Dexter's Darlings [FM20]

[Vidic]

Introduction

Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. They have won more trophies than any other club in English football, with a record 20 League titles, 12 FA Cups, 5 League Cups and a record 21 FA Community Shields. United have also won 3 UEFA Champions Leagues, 1 UEFA Europa League, 1 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 Intercontinental Cup and 1 FIFA Club World Cup. In 1998–99, the club became the first in the history of English football to achieve the continental European treble. By winning the UEFA Europa League in 2016–17, they became one of five clubs to have won all three main UEFA club competitions.

Success is deep-rooted within the DNA of this club; from the first league title won in 1908 by Ernest Mangnall, to Sir Matt Busby's Babes and later a period of continued domination under Sir Alex Ferguson spanning 26 years. Manchester United know what it takes to win. However, following Sir Alex's retirement in 2013, United have regressed and allowed other clubs to make up the ground and claw at their perch. A steady stream of mediocrity, poor football, and questionable recruitment has seen the Red Devils fall down the league table and their fans are often left pondering how long it will take for them to return to the upper echelons of English and European football.




The Manager and Club Expectations

Following Ole Gunnar Solskjær's period as caretaker manager, United once again decided to look inwards to someone who understands the club through and through and turned to appoint current Under 23's manager Henry Dexter. Dexter is tasked with restoring entertaining football to Old Trafford while also nurturing and bringing through youth prospects to the first team. Something which he knows all too well as a successful graduate and media-coined Fergie Fledgling back in the 1990s.

[Vidic]

Pre-Season

When taking over at a club I like to use friendlies to establish a play style without really nailing down a set formation. I find it useful to test out players and combinations in different ways all while rotating the squad to try and spread the minutes throughout and build upon their fitness. Results do not matter a great deal in pre-season but it is always nice to pick up a bit of momentum before the season starts proper. That being said I am pleased with the results we picked up, the only real blot was a 1-0 defeat away to Brentford where we were reduced to 10 men and succumbed to an 88th-minute winner.

It is promising to see that 9 of 15 of the goals scored were by our 3 main forwards Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, and Mason Greenwood. It is imperative that these 3 are firing on all cylinders this season as we look to break back into the top 4 and take our place in next years Champions League.



* Vidic's notes: I hope this reads alright for you guys, I have never blogged a football manager save before but after reading some stories here I'm really looking forward to documenting and delving a bit deeper than the face value of my save. Any comments or tips would be massively appreciated - mainly how do I increase the size of my screenshots within the text body? (Edit: thanks chaodck I saw your reply on shrewnaldo's thread!) Anyway, cheers for reading. *

[chaodck]

Welcome mate and great start!!! This looks promising, I'll be following.

[Vidic]

Nov 29, 2019 23:42:07 GMT chaodck said:

Welcome mate and great start!!! This looks promising, I'll be following.

Cheers man - really enjoyed your TeBe Berlin save from last years iteration!

[Vidic]

Tactics

After pre-season, I like to settle down into my tactic and begin moulding the players to fit our system. To decide upon our formation, I take in to account the following:

• Results – not a lot can be taken from pre-season results, to be honest, but if I try out a 3-5-2 and we get hammered over 3 games then it’s probably a sign that it isn’t going to work for us. With this in mind, I have decided to settle with a flat 4-3-3 formation.

• Mentality and playstyle – as seen in our club vision I have been tasked with playing ‘entertaining football’, this immediately casts my mind back to United sides of seasons gone by playing free-flowing attacking football with controlling midfielders and marauding fullbacks. I have set us to start each game with an attacking mentality, we need to try and take a grip of each game from the off. I have set a lot of instructions from the off here, I am hoping that I can reduce these as we progress.

• Complimentary roles and our players' suitability – with 3 men in midfield I need to ensure that they are not all tasked with the same objectives. It would be redundant to start with 3 advanced playmakers as they would all look to occupy the same spaces while leaving huge gaps in behind. I have currently settled with an attacking mezzala on the left, a defensive BWM in the middle, and a supportive AP on the right. These roles should give each player enough space to do their jobs whilst also allowing for some useful linkage across the midfield. I have tasked our BWM to pass short so once he collects the ball, he should play it to our more creative players ahead of him. Down the flanks, I have 2 supportive wingbacks backing up play and overlapping our inside forward on the left and our inverted winger on the right. As mentioned above a lot of our current players suit each of these roles so hopefully, they should familiarise themselves quicker to this setup.



It’s nice to see we have a couple of admirers on social media already with this system. We'll see how long the praise lasts.

[chaodck]

Dec 2, 2019 15:11:00 GMT Vidic said:

Nov 29, 2019 23:42:07 GMT chaodck said:

Welcome mate and great start!!! This looks promising, I'll be following.

Cheers man - really enjoyed your TeBe Berlin save from last years iteration!

It's still very much alive mate!!! My computer is at the repair shop, and it should come back soon. I haven't bought FM20 and nor I plan to buy it, as the save still has someway to go. I should have an update around wednesday next week.

[Robson]

Good luck Vidic. Success to the Red Devils.

[Vidic]

Dec 2, 2019 23:28:25 GMT Robson said:

Good luck Vidic. Success to the Red Devils.

Thanks mate - with a bit of luck.

[spitfire]

I always do a quick save during beta with a big club to test out the new game with good resources etc. I started with United this year but was a bit overwhelmed at the scale of rebuild needed... good luck to you!

[Vidic]

Dec 3, 2019 11:33:51 GMT spitfire said:

I always do a quick save during beta with a big club to test out the new game with good resources etc. I started with United this year but was a bit overwhelmed at the scale of rebuild needed... good luck to you!

Me too mate. I had a quick play with Ajax during the beta and initial release but I noticed that even after the fix I still had some issues with players' determination so I decided to start again.

I support United so know all too well about the rebuild necessary!

[Vidic]

European Goals

This year we have been tasked with reaching the final of the Europa League, last achieved in 2017 where we went one further and beat Ajax 2-0. There is nothing like a European night on your own turf, the anticipation around each tie is incredible. Even though this is not the top tier of Europe - I am excited to see how we fare in this competition.

Our group sees us face Wolfsberger AC of Austria, S.C. Braga of Portugal, and Torino FC of Italy. A group which we should comfortably top on paper. Elsewhere, our English compatriots Wolves are drawn against Sporting CP, Saint Etienne, and FK Sarajevo. Whereas, Arsenal will battle for Group H glory with Standard Liege, APOEL, and FC Thun.

[Vidic]

Results Aug 2019-Nov 2019

We started the season away at Bramall Lane against newly-promoted Sheffield United, despite dominating possession we failed to take any of our chances and came away with a disappointing draw. We then followed this up with 2 brilliant home games against Southampton and Watford, Paul Pogba showing some excellent early-season goal scoring form as he netted 4 goals. Finally we went up against fierce rivals Liverpool at Anfield, unfortunately for us, their front 3 blew us away and we were left with too much to do by the time Martial bagged his first league goal of the campaign.

September's results were a mixed bag - with Premier League wins against Brighton and Newcastle and a loss against Eddie Howe's Bournemouth sandwiched between. We also got our European campaign off to a good start with a 3-0 win over Wolfsberger, Angel Gomes starting and bagging a brace. Elsewhere, a heavily rotated side fell to defeat against a strong Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge in the EFL Cup - this competition isn't important to the board or myself but I would have liked a bit of a deeper foray if the draw was perhaps a bit kinder.

October saw us continue our small unbeaten run, firstly, a draw away in Portugal in Europe and 3 impressive wins back-to-back-to-back against Palace, Chelsea, and Torino. I am delighted to return to Stamford Bridge and avenge our EFL Cup loss, Anthony Martial putting on an impressive display. My favourite moment of the season so far saw young academy graduate Mason Greenwood bag 4 goals in 16 minutes against Torino in the Europa League, it is great to see our young talents take their opportunities in the first team and I am ecstatic with Mason's performances so far.

[Vidic]

Results Nov 2019-Feb 2020

November saw us continue our unbeaten run which ran well into December, going 15 games unbeaten in all competitions was massively encouraging, with some excellent football being played along the way. Important Premier League wins against Arsenal, Leicester, Spurs, and Everton saw us rise to 3rd in the table behind early pace-setters Liverpool and Manchester City.

A special mention must go to that run of 6 games won between the end of November and the middle of December, games come thick and fast in England and to win 6 games in the space of 18 days is a special feat for any side. To do so with some incredible wins over Wolfsberger, Leicester, and Burnley especially gave us loads of confidence to cement ourselves firmly in those Champions League spots.

We were brimming with confidence when our cross-town rivals came to Old Trafford, I was hopeful that our form could see us rip through the heart of City's defence but to their credit, they completely nullified our attack and dismantled us for each of their 3 goals. This loss put some things into perspective for us, even though we were sitting pretty in 3rd place, results this season have shown we are still a way off from competing with Liverpool and City.

Although in the next game we bounced back with a 4-0 win over Aston Villa, the heavy schedule was proving too much for our lads. 3 draws on the bounce over the Christmas period proved so with all of our goals coming before the hour mark, it looked like we began to lose our legs as well as our concentration in the final periods as we dropped points against all 3 teams.

We then crashed out of the FA Cup against Everton in a game that saw many young, and fringe players make a start. With us fighting for Champions League qualification as well as Europa League glory, I put the FA Cup at the bottom of our priorities. We were, of course, tasked with reaching the semi-final but hopefully, if we bring the board success in these other areas then they will overlook our poor showings in the domestic cup competitions.

After a small break between games, our lads come back ready to kick-start the second half of our season, convincing back-to-back wins against Newcastle, Chelsea, and Wolves further backed this up and I am hopeful that the blip of form in December was exactly that - a blip.

[Vidic]

Youth Intake Preview



I am absolutely buzzing with this. Not only could it be my very own "golden generation", the most promising players previewed to come through all fit my current formation. I eagerly anticipate this year's youth intake and I am really hoping that a few of them could be turning out for the first team in a few seasons time.

[Vidic]

Youth Candidates



Here you can see the lads we had on trial with us this year. A fairly decent bunch attribute-wise to be honest but I am gutted with our star prospect Joel Garnett's personality set at Mercenary. I will give him a chance though, hopefully with a bit of mentoring we can whip him in to shape, and if not, plenty of clubs should be sniffing around him.

King-Seavill is a player I am encouraged by though - he boasts very high levels of natural fitness, bravery, determination, teamwork, and work rate so is definitely on the right path. He's another to keep our eye on at least.

[Vidic]

Results Feb 2019-May 2020

We managed to continue our mini purple patch of form into February as we picked up league wins against Saints and Sheffield United, the latter an emphatic 6-0 victory, a much better showing than that on the opening day. Back-to-back draws followed by a narrow 1-0 win over Sporting rounds off our month unbeaten.

March was a bit of a mixed bag results-wise, tidy wins against Everton, and Burnley extended our unbeaten run and a home draw in the Europa League against Arsenal set up an all-important away leg at the Emirates. We managed to overcome Arsenal thanks to 2 quickfire goals right from the start and a moment of sheer brilliance 37 minutes in from summer recruit Federico Bernardeschi, he turned his fullback inside out as he weaved through the Arsenal defence from the right before calmly slotting past the german stopper Leno. Our final game of the month, however, saw us fall to West Ham. It is results like these that we really need to clamp down on next season if we are going to really push on and challenge the top 2.

7 big games in April saw us look to extend ourselves away from the chasing pack in 3rd position. 10 points from 12 against some tough opposition are certainly pleasing and a tidy 2-0 win over Liverpool will always be welcomed by the club and its fans the world over. Elsewhere, we managed to scrape through on away goals against Wolfsburg in the Europa League to set us up a semi-final tie against unexpected opponents CSKA Moscow. Don't let the result deceive you here, we were certainly tested by their front two of Chalov and Vlasic, the prior bagging the equalising goal after Federico's early effort. 3 goals after the 90-minute mark saw us knock the wind out of CSKA's sails as we were able to head to Russia with a healthy 4-1 aggregate lead.

[Vidic]

Results May 2020

May would usually be crunch time for a team chasing a top 4 finish but luckily our earlier form saw us sit comfortably in 3rd place, which is where we finished despite some poor showings against Watford and Bournemouth. We did manage to win our final league game away at the AMEX against a Brighton side which had clinched top-flight status for another season the week prior. Anthony Martial once again ran the show in this game, much like he has all season, managing to finish the league season with an uncontested 32 goals to bag himself the golden boot. He really has been lethal this year and has at times deflected from our somewhat suspect defensive performances. He finished a full 10 goals ahead of 2nd placed Sergio Aguero and without Anthony's performances this year I am certain we would have been in a much more precarious spot.

We took our 4-1 lead to Russia and once again overturned CSKA to book our place in the Europa League final where we come up against high-flying Wolverhampton. They have once again exceeded expectations this year to finish in 6th place ahead of West Ham, Arsenal, Everton, Leicester and the rest and stand in our way to pick up our only silverware of the season. Fans flew from airports across the country to support their teams in Poland and in a very entertaining game for the neutral viewer we managed to blow past Wolves with 4 goals in the first half. Again, we did dip off in parts in the second half and our opponents managed to reduce the deficit to finish the game 4-2. Even though this isn't the top European competition, I am still delighted to have lifted that trophy in my first season in charge and hopefully, this taste of glory will start a fire within the players to go even further next season in each competition.

Our goal for next year performance-wise is to sure-up our defence, especially against teams we should be beating on paper. 6 losses in 38 games are not terrible but with the top 2 only losing 5 games between them, we are a mile off competing for the title. I am hopeful that we can turn many of these draws in to wins too, we need to be relentless from the first whistle to the last and ensure we can either nick a late goal or completely shut up shop to hold on to our leads. Overall, I am incredibly proud of the squad this year to finish 3rd and clinch a European title is certainly more than many fans were expecting when I first took over.

[ttgb]

It's refreshing to read a top side save. Good progress. Scoring goals doesn't seem to be a problem. Where are you playing pogba?
What are your transfer plans for the summer

[Vidic]

Dec 16, 2019 10:07:37 GMT ttgb said:

It's refreshing to read a top side save. Good progress. Scoring goals doesn't seem to be a problem. Where are you playing pogba?
What are your transfer plans for the summer

Thanks mate. Goals were flying in but conceded far too many to really challenge.

First season I played Pogba on the left side of a flat midfield 3 operating as an attacking mezzala. As you know from your FM19 save he is incredible on this game.

I will post soon with my summer update and also how we've done in the opening parts of the season.

[ianf]

Interested to see how you re-shape a very imbalanced squad!

[chaodck]

Good first season Vidic, third place and UEL champions isn't bad, specially considering the talent gap that separates you from Liverpool and Man City at first. As a rather nationalist question, what are your plans for Alexis Sanchez next season? Has he regressed much in FM20?

[Vidic]

2020/21 Tactics

After the season it was clear to see where we needed to make improvements, scoring goals was no problem as we finished just 1 short of highest scorers Liverpool with 92 over the 38 games in comparison to their 93. However we conceded too many goals and as a result, dropped points in too many games where we should have been putting these teams away.

39 goals conceded in the league is not bad by any means, but in comparison to the pacesetters sitting in first and second, we were 11 goals ahead of Liverpool and a whopping 22 ahead of league winners Manchester City. As I said, 39 goals conceded isn’t terrible, but to win the league you need the strongest defence and at the highest level of competition we need to be much tighter at the back.

As the board and our fans are happy with our current entertaining playstyle, my team of coaches and I have decided to keep the same formation and roles as previous. As shown we played some excellent stuff at times last year and I don’t want to sacrifice our high scoring play in the hopes that we can concede a couple fewer. We need a way to carry on scoring whilst keeping it tight at the back. Here are the few tweaks we have made to our system in the hopes of striking much needed a balance:

• In possession – removed ‘focus play down the left’. We often relied on our left-sided trident of Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, and Luke Shaw to spark our play but with the continued development of Aaron Wan-Bissaka down the right and Federico Bernardeschi finding his feet in English football, we have removed this instruction. I have moved Paul Pogba to the right side in that advanced playmaker position, this is a role he fills exceptionally and it also allows for a new signing of ours to slot into the left-sided mezzala.

• In transition – removed ‘take long kicks’. This helped us score some fast breakaway goals last season but with the development of our ball-playing-defenders and also our ‘play out of defence’ instruction kind of contradicting ourselves, this was removed and our keeper can distribute how he now pleases. We have kept the ‘counter’ and ‘counter-press’ instructions as these are massive parts of our playstyle that have proved immensely effective.

• Out of possession – removed ‘defend wider’, ‘use tighter marking’, and changed the line of engagement and defensive line from higher on both to a lower line of engagement and a normal defensive line. I felt like last year we were leaving ourselves massively exposed at the back by leaving the opposition too much space to operate, especially in behind our backline. By allowing our wing backs to tuck into a normal position when defending it encourages the opposition to go down the line towards the corner, this is a much less dangerous area than being directly in front of our goal. Removing general tighter marking should eliminate any attackers spinning off our high line to race through on goal, this is also complemented by dropping our line back a little deeper to create a bit of a block and it should keep the play in front of our defenders which in my opinion is hugely important.

[Vidic]

2019 Transfer Dealings

Overall I was very pleased with our squads' performance last season, a big chunk of goals left the club with Romelu Lukaku but his departure didn't affect us one bit. We also lost first-team players Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Alexis Sánchez, Antonio Valencia, and Ander Herrera. Some only on loan but none the less we had started to overturn the team.

The arranged incomings of Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and Daniel James were further complemented with the additions of Federico Bernardeschi, Blaise Matuidi, and youngster Jude Bellingham. This squad settled very well and between our DOF, scouts, and myself we targeted a couple of problem areas within our squad.

2020 Transfer Dealings

Our major signing of the summer saw us splash just over £50m on Portuguese midfield maestro Bruno Fernandes. We had tracked his progress all season and we were well aware of his capabilities and advantages of signing him compared to our current players. He can fit in the left-sided mezzala and the right-sided advanced playmaker roles with ease and can also fill in on the wings if necessary. This signing is a real statement of intent for us and the fans are rightly buzzing with Bruno's arrival.

Our defence needed bolstering as I had no plans for Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, or Eric Bailly who all left the club to pastures new. In their place, we signed Nathan Aké, and Jonathan Panzo. 2 players who can comfortably fill the BPD role in the middle and also contest for the left wing-back position. Nathan Aké, in particular, is a great signing for us, he has established himself as a Premier League regular with former club Bournemouth and comes to us as an extra homegrown player despite his Dutch nationality.

We made 2 signings for our youth squads with Dylan Munro, and Richard Norman joining the club from Motherwell, and Wolves respectively. Both lads show huge promise and hopefully, we'll see them link up with the first team in the coming seasons.

Elsewhere, we see club favourite Jesse Lingard join West Ham in search of consistent first-team football, and older head Nemanja Matic leave the club to join Al-Gharafa in Qatar. We also allowed youngsters Owen Cunningham, and Henry Marsland to leave the club for small fees, I couldn't see a route to the first team for these lads so to get any fee for them is fine by me. Our HOYD also arranged for a lot of loans for our younger players which I have not listed, their development is being closely watched by him and our Loan Manager and we are made well aware of their progression.

[Vidic]

Dec 17, 2019 1:25:15 GMT ianf said:

Interested to see how you re-shape a very imbalanced squad!

Already well under way mate, starting to come together very nicely!

[Vidic]

Dec 17, 2019 14:35:09 GMT chaodck said:

Good first season Vidic, third place and UEL champions isn't bad, specially considering the talent gap that separates you from Liverpool and Man City at first. As a rather nationalist question, what are your plans for Alexis Sanchez next season? Has he regressed much in FM20?

Thanks pal - I agree we're in a good spot! Our plan for Alexis is to let him leave at the first opportunity unfortunately. He didn't perform well at all in Italy with only 6 league appearances to his name. At 32 years old and on what feels like £1b per week I am hoping to shift him soon.

[ttgb]

That's some good business in the transfer market. The temptation would always be to spend big but you have resisted and have a more balanced squad

[Vidic]

Dec 19, 2019 15:20:52 GMT ttgb said:

That's some good business in the transfer market. The temptation would always be to spend big but you have resisted and have a more balanced squad

Cheers mate. Glad to get the side to this decent position relatively quickly where we can start picking off quality targets instead of having to make wholesale changes.

[Vidic]

2020/21 - League Progress Aug-Jan

I don't know what to say other than what a bloody start we've had! Our side has been near faultless for twenty(!) straight Premier League games. During this incredible run, we've broken the consecutive wins record as we hit nineteen in a row. Our previous defensive frailties have been seemingly quashed with the tactical switches implemented and the arrival of Nathan Aké complimenting the influential Harry Maguire, and Victor Lindelöf in the heart of our defence.

Once again we have blown plenty of sides away with our blistering counter-attacks and it sees us finish the calendar year with fifty-four league goals scored vs. only eighteen conceded - with four of them coming in a crazy victory over Bournemouth in November, I am incredibly pleased with our collective efforts.

As you can probably tell, we sit rather comfortably on the top of the tree at Christmas, still being chased by Liverpool and Man City who will be looking to capitalise on any slip-ups we may have. I am impressed with the resilience of the side that has been shown so far this year. Being able to see out victories is a vital feature of any title-winning side so to see so many 1-0, 2-0, and 2-1 results show that we have improved upon our mentality and concentration compared to last seasons campaign.



2020/21 - Cup Progress Aug-Jan

Our only losses so far this season have come in cup competitions. Back in August, we were defeated on penalties by Barcelona in the UEFA Super Cup, which saw us miss out on the first piece of silverware on offer to us this year. Our first loss in ninety minutes come away at the Mestalla to the hands of Valencia in our Champions League group, we followed this up with a couple of disappointing away draws against Celtic and Shakhtar, but fortunately for us, our 100% home record saw us top the group and progress to the Round of 16.

A heavily youth-oriented side bowed out of the League Cup against Stoke City, we dominated the fixture but the Potters hit back on the stroke of half time and managed to hold out to defeat our youngsters on penalties. Finally, in the FA Cup, we progressed to the fourth round following a victory against Colchester United. I will be looking to progress as far as we can in the cup whilst giving as many opportunities to our youth graduates, and with goals coming from Tahith Chong, and Jude Bellingham it is clear to see why I am so excited to see these guys play.

[Vidic]

2020/21 - Squad Stats Aug-Jan

As you can see goals are coming from all over the pitch but Marcus Rashford currently leads the way with nineteen. Anthony Martial has fired ten in so far, usually, I would be a little disappointed with this strike rate from our main centre forward but with us sitting pretty at the top and everyone else contributing - I feel like ten goals is a healthy return. Mason Greenwood is proving once again why he is one of the highest-rated prospects in world football as he has netted eight goals in only seven starts, he has come on from the bench ten times already and is fully cementing himself as our second choice striker behind a certain Frenchman.

Bruno Fernandes has flown into English football like a Roy Keane slide tackle, his chemistry in the middle of the park with Paul Pogba has seen them create fifty-two goal-scoring chances between them. Bruno has himself netted on four occasions whilst laying on three for his teammates. Paul has once again been instrumental with thirteen goal contributions in only seventeen games. A special shout out must go to our wide men Federico Bernardeschi and Daniel James, both have contributed greatly with goals and assists and I am hopeful with even more minutes young James can continue to impress.




(Note: Joel Garnett's stats must have glitched here as he did not make thirty tackles and thirty dribbles in three minutes as an injury-time substitute!)

[Robson]

You signed last summer's will he or won't he join Man U - Bruno Fernandes. Does the midfield perform in a stable way in how you've set it up in front of ball playing defenders?