{"id":3074,"date":"2016-07-19T14:14:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T13:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=3074"},"modified":"2017-02-07T17:34:27","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T17:34:27","slug":"fm16-foggia-dei-miracoli-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/07\/fm16-foggia-dei-miracoli-i\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli I"},"content":{"rendered":"
So this is the new save folks, and boy am I excited by it.<\/p>\n
Football Italia was a big part of my childhood. \u00a0You see, when I was growing up we didn’t have 24\/7 football on television. \u00a0In the mid-to-late 80’s we were lucky if we got a handful of Division One matches on the box to complement the League Cup & FA Cup Finals. \u00a0There were England matches too, but as English clubs were banned from Europe my knowledge of foreign teams came from reading about them – and not on the internet, oh no. \u00a0Newspapers, books, magazines, annuals. \u00a0Life was a little different then. \u00a0Then came Italia ’90 and all it’s glory. \u00a0It was actually as a poor a tournament as we have just seen with Euro 2016, but it didn’t feel poor as somehow England made it to the semi finals and Gazzamania kicked into full swing.<\/p>\n
Stick with me, I am getting there.<\/p>\n
In those days, Serie A was the place to be. \u00a0It was THE league. \u00a0It had the finest players on the planet, whereas Division One would see players like Glenn Cockerill and Micky Gynn doing a turn in the middle of the park. \u00a0Serie A had all the stars, so you can imagine the excitement when, with David Platt and Paul Gascoigne transferring to Italy, Football Italia was thrown on to Channel Four.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it was through Football Italia that I first saw a\u00a0Zden\u011bk Zeman team play football. \u00a0It was a sight to behold. \u00a0Frenetic, attacking, “pressing” or as we called it back then, “closing them down” and absolutely unashamedly relentless. \u00a0Zeman was the antipathy to Italian football. \u00a0Forget the mythical dream of 0-0 being the perfect result in the Italian game. \u00a0Zeman was more than prepared to lose 5-4 if it meant giving entertainment to his fans.<\/p>\n
His team at the time was Foggia. \u00a0They were known as\u00a0Foggia dei Miracoli\u00a0<\/i>as they were a small club that had gone from the third tier of Italian Football (C1) to Serie A in just three seasons since the appointment of Zeman. \u00a0His brand of ultra-attacking 433 football saw his side out score many opponents, in fact his first season in Serie A saw Foggia beat Verona 5-0, draw 3-3 with Napoli and Fiorentina, 4-4 with Atalanta whilst losing 5-2 and 8-2 to Milan and Lazio respectively. \u00a0But, they stayed up in a style never seen before in Serie A.<\/p>\n
If you are interested in\u00a0Zden\u011bk Zeman I would recommend reading these excellent pieces by twentyminutereads.com and Paul Grech for thesefootballtimes.co – they will very much whet your appetite for this save.<\/p>\n
In 2015\/16 Foggia once more reside in Lega Pro C1, the third tier of Italian football. \u00a0It is time to bring back the ghost of “Foggia dei Miracoli” or “The Miracle of Foggia.”<\/p>\n
I am amazed I have not stumbled across this save earlier in FM16. \u00a0I love Zeman. \u00a0I love teams that used to be in the top flight and are now lower down. \u00a0I love trying to replicate, honour and emulate particular managers, so this ticks every single box.<\/p>\n
Let’s look at how I plan to do this.<\/p>\n
Replicate and Honour<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n As I have alluded to, Zeman played a massively attacking, high tempo, aggressive, crazy 433. \u00a0Not just at Foggia, every Zeman team that has ever taken the field has the same blueprint. \u00a0Therefore, so will we. \u00a0This image taken from Zeman’s Wiki page\u00a0gives you an idea of how he sets a team up:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n And this one here was taken from an article posted on OutsideoftheBoot.com\u00a0when Zeman was more recently at Pescara:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Naturally, I will look at the tactic in more detail as we move forwards, but a few things immediately spring to mind when looking at the picture above. \u00a0Veratti seems to have the movement of a roaming playmaker, which could be fun in the DM hole. \u00a0Cascione looks like the classic CM\/A to me, meaning Nielsen’s role would be CM\/S. \u00a0Up top, Insigne (who went on to do ok for himself) seems to have complete freedom of movement there so I am thinking AP\/A with the right hand flank being IF\/A. \u00a0Having spent some time watching every goal Foggia scored in their debut season back in Serie A here\u00a0it is clear that the two wide attackers have to contribute goals rather than assists. \u00a0Assists seem to be the domain of the two attacking full backs, and that suits me down to the ground. \u00a0I think it will be fairly easy to remain true to the ideology of Zeman.<\/p>\n Zeman’s methodolgy was not just about the style of play on the pitch. \u00a0He was known for scouting, recruiting and developing unpolished diamonds from the lower levels of the Italian game. \u00a0This is something I will also be looking to replicate in the save. \u00a0Considering the amount of work they are going to have to do on the pitch Work Rate, Determination, Stamina and Natural Fitness will be some attributes I will be keen to uncover. \u00a0I will, as ever, look to add my own twist to the scouting using my tried and tested “StS”<\/a> formula to back up the work of the scouts. \u00a0It is probably worth an update, so look out for that post.<\/p>\n