Career itimatpula attempts The Gunnar Nordahl Challenge

[itimatpula]

Hello, everyone. My name is Ritche, from the Philippines, and I’m a lifelong Milanista. (My username is itimatpula, Filipino for black and red.)

 

For my 1st career post, I’d be taking on a daunting (to me at least) challenge featuring a legendary striker in the club’s history - Gunnar Nordahl.

The Gunnar Nordahl Challenge

photos from the A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

Here’s the link to the original challenge:

https://fmmvibe.com/forums/topic/40479-the-gunnar-nordahl-challenge-fmm18/

 

Basically, the challenge is to replicate and surpass the success of the Swede with the Rossoneri using a Scandinavian striker for any Serie A team:

• 210 goals in 257 Serie A matches
• 0.77 goal/match ratio
• 2 Serie A titles
• 5 Capocannonieri titles
• Accomplish in 8 seasons or less

 

The original challenge has the goal tally be beaten presumably in all competitions, but I limited myself to just league goals.

 

I understand people shy away from the Serie A when it comes to goal challenges due to the catenaccio philosophy. So, this would be interesting, and I hope that this career would be a success.

 

Thanks for reading, and I’ll post tactics, team, and, most importantly, the player to follow in Gunnar Nordahl’s footsteps.

 

I’ve finished season 1/8, and you can check the results on my twitter page: itimatpula. Ciao!

[itimatpula]

The Player

Given that the challenge calls for a Scandinavian striker, I thought Alexander Isak would be perfect as he was also s Swede. But I’ve found him to be inconsistent in the first few months of trial saves. I have to beat a 0.77 gpm ratio so inconsistency has no place in this challenge.

I opted then for Kasper Dolberg from Ajax.

He was amazing in my Ajax save last year, linking up with Kluivert and Cerny to dominate the Eredivisie, until everybody wanted to leave.

Kasper joins Thomas Helveg, Martin Laursen, and Jon Dahl Tomasson in Danes to play for the Rossoneri. I’ve also found 2 other Danes to win the Capocannoniere title - John Hansen (Juventus) and Harald Nielsen (Bologna).

He has great stats in attacking for a 19-year old, the downside is his physicals. And this was important to rectify because the first season had plenty of mid-week games due to the EURO Cup so had to sub him off many a time in order for him to be fit.

[itimatpula]

The Squad

At the end of last year, Milan were bought by a Chinese investment group, headed by Yonghong Li, signalling what hopes to be a change in fortunes for the Rossoneri. With this, the new management overhauled the team and signed what is essentially a new Starting XI, with players like Leonardo Bonucci, André Silva, Hakan Çalhanoglu, etc.

The squad is well-balanced, plenty of cover in all positions and a good mix of young and old. But, I had to make some adjustments of my own as we were lacking quality in the wings.

Transfers

In addition to Kasper Dolberg, I also signed Dutch wonderkids Mathijs de Ligt and Justin Kluivert, both star performers in my Akax save in 17. I also signed Domenico Berardi from Sassuolo, a player I’ve always signed in the past years.

These signings were a result if the departures of 2 key players, Suso to PSG and Alessio Romagnoli to Arsenal. Both clubs offered 3 times their value, and there’s no way I’d let this chance pass up.

I’ve also loaned out key youngsters in Davide Calabria and Patrick Cutrone. I usually keep youngsters in the team, as my philosophy has always been homegrown talent is prioritized, especially with the history of Milan. Both wouldn’t have the game time as this challenge focuses on Kasper Dolberg.

[itimatpula]

Tactics

My formative years in the world of football coincided with Italian football being the best in Europe. It follows then that my philosophy has always been inspired by Italian teams, especially Carlo Ancelotti. Defensive strength, and control of tempo and space were important.

I’ve experimented on a few tactics used by the Milan side in the early 2000’s - the Christmas Tree and the Diamond - but the goals were spread out. Also, I’d be wasting my wingers on these formations.

So I stuck with the modern 4-2-3-1 with IFs and WBs.

I started with Ws and FBs but they were not supplying crosses as much as I wanted. I’ve found that despite there being IFs, they didn’t take away goals from the striker as much as I thought.

I interchange between Control and Attacking depending on the strength of the opposing team. I use Overload only when I’m behind 2 or more goals, and had success with it pretty much, winning a few of these games or losing by just 1 goal.

High line and hard pressing give me control of possession and space the most. Offside trap was disabled as I always get ‘Poor Offside Trap’ or something on the match evaluation after the game, and I conceded more with it on.

Despite the high line, I stuck with short distribution for the keeper for possession. Again, short passing through the centre were chosen as it gave me more control of the ball.

Edited November 13, 2017 by itimatpula