“I know I would be able to put together a well-working 4-1-4-1 formation with the same solid principles as in the many editions before, and just hit the spacebar and win trophies. But I know I would be bored…” That’s how my opening part of this series within Football Manager 2023 ended and I really like to remember it in my head because it’s always very easy to slip back to something I already know. But I need to challenge myself and I need to keep myself interested in playing this game because I love writing about it.

This second part is mainly about the main character of this save - the central defender role. What is important in my eyes while searching for the best possible central defender for the lone CD position/role? I have to say I caught myself how I like the fact that I call it ‘lone central defender', the same as if it would be a lone striker which is more frequent.

SEARCHING FOR THE CALMEST CENTRAL DEFENDER

One of the first things I did at the beginning of this save was that I created a search filter and a custom search view with what I consider(ed) as important while trying to search the best possible “Lone Central Defender” for my tactic. I knew from the start what I want to focus on the most. I wanted to find the best possible central defender mainly in terms of his mental attributes for several reasons.

But the main one was that I knew this player will be alone and he will have to decide very quickly (decisions) in all situations but he will also have to stay calm (composure) and the last thing combined both earlier mentioned together -he will have to be able to predict & react properly to each situation (anticipation).

• Anticipation - This attribute reflects the player’s ability to predict and react to events going on around them.

• Composure - This attribute is the player’s steadiness of mind and ability to make intelligent decisions with and without the ball.

• Decisions - This attribute reflects the player’s ability to make the correct choice both with and without the ball.

All these three attributes are key while I will also focus a lot on concentration and positioning (these two are usually the first ones I adjust in the search filter) I will hope that if I’m searching the central defender(s), these players will already be at least average in other areas which are important for the central defender - physical attributes, tackling or heading.

As you can see in the picture above, my starting highest attribute value is 14 as I lowered the attributes threshold to this number as the best. The range of attributes is divided into three small groups by key [14], preferred [12] and standard [11]. This is how I set the search filter up. But I always need to adjust the numbers because, with this set-up, there are no players interested in transferring to our club right now.

It’s not a mistake of the club or these players but the search filter contains 13 attributes and it’s a combination of attributes that you would like to have probably for most of your players. It’s very demanding and even if I untick the interested in transfer option, only two players appear in the search filter (Angelo Ogbonna from West Ham United and Stefan Savic from Atlético Madrid).

I’m currently in December 2022 at the end of the autumn part of the opening season of the save. I lowered the attributes down to 12, 10 and 9. Three players appeared in the search filter and all of them are interested. But I have to be realistic here. One of them is 40 years old Phil Jagielka, who is currently injured for 7-11 months - not possible/realistic to sign him. Another one is 31 years old Sean Morrison (a former Reading FC player for example) who spent the last 8 seasons with Cardiff including one season in the Premier League. I would be happy to have him so I asked his agent about his possible interest in signing for us. The agent said his wage demands would be between €12.75k to €18k per month. I would have to release at least four or five players to make it possible but I added him to the shortlist and will try it in January after I will reduce the wage bill.

The last one was 28 years old Iván Márquez, currently with N.E.C. in the Eredivisie. This would require a transfer fee probably above €100k but his wage demands would be lower.

As I shared the search filter above, the picture below shows you the custom search view with the same groups of attributes so you can see how the filtered players are or are not good enough within what you set up in the filter above. I know Sean Morrison would be the best possible option for me right now in terms of the attributes. I already tried to offload some high-earning players so I will have to hope Morrison will be without a club in January and I will be able to negotiate the contract with him.

THE CURRENT LONE CENTRAL DEFENDER

I spent quite a lot of time comparing players while searching and thinking about the best possible solution. My main man for the central defender role in the opening part of this save is 26 years old Rick Ketting. He moved to VVV-Venlo ahead of this season after four years in Finland and I’m sure he really didn’t imagine he will be the only central defender in the line-up.

He is doing very well in comparison with the rest of the league after the first part of the season. He is the best in terms of headers won/90 minutes, blocks/90 minutes, clearances/90 minutes and possession won/90 minutes. Despite the attempted the most tackles per 90 minutes, his tackles-won ratio is only 73.33%.

But these good numbers can’t beat the fact that he is below average in terms of his mental attribute/mental aspects of the game and I can’t pretend I didn’t see all the mistakes he did during these matches at the beginning of the save. There were a lot of bad calls for a step forward despite I don’t want them to do it = bad decisions & anticipation. There were a lot of mistakes and lost balls while he was keeping the ball for a too long time and he acted like there would be one or two more players behind him who will save the situation. They weren’t…

The in-game stats screen tells me he made 3 mistakes leading to goals in 19 appearances. I don’t count it as a mistake as lost possession but he also scored two own goals. It’s clear that he is an average player in terms of attributes and there is no way he would stay in the starting XI for the rest of the save. Firstly, there was the first transfer window disabled secondly I need to be patient to find enough funds for someone better. Kettings’ negative record is 39 unsuccessful passes within one match. I know it can be due to many reasons like not enough support from other players but it’s still too many unsuccessful passes and too many lost balls.

On the other hand, he is really alone in the defensive phase sometimes because it’s not as easy as I would like or expect to play with just one central defender and combine it with some instructions. I don’t know if it will be better with a better player (in terms of attributes) but I’m sure I can improve it if I will find some player with much better mental attributes.

All the backup players are even worse than Ketting so the only way how to improve is to sign someone new. And better :)

I’m not a statistical expert and I’m not the one who would like to compare everything by statistics and all the “per 90 minutes” metrics. But there is a big BUT thanks to Adam/@FMStag who wrote a very good post about specific player role types and specific metrics. It includes very handy tables with selected metrics. I need it exactly this easy (for me) way, I decided to compare his numbers with Rick Ketting.

I’m using the Centre–Back–Stopper metrics and based on these numbers and Ketting’s statistics, our player is excellent in Headers won per 90 minutes as he has 28.70. Tackles are only slightly above the medium limit. But it’s good other things are not in the low line and interceptions are also higher than the high limit in Adam’s table.

If I will use the lone central defender for the whole FM23 save, it’s clear that searching for the right one is a never-ending story and I will adjust the best possible combinations for the whole save depending on how good or bad we will do in terms of results & promotion/relegation.

EERSTE DIVISIE 2022/2023 - first 20 matches

We started the competitive part of the first season with two wins over Helmond Sport and Jong Ajax before we lost to Jong PSV at home. It was a positive start and I kept the original tactic until the mid of October despite we lost also to NAC and PEC Zwolle.

But the 2:4 defeat to Jong Utrecht was some kind of alarm to my eyes while I was watching how we conceded four goals in the opening 36 minutes of the match. This match will be the one I will use as the best possible example of what’s worse so far in the next post.

I didn’t want to sign some new players until January but I decided to make one exception as I found out Pelle van Amersfoort was a free agent. It was during the time when I thought about doing some tactical tweaks and I decided to sign him. I remember him from my FM22 save in Poland when he played for Cracovia and I thought he can be useful for us as AM or DLF(S) in the right set-up. He made an instant impact as he scored three goals and made one assist in his first two matches for us.

We are 4th in the table after the opening 20 league matches and we are the only team without at least one draw. I think I have different expectations than our board and supporters as they would like to see us earn promotion but I would happily stay in the second tier for at least one or two more seasons and just test the formation.

The board's expectation is to reach the playoffs, supporters want the top-half finish but also to finish above Roda JC Kerkrade. PEC Zwolle and Roda secured the playoff spots so far after the first two periods.

You probably also noticed the high amount of goals we conceded so far. It’s something I’m not used to in the past but I will talk about it more later. One of my favourite things so far is that Richard Sedláček, my main midfield man I wrote about in the opening post, has 9 assists so far and he is doing quite well while rotating in CM(S) and DLP(D) roles.

[If you are wondering why bottom teams are highlighted for relegation despite there being no relegation in real life, I’m using a custom database to activate the third tier and it uses promotion/relegation]

Thanks for reading, hopefully, more updates/blogs soon.

Take care.