Chelsea FM15 - very delayed update

Unfortunately I have pretty much stopped doing any kind of posting on all my blogs for a while. Me an my wife had a child a couple years ago and slowly I have stopped doing all kinds of things that I used to do. However, one of the things I have not stopped doing is playing video games including FM. I've played quite a bit of my Chelsea save even so I figured it would still be good to update the blog with where I am right now.

I'm currently on January 1st of 2018 and our Chelsea has been doing very well despite only having won the premier league one year in the 15/16 season. We got 2nd in the 16/17 season but I feel like we are on our way to winning this one as well. I've changed our tactics a little bit this season so I wanted to update you all on that as well. Inspired by Guido (https://strikerless.com/) I wanted to relive my FM live days of playing strikerless. I have not had success with a 4-6-0 since FML but with Chelseas budget and some inspiration/guidance from Guido I have managed to be doing quite well with this formation.

I'm using a 4-6-0 formation which is slightly different from my FML formation in that the deeper 3 midfielders are actually located more centrally while by attacking mids are playing a mode wide formation. I partly did it this way because of the players I already had in my squad using my previous 4-3-2-1 formation. This has been working well and it is a very aggressive formation although I have had some difficulties against some tough oppositions like Juventus and Manchester United. I think the key for this formation working so far was the addition of Pogba who really stepped up the quality of my midfield. Oscar playing as a Trequartista was originally something I considered a compromise but he has been amazing when playing with William to his right. As you can see I also bough Douglas Costa which has been just an outstanding player for my team, playing in any of my front 3 positions and doing great with set pieces. I also purchased the RWB Danilo from FCP for U$38M. In his first season his average rating was 7.21.

My other unusual formation is a 3-2-2-2-1 using 3 center backs while keeping one of them as a stopper. This tactic was something I wanted to try for a couple of reasons, I have a lot of high quality center backs, and Danilo has been amazing as a wing back when he plays that role. Additionally having Ramires, Pogba and Lucas Silva in the midfield means that I feel comfortable putting less players there and still not leaving the middle vulnerable. Lastly this formation has allowed me to continue playing a fairly wide style of football but with long passes. I haven't tried this formation against tough teams yet but once I finish tweaking it I will try it.

Chelsea FM15 - fruitful October

The month of October was another good one for my Chelsea team. We beat Southampton 2x1, followed by an exciting game against Leicester City. This game happened at King Power Stadium and they were actually the stronger team for the most part. They had more possession and twice as many shots. Fortunately for us we played the right cards and converted 5 shots on goal into 3 goals, winning us the game by 3x2.

We also played Swansea and Crystal Palace, both games we easily managed to win. This leaves us in 3rd place tied with Man United in points. Man City is first by only 3 points so things are still shaping up.

Lastly, we had another Champions League game. This time it was against Ajax and the game was in Holland. After a very good performance by our squad, we unfortunately came out of it with a 0x0 draw. This leaves us currently in 3rd place in group G, behind Juventus and Celtic. However, I do not feel very worried since we still have a lost of home games ahead and I am confident we will make it through this round.

October has been rough for injuries. Besides a 5 month injury to Strootman, we also have Ramire, John Terry, Matic, Felipe Luis, Willian and Gimber all injured this month. So I'm happy we're still getting results, I'm just starting to worry that our team is struggling with players getting tired right before we have some difficult games coming up against Man United, Juventus and Liverpool.

Chelsea FM15 - cruising in the EPL

 After some more games, my Chelsea is doing fairly well. We've been cruising in the premier league, although we have not met the hardest opposition so far. We faced Aston Villa, Hull , Everton and the newly promoted Bournemouth... here are some of the match summaries.

Beyond that, in the European stage things have not been as simple. We faced Juventus on our first match in the Champions league and had a very difficult first half. I think we were actually playing too defensively. We started the second period behind by two goals which really pushed us forward, we almost managed to tie the game with quite a few good chances, in the end Hazard's goal wasn't enough. We also played Celtic, which we easily managed to beat.

Chelsea save - start of season 2

Another season started and I'm setting our goals pretty high this time around. I convinced the board we are going to win the title this time around. With that they opened the wallets for me and I've spent a lot of money in the transfer window... maybe a bit too much even. I'll probably go into my transfers on a later data however.

Right now, we've played 3 matches. Our season opener was against Man City, a game we played well in my opinion, but still failed to get any points. This was also the first game I attempted a new tactic using a 4-6-0 formation with Oscar as a Trequartista playing in the AMC position. It's something new I am trying this season, but I think I pulled the trigger too early and probably should have tested the waters against an easier team first.

Anyway, second game we had the newly promoted Huddersfield, which we managed to beat very comfortably despite playing away. Costa was incredible and I hope this is his new norm, last season he had a few dry spells that really worried me about how much I can rely on him to win games.

My most recent game was against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. This was another tough match for us since last season they beat us when we played away and we fought fiercely for the 3rd position. Fortunately we managed to come out on top of a game where Spurs was certainly controlling. We played again with our 4-3-2-1 formation with the flat narrow midfield, Hazard on the left as an inside forward and Willian on the right as a winger.

FM15 Chelsea save - end of season 1

It was a fairly exciting end of a season for us. After that great knockout round with Dortmund we faced another German side. Bayern Munich was probably one of the toughest draws for us and we had to face them. At our visit to Germany we got beat 3x1 which was a good result based on how much they dominated that game. On the game back in London we managed a 1x1 draw in a game we probably played better than them, but never looked like we were going to beat them by much. While disappointing, I can't say we really had a chance to win that round. This left us with a few games left in the premier league. Our last game was against Spurs where we were in 4th place and they were in 3rd. We were 2 points behind them and a victory would secure us 3 place. If however, Liverpool lost to Hull we had a chance of moving to 2nd place with a greater goal difference assuming we scored a lot of goals against Spurs.

That match was very good for us. We had our full squad and beat them 4x0 with a hat-trick by Diego Costa. Unfortunately Hull tied with Liverpool, leaving us to end the season in 3rd place. This was enough to please the board and to satisfy our goal of qualifying to the Champion's League. Below are some more stats from this season.

An interesting bit from this season was the fact that Mourinho took over Manchester City. City was doing very poorly under Pellegrini and while Mourinho's arrival did improve their standing, they still only managed to get 7th in the end, just missing the Europa Cup position which went to West Brom. Mourinho did get a few awards for his work in the last few months. The FA Cup title this season went to Tottenham with a 2-1 victory over Norwich after their defeat to us.

Now, how about some stats about my players:

Defence

Looking at our center backs, Cahill and Terry dominated in appearances, but were they our best players? Well, when we look at the numbers, in terms of interceptions, Dante, our mid season purchase, did the best, with 10.6 interceptions p/ game. Gary Cahill comes second with 10. These two also lead in tackle rate, with Zouma as the top 3 players in this category. Zouma is definitely a player I intend to develop and use heavily in my squad. Once again, when we look at tackles per game, Dante is on  top with 7.45. So I really hope that despite the money spent on an older player, the board sees how valuable this player was for us.

Midfield

In the midfield we have strong passing performance by the Nigerial Mikel and the Croatian Nemanja Matic. with 88% and 87% respectively. Despite that, their average rate was fairly low. In terms of producing assistances, Fabregas produced 0.39 assists p/ game, followed by Willian and Hazard with 0.33 and 0.32. Here this trend actually equates to high average ratings for these players.

Hazard has the highest rating (7.41) followed by Willian (7.21) and then Oscar (7.07). Oscar's stats would probably be even better had he played most of his games in the wing. He was not an effective CM or ACM this season and this did hurt his stats.

Attack

At the front, we actually see some rather disappointing revelations. While Diego Costa was a fairly strong player for us with 0.75 goals p/ game, added to Remy's 0.7, this is pretty much the best numbers we have. All our other offensive players find themselves under 0.4 goals p/ game. The best average ratings went to Hazard (7.41), Costa (7.22) and Willian (7.21). I must admit, Willian was a much bigger asset this season than I expected. He was a source of consistency in the team, ensuring that he scored whenever the team seemed to need the most. He scored 13 goals.

Diego Costa finished with 28 goals in total, while our second best scorer was Hazard with 17.

Football Manager 2015 - Late season one (Chelsea)

We are not late in the season (end of April), and there are only a few games to go. Our Chelsea side is doing well in the premier league. Unfortunately the race has been extremely tight. The top 3 positions are separated by 3 points only. Tottenham has been doing very well and ManU dominated the league for most of the season. Unlike real life, Mata and Falcao have been unstoppable. Chelsea has had some good stretches, particularly around mid season but once the fixtures got congested for us we ended up losing a few games that we shouldn't have. We managed to win the Capital One cup against Everton which was a nice win for us, even if the board isn't as impressed. On the other hand we were knocked out by Wigan in the FA Cup after a pretty embarrassing two games.

In the Champion's League Chelsea had an extremely exciting first KO round. We faced Borussia Dortmund and lost our away game by 2x0. We came back to London to put up a great show. After a 2x0 lead, Oscar faulted inside the area giving the German side a penalty. They scored making the match 2x1. At that point I thought we weren't going to manage. I was very wrong, the team played like champs and we managed to end up the game with a 6x1 win. It was a wonderful game for our team.

We have also made a few tactical changes since my last post. For one we made a few purchases. Most of them are a reflection of the fact that I'm trying to plan for a team that will be unbeatable in a few seasons. For that I purchased Gimber, Coric and Taufer. I had mentioned before that I was eyeing the CB Gimber and the Winger Ante Coric. They are both fairly good prospects that may become first team players in a few years. For now they are mostly just playing in the under 21 squad. These players are also young enough that they will become homegrown if I keep them for the long term, something I desperately need with my current Chelsea squad. Aside from that I brought in the Brazillian center back Dante. He came in for 7.25 Million, which in hindsigh might be a tad much for a 31 year old. I just felt that Chelsea was a bit too thin at the back and to be quite honest he has been very useful so far. I played him as CB quite a few games but I also ended up using him as a defensive midfielder during an injury spell. I basically had all my defensive midfielders injured for a long time. That fact combined with our clogged calendar made it so I had to bring him in. I can't complain about his performance despite his lack of natural skill in that position.

Lastly, I brought in the Italian DM/MC Melkamu Taufer. This 17 year old is already a fairly decent player and he is supposed to be developing into a superstar if things go well. I would very much like to develop him into becoming a strong deep playmaker, but we'll see. Right now he is looking very good in terms of teamwork, work rate as well as good passing skills. I may need to increase his off the ball skills and wouldn't mind better vision as well. He came in for 2.3M pounds, which isn't cheap, but I know I can at least make my money back in a few seasons. I believe I will also manage to bring in Odegaard at the end of the season. This player will likely cost me a good chunk of money but will certainly be worth it in the long run.

FM15 - Chelsea save

Just recently I've added football manager 2015 to my steam library. I was debating on whether to purchase it since I'm still playing FM13 so much and I'm still enjoying my Heidelberg save quite a bit. Since SI decided to make new FM games for Linux I sort of feel obligated to support them so I actually bought the new game.

For this game I'm probably not going to do a terribly detailed AAR but I thought maybe I'd post a few of my tactical choices and interesting things I do with my team. I basically started with the Chelsea squad that started the season and set my save to start with no transfer money, so basically all EPL squads look like what they did back in September. After playing a few friendlies and a few league games I realized that playing Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 wasn't working very well for me I decided to switch it up. Even though we were winning games the team was just not looking as menacing as Chelsea does in real life. I suffered a terrible defeat from Man United, 7x0, which was definitely a wake up call that I couldn't just rely on that tactic when I wasn't playing very well in general. Below are my fixtures up to this point. Since the ManU game, I had to change things up a bit and since then we've only lost to Newcastle, which was a game I was still using that same formation and to Swansea. The Swansea defeat was a bit of a fluke, we really were the better team, but just couldn't put it in.

So the current tactic we're using is a 4-1-2-2-1 where I dropped Matic to the DM position, even though he is still part of the creative team, and Mikel has been playing some games as a ball winning midfielder. I do rotate Ramires in that position as well, and sometimes even change it to a box to box midfielder role. Fabregas is still playing in the midfield as an advanced playmaker (A), although he just picked up an injury. As you can see I also dropped Oscar's position from my tactic which is a bummer since he's one of my favorite Chelsea players in real life. He was just unable to create much the way the team was playing. Instead I have been using him on occasion in the middle as the other AP(A). He isn't best suited for that position but until I figure out an alternative, he may have to play there. I have also tried playing without a formal striker some games and putting Oscar as a shadow striker and that has worked fairly well against weaker sides. I haven't been brave enough to try it in a big game though. Hazard is playing as an inside forward on the left, and as expected he's my top player so far. Very dangerous carrying the ball up front. On the right side I've been rotating Willian and Schurrle as Wingers, and that has been working well. Willian is probably my favorite one in that position at this point but I'm trying to make Schurrle happy, so I play him pretty often. Up front I have Diego Costa, who was really struggling to score initially with my first formation. Since the switch he's been finding a lot more scoring chances and doing much better, even if he is inconsistent. Remy comes in on occasion as well, and he's had some very strong performances as well. I may even have to rotate the two throughout the season if the performances continue this way.

In terms of trades, I've just loaned out a few players but haven't really done much else. I'm thinking about purchasing some young players and maybe unloading some less promising younglings from our current team. I currently have my eyes on the popular wonderkid Martin Odegaard (15 year old MC), Youri Tielemans (17 yo MC), Bilal Ould-Chikh (17 yo DMC), Ante Coric (17 yo AMC), Benedikt Gimber (17 yo DC) and Niklas Sule (19 yo DC).

Beyond that I may wait for the January window to perhaps unload Cahill for a better DC and perhaps look for another WB as well. I'm finding Ivanovic in FM15 is not nearly as good as the real player.