FM20: From Outsider to Champion

Becoming the dominant force in Estonian football

In the first part of this blog series, I explored the history and starting conditions of JK Narva Trans. In part two, I went into how I stabilized the team’s finances and put them on the road to success. In this third part, I will now examine how we achieved that success and became the top team in Estonia.

After my 6th place finish in the first season, I went on to finish runners up for three years, and then finally broke through and won Narva’s first championship in 2023. From that point on no other team has been able to challenge me.

Tactics

It was in the second season (2020) that the main tactic I would use came together. As an ambitious mid-table team, I knew I had to have an adaptable tactic that could be attacking enough to go after the smaller teams in the league but defensively solid enough that it could withstand the assault brought by the bigger teams. To that end, I settled on an “attacking” 4–1–4–1 based off the Wing Play preset.

With only one player in the attacking zone of the field, this formation is inherently defensive. Without the ball, there will be the classic “two banks of four” plus a defensive midfielder patrolling between them. I’ve also instructed the team to press and counter attack as that’s the way I like my teams to play.

To balance the defensive shape out, I set the wide players plus a central midfielder on the Attack mentality. This means that when we have the ball the wingers streak forwards and the full backs overlap, encircling the defense. If the opposition does manage to clear, my defensive midfielder is there to win long balls and recycle possession.

There are three common types of chances this tactic creates from open play:

1. Counter attack by the Advanced Forward

The DM wins the ball, leading to a quick counter

2. Far post cross to the opposite attacking Winger

Wingers on attack lurk at the far post

3. Late run into the box by the attacking Central Midfielder

A quick run up the flank sucks in the defense, leaving the CM wide open for the cut back

To match this balanced approach between a defensive shape and an attacking mentality for many of the players, I appropriately set the overall team mentality to Balanced. I also have Play for Set Pieces on as I think this suits the balanced nature of the tactic. Against stronger teams, it slows the game down and creates chances we might not otherwise get from open play. This cuts the other way against weaker teams, but at the same time those teams are less likely to have the strong defenders or goalkeepers needed to keep out set piece goals.

Set pieces help level the field against stronger opponents

In addition to this main tactic, I set up two variants — a defensive version that reverts the Full Backs to defensive and wingers to support, and an offensive version that sets the mentality to Attacking and swaps the defensive midfielder for a second striker.

A defensive version for when we’re ahead and an even more attacking version for when we need a goal

As a smaller team, having all three tactics based on the same shape was important, as I did not have the money to sign players just for a secondary tactic. This is the first time I’ve tried using all three tactics slots and it’s something I highly recommend. Keeping variants of the same tactics allows for easy swapping based on the situation, and having them preset allows the team to train for familiarity. I have seen many FM players bemoan how “going defensive” or “going attacking” never works, but I think that comes from the team never training with different tactics, so the unfamiliarity overwhelms any benefit that comes from the change in mindset.

This tactic has changed slightly over the seasons (most notably changing from attacking Wing Backs to Full Backs thanks to this post from FM Pressure), but its core has remained the same.

Player Recruitment and Development

Of course, no tactic will work if you don’t find players that are suited for it. In my previous post, I detailed some of the unorthodox ways I was able to find players without spending much money in the first couple years of the save. Here, I’ll talk about how I identified diamonds in the rough and developed them into the players that would bring us to championship glory.

Strengths and Weaknesses

At the start of the save, the Meistriliiga is ranked somewhere between the English 4th and 5th tiers. Or to put it another way, it’s right at the bottom of fully professional leagues. At this level, it’s impossible to get the well-rounded players you’d ideally want. You have to accept that every player will have weaknesses, and instead focus on a few attributes per position that will make the player successful in their role. As an example, let’s look at Center Back Nerijus Stankevicius.

Stankevicius came through the Zalgiris Vilnius youth ranks but struggled to make it in the Lithuanian league. He dropped down to the Estonian League where he was playing for Pärnu JK Vaprus (a club that yo-yos between the top two divisions in Estonia) when I found him and signed him on an end-of-contract free transfer. Not a particularly inspiring resume. So why did I sign him?

A Jumping Reach of 18 is superb at this level and, combined with his 17 Bravery, means that he can reach almost every header and is not afraid to try. This is not only important defensively, but as we are Playing for Set Pieces, having a Center Back that will fight for and win headers off corners and free kicks is essential. He does have a weakness in this area that might at first glance hold him back (9 Heading!), but having some clear standout attributes has made him highly successful in our system.

The team leader (by far) in headers won and attempted despite a relatively low “Heading” attribute

Serbentrance

One of the most consequential developments in the save was geopolitical rather than sporting. In the early 2020s Serbia (along with Montenegro and Albania) joined the European Union. As an American, I won’t go near the touchy subject of EU membership in real life, but within the world of Football Manager it was a godsend. The registration rules in Estonia limit the team to 4 non-EU players, and the low ranking of the league means that it’s rare that players outside the Baltic region wanted to come, if we could even afford to pay them. Serbia joining the EU opened up a vast pool of talented young players that previously would have been off-limits.

Partizan and Red Star became a major source of talent

To take advantage of this I became in essence a development club for the big two clubs in Serbia (Red Star and Partizan). As I mentioned in my previous post, I’d give their talented youngsters game time in exchange for the parent club paying the wages. Now because of Serbia’s EU membership, those loanees did not count against my foreign player limit. As a notable example, here’s Right Back Boban Meladnk’s history with the team, all of which was paid for by Red Star.

Youth Development

Growing players from within the club is one of the most rewarding parts of any Football Manager save. While we don’t start with a particularly good youth setup in Narva, it was good enough to produce a few decent players over the years. One thing I started doing was loaning the promising youngsters to teams in the division below (Esiliiga). My rule of thumb was that if they could get a 7+ rating as a teenager in the Esiliiga, they were ready to challenge for the first team. (Incidentally, this was also a good way to reduce the wage budget.) Our homegrown Right Winger Taimuraz Levin is a perfect example.

Clear, consistent improvement indicated early by a successful loan spell

Conclusion

One of the great things about Football Manager is there’s no “correct” way to play. If you set up a tactic that suits your place in the league, and bring in players that suit that tactic, you will (usually) be successful. In the next post, I’ll go into my adventures in European competition, followed by a wrap up of the entire save.

For smaller bits and pieces from the save, follow my twitter account at @FMBowser