Asunto: u21 friendlies

Dominican republic has pretty even team, I can't say we would be the favourites, because we will very probably outplay them, just like we would outplay a lot of teams on our level, but with our issues in ATT we can hope for 1 lucky goal..They have pretty good defense, but only 18 year old GK, so let's hope he would make some mistake:-) Just for comparison their strikers has 3 TIMES higher value than ours..their weakness might be in midfield were they don't have any star players, so we should be dominating as usual, especially when they miss this guy:

Matias Galán, age: 21

club: Kłodzko Juniors Club, country: República Dominicana,
value: 17 617 545 Kč, wage: 181 501 Kč,
outstanding form, excellent tactical discipline,
height: 188 cm

NTDB:
injury: (22 days)

weak stamina tragic keeper
incredible pace average defender
incredible technique outstanding playmaker
outstanding passing good striker

luckily for us he is injured..

Our struggle in ATT lead me to do things I normally wouldn't do, I don't like to watch us dominate and than finish 0:0 again, so i'll probably try something to shake things up, like playing deep offside system (which i normally don't like and dont play). Let's hope this will put more pressure on his team and create more chances on his half, I believe our defense is good enough to allow me to gamble a bit and it can also surprise our opponent. His MIDs are not good enough to handle it and defeat it with through passes. Let's hope it won't end with disaster as their strikers score 5 goals on break away chances..
I don't know what tactic he will play, he changes it a lot, but we would stick with 442, Methula winger in 1st half (this time on the left side) and as offmid in the 2nd half, with little changes in positioning.

1 Koena Manyathi GK
2 Henry Theunissen DEF
3 Jan Nagoli DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Fabian Olivier DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Joel Felix MID
8 Oscar Methula MID
9 Bonang Ludick ATT
10 Zane Matsau MID
11 Marc Niang ATT

12 Fabien Lechesa GK
13 Paul Kalaka DEF
14 Petrus Hendricks MID
15 Peter Lekgwathi ATT
16 Granwald Masenia ATT
Set pieces
Free kick: Zane Matsau
Penalty kick: Bonang Ludick
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 2
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 3
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 4
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 5
46' always
Change tactics for Additional tactic
60' always
Granwald Masenia on position 9
70' always
Paul Kalaka on position 7
70' always
Peter Lekgwathi on position 11

Tactic will be named Al Horford, since I'm a big basketball fan and he is the only Dominican in NBA :-)

good luck!!

Gonna make some minor changes, I'll try Sithole in the 1st half, his form seems to be on rise..Lekgwathi and Niang will come in the 2nd half..Hendricks will sub Felix instead of Kalaka

This striker situation looks strange to me.

Ludick is 175 cm, unearthly form, adequate stamina, solid pace, very good technique, excellent striker.
Sithole is 198 cm, poor form, adequate stamina, excellent pace, excellent technique, outstanding striker.

I would expect the difference in form (13 levels) to make up for the 2 points in pace and striker and 1 point in technique, but Sithole looked so much better than Ludick in this match.

Sithole has the added advantages of height and being able to tackle and pass. Maybe the all round package is just that much better that the poor form isn't as much of a problem as I expect.

I was thinking the exactly same thing, but it could also be the fact I've mentioned that the striker on the side of the winger gets more passes..so that made him more visible, his height and nice secondary skills are also great advantage, especially his defense, not a lot of defenders on this level have high PM, so its very valuable, he was able to steal some balls and get opportunities by himself..
Anyway Cymru that we play next has striker with value more than 4 times higher than Ludick and winger who plays mark 68..their offense is far stronger than ours and they play higher marks and ratings, so I'm probably gonna play 532, or 541, especially without Matsau..

I'm gonna play 5-4-1 against Cymru, with Methula as a winger, this time with no additional tactic.
Cymru has strong offense and better team than us, so we are gonna defend this time and hope for some miracle form our striker(s)..

1 Koena Manyathi GK
2 Henry Theunissen DEF
3 Jan Nagoli DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Moses Pirates DEF
6 Fabian Olivier DEF
7 Joel Felix MID
8 Jimmy Molefe MID
9 Robert Sithole ATT
10 Petrus Hendricks MID
11 Oscar Methula MID

12 Fabien Lechesa GK
13 Mfundo Jooste DEF
14 Paul Kalaka MID
15 Bonang Ludick ATT
16 Shaun Sekano DEF
Set pieces
Free kick: Petrus Hendricks
Penalty kick: Robert Sithole
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 2
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 3
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 4
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 5
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 6
60' always
Paul Kalaka on position 10
61' always
Paul Kalaka on position 7
70' always
Bonang Ludick on position 9

We'll see about the form updates, I might make some changes..Sithole's form droped again on Monday, but he deserves another chance..
I want to substitute Kalaka for Hendricks in 70' minute and than switch his positions with Felix (10 to 7), I hope the substitution is gonna work this way..

With regards to our 5 men (boys) defensive wall against Cymru, our tactic will be fittingly called Wat's Dyke
(editado)

Orders looks fine, should work. Did you intend for Sithole to play using MID instruction?

Certainly not :-D I was changing the squad so many times, I kept the wrong order. Thanks for noticing;-) But I'll probably change something until the match again :-)

I'm hesitating about Sithole. His height (great for winger tactic), secondary skills and perfornance in last match were impressive, but he has tragic form again.. what's wrong with this guy, not even goals for U21 wakes him up!
So what now? Niang average form, weak stamina..Ludick and Cupido are not good enough, but have both 18 form..Lekgwathi? Masenia could also be option, but idk how he looks like, his owner still refuses to send updates..

Some advices? I will start only 1 striker and bring substitution for him in the 2nd half. I want to save 1 sub for Kalaka and 1 for possible injury.

Niang and average form and Sithole with tragic form should be about equal strikers, but Sithole has better side skills and the height, so stick with him as first choice. It's also close between Ludick and Cupido but I think I would favour Ludick of the two.

Masenia is definitely interesting. He has lower form than Ludick but higher value. In the database, his three striker skills from 6 weeks ago are equal to Ludick's, so he must have popped since then. The problem is that his shooting probably isn't high enough, even if he popped. I also wouldn't go with Lekgwathi with solid striker and solid form.

My suggestion is to use Sithole in the first half and Ludick in the second. With his 18 form, Ludick's lower pace and technique should be more effective when he is fresh against opponents that are already tiring.
(editado)

Looks good. Good luck! Let's give them a run for their money!

thanks for those advices. I'm still hesitant about playing tragic form striker ..Also Lekgwathi poped to solid technique yesterday to make it more interesting..
Ill probably stick with Sithole and Ludick, but im thinking hard about Lekgwathi and Niang..
Masenia not only have higher value with lower form but also lower stamina and I doubt he was trained in it during season, his high value is probably caused by formid/oustanding techique, because he is playing with MID order in the club..
So we have about 6 same bad strikers to choose from now :-) Good thing at least Masenia, Sithole, Cupido and Ludick will all be there for next season also..plus Chelin and Ledwaba
1 change ill make for sure after Schalla's update, Pirates will play instead of Jooste

Ludick struggles to hit the target with superdivine form and excellent striker. He hits the woodwork so often you would swear he was aiming for it.

With that being the case, I don't see how playing a solid form solid striker is going to help. He would be incapable of hitting the target, regardless of his technique. Masenia would have the same problem with shooting.

Edit: Please remember to insert the players height when doing a manual skills update. :)
(editado)

Yeah true Ludick loves those crossbars. As you say, he might be doing this on purpose :-) May be he made a bet or something..:-) Shooting is bit of random also, I remember training Turkye NT player years ago, he had unearthly striker and he was shooting like 5% on the season..and I had the best team in the league with countless scoring chances, that guy couldn't hit anything, even in form. I also had superdivine striker and he was nothing special also..This season I played young 20 year old striker with adequate striker skill and he scores at every opportunity. So there you go..:-)

Anyway you are right, I'll play high striker Attackers today, because of the winger tactic and their striker skill is more important and usefull with it..

P.S. I'll try to improve my updating skills :-)