Subject: [U21] France

I have been busy with building the database of players, so excuse me please for such a late article. We are about to play a match that may well show whether we stand some chance for grabbing the first place in our qualification group.

I am still worried a lot about the quality of our strikers. I am afraid that I will have to use some really weak striker who will have a really difficult task to deal with the French defence. There is one big question that's hanging around this striker problem.

There is one player that can be a great weapon against French defenders - however that player is really weird. He would create a lot of chances but he will waste most of them. What do you think - does he deserve to play tomorrow? :-)

Åge Ellehammer, age: 21
club: U_T_A, country: Danmark,
value: 19 507 549 Kč, wage: 195 001 Kč,
divine [17] form, solid [8] tactical discipline,

solid stamina tragic keeper
magical pace weak defender
incredible technique weak playmaker
poor passing good striker

The best "traditional" striker, I know about now is way worse in the left side skills:

Ken Grønvald Jelstrup, age: 21
club: Zagłębie Sosnowiec, country: Danmark,
value: 9 247 524 Kč, wage: 96 001 Kč,
brilliant [14] form, average [5] tactical discipline,

weak stamina unsatisfactory keeper
formidable pace unsatisfactory defender
very good technique poor playmaker
adequate passing outstanding striker


Thank you for helping me out :-)

Maybe Ellehammer 60 min and Jelstrup last 30... considering Jelstrup´s stamina, and the fact the french defenders will be easier to create chances against in last 30... :)

I have the same opinion - but that "good" striker skill of Ellehammer is something that scares me ;-) Well, but it's still better to have wasted chances than no chances at all :-)

yes, and second striker will get very few against 2x15 def.....

but maybe if you can see some hole in frances def, then second striker is best

Two new strikers found! :-) I hope I will manage to get their skills by the evening... (and of course I hope they will be great ;-))

Rasmus Laulund
Preben Stål

Here we go... The lineup and the very first version of the tactic is ready. Feel free to write any comments you have in mind! :-)

1. Karl Emil Lindner GK
2. Roland Alf DEF
3. Jesus Bak DEF
4. Napoleon van der Maase DEF
5. Jonas Kohl DEF
6. Sten Stålem DEF
7. Joakim Michelsen MID
8. Ben Uhrenholt MID
9. Vagn Hoff MID
10. Åge Ellehammer ATT
11. Preben Stål ATT

12. Abdalla Østerberg GK
13. Palle Skram DEF
14. Svend Fjordbak MID
15. Bjørn Bordinggaard MID
16. Ken Grønvald Jelstrup ATT

Set pieces
Free kick: Vagn Hoff
Penalty kick: not specified

Conditional orders
1' red card or no player Roland Alf on position 3
1' red card or no player Roland Alf on position 4
1' red card or no player Roland Alf on position 5
46' always Bjørn Bordinggaard on position 8
46' always Ken Grønvald Jelstrup on position 11

Here is the tactic I have in mind. There is still a lot of problems and bad things to resolve and I will continue working on it. However I don't want to give it here too late so you can take a look at least at this alpha-version of the tactic.

Let me give you explanation to few aspects I took in consideration while making it:

1) Those weird looking strikers that are still going around is an invention of my friend. When I saw that for the first time I thought it is just crazy. However later on, such movements have helped me to play two equal matches against Slovakia last season with a weak team of Cyprus (and even made me win one of them). I know sometimes it's overly "wavy" but I will fix it :-)

2) There is a new coach in France so I could have spied just the matches of his team. He is playing somewhat strange tactic with 3 strikers and a winger. I guess he won't do this with the national team, however I guess either winger or many strikers will appear. Therefore I've decided to use 5 defenders.

3) Three midfielders are there from two reasons - and the one that there are just 3 positions left is the least important. After I've discovered that Preben Geert is nothing special, Svend Fjordbak is low in form and some other midfielders are injured, there wasn't many other players to use. Therefore I stuck with 3 midfielders (even though I am not a great fan of 3MID tactics - it imposes problems with throw-ins etc)


/edit: Bad link
(edited)

GL today :)

really hard start of WCQ against France, but I hope Danmark could surprise :)

maybe weird looking strikers, but it works really good :) I tried it many times before, too :) (it is a Czech patent :D)

I hope your DEFs won't give too much chances to French strikers and your ATTs will score :D

I had some problem in U21 Slovakia. I had striker with high att, but pace and tech 12/8,13/7 etc., but att 13-15 and att did not have scoring chance, because everybody stop their.

So i used striker with 14/14 with 8 and 7 att.

Unfortunately, France proved the quality... They were everywhere in time whereas our players were a bit "lazy". I hope that they will show their quality in the upcoming matches :-)

I don't want to write long reviews - I would be happy if you come with your opinion first :-)

The rotating striker craziness is actually Doglo's idea, I just perfected it:-)

Anyway it is impossible to win on U21 level without decent strikers especially against better teams, no matter how good the rest of the team is..I have my experiences with that..

This will be tough WCQ campaign and you have to hope for some 1:0 results..you will have hard time to score..

Who gave access to all those foreigners??

btw. better luck next time... and thx for tool.. :)

Better luck next time chief.
You got our team up to 53.4 Average Rating,
However France unfortunately was a better team.

Back on the horse :-)

/Neller

That was me. They are in my staff and I didn't want to write all those things multiple times :-) However if you don't like them, there will be sent off of course. (But you needn't be worried, I know these guys pretty well. And hopefully they would make the discussion more active) But as I said - it's up to you...

I know I made a few mistakes yesterday:

1) I wanted probably too much from the midfielders. As they were just three, they had to do a lot of things. Which in effect led to the situation that they can't have passed each other accurately as the gaps were too large. (although sometimes the passes made me quite crazy)

2) At the very last moment before the match, I've decided to put our strikers little bit higher (as I thought that will be just the level of French defensive line). However if I let it be as it was, we wouldn't get that many offsides.

3) I didn't manage to guess what's going to come from the French opponent. They had the midfield quite crowded and that didn't suit us.

These three were probably the most crucial ones. However if you have seen others, let me know please :-)