2013 Home Grown Talent

[Prevalence]

Hi all,

I am still pretty new to FMH 2013, but I decided to try a challenge. I am not really sure how easy this will be:

(1) Have a season clean sweep playing only English players in competitive matches.

(2) Act as a feeder club for England & have an English International squad composed of at least 50% of my players that wins the World Cup & Euros. I will not directly manage England, so it's purely about getting my players to perform and be selected.

I have chosen my club, Tottenham.

Season 1 Overview

Transfers

First transfer was fairly solid actually:

Some fairly solid stats- initially he was going to replace Sandro, but I managed to hold on to him.

The other two were a fail, at least, I think

Mighty Ryan Fraser

And the worst : Billy Bodan

Just look at the love the board are giving me :-)

Anyway, lets get to the season.

Formation:

Usual tactic

Tactic when i was loosing possession giving away chances:

It actually went really, really well:

Premier league:

I actually did a clean sweep this season!

Accolades:

I anyone wants any more info, happy to provide.

Made some exciting signings in the pre- season! They are beasts:

Ince will replace Lennon, who is apparently bored with just winning everything his club could in a season and having CL football next year. Trying to train Tom Carroll to Attacking midfielder (to replace sigurdsson & holtby) position but he seems not to be able which is dumb:

He is a midfielder already, so not too far away. His attributes are perfect for it (creativity,passing, movement, decisions, technique, teamwork) all brilliant. And his preferred and recommended role is APM! Will it really be so hard for him to do what he does slightly higher up the pitch? Sorry, rant over :-) perhaps there is an improvement suggestion somewhere in there for SI.

Do not seem to be any decent English strikers ATM, Harry Kane is coming along, so will find another next season

Got some solid English CB's in, Clyne will also replace assou ekotto.

Anyway, hope that you enjoy. Feedback/ thoughts (even critical - as long as they are reasoned/ impersonal) are welcomed.

[Jens]

Where's Shaw And the Liverpool backs (can't recall their names)

 

I must say you did make some strange signings

But a solid season nonetheless, congrats.

[J-savage]

Well done mate! Amazing season'!

[Devil]

I don't know if its just me, but some of the pictures are messed up. But apart from that good job.

[Prevalence]

Where's Shaw And the Liverpool backs (can't recall their names)

 

I must say you did make some strange signings

But a solid season nonetheless, congrats.

I have tried to be stat/ scout report oriented rather than using meta information - I want the experience to be as "real" as possible, without reference to 'that guy was good in my other save' type meta gaming. - I guess Luke Shaw just didn't make my stat filters?

[Keraviln]

You know the board is terrible, right, once I signed Bruma and he turned out as a total beast, and the board initially said it was a "bad piece of business", 500k for the next big thing? Bargain

Ps. Try signing players on Bosmans, usually you can snatch a fair few great youngsters in Jan (Contract Status: Expiring), search in January and offer contracts and viola, you'll have your talents at the end of the season .

Also, try to buy younger guys, more room to grow = higher chance at international stardom!

[Prevalence]

You know the board is terrible, right, once I signed Bruma and he turned out as a total beast, and the board initially said it was a "bad piece of business", 500k for the next big thing? Bargain :PPs. Try signing players on Bosmans, usually you can snatch a fair few great youngsters in Jan (Contract Status: Expiring), search in January and offer contracts and viola, you'll have your talents at the end of the season .

Also, try to buy younger guys, more room to grow = higher chance at international stardom!

Thanks for the helpful advice Keralvin :-) I will specifically take it on board and include it in the write up for next season. I have noticed a bit of a bug with this - sometimes, players will come up in 'contract expiring' or 'no club', you put offer contract & you find yourself negotiating with a club instead of the player? If I find an example I will post.

[Keraviln]

 

You know the board is terrible, right, once I signed Bruma and he turned out as a total beast, and the board initially said it was a "bad piece of business", 500k for the next big thing? Bargain :PPs. Try signing players on Bosmans, usually you can snatch a fair few great youngsters in Jan (Contract Status: Expiring), search in January and offer contracts and viola, you'll have your talents at the end of the season .

Also, try to buy younger guys, more room to grow = higher chance at international stardom!

Thanks for the helpful advice Keralvin :-) I will specifically take it on board and include it in the write up for next season. I have noticed a bit of a bug with this - sometimes, players will come up in 'contract expiring' or 'no club', you put offer contract & you find yourself negotiating with a club instead of the player? If I find an example I will post.

 

 

Oh yeah, that's because they become listed as "Expiring" with a year on their contract (you can only offer contracts 6 months before their contract expires). Also, you have to be careful you don't hit the "Transfer Offer" but "Offer Contract" button as they're usually both available!

[Prevalence]

Season 2 Update:

Well, to start with, this was a far cry from my hugely successful first season :-(

Here goes:

The Barclays Premier League

I had a bit of a crisis at the beginning of the season, where things were just not going for me. I changed my tactics from attacking to balanced, and played the offside trap. I figured that if I wasnt creating but just conceeding, that was the cue for playing a bit more defensively. I also figured that my WB's would, most times, be playing further up the pitch than CB's, thus the step up would only require two players to be effective. Not sure if this makes sense. They both have decent decision stats too.

Anyhow, after sorting my tactical faux pas, I just was not able to make up the ground on Chelsea. Never mind hey? By the time I lost out to Chelsea, I had a place in the FA Cup, and Champions League Final. Surely I would get something out of them. Surely?

The UEFA Champions League

Damn you Bayern! What makes it even more irritating is:

11 shots on target compared to 4. I had the lions share of the highlights for 15 mins, then they just started thumping goals in for fun. Battered them for most of the game, they leave with a scoreline that makes me look amateur. Highly annoying.

The FA Cup

Things are not going well. At all. But never mind, surely you got something out of the earlier cups? You would think:

The Super Cup

Nope!

The Charity Shield

.....................

The Capital One Cup

Yes, that's right, I was the runner up in everything bar the capital one cup!!!!! :-( If there is an award for the "almost made it" season, I hope I can win it! :-(

Transfers

Keraviln suggested that I look for young players with contract expiring. That way, I can offer a contract in the last six months, and pay nothing. Sounded like a great idea to me, so I tried it for this man:

It didn't work & I will explain why. His contract was due to expire on 4th July 2014. Offer would have to be made at earliest on 4th Feb. I bided my time. However, in the January transfer period, a matter of weeks before I could offer, his club offered him a contract which tied him up until 2016. Boo. Hiss. Perhaps I was just unlucky, but it seems to me that clubs will not want to allow the possibility of a Bosnan arising for a desirable player, and will nip that in the bud early (as happened to me). I had scouted him, so was interested, I just wonder if my attention would have alerted him? His personality tag is "ambitious". Perhaps I should have put an offer in? Would the player have been more stubborn about his contract renewal has I made an offer? I did buy him anyway, just had to pay £8.75 million. Would be great to have some thoughts from anyone :-)

Jens suggested Shaw, He just doesn't seem that great right now - I certainly have far better WB's

I also bought this chap for 26K

At the beginning of the 14-15 season, here were my transfers:

My Team

I thought I would ask the FMH vibe community to act as my assistant manager. I will put my players out there and ask:

1) Are there any areas you think need to be improved?

2) where would you focus spending power?

I have 21 million to spend, and more flexibility with 500k per week surplus transfer budget.

I have though about signing these two:

Here is the team

Goalkeepers:

Wing backs:

Clyne

Smith

Walker

Naughton

Rose

Central Defenders

Baker

Bartley

Vertonghen

Fryers

Caulker

Dawson

Kaboul

Central Midfielders

Hyam

Sandro

Carroll

Dembele

Ferdinand - bought him this season

Reilly - bought this season

Griffin

Attacking midfielders

Sigurdsson

Holtby

Hughes

Winger type players

Townsend

Lennon

Bale

Ince

Forwards - this is important at the moment - Adebayor scores lots of our goals - little concerned about replacement.

Adebayor

Dempsey

Defoe

Kane

Coulibaly

Anderson- signed this season for peanuts - looks decent for his age.

Anyway, that is all for now. Any comments would be greatly appreciated :-)

[J-savage]

Unlucky this season. I have never seen somebody do so well but no win a single trophy.

[ImagineDragons]

damn you FMH13. HAHA! Gutted to see you lost everything literally. In my opinion, you should have at least gotten 1 trophy but no, you lost everything. Goodluck for next season!

You should try Hallum Hope or Adam Campbell to replace Adebayor.

 

You should try to sign Butland. Worth the money

[Prevalence]

Hi folks, just a bit of advice needed:

I really seem to be struggling with beating strong opponents. I will make lots of chances against them, then they will score every / almost all the chances they make against me. Why is this - what is happening?

Case in point:

These are my tactics:

It is really irritating me. Thanks

[Devil]

The offside trap is risky so use it at your own peril!

[Obika]

I've found that Leandro Damiao is a beast for Tottenham. Can't advise on tactics, much.

[darkmedina]

The offside trap is risky so use it at your own peril!

Why do you say so? 

[Devil]

The offside trap is risky so use it at your own peril!

Why do you say so? 

Because in the offside trap they try to trick the attackers in a line so that they would make an offside pass or something.

And a well timed bass can beat this strategy easily.

[Prevalence]

I've found that Leandro Damiao is a beast for Tottenham. Can't advise on tactics, much.

I'm sure he is, however the challenge is to use only English players :-)

The offside trap is risky so use it at your own peril!

Why do you say so? 

He is right, at least as far as my results changed dramatically for the better when I disabled it :-)

[Prevalence]

Season 3 Update:

A better season:

I think I got knocked out of the capital one cup by United.

Some fabulous signings (pictures are more recent)

Also picked up a 16 year old that looks to shape into a world beater:

Not a bad season then, in all. Can I have some feedback about stats etc that you would like to see?

I also have a question:

I am interested in using the Bosman rule to avoid paying transfer fees, but this just never seems available:

I know that the contract need not be offered inside a transfer window, as demonstrated by Aston villa:

Here is the guy I want, with exactly the same contract expiry date:

You'll note that the date is the 7th March 2015, easily inside the requisite 6 months.

Click action:

Must be "make offer", surely?

But where do you go from here - there does not seem to be any option to bypass the club and offer the contract direct. Why?

Let me know if you want any further info - might not be able to get it for this season, but will include it with the next :-)

[darkmedina]

Nice, you've got a Gerrard regen!

[PalaceAllTheWay]

Try and make your striker a target man. It usually gets me more goals against better teams.

[MerlionMaple96]

Not sure about the contract problem mate. But as far as the tactics go, you can do 1 of 2 things to improve performance.

 

1. You can keep playing short football but you have to change your player roles. I would suggest changing both the BBMs to CMs. BBMs are not always the best for short football as all they do really is go from box to box. They really work well for expansive tactics (Mixed/Direct) but for short football you're looking for ball retention which a CM can provide best. If you think about it a BBM would be like Ramires and a CM would be like Gundogen.

 

2. You can keep the BBMs but I would suggest switching to Mixed football and swapping your INFs for WNGs as they will provide crosses for you BBMs to get on the end of. If you keep them like they are the penalty box will just get much too crowded with your striker, INFs and BBMs all vying for a limited amount of space. 

 

Either way, I'd suggest having Pressing On as that works well with Offside Trap

 

Hope that helped!

[Nairb]

You can only offer contracts to domestic based players when theyev actually expired. But for foreign based players its 6 months before expiry!

[Prevalence]

Try and make your striker a target man. It usually gets me more goals against better teams.

I will try this and let you know how it goes. I have several players that would be perfect for this role:

Check out this freak of nature that my reserve team produced!

I have already played the next season, but will let you know how it goes for the season after :-)

You can only offer contracts to domestic based players when theyev actually expired. But for foreign based players its 6 months before expiry!

Ah gutted. No manager worth his salt is going to allow the next hot prospect to run out of contract :-(

The whole challenge is about using exclusively English players, too :-(

Just to clarify, when you say "domestic", do you mean players with English nationality, or players that are playing in the English domestic league, regardless of nationality?

[Prevalence]

Not sure about the contract problem mate. But as far as the tactics go, you can do 1 of 2 things to improve performance.

 

1. You can keep playing short football but you have to change your player roles. I would suggest changing both the BBMs to CMs. BBMs are not always the best for short football as all they do really is go from box to box. They really work well for expansive tactics (Mixed/Direct) but for short football you're looking for ball retention which a CM can provide best. If you think about it a BBM would be like Ramires and a CM would be like Gundogen.

 

2. You can keep the BBMs but I would suggest switching to Mixed football and swapping your INFs for WNGs as they will provide crosses for you BBMs to get on the end of. If you keep them like they are the penalty box will just get much too crowded with your striker, INFs and BBMs all vying for a limited amount of space. 

 

Either way, I'd suggest having Pressing On as that works well with Offside Trap

 

Hope that helped!

Thanks for the thoughts :-) I had actually already changed the BBM's to CM's although I did it for a different rationale. I figured that if the BBM'S made a poor decision and were tackled in an advanced position, I would be more vulnerable on the counter (as they would be committed further forward). I notice that lots of teams seem to be playing direct, counter attacking football against me, and I was leaking goals too much for my liking, as well as having my attacks thwarted by midfielders sitting deep. Option 1 is my preferred route. There is a certain irony in playing an English side that is able to keep possession ;-) I thought being successful in this would be appropriate :-)

[Prevalence]

Season 4 Review

I made a lot of transfers this season - hoping to accelerate Tottenham transforming into an exclusively English side:

Most of them are prospects (including Jordan Smith, who appears to be a Gerrard regen - yay!) sitting in the reserves on loan.

The four top transfers are good enough to make the first team. Time to get some success with English players :-)

The squad:

I am trying to sell Vertonghen, Kaboul, Sandro, Bale, Sigurdsson. I am not quite ready to do the club challenge. Not Quite.

England Squad:

My players constitute 11/23 England players. Just shy of 48% :-( I am a little annoyed. Why? Because Nathaniel Clyne is not in the squad! If he was, I would have met the 50% goal, and the Euros (in the pre season next year) would count toward my achievement. Why is he not in there?:

He is a beast! Great stats for an attacking wing back. He has been prolific for Tottenham for assists for 3 seasons, he scores a few goals here and there, and he matches the England archetype of playing wide and putting crosses in the box! Why has he not been selected!? I hope that daft AI is not going to rumble me on that challenge!

Anyway, I will include an England Euro bid write up with next seasons update :-)

Right then, the actual season itself:

That's nice :-)

Past few performances in the champions league have not been encouraging :-/ I will try playing one of my beastly strikers as TM for big fixtures in future. Wingers as Inside forwards for heading/ passing options, and I'm sure my APM will also be loitering with intent ;-)

This was a real nail biter! I could have kissed Stephen Moore after the match! Well, not literally, but you get the idea ;-)

[PalaceAllTheWay]

Those last few minute goals never come in my favour. It did come to you though and you won the FA Cup. 

[Ashez]

Great season mate

[Nairb]

Just English based players mate! Youre assembling a fantastic squad there.

[Prevalence]

Well, as promised, will give you the lowdown on England's bid for the Euros:

The group

Seems like a reasonable group: only potential problem is with Portugal. In any case, should be qualifying.

There is the real test of England's mettle :-) A Spurs player won it for them :-D

2nd round :

Israel? I didn't realise they were eligible for the Euros?

Wow. That is twice my transfer budget on one player :-(

Nice to see Clayton toppling the mighty Greeks :-)

Get in Kane! Not quite full revenge for the debacle of 2010, but a step in the right direction :-)

Just to give you an idea - "England" was nearly "Tottenham" for this match ;-)

Just a little interlude, so what did I ask for?

Been asking for that every year for almost 5 years - finally.

And the final *gulp*

Same deal as v Germany for the contribution from Spurs. I am really narked that Clyne was not selected. Technically I am inclined to consider the Euros completed, as 1) Clyne should have been selected (he still hasn't and I am at the end of the next season, the manager preferring the services of the ancient Joleon Lescott!! - WTF!!!) and 2) the first team players were mainly spurs. 3) spurs players contributed in key ways to progress England in the competition (Clayton, Kane etc... Scored critical goals) I know that I said 50% and did not quite make it. Do you think I should consider the Euros won, or must I satisfy the 50%?

I have also decided to change formation, and try something different. I want to know what you think of it/ how you think it will do.

My current (old) tactic:

I had a look on the forums, and was inspired by a Keraviln Barcelona 4-1-2-2-1 possession style formation.

http://fmhvibe.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/13727-the-barcelona-4-1-2-2-1-a-modified-4-3-3/

(Not sure if that will be hyperlinked when I post, but I can't find the thread explaining the syntax for posting.)

New formation/ strategy (with some minor differences)

Rationale - please look and see if you agree with me. I found that the old setup leaked too many goals. I also wanted to play possession football.

Change 1 - change CB' to BPD

I chose two CBs with the best passing/ technical attributes. The hope was that they would step up to support the midfield when they wanted to recycle possession, instead of just losing the ball. They both had to be BPD as having a mix would likely result in them being out of line, and could undermine the offside trap. Also wanted them higher up the pitch to put pressure on the opposition more effectively (pressing enabled). This also closed the larger gap between midfielders and CB's, restricting operation of attacking players between attack/ defence - in conjunction with pressing.

Change 2 - change CM's to DLM

not really sure about this one. In my early tests, I noticed that they seemed to have a better pass completion rate/ match rating. I have noticed that there is a bigger gap now between the more attacking players and the rest of the team... Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing...

Offside trap - enabled

I chose defenders with good decisions and teamwork. I think that my WB's will naturally play a bit higher up the pitch, so the coordination only generally needs to be achieved between the 2 CB's. the WB's have decent attributes in the above also, for defensive phase/ set pieces.

Pressing enabled.

My midfielders have good tackling / passing / stamina stats so I was hoping they would be able to use this effectively. Obviously, the forward players are not as adept at winning the ball back, but I guess pressure is enough :-)

Tackling does not match Keravilns strategy of committed. I have bad memories of playing united with the strategy. I got 7 yellows and 2 Reds & got absolutely battered! As I understand it, pressing is an instruction for the whole team to put pressure on the ball when not in possession. What about my attackers? I don't really want them committed, as they have poorer tackling stats! It just seems like a bad idea - what do you think?

I changed to CMF, mainly because Lynch is a Beast, and I wanted everything from him :-)

Let me know your thoughts - I have played the season already, so I know how it went, but what do you think will happen? :-)

[Franco]

Did you not follow the Under 21 Euros?