They won Ligue 1 once
Montpellier were champions of France once upon a time. Since then they have just been, middle table obscurity. It’s time to dust this club down and do it again!
So here we are with another instalment of managing in Ligue 1. The aim of this series of guides is to manage each team in the french league and give you some ideas on how to set them up. The problem for all of us when we manage a new team, is how do we play them?
Managing Montpellier is a great challenge on FM24. Taking a former champion from mid table mediocrity to Champs again, it’s the equivalent of good to great. Montpellier have a good set up already, but we want to take them to the next level. Can we push them up the table?
In our guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to get started with Montpellier, including:
- What objectives Montpellier have 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 Montpellier.
Let’s take Montpellier from good to great on FM24!
Montpellier objectives
Our first step in building FM24 tactics for Montpellier is to acknowledge the board and supporter objectives. In order to survive at this club we need to find out the culture of club and what they expect. If you want a long and fruitful career with a club, you will want to understand their wishes.
Let’s start with the board objectives and what they mean. The first thing is that they have a direct objective on the play style. While I am not comfortable with defensive football this is what the board want. Normally I would say the options available are catenaccio and park the bus. I am going to include counter attacks due to low block and lower defensive line.
Other than that they want to be sustainable, this means keeping an eye on the wage budget. This is probably in preparation to build a new stadium in the future, which is a big step. The new stadium build is a major statement in the direction that club wants to go.
Looking at the supporter objectives we do have a few and they are focussed in different areas. They want to develop players using the youth system, which is something we come across a lot.
We need to change the culture, we need to look at the staff and invest in the facilities. The coaches will need to working with you and be able to motivate, our scouts need to judge potential. We will need head of youth development and look at the mentoring of youngsters.
The controversy is that the supporters want high pressing and the board want to play defensive football, these objectives conflict.
Montpellier First 11
The next mission to build FM24 tactics with Montpellier is to meet the personnel. The way in which we do this is using the assistant reports as we don’t have any other data at this point. I sort the team into three groups, under 3 stars are on the chopping block, 3 stars are squad players and over 3 stars are key players.
What we then do with the key players is to see what formation or structure we can build around them. As we can see here, all of the key players are central players, that means they can form a core of the team. The obvious formation I can see here is the start of a 4231 DM or 433 DM, let’s see what the squad indicates.
Wow! We have a big squad here, plenty of options are available and we have plenty of potential. Now that we have had a look at the squad, we can see there is a shortage of DMs. That is a big blow for our formation ideas, although we could build a 4231 without the DMs.
There is a solid back four here, so the defence picks itself. As a nice little bonus we have not one, but two quality goal keepers. Defensively we are sound and there are so many formations that incorporate a back four.
Montpellier Tactics
This is where we put everything together, all of our assumptions. This is just like layering, we build the structure and then we flesh it out with the tactics to create strategy.
Like always, I will start with how we are scoring goals. Our best forward and wide players are fast, and we need to take advantage of that. At Real Madrid Mourinho played a direct counter attack as his forward that included Ronaldo was immense in pace and dribbling. As we are encouraged to play defensively this is where we are going to counter.
The inside forwards are perfect in this tactic as they we cut in from the wing and attack the half spaces. The defence will be reeling at this point and we will take advantage of that through our deep lying playmaker. We could also consider a ball playing defender to launch the balls up field.
The next part is the defence, to become defensively solid we need to change our wing backs to fullbacks as the DMs have become MCs. This brings more balance to the team and we commit less forward. As result this means we will not be countered as often or overwhelmed. We still have a ball winner in midfield to help disrupt play.
Get started with Montpellier today
Montpellier have always been a team that I admire, ever since they upset the odds and won the Ligue 1. There is a fantastic challenge to be had here to take them from good to great, this is legends are born. They have a good team, with potential and with the right guidance there is a chance for the perfect foundation.
The strength of the team is the pace in the front line, we need to take advantage of this on the counter. To activate this we need a deep lying playmaker or ball playing defenders to launch the counter.
The weakness of the team seems to be the lack of depth in the striker department. We should look to either get a better starting striker who is quick and good at finishing. The alternative is to buy a young striker to rotate in and out and develop.
The opportunity with this team is that there is a youth project to take advantage of and invest in. This means there is a crop that will be coming through to the first team, and anyone who doesn’t will be revenue for the club.
The threat is that none of this works out, the stadium goes ahead and we cannot fund it or fill it. The spiral then continues, I’m sure this will not happen though.
Start a game with Montpellier today! Comment below on the guide or how you get on, drop us a like if you want.
