Much ADO About Everything – Best of the Rest

A long time ago, so long I can’t remember if it was on here or The Dugout forum, I foolishly boasted three seasons should be long enough to win any league with any club in FM. Well here am I, end of season three with ADO and, not for the first time, proving myself spectacularly wrong.

Perhaps FM is harder these days, perhaps my self-imposed restrictions make the game more difficult or perhaps I’m just shitter than I used to be – whatever the reason, our progression has been good enough to see off all but the giants of Amsterdam.

Some of you may remember my ADO save from FM13, in which it took us five seasons – and Javier Aguirre leaving – to eventually topple Ajax and win the Eredivisie. FM20 is shaping up much the same with our rivals knocking us out of the Beker and coasting to a third successive title.

It was a close run thing with AZ for that second spot. Indeed, the Alkmaar side had been making a decent fist of a title challenge until inexplicably losing 5 of the last 7 games; their only wins coming against us and Willem II on the last day.

For our part, we increased our points tally from 2020/21 by 14 (23%) and our goals scored by 8 (12%) whilst, most pleasingly, reducing the goals against by 13 (32%) and smashing my target of 0.9 goals conceded per game (0.82 actual).

Our six defeats were all on the road with 1-0 losses to Ajax, AZ and PSV all understandable. Less so were losing 2-1 to Vitesse or 2-0 at Groningen and I’d really like to forget all about the 4-3 defeat to Roda for anything other than this wondergoal from Robert Muric.

Muric, with 19 goals and 17 assists, was one of the big successes of the season, absolutely dominating that right flank in combination with first Milan van Ewijk and then, once the latter had completed an £11m move to AZ, newgen Levi de Cler.

I was a little hesitant to allow van Ewijk to move, particularly to a domestic rival, but am convinced of the potential in de Cler – particularly considering the fullback issues detailed in the last post and de Cler’s superior defensive attributes.

Primarily, though, I sanctioned the sale to boost the finances which, whilst not exactly in dire straits, were in need of a little bolstering with a specific aim in mind. The long-threatened board takeover had finally gone through without, thankfully, a tycoon. Instead a consortium led by Czech senator and owner of betting firm SYNOT has continued where Martin Jol’s board left off – with phenomenal investment off the pitch and moderate but manageable sums on it.

As an aside, if anyone wants to create new custom ADO Den Haag shirts adding SYNOT as the new sponsor then I’d be more than happy to receive them. The current shirts look thus. I’m a big fan of the away and third kits.

With the squad continuing to improve, any strengthening through the transfer market is slowly becoming more expensive and, with Sékou Koïta hitting another 23 goals this term, I was anticipating an imminent approach from Europe’s big clubs. Thus our modest transfer kitty would need to cover expensive replacements, not just strengthening the weak areas.

With Thomas Buitink identified as Koïta’s replacement, making sure we were in a position to activate his £8m release clause (for teams in continental competitions) became a priority. Hence van Ewijk’s sale and a call to Vitesse’s chairman the very second we’d confirmed qualification.

Sadly we didn’t last very long in Europe last season – pulling Marseille in the Europa Conference playoffs and going out 2-1 on aggregate after some spirited efforts. We got a similarly difficult draw this year, however we’ve already turned in impressive performances to defeat Shakhtar 4-2 on aggregate and now face Turkish side Bawsackshehir for a place in the Champions League groups.

I think we’ll drop in the Europa League groups even if we lose so much of this summer’s transfer have been aimed at providing genuine rotation options, anticipating some significant pre-Xmas fixture congestion.

Summer ’22 transfer business

Fosu-Mensah is a great addition on a free, capable of covering across the backline as well as DM; whilst loans for Braaf and Zeegelaar provide cheap, quality competition down a left-flank which continues to cause me problems – more on that later. Vormer, at 34 with 19 Determination and 18 Leadership, bridges our leadership gap – particularly problematic with Lex Immers retiring this summer.

The key problem position, however, was goalkeeper. As mentioned in the last blog, we have two good prospects coming through but both had difficult years – Nikiema suffering for lack of a loan spell whilst Wentges shipped 58 goals in a demoralising relegation campaign at Portuguese club Académica. Both have found more suitable domestic loans this term but I’m losing faith that either will ‘make it’.

Hence this summer’s investment in two ‘keepers – long-term target Maarten Paes and Mario Carnesecchi from Atalanta.

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Nothing really spectacular about either but I’ve had my eye on Paes since the start of the save – the only realistic Dutch option in net with the basic goalkeeping attributes I prioritise (positioning, reflexes and agility) and solid mentals.

All of which left me with a balanced squad, tailored to our tactical framework and a specific template for the sort of player required for each role… or almost.

An almost universal aspect to each of my tactics is that I have trouble nailing down one specific role – usually an attacking one. It’s no different in this save as I continue to struggle with the AML position.

Current preferred system and strongest eleven

Whilst our AMR, whether Muric or stand-in Azevedo, has consistently produced both goals and assists, I’ve felt like the AML has contributed only in fits and starts. With several attempts to spice the position up a bit failing to take hold, I decided to use this blog to work through the issue.

My starting point is the same as it always is – what do I actually want the playerto do? Then I can start to judge its success against something other than just a hunch it isn’t doing much. Sadly, this is where I started coming unstuck.

Rather than knowing what I wanted the role to do, I mentally listed off a series of things I wanted him not to do. I didn’t want him hitting the byline and throwing crosses over – that’s the role of the overlapping wingback. I didn’t want him to be threatening behind the defensive line – that’s the role of the advanced forward and inside forward on the opposite flank. I didn’t even want him to be playing off the striker, looking for rebounds or cutbacks as the striker pushes the defensive line deep – that’s the role of the attacking central midfielder.

I had a vague notion of wanting him to play ‘between the lines’ and simply look to exploit the space in front of the opposition defence – our overall approach is to play the ball around in deep positions, look to draw the opposition midfield out by tempting them to close down the two DMs, then play through that press – usually to the flanks first – and use our pace to hit the opposition quickly.

I soon decided that the best way to work it out was to watch a couple of games and see where the issues were, and do the same for the CM(A) whilst I was at it as I’ve been, to a lesser extent, concerned that its another role that could be more effective.

One of the first things I noticed, perhaps because it had been so obvious throughout the season, was the recurrence of the above. The CM(A) and the AML are ringed in green and, as I’d noticed throughout the first two campaigns, the left winger is far wider than I would like him to be – which is somewhere within the shaded box, looking to exploit that space.

Where he currently is does nothing but crowd the left wingback’s position (bottom of the screen) and leave himself isolated from central play. If he’d move inside then he offers another option through the lines for van den Boomen whilst also being able to easily move in support of either the AMR, who actually receives the ball, or the leftback should van den Boomen instead play the long pass to the flank.

The rest of the players are set up fine, in my opinion. The advanced forward has successfully pushed the defence right back by threatening to go in behind, this has opened the gap between the defending fullbacks and their wide midfielders such that the pass to the AMR is both straightforward and leaves the recipient with space to exploit.

This is from a few moments later in the same move. The AMR has received the ball and dribbled past the left back into a dangerous position. I’m more than happy with the AML’s position here, having effectively moved to act as a wide striker in the final third.

This juxtaposition of poor positioning when the ball is deep…

…and ideal positioning when we’re in the final third…

… is the problem in microcosm.

It’s also convinced me that the CM role (CM(A)) is fine as it’s doing more-or-less what I want of that position – over-loading the opposition’s central midfielders to allow the regista to play through the press and getting up in support of the attack but behind the main defensive line for an alternative option for crosses.

Having identified the same problem last summer, I experimented a few times with an Advanced Playmaker in the AML position – something with which I’ve had great success in previous saves. However, on this occasion, I felt that it drew our passing focus away from the regista – a key facet of our build-up play in pulling the opposition forward.

I’m tempted to go back to an AP with a longer experiment but, before that, will try a couple of tweaks to instructions. First team instructions where I’ll ask the team to play narrower in possession. In my experience, this doesn’t significantly affect the width of the wingbacks and so may simply allow the front three to play closer together.

Secondly, I’ll add the ‘roam from position’ personal instruction to the AML. The explanatory text sounds like just the ticket:

Roam From Position gives players the freedom to leave their designated position within a team’s basic formation and instead find pockets of space in which they can be more effective.

I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.

I’ll also consider player traits but I’m struggling to think of any which would have the desired effect. Any “cutting inside” instructions have, in my experience, applied only once the player is already in possession of the ball; whereas I’m aiming for movement out of possession.

I’ve £9m left in the transfer kitty for the required shopping, plus whatever we get for Koïta should he, as expected, move on. That would mean Buitink replacing Koïta up front and either a new signing or blossoming prospect Robbemond slotting in at AML.

Robbemond’s season in Germany with St.Pauli did him the world of good and he’s really pushing for first-team football now. That sort of progression is what I’d like to see across the board, whilst my aims on the pitch are to maintain our second-place domestically and rake in as much Champions League cash as we can.

Ajax, whilst they’ve lost the likes of Dôan, Onana, Mazraoui, Tadic, Tagliafico, Martinez, Antony and Dest, have recruited wisely with Shaqiri, Carrascal, Sergio Gómez and Georgino Wijnaldum all very strong purchases. I see them as still being a class above but if we can secure our position as best-of-the-rest (and fix that AML issue), that’ll class as a successful campaign.

Whilst you’re here, you have just two days left to purchase your awesome Football Manager Roles and Duties t-shirts from Everpress. Designed by outstanding FM YouTuber JimG, all profits go to mental health charity CALM – a cause which is all the more important given the testing times we find ourselves in.

I’d be obliged it you could head over to the Everpress page and, should any take your fancy, make a purchase or three.