I think we’ve been here before
Sheff Utd are no strangers to the EPL, they have been a yo-yo club. In FM24, they are definitely underdogs, with limited resources. e can keep them up though.
So this series is a quick guide on how to manage a club from day one, how to set them up the way I see it. This time it is Sheff Utd who are a marmite club, you either love them or hate them. Coincidentally I was unbeatable online on Fifa with Sheff Utd many years ago.
Sheff Utd are what I call a sleeping giant. They have all the potential in the world, such as they have a big fan base, they have a city, they have a fierce rivalry, they have a decent stadium and coaching set up. If this club were pushed in the right direction with the right backing, it could go places. This is exactly what we are going to achieve with them.
Are you ready to start the journey with us? Read on for ideas and tips on managing Sheff Utd on FM24.
Sheff Utd Objectives
Looking at the FM24 club objectives we can see that their is a strong case for survival. They are looking to sign under 23s which are cheaper than buying ready made talent. They are looking to develop talent through the coaching system at the club, so we need to rearrange the staff and scouts for youth coaching. As well as that we need to stay within the wage budget which says that the board are disciplined on finances.
The supporters are not asking for much at all. Just play attacking football, when coupled with the board objective of possession football we are leaning into a possession game on the board. Remaining in the Premier League was never in question, that is the objective this year.
The key points here are we look to be a selling club. Sheff Utd are not the richest club in the country and as a result need to look at different ways to raise funds. A farming system is exactly that, a revenue source.
Sheff Utd first 11
Let’s look at the data, the current ability stars. As we can see Sheff Utd have a strong backline, there is an easy back four and goalkeeper here. Straight away the strength of Sheff Utd is their defence, and a good one it looks to be. Other than that, we have two DMs, so we potentially play a 4231DM formation.
Moving on to the rest of the squad, we can see their are a lot of 3 star players. Normally seen as squad fillers, we need to separate the good from the bad. Looking at the secondary criteria of potential ability stars, we have a number of players that stand out.
On FM24 Cameron Archer, I think will become a big part of this team with his 5 star potential. We have James McAtee too, but I’m not that fussed helping produce a loan player. Looking at the 3.5/4 potential stars we have a lot to play with, but the thing that strikes me at the moment is that this team has no width. That puts spanner in the works for the 4231 formation.
Just theorising at the moment, but this is what I came up with. Because of the quality at the back we could play 4/5, I’ve gone with 4 as it is less pressure on the depth of squad. As we have alot of central midfielders we are limited to either a 4132, 41212 or the Brazilian box 4222.
The Brazilian box would have been too much to ask this team to perform, so I decided against it. I’ve gone with the 41212 as it has always treated me well in the past, defensively solid, and has two strikers which helps with the goals. We may switch to the 4132 as the AMCs are limited.
Sheff Utd Tactics
This is pretty straight forward again, we are attacking and short passing to fulfil the objectives of the board and supporters. This league is pretty boring when it comes to board and supporter objectives on FM24 in my mind. It’s nice to have a mix of strikers to score our goals, but looking at the set up we are not going to get a lot of crosses in.
We will be passing into space and pushing the ball down the wings to the wing backs to then push the ball back centrally to create good passing patterns. We will not be asking the defenders to pass out from the back, this is because while they are great defenders they are not the best with the ball.
This is a fairly basic strategy overall, but I do not want to over complicate it with the players we have.
Conclusion
I think Sheff Utd have a solid base to start their campaign with. The defence is the strongest part of the team and as we have discussed that is the difference between staying up or not. As well as this, there are a number of good defenders company through. There is an opportunity to bring along the defensive unit and the striker Archer.
The weakness in the team is the lack of width. There really are no options out wide, and that limits attacking football. Also this makes the overall team strategy rather predictable. The threat with this team is relying on the defence and not investing in the attacking positions. By adding 10 more goals to the team, it can increase the team wins by 2.3. This is essentially for any team, least of all a relegation battler.
Thank you for reading this far, we appreciate your support and if you could leave a comment or like that would be appreciated.
