Return to AZ: From Hero to Villan

December 1, 2023

I’ve eluded to the fact that I took a good 8-9 month break from Football Manager for the first time in my life. It was weird, but good. Now that I’m so heavily invested in it again I’ve picked up a lot of old, bad habits - like writing this blog during work hours. It’s a luxury I can afford providing I’m willing to pay the price on another day. But hey, life is for living right?

Since my last post a lot has happened. Two seasons as it goes. I used to write blogs at certain milestones within a save but more often of late I’ve felt I need more narrative or reason to write. Typically I’ll churn out a number of these after the release of a new FM then slowly seep back into anonymity…(insert Homer Simpson hedge GIF).

I’m hoping things will be a little different this time around. I’m providing regular updates in my #edlassoFM slack channel (sign up here) but appreciate that things can move quite quickly in my FM world - I’m hoping I can keep everyone up to date one way or another.

So let’s begin.

Season 2 - Did we evolve?

I last wrote about evolving this AZ side via both recruitment and tactics. Early signs were promising as we got to the halfway stage of season 2 top of the league but only by a point over Feyenoord. We hit top of the league in matchday 16…

…and never budged from top spot. It went right down to the last game of the season with Feyenoord beating us in matchday 32, our form stuttered as we sensed the finish line but a final day 6-1 thrashing of PEC Zwolle brought the trophy home and our domestic goal tally to 100.

Our system of attacking as a front 5 was really enjoyable to watch on a number of occasions and the statistics at the end of the season backed up our progress on the pitch.

Key Player - Luka Vrbančić

We had a lot of good performers this season, obviously. Iván Azón ended the season top scorer bagging 22 goals from 24 games in the league and 31 in 38 all comps. Solbakken was the heart of our midfield alongside Redondo. But the man whole stood out the most was Luka Vrbančić and you can see why below:

Deployed as a Shadow Striker, in 9 Eredivisie starts (11 substitute appearances) he notched up 7 goals and 7 assists, he was truly a class above this season and do you know the worst thing about it? I only picked him in my starting line ups in the final third of the season due to good form of Ondrej Lingr. Oh what could have been.

We also had our first foray into the Champions League and the new format, I’m still not sure what to make of it but it’s not terrible. We overperformed slightly, making it to the Last 16 where we ultimately came unstuck against a much stronger Inter Milan side 5-3 on aggregate.

Season 3

So we’d overcome the might of Ajax, PSV & Feyenoord to win the Eredivisie, about 4 years ahead of schedule according to my board expectations and I’d argue at least one season ahead of where I thought we’d be. Too much success too soon in Football Manager can be a negative thing for me (and seems to happen more often of late). Had I taken this team as far as they could go already? I figured I had at least another season in me.

Summer of 2025

This was a frustrating summer. A LOT of missed targets, but, when you’re AZ and not Arsenal then it’s to be expected I guess. It’s just bloody annoying.

The summer saw two major outgoings: Ruben Van Bommel to Sp*rs for £60m and Markus Solbakken to Man City for £15m. Van Bommel was really beginning to become an incredibly consistent performer and, at 20 years old with ‘wonderkid’ status, it was only a matter of time before a large bid came in. The sort of money I don’t refuse when playing the game. Solbakken would have commanded a similar fee but for the damn release clause I’d forgotten was in his contract. Every top club bid for him this summer and he chose City where he’ll no doubt follow in Kalvin Phillips’ footsteps.

The major coup for me was the signing of Alberto Moleiro from Las Palmas for £17.25m. He rejected at handful of Premier League clubs & some noteable European heavyweights to join us.

Able to play across the front line and with the reshuffling internally I was having to with the loss of Solbakken, I envisaged Moleiro becoming my king Shadow Striker with Vrbančić dropping into the DLP-S role - in hindsight it probably didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.

Last season we won the league with 84 points, Ajax were brilliant this season of course and it was always going to be a challenge to win back-to-back titles but this really did feel like a kick in the teeth and a defining moment. Our GD was +4 better than last season but our tactic wasn’t as smooth and more and more I found myself making constant tweaks to our system. We started the season relatively poorly and I got quite down on myself about it but, taking a step back to look into the whys is always helpful. Some analysis and more deliberate tweaks allowed us to have a strong second half of the season but we ultimately came up short.

A shining light of this season was a true AZ lad through and through - Myron van Brederode.

Player of the season. 44 apps across all competitions, 19 goals and 17 assists averaging 7.46. He replaced van Bommel and then some. Really made the AMR role his own - I mean just look at that lovely graph above.

From Hero to Villan

Like an itch I had to scratch something within told me my time at AZ was up. The board and fans were harsh in their C+ assessment of my season, Mat Ryan got his mates round to blame me for not winning the title and I was thinking maybe these are signs I need to move on. I didn’t resign but kept moving forwards in the game and I could see my task would be made even more difficult next season. Large bids came in for Iván Azón who was sold to Napoli for £60m and Taylor Harwood-Bellis went to Bayern for £37m and a host of others wanted to leave for ‘bigger’ clubs. With a few bids rejected morale was at an all time low.

So I cast my eyes away from AZ to what opportunities may present me elsewhere. I always want to join a team where I’ve got a clear vision of what I may be able to do with them over 3/4 seasons. I don’t want to take over a team that can instantly challenge for all honours (well, not intentionally anyway).

So in the summer of 2026 I was approached to interview for the Man Utd job, I was sceptical for a number of reasons of course but in the end they hired Didier Deschamps. And where did they hire him from? Aston Villa. Which, ladies and gentlemen, is where Ed Lasso now resides as manager (so no, it wasn’t a typo in the blog title!).

£100m in the red & 300k over our wage budget I wondered what I’d got myself in for. Yet our squad is fairly sound, expectations are low for season 1 and we’ve the Europa League to contest in so I’m excited to see how we fare against the might of the Premier League. Another reason to leave is I wanted to try a different tactical system out and felt I’d struggle to shoehorn my AZ squad into it given the players at my disposal.

But for how things are progressing at Aston Villa, you’ll just have to wait and see. The Return to AZ may feel short but sweet but enjoyable nonetheless. From Hero to Villan is our next chapter.

Until next time!

Return to AZ: Evolving - Part 1 - Recruitment

November 12, 2023

So season 1 ended on a very positive note. 2nd placed finish in the league, Champions League football secured and to top it all off we won the Europa Conference League. You can catch up on all of that here.

As the players jet off on their well deserved holidays I ask myself ‘how do we ensure we don’t stagnate and progress to yet another level?’ We will find European football far tougher this coming season - our current squad as it is will be a year older, wiser and in a lot of cases ‘better’ than last season, but I can’t just rely on that to take us to the next level.

So during pre-season I need to set out what my targets are for next season, what does evolution of this squad look like? I decided we need to evolve both tactically and in terms of personnel. The tactics come first of course, how can you properly recruit for players if you don’t know what role they’ll play or what you’ll ask of them? Having a defined style of way of playing is usually something I struggle with so I made it my key focus.

As I write this post we are 5 games into the new season, the tactical evolution blog will follow this one even though I settled on our tactics beforehand…simply because I need more time to analyse it and the players need more time playing it. So for now, let’s focus on how I approached recruitment ahead of season 2.

Rewind 6 Months

Believe it or not I started considering the next stage of evolution at AZ back in the January transfer window. I had an idea of a new system I wanted to deploy (to better allow us to utilise positional play) so I kept an eye on scouting reports and created specific recruitment focuses on the types of ‘new players’ I’d like to have in the squad.

On the left we have the system we finished our first season on and on the right the new one I’d be thinking about for a while. So the main new/different roles are:

Left back (FB-A to IWB-S)
Right back (FB-A to IFB-D)
Central midfield (CM-S to Defensive Midfield VOL-A)

You’ll see I’ve also made a few other tweaks to roles but those will be covered in Part 2 - Tactics.

When I took over at AZ I picked a tactic that suited the skillset of the players I had at my disposal, but now, after a year in charge, I feel it’s time to stamp more of my authority on how I want the team to play. When I focused on recruitment it was with a view to overload central areas with 5 players in an unpredictable way, with runs from deep and wide forwards cutting inside I wanted to see if this would sew chaos in opposition defences. Will it? I bloody hope so.

Left Back - IWB-S

The first signing in this position was almost accidental - an agent offered me the player for £1.5m and, given his age and profile, I was sold. In came Edvard Tagesth in January (loaned back to his previous club till the end of the season. I know FMSamo is a keen admirer.

I really hate it when there are down arrows when you need a screenshot…

Able to operate in a number of positions, Tagseth will most often be deployed in the IWB-S role and has solid attributes where they’re needed. Concentration is a little low so I hope to improve that but he’s young and will get better. This role will move into the DM strata in possession and he’s already a natural operating in those spaces.

Within my squad I have two very natural wing backs in Mees De Wit and David Møller Wolfe - I envisaged offloading De Wit & bringing in a rotation option with Tagseth BUT I also needed cover at centre back going into the new season. So, could I not kill two birds with one stone? (those poor birds, that’s really not a nice saying when you write it down…)

So this new DL/DC player needed to be a number of things:

Left footed
Versatile (ideally natural at DC and DL)
Solid in a number of attributes; namely heading, marking, tackling, anticipation, concentration, decisions and passing
Young-ish (club philosophy is to sign no one 30 and over).

I factored the above into a player search filter and came up with the players below:

Boyomo - solid all-rounder, not naturally left footed and ‘tries to play way out of trouble’ does scare me as a player trait…transfer fee and wages are high

Pirola - 100% first choice, great attributes, left footed, aggressive and strong to boot, but Salernitana wanted over £10m and wage demands look steep

Smolčić - similar profile to Pirola and yet available for less than £5m…

I tried my luck with Pirola but his wage demands were stupid and he ended up joining Torino for £12m and sits on £39k p/w. In context, before I signed Redondo on £24k p/w (more on him soon) my highest earner was on £11k p/w!

So Smolčić was the obvious choice, similar profile and infinitely cheaper. He joined for £3.9m & £17.5k p/w.

Defensive Midfield - VOL (A)

Briefly mentioned above, Fernando Redondo joined us for £5.5m from Argentinos Juniors. My scouting team had picked him out around January time but I didn’t go for him until the end of the season due to his wage demands - I wanted to ensure we had Champions League football to cover the large jump in wages that we’ll need to pay. He’s totally worth it though.

I had originally marked him as my central midfielder on support role but he has all the attributes required to perform the Segunto Volante role. No secret to his recruitment - just my scouts looking in Argentina, available fairly cheap - thank-you very much.

Right Back - IFB-D

Recruitment can be a done a number of different ways; scouts returning their recommendations, agents offering their players around, me personally scouring squads to find hidden gems, people utilising statistics.

And then sometimes, there’s the internal solution - say hello to Alexandre Penetra.

Penetra spent all of last season at centre back where he was pretty solid on the whole - yet the fact that he’s a natural IFB-D meant I knew I had a ready made player for that role once my tactical shift was confirmed. Sugawara was my flying full back last season but then I sold him for £47m - knowing full well I didn’t need to replace him. Penetra is perfectly suited to this new role.

Any other business?

Now, I know I just said I didn’t need to replace Sugawara, but sometimes I’m susceptible to impulsive purchases on FM and Gastón Martirena was one such buy. I like the look of him on the surface, he was cheap, but I’ve a nagging feeling he’s going to be a pain in the arse.

Another was Markus Solbakken who I actually signed in January but have failed to mention until now. Brought in as a backup to the ageing Jordie Clasie he mainly operates as my DLP but would no doubt perform competently as my VOL-A if required.

Finally, in came Ondřej Lingr as a Shadow Striker - again a role I wanted some more depth in and he’ll rotate with Sven Mijnans.

All 3 of the purchases above I found and made through specifically filtered player searches using attributes I like to see in each of their roles. They were all fairly cheap and on reasonable wages as well.

That’s it for this recruitment post - I’ll be back with Part 2 - Tactics once I’ve progressed further into season 2. Here’s to the evolution!

Return to AZ: de League, de Cup, de Wit, depressed

November 6, 2023

It’s been a good 7-8 months since I last played Football Manager properly, the break was the first in over 20 years for me and it was a little strange, but ultimately for the better I think as my urge to get back into FM with FM24 approaching was at an all time high.

So where to manage? Ever one of most difficult questions an FMer can ask themselves - I bandied around a few ideas; manage Oviedo during the return of their prodigal son Santi Cazorla? A venture to Belgium? Alas, I eventually decided to return to manage AZ, home of a great save of mine around 6 years ago. The reasons then were the same as they are now…

Exciting, young squad of players
Great facilities
Challenge of topping 2/3 bigger & better sides in Feyenoord, PSV & Ajax
Bonus perk of starting in a lower European competition

Unlike previous years of FM I didn’t indulge in any saves before my main save…no tactical experiments, I was going straight into the deep end & hoped I’d find my feet as I went. Playing on comprehensive highlights for the most part I utilised pre-season friendlies to set up a tactic that suited the players I had at hand, I don’t really have a system I wanted to impart on my players, rather find a system that suited their abilities - I settled on a 4-3-3 DM system to begin with.

FM24 has brought in ‘positional play’. You could argue it should have been there already given the variety of roles we’ve had the displeasure of using but here we are. This means that players in certain roles will force neighbouring players to adapt their position on the pitch - more akin to real life. My system was quite traditional in the sense that the only role that would come under this new feature was my CM-A.

We started the season well, picking up good results including a 1-0 win away at Ajax. I’d made a few tweaks here and there but largely the system was effective - utilising my wide target men and attacking full backs. The CM-A role was fun to watch at times as it bombed past my DLF but there was something missing. My front 3 were disjointed, the wide target men were completely ineffective in build up (and rarely were on the end of crosses, despite all being at least 6’2’’), it’s an itch I felt I had to scratch, a bit of change was needed.

Despite adopting a high pressing intensity & high forward line the midfielders rarely pressed into the AM strata allowing opposition easy possession at times, albeit in deep positions. So I shifted to this:

Essentially the side shift up the pitch and we’ve two central players pressing higher up rather than one. My wide men looked so much better in the inside forward roles (some lovely arcing runs between full backs and centre halves), but the best thing to come out of this tactic was the shadow striker role, or maybe it was just Dani de Wit.

de Wit de Woo (look at those mental attributes…!)

From January (ish) onwards he helped take us to another level. Ending the season with 21 goals in 38 games although it was likely 21 goals from around 25 games as a shadow striker. Transformational.

League & Europe

So I should say now that I finished my first season back at AZ, it was quite a good one.

A very respectful 2nd place, just holding off PSV but never really challenging Feyenoord who comfortably beat us home and away. It sees us head into the Champions League, which is a great achievement in itself and also much needed because the other European competitions are too easy. Right?

Guys, the Europa Conference League is actually quite fun, especially on FM. I loved the selection of teams and countries represented. Look at our fixtures for example:

We faced 9 teams from 9 different countries and went on to win the whole bloody thing. The best result by far was the 7-1 home hammering of Fiorentina after losing (deservedly) in Italy. A certain D. de Wit scoring 4 goals & assisting another in a perfect 10 performance to put the icing on the cake of his season.

The final wasn’t fun mind you. Villa battered us and had more than double our xG but they faced an in form, lover of big games, Mat Ryan in goal who threw in an 8.1 MOTM performance to help us to a smash and grab trophy win. Glorious.

What about those youngsters?

Ah yes, the foundations of why I chose AZ…the youngsters were great. Maxim Dekker in defence, Van Brederode wide left in particular. But the one that really stood out was Ruben van Bommel (son of the famous Mark indeed).

Developing at a rate of knots I finally found a role he thrived in - IF(A) from AMR, he made it his own & was brilliant for us. It’s just a shame he missed a 1/3 or the season through injury. That didn’t stop him from winning a prestigious award mind you.

Very pleasing indeed.

So why the ‘depressed’ in the blog title?!

Why oh why…why oh why the fuck didn’t I think de Wit was this good? Why didn’t I see it coming? Why didn’t I appreciate those mental attributes earlier? As it is his contract was up at the end of the season, I didn’t react quickly enough and he chose to join Gladback, on a free. The fact that he went on to play his best football ever is quite something. A little like Xhaka before he moved to Leverkusen…

He’s going to be really hard to replace in that shadow striker role and those mentals…it’s made me prioritise those attributes above others moving forwards - I think they’ve made such a difference.

So what’s next?

The summer transfer window approacheth and as is often the case with a good young team that overachieved the vultures are circling, have circled and in one case snatched away a prized asset. Not long after the cup final ended Sugwara asked me if he could bugger off and with only 12 months on his contract I duly obliged to humour him. To the tune of 47 million fucking quid. Thankyou very much Chelsea. He was an awesome player mind you.

A record sale for the Dutch league by a country mile and money I’m hoping to reinvest into quite a few players, it’s an exciting time. We need to improve ahead of a Champions League campaign (in the new format) as well as closing the gap on Feyenoord. Roll on season 2.

For more day-to-day updates on this save please do join my Slack channel then find #edlassofm or follow me @CoffeePodFM on Twitter - oh yeah I podcast again now so no doubt they’ll be plenty more insight from this save on the airwaves in the weeks and months to come.