Färnebofjärdens (Swedish team)

[Färnebofjärdens]

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Principles

Balancing the books. I do not buy tokens, I do download an app once in a while when it is available for 5-6 tokens. However, sometimes tokens are not paid out, and sometimes there are not many offers, and that means I have to be careful how I spend them. With 28-35 tokens a season I can buy 7-8 players on the transfer market if I am patient, and that is all we need to keep a team of 11-12 good players. I also want to rename players I intend to keep for a while. If possible, I want to increase my tokens from one season to another.

Green packs. The first season I were able to collect over 600 greens. Already in season 2 I am lucky if watching videos give me 3, 4, 5 greens a day. So, I will not be able to powertrain my players. Greens will be used to boost my starting 11 before important games.

Building the team. The first season was a preparation to give the treble a shot, that means winning the League, Cup and Champions League in the same season (as it turned out did not win CL though). I collected as many reds, greens and tokens as possible. At the end of that season I sold all of my better players except 1 – the GK Färnebo (renamed by me). I kept the 3* youngsters of the team, renamed them (their names influenced by famous IFK Göteborg players) and started to train them to multiple positions and special ability to keep them at low stars as long as possible. These 10 players will be the core of my team for years to come, lowering the quality and hopefully getting less tough opponents. Every year I will keep four star players to build on, and purchase 7 new players to have a top 11 giving me a chance on the treble each year. I build the team to win the treble.

Most important players. It is about winning games, and to win games you need to score goals. For that I will try to have a striker and a couple of attacking midfielders that has higher quality then the rest of my team and the competition. I also believe a quality keeper is necessary - especially in the cups.

Formation. Not many opponents play wide DM and that makes playing with AMR and AML very effective. Two strikers boost each other sometimes, but that comes at the expense of having an extra central midfielder. And 4 flat at the back is sufficient to stop most opponents of same or lower quality. I play them with defending arrows, just personal taste. When oppos have less quality it is enough with 2 CM. My theory is that when facing stronger opponents you need to balance the team more with 5 defending players (d and dm) and 5 attacking players.

Orders. I have not figured out orders yet except maybe to NOT play short passing against an opponent with many midfielders.

Watching live games. I try to watch the games as it gives me the chance to correct misfiring tactics. If oppo play better I make a change of orders after 30 minutes – most often that means go back to the default orders with counter attack ticked in. If nothing happens I make another change after 60 minutes to attacking with hard tackling and a substitute or two and if oppo plays without dmc I put an AMC on field. Listen to your assistant to learn about the basics of the game, but make your own decisions, he is like a chess player that knows all the openings but sucks in the endgame.

Impressive teams.

IFK Göteborg 1990-1995 under excellent coach Roger Gustafsson. Won the domestic league 5 times and good results against top teams in Champions league. Some memorable results are vs Barcelona 2-1, Milan 2-1, Man U 3-1, PSV 3-0, Porto 1-0.

Playing with domestic players, semi-proffessional, what was behind the success? Some points are:

*Tactics: 4-2-3-1. On paper 442, those days everybody had to play it, but in reality Roger Gustafsson tweaked it. One of the striker positions was held by Stefan Rehn. Golden feet, excellent passes and shots, creativity and eyecatching moves but unfortunately low speed, so he was more of a second wave playmaker. Not so deep lying as Pirlo. In T11 terms, probably a MC playmaker with forward arrow. The lone striker, often Stefan Pettersson, was deep lying often slipped into a AMC role. T11 striker with back arrow. The wide midfielders were very offensive, often starting runs from attacking midfield positions running into the penalty area. AML and AMR with forward arrows - Jesper Blomkvist and Peter Eriksson/Mikael Martinsson. Two hard working midfielders, box to box players. Magnus Erlingmark and Stefan Lindqvist. Magnus played everything from DC to Striker and Stefan DMC to Striker. Magnus stronger in the air, Stefan slightly better passing the ball. A good partnership, like Albelda/Baraja or Mascherano/Alonso and here might be the key to their success. In T11 they are DMC with forward arrows or MC with back arrows. The four defenders with DL Mikael Nilsson and DR Pontus Kåmark coming forward on occasion, Magnus Johansson/Johan Olsson strong aerial defenders and Joachim Björklund super fast. The whole defensive line was fast and that allowed them to push it forward and press the opponent further up. Spectacular short goalkeeper Tomas Ravelli between the posts went on to win Sweden a World Cup bronze medal.

Valencia 2002-2004 won la liga two times with its rock solid defense with Roberto Ayala in my view as the outstanding player – he just couldn’t be passed those days. Neverending hard work from David Albelda, Ruben Baraja and Amedeo Carboni. I was never that impressed with attacking players like Angulo and Mista, but they won so they also must have been good. Pablo Aimar and expecially Vicente Rodrigues gave the team the flair and speed they needed, Aimar from the center of the midfield and Vicente cutting in from an AML position.

The important AML position. In fact, some of my favorite players are AML cutting in. Jesper Blomqvist, Marc Overmars, Giuseppe Signori, Vicente Rodrigues, Thiery Henry, Ryan Giggs and Pavel Nedved. I believe Christiano Ronaldo prove how lethal this type of player can be. Rivaldo, Ronaldhinho, Hazard and Neymar are other examples of this, although they are not my favorite players.

Favorite players

Gabriel Batistuta, for his name and for his ability scoring goals. Abel Balbo, mainly for his name but also his neat looks and good performances for Roma and Argentina. The perfect partner for a world class striker. Claudio Caniggia, for his name. Diego Simeone for being all over the place the year Atletico Madrid won La Liga. Cafu for being the best player.

Best player ever

I can only pick one of all the players I have seen myself. Starting with Diego Maradona, and while he was very good I would prefer Zinedine Zidane. No one else have had the ability to beam himself out of a tricky situation and suddenly having all the time and space in the world to make a pass or shot. Also the best volley shot of all times that I have seen. But there can be only one, and this one is Cafu. Marcos Evangelista de Morais. That he is the most capped Brazilian player says everything.

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Season 1
Cup 1st, League 1st

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Season 2
Cup 1st, League 1st, Champ L 2nd

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Season 3
Cup 1st, League 1st, Champ L 1st

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