Bonjour Readers,

I’m still at AS Monaco, but it’s no longer CM4 and I am no longer trying to be Matthew Perry in ‘17 Again’. Instead, it's a 37-year-old me with FM24 and a 2007/08 retro database (originally from FM2008). This is all made possible by TheMadScientist (themadscientistfm.wixsite.com), a content creator that devotes his working life to inputting past values into the FM Editor until his eyes bleed.

Why AS Monaco, again?

It was probably the FM before it (FM07), where I had Jan Koller doing all kinds of crazy things for a Monaco save played at University back in 2006-2007ish.  Back then, there was a near post bug which meant I could use Koller for 45 mins upfront, see him score a few times from corners…before slotting him back in a back three system to shore up the win. He rarely lost an aerial duel.

Anyway, I digress, the cold Winter nights are back too and I’ve relapsed into downloading FM24 back onto my Mac Mini. Whilst CM4 was good for a one-season fling, it was buggy and I missed Positional Play. Positional Play is the main driving factor for me wanting to play the latest edition of the game again. I cannot say enough good things about its addition this year. It still feels as fresh now as it once did back in October 2023.

I therefore come back to FM24 with two objectives from this save:

1. Revisit the Target Forward role in FM24, with perhaps the best-ever fit in any FM game: 100kg Jan Koller.

2. Start with a 4231 base shape (as a throwback to my CM4 series I just did with Monaco)...but get a nice 325 in possession through Positional Play.

The overall aim is simple: match the CM4 playthrough whereby I win Ligue 1 with the league’s top scorer. For a stretch goal, that’s 49-goal Shabani Nonda!

Target Forward - my thinking

Like many other FM writers, I am a huge fan of keeping it simple from a tactics point of view. Jan Koller requires two main things in order to be successful as a Target Forward: Supply and Demand.

Supply - How do we get the ball to our Target Forward?

• A Target Forward needs a constant supply of aerial balls. The roles that cross often are Full/Wing Backs and Wingers. I’ll take one of each and place them on opposite sides of my tactic to vary crossing location and style.

• As a result, it makes sense to ask the team to play wide. The theory is to go outside before you supply the Target Forward with a cross.

• Lastly, we’ll play for set pieces. This gives us a natural reset point for the team, so that we can re-position and once again supply our Target Forward and build off from him.

Demand - Once supplied with the ball, who demands the ball from our Target Forward?

• The above is all about increasing the frequency of balls into the Target Forward. But I also need to think about the demand from my side when he does have the ball. The Target Forward is a very simple role, it will not pick up the ball and break into the channels. Instead, the role will lay it off to onrushing teammates. This is covered through the use of player roles in my tactic that act as runners off him. This is primarily a Shadow Striker in the AMC position, and the other two advanced attackers: a Winger and an Advanced Playmaker.  There is also a central runner in the Segundo Volante…who acts as a vital link between those at the base of our team and the attack.

• A Team Instruction added in the preliminary months of Ligue 1 was to bring more demand out of the team via the Counter instruction.  When we have the ball, I want numbers regularly getting forward to benefit from the Target Forward’s hold up play and simple distribution.

The Tactic

Player Roles + Positional Play

Our defensive shape is 4231, two Defensive Midfielders shielding a back four means we are resistant to the opposition trying to play through us centrally. Once with the ball, we morph into a back three where the Half-Back becomes a left sided centre-back.  The knock-on here is that I give an attacking role to my Full Back, knowing he has defensive cover nearby. The same could be said for the Segundo Volante who pushes up to link with the attack with an Inverted Wing Back taking his place to act as a DM pivot. More often than not, we progress to a 325.

Here is the transition from the above screenshots, a goal against ASSE…

Team Instructions - It should be obvious from looking at the instructions as to what I am trying to do. The team instructions I have set all derive from the demand and supply idea for the Target Forward mentioned previously. I want to commit bodies forward and move the ball quickly into our Target Forward. The only slowness of our game is (1) overlapping on the left, to strategically increase the chances of our Full Back getting into good crossing opportunities and (2) playing for set pieces, because that’s a real strength of ours.

Important point - I originally asked the Goalkeeper to distribute long kicks to the Target Forward (especially as Flavio Roma has Kicking 17), but it did not work well and rarely were we able to build meaningful possession from it. Distributing to the Full Backs is way more effective, it allows us to progress beyond the halfway line where we see our midfield and attack take shape.

Player Instructions - I use PIs sparsely. But in this tactic I am asking three players to aim for the Target Forward with their crossing. That is: the attacking Full Back, Advanced Playmaker and the supportive Winger. The instructions, and set piece routines that I document shortly, bring about a style of football that I want to see. Both Jan Koller and a new Shadow Striker (to be revealed shortly) are dual battering rams upfront, and the tactical instructions are seeing them win enough headers in the area of the pitch which is essential (the penalty box + central areas). Here are their headers Vs Auxerre (red is Target Forward and blue is Shadow Striker):

Corners - More often than not, in any FM, there will be a superior corner set piece routine. Whether that’s near post of far post, or something in between. Personally, I love variety in football. I try to get variety in our attacks from player roles and team instructions, and it makes sense to vary corner routines too. I’ve got one Far Post and one Near Post routine for Jan Koller and friends, combine that with inswinging and outswinging and there is enough there to probe the opposition in different ways with each attacking corner kick.

Throw-ins - The attacking third throwing absolutely has to be ‘long’. I’ve got two players with 15 long throws, and a huge man mountain to aim for. Jan Koller is really effective here, either with flick-ons further into the box…or simply laying it off for teammates. More often than not, we work a chance from this routine and they are varied movements too. I love it.

Season 2007/08 - Part 1

I was unsure if Jan Koller could stay fit for the whole season, so I wanted another guy that could play the Target Forward role effectively when called upon. I also needed depth in the AMC area, so I was delighted to arrange a season long loan for Antoine Sibierski from Wigan. Signing Sibierski has proved to be a masterstroke, he has 7 league goals in thirteen starts and benefits from some of the team instructions built around the Target Forward. We really are a delight to see us line up in the penalty box with these two jugganauts. The two glaring limitations to 187cm tall Sibierski in the Shadow Striker role are the loss of that ‘explosiveness’ that the role sometimes needs (Acceleration, Anticipation and Pace for example) and also his Player Traits encourage him to do less of what I expect from the role. It’s given me something to address in future transfer windows: find that killer Shadow Striker.

My Monaco side top the league’s statistics for both cross completion (30%) and amount of completed crosses (161), with the nearest side being league leaders Olympique Lyonnais with 19% and 134 respectively. However, the results have been inconsistent so far (ahem, 1-6 defeat to Toulouse), and we find ourselves in 7th place at the halfway stage. Jan Koller has had a strong start though, 14 goals in seventeen starts means he tops the league’s golden boot after 19 games.

20-year-old Jérémy Ménez is also attracting interest from some of Europe’s richest clubs like Chelsea. In our tactic he is the right sided Winger and his crossing is 10% above the league average, and he also is the 5th best ball carrier in the league (with 4.57 dribbles per 90). I am expecting many bids in the January window, and I may have to find a suitable right sided Winger to replace Ménez when he does eventually leave for big money. Whether that is this January, or next Summer.

Next up on the blog

We have a transfer budget of €7.5m for player transfers, and an available wage budget of €2m for annual salary; should there be a player become available that improves us for the 2nd half of the season. In real life, AS Monaco finished 2007/08 in mid table (12th) and were distinctly average. It looks like I have a chance of Europe but a Shabani Nonda inspired title win, like in my CM4 adventure, really does look a stretch right now!

To see how I do, I will update the blog soon with the outcome of 2007/08 soon.

Thank you for reading / sharing and caring.

Tony | FM Grasshopper (who is also now on Bluesky 🦋)