It’s crystal clear where the future is
Crystal Palace have been in the Premier League for a long time, in that time they have sat in the midtable treading water. Let’s break the chain and push them!
Welcome to another edition of how to manage an EPL team in the first season on FM24. What we do in this guide is take over each Premier League club and manage them for the first season. We then give our thoughts and recommendations on how to manage that club to help you start off.
In this guide we manage Crystal Palace, the club with one of the best fanbases in the league. Unfortunately, Crystal Palace have become midtable specialists, they are some way short of margin achievers. This club deserves more then to be a selling club, picking up rejects in the hope of turning a profit.
In this guide we are going to:
- Look at the league performance and individual performances.
- We will look at the tactics which have been used in Football Manager 24.
- Potential transfers and areas of improvement.
Read on if you want push Crystal Palace up the table and into a new era!
Crystal Palace results
In this section we speak about the results so far in the league. This data is a general overview of what is happening so far. With this data you do not fix what you see, you use it to fix how it happened. This data can tell you what types of teams you beat or if you are better at home or away.
As you can see from the results, we are very inconsistent which means that we have a team which is not familiar with something. This could be that you have too many young players, they are not familiar with the tactic or even that the players are gelling. There is no rhyme or reason to our form here, we lost 5-1 to Wolves and beat Arsenal 3-2.
As you can see there is a fair spread of wins, draws and losses. It’s pretty certain that we are going to be around midtable like the Crystal Palace in real life. The spread of goals in each match is all over the place too, showing a lack of consistency. This is something that will change over time as gel, adapt to the tactic and buy more suitable players.
Looking at the league table we are midtable as we thought. Our wins to losses are mirrored, meaning we are a text book midtable team. Our goal difference is +3 which is slightly positive, due to the fact we have conceded a lot. This looks as though we lost a few games by big margins.
The result of all this FM24 data is that we need to focus on the defence going forward. The attack seem to be doing a good job, not a top of table team standard. We can work towards that after we have created a formidable defence.
Individual Performance
In this section we look at the individual performances of the players in our FM24 squad. This data helps us to see where are good performers are and if there are any weaknesses. We only use basic data here otherwise this blog will be the size of war and peace.
Looking at the performances it is a shame but no surprise that we only have 4 players playing over 7+ average rating. With the inconsistencies in our form will cause the fluctuation in ratings. Every player has a job to do and at the moment, only 4 are exceeding but plenty are coming up to that standard.
When we drill down to the basic data of Xg and pass completion we will uncover any weaknesses that we need to start looking at. With the Xg data, every forward and midfield player is doing it’s job. That is more impressive than we give it credit for. Additionally all, but one defender is pulling their Xg weight, which is a bonus.
The passing completion data on the other hand is a mess. There are at least 3 first teamers that are under 80% completion, which is a problem with the amount of passes that we perform. Passing is a big problem throughout the team and should be considered as part of our recruitment going forward.
Crystal Palace tactics
In this section we take a look at the FM24 tactics that we have used throughout the season so far. We normally take the tactic that created in the day one series and use that to start with. As the season progresses we normally change some small parts.
So straight away you will notice that we have changed formation. We have moved the asymmetric LM to AML, it just wasn’t working, I was trying to fit Schlupp in. Since the change we have become a lot more potent upfront, I was initially worried about the gap between DM and AM.
This tactic is designed so the AMs will get in front of the ST and become the threat. A complete striker can finish whichever way he is supplied, we are asking him to hold the ball up. He will then supply the over lapping runners which are overloading the DCs. This is actually a very central focussed formation in attack.
Conclusion
Crystal Palace on FM24 have been a fun team to play with. There is no pressure in the role as nothing is really expected. I want to improve this team in the future and see where it goes. To me the fundamentals are there to start building a big club. I think we just need to break this midtable chain they have fallen into.
The strength of this team is the midfield, Eze is a fine example of a flamboyant midfielder and the others have played their roles. I also like the forwards that they combine with. The weakness in this team is the goal keeper, neither of the keepers they have, Henderson and Johnstone are that good.
The opportunity here is to overhaul the team and make it a team going forward. Scrap the old strategy of buying rejects and selling them on and become competitive in the future. The threat is that if Crystal Palace keep aiming for midtable they may fail at some point. I think it would be a disaster if they failed in that, leading to their relegation.
Time for you to start a FM24 save game with Crystal Palace and change their fortune. Please like and comment what you think on this series.
