The fad team today
Bologna are a main stay in the Serie A, they aren’t getting relegated, but they aren’t troubling the top clubs either. They are a prime candidate to go from good to great.
This blog is another guide to managing in Serie A on FM24. With these guides we will manage each team in the league and give our opinions on the best way to set up the team. The problem for many new managers is that they do not know what tactic to use with a new team.
This guide is based on Bologna, they are an average team in the league. They tend to stick around the midtable every year, they are a perfect candidate to take them from good to guide. Something has to change, you can’t just exist for the sake of it, things must change.
In the guide, you will find everything you need to know to get started with Bologna, including:
- What objectives do Bologna face and why they are important.
- The different types of players and how they work in the squad on FM24.
- Tips, tactics, and best practices to succeed with Bologna.
Read on and see how we take Bologna from good to great on FM24!
Team Objectives
This is where we look at the board and supporter objectives for Bologna on FM24. These objectives we define the character of the club through playing style and recruitment policy. Some clubs are a lot more structured than others and give you more direction.
Looking at the Bologna objectives we can see a clear character, young players in an entertaining style taking on the league. Playing entertaining football is an easy one, this means that we need a style with a high tempo.
The idea is to develop players using the youth facilities, which is easy. You can go a bit further than that though, you can replace your coaches with ones that work with youngsters and have high motivation stats. Then use scouts with high judging potential, which goes hand in hand with signing players under 18 and under 23.
Then we can move onto getting a top head of youth development, to help direct the youth teams and players. With that you can look at affiliates clubs to loan out your players, mentoring groups and first team football in cups and low league games.
Increasing revenue works well in growing the club’s reputation by buying players from the other big continents like America and Asia.
The fans have similar interests to the board, but with the exception of defensively solid football. This means that we need to have a defence first approach, not necessarily playing defensive football.
Bologna first 11
Our next step in our story of Bologna on FM24 is forming the first eleven from our squad of players. We sort the squad into three groups, the key players, squad players and the others. The structure of the team is based on the key players, the squad players then flesh it out and the others will be moved on.
Looking at the key players at Bologna, there are a couple of defenders, but the main talking point is the midfield. We have two wingers, both which use their opposite foot, so could be inside forwards to combine with the deep lying forward. This means that they can run in behind the defence and get in on goal.
With the fullback we can either keep them as a full back to stop any big gaps appearing, play wing back as we have a DM or to push them up to stretch the opposition defence. Another option is to scrap that completely and use the inverted fullbacks to stop the counter and push attacks out wide. Choices, choices, choices.
Straightaway I can see that we can complete a 4 man backline from the squad players. We can also create a three man midfield to the middle to the park to drown it out. Then we have two wingers that will cut inside either to pass, dribble, cross or shoot. Look at the attributes to determine what their role is through techniques.
Looks like a 433 DM could be the way forward to include all of our key players. We also have a number of different roles available, this gives us some flexibility.
Bologna Tactics
So now this is where we put it altogether to create our FM24 Bologna tactics. It’s a pretty easy process, we take the feedback from the objectives and the squad to see what we have got. There will be some gaps, but you just have to use your head when it comes to answers.
Firstly let’s start with the goals and how they will be scored. We’ll start with the wingers, I have gone with Karlsson as an inside winger due to his best technical stat is crossing and has the opposite foot. Orsolini again has the opposite foot, but his best technical is finishing and so an inside forward is the way to go.
Because of the inside winger and forward, we need a forward role that will drop and play the other two in. Zirkzee plays deep lying forward as one of his best roles, so he will drop deep and drag defender with him. This will in turn open up a space at the back which the wingers can attack. The full backs will push forward and stay wide, stretching the opposition full back as a result.
Defensively we have gone with the classic 4 at the back, protected by a DM. We’ve gone with full backs to add more defensive protection while still supporting the wingers on their runs. This will reduce the space left when the full backs move forward. We also have a DM that will add protection if we decide to add wingback roles to create more attacking opportunities.
The bottom line here is that we want to push the opposition out wide so they are forced to cross and we can defend it easily enough.
Get started with Bologna today
As Bologna are the fad team in the last year it makes sense to manage them on FM24. They are a team who have hit some popularity in recent times due to the style of football they play. Zirkzee and Calafiori are just two of the names that have secured big moves.
The strength of the team are the wingers, you have so many options with the attributes available and gives you flexibility in attack. In a day and age where wingers are so important this gives you a great opportunity to focus your attack around them.
The weakness in the team is the defence, there aren’t many options, so this team needs to be more attacking. As part of the defence a new goalkeeper could be a good idea too.
The opportunity is to take this team from good to great. What they are doing right now is fine, but they are just treading water. They will need to push on and building towards what the great teams do is a plan.
The threat to the team is that if we push too hard to go forward we could collapse and end up the other way. We’ve seen this with other teams who push too hard, get financially involved and end up bankrupt.
Start a game with Bologna FC on FM24 today! Comment below and share this blog if you are enjoying the series so far.
