Sunday, 11 May 2008  

Southampton. Fluent tactical approach matters!

Today I have some good news about my Southampton. As it was decided in previous story message - my team should operate more defensively if we want to avoid relegation from Premier League. And, of course, I had real motivation for creation of defensive tactics because my team was on the last position when 24 matches had already been played.

Actually, I hadn't created new tactics from the very beginning. I just changed formation of my current attacking one. You can compare both formations:

4-3-3 Attacking                             4-1-4-1 Defensive 

4-3-3 Attacking , Southampton For 4-1-4-1 tactics I have been using Normal mentality without Counter Attacks   

So I just moved MLC and MRC from 4-3-3 tactics into positions of clear attacking wingers: ML and MR. And my 2 forwards (FLC, FRC) were moved  into MLC and MRC positions. 

For 4-1-4-1 tactics I have been using Normal mentality without Counter Attacks. Though sometimes playing against strong football clubs like Manchester United I was turning on counter attacks and setting more defensive mentality.

As a result I've got the following row of successful games:

As a result I've got the following row of successful games

By the way, not all matches were played with new 4-1-4-1 tactics. I decided to setup tactics for every match more fluently. The main rule of my new fluent tactical approach is: If Southampton plays at home with opponent which power is less or equal to power of my team, then 4-3-3 formation is preferred. Otherwise, 4-1-4-1 formation is chosen.

And, for sure, other settings like Tempo, Mentality, Counter Attacks, etc. can be changed depending on separate match and style of opponent team (this is a common thing, I suppose).

So using the aforementioned rule I played home matches with Birmingham, Fulham, Portsmouth, Derby with 4-3-3 formation. Other matches in the screen shot were played using 4-1-4-1 formation.

Consequently you can see very marked improvement of Southampton's position in the league standing:

Consequently you can see very marked improvement of Southampton's position in the league standing

We are 17th! And having 7 points away from relegation zone. Seems like some kind of great disaster should happen if Southampton doesn't stay in the Premier League! By now I'm starting to think over the prospects of the next season... Waiting it with impatience!

And the last but not least... I want to praise again great striker - Marius Niculae. Most likely you had read about him in the previous posts of my Southampton story. This time I will only give you screen with his current form during the last matches:

Current form of Marius Niculae during the last matches

What I can say, he scores very often!!! And he does this in Premier League playing against very tough teams. And the most important: Niculae scores many goals playing for my Southampton that is one of the weakest PL teams currently! Imagine how he would perform if he is Chelsea or Liverpool player when world class midfielders would give him a lot of dangerous passes.

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14 comment(s):

  1. Anonymous Says: 11 May 2008 12:33

    now u can smile hard. :)

  2. james Says: 11 May 2008 15:04

    congrats

  3. Anonymous Says: 11 May 2008 22:22

    shame bout ur result against pompey, i bet the fans were really pissed with that result

  4. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says: 12 May 2008 11:26

    Yep :) Loss to Portsmouth was very painful. And Southampton fans remind me this loss every month during board report :)

    So, it sounds from the fans in this way: "We are happy with you as Southampton manager. But we still rememeber that stunning loss!".

  5. Vincent Says: 12 May 2008 14:01

    good to see you've got your southampton back on track, atleast, preventing them from demoting back to the coca cola champions league. Funny fact in my save game, season 2011/2012 Manchester UNITED (rooney, ronald, etc etc) got demoted from the premier league, no idea how that happened since I am now managing in Brazil (sao Paulo). But still kinda funny.

  6. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says: 13 May 2008 21:22

    Vincent,
    It's always funny to remarks such things in Football Manager series when grand club relegates. Though it happens very rarely.

    And, of course, it's not bug of FM. Usually, it happens because of poor management with injuries :)

  7. Vincent Says: 13 May 2008 23:08

    I reconned that, though, still kinda funny to see man utd regalated, keeping track of them now, owning the coca cola championship, though they lost some meyor players pre-season.

  8. Anonymous Says: 14 May 2008 10:33

    Congrats, tactic looks like a good one.

    Will you be posting this for download or is there already somewhere i can download your defensive tactics?

    Thanks

  9. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says: 15 May 2008 16:17

    Yes, I will. In few days. Or may be today..

  10. velja Says: 19 May 2008 23:33

    try to set wingers to run in the middle and central midfielders (exept dm) to run on wings so in atack u will have
    * * *
    * * *
    * * * *

    u will be more dangerous :p

  11. velja Says: 19 May 2008 23:39

    -***-
    *-*-*
    ****

    dunno what to do to make it looks better ;)

  12. Anonymous Says: 20 May 2008 11:09

    hope u'll improve your league position and revenge at your lost againts Pompey..

    good luck!!!

    mybe next season u should add some power in ur attacking part..hihi..

    -dzex-

  13. velja Says: 20 May 2008 11:34

    buy Ilsinho! :))

  14. esco Says: 14 August 2008 22:36

    seems you are conceding too many goals, I had the same problem with Newcastle, my defense seemed good on paper, my defenders had average ratings of 7 and they still shipped more goals than relegated teams. Shay given finished with a match a rating of 7.31. Something does not add up. Any clues.
    My back four was like this
    Rafinha/Beye, Taylor, Delpierre, Eduardo/Jose Enrique

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