ianf
New Member
Posts: 92
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Post by ianf on Jun 19, 2019 14:22:23 GMT
Have only just started reading but so excited for another Ben save
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Post by Ben on Jun 19, 2019 17:49:11 GMT
February, March and April 2029I didn't bother with the two-month February and March update as there was little to talk about, 1 goal scored, 3 goals conceded and just one win. We sure know how to play dull football in San Marino. April, however, has seen a turn up in fortunes - five without defeat and a fortuitous defeat against Verona, where tired legs conceded late in the game despite being largely on top. That leaves us in a solid position in the league, five ahead of Feralpi with a possible six remaining. We are at home to Salernitana in the first game of May where we can secure our safety before going away to Latina - both games could yield goals and points, which is great. Elsewhere, I've tried to get a few mentoring groups going: We have a squad wide issue with determination and, even though I don't know the exact number, it drops down to a dark green (good [somewhere between 10 and 15]) which isn't great. I am not in a position to be able to change that, as all my team leaders have that kind of level and won't pass anything good on. However, they all have moderately positive personalities and I'd be happier to pass those on.
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Post by Ben on Jun 19, 2019 17:49:46 GMT
Have only just started reading but so excited for another Ben save Thanks Ian! It's a bit of a slow burner at the moment but I think that is needed as I get everything in place!
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Post by Ben on Jun 19, 2019 20:17:24 GMT
2028/29 End of Season ReviewJust the two games in May, which we lost both of but managed to stay up and avoid the relegation playoff that we faced last year. Finishing 15th, one place better than last season, doesn't feel like too much to shout about, given the perceived lack of development, but I feel much more content than I did twelve months ago. Here is the final league table: We are faced with the prospect of a strong Serie B next year with Torino not going up and Udinese coming back down again - as well as losing three relatively weak teams down to Serie C. Never the less, we are still facing the prospect of several more seasons at this level unless we can suddenly pick up some kind of form. As for the player performances, they are below: Once again - few players averaging over 7, but that is to be expected given our performances. Two defenders with good average ratings, plus holding midfielder Maiolo and striker Arzilli, who finally gave me a striker in double figures as Molinari has not managed that over the past two seasons. There are a few players who are able to provide some backup to the team now - Casadei, Guidi and Rebiscini are just about good enough and Canti is now at the point whereby he is offering a slightly left field option as a central player, but more on his development in a later post. Aims for next season are, again, to stay up. We are not really big enough or good enough for this league but there are patches of quality coming through that I need to ensure are built around.
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Post by Ben on Jun 19, 2019 21:52:04 GMT
I would say that I have won, in the end. Despite the forced sale, I have managed to knock Atalanta back enough times to force them to pay a pretty stupid amount for a player of his quality. He's our first choice striker, but we are a poor Serie B team and I can bring through a striker with more potential but I now have used that £6m to head back into a positive bank balance which can be used to supplement youth coming through in the future. As you can see from his profile, the move to Serie A hasn't aligned with the value of his sale but I do hope he progresses whilst using better facilities and doesn't just rot in their reserves!
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Post by Ben on Jun 21, 2019 17:47:12 GMT
August/September 2029
As starts go, this is fantastic. However, I have said that twice before and then found October and November very tricky. We started the season with a blistering win, far exceeding our old record margin, putting seven past Serie C Modena and then overcoming Mantova to give us a fourth ride tie against Udinese - we could really win that and make some progress in this competition. The league didn't start too well but Frosinone have just been relegated, so this was to be expected. Since then, we have pieced together a nice little run, even if we did our best to throw the Trapani game - three up just after half time led to a very nail-biting last few minutes after they'd scored. We head into October just behind two of the relegated sides. I have every reason to think we'll fall away so, again, am happy whilst this feeling lasts.
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Post by Ben on Jun 22, 2019 18:06:12 GMT
October/November 2029
In comparison with previous years - it's better. We are still four games without a win but nine points over the two games keeps us much higher in the table than we had been in previous years. Lecce are proving to be a cut above everyone else and I would expect them to be promoted straight back to Serie A - they certainly took us apart but, in fairness, I went into the game full of confidence, hoping to catch them on the break.
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Post by Ben on Jun 22, 2019 18:34:38 GMT
Player Development - Andrea CantiCanti was the pick of my intake two years ago and is currently making some really good strides in his development. Over the past two years since his inception, I have been training him as a central midfielder as a way to get the best out of his solid build, size and workrate. He's not a creator, as I leave that role to Zafferani, but he is the runner. Even though he is very poor defensively at this time, I like him as a BBM(s) rather than a Mez(s) because of the defensive support in the shape of another body that he offers. Below is his development across all three areas: His is now considered to be a good dribbler and, that, combined with good passing, first touch and excellent technique, make him a good technical threat in the middle of a creative side. I do wish that he was a bit more competent going forward - long shots and finishing are a little low for my liking but they are unlikely to ever really improve. He's made strides on his anticipation but that remains only at a decent level, whereas he is now considered to have a good workrate and vision on the ball. He's also reached a point where he has an excellent jumping reach, agility and pace and has grown an inch as well as putting on 6kg. At 17, he is already good enough for the first team and has made thirty appearances to date, forming a good relationship with Maiolo and Zafferani. Going forward - I want to continue his development as a box to box midfielder, work on his attacking attributes and consider any player traits to add to his game.
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Post by Ben on Jun 22, 2019 22:42:09 GMT
The most nostalgic of appointments...
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Post by ttgb on Jun 22, 2019 22:53:22 GMT
Nice
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Post by Ben on Jun 22, 2019 23:14:04 GMT
Player SaleWhilst this deal for Percassi isn't the best, I feel that I have negotiated well and got a decent figure bearing in mind that each player has a price. The installments mean that, for every one month out of six, my staff wages are 'free.' I have spent a lot of time thinking about my backroom team but significantly less time budgeting for the so this comes as a help. Despite the £6m sale of Arzilli, we are still losing money at an alarming rate...
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Post by Ben on Jun 23, 2019 8:54:50 GMT
Coaching DevelopmentSomething that I have spent time addressing, at the detriment to our finances, is the coaching system that I am using in this save. I want to employ a internal promotion approach whereby I maintain a good turnover of staff throughout my club as they develop and then, hopefully, go on to manage other sides in Italy and beyond. Below are my coaches for each age group: To get this working effectively - I need to focus on attributes that don't change - personality, determination, working with youngsters, motivating and discipline. My plan is to find young coaches who don't necessarily have all of their coaching badges (and hopefully have enough potential ability left to complete them), hire them for the youth team and look to move them up as and when vacancies arise. I lost my old assistant manager to a managerial job in Serie C so youth team Assistant Pellissier was appointed (he's superior, in name and not FM nostalgia at least to U20 assistant Alessio Cerci). Espianl and Nohman both started out as U18 coaches but when an advert found both Di Paolo and Iadaresta, I took the chance to move them up to make space. Hopefully this will form part of the continuity that I'm trying to achieve at the club.
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Post by Robson on Jun 23, 2019 9:52:16 GMT
I work very similarly to you Ben with regards to coaches, maybe not quite as personality obsessive but on the lines you describe.
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Post by Ben on Jun 23, 2019 15:58:17 GMT
December 2029/January 2030We are still, somehow, in contention here. A really good couple of months where we put behind us a difficult November, breaking the winless streak with a hammering over arch rivals Cesena. Hernan Crespo's rejuvenated side took a point from us but we have won all three since - including a good win over then-second-placed Frosinone. I have also used this time to renew some contracts. We are still running the smallest budget per year (£1.73m and about £180k less than Trapani - who sit 12th) and I am relying purely on loyalty when it comes to being able to keep these players here. Stefanelli could very well be earning £20k+ for a Serie A club but his demands remain very low and convenient at this point. I envisage that, the next time I could round to renewing these, I will once again have to break all kinds of records to keep them at the club.
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Post by Ben on Jun 23, 2019 15:59:48 GMT
I work very similarly to you Ben with regards to coaches, maybe not quite as personality obsessive but on the lines you describe. I've always been adamant that there is something linking the personality of the staff to those in the intake. I haven't ever been able to do more than speculate but I will have a look at what I can find!
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Post by Nick on Jun 23, 2019 17:25:25 GMT
I'm largely from the other school of thought, concentrating on attributes over anything else. More out of habit than anything else. I've got an U19's staffing unit to arrange though, so I may have a little play around with it.
Great to see you making progress, Ben. As you say, you're right in the mix. Even if you tail off a bit, I can't see you finishing lower than eighth as a minimum.
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Post by Robson on Jun 23, 2019 19:12:55 GMT
I work very similarly to you Ben with regards to coaches, maybe not quite as personality obsessive but on the lines you describe. I've always been adamant that there is something linking the personality of the staff to those in the intake. I haven't ever been able to do more than speculate but I will have a look at what I can find! Please do that'd be interesting.
I think at certain point I do stop on personalities before it takes over recruitment at all levels of the club completely. This isn't logical at all as such but it my head I can't make either the coaches or the players all about character, almost about education and background. I think is okay to have the odd 'rough diamond' so long as overall the squad/club is reasonably determined and professional.
I always remember my NFL team (Rams) having a coach about 10 years ago and he had this thing about 4 pillars: Faith, Character, Core Values and Team-First Mentality. He was going to (re)build the franchise literally on those 4 pillars which sounded great but instead they went from bad to worst. They simply lacked enough good players and winners.
I also seem to recall SI saying about a recent version of FM they were going to try and redress the balance themselves regards newgens that there would be more 'mix' in personalities with a high PA.
Anyway definitely interesting if you manage any kind of analysis, that would be spot on.
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Post by Ben on Jun 26, 2019 20:28:38 GMT
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Post by Ben on Jun 27, 2019 21:25:08 GMT
February and March 2030Rails and fallen off them? I must blame the Sammarinese FA for the majority of late March - scheduling friendlies which, for some reason, I can't recall my players from so we had to hand 10 new shirt numbers (and debuts) to a squad of about 17. To lose only 0-1 and 1-3 is probably a great result given the team that we had out, even with normal international regular Marco Casali rested. We have an outside shot at the playoffs now - I say it that way based on our form rather than our current league position and with Torino below us.
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Post by Ben on Jun 28, 2019 21:37:02 GMT
2029/30 End of SeasonWe were really set back by an awful March and it took much of April to cement ourselves again - always following the pattern of tightening the defence before pushing on. In the end, we huffed and puffed but couldn't really make any kind of headway and it was only a narrow win over Pescara and a thrashing of already-relegated Parma that kept us in the top half. We qualified for some kind of preliminary-play-off but lost out to a 120+1 goal to Benevento. Promotion was never my aim this year as the squad simply lacks any kind of depth which would make staying up at all possible. Below is how the first team fared: A reasonable goal return from a fair number of players and it is good to see that there is a majority of solid average ratings across the team. The whole first team vs backups principle is still very much in play as the cut off is clearly Canti, then Guidi filled in for various injuries then we move on to players who are only really backup players at this time. The next couple of years, and I have a plan for this, need to involve me getting the best from my youth players to actually flesh out a decently sized first team squad. Currently - we are completely knocked back in any kind of injury crisis and that just cannot happen if we want to be promotion contenders. On to the next one!
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Post by ttgb on Jun 28, 2019 22:07:58 GMT
What are finances like now? Must be frustrating that you haven't managed to improve any of the facilities.
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Post by Ben on Jun 29, 2019 20:11:38 GMT
What are finances like now? Must be frustrating that you haven't managed to improve any of the facilities. £2.6m in the bank but down from £4.6m this time last year - so not great. We need a big sale every couple of years unless we reach Serie A. In terms of facilities - have just upgraded both YR and JC but they still remain the same level - just the higher numbers on those now, I presume...
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Post by Ben on Jun 29, 2019 20:12:30 GMT
Temptation.Big bids to turn down but I'm happy the board now have either enough trust in me or don't feel we need the money any more to go over my head. Zafferani is a great player - one of my best and rated as good enough to be in Serie A. He is also under contract for 4 more years but the bid was over ten times his value. Last summer, we sold Arzilli for £6m and managed to lose nearly £2m of that over the course of the season. I believe a sale like this needs to happen - I just don't want to lose anyone!
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Post by Ben on Jul 1, 2019 20:20:29 GMT
August/September 2030A really solid start to the campaign where we remain unbeaten, even if we have fallen off somewhat with three draws in a row. Sadly, we have exited the Coppa Italia, falling one stage previous to the past two years. A good win away at a strong look Torino gives me a good omen as we enter the winter period.
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Post by Ben on Jul 1, 2019 20:42:36 GMT
Developing new talentI'm a little short (to say the least) on talent able to fill out my first team at the moment. I have been able to fit the 'best' players from the intake straight into the first team and allow them to develop with first time football, but I have struggled to develop backup options that are anywhere near the level I need. Here is my current U18 team: I have a couple of players that are classed as 'promising' with their tag - hopefully an indication of some good potential to fulfil. I want to use this PA to address training in a slightly different way. I want as many of these players to be useful by the age of 18 or 19 so I really need to focus on developing areas that they aren't strong in. I think that, despite my DNA, we need to approach youth training on a year-by-year basis. Making the U18 team as strong as it can be will then allow me to specialise later on. To monitor how this develops - I have taken averages from each attribute area (I don't think that this gives me any information that I've been hiding as it's just the average of the whole youth squad and not a single player - I still know the rough 'area' that it is in but that's it). This is what that looks like: I have horizontally sorted these to see strongest (left) to weakest (right). I have left the goalkeeper out of this and all GK attributes because I need to approach their training differently. My DNA loosely consists of the following styles: Ability to retain possession of the ball Patient movement in defence but incisive attacking movement leading to clear cut chances Playing through the middle with wide players offering passing options rather than focus I would consider the attributes to be important: Vision (7), Passing (7), Anticipation (8), Technique (8), Teamwork (9). Whilst these are universal attributes for players across the pitch (unsure how many centre backs have 20 for vision or passing) but I think that they are quite low for a whole team average, even when considering a youth team. Therefore, I am going implement the following schedule each week. I see no point changing it as we just play on a Saturday and therefore can use a fairly generic set up. My thoughts are getting the physical work in early. We are quite strong (9), quick (acc 13 and pace 12) but getting these to a really good level will make the long term focus easier when we get to the first team. From there, I want to use schedules that focus on passing, both across the whole group and their individual units. We then spend Friday all together going over a whole variety of things. The workload is high, but, I literally have no idea what is right at this moment. In a year, I will come back and analyse both average attributes and look at injury rates.
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Post by Ben on Jul 3, 2019 20:17:02 GMT
October/November 2030These bi-monthly updates get pretty hard to write when we only score in two of our eight matches but six games without a win in this period quickly turns into five without defeat and we fly back up the table. A few injury issues have no subsided as I move into the December and new year period, so I hope to be able to pick up plenty of points.
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Post by Ben on Jul 4, 2019 21:08:46 GMT
December 2030, January and February 2031With five unbeaten games brought up over the October and November spell, we extended that to a really solid thirteen before a tough loss at home to Benevento. We fought back admirably, destroyed Citadella in their own back yard and seeing us score four for the first time (in ages and maybe even at this level) was a great performance. This period has seen some big games - a win over Torino was somewhat unexpected and has probably evened out with the home loss to Benevento. With this start - playoffs must now be my goal. Whether we have enough to hold our own over a few games against teams at this level will remain to be seen. We also managed to balance our books with the sale of youth full back Nunzo D'Elia for £900k. He's good, not yet great, and not really up to par technically (although not a lot of my team actually is) but the income stems a leak in our bank balance for the next few months, at least.
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Post by Ben on Jul 5, 2019 19:14:30 GMT
2030/31 Youth Intake
A strange one, really, as I don't necessarily see this as a particularly strong intake. We have, once again, shown that we can get better personalities through the youth team with only Missiroli and Ceccoli having really bad ones, Dolcini not having the best and Albani and Farris' being due to an attribute. Angelli is the pick of the bunch but with Balanced/Media Friendly, I can't take too much from him about how he might develop. Good tackler, going at positioning himself and concentrating, reasonably physical and exceptionally brave - he's an old school centre back. Sadly, this is not really what I want from a modern thinking centre half - his passing is poor, technique virtually non-existent and no kind of composure on the ball. He'll, initially anyway, train as broadly as he can, either on the Libero or BPD schedule and, assuming the rest of the team are lacking in technical ability too - will spend a good amount of time focusing on that.
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Post by Ben on Jul 6, 2019 12:17:52 GMT
March/April 2031We've all but secured our place in the convoluted play-off system but have hit some poor form at the worst time. Molinari has stopped scoring and, with the only depth behind him being a seventeen year old less than ten senior games into his career, it has largely been down to him to play his way out of it. Hopeful that a couple of good performances in the last games will set us up, in morale terms at least, for a good shot at making Serie A.
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Post by Ben on Jul 6, 2019 12:33:52 GMT
Youth Training: Has it worked?To recap - last summer, I decided that I would approach youth training slightly differently and on a year-to-year basis, ironing out as many gaps in the whole of the team as possible, thus giving me a better chance of integrating more players, even as just back ups. I obviously wanted to develop them in a way that would be fitting of my ideology for the club - patient passing football at the back and incisive quick transitions through the final third. Below is the schedule I came up with that I ran with for the whole season: A mix of physical training, in order to develop their physicality at a younger age whereby they should already have a natural progression but supplementing that with a lot of 'team' driven sessions and a fair amount of work on ball retention, given the style I want to play. I also added team bonding and community outreach each week as it adds little to the workload but does improve team work - a key asset in my teams and the way I want to play. Over the course of the season, I lost a couple of players so have excluded them from the initial and post experiment screenshot. Below shows the results: First thing to note is that I don't have any comparison of a 'vanilla' schedule - i.e. I cannot compare this to a season of normal training and say that what I have done has worked. However, what I can take from this is that the areas that have improved the most are anticipation, balance, decisions, stamina, technique and vision - all key parts of my style of football for the first team. I would expect a natural physical development and that has happened - with acceleration and pace improved an average of 1 point a piece. Elsewhere, I need to take into account that there are some low scores on technical attributes - corners, freekicks, penalties and long throws which have brought down the mean and probably the progress score as I haven't been focusing on them, at all. Obviously, each player has been on their own individual regime with Ciavatta, Valentini and Zafferani learning new positions, too. In my eyes, this experiment looks to have worked - there are far less 'weak areas' within the team now and players are developing well and being able to be integrated into first team football where possible (of this lot, Ciavatta, Bologna, Zafferani, Zavoli and Mucciolo have all played first team minutes) but the impact has been measured over a much shorter time than necessary to get proper results. If/when I am a massive team with a squad full of world class players - the breakthrough of my youth will come much later. If I was to continue this next season - I'd be adding the extra dimension of impact of first team minutes (particularly for Zafferani who is becoming a regular) and that is not a variable that I want to include.
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