PES Chronicles

Mid-table mediocrity. The most dismal phrase in the footballing lexicon.

I win one, I lose one. I go up a few places, I fall a few places. I lose one, I win one. I fall a few places, I go up a few places….

It’s as if I am under some kind of magic spell. I can neither rise nor fall. My team is in some kind of PES stasis field. As idle as a painted oil tanker upon a painted ocean.

I’ve been looking long and hard at my 4-3-3 formation. And I’ve been thinking the unthinkable.

I’m going with the above 4-4-2 formation as my new starting formation for all games. This is a big deal for me.

Duffy is a DMF. Shimizu is a CMF. Chairman Mao and De Ridder are SMFs. I’ve positioned Schwarz slightly deeper than Frutos because the latter is the bigger and better striker right now. Schwarz still gets most of his goals by receiving the ball and running with it, playing one-twos, etc. Frutos is a strong giant of a striker who belongs just in front of Schwarz.

I’ve played 4-3-3 for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I’ve ever seriously tried out any other formation in Master League. Even when struggling in PES5, and for over two seasons now in PES2008, switching the formation to something else has been unthinkable.

Until now. Defending is the key to success in PES2008. Currently, my goals scored tally is an average of almost 1 goal per game. Nothing spectacular, but within operating parameters for a football team.

You would expect to pick up results simply by keeping clean sheets, something I found relatively easy to do in years gone by. In PES5 and PES6, after the tough first campaign or two, I conceded an average of 8 goals per season.

My current goals against tally is an average of almost 2 per game. Defending against the CPU is my problem right now. I’m tired of losing games after having 60% of possession and 15 or 20 shots on goal, only to see the CPU score with all of its 3 shots on goal.

My problem has been stopping the CPU from creating openings in midfield and in front of my defence. Having a lone DMF is all well and good – but he’s got to be good, and he’s got to have good support from the AMFs and, when up against it, from the CFs. Duffy and co. currently are not up to scratch.

I could have tinkered with the positioning and defensive settings in my existing 4-3-3. But I’m thinking right now that a few imaginary lines on a virtual chalkboard are no substitute for having solid bodies placed squarely in the way of the rampaging CPU midfielders and attackers.

I tested the 4-4-2 formation in a couple of Exhibition matches (England vs Germany; England vs Brazil), and I’m quite liking it.

Yes, I feel a bit lost and bewildered when I get the ball up front and there’s only two central strikers to look for. But the two wide midfielders in a 4-4-2 are much better at wing penetration than the more centrally-placed AMFs in my 4-3-3 ever were.

I won the Exhibition games 3-1 and 2-0 on Top Player. Granted, with good players the 4-4-2 might have worked out well, but how will it work with my middling players in Master League? Only one way to find out.

Switching to 4-4-2 at this stage could all go very wrong. But I have a good feeling about it, for some reason.

Message to self: Must stop signing Youth Players. Must stop signing Youth players. Must stop signing Youth players. Message ends.

Here I am toward the end of season 2008 on Master League and the tale of the tape makes for dispiriting viewing. In nine games since the end of the mid-season negotiation period, I have won 2, drawn 1, and lost 6. I’ve scored 7 goals and conceded 12. As for my team’s disciplinary record for the entire season so far… 37 yellows and 21 reds. Gulp.

I had high hopes going into the mid-season negotiations that the ship was finally turning. But this ship has the apparent turning circle of an oil tanker.

The one consolation is that I’m doing better this season than last. I realise now that I’ve made serious mistakes in the transfer market, and not just once or twice. Too many Youth players too quickly.

I’ve got so many young players partly because I found that the usual method of getting older players was often blocked off. In PES2008, you have to ask the other club’s permission to negotiate a trade-in deal. This permission is often denied because your club is not yet prestigious enough. You need the right players to start playing well enough to get some prestige. It’s the old vicious circle effect.

I’ve switched things around slightly in my First XI over the past couple of games, and it seems to have tightened things up at the back. I’ve moved Suzuki back into defence and made him a CWP – a sweeper. It’s one of his alternate positions, and he’s very good at it. Weir has gone onto the bench. Mattsson continues to do well – he seems to make a freakish amount of successful headed clearances. Duffy has gone into the DMF position in Suzuki’s place.

Despite the poor record, there are signs that the oil tanker is turning. This blog has not quite turned into a peculiar comedy just yet. I’m looking now to finish with as many wins under my belt as possible, and then attack the full off-season negotiations with a vengeance.

I’ve hit a mini-slump form-wise just prior to the negotiations period. Now I need to have a good mid-season negotiation period. I messed it up last season. I came out of it with just 3 Youth players and seriously delayed myself getting to grips with the game. It’s such a short period in the season – a mere blip at four weeks – that it’s easy to waste the opportunity to bring in the kinds of players who can keep the Default players where they belong – on the bench, and waiting to be traded or sold or released in the future.

My decision-making this time was a little strategic. The season is another write-off. Even if I could populate my team sheet with galacticos, they wouldn’t get me promotion. I needed to get players who could do a job, get me some good results, and wouldn’t cost so much that I’d be left with no wiggle room in the off-season to get some really fine new players for the 2009 campaign.

These are the players I acquired this time:

FRIEDEL (GK) – Age 17
WEIR (CB) – Age 17
DUFFY (DMF) – Age 17
TRAORE (WF) – Age 19
FOLAN (CF) – Age 26

A goalkeeper was top on my list of priorities. In PES6 I got an 18-year-old keeper from the Youth list who already had good stats. He played in my team for a few seasons until I got into the top flight and could afford a world-class keeper. This year my thoughts are to do the same.

In the Youth list I saw Friedel straightaway, alongside Lehman and Keller. It was a toss-up between the three which one I’d go for and I finally went with Friedel solely because his current ability just edges out the other two. In ten or fifteen seasons time I have no doubt that Friedel will be a solid keeper – just as he is in real life. Whether he’ll be my first choice keeper remains to be seen.

Whilst puttering about in the Youth list I also saw Weir and Duffy. Weir is a centre-back with stats already adequate for my needs, and as with any Youth player, he can only improve. Duffy is a versatile DMF and right-sided SB and SMF. I had him in my team on PES5. Back then he spent most of his time sitting on the bench. Although he turned out to be good, he never quite managed to be great – a solid squad player, but no more. Maybe things will be different for him this time.

You can never have too many players covering all positions. In PES2008 the players’ fitness levels from match to match are notoriously unreliable. (I commonly lose Shimizu to ‘blue arrow syndrome’ for three games in a row.) Therefore, a quality midfielder was another high priority. I didn’t want to raid the Youth list again, so I went on an Advanced Search and found Traore.

Traore was playing for some club who allowed me to negotiate a cash-plus-player deal for him. As soon as I saw his stats – several in the red and most of the rest in the yellow, at age 19 – I knew I had to get him. I swapped Gutierrez and paid only about 300 points. Traore’s wages stand at only 400 points as well. (Don’t hold me to any of these figures. They’re only approximate. I write this blog mainly from memory. While I’m playing, I’m too busy playing to take copious notes.)

In Traore I think I’ve got a bargain, but I’m slightly worried about his stamina. Yet again I think I’ve bought one for the future, rather than a player who is going to dig me out of the lower-league hole I’m in. We’ll see.

Finally, an experienced CF was also a priority, and this time I found one on the Openness to Negotiation list. Folan was easy to get in another cash-plus-player deal. This time I gladly shipped out Zamenhof (Friedel and Ivarov could handle the GK spot between them), and handed over a couple of thousand.

Folan caught my interest because at first I thought he was Diego Forlan… Some time I must write a paean of praise to the greatness that was Diego Forlan in PES5.

Even when I understood my error, I was still impressed by Folan: 26 years old, attacking stats in the high 80s, all others in the mid-to-high 70s (on average). Cheap and cheerful. Exactly what I need.

After all this wheeler-dealering there’s another half of the season to come. I had to make some choices about my new First XI. It’s not really a big deal, this First XI – there’s nothing holy or sacrosanct about it. It’s a rare game where the First XI seen here is the team I actually send out to play. But I’ve started so I’ll finish…

The big decision here was whether to play Weir at CB alongside Mattsson. They’re both teenagers, remember, and bring along all the baggage that entails in PES terms. I decided in the end to just go for it. I’m not going to challenge for promotion this season and I’m better off at least trying to bring Weir’s stats on a bit before next year. In any case, due to the aforementioned player fitness issues in this game, they’re unlikely to actually play together much.

Folan had to go in the middle of my front three. Schwarz is doing too well out on the left – he’s been a revelation over the last few games. Folan is a big striker in the same mould as Schwarz, so I’m not missing out on an aerial presence in the box. (Not that I really know yet how to exploit that presence in PES2008, but that’s not the point.)

Yes, I’m still leaving some talent on the bench. But: horses for courses. Mao Molina and De Ridder are settled in my team, with Chairman Mao (as I like to think of him) being an especially valued member of the side.

And, whaddaya know – finally I’m able to field a First XI made up entirely of players I’ve bought myself. Break out the champagne.