retired_DiVerL

The team: Cardiff

The season: 2009/10

The story so far: Promoted in first season in 2nd place on last day of season (very exciting). Got absolutely minced in the Prem (including a noose-tightening 28 game run without a win) and relegated. Then, straight back up in 2nd again but with more to spare. In fact secured promotion again on final day with a 2-0 home win against arch rivals Swansea (sometimes this game can be so sweet!). now back in the Premier league with new signings but still struggling. In 17th but clearly in trouble. Having a read around the forums I've decided to try Rashidi's RY Wolverine tactic as many people have commented on how defensively sound it is. Here's hoping...

Will be back in touch on how everything goes, hopefully my findings will be of use to others who are desperately trying to keep a newly promoted side in the big bad Premier League. All contributions welcome of course.

retired_DiVerL

Already in mid-October when this tactic adopted.

First game with RY Wolverine just downloaded and applied (no tweaks). Asked my assman, Stefanio Eranio, to choose my team and this is what he came up with:

GK: Neil Aexander
RB: Gianluca Commotto
LB: Kevin McNaughton
CB: Phil Bardsley
CB: Glen Loovens
RM: Juan Manuel Ortiz
LM: Jofre
CM: Hossam Ghali
CM: Willo Flood
ST: Theo Walcott
ST: Hamer Bouazza

The opposition: Man U at home (oo-er).

The result: Lost 1-2. But a good performance.

Chances - 7-4 v 11-8

Possession - 51%

We lost but we played well and only lost to a dodgy goal where Alexander came out and was beaten to the ball by Ferdinand. Looks promising. Onward...

retired_DiVerL

Second game away to Charlton - who are top!!

Same line-up except Cristian Lupidio in at LB.

Result: 1-0!!

Chances: 9-5 v 9-2

Possession: 47%

Played very well and could have had more, agree with Rashidi in that chances for Opposition are often limited to long range efforts. Promising...

retired_kellyk

Generally, its the same for every division.

In order to stay in a league you were promoted to you'd generally want to do several things: I'll break em up into must do's and should dos.

Must Dos:

Squad Assessment

If you haven't been doing this the whole season then you're already in trouble. 3 months before you end the season, start planning on improving your squad. You can use the same formation year in year out, but your players need to match the division average. For example, if the division on average has great pace, then invest in pace.

Personally this is what i do, I always make sure my players improve...the higher up I go the more important technical attributes become, so things like teamwork, ball control, composure concentration are importatnt to me,

Backroom Boys
People very often neglect this, if you haven't asked for an investment in training facilities. then plan for it. Its also important to have good technique coaches, attacking and defending coaches. They have to be nothing less than 5 stars.

Fire your Assman if you have too, you should get one who has 19 for judging player ability and potential, motivation, discipline and teamwork. Invest in a good assman, I know many people think its a waste of resources. I don't. For me the ass man is important, he does my half time teamtalks and helps me choose my starting 11. I wouldn't be zipping though 4 seasons of successive promotions without good assmen.

Your Start
Asmodeus is right to point out that there is nothing better than a good start, so make sure you have preseason friendlies that give your strikers a boost. Get into the first few matches and be consistent with your starting 11. Decide and don't keep shuffling them around. Once partnerships develop its hard to break them down,

retired_kellyk

And do me a favour don't discuss my tactic in a separate thread, try and stay on topic please

retired_DiVerL

Thanks for the advice Rashidi.

This thread isn't purely about your tactic though. It's about staying in the Prem. I happen to be using your tactic at the moment but it won't necessarily stay that way. If it makes you happy I'll put a link in your thread noting that I'm using your tactic here.

retired_elpata

If its not about tactic, I suggest you use the Cardiff thread inLink the GPTG forum. In there, they talk about players and tactics.

This forum is purely for tactic disucssion only

GreenRage

Tim any chance of posting the after match report for one of the games, the one that has each players stats for interceptions, tackles ect? We could have a look at it and see where needs shoring up. Might help my game as well.

retired_DiVerL

Ah, Cleon, fair enough point. Didn't even realise there vwas such a thing as a Cardiff only thread. Still, I believe this therad has a valid place here as I intend this to be a starting point for a specialised discussion about developing the best tactic for newly promoted teams (as well as all other suggestions). If you however you feel that there is a better place then I will oblige. Didn't mean to upset the mods!

retired_DiVerL

Lamb - how do I post a screenshot on here? If I knew that I would be happy to put up the post-match report.