Career The Draft: A 3 season h2h2h battle!

[Rob]

[Nucleus]

I sense another H2H2H between yourself Foxy and Woody 😛

[samhardy]

A storm is fucking brewing.

[FuddledFox]

The best thing for a draughty door is the Foxy PLC draught excluder.

[Ashez]

[sharaziuk]

[Woody]

I want that excluder 😂

[Rob]

And here is the challenge...

Football Manager is all about fantasy. Fantasy teams, fantasy tactics, and fantasy squads. But what about a fantasy draft to join all of that together?

American Football has them. Teams pick from a collegiate system, keeping things as fair as possible. This career will replicate that.

Myself, @Foxy, and @Woody will be using a draft system, coupled with the in-game editor, to assemble our fantasy squads to compete against each other over three seasons in a head-to-head-to-head (h2h2h). Our Manager Profile page will show our overall wins, losses, and draws in all completions (league and cups). Three points will be awarded for a win and one for a draw. The player with the most points at the end of the three seasons wins. In the unlikely chance of a tie-break it’ll be sorted by goal difference.

I will be Spurs, @Foxy will be Liverpool, and @Woody will be Man City. Each squad will contain no more than 23 players and will be comprised as we see fit. If Woody wants a squad of 10 goalkeepers and 13 strikers then it is entirely his choice. All players not draft just be released from the squad. Only the selected 23 players and greyed out players can be used (the latter in the case of emergency).

As it is a draft it means we cannot have the same player. The draft will be categorised in to defence (GK, SW, RB, CB, and LB), midfield (DM, RM, CM, LM), and attack (RW, AM, LW, FR, FC, FL). We will draft each category one at a time in a private thread and then post our final squads. As I topped the last h2h2h I get to pick which draft I get first choice in and opted for attack. Foxy will pick first from defence and Woody first from midfield.

So, there you have it. Nice and simple. 3 seasons, 3 unique squads, 3 very different tactics. Let battle commence!

Edited January 3, 2019 by Rob

[Nucleus]

Interesting! Should see some absolutely mental squads assembled! All the best lads 😁

[Titjes]

Can't wait for this to begin. Love the idea guys

[Woody]

Just to let you all know....nobodys team looks like the one above!!

Just let that sink in.....😃

[Titjes]

13 minutes ago, Woody said:

Just to let you all know....nobodys team looks like the one above!!

Just let that sink in.....😃

Enough star players to fill 3 teams, so should be close to the above squad 

[FuddledFox]

14 minutes ago, Woody said:

Just to let you all know....nobodys team looks like the one above!!

Just let that sink in.....😃

That’s true.

My squad is a lot better than that and the less said about yours and @Rob squads the better 😱

[Woody]

Pah....we shall see 👀

[Ashez]

Buzzing for this! It's so cool seeing the editor used for good!

[Rob]

Rob’s Squad

The rationale for my squad is simple: goals. Goals, goals, and lots of them. This is why I will be using my ‘Keegan’ tactic for this challenge in the hope that the equation of attacking formation plus the best players does, indeed, equate to success. It helped me get 100 goals with Dele Alli once, so hopefully it’ll contribute to a metric pooptonne of goals here.

So whenever I completed a pick in the draft my rationale was to always choose the best individual player I could find of that category, not someone with great teamwork, etc. It just allowed me to try the ‘I’ll score more than you’ methodology and see how it goes.

Here is my squad:

So, the basics:
    ⁃    Not many defenders. A bit risky if many get injured, but what the heck? My first two choices - VVD and Varane - were snared by my enemies;
    ⁃    Plenty of options in midfield and attack. I was pleased Isco and Dembele have green in midfield which allowed me to grab them. Pogba scores a lot in this game so he was essential;
    ⁃    I managed to get my first choice three players of Neymar, Salah, and Kane. Delighted with that!
    ⁃    Icardi is one of my favourite players in the game. He has always scored whenever I have used him;
    ⁃    I expect this is the same for the other two chaps, but my squad is big, and good, enough to rotate a second team in for the easier games.

This challenge is going to be great fun. We all have completely different tactics so you should see some cracking numbers and tonnes of trophies. 

I will leave with one final statement: I know @Foxy and @Woody are quality managers, ‘but I’ll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.’

[Nucleus]

14 minutes ago, Rob said:

Rob’s Squad

The rationale for my squad is simple: goals. Goals, goals, and lots of them. This is why I will be using my ‘Keegan’ tactic for this challenge in the hope that the equation of attacking formation plus the best players does, indeed, equate to success. It helped me get 100 goals with Dele Alli once, so hopefully it’ll contribute to a metric pooptonne of goals here.

So whenever I completed a pick in the draft my rationale was to always choose the best individual player I could find of that category, not someone with great teamwork, etc. It just allowed me to try the ‘I’ll score more than you’ methodology and see how it goes.

Here is my squad:

So, the basics:
    ⁃    Not many defenders. A bit risky if many get injured, but what the heck? My first two choices - VVD and Varane - were snared by my enemies;
    ⁃    Plenty of options in midfield and attack. I was pleased Isco and Dembele have green in midfield which allowed me to grab them. Pogba scores a lot in this game so he was essential;
    ⁃    I managed to get my first choice three players of Neymar, Salah, and Kane. Delighted with that!
    ⁃    Icardi is one of my favourite players in the game. He has always scored whenever I have used him;
    ⁃    I expect this is the same for the other two chaps, but my squad is big, and good, enough to rotate a second team in for the easier games.

This challenge is going to be great fun. We all have completely different tactics so you should see some cracking numbers and tonnes of trophies. 

I will leave with one final statement: I know @Foxy and @Woody are quality managers, ‘but I’ll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them. Love it.’

You’ve essentially got the best two keepers in the game! This squad has got clean sheets written all over it!

[FuddledFox]

Average squad that, not a single player that would have got in my squad.....

Apart from the 4 players that I wanted as first picks and the other lads I had on my shortlist as well 😕

[Rob]

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

Average squad that, not a single player that would have got in my squad.....

Apart from the 4 players that I wanted as first picks and the other lads I had on my shortlist as well 😕

Which are then four?

1 hour ago, Nucleus said:

You’ve essentially got the best two keepers in the game! This squad has got clean sheets written all over it!

Clean sheets is exactly what is happening 😅

[FuddledFox]

14 minutes ago, Rob said:

Which are then four?

DDG, Dier, Pogba and Sandro were all high on my shortlist for those positions.

I think I did a pretty good job in the circumstances and ended up with a squad that oozes quality!

Spoiler

 

[Ashez]

I love the balanced midfield options, all of them are the go to balanced midfielders imo. 

[Woody]

51 minutes ago, Foxy said:

DDG, Dier, Pogba and Sandro were all high on my shortlist for those positions.

I think I did a pretty good job in the circumstances and ended up with a squad that oozes quality!

  Hide contents

 

Foxy has let his team out the bag.....we have no chance!!

[FuddledFox]

26 minutes ago, Woody said:

we have no chance!!

Truer words have never been spoken!

[lol2309]

How a wonderful you 3 had! Would anyone on here be interested in doing the same thing?

[Woody]

WOODY'S SQUAD.

My squad was built on players that i have tried and tested but with a few guilty pleasures thrown in.

I have been testing a new tactic this last few weeks and i wanted the squad to reflect that.

The Squad -

To be honest i was very lucky with my choices as only Pogba was the one i missed out on. I chose Tolisso instead as i was impressed with him during the World Cup and i threw him in as i suppose a wild card.

I suppose the likes of Chilwell, Saul and Politano are players not many have used before but i've had decent success with these players and this challenge was an ideal opportunity to get them in.

I've taken this challange as a chance to use my new tactic so i'm not expecting miracles but i do expect to push the guys close atleast.

I defo got to pick some of my fave FMM players so i'm looking forward to see how this pans out.

[Ashez]

I love the fact you've picked players you like or that have performed for you in the past, it's always good to see some personality among the star names. However it's a risky approach, especially with the amount of kids over established players so I'll watch with interest lol.

[FuddledFox]

I find your squad interesting @Woody as at first glance there isn’t many players there that I would have gone for myself with only Allison, De Bruyne and Hazard appearing on my shortlist and not that high. What I am aware of though is that it isn’t always just a case of buying the household names and hoping they fit together as a team and clearly you have a history with a lot of these players and know they work for you.

[Woody]

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

I find your squad interesting @Woody as at first glance there isn’t many players there that I would have gone for myself with only Allison, De Bruyne and Hazard appearing on my shortlist and not that high. What I am aware of though is that it isn’t always just a case of buying the household names and hoping they fit together as a team and clearly you have a history with a lot of these players and know they work for you.

Sincerely hope so bud.

[DutchTony]

Robs squad looks fantastic. Not sure about only 6 defenders though...

[FuddledFox]

Foxy’s Squad: You have seen the rest now see the best!

I didn’t get every player that I would have liked but when I look back at my spreadsheet of possible picks I did very well and I certainly won’t complain as I feel every player I have suits my tactic. 

 

GK: I heard it said that @Rob had picked the best ‘keepers in the game well maybe he has but it depends what you want from a goalie. I would say I have picked 2 of the best Sweeper Keepers in the game which is perfect for me and what I want to do. I expect that Ederson will be my number 1 and just like the other lads I only picked 2 goalies as I don’t expect to need a 3rd keeper except perhaps a “greyed out” player on the bench and I would rather have an extra outfield option.

Def: I had first pick on the defenders draft and I went all in for VVD as he is perfect for me as a BPD, is at his peak and a good age so won’t decline during the save. The same goes for both Vrsajiko and Alaba as well who are at their peak and are 2 of the best WB’s around. The rest of my defence is made up of players that are good to go but also young and will improve really well over the first season. Although he is in the defenders draft as that’s his natural position it is likely Upamecano will play more often in midfield once he is retrained.

Mid: I missed out on Dier and Pogba here which was mildly disappointing but then again Pogba is a first class bellend so maybe it was for the best and I got Upamecano who fulfilled the versatile defender/midfielder role. Instead of Pogba I went for an old FMM favourite who we see used less these days but is still a damned good player, Kondogbia who will partner Savic in CM. I then have a nice mix of players that can perform in either the DLP or BBM role such as Diawara, Jorginho, Rodri and Rabiot. I have a preference as where each of them would play but they are versatile so could perform in the other role if needed which is handy as the season goes on. Then I have a bit of a wildcard pick to finish off my midfield.

Atk: Although he is listed in the midfield draft I will be playing Dilrosun as a LW but I could pick him early as he is green in the ML position. Again I am happy with my picks here as I have a bunch of players that can fulfil all 3 of my attacking roles if needs be. My preferred starting front 3 will be Mbappe, Dybala and Costa but I can easily bring in any of my other 3 attackers to play almost any of the roles I need them to and Alli could also play back in midfield as well.

I knew at the start I wouldn’t get every player I wanted but I had shortlisted 6 options for every position meaning if a player went I wanted I could easily just pick another player from my list with no disruption to my plans.

Whether that pre-save planning pays off or not only time will tell once @Rob, @Woody and myself start our seasons.