Career First career write up - The Herbert Chapman Way

[StuartM]

Hi folks, first time write up of a career here, I've enjoyed reading some of your exploits and thought I would join in. Please do comment if there is more or less that you would like to see.

I'm not going to claim tactical genius or tremendous insight but hopefully it'll be worth a follow!

So I'm taking on a challenge that I made up but its to try and repeat the 1920s and 1930s achievements of Huddersfield Town and Arsenal by winning the league three times in a row. Something that Town fans love to remind ourselves of!

Might not be the toughest assignment but seeing as I got sacked on my first attempt whilst messing about with tactics after getting to the playoff final twice, I thought that maybe it was!

Anyway, enough preamble.

The club I've mentioned, the tactic I've got to start with is a vertical-gegen-taka or something:

In terms of players, I've gone cautious in terms of changing the squad around with just a few additions. I tried to go for Kaio Jorge but couldn't get a work permit but I did find this guy:

I try to go for U23 players, thinking that they'll develop or be sellable later.

I have a few in my squad that I'll be keeping an eye on. I managed to win the league on FMM20 with the like of Josh Koroma, Kian Harratt, Lewis O'Brien, Harry Toffolo, Dumeaco Duhaney, Luke Daley, Scott High and Ryan Schofield in my squad. Who are they? Exactly! I took some screenshots but I'll save them for later if they work out!

I've done about half a season so far and will upload more soon.

Thanks for taking a look.

[FuddledFox]

Good luck with this mate.

[StuartM]

So the first game didn't go exactly to plan:

But perhaps the balance of play suggests some promise, lo and behold a couple of games later I was pleased to get this:

The new boy doing good!

Early results were a bit hit and miss and we struggled for consistency but we did go into the new year in touch at the top of the table:

[StuartM]

Thank you Fox. Okay, so bringing you up to date...

The patchy results continued, we were dominating some games and having a few close ones which went both ways. I was starting to second guess my tactic and just about managed to resist the temptation to tinker before we went on a 4 match winning streak. This put me in striking distance of 2nd place Bournemouth who we met in our next game:

Bobbins! Which leaves the table looking like this:

There is still time for another run but it could be the playoffs for us. My star player Savarino might be running out of gas, his average rating is dropping quite alarmingly now.

[Rich]

Going well mate, just keep going and I’m sure the possession will turn in to more wins 😁

[broodje kip]

Going nice there. Better things will come around soon. Keep Going!

[StuartM]

Well, this didn't go to plan!

I still had some hopes of automatic promotion but then had what I would best describe as a 1990s England batting collapse...

Fear not, I thought, there is always the playoffs. The first leg didn't go to plan though, losing 2-0 at home to Birmingham... Fear not, I thought, there is always the second leg and at 2-0 up going towards injury time, like a pigeon flying overhead - splat!

Got to love this game sometimes!

So another season in the Championship, lets see what I can do with this squad... I think I'll keep the tactic fairly similar unless anyone has any top tips for player roles!

No real stand out performers good or bad this season:

Edited December 27, 2020 by StuartM
Correcting auto-correct

[StuartM]

Hello again, so despite my frustrations at the end of last season I didn't bin this off!

My summer transfer window was mostly spent collecting some prospects (on low wages and no fees) for the squad as it seemed I would need to spend big to make an impact on the team.

My one extravagance was on this guy, lets see if he comes good over time.

Seeing as I expect to be here for some time yet, one of the academy prospects may be worth a mention. This guy was a gold shiny, his kicking isn't much cop but we'll train him up on that.

I couldn't resist the temptation to tinker with my tactic in the first half of the season. I decided that my goal return from the strikers wasn't good enough so I switched from a P-TM combo to AF-PF. Results were decent but I didn't think I was scoring enough as a team.

After a mini wobble I decided to tinker again, pushing my IWBs forward and reverting the PF to a TM... If you're struggling to follow it now looks like this:

I'm at the half way stage and I've just had my best run of wins so I'll stick to this for now.

One more thing I thought I'd share, young Kian Harratt is starting to feature more regularly now and his stats are looking alright. He was a star for me in FMM20 but I wasn't so enamoured with his 2 star potential and initial stats this time around but he seems to be maturing nicely.

January window still ahead and some funds left over... lets see how this goes.

Thanks for taking a look

[Rich]

Great going now mate, finding a system that works is great, good luck for the second part of the season 😁

[StuartM]

Forgive me Vibers for it has been a while since my last update... I tend to find that once I have got something working my attention goes a little and so I have been messing around with some other saves.

Anyway, I have got to the end of the season and despite the obligatory wobble:

I'm quite pleased with how this worked. A few defeats but 35 wins is very nice. My OCD was appeased by more than 2 GPG scored and less than 1 GPG conceded too!

Again this season, there were few stand out performers. I liked getting 20 goals from my free transfer striker:

And then after a lengthy exclusion, Savarino came back in and had something like 27 goal involvements:

Last screengrab... don't know how much this contributes but we managed to get some pretty decent chemistry in the team too:

Thanks for taking a look! Lets see what kind of a budget I have for the Premier League.

[StuartM]

Hi all, thanks for taking a look. I've finally returned to this one after working out some new tactics on other saves. I have a save that I started to use for testing and ended up playing furthest in to the future with it!

Anyway, the summer window was a fairly quiet one. I had a reasonable budget but chose to hold most of it back as most of the signing options I found were the same level that I already had and I already had a sizeable squad. So I just added Max Aarons, I wasn't keen on his leadership but went with it anyway!

I started tactically as I finished the last season but having had some success with a DLF and seeing as I don't actually have a proper TM in the squad, I'm going to see how this fares:

I'm only 4 games in but I'm sharing this to focus my attention and stop me from wandering on to one of my other teams. Cheers!

[StuartM]

Quick update here, I was probably hesitant to start this season in case the wheels came off but so far so good.

Did worry when this happened to my 1st choice keeper:

But went straight on to sort out the current three time champions!

My setup here really seems to be able to go on a roll. A couple of close ones but I don't mind!

Possible title challenge?

I think I am going to end up using my transfer budget in Jan on a defender or two so I'm glad I kept some back.

Thanks for taking a look!

[broodje kip]

Great work there mate. KIU

[Rich]

Good job there Stu, keep it up 😁

[StuartM]

Thanks @RichD and @broodje kip

So I did a bit of transfer business in Jan but my stubbornness meant I only I added one. Nathan Wood has been handy but injury prone on another save so giving him a shot at the big time 😉

I managed to move on a few 'squad players' who were no longer good enough for us but I have to admit that this was a tough one:

If there was to be an exception, it would be for him but seeing as this is not real life (remember Stuart, this is not real life) I decided to let him be Young Boys' new veteran.

Form continued really well, I think I had something like 14 straight wins until the league cup semi against Leicester who I had beaten 4-0 days earlier... Yep, you guessed it:

After this point, we started to be a little less convincing. Fixture congestion after the Qatar World Cup and my reluctance to fill up the squad with numbers meant I dropped some points.

Getting knocked out of the cup by local rivals Leeds (yes, I can call them that again in this virtual world!) means that the run in no longer looks so congested and the table looks like this:

Head to heads against Arsenal (7-1 on aggregate to them has hurt a little), especially given that the aim of this challenge is to be thrice champions at both Town and the Gooners. Are they going to be a thorn?

Anyway, this season... We couldnt, could we? Stay tuned folks and thanks for watching

[StuartM]

So after losing momentum, we struggled to get our form back at the end of the season:

All said, I think thats a pretty good season straight after promotion and it was an enjoyable one to play.

In terms of performances, Mr Savarino had a good year and was duly recognised for his efforts as our advanced forward:

And I have to say that this guy, signed on a free was a bit of a plus, performing well as the shadow striker and improving throughout the season:

The post season was a chance to build for a season in the Champions League and I have to admit to being underwhelmed with my transfer business. I think I'm a player or two short and one of my new backups got a long term injury leaving me short at RWB with no budget left to speak of. Oops!

Hopefully my youthful squad will yield one or two stepping up to the rigors of 1st team football like Russell but we shall see. Perhaps a season of consolidation and building ahead...

[StuartM]

Hello again...

... so my fears that this season would be a sticky one were spot on.

My defence was sound but despite scoring at 2 gpg for 2 seasons, we really dried up. The close games that went our way last season all went against us. This setup does seem to be able to go on a roll!

Unsurprisingly, things started to get a little terse with the board:

So, perhaps too late I made a few changes to the system. Keeping the ball better and changing midfield roles to suit the players in the team:

On the 'balance of play' it did what I wanted but we still couldn't effing win!

Short memories... taking the club into the Champions League in 3 seasons clearly not good enough!

Challenge over! Time to mess around on other saves and come back to this idea when I know I'm going to be able to do it!

[StuartM]

So I wasn't planning on updating this thread but I have a question...

... what do you when you are offered a job by your least liked club?!

I carried on with this save for a bit of a test, developing my tactic and doing something different with transfers.

I ended up with Carlisle after being at Ebbsfleet and I have now been approached by Leeds!

I could go a few different ways...

A) Try to be successful, maybe win the European Cup as I understand they have never won this 😋

B) Start a new save, even in the virtual world this is entirely unacceptable... Go sit it a corner and sing all verses of 'we all dream of a team of Andy Booths'

C) Sabotage!

Would be interested to hear your suggestions

[broodje kip]

I don’t mind playing for Man United since it’s just a game. Go for it.

[StuartM]

Thanks @broodje kip, I'll go with a) and then switch to c) if they invite me to a board meeting 😂