I joined MFL mid way through season 4 just in time for the Redemption Cup 2 and it’s been great to get a taste for competitive games on the platform. In the past, I’ve enjoyed blogging my progress in Football Manager careers on forums. So with MFL having such a strong community, it felt like a great way to contribute for those people that do enjoy written content.

Previously, I have posted about how I’ve built my Motherwell Eagles squad which you can read here. In this post, I’m going to talk through my experience in the Redemption Cup including my thinking on tactics in each game. At the end I’ll sum up my experience and what lessons I’ll be taking into Season 5.

The Group

The Redemption Cup 2 starts of with a group stage. Teams are sorted into groups of 4 and after playing each team twice the top two sides qualify for the knockouts. Much like the old Champions League format. Additionally the top  3rd placed finishers also make it into the knockouts. To earn any rewards, we need to make it out of the group. That will be target for the competition.

The group the Motherwell Eagles have been drawn in looks pretty evenly balanced. So I think I’ve got a fighting shot at qualifying.

Our Tactics

The Motherwell squad has been built to play either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-1-2 Wide formation. I’ve got 5 Limited players spread across the formation to be the stars of the team. The rest is filled in with the common players I got in the starter packs and a few market purchases.

Based on some really basic testing, I’ve found that the 4-1-2-1-2 performs a little bit better for me. Although, I haven’t had time to test either formation thoroughly. I’ll start with the 4-1-2-1-2 and see how we go over the first couple of games.

MD1 – Sockos MFC (A)

Not a great start.

We conceded a penalty in the first half but we at least went in to the break only down 1-0. Second half was terrible, we conceded a quick double before pulling the score back to 3-1. There was 4th goal for Sockos before, CB, Otto Hinrichs was sent off. With the team operating down a CB and not adapting for it, we got battered for the rest of the game and lost 6-1. Over the final 10 minutes we played with 10 men we gave up almost 1.00 xG, just shy of the open play xG we gave up for the other 80 minutes combined.

On the positive side, Hinrichs went up in overall from 53 to 54. So not a complete loss of a game.

I’m not sure what to make of this game. Before the red card, the penalty was the big difference in xG, Sockos just took their chances a lot better. Whether that’s due to them having better finishers or more to do with RNG remains to be seen.

MD2 – James FC (H)

We took an early lead against James FC before being pegged back in the middle of the first half. Overall we looked in control in the first half until we conceded another penalty at the end of the half. To compound things we conceded another almost immediately and went into the break down 3-1.

In the second half scored early again to give us some hope of a comeback. But after that we struggled to create further scoring opportunities. In the end James FC scored their fourth goal in the 86th minute to end any hope of a point for us.

It looks like pace killed us in this one. My players are mostly middling in speed, generally in the 50s-60s. But James FC has a lot of players with 70+ pace including hatrick hero Alex Thibault. Thibault terrorised us running in from his right forward position and his teammates had a lot of success as well.

I’ll look to make some tactical tweaks before we play James FC again. I will likely go for a deeper defensive line and reduced positional freedom. Adding more pace is perhaps an area to address before season 5 gets started.

MD3 – Ourense FC (A)

I’ve rotated the squad a little bit heading into this one. Thiago Almeida has been getting a lot of shooting opportunities as the CAM, but his shooting is really poor (34). So, I’ve swapped him with Claus Adam on the right wing. Adam has better shooting (54) whilst Almeida’s strong passing will hopefully result in some dangerous crosses into the box.

I’ve also brought Eduard Großmann in for Harold White on the left of midfield. This was influenced a bit from the last game, Großmann has 71 speed which will hopefully add another dimension compared to White. White is the better overall player, partly driven by his strong finishing (55). But, given White has only taken one shot so far, I don’t think we’ll miss the finishing too much.

In the first half, it was a pretty even game with Ourense probably having the better of the chances. But the second half was a different story, we were excellent going forward, scoring 4 goals. The changes to the team really made the difference, Almeida and Adam both created one and scored one whilst Eduard Großmann also scored.

We were also really strong defensively in the second half holding Ourense to just two second half shots and 0.1 xG. A much better performance and a much needed victory. Both for my confidence in my management and in our hopes of qualifying from the group stage.

MD4 – Sockos FC (H)

In the first game against Sockos, I didn’t pick out any specific issues in the formation. Bar the penalty, the xG was pretty even until we had a centre back sent off. Given that, and the success of last games changes, I’ve kept the same XI going into this game. Hopefully, if we’re more clinical in front of goal we can earn a positive result.

Overall it was a pretty even game, thankfully with no red card or penalty conceded this time! We just edged the first half but it was scoreless at the break. In the second half we took the lead from a corner as Osman scored his second of the season. We had a couple of good chances to double our lead but couldn’t convert.

It came back to bite us as we conceded an equaliser with 10 minutes to go. Defensively it was a poor goal to concede, their goalkeeper hit a long ball, their striker outmuscled Oscar Hinrichs and scored one-on-one with the keeper.

We edged the game 1.6-1.0 in xG, but overall a draw wasn’t an unreasonable result. We have our destiny in our hands in the group still. If we can win our remaining games we will qualify for the knockouts. Given the way the group started we can’t ask for much more than that.

MD5 – James FC (A)

Pace destroyed us in the first game against James FC, so I’ve made some tactical adjustments to try and give away less chances. I’ve swapped Ivo de Arruda out for Ljubinko Perišić. This adds a lot more pace (74 v 55) at left back to try and keep Alex Thibault in check. I’ve also given Perišić less position freedom as well as dropping the defensive line a bit deeper to hopefully get caught out by speed a bit less. I’ve rotated most of the front 5 as well to have the stars fit for the final game against Ourense FC.

Overall the tactical changes were a resounding success. We dominated the game from start to finish and created more than enough chances to put the game away. Unfortunately our finishing was truly awful and we ended up goalless despite creating 3.42 xG. Defensively we held James FC to just 0.79 xG so it was really a complete performance outside of our finishing.

Performance-wise it’s a great sign that tactical changes are having positive results. Whilst James FC also rotated in this game, it was still pretty even in overall level between the two sides and to create this many chances was a first in a competitive game. This setup will be one to remember when we face attacking teams in the future.

However, by failing to win we now need help to qualify from the group outright. If Sockos win their final games against James FC we will be resigned to 3rd or 4th regardless. Although we may be able to qualify as a best placed 3rd team. Fingers crossed James FC goes back to their top lineup and give us a chance at second!

MD6 – Ourense FC (H)

Heading into the finale we know we need help to get out of the group stage. I’ve rotated the starters back in for this one, and hopefully we can repeat the performance we had in Match Day 3.

Unfortunately, it certainly wasn’t a repeat performance. Ourense were the better team in this game and probably should have won the game. As a game it was almost a mirror image of MD3, apart from the scoreline. Ourense had just over 2 xG compared to 0.79 for us, but they couldn’t take any of their chances.

Frustratingly, if we had won the game, we would have came second in the group and qualified for the knockouts. As it is we came 3rd in the group ahead of Sockos FC and have a long wait for season 5 to start.

The contrast in performances between the two games against Ourense raises questions about the influence of tactics and RNG in our performances to date. Was the stronger performance in the first game or the poor performance in this one, closer to the average we should expect? Another area to look deeper into before season 5 starts.

Takeaways

There were ups and downs across the 6 games, but if we could have finished our numerous chances in MD5 we could be in the knockout rounds. Going into a fairly even group, it feels like luck played a significant deciding factor which you might expect.

Tactics

Still a lot of work to do on tactics – I’d like to get to the point where I feel my tactics are tilting the table slightly in our favour on a regular basis.

At times it felt like I had a handle on tactics, but with the small sample size it’s hard to have any real confidence. We had good and bad performances against the same opposition with only minor chances in personnel between the two sides. Getting some testing done before season 5 will be important to understand what the average performance of my tactics is likely to be.

As well as looking at the standard tactic I’ve been using, I want to have a deeper look at the more counter attacking variant I played in MD5. It was against a rotated side, but it generated those most xG of any competitive game we’ve played so far. At the very least it looks like a useful variant to have available.

Recruitment

When I recruit going into the new season, looking beyond the overall and finding players with the right blend of stats for their role will be key.

I went into the Redemption Cup looking to build a team that would get my best players onto the pitch and only using loans to fill big gaps. It ended up with some starters with overalls in the low 50s whose stats aren’t ideal for their positions. Almeida as a CAM is the obvious example given he has only 34 shooting. Whilst I do want to continue to give my players the best opportunities for progression, I may need to look for the right loan players if I want to challenge for promotion in season 5.

Pace – the big takeaway from MD2 was that a mismatch in pace can be really deadly. One of my focusses for recruitment will be adding pace to the starting side. Both in attacking and defensive positions.

Squad Management

Rotation is definitely something I will need to plan for more across a full season’s worth of games. Both in squad construction and in-season management. The drop off in forwards and CAM in MD5 could well have cost us a chance to qualify from the group.

Progression

Karlheinz Stangl was the pick of the side in terms of progression over the course of the season. He picked up 5 points of defending and few other points spread out. The net result is he’s gone from 56 to 59 rated playing in 5 of 6 games. Hopefully, this rate of progression will mean he can progress more over season 5. The only downside is his progression has reduced the training XP he will receive.

Fellow centre-back Otto Hinrichs also went up by one overall. As did on-loan striker Rade Bojić. Beyond that, there were a few isolated stat increases for my players but no overall increases. Given there was only 5 games played for most starting players, it feels like a pretty reasonable amount of progression.

Closing Comments

If you’ve managed to read this far – well done! I’d like to call this a comprehensive review – but it’s probably more of a ramble.

First and foremost, I had great fun playing the Redemption Cup 2 and missed not having daily games to follow after I was knocked out. The game obviously isn’t as complex as Football Manager yet, but there’s enough there to make a compelling game. The negotiating with other managers to get players in on loan adds a really fun dimension to the game.

The community has also been a great part of joining MFL. Across the various discord servers (the Ramble discord has been my favourite) there’s so many people willing to help and advise on all aspects of the game. It was a pleasant surprise for a game where players are in direct competition with each other.

Roll on Season 5!

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