It’s been 6 ‘FM’ months since my life began anew in Argentina with IACC and it’s safe to say it’s not all been plain sailing. We’re 20 games in now with potentially the same amount of matches to come - so I felt it time to take stock and update everyone on how Ed Lasso has fared in his maiden management role in South America.

Let’s jump right in to where we are today and then maybe work our way backwards as to how we arrived there. Destination before journey right? Results are as below and you can see how consistency has been extremely hard to come by.

Getting your season off to a 2-0 loss is never the way anyone wants to start. We recovered immaculately with 3 back to back wins propelling us up to 2nd place, however, our lofty heights were short lived as we promptly went on a run of no wins in 8, losing 5.

We all play FM differently. In games past I’ve found a system I enjoy quite quickly and will then often play many matches on key highlights - therefore progressing quite quickly. This year I’ve decided to be a little more reserved in my speed of play and I watched the first 10 games or so on comprehensive highlights. The plan was to watch more closely how my side would play game to game so that I can hopefully find areas of strength and weakness and tweak the tactic accordingly.

In hindsight this had both a positive and negative impact both on myself and my team. During the run of 0 wins in 8 games the football we played was absolutely dire to watch. Atrocious. Awful. Shocking. Insert any synonym here and you’ve nailed it. We were still playing the 4-3-1-2 that had started the season fairly well but all of a sudden (seemingly) the system and the team had fallen apart. Watching dreadful performances on comprehensive highlights really is not a fun FM experience. I wouldn’t recommend it.

During this poor run of games I made a number of tweaks based off of what I saw; our back line was moved lower, more positive mentality, attempting to trap the opposition centrally with our press. It got to the point where I’d made so many tweaks I lost sight of what I was actually trying to achieve. I reverted back to the ‘vanilla’ tactic for the huge derby game against Belgrano. We promptly lost 2-0, comfortably, and I knew something had to give.

One of my key focuses was to retain the AMC role for my Dybala narrative - I wanted this role to be the creative hub of my side (like Dybala had been for me in FM’s of the past) but knew that my ‘narrow’ setup wasn’t fulfilling the vision I had in my head. So we moved to the below:

I used a ‘control possession’ system as my base & then made some tweaks. It proved to be a good decision as we’ve gone on to lose only 1 of our next 9 matches all played with this system. Watching on extended highlights we looked like a team transformed straight away. Positionally more astute and in a system that better suited the players at my disposal performances were so much better and more enjoyable to watch. It’s not perfect, far from it. But progress has been made and it’s been far from a comfortable journey to get here. At least now I have hope for the rest of the season. That is if I avoid looking at our finances…

We started the game with nothing and now have a lot less. A slight overspend on wages is due to the contract renewals I was able to do. A large portion of our squad still have expiring contracts at the end of the current season and without promotion I can only imagine our financial outlook is incredibly bleak. But how am I supposed to make any money? That question leads me to answers I really don’t like #sellalltheplayers

League Table

A snapshot of the top half of the table paints things in a fairly positive light. Our expectations are to finish in the playoffs which is the top 13 clubs after 36 games. We are on track but the table is just so damn tight it changes so quickly. A few wins can move you up 10 places whilst a few losses can see you drop the same amount. I’d love to find some consistency in results but as things stand all I can manage is to be consistently inconsistent.

La Nueva Joya

As outlined in my first blog I’m on the hunt for the next Dybala and I’m hopeful I can bring one through the ranks here like IACC did all those years ago. A positive about Argentina and their season starting early in the calendar year means this message pops up nice and early -

Two elite talents it says yet I’m not convinced by Perez at all. Lima does interest me though - able to play in the AMC role (I’m training him there now at double intensity) he’s diminutive like Dybala, has great flair & definitely some foundations to mould over the coming seasons that may see him become a key player for us. A one in a million talent? I’m not sure. But I’ll be watching his progress closely. I do also love that he is ‘Driven’ and two footed.

Franco Watson

I highlighted Franco out in my previous post as our best player and someone who I wanted to build our tactic around. If anything this has probably been one element that he gone fairly well so far. He’s one of our top performers & is producing some really good metrics compared to other performers in the league.

As you can see he’s been nice and creative & with 7 assists so far this season is outperforming the majority of other midfielders in the league so far. There’s definitely been multiple occasions where if my strikers were better than they are he’d easily be into double figures.

Franco still operatives in the AP-S role at AMC & I’m content to persist with this for the remainder of the season. I’d love for us to be more clinical up front to make the most of Franco’s creativity. Oh and he’s learned the trait ‘tries killer balls often’ which is just lovely.

The Jury’s Still Out

So it seems the jury is still out for Ed Lasso and life in Argentina. I’m glad we recovered from that awful winless streak and hope we can consolidate a top 13 finish ahead of the playoffs. There’s still a hell of a long way to go.

Watch out for Volume 002 of The Daily Clap that will follow this blog in due course. If you missed the first offering then find it here.