More pleasingly the likes of Jozabed and Raul Baena offer interesting options in the centre. Instead I’ll be lucky to get more than two seasons of use from him. I love Trashorras as a player and had planned on building my team around him. I was disappointed to figure out that Spanish midfielder Roberto Trashorras was the wrong side of 30 as opposed to the 24/25 that I thought he was. If the defence looked shaky then at least the midfield had a bit more quality. This was an area of the team that would need investment sooner rather than later, the only problem is that we have very little money. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the centre of the defence with Antonio Amaya and Ze Castro looking like the best of a bad bunch. We were all set at either fullback with Tito the club captain at right back and the marvellously named Romanian international Razvan Rat providing experience on the left flank. In defence I planned to use a back four for my first season at least while I tried to decide if my favoured back three would work on this version of the game. He wasn’t quite up to performing the sweeper keeper role that I had planned but that wasn’t the end of the world. In goal we at least have a solid option in Spanish keeper Juan Carlos who had just returned to the club for a second spell after moving to Cordoba. In truth there is little quality throughout the squad but this just made it more interesting to me. The squad is distinctly average and made up of misfits from other clubs. It can’t be that bad though can it? Not when Paco was able to lead them to comfortable mid table finishes. Now it was time to actually consider the squad itself. Who doesn’t enjoy the prospect of a save where they can populate their first team with home grown players. Everyone loves an underdog though don’t they? Rayo also have a tradition of youth development that I find intriguing given the relatively poor standard of their facilities within the game. They play in the tiny Campo De Futbol De Vallecas stadium which holds just under 15,000 supporters, and are not only behind city rivals Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in terms of stature they even fall behind modest Getafe in the Spanish capital. If you’ve ever watched a Rayo Vallecano save on TV then you can’t help but fall in love a little bit with the club. Initially when I fully thought my tactic out I could feel my interest in the save start to wane but then something happened – the club itself pulled me in. The problem you see is that the Football Manager match engine is not quite advanced enough to set up Juego De Posicion nor to effectively set up pressing triggers or traps. The plan then was to set up a tactical system in a similar style to that used by Paco and Rayo in La Liga. He is very much from the school of the likes of Juan Manuel Lillo, Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa in that he likes his team to use Juego De Posicion (positional play) in the attack and to press relentlessly when they lose possession of the ball (Incidentally, if any readers are interested in more information regarding Lillo then I urge them to check out the excellent article by Sid Lowe for issue one of The Blizzard). He has no intention whatsoever of altering his style of play regardless of the opposition as witnessed recently in the 10-2 demolition by Real Madrid. Paco is the very definition of a dogmatic football coach. On Football Manger 15 I had a long term save with FC Twente in Holland purely because I wanted to manage Hakim Ziyech – Ziyech went on to break my heart but that’s a story for another day – but this time around I wanted to see if I could emulate one of the most hipster of all football coaches, Paco Jemez. I have a tendency to base my saves within Football Manger on teams or coaches that impress me in real life. What follows though is a full run down on my first season with Los Franjirrojos. So far I have played through four full seasons – I know I play slowly – and again if you follow me on Twitter you may well know exactly how the save is progressing via my sporadic updates. Those of you that follow me on Twitter may already be aware that I’ve been managing Rayo Vallecano in La Liga since Football Manager 16 was released. Yes, will be bringing us his much awaited Rayo Vallecano save, and we have the first part here. Ladies and gentleman, the transfer window is open and The Higher Tempo Press have already snagged one of the best January signings in history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |