Back to back to back? Surely threesome sounds better…Not that I’d be very far from the more literal interpretations of that given my half-shaved beard and weird accent started attracting way more attention than I thought it would from the overwhelmed feminine set of supporters. And yet as inexperienced in those matters I believe myself to be, that’s hardly the most exciting thing that’s going on right now. We’ve done it! Continue reading “Part V: Promotion threesome in Florence”
Tag: club DNA
Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey: Part V – Libero Rewind
As previously promised in the Libero article and due to the fact that I get easily bored playing the same system for too long, this is my attempt to integrate the Libero in FM with a squad of overall lower quality. I’ve decided to try this out with my Sparta team, considering the presence of the highly praised Milas Ionita II amongst our ranks: Continue reading “Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey: Part V – Libero Rewind”
Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey: Part IV – Simplicity brings Efficience
Hello everyone and I hope you’re enjoying this series thus far. You might be wondering why I change my approaches so often, as until now we’ve had very good success with most of the systems employed. This probably originates in my utter disregard to concepts like ‘stick to what’s working’ and ‘if it’s going well, don’t change it’, when it comes to football management. The whole idea behind this series is to provide an illustration of the fact that being adaptable and flexible are some of the most important aspects of management. Given this is a youth-only save, the ‘logistic’ set-up provides the perfect scene for that, as we’re unable to buy players and have to constantly look to adapt our tactics to players that come through the team through youth recruitment. Then again, it’s an exercise in trying to prove that success can be achieved on a football pitch with different styles of football, and therefore a subtle dig to the moralists of these realms which advocate a ‘right way’ and ‘wrong way’ to play football. Before this starts looking like an ego-trip, I will conclude on this conceptual side of things and I’ll get on with the real deal: Continue reading “Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey: Part IV – Simplicity brings Efficience”
Celtic | A Squad Building Exercise | Part IV
An article from our guest author – SI community member Sean1967, continuing this series on the site. I highly recommend his content as he has a very calculated and strategic management approach as well as a clear writing style, which make for an entertaining yet informative read. Make sure to follow Sean on twitter and check out his work
A factor in how successful this save will be is how other Scottish sides do in Europe. The better they do the easier it is for us to reach the last 16 and avoid a group this this years. There are many factors that will come into this, a good home scouting network to identify the best home grown players and monitor their transfer activity. A good worldwide scouting network means I won’t have to rely on making myself stronger by wakening domestic rivals.
Continue reading “Celtic | A Squad Building Exercise | Part IV”
Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey – Part III: Evolve and Assess
The last couple of years have marked our successful transition from a team that has to focus on defending in order to survive the majority of the matches to one that can afford to try and test the opposition a bit more and even control play when the occasion arises. This happened mainly thanks to the much improved technical ability of the new generation of players that came through the youth ranks in the past 2-3 years. Last season was the main step up in that sense, as we shifted from half a decade of using a conservative, quite rigid system, mainly in the forms of the above shown 3-5-2/3-3-1-1-2 to a variation of 4-1-4-1 that allowed for more fluidity and variety in our football. Continue reading “Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey – Part III: Evolve and Assess”
Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey – Part II: integrating youth development & tactic design
After 6 years of using the 3-5-2/3-4-3 system described in the previous article in this series, as well as molding through specialized training the very young squad at our disposal to reach the desired attributes that are required by our philosophy, I decide to change the system based on a few key issues: Continue reading “Sparta | A Tactical Identity Journey – Part II: integrating youth development & tactic design”
Asymmetric 