Diary of a Top Eleven Manager

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share that I decided to start up a daily blog - Diary of a Top Eleven Manager.

I thought it would be interesting to basically put my thoughts, analysis and tactical decision for each match I play down into words, along with things like training and transfers, as much for my own benefit as anything else, but it may also be of interested or helpful to other managers to see the sort of thought process i go through ahead of each game.

I'm in my 64th season so have been playing one and off for quite a while, but more consistently active for the past 6 months or so.

If you think it might interest you then please give it a read, I'm also always happy for people to post comments or share suggestions of their own what they would have done etc.

I've included a hyperlink above but the address is also https://holgaterangers.wordpress.com/

Thanks

I have gone through your blog, you did a really good job and keep it up. I have an observation and question. 1. You have won less trophies compare to your league cup trophies, why? 2. You are a good coach no doubt but I never saw you play with AML AND AMR, why and what's your view on the formation 4-1-2-2-1 V style. 3. Do you tank or have you ever tank?. Your trophy gallery might not be impressive as I expected but you are a very very good manager and coach.

Hi Samreo, thanks for your comment.

I think the main reason for not winning as many Cups or European trophies comes down to always having a poor game somewhere in my cup run. Obviously if you one poor game or even two in the league you can still go on to win the title, but just one poor game in a cup semi-final or quarter-final can mean getting knocked out, which has been the case for me in previous seasons, sometimes because I have a work meeting when I have a match scheduled, sometimes because of a few bad defenixve mistakes by players, and sometimes because I just didn’t get the tactics right or the other team were too good. In the last few seasons I’ve started to put in more consistent runs, so i’m hoping the number of trophies in other competitions will start to go up a bit more.

I do sometimes play with an AMR and AML but I often come up against a 4 man defence where i think that playing through the middle with an AMC is likely to give me a better chance to score. Last season i used my AML and AMR a lot more as i came up against teams playing 3 at the back where i could exploit space down the flanks. My all time top scorer for my team is also an AMR, but its just a case that this season I’ve felt that other formations have been better for the games I’ve played. I used to use the 4-1-2-2-1 V formation quite a lot, but that was before I started to tinker my formation to suit every match and every opponent, it worked well for me in the past, but doesn’t always help me counter specific threats or exploit a particular weakness.

No, i’ve never tanked, infact I only even found out what tanking was a few months ago when i came up against teams rated 130% or higher and I could never work out how they had got their teams so good. My main method for building good players has been to make as much use as i can of getting the 30 free rests every single day and saving them up over a whole season, and trying to be clever in the transfer market to buy player i think will train fast. I do occasional buy the monthly card to get some extra tokens as at £5 a month seems like an OK investment for me.

Thanks again for your comments, it;s always great to have discussions with other managers about various things, and thanks for your compliments, hopefully I’ll add some more Cup and Champions League Trophies in the coming seasons.

32 wins and 1 draw after 33 games following today’s wins!

Decent season so far!

https://holgaterangers.wordpress.com...son-46-day-18/