All-Out Attack: A unique dynasty build attempt Topic

Hey guys, so in an attempt to liven these forums up a bit and perhaps generate a bit of discussion I thought I'd post here what I'm attempting with my latest build on an alt ID:

When Week 4 of my first season rolled around, I realized that I had accidentally forgotten to withdraw and change my bids and I ended up with 5 forwards and a midfielder, which led me to thinking, can a team made up of only forwards and mids with high shooting ratings (plus GKs of course) succeed and go so far as to win a championship? How much does position truly matter? Does simply having the most talented players on the field, regardless of position, give you an edge, or is pos. experience more important? I hope to answer all these questions with this project. I'll start by showing you the attributes of the players I've signed so far (three games into season one right now) and go from there.
2/16/2014 1:05 AM
Had this long post that didn't convert right, so, long story short, my players I signed

F- 33 yo, 66 oa, 89 shooting, 5 bars F, 1 D- playing F
F- 32, 63, 89, 4 F- playing F
F- 25, 59, 82, 2 F- Playing F
M- 32, 64, 75 shooting, 47/91/46/72/70/91 defensive slash line- playing M this year, will probably be D next year
F- 27,55, 82 shoot and 23, 49, 72 shoot- both playing M, will likely be back-ups next season.
GK- 20/50. Was a late add, all I could find on short notice.

2/16/2014 1:31 AM
I'm not sure if it'd work... it would probably take higher rated forwards than this to give it a shot at success; from my experience (well over 100 seasons split between 5 teams), I'd be a little nervous about fielding a 66, 63, and 59 OVR as my starting lineup at forward. Now something that'd be really interesting would be a team with a great corner kick taker and a bunch of heading tanks...

My projects include:
- Las Bestias de La Plata: a team basically built out of carefully selected free agency scraps that nobody else goes for in the initial 4 days of signing (with some help from one or two high priority signings...)
- Vantaa Cold Fusion FC: a home-grown team built out of mostly mid-40 OVR 18 year olds who I've been developing for a few seasons
- Bordeaux United: another mostly home-grown team but more developed and carefully managed than VCF FC

If you want some sparring partners to test out new strategies, I'd be happy to accept any challenges (although BU is about to turn-over to a new season and is losing its best player. It was a good 19 seasons, but he needed to move on and free up some $)
2/18/2014 10:51 PM
My plan, as it stands right now, is to try to find some forwards/high shooting mids with strong defensive ratings on top of those. And this is just season one. I'll certainly be looking to improve upon what I've got, though I'm not at all disappointed in my front line right now. And, as it sits right now, six games into the season, that 59 oa is actually my leading scorer. He also happens to be coming off of a 25 goal season last year. I pay more attention to shooting and dribbling ratings than overall. In fact, on one of my other teams, one of the best scorers I have is currently a 57 oa, and, even though he's only 22, I don't project him much higher than 60 oa, but I do plan on starting to play him in my important games once he's developed due mostly to his shooting rating which is already at 93 and, with any luck, should get to 100 by the time he's done playing. Overall rating is not the end-all-be-all for a good player, in my experience.

I'll likely give it a few seasons and if it isn't getting me results by season eight or nine, I'll probably go to a more straight-forward strategy, but this isn't faring too badly so far. I'm out of the gate at 2-2-2 and in 11th place, which is about what I expect from a beginning team. I currently sit tied for third in the league with 17 goals for, but the fact that I have a back line filled with my beginning players is, as you'd expect, crippling. We've given up 21 goals, only three teams have given up more. The 55 oa and 49 oa were both accidental signings, I don't even know why I had bids out on them, but it is what it is. And I'm in World 79 with your VCF team, I'm in Israel. I remember Markus Fanger consistently tearing it up, piling up huge goal numbers for you back in the day. I was a bit disappointed to see you hadn't resigned him, but with a contract that high, I couldn't blame you. I might have to take you up on that offer once I can get this team to a place where it can be successful. Mostly, I just want to try this to do something different. I love FCD, but the same builds get kind of stale after a while. I wanted a new challenge.
2/19/2014 11:51 AM
The big problem with actually determining what a "good player" is that goals, shots, and shots and goal are about all we're given to work with in terms of evaluating play. I'm definitely with you when you say that low OVR players can put in a ton of goals. I've always wondered if there's some sort of phantom stat that influences goal scoring ability because some players I've had and even some that I have right now really seem to be underperforming in terms of goal scoring. I find it interesting that you put so much weight on the dribbling rating because I rarely give it a lot of thought when signing players.
2/19/2014 5:32 PM
Over 35 seasons I can say one thing about ratings with absolute certainty: Forwards take the most shots, regardless of formation... so you want high shooting ratings at forward. I've used Fs with inflated overall ratings due to high Instinct. But with low shooting, you just end up with too many shots AT but not ON goal.

All the other ratings help your team and your players dominate the run of play, but Shooting gets it done at F. YES it's also great if you have a player who's deadly from free kicks and corners... I once had a Defender with 100s in Corner kick, Free kick, Striking and Shooting. He was still an effective player into his 40s, when his physical ratings had all dropped into the 20s.

Historically I've spent the most money on my teams on Ds and Ms, and gone cheap at F and G.
2/19/2014 6:09 PM
Posted by ssmithfan89 on 2/19/2014 5:32:00 PM (view original):
The big problem with actually determining what a "good player" is that goals, shots, and shots and goal are about all we're given to work with in terms of evaluating play. I'm definitely with you when you say that low OVR players can put in a ton of goals. I've always wondered if there's some sort of phantom stat that influences goal scoring ability because some players I've had and even some that I have right now really seem to be underperforming in terms of goal scoring. I find it interesting that you put so much weight on the dribbling rating because I rarely give it a lot of thought when signing players.
All things equal, I'd rather have the player with the higher shooting rating, but dribbling is something I look at secondarily. I've had 75-ish shooting players with 90s/100 dribbling be better scorers than 80 shooting/60 dribbling players, but that could be chance. I swear there has to be a hidden "goal scoring" attribute, I'm sure. And I also agree, I wish we had like a "match rating" feature, so that way we'd know who was performing well and who wasn't. I have a heck of a time evaluating defenders especially, because I simply have no idea how much they effect a game.
2/19/2014 6:44 PM
Posted by damag on 2/19/2014 6:09:00 PM (view original):
Over 35 seasons I can say one thing about ratings with absolute certainty: Forwards take the most shots, regardless of formation... so you want high shooting ratings at forward. I've used Fs with inflated overall ratings due to high Instinct. But with low shooting, you just end up with too many shots AT but not ON goal.

All the other ratings help your team and your players dominate the run of play, but Shooting gets it done at F. YES it's also great if you have a player who's deadly from free kicks and corners... I once had a Defender with 100s in Corner kick, Free kick, Striking and Shooting. He was still an effective player into his 40s, when his physical ratings had all dropped into the 20s.

Historically I've spent the most money on my teams on Ds and Ms, and gone cheap at F and G.
http://www.whatifsports.com/soccer/PlayerProfile/Stats.aspx?pid=358341&section=Stats

Led France in goals for nine seasons out of ten for a stretch in the middle of his career back when things were still pretty competitive (to be fair, the time he was beaten it was by another one of my players). He only had 69 shooting and 52 dribbling at peak skill level but he did have 100 offensive instinct (78 OVR at his finest). 87 heading is solid but it wouldn't seem to be enough to put up the numbers he did.
2/19/2014 11:38 PM
I should have qualified my statements: these things matter more when you are in a world with heavy competition for top players. If a 70+ OVR player goes for 1.5 million on the free market, you're not likely going to have more than three of them on a team. If 65+ OVR players cost close to a million, then you have to start seeing what kind of impact the 60ish players on your roster can have.

General observation:
If a player's OVR is 70 or more, you can expect all of his ratings to be very good. If he has any weakness, he will then likely have other outstanding ratings that easily compensate. You almost don't have to look at the ratings if you're buying a 70+ player.
High 60s are very consistent players with one or two super strengths or relative weaknesses... not super studs, but depending on their strengths they can perform at a high level.
Low 60s (and under), you're either looking at players with obvious strengths and weaknesses, or players who are consistent but not difference makers. This is where, IMO, the relative ratings come in. If you have a 60ish player with high skill ratings, his physical/instinct ratings will be unremarkable... or vice versa. These are the players you save cap space with; this is where I prefer skills over instincts.


2/20/2014 8:47 AM
Posted by damag on 2/20/2014 8:47:00 AM (view original):
I should have qualified my statements: these things matter more when you are in a world with heavy competition for top players. If a 70+ OVR player goes for 1.5 million on the free market, you're not likely going to have more than three of them on a team. If 65+ OVR players cost close to a million, then you have to start seeing what kind of impact the 60ish players on your roster can have.

General observation:
If a player's OVR is 70 or more, you can expect all of his ratings to be very good. If he has any weakness, he will then likely have other outstanding ratings that easily compensate. You almost don't have to look at the ratings if you're buying a 70+ player.
High 60s are very consistent players with one or two super strengths or relative weaknesses... not super studs, but depending on their strengths they can perform at a high level.
Low 60s (and under), you're either looking at players with obvious strengths and weaknesses, or players who are consistent but not difference makers. This is where, IMO, the relative ratings come in. If you have a 60ish player with high skill ratings, his physical/instinct ratings will be unremarkable... or vice versa. These are the players you save cap space with; this is where I prefer skills over instincts.


I agree completely. You can save so much cash if you find a good player with a low oa due to either A) Poor instinct or B) Poor physical skills. I've had more than plenty solid players who had low overalls. Just sold a player (as I didn't have room for him in my lineup anymore) who had a 53 oa rating, but his 92 shooting rating meant that he scored about a goal a game.  I didn't play him in important games, but he was clutch in the games he did play. Good players aren't necessarily the highest rated OVR guys. Meanwhile, we stand at 2 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses as of right now. We hit a bit of a rough patch of late, as we've lost 4 of 6 and don't have wins in any of those games. But, we have yet to be shut out, which is always good and better than I expect out of a first year team.
2/22/2014 12:14 AM
Interesting note here on my 59 OA forward. He has taken 20 shots so far this season, 18 of which have been on goal and 8 goals total. I can't possibly ask for more than that from him.
2/22/2014 11:37 PM
Has your team's overall scoring picked up?
3/9/2014 11:16 AM
Posted by bmal on 3/9/2014 11:16:00 AM (view original):
Has your team's overall scoring picked up?
We're scoring at a remarkable clip, IMO. 25 games in, we're sitting third in the league in goals scored with 82. Only two teams higher, both of which are fairly well established. I was hoping to go the entire season without being shut out, but that ship sailed a while ago. Our defense, however, is as abysmal as expected (again, still fielding the players they gave me from the start back there. Pretty rough.) as we've allowed a shocking 68 goals so far. We did beat a human team that won the championship two seasons ago, though, so that's always good. There are definitely signs of life and I'll be sure to keep updating this as we move out of season one and into next season where I can hopefully start to make some noise and see how this thing will work when firing on all cylinders.
3/11/2014 12:23 PM
In terms of individuals, my 66 oa F is leading the team with 20 goals scored (T-4th in the league), followed by the 59 oa F (who is now at 60 oa) with 19. My 55 oa F (playing M but has filled in at F) is at 13 and my 63 oa F at 11 (only played him in 13 games, I rotated my lineup and forgot to change back). So not bad on the individual front either.
3/11/2014 12:41 PM
Well here's the problem with this, as least as it pertains to my team.

I play in a league with, due to attrition, only three other teams which are real competition. All others are either AI or new owners. Going into this season, I knew my first priority was to pick up a stud F in free agency, but I didn't have enough cash to make it happen. The majority of my cap money is locked up in first line defenders and a stud goalie.

Plan B is that I am running a 4-3-3 rotating four forwards with OA ratings of 64, 64, 58 and 55 (he's very young and improving fast). My scoring pace IS up compared to last season, but my goals against is also up a little. And with just over 1/3 of the season gone, I've already played each of those three top teams once... and they are my only three losses. Not particularly close, either.

As I see it, when I maximize my bang for buck by picking up highly skilled forwards, they also aren't particularly good defenders, and they have only mediocre physical skills. This seems to work fine against the lower echelon teams, but against the best ones, I appear to simply be being beaten by better players.

3/12/2014 7:37 PM
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All-Out Attack: A unique dynasty build attempt Topic

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