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Post by Marshdweller on Jul 8, 2020 13:19:39 GMT
You may well have moved on by now, but I was struggling with similar issues with my AM in a diamond back in my FMT17 save. In the end I dropped him back to MC, making a 4-1-3-2 and played him as a AP(a) flanked by two BBM and it made a noticeable difference. The BBMs were positioned a little wider, so helped link to and cover the wing-backs and the playmaker wasn't ahead of the play as much, so he seemed to be facing the right way when we attacked. Also, it meant that when we lost the ball, he dropped goalside more (I think I'm right in saying that the midfield strata and deeper should be goalside out of possession?). Thanks mate, that's something that I though about, albeit very briefly, and possibly something I'd look at in the future so it's good to get a bit more info about it. I also thought about using that central midfielder as a CM-a while keeping the Carrilero and Mezzala. It's definitely food for thought for the future. Yeah, of course it depends on the players you've got. I'd built my midfield very specifically on the basis of a creator and two runners who did a bit of everything. If you've got a Mezzala in there, your creativity might be coming from a different area of the midfield.
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Post by Nick on Jul 8, 2020 21:30:24 GMT
2025 Review They will be partying hard on the streets of Dalian tonight after we just about managed to win the club's first ever title. As you can see from the table, Beijing pushed us all the way as the title went down to the wire and the final game of the season.
Our good form carried on after the mid-season break as we went on a run of 24 games unbeaten and 13 consecutive wins, but Beijing matched us stride for stride. The last five games were a bit all over the place as you could feel the pressure getting to the performances. Luckily for us, when we dropped points so did Beijing. Come the final day we were one point ahead. We had a tough game away at Shanghai Shenhua while Beijing were away at Shenzhen. Neither of us did ourselves any favours, we both lost, but it meant we finished ahead of them regardless. It was a nervous time looking at the other results and hoping they didn't score the equaliser that would have won them the league.
Our success can be largely attributed to one man...me. Just joking. Dusan Vlahovic played in every single league game this season and scored a club record 21 goals in the process. His average rating of 7.59 was comfortably the best at the club and he seems to be well worth the £23m we paid for him.
Assists were fairly well spread out, but Lucas Torreira topped the charts with seven and performed well as the Mezzala. Getting these foreign spots right is a big part of building the squad in China and I'm happy with my decision to use ours on the spine of the team.
I'd still like to get more out of the team in an attacking sense. As you can see from our fixtures, we were pretty consistent with the goals we scored, but there were a few times that we should have turned two goals into four or five, such was our dominance. It's a minor issue at this stage, but something to work on.
The board are delighted with our early progress, but have changed the club vision for some unfathomable reason. We're now expected to:
- Play attacking football
- Play entertaining football
- Play high tempo-pressing football
- Make the most of set pieces
- Sign high profile players
- Develop players using the club's youth system
Much more demanding than they have been.
This year's youth intake was okay. No more, no less. Sun Xinhua was the pick of the bunch, with a perfect personality to progress. With our backup left back coming to me saying he wanted a new challenge, I've got half a mind to throw Sun into the first team picture and use game time and that personality in order to get the most out of his development.
Winning the league will see us go straight into the Champions League group stage, which is a relief after this season's playoff disaster. I don't have any real expectations to win the thing, I'd like to make moves into the knockout stages. Guangzhou and Beijing both went out in the group stage this season and seem to be struggling because the Champions League only allows three foreign players to play in each game. This year's final is between holders Persepolis and Japanese champions, Gamba Osaka.
I'm actually pretty happy with the squad at the moment so I don't foresee too many transfers this window, but there's a 17 year old defensive midfielder and Beijing that would walk into my first team squad. The trouble is that he's going to cost me a hell of a lot of money to bring in! But then, money isn't really a problem for this club.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 8, 2020 21:56:53 GMT
FUCK YEEEEAHHHHHH!!! Great season from Vlahovic mate, inspiring effort. Regarding those expectations, well my Board has put up a few as well with the exception of the sign high profile players (which could end up destroying my save idea), but most of them are not that important IIRC. In your case, are them too vital, regarding the priorities of the Board?
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 9, 2020 8:19:50 GMT
Well done Nick, that's a great effort mate! Glad to see you get that success you've been craving, now you just need to make it a regular thing, along with the AFC CL and CWC!
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Post by Nick on Jul 9, 2020 8:20:55 GMT
I don't have much to compare it to, but on paper this feels like a tough group.
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Post by Nick on Jul 10, 2020 15:25:11 GMT
2026 Review Foreword
This season was the complete opposite to last season and by the midway stage I just wanted it over with. The beginning and the middle were a complete mess of tactical inconsistencies, all of which were my own doing, shattered morale and lots of questioning whether every decision I made was the right one or not. We made it to the end of the season though, and I'm feeling a bit better about the future, so this update will cover the entire season. I'll try and keep it reasonably brief but there's obviously a lot to cover.
Transfers
It seems forever ago now but Su Tao was the only signing we made this season after he joined from Hebei China Fortune for £15.75m. Some will say we overpaid, but when you consider that we sold Sun Longchao to Wuhan for £15.5m, you start to realise that these really are just the prices we pay for decent players. Over the course of the season we made a few sales and actually ended with a negative net spend.
One of the questions I've been asking myself this season is about our transfer policy. As I've mentioned, we're going with the four player limit on foreign players as that's all we can play at any one time. Looking around other teams, they've got five or six and sometimes even seven foreign players with the rest either sitting on the bench or even unregistered. This was never how I wanted to do things - no-one wants to pay for an expensive import only to have him on the bench half the time - but there are benefits to doing so. At the moment if, for example, Lucas Torreira picks up an injury, he's replaced by a Chinese player who despite being a decent player, is of lower quality. When this happens to the AI teams they can, more often than not, replace such a player with another foreign player. That's the only benefit I can see, but it has given me food for thought for the future. At the moment, I am leaning towards sticking as we are and developing our own talent as that's the more rewarding way of playing, for me at least.
Champions League
FIXTURES | TABLE
Our failure to qualify from what was a difficult group rests entirely on my shoulders. The fixtures come at the start of the season and that was at the height of the tactical failings/inconsistency.
We started the group terribly, but appeared to sort things out in the return games against Melbourne and Pohang but we lost at home to Tokyo in the final game which meant they qualified ahead of us. I actually think if we could play the group again now we'd qualify fairly comfortably. That gives me a bit of confidence for the future, but I'm still disappointed about this season, even if the media and the board think we did really well.
Super League
The league was a catastrophe for the first two thirds of the season. It wasn't until the last ten games that we settled on something and actually started to perform at a decent level. There are still questions that need answering, but I'm a lot happier than I was a few months ago.
TABLE | FIXTURES 1 | FIXTURES 2
Defensively we were actually pretty good, which is amazing considering I've used about 1,400 different formations this season. Going forwards we were just awful and 36 goals in 30 games is proof of that. I just can't get anything going upfront and Vlahovic (17 goals) is the only player with any sort of return. Another area we struggled in was attacking set pieces, an area that has always been one of our strengths. This year we only scored 9 goals from set pieces compared to the 24 that Beijing scored on their way to winning the title.
We ended the season pretty well though and we seem to have settled on a narrow 4-2-3-1 with three AMC's. I won't go into too much detail on it until I've fully invested in it, but it's a lower risk, more controlling style than before.
The fact we finished fifth while being terrible for a long time is encouraging and, with the board only wanting a top half finish, everyone is pretty happy.
Youth Intake
This year's intake brought through one hugely exciting prospect and comfortably the best player we've produced thus far. Tong Xiaogang is fairly close to first team level already and has already signed his first professional deal. I like how well rounded he is and developed across all three attribute types. His coach report says he's committed, consistent and fits in well with the rest of the squad. His star rating has already gone up to 4 stars as well. We could have a proper player on our hands here.
Looking Ahead
I need to take a step back and take a more measured approach with everything at the club. When money is no object it's easy to have a scatter-gun approach to everything including staffing and scouting. With maxed out facilities we need to take more time and effort with youth development and a potential pathway into the first team. At the moment everything is just a bit all over the place and last season's title papered over the cracks a little.
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Post by hokster on Jul 10, 2020 17:59:00 GMT
Tong looked like he'll be a key player going forward. Too bad about the rest of the season, but it's nice to see the youth system investments paying off!
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Post by Nick on Jul 12, 2020 13:35:17 GMT
Not enough of a title challenge apparently. We were top going into the last game but lost 2-0 at Beijing Guoan. *shrugs*
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 12, 2020 16:35:28 GMT
Nick....sake
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Post by chaodck on Jul 12, 2020 16:46:48 GMT
Shit mate, such a terrible fate for you despite bringing the title and all. What are your plans now mate? Is this able to keep going in China or another asian country, or just boot anew?
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Post by Nick on Jul 12, 2020 17:13:48 GMT
Yeah it's a bit shit. It's my own fault though. That squad should have walked the league but I just couldn't get anything going in terms of offence.
I'll be continuing the save. It took a little while to find a job that I wanted, but I'm back in the game and we'll see how it goes.
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Post by hokster on Jul 13, 2020 9:25:12 GMT
What exactly is the game's definition of "title challenge"? Surely that was about as close as it can be...
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Post by Nick on Jul 13, 2020 9:52:15 GMT
Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm guessing that you need to lead the pack rather than coming to the party late. I'd argue that being top with a game to spare and eventually finishing three points off the top is still a title challenge, but maybe they wanted a more dominant challenge?
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Jul 13, 2020 10:00:57 GMT
Ruthless decision by the board, Nick. Is title challenge more about where you finish rather than points gap? I hope your next club offers greater stability.
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Post by Nick on Jul 13, 2020 14:07:19 GMT
Welcome to Suwon, home of the Bluewings and the latest stop on what has unwittingly become something of a career save in Asia. Following my (hugely) undeserved sacking by DL Pro, I had briefly thought about staying in China and going again, but those thoughts were quickly overtaken by other thoughts of curses, voodoo and witchcraft, so I decided to leave China be for the moment and set sail across the Yellow Sea to South Korea.
It took a while to get the job with the previous manager always seeming to do enough to avoid making his job security any worse than 'insecure'. Eventually he got the boot and here we are. I took charge at exactly the halfway point.
The club were initially predicted fifth, but after that start the board only wanted me to guide us to a mid-table finish. League history is pretty consistent since the start of the save. Five fifth places, two fourth and a third place. Looking at the table, making up eight points to get the media prediction was going to be tough but possible. The squad is decent. It's certainly well balanced with a good mix of positions covered and a good blend of youth and experience. Upon arrival, Suguru Oda was the most expensive player in the squad, but Yokohama came in and met his £1.8m release clause early on. Syrian midfield, Youssef Youssef was, in my opinion, the best player at the club while the bright light for the future was Jung Sung-Jin who, at that point, hadn't made his professional debut yet.
The only plan/aim for the rest of this season was to get a feel for the squad, try and settle on a tactic/style of play and finish as high as we could before assessing who would be staying and who would be leaving.
We got off to an excellent but unspectacular start with three 1-0 wins on the spin followed by a 2-1 win over Pohang. The wheels then threatened to fall off with four defeats in a row that came from absolutely nowhere. I actually felt like we were better than the 1-0 wins had suggested. I'd set the team out in a pretty normal 4-5-1, looking to control possession, press to win the ball back high up the pitch and we were playing some really good football. For those four matches it was the complete opposite. The switch then flicked again and we got to the league split six games unbeaten, winning four of them.
At the split we were well placed. The top three were long gone, such was their head start over us, but fourth was well within our grasp. We would only play each team once, so it was entirely possible that we could also slip down a place if we didn't perform. Luckily for us, four wins and a defeat was enough to seal that much coveted fourth place finish.
To go from eighth to fourth over half a season was pretty pleasing. There are still improvements to be made with the defence, and we can't afford to lose four matches in a row again next season, but there is definite potential here.
Youssef Youssef was undoubtedly the star of the show and he ended the season with six goals and seven assists but has already been in my office asking for a move to a bigger club. With player prices far more modest in South Korea, I am loathe to sell such an important player especially when his current value is just £375k. Jeon Beom-Seok top scored with 12 goals and, while he looks like a decent player, his nine finishing is going to be an issue going forwards. Striker isn't a position that is a priority to change at the moment. One that is, is centre back, with the news that Noh Jung-Ho will spend two years on military service with us paying all of his £20k per week wage.
Both the facilities and the finances are solid. The board expect us to develop players using our youth system and our superb youth facilities and excellent youth recruitment will help with that, while we have £17m in the bank and seem to be pretty much breaking even each month, if not in slight profit.
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Post by Nick on Jul 13, 2020 15:45:08 GMT
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Post by Nick on Jul 14, 2020 15:31:52 GMT
2029 Season Preview Club Vision & Expectations
You'll notice that we have a Champions League expectation, which was completely unexpected. I am 99.99% sure that the league rules from last season said that only the top three got continental football, and the final league table above certainly backs this up, yet here we are. We go straight into the group stage and have been drawn alongside FC Tokyo, Melbourne City and Persija Jakarta (Indonesia).
It was a surprise to be expected to put a title challenge together given the club's performances over the past 5 or 6 years. I'm not sure what I've done in my career for the board to think that, but their five year plan is to keep challenging so they clearly expect results.
Transfer Window
It was a busy window both in and out as I set about stamping my mark on the club. The only one that I wanted to keep was Kim Kyu-Hyung but he kicked up a fuss about money and I didn't want to keep an unhappy player nearing the age of 30. A few young players left for small fees but with a 50% sell on clause just in case I made the wrong decision in judging their potential.
As far as incoming deals went, I looked for home-grown players that were 25 years old at most. Li Lang (£350k from Incheon) and Park Hyun-Shik (£450k from Pohang) are at the lower end of that spectrum and will play different roles this season. Li has gone straight into the first team to play backup to Youssef Youssef while Park will spend some time in the youth team where he will hopefully develop physically.
With Noh Jung-Ho off on military service I needed another centre back, so Park Jung-Min came in from Pohang for £750k. I needed a monster at the back and being 6 foot 6 inches tall allows you to fit into that bracket. He's also just a solid, all-round kind of defender who will be a danger in both penalty areas. Choi Dong-Woon came into add some depth to the right wing position. He's a proper winger. His job will be to beat his man, get to the byline and chuck crosses into the box. He cost me £475k from Urawa Red Diamonds in Japan.
Shin Soon-Ho and Chun Hak-Young both came in from Jeonnam Dragons for £575k and £1.5m respectively. Shin has come in to play a rotational role in the centre of the park, while Chun will be re-trained to play as the left inside forward. There is a real lack of options in that role so I had to improvise a little, at least for the time being. I was drawn to his first touch, passing and vision and he also works hard and has good technique.
I also tried to get in a defensive midfielder in the DLP mould, but the player I wanted didn't come in because Jeonbuk couldn't find a replacement in time. I'll go again for him during the next window. I was pleased that we managed to improve the squad while making a profit of £400k on transfers.
Extended Pre-Season
The scheduling of the Champions League meant that we came back for pre-season training two months before the season started and have played plenty of matches already. Our start to the Champions League has been decent and we currently sit second in the group with four points. We'll also play two of the next three games at home which is a nice little advantage to have. I'd like to think we can qualify from this position. We were unlucky in Japan. We should have won, but FC Tokyo scored late on to take a point.
Our start to the league has been good with just a (half expected) defeat to Jeonbuk the only bad result. The goals we've conceded in the other games came from a corner, an indirect free kick and a penalty so we've actually defended better than the games would suggest. I'd like us to be a bit more ruthless in attack, but to be sitting top after four games is an encouraging start.
The Season Ahead
Next month is ridiculously busy and will go a long way to defining our season. Eight matches, including two in the Champions League and the start of the FA Cup.
Off the pitch things are going great. We have £18m in the bank, are under the wage budget and the youth facilities are being upgraded again.
In the short term, I'd just like to meet expectations this season. We've made good progress in the last six months but now need to back that up with results. In the medium term, I'd like to focus more on improving the club's scouting network which was very limited after I took over and made recruitment tougher during the window. In the long term, I want us to develop our own youth players while also bringing in players from Asia and South America to develop and then sell on for profit.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 14, 2020 20:20:43 GMT
Good start Nick, terrific performance in the end of last season to push into continental football for this season. Does that make a difference financially for you? I'm really liking the look of Li Lang and Chun Hak-Young some interesting players and young as well, good luck this season!
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Post by Nick on Jul 14, 2020 20:58:06 GMT
Good start Nick, terrific performance in the end of last season to push into continental football for this season. Does that make a difference financially for you? I'm really liking the look of Li Lang and Chun Hak-Young some interesting players and young as well, good luck this season! Thanks mate. The Asian Champions League makes very little difference to the finances unfortunately. Less than £100k for making the group stage and around £70k for a win if I remember correctly. Thankfully domestic players aren't too expensive to bring in, but selling our young players looks like it could boost the finances nicely should I need to raise some funds. With £18m in the account, we'll be fine for a little while yet.
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Post by Nick on Jul 15, 2020 9:47:40 GMT
This is my entire save summed up in one image.
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Jul 15, 2020 10:20:08 GMT
I don't think I've ever seen an intake that abysmal...
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 15, 2020 12:02:57 GMT
Real bummer those new youth players. Hope that investing in the youth facilities will give a boost.
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Post by hokster on Jul 15, 2020 12:32:19 GMT
Good lord, that's tragic.
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Post by Nick on Jul 15, 2020 14:35:12 GMT
I don't think I've had a really good youth intake at all on FM20. I've had the odd player that's developed well, but I've not had someone come through that looked a good player from the off. richruzzian welcome to the forum. Good to have you here.
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 15, 2020 14:50:18 GMT
I don't think I've had a really good youth intake at all on FM20. I've had the odd player that's developed well, but I've not had someone come through that looked a good player from the off. richruzzian welcome to the forum. Good to have you here. It is a nice place here. And the games are interesting to follow. Different from the dutch forum. This more focus playing the game then storytelling. But going offtopic.
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Post by ttgb on Jul 15, 2020 21:38:01 GMT
I don't think I've had a really good youth intake at all on FM20. I've had the odd player that's developed well, but I've not had someone come through that looked a good player from the off. richruzzian welcome to the forum. Good to have you here. Only in Germany have I had some good youth players. One of the reasons I haven't done a fill youth only save is because intakes are crap.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 20:00:51 GMT
Shit Nick, that's some bullcrap intake preview mate. Here's hoping the actual intake is better or at least one player can save it.
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