The Ultimate Target Forward in FM24 - AS Monaco (2007)

 
 

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.

Ultimate Target Forward: 20s in Balance, Heading, Jumping Reach and Strength.

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.

4231 DM tactic

4231 out of possession.

In possession 325 leading to goal.

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):

Six headers won in the opposition penalty box Vs Auxerre.

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.

Variety shown in 1st contact in opponent’s box. 37% attacks of near post 1st contacts, far post is similar %.

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.

Corner - attacking near

Corner - attacking far

Throw-in - attacking third, long

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.

Antoine Sibierski has yet to play for Wigan Athletic.

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.

‘Moyenne’.

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.

AS Monaco’s starboy in 2007.

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 🦋)

Football Manager Tactics: 3241 magic in Monterrey #FM24EarlyAccess

 
 

Hola a todos!

The #FM24EarlyAccess is here, and the excitement ahead of the full release is now at fever pitch. But before I go an embark on my SuperClub Diaries save, I thought I would try out some sweet tactical goodness in Mexico, with CF Monterrey. Firstly, why Mexico? Well, it’s a fairly short Opening/Closing league system with the addition of the newly re-formatted Leagues Cup containing Major League Soccer franchises. There are also no relegations + promotions right now, so it makes sense to manage in this nation for a relatively short period…rather than a long-term save. Secondly, why CF Monterrey?

Squad review

It has been a four-year spell without a trophy for CF Monterrey in real-life, yet there is potential to challenge for honours from the beginning of this save due to some great players being present in the Day 1 squad:

  1. Esteban Andrada - a former Miami Galáctico in an alternate FM Universe. Not sure why, but I love this Goalkeeper. Tall, dependable with old school ‘keeping attributes.

  2. Héctor Moreno - Mexico seems to generate many players with 100+ international caps. Moreno is 6th on the most capped list, with 132 appearances for El Tricolor…he is a classy left-footed Centre-Back who can bring the ball out of defence and pick a good pass.

  3. Sergio Canales, Jesús Corona (‘Tecatito’) and Maximiliano Meza - Three technically gifted players here to build around, all three need to be in the First XI. All three have a decent mix of Flair, Technique and Vision.

There are a number of other players I have grown to like during this short play-through, but the five mentioned above are what drew me towards Monterrey. Here they are in FM24, (please do not mock the lack of club logos/facepacks…I’ve made no efforts to download them so far):

Building the tactic

So, the ideas of fitting the previously mentioned five players all went onto my tactical whiteboard. Here is the first concept of a tactic I had in mind for CF Monterrey:

 

My whiteboard.

 

The arrows crudely drawn by oneself hint at the kind of movement I was looking for, so you can probably guess some of the roles I intend to use. Maybe have a go at guessing before you read on?

4141 to 3241, with Positional Play

Positional Play, in my view at least, is not a new concept. I grew up with people telling me to pass as triangles on the football pitch, overloading a certain part of the pitch when in possession of the ball. Whilst I appreciate Pep Guardiola gets the modern day plaudits for Positional Play, in a lot of ways…it was already in grassroots football years/decades ago OR maybe it has always been in football? In Football Manager 2024 we now see players have a greater awareness of one another, so for the early-access content I wanted to use a few roles that trigger these transitional movements. Based on the previous screenshot I decided to try the below roles:

  • Libero (Defend) - moving CB to DM

  • Inverted Full Back (Defend) - moving FB to CB

  • Mezzala (Attack) - moving CM to AM

You can see clearly how the first couple of transitions work, the Inverted Full Back will slot in to the space vacated by the Libero (who forms a double pivot with my Deep Lying Playmaker). The final transition of the left sided Mezzala movement is not a new one, however the way Football Manager sees the players around him react to that movement has been tweaked. So, that means any wide player stays that little bit wider (to allow the Mezzala full occupancy of the half-space) and the Attacking Midfielder moving to the right slightly. Remember: FM24’s Positional Play is as much about the shifting of a role (e.g. an Attacking Midfielder) around a transitional role (e.g. Mezzala), than it is of the latter moving into certain spaces. I think it is important to bold this particular point, because I have seen a bit of confusion around the content creator community thinking Positional Play is the movement of certain roles themselves, which have largely always been there (think: Deep Lying Forward and Central Midfielder on Attack for example), nor is it the Enganche moving out wide under all conditions for example, rather it is the Positional Play from other roles forcing it to happen as a rotation.

Because Football Manager 2024’s user interface does not show you a general in possession shape, I made one myself (see below). In the far left image I have a stripped back 2D Classic view of the pitch in the various zones, which FMers on the forums from yesteryear sometime like to call strata. The middle is out of possession, i.e. the tactic that you see on FM24 and the far right is the general spaces the roles like to move into. I appreciate I have not yet shown you the actual roles in their entirety, nor the Team Instructions…that comes next:

There is a part of me that doesn’t sit well with showing an ‘in possession’ graphic, as there are so many subtleties that dictate the precise location of a player on the pitch at any one time. But that’s their general locations from the general patterns of play I see from an Opening Stage play-through with CF Monterrey. Below is how the wider tactic looks in FM24. Note - I’m not usually one for asymmetrical tactics as I feel the AI doesn’t cope to well against them, but the DLP-S is there for the progressive balls to Winger but also a nice cross-field switch is on for the attacking Mezzala. Anyway, all tactics are asymmetrical once we’re in possession…so I’m cool with it. Here’s how we set up:

CF Monterrey tactic.

As always, I’ve evolved the tactic…accepting that I never get it exactly how I want it right from the start.

Mentality - I’ve either been on Balanced or Positive in this save. Balanced is when I want to show slightly less urgency, usually when in control of the game already.

In Possession - I’ve always made sure CF Monterrey have been a team that play out of the back. It suits the skillset of the Centre-Backs and Inverted Full-Backs that are also capable of playing centrally. There were times I changed our approach play though, removing Work Ball Into Box when switching Deep Lying Forward to Advanced Forward. During this switch, I would also usually remove the lower tempo…increasing the chance of the Advanced Forward getting a forward ball sooner. Low crosses is also something I added to the tactic too, and for obvious reasons: we’re not overly tall or physical upfront, but rather quick and nimble.

In Transition - I think I also kept these the same across all games. But I did ask the Goalkeeper to slow down distribution during some gut wrenching Opening Stage Finals (more on this later).

Out Of Possession - The only change here is when I noticed long kicks from opposition goalkeepers reaching my Centre-Backs and beyond. One goal is the line in the sand for me to switch and drop lines deeper towards my own goal.

Player Role changes - the eagle eyed readers may have noticed that Jesús Corona was very advanced in my tactical whiteboard drawing in the Attacking Midfielder zone. I moved him down to the Central Midfield zone part-way through the season and he was on the ball a lot more as a result, which is what you want for somebody with Dribbling 18, Flair 18, Technique 17 and Vision 16! The move was justified, as he has topped our Dribbles statistic with 5.33 per 90 over the course of this Opening Stage campaign.

Now I should probably show you some goal highlights, and to do that I will do it in Loom - a video capture software that also allows me to to talk to you…

 
 

As for other bits:

  • I used default set pieces, except tweaked Defensive corner routines to help with counters - whereby two players are left upfield to break forward if given the chance. Surprisingly, I was amazed my Assistant Manager routine had everybody back, which kind of invited the pressure!

  • No Opposition Instructions used. Not against them, I just feel I did not need to mico-manage this.

  • Only two Player Instructions used: Defensive Winger set to run wide with the ball (stretch the play) and attacking Winger told to cut inside with the ball (overload central areas).

Magic in Monterrey

If you got this far into the blog, I’m guessing you want to know how it all went in the Opening Stage with CF Monterrey? Today is your lucky day…

Leagues Cup

The revamped Leagues Cup now contains all clubs from MLS and Liga MX and it offers a unique experience in FM by seeing two leagues go up against one another - dare I say it’s relatively unknown to FMers right now? It starts with 15 groups of three clubs, before 1st and 2nd places are then placed into four regions (Central, East, South and West) where it becomes a knockout tournament with Quarter, Semi and Final games. The four winners of these regional finals then enter the ‘Semi Final play-offs’. Here’s how we did:

Stay in your lane MLS…

Seeing that the Board only ever wanted us to be competitive, we surpassed expectations by making it to the regional final…losing on penalties to Tigres at home. Pretty devastated with that, but the main focus was on the Opening Stage domestically…

Opening Stage

One thing I struggled to do in the early access save was manage the fitness of certain players as we played every 3 days with Leagues Cup overlapping into the Opening Stage. Simply put, I probably needed an extra player or two during this run but I turned off the opening Transfer Window (damn). Once we only had the Opening Stage to focus on, the run was strong: 12 games unbeaten to finish the season in 3rd.

You can see that some little tactical tweaks from concept to finished tactic worked with the unbeaten run.

Opening Stage Finals

The Opening Stage Finals were a good reminder of the ‘h’ in FM-exico to grant the higher seed passage in the event of a draw. We made good use of that as Santos Laguna gave us a really good two ties.

Massive.

Seeing as Pachuca were our first defeat of the save in the Liga MX tie, I was keen to dial in a bit more and make some pragmatic changes. I decide to use the Focus Play Towards The Left vs Pachuca, because I suspected that they would play with IWB and an advanced Winger at AMR (based from Scout Report). With Canales returning from injury, it could be a good area of the pitch for us to exploit. So it proved too, with a healthy 5-2 aggregate score to take us into the final.

So, the Opening Stage Final: 3rd meets 8th. It’s classic Latin American goodness that I have come to love, whereby the league finish is really just a footnote. Bring your A Game when it matters, and you will do well my son. This is what Monterrey, and much to my surprise, actually did. With a depleted and tired squad, we had to show our mettle against a difficult Atlas side who had hit form when it mattered. Despite having five Moneterrey players in the match day squad needing a rest for the 2nd leg, we went to Atlas and won 2-0 (after drawing our home leg 1-1). It is time to celebrate the first trophy of FM24…

WE DID IT™

Too boring/long/short; did not read? I used three tactical roles that trigger Positional Play rotations: Inverted Full Back, Libero and Mezzala. We transitioned from a lop-sided 4141 of sorts to a 3241 in possession. Whilst we did not win the Leagues Cup, we managed to finish 3rd in the Liga MX and won the thing outright by progressing to the Opening Stage Final: beating Atlas 3-1 on aggregate. Gracias por todo, CF Monterrey.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the FM24 Early Access.

Tony / FM Grasshopper