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Post by hokster on Jun 22, 2020 12:36:13 GMT
Le Havre AC Introduction and 2019/2020 PreviewLe Havre Athletic Club is the oldest football club in France, having been formed in 1872 by, apparently, some ex-Oxbridge students (hence the color scheme). In fact, the club anthem is set to the tune of "God Save The King," which I'm sure goes over well in most of France. They were the first club outside of Paris to win the championship (back in 1899), but has never won Ligue 1, and has been outside the top tier since 2009. They've also won a single Coupe de France in 1959. (And here's the reference for the thread's title: if you haen't seen Party Down, you should).
While their on-the-pitch results have been limited, Le Havre has a famous academy. Benjamin Mendy, Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Lassana Diarra, and Dmitri Payet are a few of the players who trained at Le Havre when they were youths. This legacy of youth development is essential for this save. I'm not going to make this an official YDWAWK save, but I want the spirit of that: we buy or loan only to supplement the academy, and when we buy, they should be young and able to be trained and molded by our staff. As a result, I'm also going to be flexible in my tactical approach, so that I can accomodate the best talents that we produce. For me, this is one of the most fun parts of a save like this, as I enjoy seeing youth develop and experimenting with tactics. This should also help us remain financially stable until we arrive in Ligue 1. Expectations and FinancesThe only board expectation related to the club culture is that we develop players using the youth system: done and done. While I generally like the idea of a club having a particular style of play, being able to be flexible will help me adapt to the players that we produce. Otherwise, we're expected to build towards a promotion to Ligue 1 by 2022/23, finishing in the top half in 2019/20, and reaching the playoffs by 2020/2021. As we're predicted to finish 5th, we should be in or near the playoff spaces this season, so this seems very reasonable. Beyond that, the board wants us to be run in a sustainable fashion and develop the best youth system, first in Ligue 2 and then in the country. FacilitiesLe Havre play in Stade Oceane, a 25,278 capacity all-seater. Unfortunately, we have to pay 861k per year in rent despite owning the stadium. But we do have 2.5M in sponsorships, which isn't too bad for this level (6th), and isn't much below the lowest sponsorships in Ligue 1. Given that our main kit and stadium deals will increase by 10% upon promotion, that set us up decently to stay up once we get promoted. The training and youth facilities are "great," but I would've thought they'd be better for a team with this kind of history of youth development. More concerning for our first few intakes is the junior coaching and youth recruitment, both of which are just adequate. Those will have to be increased ASAP to consistently get in players who can remain with the club as we rise the ranks. We also have below average data analysis facilities, though I'm still not sure what improving those get you. SquadOverall, not too shabby. We're desperately overloaded in midfield compared to defense, so hopefully we can stay healthy at the back. I promoted Baba Traore from the 2nd team to provide cover at CB and LB. Here's a brief look at the key players: Timo Kadewere: Kadewere is on loan from Lyon, and he should be able to dominate at this level. He has extremely solid technical and mental skills, and is very impressive physically. He'll be a key man, and if we get promoted this season, it'll largely be off his play. He doesn't have a future fee, unfortunately.
Alexandre Bonnet: Bonnet has been at Le Havre since 2009-10, and is getting up there in years. His natural fitness is high, though, so he may have a few more years in him to contribute. He should be decent on the left wing, providing us with through-balls and crosses.
Jean-Pascal Fontaine: The longtime Le Havre player will be the creative heartbeat of the team, as well as a player who can hopefully provide some moments of magic with a shot from outside the area.
Victor Lekhal: Unfortunately out for 4-6 months with damaged cruciate ligaments, when he returns he should be able to step into the first team and contribute as a supporting midfielder/playmaker.
Cengiz Umut Meras: The recent Turkish international should provide us with good quality down the left flank, teaming up with Bonnet to pin back the opposition and provide good service to our attacking players.
Mathieu Gorgelin: Gorgelin looks quite decent for this level, with good anticipation, positioning, handling, and reflexes.
Tactical ApproachWe have decent pace at the back, and Gorgelin looks quite with it, which makes me think I can get away with a high line and press. As a result, I'm going to try to use a possession-based system, though we'll see how incisive we are. Here's the system and first XI that I'm thinking of currently: I might replace this 4-3-3 with a 4-2-3-1 if we look stagnant, but we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to specify a tempo (particularly as we have several key players who can dictate it), but I'm going to start with a balanced mentality, short passing, and narrower width, to help keep the team connected and not too risky or risk-averse. I've used the combination of a W and a WB on the same flank before, and while it isn't a traditional overlapping pairing (like an IF and a WB), I've seen really good interplay between the wider WB and the W, who sits a little narrower and drives towards the area a bit more. Meanwhile, our RB will be more defensive-minded to help cover for the attacking CM and IF. I'm hoping we get some overloads on the left flank and in the right-sided channel. I'm not sold on those roles for the wide attacking midfielders, but we'll see how the play looks during preseason. The front 5 are told to roam from positions to help them find pockets for space and be available for a pass. That might be a little too advanced for this level, but I was impressed by the anticipation and off the ball of many of my first-choice attackers and midfielders. As I mentioned earlier, we'll use a high line and press high up the pitch. I've become fond of a two-block pressing system, where the front 4 or 5 (depending on the tactic) are more aggressive counter-pressers, and the more defensively-minded players keep their positions for the sake of stability. Again, we'll see how it goes; I'm not wedded to anything in particular. ProspectsWe have some promising prospects in our reserve and youth sides. I'll introduce some of these players as they become notable.
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Post by hokster on Jun 22, 2020 15:57:45 GMT
Club DNA and Training ApproachI thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce my approach to training, and provide an overview of how and why I set up schedules. I initially left this to my assistant, but training is something that I view as relatively essential to imbuing a club with a culture and a DNA, and it seemed a shame to miss out on this system (since I hadn't played FM19, it was new to me with FM20). Needless to say that everything below is my opinion, and seems to have been working out so far on my saves, but nothing is set in stone and good results can be obtained from other approaches. A lot of this is based on reading that I've done over at the SI forums, as well as my experience playing.I should note that while this save is focused on youth development, I don't tend to set the general youth training myself. The reason for this is that I then lose access to the youth squad within the development center. I don't know how much that matters, but I know there are some settings that only can be accessed within the development center, such as allowing the youth team to play with tactics other than those used by the first team. I get the impression from reading that in general, youth players can absorb more and more intense training, due to being younger and not playing as many matches (which is one reason why promoting all of your promising youths into the first team isn't necessarily recommended). The default youth schedules account for this. As you'll see, my senior schedules are pretty packed, and so it might not end up mattering all that much.I also found that the results I got from the assistant weren't ideal. Part of this is that the default schedules use a lot of rest sessions, which actually harm match sharpness and team cohesion quite a bit ("Greatly Reduced" and "Reduced") according to the training module. I also found that when I replaced a lot of the rest sessions with extra training sessions, my injuries weren't crazy, and could be managed by utilizing the automatic rest settings. I set players with > 90% fitness to double intensity, and players with < 60% fitness to half intensity, and my injuries are generally low once I get out of the preseason.DNA The first part of setting up training, in my opinion, is to identify the core principles that you want to guide your play, or what might be referred to as a club DNA. These principles should transcend any particular tactical formation or system. What are the core attributes that you want to see from your players, no matter what? In this save, I want to be flexible with my tactics, but I do want to play with some basic attributes. I like to watch attacking football, though I'm flexible as to whether or not it comes from fluid counterattacks or slick team build-up play. I should note that this means that I'm relatively agnostic on whether my team plays with a high-, mid-, or low-block, though I seem to get better results in FM when I play with a high line and press. If my tactical system changes, I'll modify my training schedules accordingly. However, this emphasis on incisive attacking play is something that I want to translate into my training schedules.I also like teams that, when in possession, build out from the back. In some cases (like with Southampton this year), that might mean playing more directly and counter-pressing when possession is lost, rather than slowly building up to keep control of the ball. But playing out from the back is something that I want my teams to do, even when we play more directly.We'll see the impact of the club DNA when I choose what sessions we use in a particular weekly schedule. Based on these principles, my schedules should emphasis passing, finishing, technique, anticipation, decisions, off the ball, teamwork, and vision. These are useful whether we play for possession or more directly. If we were going to play more directly, I'd want to make sure that we were training dribbling as well, and would modify my schedules accordingly (for example, replacing Attacking Patient with Attacking Direct). I also want to make sure that we don't neglect our defensive training, as we need to be good at marking and positioning to try to force bad passes and get interceptions, which are a safer way to regain possession than tackling. And we also need to make sure we keep the squad progressing (or at least maintaining) physically.PreseasonOne of the earliest things I read is the importance of an intense preseason. By pushing the squad to their limits and improving their natural fitness and stamina, you improve their ability to get through the season, as they're less likely to be jaded and will recover more easily from match to match. On the other hand, as preseason builds, players need to play matches, both to gain match sharpness and tactical familiarity. These are really the two key goals of preseason. My preseason therefore builds: we start off with intense physical training and no matches, then as we play more friendlies the physicality drops and we emphasis more tactical and general training work.
Preseason Early:
This schedule is all about breaking the players down to build them back up. I use it the first week or so of preseason, and we're really pushing the envelope in terms of physical training. The players should be really improving their work rate and all physical attributes, and there's a little bit of tactical and positional work in there as well. I always want to make sure I include some team bonding time to improve team cohesion. There's a chance of injury here, but it's early in preseason and there's time to get anyone who gets minorly injured back up to match speed before we get too deeply into the season. This is a really key session because all of that work means players are less likely to get jaded later on in the season. When I play with higher-reputation teams, I'll sometimes make this even more intense, but here, my physios and sports scientists aren't going to be that great, so I'm keeping things more moderate.
Preseason Middle:
This session I use for the next two to three weeks of preseason. These are weeks where we're only playing one friendly, so we can still get in a lot of physical work in the first half of the week, though instead of those extra physical sessions, we do a bit more positional group training. The second half of the week is devoted to tactical work and team cohesion, and we get in some more physical training as well. We're still giving the players a lot of physical work, way more than they'll get during the season, but we want to make sure we don't overload them with a match coming up and with them low on match sharpness. Their work rate is still being heavily developed, but we're really increasing the tactical familiarity at the same time.
Preseason Late:
This session I use for the remainder of preseason, where I schedule two friendlies a week to build to the start of the season. We're doing a little bit of physical work, and the players are getting some additionally from playing in matches, but otherwise, we're focusing on tactical familiarity and ensuring the players can use the matches to get match fit.
Regular Season
Here we spend less time on physical training, as the players need to be kept in match shape. I'm more interested in training for tactical familiarity and to develop mental and technical attributes.
Regular Season
Here we spend less time on physical training, as the players need to be kept in match shape. I'm more interested in training for tactical familiarity and to develop mental and technical attributes.
Periodization
These schedules also use some degree of periodization, which is something I've been learning about in the context of my own fitness training. In the context of sports, this means the following. First, broadly, you make sure that you train based on aspects of play. In a football match, we could divide this in a number of ways, but I use a set of three: attacking play, transition, defending. In real life, you might split these up for more specific training, but given the sessions we have to choose from in FM, I'm sticking with these (though maybe later on I'll get more specific, so we focus specifically on build-up play one week and finishing the other, as opposed to having them both lumped into attacking). We then rotate through these themes every three weeks, which keeps us advancing and progressing within each aspect of play. It should also reduce the chance of injuries (in real life, anyway), as we're not overloading our players by asking them to do the same thing over and over again.
Within a week, periodization means that every day is used for a particular reason, and everything is structured around the match day, which is both the most intense day of the week and the day in which we need performance to be at its highest. In Ligue 2, that seems to be Friday, while it's usually Saturday or Sunday in most leagues. You'd just adapt these principles accordingly as the weekly schedule changes. I'm going to refer to other days of the week as MD + or - some days to refer to the distance from the match day. So MD+1 is the day after a match day, while MD-3 is three days before a match day. The basic idea is summarized in the image below, from the previously-linked article:
MD+1 is for recovery to allow the body to be prepared for the next week. On this day (Friday in the below schedules), I always use a recovery session (which is far better for players than a rest, as match sharpness and team cohesion are less impacted and injury risk goes down substantially), as well as a match review (to help with tactical familiarity) and a team bonding session. On MD+2, we start training. This should still be a light recovery day, but we start thinking about tactical principles. We can think about this as being the day where we establish what we want to work on for the upcoming week.
MD-4 is a day focused on principles of strength, or aspects of play related to physical and mental toughness. These might include tackling, finishing, or heading. MD-3 is focused on principles of stamina, or aspects of play related to concentration and focus, such as passing, off the ball movement, or positioning. We also want to work on our key themes of the week on this day. MD-2 is focused on speedier, or more quick-twitch, themes, such as decision-making, marking, and technique. Obviously this isn't as clean as it might be in real life due to how the training sessions are constructed, but that's the core idea. All of these days will feature moderate-to-high intensity, but nothing should come close to match day. Finally, MD-1 is a match prep day. I'll swap out some of these sessions depending on what is needed for an upcoming match, such as changing attacking movement to defensive shape if we're going up against a tough opponent.
Schedules
As I mentioned, I have four of these which focus on specific match themes. I also have a fifth, which is used when we have multiple key matches in a week. Here the emphasis is more on match preparation and recovery, rather than training, as these weeks are quite intense.
Attacking:
Here we hit the aspects of our club DNA that are relevant to attacking. The attributes that are primarily trained are heading, passing, technique, finishing, anticipation, composure, decisions, off the ball, teamwork, and vision. We also work on attacking set pieces and improve our tactical familiarity.
Modifications that might be made here based on tactical style include replacing attacking patient with attacking direct (for a more direct tactical approach) or replacing attacking overlap with something else when overlapping is a part of the style. The goalkeepers have a little more intensity on MD+2 than would be ideal as they work on saving penalties, but that was the only place I could put that session.
Transition:
Here we focus on aspects of play related to both transitions: from attack to defend, and vice versa. This includes goalkeepers working on their distribution (transition to attack) and one-on-ones (transition to defend). We also double up on transition-press and play from the back sessions as these are key transition themes. I view defending from the front as a transition session as this is a key component of counter-pressing. I include set piece delivery here as well for no good reason other than I had an extra slot. Key attributes worked on in this schedule are first touch (for the defense), passing, tackling (for attackers), anticipation, concentration, decisions, and teamwork.
Defending:
These sessions are focused on stopping the ball from going into the goal, so they include goalkeepers working on handling and shot stopping as well as defensive set pieces. I also violate a periodization principle on Sunday, which should be more of a recovery day, as I want to get in some physical training during this three-week block. Key attributes trained here are heading (for defenders), handling, marking, tackling, technique, anticipation (for defenders), concentration (for defenders), and positioning. Goalkeepers also get a lot of agility and balance work.
Two Matches:
This schedule is for those weeks when there are two matches, so it's hard to get in any intensive training without really putting your players at risk of injury. Days before and after matches are light and focused on teamwork and tactics (I'll swap the attacking/defending and associated match prep sessions depending on who we're playing and what's needed). We do get in a little physical work after the second match. The players get a fair amount of physical training from the matches and the physical session.
And there you have it! I'm happy to answer any questions, and please share feedback on the concepts and schedules if you have any!
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Post by Nick on Jun 23, 2020 20:16:18 GMT
Loads to process there, hokster. I wasn't familiar with the term 'periodisation' when it comes to training, but our approaches are fairly similar, albeit mine are a little less intensive during the season. I generally split my schedules into three and rotate them. I have attacking, defending and technical. Like you mention, I would like to split them up further, but then going four weeks between each schedule feels like too much, especially if you're playing twice a week and actual training time is more limited. My match preparation in days -1 and +1 always remain the same throughout the season. Home games: Away games: Attacking movement will change to defensive shape depending on who I face, but you get the idea. One thing I have noticed with my Velez save, in terms of youth coaching, is that their development slowed down hugely when they hit 18. This was tough because it was an under 20's team and I never really got round it because sending them to the reserve squad would have limited numbers in the youth team.
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Post by hokster on Jun 23, 2020 21:26:04 GMT
Loads to process there, hokster. I wasn't familiar with the term 'periodisation' when it comes to training, but our approaches are fairly similar, albeit mine are a little less intensive during the season. I generally split my schedules into three and rotate them. I have attacking, defending and technical. Like you mention, I would like to split them up further, but then going four weeks between each schedule feels like too much, especially if you're playing twice a week and actual training time is more limited. My match preparation in days -1 and +1 always remain the same throughout the season. Attacking movement will change to defensive shape depending on who I face, but you get the idea. I haven't played with the schedules yet, but I wonder if it would make sense to work on more limited concepts when playing twice a week, since there are so few available slots with the need for match previews and recoveries. So for example, that's when we could go with more specialized schedules, where we focus specifically on e.g. build-up play (either attacking direct and ball distribution or play from the back and attacking patient, something like that) or finishing (chance creation and chance conversion, say). Then there are fewer sessions needed to still get across a certain set of concepts (or train a certain set of attributes, in FM terms). This is obviously not FM, but I was reading how Rangers periodizes their training, and they use that type of 6-week cycle: build-up play, finishing, defensive transitions, setting traps (not entirely sure what that means in the FM training context), final-third defending, and attacking transitions. I bet in each of those, there are no more than 3 or 4 related training sessions, which would fit within the context of a two-match week. It's a while between concepts, but training is a marathon, not a sprint. I think I'll play with that, and if it works, I can put up some schedules in the training thread. At the very least, so far I've rarely had issues with training (other than the standard players whining because they want more or less of some type of physical training) and I rarely get poor performances (other than from players who are returning from injury). I tend to see a lot of development from players who are getting enough match time. Some SI staff over at the official forums were saying that once a youth player hits 18, training is less important than match time (something to the extent that match time/performance dictates how much a player will improve, and training allocates the CA increase across the trained attributes). It seems like loaning them out is essential at that point if they aren't good enough to get into your first team for at least cup matches or league matches against weaker sides, and it's less important that the team you're loaning them out to has good facilities so long as they're getting match time at the appropriate level for their development. If your reserve team plays in a real league, then that works as well.
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Post by hokster on Jun 24, 2020 11:19:40 GMT
2019/2020 Mid-Season Review My goals at the start of this season were to gain familiarity with my squad, and finish the season in a promotion playoffs spot (3-5). With regard to gaining familiarity...I'm not quite there yet, especially not for the youth players. Part of the problem is that it's difficult to identify who would be able to contribute if we get promoted, which is essential for the players who are still developing. But the picture is gradually becoming clearer. I'm hoping to send a lot of prospects on loan for the remainder of the season, which will help show how they perform in matches that matter. Overall, I've been pleased with how the team has performed with our 4-5-1, though I've had to modify it a bit. We're doing a great job dominating possession and generating shots and CCCs, but we just aren't finishing them. Tino Kadewere has been particularly frustrating: I thought he would be a key player this season due to his well-rounded attributes, and he's getting into good positions and has gotten 60% of his 63 shots on target, but only scored 4 (one of which was a penalty). I've tweaked things to make us a little bit more direct (we're not explicitly playing out from the back, and I've opted for early crosses instead of working the ball into the box), and we're still playing well, but we're just missing that cutting edge. The players are getting into the right positions, though, so it's hard to fault the tactical approach. Hopefully as the season goes on we'll settle in a bit. This seems to happen with strikers in my systems all the time: at first, they snatch at chances and can't finish, but eventually something clicks and they go on a tear, so I'm holding out hope that we can put a few more in as the season goes on. It's happened in every save I've had this version, no matter where I play or with what team. Ligue 2The board wanted a top-half finish, but as were predicted to finish 5th by the media, I saw no reason that we couldn't make the playoffs. We also had good quality scattered around the pitch. Table Fixtures
We're doing better than I thought we would, as we've been hovering around first from close to the start of the season. We're in the playoff places, but it's really more of a title race, with Lens and Niort providing stiff competition. Our loss at Auxerre was deserved, as we were solidly outplayed. Otherwise, we've either played well and won convincingly or outplayed the other team and lacked finishing leading to a narrow win, a narrow loss, or a draw. We're either going to have to become more incisive or hope that promotion doesn't come down to goal difference. But at least nobody's looked like they were a cut above us aside from Auxerre, who clearly haven't been aside from that one match. Coupe de la LigueFixtures
The board's expectation was that we reach the Second Round, but we've ridden our luck and a solid defensive structure to the quarterfinals. Our first round match against Nancy wasn't as close as the score makes it seem, as we were up 2-0 after 12 minutes, dominated position, and outshot them, but they pulled one back very late in the match. The same is true against Ajaccio in the Second Round: we limited them to 4 shots and no CCCs and had 70% possession, but just weren't incisive. Then we started getting drawn against Ligue 1 sides, and I expected us to be outplayed, even if we were able to pull out some results. However, we had 67% possession against Amiens (who admittedly are relegation candidates, and so shouldn't be too much better than us) and outshot them 16-7, with 8-3 on target. Continuing a theme, we struggled to turn those shots into goals, as it took until the 83rd minute for Alexandre Bonnet to get the breakthrough with a nice dribble through the Amiens defense and finish. In the Fourth Round, Strasbourg started the match off well, and I thought we would be overwhelmed, but we settled into the match nicely, and once again dominated possession (58%-42%) and outshot them (17-12, with a margin of 10-4 on target). But again, we just couldn't finish effectively, and I was settling in for penalties (there's no extra time, fortunately). However, we got a bit lucky when we got a penalty in the 2nd minute of extra time after a shove during a free kick. Tino Kadewere buried it, and off we went to the quarterfinal, where we'll play Lorient. In principle, we have a good shot at advancing further, having drawn another Ligue 2 team. The draw was kind to us, as Marseille drew Saint-Etienne and Montpelier drew Lille, so that's two Ligue 1 sides that are definitely getting knocked out prior to the semis. Orleans is the other Ligue 2 side still in the draw, and they have Toulouse, who are 17th in Ligue 1, so either way, the draw could be favorable. I obviously wouldn't rate us against OM, but Saint-Etienne and Toulouse are both struggling, and we've beaten Orleans in the league. Coupe de FranceFixtures
The board expects us to get the Tenth Round, but that's still a bit away. We once again struggled to finish in a match we dominated against Pontarlier (a National 3 team, who we out-possessed 67%-33% and outshot 20-1, with 16 of our shots on target), requiring an 81st minute goal from distance via Victor Lekhal, who had just returned from his cruciate ligament injury. We did a little better against Caen, though it still took us until the 62nd minute for Bonnet to get the breakthrough. Once again, we were defensively stout, holding Caen to 4 shots on goal, with only 1 on target. In the Ninth Round, we've drawn Rouen, who we should beat, though they're currently fighting for promotion to Ligue 2. Transfer Window PreviewI don't have a ton of money (once I cover the extra payroll from re-signing players whose contracts were about to expire, I have 1.3M to spend), but I don't think we need to upgrade dramatically. We definitely need more cover at leftback and centerback, so I'll be looking to bring some players in, if only on loan. We have a few promising prospects at those positions, but they aren't ready for the first team. Loans with a future fee would be ideal so I can re-evaluate based on whether we earn promotion or not, but we'll see if we can get those at a reasonable valuation. Otherwise, we're clicking pretty well in midfield, and I think Kadewere will come good. Facilities and FinanceWe only have about 6M in the bank (and have lost 2M so far this season, though we don't get any Coupe de la Ligue money until we win the whole thing or lose), so I didn't want to push for any facility upgrades. I did get the board to agree to recruitment and junior coaching upgrades (both are now "good"), which will hopefully pay off immediately for our intakes. Once we get promoted, I'll feel better about asking for facility upgrades, as we should get a decent amount of TV money and a sponsorship boost. Intake PreviewI should be cynical of the "golden generation" comments, but they're still the best of all possible previews, so I'm going to embrace my inner Dr. Pangloss until March. It sounds like we could have decent prospects around the pitch, aside from central midfield, which is honestly where we need them the least. We also don't really need more keeper prospects, as we have 3 4/5* PA prospects in the pipeline. I don't like the pairing of "healthy number of new fullbacks" with "the full-backs coming up are not the best," but we'll see how it turns out.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 24, 2020 18:19:21 GMT
Wow wow wow Hok, truly amazing approach to the game. I wasn't familiar with the periodisation term in regards to tactical approach and training, super interesting mate. This changes a bit on how I see training as we discussed on the training schedules thread my approach is much more divided on matches and specific training sessions rather than rotating the whole session on a weekly basis and doing a much more global approach. I haven't done anything with training so far on my save but will start to think about it and implement something along your lines for the second season. Good progress so far on the pitch as well, terrific performance on the Cups and on the League mate. I'll be rooting for your promotion.
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Post by hokster on Jun 25, 2020 13:00:19 GMT
2020 Youth Intake Not too shabby! These ratings will likely be readjusted if we get promoted, but there's obviously good room for a lot of these players to grow. Here are the top prospects: Yann Lelievre: I'm not a huge fan of one-footed strikers, and he's a bit short, but he's quick and has some good flair. His composure and dribbling are huge weakspots, though. Nakibou Ali: Those physicals might limit him, and his marking and heading are a bit rough to start with. I'm not sure what to make of sporting/fairly sporting personalities. Manuel Lesueur: Lowish determination and flair, but otherwise he has no real weaknesses to start with other than heading. Unless his personality gets in the way, he's got a lot of promise. Andy Mondoloni: Awesome mentals and decent technicals for a supporting midfielder. We'll need to get that anticipation and passing up, and do whatever we can with his physicals. Romuald Petit: He's awfully slow and completely useless in build-up play, but he might be able to do a job given he has extremely good mentals and decent defensive technical skills. Rodolphe Langlois: 6'2" and 154 lb? He must be a twig. I like the look of him as a supporting striker, though he's never going to be good at holding up the ball. Maybe a false 9 after some work on passing and decision-making?
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Post by hokster on Jun 26, 2020 18:38:32 GMT
2019/20 Season ReviewMy first season at Le Havre has wrapped up. At midseason, we were in a tight race for the title with Lens and Niort, and while we had a bit of a gap from the bottom of the playoff pile, everything was to play for. We were also still active in both cups. How did everything unfold? Ligue 2
Table Fixtures (Second Half)
We pulled away from the rest of the pack in February and March and never looked back. We were convincing in most of those matches, though once again we struggled to score enough to reflect our dominance. Occasionally we needed a late goal to win, but I don't think any of our victories were unfair reflections of the matches. Next season is a very different challenge, as we'll need some careful management to make sure we stay up in Ligue 1. Coupe de la LigueFixtures
After a tense win over Lorient in the quarterfinal, we drew Lille, who were at the time 4th in Ligue 1 (they finished 3rd). I didn't rate our chances too highly, even at home, but in the fifth minute, we drew a penalty and Tino Kadewere put us up 1-0. Kadewere had been quite wasteful in front of goal during our season to this point, with only 3 non-penalty goals, but he latched onto a nice through ball and scored two minutes later for 2-0. Lille pulled one back off of a set piece right before halftime, and I was sure I could see where this was going. However, Alexandre Bonnet restored the lead right after halftime after cutting in from the left wing and dribbling past a few Lille players, and Kadewere completed his hat trick in the 58th minute with a well-placed header. Lille made it 4-2 after a penalty in the 62th minute, but that was that. We dominated possession and generated a lot of chances, though we were outshot, but we did force Lille to take a lot of those shots from well outside the area. We got an additional boost of luck when Toulouse beat Marseille 1-0 in the other semifinal, as they'd been struggling to avoid the relegation zone all season (and in fact, did end up losing the relegation playoff to Guingamp). However, we just didn't come out with any energy , and only mustered 6 shots. Toulouse scored the only goal they would need before halftime, and we finished as runners-up in the final Coupe de la Ligue. I can't be too mad, though: while Europa League revenue would have been nice, I don't think it would be beneficial for our chances of staying up in Ligue 1. We'll see how Toulouse balances Ligue 2 with the EL. Coupe de FranceFixtures
This went in the opposite direction. We had the Ninth Round match against Rouen right before the Coupe de la Ligue quarterfinal, and I rotated heavily. We lost on penalties. I still stand by my decision. Team Stats
Kadewere had a much improved second half of the season, scoring 10 goals compared to 4 in the first half, though many of those still came from penalties. This is one reason I think we won't be too worse off once he goes back to Lyon, but I do need to find someone to contribute more effectively up top. The player of the season was definitely Jean-Pascal Fontaine, who scored 9 goals and added 12 assists from midfield. He also created 23 chances and tackled extremely well as part of our press. And Himad Abdelli put in some excellent performances as well, while also developing very nicely. He'll take over for Fontaine once Fontaine starts to decline. Outlook for Next SeasonThe win over Lille gives me optimism that we can stay up next season, but I need to carefully use our resources to reinforce and upgrade the squad. I only have about 6M to spend at this point. We're also currently 2M in the hole, though we have training and youth facility upgrades coming. I'm not too worried about that, as we should get good TV money and some new, higher sponsorship deals as a result of promotion. I don't have any real ambition next season to do anything but avoid relegation. I'll need to think about tactics as well. The board now wants me to play possession, defensively-sound football, and I at least got them to drop the defensively-sound part, because who knows what's going to happen when we play teams like PSG and OM. I still want our identity to revolve around possession, but it's going to take some thought to develop a tactic that still gives us a fighting chance to nick points from the top teams. And of course, managing morale is a different story when you're fighting against relegation than when you're cruising to the top of the second tier.
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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 10:13:56 GMT
Super season Hok. I don't think I've ever seen a more efficient team than that. You only scored more than twice in the Auxerre game, but you didn't concede more than once in that entire period. A nice run to the cup final too. The win against Lille showing you can mix it with the Ligue Un teams next season. I had a save as Le Havre a few years ago now, When Riyad Mahrez was there, and Fontaine and Bonnet were there then, it's weird seeing them still there with you now.
Ligue Un will be tough, but there are loads of players in France, even at the mid/lower teams that will do a job for you over the coming years. Plenty of young players too.
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Post by hokster on Jul 2, 2020 2:37:03 GMT
2020/2021 Mid-Season Review Our first half-season in Ligue 1 has been eventful, to say the least. First, I needed to evaluate the squad and figure out where we needed upgrades in order to compete and avoid relegation. Then there was the issue of actually playing the games. When the schedule was released, this half-season featured away trips to PSG, Lyon, Monaco, and OM, making it a bit of a trial by fire.
TransfersThis was a bit of a crapshoot, and I definitely ended up overpaying for the players that I bought from other French clubs, particularly as they were from other Ligue 1 clubs (nobody in Ligue 2 wanted to sell me anyone who seemed like they were cut out for Ligue 1 at a reasonable value). I identified a need for more depth at centerback and at striker, and we needed more quality on the wings, as I never found a good solution on the right last season, and Alexandre Bonnet is finally in decline. At centerback, Leo Xavier was on loan at Le Havre last season, and became a regular at centerback, so I wanted to bring him in at what seemed like a reasonable price given his additional room to grow. I also took a flyer on Issiar Drame, who has the looks of a very promising ball-playing defender down the road. I haven't needed to use Drame much yet, so I'll look for him to go out on loan in the January window. On the other hand, with the Coupe de France starting, I might want him around. We'll see.
On the wings, Mehdi Merghem was a bit of an overpay, but I think I'll be able to get my money back down the road if he can't settle in properly and perform. Gennaro Tutino came to us from Napoli on a loan with a 2.2M future fee, which might prove to be good value. As with Merghem, we'll see how he performs for the rest of the season.
Finally, at striker, we spent last season entirely dependent on Tino Kadewere, who was here on loan with no future fee. When I tried to use my other strikers, they were underwhelming at best, which is why I stuck with Kadewere even when he wasn't performing well. We needed an upgrade here to have a chance. Fernando Cardozo came up in a scouting meeting, and seemed worth a shot at 500k (thank goodness for the increase in non-EU spots from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1). I also brought in Yanis Ammour on a loan (without a future fee) to provide additional cover there and on the left flank. I had tried to sign Eddy Outtara from Lille earlier in the window, but they insisted on a 4M valuation for him. When I walked away from that, he became unsettled, and ended up choosing us over OM and Saint-Etienne. The price is a little high, but he has a lot of potential. He then wanted to be loaned out as part of the contract negotiations, which I figured would be fine, and he's been performing well at Orleans.I also signed two cheap Brazilian youngsters who will join us on January 1: Julio and Magrao. I only have one more non-EU slot, but one of those is being occupied by a marginal player in the 2nd team whose contract will expire this year, so I don't mind that. Julio is closer to the first team and has 4/5* potential, while Magrao will need a little more time and has 3.5/4.5* potential. I think I'll loan Julio out to give him that extra bit of development, as he could feature in the first team next season, and spend the rest of the season molding Magrao in the U19s before sending him on loan next season.Ligue 1As I mentioned in the introduction, this season has been...a trip.Table | FixturesWe've ridden our defensive solidity from last season straight into this season, which has let us crank out some results against teams. We had only conceded 8 goals until we played PSG away, who almost doubled that. We've also been a lot more dynamic in attack, though that hasn't always turned into goals...just like last season. But we outplayed Lille (again) and Montpelier, and smashed-and-grabbed the win over OM. We also should have won all three of those draws in October, but either let 1-0 leads slip away late or couldn't take our chances. We've basically taken care of business at home and done enough away to put ourselves in contention for a top-half finish, rather than the expected relegation playoff spot. While we're in a European place right now, I don't anticipate staying there, as we still have to play a lot of teams that could and maybe should beat us away, and have to play pretty much all of the big sides at home. Still, though, we're pretty close to being completely clear of any chance of relegation, and that was always my goal. Finishing higher is more of a bonus for reputation and prize money than anything else. Youth Intake PreviewHard to complain about this, though I still don't know how accurate any of it is in any given year. Healthy number of fullbacks, none of whom are good prospects? One promising winger among a lot of wingers? I guess we might also get some decent centerback prospects, since nothing bad was said about that position, but who knows.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 2, 2020 4:24:20 GMT
Terrific work so far Hok, I surely didn't expect that great performance in Ligue 1 given your description haha. Tough luck against PSG, hopefully you manage to hold them on the second half of the season. How's the prize money looking and your particular financial situation?
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Post by Nick on Jul 2, 2020 10:13:28 GMT
PSG doing what they do against what was the best defence in the league. It's an unbelievable start hokster and that defensive record is pretty stunning for anyone, let alone a newly promoted team. You've all but ensured safety so you can relax in the second half of the season. Even if you fall away badly, the other teams won't do well enough to see you go down.
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Post by hokster on Jul 2, 2020 10:36:51 GMT
Terrific work so far Hok, I surely didn't expect that great performance in Ligue 1 given your description haha. Tough luck against PSG, hopefully you manage to hold them on the second half of the season. How's the prize money looking and your particular financial situation? We're about 4.5M in the hole, which isn't great, but hopefully I can unload some players in January to shed some payroll and claw a little bit of that back. I'm still within the board's budget, so we'll see. We're still only at "okay" finances, rather than "insecure," so something is happening under the hood that says that this is fine. At the least, we haven't yet sold out a match, though we're averaging 89% of capacity (though that only really leaves us with about 2000 additional seats to fill). In terms of prize money, if we were to finish in 6th (which I'm not optimistic about), we'd get 8.3M. By the time we go to 10th, that falls away to 4.7M. The dropoff is a little more gentle after that; finishing in 16th (just out of the relegation playoff) is 2M. Hopefully sponsorships are where things would pick up, though our shortest ongoing deal is in year 1 of 2, so I don't think we'd get much else next season. We do get about 8M in TV money. So it might be that we can ride out this season and stay in the black overall, and I just won't be able to upgrade the squad too much next summer. PSG doing what they do against what was the best defence in the league. It's an unbelievable start hokster and that defensive record is pretty stunning for anyone, let alone a newly promoted team. You've all but ensured safety so you can relax in the second half of the season. Even if you fall away badly, the other teams won't do well enough to see you go down. It certainly doesn't help that PSG has, so far this save, added David Neres (56M -> 70M), Kristoffer Ajer (24.5M), David Silva (Free), Icardi (60M), N'Golo Kante (111M), and Benzema (11M -> 14M). They balanced the books enough last season by selling Pablo Sarabia, Presnel Kimbempe, and Idrissa Gueye for a total of 73M, but so far this season their sales are 8.25M to 220M spent. Of course, their sponsorship is 399M (last season it was 249M, so sponsorships can grow for at least one class of club), while Lyon's is second at 37M. Just shows how hard it's going to be for us to win the league, especially relying on the academy first and foremost. In terms of the defense, it's actually quite something how that's emerged. I didn't conceive of our approach as a defensive-first tactic, but it's worked out splendidly given how well our centerbacks and keeper have played (the fullbacks are a bit more up and down). We're second in Ligue 1 in possession (57% to Dijon's 58%), first in completed passes, and could be scoring for fun against anyone who's not in the top 4 if only we could improve our finishing (we're converting 10% of our shots, which is still 7th in the league). But we've also been good about not fouling (we're 5th from the bottom in fouls conceded) and are 5th in tackling at 86%; we just haven't needed to be in those positions often because we've had the ball so much, which was a goal. And we've certainly been bailed out at times by some fine keeping by Yahia Fofana, who's saved 88% of the shots he's faced and also been key in recycling the ball.
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 2, 2020 11:52:59 GMT
Excellent first half of the season there, Hok. Made even more impressive with it being your first season in the league. I'm always really shaky when it comes to adapting to life in a tougher league after promotion, it's just never something I seem to be able to get to grips with, so kudos.
Some good business on transfers, even if some were a little pricey by your own admission. I really like the look of Cardozo, how is he performing for you so far?
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Post by hokster on Jul 2, 2020 11:59:35 GMT
Some good business on transfers, even if some were a little pricey by your own admission. I really like the look of Cardozo, how is he performing for you so far? Not very well, which I'm hoping he'll play his way out of. He's gotten 59% of his 32 shots on target, which isn't bad, but only scored twice (and once in the league). Part of this is that I'm playing him as a DLF, but he's also only created 4 chances (and only gotten 4 assists, two of which came in our last match against Rennes). He gets into good positions for build-up and has been recycling the ball well (88% passing completion) and winning the ball back in the press (86% tackling rate), but I feel like he should be scoring more and a bit more creative given his attributes. We'll see how things develop as the attacking unit has more time to gel, since all three of them were new this season. Otherwise, I might have to give him some PPMs (I'm definitely thinking about Plays One-Twos to get him to make more runs after he gets the ball and makes that initial pass, and if his composure goes up I'll try Places Shots) and hope that helps.
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Post by hokster on Jul 2, 2020 19:48:01 GMT
2021 Youth Intake
It's funny how we were just talking about how many Unambitious personalities there are among regens, and here, out of 7 nominally bad personalities, 5 are unambitious. Aside from that, though, this is a very promising intake on paper. I'm only really bullish on two players, but the other top prospects certainly have room to develop, so we'll have to see. The cream of the crop: Michel Ochieng: One of the best parts of French intakes is the sheer number of second nationalities (thanks, colonialism!). Ochieng is a French-Maorais dual national who is a very promising left winger. He's got all the right attributes to develop into a solid W-S or IF-S (thanks to his either-footedness), so long as we can get his quickness and stamina up. Definitely a star in the making if we can hold onto him, as Ambition cuts two ways. Antonin Arnaud: He's got a great base in everything technical I'd want for a supporting midfielder who isn't expected to run with the ball, and he might develop there nicely as well. He's also got a great set of mentals for a 15-year old. He's going to become a steady, reliable ball-recycler and winner in midfield, and might become an excellent BBM if we can make him a better ball-progresser. The main emphasis point is his physicals, but they aren't all that bad, either. The rest of the best: Habib Tizie: The French-Ivorian keeper looks quite good on paper. It's just going to be a matter of mentoring his Ambition up. I do have a Resolute keeper as my backup, but he's a bit unsettled at the moment, I wanted to sell him as his wages are too high, and he's low in the squad hierarchy. So I might look to see if I can find a backup with a good personality to mentor him. Amadou Dembele: I was all set to be excited about this French-Malian winger: either-footed, horrible near the net but pretty good away from it...and then I saw his Off the Ball of 3. Yikes. Stanley Avinel: This French-Guadaloupean centerback might develop or he might not. His technical base is just ok, as is his positioning, and his Unambitious personality won't help. This time I might have a decent mentor for him. Corentin Youssefi: If he's going to be a winger, he has to lose that PPM. And not only is he Unambitious, but his determination is 3. So I have my doubts that he'll develop well, but his base is pretty good.[/div]
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 2, 2020 20:02:48 GMT
That is a very, very promising intake Hok. I'm incredibly jealous!
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Post by chaodck on Jul 2, 2020 20:20:53 GMT
As Dale says, terrific intake mate really like the looks of Ochieng and Arnaud, they should become senior squad players before they turn 18.
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Post by Nick on Jul 2, 2020 20:33:44 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing how PSG ruin both Ochieng and Arnaud. In all seriousness, that's a really promising intake, one you'd expect of a team like Le Havre.
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Post by hokster on Jul 2, 2020 20:36:10 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing how PSG ruin both Ochieng and Arnaud. In all seriousness, that's a really promising intake, one you'd expect of a team like Le Havre. I learned my lesson from my Newell's save: they've both been locked down on professional contracts already. I've been getting offers from various clubs (not PSG) for two of my players from last season, and they might not even wait that long for those two.
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Post by jawzy on Jul 3, 2020 11:46:51 GMT
in any save i have seen in France Bordeuax always end up relegation battles.
Nice to see Harve in the top half though
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Post by hokster on Jul 3, 2020 19:25:58 GMT
2020/2021 Season ReviewAt midseason, we were riding high, from preseason relegation favorites to fifth place. My expectations were that we would slip, in no small part due to the structure of the schedule: in the first half, we played Monaco, Lyon, Nice, OM, and PSG away, and so we would have to face those big clubs at home in addition to playing away to some teams we had beaten at home. We also had to contend with a little more fixture congestion, with the Coupe de France starting in kJanuary. Fortunately, by accumulating 35 points, we had all but ensured we would be clear of relegation (the mark is usually around 40 points for safety). Ligue 1Table | Fixtures (second half)We didn't get quite as many points as in the first half, but only ended up with 3 fewer, which surprised me a bit. We managed a lot of draws, and while our goals against suffered a bit (if we ignore just how many goals PSG scored against us in Paris compared to in Le Havre), we did also score one more goal as well. Qualifying for the EL vs. the ECL came down to the final match day, despite having at one point a 7 point lead over OM. After our loss to PSG (on Kylian Mbappe's, uh, 46th goal of the season), Marseille was only 2 points behind, and took an early lead against Saint-Etienne. Meanwhile, we fell down 2-0 against Niort by the 57th minute despite dominating them, and things didn't look good. Then Mehdi Merghem put in a direct free kicks from just outside the area in the 85th minute, and talisman (and new club icon) Jean-Pascal Fontaine scored two minutes later with a curling ball from 25 feet away into the top corner, getting us the Europa League group spot on goal difference.
I think our slightly lackluster form during the run-in was the result of fatigue, as I hadn't been thrilled with many of my rotation options and tended to use the same XI. Obviously, with European football on deck, I'm going to need to strengthen all over to give my players some rest. In addition to European football next year, the 9.56M in prize money was welcome as we start off the offseason a few million in the black. I have 6.8M to spend on transfers, and a spare 120k or so in wages, so we'll see what I can do. I'm a little nervous about blowing up my wage structure, though. How do you all generally handle that transition? My wage structure has been creeping up steadily, but if I want to permanently sign, say, Gennaro Tutino, I'd have to pay him almost twice what I'm paying anyone else.Coupe de FranceFixtures
Meh. I can't even blame rotation for that loss to Red Star, the squad just looked uninterested and poor. Not a good showing. PSG ended up winning this as well.Finances
As I mentioned above, we're close to 3M in the black for the time being, which will only improve as we get our Ligue 1 and EL TV money and EL group money. My transfer kitty is a little low for how much improvement we're going to need to be competitive in the league while also playing in Europe (where my ambitions are just to put on a good showing). At least the board only wants me to avoid relegation again, but I want to build on this season and finish mid-table or top-half. That's obviously the priority over the EL, where I'm sure we'll get a horrible draw due to our assuredly fourth seed, but the reputation boost will be welcome for attracting players and increased sponsorships.Squad OverviewOne player that I did bring in during the January window was Monegasque national Florian Antognelli from, where else, Monaco, for 87k. I think he'll be a serviceable backup/option at holding midfield for now.StatsFernando Cardozo finally got firing towards the end of the season, so hopefully that carries over into next year. Otherwise, our midfield core was still excellent, with Fontaine putting in another stellar season. Leo Xavier was as good as I could have hoped. And I'd like to sign Tutino permanently, though he'd blow up our wage structure and cost me a third of my transfer budget. But it'd be good value still, as he worked really well as the focal point of our attack. I just need to decide if the potential wage pressure from others wanting better deals would be worth it.
On the other hand, I'm very disappointed in Merghem's output, and have to hope that he does better next year. Otherwise, he'll be off, as his wages are too high for someone who isn't contributing much to the team. In terms of awards, we did well! Pape Gueye won the Young Player of the Year award in Ligue 1. And Yahia Fofana was a finalist for Goalkeeper of the Year, though Keylor Navas won that. Around the WorldArsenal won the Champions League (lol!), beating Liverpool 2-1 in extra time. They also won the Premier League (double lol!) by 3 points over Liverpool. Liverpool, howeer, won the FA Cup in extra time over Chelsea on a dramatic 119th minute goal by Salah. City and Chelsea qualified for the CL, as did United due to Arsenal's CL win. Spurs and West Ham are in the EL, and I've been linked to the Spurs job after they sacked Mancini.In Germany, Bayern nipped Bayer Leverkusen to the title by a point thanks to a 1-0 final day victory over Wolfsburg. And in Spain, Barcelona was 8 points clear over Real, who were themselves 9 points clear of Atletico, so La Liga is as competitive as ever. Napoli cruised to a Serie A title by 6 points over Juventus.San Lorenzo cruised to a Superliga title in Argentina, and Vasco da Gama won the 2020 Brasileiro.
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Post by hokster on Jul 5, 2020 12:14:26 GMT
PSG is just wilding out now:
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Post by Nick on Jul 5, 2020 17:34:56 GMT
Sorry hok, I somehow missed this when you posted it. That's a brilliant first season and defensively you were insane. You got any tips?! It'd be nice to go out and get Mane and Van Dijk in the same window wouldn't it? I don't think I've ever seen/noticed a Monegasque player on FM before so you've broken new ground with that one. He's the kind of player that I like to bring in, the kind that is just quite good at everything - well rounded. On a similar note, did you load any African leagues to poach players from?
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jla
New Member
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Post by jla on Jul 5, 2020 19:24:20 GMT
Those PSG transfers are absolutely insane. You're making consistent (and quick) progress though and it will make it all the sweeter when you beat them.
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Post by hokster on Jul 6, 2020 0:25:06 GMT
Sorry hok, I somehow missed this when you posted it. That's a brilliant first season and defensively you were insane. You got any tips?! It'd be nice to go out and get Mane and Van Dijk in the same window wouldn't it? I don't think I've ever seen/noticed a Monegasque player on FM before so you've broken new ground with that one. He's the kind of player that I like to bring in, the kind that is just quite good at everything - well rounded. On a similar note, did you load any African leagues to poach players from? I have no tips at all; I didn't set up my tactic to be defensive, and I don't think my defensive players were especially gifted, but it just kind of worked out. We're regressing to the mean so far this season despite no substantive changes to my setup and almost no changes in play, which I think reveals that our defensive record last season was more luck than skill. We were awesome in terms of retaining possession, which of course can help, and managed to not concede too much when our opponents were able to get a ball over the top. I do think we were set up to succeed offensively, and our defensive record masked the fact that we converted only a fraction of the chances we created. We have to do better at that this season given that we aren't being as successful defensively. The only team that has out-spent PSG so far is Real Madrid, who spent 244M on three players: 147M on Bernardo Silva, 49M on Laporte, and 47.5M on Alex Grimaldo. Their outgoing sales were 16.5M. It's just silly season. I agree, I don't think I've seen a Monegasque player before! Antognelli just popped up on one of my scouting reports, and has taken very well to my training regimen. He's decent technically in all the right places for a holding player and has extremely solid mentals. He's not awesome at any particular thing yet, but still has room to grow, and has been solid since day 1. I didn't load any African leagues; I don't have any custom dbs beyond the real competition names db. I do see some regens popping up from Ghana and Nigeria though.
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Post by hokster on Jul 6, 2020 0:27:58 GMT
Those PSG transfers are absolutely insane. You're making consistent (and quick) progress though and it will make it all the sweeter when you beat them. That's definitely a huge challenge of this save. We're far off it, but I can see us getting close to winning the CL before we beat them domestically (and maybe not even that, since they're throwing hundreds of millions at English and Spanish sides to poach their top players, which lets them reinforce). It definitely means that this save isn't going to get stale even if we rapidly ascend to CL status (which, again, we're not close to: it's going to be a struggle this season to qualify for Europe again, and Lyon is also an obstacle we haven't come close to overcoming. I'm excited about this though: we just need to keep developing our youth, signing the right players to complement them, and eventually I think we'll get over that hump. Maybe I should see if I can poach some of their youngsters and develop them myself.
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Post by hokster on Jul 7, 2020 2:01:13 GMT
2021/2022 Mid-Season ReviewI got caught up this (busy) offseason and forgot to put up a season preview, but the upshot is that the board still just wants us to avoid relegation, despite last season's European qualification. In the Europa League, the board wants us to be competitive, which I thought was very fair. TransfersAs I mentioned in my previous season review, my major goal this offseason was to give us additional depth at centerback and in attack as well as to increase our quality. I definitely gave us more depth, though the jury's still out on quality. At centerback, I brought in Lukas Muhl from Nurnberg, in the hopes that he would be a tidy recycler of the ball who was also proficient defensively. As a future prospect, I also brought in Lenny Lacroix from Metz. He's off at Auxerre on loan this season, which hopefully will help him reach his 4/5* potential. Giulian Biancone came in to upgrade our quality at rightback, which paid off when we received a decent bid for Woyo Coulibaly. And in attack, I brought in Lautaro Schichman from Colon de Santa Fe in Argentina and Bradley Barcola from Lyon.
TacticsMy tactics changed a bit for this season, though I'm keeping my base 4-5-1 formation. I thought that part of Fernando Cardozo's goalscoring struggles last season might have been due to his being extremely left-footed, so when he approached goal from the center and was forced to shoot with his right, it was a weak effort. Instead, I turned the RW role into an IF with a view towards playing him there, and put my LW as an IW. To provide more defensive support, I used an RPM-MEZ combination in midfield. However, this led to some very disjointed offensive performances, and so I reverted to the BBM-AP midfield pairing I had used previously, with Cardozo returning to ST (where he's been a bit better). I at least have the flexibility now to play players in different combinations up front depending on what I'm trying to achieve in a given match. Defensively, as you'll see, things have gone a bit south, or rather, they've regressed to expectations after last season's masterclass, which shows how much of that was down to luck. We've been particularly leaky late in halves and from quick shots outside the area. I don't totally know what to do about the former (some of it is complacency in matches where we're up 2-0, but we've given away a number of points by allowing a late equalizer), but I'm trying to keep us more compact in the hopes that that reduces the channel in front of the defensive line. Ligue 1Table | FixturesWe've been a lot more sloppy defensively (conceding a shocking number of goals given our position in the table), but we've scored enough to mostly make up for it. As I mentioned above, many of those 2-1 scorelines flatter the opposition, as we kept them out until the closing minutes of the second half. However, we put in a lot of uninspiring offensive performances until I switched tactics before the Brest match. And the win over PSG, their only loss so far, was a very pleasant surprise: we rode our luck a bit early before settling into the match after a 35th minute Mbappe goal, which was followed by two second half goals by Pape Gueye (a nice strike from outside the area) and Fernando Cardozo (a nice header off a corner). All in all, it's hard to complain, despite the match-to-match tactical and performance issues. We've been lucky that the league has been pretty tight outside of the top two: in October and November, only a few points separated fourth from 12th. This has meant that many of those draws have kept us on top of the pile, and with our recent win streak, we now have a bit of a cushion in the European places (top 3 go to the CL, 4th is guaranteed an EL group place, 5th gets an EL group place depending on the Coupe de France winner, and 5th/6th gets an ECL playoff place depending on the CdF winner). If we can keep things tighter defensively in the second half, I fancy our chances at a European place, but even if we stay top half, that'll match my ambition at the start of the season given the massive increase in fixtures. Europa LeagueGroup Table | Fixtures
We were drawn in a mid-difficult group of Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, and Viktoria Plzen. I figured Sociedad was the main challenge, and while we could probably match up well against Viktoria Plzen, we would need some good results against the Turks to have a chance of going through, or at least a respectable finish. The 2-0 home win over Galatasaray set us off on the right path, with goals from Jean-Pascal Fontaine (a nice finish from the edge of the area) and Cardozo (a nice placed ball after a one-two with Himad Abdelli. The 4-0 loss at Sociedad flattered the Basques a bit, but we were entirely uninspiring, only managing 5 shots, with only 2 on target, despite 58% possession. I was worried we were going to drop points at home against the Czechs, but Abdelli bailed us out with a very nice goal off an 86th minute counterattack. This, combined with Galata's struggles (they had drawn with Viktoria Plzen and lost to us and Sociedad) put us firmly in second place in the group. The 2-0 away win in Plzen (from a Schischman brace) secured us qualification, and we lost the remaining matches 1-0 with heavily rotated squads. I'm thrilled we made it through, and we have a tough matchup against RB Leipzig in the First Knockout Round. I don't fancy our chances, but at this point, anything is a bonus. Coupe de FranceNo matches yet, but we've drawn PSG away in the Ninth Round (the first one we enter), so lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Youth Intake PreviewLooks like it'll hopefully be another good crop. It's hard to complain about talented strikers, and if we end up with some decent fullback prospects, all the better. An up-and-coming DM would be fantastic as well. The rest of the youth prospects are coming along well. I'll do a youth system recap at the end of the season, as we have some prospects who are getting closer and closer to being ready for the first team.
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Post by hokster on Jul 9, 2020 19:23:13 GMT
2022 Youth Intake and Youth System ReportOur latest crop of incoming youth has arrived, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give an update on how some of our brightest academy members are progressing.Intake:Another good intake (though that was the point of choosing Le Havre). This is the first time I've seen this many different primary nationalities, and it's pretty exciting that our most promising prospect is a Thai/French dual! Hopefully he becomes a Thai international in the future, just to mix things up a bit. And out of the top few prospects, only one has a bad personality (my HoYD stated that he influenced the two Fairly Professionals, which is the first time I've seen him do that for a prospect with decent potential).Here are the top candidates:Thiranai Jairopru: Love. it. The only thing I could ask for is better finishing or for him to be better in the air, but he has great ball control and speed, can pass well, and has a really solid base for his mental attributes across the board. He could be a fantastic DLF/F9, especially if we get his teamwork up. He's also being touted as possibly the next Netipong Sritong-in.Nicolas Lemaitre: His personality is poo and he's a bit physically limited, but some of those other mentals and technicals are outstanding. We'll see how he develops with some tutoring, but if he comes good, he could provide a great combination/alternative to Jairopru as he's better in the air.Lassana Diallo: The French-Malian fullback looks like he could be an extremely reliable fullback. I'd want him to be quicker, obviously, but he's got a good base in all of the relevant attributes (his work rate and off the ball/positioning might be a little low, but we'll work on that). I'm very excited about his prospects, and at a position of great need.Lilian Martel: He looks like he'll be a solid DLP, which is a role which would disguise a bit how physically limited he is. I love that mental base for that type of player, and he won't be too shabby defending, either.Prospect UpdatesI thought I'd give an update on how some of our younger prospects are doing. The two most developed are Daylam Meddah, who's been at the club from the start, and Antonin Arnaud, who you might remember from last year's intake. Both are 4/5* PA prospects. Meddah's stalled a bit out on loan, though he's playing well, and I'm not really in love with his mentals, but he might be able to do a job in midfield for us. Arnaud, dubbed the next Luis Fernandez, is looking like he could be in the mix for a first team spot next season, though I think I'll send him out on loan for a bit more regular time. He should then be ready to fill in for Jean-Pascal Fontaine, who's getting up there. The two wingers from last season, Michel Ochieng and Amadou Dembele (both 4/5* PA), are both coming along nicely. Dembele, touted as the next Didier Six, has a big hurdle to overcome with his Off the Ball, but he's been responding well enough to an Attacking Movement individual emphasis and is consistently among the highest-rated in training. He's attracted a lot of interest from OM and Nantes. Ochieng's development has been a little more bumpy, but he's clearly going to come good. I've been fending off interest in him from Lyon. He might be ready for a loan next season. Several prospects from my first intake have been developing well. Andy Mondoloni (a 4/5* PA prospect, who, incidentally, is being touted as the next Michel Platini) is definitely ready for a loan to see if we can get some of those tekkers higher, but his mentals are rock solid at his age. Yann Lelievre was upset for a while when I wouldn't let him move to OM, but he's settled back down and signed a new contract. Nobody wanted him on loan this season, but I think that'll change next year. Kevin Robinet's development has been slow (he is a keeper, after all) but he's on track for proper development of his 3.5/4.5* PA. Leeds actually offered me close to 4M for him this last winter window. Mohamed Hamada looks like he'll become an extremely useful centerback soon, as does Romuald Petit (though they might force me to play with a deeper line, as neither is quick).
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Post by Nick on Jul 9, 2020 20:09:21 GMT
Some really good prospects there Hok, both this year and in terms of the previous recruits developing. From this year's intake, I actually think Martel is my favourite. You're right in saying how physically limited he is, but fortunately he's going to play in a role/position where that's secondary to pretty much everything else. Mentally he's very strong for someone of his age.
Arnaud and Mondolini are both going to be quality. If you can sort out a progressive loan move for them, I think both will come back looking like completely different players.
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