How to manage Aston Villa from day one

Welcome back to another instalment of the day one series! In this series we take over each club in the Premier League on fm24 and manage them on day one. We offer suggestions and recommendations for each team including the team objectives, the first 11 and also the tactics we would employ.

Aston Villa over the years were a mainstay in the EPL, until they got relegated in 2015-16. I feel this was a short sharp shock to the system that they got relegated and it changed the club going forward. Since they have been back in the Premier League they have gone from relegation survivor to 7th in the league and competing in Europe. Trauma sometimes bring a change of behaviour, in this case it worked well.

In this guide, you will find everything you need to know to get started with Aston Villa, including:

• What objectives on FM24 do Aston Villa face and why they are important.
• The different types of players and how they work in the squad.
• Tips, tactics, and best practices to succeed with Aston Villa on fm24.

Read on and continue the great work that Aston Villa have done so far!

Team objectives

So before we begin to put our strategy and team together, we need to understand the club culture better. We need to see how the objectives will affect the way in which we want to play. These certain caveats may no effect on the team at all, but sometimes it may change the ethos completely.

Let’s start with the supporter objectives. First things first they are expecting the team to record a top half finish, which ties in with the trajectory that they are on at the moment. The fans want attacking and entertaining football, which every fan base would expect. The good news here is that our tactic needs to be positive and attacking, which is easy to create a style with.

In terms of the rivals, there isn’t a huge amount to worry about here. West Brom and Birmingham are both in the Championship so will only feature in a cup this year potentially. Wolves on the other hand are here in the league, so we need to put a good show on. They are going through their own on FM24, so we will see how they turn up.

The board have taken on a different focus of objectives. Judging by the expectations they are interested in creating a selling club, buy them young develop them and sell them for a profit. This means that we need to get a good scouting system together and a fantastic youth coaching set up.

The club seem to be very financially aware by working in the wage budget, selling players for profit and the whole develop young players ethos. This maybe because they are looking to expand the stadium and want to be financially responsible doing it.

Aston Villa first 11

The next step is to assess the first team. I like to use the coach reports on current ability to divide the squad into key players and squad players. We use the current ability to assess any strengths and weaknesses and address them as the need to be.

It’s nice to have a large number of key players, no less then 8 players over 3 stars on current ability. They all play in different positions and roles too, making creating the formation shape really easy. I feel like this is a really well balanced team looking at the key players. The only problem I see, is if you want to push on, you are going to want to buy a superstar, I recommend a striker.

So I think it is fairly obvious where this team is going in terms of formation. We have the makings of a back three out of four and no strikers in the key players. A 442 attack, 4231, 433 DM all seem to be the front runners.

Looking at the high potential players in the squad it gives us a slight problem. We have an AMC and a DM to complete the midfield, I will side with the AMC as we want to be attacking as per the objectives. Additionally, I was surprised Ollie Watkins is our only recognised striker, and he is only a three star player. This means that two strikers is out of the question.

Aston Villa Tactics

The next step is to put it altogether and create the tactic that will take the league by storm. So from the information I have, we need to be attacking and entertaining. This means I have a choice between Gegenpress and a number of other strategies, I always favour this style anyway. I have gone with the 4231 formation as it fits all of our best players in.

If you want entertainment, this formation provides, very attacking and not so defensive due to no DM. Tielemans is the only key player who needs to find a role, but I doubt that will be hard. So how are we scoring goals? The pressure is on Watkins, he is the sole striker, as he is a pressing forward he fits the gegenpress well. I need to get the ball down and played into space so he can use his pace.

The inside forward will drive and attack the centre to help the striker and link the advanced playmaker. The winger will try to stretch the play and play balls into the forwards. Overall I think it is a well balanced side without any obvious problems.

Get started with Aston Villa today

I think Aston Villa are a great club to start with on FM24, if you want to manage someone outside of the top 4. They are a club on the up and have a well balanced team, without any obvious weaknesses. There has been a great change at the club, it is a fairly young team too.

I feel the main strength of this team is how well balanced it is. Additionally every position and role is taken up by a player of a good standard. The weakness to this team is that there is no real recognised striker, Ollie is great but there are far better out there on fm24.

The main opportunity for this club is the youth project they are under going. Support that objective by upgrading the youth facilities, get great coaching staff in that love working with youngsters. The threat to the club is that a number of the key players are 30, which means that are hitting the twilight period in their career. Start finding their replacements and developing them to swap them in seamlessly.

Start your journey today with Aston Villa on FM24 and let me know in the comments how you get on! Additionally, if you like the blog please like and share it.