The war on the EPL starts
We are brushing convention aside and taking the Premier League head on with Sheff United in FM24. Resources are thin, the quality is limited, can we do it?
Welcome to the next episode of the managing Sheff United in the first season series on FM24. This is part two of the season guide so far and the results of the season. The previous guides you can find here:
So, Sheff United are back and they are looking to start a war on the Premier League status quo. With the fear of relegation motivating them, we have pushed up the table into the top half. It has been a very surprising season so far as our media prediction was to finish 19th. Let’s sharpen those Blades!
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 see how Sheff United pushed the Premier League on FM24!
Sheff United results on FM24
This is where we start to dig into the results and what they mean going forward. We always look at the league positions as this is large part of our measure against our objectives. Why we do this is to see if the team are heading in the right direction and see what is working and not working on a general scale.
Let that sink in, Sheff United have finished 7th in the league and nearly in Europe. What an incredible season it has been! Looking at the stats we can see that we have been very offensive, but our defence has been the weakness. Straight away that will be our focus for next season, building a new defence.
We actually finished as the fourth highest scorers in the league, which is impressive in itself. Unfortunately, we beat most of the league, but the top teams all took us apart with their quality. I remember dominating Liverpool at home, but our finishing was God awful, and they nicked it in the last ten minutes.
I’m actually surprised the results have worked the way they did, we were using a 442 narrow diamond. What this means is that it is traditionally a defensive formation with the lack of width and crowding the centre of the pitch, plus a DM is involved. Having two forwards has obviously worked wonders.
As a nice little success story, we also managed to reach the league cup final on FM24 against Man City. Disappointed by the defeat, but it was a nice little run, which was fairly easy.
Individual Performances
This is where we uncover the superstars of the season, and the weaknesses. If we have problem in the general data, this is a great opportunity to hone in on the area concerned and see what is happening. There is so much data that we can use, but for the purposes of keeping this short I will use Xg, pass completion and average ratings.
Looking at the squad stats on FM24 I’m actually surprised that more players have not achieved over a 7 average rating. Additionally, when we look at the players who achieved it 2 are defenders and 1 is goalkeeper. That just shows hard they must have worked in the season. I also thought that due to the team over performance there would be better ratings across the board.
Moving onto the Xg data we can see over performers in certain areas, but also a few underperformers. One of these under performers is Ollie McBurnie who plays in the first team in a key position for goals on FM24. We will need to look at a more effective replacement for him and capitalise on our strength. Most of the other underperformers are defenders, so I am not too fussed about their goals scoring.
The passing completion stats is a critical part of our tactic. It is interesting to see how many players are actually struggling in that area. The fullbacks Max Lowe, George Baldock and Luke Thomas are all missing this target as they cross, a lot. This is because they are our only wide options going forward, this boils down to two things, could they do better and could the receiver be better.
Sheff United Tactics FM24
In this section, we speak about the tactic that we have been using this season on FM24. A lot of the time we use the tactic that we built with the team in the day one guide. As the season progresses we will make changes that we discuss here and why we did it.
This tactic has had me scratching my head, and I’m the one who built it. So the tactic is a narrow 442 diamond, which is traditionally a defensive formation and I expected solid defence with a struggle to score goals.
What we have got is loads of goals scored and conceded, the goals could be down to the two pronged strikers. The defence on the other hand will probably down to the lack of quality. A suggestion going forward to change the wing backs to support rather than auto as we change mentalities mid game.
Also another idea is to look at pushing the opposition through the middle where it is crowded. I was thinking to push them wide, but we play a high line and we would need to buy big defenders. Fast and big defenders are a very expensive commodity in football. Additionally, we have to work with the resources that we have at our disposal.
Conclusion
I have thoroughly enjoyed using Sheff United on FM24, I could never have expected the success we have enjoyed. After preparing the team to play towards it’s strengths we have had a really good result. I look forward to taking them further and into Europe in the seasons to come.
The strength of this team is relatively obvious on the stats, they can score goals! What is more exciting in football than a goal scoring team? To keep this strength going we need to increase supply of chances and buy better quality finishers. The weakness of the team is the defence, saying it was leaky is an understatement. I think this is down to the quality at the back, but also a tactical change.
The opportunity in this team is that there are a number of young players in this team. Embrace them, play them, anyone not developing then get rid of them. Also increase the youth facilities and hire coaches that are good at motivating and working with youngsters.
The threat to the team is that the goals conceded surpasses the goals scored. If this happen then it will send the team on a losing trajectory and throw the club backwards of two years at least.
I hope you enjoyed this guide, now go and start your journey with Sheff United on FM24. Please comment any feedback below.
