ABT Football Manager

Lyon Journey – 6. Trophee des Champions

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.

Five of our key players are in their international duty.

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.

These are the four significant weaknesses they have.

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.

Possible best XI of the current squad, aka my biased decision on playing Almada as the F9.

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.

The defensive line and players positioning looks good to me. Two central defenders marking Icardi and our right back and defensive midfielder are putting pressure on Neymar. However, we still concede a goal.

Then, we conceded another goal in the 51^st 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.

Icardi received the ball from Verratti. Melvin Bard was “marking” Icardi but he did poorly after.

Leo Dubois completely ignored Neymar at the left side of the pitch.

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.

Back to 4231 Flying Fox. This time, I subbed off Almada for Thomas, our 18 years old wonderkid.

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.

Perfect strike from Pogba and clearly Jean Lucas didn’t put much pressure on him.

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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Lyon Journey – 5. New Tactic Tested

Welcome back to the Lyon Journey! We have finished our first ever season with Lyon and successfully won the league title and a domestic cup competition. We have stepped into the summer break, at the same time, the summer transfer window has opened. In our first season, we only trained one tactic and used it in every single game. Stepping into the second season, I feel like we should try something different with the formation, as well as the playing style. As a result, I decided to go for a 5 defenders formation. I have been playing around with 5-2-2-1 and 5-4-1, but the main focus is to investigate how a 5 defenders formation works. Does it suit Lyon? Or do we fail in using this kind of formation?

We had finished all our friendlies. Next up, we are facing PSG again in the Trophee des Champions

5-2-2-1

This is the initial 5-2-2-1 I have created, and this is a super attacking tactic. My idea is to fully utilise our wingbacks as most of our assists have come from crosses last season. I want my wingbacks to push higher up the pitch so they can create more chances to the striker up front. Another thing that I wanted to try out is the combination between an Advanced Playmaker and a Shadow Striker. I was looking forward to seeing how these two roles work together in a tactic, followed by an Advanced Forward in front of them.

Instruction wise, I keep the attacking width wide, as well as Play Out of Defence. However, I remove Pass Into Space and I remain both passing directness and tempo in standard. The only instruction that I add is Hit Early Crosses. I remain using Counter-Press and Counter in transition. My defensive instructions are always similar. I like to press the opponent more urgently and prevent the opposite’s keeper short distribution. I will always add Stay On Feet and Use Offside Trap as well.

In terms of the roles, I have my 2 defenders to play as BPD on Defend and the centre defender playing as CD on Cover. I want my 2 BPD involve in the attack but at the same time keeping the shape of our defence, and that’s the role of my CD on Cover – to make sure he himself is the last defender. I like my midfielders playing as BBM and DLP on Support and my players suit these roles very well. I realise my wingbacks create better chance from deep, so I want them to play as Wing Back in Defend.

vs Zenit & vs New York Red Bulls

I tried this tactic against Zenit and New York Red Bulls. We won both matches but we only scored one goal in each match. We had a really tough time against Zenit. We had 11 shots but only 4 on target. The only goal we scored was a penalty. On the other hand, Zenit had 10 shots with 6 on target. Looking at the analyst report, it clearly shows that the gap between our midfield and defence is way too big.

This is the line-up against Zenit. Most of the players are young and new as the experienced players are on international duty.

We heavily rely on the right wing in this formation. And the gap between our midfield and defence is big.

So, the second game against New York Red Bulls, I adjust the defensive line back to standard to keep the gap smaller. We played better in this game having 15 shots and 2 clear cut chances. In this match, we finally see a better performance from our Shadow Striker and Advanced Playmaker. Memphis Depay the Shadow Striker made an exceptional run before passing the ball to Ousseynou Ndiaye. The Advanced Playmaker then struck a beautiful goal.

Line-up against New York Red Bulls. Glad to see some of the key players back.

With our regular starters, the focus of attacks is more balanced.

5-2-2-1

This is the 5-4-1 tactic I have created. I keep the exact same instruction as the 5-2-2-1. The only thing that I have changed is the position and roles of our wingers. Memphis Depay is going to be the first choice left winger, so I stick with his best role – Inverted Winger. On the right side, I wanted to try out Inside Forward in support duty, and the plan is to feed the ball to our attacking Advanced Forward.

vs Columbus

However, we actually struggled using this tactic. Most of our attacks came from the wings as expected but our striker just can’t score goal. We had 16 shots in total, 8 on target and 1 clear cut chances. Our opponent only had 3 on target but they managed to turn one into a goal. Only Memphis Depay had a good game and the other players weren’t at their best. I was furious during the half time and I decided to change the tactic back to 4231 Flying Fox. I think I should definitely test this tactic again next time, maybe in the cup competition to find out whether or not it is a good tactic.

We put on a pretty decent team, however, we struggled to score goal in this game.

Conclusion

I wasn’t very happy with these tactics as I feel like we could be more effective in the attack. I used the 4231 Flying Fox back vs Standard in the next game and we scored 3 goals. In terms of the chances, the 5-2-2-1 formation has a +2 in general and we create chances in every 69 minutes. I would definitely like to try the tactics again if I got the chance, and slowly produce an effective second formation for our team instead of relying on the 4231.

Now, we are just goinng to sit back and prepare for the next game against PSG. It is going to be our first final in the 2020/21 season and of course we will be aiming for another silverware. Join us in the next chapter to see how we play against PSG.

If you like the content, don't forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm to intereact with me. I will post more content that is related to football and you are more than welcome to join us in the discussion. Thanks for the support so far and I will see you all soon! Take care!

Lyon Journey – 4. Season Review

We had an amazing season and won the Ligue 1 title by 100 points. Our Lyon boys were super impressive this season as we scored 97 goals and only conceded 22 goals in the league. Although we did well in the domestic competition (winning the league and French Cup), we were fairly poor in European competition. We only managed to get 7 points out of 6 games in the Champions League and finished at the 3^rd of the table, which only allow us to qualify for the Europa League. However, we faced Lazio (the ultimate winner of Europa League) in the Round of 32 and lost both matches. There are certainly a lot of improvement we can make. So, it’s time to do a season review.

Key players

First off, let’s start with analysing some of our best players in this season. After looking at all the stats, there are 5 players that caught my attention – Jason Denayer, Jean Lucas, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Memphis Depay, and Moussa Dembele.

Jason Denayer

Denayer is no doubt the best defender in the team this season. He can score goals, hit amazing long passes, win headers and his performance is very consistent. Below are the key stats in this season.

66% headers won (2^nd best in the team)
67 key headers (2^nd best in the team)
3.15 interceptions per 90 (best in the team)
90% tackle completion ratio
0 mistake leading to goal

Jean Lucas

Lucas is the main playmaker in the team. Despite having an injury in the midseason, he still maintains his quality performance. Below are the key stats in this season.

99 key passes (best in the team)
12 assists (2^nd best in the team)
89% passing completion ratio (3^rd highest in the team)
2.23 tackles per 90
96% tackle completion ratio
6 Player of The Match

Jeff Reine-Adelaide

I love Reine-Adelaide so much. He doesn’t start many games, but he is definitely a super sub in the team. He is a big game performer, scoring big goals and provides crucial assists when needed. Below are the key stats in this season.

10 goals and 8 assists
104 fouls against (highest in the team)
4.53 dribbles per game
4.62 headers won per 90
6 Player of The Match

Memphis Depay

Depay has won the Fans’ Player of the Season Award in the end of the season. He is undoubtedly the best player this season in my opinion. Not only he is the team leader, but also a good scoring machine and playmaker of the team. Below are the key stats in this season.

21 goals and 14 assists
3.19 dribbles made per game
13.2km distance covered per 90 (highest in the team)
54% shot on target ratio
177 minutes per goal
6 Player of The Match

Moussa Dembele

Dembele had an amazing season and he can really score goals. He won the Ligue 1 Golden Boot by scoring 36 goals in the league. He is currently the best striker I have ever seen in FM20. Below are the key stats in this season.

45 goals and 9 assists
Top scorer in the league
59% shot on target ratio
8/10 penalties scored
83 minutes per goal
9 Player of The Match

Summer transfer window

I am very happy with my current squad to be fair, however, the failure in European competition proves that we need to improve the quality of the team. After I analysed the team, there are certain area that I wish to improve. I am looking forward to bringing in some new players, including a centre back, a right winger and a striker.

Jason Denayer and Joachim Anderson are the regular starter of the team. I am not a big fan of Marcelo so I am planning to sell him in the upcoming transfer window. Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is not good enough so I refuse to extend his contract and he is leaving us at the end of the season. Oumar Solet is the only backup defender we have. Solet is only 20 years old. He is inexperienced and he has so much room for improvement. As a result, I am planning to bring in a backup defender who is around the age of 24 to 27.

Bertrand Traore is quite injury prone. Most of the time I have to play Jeff Reine-Adelaide at the right side of the pitch. Although he is doing well as a right winger, I genuinely think that his best position is either a centre midfielder or an attacking midfielder. Traore also has a low composure and decision which makes me think of signing someone to replace him at the right side.

Dembele has been sensational this season. However, he is the only striker in the team. We do have Amine Gouiri and Martin Terrier in the team, but both of them are not good enough to play as a striker. Dembele almost started every single game in this season and I think it’s time to have a backup striker.

Tactics

In terms of tactical changes, I might wait until the pre-season. So far, I am very happy with the 4231 Flying Fox. I was thinking of using a 5 defenders formation next season while facing the stronger side. However, I haven’t sorted out anything yet and I think we should take a break first and only start worrying about the tactics next season.

It was fun playing Lyon in the Ligue 1 and I am definitely looking forward to the next season. Do let me know which part of the Lyon journey you enjoy the most in the first season. Do you want to see more match analysis? Or you would like to see more player analysis? Please leave your comment below and I will see what I can do. I will see you all at the Lyon Journey Second Season!

Lyon Journey – 3. Title Decider Match

Before this game, we faced PSG twice in this season – in the league and in the French Cup Semi Final. We only managed to get a 1-1 draw at our home turf, however, managed to beat them 2-1 in the French Cup Semi Final. This game was the 35^th league match, where Hennequin’s Lyon was the leader of Ligue 1 with 88 points while Tuchel’s PSG was sitting at the second position with 85 points. In order to win the title, I had prepared myself for this game. Tough, but the Lyon boys were ready.

Analysing the opponent

As usual, I was analysing the opponent before each game. According to the scouting report, heading and long shots were their main strengths. Then, I looked at their front three and I shook my head. Neymar and Mbappe can shot from distance and Icardi can win challenges in the air. In order to counter that, I adjusted the line of engagement to lower and defensive line to higher. The main reason is to narrow down the space between the defence and attack, as well as giving PSG a limited space to operate the ball. I also changed Counter-Press into Regroup, to ensure my players are not playing out of the position in the game, as PSG is extremely dangerous in counter-attacking. I wasn’t paying too much attention in their weaknesses as I was pretty happy with our team’s attacking play. I was pretty confident that we would at least score one goal in this match.

Scouting report shows heading and long shots are some of their strengths.

I adjusted the line of engagement and defensive line to limit their space.

I always switch Counter-Press to Regroup whenever I play against a stronger side.

vs PSG

We went into the match with our strongest starting line-up. Anthony Lopes started as the goalkeeper. Leo Dubois, Joachim Anderson, Jason Denayer, and Youssouf Kone were the back four. Jean Lucas and Lucas Tousart played as the centre midfielder, with Houssem Aouar as the number 10. Front three were Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Memphis Depay and Moussa Dembele.

We scored the first goal in the 8^th minutes. It was a beautiful goal by Jeff Reine-Adelaide. It started from the back where Joachim Anderson intercepted a clearance by PSG. We were playing amazing one touch football until Moussa Dembele passed the ball to Jeff Reine-Adelaide. The winger then dribbled past a PSG defender and fired the ball into the bottom of the net. Lyon 1 PSG 0. The second goal was a header from Joachim Anderson. Memphis Depay took the corner and Joachim Anderson scored the goal with an easy header. Lyon 2 PSG 0.

An amazing goal by Jeff Reine-Adelaide, as well as a superb build up play by the Lyon boys.

We have been performing well with our set-pieces this season.

PSG pulled one back in the 21^st minute. Neymar dribbled into the box and took a shot. Dubois blocked the shot well but Kylian Mbappe was there to pick up the rebound. I wasn’t too upset because we defended well and it was just unlucky that the ball reached Mbappe’s foot. I did not do any big changes and both teams were just extremely quiet in the second half. The game finished 1-2 and Lyon collected the 3 points in Paris.

Sensational performance by Jeff Reine-Adelaide.

It gave us a 6 points lead with 3 more games to go and we could secured the title if we won the next two games. Overall, I was impressed by the boys and extremely happy to win the game against PSG. 3 more games to go, and we are going to work hard and clinch the title anytime soon. In the next chapter, it would be a season review and we will see which player deserves the praise.

Lyon Journey – 2. The French Cup

The board sees French Cup as a fairly important competition. The minimum expectation is that the team reach the Semi Final of the French Cup. Cup competition is always a good opportunity that allows your younger players to shine. My journey to the French Cup Final is pretty challenging as well. One of the highlights was the 4-3 win against AS Saint-Etienne.

It wasn’t easy to beat 5 teams and went into the final. However, the journey was fun.

vs AS Saint-Etienne

This was the first cup game I had with Lyon and it was the 9^th round of the cup. I actually put on a pretty strong team to fight with them as I know AS Saint-Etienne is not a weak team. To be fair, we were having a tough time and only scored the winning goal at the 91^st minute.

Undoubtedly one of the best games of the season. Also, one of the best performance we have seen from Memphis Depay.

I made a gamble in this game by choosing Marcal as the left back and Caqueret as the DLP Support. Marcal hasn’t started a game before, so does Caqueret. Unfortunately, Marcal made a mistake leading to goal despite providing a key pass at the 8^th minute. I thought he did ok in his first game after an injury, but he can definitely do better. Caqueret had a pretty solid game as a DLP support. He gained 2 possessions and made 2 key passes with 0 mistake and 0 possession lost.

Marcal did okay but I expected him to be better.

The game changer is Jeff Reine-Adelaide as he was the one who provided the final assist to the winning goal. He made 2 successful dribbles in the game and one of them turns into an assist.

To be fair, I’m liking him so far. Always making big impact in the match.

vs Bordeaux

When I was looking at the scouting report, I focused on the opponent’s weaknesses. It showed their marking wasn’t the best and I felt like we should tackle this specific area. The only instruction that I added was Run At Defence. I was very confident because both Depay and Traore are good dribblers and they are fast.

At the first glance, weak marking caught my attention and I decided to tackle the area.

To be honest, I thought the final was one of the easier games in the season. We basically dominated the possession and only allowed them to take 4 shots in the entire 90 minutes. They gave away an early penalty at the 14^th minute and allowed us to take the lead comfortably. We then extended our lead at the 32^nd minute where Bertrand Traore headed the ball into the net after receiving a set piece cross by Leo Dubois. The final goal was one of the best goals I have seen in FM20. Memphis Depay made a wonderful dribble and hit a through pass to Moussa Dembele, the Frenchman then powered his shot into the bottom of the net. It was an easy win to be fair.

An easy 3-0 win in the final. Moussa Dembele is a beast in FM20.

Overall, I was pretty happy that I won the French Cup at the first season with OL and achieved my first ever trophy with the team. Next up, I am going to play against PSG and this game will be the title decider match. I am looking forward to it and I can’t wait to share the result with you guys as well. Win or not, it is going to be a challenging but fun game.

Lyon Journey – 1. Getting Started

It’s been a long time since I started a save outside England. I’ve tried Borussia Dortmund in FM16, Bayern Munich in FM18, Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid in FM19. Then I realised that I’ve never managed a team in the Ligue 1 because I always thought French league was just an easy league to play.

Choosing the team

However, I still created a French manager and named him after using a random name generator. Matthew Hennequin, a 31 years old manager who was born in Nice, and currently holding a Continental B Licence. I scrolled through the list of teams and one team caught my attention – Olympique Lyonnais. I still remember OL used to be so dominant in the French league back in the 00s. Juninho, Gregory Coupet, Cris, Eric Abidal, Florent Malouda – these are some of the names that I heard back in the days. After looking through their squad, I decided to take the challenge and bring them back to their glory days.

Hennequin is a tactical coach and doesn’t know a thing about goalkeeping. Determination is crucial for a new manager so I made it the higgest mental attribute.

Club vision

The vision of the club isn’t too difficult to achieve. The only thing that you might want to take note is ‘signing players based in France’. Lyon is a club that has many good young local players, so it might be a challenge to sign some other young players in the same league because ‘sign young players’ is also another plan. However, it is pretty good that the board doesn’t put too much pressure on the Champions League.

Knowing the squad and build a suitable tactic

I never know Lyon are having such an amazing squad. At the first glance, most of the players’ in-game attributes are just insane. Memphis Depay, Houssem Aouar, Moussa Dembele and Anthony Lopes are the players that stand out. Moreover, Lyon have a bunch of high potential youngsters such as Rayan Cherki, Melvin Bard, Maxence Caqueret, Titouan Thomas, Anthony Racioppi and Oumar Solet which I immediately promote them into the senior team so I can train them individually and develop them into the player that I want.

Lyon’s players are very attacking minded, even the central defenders. As a result, I created an attacking tactic, using 4-2-3-1 as the formation. I call it – 4231 Flying Fox.

4231 Flying Fox

Some minor changes will be made in the game for sure, but this is the base of the tactics. The idea is to fully utilise the flanks as Lyon have players that can play really well at the wider area. I’ve always loved the Play Out Of Defence instruction with shorter passing and lower tempo, so players will have more time to look for better passing option. In this tactic, I decide to add Pass Into Space because the attackers are quite pacey and at the same time, I’m looking forward to play some entertaining football. In terms of the transition play, I always use Counter-Press and Counter. Lyon is one of the top teams in Ligue 1 so I’m not too worried of my players going out of their position. I keep the line of engagement and defensive line in standard, and I add the instruction of Use Offside Trap. I want my players to press the opponent quickly, but not extremely urgent, and I want them to press the opposition keeper as well. I love to add Stay On Feet as well so my players won’t dive into tackles and collect unnecessary booking.

Some of the changes I will make in the game are Hit Early Crosses, Run At Defence and the Defensive Width. Hit Early Crosses is an interesting option and I usually add this instruction when I see my players fail to create chances in the game. Early crosses is a more risky option, however, the more risk you take, the more shots you make. I tend to use Run At Defence when I see my players are losing possession in passing the ball around. Run At Defence also benefits your team while the opponent has collected yellow card. Last but not least, I will adjust the Defensive Width according to the opposition playing style. If the opponent is good at crossing or have strong players at the wider area, I will immediately adjust the instruction to defend wider. On the other hand, if the opponent is good in exploiting the middle, I will change the width to narrow.

Transfer

I enabled the summer transfer window at the start of the game. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the staff responsibilities. The Director of Football is kind of dumb as he accepted an offer for Rayan Cherki, one of the best wonderkid in FM20, from Man City. The Citizens only spent £850K to get Rayan Cherki. I then sold Rafael to Flamengo for £6.5M which I think it is a pretty decent deal for a 28 years old right back. I did not bring any player into the team because I was pretty satisfied with the current squad.

In conclusion, I’m looking forward to managing Lyon in the Ligue 1 and I can’t wait for the season to start. Join me in the Lyon Journey and let’s aim for the title in the league!