30-40k will become the norm for a first team player, but I have to ask how quickly I’m prepared to accelerate that process. At present home gates of 20-25,000 are a little low to be funding that next step up, we’d really need to be hitting capacity crowds of close to 30,000 on a regular basis.
A quick look at the finances shows that our monthly wage bill (circa £1.5m) accounts for close to 45% of our turnover and we’re running at a monthly loss. I’m not worried about the monthly picture though, by the end of the season our prize money will doubtless leave us in a secure position, but it’s fairly clear to me that we need to see this season out before looking to stretch our budgets a lot further. I’ll make an enquiry about Williams, and a couple of other names who’ve crossed my radar, but any deals will have to be very much on my terms in respect of salaries.
OUR SURVEY SAYS ‘TWIST’
As usual the mid-season break was over all too quickly. We played a handful of friendlies, including a brief trip to Argentina following an invitation from Independiente. I added a couple of other matches against smaller sides whilst we were out there, and returned with a solid set of wins behind us – the 3-1 result against Independiente being the highlight.
Throughout the break I’d continued to assess options for potential additions to our midfield, and actually closed in on another strong option in the form of Louis Schaub. With only 6 months left on his contract I got a minimal offer accepted and proceeded to talk contracts with his agent. The middle man played hard-ball, and I was fearing that we’d never get close when the player broke off talks and sacked his representative.
Encouraged I resubmitted my bid, and started talking to the player directly – we were a lot closer to a deal, but ultimately couldn’t quite hammer out the details and talks broke down. I thought that it would be worth letting things cool off for a few weeks, and then trying again, but Mainz jumped in and snapped him up from under our noses at £30k+ (I’;d got him down to £27k, and had been trying to trim just that little bit extra off – more fool me).
Rest assured Schaub will be staying on my shortlist, but encouraged by the ground we had managed to close I went after Williams, securing him for a reasonable wage – albeit one that was more than the figure I’d refused to grant to Schaub. Hopefully I don’t come to regret that decision, a goal and two assists in the break suggests that he has the ability to deliver.
BACK TO THE FRAY
With spirits high we returned to action, although the fixture list isn’t exactly welcoming. A disappointing defeat at Hertha Berlin, failing to threaten their goal at all, wasn’t the ideal preparation for a German Cup quarter-final tie with FC Bayern.
Subsequent defeat in Munich was nothing less than expected, and we can take heart from the fact that we gave them a decent game – holding them until Lewandoski’s first on 72 minutes, and creating a couple of decent chances to take the lead. 0-2, with Lewandoski scoring both, was probably a fair outcome in the end.
I’m just hoping that our overall morale remains high enough to get something at home to Nürnberg, before we travel to Dortmund for another tough one. Momentum is a powerful thing in FM, whether it be positive or negative, and a third defeat wouldn’t be a great way to prepare for the second best side in the league.
Find out net time how we got on, how Williams settles into his role, and what's going on with the Three Amigos. In the meantime, as ever, please feel free to drop a Comment about anything at all - from players, to tactics, to my writing and presentation.
Alternatively find me on Twitter at @flipsix3_FM and let me know what's what.
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