Chelsea FM24 first season guide

Welcome to the next episode of the managing Tottenham in the first season series on FM24.

Now, Chelsea FC over the past 20 years have had a story to tell. From being taken over by Abramovich and Mourinho taking charge to the obsession over the Champions League to struggling over the last couple of years. It has been brilliant to watch, as they have created so many epic moments in football.

In this guide we are going to:

• Look at the end of season league performance and individual performances.
• We will look at the tactics which have been used.
• Where the team will go next.

Read on to help Chelsea find themselves again on FM24!

Chelsea FC Results

Let’s take a look at the Chelsea FC season results on FM24. This is where we can see how the team are measuring up against the objectives. The board and the fans wanted to qualify for the Europa League, we did that to the letter.

First Half of the Season

On first impressions when I took over Chelsea, I was looking forward to playing with this team and pushing back to the top. How the season unfolded was very different to how I expected it to go. We started the season with a number of annoying draws, followed by a short spell of winning, then to go on devasting 4 game losing streak.

The only way I can describe this is that the team are gelling and adapting to the tactic. After the four game losing streak we changed to a 433 DM rather the 4231 formation as I felt we were attacking too much without cover. This then produced an unbeaten streak.

By January the 1st we were 7th and on a good run of form. This is pretty much what predicted from the start of the season, so hopefully in the second half of the year we will push up the table. Looking at the goals and conceded we have had a distinctly average season, plenty to improve here.

While it is easy to criticise the team, we are in a state of transition. We are playing with a team with a lot of new signings and with a new tactic. The team is performing better now and we will focus on building the team going forward to support defensively and offensively. The main point here is that we are on target to achieve the goals set.

Second Half of the Season

The media predicted us to finish 6th, and we have managed to achieve 5th. So in essence we have exceeded expectations according to what we have been targeted. Next season will be a different story as we build the team for the future and the current team are more experienced.

You can clearly see why we have finished outside the top 4, we have conceded more than anyone above us, and we have not scored enough in comparison. We need to focus on one end of the pitch to make the change, defence would give us a great foundation to start. We won just over 50% of our games which is too low to compete with the top four.

One thing we can focus on is conceding less goals. Research shows that if we concede 10 less goals, so 32 goals next season, that would equate to 2.6 more wins. The team should have adapted to the tactic now and have more experience than last year. Also we will have an out and out striker in Lukaku back, which will make a massive difference.

Individual Performance

Now this is where we make our money, the individual stats. This is where we can hone into the strengths and weaknesses of the Chelsea FC squad on FM24. In the numbers game book, they use a theory that a team is like a rocket ship. What this means is that if one part of the team fails it forces the whole team to fail. We need to find and mitigate the weaknesses in the team.

First Half of the Season

There are some interesting developments within the team from looking at the individual player performances. Conor Gallagher is our top performer, bearing in mind he wasn’t even starting for at the start of the season. Cole Palmer was playing well when we played the 4231, but unfortunately since we have changed to the 433 DM his role has been made redundant.

Caicedo has been nothing short of amazing this year, chipping in with goals all over the place and killing his XG. As well as that he has maintained a 89% pass completion, what an absolute boss. On the left we can see Mudryk is coming together now, scoring 4 and doubling his XG while his passing is above the benchmark.

So let’s took about the areas of improvement. Fernandez, James, Disasi, have not hit their XG target so far, but to be fair two of them are defenders so it is not vital. Palmer, Nkunku, Jackson and Madueke are all turning over the ball too often according to their pass completion. This is something that needs to addressed, but overall their are not any immediate concerns.

The thing made me laugh about managing Chelsea FC on Football Manager 24 is that it’s like managing a team of regens. These are not the household names that Chelsea have had in the past.

Second Half of the Season

Looking at the stats you can easily see who our key players are. I was surprised to see Conor Gallagher as our top performer, but he has put in a big shift obviously. Moises Caicedo has been our mainstay in the team, and put in a solid shift in his first season. Our top performing players play on the wing or midfield, so our focus needs to be on the defence and striker.

Looking at the Xg data, we can see that everyone in the team is playing their part. A couple of players have just slipped under their expected value, but they are defenders, I don’t expect much from them.

Looking at the passing data we can see that the majority of the team have made less than 15% mistakes. This is really important when playing a heavy passing game. There are only a couple of players that are failing that mark, Mudryk and Nkunku, both of these guys are playing in the final third. This means that both playing in a dangerous part of the pitch, we need to look at getting better passers in those positions.

Chelsea FC Tactics

In this section we go over the reason why a lot of people read my blogs, the tactics. With the tactics we work it like a process, we start from the result and work back to how we get there. This just makes it easy for me to understand what the tactic is trying to do, rather than looking at data from a misleading performance.

So with a lot of my tactics we work the ball out wide and then score through the centre. The way in which we do this is that we have one pressing forward applying a lot of pressure. Then we have two inside forwards that push into the centre and overload the defence. While this going on, the Chelsea FC wingbacks will be pushing up into those positions creating a wide option.

It works out that you will have between 6-7 players pushing up on the opposition penning them in. This forces the opposition to then try and fire out a long ball over the top, which our quick defenders mop up. This then recycles the play and we begin again.

Conclusion

Chelsea have been more challenging than I thought they would be. They have a huge squad of young players that they have bought on their potential. The good news is that they are high potential and learning their trade well. We only bought one player and that was Joe Gomez, we just needed some experience at the back.

The strength of the team lies in the midfield as we can see from the stats, and that really helps our passing tactic and build up play. The weakness of the Chelsea FC team on FM24 is that there is no recognised striker. While the boys all had a go at striker, they are all wingers and we are looking forward to Lukaku coming back for a season or two.

The opportunity with this team is the crazy amount of potential in this team. Chelsea FC have been really busy recruiting some of the best potential talent in the world. You need to harness this and keep the great facilities and recruit coaches that are great at working with youngsters.

The threat is that Chelsea have gambled on young players and they fall short of their objectives like they are heading for in real life. This would mean either having to sell because of FFP or because they are unhappy at an underperforming team.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, now go and start your journey with Chelsea FC on FM24. Please comment any feedback below.