Sempre Vitória - O Fim

That's it. It's over. My FM19 save with Vitória in Portugal has come to an end. What a journey.

I'll go through how season eight finished up first and then round off by looking at my time at the club as a whole. This is going to be emotional.

Season Eight

At the halfway point we were 2nd in the table and trailed Benfica by three points in another two-horse title race. I walked you through a perfect hattrick that Pedro Ferreira scored against Boavista, three of his 31 goals so far at the halfway stage. Would he be able to sustain that form and fire my Vitória side to only our second Primeira Liga title win?

We did it! My time at the club ends with a league win, our second of the save. It was done in style as well, winning every single league match in the second half of the season. Here's a few tales of the tape:

• Primeira Liga record points total - 96 points

• Primeira Liga consecutive wins record - 24 matches

• Most goals scored in a season (during the save) - 102 scored

• Vitória's best defensive record (during the save) - 19 conceded

• Vitória B won LigaPro

• Vitória u23s win their league

• Vitória u19s win their league

• Pedro Ferreira's 41 league goals is the most scored since Jardel's 42 in 2001/02

Ferreira ended up with 53 goals in 51 matches this season, an utterly ridiculous goal tally and one I don't think any striker I've ever managed on any version of the game has reached before. I said in my introductory post that I wanted to produce and develop a player like Armando Marques, a Balon d'Or winning Vitória youth product from my time at Stirling on FM18. Ferreira was the focus of my last post and you'll remember he didn't come through a Vitória youth intake, but he was signed early enough to become a homegrown player, so I'll take that one as a win.

The save ended with a 3-0 win against Estoril. Two from Ferreira but they were the bread inbetween a long range Sigurd Grønli strike on his 258th appearance for the club. He was one of my first signings and has been incredible for me.

Alongside the league, we won the Supertaca at the start of the season and the Taca da Liga in January, that's a treble! If only we hadn't been embarrassingly knocked out of the Taca de Portugal at the first round we entered against lower league opposition way back in October.

One thing I didn't mention in the last post is that we'd topped our Champions League group that contained Napoli, Valencia and Celtic. The furthest we'd gone prior to this season was the 1st knockout round, falling at that stage in the last two seasons. Atletico Madrid knocked us out two seasons ago, but we gained revenge this time round, overcoming a 1-0 away leg defeat to win 2-0 at home. Vitória youth product, Igor Chaves, getting the scoring underway in that one. A lovely sight.

That took us to Turin to face Juventus and another 1-0 away defeat. The Estádio D. Afonso Henriques is a fortress though and we blew them away in the second leg to go through to the semi final of the Champions League, 4-2 on aggregate. One of the best performances I've seen from us throughout the save.

The semi final almost topped it, almost.

Conceded two away goals in the first leg, 3-0 down in the second leg.

Nothing to lose, go attacking, get a goal back.

10mins to go, go very attacking, get another goal back. One more and we're into the CL final on away goals...

FM you're a cruel wee bitch sometimes aren't you. pic.twitter.com/qaAMIWb98j

— FMSamo (@FM_Samo) October 5, 2019

A good performance in the first leg was almost a great one until we conceded a 92nd minute goal to draw 2-2. Those two away goals would be our downfall in the end, but we were so close to bloody doing it. Spurs went on to beat Milan in the final. What could have been. Football Manager, eh.

My Time at Vitória

I didn't know what to expect when I started the save. I always feel like the start of a new save should only have one aim, survival. Once you get through that initial period of uncertainty you can push on. I had an aim to break into Os Três Grandes and in truth we almost instantly overtook Sporting to break into the three, albeit not in total number of trophies won overall. We finished above them in every single season.

Two Supertaca wins, four Taca da Liga wins, three Taca de Portugal wins and two Primeira Liga titles. It's not a bad haul at all. I'm 3rd in the Portuguese nation Hall of Fame behind Rui Vitória and Otto Glória.

I spoke a lot about the development pathway during the save. Portugal is certainly a nation I'd recommend if you're looking for a nation that is prime for youth development. I've had some great players come through our own youth intake, proof of that is in the table below with Luis Miguel, a homegrown central defender, being the record sale of the save.

I was able to snap up some incredible talent early on in their careers from other Portuguese sides too, Pierreganni Robalo being proof of that in the table below. Toni Borevkovic wasn't too bad there either, coming in on a cheap fee from Rio Ave and playing incredibly solidly for six season before moving on to a bigger club and earning the club a big fee.

The links the country has to Brazil meant I had a couple of scouts watching players at all times and while Felix Jorge was the highest fee I paid for a player, a big profit was still made. Then there's the region that you should always be scouting if you're looking for talent, Eastern Europe. Vasiljevic, Gvardiol and Lovro Majer all made the club considerable sums of money. I outlined Brazil and Eastern Europe as key markets for us in my introductory post too so it's great to see it come to fruition throughout the save.

Player	Signed From	Signed For	Sold To	Sold For
Luis Miguel	Homegrown	n/a	Real Madrid	£52m
Felix Jorge	Internacional	£12m	Arsenal	£50m
Pierreganni Robalo	Uniao Sintrense	£1.1m	Atletico Madrid	£50m
Aleksandar Vasiljevic	Partizan	£650k	Man City	£40m
João Cerqueira	Boavista	£600k	Barcelona	£35m
Josko Gvardiol	Dinamo Zagreb	£5.75m	Arsenal	£33m
Rafa Soares	Already at Club	n/a	Spurs	£28m
Edgar Branco	Real	£300k	Real Madrid	£27m
Toni Borevkovic	Rio Ave	£400k	PSG	£27m
Filipe Soares	Estoril	£2m	Gladbach	£24.5m
Lovro Majer	Dinamo Zagreb	£3.2m	Guangzhou	£23m
Fernando Cardozo	Club Olimpia	£600k	RBLeipzig	£17m

There's so many players still at the club who would certainly make it onto this list of players I've sold for £15m+ throughout the save. I've been knocking back bids of £50m+ for Ferreira and Joveljic for a couple of windows now. Igor Chaves might have joined Luis Miguel on the list as being a Vitória homegrown prospect earning us big money. I picked Didier Navarro up for a cool £9m from Toulouse at the beginning of this season and he might just be one of the best playmakers I've ever seen. He would have developed incredibly with even more game time.

There was just over £1m in the balance when I took over the club at the start of the 2018/19 season. As I get ready to leave at the end of the 2025/26 season, there's £280m in the bank. A 27900% increase isn't too bad a legacy at all. The club is just outside the top 20 clubs in the continent. We're now valued at over £1bn the stadium is packed out every fortnight and all of the facilities are completely maxed out.

That's it then. FM19 is over for me. It's been a great save and a great year. Thanks to everyone for following along on here, on Twitter and on Slack too.

My FM19 Tactic: The 3-5-2 Returns

It's very difficult to put the heartache of losing out on winning the league title on the last day of the season followed up by losing a cup final a week later to one side but a new season rolling around goes a long way in helping to forget what had come before.

We ended season six trophyless after a very successful couple of years prior. The aim for season seven is obviously to wrestle at least one of those trophies back into our cabinet. We'll be looking to do it with a new tactical approach.

The 3-5-2 returns

Loyal readers will remember way back to the 4th of November 2018 when I joined Vitória and outlined the tactic I was looking to play. The key aspects of it were the three central defenders, wing-backs that were expected to defend and attack in equal measure and the forward three, who were either two up front and one behind or two behind and one up front. It got us where we needed to be in that first season, a third place finish.

That was back when the game was first released though and there was a few issues with movement up front. In season two I switched to the very successful 4-1-2-3 and the trophies started arriving in Guimarães. I always spoke about moving back to the 3-5-2 though and after writing this piece for the Football Manager site I made the switch ahead of season seven.

One of the big reasons why I wanted to go back to it was to play two up front and pair Dejan Joveljic and Pedro Ferreria together. I always had a tough choice picking between them for the lone striker role in the previous tactic. I reckoned they'd be a danger for any opposition defence and that's been the case so far as they've scored 21 goals between them across the first half of the season. It hasn't all been easy though in terms of the switch back to 3-5-2. It's taken a lot of tweaking to get to the point where the tactic looks like the below.

Despite a positive start to the season I'd spotted a few issues with how I'd initially set this up. Issue one was the attacking midfield role. I'd selected a Shadow Striker, as I'd done in the tactic I'd outlined for the 3-5-2 article on the FM site. This is a role I'd used extensively back on FM17 and had great success with but looking at how it plays out on FM19 it's not quite the same.

My perception from the previous game was that it was all action and moved very fluidly across the front line, making excellent penetrating runs and getting into great positions in and around the box. What I was seeing on FM19 was nothing like this. There was flashes, like Lovro Majer's lovely finish on the break against Estoril or his 90th minute screamer against Academica to snatch the win in the Taca da Liga, but on the whole it was ineffectual.

The below screenshot is an example from the 0-0 against bottom of the table Tondela. Majer was getting on the ball but just continually playing it out wide, presumably to our wing backs who were constantly in space. Crosses are a big aspect of our play and I don't mind us attempting a lot of them but there was very little central danger.

I've shifted the role to being an Advanced Playmaker on Attack. Ensuring he attracts the ball, plays a little bit deeper but is constantly looking for options ahead of him has seen his influence on matches increase. Passes, key passes and chances created are all up versus the previous role. When analysing the AM role it also led me to look into issue two, the forward roles.

I really struggled to settle on the roles for the strike duo. Complete Forward on Attack did so well as the lone striker in the previous formation that I wondered whether I should incorporate it into the new duo? I knew I wanted one being the out ball and one linking with the midfield. A Poacher doesn't move into channels so I stuck with that for a good portion of the season but there would be matches that would just pass him by. A Deep Lying Forward on Support would certainly drop in and contribute to our approach play but would it encroach into the space the AM is operating in?

Eventually I settled on the Attack version of the DLF partnered with an Advanced Forward. The DLF is still linking well with the rest of the side but finds himself getting on the end of chances too due to his position higher up the pitch. The AF does move into channels which goes against one of my ideas for the tactic but paired with a DLF who does the same, more often than not one will make that move and the other will stay central, and vice versa.

Issue three was the balance in central midfield. I knew I wanted to keep a Mezzala after how well the role had performed previously but partnered with what other role? With the back three providing more than enough defensive cover, my initial thought with the second CM role was a ball winner. I've eventually settled on the Carrilero, similarly to my initial 3-5-2 attempt. He'll provide support for the LWB bombing forward and link well. I tried out a Ball Winning Midfielder and just a standard Central Midfielder, both on Support, too, but I'm finding the balance of the side overall much better with the Carrilero there. Plus it means I'm playing a Carrilero and a Mezzala together. I'm so hipster.

Results

Has our new style led to positive results?

Things have been really positive on the whole. We started the season excellently as new formation bounce took hold before new formation fatigue set in at the beginning of October. A couple of poor results, including our only domestic defeat of the season so far, saw me tweak a few roles and instructions. It wasn't until the 1-1 draw with Gil Vicente followed by the drab 0-0 with Tondela though that I took the time to properly analyse how we were set up and looked into tweaking how we would look going forward.

The best time for reflection is when you're on top.

With me going through those issues previously you might have been thinking we were languishing low down in the table. We're top at the half way point, albeit Benfica have games in hand that will take them level with us if they win them. Defences win titles and ours have been rock solid so far. Absolutely no issues at the back at all in the new tactic. As is customary, we've also made it through to the Taca da Liga semi final and Taca de Portugal 6th round.

We were drawn against Real Madrid, Lyon and Mainz in the Champions League group stage. Would you look at these results and think we would qualify for the knockout round?

Because we did. Somehow.

Despite Mainz being Germany's new powerhouse after consecutive top four Bundesliga finishes I hoped we could take at least four points from them, we only got one. We took four points from Lyon in last season's group stage and none this season as they topped the group. Despite Real battering us for 180 minutes home and away, we managed to steal six points from them and finish 2nd on the head-to-head record. I don't see us doing the same to Man City in the first knockout round.

After around six seasons playing the same way I'd slipped into an FM comfort zone. Stepping out of that by changing the tactic has woken me up and, at a time when it looks as though interest in FM19 is waning for so many other people, kept me keen to keep coming back to Vitória. Bring on the second half of the season.

The Mezzala on FM - Mez Que Un Role

Football Manager 2018 saw the Mezzala role introduced to the game. It had gained some traction in the non-FM world due to the performances of Ángel di María for Real Madrid in what was dubbed as the central winger role but when researching I found that it's been part of the Italian football vernacular for years.

When the role appeared alongside the Carrilero and Segundo Volante I vowed never to use them. Never heard of them. Far too hipster for me. FM doesn't really need them. Fast forward to FM19 and I've now crossed two of them off the list. The Carrilero appeared in my first tactical attempt and now the Mezzala is key to how we play. So important that it's merited it's own blog post analysing the role in my system.

Why the Mezzala?

When I initially changed to the 4-1-2-3 setup I went with my trusted roles of a CM(A) and a CM(S). I've had some great success with the standard CM role over the past few editions of the game, to the point where it's probably been my favourite role. It's so customisable that it can play a variety of different ways in similar tactical setups.

However in the set up above I was finding that they were slightly too static and perhaps I was being slightly too cautious, especially so with that CM(S). I was looking for something a little more dynamic. A role that would play on the front foot and drag the side further up the pitch. Enter the Mez.

The description for the Mezzala role makes reference to the central winger like I mentioned in the introduction and also says they operate in the half-spaces. Control the half-space and you'll have quite a good handle on controlling the match. I didn't just change the CM(S) to a Mez(S) though. I went the whole hog and double Mezzed it. We're controlling the whole of the half-space now.

The Mez(S) does his fair share of defensive work in addition to attempting to influence play going forward whereas the Mez(A) is deemed much more of an offensive threat and leaves the defending to teammates. However, defending from the front is just as vital and one of the tweaks I've made to both roles is asking them to close down more. I want them harassing opposition midfielders into making mistakes and winning the ball back for us higher up the pitch.

I tend not to like handing out instructions to the entire team. I'm much more likely to make a tweak or two to certain individuals and another of those on both Mezzalas is asking them be more direct in their passing. I see this as giving them a bit more licence to attempt to unlock opposition defences. If they don't manage to do that and they make a mistake or lose the ball, there's plenty behind them to win it back.

Along that same line of thinking I've also added take more risks onto the Mez(S). Here's how those tweaks look to both roles. Proof that I'm all but playing two Mez(A)s aside from the hardcoded behaviours under the match engine hood.

Combination Play

Here's the current entire setup and how the Mezzalas fit into it all.

I find that it's important to think about the combinations of the roles you're picking and then how it fits into the overall team setup. Here's some examples of the combos within my setup:

• The two central defenders and the DLP provide stability for the rest of the side to create and play

• The Mezzalas receive the ball short from the DLP

• They spray it out left to the rampaging oncoming full back, usually in acres of space

• They play a short pass forward for the IF(A), who's asked to sit narrower

• The W(S) has room to run into on the right and is often found by the Mezzalas

• A direct pass in behind the defence for the striker to run onto, especially with passes into space being encouraged

• When play progresses, the Mezzalas quick to get up and support attacks

• They're often open in space on the edge of the box for a long shot too, if the opportunity for one is there they should take it

• Coupled with our counter press, with the Mezzalas being asked to close down more they work hard and often chase to win the ball back in midfield

That, in a nutshell, is how we play. Here's some images and GIFs of that in action.

Examples

Supporting Attacks

In the below example, we've just won the ball back from a corner. Joveljic has received it and is holding it up. As the Mez(A), Grønli is absolutely busting a gut to get up there and support the attack.

When he eventually receives the ball just inside the penalty area before he fires it home, our winger, inside forward and support Mezzala are all up there too.

Defensive Work

Tyler Boyd has picked up the ball in his own half. You can see Reisinho, number 25, quite close by in that first image. Boyd decides to dribble with the ball and heads for the right wing.

In the second image, Boyd still has the ball but he's in our half now. Reisinho is still tracking him and has been joined by Pedro Ferreira, playing DLP, to chase him down. The centre of midfield has been vacated and left largely open by these two pulling out of position to win the ball back, but if they do win it back, that's fine. In the third image, Mez(S) Reisinho tackles Boyd and the ball goes out for a throw.

Diagonal Balls

This won't just be a Mezzala role only thing, but I love the cross field diagonal balls they play to the wings.

We've won the ball back from a long goal kick. A few short passes later, my DLP keeps the ball moving on to the Mez(S) then bang, straight away we're on the front foot again. Mário Ferreira bombs down the wing to put a cross in and create a chance at the back post for Majer our IF(A).

It's not all beautiful 50-yarders. They keep the ball moving and the pass into space instruction for the entire team helps that too.

Grønli in the Mez(A) role here picks up a loose ball after a throw in and gets the ball moving out over to the oncoming full back on the left. A few quick passes recyling possession and Ferreira's got a tap in at the back post.

Incisive Assists

The positioning and movement of both Mezzalas sees them being in the right place at the right time more often than not to carve out openings and create chances for us to score.

Picking up the second ball again here, Grønli, playing in the Mez(S) role in this match, isn't closed down well enough giving him time and space to thread the ball in behind for Joveljic to slot past the keeper. I'd say this is us controlling the half space pretty well.

Long Shot Klaxons

Like I said, if the opportunity is open to shoot, why wouldn't you?

Shoooooooot. Similarly to the assist above, Reisinho has acres of space and plenty of time to take a touch and pick his spot to score. He chose a lovely finish into the bottom left by the way.

Where to improve?

Right now, I'm not actually sure. Some of the football we're playing is glorious. We're dangerous going forward, expansive in our passing and defend well from the front. I haven't seen any weaknesses from either Mezzala, or indeed any aspect of our play, that I really want to change.

Have you got any suggestions? If so, let me know! What's your experience of the Mezzala role too? I'd love to hear about it.

My FM19 Training Approach

FM19 being released was accompanied by massive changes to training. It had been often suggested, hugely debated and highly anticipated. Gone was the handful of options available for us to pick that we'd have to have on for at least three months for them to make an impact on player development but that we'd do once and just leave for the entirety of our saves. In their place came a whole host of options to pick and the ability to slot them into three sessions per day, rather than for the entire week as before.

Fast forward to now and a lot of what I'm seeing on Twitter and Slack is people saying they're leaving it to their assistant, either completely, or tweaking from the suggestions made to them. Everyone is entitled to play the game however the hell they want to of course, but I wonder why, after all that expectation, that it's not being utilised as much.

I don't know the answer to that at all, mainly because I'm absolutely loving it. It's one of my most visited screens in my save so far. As with everything else on the game, I don't claim to know the ins and outs of how it works or how it's supposed to work. All I can do is outline how I've been approaching it so far and the shift in my approach in my third season at Vitória.

For the first two seasons of my time at the club I was tweaking it almost on a weekly basis, depending on how I wanted to approach the upcoming match plus the general aspects I wanted to train the players in. This covered the majority of all of the new options available to us to pick from, but without much thought behind it. From this season, season three, I've started to adopt some of the principles of tactical periodisation in my approach.

Tactical Periodisation

The concept was developed at the University of Porto by the mind of lecturer, Vítor Frade. The simple explanation of the methodology is that everything in training should be related to in-game scenarios. These can be explained under defensive and offensive organisation, and the transition from defence to attack and vice versa. If you want to play a certain way in game situations, these must be done first on the training field.

The periodisation aspect stems from its repetition. Training follows a cyclical plan and each day of training is designed to follow those four in-game scenarios mentioned above. Football is unpredictable, but the repeated training of these actions is creating habits and eventually predictability is created.

I mentioned the methodology in my introductory post for the save. Two of its most well known adopters are José Mourinho and André Villas-Boas, and although both have suffered a bit of damage to their reputations in recent years, they have both successfully implemented its workings at various clubs across their careers. Brendan Rodgers and England rugby coach, Eddie Jones, are also known to adhere to the concept. How have I implemented it on FM19 though?

On Football Manager 2019

I felt it'd be good to try and base my training schedule on the game around tactical periodisation because it starts with the question of "how do you want your team to play?" It's the million dollar question really. Who doesn't want their side to be strong in defence, dangerous going forward and transitioning seamlessly between the two?

My attempt at Tactical Periodisation involves introducing a lot of the new module options that are available for us to pick now. I've tried to narrow in on ones I think are relevant to not just now I want us to play the game, but that will also aid player development. It's important to keep in mind what each module does by checking out its description. Below is a typical example of a Tactical Periodisation training cycle.

And here's how mine stacks up on the game in comparison. Instead of repeating the same cycle week after week, I've gone for a two week cycle that repeats throughout the season.

The "attacking" cycle

The "defensive" cycle

You'll see straight away that there's one difference in that there's no days off for my players, however the post-match recovery days and pre-match "activation" days are less strenuous than the rest. The other thing to note is that with our participation in continental competition along with, at the time of writing, still being in both domestic cup competitions, this cycle is the ideal one. Very rarely does it actually play out like this week-on-week.

I did say I was just basing it around Tactical Periodisation rather than completely replicating because you can see the cycles both start off with sessions that aren't based on a specific game moment. The overall session is almost a continuation of our recovery, just getting the players in, moving around and putting a little bit of work into every aspect of their games. Session two is a physical one, as that fits in to my overall managerial approach. I love players who have strong physical attributes.

Tuesday to Thursday is all about working on the key aspects of our game. Of course, in FM terms (looking at the descriptions of the modules) very few of these sessions have any impact at all on the upcoming match. However in non-FM terms I think it makes sense. I want us to be good at attacking down the wings, directly and to be patient when attacking, so I focus on those areas throughout the week. Similarly to defending. We need to be solid in defending wide areas and when our opponents have the ball on the deck. Both the offensive and defensive schedules train pressing, while we're working on creating and taking chances one week, and restricting the oppositions chances in the other.

Looking through both the attacking and defensive cycles, I think, I've got all key aspects covered in terms of the breadth and focus on players training attributes. This is obviously key if we want our players to be working on improving and being the best they can be, in conjunction with the quality of our coaching staff and training facilities.

Going against the principles again, our pre-match prep isn't the same in each cycle. I'll vary this depending on our opponent and what I want to be working on. If it's a tough away match coming up I'll focus on our defensive shape while if it's a home match we should be winning against a side who'll sit in I want us to have a bit more of an attacking impetus.

Set pieces are a vital part of football nowadays. I don't think it'll be long before SI bring in set piece specific coaches like a few clubs have on their books now. When you have someone in your squad with the ability to deliver a set piece like we do, it would be stupid not to focus specific sessions on it. These sessions provide a potential boost for your upcoming match as well as generally training players on taking, and attributes related to being in the box. One oversight is that I'm not currently focusing on free kicks, only corners. That will change going forward.

The impact

The beauty of Football Manager means I'm not entirely sure! I've set up this way because I was interested in the Tactical Periodisation methodology after reading about it in the European Game and wanted to see how could be applied on the game. I'm hoping it'll work well for us. Someone else playing the game might be setting up training in a completely different way and be finding much more success than me. I said at the beginning that some aren't even paying attention to training and are still very successful.

As with anything, you get out what you put in. I'm absolutely loving the changes to how it's set up this year, it's probably one of my favourite parts of the game now. I spend a lot of time on the screens ensuring that everything is set up correctly for the month ahead. If you haven't given it a shot yet, have a bash. You might enjoy it too.

Further reading

If you want to know more about Tactical Periodisation then here's some links off to more content to read. There's much more to it than I've outlined in the piece.

Tactical Periodisation: MOURINHO’S BEST-KEPT SECRET?

Training Ground Guru

NY Times' piece on Vítor Frade

The Porto chapter of the European Game book.

My FM19 Tactic: 4-1-2-3

The start to competitive football in season two hasn't been positive. We've struggled for consistency and really struggled to create meaningful goalscoring chances. At the time of starting to write this post, at the end of October 2019 in-game, we're languishing in the bottom half of the league on nine points from eight matches. 

In season one, the vast majority of our play came down the flanks. Our wing backs seemed to always be open and had all the time in the world to pick their spot in the penalty area, despite our cross completion not being amongst the best in the league. So far this season we seem to have been "found out". We're too one dimensional. With us attempting 80 crosses in a recent defeat away to Midtjylland in the Europa League a prime example. It's time to take a look at what was wrong, and try to stop the rot.

Then

After the last tactical tweak, when I moved an extra man up front, this is how it looked. I couldn't settle on any of the roles for that midfield trio at all and so much of our play was geared down mainly the left hand side. That Midtjylland match is the one I'll be looking at when outlining why we needed a change.

Over-reliance on crosses

FCM also set up in a formation with wing backs, but theirs only attempted a grand total of 11 crosses. That's even with what looked like two inside forwards cutting inside and creating the space out wide for them to bomb on. Both Soares and García attempted 34 crosses each of our overall 80. Don't get me wrong, I love a cross. As I always say when I get asked in press conferences, if we keep getting the ball into the box there's a good chance we'll connect with at least one of them. But this just looks a little bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

Despite moving to two up front to give our crossers more options to aim at in the centre, quite often it was still just that AF waiting in the middle. The DLF(S) and AM(A) couldn't get into the area to support quick enough, especially with crosses from the left hand side, as you can see by the screenshot below.

We're chasing the game in this screenshot, 3-1 down in the 90th minute, but it illustrates probably an error on my part. #19 has just sprayed a long ball out to Soares in the WB(A) role. He's got acres of space to run into and gets into a great position to cross the ball, getting ahead of FCM's right back. All he's got to aim at is our AF. #9 is our DLF(S), who the play just seems to have totally passed by. #19 and #22 are our AM(S) and BBM, while #2 is the RWB(S). FCM easily deal with the cross and it's cleared. This happened time and time again, not just throughout this match.

Centrally impotent

Maybe I'm expecting too much here. Maybe I've just completely got it wrong tactically, but I would expect a lot more of our play to come through the centre.

Here's our touches and heat map, again from that FCM match. So much of the play was skewed down that left hand side with the LWB combining with our DLP in the defensive third and then likely with the DLF/AM in the attacking third. Our central midfield pairing played a combined 141 passes between them, only three of these were key, and only one of them was into the box. The players playing in the AM role during the match played 48 passes, with none of these going into the box. Our strikers only received the ball to their feet in the FCM box a handful of times throughout the match.

I feel disappointed that I've already strayed away from my initial tactical idea, but it just wasn't working. Did I give up too quickly? Maybe, but I felt the change needed to happen. It's still there to potentially move back to and work on some more, but here's how it looks now. It's a brand new approach.

Now

I'd never been a fan of a three man central defence until the previous tactic, always preferring a more familiar to me four at the back. This is a return to that. Rafa Soares on the left hand side still gets up to support attacks but his influence on our overall attacking play is taken down a couple of notches. Wakaso in that DLP(D) role actually does drop in to form a three centrally quite often, but mainly to show for the ball from the keeper or the two CBs. The right sided full back is on a support duty to provide more defensive solidity, but with that DLP dropping in, there is occasionally licence to switch that role to a wing back and/or duty to attacking.

The current central midfield pairing is just that, two central midfielders. The right hand side is on attack, with the left on support. The CM(A) was one of my favourite roles on FM18 as part of my 4-4-2, so I'm keen to see how well it gets up to support our attacking players. The CM(S) is in there to provide balance to the side and support at either end of the pitch. The roles aren't set in stone yet, but early indications are okay.

The attacking trio is an IF(A), W(S) and CF(A). The inside forward has been an important part of the turnaround so far, which I'll go into in a second, while those latter two roles are still up for debate. The winger on support has a few subtle differences to the winger on attack, the starting position being one of them. While I feel we do have the players behind the role to be able to cover it being on an attack duty, it starting on support sees the link up being much easier with the players supporting the role, mainly the CM(A) and FB(S) behind him. I do love a winger bombing on and crossing it from the byline but I want to leave it up to the player to make the right decision on what's needed in the moment.

Right now I'm still a bit unconvinced by my CF but looking at the role description it's exactly what I want so I'm sticking with it. I want him to link play like a DLF, I want him to be our spearhead like a poacher and I want him to hold it up like a target man. Too often in season one in the previous tactic our main striker just seemed to be a decoy to occupy opposition defenders. Maybe I'm being greedy that I also want my striker to be doing that too alongside all those other qualities.

Inside forward key

The use of wide players further up the pitch now stretches the backline of our opposition, whereas before they seemed willing to concede the wide areas to our wing backs bombing on. It was originally on support duty, but as pointed out by FMPressure on my channel on FMSlack, who would be well positioned to get up to support the lone striker if the IF wasn't on attack? The switch has been a key one so far. Despite losing 4-2 against them earlier on this season, from a winning position no less, across November we managed to beat Maritimo twice, scoring eight and conceding two.

When Luiz Phellype wins and brings down a long kick out from our keeper, drawing out one of Maritimo's CBs in the process, there's only one thing on Arabidze's mind as our IF on attack. He doesn't stay out wide, he drives into that open space in behind his opposing full back. This draws the second CB over and Davidson, our winger on support, has an easy tap in at the back post to round off a 5-2 Taca de Portugal 4th round win.

Defensive solidity

We'd only kept two clean sheets between August and October. We kept three in November alone, including two excellent 1-0 victories in the Europa League against PAOK and the return match against Midtjylland. From conceding three goals against them in Denmark to only allowing them four shots on goal in total just a few weeks later. Here's how.

Counter-pressing was part of our previous tactic too, but teams found it easier to attack us with no players immediately engaging their oncoming full backs. The introduction of our advanced wide men stops that now, and FCM's wing backs and central midfield pairing struggled to get into the match. Their wing backs, specifically, had pass completion percentages of 55% and 52% as we pressured them into making rushed passes or long clearances which were easily dealt with.

Another bit of a difference can be seen below.

Before, our wing backs were pushed much higher up, so we basically only had a defensive base of the back three. Now I'd say we've got a defensive base of five. Mabil has made what the game classes as a "dribble", running from well inside his own half with the ball at his feet. He's evaded the attempted tackle from our DLP #8 who'd been tracking him, and it looks as though it's just a simple cross into the box for their #19 to score. Luckily, my RB #2 is covering and manages to block the cross. We drastically outnumber FCM, with six back there up against their three most advanced players.

Change of player

André André has arguably been our talisman so far this season. Prior to the tactical switch my captain had scored six goals, albeit three of those were penalties and another was a rebound from a missed penalty. However from switching things up a bit in the hunt for results, Sigurd Grønli has emerged as a contender for the CM(A) slot. The 19-year-old Norwegian scored the below equaliser against Boavista and is a set piece magician too which just adds an extra threat for us.

Previously I'd been shoehorning natural wide players into roles behind or as strikers. Mário Ferreira is another who's going to benefit from the tactical switch, moving out to the left hand side and being unleashed in his natural inside forward role. He scored the winning goal in that 1-0 win over Midtjylland with some classic inside forward play.

I'm trying to be much more fluid tactically on FM19, but I didn't expect to be shifting my entire system around this early on in my save. Results are certainly much more positive since the change though. Things are looking up for the rest of my second season with Vitória. If you've got any other pointers you want to share about my tactic or if you fancy giving it a shot yourself then just let me know in the comments or on Twitter. Thanks for reading, as ever.

Sempre Vitória!

My FM19 Tactic: 3-5-2

My time as Vitória manager on Football Manager 2019 has begun. It's my first day in the job. Before I even click continue I'm going to go through a series of steps to evaluate the essential aspects of the club. This post will go through how I'm aiming to set us up on the pitch and how I arrived at the thinking behind it.

Jumping straight in to talk tactics might be slightly unconventional, but if I'm going to judge the quality of the players already at the club (which will be the next post), I need to know how well they'll fit in to my preferred system. 

I'm quite a tactically stubborn manager. When I find something that suits my players and gets results on the pitch, I don't tend to stray from it. When the RBLeipzig narrow 4-2-3-1 got going it was beautiful and the Stirling 4-4-2 took the club to the next level. I didn't actually play those ways for the entirety of my time with either club, but they were the tactical setups that stuck for numerous seasons. I don't want to take that approach with Vitória, I want to be more tactically fluid. Shift the system about, change roles, be more adventurous or pragmatic when the time calls for it. I do have a way of setting the team up in mind to start off with though.

Tactics aren't really what I find most interesting in football or in Football Manager, but they're so important, of course. My FM inspiration usually comes from reading stories about clubs, their communities, their players, the way they approach things off the pitch, it came from somewhere a little bit different for this. I've watched the amateur team I used to play for a couple of times this season and the way they're setting up led me to wanting to see if it would translate well onto the game. This isn't a tactical recreation of Brazil 1970 or Arsenal's Invincibles. This is me recreating the tactic of a team that barely anyone watches play in the lower rungs of the Lothian and Edinburgh Amateur Football Association.

The Tactic

The thinking behind it

They had three central defenders forming a solid base for the rest of the side. The wide support was provided by wing backs. They were expected to be prepared to bomb on and provide support going forward at any opportunity, while also remaining aware of their defensive duties. On the game, it sets itself up fairly simply.

The midfield has been slightly trickier for me to set up in-game. The midfield roles are quite hard to determine when watching the side. When one drove forward, the other sat and covered and vice versa. Both were expected to be capable in covering in front of the defence but also getting forward to give the attack a bit of additional support. I've gone for a DLP on support to give us a playmaker in there, able to link the defence and attack, competent in the tackle but able to create chances too. On the left hand side, I've chosen a carrilero. A role I haven't used at all since it was introduced last year, and one I didn't really ever have any intention of using, until it slotted nicely into this tactic. That left wing back bombs forward and vacates a fair bit of space in behind. The carrilero will just shuttle across to cover in and in an attacking sense, is just expected to provide a bit of support to link the units on the pitch.

The attacking options have also been tricky for me to set roles for. The three are usually quite interchangeable, almost having free roles to just cause panic, confusion and chaos. Of course, that's only slightly transferable onto the game with the ability to only swap players in two positions, rather than being able to set them to continually switch around. The treq just does his own thing, expected to dribble, take risks and roam around. It's probably quite a good role for what's expected. I used the shadow striker role to incredible effect at RBLeipzig and I think it should work quite well here too. Again, it's about encouraging movement but with the player expected to get on the end of goalscoring chances as well as creating them. I've instructed both the treq and SS to run wide with the ball to see whether it disrupts the opposition any further, with the SS also being set to roam from position too.

The forward role is the one I'm most unsure of right now. During my time on the beta I tried it out the DLF on support before settling on starting here with it on attack. I've loved that base role on the last two games and in theory it should work well again here. Dropping deep and linking play, but also getting into the box and on the end of crosses or through balls. To add to the hopeful chaos, I've set the DLF up with a PI of roam from position.

Alternative front three

How would those two behind the striker work coming inside from the wings? Just something else I'll be trying out during pre-season and one to keep in mind when looking through the squad. Wingers won't be forced out, they'll very much have a role to play whether it's the treq/SS or this alternative. I said on the recent One More Game podcast episode that I'm very much about fitting the players into roles I want them to play, rather than shaping my tactic around their preferred roles.

This isn't a tactical post...

So I'm not going to go through the additional team instructions just yet. I haven't even played a match yet. It's just me showcasing how we'll be lining up so I can judge the quality of my new players up against it. I'll be analysing the tactic and how it plays eventually though, so keep an eye out for that coming once the season is underway.

Sempre Vitória!

Sempre Vitória

I'm heading to Portugal to join Vitória Sport Clube, or as I'll be referring to them throughout the save, Vitória. 

The club is based in the northern city of Guimarães and competes in the Primeira Liga, the top tier of Portuguese football. Similarly to the majority of Portuguese football clubs, they've never won the title as it's been dominated by the "Big Three", Benfica, Sporting and Porto. Other than a couple of cup wins there isn't much history of note to take you through, which is good because I wasn't going to anyway. It's all about the future with me taking the reigns.

Why Vitória?

An important factor in me settling on Vitória was that point I just made. The club hasn't had much success in the past. It's open for me to take them over and hopefully add to the, currently quite bare, trophy cabinet. I'll be able to shape the club in the way that I want to, and playing in Portugal will also help with that too. The relatively free restrictions on transfers in the country is something I'm hoping to use to my advantage in the same way that so many other clubs in the country have done in the past. Financial Investment in Potential Growth (FIPG) is a strategy Benfica and Porto, in particular, have used to great effect. You don't need me to give you an exhaustive list but the sales of James Rodriguez, Falcao, Hulk, Axel Witsel and Ederson from those two clubs have contributed to huge sums of money being made by Portuguese clubs in the transfer market over the last 10 years. I want to ensure Vitória has a similar level of attractiveness for players to decide they want to join the club to better themselves and further their career. No nationality is off-limits for this, if they've got potential then they'll be more than welcome to join the club. This is similar to the way I played with Stirling in the latter half of my time on FM18. It's just what I naturally gravitate towards and how I enjoy managing.

I've spoken about it a lot since I finished reading it a while ago now, but The European Game book also inspired my move to Portugal. There's chapters in the book on each of the Big Three, and it highlighted just how much they, and the country in general, have been at the forefront of player and coach development in recent times. The Porto chapter is about the tactical innovators developed at the club. The likes of José Mourinho and André Villas-Boas delivered unprecedented success to the Dragões with their meticulous approach to tactical periodisation, developed by one of their mentors, Vitór Frade. The Sporting chapter details what went in to creating Cristiano (they are the only club to have developed two Ballon d'Or winners), and the spine of Portugal's 2016 European Championship winning squad (10 of the 14 players used in the final had been in Sporting's youth system). The Benfica chapter focuses on Caixa, the club's state-of-the-art training facility that overlooks the city they represent across the River Tagus. The Lisbon club are by far the most popular in the country, and across the former African colonies too. The Benfica LAB is at the forefront of football development and is investing more so now than ever before into developing and retaining youngsters, rather than selling them on. The stretch target at Vitória will be to change the Big Three to the Big Four, competing at the top level of Portuguese football.

The links are somewhat tenuous, but Portugal has been the destination for a few Scots moving abroad in recent years too. Ian Cathro first met Nuno Espírito Santo when he and the now Wolves manager were studying for their coaching badges at the Scottish FA's famed Largs course. Cathro joined Nuno at Rio Ave for a couple of seasons, before they moved on to Valencia together. Cathro also has links to the Scot that is currently plying his trade in the country, Ryan Gauld. They worked closely together at Cathro's coaching school before both joining Dundee United. Cathro has been derided after his disastrous managerial tenure at Hearts and Gauld hasn't exactly been able to make the breakthrough at Sporting since his move there in 2014, I'm hoping to buck the trend at Vitória.

Another of the big reasons for choosing Vitória is that I had a few dealings with them during my time at Stirling. Dinis Pinto and Ença Sambú came from the club. Both players were signed for paltry fees of £425k each, had great stints in Stirling shirts and went on to be sold for a combined £30m. With me in charge at Vitória, I'm hoping players like that realise their potential by staying with us, rather than being sold early on in their careers. I wouldn't argue with getting £30m for eventually selling two players though, every player has their price when managed by me. Talking players, another that I'd spotted entering the youth system at Vitória during my time at Stirling was Armando Marques.

Unfortunately when my scouts actually reported back on him he didn't have much interest in joining as a very promising 17-year-old. After scoring five goals in just seven first team matches for Vitória, he was bought by Sporting for £9.25m. His stay in Lisbon only lasted for a season and a half, but he still managed to score 34 goals in that time before being snapped up by the mighty Real Madrid for £40m.

Aged 22, he won the Ballon d'Or after scoring 30 goals in 43 appearances across 2032. In my eyes, he was the best forward in the world throughout my time at Stirling. He scored 210 competitive goals across the three clubs he played for, and as you can see in the screenshot below, fired in 79 goals in 76 caps for Portugal too. A ridiculous return.

You can't predict what's going to happen, but if I'm lucky enough to get a player half as good as Marques through the youth setup then I'll be delighted.

In summary

Other than one Taça de Portugal and one Supertaça the club has no other major achievements of note, leaving it completely open for me to shape the way forward for the club. I'm hoping to be Os Conquistadores of Benfica, Sporting and Porto with the target being to start the shift from Os Três Grandes to it being Os Quatro Grandes in Portugal.

I want to entice talented players to the city of Guimarães, acting as a gateway club to bigger things for players from the likes of South America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

I'll be aiming to use my youth academy to bring through the next Armando Marques (and hopefully more like him). Ensuring our facilities are the best they can be, building a first-class coaching setup to help our players fulfill their potential, but most importantly, not undervaluing or underselling homegrown Vitória players.

They'll be a mix of Scottish steel with Portuguese guile. I have an initial shape in mind, but I won't be as tactically stubborn as I have been in the past. My Vitória team will be strong at the back, unpredictable going forward and be meticulously coached in how to approach each game in isolation.

Over the next couple of posts I'll be doing an internal review of the entire club, from the playing and coaching staff to setting up how I want us to play initially and the training that'll help us to do so. Thanks for reading. I can't wait to get my FM19 career started, I hope some of you will join me and follow along.

Sempre Vitória!