Tactics Testing Tactics - ‘Plug + Play’ with Man. United

[Scratch]

6 hours ago, TehSpaceGiraffe said:

Hi guys sorry it's taken a while but I managed a whole season with the suggestions that @Scratch mentioned and made a few of my own. 

Wow, thanks for doing that and very interesting to see how it turned out. I probably should have mentioned that to make 1 CD work they have to be an exception player, very fast, great positioning, or else you bleed goals. But the idea is to score more down the other end! 😀 Anyway, that was fascinating and will be interested to see how it goes if you keep experimenting.

[TehSpaceGiraffe]

5 hours ago, Scratch said:

Wow, thanks for doing that and very interesting to see how it turned out. I probably should have mentioned that to make 1 CD work they have to be an exception player, very fast, great positioning, or else you bleed goals. But the idea is to score more down the other end! 😀 Anyway, that was fascinating and will be interested to see how it goes if you keep experimenting.

Yeah well I used Fofana and Koulibaly in a rotation, both are fast, at least 15 pace, and I believe Koulibaly has slightly better positioning. Maybe next time I'll use their bottomless pit of money and buy a real quality CD. I'm definitely going to carry on as there's definitely more to come out of it, just need to find the right combos

[DanEnglish]

Am back! This 'tactics testing' was paused for a few weeks, but now continues!

Thank you to everyone who has been posting above (@Scratch, @TehSpaceGiraffe, @Reshetnikov) - I will read your posts & reply to you sometime soon (in the next few days?).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Soon: 
Wrexham 442 with DutchTony's Tweaks!

Have just started testing @MarkD's original Wrexham 442 - but with @DutchTony's tweaks. I wasn't expecting it to do well - as it got badly affected by changes in one of the earlier game updates ... 

... but right now it is doing terribly - so badly that I may decide to stop testing early 😮

[DutchTony]

1 hour ago, DanEnglish said:

Am back! This 'tactics testing' was paused for a few weeks, but now continues!

Thank you to everyone who has been posting above (@Scratch, @TehSpaceGiraffe, @Reshetnikov) - I will read your posts & reply to you sometime soon (in the next few days?).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Soon: 
Wrexham 442 with DutchTony's Tweaks!

Have just started testing @MarkD's original Wrexham 442 - but with @DutchTony's tweaks. I wasn't expecting it to do well - as it got badly affected by changes in one of the earlier game updates ... 

... but right now it is doing terribly - so badly that I may decide to stop testing early 😮

Sadly I'm not surprised mate. I tested it again recently with an over powered team and it performed poorly. It's such a shame as I love the old school 442 formation with loads of crosses and headers, and the fact that it finally worked in the game - and worked so well, and then to have it nerfed so badly in a single update is bloody disappointing. I'll await your results peeping through my fingers anyway 🫣

😂

[Resurgam]

20 minutes ago, DutchTony said:

Sadly I'm not surprised mate. I tested it again recently with an over powered team and it performed poorly. It's such a shame as I love the old school 442 formation with loads of crosses and headers, and the fact that it finally worked in the game - and worked so well, and then to have it nerfed so badly in a single update is bloody disappointing. I'll await your results peeping through my fingers anyway 🫣

😂

Could always try to work on another 4-4-2 (hint hint) 😂👍

[DanEnglish]

On 25/03/2023 at 17:16, DanEnglish said:

Coming Soon: 
Wrexham 442 with DutchTony's Tweaks!

... but right now it is doing terribly - so badly that I may decide to stop testing early 😮

  
Tactic 07: @MarkD + @DutchTony
DutchTony’s Tweaked ‘Wrexham’ 442

After a long delay - I finished testing the @DutchTony tweaks to the original @MarkD ‘Wrexham’ 442 tactic.

There is a new version, but we’ll test that later.

Testing started TERRIBLY 🔻 but did pick up ⬆️ 

The Tactic
Available <here> - again this looks like an early 1990’s Ferguson 442. 

@DutchTony made a few key tweaks - an RP in midfield, with short, slow passing focused down the flanks.

Spoiler

 
Team Results
One of the poorer performances so far - not helped through only having 2 wins in our first 8 games.

With an average <1.9 points per game, it performed worse than both the original Wrexham + Black Hawk tactics.

It scored a reasonable 1.8 goals per game, but conceded a HUGE 1.2 goals per game (worst so far?!).

Spoiler

League

• 🔻29 points from 16 games (1 point more than the original ‘Wrexham’ tactic)
• That’s 1.8 points per league game (much less than Black Hawk’s 2.4 points / game)
• ✅ 25 goals scored (1 more than the original ‘Wrexham’ tactic)
• 🔻 17 conceded (much more than all other tactics so far?!)

 

Europe
Like most tactics - a solid group stage:

• 🔻 only 14 points (2 points less than original Wrexham + Black Hawk)
• 🔻 16 goals scored (same as Wrexham, 4 less than Black Hawk)
• 🔻 6 conceded (2 more)

  
All Fixtures
Not bad. But not good.

• Average <1.9 points / game (0.1 less than original Wrexham tactic).
• Average 1.8 goals scored / game (same).
• Average 1.2 conceded / game (0.5 more!).

 

 
Tactical Observations
Some quick insights - same as the original ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442.

• Wingers - with a ‘narrow’ width, the Wingers drift inside like a wide AP, giving a central front four! 👍 
• No DMC - without a DMC + with an ‘all over’ press, we get overrun in midfield + consistently concede goals from through balls 😡 

 
Player Performances
Antony finally performed! With 9 goals (6 in the league) from his MR / Winger role, he was our second-highest scorer!

Spoiler

Tactic Suitability
 2 stars (out of 5)

This tweaked tactic was good - but now performs poorly with the latest version of the FMM match engine.

Like the original Wrexham tactic - it’s nice that the Wingers drift inside ✅ to make a central front 4 … but the lack of a defensive midfielder 🔻means Man. United’s starting squad concede a lot of goals. 

Will this tactic get you fired? I don’t know. BUT you likely won’t succeed with it
 

Next
Will probably now test the newest + latest ‘welcome to Wrexham’ tactic from @DutchTony - which I think is the 3rd iteration of this tactic + should perform MUCH better.

Thoughts? 🙂 

Edited May 6, 2023 by DanEnglish

[Mike Dodgson]

You should definitely try this one - the best tactic out there in my opinion. Just don't start Maguire, the defensive line needs to be fast! 

 

[DanEnglish]

Teaser

Am testing the @DutchTony ‘updated + great again’ Welcome to Wrexham 442.

Good news - we have had a FANTASTIC start 🔥 

 
Including these 3 great scorelines …

Spoiler

… but can it continue?!  😵

[DutchTony]

48 minutes ago, DanEnglish said:

Teaser

Am testing the @DutchTony ‘updated + great again’ Welcome to Wrexham 442.

Good news - we have had a FANTASTIC start 🔥 

 
Including these 3 great scorelines …

  Hide contents

… but can it continue?!  😵

I'm guessing it doesn't continue 😂

[DanEnglish]

4 hours ago, DutchTony said:

I'm guessing it doesn't continue 😂

I don’t know yet myself - as haven’t played any more games, but I am SERIOUSLY IMPRESSED with this so far. It’s very high scoring. Lots of rebound goals as well with often 4+ of our players in the box.

[DutchTony]

15 minutes ago, DanEnglish said:

I don’t know yet myself - as haven’t played any more games, but I am SERIOUSLY IMPRESSED with this so far. It’s very high scoring. Lots of rebound goals as well with often 4+ of our players in the box.

Ah fair enough. I was expecting it to turn to sour immediately after the results you posted 😂

[DanEnglish]

Just now, DutchTony said:

Ah fair enough. I was expecting it to turn to sour immediately after the results you posted 😂

Yes I do have a habit of doing that 😄

[DanEnglish]

On 06/05/2023 at 15:41, DanEnglish said:

Teaser

Am testing the @DutchTony ‘updated + great again’ Welcome to Wrexham 442.

This tactic is ridiculously effective 👍 so far

Edited May 7, 2023 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Tactic 08: @DutchTony
Updated + Great Again
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442

⛔️ warning - this tactic is very good ⛔️ 
 

@DutchTony shared this as an ‘updated & great again’ version of the original @MarkD ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ - specifically for the ‘Final Winter Update’. 

 
 

The Tactic
Available <here> - a normal looking 442 - BUT with man-marking (!), a BWM (!!) and wingers which move centrally as STs (!!!) - all on OVERLOAD 😵 

Spoiler

Overload mentality, fast + expressive. Wow!

The narrow width causes the two Wingers to move inside into ST positions!

 

A normal defensive line mean slightly slower defenders (12-14 pace) should be ok 👍 especially with the offside trap on!

 
Where are all the instructions?! 🙂 👍 plus short central passing makes sense 👍 

 
Also note that man-marking is setup for 3 players (in purple below) - which is unusual for plug + play tactics … it works well - except against Chelsea’s crazy 4312 😢   

Note - this test did NOT follow 1 suggestion from @DutchTony - so you may get better results if you do:

• ❌ we did not setup his suggested specific corner tactic - ours was left as ‘default’    

 
The Team
To ensure a fairer test / comparison - we used the same front 6 as the previous ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ variations…

Spoiler

… so this test did NOT follow another 2 more suggestions from @DutchTony - where you could get better results:

1. ❌ Suggestion: play converted FBs as Wingers - instead we played attackers as Wingers (Bruno Fernandes + Antony) on their inverted sides (as they move inside).
    
2. ❌ Suggestion: sub off 5 of your front 6 in the mid-second half - instead we kept the same first XI for all games (using the editor to max morale + fitness). 

Team Results
This tactic shines in two areas. First it has the 2nd highest points performance so far (2.4 points / game) 🔥  …

… plus it has the 1st highest goals scored (a HUGE 2.5 goals per game, 25% more than any other tactic tested so far) 🔥 Just so many goals!

Spoiler

League
All comparisons vs the original Black Hawk tactic.

• ✅ 34 points in 16 games is good - two points less than the Black Hawk, after playing a game more.
• 2.1 points per league game -a little less than the Black Hawk’s 2.4 per game.
• 🔥 a HUGE 38 goals scored - widely above Black Hawk’s 22.
• 🔻 unfortunately 14 conceded - many more than the Black Hawk’s 4 conceded.

 
 

Europe

• Max 18 points from 6 games. Easy.
• 18 scored + just 2 conceded. Very easy.

 
 

All Fixtures

• An impressive 2.4 points per game (similar to Black Hawk’s 2.5) 
• HUGE 2.5 goals scored per game (massively above the 2.0 best from any tactic so far) 
• Conceded 0.7 goals per game - above the 0.3 to 0.4 defensively best tactics tested.
• Overall 17 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses

 

Similar to the Black Hawk tactic - one impressive aspects is how half of the matches were ‘dominant wins’ …

• *most* 12 dominant wins (by 2+ goals)
• 5 narrow wins
• 4 draws
• 1 narrow loss
• 1 humiliating loss (by 2+ goals)

 
Big Games
Impressively, we only conceded 11 goals in 22 games (0.5 / game) … 

… then this happened vs Chelsea’s crazy 4312 formation. Ouch!

Generally the tactic sometimes struggles to score goals against stronger opposition + it 

Spoiler

Beating Arsenal 4-0 was great …

… we somehow drew with Liverpool 😅  … 

… but surprisingly we just couldn’t score against Spurs.

 

Tactical Observations
⚠️ Firstly, we lost 6 league points from throwing away a 2 goal lead. ↗️ Advice: so you may want to tweak the tactic to protect a narrow lead - e.g. sub-off a ST, sub-on a DMC / Anchor.

Spoiler

Ouch!

🔥 Secondly, this scores goals in interesting ways:

Spoiler

• 🔥 Bruno scored 9 penalties (15% of goals scored) 🔥 That’s the same as with the original ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ tactic. This just be due to having 4 forwards (2 Wingers + 2 AFs). 
   
• 🔥 We scored so many rebounds (20-30%?) 🔥 having 4 forwards means so many opportunities after a blocked / saved shot. 
   
• 🔥 We scored so many long shots (another 20-30%) 🔥 particularly from just outside the box, in very central positions. Bruno got another ~11 goals from these! 

Most other goals were from ‘normal’ methods - through balls + one-on-ones ✅  … very few from crosses / corners 🔻
 

⚠️ Thirdly, this has low possession numbers - averaging 45% - only in 2 league games (of 16) did we reach 50%

⛔️ Lastly, there are many crosses WASTED - we had +85% wasted ↗️ Advice: better aerial STs should help!

Spoiler

We averaged 25 cross attempts / game, but only 4 / game succeeded in reaching our player (<15%) 😞 

Here’s 3 examples where we attempted +40 crosses each!

… and here’s that Chelsea 6-2 loss … 

 
 

Player Performances
Our two Wingers (on their wrong foot!) were FANTASTIC. However full-back Dalot continues to disappoint.

Spoiler

Keeper
One of De Tea’s lower average ratings + with no MotM awards. Still decent thought.

 
Defenders
Varane + Shaw played well with +7.2 average ratings. Martinez was ‘ok’ and made passing errors in sone games.

Dalot was poor AGAIN 🔻 thankfully he gets better as his attributes develop over time.

  
Midfield / Attack
Surprisingly, Casemiro performed poorly as a BWM 🔻am not sure why

Our stars were:

•  MR / Winger - Antony got 20 goal contributions in 23 games. He LOVES this role.
•  ML / Winger - excluding 9 penalties, Bruno Fernandes got 19 goal contributions. Lethal.
•  AF / Striker - Rashford had 21 goal contributions - mostly scoring. Clinical. 

None of them had high aerial - which makes it even more interesting. 
 

Tactic Suitability
 4.5 stars (out of 5)

A 442 doesn’t feel that suitable for Man. United’s current squad (no transfers), but I think you can make it work 👍 

This tactic has some defensive weaknesses - but it’s attacking firepower is exceptional, scoring more goals than any other tactic tested so far.

Great tactic @DutchTony it’s officially ‘recommended’!

 
 

Thoughts? 🙂 

Edited May 8, 2023 by DanEnglish

[DutchTony]

27 minutes ago, DanEnglish said:

Tactic 08: @DutchTony
Updated + Great Again
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442

⛔️ warning - this tactic is very good ⛔️ 
 

@DutchTony shared this as an ‘updated & great again’ version of the original @MarkD ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ - specifically for the ‘Final Winter Update’. 

 
 

The Tactic
Available <here> - a normal looking 442 - BUT with man-marking (!), a BWM (!!) and wingers which move centrally as STs (!!!) - all on OVERLOAD 😵 

  Hide contents

Overload mentality, fast + expressive. Wow!

The narrow width causes the two Wingers to move inside into ST positions!

 

A normal defensive line mean slightly slower defenders (12-14 pace) should be ok 👍 especially with the offside trap on!

 
Where are all the instructions?! 🙂 👍 plus short central passing makes sense 👍 

 
Also note that man-marking is setup for 3 players (in purple below) - which is unusual for plug + play tactics … it works well - except against Chelsea’s crazy 4312 😢   

Note - this test did NOT follow 1 suggestion from @DutchTony - so you may get better results if you do:

• ❌ we did not setup his suggested specific corner tactic - ours was left as ‘default’    

 
The Team
To ensure a fairer test / comparison - we used the same front 6 as the previous ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ variations…

  Hide contents

… so this test did NOT follow another 2 more suggestions from @DutchTony - where you could get better results:

1. ❌ Suggestion: play converted FBs as Wingers - instead we played attackers as Wingers (Bruno Fernandes + Antony) on their inverted sides (as they move inside).
    
2. ❌ Suggestion: sub off 5 of your front 6 in the mid-second half - instead we kept the same first XI for all games (using the editor to max morale + fitness). 

Team Results
This tactic shines in two areas. First it has the 2nd highest points performance so far (2.4 points / game) 🔥  …

… plus it has the 1st highest goals scored (a HUGE 2.5 goals per game, 25% more than any other tactic tested so far) 🔥 Just so many goals!

  Hide contents

League
All comparisons vs the original Black Hawk tactic.

• ✅ 34 points in 16 games is good - two points less than the Black Hawk, after playing a game more.
• 2.1 points per league game -a little less than the Black Hawk’s 2.4 per game.
• 🔥 a HUGE 38 goals scored - widely above Black Hawk’s 22.
• 🔻 unfortunately 14 conceded - many more than the Black Hawk’s 4 conceded.

 
 

Europe
<>

• Max 18 points from 6 games. Easy.
• 18 scored + just 2 conceded. Very easy.

 
 

All Fixtures

• An impressive 2.4 points per game (similar to Black Hawk’s 2.5) 
• HUGE 2.5 goals scored per game (massively above the 2.0 best from any tactic so far) 
• Conceded 0.7 goals per game - above the 0.3 to 0.4 defensively best tactics tested.
• Overall 17 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses

 

Similar to the Black Hawk tactic - one impressive aspects is how half of the matches were ‘dominant wins’ …

 

• *most* 12 dominant wins (by 2+ goals)
• 5 narrow wins
• 4 draws
• 1 narrow loss
• 1 humiliating loss (by 2+ goals)

 
Big Games
<will edit in later today>

  Hide contents

 

Tactical Observations
<will edit in later today>

  Hide contents

 

 
Player Performances
<will edit in later today>

  Hide contents

 

Tactic Suitability
 4.5 stars (out of 5)

<will edit in later today>

Great tactic @DutchTony it’s officially ‘recommended’!

 
 

Thoughts? 🙂 

Wow I was definitely NOT expecting that 👏

[DutchTony]

I will be interested to see how Fernandes did goals and assists wise playing on the left and being right footed, and also how the strikers did seeing as they have very low heading.

This could potentially change how I see the tactic as I would always try to use well rounded strikers with at least 15 heading.

[DanEnglish]

2 hours ago, DutchTony said:

I will be interested to see how Fernandes did goals and assists wise playing on the left and being right footed, and also how the strikers did seeing as they have very low heading.

This could potentially change how I see the tactic as I would always try to use well rounded strikers with at least 15 heading.

Those are great questions!

Ive finished the post above now - does that answer it for you? 🙂 spoiler: Bruno on the left was very very good.

Edited May 8, 2023 by DanEnglish

[DutchTony]

1 hour ago, DanEnglish said:

Those are great questions!

Ive finished the post above now - does that answer it for you? 🙂 spoiler: Bruno on the left was very very good.

Some really interesting insights there. I'll definitely stick with having strikers with decent heading. I always use left footed wingers on the left and vice versa, however after seeing your results with the wingers getting so many goals and assists - as well as so many crosses, I may have to try and switch them to the 'wrong' foot.

Damn this makes me want to start a new career just to try it 😂

I almost forgot - the BWM always gets poor ratings in all my tests with this tactic. He is really effective though so I just ignore the ratings.

[DanEnglish]

Comparing Tactics 01-08: 
How do these tactics compare?

Comparing Tactics
Which of the 8 tactics tested so far work best? And why?!

 
Recommended Tactics
This gives us 2 recommended ‘plug + play’ tactics - which should lead you to success with Man Utd’s starting squad.

 
 

🔥 Black Hawk 🔥 
The original @Black Hawk 4123 tactic was a quest to make IFs great again.

Not perfect (only scored 1.5 goals per league game) but is very effective.

Spoiler

Performance:
With Man. United’s starting squad:

• ✅✅ Best points (2.5 per game)
• ✅ 2nd best goals scored (2.0 per game)
• ✅ 2nd lowest goals conceded (0.4 per game)
• ✅ Half it’s matches gave dominant wins (11 of 22)
• rating (4.5 out of 5)

 

🔥 Updated Wrexham 🔥 
This ‘updated + great again’ @DutchTony variation promised to make the ‘tactic … er … great again!

Also not perfect (slightly weaker defensively), but is very clinical in scoring many goals.

Spoiler

Performance: 
Again with Man. United’s starting squad:

• ✅ 2nd best points (2.4 per game)
• ✅✅  Best goals scored (HUGE 2.5 per game)
• Normal # goals conceded (0.7 per game)
• ✅ Half it’s matches gave dominant wins (12 of 23)
• rating (4.5 out of 5)

 

Thoughts? 🙂 

Edited May 9, 2023 by DanEnglish

[DanEnglish]

Tactic 08: @DutchTony
Updated + Great Again
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442

Welcome to the 'Analytics Hub'
our underground lair within the training ground, where we DELVE DEEPER into the tactic - to see how it works.

This is only our 2nd tested tactic to be “recommended” - with the 2nd best performance (2.4 points per game) + the MOST goals scored (2.5 goals per game).

… but WHY is it scoring more? And HOW can it be improved?! Let’s look …
 

🔴 SCORING
This tactic scored 2.4 goals per league game, and 2.9 in the cups (average 2.5). That’s much higher than the Black Hawk’s 1.5 goals per league game - why?!

Spoiler

WHY did we have so many penalties?!  

• Why? I think it’s from having 4 central attackers IN the box when attacking (2 Wingers + 2 AFs) - as the original Wrexham tactic had the same situation! 
   
• As 15% of our goals - this is the #1 reason why this updated Wrexham tactic scores more - penalties give an extra 0.3 goals per game vs the Black Hawk!

 
WHAT about the OTHER 85% of goals?! 

• Wow.
• That extra 10% of shots on target may make the remaining difference - another 0.2 goals [non-pen] per game vs the Black Hawk
• Why? I think these are from all the REBOUND goals - where we have four attackers in the box if a shot is blocked / partially savedZ

 
So WHO scored all these goals? 
~2 shots on target EACH (from the front 5, inc. our RP) - excluding penalties:

 

Wow. Rashford’s better finishing makes a big difference (15 of 20) max. I wonder if being the left-sided ST helped, as he can come into his stronger right foot … ? 
 

 
🔴 CROSSING
Wasting +85% of our 25 crosses each game - WHO are the ones crossing?

Spoiler

Our FBs provide 60% of our crosses. Ouch.

Another 30% from set pieces by Bruno Fernandes’, who also wastes +85%.

Remember - we had Fernandes + Antony as Wingers on their inverted foot - perhaps if you had Wingers on their natural foot, maybe they would cross more than once per game (excluding set pieces) … ?!
 

 
🔴 HEADING
Our front 4 all have poor aerial - so it’s not surprising that our crosses are wasted - right? And do our Wingers need high aerial, or just our Strikers?!

Spoiler

Our two STs each average 6 attempted headers each game, of which they only win ~1 each (a ~15% win rate) 🔻

So you do NOT need better aerial Wingers … but you DO need better aerial STs! ✅  

Remember - if you had STs with better aerial: 

• with a 50% win rate 
• that’s an extra 4 won headed opportunities every game between your two STs!
• 🔥 perhaps an extra 0.5 to 1 goals every game?! 🔥 
   

 🔴 PASSING
The <50% possession in most games is probably caused by the OVERLOAD mentality with expressive, fast passes

However how does the tactic's short & central passing work when using this 442 formation? 

Spoiler

Strikers:
Wow! They are barely involved in play - each attempting <10 passes every game.

Midfielders:

• The central pair are KEY to the team's passing - each attempting +30 passes / game, with high pass completion rates (+85%).
• The RP is particularly important to create chances - Eriksen averaged 4 key passes / game.
• Both Wingers were less involved in play - but important to create chances, playing a combined 3.5 key passes / game.  

Defenders:

• Again the central DCs are relatively important to the team's passing - each attempting +25 passes / game.
• Both FBs attempt fewer passes - probably because they each play 6 crosses / game!

Keeper:
This is TERRIBLE - the tactic has 'mixed' GK distribution, but that's leading to only a 33% pass completion rate.

• Suggest a change to 'short' GK distribution,
• OR upgrade to a GK with better kicking / throwing.

Alternatively - perhaps having better aerial STs would improve the GK’s pass completion % - as these STs are unlikely to win many long goal-kicks ?!
 

 
 🔴 SUMMARY
Overall it’s a highly attacking tactic which scores many goals 🔥 It was fun to test! This is ‘RECOMMENDED’

Suggestions:

Spoiler

Perhaps this would probably be EVEN MORE effective with:

• better aerial STs
• Bruno Fernandes as the central RP
• solving the poor GK distribution
• changing tactic against Chelsea’s crazy 4312 formation (I got ripped apart)l!)
• sometimes ‘parking the bus’ to protect a narrow lead (e.g. sub-off a ST, sub-on a DMC / Anchor)  

 
So @DutchTony tried to make the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442 great again. He succeeded 👍 

Thoughts? 🙂 

Edited May 9, 2023 by DanEnglish

[DutchTony]

1 hour ago, DanEnglish said:

Tactic 08: @DutchTony
Updated + Great Again
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ 442

Welcome to the 'Analytics Hub'
our underground lair within the training ground, where we DELVE DEEPER into the tactic - to see how it works.

This is only our 2nd tested tactic to be “recommended” - with the 2nd best performance (2.4 points per game) + the MOST goals scored (2.5 goals per game).

… but WHY is it scoring more? And HOW can it be improved?! Let’s look …
 

🔴 SCORING
This tactic scored 2.4 goals per league game, and 2.9 in the cups (average 2.5). That’s much higher than the Black Hawk’s 1.5 goals per league game - why?!

  Hide contents

9 penalties in 23 games
(+7 more than Black Hawk’s 2 penalties)

2.5 goals per game
(+0.5 vs Black Hawk’s 2.0 in all competitions)

WHY did we have so many penalties?!  

• Why? I think it’s from having 4 central attackers IN the box when attacking (2 Wingers + 2 AFs) - as the original Wrexham tactic had the same situation! 
   
• As 15% of our goals - this is the #1 reason why this updated Wrexham tactic scores more - penalties give an extra 0.3 goals per game vs the Black Hawk!

 
WHAT about the OTHER 85% of goals?! 

Excluding penalties:
2.1 goals [non-pen] / game (+0.2 vs Black Hawk) 
5.5 shots on target [non-pen] / game (+0.5)
50% shots on target % [non-pen] (+10%)

• Wow.
• That extra 10% of shots on target may make the remaining difference - another 0.2 goals [non-pen] per game vs the Black Hawk
• Why? I think these are from all the REBOUND goals - where we have four attackers in the box if a shot is blocked / partially savedZ

 
So WHO scored all these goals? 

~2 shots on target EACH (from the front 5, inc. our RP) - excluding penalties:

• Wingers’ 40% shots on target
• RP / Eriksen’s 50% 
• AF / Sancho’s 50% 
• 🔥 AF / Rashford’s 70% 🔥

Wow. Rashford’s better finishing makes a big difference (15 of 20) max. I wonder if being the left-sided ST helped, as he can come into his stronger right foot … ? 
 

 
🔴 CROSSING
Wasting +85% of our 25 crosses each game - WHO are the ones crossing?

  Hide contents

Our FBs provide 60% of our crosses

• DL Shaw - +8 crosses / game
• DR Dalot - +6 crosses
• ML Fernandes - 8 crosses (mostky set pieces)
• MR Antony - 1 cross
• All others - 1 cross or less

Another 30% from set pieces by Bruno Fernandes’, who also wastes +85%.

Remember - we had Fernandes + Antony as Wingers on their inverted foot.

If you had Wingers on their natural foot, maybe they would cross more than once per game (excluding set pieces) … ?!
 

 
🔴 HEADING
Our front 4 all have poor aerial - so it’s not surprising that our crosses are wasted - right? And do our Wingers need high aerial, or just our Strikers?!

  Hide contents

Our two STs each average 6 attempted headers each game, of which they only win ~1 each (a ~15% win rate) 🔻

• AF Rashford - 7 attempts, 1 won, ~15%
• AF Sancho - 5 attempts, 1 won, ~15%
• ML Fernandes - 1 attempt, 0 won
• MR Antony - 2 attempts, 0 won

So you do NOT need better aerial Wingers … but you DO need better aerial STs! ✅  

Remember - if you had STs with better aerial: 

• with a 50% win rate 
• that’s an extra 4 won headed opportunities every game between your two STs!
• 🔥 perhaps an extra 0.5 to 1 goals every game?! 🔥 

 

<will add more later>
 

Thoughts? 🙂 

This is a great explanation of how the tactic works. I fully agree that strikers with decent heading would make this tactic even better.

[DanEnglish]

1 hour ago, DutchTony said:

This is a great explanation of how the tactic works. I fully agree that strikers with decent heading would make this tactic even better.

👍

Would love your feedback on how to improve the team's passing & chance creation? As have just edited in a 'passing' section into my 'Analytics Hub' deep-dive post above - which is fascinating (in my humble opinion 🤣).

[DutchTony]

1 hour ago, DanEnglish said:

👍

Would love your feedback on how to improve the team's passing & chance creation? As have just edited in a 'passing' section into my 'Analytics Hub' deep-dive post above - which is fascinating (in my humble opinion 🤣).

Forgive me for being lazy here but I've basically cut and paste my advice from the tactic page 😂

Firstly the most painfully obvious but I'll say it anyway - Train, focus train and mentor the FB's and Wingers on crossing and the central defenders and strikers on heading. This tactic relies on crosses and headers.

In my experience with this tactic the most important player is the RP followed closely by the BWM. Both should be powerhouses.

Substitutions - I always tried to make the same substitutions every game - unless of course I have injuries. Around the 65 minute mark as long as my BWM was above 85% - which he usually was, I would change the other 3 midfielders and both strikers. This resulted in keeping control of the game and I generally seemed to scored near the end of the game as well. If my BWM was below 85% I would sub off the whole midfield and the less productive striker depending on fitness.

Corner Routine (which can be found in the tactic page) - The corner routine I used generated around 20 league goals directly from corners. I mainly used Kostic to take them who started on 19 crossing and very quickly went to 20. Both Van Dijk and Konate ended up on 19 heading and Goretzka stayed on 16 heading all season. Van Dijk and Konate both scored 6 goals each and Goretzka scored 5 or 6. There were a couple of others who would also pop up with a goal here and there but the 3 listed above were the main men. It goes without saying if you use this corner routine both defenders and both central midfielders need to have high heading.

Man Marking - It's a must. Well for me anyway. Make sure both central defenders and the BWM have man marking switched on.

A note regarding wingers - I ran a few different tests over various amounts of time on the types of players to use on the wings. I did find generally that converting FB's/WB's (with good crossing) to wingers works really well for this tactic. The defensive attributes they have seem to make the team perform much better. The exception to this - for me at least, is Kostic. Yes he's only got 9 tackling and 11 positioning but he just performs so well. More on him below.

Player recommendations for half decent teams - Kostic! You can get him at the start for a maximum for 12.75M using the 50% sell on feature. You can actually get him cheaper if you haggle a bit - I ended up getting him for 9.25M plus 50% sell on but if you don't haggle then 12.75M for someone who will have 20 crossing in a month or so is such a bargain. In 41 games (where he played roughly 65 minutes) he got 22 assists and scored 6 goals.

This tactic gets even better as the season progresses. I had played 11 league games and conceded something like 5 goals and then I went on a run of 19 league games conceding 0 goals. In the test at the top I only conceded 7 league goals all season and in the final game away to Spurs I won 4-3 which took my conceded goals to 10.

@DanEnglish I 100% agree with some of your suggestions.

Strikers with good heading will make this tactic work even better.

Fernandes as a central RP is absolutely amazing.

Parking the bus is definitely an option. I didn't do that in the test above however I have when I played as lesser teams and it works well. I have a crazy defensive 532 I use to see the game out if I'm only leading by 1 goal and I'll switch to it from around 85 minutes.