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Post by Ben on Dec 27, 2018 22:00:35 GMT
May 2030 (End of Season Review)
A poor end to the season - following the draw against Benfica, we had little chance of toppling Boavista and, as such, fielded a far more rotated squad than normal. The two defeats haven't hugely cost us but it would have been nice to top off this season with a good finish. The final table is as seen below: The title moves away from Porto or Benfica for the first time since 2001 (Boavista won in 2000 and Sporting in 2001) as Sporting just about won the league. This gives me hope that there are these top three taking points from each other, and, although the gap is still quite large, it is reducing year on year. We seem to have quickly risen to the top of the 'others' category, as Braga, Guimaraes and Setubal seem to have fallen back from previous years. At the other end of the table, our rivals drop Feirense have dropped down and are replaced by two teams I have a soft spot for - Real and Sacavanense. Real followed our trajectory from the third tier and amazingly Sacavanense have secured their second straight league win so come into the top flight with a squad made up from pretty much entirely loanees and third tier level players. It'll be really hard for them to stay up but I will attempt to follow their exploits. I have tried to rotate and give chances to as many youngsters as I can - here is the squad screen: Folha is clearly the standout here but as mentioned earlier - a rating of just 7.2 with that many goals shows that he either scores and rates highly or has an absolutely abysmal game. Loanee Medina, who will be turning his move permanent in the summer also got a load of minutes in a variety of roles. At the bottom, I am stuck with the issue I had mentioned previously - the old guard. Both Tavares and Monteiro have been with me for a long period of time and Laranjeira is now 23 but really don't have huge amounts of quality. With such restrictive transfer rules - it's hard for me to replace them. They will remain in the first team now but will find themselves being sold, like Silveiro and Dias, if their minutes/game doesn't improve. I also spent some money: If we can recruit a few good players over the summer, then 4th place is definitely a target next year!
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Post by fmamerican on Dec 28, 2018 1:29:10 GMT
What benefits have you noticed with the increased data analysis facilities?
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Post by Ben on Dec 28, 2018 12:01:02 GMT
What benefits have you noticed with the increased data analysis facilities? Erm, none. But I hold out hope that making them the best they can be will have an impact!
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Post by fmamerican on Dec 28, 2018 16:09:25 GMT
What benefits have you noticed with the increased data analysis facilities? Erm, none. But I hold out hope that making them the best they can be will have an impact! Sadly, that's the answer I expected.
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Post by Ben on Dec 28, 2018 21:36:21 GMT
2030/31 Transfer Dealings - OutgoingsFirstly, Matias moves back to Argentina for a fee of just £100k. Whilst that is a profit following his bosman move, it does further bring into question why Operario payed £8m for him. I brought him in as a backup but he never did anything more than that, with nearly 90% of his appearances coming from the bench. He'll be solid back home but sadly never made the grade for me. 305 appearances but no longer in my plans. Dias has been usurped by two younger players and, due to the very poor technical ability, doesn't suit my style at all but has been around for so long due to the attachment at being a one club servant. He's joined newly promoted Real where he'll get first team football. I wish him the best and he's certainly one of the players I'd look out for if and when he becomes a member of non-playing staff. Another one in the same boat and now three of the four original regens have left the club with only Monteiro left. He was restricted to just one start last season and, despite Folha being very good, never took his chance when used off the bench. As we've progressed tactically, he's become very one dimensional and wasn't useful at pressing high up the pitch. He's stayed in the top league but I do imagine his best days are behind him. Francisco is clearly highly rated - enough so that he's moved to the Premier League. West Ham did barely stay in the league and I see this move being a very tactical one, whereby they can use his pace to break quickly against bigger sides. He's very much a one trick pony and lacks the technical ability and work rate to really perform well in my system. He also was a model citizen and, due to him losing that tag, went down in my estimations. I got just about £800k for him - seems a good deal for both parties. Only a loan deal but Candeias is turning into a solid player. He's had two years at Gil Vicente in the tier below but I want to test him in the top league. He's got a lot to do to usurp Miranda and, with me not playing a keeper on the bench, won't see first team training with me - this deal is perfect to either make him or see his value rise enough to move him on. Sarabando, another experienced head, moves on following a summer signing that I've made. He's been in the first team since 16 and played over 200 games for the club but has found his own playing time limited due to the emergence of Nuno Lima at left back. He's a solid player but as soon as the bid from Real came in, he asked to move and I granted it. Despite these wholesale changes, largely to experienced, team leaders, I feel that with the incomings and the current crop we already have, then there is a chance of us getting back into the fourth place berth that I feel is our ceiling for now.
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Post by Ben on Dec 28, 2018 22:07:50 GMT
2030/31 Transfer Dealings - IncomingI spent literally hours scouting around, using Google Maps to find towns and cities from the Centro Region, scouring through the reports my staff have made over the past few years (I'm still relying on scouts rather than player search feature and I only use the 'scouted players' drop down with the filters on). Although the pool is pretty small, I've rated players and am in the process of making shortlists and furthering my scouting approach, which will probably warrant a post of it's own. I also expanded the 'no place like home criteria' to include anybody born within the province of Buenos Aires, as opposed to just the city - I used the (BA) on their place of birth to identify that, which doesn't include all of them. Whilst we are in a solid position (around £25m in the bank) that has decreased significantly with ground and facility upgrades this summer and I am conscious of spending too much money. We were due another instalment of the Teles deal, £5m in August, and that was already earmarked for potential signings. During the looking at Portuguese cities, I came across a mistake I had made - using the term Mira on our filter. There are two towns on Mira in game, one in Italy and one in Portugal. The Portuguese one is called Mira (POR) and didn't show up on the 'City -> IS -> Mira.' When I made that change, I found this lad, Francisco Ribeiro at Leiria, now in the 2nd tier. His is a phenomenal player and I quickly scouting him, with his value around £40k. This started a bidding war which Porto won for an eventual £5m. Whilst I was prepared to pay that, I do still want to focus on developing my own players. Here are the players who I did manage to bring in: Following a successful loan spell last year, Adrian Medina signs on a Bosman deal. As mentioned, he performed really well in a number of roles for me last year and this deal was a no-brainer, despite him spending the season before on loan at Metz, not making an appearance in Ligue 2 - prompting me to have some worries about being able to settle. I'll use him in a variety of roles - a winger, attacking mid (playmaker or non-playmaker) or a central midfielder in a combative kind of role. Born 60km north of Aveiro and coming through local side Espinho, Ramos was on my radar but joined Maritimo two years back after making 50 appearances in the third tier. He hasn't set the world alight in the mid-table side but has developed his attributes somewhat. He has a great set of player traits for the role that I want and comes, unlike many other wingers, with the ability to work hard and run for days. Like Larranjeira, who I sold this summer, he does lack some technical attributes but I feel that he has much more about him than his predecessor. He came in on a Bosman and I'm happy with this bit of business. 40 minutes north of Aveiro is where Ricardo Almeida hails from and joins from third tier Lusitania for £35k. He's got a good personality and his technical traits are in a reasonable position for his age. He's got some potential and I am interested in how he does develop. My record signing (not that this is much when the previous amount stood at £110k) and third Argentine import from the city of Buenos Aires in my career, Elias Quinteros. Found at second tier Huracan, he moves to Portugal for £240k. I think that this lad could be absolutely fantastic and this was the main reason why I allowed Sarabando to leave. Pretty well rounded and not weak going forward - he has the makings of a fantastic wing back and being two footed allows him to cover both full back berths, if necessary. Paulo arrives from second tier Estoril but was actually born just four miles away in Gafanha. He's hard working and that was the main thing that drew me to him - but his passing ability and relatively physical stature also impress me. He's a little older than I'd like, in order to be able to develop him properly, but at just £75k - it's a win-win situation for me. Diogo Vargas comes in from Leiria for just £10k. There is a lot of potential here I think. I'll do a short run down of the first team shortly, but I feel that we are in a stronger position that this time last season.
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Post by Ben on Dec 29, 2018 13:54:20 GMT
TemptationMust resist! Transfer regulations means I can't sign this Colombian lad who has near perfect attributes for the winger slot combined with the defensive ability to be a real threat in our pressing game. Not sure why I was alerted to him as my scouts are instructed to find Argentinians only - but now we must find the (Centro Region or Buenos Aires province born) version of him!
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lee
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Post by lee on Dec 29, 2018 14:07:22 GMT
That's tough Ben. The temptation must be great to stray from your recruitment model when you come across players like Rueda. I guess that adds the extra depth to the save though, right?
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Post by Ben on Dec 29, 2018 14:20:42 GMT
That's tough Ben. The temptation must be great to stray from your recruitment model when you come across players like Rueda. I guess that adds the extra depth to the save though, right? It does indeed but there is definitely a ceiling in what I can do with the player pool that I have - considering I am by far the biggest team from the Centro Region so there is little in terms of quality (there is quantity, but they are all fourth or fifth tier level) and the Argentinians aren't interested until they are 18 - by that time they are already valued too highly for me to afford. Whilst I am enjoying this transfer 'embargo' of sorts - it's not very Portuguese, if you know what I mean? We are unable to buy low and sell high and scour the world like they do in real life, and that 'real life approach' is something I have really been trying to implement this year through use of no-player searches, adverts for jobs etc. I'm not saying now to the restrictions, just yet, but I am definitely moving towards easing them. We have 110 thousand players in the database at the moment and only about 50 would be of any use to me! I just don't want it to feel like a cop out considering we are at a bit of a glass ceiling at the moment and the ability to sign anyone would probably be the impetus needed to move to the next step. What are your thoughts?
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Post by Ben on Dec 29, 2018 14:37:35 GMT
Clearing my headWe won and it didn't really matter, but I have found out, potentially, something that could be a very big thing for us, tactically. I have forever been in the boat of 'let assistant give out opposition instructions' which is great, but could be causing some issues. Look at the two goals we conceded: Goal 1:We already employ a pressing game, but their right winger (#7) is instructed to be closed down always - there are four men in close proximity to him and a fifth (my centre back, #52) is even slightly interested. A simple ball over the top to their #10, now in yards of space, leads to a simple tap in. Goal 2:We gave the ball away cheaply but, again, their number nine is to be aggressively pressed so now all of my players (including my two centre backs) are running over to him, leaving a simple ball to the number 10, who once again finishes. Remedy:I took off all opposition instructions, something that I have seen in a lot of downloadable tactics - I can't say I've used any of them but they do seem to shy away from them. It would, to me, appear that we would now focus on our style of play, rather than accommodating theirs. The only results I have so far is that we conceded 2 in 18 minutes using them, and none in 72 minutes when not using them. I don't think this is a 'never use OIs again' but certainly will be something that I look to use on standout players rather than the whole team set by an assistant who doesn't really have the same playing style as my own.
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Post by Ben on Dec 29, 2018 15:42:48 GMT
July and August 2030Finishing fifth meant that we've had to make our way through a few earlier rounds of the Europa League, which we have done with relative ease. It took a few games to get back into shape, a poor performance over Grindavik at home meant that I couldn't rotate as much as I wanted for the away leg. We spent the majority of the week between fixtures preparing for the Zurich game, putting extra effort into our attacking play. Somehow, we had 40 shots, 22 of which were on target but only found the net twice away from home. Zurich came to Portugal playing a narrow 4222 box and we played them off the park - exploiting the space with all three goals from deep-ish crosses by full backs. The game against Moreirense, as discussed above, was a watershed - two stupid goals conceded, the tale of our last season before a good, if unspectacular triple header. We did concede against Mattersburg from a 30 year screamer but, initially, the OIs seem to have solidified my defensive play slightly. In other news - I feel that we can make a good run at the U23 league this year, normally dominated by Sporting. We have started well:
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Post by yuzirneym on Dec 30, 2018 10:25:59 GMT
I often struggle with imagining future roles of my youngsters, and your Excel sheet looks like a great solution to that. Do you plan to share that?
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Post by Ben on Dec 30, 2018 19:05:40 GMT
September 2030A slow start to the month where an 88th minute goal inflicted our first defeat of the season, away at Guimaraes. The game was even and a draw was probably a fair result, so I'm a little disappointed with this. When we failed to put anything past Portimonense, barely threatening their goal, I did worry that this may be the start of an impotent run and our early season excitement was a little short lived. However, three home times in eight days, all against winnable opposition has provided ten scored and none conceded. We kicked off with a good win over Kazakh champions Shakhter Karagandy - the weakest team in our Europa League group which contains Stuttgart and Genk. The winner of the group will largely come down to which side out of ourselves and the German sixth place finisher can do best on the road. We then got revenge against Portimonense, playing them off the park but somehow only scoring twice. I felt that our play over the past two months really deserved more - we'd not finished off a team properly and I was delighted that this changed against Aves. Now-wonderkid Leonardo Ramos pulled the strings and got himself on the scoresheet, along with Bolas returning from a ten month injury. The only question was how it took so long to open the scoring. Elsewhere in the league, Sacavenense are clearly finding it too easy - two successive promotions and a team now full of freebie aging Portuguese players, yet they've taken a dream ten points from their first six games. At the other end, perennial big dogs Boavista are on two points but I'm sure they'll improve. Next month sees two Europa League games and two cup ties - so plenty of chance for rotation, especially considering Folha and Medina are potentially missing the whole month due to injuries.
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Post by Ben on Dec 30, 2018 19:06:50 GMT
I often struggle with imagining future roles of my youngsters, and your Excel sheet looks like a great solution to that. Do you plan to share that? It's very rough and is set up with my tactical ideolgy in place, which would take a fair bit of time to edit - but I don't see why not. I want to get through to the youth candidates this year - input it again, then play around with it and make some tweaks, before I'm happy enough to give it out though.
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Post by Ben on Dec 30, 2018 22:19:18 GMT
October 2030
With games coming thick and fast - we are doing really well in the league as we have, historically picked up as the season goes on. We are behind three familiar foe though - and Porto, now under Thomas Tuchel, look even better than two years ago, when they last won the league. It is good to see Sacavanense continuing their good start - although I can only imagine it'll fall apart soon, given their squad. The fact that we played our affiliate and one of the highest rated clubs in the region (except for Leiria, who have now been named as another affiliate of ours) and beat then with a second string shows the weakness of the local area. A rare league concession from a(nother) screamer against Setubal but decent progress elsewhere. The Nacional game saw me throw away my lovely footballing approach, sticking my centre back up top as a target man and pumping the ball into him with a flat 4-4-2 - it didn't work. Another busy month lies ahead as we look to cement our place in the knockout phases of two cups.
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ianf
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Post by ianf on Dec 31, 2018 20:02:08 GMT
Good start to the year, maybe you make it to the UCL this time. Given your very limited player pool I’m really surprised you would let yourself be out bid for one of the few top class talents available (Ribeiro). Can you explain the thinking?
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Post by Nick on Jan 1, 2019 12:44:27 GMT
Just caught up with the last week or so, Ben - great progress. You seem to be hitting that sweet spot where you get the best out of (for lack of a better word) inferior players. I wish I had that same ability!
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Post by Ben on Jan 1, 2019 20:08:41 GMT
Good start to the year, maybe you make it to the UCL this time. Given your very limited player pool I’m really surprised you would let yourself be out bid for one of the few top class talents available (Ribeiro). Can you explain the thinking? You make a good point Ian. My thinking is that there is no one player who is a must signing - I have relied on my own players for the majority of this save (I think I have made about 15 signings in the 11 years, so missing out on a player isn't the end of the world. I did allude to getting more transfer money from the Teles deal but that £5m can be reinvested in facilities which could produce ten players of the quality of Ribeiro. I may live to regret the move - who knows?!
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Post by Ben on Jan 1, 2019 20:11:50 GMT
Just caught up with the last week or so, Ben - great progress. You seem to be hitting that sweet spot where you get the best out of (for lack of a better word) inferior players. I wish I had that same ability! Thanks Nick. I agree - we are overachieving somewhat against the bigger sides, but the general quality of the rest of the league is poor. We seem to have a good togetherness - probably due to the fact that there has been minimal signings and I've worked hard on interactions and praise, meaning that I'm a favoured person of the majority of the side and, although I haven't nailed the mentoring side yet, we do have some decent personalities.
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Post by Ben on Jan 1, 2019 20:43:10 GMT
November 2030A nearly perfect month sees us stretch our unbeaten streak back to the Stuttgart defeat at the start of October. We are still not really in full stride but performing well enough to secure the points. We threw away a two goal lead over Chaves thanks to yet another screamer and yet another cross. December is a busy month with eight fixtures to contend with but, if Benfica and ourselves win our games in hand, a gap is appearing and we are on the right side of it.
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Post by Ben on Jan 1, 2019 22:19:14 GMT
December 2030In the previous months I have mentioned that we haven't quite got into top gear - well this month would indicate that I've gone back a few gears. Torn apart and 3-0 down against Braga inside 19 minutes, we were lucky to get to half time at just three down. The 'won' the second half but really have no Plan B and that was, again, evident against Rio Ave. Those awful performances sandwiched our best performance and result to date, a comfortable win over Benfica. A draw against Stuttgart sees us go through, in second place, and rewards us with a tie against Lazio. We're through the Taca de Liga group phase and still going in the Taca de Portugal - a cup run (or two) is high on my agenda this year, especially as league success is seemingly so far away. We have got quite a few injury problems at the moment and the match fatigue is really taking its toll. Hopefully January will allow us to return to our normal swagger and we can start putting these games to bed again.
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 0:09:07 GMT
January 2031What a terrible set of fixtures, just what wasn't needed after the hectic December. The semi final victory over Sporting gave us a hastily re-arranged final against Benfica and we cruised into a 3-0 lead before pretty much falling apart. We held on as I win the trophy for a second time as manager. This doesn't give automatic entry to Europe but I hope we can solidify that due to our league position. Defeat against Rio Ave was poor as we failed to learn our lessons from last time - balls into their striker and he can finish from wherever. We are clearly off the pace in the league and now our Plan A isn't working as expected - with players only in good spirits due to the cup win and largely out of form. Elsewhere in the league, Sacavanense have won just once since the start of October as they have now well and truly found the level of this league - they lurk in the lower half but aren't currently at threat of the relegation places, filled by Varzim and Cova, who are 5 points off the pace now. I have attempted to add a little more to Andre Folha's game by changing him from a CF(A) to a PF(A) - to aid our first line of defence. I couldn't change the closing down on a complete forward to anything other than standard so moved to a pressing forward to make this urgent. I have then added the 'take more risks' and 'dribble more' to his PI but left off 'roam from position,' for now. This has coincided with our poor run but I am seeing some improvements in his play - his season stats stand at 100% tackle completed and 0.26 interceptions a game - this is significantly down on the ~1.0p/game for the attacking midfield strata but I will work on that. Next month appears much friendlier as I face Real (16th), Morierense (15th) as well as Portimonense and Guimaraes but I do have two ties against Lazio also. TransfersTransfer windows normally mean that I am spending my time fending off interest from other clubs - that has been no different this year. I have added one new face, Diogo Marques: Born 28km away in Murtosa, the Guimaraes wing back hasn't really had the impact I would expect with a man of the attributes he has, playing only six times for their B side. Whilst £150k doesn't seem much money, something about the deal doesn't really add up - he was valued at a lowly £3k and his contract was not expiring yet they want a significant mark up on his value but have not played him. Tiago Ricardo is my first choice full back, but at 5'3" and a header win percentage of just 42% - I wanted to ensure I had another, taller, option. Marques appears to have potential and should get a bit of football this season.
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 20:45:51 GMT
Locally Sourced
I have put a lot of emphasis on the home-grown talent in this save and I feel that it is paying off. Whilst I currently have two players from Buenos Aires, the rest of the squad is completely Portuguese born - the only regen I have had born from outside of the country is Teles, and he is no longer at the club. What is more interesting though, to me, is the link to the location of these player's births. I have only ever been able to reach average youth recruitment (for some reason) but this has been increased in the past few years to that level. I have collated all of the places of births of the players in my team, as seen below: It is worth noting that the regens who come from further afield, Vila Real, Massama and Caldas da Rainha, are all younger and are products of our better recruitment. I see (not reflected in the game but my own vision) of us, with not the best recruitment but amazing facilities for our own area - producing players born really close to the city of Aveiro. The furthest afield that I have signed a player from is Alcobaca, nearly 100 miles away but I have also signed a few from Leiria as well as the odd ones from Murtosa, Mira, Sever do Vouga and Coimbra. It will be interesting to return to this if/when we reach the pinnacle of world football!
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 20:53:51 GMT
February 2031
We have managed to escape another hell-like month unscathed and in the 2nd knockout round of the Europa League, just. We kicked off the month with a morale boosting victory, which saw Andre Folha find his scoring shoes again but then completely ballsed it up against Real, struggling to a draw. My scouts gave me information that Lazio would be playing a 4-3-1-2 narrow formation, manager Marco Gianpaolo's go-to attacking shape. I spent the week preparing for a central onslaught, not worrying about the fitness, height or form of my wider players, merely working out how to approach that. Sadly, when the game started - they played a 4-2-3-1 with a lot of width and just did us every time they moved the ball wide. At 3-0 down, we were facing an early exit, but 4 unanswered goals gave us a fantastic comeback and a hope for our trip to Rome. A routine win over Guimaraes preceded a defensive masterclass the Italians would be proud of - 10 men behind the ball and snuffing out all of the chances. We conceded two goals against Portimonense through our favourite methods - a long ball over the top and a cross (no wonder goal this time) but held on to win. We're probably too far away from 2nd and 3rd here although we do play Sporting again this season, but our target is to win the game against Rio Ave (we are 0-2 against them this season) and solidify our chances of a fourth placed finish.
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 22:17:20 GMT
Youth Intake 2031Whilst I wanted a youth intake with depth, this provides me with one absolutely fantastic player, Guilherme Marques. He, already, is rated as an absolutely fantastic central defender or defensive midfielder. Elsewhere in the intake, Andre Marcos has decent attributes for a centre half and Rocha has good striker attributes. Guilherme Marques - has the necessary height to become a centre back, despite possibly being higher rated as a defensive midfielder, maybe in the CM(d) role. He's right footed, an area in which I have Sergio Pereira, who hasn't progressed much at all, but is good enough to play out of the defence. Hugo Rocha - Not as quick as my other strikers but does work hard and can finish. I'll be interested to see how well he can develop. Andre Marcos - A little small but doesn't have any gaps, yet isn't great across the board. A drab affair, which probably shows the overall lack of quality within my youth teams at the moment. Marques was fantastic, eight interceptions, six of eight headers won and 38 of his 46 passes completed as he stood out in an unremarkable game. Huga Rocha got himself into a few good positions but skewed his only shot wide.
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 22:35:13 GMT
March 2031Fantastic progress in Europe as we comfortably beat Salzburg, who were probably the weakest team left. We are rewarded with a tie against Chelsea, currently seventh in the Premier League but bound to give us our sternest test yet. We lost, as expected to Porto but then decided to not turn up against Nacional - losing a chance to put some distance between ourselves and Rio Ave, who had earlier lost to Benfica.
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Post by fmamerican on Jan 2, 2019 23:00:10 GMT
Top three look out of reach but the European run keeps going!
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Post by Ben on Jan 2, 2019 23:19:55 GMT
Top three look out of reach but the European run keeps going! Unfortunately so! They are just a class apart. I am so tempted to pause my 'rules' for this summer - rip apart this team, build a new one and see just how unbeatable they are!
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Post by ttgb on Jan 3, 2019 10:04:15 GMT
Just caught up with your progress. Your European runs must be giving the club a good reputation boost which will hopefully aid the youth intakes.
Have you done anything more with tutoring. It is am area I can't seem to get on with. I have set up various groups but seeing little benefit. It is also annoying that I can't add under 19s to my first team groups
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Post by Ben on Jan 3, 2019 10:13:55 GMT
April 2031The European dream is over but we secure qualification for next season and look to wrap up our equal best finish as well as needing five points from our last four games to secure our record points haul. However, I am aware that we are very dependent on Andre Folha, 34 goals this season and 104 in 176 career games to date and that other players simply aren't performing well enough. I am more than considering making changes to the recruitment policy over the summer, making these 'priorities' rather than 'musts' so that I can embrace the true real life approach Portuguese clubs take. This is season number six in the top flight and, although the gap is closing and we are making European progress, we need to accelerate that.
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