Help with Aston Villa with Screenshots.

Dannylfc

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Hello,

I came on here asking for help initially with my Aston Villa save, to which i have now completed a season, and now am well into my second season. I have slumped massivley in this season sitting in 12th place currently with alot of silly draws and loses at home which should easily have been wins.

Below is a couple of screenshots of my entire first team squad.
View attachment 289113
View attachment 289113

Ron Vlaar has been wonderful but unfortunaley ive not been able to agree terms and he has agreed to move to Bayern Munich at the end of his current deal.
I'm unsure who to sell as it tells what the average ratings of the players have been you can see who has been performing well or not.
View attachment 289112
A few of my staff have left and not been replaced, due to me not having a great knowledge of the backroom staff at anywhere else other than the club i support in real life.
I replaced Ian Culverhouse half way though this season as i started to take a look at the backroom staff indepth.


View attachment 289111

Finally this is the tactic i have been using which this season dispite having made the Capital One Cup Final, has been largly poor and very silly results have seen us fall from 5th in the first season to what looks like a mid table side, who happen to have the likes of Wellington Nem, Darren Bent, Javier Pastore and Demba Ba. An injury to Mattia Destro has been frustrating too.

A difficult run of games coming up with only a few games left until the end of the season, i would like a strong finish aswell as a plan for next year with Villa on how to go forward.
 
Hey buddy.

Took interest in this thread as a Villa fan!

It looks like you've got some great players, but I'm not so sure about your tactic. You have Pastore as your central midfielder playing as an advanced playmaker, with a trequartista ahead of him. It just seems like there will be no presence in your midfield - there isn't anyone who will be any good at closing down the opposition and winning the ball back. Pastore is an AM being shoe-horned into the CM role, and Wellington Nem is very attacking as well. It could be worth having a look at your formation and having at least one central midfielder who is defensively orientated. For example setting up a 4-2-3-1. You could do this as a narrow formation with 2 centre mids and then 3 attacking midfielders (no wingers) if you wanted too and that suited your players.

Good luck!
 
As far as next season goes, you should definitely replace the staff members you've lost. Go to the team training overview and have a look at the coaching categories. You should aim to have all categories to at least four stars, and you don't need any knowledge about backroom staff to achieve that.

Use the "search for staff", and simply apply the filters needed for finding good coaches. The three mental attributes Determination, Motivating and Level of Discipline are vital for all coaches. You should easily be able to find a fair amount of decent coaches who won't demand too high wages. If you're in doubt about how good a coach is, use this calculator:

View attachment 289136

Always make sure your players aren't allowed to leave on free transfers, especially if they're good players. You can do this by making it a habit of renewing all contracts at least one year before they run out - if they refuse renewal or you can't agree terms, sell the player so you won't end up empty-handed. Personally I rarely keep players after the age of 29-30. This is usually when their value and attributes start to drop, and often your last chance of cashing in on them. I just sold a 30 year old Agger (valued at £16m) to Real Madrid for £31m, and a 28 year old Luis Suarez (valued at about £22m) to Barcelona for £45m. If I had kept Agger for another year or two, I wouldn't have gotten even a third of that.

I see you've also confined yourself to just one tactic, which is never recommendable. Always take use of the backup tactics, so that you have at least three tactics the team are adept in. If you never mix it up, you WILL be found out by the opposition teams and they WILL beat you. Also check each player's information screen, to see what roles they're best in. I have Wellington Nem in my squad as well, and Trequartista is not one of his best roles (in my save anyway). In addition I have a feeling Demba Ba is more suited to Poacher or Advanced Forward than DLF, so you might wanna look into that. Pastore is also more suited to playing in the AMC position, and if you're determined to play him as MC make sure you train him in this position. I can see he has an average rating of below 7, which is not good. Pastore is an amazing player, and if he's played right he will be your main force when it comes to creating chances.

You should also try to get rid of some dead wood. I see you have several players unregistered, and that will just eat up your wage budget. Go through the entire squad player by player, and make a list of who you don't really need. Try to sell them for value, and if you can't and they're on high wages, loan them out or even sell them cheap. This way you'll decrease your wage budget further, allowing you to strengthen your squad in areas needed. Look for players who don't demand too high wages, but can still be a part of your first team - there are plenty of those around.

By the way, the two screenshots of your squad are the same image, so we can't see your entire squad.

EDIT: The Flight of the Conchords-fan above me also makes a good point. Your midfield looks very vulnerable and I got a feeling you rarely dominate in possession. You might wanna think about changing your main tactic, in addition to adding backup tactics.
 
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Brilliant thank you !
View attachment 289139

second half of the squad there !

could you recommend any tactics given the full team now ?

thank you !!!

No problem mate. Oh and by the way, that image is still the same as the others, haha. You need to scroll up :p

I couldn't really recommend specific tactics as I'm not very familiar with the players in your squad. I can, however, advice you to create one main tactic which you feel your team is suited to (if you're unsure, have a chat with your assistant manager if he has high tactical knowledge), one defensive and one offensive. This way you'll always be able to change tactics during matches according to how the match goes. Your defensive one should probably have an anchor man who will fill the gap between your defense and midfield. Remember, no matter what tactic you create, make sure your midfield is strong and balanced. Games are in most cases decided in the midfield. Even if you play an attacking style, make sure you have a midfielder with defensive duties. A defending DLP or a BWM are often good choices.

Also remember that often all it takes are minor tweaks instead of huge changes. This can be done by changing the style, strategy, passing style, creative freedom etc. It's basically a trial-and-error type of thing, you'll quickly see what pays off and what doesn't. And again, if you're unsure, listen to your assistant manager's advice during matches. He'll give good advice (provided he has good tactical knowledge and knowledge of the team) as to how your side is performing and what tweaks might be appropriate.

As for players, I would have to know more about your team and what areas you want to strengthen. But if I were you I would definitely acquire a midfielder or two. I see you have Javi Garcia on loan, who is a good defensive midfielder. He's probably well adept to playing as BWM, and personally I never play with less than 2 central midfielders. Like Bowieinspace26 said, having only Pastore as AP in central midfield, and even playing out of his natural position, is not recommended. When you create your tactics, take a look at your main players and what positions/roles they're best in. If you wanna use a player in a position he's not natural in, retrain him. Make sure your team is balanced, especially in midfield. You can probably find loads of good tactics on this forum, but a good rule of thumb is always to have at least one defensive minded CM.

I don't have much knowledge about the players in your defense, but since Pastore is a natural AMC and probably your best player, you should try to make a tactic where he can play in this position. Wellington Nem is also a natural AMC, but can also be played on both wings. If I'm not mistaken, Demba Ba is good on the left wing, which means you could probably create a tactic with Pastore in the AMC (AP - support or attack), Demba Ba as AML (IF - support or attack) and Wellington Nem as AMR (IF - support or attack), with Darren Bent as AF or Destro as Poacher. If you do that, you'd need either 2 CMs or 2 DMs. I'd suggest using Javi Garcia as a CM (BWM - support or defend), and another player as a supportive CM. That way you'll have a very strong attacking formation (actually very similar to the way I play myself), but with good balance in the midfield. You might find you leave a gap between defense and midfield, if so it could be wise to have that defensive tactic up your sleeve, where you drop Garcia to the DM position, and Pastore to the CM position next to the other CM. So yeah, it could probably be wise to train Pastore in the CM position in case you need to play him there. He doesn't need to be natural in it, accomplished will do (I see he's "competent" at the moment, meaning it wouldn't take too long time for him to adapt).

I'll leave you with some links that hopefully might prove helpful.

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...09208-tomiblaougrana-s-tactic-bible-more.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...center***-uploads-discussion-help-thread.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...training/108657-awesome-amc%99-raikan007.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...ight-magic%99-raikan007-fm13.html#post1616376
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2013-discussion/107475-aston-villa-guide.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...most-important-stats-per-position-thread.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...ikan007s-player-recommendation-list-fm13.html
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-brand-new-wonderkid-shortlist-fm13-beta.html
 
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Im a Villa fan myself... you took a very different route to how I would do things but its your save ha...

Il back up what everyone is saying in that you're playing far too cavalier... Altho I dont agree with the thing of you have to play with a ball winner its possible to play without any strong tacklers in the team you just need a half decent guy and your set...
IMO with the players you have Id be looking to play 4231 narrow/wide or a 433 with wide players bring in a CM who can control the MF...
For me tackling of 12 is enough to give you a presence in MF... Id look to bring in someone like Koke he is good tackler and great at ball retention...
Your tactics are far too open, if you were someone who was new to football the logic in setting DF to defend, MF to Support and Att to attack is right but to people who follow the sport its a system that doesnt work... I dont mean to be condescending but thats how it is and it doesnt matter if it worked last year Id say you got very lucky unless you took the time to give them some instructions...

Make some new tactics with a bit more balance, bring in someone to control the MF, plan for the future dont let teams poach your stars without any replacements and most important take sometime to look at a few threads and expand how you play FM... From what you've posted it seems you need really expand on how you play FM because I cant see how you will be successful if you continue like this... Fair enough you are looking for help but I think you will need to find it yourself too theres a lot to be learned playing this game and reading up on a few choice tips on this forum will help you no end...
 
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