Our first competitive match in the second season is against PSG – the Trophee des Champions. After beating them twice in the first season, clearly, they are going to send their best team to get themselves a revenge in this game. Unfortunately for us, most of our players are in their international duty for U21 Olympic Games. As a result, we have got some work to do. We have to sort our best team out to play against PSG and try to win our first silverware in our second season. Can the Lyon boys do it? Let’s see what happen next.
Analysing the opponent
As usual, I analyse the opponent before a match according to the scouting report. PSG is one of the top teams in Europe, so I never look at their strengths. I always want to focus on their weaknesses and try to figure out a solution to tackle them. Another thing that I realised was they have just signed three incredible players – Paul Pogba, Chrsitian Eriksen and Sergi Roberto. Paul Pogba is always a beast in FM. Great technique, good physical and incredible mental stats make him one of the best players in the game. Sergi Roberto is a great player as well. Playmaking fullbacks are dangerous in FM and Sergi Roberto has great passing and great vision. I personally wasn’t too worried about Christian Eriksen, as his physical stats are relatively low, but definitely need to keep an eye on his passing.
Looking at PSG’s weaknesses, one of the significant one is the poor jumping reach. I was going to use Dembele to combat this, but he is playing for the national team. 5 of the 13 assists that PSG conceded have come from outside the area. I was pretty confident because most of my chances created are from the outside area rather than the opponent’s penalty box. Last but not least, the major weakness is the lack of concentration as they always concede goals in the last fifteen minutes.
Starting Line-up
We have to change a formation. Beside Houssem Aouar, the backup number 10 is Memphis Depay. And, beside Moussa Dembele, the backup striker is also Memphis Depay. Unfortunately, our backup left winger Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Amine Gouiri are also in international duty. As a result, I have to put Memphis Depay in the left winger position. Due to the lack of quality in our number 10 position, I decided to drop that position and add a defensive midfielder. Our defensive minded midfielder Lucas Toussart is also playing for the national team, but Thiago Mendes is good enough to play as our starting eleven. I keep one of the centre midfielder as Box To Box Midfielder, and try using Mezzala as our playmaker. In the striker position, I choose Thiago Almada, our new signing to play as a False 9. He can play as a number 10, however, I personally don’t like strikerless formation and I kind of want to see how Almada will do as a false 9.
In terms of the instruction, as usual, I switch from counter-press to regroup when I play against a better team. I also want my players to defend wider because PSG wingers are dangerous. Other instructions are just the same as 4231 Flying Fox.
Reality
Life is full of disappointment and my plan wasn’t going well. I conceded a goal in just 15 minutes. Mauro Icardi scored a close-range volley after receiving an amazing cross by Neymar. I looked at the defensive line and players positioning, but I thought they were all okay and we were just unlucky to concede the goal. Into the second half, I remained unchanged with my tactics although some players were playing badly in the first half.
Then, we conceded another goal in the 51st minute. This goal started from Marco Verratti’s long-range pass. The ball found Mauro Icardi as he sprinted all the way through the right side of the pitch and fed the ball to Neymar before the Brazilian put the ball into the back of the net. We defended badly at this goal. The main reason that we conceded this goal was our fullbacks. Melvin Bard, our left back didn’t put enough pressure on Icardi while our right back Leo Dubois did not track Neymar’s movement. The gap between Neymar and Dubois was way too big and it was an easy volley for Neymar.
I immediately changed back to 4231 Flying Fox as I felt the defensive midfielder role was dragging my attack. I subbed off Dubois for Kenny Tete due to the mistake he made. I also subbed off Caqueret and Almada, playing Depay as the striker and the new signing, Orsolini as the left winger. This was a big gamble.
We ended up conceded the third goal. Paul Pogba fired the ball into the net from the outside of the box. It was a perfect strike and the game ended 3-0.
Conclusion
Obviously, I wasn’t happy with the result. It was okay to concede 3 goals, but our attacking movement was poor. We had 11 shots, 5 on target but we did not score a single goal. I did see some positives on the 433 formation, so I was thinking to myself that maybe I could continue using this tactic once my key players are back. Also, I realised that I need to have more choices on the attack which I decided to go through the scouting centre and find some players that we can sign for this season.
Overall, it was a disappointing result, however, we have to move on. The next chapter is going to be a roundup of the summer transfer window. I will introduce the new players that we have signed and talk about how I am going to play them in our system.
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ABT Football Manager 