In this series, we are looking at getting the best out of the players we hope will light up the Russia 2018 World Cup. Here, we look at France and their midfield maestro Paul Pogba.
Using custom date DB to start the game in April 2018, we see France have been rated by the bookies as 5-1 potential outsiders, the French FA want a semi-final place and we’ve been drawn in Group D with South Africa, Switzerland, and the USA.
Much has been made of where Pogba plays best since his move to Manchester United. Many say he can’t play in a midfield duo, others say he would be better behind a striker. The player himself thinks in a midfield three is his best role. But let’s leave the real world behind and see what’s best for France in Football Manager 18.
The first thing I notice at a glance of Pogba’s attributes are his physicals. Only Acceleration and Agility below 16! Combined with his 6’3” height and the game confirms what we know in real life – Pogba is an athlete.
His highest rating is 19 for Flair – yep, I can see that. We can expect the unexpected from the player and he backs up this with 18s in key technicals Passing, Technique, First Touch followed closely with 17s for Dribbling and Long Shots.
I love a bit of Determination and 17 will do for me.
The only weaknesses are shown with the Key Attributes highlighted for APS. These show that his Composure and Teamwork – whilst still good – are a bit below elite level.
His Player Traits are an interesting mix – I like a midfielder who gets into the box and I don’t mind shots from distance if you have 17 for Long Shots. Dwells on Ball can be seen as a negative – slows down play, lose attacking momentum, loses the ball – but with Pogba’s skillset, I believe I can use this to France’s benefit.
The game believes Pogba is best as an Advanced Playmaker on the Midfield Strata with a support duty. However, I don’t see Pogba as the Xavi/Iniesta type. He has the technique (I’d like to see vision higher for an elite playmaker) but his physical attributes give Pogba a different dimension to his game.
I look at Pogba’s attributes and I think he’d do a lot of damage in the space between midfield and strikers. For me, the target here is getting Pogba space with the ball in that central zone around the arc of the penalty box.
I can see him on that AMC slot but wait – no man is an island – we surely need more context.
My international ass-man has kindly provided me with a beautiful graphic of where France Squad Depth lies and it paints quite a picture. Usually, I use this screen in FM to begin the process of building up my tactic. If you have a tactic in mind, typically you would recruit to fill the gaps but this being international management forces our hand somewhat. Not an issue I cant afford to buy Pogba for Carluke Rovers anyway.
Lloris is head and shoulders above any other French keeper. End of.
We have 3 Great Central Defenders and 0 Great Full/Wingbacks. Back 3 it is then.
We have 1 great Defensive Midfielder but that’s Kante who is also one of our 3 great CMs. Out wide our great ML/R are Coman and Dembele whilst Mbappe is our Great AMR. I’m slabbering already.
We have 2 great SCs in Griezeman and, the newly recalled, Benzema.
Here’s the whole squad.
So what can I do with that?
As you may have guessed, the squad depth report clearly points to using a 3-5-2 base shape to utilise all our best players. But as stated before I want to get Pogba into that hole behind where I think he can cause the most damage.
So here is my strategy for France.
Here are both variations:
So how did we do?
Well, we only went and won it! And you can’t accuse us of getting an easy ride as we beat Germany, Spain and Italy (DB peculiarity!) on the way to the trophy.
Let’s look at some highlights of play throughout the tournament.
The opening game was a big test of the Mbappe lopsided tactic. By playing with the advanced winger we exposed ourselves against Shaqiri and nearly paid for it.
You can see against the 4-1-2-2-1 that we suffered down the flanks. As above I am content to leave some exposure on the wings but Kante really struggled to cover the increased space left by Mbappe being too high up.
We were too good attacking as planned and we had a penalty missed that would have won it for us. But lesson learned against wingers.
In our second group game we played against a 4-4-2 – a set up that should maximize our strengths due to space between midfield and defensive line. In this game, you can see the dominance in the zone around the AMC slot. Pogba used the space to post a MotM performance and helped himself to a goal.
I chose Advanced Playmaker role for Pogba rather than CMa or Mezzala not because I want him threading assists through. Instead, I am more interested in the way that this role attracts the ball. In the ME players look to pass to others with a Playmaker role and I want to utilise Pogba’s Dwell on Ball trait and technical skill set to pull the opposing defence out of position.
This goal against Croatia shows how Pogba starts the move on the left wing before moving into the danger zone. His switch of play pulls the defence giving the two players in the box a chance to lose their markers.
You can read about how John Dolan recreates Modric for Croatia here.
The game against Spain was very evenly matched. Spain had most of the ball but never really troubled us until they were awarded a dodgy penalty in extra-time. Mata missed in a match that displayed some woeful examples of spot kicks. We won 3-2 but 7 penalties were missed on top of Mata’s!
When Italy lined up in a 4-4-2, I knew we were in the final.
Germany playing a 4-2-3-1 was much more worrying. Learning lessons against Switzerland in our opening game, Mbappe dropped to the bench in favour of Dembele as an MR winger. The opener came from the Prodigal Son Benzema after a wonderful switched pass from Pogba.
We controlled the game but lost an equaliser from nowhere. Another lesson learnt of the ruthlessness at an elite level. We brought Mbappe on after 70 minutes and he laid on the assist for Benzema to win it.
The first conclusion of this was to get your money on France to win the World Cup because if I can manage them to glory on FM – they must be a dead-cert in real life.
The second conclusion is that I got Pogba to play the role that I was looking for. He got into space, pulled players out of position, got some great goals and produced some world class moments vital to us winning the trophy. Despite this, I do not think I got the best out of Pogba. I didn’t see Pogba as a playmaker in the Riquelme mode threading delicate balls through to rack up assists so I am not too concerned he got zero. Some of the games he drifted out of which meant his overall player rating wasn’t great. However, the team system worked well and more than achieved their objective.
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