Rovers13

Will the policy of unproven youngsters carry over?

Since reading some tips on here and other places gone six wins out of seven in the prem with VIlla including beating Chelsea and Man U before I lost to stoke and went out of the Euro League vs wolfsburg in the same week. Now I got an FA Cup qf coming up, and if I beat city in that game, I'll play Blackburn in the semis so a great chance at more European football.

Find a tactic or an assortment of tactics that works for you...

That's basically it, or the most important factor anyway. You can go down the easy route and download something that works, or go the equally more frustrating and eventually rewarding route of making something yourself.

If you decide to make it yourself, don't mess too much around with the sliders. It's very complicated and you should only mess with that if you know exactly what each slider does. If you limit yourself to the tactic creator and use common sense with a few tips and tricks you should be fine. Tactics take a while to settle though, so use the pre-season training and friendlies to get your team fluid in whatever system you play.

One thing that people often do which may cause trouble is to not link attack and defence. I.e. having no defensive roles in midfield, or no supportive role in attack. There is also more focus on space within the team in this years match engine. If you have both your fullbacks and wingers bombing down the wing, basically they are going to occupy the same space, or if you have an inside forward cutting in, it's important that you don't have a striker occupying that same space. In the fullback/winger case it's better to have the full back or winger cut in, or have one on support or defensive role.

Be careful of being too attacking (goes for both position and roles). I.e. playing a 4-2-3-1 will pretty much guarantee that you are overloaded on the flanks and vulnerable between defence and midfield, unless you have figured out some complicated trickery on how to protect the defence with only two players.

I could go on but there are a lot of tips of the sigames-forum, specifically the tactic and training subforum if you want to read up on that stuff. A good place to start

Team talks also make a bit of difference, but there's not really a recipe that always works on that one. It depends on your reputation, team reputation, player personalities, match favorites, form, previous match and last team talk, etc. It's fairly logical though, with the odd WTF-moment. If you're expected to lose every game heavily then be supportive and don't apply pressure. If you're big favorites in every game, be assertive and demand better if they play like donkeys.

Other important things, for a longer game, is understanding the personality/media handling of players and how it effects player development/interaction. Click for awesome thread

Come to think of it this game is not really kind to the new beginner.

Wow thanks this should help. My only decent piece of management was getting 10th with Villa the frost year. Could never really improve and have struggled on other saves

For any Americans Lambert's on Foxsoccer right now.

Will be till nine talking about Champions league final

So I figured this is as good a place to ask as any: In short, I'm terrible at this game, I basically give it my best Steve Kean impression. Or maybe by terrible I mean average. My teams always basically finish in the projected position. Which isn't exactly what I want to do, because I read about people bringing teams up through the lower leagues and that's kinda what drew me to the game in the first place. I guess the question is:

Any tips on how I can become a little more Lambert and a little less Dean Saunders?

It goes without saying (I hope...) that all of this is based on assumptions about managers/players and depends on the transfer windows that they are all about to have. So with that in mind, here's how I see it. I might be back to tweak as the summer unfolds

1 - Chelsea - Assuming they'll have Mourinho. They already have an excellent squad and he'll improve it. Chelsea win league. Simple.

2 - Manchester United - Can't see Moyes winning the title but I think this squad is too strong to finish outside the top 2. I see next season as a learning one for him where he just takes the wheel of an already-sailing ship and doesn't fix what clearly ain't broke.

3 - Manchester City - Pellegrini is an excellent manager but he (or whoever it ends up being) has a big job to turn these individuals into a team. That said, these individuals are good enough to come 3rd without any manager in charge. I can't see them topping the 2 above though.

4 - Arsenal - Only a massive summer spend can bridge the gap between what is now a very good Arsenal side and the super-powers above them. They obviously need to stop their better players leaving too.

5-6 - Spurs - Bale Bale Bale. Although with that being said, if they can buy a whole new strikeforce from the earnings, then they might end up OK either way.

5-6 - Liverpool - Will be much stronger assuming they keep Suarez. Their growing pains are over too and they ended the season well. Pointswise I think they could challenge for 4th if someone above them drops the ball. Either way I think they'll genuinely make it a top 6 next season, rather than this season's top 5 with them fighting for 'best of the rest'. Sort out those centrebacks though.

7 - Everton - They will not replace Moyes and have instant success, so they are bound to fall away at least for one season. To me it's a case of how far they fall (pointswise if not positionally). They could also hire badly and/or have their squad pillaged (Fellaini, Baines, Coleman, Jagielka). So for me it's a case of 'how bad' next season will be for the Toffees relative to what they've become accustomed to.

8 - Swansea - If they keep Laudrup, Michu & Williams then there's no reason they can't impress again. Lose Laudrup though (Everton...) and it'll be a worry. You won't keep finding excellent managers. Hopefully they'll pluck some more obscure Spanish talent and be a joy to watch again. The league is better for having them.

9 - Aston Villa - The growing pains are over. A young energetic and capable squad full of goals now knows what it takes to be in the PL. There is room for improvement no doubt, so some intelligent summer buys could make this a season of very enjoyable progression. It also obviously depends on keeping our better players here, but at least next season we hit the ground running rather than with a splat.

10 - Newcastle United - Tough one. Really depends on whether they lose their stars and can ship out the rubbish. Their scouting myth has been debunked and they've a split dressing room. I think they'll be OK and they benefit from a piss poor lower half of the league but they won't worry the big boys and I wouldn't guarantee Pardew sees next May in charge if they start poorly.

11 - Norwich - I expect they'll be a stronger side than last season. A good 'team' with no over-reliance on any individuals. They'll stay up no problem and hopefully I can go back to liking them now that we've put a whole season between them and the whole Lambert saga This might be 'still 11th' but it'll be a much safer one than the season just gone.

12 - West Ham - All depends on Carroll. If they get him they could be top half again. Sizeable Sam will always keep you up though, so they're one of those sides who could be anywhere from 9th to 17th but definitely no lower.

13 - West Brom - Second season will be tougher without Lukaku and they can't afford a similar quality replacement. I don't expect them to be as strong next time out although I imagine they won't struggle with the drop under Clarke.

14 - Cardiff City - Assuming they keep Malky in charge, I think they'll spend the money and stay up. They've been knocking on the door for years and absolutely sailed up this season. Clearly a good side with a good defence and we've seen that the momentum of coming up as champions, more often than not, keeps you up. Not to mention that teams who come up off the back of a strong defence often do much better than teams who come up as an attacking force with a poor defence.

15 - Fulham - Need a big summer for their ageing squad. I think they could struggle next season. Particularly if their end to this season was any gauge. Jol has problems there IMO and they're my dark horse for a season-long relegation scrap in the way we were Gobby Cabbage's last season.

16 - Stoke City - Cracks started to appear this season and now they're a club without a manager. They've gone from being relatively safe to being in danger of going down. They are still good defensively but a big change in style might be hard to adapt to depending on who comes in. If I was a fan I'd be worried right now.

17 - Sunderland - I get the impression PdC will gut that squad in the summer, meaning a lot of new faces and transition in the new season. He better hope he doesn't fall out with them all or it could be disastrous.

18 - Hull City - Good old fistface. Not sure about this lot because I don't know much about them. I don't think they have much money and they only barely came 2nd with a relatively poor attack and defence and a goal difference that doesn't fit with the league position. Bruce has shown himself to be a very capable manager in the past so they could be OK if he can find more players of Palacios' calibre.

19 - Southampton - I genuinely think they could go down (as you can see). I don't trust Pochettino's ability to get the momentum up that he inherited from Adkins last season. They finished 19th in the form guide too and I do think that reflects them under the new man, rather than attributing it to end-of-season syndrome a la maybe Fulham.

20 - Watford/Crystal Palace - TBD - Either way I'll put them here. I can't see Palace having the quality and I'm not sure if the PL allows you to abuse the loan system in the way Watford have benefitted this season. So they'll be weaker than the side that got them promoted.

Do strong defensive promoted teams really do better? Reading had the best championship defense and did poorly, while Southampton and Lamberts norwich were both more offensive. Furthermore, blackpool under Holloway were relatively bad defensively and got 39 points

Listening to the podcast, Lambert just seems like an awesome guy. He's very humble, honest, seems kinda quiet, and comes across as a guy who got where he did by always working hard. He also has unwavering faith in his beliefs and is very committed. He's gonna have a fantastic career as a manager, whether with Villa or another club. To me he's already one of the best in England, but he'll definitely become even better. Pure class

There is no doubt that anyone can appear to be decent while being interviewed but i tend to judge a manager on how the team performs.

Based on his performance with our team so far it's ridiculous to even suggest 'he's already one of the best in England.' We have just secured our safety with one game to go ffs.

Yes just off his time with Villa, but I'm including Norwich and Colchester. Getting back to back promotions to the prem is fairly rare, and he didn't have a huge budget to work with either. He also smashed norwich with colchester at the beginning of that season.

And yes, I agree you can't judge managerial ability off of an interview, but you can somewhat judge character.

What managers in englandwould you prefer to lambert?

If Lambert stays, I wouldn't be stunned to see a top four finish in the league, without having to rely on the Europa League. Not likely, but with him, anything's possible.

Listening to the podcast, Lambert just seems like an awesome guy. He's very humble, honest, seems kinda quiet, and comes across as a guy who got where he did by always working hard. He also has unwavering faith in his beliefs and is very committed. He's gonna have a fantastic career as a manager, whether with Villa or another club. To me he's already one of the best in England, but he'll definitely become even better. Pure class

 

Before he came to Villa he did say Arsenal was his dream club

Belgian Guy said that was a misquote, he said it was a dream to play for a club like Arsenal, not Arsenal specifically AFAIK. I`m sure BG can confirm

 

Oh ok thanks for the clarification. I'll trust without the confirmation

Before he came to Villa he did say Arsenal was his dream club

 

Worried he will be off to either Ath Madrid or Dortmund, Falcao is off to either Chelsea or Madrid and Lewandowski to Bayern, two clubs who then will be looking for replacement e.g. Benteke and can offer first team football and CL.

 

Madrid is a possibility but Dortmund cannot afford his wages. Seriously, they lose players because of this. I see no evidence it is about to change.

 

Madrid is in huge debt and despite UCL, they aren't getting a lot of the Falcao money and so won't have that much to spend.

I could definitely see seven or eight. I think it'd be tough for you to break the big six (feel like Liverpool will finally have a decent year and it will be six in champions league contention), but with a great manager and some more brilliant signings, Villa can definitely be the team that replaces Everton in pushing the top six.

Stoke look at the end of the road to me - they tried to change there style to be more 'footballish'  - failed and had to go back to the big welly - WBA look to have run there course as well.

 

But lets not kid ourselves, we have loads to do to be top half -

WBA just had their best year in prem history. And a couple more wins for the Villans would've been top half this year.

Also, I think the Premier League should improve in Europe now that the top clubs will all have managers to boot. Mancini was pretty terrible at City, and Chelsea getting Mourinho will be a big step up. Even Sir Alex hasn't been great in CL in his career

I don't understand why he'd want to go to an inferior league, Bundesliga can't be better than the Premier League surely? I suppose it would be CL football that drags him eventually. 

It probably isn't quite as good, but it's catching up even if it hasn't caught up and the chance to play for the potential champions league winners would be tempting I'm sure

So the background about me is that I've been following Blackburn Rovers for quite a few years, and I still follow them as by far my favorite club. As far as I'm concerned the Venky's are the worst people on earth, excepting Steve Kean and Jerome Anderson.

However, the trouble is I live in America. When Rovers were in the prem, I was able to catch the majority of the matches online as the games were televised. With them going down, that was only an option like five or six times this year. So while I still follow all their news, read the articles, etcetera, I wanted a prem team to follow so I could actually watch games of a team I was rooting for.

I ended up with Villa because I'm basically a Lambert fanboy. I think he's a genius and is one of the best managers in the country, and I love his style. If any of you have heard of moneyball, to me what he's done is moneyball in soccer. Because of the lack of advanced stats, he had to go to other areas to identify market inefficiences, and exploits the inefficiencies by signing lower league players and foreigners, as opposed to expensive current prem players. His teams are also very entertaining. So, I've been following and watching many Villa games this year, and decided to join this forum to discuss Villa occasionally.

There's my background.