retired_kepotazlime

Started a game with Aston Villa last night and have been pleasantly surprised by the results!

Training
First up, sack those coaches who do not have a stat of at least 15 in a specialised field and get new ones in. Nine times out of ten the Yoath Coaches will have a brilliant stat in at least 1 field. Make sure you utilise the coaches for what they do best and make sure you have a training schedule that suits the style of play you wish to play.

Tactics
I opted for something a bit different this time round after an indifferent game with Villa last time round. I found that if you play with a normal mentality, supplemented by short passing, normal tempo, playing wide and with a target man that plays to feet it gives a "balanced" style of play to your profile stats. I play this with a 442 at home, playing offside playing JPA up front with Milan Baros, JPA being the Target Men utilising his high First Touch stat.
When playing away i go with a 451 and drop the offside and player counter attaching football.

Player Signings
I haven't made too many signings, more players to pad the team out in case of injury. Salif Diao is a good back up player who you can pick up for around £850k although his wage demands can be rather high (£17.5k for a liverpool reserve player!). I also bough Ostulund from Southampton for £1.2m, Clint Dempsey on loan and Okaka on loan. I find having a Scandanavian back line plus Wilfred Bouma has really added stability!

I tend to go with the following line up at home:
Sorensen

Bouma
Laursen
Mellberg
Ostulund

Barry
Petrov
Dempsey
Agathe/Hendrie

Baros
JPA

bringing in either Steve Davis or Salif Diao for away matches and dropping either Baros or JPA.

Currently top of the league having won 7 lost 1, although have only played teams in the lower half plus Blackburn, Everton and Bolton. Chelsea up next!

Apologies if you feel you have wasted time reading this but i found it extremely hard to find a tactic that works for a mid table club!