The Long Cold Winter – Part I

WHO KNEW?

So I was merrily playing along when I got the usual request to assign first team players for potential slots in the Reserve side for their imminent match. The first thing I did, of course, was check the ‘Next first team match’ info...

...then I checked it again. And again. Then I went to the schedule page.

So it seems that the Danish game takes a winter break, and not just your two or three week break like the Germans or French. Who knew?

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...

In Search Of Control

Time for another update, but also a quick apology for those who were enjoying my weekly updates. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it) my recent promotion and new job role have eaten massively into my free time. I continue to play Football Manager, albeit on a much reduced level - I've maybe played four or five matches in the last calendar week - something I would often achieve in a single session previously, and I'd have three or four sessions in even a busy week.

I can't say that this will let up, but I will continue to write updates when I can, they'll just be longer in arriving. We'll see where things take us once FM15 is released too, although I'm thinking that I might arrive late to the party on that one.

Anyway, having made my excuses, let's dive in...

Progress Report: The Fake 4-2-3-1

Last time out I talked about trying to work towards something akin to my old FM2012 4-2-3-1 tactic, and I began to toy with the idea of utilising a different formation that 'morphed' into the more attacking shape when we were on the offence.

So how did that work out for me? Here's my notes from that period of the season - as usual I've played way past this point, which you'll realise if you track my comments (moaning and griping) on Twitter, so whilst these were written up in the present tense, they actually represent stuff that is half a season or more in the past.

A Long-Term Tactical Vision

As the title suggests, this update is primarily about setting out a long-term tactical plan for Karlsruher SC. It is, however, also at least bit about me being a moody so-and-so – let’s get that part out of the way first, shall we?

Diamonds Are Forever... Annoying Me (Pt 1)

I’m not sure what it is about a 4-4-2 diamond formation, but for some reason I struggle to deal with it. Whether it’s a wide diamond (DMC, ML, MR, AMC), a narrow one (DMC, MCL, MCR, AMC), or even a non-diamond narrow formation (2x DMC, 2x MC) it seems that my sides struggle to carve out chances against them compared to the more familiar flat 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 type of shapes. Defensively we don’t necessarily find it any tougher than any other match, but up front it’s another story and we’ve been frustrated on a number of occasions.

I’m not sure why that sort of shape change should impact our attacking, the most likely thing being that the addition of that pesky DMC makes all the difference, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed the same issues against a pair of DMCs in 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 variants - perhaps as those shapes then tend to leave a lot of space in the middle of the park?

Whatever the reason, with my Karlsruher SC side sitting in a very nice spot as the season closes out, and the visit of Union Berlin and their wide diamond, I decided that it’s probably time for me to have a go at seriously analysing their approach and working out what to do about it.

Four-Four-One, Plus One : Settling on a Core Shape.

As well as the issues I was experiencing with width, the other factor in my decision to look at our tactics again was that we were getting a lot of possession with the 4-3-1-2 but not a lot of penetration. I actually got criticised by the fans for a negative approach, which seemed off given that it was our only 2-striker formation, it had an AMC in behind, and I was encouraging a number of players forward. It’s seemed likely that the issue was down to individual roles/instructions though.     

A brief conversation with @RTHerringbone ensued, and he explained how he’d been playing with 4-1-4-1 and 4-4-1-1 shapes, functioning with a lone striker. His outlook seemed to be a combination of ‘back to basics’ and giving players the licence to make their own decisions; it was very light on specialised roles and that appealed to me, although given the personnel at hand I could imagine mixing it up a bit.

  

Looking at the options I had in central midfield positions, I considered my approach to such a formation and arrived at the conclusion that I could look to build a fairly uniform 4-4-1, leaving me a ‘floating’ player to deploy as most appropriate. A DMC would help against shapes like the 4-2-3-1, whilst someone like Coco sitting in the hole behind the striker would add to our attack where viable. If it came to it I could always run with two strikers, although I still have a (completely unjustified) dislike for the bog-standard 4-4-2.

If my wide midfield men, who are mostly more suited to the AM strata, could supply from a deeper position then this could well be the shape for me – and as you can see from the Tweet exchange above, I'd started to see encouraging signs. 

New Faces. Tactics in Detail. Kicking Off 2015/16

Just before we move onto a look at the individual formations that we’ll be operating, exciting news on the transfer front as we moved for two central midfielders to potentially fulfil that role of ‘midfield general’ that I was concerned with. Two new names and, apart from Loyalty Bonusses and fees to agents, I’ve not had to pay a penny for either.

First up Jordan Ferri, a long time servant of Olympique Lyonnais – albeit that he only ever made seven appearances for them, along with another thirty or so for their Reserve side in the lower leagues of the French Game.

The suggested roles that our coaches highlight are primarily in the DM strata, but whilst he may play there as a Deep(er) Lying Playmaker, I see him in the middle of the park. His work rate and physicals suggest that he’ll be a good option in the Box-to-Box slot, but his fellow new joiner is more likely to take that role on and I’m expecting to use him more as our central pivot.

Operating alongside Ferri will be our first ‘big’ name at the club during my tenure, someone with extensive experience of top-flight football, and a limited spell in the French game. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the understated, the reserved, and the never controversial Joseph A Barton.

Survival? Pfft! Piece of Cake...

PERFORMANCE

After an opening day draw, and the solid Cup win over La Berrichone, we went on something of a run. Nine games undefeated, eight of those in the league, and we were firmly in the top four slots. For the most part I was sticking with a lone striker formation away from home, mainly the 4-1-2-2-1 outlined in my pre-season update, but at home or against poor performing hosts I leaned towards a strike partnership.

Sometimes I would take the same ‘proactive’ approach as I did to the Berrichone game (see below), tweaking things ahead of kick-off, but not always as I wanted to get the squad familiar with my base formations and instructions.

We had a blip in October, taking just four points from six games, but then another unbeaten run took us into mid-December still sitting pretty. That run included four back-to-back away games (two league, two cup) which saw three wins and a draw.

A Breakthrough (?). Season's End.

If they’ve done nothing else, the early stages of my blog will doubtless have evidenced just how one dimensional my thinking has been in trying to make early inroads at Strasbourg…

...Okay two dimensional, I’ll be generous to myself.

Whilst I’m fully aware that the days of plug-and-play tactics are long gone, and I have no expectations of a quick fix, I’ve still been somewhat guilty of just scratching the surface in terms of my initial approach. In my desire to iron out single issues (long shots) I’ve tended towards looking at sections of my formation in isolation, rather than considering the eleven men as a whole. To give myself some credit I did recognise from the off that it’s not a simple question of telling a player to shoot less, and that it’s about creating better chances and space; it’s doubtful whether the changes that I’ve tried to make actually address that though, even given that I’ve been looking at a very brief period of time for the team to adapt.  

Pressing On. Questions Questions.

SCHOOLBOY ERROR

Right, first up it's time for an admission. As a long-time player of the series, and not helped by the fact that the advent of digital delivery has removed the paper manual, I have a habit of assuming that I know roughly what I’m doing. It seems that’s not always the case.

Thanks go, as usual, to @Cleon81 for some useful information I discovered whilst reading his excellent piece on player development, as part of his Santos Project.

I’m halfway through my season in the French 3^rd tier, and my team aren’t ‘getting’ my tactical approach. Whilst most elements are nailed down, their level of familiarity with the Formation itself is still rated as awkward. Now I appreciate that it is a fairly non-conventional setup, and also that I have a grand total of two coaches – with Tactics rated at only 2 stars – but I would still expect things to have started bedding in by now.

It was only when reading Cleon’s piece that I realised my approach of setting General Training to ‘Tactics – High’ was not working, as it’s apparently Match Training that is used to increase the overall tactical familiarity. You live and learn. The upshot of this is that, for the remainder of this season at least, I’ve decided to go for a more familiar formation in the hope that it’ll give us some consistency.

It’ll still allow me to work on my understanding of tactics, but I do also need to make sure that we maintain our push for promotion. However, for much of the below, I was still experimenting a little.

Meet the Team. The First Challenge.

First things first, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little background on my RC Strasbourg Alsace playing squad. I’m not going to get into all sorts of narrative detail, as I might have back in my FM Stories days, but I’ll give it a quick once over.

As I mentioned in my opening post, I’m midway through the first season – just entering the winter break, in fact. As things stand my entire playing roster looks like this.

It’s not massively different to the ‘Out of the Box’ squad, should anyone decide to load them up. My budgets were fairly tight, non-existent until I sold in fact, so my early business was limited. I let Gauthier Pinaud go to CA Bastia, a bit of a gamble as he looks a decent player but he was one of a number clearly unsettled by my arrival; their offer would at least give me some cash to play with. My only other exit didn’t come until the winter window, with a teenage goalkeeper (Dylan Ruer) heading off to FC Metz.