Tactics Recreation – Barcelona 08/09 at Juventus

FC Barcelona, one of the best team in the world football. The Spanish giant has a rich history, winning 26 league titles, 30 Copa del Rey and 5 Champions League. They have produced a number of legendary footballers from the past till now, including Johan Cruyff, Michael Laudrup, Ronald Koeman, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and others. From 1988 to 1996, the legend Johan Cruyff was appointed as the manager of the club. He then won 11 trophies, including 4 consecutive league titles with Barcelona, which was also known as “the Dream Team era”. 12 years later, one of the players from the Dream Team was appointed as the manager of the club. He spent 4 years in the club and won 14 silverwares. This guy, he is the legendary manager in the modern days football – Pep Guardiola.

On the other hand, Juventus, another big club with rich history which is located at Italy Turin, has dominated the Italian Serie A for almost a decade after returning to the 1st division in 2007. The Old Lady also produced a lot of legendary footballers, for example Dino Zoff, Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon and others. In summer 2018, Juventus signed Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best footballer alongside Lionel Messi, from Real Madrid.

Now, what if we combine this two teams? Pep Guardiola’s Tiki Taka system at Juventus? Let’s find out in this chapter of the FM20 Tactics Recreation!

Rules and Objective(s)

  • Tactics will be created on our own
  • All game will be stimulated
  • Assistant Manager will be picking the starting 11
  • No transfer will be made
  • Win the Serie A
  • Win the Italian Cup
  • At least reach Quarter Final in Champions League

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka

Let’s have a brief introduction on Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka.

Pep Guardiola is known as playing Tiki Taka since the day he took charge of Barcelona in Season 2008/09. The most significant playing style is short passing, fluid movement and maintaining possession. The term ‘Tiki Taka’ came from a Spanish commentator, Andres Montes, back in 2006 during Spian vs Tunisia. Apparently, the Spain National Team has been playing this style of football since 2006. However, Pep Guardiola is the person who makes this tactics invulnerable. Tiki Taka requires intelligent and technical players. In 2008/09, Barcelona had a bunch of talented players who possessed both attributes, for example Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

Pep Guardiola’s 2008 Barcelona usually starts with a 4-3-3 formation. This formation seems to be the best suited formation for the players to rotate their positions finding spaces and create attacking plays. Unlike the traditional back four, the defenders should be comfortable with the ball and decent short passing skill. The midfield trio is a reversed triangle, with a defensive midfielder sitting between the defence and the midfield and two centre midfielders are assigned with more attacking duty. Two wingers will be staying out wide at the build up play, however, they are free to make runs and score goals at the final third. The most unique role in Tiki Taka is the false nine. The striker will be dropping back to the midfield position and help out with the set-up play, allowing the wingers to cut in from the flanks. Yet, the false nine is also a goalscoring threat when it comes to the final third.

In terms of defending, pressing is one of the important elements in Tiki Taka system. However, the pressing style is not having constant pressure like Gegenpressing. The players will only close down the opponent right after they lose the possession. This defending instruction is clearly influenced by Johan Cruyff and Marcelo Biesla. Pep Guardiola once mentioned that the philosophy is to win the ball back as fast as possible to regain possession and begin another attacking sequence.

Pep Guardiola is also very strict in the players’ positioning. He wants his players to be disciplined and stay at their assigned area during the build up play. Back in the first season in Barcelona training ground, Guardiola painted the training ground with lines, separating the pitch into different zones. The reason behind this is to train the players’ positioning, make sure they are familiar with moving from zones to zones, changing and finding the spaces perfectly during the game.

Why Juventus?

The reasons are clear and simple:

  1. Juventus’ reputation is similar to FC Barcelona.
  2. FM20 predicted both teams to finish at the 1st position in the league.
  3. Both teams are competing in one league, one domestic cup and Champions League.

Roles

These are the roles for the players. We have 1 goalkeeper, 4 defenders, 3 centre midfielders and 3 attackers.

  • GK – Sweeper Keeper on Support
  • RB – Complete Wing Back on Attack
  • DCR – Ball Playing Defender on Defend
  • DCL – Ball Playing Defender on Cover
  • LB – Wing Back on Support
  • DM – Anchor Man on Defend
  • MCR – Deep Lying Playmaker on Support
  • MCL – Advanced Playmaker on Support
  • AMR – Inside Forward on Support
  • AML – Raumdeuter on Attack
  • STC – False Nine on Support

Sweeper Keeper – Victor Valdes was the first-choice goalkeeper for Pep Guardiola since 2008. Other than Manuel Neuer, Valdes is probably the first few Sweeper Keeper in the modern days football. He is considered as the 11th outfield player. To quote Guardiola “take the ball and pass the ball”. Even, a goalkeeper.

Complete Wing Back – Think of the legendary Brazilian right back Dani Alves. The guy that always running up and down at the right side of the pitch. His attacking ability as a right back is incredible. He was always doing overlapping run at the right side, making crosses and even scoring goals for Barcelona.  A Complete Wing Back on Attack is definitely the best role in this system.

Ball Playing Defender – Everyone remembers how solid Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique were in 2008. The two Spanish centre backs were the deadly duo at the back. But let’s not forget how good their passing ability was as well. They were the Ball Playing Defenders, always looking for spaces and making short passing to open teammates without rushing.

Wing Back – Eric Abidal was the regular starter at the left back position. Unlike Dani Alves, Abidal was more defensive. His positioning was deeper and narrower compared to Dani Alves’, but he would still go forward if needed and link up with the attackers at the left flank.

Anchor Man – Yaya Toure was the starting Defensive Midfielder in the Season 2008/09 for Barcelona. His main duty in the game was very simple – win the ball back and pass the ball to the playmaker.

Deep Lying Playmaker – The legendary Spanish maestro Xavi was the key player in Pep Guardiola’s system. He is technically gifted and an extremely intelligent midfielder. His duty was to create play at the midfield position, sending out short passes or long passes to find his teammates.

Advanced Playmaker – Beside Xavi, there is another midfield maestro, Andres Iniesta. He was also assigned to create play like Xavi, however, he his position was more advanced than the Deep Lying Playmaker. The advanced playmaker on support would make dribble attempt, finding himself at the final third and provides assist to the attackers.

Inside Forward – Lionel Messi, the elite attacker, was the first-choice right winger in the Season 2008/09. Due to his exceptional dribbling ability, he was assigned to run with the ball often and cut in from the right flank. He was the top scorer in the team in that season, scoring 38 goals in 51 appearances.

Raumdeuter – In the left winger position, I picked Raumdeuter as the role. In Season 2008/09, Thierry Henry was the regular starter in the left winger position. Henry scored 26 goals in that season. Most of his goals came from his incredible attacking positioning rather than him running with the ball. He was always looking for the right time to make a run into the empty space, that’s what a Raumdeuter does.

False Nine – False Nine is the key role for this system. Samuel Eto’o or Lionel Messi started as the False Nine in that particular season. The False Nine usually finds himself positioning at the attacking midfielder position rather than the striker position. He puts himself in the build-up play hence creates the spaces for the wingers. However, playing as a False Nine doesn’t mean you can’t score goals. Eto’o was the 2nd highest scoring player with 36 goals.

Team Instructions & Mentality

  • In Possession
    • Much Shorter Passing
    • Play Out of Defence
    • Low Crosses
    • Dribble Less
    • Work Ball Into Box
    • Overlap Right
    • Much Lower Tempo
  • In Transition
    • Take Short Kicks
    • Hold Shape
    • Counter-Press
  • Out of Possession
    • Defend Narrower
    • Much Higher Defensive Line
    • Much Higher Line of Engagement
    • Extremely Urgent
    • Prevent Short GK Distribution
    • Use Tighter Marking
    • Use Offside Trap
  • Mentality
    • Positive

So, we have now complete setting up our tactics for the rest of the season. It’s time to stimulate the game and see how Pep Guardiola’s Tiki Taka works in Juventus FC!

Half Season

We are now on 1st January 2020 and we have completed 17 games in the league. Let’s have a look at the league table and see where we are at.

We haven’t lost a single game in the league at the first half of the season! We had 15 wins and 2 draws, sitting at the top of the table with 47 points. The current runner-up is Roma and they are 5 points behind us. We are looking very good at this stage and hopefully we can do the same at the second half of the season.

In terms of the European competition, we also finished at the top of the Group A. We had 15 points and we were qualified to the knockout stage after playing 4 games in the Champions League. We did pick up a lost against Benfica at the last game of the group stage. In Round of 16, we are going to face Bayern Munich! What a big game. Our objective is to at least reach the Quarter Final, so hopefully we can beat Bayern Munich in the Round of 16.

We actually picked up a silverware this season after winning Lazio 1-0 in the Italian Super Cup. Well, I wasn’t aware of this competition when I started the save. Funny enough, the board does not see this competition important as well. However, it is great to see us picking up a trophy this season. It could be a confidence boost for our players.

Without further ado, let’s continue our stimulated to the end of the season.

End of the Season

We have done it! We are the Champions of Italy! To be fair, I personally feel like this is expected because Juventus has a really really strong squad. We finish at the top of the table with 98 points. We have 31 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses. In terms of goals, we have scored 67 goals in the league which is the 2nd highest goalscoring team, but look at Atalanta, they have scored 85 goals in the whole season! However, on the bright side, we only conceded 13 goals in 38 games, which is very impressive.

Now, let’s have a look at the 7 games that we didn’t win in the league. We actually lost to Atalanta 2-0 and Sassuolo 1-0. Both of them were away games, but I kind of expecting we will lose against bigger team. We drew Napoli, Udinese, Fiorentina and all three games were away games as well. However, we failed to beat Torino. None of our players even manage to score a single goal at home which is quite shocking.

Moving on to the 31 wins we have in this season and the results are amazing. There aren’t many high scoring matches, but we manage to keep so many clean sheets. The 3-2 home game against Inter Milan is considered as one of the highlights of the season with Dybala scoring a hattrick in 30 minutes including 2 freekick goals. 4-1 win against Parma is the highest scoring game we have this season. Gonzalo Higuain scored a double playing as the False Nine. Moreover, the 2-0 away game against Roma during April 2020 is a very crucial game for us. Miralem Pjanic scored the opener at 35th minute and Paulo Dybala scored the winner.

Serie A title: Passed

In terms of Italian Cup, the result is shockingly bad. First, we did not win the cup. Second, we are knocked out by Hellas Verona, the club that finished 14th in the league this season. Third, we are knocked out in the First Round and we lost in the penalty shootout. It was a home game and the assistant manager picked the first team. We had players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Matthijs de Ligt but we did not score a single goal in 90 minutes. It is disappointing and I don’t really have anything to say.

Italian Cup: Failed

On the other hand, in the Champions League, we had a decent run. Our objective is to reach at least Quarter Final. With this Tiki Taka system, we actually reached the Semi Final. However, we suffered a lost against Man City 4-1 facing Pep Guardiola. In the Round of 16, we beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in aggregate. In the Quarter Final, we beat another German team RB Leipzig 2-1 in aggregate. Sadly, we did not make it to the Final, but it was a good run in the European competition.

Champions League: Passed

Tactics Analysis

After looking at the results, let’s move on to the analysis report regarding our tactics. In general, we have a -10 in chances for/against which is shocking. According to the report, we used this tactic for 4706 minutes in total. We only create a chance every 134 minutes, and the chance against is every 104 minutes. It looks quite bad, considering most of our players are top class players. However, we successfully win the league, so I don’t see any problem even though it is a -10.

In terms of goals scored, we only scored 8 goals outside the box. We score most of our goals in the penalty area (34 goals) and 28 goals in the six-yard box. Obviously, this means the Work Ball Into Box instruction works well. In terms of the assists, 32 of them comes from the right flank, which shows that the Complete Wing Back on Attack on the right is extremely crucial in this system, as well as the Overlap Right instruction works.

Player Stats

Let’s us have a look at the player stats now. In the league itself, we scored a total of 67 goals. Surprisingly, only two players have scored more than 10 goals across all competition – Cristiano Ronaldo with 38 goals, Paulo Dybala with 16 goals. At the end of the season, Cristiano Ronaldo won the Serie A top goalscorer award with 32 goals. He had 5 goals in the Champions League and 1 goal in the Italian Super Cup Final.

In terms of assists, most of the assists come from the right wingbacks. Our first-choice right back Danilo made 13 assists, and the rotation right back Juan Cuadrado had 9 assists as well. Miralem Pjanic, who played as the Deep Lying Playmaker, had 13 assists, which is also the 2nd highest in the league.

Other than that, Wojciech Szczesny only conceded 9 goals in the league in 29 apprearance, however, he did not win the golden gloves award with 22 clean sheets, just 1 clean sheet away from the winner Alex Meret.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I personally think Juventus are having a great time under this Tiki Taka system. The result of the Italian Cup is such a disappointment, but we still win the league and reach Semi Final in the Champions League. We even pick up the Italian Super Cup after beating Lazio 1-0. So, at the end of this chapter, I’m going to give my comment and rating on the tactics in three different section.

Tactics Accuracy: 6.5/10 –
It wouldn’t say it completely replicate the Barcelona 2008/09 Tiki Taka, but there are still some similarities you can see in the gameplay. First, the possession. We achieved more than 65% of possession in most of the games. Second, the passing the style. From the replays that I have seen, I would say the passing style is very similar to Barcelona 2008/09. We have a lot of short passes going on in the midfield, building up slowly towards the final third. On the other hand, I feel like there are two inaccurate things in this system. One of them being the roles, especially Inside Forward and Raumdeuter. I was expecting more goals from the Inside Forward, however I feel like the role itself isn’t that effective in the recent FMs. Cristiano Ronaldo obviously play most of the game as the Raumdeuter and he has scored 38 goals in a season. Maybe Ronaldo’s heading is way too overpowered in this FM, because he scores most of the goals using his head rather than his legs. This issue brings me to another inaccurate instruction, which is the right back. Dani Alves is obviously a great attacking fullback, but I kind of feel like I have overused the right side for attacking. The right back himself provides so many crosses and Ronaldo just score every header. Tiki Taka is a tactics that focus their attack at the half space, but I kind of switch the focus to the flanks. In short, there are positives and negatives, but I would still say it kind of replicate the tactics pretty well.

Tactics Funness: 8/10 –
To be honest with you, I am not a manager who enjoys playing Tiki Taka in FM. For me, I think it is boring to see players moving the ball slowly, do short passing around the midfield area. However, I actually enjoy this tactics. Unexpectedly, I found roles like Raumdeuter, False Nine and Anchor Man are really underrated in FM20. This is also the first time I play Complete Wing Back, and I am amazed by the way the role plays. I even import this tactics to my personal save because it is very fun.

Tactics Recommendation: 9/10 –
According to the stimulation, this tactics does work very well. However, you will have to take note that this tactics is only suitable for teams with great players. If you apply it to a newly promoted team, you will probably struggle. The players instructions and team instructions require technical and intelligent players, so if you are managing a top club, I would recommend you to have a go with this system.

Best XI under Tiki Taka System.

Well, that’s all I have got for you today. If you enjoy reading it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm and join me on the discussion of football. Make sure to share this article with your friends and families. Leave your comment down below and let me know what you think about this tactics. What changes you will make? Also, do let me know which tactics you want me to recreate in the future. Take care!

Fiorentina Journey – 2. Summer Transfer Window

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Fiorentina Journey with ABTFM. Last week, we have just arrived at Florence doing some pre-season works like meeting the players, setting up training drills and creating tactics. Today we are at the 1st September 2021, which means the Summer Transfer Window has just ended. We have signed a couple of players to the team, but unfortunately, some players have to leave. Without further ado, let’s meet the new players!

Friendly Matches

Before showing the players that we have signed, I would like to cover a little bit about the three friendlies we had in the pre-season.

First game was against Fulham. Although we won the game 2-1, our performance was quite poor in general. Fulham had a total of 22 shots compared to us with 11 shots. We did have more possession that the English club, but honestly, we were very lucky to get the win. Our 17 years old wonderkid, Nicola Tagliaferri scored the opener in the 44th minute, giving us the lead. Fulham’s striker Aleksandar Mitrovic scored the equalising goal in the 64th minute with a powerful volley. However, Pol Lirola, our right back stepped up and scored the winner with a powerful striker outside the box in the 75th minute.

Second game’s performance was much better and it was against Vicenza. We started Riccardo Saponara as the central midfielder playing as Mezzala. He scored a penalty at the very 1st minute of the game. Gervinho then scored the second goal in the 20th minute. We absolutely dominanted the game, with 61% possession and 22 shots in total.

Moving on to the third game against Arezzo, another weaker team as well. We won the game 3-0. Riccardo Saponara once again enjoyed playing as the Mezzala and even scored a hattrick in this game. All three goals came from penalty which was insane. He actually had the chance to score 4 penalty, but he missed the third one. Anyways, what a solid penalty taker.

Budget

Initially, we were given a total of £19M transfer budget and an £1.3M wage budget. It isn’t much, but I think we are going to sell some players from the squad to gain some more money. We are currently spending £930K per week on wage budget, which means we actually still have quite an amount of money that we can allocate from the wage budget to the transfer budget. I am also not going to ask for some extra money from the board since this is only the first month in the team. The fact that Fiorentina is not in the European competition this season will surely affect the transfer. As a result, I am looking to bring in some bargains or decent players that don’t mind the European competition.

Serie A Transfer Window Roundup

So, let’s have a look at the major transfers in Serie A in this transfer window. Yes, you may have notice that one our previous player is in one of the major transfers – Federico Chiesa. Believe me, I have tried my best to keep Chiesa because he is such a talented player and he is probably the best player we had.

Federico Chiesa was already looking to move to a bigger club since the first day I arrived in Fiorentina. Obviously, he was disappointed because Fiorentina did not qualify for the Champions League, and not even Europa League. He approached me and talked about leaving the club. We then came to an agreement which I would only sell him with the asking price of £75M. Two days later, two clubs made an offer for the Italian winger. One being my previous rival PSG and another one was the English giant Man City. Both of them offered a £75M for Chiesa and I accepted the offer immediately. At last, our main man Federico Chiesa chose PSG over Man City and left the club. Fortunately, the board and the fans weren’t angry with this deal, but surprisingly, they were happy with the amount of money we made. Later on, I will show you how we utilise the money.

Back to the major transfers here, Rodrigo Bentancur has joined Manchester United for £75M from Juventus. However, their replacement is a big – Bruno Fernandes from Tottenham for only £66M, which means Juventus makes a £9M profit. Shockingly, Juventus is not the club that spends the most. Inter Milan has spent £159M in this transfer window after appointing Diego Simeone as their new manager. They bought in 7 players into the team with fairly low transfer fees. Breel Embolo, Cesar Azpilicueta and Riccardo Orsolini are the players that cost more than £30M.

New Players In

Now, I am going to introduce 7 players that I signed in this season. Our highest transfer fee is only £27M and the lowest one is £5.5M. In total, we only spent £102M. The 7 players are Mario Hermoso, Rolando Mandragora, Matteo Politano, Willian, Thilo Kehrer, Weston McKennie, and Bartosz Bereszynski.

Mario Hermoso

Mario Hermoso, the Spanish defender, pens a 5-year contract with us in this transfer window. He is transfer listed by Atletico Madrid and only cost us £27M. He is 26 years old, which I think is a good age for defender. He is also versatile because he is both natural in left back and centre back. I personally will play him as a central defender because his marking ability and tackling ability are sensational. He has great concentration, great positioning, and decent strength. I love his player traits a lot as well. Marks opponent tightly and stays back at all times are very good for a centre back. In short, I am really happy to have Hermoso in my team.

Rolando Mandragora

Rolando Mandragora is previously playing for Udinese and unfortunately Udinese has relegated to Division 2 this season. I declared interest to the media and asked my captain to speak to the media. We paid £20M for the Italian midfielder, which I think I might be overpaying a little bit. However, he is great player and he is a Home-Grown player as well. He is only 24 years old with good attributes. He has 15 passing, 15 tackling, 15 off the ball, 15 positioning, 15 vision, and 15 balance, which is very good for a Deep Lying Playmaker. Both of my defensive midfielders, Etienne Capoue and Joshua Guilavogui are already in their 30s, so Rolando Mandragora will be a great replacement.

Matteo Politano

I need a replacement in the right winger department. I came across Matteo Politano’s profile and I thought he is the one! He is 28 years old right now which is in his prime year. He can play as right winger as well as striker. I did a comparison between him and Chiesa and they are quite similar in terms of their ability. Politano is a very great winger, as he has 16 crossing, 15 dribbling, 15 first touch, 16 off the ball, 14 technique and 14 passing. His acceleration and agility are great, which also suit his player trait knocks ball past opponent. I am very looking forward to playing him in my team and hopefully he can be our star player.

Willian

Another winger that we have picked up in this transfer window is the Brazilian winger Willian. Although he is already 33 years old, I think he still have the quality. He is very versatile and his attributes are still looking good. 15 dribbling, 15 off the ball, 15 first touch, 16 technique and 15 flair make him a great addition to our team. He might not be starting a lot of games, but I see him as a reliable backup player for us. We actually signed him on the transfer deadline day, with only £14M.

Thilo Kehrer

Thilo Kehrer is another defender that we signed in this season. If you have noticed, I love versatile players and Thilo Kehrer is definitely one of them. His natural positions are right back and centre back. In my opinion, I think he is a better right back because his positioning and concentration are not the best for a central defender. He also has the dives into tackles trait which is not ideal in my system. I am planning to do additional focus on him and try to get rid of the trait. However, he is still a good player to have in my team.

Weston McKennie

The first player that we signed in this transfer window is the American youngster Weston McKennie. We successfully signed him from Bayern Munich and surprisingly he is only £9M. I am playing to play him as the Box To Box Midfielder because he has incredible mental ability and physical ability. He has 16 teamwork, 17 work rate, 17 stamina, 16 balance, 17 bravery, 17 aggression, which is an absolute engine in the midfield. However, he also has the dives into tackles trait which we will have to work on it as well. In short, I am looking forward to developing him into our key midfielder.

Bartosz Bereszynski

The 7th player is the Polish defender, Bartosz Bereszynski. He is transfer listed by AC Milan for £5.5M so we just pick him up easily. He is 29 years old and I think he is a good right back. He has 15 crossing, 15 tackling, 13 off the ball, 13 positioning, 16 stamina and 16 strength. I am actually considering between him and Kehrer to be my first choice right back. Initially, I was only bringing him in as a backup, but his attributes are actually quite similar with Kehrer.

Players Out

So, in total we spent £102M bringing in new players. On the other hand, we sold a number of players and received £127M. We sold other players like Kevin-Prince Boateng and Bobby Duncan. However, three major players that left us are Federico Chiesa, Pol Lirola and Erick Pulgar.

We received a £75M from selling Federico Chiesa like I said earlier. Pol Lirola, our only right back, left us for Atletico Madrid for £30.5M. We then used the money on Thilo Kehrer and Bartosz Bereszynski, which I think it was a big win as we brought in 2 right backs with cheaper price. Erick Pulgar was another player that we sold for £20M to West Ham United. He was asking for new contract, but I didn’t think he was good enough for the team, so I asked him to prove himself. He went quite mad at me, so I decided to just sell him. If you don’t like my managerial style, then leave! In fact, we signed his replacement McKennie for only £9M.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very happy with the transfers that I made. There are a couple of exciting players that I am looking forward to, and hopefully we can have a great season.  We already played two league games, one against Crotone and one against Napoli. In the next chapter, I am going to cover my first league game as a Fiorentina manager against Crotone.

Thank you guys for reading the Fiorentina Journey written by ABTFM. I hope you all enjoy reading this because I am enjoying writing it. Do follow me on Twitter @abt_fm and join the discussion of football. Take care everyone and I will see you next week!

Creator Community League – ABT Boys Dairies Chapter 4

Hello everyone, greetings from ABT FM and welcome to Chapter 4 of the Creators Community League. The CCL is a league that organised by Oblique Kick Gaming, which he gathered 16 Football Manager content creators to participate in the league. The whole league will be stimulated, however, us the creators have the chance to draft the players that we want, as well as setting up our own tactics for the assistant manager. Today, we are playing Cornish Marauders whose manager is one of the FM Creators The Trucking FM in the Community League Round 2. He had a monster attacking front 3 Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero and Sadio Mane. Now, let’s see how the ABT Boys did in the game!

Renan Lodi suffers an injury and out for 2 weeks.
Worse thing happened. Eder Militao is out for 3-4 weeks.

Starting 11

Unfortunately, two players picked up an injury before the game. Our key left back Renan Lodi had a pulled hamstring during a training session, and he would be out for 2 weeks. 2 days later, our centre back Eder Militao had a back strain and out for 3-4 weeks. As a result, the starting 11 looked a little bit different than before. Danilo replaced Renan Lodi at the left back position, Cristian Romero made his ABT Boys debut, coming in as the central defender to play alongside Raphael Varane. Saul was back to the starting 11 after recovering from his injury.

Cristian Romero is making his debut for ABT Boys FC!

Final Result & Highlights

What a second half and what a comeback for us! We finished the game 2-1, beating Cornish Marauders and got 2 wins in a row in the league. Sadio Mane scored at the 49th minute for Cornish Marauders, but Ciro Immobile and Kevin De Bruyne scored back to back goals at the 52nd and 53rd minute for the ABT Boys. Alisson Becker once again made a couple of important saves at the end of the game, and we successfully won the game.

Sergio Aguero (4’) – The first chance came at the 4th minute. Marco Verratti hit a beautiful long pass to the right flank. Alvaro Odriozola received the ball perfectly and dribbled past Danilo. He did a low cross to Sergio Aguero who was standing in front of the six-yard box. The Argentinian striker took a shot, but his national team teammate Cristian Romero blocked his shot perfectly. Not a bad debut for the Argentina youngster. 0-0.

Marco Verratti aimed the pass for Alvaro Odriozola
Alvaro Odriozola easily dribbled past Danilo
Big block by Cristian Romero

Sergio Aguero (34’) – The second big chance was at the 34th minute of the game. Cornish Marauders’ Sergio Aguero once again breaking through ABT Boys’ defence. He was one-on-one with the keeper, but he needed up putting the ball wide! He should have done better than that. 0-0.

Big chance for Sergio Aguero…
What a miss!! Shocking shocking miss!

Sergio Aguero (45’) – It was Aguero’s third chance in the game. He was clean through on goal. He went for the glory, but Alisson Becker with a big big save. Score line remained 0-0.

It is Aguero again for Cornish Marauders…
What a save from Alisson Becker!

Sadio Mane (49’) – Another chance for Cornish Marauders at the 49th minute. The left back made a cross into the box, but ABT Boys’ Danilo timed his headed clearance well. Cornish Marauders’ Oxlade-Chamberlain picked up the rebound, headed towards Sadio Mane who was unmarked inside the box. Mane controlled the ball well and struck the ball towards the goal. Top left corner! Sadio Mane scored! Cornish Marauders took the lead! 0-1!

Danilo timed his headed clearance well
Chamberlain picked up the rebound and passed it to Mane
Good control by Sadio Mane…
Sadio Mane hit it with power!
What a goal! Mane scored for Cornish Marauders!

Ciro Immobile (52’) – Free kick for ABT Boys. Kevin De Bruyne delivered the ball into the penalty box. Raphael Varane beat David Alaba in the air. The ball went to Saul’s feet and Saul tried a half volley! What a save from Thibaut Courtois! However, Ciro Immobile took the rebound and put the ball into the empty net! ABT Boys equalised! 1-1!

Free kick for ABT Boys…
Varane won the header and passed the ball to the far post…
Saul with the volley, but Courtois saved it…
But Ciro Immobile was there and scored the equaliser! 1-1!

Kevin De Bruyne (53’) – It was another free kick for ABT Boys and this time it was at the right side on the pitch. Thomas Lemar delivered the ball to the far post… and it was a goal for ABT Boys! Kevin De Bruyne headed the ball into the net, beating Thibaut Courtois at the near post! Josha Vagnoman didn’t even jump for the ball. 2-1! What a comeback!

Another free kick for ABT Boys
To the far post and Kevin De Bruyne won the header!
Goal for ABT Boys!! 2-1!
Shockingly, Josha Vagnoman did not even jump.

Leroy Sane (83’) – Raphael Varane was taking his time looking for options at the back. But Leroy Sane won the ball from the French defender and skipped past him! This was the chance to equalise for Cornish Marauders… Sane hit with his right foot. What a save again by Alisson Becker! ABT Boys took their 3 points today!  

Leroy Sane won the ball from Raphael Varane…
Another big big save again from Alisson Becker!

Match Analysis

I was extremely happy to see the result, beating Cornish Marauders 2-1, especially they had such an amazing front 3. Looking at the match stats, I would probably say we were not fully deserved to win the game. We had 0 clear cut chance, and the only chance created was the header by Varane to Saul.

Our midfielders did quite well in the game, sending out a total of 8 key passes. However, most of the passes went going to the wide area to our full backs or the wingers.

Another thing that I realised in the game was our central defenders were constantly losing the ball in some dangerous areas. Varane lost the ball twice in the game and Romero lost once. However, lucky enough, they did not get punished as the opponent’s strikers were all having a bad time today. I hope they will do better next time, try to keep the ball or just pass the ball quickly.

Conclusion

After winning two league games, we are now at the top of the table with 6 points. Hoof FC, Mwepu Attack and Shithouse FC also have 6 points in hand right now. Next game, we are facing the Bayern Munchies, who is currently the highest scoring team in the league, but also the highest goal conceded team in the league. It will be an away game, so hopefully we can deliver a great performance for the fans. That’s all I have for today, thank you guys for reading the ABT Boys Dairies and I will see you all next week. Take care!

Player Analysis – Maxence Caqueret

How’s it going on guys! Welcome back to the ABTFM Player Analysis. Today, we are going to look at the French midfielder – Maxence Caqueret. He is playing for Olympique Lyonnais 2 (Lyon U21) at the start of the game, and I promoted him into the first team at the second season. He started most of the matches in 2nd season and became my first-choice midfielder at the half season. His performance was amazing, and I would definitely recommend him to every single FM gamer. Without further ado, let’s see how good a player he is.

Player Info

  • Name: Maxence Caqueret
  • Position: DM, M/AM(C)
  • Date of Birth: 15/02/2000
  • Value: £1.3M
  • Wages: £5.5K p/w
  • Height: 174cm
  • Weight: 63kg
  • Preferred Foot: Right

Spotting the kid

I am the type of manager who likes to develop young players from the youth academy. One of the major things that I will do when I arrive at a club, is to have a look at the development centre, looking through the players attributes, and create notes on the young prospects that I love. In Lyon, a couple of young players caught my attention. However, the one and only player that exceed the expectation – Maxence Caqueret.

In my first season with Lyon, I promoted Caqueret to the first team squad. The main reason is that I want to develop the player myself. Although I made him available for OL2 squad, which means he will be playing most of the games for OL2, I took over his individual training. I can decide what attributes and traits that I want him to have by assigning different focus training. I also gave him some game time as a substitution in the league, as well as starting in some cup matches. His performance was okay in the first season compared to some of the youth players like Tituan Thomas and Melvin Bard.

Yet, he came stronger than ever in the summer of 2020.

Summer 2020

Summer 2020, pre-season, 4 friendlies – Zenit, New York Red Bull, Columbus Crew SC, and Standard de Liege. Caqueret started against Zenit and New York Red Bull. His performance was decent as a Box to Box Midfielder. No major spotlight on him in those two games. Against Columbus, he was on the bench. We were losing 1-0 at the 70th minute and Jean Lucas wasn’t having a good time on the pitch. I decided to sub Caqueret on for our first choice Deep Lying Playmaker. The French kid stood up, put on his jersey, and waiting at the sideline. I approached him and assertively told him –

“Show me why you deserve to be in the team!”

There was no smile on his face. He nodded without looking at me. I saw fire in his eyes. The game finished at 1-1. He was neither the scorer nor making the assist, however, in 20 minutes time he sent out 3 key passes as a Deep Lying Playmaker. I decided to give him another chance next game and play him as the DLP.

Well, no surprise. He scored the opener at the 40th minute, provided 1 assist, made 4 key passes, picked up the Man of the Match award after beating the Belgium team 3-0. I knew he is the young prospect I was looking for.

In fact, he is the Young Player of the Season in Season 2020/21, and the second runner-up of Fans’ Player of the Season.

Player Development

In terms of his attributes’ growth in 2 seasons, it is absolutely amazing.  In summary, his Technical ability, Mental ability and Physical ability have major improvement. As a midfielder, you love to see these attributes has improved, such as dribbling (+1), long shots (+2), marking (+1), passing (+1), anticipation (+1), concentration (+1), decisions (+1), positioning (+1), vision (+1), acceleration (+1), balance (+2), stamina (+1), strength (+3). The individual focus that I have assigned to him is Strength as his technical and mental are already decent at the beginning. I am so delighted to see his strength and balance improve so much.

Performance

Let’s have a look at his performance throughout the season. Caqueret played 37 games under my management, starting 33 games. He scored 4 goals and made 7 assists in all competitions. His average rating is 7.46, which is the 3rd highest in the team, only Houssem Aouar and Memphis Depay, our two key players are higher than him. He made 45 dribbles in 37 games, which is great. However, looking at the downside, he made 37 mistakes in overall, which means in average he will make one mistake in every game.

Moving on, let us compare his passing stats with the other Lyon players. He made a total 98 key passes in this season, which is the highest in the team, more than Houssem Aouar and Memphis Depay. In terms of chances created, he is behind Aouar and Memphis with 14 chances created.

Coach Report

Caqueret’s coach report looks great. He is currently an important player in the team, but he could still improve in the future according the coach. He is a fairly consistent performer which is one of the very important pros in FM20. The pros that I love the most are smart player and good off the ball movement and decisions making. These pros are very crucial for a midfielder in my opinion.

The coach suggests that he has to improve his crossing ability, but I personally think crossing is not a very important attribute for him. Another con of him is very one-footed. It could be a slightly concern because obviously midfielder should be comfortable in using their weak foot. I would suggest giving him additional focus like avoid using weaker foot or improve his weak foot.

Injury History

This absolutely shocked me. Football Manager is known for injuries. However, Maxence Caqueret is so strong that he doesn’t even get a single injury throughout the season! The screenshot is taken at the end of the season, so the match load and training load are light. Look at the injury history, NONE! Caqueret is not an injury prone and he is going to be a real asset in your team.

Role suggestion

Caqueret is natural at both defensive midfielder and centre midfielder. If needed, you can play him as an attacking midfielder as well. For me, I think centre midfielder is his best position because he has good positioning as well as off the ball. Most of the time in Lyon, I play him as a Deep Lying Playmaker. However, looking at his attributes, he could be a good Mezzala as well.

Deep Lying Playmaker on Support – The Deep Lying Playmaker operates in the space between the defence and the midfielder and aims to initiate attacking moves via pinpoint passes to players positioned higher up the pitch. Although primarily a creative player, he also has to be competent in the art of defence. In a Support Duty, the Deep Lying Playmaker will bring the ball out of defence and operate with a more expansive passing range.

Football Manager 2020

Maxence Caqueret mostly plays as the DLP on Support for me. Since DLP is a playmaking role, we are going to look at the player’s passing, vision, technique and decisions. Caqueret has great passing(15), vision(15) and technique(15) since the start of the game. However, you will have to develop his decisions in the training. Off the ball, positioning, work rate and anticipation are also very important for this role. Caqueret’s has all the mental ability mentioned above so you don’t have to worry too much. In my opinion, strength and balance are also important for DLP. Although this is a playmaking role, a DLP will be sitting quite deep at the midfield. Strength, balance, composure and technique are the important attributes to define whether or not a player can hold the ball well. Obviously, it would be extremely dangerous if you lose the ball at the deep midfield position. So, do some training on Caqueret’s strength and balance, and you are good to go. I definitely recommend him as a DLP on Support.  

Mezzala on Support – Mezzala is a central player that likes to drift wide and operate in the half-spaces. The Mezzala is essentially a central/half winger, who likes to do his defending slightly, further up the field, although he does generally have less defensive responsibility. With a Support duty, the Mezzala will seek to balance his responsibilities between more traditional midfield work and the inclination to contribute the attacking third.  

Football Manager 2020

It would be pretty interesting to play Caqueret as a Mezzala. Mezzala is an attacking and creative role and it is definitely one of the overpower roles in FM20. Caqueret has good first touch(15), passing(15), technique(15), vision(14) which are suitable for this role. However, some of the attributes need to be improved, such as dribbling(12), composure(12), decisions(12), and balance(10). However, as you can see in my save, Caqueret has developed so much and his attributes in the 2nd season are great for a Mezzala. According to the coach report, his off the ball and decisions are his strength. Those pros are definitely a plus for Mezzala. I would keep Caqueret in the Support duty rather than the Attack duty because finishing and crossing are not his best attributes. He could be the supporter in the final third, but not the finisher.  

Other than Deep Lying Playmaker and Mezzala, you could also try using him as a Box to Box Midfielder. His mental ability and physical ability are so good for a BBM (especially both his off the ball and positioning are great), however, you will be wasting his technical ability for a little bit.

Conclusion

Overall, Maxence Caqueret is a young a talented midfielder who you would definitely like to have in your team. I personally think I praise Caqueret a lot in my Lyon Journey, because this is how good he is. I love him so much and he is probably the best centre midfielder I had in this game. He has the potential and I believe he is quite cheap at the start of the game. So, sign him when you have the chance and develop him into a world-class midfielder. Anyways, that’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed the analysis of Maxence Caqueret. Take care and I will see you next time!

Fiorentina Journey – 1. Here I Am

Matthew Hennequin has resigned from his position as manager at Olympique Lyonnais.

Hennequin, a Ligue 1 Manager of the Season winner in 2020, will surely prove hard to replace considering his wealth of experience and previous track record. During his tenure, Hennequin’s team won the French Cup in 2020, the Ligue 1 in 2020 and finished runners-up in the Trophee des Champions in 2020. OL finished the 2020/21 season in 2nd place in the Ligue 1.

OL will be looking for a new manager.

Maxifoot, Football Manager 2020

Here I am, Fiorentina

As stated above, we left Lyon after 2 seasons with a phenomenal performance. Now, we join the Italian club, La Viola, Fiorentina! We replaced the previous manager Eusebio Di Francesco, who didn’t manage to hit the expectation and the targets that are set by the board.

We did bring some of our previous staff to our new club. Joao Tralhao and Claudio Cacapa joined us as our coaches. Claude Fichaux, who previously was a coach in OL, now became the assistant manager in Fiorentina.

On the other hand, the man that replaced us and took OL hot seat was the Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho! I am actually looking forward to seeing how Jose Mourinho will do in Lyon. He was a great manager who managed to win the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan. It would be exciting to see how far he can bring Lyon in the European Champions League this season.

Club Vision

Before signing the contract, we agreed on the club vision and the club plan. Now, let’s have a look at them. The board wants us to play entertaining football, which means no defensive football. This playing style suits me a lot as I love playing attacking football, so I don’t see any problem here. Another preferred culture is to sign high-reputation players. It is very rare to see a 4 stars reputation club prefers signing high-reputation players. However, the board only gives a total of 18mil pounds in current season, which I can’t see us signing any high-reputation players (sigh). Another two signing requirements are signing Italian players and do not sign players over the age of 30. I think these two requirements are not tough and Italy does produce great players. The last club culture is to develop players using the club’s youth system. To be fair, I had a glance on the development centre right after I arrived at the club. The youngsters look fine, but not great. So, we definitely have to work harder in the future in order to achieve this.

Moving on to the 5 year plan, we will focus on the plan for the current season. The board requires us to finish at least 6th position in the league to qualify for the Europa League. Last season, Fiorentina finished at 11th position which means there is no European competition for us this season. I personally think that would be good, as we can focus on the league as well as the Italian Cup. The board wants us to at least reach the Quarter Final in the Italian Cup. My plan is we can focus on the Italian Cup since there is no European competition.

Meet the players

Yes, first day in the office, I am going to have a look at my players and see who the key players will be in my new club. With that being said, three players have caught my attention – Federico Chiesa, Nicola Tagliaferri, and Dusan Vlahovic.

Federico Chiesa

Chiesa is undoubtedly the best player in Fiorentina squad. The 23-year-old now has incredible attributes in Season 2021/22. He is natural at both flanks, with 18 dribbling, 17 off the ball, 18 acceleration and 16 agility. Most of his attacking attributes are at least 13 and he is still considered young. However, he is currently unhappy with the club performance previous season and wants to leave to a bigger club. I will definitely try my best to keep him in the club, but I can also see the reason he wants to leave.

Nicola Tagliaferri

Tagliaferri is an Italian newgen who is currently 17 years old who is valued at £425K. Looking at his current attributes, I think he is going to be a beast in the next few years. His physical is brilliant, 15 acceleration, 17 agility, 16 balance, 14 natural fitness and 16 pace. His technical ability isn’t bad as well, with 15 crossing, 14 first touch, 14 passing and 16 technique. His determination is at 12 which is decent. I am extremely excited about this young prospect. He has a potential of 5 stars potential and his current ability is at 2 stars, which means he can still grow a lot. I am planning to give him more game time this season, try to make him the Italian best left winger.

Dusan Vlahovic

Vlahovic is one of the players that I am looking forward to in this Fiorentina squad. He is only 21 years old and he looks pretty solid. His 14 finishing is not the best for a striker, however, his mental ability and physical ability look great. He has 16 composure, 15 decisions, 15 off the ball, 17 balance and 15 pace. He is 191cm which is tall, but he isn’t a slow player. He also has 15 technique, and 15 work rate which I love it very much. I think he will be my main striker up front this season.

Tactics

After meeting the players, here is the tactics that I put on for Fiorentina. I decide to go for a 4-1-2-3 instead of a 4-2-3-1 that I used for Lyon. The main reason is Fiorentina only have one attacking midfielder and heaps of centre midfielders. The midfielders aren’t bad and in fact, they are decent players. I don’t feel like investing a lot of money in bringing more attacking midfielder, so I will rather stick with the players I have right now.

In terms of the roles, I like the role of Sweeper Keeper on Support so I’m going to stick with that. Fiorentina has a couple of good defenders, but none of them suit the role of Ball Playing Defender. However, I am still going for one Central Defender and one Ball Playing Defender. Hopefully, we can find a Ball Playing Defender from the transfer market. In the left back position, I decide to go for a Wingback on Support because we have some attacking left back options in the team. In the right back position, I am going for a Fullback on Support, so our full backs are not all out attacking. The roles for the midfield trio are Deep Lying Playmaker on Defend, Box to Box Midfielder and a Mezzala on Support, which I think it is a balance setup for my midfield. I am planning to play Federico Chiesa on the right side as a Winger on Attack, Dusan Vlahovic up front as a Pressing Forward on Attack, and Nicola Tagliaferri on the left side as an Inverted Winger on Support.

Since our board wants us to play entertaining football, we are going for a Positive mentality. I want my team to play shorter passing in a higher tempo with the play out of defence instruction. Most of our players are decent dribbler and I am also willing to take the risk by asking my players to run at defence. I also decide to play in a higher defensive line this time since we have a defensive midfielder in our formation. Other than that, I stick with the same defending instructions as always – More urgent, prevent short GK distribution, stay on feet and use offside trap.

Transfer Targets

Obviously, I will be looking at the transfer market and bring in a couple of new faces to strengthen our squad. With that being said, I am looking at my previous club Lyon players. I have three realistic targets that I am looking at – Lucas Tousart, Leo Dubois, and Aurelien Tchouameni.

Lucas Tousart is one of my key midfielders when I was at Lyon. He is an incredible Box to Box Midfielder, and I think he could be an upgrade for my current Fiorentina squad. His mental ability is insane, great physical, and decent technical ability as well.

Leo Dubois, the vice captain of Lyon. Our current squad only have one right back, so I am definitely looking for a backup or a regular starter at the right back position. The first person that comes to my mind is Leo Dubois. He has been incredible in my 2 years’ time in Lyon and he is an extremely reliable defender.

Aurelien Tchouameni is a youngster that I bought from Bordeaux to Lyon. Now, I am hoping that I can bring him with me to Fiorentina. Last season, I barely start him. However, his performance was always incredible whenever he got the chance to play. He is only 21 years old and I am very keen to develop him into one of the world class midfielders in the future.

Conclusion

Overall, that is basically my first day in the office. I know that we have some jobs to do – strengthen the squad, sort out the training schedule, testing out the tactics, find the strengths of our players. I am confident that we can figure out these soon and I am very excited to play my first game as the manager of Fiorentina. In the next chapter, we are going to the transfer deadline day and see who we have signed. Take care and I will see you next week. Bye-bye!

Tactics Recreation – Sheffield United’s 352 at Granada FC

Sheffield United is currently sitting at the 7th position in English Premier League with 43 points, only 5 points behind the top 4 in real life. The Blades is having a wonderful time in the league as a newly promoted team. Look at the other promoted teams – Aston Villa at 19th position and Norwich City is at the bottom of the table. All thanks to the genius behind them – Chris Wilder.

On the other hand, Granada FC, another newly promoted team in La Liga, is currently sitting at 9th position, 3 points behind the European competition qualification spot. Granada FC was at the top of the league after defeating Barcelona 2-0 on September 2019.

What if we combine this two teams, putting Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2 into Granada FC? Let’s find out in this brand-new series of FM20 Tactics Recreation!

Rules and Objective(s)

  • Tactics will be created on our own
  • All game will be stimulated
  • Assistant Manager will be picking the starting 11
  • No transfer will be made
  • Finish above 19th position and not get relegated

Sheffield United’s 3-5-2

Let’s have a brief introduction on the Sheffield United’s 3-5-2.

Sheffield United’s 3-5-2

Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United is known as playing this formation, with a wide and overlapping setup. The most significant one being the overlapping centre back system created by Wilder. The players usually work the ball to the wide area during the build-up play, with wingbacks bringing the ball to the wide area, then the centre backs make another overlapping run to the byline.

Sheffield United’s build up play.

The formation changes to something like a 3-3-2-2 during the build-up play. Wingbacks will often find themselves at the flanks of the opposition half, while the 2 wide centre backs will be filling the wingbacks’ spots at the wide area. Two centre midfielders will be dropping deep, holding the defensive shape with the lone central defender. Another midfielder will be either supporting the attack or play as the connector between the both flanks. Two main strikers will be staying forward and wait for the opportunity.

Sheffield United overlapping attack.

Wilder’s Sheffield United usually force the opponent to defend narrow in their half. The two wide centre backs will be making the overlapping run to the byline and make low crosses into the box. Another option is the wingbacks will be passing the ball back to the two wide centre midfielders for early crosses. Two strikers and another attacking midfielder will be lurking inside the penalty box and looking for the chance to score. However, interestingly, not only the opponent will find strikers in the penalty box, but also centre backs or wingbacks attacking at the far post area.

Why Granada?

The reasons are clear and simple:

  1. Granada FC is a newly promoted team just like Sheffield United.
  2. FM20 predicted both teams to finish at the 19th position in the league.
  3. Both teams are having a successful season in real life.

Roles

These are the roles for the players. We have 1 goalkeeper, 3 centre backs, 2 wingbacks, 3 centre midfielders and 2 strikers.

  • GK – Sweeper Keeper on Support
  • DCR – Ball Playing Defender on Defend
  • DC – Central Defender on Defend
  • DCL – Ball Playing Defender on Defend
  • WBR – Inverted Wingback on Support
  • WBL – Inverted Wingback on Support
  • MCR – Carrilero on Support
  • MC – Roaming Playmaker on Support
  • MCL – Carrilero on Support
  • STR – Pressing Forward on Attack
  • STL – Deep Lying Forward on Attack

Sweeper Keeper – Dean Henderson in Sheffield United plays as a sweeper keeper all the time. Unlike traditional goalkeeper, Henderson will often look for spaces and create play from the back rather than hoofing the ball away from goal.

Central Defender – In Sheffield United 3-5-2 setup, the middle defender often holds the position at the back and play simple passes to the midfielders or the wide centre backs. A Central Defender on Defend duty will do the job.

Ball Playing Defender – The two ball playing defenders are going to make the overlap runs. With that being said, there are two player instructions added to the roles – Dribble More & Stay Wider.

BPD’s instructions.

Inverted Wingback – The wingbacks are the most versatile players in Sheffield United’s 3-5-2 setup. Besides making overlapping runs, they will often find themselves cutting into the narrow area and stay at the edge of the box.

Carrilero – The two wide centre midfielders have to be more defensive-minded as they will often drop back for defend. In attacking transition, they will move to the wider area for overlaps or looking for chance to hit early crosses. Run Wide With Ball is added in the player instruction.

Carrilero’s instructions.

Roaming Playmaker – The heartbeat of the team who plays as the connector between both flanks or often find himself joining the attack. A roaming playmaker in FM20 is similar to a free role who will make his decisions depends on the situation on the pitch.

Pressing Forward & Deep Lying Forward – The two strikers normally invocle with the high press defending rather than sitting at the front and wait for the ball. A deep lying forward will drop deep and link up with the wide men, while pressing forward will be pressing high at the opponent half and moves into channels whenever possible.

Team Instructions & Mentality

Unlike other mid table teams, Sheffield United doesn’t always hoofs the ball away from the back. They will work their way out with short passing, focusing their attack at the both flanks. Defending wise, the players stick to their positions well, moving as a team and press the opponent. In addition, The Blades is considered as a fairly attacking team, even playing against some big teams in the league.

  • In Possession
    • Shorter Passing
    • Play Out of Defence
    • Be More Disciplined
    • Focus Play Down the Left
    • Focus Play Down the Right
    • Overlap Left
    • Overlap Right
    • Higher Tempo
    • Wide
  • In Transition
    • Counter
    • Regroup
  • Out of Possession
    • Defend Narrower
    • Higher Defensive Line
    • More Urgent
    • Use Tighter Marking
    • Use Offside Trap
  • Mentality
    • Positive (you could change to Balance if you prefer that)

So, we have now complete setting up our tactics for the rest of the season. It’s time to stimulate the game and see how Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2 works in Granada FC!

Half Season

We are now on January 2020 and we have completed 18 games in the league. Let’s have a look at the league table and see where we are at.

So, we are currently sitting at the 13th place in the league with 20 points after 18 games. We are 5 points away from the relegation zone, but we are 10 points away from the top 6. I personally think we are doing alright. The other newly promoted teams are Atletico Pamplona and Mallorca. Atletico Pamplona is currently 2 points ahead of us at the 9th position. Mallorca has 17 points at the 16th position. Looks like the promoted teams are having a decent season so far.

Our only objective is to avoid relegation and I think we are way better than that in the half season. Maybe we should aim for a mid-table finish. Let’s continue our stimulated to the end of the season

End of the Season

Oh. My. God. We have done it! Not only we successfully avoid the relegation, we actually finish at the top half of the table with 52 points!We are 17 points behind the European qualification spot and 18 points ahead of the relegation zone. We have 15 wins, 7 draws and 16 losses. If we look at the other promoted teams, all three of us are actually staying in the first division next season! Mallorca find themselves at the 17th position with 4 points away from the relegation zone. Atletico Pamplona only finish one position ahead of Mallorca which is very surprising because they are ahead of us during the half season at 9th position.

Now, let’s have a look at the 16 games that we lost. We lost both home and away games against Real Madrid, which doesn’t surprise me. We also lost both games against Valencia, Real Hispalis, and surprisingly, Mallorca. We lost 0-2 at home and 1-3 away against Mallorca. We might be the reason why they are not relegated! Another expected lost is against Barcelona 3-0 at Camp Nou.

We have 7 draws in this season and 2 of them come from Atletico Bilbao. We have a 1-1 draw at home against them, and a 3-3 at their home turf, which is absolutely incredible. Bilbao is not a bad team and I am really happy that we manage to get 2 draws against them. We see our promoted buddy Atletico Pamplona here, with a 0-0 draw at home. Looks like our record against Atletico Pamplona and Mallorca isn’t good.

Moving on to the 15 wins we have in this season and there are a couple of good results here. We beat Atletico Madrid twice! 4-0 away and 2-0 at home! It is just incredible not only we score 6 goals against them, we actually keep 2 clean sheets as well. Atletico Madrid is the only team that we have beaten twice in a season. Some of the other good wins are against Barcelona 1-0 at home, 2-0 win against Atletico Pamplona, 5-2 the highest scoring match for us this season against Alaves.

Tactics Analysis

After looking at the results, let’s move on to the analysis report regarding our tactics. In general, we have a -6 in chances for/against. According to the report, we used this tactic for 4422 minutes in total. We only create a chance every 98 minutes, and the chance against is every 86 minutes. I would say it doesn’t look too bad, considering our players are below average in the league.

Another report here shows the formation that we played against. 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-4-1 are the two formations that we hate to play against. We have a total of -19 of chances for/against when we face these 2 formations. However, the 3-5-2 setup loves playing against a 4-4-2. We have a +7 in chances for/against, creating a chance in every 75 minutes and only have a chance against in every 253 minutes. This explains why we beat Atletico Madrid twice in this season.

I expect the team to put in a lot of crosses as we are playing a wide and overlapping tactics. It doesn’t disappoint me after looking at the assist types in this season. Crossing is the highest assists type as we have 20 assists come from cross this season. Through ball is just behind with the amount of 19. Set pieces aren’t our strength as we only get 12 assists in total.

Player Stats

Let’s us have a look at the player stats now. In the league itself, we scored a total of 54 goals. Our two strikers, Carlos Fernandez and Roberto Soldado, are the top scorer in the team. Both of them have scored 10 goals in the league. Carlos Neva the left wingback scored 7 goals, Angel Montoro the midfielder scored 6 goals, Maxime Gonalons the midfielder and Victor Diaz the right wingback scored 5 goals. Surprisingly, our inverted wingbacks scored quite a number of goals this season, and Carlos Neva and Victor Diaz are even in the top 5 goal scorer in the team.

In terms of assists, most of the assists come from the wingbacks. Our first choice left wingback Carlos Neva made 14 assists, the highest in the team. Right wingback Victor Diaz and the backup left wingback Alex Martinez come second with 8 assists.

Conclusion

To be fair, I didn’t expect to see us finishing at the top half of the table. So, at the end of this chapter, I’m going to give my comment and rating on the tactics in three different section.

Tactics Accuracy: 4/10 –
Well, although we achieved quite a good result, sadly this tactics did not actually replicate the way that Sheffield United play. The main reason is the wide centre backs are not going to make overlapping run. I believe Sports Interactive (SI) does not apply this instruction into the game. Even though I have added instruction like Dribble More and Stay Wider, the defenders are only going to stand around the middle of the pitch while attacking instead of going up front helping out the attack. On the bright side, the wingbacks and Carrileros do perform the overlapping run that we are looking for. Another suggestion is maybe switching your middle defender into Libero on either Attack or Support, which would actually allow the player to go up front joining the attack. However, that is not the overlap we are looking for.

Tactics Funness: 8/10 –
Even though it doesn’t replicate the exact Chris Wilder’s 3-5-2, I have so much fun watching the match highlights. The overlapping run from the Inverted Wingbacks and Carrileros is very fun to watch. There are also a couple of unexpected beautiful goals and assists created with this tactics. If you are a big fan of crossing and wing play, do try out this tactics in your own save.

Tactics Recommendation: 7/10 –
According to the stimulation, this tactics does work well. We successfully lead a newly promoted team to finish at the top half of the table in one of the top 5 leagues. Again, if you are looking for a back 5 formation and you love wing play, I would definitely recommend this tactics to you.

Well, that’s all I have got for you today. If you enjoy reading it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm and join me on the discussion of football. Make sure to share this article with your friends and families. Leave your comment down below and let me know what you think about this tactics. What changes you will make? Also, do let me know which tactics you want me to recreate in the future. Take care!

End of Lyon Journey – 15. Manager Statement

To all the club players, staff, and supporters,

First of all, I would like to thank Jean-Michel Aulas for giving me the opportunity to be a part of Olympique Lyonnais’ history. After two years at Lyon, the time has come to say goodbye. It’s been an incredible honour to work with one of the biggest clubs in the world and achieve the Ligue 1 title and French Cup together.

I would like to take the chance to thank the fans for their support during the good times and the bad times. Groupama Stadium would never be the same without all of them. The club gets better and better every single day with their fantastic support.

I also want to thank all the coaching staff, scouting staff, and medical staff. Their knowledge and expertise have been invaluable. They have been giving me useful suggestions which make me a better manager since the first day I join Lyon.

I met a lot of fantastic players here and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. They have given me their 120% on the pitch, on the training ground, and I would never forget that night in Saint-Denis where we lifted the French Cup together.

It’s been a great ride. There have been ups and downs, but I have no regrets joining Lyon. I’ve given my all to the Les Gones and I am sure we will cross paths again.

Nous sommes Olympique Lyonnais!

#OL #LesGones #OLNS

Sincerely,
Matthew Hennequin

Player Analysis – Cristian Romero

How’s it going on guys! Welcome back to the ABTFM Player Analysis. Today, we are going to look at the Argentinian defender – Cristian Romero. I signed him from Juventus for £25M in the second season. I was going to play him as my backup defender, but his performance was too good to be a rotation. Although Cristian Romero doesn’t appear much on the top wonderkid list in FM20, I would definitely recommend him to whoever is looking for a young and good centre back. Without further ado, let’s see how good a player he is.

Cristian Romero on the latest update.

Player Info

  • Name: Cristian Romero
  • Position: D(C)
  • Date of Birth: 27/04/1998
  • Value: £7.25M
  • Wages: £27.5K p/w
  • Height: 185cm
  • Weight: 79kg
  • Preferred Foot: Right

Season 2020/21

In my first season with Lyon, Romero is still on loan from Juventus, playing for FC Genoa. One fine day, at the end of the first season, my scout sent me a report about a foreign kid playing in Italy and mentioned that this kid has the potential of being the best defender in my current squad. I was shocked but amazed by the suggestion. I asked myself – Who the hell is this kid? My Lyon just won the title and French Cup. And now you are saying this kid could be better than our current defenders?

In fact, he is. He becomes the best defender of Lyon in Season 2020/21.

Let’s look at his attributes growth. In summary, there is no significant change in overall of Technical ability, Mental ability and Physical ability. However, some of the important attributes are slowly increasing, such as passing (12), anticipation (16) and stamina (15). Unfortunately, his determination is decreasing, and I have to make sure that it doesn’t affect his performance on the pitch.

Highest average rating among all defenders in my team.

Performance

Despite the poor result on his development, let’s look at the amazing part – his performance. Romero played 39 games under my management, started 38 games and subbed on for only 1 game. As a defender, he scored 6 goals in total and 5 of them were from the league. He only received 5 yellow cards in total throughout the whole season playing as the central defender. In the league itself, he had a 100% of tackle won ratio. He only made 8 fouls and won 127 headers in 26 games. In addition, his passing accuracy was 90% in average across all competition. He had an average match rating of 7.33, the highest among the defenders.

Contract Info

I would like to mention Romero’s contract just to give you a sense of how much would he cost you. At the start of the game, Romero is earning a £27,500 per week. It is a low but decent amount for a youngster who is not even a rotation for Juventus. Also, he is in such a high reputation team, so the wage amount doesn’t really matter. Here, in the second season, I think I definitely overspent a little bit on him. I offered him a 5 years contract with £105,000 per week and agreed on his playing time as a Regular Starter. His wage cost 7.1% of the club’s total wage bill. For a 21-year-old backup player, I have to admit that it was a bit too high. However, another reason was I needed a backup defender so badly and I thought he would be a nice candidate for the squad. There was also a £5.5M of loyalty bonus and a 10% sell on fee percentage. In total, he cost me more or less £30M, which I think it was a reasonable amount for Cristian Romero.

Coach Report

Romero’s coach report looks good. He is currently a leading player in Ligue 1 in Season 2020/21, but he could still improve in the future. His strengths are good in the air and high work rate. Romero enjoys big matches and he is a fairly consistent performer. It is kind of surprise to see he displays a fairly determined attitude since his determination is decreasing.

The cons aren’t bad. The coach mentions that he is not versatile enough, but I just want him to be my centre back. It also shows that he does not fit into the core social group, but that is fine by me as I only want him to focus in his game.

Injury History

Another thing that I would like to highlight is how strong Romero is. He has 15 natural fitness in my save and he barely pick up an injury. Throughout the season, he only has 5 injuries and the longest one is only last for 2 weeks. Injury is one of the most hated and important elements in FM20. I am sure most of you don’t want to invest in an injury prone. Romero is certainly not that type of player.

Role suggestion

Cristian Romero can only play in one position – central defender. Looking at his attributes, there are two roles that I would suggest – Ball Playing Defender on Defend and Central Defender on Defend.

Ball Playing Defender – Unlike standard central defenders, the Ball-Playing Defender is encouraged to launch defence splitting through balls from deep to generate counter-attacking opportunities.

Football Manager 2020

Cristian Romero mostly plays as the Ball Playing Defender on Defend for me. Romero has great defending skill, decent passing, and great mental ability. The main objective here is to allow Romero to take risks and sends out long through balls from deep to the attackers. Some of the important attributes we are looking at here are first touch, passing, technique, and vision. Romero doesn’t have the best vision and technique, however his first touch and passing are great for the role. FM20 default player instructions for the Ball Playing Defender on Defend are hold position and take more risks and I don’t add any instruction for him. Romero’s mental attributes are key for the role. Aggression, anticipation, bravery, composure, concentration and decisions are very important for Ball Playing Defender and Romero has at least 14 on all the attributes.

Central Defender – Especially for more aggressive tactics, he must also possess the composure to be able to help the team maintain possession and lay off simple passes to more creative players.

Football Manager 2020

Central Defender is the traditional centre back whose job is only defending and make simple passes. The most important skill for this role is the basic defending attributes – heading, marking, tackling, positioning, jumping reach and strength. Romero has 16 heading, 15 marking, 14 tackling, 15 positioning, 15 jumping reach and 15 strength in my save, which shows that he is absolutely suitable in this role. If you are playing a tactics with a traditional defensive system, I would definitely recommend using Romero as the central defender on defend.

I wouldn’t suggest using Romero as a No-Nonsense centre back. NCB is similar as BPD, but the way that an NCB will more likely to hoofs the ball away rather than taking his time and make a through ball. Romero has really good attributes for a BPD, so I wouldn’t waste his talent and play him as the NCB.

Conclusion

Overall, Cristian Romero is a young and talented defender who you would definitely like to have in your team. He has the potential and he is just a good player to have. Unless you are managing Genoa in the first season, or you wouldn’t be able to sign him into your team until the second season. However, his cost would be slightly higher compared to other young defender because he is from a high reputation team. Just add him into your shortlist and keep an eye on his development. That’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed the analysis of Cristian Romero. Take care!

Lyon Journey – 14. Stay or Leave?

It is the end of season 2020/21 which means it is the time to evaluation our team and have a look at what we achieve in this season. In Ligue 1, we finished at the 2nd position with 90 points, 10 points lesser than last season and 15 points behind the current champion PSG. We are the runner-up of French Cup and Trophee des Champions this season, losing both Final to our rival PSG. In terms of Champions League, we are knocked out in Quarter Final by Real Madrid, but our performance is much better compared to last season. We successfully hit all the board expectations across all competitions, however, I reckon we could do better than this.

Board Expectation vs Reality

In terms of the competitions, the board only expects us to qualify for the Europa League which is finishing between 4th to 6th position in the league. We exceed the expectation with a much better result, finishing at the 2nd position. In Champions League, the board only wants us to be competitive, which again we hit the expectation and played extremely well in the competition. The board sees French Cup as a quite important competition. We did reach the final, but we did not lift the trophy unfortunately. Trophee des Champions is not important, and we only finished as the runner-up.

Moving on to the club culture, the board is delighted that we develop players using the club’s youth system. Indeed, I feel like our youth coaching system is great and we do have a couple of young prospects in the team. In addition, our transfer budget isn’t that high, so I have to develop our young players instead of making signings. We did produce great young players this season, for example Maxence Caqueret, Melvin Bard and Amine Gouiri.

I am always a fan of attacking football, so playing attacking football isn’t a problem for me. The board is also very pleased with me signing players under the age of 23 for the first team. I have signed Thiago Almada, Cristian Romero, Arthur Zagre and they are all under the age of 23. However, I struggled to sign players based in France. Almada and Romero are both from Argentina, other new signings like Hakim Ziyech is from Eredivisie and Riccardo Orsolini is from Serie A.

Other than that, due to the high effectiveness we have in our set pieces, the board actually loves to see us playing more for set pieces. However, I am not a fan of the instruction Play for Set Pieces, but more prefer to fluid attacking and entertaining football. Anyways, the board seems satisfied with the playing style even though I did not focus on our set pieces.

Overall, I’m happy that we are on the right track and having a wonderful relationship with the board.

Top 5 performers

Now, let’s come back to the usual stuff we do after a season, analysing some of our best players. After looking at the average ratings, these are the 5 players that have been sensational over the season, most importantly they are some surprises here – Houssem Aouar, Memphis Depay, Maxence Caqueret, Moussa Dembele Cristian Romero.

Aouar and Depay are expected to be on the list as they did have great performance at the first half of the season. Dembele started slow in the first half, but immediately climbed back up on January. Surprisingly, Caqueret and Romero, two of our youngsters made it to the list.

Houssem Aouar

Aouar has been absolutely incredible since the start of the season. His average rating was 7.46 at the first half of the season. He remains his coolness on the pitch and continue delivers great performance at the second half of the season. By the end of the season, his average rating was higher than before – 7.48. Below are the key stats.

  • 13.7km distance covered per 90 (highest in the team)
  • 87 fouls against (highest in the team)
  • 21 chances created (2nd highest in the team)
  • 11 goals and 10 assists (2nd highest assists in the team)
  • 63 key passes (3rd highest in the team)
  • 3.32 dribbles per game
  • 2 Player of The Match

Memphis Depay

Depay undoubtedly is the best players in the team. Again, he has been on fire in this season. Even though he suffers with some injury this season, he recovers fast and delivers great performance again and again. Below are the key stats.

  • 17 goals and 22 assists (highest assists in the team & 2nd highest goals in the team)
  • 0.69 assists per 90 (highest in the team)
  • 160 minutes on pitch per goal (2nd highest in the team)
  • 53% shot on target ratio (3rd highest in the team)
  • 18 chances created (3rd highest in the team)
  • 13.4km distance covered per 90 (3rd highest in the team)
  • 8 Player of The Match

Maxence Caqueret

Maxence Caqueret has been a big surprise for us in this season. He has only been promoted to the first team this season. Caqueret made 11 appearances for us last season and he managed to provide 3 assists. After the game against Dijon FC on October, he caught my attention and I decided to give him more game time. He didn’t disappoint me at all and in fact he replaced Jean Lucas from the starting 11. Below are the key stats.

  • 98 key passes (highest in the team)
  • 71.17 passes completed per 90 (2nd highest in the team)
  • 2.30 tackles per game (2nd highest in the team)
  • 14 chances created (5th highest in the team)
  • 4 goals and 7 assists
  • 4 Player of The Match

Moussa Dembele

Moussa Dembele – our goalscoring machine. The Frenchman had an injury at the middle of the season. However, he still manages to make 40 appearances across all competition this season. He is a big game performer, scoring big goals and very compose at the front of the goal. Below are the key stats in this season.

  • 29 goals and 5 assists (highest goals in the team)
  • 0.78 goals per 90 (highest in the team)
  • 115 minutes on pitch per goal (highest in the team)
  • 109 key headers (highest in the team)
  • 56% shots on target ratio (2nd highest in the team)
  • 8 Player of The Match

Cristian Romero

Another youngster that surprised me this season is Cristian Romero. He has been playing alongside our best defender Jason Denayer. Who knows maybe he has taken Denayer’s seat and crowned as the best defender in the team? Below are the key stats in this season.

  • 4.75 headers won per 90 (highest in the team)
  • 104 interceptions made (2nd highest in the team)
  • 2.70 interceptions per 90 (2nd highest in the team)
  • 183 headers won (2nd highest in the team)
  • 61 key headers (4th highest in the team)
  • 94% tackle completion ratio
  • 6 goals
  • 2 Player of The Match

Awards

Furthermore, let’s have a look at the End of The Season Awards. Memphis Depay once again scoops the Fans’ Player of the Season with 44% of votes. Moussa Dembele and Maxence Caqueret only got 24% and 20% respectively. Jeff Reine-Adelaide is awarded the Goal of the Season where he scored a long-range volley against Montpellier. Cristian Romero is the signing of the season while Maxence Caqueret is the Young Player of the Season.

Some interesting names appear on Team of The Season. Riccardo Orsolini beat Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Bertrand Traore in the right winger position. Jean Lucas is chosen by the fans to play in the central midfielder instead of Lucas Tousart. Theo Hernandez, our new signing from the winter transfer, beat Melvin Bard in the left back position.

However, Melvin Bard did get himself into the Stars Team of the Season. Basically, the All Stars Team is like PSG but Maxence Caqueret and Melvin Bard did get themselves into the list. I am very proud of these boys.

Ligue 1 XI of the Season looks fair. 8 players from PSG, 1 from OGC Nice, 1 from AS Monaco and 1 from Lyon. Our only player who gets himself into the team is our striker Moussa Dembele. Neymar just beat our best player Depay at the left winger position and Marquinhos and Kimpembe beat Cristian Romero and Jason Denayer as well because they have more clean sheets. Fair enough.

Stay or Leave?

So, we are coming down to the main focus in this chapter. I have been with Lyon for 2 seasons. We already won the league and the cup at the first season, so I am going to say I have a successful career in France. Looking at the jobs that are available, some of the teams caught my attention, which makes me wonder should I stay with Lyon or should I leave for a new challenge.

There are three teams that I am very interested in – the Spanish giant Atletico Madrid, Wolverhampton Wanderers in English Premier League, and Fiorentina in Italian Serie A.

Conclusion

I will be setting up a poll on my Twitter (@abt_fm) and you all will be the decider. Should I stay or leave? I guess I will leave this question for you guys! Thank you for reading the Lyon Journey, I will see you guys soon. Take care!

Poll: https://twitter.com/abt_fm/status/1250729599438163968?s=20

Lyon Journey – 13. Can We Win The League?

After suffering a lost against PSG in the French Cup Final, we are now back to the league. We only have 4 remaining games to play and the teams we are facing are PSG, AS Monaco, EA Guingamp and Bordeaux. We are currently sitting at the 2nd position with 84 points, while the leader PSG is holding 93 points. We have a 9 points difference. To be honest, I can’t see us winning the league this season. However, we are still going to try our best as always. Can we win the league? Let’s see!

vs PSG

The first game against PSG is very crucial. Only a win could slow PSG down from winning the league after this match. If we lost the game, PSG would be crowned as the champions of France. This game is just a couple of days after the Cup Final, so most of our players are not in full fitness. However, we put up a pretty good team and we are ready for the battle!

Match Result

Unfortunately, we lost again to PSG and the new Ligue 1 champion for season 2020/21 is going to be PSG. It was an unfortunate 1-0 lost again, but our players played poorly in this game. From the match stats itself, it was an even game for both sides. Our attack was once again the problem in this game as the attackers failed to score against Keylor Navas. The average rating of the whole team was around 6.8 which nobody stood out in the whole game. We played like dead zombie (best description I can come out with) in this match.

The only goal came from Neymar. The Brazilian did an absolutely sensational job and scored a great goal. He received the ball from Bernat, cut in from the left flank, dribble past all my defenders and made it into the penalty box. Neymar then took a shot at the near post and Anthony Lopes only stood still and watched the ball went into the net.

Neymar recieved the ball from Bernat…
He dribbles past Lyon’s defenders and moves himself into the penalty box…
What a goal! PSG 1-0 Lyon!
PSG is crowned as the Champions of France!

May 2021

Moving on to May 2021, we have 3 more games to play. Home game against AS Monaco, away game against EA Guingamp and the last game is a home game against Bordeaux.

The game against AS Monaco went extremely well. Before the game, I was worried about Wissam Ben Yedder as he was the top scorer in the league at the moment. Monaco was sitting at the 4th position and they had a fairly strong squad. Since we had already lost the league title and qualified for the Champions League next season, I made a gamble by starting some of the young and inexperienced players in this game – Oumar Solet, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Thiago Almada. These young kids delivered great performance and absolutely impressed me. Solet successfully kept a clean sheet and both Tchouameni and Almada provided an assist. Moussa Dembele scored a hattrick, Ricardo Orsolini got himself on the score sheets and made one assist, while the super sub Amine Gouiri scored the 5th goal.

Playing against EA Guingamp was tough. We won 3-1 away with Ricardo Orsolini once again on the scoresheet and Memphis Depay scored a double. However, we lost Moussa Dembele who was competing for the Golden Boots in the league. Ricardo Orsolini was ruled out for 2 months after the game as well. The bright side was having another hot prospect back into the team – Tituan Thomas after suffering a 9 months injury. He started as the attacking midfielder in this match, created one chance and sent out 2 key passes which was pretty impressive. Another great performance from Maxence Caqueret as well, controlling the midfield by making 7 key passes and created 1 chance.

Nevertheless, the last game of the season was fairly disappointing. We lost 1-0 against Bordeaux in a home game. Amine Gouiri replaced Moussa Dembele as the starting striker, but the youngster failed to impress the fans. He was subbed off at 63rd minute after a poor performance. Thiago Almada wasn’t having a great time either on the pitch and was replaced by Houssem Aouar at the 50th minute. Although Lucas Tousart and Maxence Caqueret both controlled the midfielder perfectly, making a total of 10 key passes in 90 minutes. Our attackers did not take the chances and we eventually lost 1-0 against Bordeaux.

League Table

This is how the league table looks like after playing 38 games. PSG won the league with 105 points, breaking the record of highest points in a season. The previous record was 100 points which was achieved by us last season. We finished 2nd in the league with 90 points, 15 points behind the leader. Olympique Marseille finished 3rd and successfully secure their spot in the Champions League next season. Rennes shocked the world at the final day, climbing up to the 4th position, leaving Lille and AS Monaco in 5th and 6th position.

Conclusion

Although PSG wins the league and breaks our record, I am still happy that they fail to achieve the invincibles because of us. However, our performance this season obviously doesn’t reach the target or hit the expectation. As a result, next chapter is going to be a season review on our players. We have to find out what the problem is. Another big question is – do I stay at Lyon? Or do I leave for another challenge? I will see you guys next week, take care!

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