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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 14, 2020 19:45:02 GMT
Be careful what you ask for! My ambition may be my undoing...
We've got about €6m in the bank, so these will take a massive chunk out of it.
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Post by dalenichol on Aug 15, 2020 19:52:55 GMT
Ouch, those are some mad outgoings. There's a chance that the board will ultimately decide that you cant afford the upgrades, but if they go ahead that's gonna be a bit shit :/
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 16, 2020 12:16:28 GMT
To be honest, it's completely my fault. I'm still partly treating this save as a big experiment so I keep asking for things as much to see what the board do as because I actually want them. My contract expires at the end of this season and if I think I've screwed it up at Volendam, I may leave and look for a new job in another country.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 17, 2020 20:38:22 GMT
Oumare Tounkara had an exciting game against Almere....!
Subbed on in the 62nd minute, sets up our first with a brilliant run, scores the second, gets a red card (possibly harsh - I'm appealing) for a bad tackle in the 90th minute and earns himself the Man of the Match award.
Edit: The goals were pretty special too.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 17, 2020 20:55:21 GMT
Oumare Tounkara had an exciting game against Almere....!
Subbed on in the 62nd minute, sets up our first with a brilliant run, scores the second, gets a red card (possibly harsh - I'm appealing) for a bad tackle in the 90th minute and earns himself the Man of the Match award.
Edit: The goals were pretty special too.
FM being FM.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 17, 2020 21:12:29 GMT
So I won the appeal, but the Code Of Conduct still fined him(!?), which he accepted(!?!?) and so I gave him a start in the next match. He was pants.
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Post by dalenichol on Aug 18, 2020 17:21:17 GMT
Oumare Tounkara had an exciting game against Almere....!
Subbed on in the 62nd minute, sets up our first with a brilliant run, scores the second, gets a red card (possibly harsh - I'm appealing) for a bad tackle in the 90th minute and earns himself the Man of the Match award.
Edit: The goals were pretty special too.
FM being FM. Sorry, but I believe that video is fake. No player, in the history of FM, has ever cut the ball back for a fellow player to score a tap in. They run wide, cut inside and shoot from ridiculous angles. EVERY TIME.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 18, 2020 20:13:23 GMT
Just to throw out a few observations I've... well, observed:
- Central free-kicks are a very effective way to score. And concede.
- I've had five red cards already this season (a massive increase - I don't remember a single red card last season and only one or two in the first campaign), but managed to have three of them rescinded on appeal. Successful appeals have been like hens' teeth in previous versions, so this has come as a pleasantly frustrating surprise.
- The Job Centre is pointless - it's much easier to find better quality staff using the staff search screen and a little patience than waiting a week of game time for the local hopefuls to send you their CV.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 18, 2020 20:30:15 GMT
Sorry, but I believe that video is fake. No player, in the history of FM, has ever cut the ball back for a fellow player to score a tap in. They run wide, cut inside and shoot from ridiculous angles. EVERY TIME.
Haha! Yeah, it's a rare occurence, that's for sure. It could be down to the quality of my players, or it could be a wider thing, but the quality of deliveries from wide areas leaves something to be desired, certainly in terms of choosing the right ball to play - I've lost count of the number of times a winger gets to the byline and chips a ball to the far post, ideally placed for someone about 8 yards out... only to find the two players in the box went to the near post or central area.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 18, 2020 20:53:58 GMT
Anyway, here I am, spamming my own thread (sounds like a euphemism...!)
Season 3 - 2021/22 Mid-season report It's all going pretty well, I think. Apart from a couple of mini blips, we've never been far away from a win and a few goals to boot. We qualified for the play-offs early, winning the second period on goal difference from Heracles (who had already qualified anyway, winning the first period). This earned us a whole €54,000 in prize money.
Overall, we look like this: I may be wrong about this, but as the Jong sides can't be promoted, I assume therefore that the top two non-Jong sides go up automatically, which makes our 14 point and 17 goal lead over De Graafschap a strong position from which to mount the rest of the campaign. As you will have seen from an earlier post, I may have screwed myself financially by asking the board to invest in the youth facilities and consider buying the stadium. I wait to see what happens with that, but if Eredivisie cash is rolling in, it might make things easier. I also haven't helped myself by losing my nerve a little and arranging Daniel Batty's permanent transfer from Hull. I'm paying €775,000 to make his move permanent in January rather than run the risk of him not accepting a Bosman move at the end of the season. However, I am hoping to make Denzell Hall and Francesco Antonucci's loans permanent on Bosmans as both are out of contract in the summer.
Unfortunately, Ibrahim El Kadiri's form is attracting interest and even though he loves me more than life itself, he's already made it clear he doesn't want to sign a new contract. Again, promotion may change his mind, but he's only got 18 months left on his contract so we're getting to selling time. Just not in January if I can help it as I don't really have a replacement in the squad that I would trust for the remaining 17 games.
I was right with my initial assessment that signing Tom van de Looi was a mistake. He's barely played for the first team and already wants to leave. I'm happy to let him go and will keep him in mind whenever I look to make rash transfers in future.
It also occurred to me, shortly after my previous post, why we're getting so many more red cards - in line with the board's vision, I have made the press more aggressive, which is leaving my back four and DM a little exposed at times and they are making bad decisions.
The second half of this season will be key to how this save progresses. The reasons I am making daft decisions at times are that (a) even three seasons in, I am still treating this as a test save at times, so do things to see what happens rather than because they fit a grand plan and (b) I haven't clearly defined what success is in my own mind. On one level, that could be to remain a top Keuken Kampioen Divisie side, producing young stars and selling them on for profit, while an alternative is to aggressively chase promotion and follow in chaodck's footsteps with a rapid rise to the top of the Eredivisie. In some senses, I'd be happy either way, but I need to go for one or the other (or a clearly defined third path) as they will impact on pretty much every decision I make.
Anyway, that's all for now - thanks for reading!
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Aug 19, 2020 7:13:07 GMT
You look all set for promotion! The Jong teams indeed can't go up and play no role in the promotion battle, so you're 14 points ahead.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 19, 2020 11:07:06 GMT
You look all set for promotion! The Jong teams indeed can't go up and play no role in the promotion battle, so you're 14 points ahead. Thanks for the confirmation! If I throw this away, the board may regret the three-year contract they just gave me...
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 24, 2020 19:10:20 GMT
Season 3 - 2021/22 Season Review It was a great season, but could have been even better. We sealed promotion with seven matches remaining, and led for a long period of time (or so it felt) but three defeats in our last five matches cost us our lead at the top and so we we ended the season in second place. Along the way we set several club and Keuken Kampioen Divisie records. Given that the aim for this season and the foreseeable future was simply to qualify for the play-offs, this has been a massive success, but still ends up tinged with disappointment.
The results on the pitch, excluding the last five matches, were brilliant. By the time we lost to Jong PSV in late March, we'd gone undefeated since we lost to Roda JC in our first match of September - a run of 27 matches unbeaten.
Player performances were on a whole different level from the previous seasons, with numerous members of the first XI averaging over 7.00. Finn Stokkers surpassed my expectations and scored 14 goals this season, nearly tripling his tally from the previous two combined. On a personal level, it went well too: Off the pitch there was mixed news, though it might all be good in the long run. On the transfer/contract front, once promotion was secured I managed to renew both Ibrahim El Kadiri and Matias Juarez's contracts, tying them down for several years and increasing any release clauses they had. I have arranged the Bosman signing of George Johnstone from Feyenoord and Francesco Antonucci. I have also paid €975,000 to make Lars Dendonker's move permanent as a long-term replacement for Kevin Visser whose time at the club has sadly come to an end.
My remaining priorities are a leading striker, a winger and at least one player in each of the full-back positions. I'll be focusing on loans and free-transfers here and I'm pretty confident I can get what I need.
I'm going to take a bit of a break from the save for now as I need to unwind after the tension of the title race. Only kidding! I'll crack on and see how I do in the transfer market.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 30, 2020 18:58:59 GMT
I'm not sure the fixture computer likes me. We start away at Heracles and then our next three Eredivisie matches are...
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Post by dalenichol on Aug 30, 2020 19:25:41 GMT
I mean...at least they're home games? That's a small consolation
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 30, 2020 21:06:06 GMT
Yeah, that's a positive! Three home games on the trot is a bit odd though.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 31, 2020 11:37:32 GMT
Season 4 - 2022/23 - Pre-season and early matches
After promotion was sealed so convincingly (bar the end of season wobble) I figured that I didn't need to do too much to my squad to get it ready for the Eredivisie. We'd given the top flight sides we'd faced in the cups a run for their money back when we had a weaker side and a less effective tactic, so I reckoned I would be able to take enough points from the lower sides to secure survival. Transfers
I'd also done a fair bit of my business early and several of my signings were previewed in my previous post.
Incoming (click on player names for profile screenshots)
My priority was a new striker as Tounkara is getting old, Damascan hadn't lived up to his potential and Stokkers had done surprisingly well last year but I didn't expect him to repeat that feat in the division above. In came Yorbe Vertessen from PSV for the season and if he does well, I may look to make the move permanent. He was transfer-listed originally, but once he joined Volendam PSV took him off the list, something Hull had done with Batty last season. After Sanne Lammens refused to extend his loan, I was on the lookout for a backup keeper and Trevor Doornbush was flagged up by my scouts. I'm not overly impressed by him, but I don't expect him to play often and his wages are less that €1,000 a week so I can live with him for now. We also needed more options in the full-back positions and as Johnston could cover the left side, I signed Jeroen van der Lely to cover the right. He's not going to set the world alight, but he's solid enough for now. Matias Soule is competition for Daniel Sinani on the left and Joseph Asare was a punt after the scouts recommended him and I felt like the strikeforce could do with some more depth. Long-term I suspect he will replace Tounkara. I like his personality and having a left-footed striker makes a nice but largely irrelevant change. Outgoing Most of the outgoings were simply squad players. Kevin Visser was released after Dendonker and Batty made him surplus to requirements, and the extension of Thijs Oosting's loan for another 12 months meant that Jari Vlak was no big loss. I will admit that this move was a little influenced by the fact that he was joining Forest and that I still have it in the back of my mind that I will follow him before this save is consigned to the bin. Oddly enough though, they almost immediately listed him for loan and put him in the reserves. Damascan wasn't in my plans and I was delighted to get €500,000 for him, essentially quintupling my money in eighteen months for someone who hadn't really performed. Marco Tol had slipped to fifth choice centre-back and I just wanted rid of him so got whatever I could for him. All the rest are youngsters who I doubt I'll miss, except for Nick de Nooijer, who commanded the biggest fee of the summer.
This is going to lead me on to a more lengthy ramble about the youth players. Last summer I lost both of my bright prospects and was thoroughly hacked off. This year, the three I mentioned in my previous post have all been the subject of sustained interest from a number of other Dutch clubs - far more so than many of their higher-profile team-mates. If I've rejected one bid for Kevin Valpoort (the goalkeeper) this summer, I've rejected 25, all thinking I'll let a bright young goalkeeper go for less than €200,000. Rene van de Looi has also attracted a lot of teams, especially Ajax again. After rejecting numerous bids for him, mostly from Ajax, the board eventually accepted one bid and I remonstrated with them to reject it, and so they did. Then Ajax came back with an offer that totalled €7,500,000 and the board accepted again. This time, I thought that I couldn't say no to that money and reluctantly resigned myself to losing another star, only for Rene himself to reject them! After that, all interest and bids have cooled off. Nick de Nooijer was the third from last year's intake and hadn't attracted many bids, possibly due to a minor injury, but suddenly AZ were interested and offering big money. Given his fickle personality, I was happy to let him go for €2,400,000 hard cash. Pre-season results The pre-season matches were a little underwhelming, but I was trialling a lot of free agents after spending most of my budget making Lars Dendonker's move permanent. (Apologies for the rather clunky stitching of two screenshots together - the pre-season tournament was early enough that it appears at the end of last season's fixtures.)
Early season results I don't know what to say. This has gone much better than expected! The fact that we got through the first four matches, against last season's Keuken Kampioen champions and then the big three in the Netherlands without conceding a goal was a massive surprise. Most pleasing for me is that we have conceded one goal in five games. The front line aren't really firing yet and his brace against Willem II earned Ibrahim El Kadiri his first rating over 6.5 so far after a disrupted pre-season and a wobbly start at a higher level. Vertessen has done OK, but contrived to miss three clear-cut chances against Heracles. I think a goal would do him the world of good, but he just pulled his hamstring and will miss September and some of October as a result.
Perhaps some clue as to how we ended August unbeaten comes from the positions of PSV and Ajax, both of whom have lost twice already. Our match against Feyenoord was the one where we were luckiest to escape with points and again this is supported by the league table. Bizarrely enough, we're currently sitting top of the Eredivisie. This will not last. However, we have 11 points already and the media have pointed out that 35 is usually enough to stay up. As far as I am concerned, we're nearly a third of the way towards survival and that is all I am focused on.
Unless this ludicrous form continues, I'll wait until the mid-season break before posting another update. I'll leave you with the goals from our win over Willem II as they're rather special:
Thanks for reading!
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 5, 2020 18:47:28 GMT
Season 4 - 2022 World Cup mid-season break I genuinely have no idea what is going on.
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 6, 2020 18:36:32 GMT
Well shit son, that's some good going so far. Impressive stuff, but we both know FM will conspire to FM your form soon enough
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 6, 2020 20:39:44 GMT
Well shit son, that's some good going so far. Impressive stuff, but we both know FM will conspire to FM your form soon enough Yeah, the danger with this season, disrupted as it is by the 2022 World Cup, is that we've got two-thirds of the league matches to play from January onwards. There's seven or eight league matches in each of January and February alone (if my memory serves) so the classic FM reevaluating combined with fixture congestion could wreak havoc on us. However, I'm pretty sure we're safe, so that's the most important thing.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 7, 2020 13:14:55 GMT
Finally all caught up, that's some amazing start to the first Eredivisied season there mate, congrats! Do you recall your side to be lucky or are you constantly dominating games? Best of luck and here's hoping for european qualification at least!
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 7, 2020 18:47:12 GMT
Finally all caught up, that's some amazing start to the first Eredivisied season there mate, congrats! Do you recall your side to be lucky or are you constantly dominating games? Best of luck and here's hoping for european qualification at least! Generally, I would say we've just been pretty solid. There aren't many games where I've felt like we were lucky to escape unbeaten - Feyenoord in the early days is probably the only one that springs readily to mind. We've looked potent going forward and comfortable at the back, which is a brilliant combination.
I know there's a bunch of caveats that go with friendlies, but our mid-season break was pretty impressive:
(Frustratingly, Yorbe Vertessen has still not scored for me in the league this season despite having plenty of chances. He's a different player in friendlies for some reason. His coach report mentions that he doesn't feel comfortable in big matches, but his performances suggest any sort of league game constitutes a big match. He's joining Groningen on a Bosman at the end of the season, so I'll drop him down the pecking order in favour of someone with a long-term future at the club.)
I think where we've been fortunate is that apart from the tough start, the rest of the teams we've faced have been the lower-mid-table and relegation-threatened sides. We haven't faced some of the more established sides like Vitesse (currently top) or Heerenveen. FC Utrecht are another side we still have to face twice, but they are struggling this season (however, their manager still felt bold enough to say he didn't think we'd stay up when we were 2nd and they were 15th or 16th!)
I've made some solid signings in January and I'm feeling quietly confident for the second half of the season, though I do expect to slip down the table a bit.
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 13, 2020 10:51:45 GMT
Season 4 - 2022/23 End of season report I meant to do an update after January but I was in the groove so just pressed on until the end of the season.
When I said it wouldn't last, I was wrong. This season has been utterly bonkers.
January signings January was a busy month with incoming transfers, but quiet on the outgoings. The only notable departure was Oumare Tounkara who left for €35,000, representing a small profit. He wasn't getting game time and was costing me nearly €3,000 a week so it made sense to let him go.
In terms of the signings, there were quite a few added to the squad (click on the names to see profiles): Thijs Oosting - already on loan and my highest assister this season, so I moved to sign him permanently, though I probably paid over the odds again (this is developing into a bad habit in this save!). His versatility is very useful, though I think he lacks certain key attributes to ever play regularly outside of central midfield (his pace and crossing aren't good enough to play as a winger, his physical/aerial presence isn't good enough to play as a striker) Noah Crone - a bright, pacy young striker who basically pushed Tounkara out the door. Neither Finn Stokkers nor Joseph Asare have his speed and he is also the best finisher of the three. He's also tall and decent in the air, if a little weak. I have high hopes for him. Hobie Verhulst - another backup keeper and an ex-Volendammer returning to the club. A move born of daft sentiment really, particularly as we have Kevin Valpoort as a bright young goalkeeping prospect. We now have five keepers on the books. Joel Paulo - a left winger and probably the best signing of the lot. I had to move quickly and pay a lot in wages to sign him ahead of PSG who were sniffing around. His agent was a stroppy twat and the actual signing took three attempts and a lot of clause-juggling, but his performances at the end of the season suggested he will be worth it. He also has a €47m release clause, so if someone wants to activate that I'll be as happy as a clam. Results As I said above, the madness continued. The form dipped towards the end of the season but second is a massive achievement. After 27 matches, we were top and shortly after had a twelve point cushion over PSV in third. However, the defeat to Ajax really took the wind out of our sails and we stumbled over the line, securing a place in the Champions League Best Placed Third Qualifying Round thanks to PSV losing at home to NEC in the final game of the season. I think I've been lucky that PSV and Feyenoord have had poor seasons really, with only Ajax of the big three beating me. I don't think we'll finish as high next year but European football and a title race in my first season in the top tier is brilliant.
Along the way we set some new club records for unbeaten runs (most matches won in a row - 7, most matches without losing - 30), I got a Steam achievement for scoring in twenty consecutive competitive matches and for a long time (until the end of season dip) we were leading the Eredivisie for clean sheets and fewest goals conceded.
Results:
Player performances:
Very good performances all round. Almost all of the signings had the impact I expected of them, with Noah Crone the only one whose performances were a little underwhelming, but his time was disrupted by a couple of knocks so I expect him to do better next season. Only Yorbe Vertessen was a disappointment, so spend the second half of the season in the Jong Volendam squad. Joseph Asare was impressive up front and is developing nicely, which is great considering I paid €18,500 for him. His profile suggests he could be the next Tony Yeboah...
Youth intake The preview said this: And I got this:
I'm pretty happy with this - decent personalities and a clutch of left-footed players too! Let's just wait for Ajax to spend all summer trying to poach them now.
Plans
Generally, I'm happy with the squad. We've massively overperformed and while I'm expecting some sort of regression over the next couple of seasons, I think we'll comfortably stay in the top half. There's been a fair bit of movement over the last few windows and I'm now in a position where stability and adding the right player rather than beefing up the squad will be the priority. That being said, there are a couple of weak areas I wish to address. Despite Ibrahim El Kadiri finishing as top scorer again, and Francesco Antonucci second behind him with 8 goals, I think my two wingers are now among the weaker areas of the team. I think the system is really set up to make the most of these positions and I reckon players on the same level as some of the other areas, especially central midfield, would give me a lot more end product. As a result, I made the decision towards the end of the season to target wingers (hence the signing of Joel Paulo) and I also secured Carlo Holse from Rosenborg, another versatile attacker with a solid personality. El Kadiri will still be an important player but not the key player he is now. After those, my priorities are an upgrade to the right-back position and a bit of a bastard in midfield.
Other than that I have extended Thomas Merletti's loan for a fourth season (which is quite frankly ridiculous!) and made the mistake of signing Matias Soule on a free from Juventus. He's been injury prone all season and I've just signed two players in his position, so he'll be straight on the loan list to earn me some loan fees and if he doesn't develop significantly will be sold ASAP.
A few of the more familiar names and faces will leave this summer. Nick Runderkamp's contract will expire and with only six substitute appearances, he's clearly surplus to requirements. I may try to offload Francesco Antonucci too, but he's not worth much and provides decent backup across the creative midfield roles. Alex Plat is another who may well leave this summer, though more likely on loan. Finally, if you cast your mind back to my first youth intake, I was very excited about Diego Robben. Unfortunately, he hasn't developed at all and it's probably time to let him build a career elsewhere.
Thanks for reading!
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Sept 13, 2020 11:17:04 GMT
That is one hell of a season finishing 2nd. What is your balance like these days? You'll enjoy the cash boost with European football next season. Are you going to play Valencia much? I thought he might come in handy at left back. I think with another good season or 2 you could get £10m+ for Joel Paulo. Good luck finding more bargains this year.
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 13, 2020 13:45:43 GMT
That is one hell of a season finishing 2nd. What is your balance like these days? You'll enjoy the cash boost with European football next season. Are you going to play Valencia much? I thought he might come in handy at left back. I think with another good season or 2 you could get £10m+ for Joel Paulo. Good luck finding more bargains this year. Thanks stouters, I think it's the best season I've ever had as a newly promoted side in all the versions of FM or CM I've ever played. I don't want to come across as falsely modest but it has taken me entirely by surprise. I think we're about €6-7m in the black, but I've been spending more freely over the last couple of seasons and pestering the board to invest in the facilities at every opportunity. To our credit, as a board/manager partnership, I don't think we've been in the red at all during this save. I'll try to remember to post a screenshot of our finances next time I load up the game. I think Valencia is a little way short of first team level at the moment but his attributes definitely point towards left back rather than winger. His passing and vision will suit the IWB role I use well too. Hopefully he progresses well, but I seem to be struggling with youngsters and getting them to make significant improvements (those that I have managed to keep hold of anyway!)
EDIT: Here's the finances.
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 19, 2020 11:02:11 GMT
Season 5 - 2023/24 pre-season and early matches After last season's fantastic start to life in the Eredivisie, we had a lot to look forward to this season. Continental football! Money! Being more attractive to players!
Club Vision
This has been a very interesting area for me throughout this save. At first, the board were happy for me to continually challenge for the Keuken Kampioen Divisie play-offs, but once promoted, they seemed to change. I had assumed that with such modest ambitions, they would only want me to 'battle bravely against relegation' but instead they wanted me to avoid it altogether and then establish myself as an Eredivisie side. Luckily, I did both last season and now they have reverted to their less demanding approach, only requiring me to finish in mid-table and then gradually progress into a top-half side. They have quite a few other demands around the Club Culture though, but they seem happy enough.
Transfers After last season, I didn't feel that the squad needed too much. I mentioned the transfers I had already arranged at the end of the previous post, so there will be some overlap, but it was all pretty straighforward. Incoming (click on names for profiles)
Matias Soule - I made his loan from Juventus permanent, but regretted it before it went through (again, see post above!). So he appears in both lists as I rapidly loaned him out. Unsurprisingly, he went to an Argentinian second division side, which gives me some idea of his ability. To be honest, I aim to sell him ASAP.
Reda Akmum - A left-footed centre-back from FC Utrecht. A backup who may progress, and if not may be a decent sign-to-sell player. David Djunderski - another freebie, and a good right-back. He will displace Jeroen van der Lely. Carlo Holse - you've seen this guy before, but he provides a good option on both flanks. Mostly he will challenge Joel Paulo for the left winger position, but he can provide something different on the right too. Jordy de Wijs - released by Feyenoord, this guy should be absolutely in his prime. I really like his passing and free-kicks, while being a solid defender and versatile too. I was delighted when he accepted €2,300 a week.
Giovanni Troupee - released by FC Utrecht after falling out with their manager. Another very solid right back and relatively cheap wages too.
Outgoing
After signing a number of these players and bemoaning the lack of progression in my youngsters in a previous post, I decided to do something about it. One of my biggest flaws when playing FM is that I always have an unecessarily deep squad so I resolved to be brave and do something about it. We're strong and shouldn't have any worries about relegation so I could afford to trim some of the backup players in order to increase the opportunities for the youth. The big departures here are Alex Plat on loan to VVV, Corey Jordan who was fourth choice centre-back and then demoted to fifth choice by the arrival or Jordy de Wijs and Finn Stokkers. They haven't earned me as much as I hoped, but it has taken about €8-9,000 a week off the wage bill and should mean that some of my brighter youngsters get more minutes this season.
Matches
Generally, pre-season went well, though the heavy Super Cup defeat to Ajax put a dampner on things. The match was more even than the scoreline suggests (no, honestly it was!) but only after we made inroads when 3-0 down. Ajax made us look silly for a long time and I genuinely feared for the scoreline after about 30 minutes. It just goes to show how far ahead of us they still are.
Our Champions League experience was pretty short-lived too. My heart sank when we drew Lyon and while we put in a strong performance at home and were unlucky to only come away with a draw, their superiour quality showed in the second leg. Again, 3-0 seems harsher than we deserved but they were the better side and made their quality count.
In the league, it has been a different story. Kind of. We're currently top with 15 points from 5 games and the best goal difference in the league but performances have been a little underwhelming. While we dominated Heracles and Feyenoord (who are having a terrible start to the season - they lost their first four matches, only scoring in a 4-2 defeat to Groningen) the Utrecht game was very even and NEC had me scared for a long time. They were all over us in the first half and we actually scored with our first three shots and completely took the wind out of their sails. I'll need to keep an eye on these performances because despite upgrading the squad in key areas we look more fragile than last year. Perhaps it's a tactical familiarity issue with the new players or perhaps the opponents are treating us differently, but I have to see if it's a blip or a trend.
AOB
With actual football resuming at the moment I have been sorely tempted to put this save on ice and start a new one with Forest, but I keep stalling on that idea. I've mentioned before that I am keeping an eye on what Forest are doing in this save with the hope of earning the job and doing a side save with them. Unfortunately for that idea, Sabri Lamouchi did pretty well with them last season and was given a new two-year contract, so I suspect that I will have to wait quite a while for the opportunity to come around.
I've also been reading a couple of books about Sicily which have got me thinking about a save there. I've spoken before about making my own Sicilian league but the work involved seems beyond both my ability and time at the moment so I may stick to one of the Italian lower league packs. I think it would be interesting to try something radically different tactically and maybe take the plunge into completely amateur leagues.
Thanks for reading, I'll post another update after January!
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 19, 2020 19:57:33 GMT
I think I love Joel Paulo. Not only was he my first Wonderkid (though that lasted about three months!), but he's a winger who knows about pulling the ball back to strikers, as you can see from the highlight videos below:
On a side note, one thing I have enjoyed but also rather frustrating is the variety of different types of goals we now score. When I was playing with a F9, an AP(s) and a Raumdeuter all we seemed to score from was crosses, and now I'm playing with an AF flanked by two W(a), I have crosses, through balls, cutbacks, long shots....
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 19, 2020 20:06:07 GMT
Those are some lovely goals. I keep meaning to go back to watching highlights (I usually find them very frustrating) but seeing as we're actually...*check notes*...good...now, it might be worth it.
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 20, 2020 6:14:39 GMT
Those are some lovely goals. I keep meaning to go back to watching highlights (I usually find them very frustrating) but seeing as we're actually...*check notes*...good...now, it might be worth it. How do you watch the matches then? Or do you use a skin with an 'Instant Result' button?
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 20, 2020 11:08:15 GMT
Those are some lovely goals. I keep meaning to go back to watching highlights (I usually find them very frustrating) but seeing as we're actually...*check notes*...good...now, it might be worth it. How do you watch the matches then? Or do you use a skin with an 'Instant Result' button? Once I'm happy and set on a tactic, I'll usually revert to commentary only. I know a lot of people used to talk about it and mostly wrote it up as hearsay, but I honestly am adamant that I get better results when I don't watch the game. I switched back to watching highlights after that post last night and it was so frustrating. Watching players run in to dead ends, shoot from silly angles when a cut back would've been a goal...all that sort of stuff. I hate it!
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