An ode to Valeriy Lobanovskyi - honoring his legacy and reviving Ukrainian football - chapter 3 - Dynamo Kyiv & Ukraine

[karanhsingh]

Hello everyone and welcome to my new thread! This one has been on my mind for quite some time, and it just might be my final long-term save on FM22.

I don't think there is a single person on this planet who has not been affected by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. As someone who has a fair few Ukrainian friends, I have heard a lot of first hand accounts of families back home and the struggles they have been going through. Without getting too political / side-tracked as this is about football at the end of the day, their heroic bravery and patriotism has really shone through at a tough time like this.

It really got me interested in Ukrainian football again - on a side note I was happy to see the news that their league will be resuming very soon:

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/ukrainian-premier-league-return-next-27473690

I started watching some videos of Dynamo Kyiv in the late 90s as that is a team I fondly remember from some memories in the Champions League with Shevchenko and Rebrov up front. That is when I came upon the absolutely incredible story of Valeriy Lobanovskyi. Now this is a name I had definitely heard about (I started watching football in the late 90s) but I now realize that all of us really should have heard his name a lot more.

This man is an absolute legend of the game who has simply not got the historical credit he deserves. Now why that is - is anyone's guess. While Rinus Michels is rightly credited with the birth of "total football" in Western Europe, Lobanovskyi was laying the foundations for his own version of total football in the Soviet Union at the same time. A type of football based on hard work & pressing, where the entire team attacked together & defended together. A style where the sum of the parts is far greater than what it should be - based on methodical analysis and achieving complete efficiency on the pitch. You could say it was more a style of play based on the socialist principles of the Soviet era, where the collective team was prioritized over any individual.

I will not go on further because there is a lot written on the subject of Valeriy Lobanovskyi and the immense contributions he made to the world of football. As a matter of fact, when one sees the efficient pressing machines of a Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp today, it's hard not to draw parallels with what Lobanovskyi achieved with his various Dynamo Kyiv sides from the 70s through to the 90s.

If anyone is interested in further reading, I will link 3 articles below about him which I really enjoyed:

https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/valeriy-lobanovskyi-the-greatest-football-coach-youve-never-heard-of/

https://breakingthelines.com/historical/valeriy-lobanovskyi-footballs-forgotten-pioneer/

https://www.90min.com/posts/6413281-valeriy-lobanovskyi-the-scientist-who-dominated-football-in-the-soviet-union

And one short video which acts more as an introduction to the great man:

Edited July 27, 2022 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

Now let's move beyond his ideologies & principles, and talk a little bit about what he actually achieved in football.

He won no less than 13 league titles with Dynamo Kyiv, spanning over spanning over 3 separate spells and 4 decades, from 1974 to 2001 (a combination of the Soviet Top League and Ukrainian Top Division). What is mightily impressive is his longevity, which almost reminds me of Sir Alex Ferguson in a way. He re-started and built the team up multiple times, every one of them based on the same strong principles.

At Kyiv he also won the Cup no less than 9 times, but his crowning achievement was definitely winning the UEFA Cup Winners Cup twice and also the UEFA Super Cup once with a famous victory over Bayern Munchen for the same. His astounding Kyiv side came close in the Champions League too with no less than 3 semi-final appearances and 4 in the quarter-finals. Dynamo Kyiv remain the only Soviet side to have ever won a UEFA competition.

He also had spells in charge of the Soviet national side at times simultaneously with managing Dynamo Kyiv (in classic FM style :D) and he managed to get them to the final of the European Championship in 1988 where they sadly went down to a brilliant Netherlands side. But that again is the closest that any Soviet side has come to any sort of international honour.

He of course won a number of managerial honours & awards, and the interesting thing is that he's also managed no less than 3 Ballon d'Or winners in Oleg Blokhin, Igor Belanov and Andriy Shevchenko, the former 2 winning the award under his tutelage. 

He of course sits atop the Hall of Fame rankings for Ukrainian managers on FM as well with a score of 811 points and a total of 25 club trophies won.

[karanhsingh]

I'd also like to draw attention to this excellent thread by @crusadertsar which has given me a lot of food for thought on his tactics and how to replicate some of the principles in FM.

 

[karanhsingh]

And that brings us neatly to the plans & objectives for this save.

It will definitely be a club & country type save although will not start off as that. I will be playing as former Ukrainian national player Artem Milevskyi who recently retired IRL and I have fond memories of from his playing days. He will start off unemployed with zero coaching badges but continental level international footballer. Here are his opening stats:

The objectives for this save are:

Short term -

- land a job at a decent Ukrainian club

- work towards improving them and increasing manager reputation 

- start building a style of play incorporating Lobanovskyi's principles

- try to mount a title challenge for the Ukrainian league or some silverware

Long term -

- get the Dynamo Kyiv + Ukraine jobs

- win the Champions League with Dynamo Kyiv

- win something with Ukraine

- have a player with the Ballon d'Or

- reach the top of the Ukrainian HoF

Of course the above should be done with a heavy emphasis on the principles & methodologies of Lobanovskyi. The team should defend & attack as a coherent unit. Long-term we will also probably use a 4-4-2 formation of some sort in-keeping with his style.

Developing Ukrainian players will also be a key focus of the save, of course that is required since it's a club + country effort. The Ukrainian league allows only 7 foreign players on the pitch at a time so in any case the squad would not have more than 9-10 foreigners in all. If that.

I did not mention it in the list of objectives but obviously a clean sweep of the domestic trophies will be the minimum requirement - the real challenge would be the Champions League and to win something with the NT. Let's see how close we can get!

[karanhsingh]

My current in-game date is 25th September 2023. The next few posts will be used to catch up till here.

Artem had to wait quite long to land a job. There was one offer from a struggling club in the 2nd division that didn't appeal. So he decided to bide his time and wait for the right opportunity. Finally, this came in April 2022.

Desna Chernihiv was a top flight Ukrainian club side currently flirting with relegation. Seemed like a good enough place to begin his career.

Or did it?

9 days spent, 1 game played, 1 game won and he was gone! At least we got them out of the relegation zone...

What happened here is that I completely forgot about making a "promise" to be at the club for a long time. Another interesting role opened up which I applied for. And next thing you know, Artem has received his pink slip. Certainly not the most auspicious start to the save... best get that other job now!

[karanhsingh]

Fortunately, I landed the other role... phew!

Rukh is a club based in Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine and 6th largest in the country. It's a relatively new club and one of 3 in the city.

What attracted me here was of course the great facilities as you can see (miles ahead of most other clubs in the league save the top 2) and large stadium although it will be a long time before we are anywhere close to selling it out. But it's a great modern arena which was built for Euro 2012.

There is a decent wage budget which at 34k per week is not a lot but at the same time is almost thrice of what we had at Desna.

I believe this club would be the perfect spring-board to kick-start Artem's managerial career.

EDIT - the Lviv Arena in all it's glory:

Edited July 18, 2022 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

There were only 6 games to go when I took over. The only objective was to secure survival and get out of the relegation zone.

We managed to do just that. By just 1 point.

In more good news, the Ukrainian league managed to boost their co-efficient a little bit in the summer. Shakhtar seem to be doing quite a good job in Europe.

[karanhsingh]

Season 2022-23

The second, or rather first full season at Rukh was a big success. We managed to finish 3rd in the league, so officially the "best of the rest" after the big 2.

Special shout-out to Shakhtar Donetsk for a "clean sweep" - 30 wins out of 30. I have never seen this from a human manager on FM let alone the AI. Absolutely mental stuff!

This is the tactic I have been using. It's not a 4-4-2 because I don't think the squad is strong enough to play with wingers and 2 in midfield. However the CM on attack gives us the required support for the lone striker. In fact, that player finished as the top scorer for us this season.

We definitely try to defend & attack as a team and the formation is quite fluid, but we will look to emulate Lobanovskyi further once we move clubs or the squad becomes stronger.

I was quite pleasantly surprised to win manager of the season. Would have given it to De Zerbi myself.

So with that we qualified for the Europa League and also significantly boosted the club's finances.

[karanhsingh]

In the summer of '23, we got an international role, although it's not the Ukraine job. But for the time being, anything that helps Artem gain reputation. And also hopefully spot some good African youngsters along the way.

[DaNascimento]

Nice one! Reminds me of a save on FM18, where i became Trainer of the ukrainian national team and get into the semifinals of the Euro  (Boryachuk was part of that squad and they had really great newgens coming through the academies of Shakthar and Dynamo)

[karanhsingh]

And now finally an update from the 2023-24 season to bring us up to date.

Here are the fixtures so far:

And the early league table actually has us out in 2nd spot. Hoping for more of the same from Dynamo Kyiv so just maybe the job opens up, although it's not even slightly insecure yet.

And here is Artem Milevskyi now, a couple of coaching courses and a lot of football games later:

[karanhsingh]

Here are our best players, to just give you an idea of the level we are at:

Kvirkvelia was a free signing in the summer and is definitely our best center back.

Harmash was also a free signing from Dynamo Kyiv and plays as an attacking central midfielder for us.

Boriachuk is the main man up front, would have been top scorer last season if not for a nasty injury.

Eduok was a free signing who is our main right winger and has been generally quite impressive.

Sapuha is the best youngster at the club and has been developing quite well, he is now a main-stay in the first team when fit.

[13th Man]

Love it!

I’d been thinking of doing something similar for my next save, but probably was never going to get around to it. Now I can follow this thread instead!

Already good work. I definitely laughed at you getting sacked after only your first game. Also insane that Shaktar got a truly perfect season!

[karanhsingh]

25 minutes ago, 13th Man said:

Love it!

I’d been thinking of doing something similar for my next save, but probably was never going to get around to it. Now I can follow this thread instead!

Already good work. I definitely laughed at you getting sacked after only your first game. Also insane that Shaktar got a truly perfect season!

Thanks! Yes now i can say that I've officially been sacked.. that's off the bucket list

Shakhtar look like they will be a worthy long term adversary. As long as the AI doesn't mess up their squad. 

[SinlessCity]

The sacking situation is something I'd probably end up doing.  Glad to hear it worked out in the end.

When you inevitably move jobs, are there any Rukh players you'll look to take with you?  Your better players are getting close to 30 (or beyond that marker already), so I might know the answer!

Haven't played Ukraine before, what's the general squad strength outside of the more established teams?

[Sheriff7]

Great start mate!Good luck there.

[john1]

Epic start Also tempted to manage in Ukraine too! Still remember Artem Milevskyi, was decent few years back in the Champions League.

Sadly I have never heard of Lobanovskyi

[karanhsingh]

12 hours ago, SinlessCity said:

The sacking situation is something I'd probably end up doing.  Glad to hear it worked out in the end.

When you inevitably move jobs, are there any Rukh players you'll look to take with you?  Your better players are getting close to 30 (or beyond that marker already), so I might know the answer!

Haven't played Ukraine before, what's the general squad strength outside of the more established teams?

Not as of now, but we are beginning to bring some decent young players in.

Ukraine is all about the big 2 who are absolutely miles ahead of the rest. So with the right moves it's quite easy to get into 3rd position but then pushing up from there is quite a challenge. However I am really enjoying it.

11 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Great start mate!Good luck there.

Thanks mate!

11 hours ago, john1 said:

Epic start Also tempted to manage in Ukraine too! Still remember Artem Milevskyi, was decent few years back in the Champions League.

Sadly I have never heard of Lobanovskyi

Yes Milevskyi was a bit like a poor man's Ibra. And Lobanovskyi - I'd definitely recommend reading up on!

[karanhsingh]

We've reached the half-way point of the season and break for 2 months.

A mixed bag of results especially in Europe although we really should have won one or two of those games. 

However the plucky away win during the last round in Turkey did see us finishing 3rd in the group and thus we will be participating in the knock-out rounds of the UEFA Conference.

Here is the league table at the turn of the year:

 

Shakhtar are once again running away with it, even if they weren't able to keep their 100% record. 

We are currently in 2nd spot above Dynamo Kyiv and it will be a huge challenge to stay there. But if by some miracle we do it, that may just be what's needed to get Kyiv to sack their manager! They've been pretty average all around but the man's job is still fairly secure.

Also in one of the more random transfers I've seen on FM this year, Dynamo Kyiv just signed Eddie Nketiah on the save!

[john1]

Still going strong in the league, hopefully you can fend off Dynamo Kyiv.

[SinlessCity]

Doing well to be the best of the rest, shows just how strong Shakhtar are, that Dynamo Kyiv are 15 pts behind.

Maybe trash talk the manager a little in your pressers and see if you can get in the Chairman's head 🤣

[karanhsingh]

21 hours ago, john1 said:

Still going strong in the league, hopefully you can fend off Dynamo Kyiv.

Cheers bud.

14 hours ago, SinlessCity said:

Doing well to be the best of the rest, shows just how strong Shakhtar are, that Dynamo Kyiv are 15 pts behind.

Maybe trash talk the manager a little in your pressers and see if you can get in the Chairman's head 🤣

Haha I don't do press conferences since ages now but maybe should start again.

[karanhsingh]

Time for the season wrap-up. First the league fixtures.

The big question of course was whether we would be able to keep our form up for the second part of the season. Sadly, the answer was no. We lost a total of 4 games during this period all away from home and that turned out to be really quite damaging. We were quite unlucky especially the double header against Oleksandriya & Kolos but sometimes those are the breaks you get.

And as a result of this, along with a frankly incredible end of season run put together by Oleksandriya, we somehow finished 4th this season which is a position lower than last year. This is despite getting the exact same number of points (60) as last season. Which means instead of being in the Europa League, we will be starting off in the Conference League. Quite disappointing considering we want to keep moving on up. Also a quick look at the xG table shows that we should have quite easily been the 3rd best placed side in the league.

By the way, there is a new name on some of the score-sheets, which is January free signing young American midfielder Daniel Rivera. He was spotted by my scouts and we wasted no time in bringing him in. I don't see him staying in the Ukraine for too long, but am certainly hoping we can get a good price when he departs.

For those wondering, there is absolutely no sign of the Dynamo Kyiv board being unhappy at all with their current manager. Apparently they are perfectly content playing second fiddle to Shakhtar and winning zero trophies. They even gave their manager a contract extension through to the summer of 2026 

[karanhsingh]

Now, moving onto Europe. We had a good, fun run. Made some money and got some invaluable experience along the way.

I must say, I have absolutely no idea what went on in that away game at Genk! It's like everything that we touched turned into gold. Was a pretty even game actually and beyond a point every time we attacked we scored. Definitely the best performance we have churned out at Rukh so far.

This is how our European adventure sadly came to an end. Strasbourg are doing well in the French league and definitely a much stronger side. We really gave it our all and battled all the way till the end. 3 of their 4 goals came from corners, which was quite infuriating to see. But a fantastic battling performance from our side.

[karanhsingh]

And finally, the Kubok Ukrainy

We reached the first final of Artem's fledgling managerial career!

And it would, of course, be against Shakhtar Donetsk.

A huge challenge. Played against the back-drop of a partisan 65k strong crowd at the Olympiyskyi in Kyiv of which over 50k were clad in orange. Let's see how we got on:

Spoiler

Goal-less at HT after a tight first half. We are not allowing Shakhtar to play their free-flowing game.

And goal-less at FT as well. Shakhtar have not had a single shot on target. We had a few half chances and could have converted one of them. We've even managed to have more possession than our much stronger opposition.

Shakhtar grab a goal in the 95th minute, dealing us a devastating blow in the process. The team is tiring badly and it's a long way back from here.

But we fight back and our top scorer Boriachuk grabs a dramatic equalizer in the 103rd minute - we are back in the game!

It goes to penalties, and now it's all about who is going to blink first. Incredibly, both sides score their first 5 penalties each to take the tie into sudden death.

Sadly, the 7th penalty from our side is missed. Brazilian midfielder Edson cannot handle the pressure as he hits a tame shot at the keeper which is parried. The dream is over.

We pushed them all the way, but eventually lose out in the harshest way possible. But we will be back.

 

[DaNascimento]

Very unlucky being competitive to Shakthar and then lost to penalties. But a good sign, that you're on the right way.

and didn't know, that Minaj is somewhere worse than in singing....

[SinlessCity]

The most dramatic and devastating way to lose a final.

Hard luck in the league, 3 PTS off second is still quality though. You'll go again! 

[karanhsingh]

40 minutes ago, DaNascimento said:

Very unlucky being competitive to Shakthar and then lost to penalties. But a good sign, that you're on the right way.

and didn't know, that Minaj is somewhere worse than in singing....

LOL 

21 minutes ago, SinlessCity said:

The most dramatic and devastating way to lose a final.

Hard luck in the league, 3 PTS off second is still quality though. You'll go again! 

Yes, thanks guys! More bad luck stories coming up soon though  

I am beginning to wonder whether I may forget about the Kyiv job and just build Rukh up... let's see

Edited July 20, 2022 by karanhsingh

[SinlessCity]

I will always be an advocate for build. 100% more satisfying turning your rag-tag bunch of nobodies into title winning legends.

[karanhsingh]

2 hours ago, SinlessCity said:

I will always be an advocate for build. 100% more satisfying turning your rag-tag bunch of nobodies into title winning legends.

I'm a bit of a sucker for realism which is why i end up doing these journeyman sort of saves. However i think in another year or so it may not even make sense to move to Kyiv basis how the development of Rukh is going. Ah well, lets see how the save progresses. 

[john1]

Unlucky in the final

[HugoLazgo12]

Wow dude you made Rukh Lviv into fortness for Champions league spot

you almost so close to get Champions league spot

[karanhsingh]

9 hours ago, john1 said:

Unlucky in the final

Next time 

8 hours ago, HugoLazgo12 said:

Wow dude you made Rukh Lviv into fortness for Champions league spot

you almost so close to get Champions league spot

Thanks man! But sadly we fell short in the end. Also to really make it a fortress we're going to need a few more fans to start coming in 

[13th Man]

Tough tough loss in the final! You’re normally so good in the cup finals, so I was expecting a turn around that nearly came…but not quite.

If Kyiv are happy with mediocrity, maybe you would be better off building up Rukh?

[karanhsingh]

29 minutes ago, 13th Man said:

Tough tough loss in the final! You’re normally so good in the cup finals, so I was expecting a turn around that nearly came…but not quite.

If Kyiv are happy with mediocrity, maybe you would be better off building up Rukh?

I know that's what I thought too, especially when we equalised but sadly it wasn't to be this time 

Kyiv are still quite far ahead as things stand but keep this up for another season or two and the move will not make much sense anymore that's for sure. We've managed to bring in some good young players finally over the summer, update soon. 

[HugoLazgo12]

14 minutos atrás, karanhsingh disse:

I know that's what I thought too, especially when we equalised but sadly it wasn't to be this time 

Kyiv are still quite far ahead as things stand but keep this up for another season or two and the move will not make much sense anymore that's for sure. We've managed to bring in some good young players finally over the summer, update soon. 

so is this update of FM 22 with russia out of game or this was before Russia war on ukraine

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, HugoLazgo12 said:

so is this update of FM 22 with russia out of game or this was before Russia war on ukraine

I just recently started the save so it's on the updated database. That means no Russian teams in uefa competitions and no Russian national side. 

[karanhsingh]

Some club & personal updates over the summer, since it now seems like we will be at Rukh at least a little while longer...

We continue to move up the European rankings, always good to see. But obviously, a long long way to go.

The finances are also moving in the right direction. We now are 5th in the league sponsorship table, which is led by Dynamo Kyiv who get 19M per year.

I am most pleased about the state of the club's facilities. Not updated every improvement but as you can see they are now among the best in the country. Hoping we start to get good youth prospects from the coming season.

And finally here is the new and improved Artem Milevskyi himself, now with a continental B coaching license.

[karanhsingh]

And now for the BIG summer news... turns out Artem will be managing at the Olimpiyskyi after all, just not for Dynamo Kyiv

There were a number of managerial departures after Euro 2024, and the Ukraine job opened up. This is obviously a huge moment in the save! The country is currently ranked 36th in the world and should be far better than that frankly. 

So the Senegal stint for Artem was short but sweet - however it did help in spotting a couple of interesting young talents who will be making their way to Rukh - that shall be profiled in the club update coming up soon.

 

[13th Man]

3 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

And now for the BIG summer news... turns out Artem will be managing at the Olimpiyskyi after all, just not for Dynamo Kyiv

YES!!!

Slava Ukraini!!!

[SinlessCity]

I did NOT see that coming.

I like how the press are spewing nonsense about your time at Desna - struggled in 9 days to win 1 out of 1   Jokers.

Good luck with Ukraine!  I don't know as many players as I used to, so will look forward to seeing the squad.

Edited July 22, 2022 by SinlessCity

[DaNascimento]

Nice! Going strong now with the Ukraine

Still remember from my time, that they just had crap keepers, but in midfield and offensive some big talents and good players (Besedin, Tsygankov, Zinchenko, Shepelov and Vakula) 

definetly looking forward for your first squad-call

Edited July 22, 2022 by DaNascimento

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, SinlessCity said:

I did NOT see that coming.

I like how the press are spewing nonsense about your time at Desna - struggled in 9 days to win 1 out of 1   Jokers.

Good luck with Ukraine!  I don't know as many players as I used to, so will look forward to seeing the squad.

 They are just like the English press I guess. Yes first squad update up soon!

43 minutes ago, DaNascimento said:

Nice! Going strong now with the Ukraine

Still remember from my time, that they just had crap keepers, but in midfield and offensive some big talents and good players (Besedin, Tsygankov, Zinchenko, Shepelov and Vakula) 

definetly looking forward for your first squad-call

Thanks! Of the ones you mention, Shepelev and Vakula are no good at least in my game. They do have a top keeper though in the form of Trubin who recently moved to Lazio from Shakhtar for 30m.

[karanhsingh]

And now it's time for a quick update on the summer transfer window of 2024

We had 2 big departures over the summer, both of our first choice wingers left the club - Klymchuk netting us a record fee of 750k in the process.

This also heralds a change in formation to a 4-4-2 as you will see below. Coming in are a total of 7 players and for the first time the majority of our signings are not on the wrong side of 30.

I am very excited about some of these players so let's have a quick look. First, the Ukrainians. 

Starting from the top, Supriaha is our record signing and biggest transfer in of the summer. At 24, he's not yet played much football at Kyiv but he did impress back in 2019-20 scoring 15 goals on loan at Dnipro. I am hoping he can find his feet once again with us and take advantage of his pure physicality.

Ihnatenko is a full Ukrainian international player who was released at the end of his contract by Shakhtar. After waiting till the last day for his wage demands to come down we finally swooped in to sign him, and I think he will spend time at both the RB and DM roles for us.

Similar situation to the above, another player released by Shakhtar who joins us on deadline day. Kryskiv is still young and I hope he can develop well in our new formation.

And finally Haras is our first proper young Ukrainian signing of the save actually spotted at our feeder club. I am very excited about him especially with that magic 17 for both determination and flair.

[karanhsingh]

Thanks to the short stint in charge of Senegal, Artem managed to spot a couple of talented youngsters who had recently come through the academies of Senegalese clubs. He gave both of these kids their senior national team debuts thanks to which they are already both massive fans of the manager  no doubt that helped in bringing them both through to Lyiv...

Moustapha Sane comes absolutely free from the ASPIRE Academy, I think he can become a very well rounded player for us. He is currently training to become accomplished in midfield as a more attacking option.

And saving the best for last...

Here is Ibrahima Diatta - or as I like to call him "the beast". He's only just joined and is already our best defender, maybe even our best player? I have half a mind to actually convert him into a goal scoring central midfielder but his poor vision and off the ball is just putting me off.

[karanhsingh]

And finally, here is the new shape we are entering the 2024-25 season with:

In my mind, this will give us better balance and is more in-tune with Lobanovskyi's style of play. Defend solidly well with 2 banks of 4. We are definitely a team that like to press urgently and chase the opposition in packs. We are also very adept at transitions and look to break quickly with the 2 strikers up front supported with runs from midfield.

Also we are well on our way now to developing a team of "all-rounders" like Lobanovskyi had - all the players should be able to perform well in both the offensive & defensive phases and indeed be able to cover multiple positions. 

[noikeee]

Nice thread, I like the idea of a sort of tribute to Lobanovskyi. I remember the Lobanovskyi-Dynamo era as one of the most interesting things to read about in the Inverting the Pyramid book by Jonathan Wilson.

Been quite the quick success at Rukh! From nothing to fighting at the top of the league.

I find it interesting that you're transitioning from a wide 4-3-3 to a diamond as that's the thing I ended up doing as well. Very similar pattern, as your team ended up losing a little bit of performance after becoming an established side on the 4-3-3, exact same thing happened to me.

[Cheez3y]

47 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

 

Here is Ibrahima Diatta - or as I like to call him "the beast". He's only just joined and is already our best defender, maybe even our best player? I have half a mind to actually convert him into a goal scoring central midfielder but his poor vision and off the ball is just putting me off.

Impressive that you managed to convince him. Probably the playing time/status.

GF is an affiliate for Metz and normally they are pretty tough to beat sigining those regens.

[karanhsingh]

6 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Nice thread, I like the idea of a sort of tribute to Lobanovskyi. I remember the Lobanovskyi-Dynamo era as one of the most interesting things to read about in the Inverting the Pyramid book by Jonathan Wilson.

Been quite the quick success at Rukh! From nothing to fighting at the top of the league.

I find it interesting that you're transitioning from a wide 4-3-3 to a diamond as that's the thing I ended up doing as well. Very similar pattern, as your team ended up losing a little bit of performance after becoming an established side on the 4-3-3, exact same thing happened to me.

Thank you! I hear a lot about this book, need to order it.

I did notice in your thread that you are playing a similar formation now. I reckon with a 4-3-3 ultimately there is limited differentiation you can do in order to get your players to out-performing their current "level" if that makes sense. Also I wanted to have 2 strikers up front (as I have now 3 very good options) and felt a 4-4-2 with wingers would be a little too open.

1 minute ago, Cheez3y said:

Impressive that you managed to convince him. Probably the playing time/status.

GF is an affiliate for Metz and normally they are pretty tough to beat sigining those regens.

Yes! Of course he has insisted on a 3.8M release clause. I first gave him a senior Senegal debut (he scored 2 goals from CB ) so immediately got on favored personnel. Then tried to buy him twice but he wasn't interested, suddenly in the summer he showed interest in negotiating a contract, maybe the club got a little reputation boost at that time.

Also Metz have dropped down to Ligue 2 in my save.

[Cheez3y]

3 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

Also Metz have dropped down to Ligue 2 in my save.

This also helps immense.

 

Really good first season.

Pretty excited that you already took over the NT too.