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Post by Ben on Nov 13, 2018 22:40:53 GMT
Season Six PreviewThis is probably my strongest starting XI and I have some depth on the bench - although, in a youth only save, this is a problem I'll continue to suffer from, at least until I'm running a huge profitable academy. A little look at the squad as I enter season six, our fourth in the second tier and hopefully our last. In order to position my best players in their most familiar roles - I've moved to two DMs (goes against what I just said but they are both decent in the roles I'm going for) and Joao Santos back to the Engache, in the new support role. As an ex-member of the youth team, and one I brought through myself, I have capitalised on the contract expiration of Sergio Tavares and will be bringing him back - two years after selling him for £150k and then keeping him on loan ever since. Quite the deal if you ask me. A few things to note looking at the squad now. - Monteiro has trained from ineffectual to accomplished an an AML over the last two years - he's a great option in the IF(A) role simply because he's absolutely rapid.
- I've added two new things to the Home DNA view - passing and technique. As we look to become a better footballing side I want to improve this. Looking at the (lack of) attributes within the defence - I've removed 'play out of defence' from the TI's as both of our DMs are decent on the ball and we can bypass the back four and play through those instead - particularly with Vieira in the VOL(S) role.
- Tiago Ramalho and Marco Pais are the only two non-regens in the first team - we really need some more elder heads in the squad for some experience but will use this, hopefully title challenging year, to blood some younger players - goalkeeper Miranda, Vieira and Vitor Filipe.
Looking forward to the season ahead!
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Post by Ben on Nov 14, 2018 22:22:38 GMT
Relationships: The link to over-achievement?
Something I have been working on is improving the frequency and quality of discussion with the players - and this has seemingly had a good impact on their relationships with me as a manager. A real life manager would no doubt love to have a team of eleven players who all support the club - that is made easier for me with a youth only save whereby the majority of players who come through seem to support us, or at least it is not programmed for them to really support other teams (Ramalho is a non-regen) but also to have a team of players who all support the manager. With that in mind - I've set out the following principles for the discussions: - In each league or cup game - a player rating higher than 8.0 will have an individual chat to praise his performance.
- A player rating lower than 6.5 will have a chat criticising his performance.
- A rating of less than 6.0 will result in a fine. The standard protocol for a complaint is that 'this is standard club procedure'
- A red card is a fine and a criticise conduct discussion.
- The top three trainers (or anyone who has rated over 9.0 for the week) get their training praised - the top option that says 'I've been very pleased with your training performances'
- Anyone who shows up as a message in my inbox about improving development has the other message that their development over the past few months has been good.
- If someone is retraining to a new position - once their 'colour' goes from orange to yellow etc (moves one on progression) - I will comment on that.
- Resting a player for more than a few matches will now be done via a discussion rather than just dropping them.
- Congratulating achievements is now mandatory, too.
All of these things have, so far, been keeping morale up and boosting their relationship with me - which is having an impact on the pitch.
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Post by Ben on Nov 15, 2018 22:03:28 GMT
Cup WinI was not expecting that! Not sure this qualifies me for Europe but a second tier team winning the 2nd most prestigious cup in Portugal is a great feat.
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Post by Ben on Nov 16, 2018 22:55:00 GMT
Season 6 Youth Intake
Not the same star potential as last season's intake but three or four interesting players that will be having a decent impact on the squad, hopefully. Bento Raposo - the best player from the intake and a defender who can head the ball, ish. Solid positioning and decisions, for his age and is left footed - the only one of my usable centre backs to be. I'll attempt to mentor him to better the DET and personality and try and give him some minutes in the run in of this season. Nuno Lima - a two footed full back is never a bad thing, for versatility, at least. He's got a good personality and the defensive side of his game is decent, if the attacking part is lacking somewhat. Mauro Ticozzi - we seem to be able to produce pacy wingers and he seems ok. Another versatile player with a good personality. Gil Domingues - Some more goalkeeper depth - useful after several years of nothing.
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Post by Ben on Nov 17, 2018 9:33:08 GMT
Season 6 ReviewAn utterly fantastic season where we have absolutely blown away the competition - clearly all part of the plan that came with last season's collapse! We broke several records: most points, most wins, most goals (77) and also had the best defence in the league (26 conceded). One annoying defeat to Olhanense in game week 15 initially closed our gap to one point but we were only off the top of the table for one week in the whole season. Joining me in the top flight are Real, who, themselves were only promoted from the third tier a couple of years back. A whole lot of whitey-green blobs there, which simply translates to average ratings of over 7. The move to the slightly more attacking 4231 deep has clearly paid off - with three players in double figures for goals and assists spread out between my attacking players. I kept a well rotated squad (except for in goal where 16 year old Monteiro played every minute) and this kept players fresh and fighting for their place. The added work on interactions really kept morale up and saw us overachieve massively in the cup, as previously posted. Special mentions go to Vagner Silveiro who had his best scoring season in this division - finishing with 19 goals, Joao Estevao, who, despite having attributes skewed by his pace - was the best player in the division and ended in double figures for goals and assists and breakthrough star Antonio Vieira who had a great season in the VOL(S) role. As I move into the top flight - I've finally been asked if I want to have an U23 team, which will help with player development. It will be a big struggle but I'm excited for what I can do next season.
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Post by Ben on Nov 17, 2018 22:32:22 GMT
Around the world... [DISCLAIMER: I've only currently got 1 country active and no extra details on - so this is a bit pointless but it does signal the starting point where I'm now re-adding the top leagues from around the world and accepting a slight slow down in processing in order to get a more balanced game world for if/when I reach Europe and beyond!] World CupThe 2022 World Cup, held in Qatar for the first time ever on this version, was won by Holland - who defeated Poland 2-0 in the final. Holland defeated Uruguay, drew with Burkino Faso and lost to France in the group stages - scraping through, but turned it on - not conceding a goal in the knockout phases to overcome Chile, Argentina, Spain and then Poland. Poland themselves, ranked only 17th in the world going into the tournament - also went through with four points, with a win over Costa Rica, a draw against Australia and defeat against Argentina. They had a more difficult knockout phase - taking apart Brazil 3-2 in extra time, beating France on penalties after a 1-1 draw and then beating Italy with a late Karol Linetty strike. AfricaCameroon repeated their 2017 AFCON success, winning in 2019 before Senegal won the next two editions. Ivory Coast are the current holders, with Lazio striker Michael Kouame their best player at the moment. The CHAN has been dominated by more northern countries - with Morocco (twice) and Tunisia sandwiching a DR Congo victory in 2020. AsiaJapan and Iran have won the two Asian cups since the game started with the Japanese and South Koreans also ruling over the past three iterations of the East Asian Cup. Qatar, Kuwait and UAE have won of West Asian Cup between them, whereas India and Nepal have shared the SAFF CHampionships and Mongolia are current Asian Solidarity Cup holders. There are a lot of smaller competitions in Asia, most of which I didn't know about! Iran are currently the 19th best national team in the world, just ahead of South Korea and Australia. EuropePortugal retained their European Championship crown with a victory in 2020 and France showed their dominance by winning 5 of their six games en-route to a 2024 triumph - beating the resurgent Holland in extra time in the Final. Switzerland won the inaugaral Nations League but Italy and Germany, twice, have held that crown. Due to their victory in 2024, France are ranked as the best team in the world, with Holland back in third and Portugal down in 10th. Russia have had a tough time and find themselves down in 40th, just ahead of regen-superhouse Czech Republic. OceaniaAs expected - New Zealand dominate this part of the world - with two consecutive Oceania Nations Cups but Solomon Islands are current Pacific Games holders, after Papua New Guinea were victorious in 2019. North AmericaMexico hold the title in the North American Nations League as well as the Gold Cup but surprise package Canada won in 2019, before a Mexico and USA victory in the following two competitions. South AmericaChile made it three Copa America's in a row in 2019 before a five year wait where Argentina, led by a truimvirate of Cristian Pavon, Paulo Dybala and Angel Correa, won the crown. The Argentines sit second in the world rankings going into the 2028 competition as hosts and holders. Club teamsAtletico Madrid are current World Club Cup Champions, defeating Shanghai SIPG in the final - the holders of the Asian Champions League. Club America hold the NACL crown, Sao Paulo the Sudamerica, Sundowns the African Champions League and Auckland the O-League. In England, Man Utd, still led by Mourinho have won the last three Premier Leagues, and Man City won the previous three. Liverpool continue to pose a threat with four second place finishes and a third in that time. A sole Lyon victory in 2018/19 took the shine off what would be a clean sweep for PSG in France - who have, as expected, a ridiculous team. The same story in Germany - a 2018/19 victory for Dortmund is the only non-Bayern victory but Juve's domination in Italy has tailed off with successive victories for Inter - Napoli and Milan seem to be the new chasing pack with the Old Lady falling back. A third place for Sevilla is the only non-big 3 in Spain: 1 title for Real, 2 for Atletico and 4 for Barcelona as the normal domination continues. Porto have won three on the trot with two for Benfica preceding that. Sporting were the standard third but fell away this year - coming 6th. The Argentine division has been shared by Estudiantes, Boca, River and Independiente and Serie A has followed suit; Cruzeiro, Internacional, Palmeiras, Gremio, Corinthians and Flamengo have all won titles. In terms of transfers - four deals of over £100m have taken place - Federio Chiesa to PSG and Paulo Dybala to Man City are joined by two regens, Alex, a midfielder from Barca went to PSG for £125m and Phillipe Thomas, a French striker, moved to Man City from Lyon for £101m. Elsehwere, Ruben Neves was a £79m signing for Real Madrid, Mauro Icardi moved for Paris for £77m, Frenkie de Jong went to PSG, via Real Madrid and Man Utd for a deal of over £90m and Barca spent £84m on Florentino Luis, of whom PSG paid £45m to get from Benfica. Beira-Mar
Obviously a lot has changed for us - here is our league form over that time as well as the one cup that we have won: We are still playing at the 12k seated Estadio Mario Duarte, which we own, although went through a phase of finding a new area for a 4k seater stadium - this coincided with our promotion to the second tier and has since appeared to be scrapped. We have average corporate and training facilities, good youth facilities and have just agreed a deal to create data analysis facilities. In addition to this, our junior players receive excellent coaching and our youth recruitment network is well established. We currently have one affiliate, Ovarense, who play in the fourth (inactive) tier. They are semi-professional and, as of yet, we are yet to use them for sending any young players to.
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Post by Ben on Nov 18, 2018 0:13:25 GMT
Building a training schedule (the numbers way)Everything I have read this year leads me to see that training is not a min/max kind of thing and I can't just automatically get it correct. However, to get a better understanding of what I need to cover, aside from looking at what the players are saying and monitoring their development as well as my own performances on the pitch (something that it has been far too easy to actually ignore over the past few years), I want to look at the numbers behind it. I have taken a look at all of the training schedules that I might use to fit in with how I want my team to play (so Catenaccio, route one, park the bus etc are missing) and counted how many of each type of training is used and what percentage of the week that is, looking for any patterns. (Please excuse the rough Excel document) Immediate things I've noticed is that goalkeeping training can clearly be covered in the secondary and tertiary slot of the attacking, defending, tactical and technical schedules as well as the overall - as it hasn't been used at all in a standalone week, probably because it's inefficient for the outfield players (20% focus for attack and defence in each one). The same goes with set pieces as that all seems to be done through individual training (can't find any other schedule where the actual free kick/corner/throw in attributes are work - please correct me!) Match PrepIt is also interesting to see the match prep correlation between all the training schedules - there is always two match practices in the no-game weeks, one in a game week and none in a two game week but the tactics and practice in the no-game week seem to take over the preview in game weeks. The above image shows the two focuses for match practice and match tactics - which are both used when we don't have a game. This one is for 'match preview' - used when we do have a game. Clicking between the two, the match tactics is slightly more intense than the preview but does increase attributes as well as the same tactical familiarity with one a slight reduction for condition. I feel that this quick change might be useful going forward. Looking closer at Gegenpress
I guess that my team will most 'look like' a gegenpressing side on the pitch - so I'll focus my attentions on those training schedules to see what I can learn to build my own. Here is the breakdown for the three gegenpress tactics that are as standard: Interesting that gegenpressing isn't inherently focused on just attacking play - with only one schedule directly having the attacking unit as the primary focus. However - the two transition sessions give 40% focus to both attacking and defending units and do focus on some of the key attributes: Out of these - my 'DNA' features anticipation, passing, decisions and work rate so this schedule is a no-brainer for me. I also like the transition - restrict schedule, which also gives 40% to both attacking and defensive units and works on anticipation, as mentioned above. Below is that schedule: There is also an attacking general session in each week that all of the players engage in but no defensive one - they appear to be complete opposites of each other with one having secondary impacts that are the primary impacts of the other. In fact - looking at the schedules, a large proportion of the gegenpress training is done as a whole team. The table below shows the breakdown of all of the schedules and the percentage focus on each area: It is only the defensive and transitional schedules that are in units - the rest are as a whole team and attack is all together but the focus will be shared out primarily to the attacking attributes and the rest to defensive. I guess that this fits the mantra of the tactical style where the whole team work together to win the ball back. Take home points from what I've found- A very quick, and brief, look into what the standard schedules entail tells me that I'm probably correct to look at the gegenpress schedule as a model for my own custom designs. - I think that I need to spend a little bit of time looking at actually what attributes my team need to work on, as a whole, as the majority of these sessions are as a team and we can kill many birds with one training shaped stone. - I think that Match Tactics can replace Match Preview (unless it is hard coded as I can't seem to actually choose it?) - Unit specific work needs to be really well thought out - I do like the two so far; press and restrict as they cover the attacking and defensive transition and I know, as a newly promoted team, we'll need to be organised at the back, especially if we do try and be adventurous with the ball. - I need to get the balance right - I initially thought that 13,11 and 8 sessions were too little but I will have to look at how that plays out with fixtures and condition/injuries to my players. - There is no place for anything reactive here - I feel that I need a slot for defending corners, for example, if we have conceded a few silly goals over the past games. I'm going to take some time and actually try and build three different Beira-Mar base schedules and see how they work!
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Post by Ben on Nov 18, 2018 15:13:15 GMT
First Draft - 1 match training/week training schedule
Taking into account what I was trying to learn about last night - I've built a rough draft of what a weekly schedule would look like and compared it to the original gegenpress model. First of all - the first screenshot shows the comparison in terms of impacts of the schedule, mine beneath the gegenpress. We should lose less players to training injury but find that they are less conditioned for the next match - however, we will build a bit more match sharpness (maybe sharpness and condition will balance each other out?) and have more team cohesion at the expense of a small bit of happiness. The top schedule is gegenpress and the bottom is mine. I have stuck to the same principles of planning this around a Saturday match, as most of our league fixtures are. I have opted for 3 match preparation slots, using the tactics instead of preview due to the slight attribute focus that it brings. Instead of match practice, to save some condition for the players and allow extra sessions (plus, my familiarity is fairly high as the shapes and essence of the player hasn't really changed and I've signed nobody), I have included more specifics - attacking movement and defensive shape. Both of these are 60/20/20 in favour of attacking or defending which, equals itself out over the two sessions. I have kept two general sessions in but may look at moving the attacking (blue) to a possession or a tactical one as I feel that there are already several sessions focused on the attack and less so on the defence. The physical stays put as does the quickness as pace (and stamina - so I may need to rotate these) are going to be key for continued pressing. There are both of the transition sessions I like in there and I've added one direct attacking focus (shadow play) and one direct defensive focus (disengaged - this over engaged because it focuses on concentration and teamwork over aggression and I feel these are more appropriate for my squad). I have then added a completely flexible option of defending free kicks - wanting to keep a slot that wasn't too intense free to work on something reflective and adding the team bonding as another hit on teamwork with little intensity implications. I have front loaded the week so that we can get the main attribute development focused on Monday and Tuesday and use the latter stages to prepare, ensure morale is high and tweak things for the upcoming game. Here is how it compares, using the Excel document: My plan is to run with this base idea and then tweak for the 0 matches/2 matches situation and see where I am going then.
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Post by Nick on Nov 18, 2018 19:18:22 GMT
Just caught up now Ben - a lot to take in! Firstly, well done on the league win. That looks about as comfortable as it gets. Streets ahead of everyone else by the looks of things. Your approach to training is worlds away from mine - far more detailed. I'm going for the scatter-gun approach at the moment, trying to fit in as many of the training types as possible to keep it well-rounded: This is typical of how I set training up, albeit we have a week off at the moment.
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Post by Ben on Nov 19, 2018 22:39:38 GMT
Thanks Nick - interesting to see your style with this. How are they holding up with that? Surely they're going to be moaning about doing too much? But you've managed to keep the intensity low throughout the week so that they aren't fatigued or injured. Are you seeing anything attribute related or would you say progression is coming from first team football?
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Post by Ben on Nov 19, 2018 22:48:29 GMT
Season Seven Youth IntakeThis could be the best intake I have ever had - and that cannot be said lightly considering that both Trabulo and Filipe have come from the intake straight into the first team. To have four 5* rated players shows that potentially we have a lot of depth coming through - although two are strikers, I already have three and I only play with one! Teles - is a nearly complete striker, barring his finishing ability. He's got a good personality and, providing those key attacking mentals rise - he could be a great player. It'll be interesting how I plan to use Vagner Silveiro, Vitor Filipe, Miguel Resende and himself. Andre Folha - I don't rate him anywhere near as much as Teles but his personality will give me the best chance of getting any potential out of him there. Plenty of 8's and 9's technically which would make him look better if they reached 10s but we shall see. Francisco Bolas - Could do with some more in the workrate, teamwork stakes but not a bad MC except he can't specialise in going forward (poor finishing) nor going back (tackling). Flavio Candeias - Some more decent goalkeeping options.
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Post by Nick on Nov 20, 2018 20:20:53 GMT
Thanks Nick - interesting to see your style with this. How are they holding up with that? Surely they're going to be moaning about doing too much? But you've managed to keep the intensity low throughout the week so that they aren't fatigued or injured. Are you seeing anything attribute related or would you say progression is coming from first team football? No adverse affects so far to be honest. I've not had an unreasonable amount of injuries - probably the opposite in fact - and definitely had no-one complain so far. In terms of development, Tonali is doing great, while I'm also getting gains out of players that are nearly fully developed, like Isaac Hayden.
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Post by Nick on Nov 20, 2018 20:43:02 GMT
On a related note Ben, have you read the training article on Cleon's blog?
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ianf
New Member
Posts: 92
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Post by ianf on Nov 21, 2018 3:35:30 GMT
Teles looks like a great IF if you need to find another spot Look forward to reading the rest in detail
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Post by fmsamo on Nov 21, 2018 15:47:10 GMT
Just caught up after a while!
Well in on the Taca da Liga win! I love how it's structured with the short group stage and then straight into the semi finals. Feels like a great tournament to blood some youth prospects in.
Also love you pointing out those relationships you've got with a lot of your players, I had something very similar with a lot of my players at Stirling last year (wrote about it in my Morale Manager post a bit) and really felt it garnered an overall positive atmosphere around the club, leading to happiness/morale improving and them wanting to run through brick walls for me.
Also bloody love how in-depth you've gone with training. Interested in Nick's approach too, I haven't used that third module each day almost nearly enough. Need to start doing that more if you aren't seeing any negative effects at all.
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Post by Ben on Nov 21, 2018 22:26:27 GMT
On a related note Ben, have you read the training article on Cleon's blog? I have, yes, but not in depth. I'm really just playing it on feel at the moment - seeing what is working and what I can find out. That's really the beauty of it, and most of the FM features. In terms of Tonelli, devil's advocate, but... how much first team football has he played? If not, how much reserve/youth football? Is that a higher standard that the old reserve/youth team? I'm trying to ascertain just how much impact training has compared to first team football. It was always 'noted' that any player over 18 will develop best with first team football, whereas before 18 it was down to training. ianf - He does - and that is where he is going to be - on the left hand side. In a perfect world, where he has 200PA (I obviously do not know) - I still wouldn't be able to get that finishing to a world class level - so getting dribbling/pace there will be good. I also like the look of that heading and bravery - maybe a trait of where he arrives late in the box and the crosses are aimed at him may be a nice little move. Thanks fmsamo - how is Portugal treating you? I loved the in depth nature of the blogs and how far you went before clicking on! I need to do that by being pretty brief over the first couple of years to really get to know my players. It's a great competition - we scraped a draw at home to an under strength Porto which allowed us to finish top based on a pasting we gave another second tier team and we just went from there! Morale was high, we were winning in the league and got a bit of luck. It's something that I will definitely look to do in future though - as it's quite a high rep competition and will count to important minutes. Training, definitely something I am loving right now. I studied the pre-loaded tactics and I think I can get away with adding a bit more. Obviously I cannot add the really intense sessions but I've managed to move around the schedules to fit what I want with my team and also some re-active stuff. On the same note, again, I like Nick's method which is really re-active to what has happened and covers a really broad area to develop as many attributes/game practice as possible.
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Post by Ben on Nov 21, 2018 22:42:02 GMT
End of Season Seven UpdateJust. Not the most glamorous nor successful season by any stretch of the imagination but we have remained in the division, built some solidarity, gained some money and learned some lessons. One thing that I have learnt this season is to accept the goals that we are conceding. Coincidentally, we actually had the fifth best defence with just 37 goals conceded but I'm making peace with this side when a player who is simply better than them beats them, scores etc. Looking through the numbers - a team who's weekly salary ranks them 65nd out of all clubs (lower than all 18 top flight, 18 second tier and 28 third tier clubs) there is really no way I should even be at this level and my players are a) underpaid and b) performing better than they should. I'm already at a point where I want to relax my youth-only rules, not to speed up our growth but to allow me to play this game more realistically - being able to let my players move on for reasonable fees and being able to replace them with an eye to youth and also to be able to generate my own youth intakes through scouring the world for one or two additional players to my own. If I do pursue this, I will draw up a sensible list of objectives to help keep this realistic.
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Post by Ben on Nov 22, 2018 19:13:40 GMT
Baixo Vouga
I'm about to take this all Bilbao-esque. I want to make transfers but I want to keep an essence of youth development and home grown identity, despite loading all the leagues around Europe and having an Argentine manager for the added bonus of Argentine regens through the academy. Well - hopefully those Argentines can be complimented by a strict policy of signing only players born within the Aviero region or generated at clubs who play in that region. I am not Portuguese, nor do I know a huge amount about district level geography, but Wiki tells me that there are 19 municipalities within the country, and the one that the FM editor tells me houses the city of Aveiro no longer exists. Never mind. That region is Baixo Vouga - Baixo translating to low and Vouga the name of the river that runs through it. Similarly to the 'cantera' policy ran by Bilbao, I want to dominate the production of youngsters from this region - so have set a rudimentary filter for those born in these cities - there are 15 in total, significantly down from the 66 in the Basque country. I have then added a filter for those under the age of 20 as I want to focus my signings on youth players. I am left with 107 players, of which 68 have an interest in joining the club. I have also 'followed' all of the clubs in the local region. Once again, unlike the Basque country, we lack successful club sides - with only ourselves (in the 2026 version of the game anyway) being professional or even playing in a playable league at the moment. I think this is a really realistic approach and one which I think the club would look at, considering the strength of their academy prior to their real-life bankruptcy. I will be using these filters only on players who are scouted as I will not be using the Player Search feature to keep the realism at its highest possible level.
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Post by Ben on Nov 22, 2018 21:00:50 GMT
Summer Key Points- We finally got our U23 team (accepted last year but they never appeared) so we have the scope to keep on much more of our youth intake and try and now have a pathway for the later bloomers to still enter the team through my own training.
- The board are looking for a site for a new stadium - a proposed 21k stadium which expands our current capacity by over 9000. This looks great.
- New contracts are being handed out - I will use this summer to ensure that I have a solid wage structure going forward.
- Youth training is my new focus from now on...
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Post by Ben on Nov 25, 2018 8:51:45 GMT
January SalesIn a youth only save, outgoing player transfers seem really easy to just ignore - a 'reject at all costs' approach. I am very much in that boat and want to keep my best players but have decided to cash in on a young and promising lad. Here is why: The star of my intake a few years back and he's nearly 19 now and has played getting on 50 senior games for the club. Initially, Milan were interested and offered me something stupid like £50k for him - upon that rejection he got angry and handed in a transfer request. I batted away all approaches but Porto were interested in paying a little bit more and I currently have no real comparison so not sure of how best to rate him value wise - but £3m was my goal - nearly 100 times his value. They came back with this offer, and I accepted: That is £1.3m up front with 2 instalments of £2.3m - not sure why it shows that. I don't know whether Porto B games will count for those league appearances and I doubt he'll get an international call up, at least in the near future anyway. Likewise - I don't see Porto selling him for £20m and netting us £8m or so from that but the deal is financially viable and the two instalments, alone, will pay for the upgrades I have sanctioned this summer to youth and training facilities. However, there was one screen (and one of my favourite new additions) that made this deal a no-brainer: Vitor was in his fourth season at the club and just couldn't shake his unambitious tag, despite various mentoring groups. This has led to a complete stall in his attribute development. Consider that he's now nearly 19 and these comparison arrows compare to when he was 17 - he hasn't actually improved his attributes at all. At the same time, we have players who are in a similar position at the club who have made major/significant changes to their ability across the board and this just isn't good enough. I think selling now was a good option, considering that a 26-year old with this skill set would be much less valuable.
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Post by Ben on Nov 25, 2018 13:07:32 GMT
Season Eight Youth Intake
Another pleasing youth intake and, with the focus on player development for a) our own players and b) players from this region, this will be the first intake where I sign all the players. With our new U23 devoid of players and the current youth crop playing 60/70 games a season to fill out both squads, some extra numbers will be really useful anyway. I have two 5* players, which are great and a further 4.5* player - however, two of those I would consider to be 'develop to sell' as neither of the strikers have/will ever have the required workrate and mental attributes to fit into my high pressing approach. Roberto Arraiolos - highest rated by PA but not really the sort of striker I need. Doesn't work hard and won't work for the team and, in our current situation and hopeful future plans, will not be able to carry a player. Hopefully I can turn him into a decent poacher and then look to offload for a decent fee. Sergio Pereira - The top player from this intake. Superb base stats except he is small! I definitely see a future libero though as his passing and technique are better than anything I currently have at centre back. Quite excited about this lad. Miguel Laranjeira - SImilar to Arraiolos in the fact that I can't afford a striker who I have to carry as defending with 10 men against these big guns is hard enough as it is. He's not physical enough either to make a fox in the box so we'll see what we can do and then look to move him on, with a future fee percentage too, if possible. Fabio Pereira - No relation to Sergio but I wish he'd swap his height with his namesake. Just like many of the other centre backs that have come through my system - he cannot head. More than likely will be used as an anchorman going forward.
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Post by Ben on Nov 25, 2018 13:28:34 GMT
One-year Youth Development ReviewSomething I'd like to spend more time analysing - the development the players have in their first year at the club, or the game. Below are the players that entered my youth team last year: Francisco Mortagua is at Fatima (third tier), Oliveira at Alverca (third tier), and Brandao at Cova de Piadade (second tier) but none of them have either made an appearance nor look like I may have made a mistake not retaining them. Flavio Candeias - Has slotted in as the U23 keeper so most games he is under considerable pressure as the team in front of him isn't that good. He's played 25 times in the U23 division, keeping eight clean sheets and conceding 21 goals at an average of 6.97. He has made some decent developments in his game and is doing well. Francisco Bolas - has moved from ineffectual to accomplished in the DMC role this season which would probably indicate that there hasn't been a huge attribute development - however he has done well. Has played 39(3) games across both teams, scoring 5 and making 6 with an average of 7.12 He's also made a short (2 minute) cameo in the first team and is developing really well. The tag of 'Promising Midfielder' is also of interest to me - it may indicate that he has a lot more potential left. Andre Folha - In the same ilk as my new strikers but making decent progress this season with 12 goals in 40 games for the U19 and U23s. Another with the 'Promising' tag which might mean I can raise some decent money for him as I doubt he'll ever really fit my tactical ideology. Teles - Has, like Bolas, learnt a completely new position this season - the IF(A) role where I think his pace and dribbling will cause havoc. He's also made decent improvements and has features twice (for a total of 11 minutes) in the first team as well as 11 goals in 35 games at an average of 6.73 for the youth sides (remember - these sides lose quite regularly!). I see him as potentially a massive player going forward.
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Post by Ben on Nov 25, 2018 20:06:39 GMT
A long term visionThis save will hopefully last the entirety of FM19 so I want to properly lay out the plans for the game. I have managed to split it into four distinct areas, following the DNA and recruitment process, that should outline the various phases of the game. StabilityWe are now probably through this phase - but when taking over a club that had just been promoted to the lowest division of Portuguese football, I had to stabilise them, financially and off the field. Stability also dictates the style of playing I want to go with - youth only but allowances to sign locally born players as well as a DNA of statistics that I feel will give me the most fun game-wise (which could change as the game goes on). We are into our second season in the top flight and, provided that we stay up this season - I would say that we are now a stable club, turning a small profit (from prize money) each season and a solid set of backroom staff. ProgressThis will come in many guises - maybe through progress towards challenging for more cups (the win was clearly a fluke), selling a player for a substantial sum of money, getting that key player through the intake or just settling on a specific development plan. I would say that some of these overlap with the stability part and we are currently doing that - particularly with the 'sign everyone from the intake' approach whereby I am now developing all three of my squads with nearly equal levels of detail. I would imagine that this progress phase will take anywhere between five and ten years - considering the strength of the big 3 in Portugal. In previous FM saves I have managed to sneak a title victory before spending a few years yo-yoing back and then finally achieving that dominance. It will be a long process, given a) the gap in quality and b) the lack of talent currently being produced in the region but I am confident it can be done. Domestic DominanceHere we will have upset the top 3 and turned it to a top four. I would like us to be there in the latter stages of European competitions and being able to sell players for vast sums of money then replace them with homegrown talents, with little worries about wages for my own team. I would expect that Porto, Sporting and Benfica will still be able to put up a fight so that the league will be able to move itself towards the upper echelons, in terms of reputation and players attracted. This phase will take between 10 and 15 years to fully establish - I see 2040/45 as a realistic target period. Local DominanceThe final stage of the model - developing the local region as a world superpower and maybe even culminating in a European final between two teams from the local Aviero (Baixo Vouga) region. This will rely, initially, heavily on me developing these teams through giving them players allowing them to get promoted, develop their facilities, sell their players on and continue to move forward. I would really like to utilise the affiliate scheme to make sure that several clubs in the area and regularly replenished with players from my own academy as a way to get them to the heights that we will be at the time. I will be able to work on this as the other stages progress (currently have 3 local clubs as affiliates in 2027) but this could take another ten to fifteen years, even after domestic dominance to really come to the fore.
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Post by fmsamo on Nov 26, 2018 11:33:53 GMT
Thanks fmsamo - how is Portugal treating you? I loved the in depth nature of the blogs and how far you went before clicking on! I need to do that by being pretty brief over the first couple of years to really get to know my players. It's a great competition - we scraped a draw at home to an under strength Porto which allowed us to finish top based on a pasting we gave another second tier team and we just went from there! Morale was high, we were winning in the league and got a bit of luck. It's something that I will definitely look to do in future though - as it's quite a high rep competition and will count to important minutes. Training, definitely something I am loving right now. I studied the pre-loaded tactics and I think I can get away with adding a bit more. Obviously I cannot add the really intense sessions but I've managed to move around the schedules to fit what I want with my team and also some re-active stuff. On the same note, again, I like Nick's method which is really re-active to what has happened and covers a really broad area to develop as many attributes/game practice as possible. I'm really enjoying it so far. Great league to play in. Almost finished the first season now, but tweaked the blog approach a bit so there's a bit of catching up to do for it. Loved those day one blogs though, felt it was needed to get acquainted to the club and the country. Keep up the good work, really enjoying the posts.
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Post by ttgb on Nov 26, 2018 13:48:55 GMT
Ben I have just caught up on your story so far. Again so much detail to the finer points of the game. I am glad I haven't got this version as I will be lost with the new mentoring and training.
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ianf
New Member
Posts: 92
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Post by ianf on Nov 26, 2018 19:16:54 GMT
Nice work Ben. pereira looks great - Dm or maybe even Libero as you say
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Post by Ben on Nov 26, 2018 20:43:23 GMT
Thanks fmsamo - how is Portugal treating you? I loved the in depth nature of the blogs and how far you went before clicking on! I need to do that by being pretty brief over the first couple of years to really get to know my players. It's a great competition - we scraped a draw at home to an under strength Porto which allowed us to finish top based on a pasting we gave another second tier team and we just went from there! Morale was high, we were winning in the league and got a bit of luck. It's something that I will definitely look to do in future though - as it's quite a high rep competition and will count to important minutes. Training, definitely something I am loving right now. I studied the pre-loaded tactics and I think I can get away with adding a bit more. Obviously I cannot add the really intense sessions but I've managed to move around the schedules to fit what I want with my team and also some re-active stuff. On the same note, again, I like Nick's method which is really re-active to what has happened and covers a really broad area to develop as many attributes/game practice as possible. I'm really enjoying it so far. Great league to play in. Almost finished the first season now, but tweaked the blog approach a bit so there's a bit of catching up to do for it. Loved those day one blogs though, felt it was needed to get acquainted to the club and the country. Keep up the good work, really enjoying the posts. Thanks Samo! Caught up on the blog and it's all going great. I do love this league actually - such a big gulf which is not too hard to get near to but I imagine will be really hard to break!
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Post by Ben on Nov 26, 2018 20:44:39 GMT
Ben I have just caught up on your story so far. Again so much detail to the finer points of the game. I am glad I haven't got this version as I will be lost with the new mentoring and training. A name I haven't seen for a while! How are you? The mentoring is really simple to be fair and the training is automatically done by the assistant and, even if you want to do nothing else to it, works much better than it has in past versions. I really recommend this game to be fair, but then again I've never really been one to moan about them.
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Post by Ben on Nov 26, 2018 20:46:26 GMT
Nice work Ben. pereira looks great - Dm or maybe even Libero as you say Removing the 'stays back at all times' as we speak. A difficult one as he's already 3* at 16 but there are some gaps in his game and he's not really had the experience for me to be happy to freely chuck him in! Will get some game time over the next year or so, for sure! Just a shame that he, and Raposo - my other promising defender, are both left footed centre backs.
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Post by Ben on Nov 26, 2018 20:48:12 GMT
Season Eight ReviewWhat a fantastic season - 13 points and 7 places better off shows what an improvement we've had. We flirted with potentially qualifying for Europe too, but one too many draws ruined that dream. It was a poor season for Braga, who would be expected to finish above us and Portimonense have been performing pretty well over the past few years but that doesn't take away from what we have done here, just two years into our life in the top flight. This season I have managed to rotate the players a bit more and even give a few minutes to the youth team graduates who have now made the step up into the U23 team, as seen below: Standout performers this season have been Silveiro, who nearly trebled his league goalscoring record from last year - with all 13 of his strikes coming in the league, Estevao, who is continually a threat on the wing with his pace and Paulo Miranda, who managed to play every minute of our season and has over 100 appearances already at the age of just 19. Below - you can see the year on year comparison of the key performance indicators that I plan to be use to review the players: I've kept it quite simple - I will be comparing season to season for minutes played, goals per 90, chances created per 90 and interceptions per 90, with any of this seasons stats in red if they have decreased, green if increased and yellow if they have stayed the same. I know that sometimes AR does not paint the complete picture of a player over the season so have removed that entirely and want to focus more on our gegenpress style so have included interceptions as my attacking players will be expected to do as much of this hard work as defenders. A quick look would suggest that Estevao has been my standout improver being green in all categories and Madeira the weakest, going red in all of them. Interestingly, Michael Pedro and Jorge Dias have also under-performed in the minutes played and defensive stats - which is a worry as those two, with Madeira make up three quarters of my centre backs. As a team, and as you'd expect from our better finish, we have scored more and created more chances, and, as we've lost a player from our first team, the other players have had to pick up some extra minutes. It'll be interesting to continually monitor this and see if on-field KPIs are linked at all to slowed growth or even decline in attributes or changes to roles/positions/styles. Moving Forward
This is not necessarily good news for us! Although the new stadium is a big improvement on what we currently have and the facilities will be paid for when the season rolls over and we get our new sponsorship TV money, the £350k outgoings a month will severely put pressure on us as we naturally cannot turn a monthly income - even with such tight wage spending. I'm looking forward to next season!
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