Jamesveekay
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Hey guys, I'm pretty new here but I've played FM for quite some time. I'm currently having a problem fitting all my players into my formation because in the second season, all the loaned out players have returned and hence the squad becomes very big. I'll just describe my first season tactics so all of you have a better understanding of my system.
In my first season I didn't do much in terms of transfers; sold Anderson and bought Dani Parejo (which I kind of regret because he's pretty much the same player as Ander Herrera) as well as Mattia De Sciglio.
In the first half of the season I used the wingless formation that van Gaal frequently used this season: 3-4-1-2 and 4-4-2 narrow diamond with 4-3-3 DM Wide when I play stronger oppositions so as to contain them better and launch a fast counter with Di Maria and Valencia at the wings and RVP/Falcao/Rooney up front.
I rotated Luke Shaw and Daley Blind at the left wing-back position as well as Rafael and De Sciglio at the right wing-back position. When I play the diamond, Daley Blind or Michael Carrick would fill in at the base of the diamond as Half Back or Regista. The CB was not much of a problem as I have 4 plus Blind and Carrick who, when needed, can be played there. In a back 4, though, I usually go for Rojo/Jones pairing with Chris Smalling a more than sufficient cover.
Up front I usually play the Advanced Forward-Poacher combination. I had the 4 strikers but I realised RVP and Falcao don't work really well together so it's usually Rooney plus one of the two. If Rooney have to play at the AMC position for some reason then I'd play the two of them together. Wilson was good but could only be used sparingly.
In the middle, I usually have Fellaini as Box-to-box Midfielder with Fletcher as backup and Herrera/Carrick/Di Maria as Deep-Lying Playmaker/Roaming Playmaker (this is when I realised that Parejo is a surplus to requirements). Herrera can do both but Carrick mainly operated as DLP and Di Maria as RP. At the AMC position, I rotate Juan Mata and Januzaj with Rooney and Di Maria able to replace them when one or both are injured or not performing well.
In the middle of the season, though, I decided that I'm going to change the formation to utilize the wingers more. Therefore, I changed my main formation to 4-4-2 Attacking or 4-2-3-1 with MCs insteam of DMs. This actually brings better results as my players can stretch the play out wide, leaving holes in the opposition's defence.
Arranging the back four wasn't a problem. Shaw/Blind and Rafael/De Sciglio at DL and DR respectively, CB pairing the same as described above. Blind performed slightly better overall than Shaw, but for most of the season, fortunately or unfortunately, I only have one of Rafael or De Sciglio available due to injuries, but both performed well in the other's absence, in my opinion. Rafael did slightly better defensively, but De Sciglio offered a bit more when surging forward with his crosses. Overall, my defenders are pretty versatile with only Jonny Evans and Luke Shaw the only players stuck at one position.
The two CMs are mainly Herrera/Carrick as DLP/AP and Fellaini as BBM with Fletcher as backup. Angel Di Maria and Ashley Young compete at AML as an Inside Forward and Mata/Januzaj/Valencia pushing for a spot at the AMR position. Herrera/Carrick's role changes depending on who plays at the right wing and whether I'm playing with a no.10. When Mata plays at the wing, I gave him the Advanced Playmaker role. For Januzaj, it's either Inside Forward or Advanced Playmaker. Valencia operated mainly as Winger/Inside Forward. In the 4-2-3-1 formation, Rooney is my preferred no.10 playing as an Advanced Playmaker, so Herrera/Carrick will be given a role of DLP and Januzaj/Valencia would play at AMR instead of Mata. In the 4-4-2 formation, though, I prefer to play Mata/Januzaj at AMR as AP, so Herrera/Carrick would, again, play as DLP. When Mata is Injured, though, I would rather play 2 Inside Forwards with Januzaj/Valencia at AMR and hence Herrera/Carrick would operate as AP. I slightly prefer Herrera than Carrick, though, so it's mostly an AP Herrera in the middle and hence the AMR would play as IF.
Up front it's rather simple, with Rooney partnered by RVP/Falcao in a 4-4-2. When I first switched into this system, Rooney played as False Nine or Deep Lying Forward, but as the season went on, I chose to play him as Complete Forward - Support with RVP/Falcao or sometimes Wilson as Advanced Forward. In the 4-2-3-1, Rooney played mainly as AMC with RVP/Falcao up top. RVP tended to get injured as the season was ending, though, so Falcao gets more playing time as a lone striker. Falcao was actually great as a lone striker as he ended the season in the EPL Best XI. Wilson was a good impact sub as he scored a few in injury times. I play 4-2-3-1 when the opponent used midfield congestion as a tactic to wear down my team or when Rooney was unavailable. Otherwise, I used 4-4-2 but Rooney was a vital part of the front two as no one could perform CF-S better than Rooney, if any.
With these, I managed to finish 3rd behind Arsenal (really, Arsenal won the league?) and Liverpool (there's a reason this is a game). Just for your information, Chelsea, City, and Spurs were 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively (guess what, City missed a CL spot!). Burnley (18th), Leicester City (19th), and Crystal Palace (20th) were relegated and replaced by Norwich (Championship champions), Nottingham Forest (2nd, won playoffs), and Reading (6th, won playoffs)
Now that I'm at my second season, as I said before, the squad is really big due to the returning loanees. So far, I've sold Zaha for ~10 mil to Monaco, sold Lingard for ~1.5 mil to Nottingham Forest, who just got promoted to PL, released Ben Amos and Cleverley, and I put Lindegaard on the transfer list. Received offers for Chicharito and Januzaj, but I've decided to keep them.
Now, my squad are as follows:
GK
David De Gea, Sam Johnstone, Vanja Milinkovic
De Gea speaks for himself, while Sam Johnstone actually has good attributes (15 aerial, 16 command of area, 17 reflexes) so I've decided to make him my new 2nd choice. Vanja Milinkovic is a great one for the future in my opinion but I probably won't use him much, if at all. Therefore, I may look to loan him out to Championship clubs or I can just leave him in the U21s.
DF
Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Rafael, Mattia De Sciglio
No change to my defenders. How I use them is already described above.
MC
Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Dani Parejo, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini
I'm not too concerned with the number of players here, but I'm thinking of offloading Fletcher and Parejo and possibly Carrick because he's aging, and bringing a strong BBM to compete with Fellaini as well as a new playmaker in case I sell Carrick or reduce his playing time.
AML/R
Antonio Valencia, Angel Di Maria, Ashley Young, Nani, Adnan Januzaj, Juan Mata
I'm putting Mata and Januzaj in both the AML/R list and AMC list because they can play well in both positions. There's no way I'm selling Di Maria and Ashley Young was actually really useful as IF, competing Di Maria well for a place in the AML position. The least useful player in this list is probably Valencia because I don't really use my wingers to always stay on the wings, and Januzaj and Young do much better cutting inside to spray passes or to shoot. Young, Januzaj, Di Maria, and De Sciglio are much better crossers than Valencia is. In my opinion Valencia is the least technical player on this list as he is not the best in any attribute. However, he still managed to get an average rating of over 7 last season. Mata would sometimes drift inside to occasionally play as no.10 and look for that killer pass or he can stay wide and deliver accurate through balls or crosses, so he's really a competent wide playmaker.
AMC
Juan Mata, Adnan Januzaj, Wayne Rooney
If my formation uses an AMC, Rooney will play most of the time if available. He drifts everywhere in midfield to look for the position where he could make the play the best, and the lone striker or the Inside Forwards could move to channels to receive his passes. Mata does less moving around, but his passes are still reliable. Januzaj is a bit selfish at times but he dribbles well and didn't get dispossessed often. Tottenham wants to buy Januzaj, but a player with a 5-star potential and 3-star current ability at 20 years old is just too good to be sold.
ST
Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez, James Wilson, Angelo Henriquez
I didn't make Falcao's move permanent despite him being in the EPL Best XI last season simply because he's too expensive and at 29, he doesn't have that many years left as a world-class striker in my opinion and 46 million for him is just too much. RVP is getting more injury prone, so my first-choice pairing for next season would probably be Rooney and Chicharito. I have paired them in a few pre-season matches and Chicharito seemed to be scoring for fun with so many creative players supporting him. I really see Wilson and Henriquez as a future pairing as they're both young and have immense potential. Henriquez is the more mobile of the two and currently has better attributes than Wilson, but Wilson is younger and has a better potential (5 stars compared to Henriquez's 4). Having 5 strikers isn't ideal considering I sometimes play a lone striker, so I would probably look to loan out at least one of the two to give both of them more playing time. Henriquez is more preferable in my team right now not only because he has better current attributes, but also because he can operate as a Complete Forward, something Wilson cannot do, which makes him the perfect backup to Rooney. But if I end up loaning out both of them, I think I should look for a Rooney-like striker to loan as backup.
It's a long post, but I'm trying to be as detailed as possible to give you more insight into my current team's situation. Thanks for reading and I hope to receive replies from all of you about how to slightly reduce the number of players and increase the effectiveness of each player and the team overall.
In my first season I didn't do much in terms of transfers; sold Anderson and bought Dani Parejo (which I kind of regret because he's pretty much the same player as Ander Herrera) as well as Mattia De Sciglio.
In the first half of the season I used the wingless formation that van Gaal frequently used this season: 3-4-1-2 and 4-4-2 narrow diamond with 4-3-3 DM Wide when I play stronger oppositions so as to contain them better and launch a fast counter with Di Maria and Valencia at the wings and RVP/Falcao/Rooney up front.
I rotated Luke Shaw and Daley Blind at the left wing-back position as well as Rafael and De Sciglio at the right wing-back position. When I play the diamond, Daley Blind or Michael Carrick would fill in at the base of the diamond as Half Back or Regista. The CB was not much of a problem as I have 4 plus Blind and Carrick who, when needed, can be played there. In a back 4, though, I usually go for Rojo/Jones pairing with Chris Smalling a more than sufficient cover.
Up front I usually play the Advanced Forward-Poacher combination. I had the 4 strikers but I realised RVP and Falcao don't work really well together so it's usually Rooney plus one of the two. If Rooney have to play at the AMC position for some reason then I'd play the two of them together. Wilson was good but could only be used sparingly.
In the middle, I usually have Fellaini as Box-to-box Midfielder with Fletcher as backup and Herrera/Carrick/Di Maria as Deep-Lying Playmaker/Roaming Playmaker (this is when I realised that Parejo is a surplus to requirements). Herrera can do both but Carrick mainly operated as DLP and Di Maria as RP. At the AMC position, I rotate Juan Mata and Januzaj with Rooney and Di Maria able to replace them when one or both are injured or not performing well.
In the middle of the season, though, I decided that I'm going to change the formation to utilize the wingers more. Therefore, I changed my main formation to 4-4-2 Attacking or 4-2-3-1 with MCs insteam of DMs. This actually brings better results as my players can stretch the play out wide, leaving holes in the opposition's defence.
Arranging the back four wasn't a problem. Shaw/Blind and Rafael/De Sciglio at DL and DR respectively, CB pairing the same as described above. Blind performed slightly better overall than Shaw, but for most of the season, fortunately or unfortunately, I only have one of Rafael or De Sciglio available due to injuries, but both performed well in the other's absence, in my opinion. Rafael did slightly better defensively, but De Sciglio offered a bit more when surging forward with his crosses. Overall, my defenders are pretty versatile with only Jonny Evans and Luke Shaw the only players stuck at one position.
The two CMs are mainly Herrera/Carrick as DLP/AP and Fellaini as BBM with Fletcher as backup. Angel Di Maria and Ashley Young compete at AML as an Inside Forward and Mata/Januzaj/Valencia pushing for a spot at the AMR position. Herrera/Carrick's role changes depending on who plays at the right wing and whether I'm playing with a no.10. When Mata plays at the wing, I gave him the Advanced Playmaker role. For Januzaj, it's either Inside Forward or Advanced Playmaker. Valencia operated mainly as Winger/Inside Forward. In the 4-2-3-1 formation, Rooney is my preferred no.10 playing as an Advanced Playmaker, so Herrera/Carrick will be given a role of DLP and Januzaj/Valencia would play at AMR instead of Mata. In the 4-4-2 formation, though, I prefer to play Mata/Januzaj at AMR as AP, so Herrera/Carrick would, again, play as DLP. When Mata is Injured, though, I would rather play 2 Inside Forwards with Januzaj/Valencia at AMR and hence Herrera/Carrick would operate as AP. I slightly prefer Herrera than Carrick, though, so it's mostly an AP Herrera in the middle and hence the AMR would play as IF.
Up front it's rather simple, with Rooney partnered by RVP/Falcao in a 4-4-2. When I first switched into this system, Rooney played as False Nine or Deep Lying Forward, but as the season went on, I chose to play him as Complete Forward - Support with RVP/Falcao or sometimes Wilson as Advanced Forward. In the 4-2-3-1, Rooney played mainly as AMC with RVP/Falcao up top. RVP tended to get injured as the season was ending, though, so Falcao gets more playing time as a lone striker. Falcao was actually great as a lone striker as he ended the season in the EPL Best XI. Wilson was a good impact sub as he scored a few in injury times. I play 4-2-3-1 when the opponent used midfield congestion as a tactic to wear down my team or when Rooney was unavailable. Otherwise, I used 4-4-2 but Rooney was a vital part of the front two as no one could perform CF-S better than Rooney, if any.
With these, I managed to finish 3rd behind Arsenal (really, Arsenal won the league?) and Liverpool (there's a reason this is a game). Just for your information, Chelsea, City, and Spurs were 4th, 5th, and 6th respectively (guess what, City missed a CL spot!). Burnley (18th), Leicester City (19th), and Crystal Palace (20th) were relegated and replaced by Norwich (Championship champions), Nottingham Forest (2nd, won playoffs), and Reading (6th, won playoffs)
Now that I'm at my second season, as I said before, the squad is really big due to the returning loanees. So far, I've sold Zaha for ~10 mil to Monaco, sold Lingard for ~1.5 mil to Nottingham Forest, who just got promoted to PL, released Ben Amos and Cleverley, and I put Lindegaard on the transfer list. Received offers for Chicharito and Januzaj, but I've decided to keep them.
Now, my squad are as follows:
GK
David De Gea, Sam Johnstone, Vanja Milinkovic
De Gea speaks for himself, while Sam Johnstone actually has good attributes (15 aerial, 16 command of area, 17 reflexes) so I've decided to make him my new 2nd choice. Vanja Milinkovic is a great one for the future in my opinion but I probably won't use him much, if at all. Therefore, I may look to loan him out to Championship clubs or I can just leave him in the U21s.
DF
Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Rafael, Mattia De Sciglio
No change to my defenders. How I use them is already described above.
MC
Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Dani Parejo, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini
I'm not too concerned with the number of players here, but I'm thinking of offloading Fletcher and Parejo and possibly Carrick because he's aging, and bringing a strong BBM to compete with Fellaini as well as a new playmaker in case I sell Carrick or reduce his playing time.
AML/R
Antonio Valencia, Angel Di Maria, Ashley Young, Nani, Adnan Januzaj, Juan Mata
I'm putting Mata and Januzaj in both the AML/R list and AMC list because they can play well in both positions. There's no way I'm selling Di Maria and Ashley Young was actually really useful as IF, competing Di Maria well for a place in the AML position. The least useful player in this list is probably Valencia because I don't really use my wingers to always stay on the wings, and Januzaj and Young do much better cutting inside to spray passes or to shoot. Young, Januzaj, Di Maria, and De Sciglio are much better crossers than Valencia is. In my opinion Valencia is the least technical player on this list as he is not the best in any attribute. However, he still managed to get an average rating of over 7 last season. Mata would sometimes drift inside to occasionally play as no.10 and look for that killer pass or he can stay wide and deliver accurate through balls or crosses, so he's really a competent wide playmaker.
AMC
Juan Mata, Adnan Januzaj, Wayne Rooney
If my formation uses an AMC, Rooney will play most of the time if available. He drifts everywhere in midfield to look for the position where he could make the play the best, and the lone striker or the Inside Forwards could move to channels to receive his passes. Mata does less moving around, but his passes are still reliable. Januzaj is a bit selfish at times but he dribbles well and didn't get dispossessed often. Tottenham wants to buy Januzaj, but a player with a 5-star potential and 3-star current ability at 20 years old is just too good to be sold.
ST
Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez, James Wilson, Angelo Henriquez
I didn't make Falcao's move permanent despite him being in the EPL Best XI last season simply because he's too expensive and at 29, he doesn't have that many years left as a world-class striker in my opinion and 46 million for him is just too much. RVP is getting more injury prone, so my first-choice pairing for next season would probably be Rooney and Chicharito. I have paired them in a few pre-season matches and Chicharito seemed to be scoring for fun with so many creative players supporting him. I really see Wilson and Henriquez as a future pairing as they're both young and have immense potential. Henriquez is the more mobile of the two and currently has better attributes than Wilson, but Wilson is younger and has a better potential (5 stars compared to Henriquez's 4). Having 5 strikers isn't ideal considering I sometimes play a lone striker, so I would probably look to loan out at least one of the two to give both of them more playing time. Henriquez is more preferable in my team right now not only because he has better current attributes, but also because he can operate as a Complete Forward, something Wilson cannot do, which makes him the perfect backup to Rooney. But if I end up loaning out both of them, I think I should look for a Rooney-like striker to loan as backup.
It's a long post, but I'm trying to be as detailed as possible to give you more insight into my current team's situation. Thanks for reading and I hope to receive replies from all of you about how to slightly reduce the number of players and increase the effectiveness of each player and the team overall.
