{"id":1793,"date":"2016-02-09T19:42:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T19:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=1793"},"modified":"2016-10-26T20:30:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T19:30:55","slug":"fm16-teaching-old-boys-new-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/02\/fm16-teaching-old-boys-new-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM16 : TEACHING OLD BOYS NEW TRICKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while since I have walked into a club and was welcomed by a mere four players.\u00a0 Maybe I should have checked to see that the four of them earned the entire weekly budget between them.\u00a0 Welcome to Old Boys Basel, the club that, after much deliberation, were fortunate enough to appoint me as their new manager.<\/p>\n

Formed in 1894, these are very old boys that have never won anything.\u00a0 Still, they are a club with a proud history and I was actually excited to find them kicking about in a lower league Swiss database.\u00a0 Following my much needed rest from Obilic, I didn\u2019t want a club any lower than the third tier, and these old boys fitted the bill like a glove.<\/p>\n

Still, this whole wage budget thing was a bit of a bugger.\u00a0 How the hell was I to put a team together?\u00a0 I initially brought in about thirteen lads on trial, and was able to sign two before the board allowed me to offer a mere \u00a31 per week to anyone else that caught my eye.\u00a0 This was not going to lead to a starting XI being named for the first game of the season.\u00a0 I pondered, what would Watford do?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the Swiss league does not have any restriction on the amount of loan signings you can make and before I knew what was happening I had found eleven players that were able to join us.\u00a0 It was fortunate that their parent clubs were not demanding any wage contribution, so the deals could happen.\u00a0 These were literally the only eleven players out there mind, so it was more luck than judgement that two goalkeepers were in the number.\u00a0 I shit you not, I have players that have not even heard of the positions they are now playing in.<\/p>\n

So, the tactic.\u00a0 I had a brain wave the moment I left Obilic.\u00a0 My two favourite tactics of FM15 were by three central F9\u2019s at Wolves and my #ArgentineStrikerless at Boca.\u00a0 So why not put the two together and see what happens?\u00a0 I have set up the little gem you see below.\u00a0 Think of it as an FM cake.\u00a0 The base is made up of the #ArgentineStrikerless \u2013 complete wing backs, an anchor man flanked by an roaming playmaker and a regista.\u00a0 The topping, a lovely mix of three F9\u2019s.\u00a0 Bugger me, it seems to be working.<\/p>\n

\"tactic\"<\/a> \"TI\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The football it seems to be playing is lovely.\u00a0 The three DM\u2019s provide everything I need.\u00a0 The anchor, naturally, sits deeper and keeps it simple.\u00a0 The regista and roaming playmaker provide both lateral and vertical movement linking up with the three F9\u2019s beautifully.\u00a0 Having three F9\u2019s means that the front three are always on the move, finding pockets of space.\u00a0 I love having a tactic I enjoy watching play.<\/p>\n

The beauty of it all, and I mentioned it earlier, is the fact that some of the players have not got a clue what position they are playing in.\u00a0 What I mean by this is that my recruitment policy was desperate, I just needed bodies that I could then turn into a team.\u00a0 In the team picture you saw above, a green circle is one hell of a bonus.<\/p>\n

The right back, Efendic, is a right midfielder.\u00a0 However, I look at his KPI\u2019s to tell me how he is doing in the role.\u00a0 An average rating of 7.34, three assists, one goal (which was a screamer) is a good return after nine starts.\u00a0 Better than that, he is providing me with 1.1 dribbles per game and has completed 48 key passes.\u00a0 That\u2019s an average of about 4 a game (I didn\u2019t have a calculator to hand) and I am pretty sure even Ozil isn\u2019t hitting that.\u00a0 Our DM\/RPM is a lad called Allali who came on trial and I was able to offer him a pittance which he accepted.\u00a0 He is naturally an AML.\u00a0 Yes, an AML playing as a DM\/RPM.\u00a0 Madness you say?\u00a0 Well, an average rating of 7.40 after 15 starts suggests otherwise!\u00a0 58 key passes, 75% pass accuracy and 40 completed per game will do me for now.\u00a0 His back up is a right winger who I am training to play in there too.\u00a0 The left\u00a0 back is a right footed centre back.\u00a0 He is averaging 7.38 and has 60 key passes in 15 starts.\u00a0 The regista is a kid called Ospelt who I have on loan from FC Vaduz.\u00a0 He is naturally a M\/AM and I am playing him as a DM.\u00a0 The lad is on actual fire.\u00a0 In ten games his average rating is 7.85, 3 assists.\u00a0 53 key passes and 50 being completed per 90 is also one hell of a return.\u00a0 My four options to play as a F9 include a left back, a right winger, a left winger and an attacking midfielder.\u00a0 Yet, somehow, they have scored 20 goals between them and assisted 10.\u00a0 Incredible stuff.<\/p>\n

What does all this mean in terms of performance?<\/p>\n

\"predictedfinish\"<\/a> \"ficturessofar\"<\/a> \"league<\/a><\/p>\n

We were predicted an 8th<\/sup>\u00a0 place finish and the favourites for the title were Basel U21\u2019s, the junior team of our city rivals.\u00a0 However, the wild card in the league are Servette who are traditionally top flight and are realistically expected to make their stay in the 3rd<\/sup> tier a short one.\u00a0 As you can see from the fixtures, we\u2019ve done alright haven\u2019t we?\u00a0 We were a little leaky at the start of the season, so I swapped the goalkeepers and the young lad Hornung has conceded just one league goal in eight appearances.\u00a0 Our only defeat was at Breitenrain and it was a classic game.\u00a0 Chances all over the place for both teams, but we were unable to hold on to our 2-1 lead.\u00a0 When we travelled to Servette they had won nine out of nine and were already running away with the title.\u00a0 They were seen off 1-0, and it should have been more.\u00a0 We then did the same to title favourites Basel U21\u2019s.\u00a0 We lost in the first round of the cup to a team in a higher division, but this did not halt our progress, stringing together seven league clean sheets in a row.\u00a0 So, after 14 games, we sit in second place just three points behind Servette.\u00a0 It feels promising.<\/p>\n

The challenges I will have over the next 16 games is keeping all the loan signings happy.\u00a0 I have already been chased up by three managers of parent clubs asking why they are not playing more.\u00a0 Also, I cannot fathom how we can financially survive on an average attendance of around 250.\u00a0 We charge \u00a310 a ticket, meaning we will in theory bring in \u00a337500 over the season.\u00a0 We are currently spending \u00a358000 on wages over the course of the year.\u00a0 We did, somehow, bring in \u00a3111k in sponsorship so I guess that will make a difference.\u00a0 Come the end of the season, regardless of whether we go up or not, I will be looking for an entirely new squad as 75% of them will leave and, ironically, those that are on contract to me are the poorest performers bar Allali.<\/p>\n

Still, I am loving it in Switzerland and I really think we can do some damage out here.<\/p>\n

Any questions, comment or hit me up on @www.thehighertempopress.comcomeontheoviedo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while since I have walked into a club and was welcomed by a mere four players.\u00a0 Maybe I should have checked to see that the four of them earned the entire weekly budget between them.\u00a0 Welcome to Old Boys Basel, the club that, after much deliberation, were fortunate enough to appoint me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[58,57,11,14,40,41,18,53,22,23,49,24,50,25,26],"yoast_head":"\n#FM16 : TEACHING OLD BOYS NEW TRICKS - The Higher Tempo Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/02\/fm16-teaching-old-boys-new-tricks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#FM16 : TEACHING OLD BOYS NEW TRICKS - 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