Tabasco Fire Season 6 Preview

Tabasco Fire MFC are the second club in the Thinking Fantasy agency and will be our development side. In the long term the team will be filled with our own players that don’t make the grade for the Motherwell Eagles. With only 12 of my own players available, the squad has been topped up with loanees with 0% base revenue share to get us through the season.

With the level of players in the squad we’re unlikely to be competitive in the league. So, I’ve picked the formation and loans to make the most of players that have a higher overall in a secondary position. Hopefully, that can get us a slightly easier cup draw and allows us to make up for the MFL we won’t earn in the league.

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The Tactics

I’m going with a 4-3-3 (def) for the Tabasco Fire this season. It lets me make use of Silvio Delle in central midfield and I have a few decent options in the wing positions.

The squad is going to be pretty weak this season for sure, so I went with the defensive variant of the 4-3-3. We’ll be playing on the counter for the most part and attempting to steal some points in the league.

In terms of team instructions, I have us sitting really deep and compact to give our likely superior opposition less room to create good scoring opportunities. When we have the ball, the only instruction the players have is to be more direct in their passing. I want to get the ball forward as quickly as possible to try and catch the opposition out of shape defensively.

For player instructions, I have both centre backs set to trigger press less often. I want them staying in position to block shots and make tackles. In a similar vein, I have our CDM set to stick to his position. I want him in front of the centre backs able to intercept through balls and disrupt the build-up.

The only other instruction I have is on the left-back. By a fluke of squad building my two options at the position are the best passers in the club. To try and take advantage of that I have the position set to take riskier passes. The intention is to have some long balls forward from the back that can get our forwards running at the defence. I’ll need to pay close attention to this I think, hopefully it lead to long balls forward and not risky passes within our defensive third.

The Squad

I have 12 of my own players available to be in the Tabasco Fire squad this season including both of our goalkeepers. I’ve complemented them with 8 loaned in players, a mixture of starters and depth. When I was looking for loanees, I made a point to look for players that are better in a secondary position than their main position. In addition to maybe getting a player on cheaper terms based on their overall, hopefully it might also get us a slightly easier draw in the IMFF Cup.

In goal, Rex Brennan has moved down from the Motherwell Eagles to be the starter. He is the highest rated player in the team and won’t receive ideal training experience, around 95% of the max available. However, he should make up for that in extra match experience as he will end up playing 23+ games rather than the 5 he played last season. Gatti is very much a back-up and I don’t expect to see much from him at all.

In defence, I have a three-man rotation in the centre of defence between Mahmood Yoqobe and loanees Shahid Malik and Bernardo Caldeiro both of whom have 15 game clauses in their contracts. On the left of defence we have Baba Yatte loaned in as the clear starter, he has a 20 game clause. He’s backed up by Edoard Grossmann who is already 26 and a pretty poor defender.

The right side of the defence is filled entirely with loanees. Živko Marjanović will be the starter and needs to play 15 games this season. His back-up, Gerardo De-La-Fuente isn’t a great defender, but he only needs to play 10 games this season.

Silvio Delle and Ivan Zanetti make the step down from the Motherwell Eagles and will start at CM and CDM respectively. I’ve loaned in Toribio Viera to be the third starter in midfield, at bumps to 53 as CM. He needs to get 15 games to avoid sharing revenue which shouldn’t be a problem.

For the backups, I’ve brought in Larry Nichols to cover at CDM primarily, he only needs 10 games to avoid sharing revenue. Tobias Hassan will cover the central midfield positions. Finally, I have Shaker Hashem because he was hanging around the agency. He’ll get games if we do go to a 4-3-3 (att), he drops to a 42 to play CM or CDM.

We have no playing in their natural position in the forward line. I’ve brought in Massimiliano D’Agostino on loan to lead the line, speed was something I was targeting up front and his 71 is pretty high for this level. He also has good physicality and decent finishing, as a ST he bumps up to 52 overall.

On the wings Hans Eichhorn will start on the right side and Harry White will start on the left, both are 51 rated at their positions. George Mertens will be the back-up at RW and ST, his overall goes up to 49 and 52 at those positions. On the left Ben Woodward will be the back-up, although I’ll be trying to get him a decent amount of game time. He’s 48 rated on the wing.

The League

It’s looking like it will be a long season in the league for the Tabasco Fire, with the majority of the league being way better than us. I was expecting a tough league and having two other teams we can be competitive with isn’t bad at all. With so many much stronger opponents it should be pretty easy to find spots to rotate for the cup.

It hasn’t updated on MFL Manager, but Limoges 25 have added more players to their squad and it looks like their strongest 11 should be around the same us and Hillerod Royals. Hopefully we can beat those two and steal a few points of the other sides with our counter-attacking approach.

The Goals

Give up 0% Revenue Share – Keeping 100% of our MFL is the most important goal for the season. I’ve been careful when loaning players to ensure it will be possible to meet the game requirements. Baba Yatte is the one that will need managing the most to ensure he’s fit to play 20 games over the season. The rest should be no problem at all.

10th Place in the League – I want to finish above the other two poor teams in the league. That would net us 1050 MFL, most of the way towards two more common players to replace some loanees

Make the Cup Quarter Finals – The Cup is the priority for the season and with squad having plenty of players better out of position I’m hoping for a winnable group. I’m targeting a spot in the Quarter Finals and a decent MFL haul to make up for the league performance. Failing to get out of the group would be a complete disaster.