SuperClub Diaries (Vol.2) - Counterpool #FM24 — CoffeehouseFM

Previously on SuperClub Diaries, a Champions League win in 2026 was the perfect goodbye to Paris.

Intro

Last time out on the blog I teased a move to the English Premier League, with Manchester United a potential employer after my Champions League win with PSG. But in July 2026 there was another Northern Powerhouse seeking my appointment…

Everything about the Liverpool offer is better, and they are already qualified in the Champions League…exactly what this save is all about. Sorry Manchester United fans, I was headed to Liverpool with the task of returning them to the heights of the Klopp-era.

Welcome to Volume 2 of SuperClub Diaries.

Liverpool in FM24, the story so far…

The only consistent in FM24 is that Liverpool have qualified for the Champions League each season, but elsewhere a lot has changed around the club:

Season 1 - Winners of the 2024 Europa League and FA Cup runners up in 2024, before Jürgen Klopp left for Real Madrid.
Season 2 - Italian Maurizio Sarri was his replacement, who rode on Klopp’s success a bit with wins in the UEFA Super Cup and newly formed UEFA/CONMEBOL Club Challenge.
Season 3 - Liverpool were losing Champions League finalists to Barcelona in 2026. 3 days after the final John W. Henry rage sold the club to a consortium headed up by an unknown Englishman called Jacques Thomas.
Season 4 [PRESENT VIRTUAL DAY] - Mere days into pre-season, Maurizio Sarri decides it’s time to retire. Jacques Thomas’ first manager appointment is to hire one of FM Blogging’s most sought after heartthrobs: me.

Much of the squad is still there, and 34-year old Mohamed Salah and 35-year-old Virgil van Dijk are still the club MVPs. However, it was my intention to limit their involvement in 2026/27 and I was willing to sell them to Saudi Arabia (if they came in).

Me in Liverpool, a little bit more of the story so far…

A SuperClub must have super ambitions. So, I was determined to rebuild the club by selling their best player (Mo Salah) and freeze out their club captain and hope Saudi Arabia came knocking for both. They did for Salah, €87m for a 34-year-old! Sadly van Dijk never got the right bid, so I dropped him before he agreed a deal with Barcelona for the end of his contract.

With a lot of money now laying around, I did the sensible thing and splashed the cash on some marquee players. Meet the Portuguese speakers who will hopefully usher in a new period of glory for the club: Éder Militão (€65m), Endrick (€10.5m) and João Neves (€60m). That’s not a naught missing on Endrick’s price by the way, he actually signed for €10.5m due to a release clause being present on his Madrid contract. In a week of FM transfer hackz, where any Wonderkid can be signed for €19.5m, I just want to put on record that I find that figure a bit too expensive and €10.5m is far better. Thank you.

Counterpool

Whenever I see a Byline post released from the official Football Manager X account, there is often multiple replies telling Sports Interactive to ‘fix the game’. Usually I pay them no real attention, other than a cursory glance, however the below reply from @seloro17 stood out as something I could look to test with Liverpool.

Now, there are a few disclaimers I need to make prior to introducing my counter attack tactic. Firstly, there may be varying levels of how somebody defines a ‘win’ in the ME. Is it winning all the trophies? Is it being effective? Or is it simply just being able to see the style in the first place? Secondly, there are many forms of a Counter Attack style but I am assuming @seloro17’s interpretation to be similar to my own: allowing the opposing team to build up before winning it back and countering with quick football. Fewer touches/less overall possession… progressing the ball forward in a more direct and urgent style.

Between the two types of football mentioned in the tweet (Possession and Counter Attack), one has to be more effective than the other…right? Possibly, but the point is blurred because you could have varying degrees of passiveness/activeness in how they press between those two styles. If you took an IRL Premier League view in 2024, and looked at PPDA (passes per defensive action), we would expect to see the likes of Arsenal, Brighton, Liverpool and Tottenham leading the way in terms of low PPDA scores. They like to press hard, right in the opposition’s faces and reduce the amount of passes an oppoistion can make. The likes of Nottingham Forest and West Ham are likely scoring high in PPDA, they sit back a bit and will look to hurt you on quick turnovers. As a side note, David Moyes’ West Ham are an anomaly to the general trend of high PPDA correlating with league finish (and winning European trophies). The Hammers actually do quite well at it, although it only takes a few bad results for the mood to turn at that club…something I am certain will be Moyes undoing soon enough.

What I am getting at here is that gegenpressing a team [those pressing high in their opponent’s half] is currently ‘in vogue’ in Premier League football. Most of the ‘successful’ teams are doing it and fans are generally happy to see it. Maybe not always in the future, but in 2024 they are. As an extension, it’s the same in Football Manager 2024 (and its community of meta tactic lovers) and I think that’s probably what @seloro17 is probably alluding to. However, with counter attacking not being popular (perhaps not as readily effective like FM24 meta hackz), it does not mean it is absent from Football Manager 2024 as a style. This is why I wanted to try a more reserved/counter attack style of football with Liverpool. Something that I am yet to do in SuperClub Diaries, as with PSG I was heavily dominant…sometimes not allowing the AI a sniff at goal.

This has been a long way of saying that I hope to show @seloro17 that the counter attack can still win games in FM24, if he ever stumbled on this particular blog post. But to be clear, my interpretation of ‘counter attack’ for Liverpool will be:

Low Block, allowing for a high Opposition Passes Per Defensive Action (OPPDA).
Low % possession in games.
Quick attacks, lots of shots and sprints forward.
Variety of goals, and hopefully a lot of them.

I am aware it’s a departure of what has come before in Klopp and Sarri, and I still need to tick that box with the Board for ‘Play attacking football’. But let’s try it, the board just want shots and goals-to-game ratios to be high…primed for a counter attack then!

The tactic

Initially I tried variations of 343 and 532, to limited success. In the first month of Premier League football I had won twice (against Leicester and Tottenham Hotspurs), but also lost twice (to Man City and Fulham). In all four games I gave over 1.0 in xG to the opponent, and a fair amount of shots to AI. Perhaps it’s a by-product of our counter attacking style, but I wasn’t seeing the risk and reward in terms of our own attack either. I needed to adapt.

Adapt I did. Eventually to a 424 (via 433 briefly), and did not have to tweak too much in Teams Instructions:

Despite being a Low Block on Balanced, it’s actually quite attacking with the four forwards and four attacking mentalities in the side. The only Player Instruction is asking the DLP to Take More Risks. I saw a vast improvement in the performances from here on out. I was also getting results in the style of football (league stats incoming):

Ranked 19th in Opposition Passes Per Defensive Action (OPPDA) with second highest in league (4.98 - although this does seem out of kilter with real-world, but could be how FM calculates it differently to IRL).
Ranked 11th in Average Possession (50%). (I’m sure it would be lower if teams didn’t also sit back against us due to our reputation).
Ranked 1st in High Intensity Sprints, 1st for Non-Penalty Goals Per 90 (1.77) and 1st for Shots On Target.
Joint highest goalscorers in the league (75 goals), equal with title winners Manchester United (eurgh).

But would @seloro17 be happy? I guess they would if they are happy to see the style (as I’ve shown above in the stats and the ME highlights). However, we remained trophyless (so they may not be happy)…which you could probably argue is a failure for a club like Liverpool. A disastrous March with four league defeats saw us hand the 1st place position to Manchester United, who rarely slipped up after that. If it was not for that little wobble and my erratic start, I reckon I could have claimed the Premier League title.

2027 Champions League

But this save is not about the poxy English Premier League. It’s the Champions League baby…aaaannnndddd we fucked that up too. A few blog posts ago, I previously raved about the Swiss Model. I still love it, but I sadly experienced how damaging that extra playoff game can be for fitness. The 6-1 aggregate win Vs Napoli was satisfying (a 2-0 win in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with just 38% possession), but injuries and fatigue mounted for us and it kick-started that bad run I mentioned on the domestic front.

When I reached the Barcelona game, it had the air of FM inevitably about it. Pedri’s 90+4 winner in the home tie confirmed that, as it meant we had it all to do away from home. Annoyingly, PSG loanee Karim Konaté (who I signed for the Parisians) came back to haunt me as he put two past me in the now newer Nou Camp post-renovation. Awful scenes really. Out at the Last 16, when the Board wanted more from their new Manager with a Champions League title on his CV.

My favourite goal of the season is probably one of the simplest, and it came in the UCL. It’s from the Napoli game, which sees Dominik Szoboszlai in the DLP role put a nice central through ball into Ben Doak. The young Scot has had a breakthrough year with me, largely as an Advanced Forward…

Actually, wait, I’ve changed my mind…THIS is probably my favourite goal of the season. Wonderboy Box-to-Box midfielder João Neves winning it for me against Tottenham (below). Just look at the ground he covers to finish Counterpool’s move. Please @seloro17, be happy with what I’ve done here…

England

The big shock in England is Pep Guardiola’s decision to leave for the vacant Paris Saint Germain job leaving Manchester City with a disappointing 5th place finish. Unai Emery’s one and only season in charge with the Citizens ends trophyless, despite breaking the World Transfer Record on Jude Bellingham for €289m. Chelsea once again finish in the UCL places with a 4th place finish, whilst Diego Simeone’s Arsenal win the FA Cup and finish 2nd. He leaves after 3 years in charge to return to former Italian SuperClub Inter Milan from his playing days. The top two is made up of rivals Liverpool (2nd) and 2026/27 Premier League Winners Manchester United. Thomas Tuchel boosting his glowing virtual reputation with a debut league title back in England, after being sacked from Bayern previously.

France

Pep Guardiola’s Paris Saint Germain were once again crowned French champions with a 22 point cushion and won a Coupe de France. However, a Quarter Final defeat to eventual champions Real Madrid will hurt in the Champions League.

Germany

Roberto De Zerbi strolled into German super club Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga with ease. The Bavarian side’s UCL performance almost made it a dream start for the Italian, as his side reached the Final (losing 4-1 to Madrid). New €91m signing Xavi Simons scoring the opener in that game to put the German ahead.

Italy

Stefano Pioli won his third Serie A title and AC Milan’s 21st, and they also had a Coppa Italia win to celebrate too. Cross-city rivals Inter Milan finish 2nd. However both Milanese clubs disappoint in the Champions League with Last 16 exits. Juventus finish Serie A in 3rd and took their UEFA Conference League duties seriously by unforgiveably losing to Tottenham in the Final.

Spain

Teenager Lamine Yamal announced himself as Barcelona’s undisputed MVP this season with 21 league goals, as he led his club to the La Liga trophy. However, a Semi Final Champions League exit will hurt Xavi’s men even more seeing that rivals Real Madrid went on to win the 2027 edition, who finished La Liga in 2nd. City rivals Atlético de Madrid become the first SuperClub of the save to drop out of European competition completely. They have Antonio Conte to thank for their 12th place finish, as his two year tenure ends with a 49% win rate.

That’s my brief update of a fourth season in SuperClub Diaries. Hopefully it’s clear I have enjoyed playing a more counter attacking style of football; and if you read this far: thank you very much. See you next time for Season 5.

YNWA.

Tony / FM Grasshopper