French clichés are something that always make me laugh, must be something to do with ‘Allo ‘Allo!

I’ve decided to do a bit of a nomadic save for this game. Usually I’m a one club man and try to see out a project that I’ve planned in my head. I’ll load up a game, pick a team and after a couple of seasons, I tire of it. To make this game a bit exciting, I’m going to only stay at a club for a maximum of two seasons. I’m not sure how well that will work out for me, but if I bring success.. who cares right?

I’d been working on a new tactic and it worked really well for me at Inter Milan. Managed to complete the league season as invincibles, which I’ve never done before. We lost one game, which was an elimination in the Italian Cup. I chose Inter as they were predicted to finish 5th in Serie A. Seemed like a good squad for what I wanted and it was. Tactical setup looked like this.

The game had a glitch and I decided to try it out on another team to see if I wasn’t just lucky that time round. Lyon were my team of choice, as I was only testing my tactic, I played ten games and then holidayed the rest of the season. Lyon finished joint on points with PSG, only missing out on the Ligue 1 title on goal difference. Also lost in the cup final. A pretty good test I thought. I resigned as manager at the end of that season.

So this is where I decided to make this save a bit different to my usual loyal saves.

Getting into it…

I decided that I’d only use this tactic. I’m going to make teams adapt to me rather than me adapting to them, much like Guardiola has done at Bayern, only not that good I’d suspect.

It was the 9th of November 2014 before I got a new job. Marseille had me down as their number one target and after an interview, I took the job on the basis that they’d upgrade the youth coaching and youth recruitment network. I’ll not be around to take advantage of it, but at least I’m leaving something good behind. My mission was to finish in the top half, I was handed a £28m transfer kitty, but no remaining wage budget. The goal is perfectly achievable, I’ve set myself a target of 6th place though.

Marseille were 16th in Ligue 1 when I joined. The squad was a bit injury riddled with a few key players out of the team, but I’ve worked with worse. There was enough players for what I needed. The team were actually doing ok before I got the job. Last season they finished 6th, which was three places below their predicted finish, so I think it was a culmination of things that lead to Laudrup’s sacking.

I arrived on match day 14 and the opponents were Lille. I got the tactic loaded and hired some new staff.

The First Match…

Tough start with Lille, but we managed to pick up a 2-2 draw despite them having the best of the game. Ji Dong-Won and Mathieu Valbuena got the goals for us. Lille twice came back. Was quite happy with that start, especially since it was my first day.

The Team…

I gave the team a proper assessment after this match. We have some good players throughout the team but I  decided I needed three new players. A centre back, a right wing back and a striker were on my shopping list. By the time I adjusted my finances so I had a decent wage budget, I got scouting and identified some targets.

Ecuadorian, Frickson Erazo was the first man I signed. He fits the mould of what I look for in a defender. Tall, Composed, Good reader of the game, Good decision maker and Good Positionally. At £2.4m, it was a no brainer.

Demba Ba was transfer listed by Chelsea for £4.4m. His wages are a bit of a luxury, but I thought he was worth it so I splashed out.

Took a bit of searching for a right wing back that was better than Rod Fanni. I got Joao Pereira from Valencia for £1.1m though.

All those guys were joining me on January 1st 2015.

Results…

Results have been excellent up to now, 6th Feb 2015. In fact, we’ve performed above expectations, despite injuries, suspension and the African Nations Cup crippling my squad. Looking at bit like this at present.

We’re in the Coupe de la Ligue Final against PSG, Coupe de France 11th Round and we’re up to 8th position, just 4 points behind 6th place Rennes with two games in hand over them.

I’d already got to this point by the time I’d written this first blog, so I’ll go into more match detail in my big upcoming games or any games where I smash the opposition.

Thanks for reading