Kolding Part 2 – Evolutions

RECOMMENDED READING

Welcome to 2015!

Before I get started with an update on all (well, some at least) things Kolding, a quick link list for some of the excellent stuff I’ve been reading through lately – some or all of which may have had an influence over our early progress...

The return of the Central Winger from @JLAspey / Cheekydeeky . A role that I used a lot in FM14, and will continue to do so in the new incarnation.

Some nice thinking around set pieces (specifically corners) in FM15, from @MerryGuido. I noticed, early on, an issue with defending corners when the ball came out to an opponent somewhere in the 12-18 yard range. I’m hoping that this might help.

A really great piece by @RTHerringbone on the thinking behind his 5-3-2 (or 3-5-2, or 3-3-2-2 – who knows?)

Finally, from the SI forums, a nice ongoing thread from Jambo98 on his gradual tweaking of a 4-5-1 formation. I’ve not had the chance to read all of it yet, but what I have makes it look like a very good template for those wanting to spend time in a process of continual tactical improvement.


Now, without further ado, on to my own stuff...

EARLY PROGRESS, AND IT’S NOT BAD AT ALL.

Anyone who followed my fortunes on FM2014 knows that I chop and change tactical plans fairly frequently. FM2015 is clearly going to be no different.

Last time out I touched on my ideas for a starting 4-5-1 (or 4-3-3 depending on your view), but had already started to make noises about a 4-4-2. Both were tinkered with but, in the case of the latter, I missed my covering defensive midfielder; it felt like we were far too vulnerable in the areas in front of a shaky central defensive pairing.

My response was twofold. Firstly I took advantage of the level we play at to snap up an extra defender. I don’t want our squad to get unwieldy, but the fact that we’re picking players up on amateur contracts, and therefore at no cost, is kind of useful. Having put together a reasonable run of results I had no problems in attracting Steffen Algreen – a significant upgrade to our defensive options.

Along with Nick Andersen, Algreen gave us just the sort of quality and physical presence that we need.

TACTICALS

The second tweak was to our tactical shape, adopting a flat 4-1-4-1 with Justice John wide on the right, and my take on @JLAspey’s FM2015 version of his Central Winger (see above) at MC-L.

Clearly the target man is the focus, but I quickly grew disillusioned with his ability to capitalise on the service he received. The level at which we’re operating is an obvious contributor to this, as too is the lack of supporting roles feeding off of him. All too frequently I’d see him drop and receive a great ball such as this...

...only for him to then loft a pass all the way back to the DM or a Fullback. He actually has decent support on this occasion, from the Central Winger, but all too often he was seriously isolated.

On the occasions that we did build play up the flanks, then a cross to the Target Man often proved threatening, but all too often we just lumped the ball forward to him. That’s one of my main gripes about the role, it ought to be possible to operate with a Target Man and not have everyone in the team constantly try long balls to him, but I’ve not been able to find a way. Not with this bunch of Danish part-timers at least.

That lead me back to the two-striker question, and around the time that @RTHerringbone put together his brilliant article on the development of his 5-3-2 (see link above). The ‘Q&A’ which sets out his plan made perfect sense to me, and having recently secured an extra DC in the shape of Algreen it felt like something that would be worth a try. There were just a few issues.

I don’t want to harp on about our (lack of) quality, but it’s something that can’t be ignored. As such it was important to me to simplify things somewhat. The Regista was replaced with a Deep Lying Playmaker, and a good number of the team instructions were dropped; overcomplicating matters feels like a recipe for disaster at this juncture.

For the most part the ideas were similar though, it was just a case of finding the right players to fit the roles.

That led me to our second issue, as we’re a bit lopsided on the squad front. We have a whole bunch of AML/ST players, but no out-and out wingbacks on the left (and only one on the right). I set Bekke (DL) to retrain his position, but given our coaching levels and the part-time nature of our players I’m not expecting real results.

AN ASIDE – COACHING

At this point it’s probably worth touching on that Coaching issue briefly. I mentioned, last time out, that I’d given ‘myself’ some attributes aimed at contributing to our coaching roster. That’s all well and good, but even then this is how we look...

...and bear in mind that we’re already running two more ‘Other Staff’ than is advised! Clearly we’re not going to make any massive leaps in quality here, especially as all but three of our players are part time. On that basis I’m not too worried about regular changes in tactics, as we’re unlikely to make any big leaps in bedding formations in anyway – at least not before I hope to be moving on to bigger and better things.



Anyway, back to the tactic.

Shaping up for a trip to early relegation pace-setters Jammerburgt FC, we went with the 5-3-2 at something like 15% familiarity – every element registering as either ‘awkward’ or ‘competent’, mostly the former. We could hardly have claimed to have bossed the game but a 3-0 win was the reward for our hard work. What was most pleasing, given the issues I spent a while trying to iron out with Long Shots in FM2014, was our shooting map.

As @RTHerringbone outlined, he set pretty much everyone to ‘Shoot Less Often’ to try and focus on quality chances. I took the same route, and with good effect. Two for our Complete Forward, and one for the ‘Central Winger’ player who loves running into the channels.

The results from the crosses we put in weren’t great; you’ll recall, from my FM2014 days, that I’m not a huge one for crosses – preferring to bring play through the middle. That’s what I’m looking for this tactic to do, and early signs are that it certainly appears to...

COMPLETED PASSES ONLY

We followed up that win with a narrow defeat at home, but within that match there was a passage of play that perfectly sums up what I’m trying to achieve.

When the Deep Lying Forward (Friis) receives the ball, playing in his Support role, he drops back as the Central Winger (Hansen) bombs past him. The Complete Forward (Justice John), also playing Support, makes a run into the channel from the wide position that he’d adopted.

Hansen checks his run and receives the pass, knocking it to John who has also dropped back a little. Meanwhile the BBM (Zachariassen) bombs in on the far post and Friis starts to make his move.

Justice John elects to shoot, firing narrowly over, but he has two decent options available to him, and a third (albeit riskier) one. This sort of vertical movement from our midfield and strikers is just what I’m after, and has the potential to wreak havoc with indecisive defences – something I’m expecting at this level.


Bouncing back from the defeat we rack up a 3-0 league win (at home), and a 4-0 cup win against weaker opposition with a much-changed XI (away), before a hard fought 1-1 draw in the Kolding derby (at Kolding BK).

I still tweak things occasionally, playing a flatter 4-5-1 where I feel that a more defensive game is required, and we use that to secure a 2-0 away win at Brabrand IF before reverting to our ‘main’ formation for a lovely 4-2 win at home. One third of the way into the league campaign and we sit second thanks to these results.

Notice the bottom fixture? I’m entirely expecting us to get well and truly gumped, but if nothing else it should bring in some tidy income. Given that our average home attendance is somewhere around the 30-35 mark, that game could set us up for a good season or two.

Brøndby are also our senior affiliate, if they play a rotated squad I may get a chance to take a look at a couple of potential loan options.

CAREER PROGRESS

I did state, last time out, that this save will be more about progressing my own manager’s career as opposed to just taking a single club as far as I can. There’s nothing really to report on that front yet, of course.

It’s very early days, but the start that we’ve made in the league can only be a good thing and should start to put me on the radar of teams with a little more clout. I’m targeting a step up by the end of the season, or maybe winter 2015 at a push. That may be optimistic, but I’m really not expecting to be in Kolding for the long haul.

For now it’s about starting to understand some of the finer points of the tactics we’re using, ready to adapt them to a better quality of player wherever I land next. That and trying to find some options to offer good depth in the wingback roles – Nautrup and Bekke are starting pretty much every game we play right now, and that’s going to bite us at some point.

NEXT STEPS

As ever, when things are going well I have a tendency not to over analyse and to just go with the flow. That’s great until something comes unstuck, and you have to backtrack to work out why. What I need to do for now is take some time to read up on Jambo98’s thread, and adopt some of his approach to constant monitoring and tweaking of our tactics. Even if we are winning.

That’ll have to do for now, it’s a bit lightweight compared to some of the work I did in the Karlsruhe days, but time is more of an issue these days. That and the fact that this feels like very early days maybe, once we get to the sharp end of the season, I’ll have some more detailed insights.

As always thanks for reading, and feel free to drop a Comment into the appropriate slot - or to catch up with me on Twitter : @flipsix3_FM

Cheers, and Happy New Year.