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Post by Nick on Jun 26, 2020 17:30:37 GMT
2021 Season Preview
I have to say, I'm loving this save so far. Still early days, but there's plenty of potential and so much room for growth. The shorter seasons make it quick to process through and I actually get a chance to train the players rather than just play endless games. It's good to get an eight week pre-season under our belts every year rather than the three weeks I was used to in Argentina.
The transfer window was the most enjoyable period of the save so far. The first thing I should note is the board dropped this little bomb shell into my inbox. It's neither ideal or a long term fix, but it takes the pressure off in the immediate future and I only have to pay back £30k per month which is obviously manageable.
Shenzhen, following their promotion last season, showed some interest in Wang Chao, who was still 'devastated' at not being able to leave on loan last season and played first team football here instead. An offer of £1m upfront, £3m paid in two instalments plus 50% of next sale was enough for me to wave him goodbye. Li Zhongdi, fresh from last year's youth intake, comes into the squad to replace him.
With the Wang Chao money in my pocket and room in the wage budget from the departure of Sun Ke, I actually managed to bring some players into the club. I was priced out of a few moves both in terms of loans and full transfers, but I'm well chuffed with who I have managed to bring in and super excited that we're actually improving the squad.
Jin Jingdao was set to be released by Shandong so I moved to bring him in on a pre-contract agreement. He may not look like much from the outside, but to me he's ridiculous step up in quality in a midfield that desperately needed the upgrade. His tackling ability, work rate and, most importantly, determination is going to be a big boost to us. Joining him in the middle of the park, having arrived on a free after his release from Guangzhou, is Liao Lisheng. Determined, brave and aggressive, he'll offer us a bit of steel in the middle and ensure we're not such a soft touch. He can also take a free kick which is something we've lacked, outside of Leonardo. The final deal is the £160k transfer of Ryota Suzuki from Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan. Not the greatest of personalities, but he has plenty of composure, bravery, good decision making, positioning and team work and really boosts our quality in defence. He can also play at right back which is a bonus.
Buzzing to get going this season. The media still have us finishing bottom, which I think will be par for the course for a little while, given the financial power of the teams around us. My aim is to avoid relegation still and, while it might sound a little defeatest, I think it'd be unwise to expect anything more. I think we'll be fine, but we have to be realistic. Hopefully we can hit 30 points as quickly as possible and then relax a little. There'll be a few bumps along the way but the squad is definitely better than last season. The problem is, we're not the only ones improving.
It was another eye-opening window in China. Guangzhou Evergrande, not happy at losing out on the title to Beijing Guoan, paid £55m (FIFTY FIVE MILLION!) to Watford for Abdoulaye Doucoure. Shenzhen (just promoted remember) spent £33m on Ruslan Malinovskyi from Atalanta while Shanghai Shenhua spent £10.75m on Matheus Fernandes from Barcelona. February was even worse. Jiangsu spent £33m on Mateusz Bogusz from Leeds, Shenzhen spent another £22.5m on Felipe Carballo from Sevilla and Beijing spent £20m on Rodrigo Caio from Flamengo. I was also wondering when one of the other Super League clubs were going to back up my claim that home grown players are over priced and cost a premium. Changchun did in this window, spending £18.75m on Guo Tianyu from Shandong. Hopefully we can milk these rich fuckers for all their worth in later years.
That's me just about up to date. I had to reject offers of an interview with both Shandong and Jiangsu over the past few months and signed a new deal myself. We have another tough start to the season with Guangzhou up in game two (again) and Shanghai SIPG up first. I don't fancy any points from either of those two, but they're not who we get points from. I think I'll follow the same update schedule as last season with one at the break and the end of the season.
EDIT
Also worth noting that we get Kwon Kyung-Won back from military service in January so he'll be available for action in the second half of the season. Like a new signing.
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Post by Nick on Jun 26, 2020 21:16:19 GMT
Not the news I wanted. Guess I'll stop he re-training then.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 26, 2020 21:22:35 GMT
Ah fuck sake, that's not great.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 26, 2020 21:23:01 GMT
Good pre-season mate the squad is above what it was last season and the cash injection is quite welcomed even if it's a loan (albeit one with a manageable monthly payment though), specially considering once Kwon gets back, shame about Leonardo's retirement though. Best of luck in the season.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 10:57:39 GMT
2021 Mid-Season ReviewOne thing is clear: it's not just us that are improving. The entire league is stronger than it has been over the past two seasons. In the first season we survived with 25 points, last season Wuhan survived with 20. I'll stick my neck out now and say that neither of those will be enough to keep you safe this season. I think it's going to be closer to 30 to be safe this season.
We're doing okay, no more, no less. If truth be told, I had expected a little better. Maybe not in terms of points, but definitely in terms of performance. The games we've lost this season haven't been close. In many of them we've been completely outplayed and have conceded heavily and regularly. Our 30 goals conceded is the worst record in the league. Thankfully, our 19 goals scored is more than all of the teams below us and Shanghai Shenhua, Jiangsu and Hebei above us. The worry of course is that the goals dry up.
I think this season may have been a step too far for Yang Xu, but maybe he's just having a tough time of it and come good after the break. I did manage to extend his contract by a year, but I only did it because he took a 50% wage cut. Leonardo continues to impress, albeit not at the same level of the past 24 months. I couldn't convince him to change his mind about retiring and his 6 goals and 4 assists have been pivotal in our start to the season. Liao Lisheng has been the player of the season so far. He's scored four goals and performed really well from centre midfield and his 7.18 rating is the highest in the squad at the moment.
I was a bit of a dickhead in my last update. Kwon was due back from military service in January and here's me thinking that was mid-season. It wasn't as it's a calendar year season, but for some reason he came back six months earlier, so we have him for the second half of the season regardless. His first action upon returning was to come to my office saying he wants to move to a bigger club. There's no interest so I kept him happy for now, but he's the highest valued player in the squad so I can see him leaving if someone comes in for him.
Finally, the finances. We're currently £2m in debt, which seems terrible but is actually £1.2m better off than at this time last season, so that's progress. There is interest in some of the players and, although I don't want to sell them, I will have to look properly at any offer that comes in. The board can't keep taking out £8m loans.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 12:13:34 GMT
Things you love to see. We sold him for £2m and they've just sold him on for £1.2m. He's rubbish.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 13:34:47 GMT
The mid-season transfer window has just closed and Shanghai SIPG have just spent a combined £70m on Jose Campana and Stanislav Lobokta. This league is a madness.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 21:45:22 GMT
2021 Season ReviewIt's "job done", but our form after the break was absolutely dreadful and I honestly fear the worst for next season. There are times that we play well and come away with nothing but, for the most part, we're just not very good. We were lucky that we picked up three wins and a draw against the two relegated teams otherwise we'd have gone down with a record low points total. The teams above us are rarely troubled by us, and even when they are and we perform better than them, they have that extra quality that's needed at crucial times to get them out of jail. We may have improved over the last year or so, but we can't get away from the fact that other teams are just improving more than we are.
We can't defend to save our lives. Our 65 goals conceded was easily the highest in the league. We conceded 13 goals between the 75th and 90th minute, including three goals in stoppage time against Guangzhou R&F to go from winning 4-1 to drawing 4-4 and that pretty much sums up our season. I don't know if it's a tactical thing, a fitness thing or a concentration thing, but we need to get it fixed.
We score more often than not and our 40 goals was higher than everyone outside of the top seven, so that's encouraging, but I can't get away from the fact that 23 points is our lowest total so far and if there were two or three games more in the season, Zhejiang Greentown would have survived because they were in really decent form by the end.
Another big worry is Leonardo retiring. His nine goals and ten assists was the best at the club with the next highest being seven for both. They're big boots to fill and with no money to spend, I am going to have to find his replacement from the free transfer list, or hope that someone already within the squad steps up. Liao Lisheng won the fans' player of the year award and it was probably just about deserved. He was the only player in the squad to end the season with an average rating over 7.00 (7.02) and performed well in his first season at the club. If we're honest, that's nothing worth shouting about.
On a positive note, I have managed to get the club's wage bill down from £200k per week to £154k after renewing all the contracts I wanted to for a fraction of what they were on. It hasn't stopped us from being £4.6m in debt but it's a start and we're in a much better position than this time last season when that figure was around the £9.5m mark. I just pray they don't cut it for next season.
I have started getting rid of everyone at the club that isn't in the first team. We can't afford to keep players in the youth and reserve team and this is another way to save money. There are a couple of exceptions after the youth intake which was again poor, but I did sign Wang Bo due to his personality and Chen Jianjun due to being the highest rated.
My thinking for next season is that I keep a 22 man squad, two players for each position. With the low number of matches played we can afford to be 'bare bones' as we don't usually get many injuries *touches wood*. We've got a bit of deadwood leaving from the first team, but after those contracts expire, I'm going to need a:
- Centre Back
- Right Back
- Central Midfielder
- Right Winger
- Striker
A pretty extensive list, especially when they need to be free and on acceptable wages.
From next season I am expected to a) sign players under 23 for the first team and b) sign players that we can later sell for profit. I was hoping to have had a takeover by now, but the two or three that have been suggested in the press have all fallen through.
It's not good news on the sponsorship front either. Our main deal has ended and the new one is for less money. We now only bring in £3.3m per year, which is comfortably the lowest in the league. The salary per annum page doesn't make for great reading either. We're gonna keep grinding and not give up, but next season is looking like it might be a step too far already.
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Post by mrcool on Jun 27, 2020 22:27:36 GMT
Good work keeping your head above water in an increasing competitive league.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 27, 2020 22:27:42 GMT
This is the challenge though, Nick. This, realistically, is what the save is all about. Overcome the odds once again next season and continue to move on from there, I believe in you fella! (Please not, I believe in you...but I definitely do not envy you!! )
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 23:38:00 GMT
Good work keeping your head above water in an increasing competitive league. Thanks mate, appreciate it. This is the challenge though, Nick. This, realistically, is what the save is all about. Overcome the odds once again next season and continue to move on from there, I believe in you fella! (Please not, I believe in you...but I definitely do not envy you!! ) You're right, of course. I had hoped it would be getting a bit easier by this stage, but it's getting harder! So long as I don't get the wage bill slashed massively, we'll be okay. The transfer window has gone better than expected so far, so that's a positive.
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Post by jawzy on Jun 28, 2020 0:57:20 GMT
Whats the sposorship like in league below, so we can see what those below you in the pyramid and potentialy coming up are getting.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 28, 2020 1:52:38 GMT
Wow mate, by the skin of your teeth. I know things look bleak and hopefully by the end of the summer they look better, but as Dale says it's just a matter of thinking season to season, surviving the year and then trying to improve, even if it's slightly. Good luck!
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Post by Nick on Jun 28, 2020 10:50:25 GMT
Whats the sposorship like in league below, so we can see what those below you in the pyramid and potentialy coming up are getting. It's a good question. Here's both tables for a comparison: It doesn't make for great reading from our point of view, but most of the teams in the division below have tycoon owners too, so it's probably to be expected.
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Post by Nick on Jun 28, 2020 11:43:20 GMT
2022 Season PreviewWelcome to the start of season four where, for the first time, we're not predicted to finish bottom! It's well worth noting that, until I finished our dealings in the transfer market, we were expected to finish bottom of the pile, but shhhh, we'll take this all day long. It's going to be tough again, but the bottom line is we only need two teams to finish below us. Wuhan have been stealing a place in this league for a couple of years now, while Qingdao and Everbright will obviously be our direct rivals. Pre-season wasn't great, but I allowed a lot of rotation and played a couple of harder friendlies than we're usually used to. But onto the interesting stuff...
For 99.99% of the window it was all about free transfers and making do with the limited wages the board actually allowed me to offer players, despite having £40k per week available in the budget. First in was winger, Wang Zhen'ao, from DL Pro on a free. He's not a world beater, but he's got good attributes in the right places for the role I need him to play, so I am happy. At 22, he ticks a box with the board so that's a bonus.
Following him, and also on free transfers, three signings that the board won't be as happy with, but we're at that stage where I have to take a "fuck the board" attitude towards transfers. I personally think that Li Songyi, Tim Chow and Yan Zhiyu all offer some form of resale value and the board should be happy we're making deals for players like these. Chow in particular I am happy with. I was chasing him for pretty much all of last season but could never afford him, so to get him for free and on such low wages is amazing.
The board decided to get involved in our dealings once again after agreeing to sell Sun Zhenyu for £2.5m. I was happy to take the money for him, but given I'd already rejected an offer of the same amount with a 50% sell on clause in it, so it was a strange one indeed. Nevertheless, I decided to put that money to good use, rather than lose all of it to debt over the coming months anyway.
Deadline day saw the arrival of not one, but two players that have gone a long way to why we're predicted 13th rather than 16th. First in was Ekanit Panya for £400k from Buriram United in his homeland. I took a bit of a gamble as he was only 85% scouted, but I was running out of time and I could see enough to make a decision. He could be a game-changer for us. Quick, plenty of flair, determined and more than acceptable technically for the level we're at. I am expecting big things from him over the coming years. Joining him is Korean legend, Lee Chung-Yong, who I see as a Leonardo replacement. He offers us unbelievable experience and quality in attack, something we're sorely missing. His delivery from wide, his vision, passing ability and technique is up there with the best in the league. We may only have him for a year or so, but he could win games on his own for us if he turns up.
Deadline day has given me a new-found confidence, but I need to dull expectations in the short term. It's still going to be a struggle and, if you look around other squads and see how they've improved over the window, the league looks stronger than ever.
Tianjin TEOscarhat's mid-table Tianjin TEDA) spent £14.5m on Oscar from Real Madrid and £11m on Bruno Mendez from Corinthians. Henan Jianye spent £15.5m on Carlos Salcedo and £23m on Anton Miranchuk from Lokomotiv Moscow. Other notable moves were Filip Helander (£18.5m), David Hovorka (£10m), Felipe Carballo (£32.5m) and Felix Correia (£8.25m).
Other than scouting and transfers, nothing really happens at the club at the moment. I managed to bring in an extra coach to the club, but the quality of training matches the quality of the facilities. There's potential here, but it's going to take an age to unlock it. No movement on a takeover and we seem to be capped at 1,000 season ticket holders. They've remained exactly a thousand since the start of the save.
We start against Shanghai SIPG (again), Hebei China Fortune and DL Pro, who offered me an interview over the break. If we can come away with three points, we'll have done better than the last few seasons when we've started horribly.
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Post by Nick on Jun 28, 2020 17:42:16 GMT
I just want to talk a bit about the changes I've made to our tactic since pre-season and the effect it's had on us. I'll start by saying that tactics aren't my thing. I get much more enjoyment from FM from player development, scouting and recruitment. With that in mind, this might be a bit all over the place, but bear with me. This is how we're currently lining up. The players will depend on form and fitness but our style has changed completely. - All players have has 'pass shorter' and 'close down more' removed from their personal instructions
- Both fullbacks have changed from a 'Fullback - Attack' to 'Wing Back - Support'
- The 'Mezzala' has changed to a 'Central Midfielder - Support'
- The attacking midfielder has changed from an 'Advanced Playmaker' to an 'Attacking Midfielder - Attack'
- The right winger has changed from 'Winger' to 'Wide Targetman'
- Our defensive width is now 'Narrow' instead of 'Standard'
- Our striker has changed from an 'Advanced Forward' to a 'Deep Lying Forward - Attack'
The changes have all stemmed from the arrival of Lee Chung-Yong. At 33, he doesn't have the legs to take on and beat his man anymore, but he's technically brilliant and the mind is still as sharp as ever. In the wide target man role, I see him playing almost like an advanced David Beckham, which isn't initially how you'd expect the role to play. His instructions are as follows: The idea being that he picks the ball up deep and either waits for the wing back (Gary Neville) who is supporting the attack or look for a cross or simple pass/through ball. He'll naturally hold the ball due to the 'overlap right' team instruction and his individual instructions mean that he doesn't lose the ball by taking on a defender he can't beat. His attack duty means that he gets into the box, arriving late if the ball is on the other side of the pitch. With that change in mind, I set about building around that. As a play maker, the attacking midfielder wasn't receiving the ball enough and we were focusing on giving him the ball too often when better options were available. My next issue was the Mezzala. It's a role I use quite a lot, and one I like, but we need something a bit less hipster and a bit more efficient. The CM-s is a role that gives you free licence in terms of instructions and, crucially, it doesn't roam from position. My CM is set to 'get further forward' and 'take more risks'. Defending has clearly been an issue for us with record goals being conceded. I made the decision to defend narrower to make us more compact and harder to break down. It might mean more crosses come into the box, but both Kwon and Song are decent enough in the air to deal with the majority. Obviously this means nothing if it doesn't transfer positively on to the pitch: The first thing that jumps out is the goals conceded. Last season we conceded 2.16 goals per game. So far this season, that number has been reduced to a number of exactly 1.00. We've also scored 15 goals so far. Our total from last season was 17. Performances have been superb. The games we've won haven't been luck or a smash and grab, we've dominated and created chances. The games we lost were a fair reflection on the game but, crucially, so was the result. We didn't deserve to lose by more than the odd goal. 16 points is only 7 fewer than our total from the whole of last season. I'm not getting carried away. There'll be times where we lose consecutive games and have to manage more than we are now, but its been good to see tactical changes make a real difference on the pitch.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 28, 2020 20:13:09 GMT
I really, really wish someone would give us £20 for Helander, fucking hell Nick, that's a cracking pre season in terms of transfers, Panya and Chung-Yong look like players that will definitely be gamechangers for you. Some interesting changed to the tactics, that is definitely something I'm going to have to look at for the coming season, I'm far too reliant on pre-set tactics and sticking to the simpler roles, but we need to do something. Fantastic early season form is really promising though and this could be a big, big season for you...I told you, you just needed to be patient.
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Post by Nick on Jun 29, 2020 11:40:36 GMT
You know the best bit about posting on a Football Manager forum? When you talk about your tactical changes and how they've improved your results and then you play like absolute dog shit for the next ten games. Every time.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 29, 2020 11:49:14 GMT
You know the best bit about posting on a Football Manager forum? When you talk about your tactical changes and how they've improved your results and then you play like absolute dog shit for the next ten games. Every time. FM. FM never changes.
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Post by Nick on Jun 29, 2020 12:03:23 GMT
You know the best bit about posting on a Football Manager forum? When you talk about your tactical changes and how they've improved your results and then you play like absolute dog shit for the next ten games. Every time. FM. FM never changes. We've got four points in the ten games since I posted that. Defence has fallen apart yet again and we cannot defend crosses to save our lives. We've just been bullied so hard by Salomon Rondon my players are going to need counselling for the rest of the season instead of training.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 29, 2020 17:12:51 GMT
Shame to hear that drop after the post mate, really like the look of your tactic though very interesting what you did with Chung-Yong and the comparison with Beckham. I looks like it'll be a better season overall though, let's hope you stay as away as possible from the relegation battle.
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Post by hokster on Jun 29, 2020 17:56:49 GMT
Nick, what's the general thought process behind that tactic? Those are...a lot of team instructions.
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Post by Nick on Jun 29, 2020 18:14:57 GMT
Nick, what's the general thought process behind that tactic? Those are...a lot of team instructions. Shorter Passing - I'd like us to keep the ball. Our passing average throughout the squad is 9.61 and decisions is 10.87. I can't trust the players to make their own choices with regards to passing so try and 'force' them into passing shorter. Play out of Defence - Linked to the above, but this is one that I'm thinking about removing. I don't want us to just hoof the ball forwards and give it back to the opposition, but I also know that we don't have the technical ability or composure to play out from the back efficiently all the time. Run at Defence - I've got tricky players all along the AM strata who are good at dribbling. Work the ball into Box - Tied into the passing style of the team. I want us to keep the ball rather than needlessly go straight for goal when it's not the right decision. Overlap Left and Right - Pretty self explanatory. I play with two attacking fullbacks offering all the width. Lower tempo - Linked to passing. We're not good enough technically to move the ball at a higher tempo. Narrow Attack - The thinking behind this is that if the wide players attack narrower, they're closer to the striker and allow the fullbacks more space out wide. How many is too many? Do you think I should strip it back a bit?
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Post by Marshdweller on Jun 29, 2020 20:46:00 GMT
Personally, though I'm no tactical expert, I'd trim a few of those as there seems to be some overlap/redundancy. I think the overlaps will happen naturally due to you using WB roles behind wide player(s)* who cut inside and my fear of using 'Look for overlap' is that it slows down the attack to wait for the wing-backs. I'd also remove the narrow attack as your formation has natural starting width but the wide player(s)* move inside so I feel like you might be congesting your attack and robbing them of space in which to move.
*not 100% sure of the movement of the WTM, so this may only apply to the left flank...
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Post by Nick on Jun 29, 2020 22:54:22 GMT
2022 Season ReviewIs there another game where you can over-achieve so much and still come away feeling more frustrated than ever? On the face of it, tenth is a fantastic position to finish. My problem is that five of our eight wins came in the first eight games and we've ended the season with our lowest total of goals scored. This season also saw the largest defeat I have ever experienced on any Football Manager game when we lost 9-0 away at Guangzhou in the penultimate game of the season - the game that won them the title. That being said, our record of 44 goals conceded is our best yet and 24 fewer than last season. We also kept 10 clean sheets, twice as many as last season. Why then do I feel all this frustration? We've just got nothing about us. I've tried to implement a style and it results in a half decent performance one week and a week later we look like we've never seen each other before. I tried something different with Lee Chung-Yong, but it didn't really work as well as I'd initially thought and he ended the season with only five goals and five assists. Maybe I was expecting too much? Yang Xu scored 12 goals, but is retiring in a few weeks and the next highest goalscorer in the squad was Liu Yue and Lee with five each. Lee got the most assists and I've got only four goals and two assists out of Panya all season. I don't expect miracles, but I do expect more than that from our first choice front players. Our attacking midfielder is completely ineffectual. Four goals and a solitary assist between the three players that played there this season. Woeful.
There was another bright spot with our performance in the Chinese FA Cup. After scraping past a lower league team on penalties in the fourth round, we went all the way to the final before losing 5-0 on aggregate to DL Pro which completely summed up our season. The players refunded the fans after losing the second leg 4-0 and conceding four second half goals. Not sure I've seen that before. Fixtures.
I'm not sure what to do next season. Tactically, I'm tempted to tear it all up and just start from scratch. Get a nice busy pre-season going and just create something new.
We're £3.1m in debt, which is down from £4.6m at this point last year. Once again sponsorship money will save us and we have a few players that are worth decent money, should we need to bring some extra cash in. I've managed to get the wage bill down to £120k per week from £200k when I took over. We're definitely getting somewhere close to a sound financial footing, but it's a shame that our sponsorship money went down rather than up. I'll continue to beg, steal and borrow from abroad and hopefully sell for profit, but in the short term we'll have to focus on domestic talent because I've arranged a pre-contract agreement with Tatsuya Moriwaki from JEF United Chiba to hopefully solve our issues in attacking midfield and his arrival caps my foreign allowance. I've had him on my shortlist since he was 17 but could never afford him, so to finally get him makes me very happy. With Wang retiring I'll need to bring in a striker but it's not an understatement to say that the Chinese strikers available to me are not of the required quality and I'm probably better off going with the young players we already have in the squad.
As always, nothing has changed around the club as we simply can't afford to improve the infrastructure. Slow and steady, but we are getting there.
Oh yeah, and Guangzhou spent £66m on Nathan Ake in the mid-season transfer window. No fucking about after finishing third last year.
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Post by hokster on Jun 30, 2020 1:45:29 GMT
Personally, though I'm no tactical expert, I'd trim a few of those as there seems to be some overlap/redundancy. I think the overlaps will happen naturally due to you using WB roles behind wide player(s)* who cut inside and my fear of using 'Look for overlap' is that it slows down the attack to wait for the wing-backs. I'd also remove the narrow attack as your formation has natural starting width but the wide player(s)* move inside so I feel like you might be congesting your attack and robbing them of space in which to move.
*not 100% sure of the movement of the WTM, so this may only apply to the left flank...
Yeah, I agree with marshdweller's thoughts. With WB roles, you'll get overlaps, and that doesn't even depend so much on the winger roles, in my experience, as when I use a W and a WB what I get is the W moving into the wide channel while the WB stays near the touchline. The "overlap" instructions just increase the mentalities of your wide players, which might already be relatively high given the positive mentality. That means they'll take more attacking risks, which might leave you more vulnerable on the flanks. Instead, I'd give the WBs the "get further forward" PPM, which will keep them a little more conservative while increasing overlapping opportunities. And you'll have to watch the play to get a sense for whether narrow formations make sense, as you might be congesting your attacking area. I wouldn't use both lower tempo and shorter passing, as these are linked in any case. First, positive mentalities will increase tempo and decrease passing distance. So lowering the tempo makes sense, but you might not need to shorten passing as well; that might mean you lose those killer passes without giving players either the Tries Killer Balls PPM or Take More Risks as a personal instruction. For running at defense, I would just give personal instructions to the AM players to dribble more often, as otherwise you're asking your other players to run with the ball, which is likely to increase turnovers. And this is just personal preference, but I've found that I don't love Plays Out of Defense, as my midfield drops too deep. As you have 3/4 attackers on attacking duty (with a positive mentality), that could lead to disconnects, when which combined with shorter passing leads to bad decisions. I try to achieve that by asking my keeper to Try Short Kicks, which doesn't require dropping so deeply and will let him distribute to fullbacks or wingers when called for.
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Post by Nick on Jul 1, 2020 20:09:05 GMT
2023 Season PreviewI was going to finish my turn in the succession save before writing this, but managing good players is making me want to try something different and I'm determined to see this through, so if I write this I'm hoping it'll force me to play on! It's going to be a quick one as it was a very quiet transfer window, in and out.
I mentioned previously about bringing in Tatsuya Moriwaki but that meant that I was one foreign player over my allowance and someone had to leave. That someone was Ryota Suzuki for £1m to a team in the division below. In turn that left me with a hole at left back that needed filling. Plenty of foreign options. Not many affordable Chinese options. The guy I managed to bring in is shit and I really hope he doesn't have to play much. Meet Ma Chongchong. He'll backup for a year and then I hope we can find someone better.
I have promoted Sun Weipeng, Wang Bo and Chen Jianjun from the youth team while everyone else was released. There are currently 25 players at the entire club, all in the first team.
Financially, we're doing okay at the moment with £775k in the account, easily the highest its been since the first season here. We're somewhere close to a sound financial footing, but as long as we stay in the division, keep wages at around £120k per week, sponsorship money at a minimum £3.3m per season and buy foreign imports with a resale value, we'll be just fine. This is season five now and we're starting to see some progress.
It's still going to be a tougher season this year than last year. We're in need of a senior striker and goalkeeper, but they cost big bucks in China (unless they're free) and we just don't have the money at the moment so we'll have to make do with what we have. This year we are predicted 14th with only Guangzhou R&F and Quingdao predicted below us, so that'll be our own little mini league.
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 1, 2020 20:39:18 GMT
You can do it Nick, I believe in you. Although with each passing game I'm getting more and more likely to just jack it in. Stupid club, stupid country, stupid players! But it's good that you can see that you are making progress, that's the key thing. Each season, there's that little bit of progression which will take you forward.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 1, 2020 20:54:09 GMT
Bold move there Nick, to bring in Moriwaki, but I'm all in with you I think he's gonna do great for you. I know the progress isn't much but hey at least you're visibly improving mate. Best of luck in the season and also on the youth intake which seems to be key to fill up the senior squad.
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Post by Nick on Jul 4, 2020 16:32:11 GMT
Takeover and 2023 Round UpFOREWORD
I got four games into the new season with Tianhai and threw in the towel. It had just got to the point where I wasn't enjoying it anymore and carrying on just to play FM. I'd wanted to manage in China for a while and I just wasn't getting enough out of Tianhai to make it enjoyable. It was a great challenge but one that I probably wasn't good enough to carry on so that was that.
I actually had every intention of managing elsewhere, but after a couple of failed job interviews in Syria and Saudi Arabia the job at Dalian Pro came up and it was an easy decision to make to continue the Chinese journey.
CLUB INFORMATION
As is so often the case in FM, you come into a club that has been managed poorly both in terms of results on the pitch, but also in the way that the squad has been built. This was no different. The first thing I noticed was that there was no right back in the squad. The second was that the squad had seven foreign players, albeit with one out on loan. Nevertheless, it means that a) we can't play all of them and b) we're paying an expensive import to do nothing every other week.
Unlike with Tianhai, money will be no issue here. The club had £200m in the bank when I arrived and rake in £65m in sponsorship every season. Like it or not, this is how Chinese football is at the moment and, while I'm not going to go completely overboard with spending, I am going to have to make use of the club's affluence.
The club was only founded in 2009 and has never won the Chinese Super League with 2nd being their best finish a couple of seasons ago. Last season the club finished fourth and it'd be fair to say that there has been some uncertainty around the club since Rafa Benitez left in early 2022. The situation upon taking over wasn't good:
I had a decent sized job on my hands, but I'd seen enough of this league since the start of the save to know that this squad was good enough to beat the drop, which obviously was the board's only requirement this season.
The squad was nothing like I was used to and is home to a couple of familiar names. Salomon Rondon has spent the last five years of his career here and is very much part of the furniture, while Jonathan Gonzalez is the kind of player that should be using up one of the 'foreign' places in the squad. There's no way this squad should be bottom of the table.
Away from the pitch, this is what my backroom staff looked like upon takeover:
And at the end of the season.
Progress.
SUPER LEAGUE
We tailed off at the end of the season, but much of that was due to the pressure not being on and me playing around with how I was setting the team up. The undefeated run of seven games right at the start of my reign took us out of the relegation zone and away from trouble. It's always difficult after taking over and there were a few players in the squad that didn't fit in with how I wanted to take the club forwards and played only a small part.
Rondon finished the season with 23 goals and the Golden Boot but I have a decision to make regarding his future. His contract is up now the season has finished and, at 34 years old, I'm not sure I'm going to renew it. Emmanuel Boateng came back from loan just after I took over, but due to the way the squad was managed I couldn't register him for the second half of the season. He looks like a ready-made replacement for Rondon and the main reason why I don't think he'll get a new deal.
Jefferson Orejuela also impressed in the deep lying playmaker role, while there are a couple of young players here that look like they could be pretty good Super League players in the future and will be given more first team chances next season as a result. Zhai Xin couldn't be registered this season unfortunately, but has already been promoted to the first team and he's joined by Zhao Libo, Zhu Shuai and Yin Sen as players that will hopefully be the future of the club.
As fate would have it, our 3-1 win away at Tianhai was the game that relegated them, but if we were to avoid the drop, it was always likely that they'd go down. I'd like to say that they'll be back, but I just can't it unfortunately.
I had eighth in my mind for a final position, but in the end we just didn't have enough about us to get there. The board are delighted and I've seen enough of the squad to know that there's potential for growth next season and beyond.
MOVING FORWARDS
I don't want to bang on about money, but fuck it, it's important, we have loads of it now and we need to close the gap on Beijing Guoan, who were miles ahead of everyone else this season. Things we know: good Chinese players cost mega money. It's just the way it is and there's no getting away from it. I will have to overpay for players from other Chinese clubs. Ideally, we'd produce our own players (it's in the club vision) and, with great youth facilities, good youth coaching and good recruitment, we can hopefully do that. I also need to sign high profile players, which should be easy enough. I'm going to try and do it a little differently than the other Chinese clubs, in that I'm going to look for players between the age of 21-24, rather than players in their late twenties, which seems to be the norm for everyone else. First job however, is just to bring a bit of balance to the squad and make sure that every position is properly covered.
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