Career Big Team Mentality / Land of the Giants

[SK15Kev]

Looking for some scouting help.   Been pondering something Mourinho started a while ago when he first went to Chelsea with building a team of physical specimens to dominate opposition.

So I am going to do the same and with one of Moo's old teams, Man United.  Given they can pretty much fill a full line up of beasts.

Principles - Minimum height should be 6ft 2in (1.88m), but look where possible to have big strong players  Principle only to be conceded for existing players in wide positions who are already over 6ft.
Sell everyone else (including Bruno)

Here would be my starting 11 with Man Utd.

LB - Williams (6ft)
RB -  Wan Bissaka (6ft) 
DC - Lindelof (who I will replace)
ST - Cavani (to be sold)

What I would like help with is who else to buy? As I do like to have a B-side that I can rotate to.
Here are some options from scouting I did using the FIFA21 database and open to other suggestions.

GK - Pope, Courtois
LB - Mings or Barasic
RB - Meunier/ Dumfries/ Mukiele/ da Costa
CB - Dunk/ Vestergaard/ Burn/ Goldson/ Jullien/ Coates/ Zagadou/ Milenkovic/ Mina/ Sule/ Bornauw
MC - Nzonzi/ Billing/ Salif Sane (maybe CD)/ Rabiot/ Soucek/ Berge/ Grujic/ Milinkovic-Savic
AMC - Vanaken/ Zaniolo/ Pasalic/ Dele Alli
AMR - Poulsen/ El Ghazi/ Ocampos
AML - Thuram
ST - Abraham/ Weghorst/ Ibra/ Haland/ Sorloth/ Giroud/ Moreno/ Isak/ Mateta/ Wamangituka

Edited March 29, 2021 by SK15Kev
added pic

[DLC]

Wout Weghorst is an absolute unit mate! 🤣 He should definitely be in there just of his height alone.

[Jjeffriz]

1 hour ago, SK15Kev said:

Looking for some scouting help.   Been pondering something Mourinho started a while ago when he first went to Chelsea with building a team of physical specimens to dominate opposition.

So I am going to do the same and with one of Moo's old teams, Man United.  Given they can pretty much fill a full line up of beasts.

Principles - Minimum height should be 6ft 2in (1.88m), but look where possible to have big strong players  Principle only to be conceded for existing players in wide positions who are already over 6ft.
Sell everyone else (including Bruno)

Here would be my starting 11 with Man Utd.

GK - De Gea & Pope
LB - Williams (6ft)
RB -  Wan Bissaka (6ft) 
CB - Maguire & Lindelof (who I will replace)Dunk/Vestergaard/Burn/Goldson/Jullien/Coates/ Zagadou/ Milenkovic/ Mina/ Sule/ Bornauw
MC - Pogba, McTomminay, Matic
AMR - Greenwood
AML - Rashford
ST - Cavani (to be sold)

What I would like help with is who else to buy? Here are some options from scouting I did using the FIFA21 database and open to other suggestions.

GK - Pope, Courtois
LB - Mings or Barasic
RB - Meunier/ Dumfries/ Mukiele/ da Costa
CB - Dunk/ Vestergaard/ Burn/ Goldson/ Jullien/ Coates/ Zagadou/ Milenkovic/ Mina/ Sule/ Bornauw
MC - Nzonzi/ Billing/ Salif Sane (maybe CD)/ Rabiot/ Soucek/ Berge/ Grujic/ Milinkovic-Savic
AMC - Vanaken/ Zaniolo/ Pasalic/ Dele Alli
AMR - Poulsen/ El Ghazi/ Ocampos
AML - Thuram
ST - Abraham/ Weghorst/ Ibra/ Haland/ Sorloth/ Giroud/ Moreno/ Isak/ Mateta/ Wamangituka

Michael Essien is perhaps one of the most typical of Mourinho's player, so hidden attributes in workrate, determination matters more than just heights.

With Tottenham you can see how similar Højbjerg's role is with Essien.

I dunno, guess we'll wait for the experts to chime in.

[SK15Kev]

[SK15Kev]

Formation will be either of these two, but can't yet decide.

[SK15Kev]

This is how we started, which was better than expect.
The defense is really suspect to pacey runs through the middle, so will likely make some adjustments.

Results wise, this was the first league match and some good stats.

[SK15Kev]

Results took a bit of a decline and still suffering from a soft under belly, so made a few changes in terms of tactics (Attack and Defence).  Will let you know how it goes.

Dropping the D-Line a bit and then also trying to get supply down the wings

[SK15Kev]

Although results are okay, performances are not.
Really not creating many chances.  Might need a full rethink.

[hhooo]

Run at defense seems like a given if youre aiming to muscle your way through matches. Overlapping with AWB also doesn't seem worth it. 

[SK15Kev]

I have made some changes that are working very well.
I have put someone in the DM position and removed the AMC role.  Both FBs are now WBs.  Also put running at defence on, even though the players are not best suited.

[SK15Kev]

So here is the new formation, results and performances are really good now.  Had a sequence of big matches as you will see with all good result.
Lost one ding dong battle with Chelsea, but other than that it has been great.

Formation - dropped back a little into contain and brought in a DMC instead of an AMC.  Acts as a DLP if no AMC on the opposition team, if there is this become a BWM, with the MC becoming a RP.  TM changed to a CF to be a bit more dynamic and FBs now WBs with the DMC to cover the back line.

Other information about the team, including the set piece specialist GK!

 

In terms of the players, Isak is developing well with mentoring from Weghorst.  Ocampos and Rabiot have been slow to get going, maybe just need more time.
Dijks has held onto the 1st team LB slot and Milenkovic has also cemented his place alongside Maguire.

Matic has bonded well with most of the 2nd string team in which Dele Ali and Greenwood are very strong.  Williams retrained to a RB/WB is performing very well. Lloyd Kelly was a deadline day purchase for cover when Dunk got injured for 3 months.

Will let this thread die now, unless anyone wants to know what happens at the end of the season.

 

[Rich]

Liking the tactic mate, I’ve got a similar one I use. Things are going nicely, keep it up 😁

[SK15Kev]

Just thought I'd close this off posting my lessons learnt at the end of the season.

We did the domestic triple fairly easily, but Champions League escaped us after being put out by Liverpool whom we had many titanic battles with in each competition.  I don't know why but always feared Origi over the rest of their players, just seemed to get those clutch oals.

Does size matter - maybe it does, slightly inconclusive.
The Team were never intimidated or out battled, conceded very few goals from corners as you might expect.
Won lots of free kicks and penalties, but that could just be because it is Man U  
On the negative side, our possession stats were never great, but did get good opportunities.

The players
The good
Isak does develop well into a really good goal scorer, developed by mid-season into a reliable and effective CF, would buy him again.
Dijks very good as my first choice LWB
Mert Muldur very good back up full back both sides
Brandon Williams very good
Matic was good
Love McTomminay
Greenwood is a superstar
Zagadou performed well despite low aggression, not a single booking.
Milenkovic worked well with Maguire, would change him to a NCB if being pressured.
Milinkovic-Savic - Good back up goalkeeper, develops to 3* at Man U
Dele Alli worked really well as back up for Pogba and Rashford.
Kristoffer Ajer was a really useful utility player, became quite hard to leave out the team at the end. Got him as a BWM, but was more effective as a CM or CD.

The bad
Ocampos took criticism and kicked on, but still hit and miss (didn't learn English)
Wamangituka not sure, like a Traore or Iwobi, headless chicken.
Rabiot no thanks, did very little of note.
Pasalic a real disappointment even as a squad player. Only worked with slow tempo.
Dunk never really worked, maybe a step up too much.
Weghorst effective but not very dynamic or involving of the rest of the team in build up
Lloyd Kelly - undecided, but he is still young

The to take note of
Greenwood and Isak get tired a lot
No really effective set piece taker hurt us, we had so many corners and free kicks outside the box that went unconverted.  With Bruno may have been a different story
Team really went off the boil at one point, especially with the Champions League Semi-Final despite constant rotation between two line ups.

Limited to who I could buy to improve the squad with really only Haaland, Abraham, Zirkee, Milinkovic-Savic, Zanolio, Courtios, Sule, Mukiele the possible upgrades. If I was to continue this approach would need to think about different method going forward, i.e. Ariel of at least 16.