Small tweaks matter
How to fix your tactic and keep winning in Football Manager 19
What do you do when your reliable tactic suddenly stops working in Football Manager? Do you perform a complete overhaul or you try to understand what’s no more working so to make some slight changes and regenerate your old tactic?
If your tactic is solid enough, fixing it with some tweaks could be the way to go.
In my last article, I wrote about how I developed a Sacchi inspired 4–4–2 tactic, then I wanted to test that formation with another club, different players etc…
Not an established club, but a very average and financially broken one, Venezia looked like a good choice, they’re the typical Serie B club with a squad mainly composed of players on loan.
Obviously, there were other good reasons to pick them:
- I love the city, Venezia is mesmerizing, every time I go there I discover something new, endless perspectives
- Valentino Mazzola, one of Calcio's greatest, played and won the Coppa Italia for them in 1940–41, just before his Toro years
- Ezio Loik, called the elephant for his strength, another one from Il Grande Torino, also played for the club alongside Mazzola
- Their stadium, Pier Luigi Penzo, is the 2nd oldest in Italy, it’s a tiny ground built on S.Elena, an island of the Venetian lagoon
- American lawyer Joe Tacopina, Venezia owner, often speaks about his ambitious plan for the club, but not enough money has been put into it so far, get out the money Joe!
- Last but not least their sexy black, green & orange kits!
Squad improvements
I spent the available budget to sign two central defenders: 200k for Jakob Glesnes and 500k for Erik Sandberg, the second could improve a lot in the future, while the first is good at Serie B level.
All the others joined on loan, some interesting youngsters to add more depth to the squad.
- Arnaud Nordin (winger)
- Julien Serrano (full back)
- Josh Sargent (striker)
- Mattia Viviani (midfielder)
- Moses Odjer (midfielder)
The tweaked tactic
You already know about my tactic (check the link at the top of the page for more info), a compact and tight 4–4–2, defensively solid but capable to deliver the goods up top, it’s a narrow formation based on discipline, short passing and a high defensive line.
It worked wonders for Frosinone but what about Venezia?
In the first half of the season I made no changes to the old tactic, in November after 12 games played we were sitting 12th in the table, more or less what the media predicted (14th) before the start of the season, but I wasn’t happy cause defensively we’re conceding too much and our scoring ratio was far from being impressive, too many shots, not enough goals.
It was time to change, so some team instructions have been tuned, while no roles or PI’s have been modified.
Basically, we’re now playing at a slower tempo, with a more attacking mentality (a major change), focusing our play down both flanks and working the ball into the box.
The tactic is now less possession-oriented, mentality is a risk/reward tool, if you become more expansive you’re more prone to take risks, somehow this riskier approach is toned down by moving the ball with less urgency and even the “work ball into box” instruction goes in that direction, both help against more organised teams, we’re no more wasteful with our shooting and crossing and we finally try to unlock more defensive systems with a patient buildup.
It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but the final outcome is a well-balanced system at this level.
Since this change we started to put together an impressive series of results and won the league comfortably with the best defensive record, going more attacking improved our defensive consistency.
Overall the squad is more entertaining to watch and the match engine seems to appreciate these settings, good enough for Serie A? This question could be material for another article.
The chart below shows a well-rounded assist distribution between through balls and crosses.
MVP of the season
Right winger Francesco Di Mariano truly deserved this award: 26 apps, 12 assists and 3 goals, but even my left winger had a brilliant season, Arnaud Nordin scored 7 with 6 assists.
In general creative wingers seem to shine playing in this tactical framework, focusing play down the flanks surely helped to keep them more involved, both have a support duty and this encourages them to track back often.
Thanks for reading and supporting the blog guys, many of you came here to read my previous piece, keep following and spread the word…
