FM24: KINGSMEN - 900 Minutes
Welcome back to Tilburg! With the introductory piece out of the way, we can finally dive into the season. At this point, I am 900 minutes in which is an ideal time to dissect tactics and analyse where we are at.
However, let’s take a step back and analyse what happened on our very first day at Willem.
It’s time to introduce the man who is going to be guiding Willem to glory (hopefully)! Meet Asgar Nuriyev, one of my favourite players from my previous save with Kerry FC.
Asgar joined us on a free and didn’t really set the footballing world alight in his first few seasons but he persevered and forced his way into my team. He actually went on to be our club captain and key player!
I just had to bring him forward into this save, he is one of my favourite ever newgens in FM.
So, the first few weeks of Asgar’s reign were tough going. Goals were incredibly hard to come by, we created a plethora of opportunities but struggled to convert them. With very little wage budget available and no real transfer budget, some wheeling and dealing had to be done.
It took us a few weeks but we finally managed to ship veteran striker Jeremy Bokila through the door for a fee of 70k. This wasn’t so much about the incoming transfer fee but freeing up a decent chunk of the wage bill.
This allowed us to dive into the loan market as we headed towards deadline day.
Wout de Goalpost reported exclusively for The Athletic that we managed to get three deals over the line on deadline day -two loan signings and one free transfer.
Mateo Joseph joins from Leeds United in a bid to solve our goalscoring deficiencies. He will be a ‘star player’ for us, it is a risk giving him such a high squad status but unfortunately this was the only way I could get him to agree to the deal.
Nicolas Olivera came in from Hamburg on loan. He is a versatile fullback who will primarily play at right back for us but can provide cover at left back and in central defence if required.
Finally, we brought in Maxim Gullit, yes he is the son of Ruud! The 22-year-old defender was available on a free after being released by Cambuur. I don’t see him as a starter for us but he can provide decent enough cover in a couple of positions, and he’s Ruud Gullit’s son, that’s got to count for something… right?
Tactics
So, our tactical identity is largely based around retaining possession. With the Advanced Playmaker tucking in from the left, it clears the path for the Fullback to get forward, he is on support to ensure there is some balance to his forward runs, we don’t want all out kamikaze football!
Verreth is wonderful as a Regista, the tactic is pretty much built to accommodate him if I am being honest. He and the Box to Box midfielder have freedom to get forward which is why we have the Inverted Wingback moving into the space they vacate.
Then we basically have a front three in the form of the AP, Shadow Striker and Pressing Forward.
I will be working on another tactic over the coming weeks so that we have another in our locker, perhaps one that can serve us well when we are faced with teams who are non too thrilled to allow us to retain over 70% possession. For the time being though, this is what we are working with.
How it’s going…
Scoop McGee has been very impressed with the start to the campaign! He gave us a glowing review in his weekly column at The Athletic!
So, I work in football analysis IRL and 900 minutes is an excellent baseline to do some initial performance analysis. As you can see from the table, we find ourselves in third place, our only loss coming against current leaders Cambuur.
Now, if we turn our attention towards the data hub, we can looking into how effective our tactic actually is.
Firstly, the xG table. I mentioned previously that despite our best efforts, scoring goals was proving rather difficult. Mateo Joseph’s arrival certainly pushed us in the right direction as the on-loan Leeds man bagged three in his first four games. We are still very much underperforming in terms of our actual goals:expected goals ratio but we’re on the right track.
I actually thought we had been pretty solid defensively but my analysts appear to be concerned with the quality of chances we are conceding. Something to look into as the season moves along!
It looks like were are performing well in terms of our goal output compared to the rest of the league. As you can see here, we find ourselves in the top left quadrant, indicating we have a high number of non-penalty expected goals and a strong defence.
However, if we then look at how well we convert the opportunities we create… things look a little less rosy. We may have a high number of expected goals but we struggle to convert them into actual goals.
Now, there has been an upturn in this number since we signed Mateo Joseph so I am not overly worried, I will monitor the numbers but I am confident we will continue to improve in this regard.
Our tactic relies on us pressing high and recovering possession, then pinning the opponent back into their own half. This data viz is a nice confirmation that what we are doing is very effective.
We are the best pressing team in the league and utilise our high defensive line to prevent our opponents from playing their way out.
Finally, we actually look very solid defensively. We face the fewest shots in the league, thanks to our high press and pinning. Plus, we have the lowest opposition conversion rate which means we have a very tight defence.
All is going well…rrrright??
…
Errr, not exactly.
Shit.
On-loan Patrick Joosten had been out standout performer so far, bagging five in nine playing out on the right wing for us. On the positive side, we have Nick Doodeman who can step straight in as a replacement but it’s a real shame as Patrick had made such a bright start.
Always the way with FM isn’t it, it gives and then it takes away.
Thanks for reading this update! We will be back soon with more Willem II news.