retired_FaultyFate

Hi paulsgruff,

Promising results. Actually, I have also found that playing one tactic (counter attack in my case) is much better once I set appropriate instructions to the players, than varying from game to game. I am in season 4, has played 8 games in Seria A (5 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss), Italian Super Cup (won) and 4 games in CL (1 win 3 draws). In all these games I conceded only 5 goals - two from Milan (won both games 2-1 and 4-1), one from Barcelona (tied 1-1) and two others don't remember now (one when I lost 0-1).

So, I have never allowed more than 1 goal per game. Funny thing, that three out of five draws happened when I switched to more attacking setup, thinking that I am much better team. It is too early to say for sure, but it looks like even with counter attack tactic I am able to dictate game against weaker teams (e.g. 4-0 win against Panatinaikos in CL where i had about 15 shots, 12 of them on target, while allowed only 2 shots, none on target), and counter stronger one.

Conclusion? Well it is in the topic - it's all about individual! Maybe I just got lucky and found a great individual setup-team tactic combination. Maybe I have right players for the tactic, or maybe that I bought only one player over a year (Collochini), so that the squad finally adopted to me? I do not care. I ultimatelly believe that a good manager should unnderstand what he wants from players, what he can expect from players, and how to combine this things together. For instanse, I do not care about posession too much, as long as the opposition has the ball far from my box. In fact, I prefer a style where ball moves very quickly from defence to attack (roughly something like German national team style). After all Barcelona and Chelsea, Liverpool and MU, AC Milan and Ajax... - they all different, yet great teams. So, I think you came up with superb idea to formalize an approach I am sure many people had in mind. And I hope we all can develop a system that will greatly simplify tactic creation yet leave space for individual taste.

Cheers.

retired_venomm

Ok, so I knuckled down and have played through half of the season in my Messina game. It's been more or less identical in terms of style and results against different standards of teams as my Watford save. Fiorentina would be pushing me an extra place down the league if not for the points deduction, but I'm pretty happy with where I stand at the moment, even with 5 defeats (most against sides I shouldn't be losing against considering my performances against better teams).



I was amazed when the board gave me a message saying that they expeeted me to sign a high profile player on January 1st. They said I could spend more than my transfer budget, as long as I didn't put them in debt, so that gave me £6million to play with. So I bought this guy Jo, using all my budget in one foul swoop. I had planned to not sign anyone this season, but as the board asked for a new star player, I just couldn't resist. Obviously I haven't played him yet, but he looks alot better than my 2 current strikers, so we shall see what happens.

My new best result is to be the only side in the division to have beat Milan:


As you can see, they outplayed me in most areas. I was fortunate as they had a goal disallowed and we're having a shot around once ever 2 minutes from the 85th minute onwards, but we somehow managed to hang on.

I have a feeling I'm going to start dropping a lot of points over the next few games, as both of my first choice centre backs have injuries where they are out for over 1 month now, and they have been brilliant, both averaging over 7.20

In my next post, I will write an extensive end of season analysis. It will similar to my Watford one but with far more details about whats working and what isnt, better figures and obvious areas that can be easy to improve on (which I will put into action next season - as this is a 3 season experiment)

spudnutsncoffee

Since I started with this approach mid-season on my Southampton-career(season 2013, soton is among englands five best teams), I have won 22 games, draw 3 and lost 3.
Thats very good in my opinion.

I feel I can win every match, and I am also dominating away. (have never done that before, best example played juventus away, they had 1 shot on target, I had 13.)
I rotate the players, but still get very good results.
I also find that if I have picked the right tactic for the game, the AI 4-2-4 doesn't have an effect. In this 30 games the AI have never scored a goal at the end when changing to 4-2-4.

The games I lost I picked wrong tactic once, and got beaten by better teams twice.

I find it difficult to pick the right away-tactic sometimes. Especially when I am close favourites. Often I find that the most attacking approach is the best.

This is also a good way to get to know your players strengths and weaknesses, it takes a bit of time in the beginning, but when it is all sorted out, it is worth the hassle.

Thanks to kolobok for the excel-file. Saves some time.

KUTGW

retired_venomm

Messina –Season 1 Analysis – Team Instructions & Tactical Improvements Discussion

My Team Instructions Guidelines
I have had a lot of questions about how to set team instructions. I will still refer you to wwfan’s thread (linked in the first post in this topic) as the information in there is far more detailed than what I am about to give. However, my approach has been slightly different.

Note: I ALWAYS start matches with all of my team instructions set right in the middle (for this season anyway, I will be adjusting this next season – info on reasons is further on in the thread).

After 20 Minutes
I pause the game, check the match stats and then adjust to suit the following scenarios:
I have less possession: I make my passing game shorter by 3-4 notches and my tempo slower to a matching amount.
Possession is even but opponents are getting all the shots: I set my defensive line deeper.
I am dominating but getting no shots: I make my passing more direct by 3-4 notches and my tempo quicker to a matching amount.
All stats extremely even/opponents dominating in all areas: Even though these are 2 very different scenarios, my approach is the same – leave all the sliders in the middle. One of the key points to getting back into a match (in my opinion) is to not start changing things around in panic when you go behind. Stick with the formation and settings you commonly use and let your players try and get back into it. If you start changing to a new style or formation to try and get back into a game, your players won’t be used to it and may have even less chance to get back into the match.

[b]After Half Time – Closing Out The Match[B]
I will check the match stats again at half time, and adjust using the exact same solutions that I use in my guide above for ‘After 20 Minutes’. I will also do this exact same routine between the 75-80minute mark.
Time Wasting & Closing Down: If I am beating a side, or drawing with a big team that I am expecting to lose to, I will adjust time wasting and closing down very often. At half time I will move both of these sliders up 1 notch. Then I will move them up another notch every 10 minutes after that (so on 55 minutes, 65 minutes, 75 minutes and 85 minutes). If I am still getting a lot of pressure right at the death, I will move the sliders as far as it will go on the 90th minute and make a time wasting substitution if I still have one left.

That’s pretty much all I will do in terms of team instructions. I have found one of the keys to my success to be only adjusting in small amounts, but adjusting frequently. I would be interested to see if this approach also works out for other people. Anyway, I hope the team instructions guide above has been some use to the people that asked for it.


Messina End Of Season Report



This is the final standing of my side after my first season in charge of Messina. A respectable finish of 8th, when predicted to be 19th.

People who are interested in the player stats can look here , however I am going to focus heavily on team stats and how I will go about targeting the poor areas which I need to improve on for next season. Finishing 8th this time around, I am naturally hoping to improve where I can, aiming to qualify for a European competition next year. All the information I have collected and averaged is from the ‘match stats’ screens at the end of every game throughout the season. I haven’t taken screenshots this time around (simply because it is so time consuming to upload them etc, so sorry if that is what you were hoping to see) but I have enough information to display how I will go about making my tactic more solid, based purely on figures and common sense.

Here are my teams stats and details on how I will use them to create a better approach for next season. The information was gathered from all competitive games throughout the season (so everything but friendlies).

Match Information
Games Played – 40
Games Won – 16 (40%)
Games Drawn – 11 (27.5%)
Games Lost – 13 (32.5%)
Goals Scored – 66 (Average Per Game - 1.65)
Goals Conceded – 63 (Average Per Game – 1.575)
Analysis – Positive, I’m not getting beat in 67.5% of the matches I play, and I am scoring more goals than my opponents.

Messina Match Stats
Shots – 353 (Average Per Game – 8.825)
Shots On Target – 163 – 46% (46.17563739%) (Average Per Game – 4.075)
Shots Off Target – 190 – 53% (53.82436261%) (Average Per Game – 4.75)
Average Possession – 47.575%
Corners – 146 (Average Per Game – 3.65)
Free Kicks – 868 (Average Per Game – 21.7)
Throw-Ins – 855 (Average Per Game – 21.375)
Fouls – 603 (Average Per Game – 15.075)
Offsides – 160 (Average Per Game – 4)
Average Passes Complete – 65.375%
Average Crosses Complete – 18.85%
Average Tackles Won – 61.85%
Average Headers Won – 52.675%
Yellow Cards – 21 (Average Per Game – 0.525)
Red Cards – 1 (Average Per Game – 0.025)
Analysis – My average possession is below 50%, which I would like to improve. I can go about this by playing a slower, shorter passing game. My averages crosses completed is extremely low also, showing that my side may create more quality chances if I focus passing through the middle next season (as I don’t have the budget to bring in many new players, so very few personnel will be made). Positive points to note are that my tackles won looks healthy, as does my passes completed. My shots on target could be better, but I am happy my side is creating on average 8 shots per match.

Opponent Match Stats
Shots – 411 (Average Per Game – 10.275)
Shots On Target – 182 – 44% (44.28223844%) (Average Per Game – 4.55)
Shots Off Target – 229 – 55% (55.71776156%) (Average Per Game – 5.725)
Average Possession – 52.425%
Corners – 140 (Average Per Game – 3.5)
Free Kicks – 777 (Average Per Game – 19.425)
Throw-Ins – 807 (Average Per Game – 20.175)
Fouls – 722 (Average Per Game – 18.05)
Offsides – 153 (Average Per Game – 3.825)
Average Passes Complete – 67.275%
Average Crosses Complete – 23.725%
Average Tackles Won – 66%
Average Headers Won – 58.8%
Yellow Cards – 33 (Average Per Game – 0.825)
Red Cards – 3 (Average Per Game – 0.075)
Analysis – Only 2 major concerns here are that my opponents are averaging 10 shots per match, 2 more than I am. This naturally is giving them more opportunities to score against me than I am creating to score against them (my average shots per game is 8). The way I will go about countering this is to set my defensive line slightly deeper and also to close down slightly more. Other that this stat, I’m pretty happy.

So my next seasons team instructions will look like this (adjusted sliders underlines in red):



Just to clarify my reasons for adjusting these from my analysis, the reasons are as follows.
Mentality – No Change (Player Instruction Based)
Creative Freedom - No Change (Player Instruction Based)
Passing Style – Slightly Shorter, to try and keep more possession
Tempo – Same as above, the 2 sliders are linked so lined up equally
Width - No Change
Closing Down – Increased, this is aimed to reduce opposition possession
Time Wasting - No Change
Defensive Line – Decreased, to try and reduce the amount of shots on goal for opponent.
Tackling - No Change (Player Instruction Based)
Focus Passing – Changed to Through The Middle due to cross completion being so low for my side.
Everything Else After – Left Unchanged.

Hopefully that has cleared up a lot of the questions that I have been asked about team instructions. Sorry about the length of the post again, but I hope people find this somewhat useful.

retired_FaultyFate

Hi Paulsgruff,

Great analysis! I went through it and I have an idea, hopefully useful. Since you have already collected stats, you could also take a look at the individual pass completion, tackles, rwb, etc. to see what could be adjusted. For instance, if player has RWB "OFTEN", but his stats are poor, it may suggest what could be corrected in the calculation. Similarly, if there are players with particulary bad pass completion, you could set individual passing instructions for these players instead of team ones. After all, it's all about individual

This week I hope to finish my 4th season with Sampdoria. I cannot promise to do analysis in such details as you did, but I will do my best and post the results.

Good luck