“None of this isn’t even real. You’re just wasting your time”
Said a bunch of soulless, miserable homosapiens…
Lucky for us, we Soccermanagerites have not lost our sense of enjoyment. Not only for this game, but most importantly, for life.
Now that the fake followers are out of the building, lemme talk to my main man dem. In order for us to incorporate our creative prowess into this game, we must be checking out what’s going on within the real life world of Soccer (Premier league fans stand up!). Things like new tactics, positional intelligence and formational structures are all things to look out for while watching a match. But, rather than simply writing about it, let’s take a look at some “random” (see what I did there?) examples of real life footy that we can start to implement within SMW:
INDIVIDUAL ROLE AND POSITIONAL MOVEMENT
First up, let’s take a look at what you can expect from a player such as Bruno Fernandes (or any other player similar to his mold). Bruno loves a bit of freedom so we will take this into consideration as we check out his movement that you can expect to see as your ‘F.A.P’ within your team. Here, we can see that United are set up in a 4-2-3-1A formation with Lisandro Martinez aggressively winning back the ball from Tottenham, to then give Mount who is currently on the ball. As Bruno is our main player we’re looking at, he takes up a central position where he can potentially receive Mount’s pass to make a dangerous turn and run into space. His positioning is considered “between the lines”, and it is something that you will see many no.10’s within this formation occupy (but, it doesn’t only have to be in a 4-2-3-1 formation, as we’ll learn later)Mount has released the ball and Bruno’s between the line position is now prevalent since he’s on the “blind side” of his defender As we can now see, he’s clear from any opposition and has actively created a 3v2 in Manchester United’s favor. These are just some of the fundamental positioning that you can expect from a player in the same elk as BrunoHere, we will now take a look at what to expect from Bruno when he’s playing a little deeper… This time Bruno has a compatriot who is also looking to occupy that space in between the lines (as we can clearly see the shape of United’s 4-3-3 formation). Bare in mind that Varane is the player who has the ball…As the ball is progressed a little higher, Bruno continually drifts up the pitch, but I want to clarify something here: In this particular match, Bruno was playing as a ‘Playmaker’, while Mount was operating as the ‘Floating Advanced Playamaker’. Therefore, in the image of the 4-3-3A within SMW, you can consider Bruno playing the ‘Eriksen’ role, while Mount is playing the ‘Bruno’ role (Mason simply wasn’t at this Man United club within SMW, so I had to choose Eriksen. But the positional set up remains the same
TEAM DEFENSIVE SHAPE
In the following image we’re going to take a quick look at a defensive set up within SMW for this Aston Villa team Not only have I displayed the formational structure of this Aston Villa team out of possession, but we also get to see what instructions (aka the boxes) that, when ticked, illustrate how your team will approach the game defensively (the same occurs offensively, but we’ll only be focusing on the defenisve aspects in this illustration)
TEAM PRESSING
Here, we have an image of the Liverpool team that Aston Villa came up against, and we will be going over a different type of defensive approachMost of you are already familiar with the term “gergen pressing” which is quite pseudonymous with Jurgen Klopp’s style of play, and, as we can see from this image, Liverpool are implementing this style of press with the intention being to compeltey hassle their opponent to give them absolutely no time on the ball…As we can see, it is imperative that we apply a lot of pressure with as many players as possible in order for the press to actually be effective. This is one of the main differences between an ‘Agressive’ and a ‘Hard’ Talking style, with the aggressive style being more of a hassle that could make the opposition feel uncomfortable in possession, compared to the slighty more lenient ‘Hard’ tackling style that is more focused on applying your physical prowess against your opposition
TEAM POSITIONAL CHANGES
We’re upping the Ante a bit with the following illustrations of positional flexibility, in addition to what you can expect when you’ve given a player a specific role to play:
Here, we have the Tottenham starting X1 that played in the recent NLD (North London Derby). We’ve identified the roles that the most important players in the team were playing with the added benefit of seeing how their instructions look in SMW. Let’s check out how this set up looks in real life, shall we? The first thing we have to identify is that each Spurs player within the image has been highlighted via their name to avoid confusion. We are already seeing some positional flexibility, as Vicario has the ball. Bissouma (playing as their ‘B.W.M’) has done the usual movement of dropping between the 2 D(C)’s to make himself available. Maddison is illustrating his ‘Classic No.10’ role due to how deep he has come in an attempt to get on the ball. As I explained in Season 4: Episode 19, ‘Classic No.10’s’ are often the main creative source in a starting X1, so they will do as much as they can to get unto the ball as often as possible. We also see Porro who is playing the ‘Inverted Fullback’ role and has positioned himself in the centre of the park. We have here another image that perfectly illustrates Spurs’ tactical set up. Bissouma has placed himself in the backline (something that you should expect from your B.W.M) alongside Romero; Porro has positioned himself within the ‘I.F.B’ role yet again (swapping positions with Sarr, who is operating as a Traditional ‘Box to Box’ Midfielder); James Maddison is yet again seeking to get unto the ball no matter how deep he has to position himself ( #Classic No.10) ; We also see the attacking positions of both Son and Kulusevski. As the ‘Technical Winger’, Kulusevski holds the width while waiting for the ball to come to feet, while Heung Min Son perfectly illustrates a ‘Finisher’ who has no interest in getting involved with the build up play but rather perfers to stay on the defenders shoulder to make swift runs in behind of them. In this image we have another example of the Tottenham players with their specific roles assigned to them and the implementation of the each role. Bissouma is this time joined by Maddison in a temporary ‘double pivot’, while Saar and Porro have swapped positions again.From one side of North London to the next, let’s take a look at Arsenal’s approach within this match… Here, we have ‘D.L.P’ Jorginho with possession of the ball alongside the ‘I.F.B’ Zinchenko, Ben White staying deep and wide on the right hand side as a F’.B’, Saka providing the width on the right as the E.W (albeit he is slightly narrow due to the position of White), while Gabriel Jesus has swapped positions with Nketiah and is now operating as the central F(C) which is something you should expect from a ‘Wide Forward’ particularly when playing a Short passing style This image sums up a lot of what our starting X1 within SMW is expected to do (especially when we include the use of arrows). Jorginho is the Deepest of the Midfield 3 and has possession of the ball yet again; Odegaard is slightly higher than Jorginho and is looking to collect possession of the ball to make something happen for his team. Notice how Saka maintains the width out wide and Ben White has not overlapped even though Arsenal are well into Tottenham’s defensive third, further illustrating his role as a ‘Fullback’. Eddie Nketiah demonstrates his role as a ‘General Forward’ due to him now being the most advanced player in the Arsenal team, while Gabriel Jesus continues to get into goal scoring opportunities as their ‘Wide Forward’. Since Zinchenko is operating as an ‘Inverted Fullback’, it is up to Havertz to provide the width on the left hand side which is exactly what he does as the ‘Floating Advanced Playmaker’ which is a perfect indicator of the difference between a ‘Floating AP’ and a ‘Classic No.10.’
THE ARROWS
We’re using the Treble winners as an example of what to expect when you’ve decided to place arrows on particular players and how it will impact the shape of your team. We’ve also displayed how this City team intends to set up tactically based on SMW’s format.
If you noticed, we did not mention Rodri or Haaland who both have an arrow placed on them. The reason for this is due to their arrows being the most easy to understand, but for anyone who still dosen’t, Rodri’s arrow is an indication that he will sit deep and aim to dictate the play for his team (‘Deep lying Playmaker’), while Haaland will aim to stay on the last defender, making runs to get in on goal without getting involved with the build up play (Finisher). Feel free to re-watch the video, taking a look at both Rodri and Haaland to better grasp this information.
Wow, what an adventure! Thanks a lot for sticking with me so far and much love for all of the support we’ve been getting recently. You guys (and gals) are AWESOME!!!! 🥹😎🤘
2 thoughts on “SEASON 8: THE RANDOM SEASON EPISODE 8: HOW TO WATCH REAL LIFE SOCCER AND IMPLEMENT IT INTO SMW”
It’s really hard to implement Pedro Porro and Udogie’s roles in SMW, you can surely make them inverted fullbacks ( by not using the arrows ), but Porro or Udogie are actually more of inverted wingbacks ( basically they will move into the centre rather than sit deep as you potrayed it above ), so I think maybe just use them as traditional wingbacks would be slightly better. Would love to here your opinion 😀
Hello mate! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. It means the world to us!
Yes, you are right that it is more difficult to play Porro and Udogie as Inverted Fullbacks in SMW, but it’s mainly due to them not being able to play in the M(C) position within SMW (which is something that needs changing in our opinion).
In the example from this episode, Ange tasked Porro with playing as an Inverted Fullback in that match against Arsenal, but yeah, we unfortunately cannot try this in SMW since it won’t work.
If you have any other insights we’re always eager to hear what you have to say! 💚
The Soccermanager Experience 
It’s really hard to implement Pedro Porro and Udogie’s roles in SMW, you can surely make them inverted fullbacks ( by not using the arrows ), but Porro or Udogie are actually more of inverted wingbacks ( basically they will move into the centre rather than sit deep as you potrayed it above ), so I think maybe just use them as traditional wingbacks would be slightly better. Would love to here your opinion 😀
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Hello mate! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. It means the world to us!
Yes, you are right that it is more difficult to play Porro and Udogie as Inverted Fullbacks in SMW, but it’s mainly due to them not being able to play in the M(C) position within SMW (which is something that needs changing in our opinion).
In the example from this episode, Ange tasked Porro with playing as an Inverted Fullback in that match against Arsenal, but yeah, we unfortunately cannot try this in SMW since it won’t work.
If you have any other insights we’re always eager to hear what you have to say! 💚
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