FM19- Bundesliga Thread

[Jogo Bonito]

On ‎18‎/‎08‎/‎2019 at 22:02, john1 said:

Good luck  

Cheers

In to October now, and finally seem to have found a formation. It's not been easy so far, too many good players at Bayer 04 to fit in to a starting X1. Results were ok, but I felt it was too attack-heavy until now 

[Martin93]

So I started a journeyman save(just that I cheated and started with National B license...) And then eventually I came to Wolfsburg where... we played terrible in the league in my two seasons there, barely avoided relegation both seasons but won the cup both season with fantastic football, with same players and tactic. And 2nd season we won 6 out 6 in the EL group but got knocked out by Besiktas in penalties in 1st knockout stage, but won the German cup again but again 15th place in the league. After that season I did not renew my contract. Then the same summer the Hertha manager went to the German national team and I got the Hertha job.

 

And the season started great, won the 1st two matches, the 2nd round in the league we beat Leverkusen 5-1 away, and played great football, and then 1-1 against Bayern in the next match. Then after that... it was back to the Wolfsburg league form, just this time we still played great football and created many chanses just the striker who has forgot how to finish, while the opponents score on the 1-2 shots on targets they have each match. So... any one who has any tips to survive this league?...

This is the tactic I have used with Hertha(just with a weaker midfield on this picture since injury on players like Arne Maier), that won 10-0 first cup match(ofc, against a very bad team but played fantastic football) then 2-1 win agains Hoffenheim, again fantastic football. Then 5-1 win away against Leverkusen, then 1-1 draw against Bayern, all good results with great football. Then it has been 1-0 defeat against Schalke, 2-0 defeat against Frankfurt and 0-0 against Bremen. So not terrible results, but still create many chances, but now feel like Wolfsburg all over again, where you can give the striker the ball 2meters away from the goal, open goal and no defenders any where near and he will still miss, and the other team will score on there 1st or 2nd shot on target, so I thought to ask for help or tips before we are battling relegation again...

Edited August 26, 2019 by Martin93

[Jogo Bonito]

Manager aims

I want to achieve a top four finish in the Bundesliga, and ultimately challenge for a first-ever Bundesliga title in the coming seasons

I want to avoid a 4th place finish in the Champions League group, and aim to reach the knockout stages in future seasons

I want to keep a small squad, signing German and younger players, phasing out older non-Germans and giving young players a chance to play

I want to expand the U19 squad and make this a potential route to first team football in future years (there is no B Team or U23 Team)

I want to keep the wage bill and finances in good shape, building the club up for a bright future

Goalkeepers 

I inherited three goalkeepers, and it was clear that Lukas Hradecky would be the starter for the first season at least

34 year old Austrian Ramazan Ozcan (£800k to Wiesbaden) and Niklas Lomb (195k to Vfl Bochum) were allowed to leave

I lined up Alexander Nubel to come in as understudy, but finances didn't allow me to complete a £4.3m deal for the young German

Instead, I had to make do with signing his young German teammate at Schalke as Markus Schubert arrived for £975k 

Right-backs

Mitchell Weiser was young and German and had plenty of quality, so all I needed was an understudy

The £3.5m signing of Danny da Costa from Eintracht Frankurt gave more than that, leaving me with two great German options for this role 

Left-backs

Wendell had been at the club since 2014 and was a very decent option, but again I wanted a challenger to put pressure on him

Ex-Ajax man Daley Sinkgraven didn't have the right attributes to push the Brazilian, so I did my best to move him on immediately

I couldn't do that as quick as I wanted, but have now lined up a £1.9m sale to Dynamo Dresden which will happen in January 

Top targets like Nico Schulz, Philipp Max and Luan Candido were all out of reach due to growing reputations, however I still found a gem

21 year old German Maximilian Mittelstadt was the man, and the £7.75m signing from Hertha Berlin should be a great acquisition  

Centre-backs

Jonathan Tah and Panagiotis Retsos were good young players on the books, and I was comfortable pairing them at the heart of the defence

I wasn't keen on Tin Jedjav or Aleksandar Dragovic though, and tried to off load them on permanent deals (to no avail)

Instead, the pair made loan moves to Hertha Berlin and Hannover 96 respectively, with wage and loan fees plus future-fee clauses inserted

I had the experience of Sven Bender to provide some cover, but spent quite some time looking for one more addition here 

Matija Nastasic, Niklas Stark, Jordan Torunarigha and Felix Gotze were considered, but I eventually decided to keep just three men for this role

This decision turned out to be wrong, as Bender damaged his cruciate ligaments just days after the window closed and would miss 7 months

Central Midfield

Captain Lars Bender was always going to be important in the defensive midfield role, but the injury to his twin Sven only made him more vital

I didn't fancy Julian Baumgartlinger nearly as much, and sold him within days to Chinese club Huaxia Xingfu for £6.75m

I also wanted to sell £25m-rated Chilean player Charles Aranguiz, but couldn't get him off the books before the window closed

I did however manage to strike a deal with Tottenham days later, and he would depart to London in January for £13.75m

Apart from centre-back, the defensive midfield position was my biggest area of weakness, but I couldn't get the right man in

Remo Freuler, Diadie Samassekou, Thomas Partey, Denis Zakaria and Amadou Haidara were amongst the foreign options approached

Maximilian Eggestein, Arne Maier, Ridle Baku and numerous other Germans were also contacted, but in the end it all came to nothing

My German trio of Kerim Demirbay, Nadiem Amiri and Kai Havertz were all superb options for the more advanced roles

Unfortunately, I needed to find a system that involved using one of them deeper than I would have liked

Wingers

Karim Bellarabi, Leon Bailey and Paulinho were already at the club, and gave great options for the attacking roles on both flanks

I didn't need to add anything to this group, in fact I just needed to see if I could find a formation that needed two in each match

Forwards

Kevin Volland and Lucas Alario were the pick of the strikers at the club, and I expected both of them to deliver when called upon

Joel Pohjanpalo was not needed however, and although I couldn't sell him straight away, he will be joining Wolfsburg for £1.9m in January

Coming in were experienced German strikers Nils Petersen (£7.5m from SC Freiburg) and Lars Stindl (£11m from Borussia Monchengladbach)

I also took the opportunity to sign up the raw but talented Okyere Wriedt from Bayern Munich for £450k as one for the future

The German was put in to the U19 group upon arrival, but as he is too old to play for them he's been kicking his heels so far

First Team Squad at the start of the official season

Pre-Season results

The opposition was quite tough, and as I was experimenting with my squad in different formations, I was happy with how it went

Season results

As I was still tinkering with my formation, it took a few weeks to settle down at the start of the official campaign

Narrow league losses at Eintracht Frankurt and Bayern Munich were unlucky, as was a last minute 1-0 defeat to Juventus in Europe

Otherwise, the form in the domestic competitions was good, especially once I finally settled on a 4411 formation 

As autumn and winter approached, I dropped some points in the league with a succession of draws

But I managed fine wins at both Juventus and Real Madrid in the Champions League, and managed to qualify for the knockout stages

The mid-season break is now upon me, but hopefully by the time I return that disappointing loss at SC Paderborn will long be forgotten

Progress so far

It's been very tight at the top, with my position generally being 2nd-4th as teams are taking points off each other frequently

Tactics

This is the 4411 formation that has been working well for me after some tinkering at the start of the season

The names change from time to time as the likes of Wendell, da Costa, Paulinho, Stindl, Petersen and even Alario are all capable

But the roles and ideas are applied consistently like this as it's much more suitable than some of the others I tried early on

Transfer window plans (winter)

Not much needed to be done in the January transfer window, but I have already filled the two obvious holes I had in the squad

The first of those was defensive midfield, and 21 year old Dutchman Pablo Rosario arrives from PSV for £8m to solve this problem

I also signed 24 year old Turkish international centre-back Kaan Ayhan from Fortuna Dusseldorf for £7m to add more cover to my defence

This leaves a squad of 22 (plus Wriedt and the U19 eligible players) which is just about right 

I would be open to offers for Stindl though, as he earns £52k p/w and I have a striker too many when only using one in my team

Otherwise, I think that will probably be it and I might take four weeks off as all the other clubs scramble around trying to do deals

Development of the U19 squad 

German full-back Josha Vagnoman was signed from SV Hamburg for £2.5m in the summer as I needed to boost my U19 ranks considerably

Joining him in that squad this winter are several more new faces, so I will actually be able to field a full side now

The latest recruits include German strikers Jan Thielmann (£235k from FC Koln) and Timo Bornemann (£210k from Fortuna Dusseldorf)

Another striker coming in is the highly-rated Leonardo Campana for £250k from Barcelona in Ecuador

Danish winger Gustav Isaksen joined on a free transfer from FC Midtjylland and centre-back Josko Gvardiol (£500k from Dinamo Zagreb)

Centre-back Yann-Aurel Bisseck will arrive next summer from FC Koln for a fee of £1.8m when his loan spell at Holsten Kiel ends 

Already in this squad before I arrived were goalkeepers Tomasz Kucz and Marcel Lotka plus centre back Kevin Bukusu

Also there were midfielders Adrian Stanilewicz, Ayman Azhil and Christopher Scott, winger Moussa Diaby and striker Dennis Mbay 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

Results - January, February & March 2019

Since the winter break, my form has been reasonable if not spectacular

In the league, there have been a few convincing wins, a number of bore draws and a couple of disappointing defeats

The latest loss, at home to struggling TSG Hoffenheim was particularly poor, but the home loss to title challengers Dortmund was also a blow

Having trailed 3-1, I clawed it back to 3-3 only to concede a predictable 80th minute goal to undo all the hard work

Things have gone better in the Champions League, despite losing 2-0 in Amsterdam in the first leg against Ajax

With an exit looming on the horizon, I raced in to a 3-0 lead back in Germany, but an away goal by the Dutch side saw them ahead on away goals

With time up, Nils Petersen somehow rescued me with a stoppage time clincher that put me through

That was harsh on Ajax, but my reward saw me get paired with FC Barcelona in the QF draw so it's probably the end of the road now anyway

Progress so far

As you can see, the top six are separated by just seven points, with seven league games left to play

It's great to see Eintracht Frankfurt doing so well, but the big two are right on their heels just a point behind

Possibly even more remarkable are the efforts of SC Paderborn, who have had an amazing season so far and are pushing for CL qualification

I've got some work to do to achieve that myself, and potentially could even drop to 6th with RB Leipzig only behind me on GD

Transfer update

My transfer moves had been made by 1st January (in and out) but I added two more German players on deadline day for my U19 squad

Those arrivals were goalkeeper Niclas Thiede (£225k from SC Freiburg) and central midfielder Max Winter (£325k from RB Leipzig)  

The sale of Tin Jedvaj is now definite, with his future fee clause of £6.75m being activated by Hertha BSC where he has been on loan

U19 squad progress

Since January when I was able to sign a host of players in order to get a full team out, my U19 side have gone goal crazy

Stellar performances have been coming from my original starlets, from the new winter signings, and even the only three kids kept from my youth intake

The latter trio are all strikers bizarrely, and as Hofmann is 14 and Schmetz and Janik are 15, the future is looking bright

 

[Gee_Simpson]

Nice update mate. Are you still using the tactic in your previous post? Pretty impressive getting Volland to score 19 in 27 in that formation considering his attributes. 

[Jogo Bonito]

21 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Nice update mate. Are you still using the tactic in your previous post? Pretty impressive getting Volland to score 19 in 27 in that formation considering his attributes. 

Yeah, mostly that. Occasionally I have to go 442 or 433 because I'm operating on a 22-man squad to keep everything under closer scrutiny. Volland has been the pick of my strikers by far. Looking at the below, maybe I should have used 442 more, but that was generally only against weaker teams so screws the data.

 

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Results - April & May 2019

I was needing a top four finish to get a CL group stage spot for next season, and was 5th as the run-in started

April saw me beaten by Schalke in the German Cup, and Barcelona dumped me out of the Champions League 6-1 on aggregate (QF stage)

But I went undefeated in four more league games and that stuttering form saw me starting May in 4th spot as Paderborn started to buckle too

Good wins on the first two May fixtures saw my side guarantee 4th ahead of a drab final day bore draw with 6th placed Paderborn

Final Bundesliga table

Well, I must say this was a really intriguing battle as nobody ran away with anything

 I feel so sorry for Eintracht Frankfurt who had been top for much of the season but then imploded (much like IRL) with three games to go

They lost their 32nd league game 4-2 to Bayern, and their next one 4-1 to RB Leipzig despite leading 1-0 after 75 minutes

And then as Bayern drew 0-0 on the final day, Frankfurt lost 2-0 at relegated Union Berlin when a win would have clinched the title for them

Their bad run ended by losing to Arsenal in the Europa League final - what a sad ending they had

Progress report

Here you can see the stats of the leading players, board confidence and financial chart (competition payments were massive in May)

Season Review

And here is a quick summary of the performance in all competitions, together with a graph of the league performance through the season

I'm pleased to have achieved this with a squad of 22, especially as two of them played less than two games each 

Player stats (all competitions)

Here are the player stats across all competitions

For me, I would say Volland, Bailey and Tah were the best players (the latter won the fans award)

I've already agreed the sale of the disappointing Stindl to FC Koln for £15m (I only paid £11m for him so did well on that front)

His replacement will be Wriedt from the U19 squad, and I don't see too many other deals happening to be honest

That might change if good quality Germans can be acquired at sensible money, or if any of my non-Germans are pursued

An interesting comparison of wage v turnover numbers

U19 squad progress

My U19 team maintained their fine form towards the end of the season, finishing 3rd in the league after a slow start when I had only half a team

The boys also hammered Inter Milan in the CL U19 semi final and thrashed Shakhtar in the final to bag a memorable trophy

Most of the players below were signings made by me, and one or two more will probably arrive in the summer

Wriedt and Diaby will join the first team squad, whilst the sheer volume of strikers might see Mbay sent on his way earlier than I wanted 

I like not having a B Team or U23 Team, but once players are too old for this U19 squad, there is nowhere else for them to go

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[matsnor21]

On 18/08/2019 at 20:36, Jogo Bonito said:

I've finally got a Bundesliga game open and have taken over at Bayer Leverkusen. Apart from a couple of months at Gladbach many years ago, this will be my first German effort. Hopefully it lasts for at least one full season!

It's also my first time ever using a transfer update, so I've lost Brandt to Dortmund but have a handful of new signings that the club has made. I've also made some transfers of my own, and pre-season is complete. My philosophy will be to sign/use young and/or German players. I like the fact that they don't have any U23 team or B-Team, in fact not even a full U19 team. This means I have a very manageable group of players to focus on (at the club) with no loan players here and only a handful away on loan (ones that I didn't want).

Wich transfer update do you use ?

[mmladja]

I'm playing this FM only with German teams. First Hertha, then Munich 1860. After few seasons I don't know where to spend money.

[Jogo Bonito]

I've finally finished season 2 with Bayer Leverkusen, and it's been enjoyable. I'll try and post a proper update soon to wrap it up. Unfortunately the speed I go through seasons is so slow that there isn't much point starting season 3, as FM20 demo will be out before I make much progress.

@matsnor21 Sorry for the slow reply. I used the pro database, have a look on the editors hideaway forum.

[Stu_UBJ]

Been enjoying a save with Frankfurt. Obviously their fantastic form last season was a factor, however taking a side with sporadic flings with success and turning them into a top side sounds like fun. Plus, only 27 BL titles behind Bayern!

3 signings made in the summer transfer window;

Éder Álvarez Balanta signs from Basel for £6m. I am sure he will add some solidity to the defensive line. Cristian Pavón joins from Boca for £3m, fills the AMR slot. Final summer signing Exequiel Palacios will almost certainly be in my MC for another 10 seasons. Now my raid on South America is complete, here are the outgoings; 



Bundesliga Results

A shaky start to the season, as new signings got settled in and the rest of the team get used to how I want to play. However we finally got going, Currently 10 games unbeaten, culminating in a superb win over Bayern 1-0. 



Having flirted with the bottom 6 for the opening 2 months, our turnaround in form saw us jump up into the top 4. We are looking to at least finish in a European spot, so all is looking good. 



Europa League group stage was fairly straight forward, 6 wins from 6.



We will face Sevilla in the first KO round.

Plans for winter transfer window depend on sales or if the board offer me some more money due to a good start to the season. 

Ideally I'll be in the hunt for a DCR to partner Balanta, and all action midfielder, and potentially a new ST or two depending if the current interest in Haller brings a  bid.