FM23 | Preparing to change tactics

April 15, 2023

“It’s the beginning of April 2026 in my save. It’s Saturday, April 4, 2026, to be absolutely precise. It’s my 40th birthday. It’s also a matchday and we are playing Fortuna Sittard away from home. We are reaching the end of the fourth season of the save and we as the VVV-Venlo club are doing really well. We are aiming to finish in the top three for the second season in a row and that means we will secure a place in the Europa League again. But instead of concentrating on the nearest match against Fortuna, I’m doing a lot of admin things. Why? Because I decided the upcoming weeks will be the last while we will play with the “Lone central defender” formation within this save. Four seasons is enough.”

If I would write a diary, the notes from this day of my Football Manager 2023 would (probably) look something like this. It’s just two weeks after the annual youth intake and we were out of the Europa League knockout stage with just five domestic league matches ahead. I thought about this for a while already but the final decision was made after the last match in March when we beat Go Ahead Eagles at home.

The “Lone central defender” formation will be replaced with the formation I love most of all. Mainly in real life as I used other formations in the previous ten editions of the game more frequently. I will change our shape from one central defender to three at the back. But I will try to keep very similar principles of the activity in our play as I wanted from my players in the last two seasons.

If you’re interested in what I did in terms of preparations for the tactical switch in-between seasons, feel free to continue reading this post.

#1 Creating the new tactic within the tactics screen

The most logical thing first. I created a new tactic within the tactics screen and set all the instructions etc.

The only thing I didn’t set so far was the set pieces because I wanted to play the rest of the season with the different formations and players would be in the wrong roles around the pitch within set pieces. That’s something I will edit ahead of the new (pre)season.

The tactic, roles and instructions can be different and it all can change during the next seasons as I will try to develop the 3-5-2 formation but this is what I will use at the beginning.

Creating the new tactic in the tactics screen is the first thing I did mainly because all the remaining things I did (and wrote about) are connected to it. And the following steps depend on creating a new tactic.

#1.1 Set the new tactic as the primary tactic within the training

The next step connected to creating a new tactic is I went to the training overview screen and I set the newly created tactic as the primary trained tactic. The pop-up box tells you that it affects “your team’s tactical identity, also used to influence training schedules”.

#2 Deciding about the squad for the next season

I decided to use one of the new Football Manager 2023 features - the squad planner - as a part of this tactical change. I already had the new tactic created within the tactics screen. When I opened the squad planner screen, I just switched to the “Next Season” button and selected the “FM23 3-5-2 2026” tactic. And everything was correct and well prepared to start planning the next season.

I’m not the biggest fan of this screen or I would use it every in-game day but I find it nice and useful in this exact example. I like to include some loan players for specific positions and roles. I also like to select players for different positions in both flat back and midfield lines. For example, I like to have exactly three central defenders (main one/backup/youngster) for the DCR position. And the same for DC and DCL. That means these players will play in this position and they know it.

It’s also based on their preferred foot and the side they prefer to play at. It’s also nice I’m able to create a new recruitment focus on this page if I would think it’s needed - in the right top section of the screen…

#3 Searching potential new players for specific roles

Targets for the upcoming transfer window are very easy. As I played with just one central defender in the previous four seasons, I don’t have enough central defenders which are good enough. There are two ways how I can search for new central defenders. The first one is connected to the squad planner screen I mentioned already as I can create the new recruitment focus straight in this screen.

Or I can go to the standard player search screen and I can load the search filter and search view for the central defender that I made already at the beginning of the save when I wanted to try the best possible lone central defender. The search filter parameters are still the same and the main things I want from the central defender are still the same.

I prefer searching for players on my own by setting the exact things I want to find but I just wanted to try which players will appear in the recruitment focus so I created a new one with the top priority as I want to find the potential new player(s) very soon.

#4 Changing individual training

Probably the last thing I considered as an important part of the tactical change was to change the individual training of our players. Our wide players (defenders & midfielders) are the best example. As my main roles during the first four seasons were FB(D) and W(S), I wanted to change all of these wide players’ individual training to WB(S) as I will play most of them as WBL/WBR players from the start of the next season.

I will probably use CWB(S) role but I won’t train these players for this exact role as it’s really demanding and I want my players will focus on most of the key attributes for the wing-back overall.

Players that were trained as DM(D) will change their position/role focus to CM(S) role. Some players were trained as WM(S) in the previous two seasons but that’s something that I will change as soon as I will decide where these players will play.

These position/role/duty changes were made also for our U19s team, especially since it’s already after the annual youth intake and we signed the best ones already.

What next? That’s easy - let’s play some matches and develop another tactic.

Thanks for reading.

FM23 | 2025/26 with VVV-Venlo: Not ready, inexperienced

February 21, 2023

Sometimes, one or two more years would be better for the club, squad and players’ development. Sometimes, the improvement and raise are too fast. And when your team is not ready for it and your squad doesn’t have (good) enough backup, your expectations will concede a direct punch. I faced this kind of situation during the second half of the 2025/26 season with my VVV-Venlo side as we reached the Europa League group stage and our form, playing style, familiarity with each other or freedom on the pitch were given a direct kick.

What were the (possible) reasons?

Transfers - potential issue #1

If you would hit the F9 key on my keyboard and the transfer history screen would appear, you would see the blank left side of that screen within the 2025/26 incoming transfers. I brought only one player to the club during the summer of 2025 and it was a free signing - Youri Regeer (click to see his profile) after his contract expired with Ajax. I wanted to sell experience Aliou Coly to get rid of his contract (€34k p/m) so I signed Regeer who got €18,75k p/m. Coly moved to Antwerp for €1.4M = win/win.

My aim was to improve the club finances a lot this summer as some of the experienced players were wanted and they also had the last season of their contracts ahead of them = the last chance to earn something. It worked. Coly moved to Antwerp, Sven Mijnans (not experienced but one of the best-paid players) went to Sheffield United for €3M and Francisco Di Franco for €6.75M to Anderlecht. We also added €1.5M for Mohammed Essakkati thanks to his move to Feyenoord after he spent a decent season with affiliate club Austria Klagenfurt and his value increased. Receiving €1.5M with 30% from his next sale is better than leaving him in the reserves squad.

In combination with other smaller transfers, we earned almost €14M during the summer of 2025. It was great but looking backwards, it has also some negatives.

The first team squad was “boosted” by players which came back from loans or from U19s team = inexperienced players.
My plan was to invest all the money in facilities but instead of improving training facilities, I was informed the training facilities level dropped to average from good and the board had to invest around €2M to just make it back to good. And other requests for improvements were rejected.

Nice feature, isn’t it? Let’s check the Board screen in the Club Vision.

The squad size vs. the squad quality - potential issue #2

We had 28 players in the first-team squad at the end of the previous season. We have 30 players in the first-team squad in the middle of the 2025/26 season. But the amount/number of players is not the issue. The issue is the quality of the players.

As I said, most of the major transfers were experienced players with some squad influence too. And the main aim of new members in the first team squad is to learn and develop. They are not supposed to be leaders.

The average age of the squad at the end of the 2024/25 season was 24 years.
The average age of the squad in the middle of the 2025/26 season was 21 years.

I already mentioned the squad lacks experience. I also mentioned the average age. You can say it’s not so important. But it is. I had to play some youngsters/newgens during the heavy schedule and it was clear how inexperienced they area in combination with the lack of decisions in the crucial moments or in the critical areas of the pitch.

One of the most common issue while playing inexperienced youngsters

Injuries - potential issue #3

I highlighted injuries in November & December in the pictures below in both the previous and current seasons. There were more injuries in the last season paradoxically. And I don’t even (or rather) mention 11 injured players during October 2024.

Nick Venema was injured in both seasons at almost the same time. The main issue in my eyes was that we lost the primary keeper, the primary right winger and the primary striker at the same time in the current season.

And in a combination with much heavier schedule (more below), that was the main issue as their backup players were not capable to cover them and to play at the same level. The more I’m writing about it (and thinking about it backwards), the more I see how is it everything connected together.

Schedule October-December 2024 vs. October-December 2025 - potential issue #4

The main difference between this and the previous season is the schedule. We played 11 matches in October, November and December in the season 2024/25. And we had a full week of training available except one week when we played the domestic cup.

This season? We had 17 matches in the same period of the season. And it’s easy to see at the first sight how demanding it was also through the results and the number of goals we conceded. We had a strong October but we had to play 120 minutes + penalties at the of the month in the domestic cup and I think that was the peak of this part of the season as most of the key players were fatigued a lot during November and it resulted to injuries and five defeats in six matches including defeats against bottom FC Emmen or against Go Ahead Eagles. If key players would be fit, we would have won these games without a sweaty shirt.

November/December = tell me Nick Venema is injured without telling me Nick Venema is injured.

The 2025/26 season so far

I’m usually ignoring pre-season friendlies when I write about my save(s) but I enjoyed summer break prior to the current season including three home tournaments with some very good opponents including LASK Linz or West Ham United and Celtic. Some results also gave me a confidence boost ahead of our debut in the Europa League group stage.

Despite beating Celtic or Dinamo Zagreb, we started the league campaign with a narrow defeat in Eindhoven against PSV after an own goal in 90+4. The home 5:4 win over Ajax was surely one of the highlights in the opening part of the season. Especially as we were 4:0 and 5:1 ahead but we also went to 10 men and if the match would continue for more than five minutes, Ajax would probably win 6:5.

Our Europa League journey started at home against Sturm Graz. I didn’t have some special expectations for this competition. The main goal was to earn as much money as possible to be able to reinvest it in the facilities. We beat Sturm 2:0 and my aim was to win most of the home matches. We lost away from home against Wolfsburg and Lyon, and we also lost to Arsenal at home but we won in Malmö thanks to four goals by Nick Venema. And we beat Anderlecht 3:2 at home despite being 0:2 down after the opening six minutes. We are currently 21st in the new Europa League format in the group of 36 teams. We will play Villarreal (A) and Qarabag (H) in January. I don’t see us earning a place in the knockout stage, maybe the “Knock Out Play Off Round” but we will see. We already earned around €5.5M in prize money and TV Revenue thanks to this competition. If we will be able to earn some more = win/win.

Our season in the domestic cup ended in the 2nd round after a 2:4 defeat by PSV Eindhoven after an extra-time while we played without two players which received straight red cards. That’s another thing connected to the inexperience I mentioned above.

Our Eredivisie standing improved a little bit thanks to two wins over AZ and N.E.C. in the last league rounds before a short winter break. We are 7th right now with four points gap to 4th place and seven points to 2nd place. Feyenoord is having a great season so far and they are 8 points clear at the top of the table. Mainly thanks to Santiago Giménez and Julian Draxler duo. But I think we can move up in the table if we will have enough time to concentrate on just one competition and we will have enough time to rest players.

Lesson learned?

Well, firstly, I need to tell myself to calm down. It’s still only the fourth season with the club. And despite we started in the second tier, we are already in the Europa League main stage. So, calm down, Ondrej, your club is doing great.

The board wants to play “attacking/possession/entertaining/high-tempo pressing football” and to finish in the top half of the Eredivisie. What can be more attacking and entertaining than winning 5:4 over Ajax? I know defeats are a common thing and this team is absolutely average. It’s only about some simple things that make it easier and I have to accept the fact there won’t be only green circles on the schedule screen. That would be weird. It’s only about expectations in my own head. I need to lower them if I want to continue with this formation and with this approach. Another option is to change the formation…

The only thing I know I would like and will try to make differently is that I will try to sign more than one new player next summer to have bigger (and better) squad depth rather than only promoting 16 years old newgens. If I will earn the European Cup place for sure…

Thank you for reading, take care.

Follow @FMRensie

FM23 | A third season with Venlo: Don't be too shy

February 7, 2023

I usually take a break for a couple of days when the season within my Football Manager save finished before I start writing about it. But it was different this time and I created this post almost immediately after the final whistle of the last league match. Not sure if it was caused by the excitement from the final league position or because of a very good performance in the last match or I just wanted to have it done to be able to again and move to the next season.

But it was our third season together. After a promotion in the opening season and 4th place in the first season in the Eredivisie, we improved again as we finished third and earned a place in the Europa League group stage for the upcoming season. The success is very fast and I didn’t expect it (or maybe I didn’t want it?) but I will take it :)

TRANSFERS 2024/2025 - don’t say the word Monneyball…

One of my favourite parts of this save so far is searching, finding and signing quality free players. Maybe it’s because I loaded more players from around Europe ahead of the save in comparison with the previous FM editions. Or I’m more active maybe. But it’s fun. I remember I wrote about the experienced players in the previous save update and I mentioned they will stay. For example midfielder James Jeggo helped us a lot in the first season in Eredivisie.

But when Red Bull Salzburg came for him and offered €2M, I packed his bag and bought him a ticket. The same happened in winter when Pelle van Amersfoort was bought by Stuttgart for €6.75M. I can’t ignore this money. There were also some more outgoing transfers, mainly at the end of the winter transfer window when I, for example, sold two young players to Willem II (currently in the 2nd tier) for about €500k together but both bids were accepted with 40% from their next transfer. It’s something I will do more frequently in the future of this save as I have a lot of young players who will not play for us but their sales for €100K - €500K will make a very solid sum of money together.

We had 19 players out on loan this season, most of them in our affiliate clubs of Dudelange and Austria Klagenfurt. That’s something connected to what I said above - most of them will be sold or their contracts will expire.

In terms of incoming transfers, we brought 13 new players to the club. But we need to divide it. As always, some of them were meant to play for the senior squad, and some of them were signed for the future. My current favourite sport is to search for young players with amateur status (there are a lot of players in the Netherlands), signing them for free and developing them. To sell them or use them, will see.

But I was very pleased to sign central defender Lubomir Šatka, midfielders Sven Mijnans, Samuel Grygar or a striker Sydney van Hooijdonk. All of them for free. We spent only €200K to sign left defender Quilindschy Hartman from Feyenoord and €250K for Lukáš Vorlický as I decided to buy him immediately instead of waiting for him until the summer. It was a great decision, more below.

Transfers 2022/23

Transfers 2023/24

Transfers 2024/25

One from the growing Czech colony

I already mentioned the signing of Lukáš Vorlický. This young Czech midfielder is a product of the Zbrojovka Brno academy but he left his boyhood club in the 2017/18 season already when he was just 15 years old. He moved to Atalanta Bergamo for ridiculously small table severance pay and he spent the next six years in Italy.

He never made it within this save to Atalanta’s senior squad, he has only two Serie A appearances as a sub for a couple of minutes. The weird item on his resume will be the season 2022/2023, the first of this save when he played just 1 game for Carrarese in the Serie C. The next season was better and he played most of the league matches in the Czech 2nd tier while being on loan with Hradec Králové.

His contract with Atalanta would expire at the end of the 2024/25 season and I decided to sign him for free. I had enough money available thanks to two big sales and we agreed very quickly. I saw him as a backup for IW/WM(S) role for Franciso di Franco. But I found the “Buy Vorlický immediately” button and he was ours for €250K.

Vorlický made 4 assists in the first three friendly matches in the winter break and I was very impressed with him. He was lucky Franciso di Franco spent most of the second part of the season injured in the stands. But Vorlický was a great signing. He made 15(1) appearances, scored two goals and made 7 assists as WM(S) without any specific instructions except Get Further Forward. Most importantly, he ended the season with the highest average rating of all players with 7.65.

Btw. - another midfielder Richard Sedláček is our vice-captain. Samuel Grygar made some improvement during this season and we have also a decent Czech newgen keeper in the youth squad and maybe I will sign some more Czech players.

Cut Inside From Left Wing and a perfect passing combination.

Tactical tweaks

This season brought also some more changes and tweaks in our tactic. We still play with just one central defender and the shape is the same but I changed some team instructions and I also changed three roles.

I changed the IW(S) to WM(S) on the left side of the pitch and I changed one striker from DLF(S) to PF(S) or PF(A). The rest of the changes happened during the autumn, at the end of November after a match against Cambuur. We were 0:2 down at the half time but I made some changes and we won 3:2. That was the biggest impulse to my tweaks and that’s the moment when I said to myself “Don’t be too shy, boring and patient.”

My go-to style is to be patient and wait for the right moment with precise defensive work. That’s not too easy with just one central defender and I already accepted this FM edition is more like a hockey game for my team and clean sheets are very rare.

The lone central defender formation v2024/25

The main change was within the out-of-possession instructions as I used low block, drop off more, and trap inside and the trigger press was set to standard. Sometimes, it was like a waiting game but the opponent was usually the one who scored. The last change was I decided to use CM(A) role instead of AP(S) in the MC slot again, the same as in my initial plan at the start of the save.

I just wanted to see my players be more active and more hungry to win the ball and be more dangerous. I was pleased when this happened in the first match after the changes as our CM(A) was one of the main pressing players.

One of my most favourite goals (after tactical tweaks) based on the cooperation between WM(S) - Vorlický, PF(A) - Hendrikx, CM(A) - Hajdaraj and AF - Venema.

Ertan Hajdaraj - the reason for a return to CM(A) role

One of the reasons why, maybe the main one, for using the CM(A) role again was a return of the Albanian midfielder/striker Ertan Hajdaraj. I mentioned this player in the opening post about this save and how I’m looking forward using him as CM(A). But I changed the MC role to AP(S) for the second season and I decided to send Ertan to Austria for a season-long loan in our afiliate - Austria Klagenfurt. He played almost thirty league matches and he returned back ahead of 2024/25 season.

It was during the moment when I decided to change the striker role to PF(S) and I decided to give Ertan a proper chance in this role. He had a great start to the season and he scored four goals in the opening five matches. But when I signed Sydney van Hooijdonk at the end of the summer transfer window, I knew it will be game over for Ertan as Sydney is more suitable for the PF role.

And I decided to go back to CM(A) and use Ertan here as our main man. His decisions and off the ball movement is perfect for this role, aggression is good enough too. He would only need to improve his physical attributes but maybe in the future. He ended the season with 13 goals and 6 assists and average rating of 7.2. He’s still only 22 years old, he signed a new contract with us until 2029 so I think I can have him for the whole save if some bigger club won’t come. A definitely one of the hidden very good young players and one of my most favourite players of this save so far. No more loans for sure :)

The 2024/25 season summary

If you would tell me I will fight for the 2nd place in the Eredivisie at the end of the third season of this save, I would tell you you have to take a cold shower. But it was exactly like that and we had a chance to finish 2nd and to be in the Champions League spot. But the same as we won the last home match, PSV Eindhoven won their last game of the season and they didn’t let us move over them.

So, we finished third in the league and we earned a place in the Europa League group stage for the next season. The biggest bonus will be the prize money 100% because I will be able (maybe) to convince our board to improve the facilities even more.

What next?

I realised I don’t have any incoming transfer(s) arranged for summer 2025 and I decided I will buy or sign new player/players only if I will lose someone within the main selection. If this won’t happen, the squad will be refreshed by the returning players from their loan spells and with the best newgens from our U19s team.

The board decided to increase the capacity of our stadium by almost 2,5k seats. The new capacity will be 12k seats in October 2025 when it will be finished. I also received the message that our training facilities were downgraded to average “due to technological advances” but I was able to negotiate to improve it back during summer. The board also rejected my requests about improving the youth facilities and youth recruitment. But I was able to convince them to improve the youth recruitment and it will be excellent now.

I will have to decide how seriously I will take the Europa League to stay competitive in the Eredivisie. But these decisions are pleasing. I will be back in a couple of weeks with another season.

Take care.

FM23 | An ordinary match with a great comeback

January 24, 2023

Do you know that moment when you did something during the match and it worked? The simple change(s) based on watching the game and it paid off? That’s exactly what happened in my FM23 save with the VVV-Venlo during our third season, the second season in the Netherlands’ top tier. It was an ordinary league away match against Cambuur. But the comeback, the changes I made and the final result led me to write this post.

BACKGROUND

Our opponent for this match was Cambuur. This club was promoted to the Eredivisie after the 2020/2021 season in real life, so a year before this save started. They ended 9th, 13th and 6th in both seasons of this save so far. They had a perfect start to the 2024/25 season as their worse position in the opening 12 rounds was second place. They were able to beat (struggling) AZ, and they tied with PSV or Ajax.

Their perfect start was mainly thanks to their two key players - 198cm tall Latvian striker Roberts Uldrikis and Daniël van Kaam who is able to play mainly on the left side of the pitch or in the middle. Uldrikis is the best goalscorer of the Eredivisie and van Kaam has the most assists from all players. He is also in the top three within key passes per 90 minutes and other key statistics within the attacking movement/passing.

Uldrikis scored two goals in the previous three matches against us so I knew he is the main threat no matter how good he is right now.

TEAM FORMATIONS

I’m still playing the lone central defender but I made a couple of changes to other roles ahead of the 2024/25 season. I decided to use two DM(D) roles and AP(S) above them in the MC position. Our right-sided winger also was changed from attacking duty to support duty. And the last change was that I get rid of the DLF(S) role and changed it to the Pressing Forward with the attacking duty.

Other things are very simple including the team instructions and in terms of individual instructions, only our full-backs have the individual instructions. Exactly as I wrote in this post - HERE.

Cambuur is playing mainly with the 4-2-3-1 formation including two defensive midfielders. As already mentioned Daniël van Kaam is playing as the DLP(S) in the DM position. And Uldrikis is playing as TF(S) as he is the best suited for this role and any manager would be stupid to not use him in this role.

Cambuur 2024/25

VVV 2024/25

OPPOSITION INSTRUCTIONS

“Do you have some OI?” “What about individual instructions?” Probably the most common questions whenever someone shares his tactic. The same as I’m not the type of player who would tick every single team instruction just because it’s possible, I treat the opposition's instructions in the same way. Just keep it simple.

My most common go-to is to identify the biggest weakness of the opponent. I wrote about it in the past already but I’m currently not sure if this post was migrated to the Coffeehouse website from my old personal site. But. It can be a central player with bad decisions attribute and I set Tackling to Hard and Trigger Press to Always.

When the opponent’s wide players have one of their feet weak, I usually set Show Onto Foot to Weaker Foot. But as I said - the main point is to make it simple and my own rule is to not set more than three opposition instructions.

The reason is that my players can become too confused about what I exactly want from them and they can act like frightened and crazy hares. They will want to be everywhere around the pitch, they will want to press every one. But it usually leads to bigger chaos and to the fact there are bigger gaps within our own formation. That’s also the reason why I never hit the “Ask Assistant” button because he usually set too many opposition instructions.

All central Cambuur’s players have a decisions attribute of 12, 15 and 16 so it was not the case this time to press them with high intensity. But both AML and AMR players have weak feet so I set Show Onto Weaker Foot to both of them. And for some reason, I decided to set Tight Marking to Never for Uldrikis. Maybe because I said to myself it’s useless to mark him as he will keep the ball no matter what my players will do because of his strengths.

Opposition Instructions against Cambuur including the edited OI screen.

THE MATCH, CHANGES & REACTIONS

The match didn’t start well for us as we conceded in the 2nd minute. Our left defender gave the ball away too easily, van der Water made a simple turnaround and found Uldrikis before our goal with a simple cross. Uldrikis headed it to the net.

The second was scored in the 20th minute. And it was almost the same. Di Franco lost possession, and van der Water ignored his weaker foot and made a simple cross with his left foot to Uldrikis. Easy finish and 2:0 for Cambuur.

Decision number 1: While Alex Bangura was almost invisible on the left side of the pitch, van der Water had two assists after twenty minutes and other two dangerous crosses. So, I removed the Show Onto Weaker Foot instruction.

The second issue was connected to Roberts Uldrikis who scored both goals for Cambuur. Except for goals scored, he also won 17 headers during the match, 12 of them only during the opening 40 minutes of the match. He was able to hold the ball even if there were two or three players around him and he was dangerous everywhere. I also wanted to divide the defensive and attacking half as he is useful also within defensive set pieces - 14 of his 17 headers won were in the attacking half.

Decision number 2: I removed the “Never” Tight Marking instruction and let my players decide what they will do with Uldrikis. The result of this and some other changes I will mention below was that Uldrikis won only 5 headers since the 40th minute of the match and he didn’t have more opportunities to complete a hat trick.

I didn’t want to lose this match, the same as any other match and I knew I have to make some changes during half-time. Our game was very slow, players gave the ball away very easily with the short passes (which they usually have no problem with) and the fact Cambuur played very simple football with long balls to Uldrikis and a lot of passes to the right side of the pitch, it caused problems in combination with using AP(S) in the middle.

I subbed Mijnans and changed the MC role from AP(S) to CM(A) to stop “playmaking” in the middle.
I removed both in-possession instructions to make our play more straightforward instead of cuddling with the ball.
I added Much More Direct Passing.
Take Short Kicks instruction was replaced with Distribute to Target Forward as I wanted to pass the ball quickly upfront and I wanted to beat the middle of the pitch.
The last thing that I removed was the Low Block and it was changed to the Standard/Middle Block.

“I’m not happy with your performance.” That was my feedback to the players during half-time and that was all I did except for the changes I shared above. Don’t expect everything to be bright and phenomenal immediately after kick-off but there were small snippets of how our approach changed.

I like to keep the ball and play patiently while waiting for the right moment for the through ball or clever long ball from side to side. I know I already mentioned in the previous posts but I’m not used to playing so many long balls as it was while I was using No-Nonsense FB or CD.

There’s a very nice change in the passes’ direction and length. It’s clear at the first sight that we were much more straightforward in the second half.

Long passes in the 1st half

Long passes in the 2nd half

Short passes in the 1st half

Short passes in the 2nd half

Change of the team instructions

We got back to the match in the 69th minute when Levi Smans found Sydney van Hooijdonk and he scored our first goal. Nick Venema equalised ten minutes later and he also scored our winning goal in the 83rd minute. Both subs Ertan Hajdaraj and Levi Smans made a huge impact as they provided assists for the first and second goals.

Sometimes, it’s about small changes. Sometimes, it’s about identifying your own mistakes. In this case, it was the latter.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Previously in FM23 save

Oct 6, 2023

FM23 | Nine and a half seasons with VVV-Venlo

Oct 6, 2023

Jul 10, 2023

FM23 | VVV-Venlo: A patient way to the league title

Jul 10, 2023

Jul 3, 2023

My FM23 training strategy

Jul 3, 2023

Apr 20, 2023

FM23 | Four seasons with the lone central defender

Apr 20, 2023

Apr 15, 2023

FM23 | Preparing to change tactics

Apr 15, 2023

Feb 21, 2023

FM23 | 2025/26 with VVV-Venlo: Not ready, inexperienced

Feb 21, 2023

Feb 7, 2023

FM23 | A third season with Venlo: Don't be too shy

Feb 7, 2023

Jan 24, 2023

FM23 | An ordinary match with a great comeback

Jan 24, 2023

Jan 13, 2023

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - the first season in Eredivisie

Jan 13, 2023

Dec 20, 2022

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - match analysis, key changes and promotion

Dec 20, 2022

Nov 30, 2022

FM23 | VVV-Venlo & Lone Central Defender - searching for the right one

Nov 30, 2022

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - the first season in Eredivisie

January 13, 2023

I’m not playing too fast so I can say the word ‘finally’ when I want to talk about the fact I finished the 2023/2024 season with VVV-Venlo within my Football Manager 2023 save. I expected a very hard season after an unexpected promotion in the opening season but it went very well despite playing a little bit differently and with just one central defender who has to face all the fast strikers and inside forwards in the Dutch top division. Instead of some relegation battle, we fought about the European cup place until the end.

BET ON EXPERIENCE

While talking about the transfers between the seasons, I didn’t have enough money to do big transfers and improve the squad with money signings. I monitored a couple of players who I knew will not extend their contracts with their clubs and I decided to strengthen our squad mainly with free (more or less) experienced players.

I have a couple of easy targets because I knew I need a new goalkeeper and a new right defender, and I wanted at least one player who is able to play both as DM and MC. I went with the goalkeeper Thijmen Nijhuis for free from Utrecht, right defender Aliou Coly from Kristiansund, and midfielders James Jeggo from Eupen and Liam Kelly after his contract with Rochdale expired.

Yes, the last name is 100% a typical nostalgic signing as Liam Kelly was one of my favourite players of my FM17 save with Reading FC and I decided to sign him as an alternative for both DM/MC positions as a backup. The fact he played English lower league didn’t matter.

Both Nijhuis and Coly missed a couple of weeks and months respectively due to injuries but considering our final position, all these signings proved useful. Nijhuis can be our number 1 for the next two or three seasons (or maybe until the end of the FM23 cycle, it depends on how many seasons I will play). Coly and Jego will probably leave when their contracts will expire but they still can be a useful part of the squad in the upcoming season. But if there would be some bid for them, I will sell them considering their age and wage.

(All players have highlighted the position & role they played the most matches in)

We didn’t earn some big money thanks to the outgoing transfers but we made one surprising transfer. PSV Eindhoven decided to sign one of our youngsters - Resley Kessels - and they had to pay us €550k as compensation. “Can you steal more of our youngsters, please?”

It’s not a big sum of money but it covered two months of our wages and it was crucial for us as our bank balance was more or less in red numbers for the whole season.

THE BIG GUNS ARE TOO STRONG

VVV-Venlo was in the top tier in the 2020/2021 season for the last time and they finished 17th with just 23 points. I didn’t want to be relegated again and I hoped we can avoid the relegation battle thanks to experienced signings. We started the season perfectly with two 3:0 wins over FC Twente and FC Emmen before the enthusiasm of the newcomers hit a rock.

We were better sides in most matches against clubs outside the big guns. The big clubs like Ajax, PSV, and Feyenoord + FC Twente, AZ, and Vitesse were out of our abilities and possibilities. We lost to Vitesse and AZ in the opening months. And we had Feyenoord and PSV at the end of the calendar year, and Ajax at the beginning of the second part of the season. It resulted in 0:3, 0:4, and 1:5 defeats.

I was really happy we were able to gain points with other teams because when I found out we have all AZ, Feyenoord, Vitesse, PSV, and Ajax in the last 7 league rounds, I thought about the worse. But we already had enough points and were far from the relegation zone. My dream was to beat one of these big teams and I was very close to it. We were 1:0 and 2:1 up against PSV at home but they equalised in the stoppage time and the match ended with a 2:2 draw. On the other hand, it was the first gained point against one of the big sides.

Results against big teams in the first season:

Ajax: 1:5 ⭕️ & 2:5 ⭕️ | PSV: 0:4 ⭕️ & 2:2 🟡 | Feyenoord: 0:3 ⭕️ & 1:3 ⭕️
Vitesse: 1:2 ⭕️ & 2:4 ⭕️ | AZ: 1:2 ⭕️ & 0:1 ⭕️ & 0:1 ⭕️ & 3:0 🟢

THE EUROPEAN PLAY-OFF

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, we had a chance to earn the European cup place through the play-off. The play-off is played by teams finished between 5th to 8th places in the table. You can also see four results against AZ in the list above as we faced them in the play-off semi-final. We lost 0:1 away from home in the first leg but we beat them 3:0 at home.

AZ have Vangelis Pavlidis upfront in their 4-2-3-1 and this Greek striker can play in almost all roles you can imagine. My usual approach in terms of the defensive phase this season was to use these instructions: Low Block, Drop Off More, Trap Outside, and Trigger Press More Often. I decided to switch the defensive line to higher and changed the Trigger Press down to Standard. Not sure how much effective it was but Pavlidis didn’t have a single opportunity during the match and we were able to stop his runs behind the defensive line every time.

It would be probably too easy to earn a place in some European cup so soon. We faced FC Groningen in the playoff final and they beat us 4:1 on aggregate. It was also a battle between Nick Venema and Romano Postema, two great strikers who were the 1st and the 2nd best goal scorers of the previous season in the 2nd tier. Postema scored in the first match and Venema in the second match. But we lost in the end.

FORGET THE CLEAN SHEETS and UNSTOPPABLE NICK VENEMA

My saves in a combination with my tactical approach were usually very similar in terms of one thing - I love the play defensively very compact and it turned usually into a lot of clean sheets. This save is absolutely different.

Playing with just one central defender and trying to balance everything together is not easy and clean sheets are very rare. Or at least they were very rare so far, maybe it will improve in the future.

“You’d be on my “Both Teams To Score” betting coupon every week.”

— Stuart Davidson aka 'tommysboy007'

We conceded 57 goals in 34 league matches + 5 goals in 4 playoff matches = 62. That’s the third worse defensive record from the whole league. Only Fortuna Sittard and Sparta Rotterdam (both relegated) conceded more goals - 63 and 75 respectively.

“Celebrating every clean sheet as the league title.”

— FMRensie

I think I selected a good nation and a good league to see these goals galore matches as competitions in the Netherlands are offensive-minded in my head. Maybe you can say that I have a very bad central defender. But I would say it’s not only about him, it’s about the cooperation of all players and how the system/instructions will work.

Rick Ketting played the most matches as our central defender again and he was absolutely fantastic even in terms of the data in comparison with the rest of the league. Headers, Tackles, Interceptions, Blocks…

I will have a new central defender for the 2024/2025 season and I plan to move Ketting higher up to the DM(D) role to take advantage of his great defensive skills.

The other stand-out player is 100% our main striker Nick Venema. It’s incredible but Nick scored 35 league goals in 37 matches during the first season of the save in the 2nd tier when we won the promotion.

He played all 38 league matches in the Eredivisie after a promotion and he scored 35 goals again. He also added 7 assists this season, two more than in the second tier. I extended his contract until 2027, he became the best European goalscorer of the 2023/2024 season. If some bigger club will come, he has €8,75M release clause.

Not sure if it will happen, he would be a big miss surely. The same as he is absolutely phenomenal so far in this save and the biggest surprise.

STRUGGLING? NOT ENOUGH

I know I mentioned it in my FMSlack channel before I played the European Cups playoff matches but I really didn’t expect to finish 5th in the league table in the first season after promotion. Yes, we conceded a lot of goals but that’s connected to the formation with just one central defender as it’s risky. But. On one side, it's a perfect achievement considering the tactic I'm using, on the other side it's a little bit disappointing to me that we didn't struggle more after a promotion. And that's no matter how the playoff ended.

I expected we will be able to beat teams like PEC Zwolle, Sparta Rotterdam, Excelsior, and other clubs battling in or around the relegation zone. But from 11 defeats throughout the whole season, we lost only to N.E.C. from teams playing in the middle or bottom part of the table. The rest of the defeats were against big clubs.

Another thing I didn’t expect is connected to Nick Venema and his 35 goals in 38 appearances including the playoff.

I decided to play this “lone central defender” formation with the view it will be hard to develop and tweak and I will struggle a lot. Especially after promotion to the top tier. Maybe the second season syndrome will appear, who knows, but it’s really surprising how easy it was so far.

The squad at the end of the 2023/2024 season, all players who made at least one appearance.

I’m currently heading into summer break 2024 in the save with a view of releasing a lot of young players without enough potential. I have three new players - all of them for free again - planned and confirmed. The rest of the squad will be the same or our own youngsters will be added to the first team squad. I think at least two or three players who were on loan will stay.

I also made a decision to keep only 15 and 16 years old newgens from both Youth Intake in our U18s squad. I took back over their training and will monitor their development more closely. But maybe more about it in the future.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to submit for our newly launched newsletter feature below.

Previous posts about the FM23 save

Oct 6, 2023

VVV, FM Saves Summary

FM23 | Nine and a half seasons with VVV-Venlo

Oct 6, 2023

VVV, FM Saves Summary

Oct 6, 2023

VVV, FM Saves Summary

Jul 10, 2023

VVV

FM23 | VVV-Venlo: A patient way to the league title

Jul 10, 2023

VVV

Jul 10, 2023

VVV

Jul 3, 2023

VVV, Others

My FM23 training strategy

Jul 3, 2023

VVV, Others

Jul 3, 2023

VVV, Others

Apr 20, 2023

VVV

FM23 | Four seasons with the lone central defender

Apr 20, 2023

VVV

Apr 20, 2023

VVV

Apr 15, 2023

Tactics, VVV

FM23 | Preparing to change tactics

Apr 15, 2023

Tactics, VVV

Apr 15, 2023

Tactics, VVV

Feb 21, 2023

VVV

FM23 | 2025/26 with VVV-Venlo: Not ready, inexperienced

Feb 21, 2023

VVV

Feb 21, 2023

VVV

Feb 7, 2023

VVV

FM23 | A third season with Venlo: Don't be too shy

Feb 7, 2023

VVV

Feb 7, 2023

VVV

Jan 24, 2023

Tactics, VVV

FM23 | An ordinary match with a great comeback

Jan 24, 2023

Tactics, VVV

Jan 24, 2023

Tactics, VVV

Jan 13, 2023

VVV

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - the first season in Eredivisie

Jan 13, 2023

VVV

Jan 13, 2023

VVV

Dec 20, 2022

VVV, Tactics

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - match analysis, key changes and promotion

Dec 20, 2022

VVV, Tactics

Dec 20, 2022

VVV, Tactics

Nov 30, 2022

VVV

FM23 | VVV-Venlo & Lone Central Defender - searching for the right one

Nov 30, 2022

VVV

Nov 30, 2022

VVV

Nov 16, 2022

VVV

FM23 | Before I passed the opening day and hit the continue button properly...

Nov 16, 2022

VVV

Nov 16, 2022

VVV

FM23 | VVV-Venlo and Lone Central Defender - match analysis, key changes and promotion

December 20, 2022

I thought quite a lot about how to write this post because it’s not easy to put all my thoughts about the second part of the opening season of my Football Manager 2023 save together. It’s mainly about trying to improve the tactic based on the lone central defender. I have too many notes for one standalone post and I decided to concentrate on two matches against the same opponent as both performance & result were different in both matches after I made changes to our system between these two matches. And check what changed the most in terms of the cooperation between the central defender and our wide defenders.

THE INITIAL PLAN

As you who read previous posts about the save with the VVV-Venlo, I’m playing with the formation containing just one central defender. I named it the 3-2-3-2 formation. My initial thoughts were not too complicated:

The central defender won’t be with the stopper duty as he would be too high up the pitch + we will have two defensive midfielders here
I need to close gaps between the central defender and both wide defenders
I didn’t want to use the Half Back role despite the fact I knew it would probably be the most ideal role thanks to the fact that a player in this role would drop the most from all other roles.
Combining a DM player dropping down, an ML player cuts inside and a wide defender move forward to create different attacking variations on both sides of the pitch while using CWB + WM or IW & FB + W combination.
Combining a pressing forward with the target forward creates enough space for the CM(A) player for his runs through the middle of the pitch.
Test some new defensive instructions and compare them with the previous version(s) - especially as I tried this formation at the end of the FM22 cycle in a short side save and it worked very well.
+ some more small tasks.

Some notes about the player roles & individual instructions within the initial plan:

GK and CD(D) have no particular instructions
FB(S): Take Fewer Risks, Dribble Less, Hold Position and Sit Narrower.
- The aim was to keep him as close to the central defender as possible and also don’t allow him to go too high up the pitch. I know the modern full-back has to attack, cross, press, attack, cross, press and repeat, but I wanted exactly the opposite.
CWB(S): No individual instructions, that role is demanding enough by itself.
DM(D): I added the Take More Risks instruction to see less predictable passes.
Anchor: The one who was set to defend the Mark Specific Position, usually AMC or ST position/area depending on the opposition formation and the number of their AM/ST players.
Winger and CM(A) have no particular instructions
WM(S): Cross Less Often, Cut Inside With Ball, Get Further Forward and Sit Narrower.
- The reasons for these instructions were simple - I wanted this player cuts inside and creates some space for the CWB(S).
TF(S) and PF(A) have no particular instructions.

Eerste Divisie, Round 11: Jong Utrecht 4:2 VVV-Venlo (14. 10. 2022) ⭕️

We went to this match with the above and Jong Utrecht played with 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow. I probably already mentioned in the previous post but this match was an eye-opener to me because most of the things that happened in this match were happening also in previous matches but not too often as no other teams played with AM + 2 strikers combination so I was able to ignore these mistakes/issues.

We conceded 4 goals within the opening 36 minutes and despite the statistics of the match being level, Jong Utrecht should lead by four of five goals after the first half. The attacking trio Rijks, Oehlers and Sanches Fernandes was unstoppable and they were absolutely everywhere. But mainly, they were able to take the advantage of big gaps between our central defender and wide defenders and they were free to do whatever they want in the channels between all our lines.

The best example of this match is from the second half in the two pictures below. Their four players are ready to run behind our defensive line while their central midfielder receives a simple pass from the defender, turns around and sends the ball over the line. If I mentioned the AM + 2 strikers’ deadly combination but there’s also Jenner who played as Mezzala and that’s a combination that I was covered in sweat every time they had the ball.

The biggest issue here is that the CWB(S) is still too wide and the Anchor absolutely ignores the fact he has to cover the ST area of the pitch (Rijks just behind him) to help our central defender while we are without the ball. Oeehlers didn’t score in this specific situation but I checked the analysis screen and he had five absolutely the same situations like this.

As I said, the statistics of the match (see below) were level. But for me, their performance was the best possible alert to make changes if I want to be more successful and I don’t want to hide under the desk every time I will play against formations containing an attacking midfielder and two strikers. Btw. just a week later (in-game time) after this match we played against Dordrecht, they played the same 4-4-2 Diamond formation and we lost 2:3.

You can see, there is nothing that our lone central defender should do against these three opponent players after this long pass by their keeper. Both defensive midfielders ignored the fact they should help the central defender despite being set to defend the specific area and specific player. Maybe the most fun thing of all of this is that the central defender stopped moving back and one defensive midfielder was earlier in the penalty area. But I’m not surprised, I would do the same despite one of my favourite phrases/quotes within football “Who returns back, doesn’t trust the goalkeeper.”

For me, personally, the most disappointing thing was that no matter what I tried in terms of the defensive line, drop off more etc., it was still very the same every time we faced formations with more than only one striker. Another thing was the positioning of the right defender who was set to sit narrow while we have the ball. But the picture below shows that he was even wider with the ball than without the ball. There were just too big gaps and too much free space for the opponent if they were able to take advantage of it.

SELECTING THE RIGHT WIDE DEFENDERS

It was obvious that we have to change something and we have to tweak the wide defenders and the cooperation with the central defender. And ensure they will be closer and they will cooperate better with both defensive midfielders. [I would just like to point out that this next phase started after the first twenty matches of the season when we were 4th in the table].

Changing both wide defenders to Inverted Wing-Backs is not the right thing to do even maybe someone would point it out as one of the first solutions. Why not? Because of the description of the IWB role itself:

“The Inverted Wing-Back will function defensively much like a standard Full-Back or Wing-Back. However, while a normal Wing-Back will offer width to an attack, the Inverted Wing-Back (when he has a player ahead of him and where there are fewer than two defensive midfielders) will attempt to drift inside and create space for players around him.”

I know the bold part of the description is mainly for the possession and attacking part of the game but it affects the defensive phase a lot too from what I saw while watching highlights. Mainly because of two defensive midfielders, neither left nor right defender was closer to the middle of the pitch while playing as an Inverted Wing-Back and there was no change in their play. No matter if I tried them with the defence or support duty.

It was obvious I have to change the CWB(S) role because the same as I love this role (when there is an ideal player for it), the same I hated it during some parts of this save because this player was too attacking-minded, he was unable to defend properly when we were facing the counter-attack and in the end, he was not as productive as I would want.

But it was only my fault because I was too ambitious and I thought it can work. But sometimes, facing formations with more attacking players, was almost like playing without a left defender. It worked great during friendly matches but maybe it was just because we played against not-so-great (read = higher reputable) teams and we were the dominant team. But the league games showed us the reality.

My first thought what to try the No-Nonsense Full-Back role. It’s available just with the defend duty and the default instructions are the ones I would like from the wide defender within this system.

Less risky behaviour with holding the position. But one default instruction is not for me - More Direct Passes.

I think I saw one or two nice passes near the right pitch line from the right defender in two matches, the ball flew over the defender nicely and our winger was free to advance with the ball towards the opposition goal.

But when both defenders passed the long ball to the opponent about twenty times per match without a particular reason, I lost my nerves. I’m not suited for this football. It was the same as when I wrote about it in the post about my Grenoble tactic.

As I mentioned, the No-Nonsense Full-Back role has ideal instructions bar one. So, I decided to change both my wide defenders to FB(D) with these instructions:

Take Fewer Risks, Cross From Deep, Hold Position - default
Cross Less Often, Dribble Less, Shoot Less Often, Close Down Less - additionally added

I also saved this as a simple “FB(D)” preset within the player's individual instructions screen to have it saved for the future and also to apply it easier for both wide defenders. Originally, I played the first two matches without the last mentioned instruction with close down less. But I like the idea of having it together with holding the position and taking fewer risks.

Eerste Divisie, Round 30: VVV-Venlo 3:1 Jong Utrecht (10. 3. 2023) 🟢

Moving forward within the 2022/2023 season and I decided to stop in March after a match against Jong Utrecht as we played the second match against them this season. Five months after the 2:4 defeat. I made some more changes within the tactic but will concentrate on the defensive phase mainly as we faced the 4-4-2 Diamond again and they played with Mees Rijks (AM) and Aurelio Oehlers and Derensili Sanches Fernandes upfront again.

We went to the match with our tweaked tactic and I hoped it would work the same as in the previous weeks against other opponents. It lasted for five minutes before Sanches Fernandes was the most swift behind the penalty area and opened the score.

But it was just a coincidence in the end. The unfortunate bounce of the ball was because we were absolutely dominant in the rest of the match. We had one clear-cut chance and six half chances. But the main important thing is that the goal shot by Fernandes in the 5th minute was the only dangerous shot by all of them during the rest of the match. Fernandes had two other shots on target but nothing dangerous. Rijks and Oehlers had both one shot on target together. They were perfectly marked and both these full-backs remained closer to the central defender.

One of the biggest changes (and an important one) is the behaviour of at least one full-back while facing long goal-kicks or long passes over the line. As shown in the gif below, the right full-back made it to the centre after a goal kick and won the header. This is something that both full-backs ignored successfully in the previous variation.

I am reconciled with the fact it won’t be possible to stop every opponent and it will be only harder against better and better teams. But fighting against these invisible opponents in the positioning game is fun and I will try to tweak it as much as possible.

Eerste Divisie 2022/2023 - promotion

As I mentioned in the previous post and at the beginning of this one, we were 4th in the table after the first 20 league matches. And how the seasons finished after making tactical changes here and there?

Well, we moved to third place after a 4:0 win against Almere in the 24th round and we remained here for the next five games before we moved to the 2nd place. We already had the play-off spot secured thanks to winning the third period of the season but in the end, we finished second behind PEC Zwolle and earned the automatic promotion to the top tier.

The play-off was hard for the rest of the teams as no other teams won the promotion. That means only Zwolle and Venlo will fight in the Eredivisie in the 2023/2024 season.

What next?

Well, I’m sure it will be a big challenge to survive in the Eredivisie with this formation as there are a lot of teams with big attacking power. But I will try. I’m looking forward to rebuilding the staff squad partly. And I plan to use the new corner kick routines in a similar way to how I wrote about this one during FM22. But the routine will look different.

Thanks for reading and have a nice Christmas time whenever you will be.

Follow @FMRensie

FM23 | My beloved set piece routine - short throw-in

December 6, 2022

Throw-ins are definitely one of the most underestimated parts of set pieces from all routines. No matter how much anyone talks about long throw-ins by Rory Delap or how much we are moaning about the same boring set-piece creator in the game with very limited options to create something new or original. Personally, I’m not a fan of long throw-ins. There is always a too big chance it will be cleared the same as a bad cross. I’m and always will be the biggest fan of the short throw-in routine. And the same as in the past, it was also the first routine I created in FM23.

FM23 | VVV-Venlo & Lone Central Defender - searching for the right one

November 30, 2022

“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.

**“Lone Central Defender” search filter**

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.

**“Lone Central Defender” search filter & view**

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.

A perfect assist and a direct free kick goal by Richard Sedláček during a 2:0 away win against Helmond in the 20th Eerste Divisie round.

[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.

FM23 Tactic | Latte Quarterly 4-3-1-2 with Grenoble

November 25, 2022

Seven friendlies, fifteen league matches and two domestic cup matches. The time I spent with Grenoble during the FM23 Beta, and the opening days of the new FM edition was pressed to just a couple of months due to the World Cup 2022. I didn't have a typical amount of time to build the club or save itself. I delegated most of the things to the club staff after I signed some personnel. The only thing I took over was training schedules because the way how AI set training schedules is a joke, and the assistant managers react very badly to the changes in the schedules. The rest was only about the tactic.

When Tony/FM_Grasshopper shared the idea about making the tactic around three specific roles, my initial thought was that I didn't use the BWM role and Shadow Striker role for a long time. The Target Forward role was a different story as I used this role for almost the whole previous FM edition and it was one of my favourites part of the FM22 save also thanks to Sebastian Musiolik who played this role.

Another thing is that I probably can't play the game just with some randomly selected club and I had to negotiate with Tony that I can play in the French Ligue 2 instead of in the top tier. Why? Because I always need some story, some narrative. And when I found out both Djorkaeff and Giroud started their careers with Grenoble Foot, the decision was made.

The shorter version of this post was published in the Latte Quarterly magazine, issue 13, published on Friday, November 25, 2022.

Tactically, I planned to create something different in comparison with what I will want to use in my main FM23. When I put together information about the players in the Grenoble squad, I knew it won't be some "vertical tiki-taka with linear passes to the channels". I ruled out using Ball Playing Defenders but also playmakers in central midfield. I wanted to create something that would be straightforward, but would be also safe enough. I decided to use a 4-3-1-2 formation, and the BWM(D) was placed in the middle of the flat central midfield.

The first steps

The first thing I did was that I signed three new scouts despite I knew this is not my main save and it will be only short-term. But I wanted to try the new (updated) recruitment system. Mainly the “Top” option as it suggests that it will use most of your scouts to deliver the best possible results. As I set my own rules to try to sign players at the same age as our legendary trio was, it’s clear that I didn’t need scouts with the best attribute of judging player potential, but I needed to know what these players are capable to do right now. All three scouts I signed had a Judging Player Ability attribute of 15 and they were among the first four scouts that appeared in the search filter.

I also lowered the attributes threshold by one point for each excellent, good, and average attribute threshold.

The second thing I did was I created filters and shortlists for each of these three roles after I found out the Grenoble squad doesn’t contain good enough youngsters who would be able to step up to the first team and they would be allowed as our own exception in terms of the age. And after the first friendly match that was scheduled for the second day of the save, I started manually searching for the best possible players.

The Ball Winning Midfielder search filter & custom view

After setting everything together, I decided I will search for the ball-winning midfielder by myself and the other two roles will be up to new scouts. The first issue happened when I set up the recruitment focus with the top priority for the target forward and I wanted to create the second top priority focus for the shadow striker role. The limited number of our scouts didn’t allow me to create the second top priority focus because there were not enough scouts. That’s a nice and logical detail.

Probably the best part of the revamped recruitment system is the “In Progress” bookmark within the Recruitment Focus screen. No matter what I set up or what player/position/role I decided to search within the recruitment focus, this bookmark was like radar to me. I had to check it every in-game day and I wanted to know how many players were added here and what was going on.

No matter if it was BWM(D), SS or TM(S), for some reason, I had my favourite adept for a signing from the beginning of my search.

Anthony Lippini – 33 years old former player of Montpellier, Clermont, or Ajaccio, who can play as RB or LB. Yes, you read it right, but his attributes for the BWM(D) role were the best in comparison with all available players, and in comparison, with all our own players. I got him for a two-weeks trial = “regular starter in his prime years” = exactly what I needed.

And the same happened with Yannick Mamilonne who I signed for a trial to play him as TF(S). His bravery, balance, jumping reach and strength attributes made me crazy to sign him not just because of the TF(S) role but also because of the set pieces.

The Shadow Striker role was the only one from these three I didn’t sign some new player(s) to. I was already in the red numbers in terms of the wage budget and there was a bold “0” in the line of the transfer budget. And when even a loan had to be delayed because of not having enough funds, I rather identified the best possible shadow striker from players I had in the squad. I, for example, was not even able to sign Giovani dos Santos as a free player because I didn’t have around €33k for his agent and the club board didn’t give me some more money.

So, my main man was Axel Ngando. A 29-year-old midfielder who is only one year younger than Djorkaeff, he is French, and he can play this role.

Yes, he is far from Djorkaeff’s quality I don’t think he is too bad a player. His dribbling, first touch, passing and off-the-ball movement are solid for the second tier. He was also the only exception in terms of individual training. As this save is not my main save, I delegated the individual training to the assistant manager, but I took over Ngando’s individual training, leave the position/role/duty to “AM (C) – Playing Position” and set his additional focus to the “Attacking Movement” to try to improve his Anticipation, Decisions and Off The Ball. I just swapped it with Final Third after a couple of months to add focus on the Composure as well. I knew he won’t learn a lot and he won’t develop as some young player and that was the main reason why I selected just the additional focus to not make his training regime too hard.

The last thing I did was I asked him to remove the “Runs With Ball Rarely” trait as it doesn’t suit this role.

The main point of my 4-3-1-2 tactic was to create enough space to give Shadow Striker enough room for his runs around the opponent's half. I set both MCL & MCR to CM(S) roles and both these players got Hold Position, Take More Risks and Run Wide With Ball instructions.

The last one was one of my favourites within FM22 and I decided to try it again. The important thing I like to do while using this instruction is to place the left-footed player in MCL and the right-footed player in MCR. The reason is simple – they can cross with their strong foot from the wide area, and they don't have to cut back to pass/cross with their weaker foot.

Team instructions

As I already mentioned earlier, I knew there are no superstars in the squad. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I decided to use just Pass Into Space – to try to take advantage of a lot of runs by Shadow Striker and both WB players, Play Out Of Defence and Whipped Crosses – because all strikers including newly signed Mamilonne are strong.

The important part of the "in transition" instructions was the "Distribute to Target Forward".

I decided to use it instead of Take Short Kicks or distribution to the central defenders because of what I mentioned already – any defender in the current Grenoble squad was good enough to create something. That also lead to the fact I decided to use No-Nonsense Centre-Back. The execution of this idea in all wet FM dreams is very simple – either the goalkeeper or the centre-back will pass the ball to the target forward who will hold the ball or pass it to the space and the shadow striker will go alone to the penalty area or create a chance for some other players. I'm glad I was able to fulfil this idea with the goal I made the simple graphic below.

The More Often Trigger Press was one of the first things I usually removed during matches because I already had Pressing Forward here, and the Shadow Striker also had trigger press set to "more often", so it was not needed to have it collectively too. And it was a role-coaster in combination with the BWM role sometimes.

Limitations and possible changes

As the season progressed, I decided to make two main changes. I added the Shorter Passing instruction, and I removed the No-Nonsense Centre-Back. Why? Despite there being a lot of great situations thanks to the distribution to the target forward, I thought I will lose all my nerves from too many long passes by No-Nonsense Centre-Back.

This role has More Direct Passes instruction by default. I will be clear – I'm not used to this style of football. I hate long passes and I hate having my neck blocked after every match in the Czech lower league I play in in real life. When I removed this role, it returned to the normal regime in my eyes and the passing style in our play was more pleasant to watch. The fact I added Shorter Passing had nothing to do with this, but I had a couple of small injuries in the squad and some worse players had issues with keeping the ball, they made a lot of dribbles, and we lost the ball too often.

Results

The media prediction of Grenoble was to finish 15th in the league. I finished the save after 15 matches and we were 4th in the table with 30 points with 8 wins, 6 draws and 1 defeat. Just two points behind the leader FC Metz. We also won both the 7th and 8th French Cup rounds 2:1.

Only two teams beat us – OGC Nice in the first friendly match (2:4) and AS Saint-Etienne in the league at the beginning of October 2022. My highlight would be probably a home 4:0 win against SM Caen (they were top of the league at that time) in the middle of autumn as both Axel Ngando and Yannick Mamilonne scored two goals.

Our "key" players

Anthony Lippini as our main Ball Winning Midfielder was the right man for the hard job in the centre of the pitch. He had 3.9 clearances/90 minutes after these 15 matches – the best from all in the league. But he also received 8 yellow cards in 14 appearances, so he confirmed the BWM reputation.

Axel Ngando as our main Shadow Striker scored 11 goals (only Charles Abi scored one more goal), made 9 assists and he was the best-rated player from all in the league with 7.71 average ratings. It only confirmed that a good system can create a star from the average player. It was also fun how the narrative of the save can develope quickly even if it’s only a very short save like this. When Ngando was in a very good form, the message in the mailbox appeared: “Nice Ngando! Former Grenoble favourite Youri Djorkaeff has heaped praise on Alex Ngando after his inspired performance…”

What better message can you get when you try to replicate someone?

Yannick Mamilonne as our main Target Forward scored 10 goals and made 1 assist. He was the second-best-rated player in the league with a 7.47 average rating just behind Ngando. The data hub section tells me that he had 1.94 progressive passes per 90 minutes (1.26 more than the league average) – but who knows if it works properly right now. He was also a top performer in terms of headers won/90 minutes – mainly thanks to the distribution towards him and set pieces as he was the main target. Five of his 10 league goals were from corners.

Conclusion

The Grenoble squad offers average players and it would take a lot of time to rebuild it if it would be my main save (mainly in the future, who knows?). But as the starting point for the new edition? That was good because 1) I discovered some new players, 2) I had the option to use some roles I didn't use for some time and 3) it confirmed to me what I don't want to use as my playing style.

I also tried the same tactics without changes in a different save with Reading FC. I played only five league games and one match of the English league cup. I won all of these matches and it worked absolutely perfectly. Mainly thanks ideal strikers’ combination in the squad. You can check a couple of screens and notes in this Twitter thread.

Thank you, Latte Quarterly for the possibility.

FM23 | Before I passed the opening day and hit the continue button properly...

November 16, 2022

Every single Football Manager player has his/her own way how he/she plays the game. No matter how demanding, a dedicated and passionate player he/she is. I’m the same. And for some unknown reason(s) I had the urge to put together some notes about what I did when my main Football Manager 2023 save was created and I hit the save button for the first time.

That was the signal everything is set and in the right place. And I can start another journey and another new chapter of my common life with this game. It’s not a guide or some kind of how to do this and this. It’s just my thoughts about some topics.

Setting up the database & the pre-game editor changes

I thought that I will not use the pre-game editor prior to the start of the FM23 save but I was wrong. When I created the save for the first time and I thought everything is ready, I created the tactics, I added the first players to the line-up and I found IT. Someone set the default back of the shirt in the same layout as the front of the shirt - two black stripes. That means the black font of the shirt numbers was unreadable. The fact I would have to pay around 9 euros for buying the in-game editor if I would find this later… fu*k me nicely!

So, I installed the pre-game editor. I loaded the database, changed the kit layout and also changed the colour of the home kit/shorts and icon as the club’s primary yellow shade was different from the yellow shade of the home kit. Not sure why but it’s very common in the game. If some of you remember my FM22 save with Warta and the twin cities idea, I decided to make it again when I already had the editor opened.

I found out that Venlo is connected with Gorizia, Klagenfurt and Krefeld. So I went to search for clubs from these towns.

Pro Gorizia and VfR Krefeld-Fischeln will be lower league sides, probably without a chance to reach some playable league but Austria Klagenfurt from the Austria top division can be an interesting connection. I also decided to add F91 Dudelange as our regional academy as I want to have one Luxembourg club here + I added SLW Maaseik as one of the closest Belgium cities to Venlo and Holand borders (maybe we can create some kind of BE-NE-Lux youth team, who knows…) All of these clubs are set as our regional academy. We also have a connection with West Ham United (we are just a standard affiliated club) but I will find out what the pros of this connection will be in the future of the save.

In terms of the database, I loaded a couple of nations + I activated Luxembourg's top division and Netherlands’ third tier. I thought about adding Africa but decided against it in the end. I tick the 'players from top division clubs' and 'top clubs' options from the whole of Europe in the hope it will ensure enough youth intake around Europe.

Friendlies

When the save started, there were already five friendly matches set. I added six more to our schedule. There are some weeks with just one free day between matches but the reason is very simple - the tactics. I decided to try a new formation with just one central defender and I decided I want to test everything as much as possible before the competitive season will start. Especially as the out of possession instructions are different and contains some new (or renamed and divided) instructions.

Training schedules

Editing and filling the training calendar should be divided into two parts. Firstly, it’s connected to the friendlies arranged and I had to react to calendar changes after friendlies were confirmed. Because if I would leave the training calendar up to the AI, it’s possible there would be physical (or other demanding) sessions between matches and I would risk injuries of my players.

Training calendar during the pre-season and 11 friendly matches focused on match preparation.

Secondly, I like to create training schedules for home & away competitive matches. I also like to create some kind of variations and just swap between them through the month(s). I like to concentrate on the attacking phase more while we have a home match ahead and I like to include more tactical, structured and defensive sessions when we play away from home. Despite the training calendar/schedule/session is not perfect, it’s one of the best additions to the game in recent years I really like to create new schedules and I like to react to changes.

It was a little bit different this time as the matchday of the Keuken Kampionen Divisie (Eerste Divisie) is set to Friday and that meant I had to play differently with the starting point of the week & training peak of the week & match preparation.

Training Calendar/Schedules - the first month of the competitive season.

Promoting youngsters to the first team

This is another part that’s connected to the friendlies and training schedules mentioned above. I would not be able to play 11 friendly matches with players in the squad from the opening day. There were 2 goalkeepers and 21 outfield players (two of them injured). That means I sorted the reserves squad by age and I promoted 10 players to the first team.

It will give me 1) a chance to get to know these young players and 2) I will have no problem with the squad rotation at the beginning of the save. Especially as the first transfer window is disabled and I have no chance of buying some new players. It resulted in a squad of 3 goalkeepers and 30 outfield players. It will be reduced surely during the pre-season or just before the start of the competitive season.

The squad that doesn’t fit to my screen even with the 85% zoom…

The contract extension on day one

If you will/would pay enough attention to the squad screen above, you would notice there is a 19-year-old Albanian midfielder Ertan Hajdaraj. He is not a superstar but I really don’t know why he has only an amateur contract with the club. He joined the club in 2019 from Gladbach and played 7 matches last season. He is wanted by almost half of the clubs from our league. I want to play the CM(A) role and I think he can be a great player for this role if he will improve some things. Mainly the physical part of his play and composure. He can also turn into a very solid Advanced Playmaker if I would decide to use this role.

I hit the new magic button to discuss the contract with his agent and they wanted another amateur contract without being paid. Not sure why it is. Maybe someone who knows something about this situation will read this and will give me some info. But I gave him a professional contract until 2024. It feels almost like the first signing…

He was also the first player from all who got the individual training regime - CM(A) + Final Third additional Focus + Double Intensity + Gets Forward Whenever Possible trait.

Staff

Monthly Staff Meeting - one of the first things you have to do when the save starts or you join the new club. I accepted the “invitation” to the opening monthly staff meeting but I immediately ended with the option to skip to the end and changed the frequency from every week to every month. Why? Because I want to get to know the club, staff and players by myself. I don’t want to accept all the suggestions just because AI think it’s a good idea. Not everything by AI is a good idea…
Staff haunting for free slots and keeping the current members - there are two things connected to the staff. There are a couple of vacant roles within our staff. My traditional thing when the save starts are that I never fire some staff member. I always give them at least the first season before their contract will expire. The first thing is that I usually don’t know them but there is also a possibility they can improve through gaining coaching badges and there is also a big chance I will not be able to sign a better replacement. In the VVV’s scouting department there Marc van Hintum is a Chief Scout and he earns €3,400 p/m. But he is not willing to change his role to an ordinary scout when I wanted to change it. The reason is simple, there also is Stan Valckx who earns €21,500 p/m but more importantly he is way better in terms of attributes, personality… I will wait for the end of the first season to replace the first one to save money and I will hope I will have enough to extend the contract with Valckx. I will also try to search (manually, never do the staff adverts, that’s a waste of time) for the best possible new staff for the vacant roles (highlighted yellow in the picture below).
Staff responsibilities - despite I like to do most of the in-game things by myself, even I delegate some things to my staff. One of the most common changes is who is providing me with the player reports within my own team. It’s usually between the assistant manager and head of youth development (because I play with young players a lot so the HoYD has a strong word). At the beginning of the save with VVV, I’m fortunate to have very quality HoYD in Roger Bongaerts who will provide me with these reports because the assistant managers are not as good as Bongaerts. There’s a possibility it will remain like this for a long time because I found out while writing this that Bongaerts has a contract until 2027.

Custom views

The squad screen I shared above contains the custom view made by Adam / FM Stag who shared his incredible work with all of us and I decided to try it. It’s for the first time in a very long time I decided to not create my own views. I miss a couple of things here and here - I, for example, always liked to have a separate squad view for the opponents’ team or the view for the national team but that’s something I can do very quickly by myself. The work by Adam is fantastic, check it out.

It's official. The #FM23 is the first edition in my life I will use different custom views than my own.

I only add players' faces where I feel it's a good idea. Thank you, @FM_Stag, it's lovely work 🎩 https://t.co/MAhRK6KI4H pic.twitter.com/s3lzybhF54
— FM Rensie (@FMRensie) November 9, 2022

It's live! 🎉

My Custom Views Megapack for #FM23 is now available to download and read about here.

I'll be putting together other tools and guides throughout the #FM23 cycle 😀.https://t.co/Mf56NimT6s
— FM Stag 🦌 (@FM_Stag) November 9, 2022

Miscellaneous

Sorting the sidebar icons - I like to play with the “sidebar icons only” option (you can change it in Preferences/Interface, no need to make skin changes) and I also like to customise the order of the icons. I know I mentioned this in the past already. I like to have Schedule and Home bottom of the sidebar, mailbox separated, the same as tactics and training. All the squads with team report and development centre together. The rest contain three groups related to the club info, scouting and transfers and the last three are the "most rest" I used very less.
Shortcuts - they are important to make my play easier, more comfortable a more useful. I, for example, have the middle mouse button set as continue so I don’t have to smash the spacebar every time. And many more including all the F1-F12 keys. I wrote about it more during FM20 but the main point is the same.
Changing in-game currency from £ to €.
Changing in-game wage from weekly to monthly.
Setting the Auto Saves format to After Matches with 3 File Rolling Auto Save.

What to do next?

The notes above I made just within one in-game day. Maybe I forgot something more but I would say these are the most important things I did in the opening hours of the save. The next step is to put the tactics together as the first friendly match is scheduled for the afternoon of the second day of the save.

I know I will have to make changes to the scouting recruitment team in terms of who is responsible for assigning scouts - I know I don’t want Marc van Hintum in a charge of the recruitment team so it’s pointless to leave him as the one who decides about where our scouts will go during the first season.

As there is no option to select a different scout, I will do it on my own. I will set the mentoring groups, create the first pack of set pieces, and create the custom screen flow with a focus on youth competitions around Europe…

Too many other things to do in the next few days.

But now, I will hit the continue button…

FM23 | Building tactics around one central defender with VVV-Venlo - part 1

October 17, 2022

Searching, deciding and selecting a nation & club for my Football Manager saves is harder and harder for me. It’s not about selecting something ‘extra-super-exciting-challenging’ with many restrictions (I also feel many people have to create their own restrictions more and more frequently to enjoy the long-term saves rather than just playing the game).

And I’m the same. It was already prior to FM18 when I created the “Around The Lake” transfer/recruitment strategy in my save in Hungary. And I feel it’s still the same - I have to have some rules for every save every year. Sometimes there are more rules and restrictions, sometimes fewer.

BACKGROUND I - WHY VVV VENLO?

And ahead of the Football Manager 2023, I decided the main point of the save will be to challenge myself tactically while using one central defender no matter the nation or club I will play in/with.

But that didn’t mean my ‘issue’ was resolved. I still had to choose some club :)

The reason number 1

Richard Sedlacek (left). Photo by Ben Gal/Orange Pictures/BSR Agency/Getty Images.

I remember how I was pleased ahead of my FM21 save with GAIS when I found some connections to my country during searching for some background info to make it more or less narrative in my head.

For example, when I found (randomly) the lovely old school picture of the Czech midfielder Pavel Zavadil (one of my favourite midfielders in the last 15-20 years because of his dedication and devotion to the game and also fighting spirit) while he was playing for Örgryte against GAIS.

So, instead of researching for too long, I had four clubs in my mind almost immediately with some specific connection to several players I know from the past watching them play regularly when they were younger. One of them is Richard Sedlacek. He is 23 years old midfielder whose development I followed when he was a captain of almost all youth AC Sparta Prague teams until the Under-19s team. He left Sparta in the summer of 2018 when he signed for AZ Alkmaar and he played for their ‘Jong’ team with a few fleeting flirtations with the AZ senior squad.

But several injuries limited him and stopped him in the progress, and he moved to the VVV-Venlo in January 2022, and he is trying to get back to his best currently during the 2022/2023 season after another injury. This not-so-tall midfielder who hates defeats and failures was one of two main reasons in deciding about playing in the Netherlands 2nd division with VVV-Venlo.

Venlose Voetbal Vereniging, or VVV as they are more commonly known, were founded in 1903 and have built a reputation for being a yo-yo team, flitting between the first and second tiers ever since.
Nevertheless, VVV-Venlo essentially define their city. “The club is the city”, Dutch football expert James Rowe explains. There is a notion that Venlo’s culture can be seen through the lens of its charming club. De Koel, their stadium, was built in 1972 and houses 8,000 fans who have always been loyal and continue to play an enormous role in the club’s fortunes.
— These Football Times

The reason number 2

The second reason why I had no problem selecting VVV-Venlo is hidden in the above quote. I prefer smaller clubs with a small or very limited budget. I like clubs with smaller and cosy stadiums. I like clubs that prefer tradition over money, tv rights and their own identity are more important than the number of shirts sold. I always prefer clubs with some relationship with their fans.

I don’t know the relationship between the club & fans 100% detail but most VVV is able to fulfil all my preferences and expectations from what I read via several resources. I’m also interested in how the new Supporter Confidence/Supporter Profile feature can affect the relationship with the club vs. fans vs. manager in the new game. If the club is labelled as a family club and fans should be very loyal and supportive, will it be affected somehow in the game?

I’m currently not sure if it will be different in some way in comparison with previous editions or if the new Supporter Confidence/Profile is only another renamed part of the game that developers only moved from one screen to another. It will be a surprise. Or maybe not if it won’t work or if it won’t have an impact.

VVV-Venlo is the traditional, connecting family club that everyone is proud of and feels at home. Our hospitality and Limburg conviviality are indispensable in our sporting achievements, events and (social) projects. In this way we create memories with our supporters and make connections with each other, through all layers of society. We are sportingly and socially intertwined with Venlo, Limburg and the (Eu)region.

Together we are VVV!
— From the club’s Culture and values

De Koel stadium. As was mentioned in the quote above, the capacity is 8k. You can see in the pictures that it’s not some modern stadium with a shiny retractable roof, heated seats and personal service. It’s a nice old stadium. The club swapped from the grass to artificial grass and back to the ‘natural’ grass again. That’s a bonus point for me artificial grass is not a thing anymore.

There were plans for reconstruction and modernising some parts of the stadium but the same in many other areas of our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic affected these plans a lot. But when you consider I had 4k and 6k capacity in FM22 while playing with Warta Poznan and the club board never answered my stadium expansion requests for 5 seasons in a row, everything will be an improvement.

And I have to say I love that the players have to make it down the stairs to reach the tunnel to enter the pitch. That looks really nice.

BACKGROUND II - TACTICS/FORMATION

The playing style I prefer in real life or in the Football Manager is not complicated. That applies to whole my real life and more and more to the Football Manager in recent years while I was learning more and more things within the game.

I spent the most recent years/save using systems with three central defenders and wing-backs while the rest of the formation was variable and usually depended on my current taste and mood. I also tried using just two central defenders in combination with the half back role while using WBR/L in the opening seasons of my FM22 save with Warta Poznan. And the save’s final seasons were played with the flat 5 defensive line using one of my favourite roles - central defender with the stopper duty.

The closer the end of FM22 was, the more I knew I will have to think about and create some new tactical challenges for myself because I knew it was the one and only way how I can enjoy the new game. And that was the moment when I decided about using just one central defender and trying to create a formation/tactic around the one central defender and two defensive midfielders.

Will there be half back role? One? Or two? How will the defensive line work with the gaps between the central defender and wide defenders? Can I use some central defenders as defensive midfielders? Where the midfielders will push and move? How will it affect my set piece routines?

There are too many questions to answer while I will be testing this formation, team instructions and player roles.

As the game developers announced already, the Out of Possession instructions were changed/tweaked (or renamed, we will see). The line of engagement instruction was renamed to low/mid-block and high press. Other instructions were renamed or separated so we will have a pressing trap, cross engagement, defensive line and tackling all divided.

Defensive width has been replaced by the pressing trap for example. That can be a very crucial part of the tactics tweaking for me with the already mentioned question of how players will cope with the gaps between central and wide positions.

It almost looks like someone wants to challenge me and these changes within the out-of-possession instructions are coming at the right time for me. As I wrote on Twitter recently, I already tried this kind of formation within the FM22 and it worked very well. But will it work in the game? Especially if the defensive instructions were changed. We will see…

The second tier in the Netherlands, Eerste Divisie, has a bonus point connected to this tactical testing - there are 20 teams in the competition so I will have enough matches to spot mistakes and all the issues.

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…

1/5 🧵 I couldn't stay away from FM the last two weeks despite I ended my main #FM22 save. I wanted to tidy and clean the custom skin and I decided to start a save with my belove Sparta with the updated database. pic.twitter.com/1r2b1UlRl1
— FM Rensie (@FMRensie) October 13, 2022

What next?

Well, it all depends on how and when I will start the save. But I already have some ideas about what will one or two next blog posts include. One of many parts will be of course dedicated to the main point - how to choose the best possible central defender considering he is the only central defender on the pitch.

There will be also a part called ‘Create the perfect roof’ as it will be dedicated to the cooperation between the central defender, RB/LB and defensive midfielders. And many more.

One thing is certain. I don’t know how the VVV squad will look in the game and it will take some time to make it work. One of my aims will be to win promotion to the Dutch top flight for sure and make the club a regular team of the Eredivisie to stop the mentioned yo-yo effect.

I would also like to make Richard Sedlacek one of the main/key midfielders of my team so I will probably also dedicate some parts of my blogs to his development despite he is already 23 years old.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the new game.

FM22 | Ten years with Warta Poznan

September 30, 2022

My Football Manager saves usually have something common - I just want to enjoy it. Sometimes, the game itself makes it harder to maintain this feeling and the Football Manager 2022 edition was this case. I don’t say it was a bad edition but I 100% didn’t enjoy it as much as some previous editions. But still, my main save (I didn’t play almost anything other than this one) was a good one. It’s always about how I will make the save enjoyable for myself in terms of micro-managing all the things connected with the club, squad, tactics or player development.

STEP BY STEP

The same as in the past, I decided to not start with a club that is not a top club in the particular nation. I would not enjoy it to be the top team immediately at the beginning as I like to build the club continuously. That was one of the main reasons ahead of selecting Warta Poznan. Poland itself was one of my main top three nations to play in before the FM22 edition and I will never regret this decision.

I don’t want to say I’m addicted to the Polish leagues now or I’m the biggest Warta fan around the world but this save is another example of how a game like Football Manager can affect what you enjoy following in real life. Without this save, I don’t think I would follow all the highlights and best moments of the Ekstraklasa in real life. I even subscribed to the league’s official YouTube channel and I enjoy following my favourite players from the game of how they perform in real life. Some of them moved to other clubs in real life so it’s a little bit weird to see them play against Warta when I played the game a couple of minutes before. A great example is my in-game central defender stalwart Aleks Lawniczak who was with me for the entire save but he moved to Zaglebie Lubin in real life and he played against Warta in the Ekstraklasa 9th round the weekend before I started writing this post. The same example is Szymon Czyż who moved to Raków and he is playing alongside Sebastian Musiolik who is my FM22 hero, God and myth. Watching them both play against Warta in real life was weird. But that’s life.

Domestic competitions

I still remember watching Warta Poznan in real life during the 2021/2022 season and how I wish them all the best in every game, so they will stay in the Ekstraklasa. I started the save and the predicted finish was 17th place among 18 teams. We finished 4th, fifteen points behind the third Wisla Kraków.

If I loved something about this save and the Ekstraklasa competition, it was how tight the league title race was.

2021/2022: Legia won the title thanks to better results in matches against Lech Poznan while both had 74 points and Wisla ended third with 72 points.
2022/2023: Legia won the title with 70 points after we lost points in the last round against Gornik Zabrze.
2023/2024: Legia won the title with 72 points ahead of Lechia and Warta (both with 71 points) as Lechia drew 3:3 in the last round.
2024/2025: We won our first league title just by one point as we had 75 points and Wisla 74 after Wisla lost all three points in the penultimate league round and we moved to the top.
2025/2026: We won the league over Górnik Zabrze just thanks to better results in common matches.
2026/2027: We won the league with 81 points, just four points ahead of Lechia Gdansk.

The last four seasons were our domination already. And I think it was also one of the main moments when I fell out of love a little bit with the save and stopped playing for some time before I returned to playing it. We set a new record for Most matches without losing as we didn’t lose a single league match between 30th April 2027 to 14th March 2031. Almost four years. The save ends with seven league titles in a row.

Our performances in the domestic cup were not so dominant but we were able to add three trophies to the collection in the end. Interesting thing is that Gornik Zabrze was the team we lost to twice in the last season, both 0:1 in the cup and the league and they ended our long-term winning streak in both competitions.

European competitions

Our European adventures started in the third season - 2023/2024 - when we entered the Europa Conference League qualifying phase and we made it to the group stage and the semi-final of this competition before we lost to Stade Rennais, our senior affiliate club, ironically. We were also in this competition next season but knocked out in the 2nd round already by Real Sociedad.

The next season, 2025/2026, meant our Champions League debut. Just the qualification to be precise because we beat Hammarby and APOEL but we lost 1:2 on aggregate to RB Salzburg in the last qualifying phase. It gave us the option to make it to the Europa League quarter-final where we lost to Valencia. We were in the same phase next two years but we lost to Tottenham and Marseille respectively.

The season 2028/2029 was the only one when we finished bottom of the Champions League group and we didn’t play in Europe during the second part of the season. In the last two seasons of this save, we made it to the Champions League quarter-final. We lost to Bayern (1:3 on aggregate) and Real Madrid (2:3 on aggregate). As I wrote in the Slack channel when talked about it, it was the highest level we were able to reach with this club, this squad and my long-term squad and transfer policy.

European places & coefficient

I named this part of the post step by step mainly because the summary of our European journey reflects the continuous summary of the club in a perfect way. We were able to reach the knockout stages in all three European competitions and we were able to reach the highest level in all of them including that Champions League quarter-final place. I’m sure I would be able to win the Champions League if I would buy all the wonderkids from around the world but that’s not a style of my play.

Another big part of this save was to improve the coefficient of Polish clubs to be able to gain better places in all European competitions and make it easier to reach the main stage of these competitions. The nation’s coefficient improved significantly during these ten seasons, especially after we started playing the cups regularly as we were able to reach later stages.

At the beginning of the save, Poland was 30th in the nation club coefficient table. There was only one place in the Champions League 1st qualifying phase. So, the league champion has to make it through four phases to reach the group stage. Plus three qualifying places in the Europa Conference League, all of them also in the first round. That’s too tricky for any club. No wonder Polish clubs are horrible at reaching the main stages in real life.

The best position we reached was 8th place in the 2028/2029 season. At the end of the save, Poland sits 10th in the coefficient table. And we have two Champions League places, one Europa League place and two places in the Europa Conference League. And that’s before the between-seasons update. Good job, Ondrej!

HEROES OF THE SAVE

I like to have my heroes of the save. Some of them are players from the original squad at the beginning of the save. Some of them are in the squad from the beginning, and some of them join my team throughout the save. When I played against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final in the last season of the save, we had 7 real players in the starting XI.

4 of these players were from the original squad including originally unwanted/transfer-listed goalkeeper Jedrzej Grobelny, central defender Aleks Lawniczak, left defender Konrad Matuszewski and central midfielder Szymon Czyz.
+ Sebastian Musiolik who I signed for free ahead of the 2nd season of the save
+ Hubert Turski who I signed ahead of the 5th season so in the middle of the save
+ Iwo Kaczmarski - a CM player, one of my first signings of the save when I loaned him from Raków in the middle of the first season. He went to Gladbach in 2023 for €1.6M and I bought him for €1.2M in 2028.

I will start with goalkeeper Jedrzej Grobelny. The funny thing was this keeper was transfer listed and loan listed and he was with Skra Czestochowa on loan at the beginning of the save. I have no clue why he was transfer listed as he joined Warta in the same summer (also in real life) but I have no clue about many things in this game. Adrian Lis was our number in the first season, the same as he is in real life, but he wanted a lot of money within a new contract so I decided to sell him for €60k (a lot of money at that time of the save) to Cracovia and I made Grobelny our number 1. Grobelny conceded 39 league goals in the 2022/2023 season. The same as the whole team improved and our tactics improved, the main aim was not to “survive” but to concede as less as possible. It resulted in the new clean sheet record as he managed to keep 27 clean sheets in 34 league matches in the last season of the save. We conceded just seven league goals and I am very happy he made it.
The second player I want to mention is Aleks Lawniczak. Our most consistent central defender of this save is probably the best example of my favourite kind of player - he was born in Poznan, he spent most of his youth career with Warta Poznan and he made it to the senior squad (he moved to Zaglebie Lubin in real life in January 2022 for €800k [based on the Transfermarkt] - that’s a lot of money and I am sure I would not reject it in the same time of the in-game save too). Aleks spent the whole time of the save with my Warta side and he beat the record with the most league appearances in the club history. It’s 333 matches at the end of the 10th season.
Konrad Matuszewski, developed through the Legia youth categories went to Warta before the 2021/2022 season in real life. I made him our first choice left-sided wing-back and he spent the whole save as LB or LWB. Statistically, his best season was the second one when he had 12 assists in 33 league matches. When I thought about this save backwards, it’s safe to say Konrad is a real victim of my tactical experiments, mainly in terms of changing wing-back roles. There was a time when I wanted to have a complete wing-back on support or attack duty but he was one of three or four players who struggled to perform in this demanding role. But when I switched it back to a simple wing-back with support duty, he was back at it again and he was very good. The average rating of 7.6 in the last season speaks for itself.
Another player who is not a Warta member in real life, Szymon Czyz, spent the whole save with me. He came to Warta before the save started from Lazio. Ironically, he is a Lech Poznan academy graduate. He can be considered a victim of the roles’ changes, the same as Matuszewski. He played as CM(S), CM(A), RPM, and also as BBM when it was needed, he also played as AM(S) for a while but he probably was at his best as AP(S) in the central midfield. He recently made one fantastic assist in real life for Raków and I think I watched it at least fifty times. Sometime later he made something very similar in my save.
Central midfielder Iwo Kaczmarski was a perfect example of a young player I could not buy at the beginning of the save, I signed him for a loan, and his club Raków gave him a chance in the first team and earned big money for his transfer to Gladbach. He was one of a few Polish Polish players abroad I kept on the shortlist and it was very easy to sign him in 2028 when he was older, even better and I had no problem putting €1.2M on the table as it was his transfer fee. He played mainly as BBM in these last three seasons and it was a good decision. I’m sure I would be able to sell him for at least €15M right now if I would continue the save as he is still only 27 years old and a relatively universal central player who can play as DM/CM/AM and I’m sure he would be able to play as a central defender too.
My FM22 favourite player is Sebastian Musiolik. Without any doubt. I signed him for free ahead of the second season when his contract ended with Raków. I remember I found out about his contract expiration in February or March of the first season and I was afraid some different club will sing him because they will have more money than us. But no, he signed for us almost immediately, maybe the good league standing at that point helped us. He was 26 years old and he was the best player I could get for a target forward role. It was incredible I was able to sign him with a wage just of €4.7k per month. It raised to €11k after the first season with us. He had an instant impact and he was our best player. I even had to write a single post about him because he was my chosen player in this edition. He scored once and made one assist in the last match of the save in his 35 years. It was symbolic. I’m really happy I discovered and I was able to watch him live recently when Raków played with Slavia Prague in the Europa Conference League (shh, he was better in my save).
Originally, I searched for a backup player to have another option if Sebastian Musiolik would be injured or fatigued. But I found another start of this edition - Hubert Turski. Pogon Szczecin academy graduate who spent a lot of time on lower leagues or playing for Pogon’s second team in the first half of my save. I bought him for €1.1M ahead of the 2025/2026 season. It was already the time when I had enough money to spend and other Polish clubs knew it so they negotiated transfer fees a lot. I wanted to write that he has a slow start in our club but I realised he scored 20 goals in 24 appearances in the first season despite he was a backup player for a TF(S) role. It changed a lot when I decided to use him as our main Advanced Forward. And it ended with the fact that he scored 40 league goals in the 2029/2030 season and that’s a new league record. He scored 45 goals overall that season. He was wanted by various clubs from the rest of Europe, I think I rejected around €30M once but he was not angry or disappointed. Sebastian Musiolik has 156 league goals at the end of the season and that’s the most in the club's history. Turski has 147, I’m sure he would need five or six matches of another season to break this record. He made 284 appearances for the club and scored 210 goals in six seasons.

I’m glad I discovered a lot of very good and talented players in this FM edition and I’m sure that if I would play in Poland again in the next edition, they would be the first ones I would like to buy or sign again. As I already mentioned Michal Kopczynski who played the Half Back at the beginning of the save, would also deserve a special mention but I will just leave the link to the post about how tactics worked with that role - HERE.

BONUS PLAYER

Time to say goodbye, Radomir 👋🏻

Signed for €950k, sold for €95M. Two and a half of the season - 118 matches, 44 goals & 73 assists as AM(S). #FM22 pic.twitter.com/OnUS8aBIDJ
— FM Rensie (@FMRensie) September 16, 2022

I decided to add one more player to this part despite it being a newgen player. His name is Radomir Cvijan and he is one of many fantastic Serbian newgens this game can create in almost every save around the world.

I signed him for €950k in the 2028/2029 season when I activated the transfer release clause he had in his contract with Spartak Subotica.

He became our main attacking midfielder, he became our main set piece taker and it didn’t last long when clubs like Juventus, Real & Atlético Madrid, Manchester City & United etc. were interested in buying him. I had a transfer offer of about €90M in winter 2030, just one and a half years after I signed him. I rejected it. He accepted he will stay with us until someone will offer €96M.

When Liverpool made a €95M bid in winter 2031, I decided to sell him. It was my last season and I didn’t need to keep him because I just wanted to make this big transfer and I wanted to see if the club board will use the money for building the new stadium, for example. But nothing happened. Radomir played 118 matches, he scored 44 goals & and made 73 assists mainly as AM(S).

As I already said above, if I would have a different transfer/squad policy and I would buy newgens like Radomir, the save would turn into total domination both domestically and in Europe too.

Thanks to a database I set up at the beginning, concentrating on central and south/eastern Europe, there are too many great Croatian/Serbian/Romanian etc. newgens which would be able to conquer all competitions.

Finances of Warta Poznan in 2021 vs. 2031

THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE SAVE

I think it surely is the situation with the stadium. We started this save with the stadium capacity of 4000 seats. The stadium capacity was possible to increase up to 16k. The capacity was increased up to 6k in the middle of the save. We already played our European matches at the INEA Stadion which is the stadium of our biggest rival - Lech Poznan. This stadium has a capacity of over 40k but we didn’t sell out the stadium, even if we played against clubs like Real Madrid or Bayern.

We didn’t sell out domestic league matches only once in the last three and a half seasons. I had the option on the club screen to ask about building the new stadium. But it always ended in the same way. I asked they responded that they will let me know and the option about the new stadium disappeared for the next three or four in-game months before it appeared here again. But there was no response from the board.

I was not able to increase the stadium capacity despite the allowed max capacity wasn’t reached. And the board ignored my requests, or better worded, they never get back to me. So, maybe a bug. Maybe something in the FM matrix.

THE BIGGEST POSITIVES OF THE SAVE

It’s related to the already mentioned rivalry with Lech Poznan. They had more money at the beginning, they had better players, more coaches, better facilities, a bigger stadium, and better results. But the only thing they still have better/bigger is that stadium. One of my main aims of the save was to be better than Lech domestically but also in Europe.

And it worked out. In Europe, they did nothing in comparison with us in these ten seasons. Their best Champions League result was reaching the third qualifying phase in the last season of the save. They were 3rd in the Europa League group this last season.

The fact they didn’t win the Ekstraklasa title within this save speaks for itself. And they won the domestic cup once.

Results between Warta and Lech during this Football Manager 2022 save.

The second thing I probably liked the most within the whole save was how my tactical plans and thoughts worked. I still remember the end of the FM21 cycle when I decided to use just two central defenders in combination with the Half Back role to create some kind of false central defender in combination with the wingbacks. I was lucky I had a good enough player for the Half Back role straight at the beginning of the save and I didn’t have to search for one.

But I also like the seasons when I moved back to three central defenders without a defensive midfielder as I wanted to take advantage of good set pieces routines to score more goals thanks to big central defenders.

The last three seasons were also fun to watch because I made some last tweaks, moved both wing-backs down to create a defensive line with five players, and one central midfielder was moved up to AM position. In combination with the perfect forward duo in Musiolik and Turski, it was a joy to watch and we created some new defensive and attacking records for our club and the league too. This formation can be found in this post.

The only thing I will regret is that I didn’t have enough time to write a single post about how my central defenders worked with “Stay Wider” instructions while using the flat five defenders during the last three seasons. But, maybe in the future, who knows?

I’m already looking forward to playing with just one central defender in FM23… 👀

CONCLUSION OF THE SAVE AND FM22

The choice of the club and the nation to play with and in, within the Football Manager 2022, was perfect without a doubt. Warta will remain that club that I will try to follow every week and many players will be on my radar whenever I will follow some Polish football.

But if you expect some “but”, you’re right. The Football Manager 2022 was not the best edition I’ve ever played. 100% not. I was not addicted to this version of the game as I was addicted to some previous versions. Maybe it’s not a mistake of the game itself. Maybe I’m just only older and everything is changing around me.

When I look back, the last 10th season was the weirdest and most boring of all. Not because of players, or results… but I just wanted to finish it and don’t play it anymore. Maybe if I would be able to write about the game without playing it, I would enjoy it more because whenever I had time to write, or at least think about writing something, I was in a good mood and I was looking forward to putting words together. But when I had to search for something in the game and I found all the old bugs, it put me off and I didn’t want to spend my time with the game.

If someone would care about my FM22 review, it would be this: “I enjoyed writing about FM22 more than actually playing the game itself.”

I just hope there is a small chance it will be better in the future.

Thanks to everyone who spent some time with this save or with any other blog posts around this great website.

Don’t forget to support Latte Quarterly magazine, it’s the best one 😉

Take care.

FM22 | Squad selection management + tactics + set-pieces strategy [2029/30]

August 24, 2022

Do you remember that moment when you spent your entire free time with the Football Manager sorting everything within the tactics, line-up, set-pieces and more? And do you also remember that moment when you just rotated a couple of players and all your set pieces were fu*cked? I know that feeling. If your answer was “no, I don’t care about set-pieces”, you can skip this post if you’re not interested in how the 2029/2030 season ended. If you’re interested in a simple trick/tip to make it easier for yourself, maybe the following lines will help you. This is what and how I’m doing within my save to save some time for more important things…

SAVE & MANAGE TEAM SELECTION(S)

I know I already mentioned this simple option during this save but it was not detailed, just a short mention. Firstly, I know that I will be playing three competitions during the first part of the 2029/2030 season - domestic league & cup and also the Champions League group stage as we have qualified automatically thanks to the league title.

I like to have most of the things prepared and planned ahead. I usually know which players will stay in the first team, who will leave the club on loan and who permanently or who will be promoted from the youth squad. I like to have it prepared even before the end of the season. At least in my head. That means I can concentrate on different things and just react to some unexpected offers.

My usual approach is that I just open the tactics screen and I set up the starting XI to see it visually. I add the subs (main backup players for each position/role) and I save it as ‘MAIN 2029/2030’. The second step is that I open the set-pieces part of the tactics and I set up all the roles exactly how I want based on the players’ qualities and how I think they should work. The last step is when I go back to the tactics screen and I save the tactic. It’s a “5-3-2 2029 MAIN squad” in our example.

What next? I remain within the tactics screen, I load the same tactic for the 2nd or 3rd slot, clear the squad selection and I start from scratch. But this time it’s about to put the “B”ackup squad selection together. When I have all the roles in the line-up and all subs filled, I save the team selection again - this time as a “B” SQUAD 2029/2030. And yes, the step to make the set-pieces correct is the next one before I go back to the tactics screen and save the tactics as a “5-3-2 2029 B squad”.

If you ask yourself why I include the year within the name of tactic, it’s mainly from a practical point to be able to identify tactical changes I made during the save in each season.

Jaroszewski = exception

I made one thing a little bit differently already during the 2028/2029 season as I decided to play two 17/18 years old newgens as my main/backup right defenders within the CWB(A) role. One of them is Maciej Jaroszewski (click to see his profile). He is a little bit different complete wing-back. He is a physically very well-prepared player in terms of pace. But he is also 193 cm tall with a very good off-the-ball movement and a jumping reach of 20! Some of you probably already knew where this is heading to…

…yes, I decided to add the main tactic as our 2nd tactic option but I added Jaroszewski as our main target for all set-piece routines. Just to test it. The reason why I saved the tactic just because of this player is that they rotate quite a lot with the other one so I can always just switch between tactics (also during the matches) and the main targets will be different players again. The second right defender option is the shortest player within the squad so I really don’t want to have him as the one who attacks the near post or who is set to fight with the goalkeeper…

The first picture shows where you can save/load/manage the squad selection. It also shows the tactic and the squad after the opening match of the 2029/2030 season and the fact that I now have the main tactic selected because Jaroszewski is injured and I will have to use another player. The second picture is an example of the “B”ackup squad selected together with the B squad tactic. Feel free to ignore the injured players at the time when the pictures were taken. You can also see how the squad selection of the main & backup squads are simply divided by the shirt numbers 👀

WHAT? SET PIECES ARE RIGHT…

One of the biggest advantages of what I mentioned above is linked to set-pieces. Why? Example from my save: while my main strikers Hubert Turski and Sebastian Musiolik are both absolutely perfect for set pieces, both my backup strikers are absolutely different players and their physical and off-the-ball skills are not enough compatible with the set-pieces. That applies also to the set-piece takers, not only to target players.

The set pieces and saved tactics are not working properly together in the current (and in the previous editions too) and you have to be very careful what you’re doing. If you don’t care about set pieces, it’s up to you 100% but you can’t fault the game something doesn’t work properly when you didn’t care about it. When you create some tactic with some routines and you save this tactic, the routines will be saved together with the tactic when you will load it again.

That means a very simple thing together with the squad selection management I wrote about above. The main tactic is saved with the routines including the right players in the right roles. The “B”ackup squad selection is saved within the “B squad” tactic with the right players in the right roles. Including the takers of corners, free kicks, throw-ins or penalties. I always knew there will be the right player within the selection.

It gives me:

The security I have everything prepared every time I have time to play the game
It really saves my time while playing the game because I don’t have to rearrange players within all routines before every game because I am able to just load the squad selection I need and piece it together with the saved tactic & set pieces
I also can switch between the main tactic and the main tactic with Jaroszewski (before he will leave) to mix the set-pieces during the match as the tactic is the same, only players within the routines are different.

A simple example of how my three corner kick routines are changing while changing tactics and the squad selection for each match or during the match. You can easily see the changes in the players positioning and roles.

I still check the set pieces and if everything is alright but I don’t have to make big changes and spend my whole available time playing the game by changing everything.

There is a very nice example from the opening match of the 2029/2030 Ekstraklasa campaign. We started with the main squad & the main tactic with Jaroszewski set as the main target man for set pieces. But the first corners and free kicks didn’t look alright and he was out of the right position so I changed the tactic to the main v1 where central defenders and both strikers are set as the main targets. It resulted in the goal from a wide free kick as the only summer signing Robert Kreso scored with the back post header. Jaroszewski got also a slight knock and he was replaced by Cichos. The smallest defender of our squad is also set as the second corner taker when Cvijan is not on the pitch. And as you can see, Cvijan left the pitch in the 78th minute and Cichos made an assist from a corner in the stoppage time. The ideal example of everything that I wrote about together in one match :)

THE 2029/2030 SEASON’S SQUAD

As I already mentioned above, we signed just only one player during the summer of 2029 ahead of the new season and it was 20 years old Croatian central defender Robert Kreso (click to see his profile). I bought him for €2.6M from Hajduk Split and he was one of our main three central defenders.

There were two major outgoing transfers during this summer as I sold Sergey Lyakh (the Belarusian newgen) for €6.25M to Hertha who I signed for €210K six years ago. And central defender Bartlomiej Kozlowski to Dinamo Moscow for €8.75M (bought him in 2028 for €3.2M from Wisla). The rest were loans to some of our affiliate clubs or small transfers.

When the new Ekstraklasa campaign started at the end of July 2029, we had 27 players in the squad. Three goalkeepers and 24 outfield players. These players were divided into the main squad, the backup squad and the remaining young players were set as available to play for our U18s team. Nothing complicated.

The average age of our main squad (without subs) was 25,1, the average age of our backup squad was 19,6 and the overall average of our squad was 21,3.

THE 2029/2030 SEASON SUMMARY

The previous season was exceptional with 34 wins in 34 league matches. We didn’t make the same in this season. Thank God. We won 27 league matches and drew 7 games in the 2029/2030 season with 94 goals scored and 16 conceded. That’s about 5 more goals conceded than in the previous season. Our unbeaten run continues in Ekstraklasa for more than one hundred matches but I’m sure it will end in the upcoming season that will be the last one of the save.

The biggest change in our success was that we were competitive in the Champions League. Due to our poor results in the previous season and the lack of other competitive Polish clubs in Europe, we lost the place in the Champions League group stage so we had the last chance to make it straight to the group thanks to the league title. I also knew it was probably the last chance to make something in this competition.

We finished bottom in the group last season. We got Bayern, Atlético and Ferencvarosi in this season. And we did great with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. Bayern won the group only thanks to better goal differences in head-to-head matches. But the progress to the knockout stage was already fantastic. We beat RB Leipzig 6:4 on aggregate in the first knockout stage and made it to the Quarter-Final where we lost to Bayern 0:1 and 1:2 and it was the end of our journey. But to make it so far in the Champions League is and will be one of the main highlights of the save.

TURSKI, YOU’RE GOD!

“I think one of the three will beat Henryk Reyman’s 1927/28 record,” wrote Tony/FM_Grasshopper when I published a post about the previous seasons and where I wrote about Hubert Turski scored 34 goals in Ekstraklasa and he was very close to beat the hundred years old competitions record. And Tony was right. Hubert did it in the 2029/2030 season.

If I remember it right, Hubert had 20 league goals when the first part of the season ended, which means opening 19 matches from 34. He needed 17 more goals to level the record at least. The same as in the previous seasons, he had not the best start to the spring but the finish was perfect.

He had 31 goals after the 30th league round and he needed 6 goals to level or 7 goals to beat the record in the last four matches. I think he already saw himself in some beach bar so he scored five goals during our 7:2 win away from home against bottom Bruk-Bet Nieciecza. We all knew he was very close. We drew with LKS Lódz and Legia and beat Arka Gdynia and Hubert scored four from our five goals in the last three matches to make it to 40 goals in the 2029/2030 season! And there we have a new Ekstraklasa hero. I can’t see someone will beat it.

I usually ask myself what next? at the end of each season. This time, the answer is very simple. Just one more season. The end of the FM22 cycle is already here. Many people stopped playing or writing about it. I will try my best to finish one more season to have another 10 seasons long save. I’m not afraid I will lose my best players (Thurski, Cvijan and Jaroszewski), I will play the last season with my own newgens or buy some domestic talents. Just to enjoy the time when I will have time to play.

I will divide the team again, I will create my selections for each competition in line with the tactics and set pieces. And maybe, maybe there will be some news about the new game…

Take care.

Follow @FMRensie

Running From FM - July 2022

August 2, 2022

It’s incredible but it’s already one year since we did this for the first time. Running From FM. We were playing the Football Manager and we ran based on the results within the save. The time we spent together with Matt and Tony while playing the FM21 save with Wisla in the Polish top tier was absolutely perfect. It was that type of save I will remember for a long time. Especially thanks to my FM22 save in Poland as I think about some players from that Wisla team every time I meet Wisla in my save. Matt wrote about it in the LQ8 if you want to read about it.

For example, Zan Medved 🐻 and Yaw Yeboah 🌪️. It’s also fun that a short time after Tony decided to do this FM/running challenge again, these two players moved to the same team within my FM22 save.

Tony shared his spreadsheet with the results from his side save with Hertha publicly and I decided to join again. The rules remained the same and simple as last year. Win - 1km run, draw - 2km run, defeat - 3km run. I was not able to run exactly this amount of kilometres last year and it was the same this year. Not because it would be too many kilometres but because I’m used to running more.

I’m not a long-distance runner and I rarely run more than 7-9 kilometres.
My favourite workout is around 30-40 minutes/5-6,5km.

“Why do I run? Because 30 minutes of absolute misery is all it takes to feel great the rest of the day.”

— A random quote about running

If you would ask me about fifteen or twenty years ago if I like running, my immediate response would be simply no, I don’t! The main reason is that I play football for the whole of my life. It’s already been more than thirty years and I always hated long-distance running and workouts. The summer and winter pre-seasons were nightmares for me.

“Say hi, this is a ball, you won’t see him for the next two weeks.” This was a favourite sentence of one of my coaches in the youth team. And it was Mordor. I have no good memories of it but the time flies and I like running now due to many reasons.

One of them is freedom 100%. I have an advantage that I live in a very small town and I have a protected area very close to my home. To be able to run in the forest peacefully is one of the best things now. Especially while working from home with two small kids and a wife on maternity leave.

🤯🤯🤯

The calendar year of 2022 was not too kind to me so far in many ways. I already had sprained ankle three times this year and the only way how I can run or play football is with the ankle taped. The war conflict in Ukraine, the loss of some friends and relatives here and many other personal things also didn’t help me. But running is one of the things that helps me.

As I already mentioned, the Running From FM challenge has simple rules. But I made my own rules this time. My June workouts were mainly to get back into good shape to be able to play football. My runs consisted usually of 45 minutes run. No matter the distance or pace, just run for 45 minutes with the main aim - to run without a break as long as possible to be able to play at least one half of the match when the football schedule will restore.

The most common issue of my running usually is that football is always more important and that means whenever my running shape is good, the football sessions take place on my calendar. Another thing is that I usually pick some injury like the sprained ankle this year…

I also considered stopping playing football after thirty years but it looks like I will continue one more season. My initial idea was to run 10, 20 or 30 minutes instead of 1, 2 or 3 kilometres. But I decided against it in the end. And I set my own schedule for the whole month.

30 minutes workout from Monday to Saturday
45 minutes workout on Sunday

The 45 minutes-long run on Sunday was something like the match after a whole week of training. I can’t imagine running something between 6-8 kilometres during the football first half as it’s a different type of running/movement but it really is the ideal type of workout for me personally.

The training sessions of my local team (the Czech 8th tier) restarted on Thursday, July 21, 2022. That means I had 20 days prior to the first training session to run every day. The last week of July (should) offered me two training sessions, four 30 minutes runs and the first summer pre-season friendly match on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

During the first Running From FM last year, I ran very often also during the day when I had the training session and I had two workouts per day. But I decided against it this time because of my ankles, knees…

So, yes, the plan was clear - try to prepare me as best as possible for the opening friendly match on the last day of the month.

I also made one important decision prior to the first day of Running From FM 2022 - I took the last beer for the entire month on the eve of June 30. I love beer. I love good Czech beer and I’m used to drink it every day. But I decided I will try to not drink during July and this workout/running schedule I set to myself. Mainly to be able to sleep enough and not read books while drinking until midnight.

Anyone who knows me a little bit also knows that this is not an easy decision. Goodbye, Budvar. Goodbye, Pilsner. Goodbye, Zichovec. Goodbye, Kozel… See you in August. 🍺👋🏻

Week 1

The first week was, in some way, the easiest but also the hardest. It was easy to get out as I was hyped and motivated to do it. It was hard between the second and fifth run because I was probably the most fatigued within this week. Mainly because July and the running started on Friday so I had to run 45 minutes on Sunday (July 3) probably in the biggest fatigue. But I think I did very well. I absolutely didn’t care about the distance, pace and other stats of my runs. The main point was to work as hard as possible within 30/45 minutes of workouts. The fact I run further and faster at the end of the first week was just a bonus.

Week 2

The eighth day of Running From FM, and the first day of the second week, were without the traditional run for me. My teammates decided we are missing each other and they called me to play 5/6-aside. And as I wrote above, I decided to not run on the same day as I have a football training session to avoid injuries/burnout/fatigue. But as I am unable to just stay on the pitch, it resulted in 6.12 kilometres within one hour and four minutes of playing football.

July 9, the ninth day was my first miss. A sick younger son, a lot of work around the Women’s U19 EURO final match and the fact that my wife was sick too resulted in the day when I was without a chance to go out for even 30 minutes. It was one day and I already missed that running feeling and freedom.

The second week of running resulted in my best run in probably around 20 years as I managed to run 5.7km in 30 minutes - 5k in 26:10 was my fastest 5k since I started using some watches or running apps. I didn’t run so fast since I had to end my ‘pro career’ when I was 17/18 years old. I felt very strong at the end of the second week.

Week 3

The third week started with another football training session. I also felt I need a change of scenery where I run. I went to the nearby town where I grew up with my family and I decided to run around the football pitch of my elementary school as they made the simple tartan running track here. It was a tough and intensive workout as I ran very fast and I set a couple of new personal records.

It was also weird when some unknown 70 years old woman came to the field and started walking/running around the pitch despite she had a skirt and blouse as she would go to some shop or theatre. I need to get back there to find out if she bought the new running shoes as she wanted to buy mine…

The end of the third week also meant the same thing as the last year - curious fellow citizens in our small village. As I ran (almost) every day, more people wanted to stop me and ask why I’m running every day, especially as they know that I’m playing football here etc. Sometimes, I thought that I met more people (and talked with them) just because of these daily runs than in a normal regime. I also didn’t run the whole 30 minutes two days in a row as 1) it was really hot outside and 2) I felt I had enough after I was already over 5k. The last day of the third week, July 21, also was the first day of the summer pre-season with my local team… 36°C when the training session kicked off…

The last 10 days

The last ten days of July should be divided into more parts. I felt tired initially but I still have enough energy in my legs to run every day. For some weird reason, I ran very fast between football training sessions on Wednesday, July 27. But that was my last proper run when I felt power in both legs. The last run on Friday afternoon was slow and the main idea was to go out and refresh my legs after a training session from the previous day.

The last July’s Saturday was a proper crisis and I moved the run by every thirty minutes I instead spent the whole day with family and just went for a short walk. I thought my legs would explode and I knew that if I want to play a friendly football match on Sunday evening, I have to take a rest.

The friendly match was absolute as I expected before. Our opponent is playing in the higher division and they were better, we play against them regularly during summer or winter pre-season but we didn’t beat them since the summer of 2020. But the result (a 1:6 defeat) was not important as we are trying to put together an almost completely new team with seven or eight new players who made it through from the U19s team.

It was for the first time in probably one and a half years that we produced some good football and our play had a system, at least for the first 60 minutes of the match before most of my teammates were no longer physically fit and we conceded four goals in the last part of the match.

But it was great for me personally as I managed to run almost ten kilometres during the match and there was no part during the game when I would not have enough energy or power. It’s also probably good to mention that I was the eldest player of all from both teams…

If my main aim for the entire month was to prepare myself for the opening summer match, it really paid off because I felt very good on the pitch. Probably better than during most of the matches in the previous season.

Conclusion

I managed to do thirty activities during 31 days if we will count the walks. These activities lasted 21:40:31 ⏱️ and I managed to run/walk 168.4 kilometres.

22x runs 🏃🏻‍♂️
5x training session ⚽️
2x walk 🚶🏻‍♂️
1x friendly match ⚽️

The most important thing is that I didn’t pick some injuries during the entire month and my problematic right ankle hurt mainly only during the first week when I had to get used to some rhythm/tempo/fatigue etc. One thing is certain - when we did the Running From FM for the first time in summer 2021, it was, at least for me, more fun mainly because we played the save together with Matt and Tony, and we talked about everything much more regularly and I think we lived by the whole thing. Not only thanks to regular streams. On the other hand, if there would not been this challenge, I’m sure I would not do something every day for the entire month. Another positive thing is that more people were involved in this and they were able to combine their favourite game with some movement, not only from the desk to the fridge and back.

Don’t forget, Matt/fmadventure, wrote and continuously updated about his Running From FM month too - READ HERE.

Did I actually play some Football Manager during July? Despite I didn’t run based on some specific results, I finished the 2028/2029 season with Warta Poznan and I wrote some kind of four seasons summary. The save will continue to reach 10 seasons.

Thanks for reading and let’s run/walk/do anything.

And now, I can take some beers…🍺

Follow @FMRensie

FM22 | Notes from Poznan: The life between 2025 - 2029

July 25, 2022

The fact that I wrote the last post about my Football Manager 2022 save with Warta in the middle of March 2022 says enough about the enjoyment I had and I have with this edition. I only made an exception and wrote about my corner kick strategy a couple of weeks ago.

I like the save I chose last year, that’s not an issue. Poland is absolutely fantastic destination for long-term or semi-long-term saves and it’s challenging in terms of improving the club/nation coefficient to boost your chances to progress in European competitions. But the game itself made it really hard for me in combination with all the real-life shits around us. No wonder I was not interested to play the game and concentrate on what I was doing when I played it.

I have to say a big thank you to everyone who was connected and involved in the La Copa Club World Cup tournament recently as it was the main reason why I decided to play the game again and it allowed me to get back to the mood for playing the game.

2025 - 2028 SUMMARY

When I wrote about this save for the last time, it was at the end of the 2024/2025 season. A lot of things happened during the next three years but we all can probably agree that it’s not necessary to write about everything. I/We did the most important things within the save like this when I/We try to develop the club as much as possible. Both training & youth facilities were improved to the state of the art level. The youth recruitment & junior coaching are at an exceptional level and our Nowy Ogródek stadium capacity was increased to 6k - that’s not enough for the matches in Europe and we still have to play Champions League/European League at Inea Stadium which is home of our biggest rival Lech Poznan. That’s something I wanted to change throughout the save but I was not able to do it yet.

The 2024/2025 season was the first one within this save when we won the Polish Ekstraklasa title. We won it also in the next three seasons, which means we had four league titles in a row before the 2028/2029 season. The last four seasons also offered us the option to fight for the Champions League group stage ticket. We lost to Red Bull Salzburg in the play-off on aggregate in 2025/26 and we also lost to Ferencvárosi in the same round a year later. But we played the group stage in 2028/28 and 2028/29 because we improved the nation’s coefficient and earned the place in the group stage for the Polish league title holder.

The nation’s coefficient improved happened mainly thanks to our very successful three seasons in the Europa League. We made it to the Quarter-Final of this competition three seasons in a row (2025 - 2028) as we lost to Valencia, Tottenham and Olympique Marseille respectively. For me, personally, reaching three this late stage three times in a row with this club was like winning the competition.

Poland sits at 8th place during the 2028/2029 season within the qualification places table. The improvement is obvious throughout the save. When I loaded the save file back from 2021 when the save started, Poland was 30th in this table with just 1 place in the first Champions League qualifying phase and three places in the first qualifying phase of the Europa Conference League. The main improvement is not about the number of clubs but the stage when they enter the competitions/qualifications. We have one club in the Europa League play-off phase = security of the Europa Conference League group stage if they fail to beat their opponent in the EL. The same with the one who is entering the Champions League play-off phase.

Financially, we are in an absolutely different world right now in comparison with the beginning of the save. We had around €150k in the bank in August 2021. We will finish the 2028/2029 season above €60M in the bank. The main income consists of the prize money from the Europa League and Champions League. The Champions League earned us around €35M in the last two seasons. That’s phenomenal. The fact we are almost €2M per month under the wage budget says it all. The same as the fact that I failed to pass the board objective to spend the original transfer budget. I don’t remember in which save I was able to spend €35M per season… but that’s a different story.

Total Transfer Income & Spending 2021 - 2029

The total income from the transfers throughout the save so far between 2021 and 2029. It started with the income of €200k during the first season. The third season was just about €4,500 income from transfers - the lowest from all seasons. We sold players for €16,5M in the last season. The same as our players improve, the more we are receiving. But my policy is still the same - buy as cheap as possible (MONEYBALLLLLLL). We spent €5M during the 2027/2028 season and that was our maximum so far.

Tactically, I remained faithful to variations of 3-5-2 with wing-backs/complete wing-backs until summer 2028.

2025/2026: Three at the back + WB(S) & WB(A), three central midfielders of CM(S) + DLP(S) + CM(S) and TF(S) & AF upfront. No special out-of-possession instructions. The main focus is to build our play from the back by distributing the ball to centre-backs with a view to taking advantage of individual player traits of our central midfielders like comes deep to get ball or stay wider.
2026/2027: The same as the season before but both WB players were changed to CWB(S) and the DLP(S) was changed to RPM. I also removed the play out of defence instruction and I used only take short kicks.
2027/2028: The right WB player role was changed to CWB(A) and the MCL player was changed to BBM from CM(S). I also added a higher defensive line/more often trigger press and prevent short GK distribution instructions to make our team more aggressive in terms of winning the ball back. This was mainly after the already mentioned La Copa tournament after I saw most of the teams were much more active than our team.

2025/2026

2026/2027

2027/2028

THE LAST SEASON SO FAR - 2028/2029 - TACTICAL TWEAKS AND OUR ATTACKING GODS

The last season of the save - 2028/29 - brought more tactical tweaks. The main change was that I moved both wing-backs down and I created the flat 5 at the back. The initial idea about this was to use CWB(A) or CWB(S) on both sides of the pitch. But it didn’t work. All players that played as the left defender with CWB(S/A) had the worse average rating no matter the opponent we played against and no matter the final result. These players were also the first ones the most fatigued and they were unable to finish even the friendly match against lower league opposition. It led to a change from CWB(S/A) to just simple WB(S). It resulted in the fact that our main man Konrad Matuszewski was able to perform at his best again and he ended as our third-best player in terms of assists per season.

The record-breaking tactic from the 2028/2029 season

The second most important change within the player’s roles was that I changed one striker role back to TF(S) from PF(A) as I used the pressing forward role in the previous two seasons. But as I didn’t want to lose Sebastian Musiolik or place him on the bench, I decided to switch the PF(A) role back to TF(S) which is the best suited for him.

He turned 32 years prior to this season and it was obvious he will not be able to perform as effective in the more aggressive and more physically demanding role. It was one of the best decisions I made within this save and it’s great how it was reflected at the end of the season. I knew it was a great decision almost immediately after the beginning of the season when he had 8 goals and 6 assists in the first 6 league matches.

The last major change I would like to mention is that I stopped using three central midfielders and I moved one of them to the AM slot by using the simple AM(S) role without any individual instruction. Most of my players that played in this position/role have some player traits and that means they all acted a little bit differently so it was not as predictable whenever we rotated the squad or when I made substitutions. The main AM player was one of our third-best players of the season so I would say it worked very well and it was a good idea to try it.

There were also some small changes within team instructions as I decided to try the higher tempo in combination with shorter passing and pass into space. Mainly because I knew I have good enough creators in the squad with very useful decisions attribute who know when and where to pass the ball to both flanks. It worked very well not just based on results, and goals scored/conceded but I also liked what I was watching throughout the season.

I like to check the pass map after most of our matches, especially after games against teams which are at the same or lower level as our team. Not sure if it’s also your own experience but the pass map is very bad and very inconsistent when I play against a weaker opponent. I know there are other screens and other places where to check the average positions of my players during the match but these pass maps after the game are some kind of bonus source where my players were during the game (maybe I’m selecting the wrong words but I’m sure most of you understand what I mean).

It’s also great when I am able to use the same players in more matches in a row as it really helps to get some proper pass map as the team & individual tactical familiarity is higher and better. It can result in something like in the picture after the league match against Korona Kielce from the end of the season.

Champions League 2028/2029:
The one and only bonus of participating in the Champions League group stage with teams like Real Madrid, AS Roma and Wolfsburg, are the prize money. We had Real Madrid in the group stage also in the previous season together with Chelsea and Hertha but we were able to finish third in the group and moved to the Europa League. We didn’t have the same luck in this 28/29 season despite we won 3:2 against Roma away from home in the opening group match. We also added one point thanks to a home 0:0 draw with the German side but that was all from our side in this year’s campaign.
We lost all four remaining matches and finished bottom in the table with just four points. So, as I said, the best thing about the Champions League participation for the Polish club is money. The combination of prize money and TV revenue earned us over €30M this season.
Puchar Polski and Ekstraklasa 2028/29:

Domestically, it was absolutely different story this season. We won the domestic cup (Puchar Polski) after two years again. We scored 22 goals in 6 matches including four goals in the final against Jagiellonia Bialystok.

This league title was our fifth in a row. But this time, I have no doubts about winning the league from the beginning of the season. The beauty of this save was how the league was tight until the end of the first six seasons. We won the league by 26 points already in the 2027/28 season and that was for the first when the league title was not decided during the last two or three rounds. The 2028/29 season was even more extreme from our side. We won all 34 league matches with 100 goals scored and just 11 goals conceded (three more goals conceded than in the previous 27/28 season).

The pictures below show that we didn’t lose or draw a single domestic match within this 2028/29 season. It was the most dominant season of the save so far. The main advantage to making the season like this one, surely was that we didn’t play in some European competition during the second part of the season. All our key players were available almost every match as we played once per week and there were no fatigue or big injuries.

Unstoppable attacking trio:

As I already mentioned, we had all key players available most of the season. That includes our main three attacking players: Radomir Cvijan as AM(S), Sebastian Musiolik as TF(S) and Hubert Turski as Advanced Forward. Any of these three players used some special individual instructions within our tactics. The young Serbian midfielder was one of our summer 2028 signings as I activated his transfer release clause and bought him for €950k from Spartak Subotica. As you can see in the picture below, his value is between €9.6M - €12.5M after one season.

He scored 20 goals in 40(5) appearances and he also made 24 assists while being voted player of the match eleven times.

I already mentioned Musiolik and the change of his role. He made 44(1) appearances during the season, scored 35 goals (13 from penalties) and he made 14 assists. The third player, Hubert Turski, scored 44 goals in 41(4) appearances and he added 6 assists. Musiolik was the best goalscorer of the league for almost entire season but Turski scored a lot of goals during the the 2nd part of the season and he ended the league campaign with 34 goals. The record (37 goals) from the 1927/1928 season by Henryk Reyman remains the same, Turski would need two more matches I would say…

Cvijan made 18 assists during his first Ekstraklasa campaign and that means a new league record as he beat record by Milosz Szczepanski from the 2026/2027 season by two assists. These three were unstoppable this season and the fact that two central defenders were best goalscorers of the team, without counting these three players, speaks for itself.

Both Turski and Musiolik were wanted in previous seasons but both remained loyal to our club and they turned some offers down by themselves. I’m sure Cvijan will leave very soon to some bigger nation/league/club because is becoming a complete attacking player and he will be wanted a lot abroad. Luckily, he doesn’t have some transfer release claus in his contract. I’m sure he will that player who will set the new and also the last transfer income record of this save within our club.

I’m not sure if I will play one or two more seasons but I would like to make it to ten seasons, the same as in FM20 and FM21. I won’t have time to play more and with the squad I have now, I don’t think I would enjoy it for a longer time. There is still one dream and that’s a new stadium with bigger capacity than current 6k. We had 15 sellouts in 17 home matches during this last season in the league. I already asked twice or three times about the new stadium but the club board never responded to it and that option just appeared within the board requests again after some time.

But we will see. Everything is possible.

Thanks for reading.

Follow @FMRensie

FM22 | Corner Kick strategy - three same routines with different delivery

June 17, 2022

When I found out that I scored just three goals from corners during the 2026/2027 Ekstraklasa campaign within my Football Manager 2022 save with Warta Poznan, it was that imaginary raised finger that I’m doing something wrong and I’m not interested in the save/game as I should be and as I like to be. I didn’t care about the right corner takers, I didn’t care about the right positioning of players within or around the penalty area and so on. If something is significant for me and my style of playing FM, it has to be the fact that I like to pay attention to almost every detail of the game. And the set pieces, mainly corners and throw-ins, are not an exception.

Another thing is that I spent more than two months without playing the game and only thanks participating in the La Copa Club World Cup tournament and chatting with friends about the game took me back to playing the game regularly. And if I want to play the game properly (read = not with key highlights, not with everything left to assistant/DoF/HoYD etc.), I have to do something with this shi*t including corner kick statistic.

That’s why I decided to create new routines within the simple strategy from both sides of the pitch and test it during the 2027/2028 season. How did it go? What do I like about it?

Corner(s) SET UP

In the middle of the 2027/2028 season, we had 5 corner kick goals in 10 Champions League matches. We added also 1 corner goal in 3 domestic cup matches, 1 corner goal in 1 Super Cup match and 8 corner goals in 19 Ekstraklasa matches. When I made simple counts, it was more than during the previous two seasons together. The more I think about it, the sadder is it.

What do new routines look like?

Firstly, one more side note. If you will search for something like “tips for set pieces”, most of the articles and videos will probably contain that you should create more than only one routine to not be predictable to your opponents. I agree with the fact that the more routines you have prepared, the better for you. But that’s mainly a case of a real-life football. It’s only my opinion but I was the same success with set-pieces in the past no matter if I used only one routine or I have three different routines with different delivery etc. But maybe I did it wrong.

Hubert Turski and his attributes for Attack Near/Far post

Ignoring what I wrote above, my behind-thinking before creating this strategy, was to create absolutely the same three routines with the same basic positioning of attacking players in and around the penalty area but with a different type of delivery. Historically, the most successful routines were with near and far post deliveries. During the last two or three FM editions, I experimented with the 6 Yard Box delivery. So, that was easy, three types of delivery were decided.

Now, the positioning and roles.

I always said that the set pieces in the current set-up and how the game works are 80% about the off the ball movement, the rest is about the delivery quality. And this experiment and testing are the best proof for me. The main change within these routines is that I’m using three players with the Go Forward role. I usually used only one or two and I usually rather used someone to mark keeper. The routines with near/far post delivery are easy and the player with the best Off The Ball attribute is set to Attack Near Post and Attack Far Post. In my case, it’s Hubert Turski who is absolutely perfect for set pieces.

That means all three central defenders, big men, are set to Go Forward to create some proper mess in the penalty area. The big change is when the routine with the 6 Yard Box delivery is selected by our corner taker. As I mentioned above, the off the ball movement is more important in my eyes than the delivery itself. It means that my strikers with better the off the ball attribute in comparison with central defenders are set to Go Forward and two defenders take their place to attack near & far post. The reasons are very simple: 1. I need the right movement in the box and players with the better off the ball movement to have a bigger chance to reach the right place and 2. the big central defender attacking the near post can cause the fact that the keeper won’t be able to catch the ball easily if the delivery is shorter.

Another change in the set-up in comparison with the previous routines is that I’m using only one player with the Lurk Outside Area and I’m using the Attack Ball from Edge of Area role after some time (To be absolutely fair, I think it’s the role I will change in the future because this player does nothing).

I’m using just one player with stay back role and another one is set to stay back if needed. I saw that it was always needed while my team played in the Champions League = against bigger and better teams, but, for example against smaller teams in the domestic cup, this player was roaming higher up the pitch.

Near Post delivery

6 Yard Box delivery

Far Post delivery

Example - a friendly match against Widzew Lodz

I made and uploaded a video from the friendly match against Widzew Lodz that my team played during the winter pre-season part of the season. We had 8 corner kicks and scored two goals in this match. You can see a couple of things in that video:

A simple goal scored from the near post
A goal was scored from the far post but it was the routine with the 6 Yard Box delivery, but any player in the penalty area was able to reach the ball and it dropped to our player at the far post.
Both goals were scored after crosses by Matuszewski who has a corner attribute of 11. Corners from the left side were taken by Kacper Duda with a corner attribute of 13 and his crosses were not too good this time.

The worst “new feature”

There are many new things in every new FM edition. Some are good, some are bad, and some of them you don’t even notice because they are just so average. If some “new feature” was the worst recently, it has to be the fact that we are no longer able to have different set-piece takers for different loaded routines. In the past, we were able to create or load three different routines and we were able to select different takers for each routine. That meant you were able to have outswinging delivery for near post routine, inswinging delivery for far post routine or you were able to change taker for short routine and set your traditional taker and best crosser as the one who offers the short option.

But the option to select different takers is gone. And I have to say that’s one of the things I’m missing a lot and it’s the most stupid decision in my eyes. The developers is trying to make the game more realistic but they are making more and more stupid “new features” like this every year.

With this strategy to use the same routine with three different types of delivery, the option to select various takers for inswinging and outswinging delivery would be ideal how to not be predictable for the opponents. But the developers said no.

A small change

As I mentioned the Attack Ball from Edge of Area role above, I did exactly what I mentioned. I took this role off our set-up ahead of the second part of the 2027/2028 season. It’s not some critical change, it’s just about the positioning.

I put this player back to the Come Short role. I used this role within both near and far post routines through this save. And also in the past, for example when I wrote about the false short routine in FM21. If nothing more, this player can attract one of the defenders despite he will not receive the ball from the taker. And that means our opponent will have one player less in the penalty area to defend us.

Near Post & 6 Yard Box & Far Post routines with the Come Short role, the rest of the set-up is the same as in the pictures above.

No matter if you would try to use the first option with the Attack Ball from Edge of Area role or the second option with the Come Short role, the main principles of all three routines are the same. I only thought that the another player around the penalty area is useless in this case.

The most important thing is to take advantage of my/your player with the best possible Off The Ball movement/attribute. In my case, it’s Hubert Turski until he will leave my squad because he is wanted around Europe.

But it’s nice how it works in overal. I don’t want it will be a goal machine and will produce a goal every match. I’m happy when I see exactly what was my thoughts even if the corner doesn’t result to scoring.

Thanks for reading.

Follow @FMRensie

FM22 | Notes from Poznan - (not a boring) season 2024/2025

March 18, 2022

If you read the last post about using the Half Back role during the first three seasons of the save, and you remember something from it, maybe it’s the fact I decided to return to the 3-5-2/5-3-2 WB formation with three central defenders again instead of two CDs + Half Back. I tried a couple of things during the fourth season within this save but it resulted in an absolutely simple tactic in the end. As always. Open this link if you want to view the tactic.

Maybe I will write about this formation in the future but this post is mainly about the finished 2024/2025 season. It was not a boring season and I enjoyed playing it. The Ekstraklasa campaign was decided in the last round again, the same as in the previous three seasons. And we were involved in it again. Feel free to read more about…

TRANSFERS 2024/2025

When I’m looking back at this season and the transfer history page, I would say it was one of the most typical windows within my Football Manager squad/transfer management. A lot of outgoing loans + two big outgoing transfers + one decent outgoing transfer with over five million in the bank.

On the other side, I knew I need to be active in the transfer market and to add more faces to our squad because I wanted to progress to the Europa Conference League again. And I wanted to be competitive in this competition, the same as in the Ekstraklasa. The outgoing transfer of our second-best central defender Ariél Mosór to Gladbach for €2.8M (up to €4M) and €2M for last season's best league goalscorer Kacper Chelmecki gave us enough money to cover our incoming transfers.

The case of Kacper Chelmecki is interesting mainly because of how the season ended. I signed him for free two years ago. He was wanted by Legia and he also wanted to go there. It was only a matter of time before it will happen during summer 2024. I decided to buy Wiktor Kaminski from Legia for €1.1M as a replacement for Chelmecki. And I’m sure this exchange was really good in the end. Let’s see the comparison of these two from the end of the season including the basic stats.

One of my favourite incoming transfers was the central defender Pawel Koncewicz-Zylka from Piast and also Kacper Masiak from Jagiellonia Bialystok. This young winger came for €1M and I decided to make him our WB(A) number one within the 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation.

Successful loans

As I mentioned at the beginning, there were some outgoing loans and some of them were to our affiliate clubs again. For example, our own newgen Kacper Grabowski (19 years old) spent the first part of the season with SK Lisen in the Czech top tier and he made 12 appearances in the starting XI. If nothing more, his value increased enormously to €1.2M - €2M. I took him back to the club in winter and he was our DLP(S) backup for the second part of the season. He is currently wanted by Legia at the end of the season and that usually means only one thing - they will get him if they will decide they really want him.

I also sent striker Szczepan Mucha to Hapoel Ra’anana to play some competitive football in Israel. The fact he made 40+ appearances during the season and scored ten goals was a pleasing bonus and I’m considering it as a very successful loan. I’m sure he will be a great cover/alternative option to Wiktor Kaminski next season. His biggest weakness is his work rate, that’s something that I would like to improve but the future will decide as always.

I also decided to make the second incoming loan from one of our senior affiliate clubs (Rennes) within this save. This time, it was a young French midfielder Joshua Jehanno who came in winter. My initial idea was to play him as DLP(S) before I find out he develop gets into opposition area trait. He played mostly as CM(S) or CM(A) but his playing time was limited and my expectations were probably too high based on his attributes. I know I will never be able to sign him permanently and I will not extend his loan with us to rather gave playing time to my own Polish youngsters.

For example, to Wlodzimierz Wawrzyniak, I bought for €50k from the third tier.

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE

DOMESTIC CUP

The Europa Conference League was very successful again this season despite we were knocked out earlier this time in comparison with the last season. We made it to the group stage after beating Ararat Yerevan, Slovan Liberec and FC Basel in the qualifying rounds. We faced Braga, Sheriff Tiraspol and Dinamo Batumi in the group and we finished second in the table. That meant we got Lyon in the first knockout round. We beat them 3:2 on aggregate and I told myself that this is already good enough. Real Sociedad was too good for us and we went out of the competition after a 2:4 defeat on aggregate. But we earned a lot of points to coefficient and a lot of money too.

Despite I’m usually a big fan of the domestic cup competitions and I don’t like to ignore it, I was not angry we were knocked out in the first round by Gornik Zabrze. It was during a hectic schedule and our youngsters and our backup players were not able to perform better than the Gornik first team. We were defeated after penalties but it was only because Gornik didn’t convert their chances properly. The club board was unhappy with being knocked out of the Cup so early as the aim was to reach the third round at least. But I think they will be alright with the season in the end…

EKSTRAKLASA

The first three seasons saw us finishing fourth, second and third. I didn’t have big expectations for the fourth season of the save and I would be happy to finish third again to reach the European slot. We started well with a 1:0 win over Wisla Krakow as the new Advanced Forward Wiktor Kaminski scored a penalty kick. The first month of the new season ended with an absolutely fabulous 5:0 away win against Legia as our own newgen Karol Leopold scored three goals. And also Kaminski scored against his former club while Kacper Chelmecki was sitting on the bench.

We finished the autumn part of the season top of the league. We reached first place after a 1:0 win over Lechia in the 9th round and we were no worse than second until the end of the season…

First, second, second, first…up & down

…if I like some screen within the league I play in, it has to be the past positions screen with the option to tick all or just a few clubs and take a look back at how their league standing developed through the season. The 2024/2025 season is a perfect example of how competitive and tight Polish Ekstraklasa can be. I really like that the league was decided in the last round of the campaign in all four seasons of the save so far.

2021/2022: Legia won the title thanks to better results in matches against Lech Poznan while both had 74 points and Wisla ended third with 72 points.
2022/2023: Legia won the title with 70 points after we lost points in the last round against Gornik Zabrze.
2023/2024: Legia won the title with 72 points ahead of Lechia and Warta (both with 71 points) as Lechia drew 3:3 in the last round.

This season (2024/2025) we fought with Legia about first place in the table in the middle of the campaign and we were changing two top places regularly between rounds 12 - 18. But Legia didn’t win in the next 7 matches and they fell down to the third place. And that’s the moment when our battle with Wisla started. We were top of the league, then we were second for two rounds to make it back to the top.

Legia played against Wisla in the penultimate 33rd league round and Legia won 2:1 at home. We played against Górnik Zabrze. They were 12th in the table but they also won the domestic cup already. To be honest, I didn’t expect to have some issues with them as we already concentrated just on the league. But. They were 2:0 up after 16 minutes of the match and it looked like we didn’t even touch the ball during the opening first minutes.

Another but. We have Sebastian Musiolik. Our saviour at the right time. He scored twice within nine minutes to make it 2:2 before half-time. And when I already thought it will end with a draw, Sebastian had some luck in the penalty area, he got the ball back after a sloppy defence and scored a winner with a perfect strike. And that was the moment when we made it back to the top spot before the last round of the league.

The last round drama

Legia was already out of the title race, for the first time in this save. The last round was just between us and Wisla. They had Zaglebie Lubin at home. Lubin was 15th in the table, just two points ahead of Piast Gliwice and they needed points to survive in the top tier. Wisla needed to win because we had better results in matches with them (1:0 & 1:0 wins). And we had Slask Wroclaw away from home. They were 7th in the table before the last round without a chance to move to third place to play in Europe next season. They would be able to move up to 5th if they would beat us.

The last round started absolutely fantastic for us. Kacper Masiak got the ball on the right side of the pitch in the second minute and his cross found the head of Wiktor Kaminski who opened the score. The same thing happened not even two minutes later, Sebastian Musiolik scored our second goal after Masiak’s cross. And we were 2:0 up after four minutes. A great start and our dominant performance continued but we were unable to convert more chances. Wisla scored two quick goals in the 22nd and 25th minute of the match against Zaglebie and they were back just one point behind us.

Patryk Plewka scored Slask’s first goal of the match in the second minute of the first-half stoppage time as hit the direct free kick just from the outside of the penalty area straight to the net. A lovely goal if it would be my team :)

Wisla went to 3:0 straight after the second half started. I was a little bit nervous as our own result was just by one goal but our central defender Michal Koj scored our third of the match after an hour of play after a deep free-kick and his lovely volley. Dorin Rotariu made it 2:3 from the hosts’ point of view in the stoppage time but we were able to keep it until the final whistle and won 3:2. The Running From FM favourite Yaw Yeboah scored four goals for Wisla in the last round as they beat Zaglebie 5:1 in the end. But it was not enough for them.

Warta Poznan won the league title for the first time since 1947.

Sebastian Musiolik - back to the right slot hackz!

Sebastian Musiolik and his form in the last 6 matches of the season.

I don’t even know why or when it happened but I changed the positions of our strikers during the previous season. Sebastian Musiolik as TF(S) was in the left ST slot instead of the right slot as in the season before when he was the league's best goalscorer.

I really don’t know why I did it but it was probably one small thing that might cause his inconsistent form. Maybe. I’m not sure.

He scored two goals between February 23 and April 12. I changed the positioning back before the last 6 league rounds. And our hero scored 9 goals in these last matches of the season with one assist as a bonus. He ended this season with 16 league goals in 27(3) appearances and became the third best goalscorer of Ekstraklasa.

He was in very good form in the Europa Conference League too as his 6 goals and 5 assists in 15 appearances are very good. He was wanted by some other Polish clubs during the season and he was already unsettled by the interest in him but I’m sure he will be happy to stay in the club after winning the league title as the club reputation will improve and we won’t be considered as just average club. But his contract is until June 2026 so it’s time to give him a new one during summer.

PROS & CONS OF THE 2024/2025 SEASON

The squad at the end of 2024/2025 season

The league title ➕
The successful return to the formation with 3 central defenders ➕
The transfer of Wiktor Kaminski who scored 21 league goals and 12 goals in the Europa Conference League ➕
The development of a couple of young players including Belarusian midfielder Sergey Lyakh who recently turned 20 years old and he earned his first Belarusian senior national team call-up during spring 2025 ➕
Karol Leopold, our own newgen from the first youth intake renewed his contract and the release clause for foreign clubs changed from €1.7M to €2.4M. And the interest from PSG, Milan and some other big clubs disappeared for now ➕
Domestic cup early exit ➖
Performances of some more experienced players led to the fact they will leave the club for free at the end of the season as their wage demands were not in line with their abilities and performances ➖
Chief scout performances/AI logic with setting the scouting assignments and recommending players with the unenforceable wage demands ➖

What next? The next season, our fifth in Poznan, will bring some new challenges again and it’s perfect the save won’t be stale or boring already. I know that our stadium capacity will get a boost of 2,000 new seats and it will make our stadium up to 6k after nine months of work. We will play at the Lech Poznan stadium until that moment. We will face a new challenge in the Champions League qualifying rounds as our journey will start in the first round. I also have to find a new Head of Youth Development as our current one will retire soon. I also have to set up our scouting assignments from scratch as the experiment with letting it to our chief scout failed massively during this season. What happened? It’s simply a typical FM thing when 9 from 10 players recommended by our chief scout via his assignments were unrealistic and all these players want/wanted monthly wage around €40k-€50k per month. That’s almost like one-third of our squad together. And many more things to do…

Thanks for reading, take care.

💙💛✊🏻

Follow @FMRensie

FM22 | Three seasons with the false central defender

March 10, 2022

“The third season was also the last while using the so-called 2-3-3-2 formation with two central defenders and a “false” central defender in terms of using the Half Back.” This was the end of the previous blog post about the third season in Poland within FM22. I used the same formation and the style of play during the opening three seasons and I wanted to put together a couple of my thoughts about it.

THE INITIAL IDEA

When I think about the moment when I thought about using this type of formation, it was already during the previous version of the game when I played in Sweden with GAIS and I used a more common 3-5-2/5-3-2 with two wing-backs and three central defenders.

The same as I’m fun of three players within the flat central midfield, I’m also a fan of three central defenders at the back. But I thought about how it would look & work with just two central defenders and the half-back. The role I enjoyed using in the past already but in a different system.

And I decided to try it.

I’m not the type of FM player who would use many teams or individual instructions within my tactical setups. It’s connected to my own real-life experience with the game. As a player or as a fan of the game overall for more than three decades already. I always hated some complicated systems in real life but the older I am, the more I know it’s all based on what you have available to work with.

Mainly in terms of players in your squad. Their intelligence, their physical abilities, their age and more. And I also know it’s connected with the Football Manager as the heavy pressing system won’t work 100% with the squad full of veterans on wheelchairs. I like simple systems and I always will.

I put together a formation with 2 central defenders, 1 defensive midfielder, two wing-backs, three central midfielders and two strikers.

The base version of the formation. There always were some changes like TF(S) & DLF(S), the right CM(S) with the Run Wide With Ball instruction when some players were available or not. There were also many experiments with the higher line of engagement and higher defensive line or with more aggressive pressing. I also tried the sweeper-keeper role while using the higher defensive line but it didn’t work as I would expect. But there is always the option to try it and make it even better in the future.

The main point or idea to use two central defenders with the Half Back role is also based on the description of the role and how that role works within the game.

The Half Back drops deeper and he acts like another central defender in the defensive phase of play. The Half Back offer protection against the counterattack. The third stand out thing from the description is that this player offers an outlet for quickly recycling possession.

My aim was to have a player who will act as a third central defender but he will also support the midfielders ahead of him and will always be there to be able to receive the ball. This all without the need to use three central defenders and to be able to take advantage of the Half Back role as this player is used to doing everything.

“The Half Back looks to serve a role somewhere between that of an aggressive sweeper and a defensive midfielder. The Half Back drops deeper than a standard defensive midfielder in possession and looks to offer an outlet for quickly recycling possession and to offer protection against the counter attack.”

THE HALF BACK AT ITS BEST

My initial idea and a plan to use this kind of formation were supported thanks to the fact that I found an absolutely ideal player for the Half Back role in the Warta Poznan squad. His name is Michal Kopczynski and he was 29 years old when the save started.

I remember I shared his profile screen on Twitter back in December 2021 and @cb asked his first touch attribute. The answer from FMG is the best explanation:

“In leagues like Poland you have to compensate, there will always be one or two areas of weakness in a player's game. I place importance on his Mental side. Michal has top Anticipation, Concentration, Positioning, Teamwork & Work Rate. Plus his Composure will help him on the ball. Decisions and Positioning are v.strong too. So critical for a Half-Back to sweep up and protect the CBs who will push a bit wider as a result. I love him 😍😀.”

I remember my first friendly match within this save was against Hannover 96, our senior affiliate club from the Bundesliga 2 and we beat them 2:1 at home. It was good to see some positives. We lost to another partner club - Stade Rennais - in the second friendly. It ended at 2:5 from our point of view this time. It was good to see so many negatives against a much stronger team.

It was the first time I started thinking about using wing-backs with defending duty to cover wide areas more. Especially when I saw both wing-backs were still able to go forward enough despite the defend duty.

But I was able to see the main point of using the Half Back straight from the first match thanks to passing maps and average positions. Michal Kopczynski has number 6 and you can see him as the biggest dot, which means he was, as the game would say: “was at the heart of everything in the middle”. In this specific example, he had the most passes with the goalkeeper [28] (more below) and with the left central defender [23]. It was followed by the second central defender and MCR & MCL.

The passing combination from one of the opening friendly matches together with the ***overall average positions (green & blue dots)***.

There are three examples from the third/latest season in the gallery above. I wanted to include more but 1) the game was against me while I tried to load matches properly and 2) maybe it’s better to not have too many pictures here.

DISTRIBUTE THE BALL TO A SPECIFIC TEAMMATE

As I already said slightly above, Kopczynski had the highest passes with our goalkeeper in the example we showed. It’s also because of one specific instruction I decided to try in this game. It’s nothing new and nothing groundbreaking but I didn’t see too many people using it. Maybe it’s also because of the fact that many people don’t know it’s even in the game - thanks, James!

So, it’s simple. Instead of using distribute to area/player like distribute to full-backs/centre-backs or to flanks and other options, I just used the Distribute To Position option and I selected the defensive midfielder, number 6 in our example. I used it for three seasons, alternately with the Take Short Kicks instruction or Roll It Out, usually depending on the opponent and their pressing style.

This is the kind of instruction I would use even for other DM roles, mainly if I would use playmaker type of player as he is able to decide where to distribute the ball properly. I enjoyed using it also with the Play Out Of Defence instruction as both central defenders were in their own penalty area and the halfback had a lot of options where to pass the ball in all directions.

BLOCKER AND PASSER

If you remember what I wrote at the beginning of the post, you will remember the main principles of the Half Back role.

Drops deeper & Offer protection against the counter-attack & Offers an outlet for quickly recycling possession.

I can safely say this specific player was able to fulfil everything. Michal Kopczynski acted as our third central defender in the defensive phase and he was able to distribute the ball as good as possible. The gallery contains data from all three seasons.

2021/2022

2022/2023

2023/2024

THE BIGGEST WEAKNESS

The biggest weakness of this formation surely is in the defensive line and the positioning of the defenders. It works great but it also can be absolutely vulnerable against some specific formations. I was able to resolve issues against 4-4-2 with the man-marking of one of the strikers. I was able to resolve issues with formations with three attacking midfielders (Hi Diego Mendoza) but there will always be some formations/positions/roles that will cause problems to this formation with two central defenders in combination with WBR/WBL positions.

One of my favourite examples is matches against Stal Mielec within this save. Not only because I beat them at the sixth attempt. But also because they are using my FM21 and FM22 nightmare-formation - 5-2-3 WB. Simply, it’s 3 central defenders, two wing-backs, two central midfielders, AMR/AML and a lone striker.

The wide players are so dangerous that I always have to man-mark both wide offensive players and I also have to pay a big attention to both wing-backs. Both AMR/AML players also had the highest amount of key passes in all matches when I look back.

The Football Manager is a game of positioning. And this is a very good example. Both may central defenders were too wide, the same as both my wing-backs who also were too high up the pitch (if they were not set to man-mark AMR/L). The opponent’s wide players had enough space in the channels - it was like a new role, something like Mezzala in the AMR/L slot. These inside wingers/forwards had too much space and if there was at least an average playmaker in the middle, he was able to find them with the right pass.

But overall, the formations with Inside Forwards were the most dangerous against us if I ignored the option to man-mark these players. And it was dangerous even before the latest update/patch before the game developers announced that inside forwards/wingers were fixed in terms of how often these players/roles cut inside.

CONCLUSION

I wrote this is the formation I want to use for most of the time of the FM22 save. But I was wrong. I don’t want to use it in the upcoming season(s). Not because I would not like it or it would not be successful. Just because I want to use three central defenders again and also because of the fact that I am currently not able to find the better option/backup/replacement for Michal Kopczynski and the development of some newgen can last longer than the whole save.

The tactical change also doesn’t mean the end for Michal Kopczynski because we won’t use the HB role. I think he can be a good central defender with the cover duty. Especially with his calm head while playing from the back…

We finished 4th, 2nd and 3rd in the Ekstraklasa and we made it to the Europa Conference League Semifinal in the third season. I think it was a successful trial with this formation…

In loving memory of Oleksiy S., my friend with whom I played FM during almost every class while we were at university. And one of many heroes from Kharkiv and other Ukrainian towns. 🕯️💔

💙💛

FM22 | Notes from Poznan - season 2023/2024

February 28, 2022

The third season of my FM22 save with Warta Poznan offered me a lot of matches thanks to our surprising European journey. We were also able to fight about the league title until the last round despite the squad lacking the same quality as our opponents. And the 2023/2024 season also showed my biggest FM weakness. If you are interested in reading how the season went, feel free to continue…

THE SUMMER, part 1

We were in a great position before the 2023/2024 season in terms of the expectations from the save (by me) and of the expectations by the club board within the game. Mainly thanks to the final second place in the league table in the previous campaign. The second place gave us an opportunity to try our luck in the demanding qualifying phase of the Europa Conference League - the third European competition in the UEFA hierarchy.

I said demanding the qualifying phase mainly because we started our European journey in the second qualifying round. And we were an unseeded team of course. The draw decided that our first opponent was Spartak Moscow. The big club in comparison with us. If nothing more, one of their player has the same monthly wage as we have the wage budget in total.

If you are not following Polish football in real life, maybe you are surprised by the fact we started in the 2nd qualifying round despite we finished 2nd in the league.
But the coefficient is a big issue for all the Polish clubs. Legia made it to the Europa League group stage in the 2021/2022 real-life season and it was their first group stage appearance since the 2016/2017 season (maybe you will remember the match against BVB with a 4-8 result in Dortmund). But they were also able to lose to Dudelange in the Europa League 3rd qualifying round or to lost with Omonia and Qarabag within one summer of 2020.
In the combination with other clubs struggling to gain some important points to the national/club coefficient, it’s a big problem. Especially also when you, for example, are not able to have the best possible squad available straight from the opening qualifying round.
I didn’t have some specific aims for this save before it started. But I decided that I will try to improve the coefficient as much as possible to give a better starting position not only to myself but also to other clubs.
Before the 2023/2024 season in my save: One place in the Champions League 1st qualifying round and three places (also depending on the domestic cup winner) in the Europa Conference League in the 2nd qualifying round. That’s awful for such a great football nation as Poland is.
And 28th place in the national club coefficients ranking.

TRANSFERS, part 1

I will be 100% clear - I wasn’t well prepared for the third season when I look back. I build the squad for two domestic competitions. I knew I want to improve the CM(A) position/role and I found one of the best possible players. I used mainly my CM(A) filter/method with some adjustments before I signed him. And the best thing was that I signed Michal Nalepa for free from Jagiellonia Bialystok. That meant I didn’t have a problem giving him €7.75k per month to make him one of the best-paid players of the club (before the contract renewals during the season took place).

Another aim was to strengthen the WBL position. I signed Marcel Blachewicz from relegated Wisla Plock for €350k to give some squad competition to our main player for this position. But it ended with a fiasco. Every time he played, he made some big mistake, his training morale was so tragic that I would give him a punch if it would be real life. It resulted in the fact that I rather let play 17 years old not good enough newgen and I sent Blachewicz to our affiliate club SK Lisen in winter.

Another prepared signing was the transfer of the young Belarusian midfielder Sergey Lyakh. I signed him for just €200k from Ruch Brest without some transfer release clause in his contract and he signed until 2027 which is promising. He is in the Belarusian U21s national team already. His 5 goals and 5 assists in 19(7) appearances during his first season with us just in the league is a promising statistic.

THIS was one of his goals and I really liked it.

THE SUMMER, part 2

As I mentioned at the beginning, our first opponent in the Europa Conference League was Sparta Moscow. When I said “first”, yes, it means we beat them. The newly signed Michael Nalepa scored two goals in the home leg in his competitive debut as our new CM(A) and we beat them at 2:0 in the second leg too.

That was the moment when setting up the several line-ups took the place. The Starting XI was based on all key/important players. The Backup XI was a group of youngsters together with some experienced players. The Mixed XI was a mix of both together. At least one key player in every line together with the best youngsters. As you probably guess, the first XI played mainly the qualifying matches, the backup XI played in the domestic league. The mixed XI was used more during the later stage of the season.

We got Bodo/Glimt in the third round and we won 5:2 on aggregate and made it to the last qualifying phase. Sadly, we faced another Russian team. Krasnodar this time.

We played the first leg away from home for the first time but both matches were intense and crazy. We were 2:0 up in Krasnodar in the 72nd minute but the home side levelled the score within ten minutes before we scored the winning goal in 90+6 from the last set piece of the game.

Home tie. Our captain and the main halfback Michal Kopczynski was sent off in the 14th minute. Krasnodar was 2:0 up after the first half and one goal ahead on aggregate. Szymon Czyz made it 1:2 five minutes after a break, three minutes later it was 3:1 for Krasnodar. But we scored our second in the 74th minute and the match went to the extra-time as it was 5:5 on aggregate.

We also lost Filip Dymerski who was sent off after the second yellow in the 90th minute. With diminishing energy and two men down, we played with four defenders, a flat midfield trio and Chelmecki as a lone striker. We conceded in the 105+2 and Krasnodar was one goal ahead again. But Sergey Lyakh, our young Belarusian uncut diamond scored two minutes prior to the final whistle after a counter-attack. And the match went to penalties.

Jesper Grobelny, our keeper, saved two penalties (Claesson and Wanderson) and we scored all four. It was very a very satisfying win - 6:6 on aggregate and a 4:3 after penalties.

The opening months of the season including matches in the league and qualifying phase

TRANSFERS, part 2

The same as our progress to the Europa Conference League was surprising for others, it was surprising for me. And I realised I am very surprised by this achievement almost immediately after the home second leg with Krasnodar when I did the ordinary press conference and I went to the squad screen to give key players some rest days. It was the moment when I realised I need some fresh legs to be competitive in all three competitions. Some panic buys? Maybe.

I had around 48 hours to make the whole signing process. I decided to sign two players from my shortlist who I know about they are free agents. The Czech striker Tomas Cvancara is a panic signing 100% because he is not good enough in comparison with our own players but it was also some kind of nostalgic signing as I know Tomas from his childhood and his first football steps. And in combination with his real-life transfer from Jablonec to Sparta Prague. The worst thing about him in the game is that he has “Comes Deep To Get Ball” somehow developed. It’s not too good in combination that he should play as Poacher or Advanced Forward. I tried to unlearn him this trait but it was unsuccessful so far.

The second free signing was Kamil Dankowski. The wing-back who is able to play on both sides of the pitch - versatile, that can be useful. I signed him just for one year. He didn’t last that long. He played four matches and he was injured in all of them. Our partnership ended in winter when I released him.

Finally, the third signing within the deadline day - Rafal Wolski from Cracovia for €700k. He was one of the best-rated players in the Ekstraklasa at the end of the previous but also at the beginning of the current season after its first month. I knew he will be able to play as a midfielder but also as a striker. I liked the options he offered and signed him with a clear mind because I already earned a lot of money thanks to the Europa Conference League.

He made 36(5) appearances, scored 13 goals and made 11 assists. I would say that this transfer was worth it. His contract is up to 2026 and I’m sure I have still a great player in him despite him being 31 years old.

Rafal played mostly as CM(A) or CM(S) depending on the squad rotation.

THE REST OF THE SEASON

Ekstraklasa:

We were around the second and third places during this campaign. It was very tight until the end as Legia won the league for the third time in a row in this save with 72 points just one point ahead of Lechia Gdansk and Warta. Legia was changing the first and second place in the late stage of the season every round but Legia won it in the end. We were top of the league for 6 minutes in the last decisive round before Legia scored four goals at home against Radomiak who was relegated thanks to this defeat. It means we earned the Europa Conference League spot again.

The idea of tabbed menu with the Season Overview, Past Positions or other bookmarks courtesy of @Wozzie.

Totolek Puchar Polski:

We made it to the Semifinal this season. We needed penalties or at least the extra time in all first, second and third rounds as we beat Pogon Szczecin, Gornik Zabrze and Olimpia Elblag. The Quarterfinal 3:1 win over Legia at home thanks to a hattrick by Sebastian Musiolik was really sweet. But our biggest rival and also the cup winner, in the end, Lech Poznan, beat us in the Semifinal after penalties as the match ended 3:3 after an extra time. I would really like to win the domestic cup at least once during this save…

UEFA Europa Conference League:

We went to the Group F during the draw with FC Viktoria Plzen, Apollon Limassol and Sutjeska Niksic. I was sure we will make it through this group after beating teams like Spartak Moscow, Bodo and Krasnodar in the qualifying rounds. We lost only once in the group, it was with the Czech side away from home. But we won the other five matches and won the group F with 15 points, 16 goals scored and only 4 conceded.
We went straight to the 2nd knockout round thanks to winning the group and we got AC Sparta Prague. What a coincidence! But we beat them 4:3 on aggregate and went to the Quarterfinal against Wolverhampton. After an incredible home 3:0 win, we parked the bus at the Molineux stadium and drew 0:0. Semifinal here we go. We met Stade Rennais FC, our senior affiliate club here. We lost 1:3 away from home in the 1st leg but we beat them 2:1 at home and we said goodbye to Europe this season with our heads held high.
It was symbolic somehow. Michal Nalepa scored two goals against Spartak Moscow in the first match in this competition back in July 2023 and he scored two last goals in the Semifinal in May 2024. A great journey.

CONCLUSION OF THE 2023/2024 SEASON

The European journey gave us a couple of things. Firstly, we earned €10,239,779 via prize money. I know it’s not even the same as when you reach the Champions League group stage but as we like to say in our country it never rains, but it pours. This sum of money is incredible for our club and I was already able to convince the club board to upgrade the youth facilities from adequate to good. Even if it was after giving them an ultimatum.

Secondly, it also showed me (again) one of my biggest weaknesses within playing the Football Manager - buying and strengthening the squad instead of playing with my own players or youngsters only.

Is there any lesson? Yes, there is. I will have almost all new players in the club-ready before the pre-season or during the first week of the pre-season.

As I said, the European journey gave us a lot of money. We have almost 10x more than at the beginning of this season. The club board was generous and they gave us a €512,993 p/m wage budget and a €7,9M transfer budget. I will use some money for transfers but the wage budget will be under the limit a lot as always.

This third season was also the last while using the so-called 2-3-3-2 formation with two central defenders and a “false” central defender in terms of using the Half Back. It’s not because I would not like it anymore but I’m not able to find the good enough replacement or cover for the Half Back role and I want to try a different role in the DM slot while using the two or three central defenders.

The Polish coefficient received a very much needed boost this season as we reached the Semifinal and Legia won their group and made it to the 2nd Knockout Round.

Thanks for reading, take care.

💙💛✊🏻

Follow @FMRensie

FM22 | Far Post Corner Kick Routine

February 22, 2022

It’s around two years since I created this corner kick routine and I wrote about it. It’s a Far Post routine despite most of my players being aimed to attack the near post. The reason is simple - take opponent’s players from the far post area and give enough time and space to the best possible header from our team at the far post to find the cross.

I didn’t use it too much during the previous edition (FM21) but I decided to use it within my current FM22 save with Warta Poznan. What does the setup look like? Is it successful? Let’s take a look…

THE SETUP

As I said already, the main aim is to concentrate most of my players (and so defenders too) around the near post. The set-up is almost like for the near post in the end including the one player who comes short to take another defender with him.

And the rest is up to the player who is set to attack the far post. The same as in the past, I’m not too far into the save and the players (newgens mainly) are not some world-class players or wonderkids. That means I have to rotate two or three players here depending on their important attributes like decisions or off the ball.

Two players are set to lurk outside the area as they (FINALLY! after five or six years) don’t stay hand-in-hand at the same place. They are important mainly when the ball is cleared from the penalty area. Again, the decisions attribute is one of the most important parts of this role as these players have to be able to think quickly to earn the cleared ball back. And start a new attack.

IN OR OUT-SWINGING DELIVERY?

I’m sure one of the most frustrating things within set pieces for all coaches and fans (mainly them) is when the set-piece taker sends the ball straight to the first defender or straight to the goalkeeper’s gloves. The set-piece buzz is over within a second. And the only thing you can hope for is your opponent won’t take it as their advantage for a counter-attack.

I hate it too. And that’s the main reason why I’m using out-swinging delivery right now because my corner takers are not as good as I would like and their crosses can be long/high/slow… simply, not good enough. And my idea was to avoid in-swinging crosses over the 6-Yard box where the keeper will catch the ball easily. The ball has to make a bigger curve to reach the far post. But it’s the better way in my eyes until the corner taker(s) will be better.

EXAMPLE 1 - goal straight from the far post

This first example is from the Europa Conference League 2023/2024 as we beat AC Sparta Prague away from home thanks to this goal in the 88th minute of the match. It’s the most simple way how to score from this routine as Sebastian Musiolik who was set to attack the far post beat his defender this time and sent the ball straight to the net.

The moment when my (or your) player decide how and where he will go thanks to his off the ball movement and his decisions attribute is the key factor for every set-piece routine. You can have the best possible set-piece taker (I don’t have) but if the main target of the delivery has the wrong movement, he won’t find the right space or place to find the cross.

I think there is also a nice example of what I meant when I mentioned the out-swinging delivery and not allowing the keeper to catch the ball easily.

EXAMPLE 2 - goal from the near post

The second example shows one of my all-time favourite types of goals from a corner kick. I have been a big fan of some kind of back pass in the penalty area or the kind of pass that is made because the “assister” knew the scorer is in the better position and he has a better chance to score. It’s not only within set pieces of course.

This goal was scored against Legia Warszawa and their strong defenders (at least in-game) so it’s even more worthy for me. I think the ideal combination for this would be if the player who is set to attack the far post would also have a vision attribute of 20, the same as flair, jumping reach and strength. That would mean you would have a strong creative visionary who would be able to find other players. But that’s just a dream.

You can expect that this routine example can lead to the moment when a lot of goals or opportunities will end with the offside check by VAR/referees. The same as it happened when we scored this goal in the example. But Musiolik was on-side.

Is it successful? If I will compare it with the FM20 save in Mexico with Celaya FC when I created this routine, the simple answer is NO. But I like to take a look around the corner literally. I think we have to consider the fact that I had much better players when I started using it two years ago in comparison with my current save. Not only players who are set to attack the far post but also the corner taker(s) who are responsible for the delivery.

I will try to find a better set-piece taker in the future
I will try to develop my current set-piece taker and his attributes for set pieces in the future of the save. My attributes threshold is set to 13 as the starting point for excellent so if my takers will reach at least this value, I will be happy.
My main two players for the attack far post role within this routine are both players who are already experienced enough, I just need to find the way how to develop their attributes like off the ball. Or at least keep the values at the same level.

I started using it in the middle of the third season and tried several things. The team scored three goals in the opening nine competitive matches. It’s not too many, you say? Maybe not but it’s great and rewarding when it happens. For example when it’s a winning goal in the last minute of the match…

Thanks for reading. And don’t forget, it’s only a game, so let’s play it and test what the game can offer to you.

Take care.

Follow @FMRensie