GIMN Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 A tough month but, as you said, to be sitting 8th after a spell of bad form is pretty darn incredible for first season back in the big time. Really keen to see how Cissé develops. He looks like a more traditional defensive anchor than the tempo-setting Gül and will be interesting to see how that impacts your tactical approach. (Oh, and Merry Christmas!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 Gencler are positioned nicely for the second half of the season. I think the second half will show if a tactical collective trumps individual skill. And of course, how much depth you’ve got. I’ve still got my fingers crossed you can achieve a European spot this season too! Merry Christmas Ben! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 26, 2022 Author Share Posted December 26, 2022 On 25/12/2022 at 03:49, GIMN said: A tough month but, as you said, to be sitting 8th after a spell of bad form is pretty darn incredible for first season back in the big time. Really keen to see how Cissé develops. He looks like a more traditional defensive anchor than the tempo-setting Gül and will be interesting to see how that impacts your tactical approach. (Oh, and Merry Christmas!) Absolutely. It was tough but the context behind it is that we've put the groundwork in so that the tough month doesn't drop us back into the relegation zone. The DM is becoming a really important part of my tactical puzzle and, therefore, I want someone who is able to attack and defend in equal measure. Gul has the playmaking ability but, watching him, isn't really the best at recovering the ball. I'm hoping that I can develop Cisse to be a bit more rounded than Gul. 8 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: Gencler are positioned nicely for the second half of the season. I think the second half will show if a tactical collective trumps individual skill. And of course, how much depth you’ve got. I’ve still got my fingers crossed you can achieve a European spot this season too! Merry Christmas Ben! Thank you. Depth is certainly something we're lacking - most, if not all, of our backup players are second tier quality, at best. I've written about it in the March update that is nearly completed and need to address over the summer. Truth be told, I won't be upset if we don't make Europe as it's all about building strong foundations at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 26, 2022 Author Share Posted December 26, 2022 March 2026 Alanyaspor 0-2 Genclerbirligi A nice victory to kick the month off with Tai Sodje finding his scoring boots again and reaching twenty league goals this season, leaving him four ahead of the chasing pack. Emre Belözoğlu want for a possession based system combined with the fact that Alanyaspor aren't of the quality of the bigger teams meant that I was able to keep them at bay for long periods of time and be threatening on the counter, too. --- Another set of youngsters arrived at the club. You can see the full intake by clicking the image below. Abdulsamet, Rahmi Uzunget, Goksel Karaca and Muzaffer Kalayci are the elite talents from this and, to be fair, look good. They will be monitored closely and join a really strong youth squad, which is definitely showing signs of improvement since I took over. From that squad, I genuinely feel that there are five players who could make the first team at Gencler: These players will be afforded first team action where possible and will be put on specific, data driven training schedules to improve attributes, personality and in-game ability. I also have a group of first-team players who I am watching intently. My plan has always been to use P/R/D and foci that develop the player not practice the role that they play in, hence some quite odd roles above. I wanted Soumaré to improve his work in possession so have set up as a Volante as well as working on his passing. The two greener arrows in Possession training show - to me - that this is being successful so far and his pass completion numbers are greater than what he achieved in Senegal before moving. I have used the notes function for each of these players, as documented previously, to watch attributes as they rise and plateau, moving them around to ensure optimal development. --- Genclerbirligi 1-0 Eyupspor For this one, I decided that an altered shape combined with some specific opposition instructions would help us focus on the potential weakness of their new, 18 year old, centre back, who hasn't started his career too well. Taking a leaf from @GIMN's book, I went with this style for short periods of time, in an attempt to get the upper hand. Cem scored what turned out to be the winner after the positioning created a numerical overload and he slotted it away. From here, I moved back and forwards between the altered shape and the usual shape, in an attempt to confuse the opposition into 'protecting' the centre back and sacrificing another player or leaving him a bit more open and vulnerable. Whilst we didn't manage to score again, we had a fair we good chances to increase our lead. ---- Whilst I know that my time at Gencler will not last forever, I, at least, want to approach the squad building in a way that leaves the club in a strong and stable position for the long term. We are currently not blessed with the riches that Gala and Fener have, so have to be really quite clever in the recruitment market, as well as making the most of the youngsters at the club, like you can see I am trying to do, above. To further explain my thoughts here, I've done a little bit of digging and Excel work to create some things that help justify my points. Firstly, I have looked at all players in the Spor Toto Super Lig - splitting them into either Turkish or non-Turkish. You can see that, like many underdeveloped leagues, foreign players are 'more valuable' and, probably higher in quality. When you look at the likes of the Premier League, Serie A or La Liga, that isn't the case - but it appears to be so here. Domestic talent makes up the bulk of the squad and the foreign imports are paid more and, largely, are more important, experienced or better. That's not the case with our squad - our top earner, Olawoyin, is Nigerian, but there are five players between him and the next highest paid player, at some €5k p/m less than this wage. This, for Gencler, obviously comes with reputation, scouting networks and clever recruitment. It's concerning that the median transfer value for a Turkish player starts at nearly double our transfer budget and the the average wage for a non-Turk in this league is nearly four times that of our highest earner. We have to be so smart when recruiting this summer. To help assist with this, I've done something that I've seen on these boards before and tried to create a hierarchy of importance of roles - with green being most important to the side and red, least. Key roles: Sweeper Keeper - I need a player who can not only stop shots but also assist in the transitional play with long throws or accurate kicks as well as coming out to sweep up, given our high line. Ball Playing Defender - A player who can either progress the ball with his feet or through a vertical pass is essential but this role must also be capable defensively, winning aerial duels as well as intercepting, blocking and tackling. Holding Midfielder - This role really sets us up defensively and offensively and will largely be given pockets of space where he will need to create things from but must be just as good recovering the ball as the man 'in between' the quite tight defensive banks. Attacking Midfielder - A player who can receive the ball a bit deeper than the other midfielder and drive, or pass, his way through into the dangerous Zone 14 and beyond. He must also have an eye for goal. Forward - A player who can work just as hard off the ball as he does on it. Pretty much the only attacker who presses hard but also must be able to move off the ball to create space and overloads as well as being able to get in behind and finish as well as win chances from crosses. You can see that, essentially, these players are essential for multiple areas of our play. Important roles: Inverted Wing Backs - Players that progress the ball forwards either through passes and dribbles as well as being part of the structured defence. Central Defender - A player that progress the ball forwards through passes but is mainly in the team to be part of the structured defence, winning headers and tackles as well as intercepting and making blocks. Attacking Central Winger - The Mezzala is in charge of creating overloads and giving a hand in the creating and scoring of goals. These players have one more defined area but are also needed to assist in others. Necessary roles: Wide Midfielders - Players who hold their width and are tasked with creating progressive passes into central areas. These players are pretty much given one task to complete in the team. To then further my thoughts on whether these players need to come from cheaper Turkish markets or more expensive foreign markets, I dove into some data for some players. Below is the attribute analysis of 78 players across Turkish main, U21, U20, U19 and U18 squads, listing the top five attributes, on average, for each area. What I'm seeing here are goalkeepers that are more likely to be shot stoppers than distributors, defenders who are pretty one-dimension, very technical midfield players - albeit lacking a little in terms of end product - and fast, nippy strikers who can get in behind, even if they aren't quite confident with what to do once they are there. Whilst there are, obviously, exceptions to these rules, I think that - if nothing else - allows me greater clarity in my expectations for finding certain types of players in Turkey. I doubt, for example, that there'll be a ready made ball playing defender knocking about that can come in, for my budget, and start games as well sa getting good enough to sell for enormous profit. But there might be somewhere abroad. The same can be said for a true Sweeper Keeper and an all-round Defensive Midfielder. However, pacey wingers and tough centre backs could be a little easier to locate and source, using statistical analysis, locally. I know I have a long way to go until I reach the likes of Altinordu - whose top players are all young and are all academy players but, if I can get the recruitment right - at experienced and youth level, as well as developing the players, monitoring them closely, I think I can continue to overachieve here. --- Fenerbahce 2-1 Genclerbirligi Fener get their revenge. There is something so wonderful to see what we can do with our (lack of) possession, especially when you compare the possession stats to the rest of the league. The correlation between amount of the ball and success is quite clear here but I'm so happy that we're bucking that trend. Granted, this one didn't work but we were more dangerous than Fener throughout and had some really good chances. Furthermore, when we pulled it back to 2-1, they had no answer to our counter-attacking player and we really should have levelled the game late on. Ismailia Coulibaly netted his tenth goal of an incredibly successful debut season so I wanted to dive into his stats a bit more. Below is the combined goals and assists, as well as expected goals and assists, sorted by percentile value across every player in this league with over 1,000 minutes. Tai, as top scorer, is obviously but has also created three goals too this season, cementing his place right at the top of this league. It's then great to see that I have three great creators in Coulibaly, Cem and Sidibe but, what makes that even better is that the Malian is also a fantastic scorer, too. Just looking at this raw data would (rightly) suggest that Ibrahim Olawoyin is underperforming, when compared to the lad that players on the other wing, Sidibe. A bit of recruitment that I probably got wrong - especially affording him the highest wage in the team... I truly think that Ismaila is an inspired signing so decided to dig a little deeper and look at players who appear in the top 10% of both goals per game and assists per game in the Turkish top flight. He sits in a very elite place with only Kevin Varga and Ozgur Demir for company. In fact, if I was to look at the Big 5 leagues, plus Portugal and Turkey, he's not far off joining an even more elite group. Looking back, this is how I framed the justification of his signing: Quote Ismaily Coulibaly is the man I'm most excited about! A €1.9m signing for Championship side Sheffield United from Sarpsborg in Norway, the youngster played 42 times out on loan at Belgian side Beerschot before being a bit part player at the Blades, making thirty-two appearances over three years. He has played a limited number of minutes - just over 300 last year - predominantly from the bench, which would normally rule him out for me. However, upon further dives into his statistical outputs, I've seen that he's excellent in front of goal and excellent at progressing the ball. Digging back to the season before - his 2022-23 statistics - I can see that this is replicated, meaning that it's more likely to be a real style to his play, rather than just a flash in the pan. Another well rounded player suitable for this level with, apparently, a lot of potential not yet realised - meaning that the €1.5m release clause to clubs in continental competitions could come in handy for us, or the club in future. Looking back at a small number of games, really digging in to identify his style but looking at more than just outright G/A - he'd scored eleven times in 102 games prior to this season, not recording a single assist but, as I noted, was good at dribbling and progressing the ball. I think that this must go down as my finest, ever, statistical driven purchase and one that really sets the tone for being able to distinguish between signings that are in the first team and playing thousands of minutes a year and those that are not, as I've always struggled with the second option. --- Six points from nine is more than the four I'd predicted and keeps us well in the fight, with Besiktas falling apart at the moment. It is also wonderful to see that Hatayspor, predicted no more than a mid-table team, still holding firm, although Fener have just overtaken them as they have hit a bit of a rich vein of form. The coming five games, three of which are in April, are tough. I'd like to take six points from the first two and then it's just about hoping to get something from the last three... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich ruzzian Posted December 26, 2022 Share Posted December 26, 2022 Some group of talents you have in the youth team. Everything is still open in the league. European spot is for grabs, howver as you say the next few games are strong opponents. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted December 26, 2022 Share Posted December 26, 2022 5 hours ago, _Ben_ said: I really like this idea of considering role importance, and reminds me a lot of the way that NFL teams build their rosters. In a salary-capped environment, it's just not possible to amass the top talent in all positions, so teams all have different areas they prioritise their investment depending on their tactical identity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 On 26/12/2022 at 20:26, _Ben_ said: To then further my thoughts on whether these players need to come from cheaper Turkish markets or more expensive foreign markets, I dove into some data for some players. Below is the attribute analysis of 78 players across Turkish main, U21, U20, U19 and U18 squads, listing the top five attributes, on average, for each area. What I'm seeing here are goalkeepers that are more likely to be shot stoppers than distributors, defenders who are pretty one-dimension, very technical midfield players - albeit lacking a little in terms of end product - and fast, nippy strikers who can get in behind, even if they aren't quite confident with what to do once they are there. Whilst there are, obviously, exceptions to these rules, I think that - if nothing else - allows me greater clarity in my expectations for finding certain types of players in Turkey. I doubt, for example, that there'll be a ready made ball playing defender knocking about that can come in, for my budget, and start games as well sa getting good enough to sell for enormous profit. But there might be somewhere abroad. The same can be said for a true Sweeper Keeper and an all-round Defensive Midfielder. However, pacey wingers and tough centre backs could be a little easier to locate and source, using statistical analysis, locally. That’s a good idea, finding out what type of player is most likely in a position in the league you’re playing in. Helps define what type of player you’ll mostly expect to see and know that you’ll need to look elsewhere for certain types of players. It’s curious this month that by the end of reading what happened, I’d forgotten how your team played because of how interesting the diving into players and the league was Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 22 hours ago, GIMN said: I really like this idea of considering role importance, and reminds me a lot of the way that NFL teams build their rosters. In a salary-capped environment, it's just not possible to amass the top talent in all positions, so teams all have different areas they prioritise their investment depending on their tactical identity. Kind of reminds me of fantasy football I take your point though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 On 26/12/2022 at 10:17, rich ruzzian said: Some group of talents you have in the youth team. Everything is still open in the league. European spot is for grabs, howver as you say the next few games are strong opponents. We do, yes. However, when you look at the number of players that have made the grade from the academy, below, you can see it's still considerably lower than that of Altinordu, whose model we are very much trying to replicate. Whilst I won't be here in ten years time, I want the philosophy of the importance of the academy to be completed embedded and remain production of top quality young talents. Even the way that the youth leagues are set up: Makes development of talent (and not just a place for match fitness for returning players or a hoard for foreign youth) really important and I hope we see the impact of that down the line. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 On 26/12/2022 at 14:44, GIMN said: I really like this idea of considering role importance, and reminds me a lot of the way that NFL teams build their rosters. In a salary-capped environment, it's just not possible to amass the top talent in all positions, so teams all have different areas they prioritise their investment depending on their tactical identity. 1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said: Kind of reminds me of fantasy football I take your point though Yeah, I guess it's a slight change on the depth chart - focusing not only number of players there but on importance of them. I'm trying to think of a real life team that has won honours despite having a weak link and, if that's not in a position (in my case, the spine of the team) that is super important, I think they can get away with it. Also, I need to consider that we still have the smallest budgets in the league and our reputation hasn't grown sufficiently over the course of just one season in the top flight. --- 1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said: That’s a good idea, finding out what type of player is most likely in a position in the league you’re playing in. Helps define what type of player you’ll mostly expect to see and know that you’ll need to look elsewhere for certain types of players. It’s curious this month that by the end of reading what happened, I’d forgotten how your team played because of how interesting the diving into players and the league was Yep, exactly that. I need to know that I'm unlikely to find my ball playing defender in a Turkish academy so can then set my sights elsewhere but also I know that, from the above, that I'll have to prioritise a little more of my transfer budget to get them. As of right now, it looks that I'll be getting just over €300k to build a team that (if not already in there) can challenge for a European spot: hardly the riches of Gala, who have a net spend of over €14m this season or Fenerbahce, with their salary per annum sitting at nearly 20x our own. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 April 2026 Ever since Christmas, I've been dealing with a pretty horrific bud - one that seems to be going round everywhere at the moment - so this update is very short as I currently lack the concentration skills to dig a little deeper into writing and explaining. Altinordu 0-3 Genclerbirligi Despite an injured goalkeeper, we absolutely battered Altinordu, with goals from Tai Sodje, Ali Keten and an own goal from their centre back. --- Genclerbirligi 3-0 Adanaspor We all but relegated Adanaspor thanks to another concise victory, this time with goals coming from Soumaré - his first for the club, Olawoyin and Tai Sodje, again. --- Between fixtures, I have been working to get the best young coaches possible at the club, knowing that the impact good personalities and like minded individuals can have on the early development of players. My job is to now ensure that they work hard to achieve their coaching qualifications and reach their potential as coaches, with any spots opening up at the senior level being run past them, first. --- Galatasaray 1-0 Gençlerbirliği We lost it at the absolute death but, despite giving Gala the title, worked them so incredibly hard for it. I watched on - slightly too ill to process a lot of what has happened - but happy with how far our playing style and squad building has come. --- Four games to go and we're not far off. I worry about Besiktas as, on paper, they're the strongest side in this little battle for fourth and fifth. I also genuinely hope Hatayspor, our next opponents, can maintain their form and finish third after performing so well all season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteinkelssonFM Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Wishing you all the best for the final couple of fixtures, look forward to the next update...hope you are feeling better 💪 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 May 2026 Genclerbirligi 3-0 Hatayspor Poor Hatayspor - their season is falling apart and we demolished them! Tai Sodje with a hattrick as we restricted them to just two low quality shots from the twenty-seventh minute onwards thanks to a high line and low block giving their winger and master creator Kevin Varga no space to operate. It was another tactical victory for us in that sense. --- With Turkey not qualifying for the World Cup, it's my two African lads who are added to the preliminary squads - both of whom are there on as a reward for their great form this season. --- Istanbul Basaksehir 0-0 Gençlerbirliği In the past 180 minutes, we've barely touched the football yet haven't conceded a goal! We did exactly what I had intended, and what has played out so well across the season - sitting back, pressing through pretty much only Sodje, man marking their marauding full backs, sitting high up the pitch in two banks of four with Gokhan Gul patrolling between. I'm delighted with how we can get results against big teams by doing this - and the next job is to make ourselves a little more clinical when we get the opportunity to go forward. --- Nigerian attacking options means that I am not too surprised that Sodje didn't get the call. However, I now have plans for June and July... --- Genclerbirligi 4-1 Gaziantep Gaziantep are a little frail and, as such, I went out for the kill straight off and was rewarded with a second minute penalty, that Mendy put away. Coulibaly, Omercan and Dunyacan scored the others as we ran riot in a game where we actually had the lion's share of the ball. I was greeted by a somewhat confusing headline though... I know nothing about this! Ankaragucu are moving stadium (even though Wiki says it'll actually hold just 20k) and I presume that means we are moving too? Who knows! --- Kasimpasa 0-3 Genclerbirligi We end the season in fine form with a double from Ismaili and a goal from Cem Bilgin. Kasimpasa had no answer for our swift counter attacking play and we round the season off on a high. --- We gave it everything we had but, in the end, came up just short! However, solace my come in that we may actually qualify in the end due to the league place ruling over the cup, but I'm certainly not holding out hope and I am in no way disappointed that we've missed out, given the context of our rise through the leagues. We end the season as top scorers and with the best defence, winning 50% of our games - more than the combined total of the other two teams who came up. Our style is completely embedded and we are in a strong position to push on in the future. I expect Besiktas to come back with some kind of vengeance next year but also could see Hatayspor struggle if their one season of success was not built on strong foundations. --- Ubeyd has been good, there is no doubt about that. With 50% of his appearances ending in clean sheets, he's a really good shot stopper and has done pretty much what is expected of him. However, I can't help but feel that we could upgrade him in terms of his ball playing ability. Whilst he completed three quarters of his passes, only two of them progress the ball a significant way up the pitch, showing that, largely, these passes are just short balls to the centre backs. I want a keeper who can assist in the transition phase of a counter attack by playing long balls - kicked or thrown - into dangerous areas. Judging by the work I did looking at the attribute balance of keepers, I feel that I am unlikely to get my ball-player from Turkey and will have to spread my net further afield to snag an improvement. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the defensive side of my squad, even if they've not rated as highly as in previous years. There will be an element of change here as Mert Kula will see out his contract and Taylan Duman will be sold. Overall, the entire area of defenders are lacking a little in their passing ability and I feel that this is something that I need to address; Ali Keten is a ball player but probably not at the required level and Soumaré hasn't had the best start to his career but I'm sure will grow into the role a little. Another area that will see some change with Ahmet Tunc not being up to the required level, Serkan Odabasioglu moving at the end of his deal and an enforced sale in Alassane Sidibe. Despite being a top performer, his wage demands are over 4x that of my current highest earner and I simply cannot afford them, nor can I allow him to move on for free as whatever I can raise from this sale will fund any transfer activity over the summer. Coulibaly has absolutely excelled and ends with twenty-two goal contributions this season with Cem Bilgin notching a further twelve in another strong showing for my aggressive central midfielders. Injury hit seasons prevented Dunyacan Copur and Emirhan from properly cementing themselves in the first team whilst I was somewhat disappointed with the output of Olawoyin - my highest paid player. In positive news, youngsters Sirat Keceli looks strong, mainly from the bench, and will surely go on to have a good career with us. Omercan missed a lot of the season due to injury but it's been all about Tai Sodje, who has fifty goals in his first fifty-eight appearances, ending with twenty-five league goals this season, topping the charts by seven goals. Sodje has scored goals at an elite rate this season and the interest in him is coming, largely from second tier clubs, giving me hope that I can keep hold of him in future. I didn't get to see much of new recruit Adeshina but hopefully he'll grow into some game time next year. --- I've done a little bit of work on the recruitment side ready for when the window opens part way through June. Here are my initial thoughts: Transfer Target #1: I see Emre (click on the image for a full view of his profile) as a real sign of intent - a capped Turkish international in the peak of his career. However, that comes with a provisor. Emre has been frozen out at Fenerbahce and I've seen on the news screen that he's actually missed training seven times this year and comes with just two substitute appearances to his name this season - two huge red flags in the normal recruitment process that I use. However, there is so much talent and that is evident looking at the fourteen appearances he made last season at Fener - in the chart above. Compared to all Super Lig offensive midfielders, he's ranked really high in chances, key passes and dribbles, setting up a goal on average every five games. Looking back at his statistical output over the past three years is also strong and, probably, explains that he's been frozen out because he no longer ways to play at Fener, rather than they have outgrown him, as he's improved year on year. Here, I have compared his output from the 2024/25 season with Alassane Sidibe's from this year: I know that they are a level above us in terms of quality but I really feel that they missed a trick when utilising this tricky winger - playing him far too far forward to utilise his elite Agility and Ball Control skills, limiting the sprints and dribbles he could make. The most important part of this, though, is the financial impact it will have. With Sidibe's €56k p/m wage demands, I've managed to get Emre to accept a basic wage of a little under €20k p/m - just €5k per week. Over the course of the season, that basic wage amounts to around €240k, just one win and one draw would pay for this and be hugely offset by the money raised from the Sidibe sale and the ~€120k p/a on wages. Whilst that goes against the ethos I underlined earlier in the season in terms of the lowest ability players being my wingers and now will end up having my two top earners (Olawoyin and Emre) as my two top earners, I think it's part of the process of improving the team. As I said, we are not in a position where we can let Sidibe play out his contract and need that money so I think that this is the best way of reinvesting. Transfer Target #2: Amine Adli (again, link to his profile is from clickable image) is a player who I've had my eyes on for some time now and he actually played a few games for our youth sides in non-competitive friendlies whilst on a couple of trials at the club. Hailing from the Toulouse academy, he moved to Bayer Leverkusen for €8m and forty-three Bundesliga appearances to his name. He spent the entirety of last season out on loan at second tier Bochum, which produced the above statistical outputs. More than one good chance every other game and an assist every four games would be perfect for us in a midfield comprised of Coulibaly, Cem and Dunyacan. He's also consistent and would settle in to a new country pretty well so feels quite a low risk deal for us. Transfer Target #3: Nothing cemented here but I've sent out some scouts and analysts to see what they can find and I've added a few interesting players to a shortlist for further investigation: Transfer Target #4: Left footed centre back. I've got scouts out but not got a lot back, yet... --- June is all about finding new players and taking in the joys of a North American World Cup! Expect the next month's update to be much shorter, too... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 June 2026 I'm still feeling super rough physically, but my cognitive ability has returned, meaning that I can just sit and play all day... --- A nice summer spent in North America produced exactly zero minutes for Ismaila Coulibaly as he was an unused substitute in each game as Mali reached the knockout round, falling to a strong Netherlands side. Obviously, matching with my real life philosophy, I'm taking nothing from this tournament as any scouting can absolutely paper over the cracks that poorer players have in tournament situations. A nice little change of pace, if nothing else... --- Building on the financial aspect of the save, I have confirmed two departures: Alassane Sidibe's €4m move to German side Augsburg and Taylan Duman's €250k deal to Kayserispor but was able to reject a mammoth €9.25m deal for Tai Sodje thanks to the great rapport we have. Sadly, if he does become unsettled, this is the kind of sum that just couldn't be turned down. I wasn't happy with the sale of Sidibe, but, as I've said, there was no way of keeping him and the €4m can directly be reinvested, along with new sponsorship deals, into strengthening the squad through transfer budget or wage budget. --- I think we're in a really decent place now but July will tell me whether this club really has ambitions of becoming a quality team or whether this may be the ceiling that I knew I'd reach sometime and next season will be about finding the next step... 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler16 Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Don't think I've commented yet this year but closely following your thread like usual. Things are getting very interesting, excited to see if you're able to take another step here or try to find a move elsewhere. Also, love that you've been able to find success playing without the ball, showing it's possible to win with multiple different strategies in this year's version. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 2 hours ago, tyler16 said: Don't think I've commented yet this year but closely following your thread like usual. Things are getting very interesting, excited to see if you're able to take another step here or try to find a move elsewhere. Also, love that you've been able to find success playing without the ball, showing it's possible to win with multiple different strategies in this year's version. Thank you! With me not feeling well, I've been able to power through the pre-season and I feel that we're continuing to make progress using the style that I want but I also need to be wary that this is not the end goal and, if I do want to move to Italy, I can't just expect to walk into a top job. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 28, 2022 Author Share Posted December 28, 2022 Pre-Season (July and half of August) 2026 July brings about the busiest month for me in terms of loading up previous games to export stats to Excel and build visuals. So here is a very thorough explanation of the thoughts in my head, starting with a run down of the pre-season fixtures and then detailing a further four new faces that have arrived at the club... --- 10Bet Cup (named after our shirt sponsor - thanks Kitbasher!) winners, you'll never sing that!!! I, once again, followed the @danielgear strategy and set up three different cups, of which we won all of, so that I could get two consecutive playing days and increase time where we are not recovering away from the training pitch. As pre-seasons go, I'm not too unhappy, but, I've decided to split it into a couple of sections. I am a bit more conscious, this time, that match fitness hasn't necessarily been achieved by all of the squad, but I will continue to monitor. Positives + Amine Adli has been fantastic and laid on a couple of lovely goals. + Karamoko, with his trait of getting past the last defender, actually makes us a little more aggressive and vertical in our play. + Sirat Keceli, the young winger, has really impressed although I'm more focused than ever on ensuring his injury problems don't stop him from developing. Negatives - Lots of goals conceded and neither keeper looks fantastic at the moment... - Julius Adeshina failed to score in any of his five pre-season appearances and may not quite be ready for the first team yet, as I'd hoped. - Ali Keten's game was still full of errors and poor passing choices, despite him being someone I should be able to trust on the ball. --- A slightly unplanned transfer, but one that is going to have to come good for us. After Freiburg tabled a huge bid for Tai Sodje, I had no choice but to accept. Tai has been an absolute revelation for us and not only got us promoted but fired us to the position that we finished in last year. Both myself and the team will miss him dearly but, to play this as realistically as I can, there is no way we'd be standing in his way of a dream move to Germany, Champions League Football and the financial gain that the club will get from this move. Interestingly, his new move saw him immediately switch international allegiances again, maybe his reputation boost has also given him an ambition to represent the country of his birth again. His new wage of €70k p/m is justification that I absolute could not afford to keep him here and would be moving him on this time next year, probably for the less than this amount anyway. To replace him, I was in two minds: we have Omercan Tekin, a well-thought of player who has scored at nearly one in two throughout the early part of his career and is deemed good enough for this level as well as Julius Adeshina, brought in as part of our development program, but we also now have €10m to spend. That just doesn't feel like the Gencler way so I dipped into my list of scouted players and came across Mamadou Karamoko, whose profile you can see by clicking on the thumbnail. Karamoko appeared last season whilst playing at Kobenhavn and I was able to watch a cameo of a few games and noted that, like Emre Mor before him, has likely been frozen out due to telling the team he wanted to leave. I think that my aim for this transfer window, as you will see with other signings too, is to normalise the left-out player, finding good in something that other teams clearly don't see. In his short career in Denmark, he's scored at nearly a goal in every three matches and was recognised with an international debut last season - clearly there is something in there to like. I decided to trial him and see how he played out during pre-season, knowing that it was kind of a win-win: I either had a new forward or Omercan played his way into being my number one. Pre-season has taught me that this man is just an out and out finisher! He does very little else, contributes little to the rest of the build up, but knows where the back of the net is. Kind of reminiscent of Erling Haaland is some ways - just look at the pass map from the last game, where he had sixteen touches in his 65 minutes, with three of them firing the ball into the back of the net. However, that is what I needed and just €18k p/m was enough to seal the deal. I have, since, had to deal with unhappiness from Omercan Tekin's camp about being replaced. I was able to appease him by saying he'd get football, too, but I need to actually stick to my word. Timmy (full profile linked in thumbnail) is a lad I know well from being a Villa fan and it is kind of sad to see that he's not kicked on in FM as I'd love him to in real life, where he is on loan at QPR: here you can see his 2022-23 statistics in game. Sadly, he went back to the Villa (who are now a solid European side under the stewardship of Spaniard Marcelino) and didn't play at all, just making one cup appearance last year - an EFL Fourth Round tie against Stoke where Tiago Almada (oh, how I can dream!) scored a brace. I was alerted to him by his agent, Steve Jones, who appears to have a good relationship with me - probably through the brokerage of either the Mazeed Ogungbo or Tai Sodje deals, although both have new agents now - and had noticed he'd also given up on representing England, the country of his birth, and had decided to make himself eligible for Nigeria. Now, I don't have any particular rules on recruitment but I've already got quite the African feel to this squad and I must say that it sweetened the deal even more. Again, I went for a trial contract to see how he'd perform: does he really match up to the scout report of a player who is good enough for this level and could improve, consistent and an all-round, all-action midfielder or has the time away from the highest level of football been too much for him. Again, it's bringing that use of the recruitment team into my thoughts in a realistic way. Unlike Karamoko above him, Tim didn't have a lot to prove to me in pre-season as I knew he was quality. I was most pleased with his physical stature but it's clear that he's won headers, intercepted balls, won tackles when needed and still been able to lay the ball off, recording just under four progressive passes a game and a good number of key passes, too. In the end, a €25k p/m deal was arranged. He's the highest earner in my team but, if it goes well, could become and the cog to both the attacking and defensive parts of my play. I am delighted to have him on board. The last trialist-cum-signing is ex-Galatasaray defender Abdulkerim Bardakci (clickable link in thumbnail), a man fresh from winning the league last time out. His Super Lig performance show a regular starter who, despite entering the later stages of his career, was able to progress the ball just as well as he was able to win the ball back. Another player deemed good enough for this level, consistent, likes big matches and with a wealth of experience, I felt that a month on trial would be a good way to persuade him to join us. A steady pre-season but enough for me to go ahead and seal the signing. €22.5k p/m for three years is a big outlay for a 31-year old but I really feel that his experience will be vital to our progress. One that feels like a big risk, here. I decided to invest 38% of the profit made on the Alassane Sidibe sale - €1.5m - on a new keeper, Slovenian Martin Turk (again, clickable on thumbnail). Parma brought in a new number one in the summer, ousting Martin and allowing him just one appearance in Serie B, but he has three full seasons of experience before him: at Valenciennes in French Ligue 2, Parma and Reggiana, in the third tier of Italian football. I had sent the scouting team out to find me a keeper more suited to playing out with his feet and someone who would be able to assist in the early stages of our counter attacks and they found him. Annoyingly, FM does not record progressive passes for players not in leagues with full detail so I have no idea where he stands here but I was able to take his full season in France and compare it with Ubeyd Adiyaman's performances, last season: Playing in a side that finished mid-table is a pretty fair comparison and it's really clear that he's used the ball better - being in the top 1% in terms of not giving the ball away across a game. Whether that is because he is simply passing to his centre backs is to be found out, I guess, as no footage exists that is that old. I am not quite sure how to take his handling stats - way less shots held than Ubeyd but is that because the shots are better and that he has to parry them or is his Handling not as good? (the raw attribute is 2 points better in favour of the Slovenian so probably not). Likewise, is he tipping more because he's an inch smaller and can't reach as well or is that because more of the shots are in the corners? What I do have though is a man who is consistent, will adapt well to living in a new country and loves a big match. That, and being considerably younger than the Ubeyd, should allow me to develop him and move him on for a profit in future if possible. ---- Click the above thumbnail for a full view of my first team squad as we head into the 2026/27 season here in Ankara. I think that this concludes my dealings this summer. We've brought in seven new players: Emre Mor, Abou Cisse, Mamadou Karamoko, Amile Adil, Tim Iroegbunam, Abdulkerim Bardakci and Martin Turk but also bringing in nearly €13m in money this month, alone. Whilst my recruitment plan last year was to get rounded individuals - Coulibaly, Mendy and Olawoyin did exactly that, I opted for consistent players who enjoy bigger matches and the most telling difference is that three 'three circle' rating now represents a player good enough for this level, whereas, last year, it certainly did not. The next phase of the squad improvement is to work on the quality of the inverted wing backs for this style of play. My concerns are that all of the money I have brought in and all of the settling of the clubs finances are off my own work, rather than that of the board and I do wonder just how much they back me. Taking the club to that next, next level will involve some serious money and recruitment time. Whether Gencler will offer that, I don't know. However - I'm ready for the season ahead! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 August 2026 Genclerbirligi 0-1 Istanbul Basaksehir Not the way I'd intended to kick off the season, knowing that we face Istanbul, Trabzonspor and Gala in three of our first four fixtures. However, there were plenty of positives, that was until Emre Mor picked up a second yellow card in the first half. I changed our tactical shape, which, actually, led to some really nice positional play and a good few chances. However, we conceded thanks to a free kick before Ali Keten picked up his second yellow card and our nine men just hung on. I don't recall a single red card last year so, to get two in the first game, is somewhat concerning. It basically meant that the game became a right-off from forty minutes onwards as the defensive manager in me just wanted to not get hammered! --- Trabzonspor 0-3 Genclerbirligi Wow! This is a Trabzon side that comfortably beat league winners Galatasaray in their first game and we have battered them. Our playing style is so well embedded now but it was three new faces that provided the key parts to some sweeping, vertical football that saw us take the lead. Karamoko finished the first, Coulibaly continued to impress me with the second and Safa Kinali scored a deflected volley to put the game beyond doubt as we successfully saw the game out in the closing minutes. One of the things that I want to dig into more is not the possession that we receive in Zone 14, but more about the possession we receive in Zone 10, 11 and 12 as that is where we are able to play these line splitting balls. I am under no reservations that Coulibaly, Cem and Adil are world class but what they do, they do very well! I'll try and pick out some things over the coming months. In the end, it was just one of those games, like the Fenerbahce result - where we won 4-0 - where everything goes to plan and, on another day, could have been much closer. --- Kayserispor 0-3 Genclerbirligi The first game of the season that I expected to win and we did just that. Coulibaly, again, and first club goals for both Tim Iroegbunam - celebrating his first call up to the Nigerian national team - and Sirat Kecili putting the game to bed. Kayserispor are newly promoted and look like they're going to struggle this season. --- The Bilic-effect is complete! From relegation fodder to top of the table - Konyaspor have won sixteen of the twenty-six games that the Croat has been in charge of and have got themselves what seems to be a really strong team ethos. Obviously, it's early season and I'd expected them to drop back but it's also early season and we find ourselves above all of the club, sans Trabzonspor, that finished above us last year. Besiktas, under the stewardship of Chelsea legend Dan Petrescu, look to be in need of a total rebuild after three fourth placed finishes, a seventh last year and then a poor start this year but surely they'll be strong enough to be challenging in the same areas as we are. I'll be jetting off to Africa to hopefully see two Gencler players make international debuts, but, after the World Cup campaign that Coulibaly didn't have, I'm not holding out much hope. September looks tough but I'm hoping for at least four points from it... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausie Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Loving this thread as usual Ben. How much focus do you put on each opposition each game and what do you use to decide on those tactical tweaks for that opposition? Is it the stat pack you receive on the next opposition through the data hub? I rarely pay much attention to the opposition and usually just have a tactic picked out at the start of the season and go with that for the whole season but I think I should start paying more attention and be making tweaks each week when needed. I've seen you mention a couple of times that you will alter things depending on the opponent and it's something that has perked my interest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 19 minutes ago, Ausie said: Loving this thread as usual Ben. How much focus do you put on each opposition each game and what do you use to decide on those tactical tweaks for that opposition? Is it the stat pack you receive on the next opposition through the data hub? I rarely pay much attention to the opposition and usually just have a tactic picked out at the start of the season and go with that for the whole season but I think I should start paying more attention and be making tweaks each week when needed. I've seen you mention a couple of times that you will alter things depending on the opponent and it's something that has perked my interest. Thanks so much! It's been the biggest thing I've been learning on this FM, to be fair. A lot of that has been made possible by the skin edits that I've made - allowing me to put all of the pieces I want to see in one place. To start off with, I set my training up to roughly align with the quality of team I'm facing: I have schedules pre-made for Saturday and Sunday and a defensive and attacking week, depending on whether I'm home/away or facing stronger/weaker opposition. For tactical stuff, I will always start with their scout report, seeing where they lie in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Straight off, Sivasspor aren't great with Positioning and Concentration so I think our natural, vertical, high-risk game will pay off here but I'm able to make slight tweaks to address things like lack of bravery (tackle harder), lack of stamina (more aggressive, possession orientated and attacking at the end of the game) etc from this screen. I might also use this to amend training - adding attacking or defensive corners from what I see here. I back that up with their analyst overview - trying to spot any trends. Sivasspor won't hog the ball so I won't need to man-mark their double pivot but their pass map shows they tend to build from CB to LB so I'll tight mark their left back in order for them to another way. I can then cross reference things in their match preview screen - which I've built myself in the Data Hub area. Here, I can see that Sivasspor haven't scored lately yet have the league's top scorer in Perea and, with Wingers and Wing Backs, are likely to want to overload the flanks to create more space in the middle for him. I'll then look at their player page to get a better feel for any specific strengths (corner taker might indicate more set piece ability and I'll drop another defender back, for example), a really out of form player (I might trigger press them if they're in a sensible position on the pitch), someone with very few games - maybe a youth prospect who could be starting - will get targeted, too. Here, I noticed that it's their left back who leads the assists so that backs up my original thoughts. I tend to put these things in place on the opposition instructions and, going back to the left back, my plan will be to get him inside onto his right foot due to the fact I'm not worried about his dribbling and he only uses that foot to stand on! Whilst my shape, see below, would indicate we have one style (The changes are really for times when I've moved a ST to be offset or have played with ten men): But we're really so flexible in terms of how we line up and our core principles, below, remain the same. But there is much fluctuation between what goes with them. As simple as overloading the left instead of the right, forcing Wingers with Target Men that can't dribble inside, not regrouping when chasing the game etc. My updates sometimes show the thought process but, even if I don't write about it, it's a process that takes four of five minutes each game and means that we very rarely line up the same way two matches in a row. It's also, in my opinion, helped me achieve really well with a team that - probably - isn't quite as good as it appears. The other glorious thing is that this is not the right way and many many people are more successful than I, but it's just the way I feel most realistic and most fun. Does that help? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausie Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Fantastic response. Thanks very much mate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 September 2026 Disappointment from the Nigerian camp but I was happy to watch Coulibaly pick up his first bit of international recognition, off the back of a wonderful season with us. --- Galatasaray 2-0 Gençlerbirliği Not the result that I wanted but a really strong performance, in areas. I wanted to go in and start well - we did just that, racking up 0.96xG in the first seven minutes of the game. Things didn't quite go to plan and I must consider the animation/choice of Turk's save, which led to the corner they opened the scoring from. Entering the last fifteen, it was always going to a 1-1 or a 2-0 as we had to push on and do something. In the end, the scored on the break as we pushed men forwards. Nothing to be embarrassed or annoyed at though as we played well. --- Genclerbirligi 3-0 Sivasspor Back to winning ways in emphatic style. Much of the build up to this game was documented in the reply to @Ausie and it worked really well. We stopped their left back - their main creator and assist leader - from doing anything and, following a rash challenge in the 50th minute that saw them down to ten men, we continued to run the show. Really pleasing and goals from Cem Bilgin, Metehan Mert and Ismaila Coulibaly sealed the win. --- Eyüpspor 0-2 Genclerbirligi Goals from Emre Mor and Mamadou Karamoko saw up Eyupspor who are still looking like a decent team after being promoted when we were. --- We've started strongly and sit around where I'd expect us to be. However, the news below is of real interest to me right now... I love Gencler and have absolutely loved my time here but I think the ceiling may have been reached. We still have the lowest wage (€3.2m per annum) in the league, compared with Trabzonspor, who spend €20m, Besiktas - €16m, Gala - €40m and Fener - €42m so, realistically, cannot continue to mix it with the big boys until we are on a level playing field. It appears that the board are not interested in upgrading anything. I also know that, to get that move to Serie A - I actually have to win something and get my name out there. WIth us missing out on a European berth (although it was to be expected and, at least, a year too soon), Trabzonspor have that. The other thing that I can't ignore is the link to my own club, Aston Villa, as seen in this Wiki quote: Quote Although a number of theories have been put forward as to why the club colours of Trabzonspor are claret and blue, it has been claimed that they were adopted after the club were sent a set of kits by the English club Aston Villa after their formation in 1967. We shall see... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler16 Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 Ooh, would really like that move. Timing of it feels entirely realistic, and like you said, could propel you into Europe/the sights of bigger clubs down the road. Fingers crossed you land it if that’s where your heart is! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 1 hour ago, tyler16 said: Ooh, would really like that move. Timing of it feels entirely realistic, and like you said, could propel you into Europe/the sights of bigger clubs down the road. Fingers crossed you land it if that’s where your heart is! Thanks! I agree on the realism front. I'd have completely missed it if I wasn't looking for a caretaker manager to check with a little bit of a panel I was skinning so it also feels like fate! It's with a heavy heart that I leave Gencler as I am, genuinely, a little bit of a fan now reading about their past and what they stand for but I also know that I can't get stuck at a club, because that'll hit my enjoyment levels. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 11th October 2026 Welcome to the Black Sea Storm! I cannot begin to introduce my new managerial venture without paying homage to the utterly incredible club that I've just left: Genclerbirligi. 1052 days in charge - with a record of 60-25-18 from my one hundred and three games, scoring 196 times and conceding a mere 60. A promotion and then an unlikely European challenge in our first season in the top flight. The introduction of a host of academy talent: Cem Bilgin, Ufuk Ozdemir, Omercan Tekin, Dunyacan Copur, Sirat Keceli, Enescan Ozu and Resit Yildirim all made their debut under my lead. Then there is the recruitment of youngsters from Africa - Julius Adeshina, Ibrahima Soumare and Abou Cisse will surely go on to do great things in Ankara or bring the club significant amounts of money. Money that will still probably be a fraction of what free agents Ismaila Coulibaly, Tim Iroegbunam and Mamadou Karamoko will make, judging by the record fee ever received for a Gencler player: €16m for Tai Sodje. There was a really good squad developing there and, tactically, things were really strong. The backroom team, many of whom have followed, including my assistant Mehmet Aurelio had also been cobbled together for pennies. All in all, it was a huge collection of well thought out, financially viable signings. But that can only take you so far... Trabzonspor are a giant of a football club. Sitting on the Black Sea coastal town of Trabzon, a Silk Road gateway to Persia and the Caucasus, this place feels like a perfect stop of my journey of a really influential historical city. I've not visited Constantinople (Istanbul) on this Turkish adventure but have been to Ankara, the capital city to do battle with a city rival, yet the battles here will come against Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and a host of European opponents as we welcome them into a forty thousand seater stadium, which, unlike Gencler where an average of five thousand people came, fans are packed in to watch the team. The club is awash with foreign talent - too much in my opinion (but more on why that is later) but, looking at the history of the town as a route to Persia - modern day Iran and the Middle East and the Caucasus - Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia, it makes sense to add a bit of a recruitment focus to their, too. There doesn't appear to be a huge amount of history but I was able to gather the below information: Quote Four clubs existed in Trabzon: İdmanocağı ( founded in 1921), İdmangücü (1913), Necmiati (1923) and Trabzon Lisesi. The four teams played in the regional amateur league of Trabzon, a regional tournament. In 1923 two of these clubs, İdmanocağı and İdmangücü, were divided by a bitter rivalry, comparable to that between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. The opposition reached its peak after 1930. İdmanocağı won five Trabzon titles in a row from 1929 to 1933, but İdmangücü went one better, winning seven titles in a row from 1934 to 1940. The league was then dominated for six years from Lise, before the comeback of İdmangücü, winner of the title in 1947-1948. Other clubs such as Doğan Gençlik, Akçaabat Sebatspor, Sürmene Gençlik, Zafer Gençlik, Yolspor and Yalıspor were established in Trabzon at the time. At the beginning of the 1962-63 season, Turkish Football Federation (TFF) president Orhan Şeref Apak asked the various cities to merge their football clubs into one club, in order to have one team per city and to form the Milli Lig, today Super Lig . However, the opposition between İdmanocağı and İdmangücü was so strong that the city of Trabzon was unable to form a single team, thus remaining cut out of the top flight championship. It was İdmanocağı, Martıspor and Yıldızspor who merged on 21 June 1966. The resulting team signed up for the 2. Lig , at the time the national second division, and started playing in yellow and red kit. In 1966-1967 the team took eighth place in the league and second place in the Başbakanlık Kupası. A month later İdmangücü, Karadenizgücü, Martıspor and Yolspor merged to form Trabzonspor, choosing red and white as their club colours. They won seven Süper Lig titles and were the first non Istanbul-based club to win the league. They also have won nine Federation Cup (Turkish Cup) titles. The club won their first championship title in 1975–76, and won three championship titles in a row in the 1978–79, 1979–80 and 1980–81. They would add one more title in 1983-84 before embarking on a 38 year championship drought. This drought eventually came to an end after they secured the championship in 2021-22. The club colours are claret and sky blue, reflected in the shirt colours that see various striped iterations of the colours. Trabzonspor play at the Şenol Güneş Sports Complex which replaced the Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium as their home ground during the 2016–17 season. Second is 2022-23 and third in the three years since, it falls to me to try and return them to glory. To help achieve that, I have great Youth and Training facilities, above average Youth Recruitment, good Academy Coaching and a first team that, on paper (and on the financial statements), is better and worth a lot more than the players I've just left. Obviously, there is pressure here that wasn't here at Gencler: the board want me to qualify for the Europa League this year and win the league next year whilst developing youth. The supporters want a high tempo pressing game as I was unable to remove that from their demands, even though I did manage to get the board to back down on their demand for that. As I have said - my end goal is Serie A. Right now, there is nothing on the job market and I'd have not got this gig if it wasn't for Trabzon manager - Abdullah Avci - taking over the national team as ex-boss Stefan Kuntz moved on to Watford. So there is two ways to get to Serie A: make a jump or try and move Gencler forward far enough to it's a sideways step. I don't think that the last, realistically, was going to happen. This could go awfully wrong and, to be fair, there is more pressure on me than ever before, but it could also go really well! --- Here is the first team squad that I've inherited. I have used NewGAN manager to give everyone faces so, if you know any of these real life players, they may not accurately match how they are depicted in game! I cannot say that I am sold on either on these two as long term projects at this club, really. However, it does give me an opportunity to really think about the development plan for goalkeepers, as that is something that I have never been great at. Ronnow gets the nod for now and ex-Villa lad Sarkic is an able backup and was actually looked at lsat summer before his loan-cum-transfer to Trabzon. Another really mixed bag here. I like Gonzalo Gonzalez and like the way the club mugged off Southampton, getting him for 25% of the cost that the English side did a year before. I think that he could become a decent ball player, with someone like Henrique on the opposite side. In terms of full backs, they are both strong - Dorukhan and Eren - but neither really fit the mould of an inverted player. This would have been my next bridge to cross at Gencler and it's one that I will look to do again - albeit with more money and a bigger reputation. Very, very different to the midfield I used to have. Lots of age and experience starting with Uribe, who, despite losing his physical presence, could be a great player between the lines to mop up anything lose. Ahead of him, I see that, probably Bardhi and Ahmet are the strongest pairing, if I were to use the same 4-1-4-1 shape. I particularly like Ahmet because he's an academy graduate and the club does appear to lack much in the way of that right now. However, as with Gencler and pretty much every club I've ever managed on FM, my plan will be to change that. Bakasetas and Mostovoy look decent on the wings and the level of quality from the backup players - Koba and Ounas - massively gulfs the quality of the backups I just had. A lot happier with this area, to be fair. I am reunited with Melih Demir, whose even better than when I last managed him and have Enis as able backup. I think Pjaca could do a decent job in the Mez(a) role, too, if needed. --- My overriding thoughts of the squad are that it does not match how I feel an efficient build should be done in Turkey. By that, I mean that, given the exploration of quality and cost of foreign vs Turkish players, the majority of the squad players should be Turks, whilst the key (or marquee, even) players, on higher wages would be from further afield. If I look at this squad, I can split it into a couple of categories. There is also quite a clear difference in those subgroups, too, as seen here. My immediate job will be to ensure that the below fixtures are navigated with some level of success. The countdown stands at eleven days before my European debut as a manager and I'm excited. However, the longer term is to rebuild this aging squad with young, Turkish, talent mixed in with those well-recruited signings from Africa, the Middle East and, maybe, South America. The difference is now the added pressure but also the added resources and reputation. Lets do this! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielgear Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 Congratulations on the new job @_Ben_a natural step, Enough of a rebuild needed to make it an interesting role to take. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dereka Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 31/12/2022 at 19:43, _Ben_ said: Thanks so much! It's been the biggest thing I've been learning on this FM, to be fair. A lot of that has been made possible by the skin edits that I've made - allowing me to put all of the pieces I want to see in one place. To start off with, I set my training up to roughly align with the quality of team I'm facing: I have schedules pre-made for Saturday and Sunday and a defensive and attacking week, depending on whether I'm home/away or facing stronger/weaker opposition. For tactical stuff, I will always start with their scout report, seeing where they lie in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Straight off, Sivasspor aren't great with Positioning and Concentration so I think our natural, vertical, high-risk game will pay off here but I'm able to make slight tweaks to address things like lack of bravery (tackle harder), lack of stamina (more aggressive, possession orientated and attacking at the end of the game) etc from this screen. I might also use this to amend training - adding attacking or defensive corners from what I see here. I back that up with their analyst overview - trying to spot any trends. Sivasspor won't hog the ball so I won't need to man-mark their double pivot but their pass map shows they tend to build from CB to LB so I'll tight mark their left back in order for them to another way. I can then cross reference things in their match preview screen - which I've built myself in the Data Hub area. Here, I can see that Sivasspor haven't scored lately yet have the league's top scorer in Perea and, with Wingers and Wing Backs, are likely to want to overload the flanks to create more space in the middle for him. I'll then look at their player page to get a better feel for any specific strengths (corner taker might indicate more set piece ability and I'll drop another defender back, for example), a really out of form player (I might trigger press them if they're in a sensible position on the pitch), someone with very few games - maybe a youth prospect who could be starting - will get targeted, too. Here, I noticed that it's their left back who leads the assists so that backs up my original thoughts. I tend to put these things in place on the opposition instructions and, going back to the left back, my plan will be to get him inside onto his right foot due to the fact I'm not worried about his dribbling and he only uses that foot to stand on! Whilst my shape, see below, would indicate we have one style (The changes are really for times when I've moved a ST to be offset or have played with ten men): But we're really so flexible in terms of how we line up and our core principles, below, remain the same. But there is much fluctuation between what goes with them. As simple as overloading the left instead of the right, forcing Wingers with Target Men that can't dribble inside, not regrouping when chasing the game etc. My updates sometimes show the thought process but, even if I don't write about it, it's a process that takes four of five minutes each game and means that we very rarely line up the same way two matches in a row. It's also, in my opinion, helped me achieve really well with a team that - probably - isn't quite as good as it appears. The other glorious thing is that this is not the right way and many many people are more successful than I, but it's just the way I feel most realistic and most fun. Does that help? In general this thread is full of great insight, but I particularly loved your breakdown here Ben. Really appreciate you sharing your thought process step by step, great job! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 14 hours ago, danielgear said: Congratulations on the new job @_Ben_a natural step, Enough of a rebuild needed to make it an interesting role to take. Thanks Dan! Just finished writing up October now and it feels like it's going to be a fun step but one that will require an awful lot of energy to make successful. 1 hour ago, Dereka said: In general this thread is full of great insight, but I particularly loved your breakdown here Ben. Really appreciate you sharing your thought process step by step, great job! Thanks. It's been years and years of playing the game to get to where I am now. I've mentioned it several times and it's certainly not a dig at anyone that does this but I am very glad I've moved on from the days of 50 season games, twice a year, built around just instant resulting. I still love to read about games played like that but doubt I will ever - unless I do an international only save that'll fly through the years - return to that style myself. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 October 2026 Whilst I was somewhat disappointed with the overall quality and distribution of quality in the first team, I must say that I have been absolutely blown away by the quality of the young players, far exceeding what I had previously had at Gencler. Obviously, I was only a short time into the real youth program at a club once renowned for its ability to develop you but I've moved to a club that now isn't (despite being the joint highest producers of national team players) so I must say that this is a welcome surprise. Whilst Melih was not produced at the club - instead coming through at Bursaspor via a spell at Gencler where I made a nice €2.8m profit on him following his free transfer - but every other player here has come out of the academy and could have the potential to reach the very top. Realistically, one or two of these actually will but that doesn't stop me from trying! Batuhan Kaya - 15 in the above screenshot but just turned 16 for his profile screenshot - is confidently playing three years above his chronological age with his only huge weakness being a lack of Determination and Oguz Kilic recorded an assist on his full debut, coming on last month against Slovan Bratislava. I have resorted to using the in game notebook to track attribute development in key area and a squad view to see key information as I will assess and reassess every three months, giving them as many first team minutes as possible in this congested schedule. At their own level, they are in a strong position in the U19 Elite League and I've also managed to get to a few of their matches, too, with one in particular of interest to me - a win over the old kids that I was working hard to develop: --- Gaziantep 1-3 Trabzonspor A supremely pleasing start to my time on the Black Sea as we hammer Gaziantep thanks to a hattrick from Melih Demir. I wanted to get off to a strong start - not only to show the squad that I mean business, but also to take advantage of a side that have really struggled when going behind this season, not picking up a single point. With the scoring opened early on thanks to a really well worked move, I was able to sit back and control the game a bit more. Just like at Gencler, I have no obsession with keeping the ball, instead controlling the game by using pragmatism to shut off opportunities for the opponents to get back into the game. Six shots, at an average of a little under 0.06xG shows that we didn't really let them get near us, despite giving them more of the ball than they are probably used to and certainly less than we are used to (we averaged 63% before this match). They scored from a free kick in injury time to somewhat take the shine off a complete performance, ruining the clean sheet for Ronnow. --- Trabzonspor 0-1 Dnipro-1 As I took in the sights and sounds of European football, I did so playing a tactical shape that I'd never played before and may never play again. The thoughts behind the back three was to create that extra man against their two strikers and attacking midfielder. However, I both underestimated the quality of the Ukrainians and left myself short going forward as we toiled through ninety minutes. Their goal came from the exact thing I had tried to stop, an overload made on my own extra man with their forward and marauding centre mid meaning that the through ball attracted my defender to press, leaving Marc Gual, their striker, free to finish on the angle. Certainly a lot to think about... --- Trabzonspor 6-0 Konyaspor Alex Barreto vs Slaven Bilic. Two managers who have worked wonders with limited budgets, changing the fortunes of underachieving squads ended in the most resounding win of my career, in a game where I really - more so after the European adventure and third game in a week - expected us to struggle. A wondergoal from centre back Gonzalez saw him win Player of the Week and his brace was matched by Ahmet Tamrak and fellow centre back Pedro Henrique as our plan to make the most of corners due to their lack of height really worked out. If we can get rid of our ridiculous mistakes - like, honestly, what is Ronnow doing here?! - I think we can really be a force to reckon with. I do have some reservations about the playing squad and, following Kerem Kalafat moaning about his lack of first team football on literally the day I joined as well as Enis Bardhi's demands for a new deal I simply won't budge on this early in my time here, I have already created some divides within the squad. I'm actually opposed by four players within the first team - three of them experienced players with international, too. Whilst this is a really solid month, I know that there are things I will have to resolve, and resole quickly. --- If the league season ended right now, I'd be happy. New Gencler boss Erol Bulot has overseen two wins from two as well as a 5-0 thumping in the cup. The shape he used for that game is a little different to what I've used and his Gegenpressing will also take some getting used to but I really hope that he can do well with the squad I've assembled for him. In terms of what comes next - there really is no letup: 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 (edited) November 2026 Just looking at the lineups tells you that, whilst this foray into Europe is fun, we're nowhere near the level of some of the clubs here. Man Utd have a vast expanse of riches and an interesting forward line that was spearheaded by Bruno Fernandes, in, presumably, a False Nine role. It was quite nice to see that legend Ruud was in charge. As a Villa fan (and, probably, most fans), it's not unusual to see the below message at some point during the game: And equally less unlikely to see that Bruno Fernandes has scored against you. It was three goals in quick succession, with the other two coming via the boot of Christian Eriksson, that absolutely destroyed us before the half time whistle. I opted to not change things, with, at that point, the game remaining 3-0 was as bad as it finishing 8-0 but, thanks to a rousing half time talk, we came out fighting, pegging them back to 3-2 and really stopping them from playing. They scored, late on, thanks to Eriksson, again, but we just didn't have enough in the tank to build another fightback. However, looking at the non-pen xG, we'd have won and, looking at the general state of play - Eriksson's goals were low xG shots from the edge of the area that Sarkic (as, for some reason, number one Ronnow isn't registered) should have saved and they didn't batter us, certainly not for long periods of time in the second half. Another bit of European sadness but, unlike last time out, there is an awful lot to take from it. One thing that I won't be taking much further though, is Enis Bardhi. The North Macedonian has done nothing but moan at attempt to turn the dressing room against me. Whilst I do not want to be one of those managers who comes in and throws the entire squad under the bus, ripping it apart and starting again, I do want to assert some kind of dominance and have players at the club who don't moan about things and do speak to me sensibly if they have an issue. Ever since he first went to his teammates to complain about a new deal, he's trained terribly and barely showed up in any matches. €6m plus around €750k saved in wages will be reinvested elsewhere. ---- Trabzonspor 1-2 Fenerbahce This was a lot of fun. It felt different to other games I've played and, actually, I felt that derby thing come into it. Also - the referee absolutely lost the plot and I felt that it was quite a realistic thing to see in a fiery fixture like this. We went ahead early thanks to Andrey Mostovoy, who finished really well. However, it was Mostovoy's positional play in the build up that really pleased me. He purposely stayed wide enough to cause an issue for the full back, leaving him undecided of whether to help out in the centre where the overload was or to pull wide to the winger. He opted for the first and a swift switch of play in no more than about six touches, allowed the Russian in to put us ahead. Before half time, I was reminded of the dangers of a trigger press - with centre back Gonzalez pressing Lincoln, as I'd requested, but, in doing so, leaving a gaping hole at the back, which Daniel Podence nearly scored from. As I said, the referee had lost the plot and both teams were down to ten men before half time as eleven yellow cards were shown in total. I opted to continue with wider men, leaving just one central midfielder, in order to continue the double up on the particularly dangerous Podence - which, after watching him in the Premier League, is also odd to me. They levelled as Pedo Henrique poked into his own net and Joao Pedro netted from a corner deep into injury time as we just couldn't hold them off any more. Three defeats in four games and the realisation that I've never managed a group of players that, on the whole, I dislike as much as these lot. There is much work to be done in the dressing room, and much of it will be completely vindicated based on the reactions I got from my team during team talks and throughout the game. --- Standard Liege 1-1 Trabzonspor Our European dream is fast turning into a European nightmare. I wish that I could solely lambast Uefa for this atrocity they have created but, at the end of the day, we have to go out and beat these teams if we want to progress. The draw leaves us eighteenth in the group and we have Sion (29th), Qarabag (33rd) and Napoli (7th) left to face. In reality, it's stupid to not have any kind of rivalry within the group and I can't say that I'd care if we didn't get much further than this. --- Altınordu 0-2 Trabzonspor Melih Demir has scored eight of the fifteen goals we've scored under my tenure. It's hard to say we're not a one-man team, but, right now, we seem to have one man pulling for us. Ahmet Tamrak, the other young Turk in the squad, is doing really well but there are some deep rooted issues that I'm not particularly enjoying finding out. A decent win over Altinordu but, to be fair, we allowed them to take a lot of shots and we were really safe in possession, in a way that, from the outside, may look a little complacent - just knocking it backwards and forwards around the backline, which is absolutely not what I want them to do. I know it's early days in the tactical understanding but it just doesn't feel right. Three points though. -- Seven games to come in December as we need to find it in our legs to get to January before I, hopefully, rip the rotten core of this team apart and move on. Whether I have less man management ability than my predecessor or whether the step up from Gencler (yeah, don't look at the league table right now!) means that I'm not getting what I need from the players or whether it's down to the fact that I've not bought them in to the club and nurtured them yet, I don't know. In addition to this, I have another important player who'll be leaving, despite spending seven years in this country prior to announcing his homesickness. I could, quite easily, rip apart this team and stick the young, thriving U19 squad in their place, but that'd not go down too well with a board who are already only 'Satisfied' at my performance and expect a league title in under eighteen months. I didn't take this gig for it to be easy, though. Edited January 2, 2023 by _Ben_ 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler16 Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 Loving the drama you've walked into here. Wonder if this will end up like Sochi in your last save or you'll manage to appease the board (and players) before it's too late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 57 minutes ago, tyler16 said: Loving the drama you've walked into here. Wonder if this will end up like Sochi in your last save or you'll manage to appease the board (and players) before it's too late. I really get the same vibe, you know! There is a group of players, much like the core I inherited at Sochi, that, whilst good enough for the club, just are rotten apples. Furthermore, the demands of the board are almost identical in wanting instant success, which isn't really how I do things. Whilst my fifty-two day reign takes me past the likes of Bryan Clough and certainly past then ten minutes of Liam Rosenior, I've been digging to see what things are like in Turkey. This quote, from Wiki, about Cesare Prandelli rings true: Quote On 3 July 2014, Prandelli became the manager of Galatasaray taking over from the previous fellow Italian coach Roberto Mancini, signing a two-year contract. He would only spend 147 days as manager, however, as he was sacked on 28 November 2014. His league performance was certainly not bad: in ten weeks his team managed to get six wins, one draw and three losses, landing at third place in the Süper Lig, one point behind Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş. The team under Prandelli, however, had one of its worst seasons in the Champions League, with two 4–1 losses to Arsenal, and 4–0 and 4–1 losses to Borussia Dortmund, ending the team with one points and −12 goal difference in six games. Prandelli's statement that "the Turkish league is our priority" was not well received by the fans and the club board, as Galatasaray is often seen as the "European team" of Turkey, being the most successful club in European tournaments. Prandelli's tactics and player choices were also heavily criticized in the media, as he tried different lineups in 16 games that he managed. His successor, Hamza Hamzaoğlu, led the team to both league and cup titles. Players declared their discontent about working with Prandelli several times in the media. I'm not new to managing in Turkey having done really well at the two previous clubs. It also led me to this article that feels close to home, too. Obviously, it's not something (I think) that FM can replicate in terms of their ability for success (they absolutely can in terms of putting a numerical figure on likelihood of appointing foreign managers) but the only non-Turks in the top flight are myself, Paco Jemez (Fenerbahce), Slaven Bilic (Konyaspor) - although he's previously managed in the country, Francesco Farioli (Hatayspor) and Dan Petrescu (Besiktas). Before this, I recall Andrea Pirlo making a bit of a mess at Fatih Karagumruk - finishing with a 32% win percentage. What I feel is now replicated with the supporter profile is a better handle on this, taken from that article: Quote The passion of these fans is something that will quickly turn on managers if results are not going well, especially those who are expected to bring trophies The above is way different from the one star rating that I had at Gencler and it really shows. The fans love Bardhi and will be on my back even more when he is sold in January. --- I must say that I've build no rapport to the club and could walk away right now. Yes, there are a hugely talented group of youngsters in the U19 side and yes I would love to sit and watch them develop as we play an attractive brand out counter attacking football, continuing signing undervalued and under-represented players but I will not stick around if I can't get rid of the rotten core. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Great move Ben! Seems you’ve inherited a rather ageing squad. Which means plenty of your recruitment skills required. Best of luck at the Black Sea! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 (edited) A new job eh?! Time to let loose and shake the Trabzonspor tree, as the wages and agreed-playing-time don’t make sense with some players (high/squad). Europe definitely not the best start, though getting the league results moving up the table now looks the goal. Getting cute with tactics in Turkey though could be terminal (very interesting article you linked). Would Greece be a destination if and only if this occurs early? I’m actually hoping you romp through the league during the rest of the season Edited January 4, 2023 by Sonic Youth Hope Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 4, 2023 Author Share Posted January 4, 2023 8 hours ago, SixPointer said: Great move Ben! Seems you’ve inherited a rather ageing squad. Which means plenty of your recruitment skills required. Best of luck at the Black Sea! 5 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: A new job eh?! Time to let loose and shake the Trabzonspor tree, as the wages and agreed-playing-time don’t make sense with some players (high/squad). Absolutely! You say great move, but wait until you see the December league table! 5 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: Getting cute with tactics in Turkey though could be terminal (very interesting article you linked). Would Greece be a destination if and only if this occurs early? I’m actually hoping you romp through the league during the rest of the season Tactically, we're much more settled than we had been and it's beginning to show in the results now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 4, 2023 Author Share Posted January 4, 2023 December 2026 Trabzonspor 2-0 Hatayspor A straightforward victory for us as we allowed possession hungry Hatayspor a huge amount of midfield possession, with only Melih Demir ahead of the ball in these long periods of play. I ask him to press certain situations - in this case, just the right back as that had been identified as a key area of build up for the opposition. His pressing statistics are pretty poor - 3.40 per/90 completed out of just under fifteen attempted but his hard, specifically targeted yards tend to push a lot of recycling and possession for opponents and not much in the way of shooting opportunities. Back to back clean sheets with four goals scored feels like a little victory as I look to convince this team that I am capable of succeeding here. I opted for a particularly young line up in an attempt to better judge the attitudes of my players - knowing that, sometimes, complacency can be a real factor when coming off the bench. Andrey Mostovoy passed the test, coming off the bench with vigour and enthusiasm and netted the second, whereas Koba - the South African winger - was lethargic, complacent and his thirty minute cameo probably took him half an hour closer to his exit from the club. He will probably join the list of three players who have already secured moves away: Three squad players but, across the six month period between now and the summer, where I feel that I can really judge my squad building, they'll be saving me nearly €2m in wages alone. That, combined with the €7.5m I've received in transfer fees can be invested, wisely, elsewhere. --- Sion 0-0 Trabzonspor My winless streak in Europe now stretches to four games, although we had more than enough to beat the Swiss side. Sion registered two shots with a value of 0.36xG but this includes a shot, that they should have done better with, valued at 0.35xG but completed a phenomenal 1067 passes, over three times the 333 that we managed to complete. Pleasingly, we are still able to continue with our style - seeing some 28.2% of our passes going forward, slightly more than the percentage that our opponents completed. 17 key passes (5% of total passes) compared to their 0.2% shows just how much we want to get the ball, drive forward and create a chance, as opposed to keeping the ball for prolonged periods of time. I'd love to see the average time we have the ball for in each possession and the number of progressive yards our possessions make - as, for example, here, we get the ball and drive it forward within two of three passes with the last one being key into a dangerous area. With the registration rules and our lack of homegrown talent meaning that often spaces are needing to be left on benches, combined with the already hectic schedule - I'm finding that these games are taking a bit of a backset and I'm left to field teams which contain a huge number of non-match fit players, given what appears to be a terrible attempt at a pre-season from the previous manager. This is another reason why I'm favouring the young players as the rules stipulate that no foreigners can play at youth level and the squad can have two over 19 players but no over 23 year olds - ruling out this entire bunch, unless it's a friendly. However, the youth schedule is packed and we have no free days available. Not ideal but I know that every team in this league has been dealt this set of cards and I managed it reasonably well at Gencler - I guess a mid-season break will allow me to refocus my attention on this. It might also see some of these lot fit enough to play well enough to worm their way back into my longer term plans... --- Kasimpasa 1-3 Trabzonspor A solid victory in the end, with goals from Uribe - netting his first for the club from the spot - Ahmet Tamrak and Enis Destan, whose goal was his first for the club he's spent five years at. Granted, some of this was out on loan, but, as a semi-competent striker, I'd have hoped for more. I think that I need to continue the formulation of game plans against teams that don't want possession. Our core style isn't set up to keep the ball and it showed - with 150 sideways passes in the central third as we knocked the ball between us, unable to break through their defensive lines. A headed goal from a corner has left me scratching my head about whether I'm setting up right so I'll dig into that over the coming games... I have kind of realised that I'm so focused on removing the (what I perceive to be) rotten core of this squad but have actually come in with somewhat of a preconceived idea about certain players in this squad, which I know is not the most sensible idea given the style that I now want to play FM in. Below are a core of players who I feel have impressed me - but, you'll notice that I've omitted several of the non-Turkish players without really ever giving them a chance. Pedro Henrique, a man with an own goal, ratings of 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.4 in four of his last eight games has had the chance to make an impression but failed miserably whereas I must say that I've overlooked the likes of Ukrainian Kravets, probably because of the whopping €74k he takes home and a judgement on several minutes as an unfit substitute. Likewise, I've played another unfit player - Marco Pjaca - across a variety of attacking roles, none of which he is entirely comfortable in - expecting instant miracles from the man that Juve spent €23m on ten years back. He might actually be awful but he's actually new in the country after moving from Torino in the summer and has a basic grasp of the language so I have to cut him some slack. The more I actually look at this, the more I see some bad man management on my behalf. Yes, Enis Bardhi and, for the most annoying reason, Kerem Kalafat both dislike me and, yes, I've got a group of players who train awfully but I've got to get to know what these players - who have clearly been seen as good enough to play for a team that finished third last year - can do and how I can get the best of them. However, the above players have already impressed me sufficiently for me to want to keep them at the club. The youngsters of Melih and Ahmet are absolutely quality and, given the absence of Bardhi, I now hope that Oguz can grow into this role as I've showed that, before, I will not worry about the age of the player if I think they're good enough. Full backs are relatively sorted in Eren on the left with Dorukhan on the right and both Kerem and Carles Soria good enough with both feet to cover both. Ounas and Mostovoy are decent wingers, too. But I do need to sort out the longer term future of the club and, using another wonderful tip from @FMStag (seriously, just follow his Twitter and blog), have set up some ongoing scouting focuses, which you can see here: The biggest issue is that I currently am allowed three scouts at the club, so these will fill slowly but they should fill with the players that I want to be signing, rather than just anyone that my scouts find. The overall criteria are quite broad and I've dipped into something that @BethFM posted about, from Luis Campos' school of recruitment, to split into ages - with Pre-Development being between 15 and 17, Development between 18 and 21, Peak between 22 and 28 and experienced between 29 and 34. These age group brackets will help me source players at different ability levels with, obviously, those at pre-development being significantly lower in quality than peak players and I can cast my nets a little wider. I have to look for Turkish players - both to meet selection criteria but also because non-Turks cannot move here until they are 18 and I will miss out on a lot of formative development that way, so have ensured that I am focusing on them at all age levels. Furthermore, I have some specific target markets - where I've found success, Africa, where the club has close ties to, Middle East and Eastern Europe and where a lot of 'stepping stone' players come from, South America. Lastly, I can only see positives in searching for some quite bespoke markets - deals that expire within the year or have already expired and players who want to leave their clubs, plus, again for registration purposes, those who came through the academy here at Gencler. My parameters are set quite low in terms of potential ability but that is both to catch more players but also to ensure, given the not so amazing attributes of my scouting team, that they don't mis-diagnose a talent that I may want a better look at. These coincide with the necessary positional upgrades that I need, too. Most are self explanatory but I'm conscious of the fact that it's already December and I don't have a solid shortlist of targets - meaning we could get left behind in January if I'm not careful... --- Trabzonspor 3-0 Çaykur Rizespor I've written a lot of words this month - so let's keep this short. This should have been ten. We were dominant it's a much deserved victory, owing to my usual pre-match rituals despite facing a team with far less quality than ours. --- Trabzonspor 5-1 Kirsehir A very youthful squad that, once again, caused some murmurs of discontent within the first team. Whilst I am not impressed with this, particularly when you match the faces up and realise that it is youngster Oguz, who is getting the chance and actually moaning about it - I have to take it with a pinch of salt, especially when he scores a hattrick. The game started in the worst possible way as we gave the third tier side an early penalty, which they converted, almost literally through the legs of Sarkic in goal. The first half was then littered with free flowing attacking football - an absolute joyous watch of sixteen and seventeen year olds, full of confidence, knocking the ball around with intent. The second half had none of that though as their tired legs meant they gave way to more senior, yet more complacent replacements. There's a real battle I've got going on within this squad... --- Kayserispor 0-6 Trabzonspor ...and one that we appear to be winning on the pitch. We blew away Kayserispor thanks to a Melih hattrick, Gonzalez, Uribe and Ahmet goals and we deserved every bit of it. It felt, to watch, like the Caykur game but this time we actually found the net as many times as our play deserved. My real worry though now is this great performance, combined with this release clause that my DoF inserted into his new deal just days into my tenure, means that the likes of PSG and RB Leipzig are now watching my hitman and will likely pounce in January. Yes, we have replacements - Marko Pjaca can step up, as can Enis Destan - but that'll be the real test of whether we are a one man team, or not. --- Beşiktaş 0-2 Trabzonspor We end the year on a wasteful but high point, putting more pressure on Dan Petrescu and his ailing Besiktas squad - still made up geriatric wingers Ghezzal and Redmond. A game that we controlled, again, from start to finish, looking decisive as Pjaca and Melih scored the goals to seal the victory. --- With a youth team that is training incredibly well (sans Ramazan Yilmaz and his lack of self belief) and a league table that looks so promising, you'd think I was really happy here. However, there is a real sense of 'what if?' considering the remarkable season that Gencler are having. I know that the ceiling here is much higher but had I really built a team that was capable of challenging for the title? I didn't think so! Likewise, have I really managed to turn around this rotten team into a team that can challenge for a title? I don't think so either. Granted, they weren't on their knees when I took over - the manager had left rather than being sacked so I didn't have the whole rebuild the morale and piece things together one at a time job that I do sometimes inherit. It just feels a little...easy..if you know what I mean! I'm having to do little in the way of real out of the box tactical thinking and, combine that with a playing squad that isn't mine, means I'm not feeling that same sense of investment that I had in Ankara. But that could all change as January doesn't look too friendly.. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Yes, that’s a nice top of the table you’ve produced The coming transfer window and month of fixtures is going to set this season up. It almost looks like the top three is starting to be sorted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BethFM Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Looking forward to seeing you implement the Campos method, I like that you're targeting the young players, gives you the opportunity to develop them with the team DNA at the core. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 5, 2023 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 15 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: Yes, that’s a nice top of the table you’ve produced I would love it if Genclerbirligi won the league, even if it meant that we didn't. Would be the most Leicester title I think I've ever seen on FM, even if I did help out the first few games! 15 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: The coming transfer window and month of fixtures is going to set this season up. It almost looks like the top three is starting to be sorted. 10 hours ago, BethFM said: Looking forward to seeing you implement the Campos method, I like that you're targeting the young players, gives you the opportunity to develop them with the team DNA at the core. Thanks, both. The windows are a lot of graft and I know I need to improve at signing the really young players because my methods are built around competitive comparisons and that isn't possible at non-first team level. However, I'm trying to reshape the philosophy at the club in terms of recruiting and, whilst it'll probably mean a slight step down in pure quality, should help in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 5, 2023 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 January 2027 Istanbul Basaksehir 2-1 Trabzonspor Not the start to 2027 that I had wanted. December was tough on the legs and that was quite evident here as I felt that we were very sluggish in our player, particularly those fast counters that we are renowned for. However, I felt that we did enough to secure the point but going into the break two down was a killer for morale. Enis Destan scored late on but we didn't have enough in the locker to form a full fightback. --- I also had some even worse news to end the week: I knew it was coming and, to be fair, had braced for the sheer disappointment of losing my best striker for the second time in my career. Sadly, his contractual terms once the release clause was met were way out of my range but, at least his destination was to be RB Leipzig and not the bench in Paris. He will, however, have to replace Musa Barrow or Benjamin Sesko to get first team football at the German side. Last but not least, I then got stung with the clause that I added myself! From a sentimental perspective, I have no issues with the near €9m that Gencler have now received for Melih and, to be fair, have no intentions of splashing huge amounts of cash here at Trabzon anyway, as, initially at least, my style will be all about low valued diamonds in the rough and selling players for profit. If that turns to buying players for a similar amount as this deal and then moving them on for profit in future, then so be it, but don't expect crazy deals now. As demonstrated by two free transfers to kick off my recruitment drive which is most unlike me for the January window as I tend to prefer a more settled squad. First up is Massa (a reminder that all player profile thumbnails in this post and, to be fair, each one I make, are clickable and take you to their full profile) who has arrived on a free from his native Mali. A decent start to his career at club and international level and a rave review from the scouting team in terms of his potential to improve. He's likely to spend the remainder of the season with my youth side but, as he's ineligible for competitive fixtures, will move out on loan abroad next year once I have a better handle on his development plans. Next in is Seydou Traore from Ivorian side RC Abidjan in an attempt to fill the hole left by Melih Demir. A quick note on that you'll never see him and Therence Koudou in the same room, as I stole his image from Transfermarket in order to create a NewGAN face with slightly more variance than the normal ethnic African faces. I wanted a quite rounded forward who can improve and he seems to fit that bill, also being good enough to hit the ground running immediately. Whilst not lightning quick, our style involves creating spaces for our attackers to exploit rather than purely running in behind their defence and I think his pretty decent Agility and Movement will be of benefit. I've set up a mentoring group in an attempt to get him into a core social group as the option wasn't available (or I missed it) when he joined: however, it appears that this may not work too well. In terms of his historical ability, he's scored at around a goal in three but, as you can see below, has recorded an elite level conversion rate and is scoring at nearly one in two. His shots, however, are quite low xG - suggesting he's probably been played a little deeper and further from the goal. Obviously, these are from the Ivorian Ligue 1 - a significant step down from our level. However, it's part and parcel of the risks I take with this level of recruitment as it's unlikely I'll be finding an established player in the top league who I can sign under the radar for a small fee. --- Genclerbirligi 1-1 Trabzonspor I actually created a really strong side. Erol Bulut plays in a slightly different fashion to how I did, favouring a more possession based high pressing system but it works for the squad I'd assembled. They took the lead as we failed to mark Olawoyin tight enough and Mendy was able to deliver a pinpoint cross to the far post. I tried a few different options in order to peg them back but it was left to substitute Seydou Traore, on for a twelve minute debut to save ourselves as he found some space in the box to slot in from close range. The dream debut as he literally did the exact thing that I wanted him to do when looking for a striker. One move, one shot, one goal. Perfect! --- Straight back onto the recruitment drive with the recruitment team tabling and completing a €3.5m bid for Altinordu youngster Kagan Yalcin. Originally, I wanted to think about him in the longer term but, looking at his outputs at this level, I feel that he can perform now. It's one of those really interesting ones that requires a deeper look. No goals and no assists this season however he's created 2.22 non-Pen xG but that comes from a succession of low xG shots, probably from some distance out. He's also created a huge 3.24 xA but is clearly playing with forwards who have struggled to found the net and this has, somewhat annoyingly (but not for me) led to a relatively low average rating. Despite this, he absolutely excels at ball progression - either with the ball at his feet (the top dribbler in the league) or through a really high number of progressive passes for a player in the area that he plays in. In terms of his attributes, you can probably see why he hasn't scored - his final third and shooting ability probably isn't where it should be for this level but he's young, has space to develop and excels with the ball at his feet. My staff have commented on his consistency, ability to fit into the dressing room and his potential ability. I know that this is a substantial sum of money for a Turkish team but there is a really quality player in here. A cheaper option with a bid of just under €200k on the table is left sided winger Emir Bars. The PSV youngster spent last season on loan at Antalyaspor in the second tier as in loan in Belgium right now at Cercle Brugge, who are fifteenth in the Jupiler Pro League. Despite playing for two struggling sides, he's been excellent in both seasons at doing what I want my wide men to do - cross, dribble and create. He's very similar to Kagan in terms of his Shooting and Final Third ability as well being truly excellent with the ball at his feet as well as quick off the mark and really agile. Another consistent performer too but will need to be carefully integrated into the team. The youngster has made just one appearance in the top flight - a couple of years back for PSV - but, one he's comfortable in the midfield strata, could form a formidable pairing with Kagan (Emir on left and Kagan on right). This is the kind of deal that really typifies what I'm trying to achieve in terms of my recruitment - I just hope he has the required quality. Searching for a bit of an all-round midfielder brought me to Mevlut, who my team are currently working on a €230k bid for from second tier Antalyaspor. Has spent two years in the second tier but has nearly fifty top flight appearances with the club and, in a team occupying a relegation spot, has been the sides main chance creator and orchestrator. Well rounded, consistent (notice a pattern here?) enjoys big matches and likely to fit nicely into the team - the signing feels like a no-brainer given that he's already good enough to play at this level. --- Trabzonspor 5-1 Qarabag Our European drought is finally broken as we move up to 17th in this ridiculous group! Marko Pjaca scored a great hattrick and his first came from some rarely seen animations as he rounded the keeper before slotting in. He netted again before Oguz Kilic helped himself to two goals - taking his record to five goals in 7(3) appearances for me this season, justifying his chance to replace Enis Bardhi. We, of course, had to make a small mess and this time we conceded a late penalty to stop the chance of a win combined with a clean sheet. Nevertheless, it's great to see Marko firing again as that now gives me a nice Pjaca - Traore - Emre shaped headache up front and reduces the sadness at losing Melih... --- Trabzonspor 3-0 Eyüpspor Kagan Yalcin amassed exactly zero assists for Altinordu this year but it took him just twenty seven minutes to rack up two on his debut for us. There was some beautiful interplay between Kagan and Mostovoy to score the first goal before he was at it again with a mazey run and low cross that was turned in by Seydou Traore, who, again, found space to tuck it away. The third was a carbon copy of the second but Mezzala Koba delivered the ball. Very pleasing performance where Emir Bars and Mevlut Han Ekelik were also given debuts. --- Napoli 1-0 Trabzonspor Beaten comfortably by a much stronger team than ours. However, we absolutely held our own and stopped them creating too much of real danger. I believe that we have now qualified for an additional two games to see whether we qualify for the knockout stages or not - in essentially a pre-knockout knockout round... --- Sivasspor 0-1 Trabzonspor A pretty terrible performance to end the month but three points is important. I know what they say too about getting three points when you're not playing well... --- I have also added two new signings, who will come in the summer on free transfers... I'm delighted at picking up a player, for free, who is excelling out on loan and also opening up a new recruitment category - those not playing right now but who could do so out on loan. Felix belongs to Wolfsburg but has played ten times in four years and that would normally rule him out but he's a player who has an attribute spread, traits and a personality that I like - consistent, adaptable and enjoys big matches so to watch him get minutes, even at a lower level, really validates him as a player. In terms of his metrics - like Kagan before him, he's created a huge amount of xA - 5.21 to be precise - yet his team mates have failed to find the net with any of these passes and it's really no surprise that they're in the drop zone of the 2.Bundesliga. I think he could be a good player for us as either a wide man or a creative forward. Now a full Angolan international, Angel Gomes is a man who I've read a lot about as he broke into the Man Utd team, breaking all kinds of records but then seemingly disappearing off the radar and moving to France with Lille. I must say that I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether this was a Ravel Morrison kind of thing or he just wanted first team football but the lad is back in England, in his third Championship season with Stoke. He is yet another player that my scouting team believe to be consistent, adaptable and enjoys big matches and his statistical output is strong this year for a Stoke side chasing the playoffs. Dribbles, key passes and assists have been strong for him and he's hugely underperforming his xG, meaning that, with some hopefully clever managerial work, he can begin to find the net a bit more, too. That leaves my squad looking something like this for June onwards... Whilst I pretty much completely ignore the star ratings, they're a decent barometer of the overall quality we have in the squad. The recruitment focuses will now shift to a left footed centre back, a goalkeeper and two holding midfielders, which will then allow the more attacking minded Gomes to flourish ahead of him. The summer window will allow me to oversee the sales of Ronnow (expiring contract), Pedro Henrique (expiring contract), Pedro Ganchas, Mateus Uribe (expiring contract), Marko Pjaca (maybe - depending on how he fares this season) and Koba - hopefully raising a bit of money to recruit wisely. --- January is a tough old month! Six competitive games plus, given my relatively recent takeover, quite a frantic transfer market means this update is again nearing three thousand words and I've spent a lot of time in front of FM over the past few days. However, the league is really turning into a five-horse race with Gala back to the top after they overcame Gencler a couple of match weeks back. However, I can't write of Fener or Istanbul as the latter has beaten me with month. Poor old Besiktas have fallen off and sit on just a bit more than half the points the leaders have in what is a huge fall from grace for them. February looks like it'll be chaotic too as these five fixtures will be added to by the Europa League Knockout Playoff Round - whatever that means! It appears that it'll be drawn at random from these teams so I could be facing anyone from Monaco to Lazio and Sevilla right down to the likes of Dnipro-1, who I want revenge against, or Legia - although there'll be no easy ties at all. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Crazy that you’ve lost the same star striker twice! Although nice your clause has went back to Gencler. As am sure you still have a soft spot for them. (Not soft enough to see them finish above though) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 2 hours ago, SixPointer said: Crazy that you’ve lost the same star striker twice! Although nice your clause has went back to Gencler. As am sure you still have a soft spot for them. (Not soft enough to see them finish above though) Yes it is crazy and funny, funny that the percentage of future fee was made for and then used against Ben 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 @_Ben_ I like your recent transfers, especially the wingers (though need work on decisions). What’s up with the DM slot in your squad depth screenie? Been meaning to ask, where do I find contract end date on your player profiles? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 Looks like it's shaping up for a fantastic battle for the title this season. Just 4 points separating the top 5 clubs. Have Gencler reinvested their windfall from Melih to help strengthen their title bid? Also, any consideration for abandoning the Mediterranean journey and casting your eyes on the Leipzig job so Melih can leave you for a 3rd time!? Really like the addition of Mevlut - seems a very solid player who looks more suited to playing further up the pitch than the DM role for Antalyaspor. Be great to see what he can achieve under your stewardship. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 6, 2023 Author Share Posted January 6, 2023 18 hours ago, SixPointer said: Crazy that you’ve lost the same star striker twice! Although nice your clause has went back to Gencler. As am sure you still have a soft spot for them. (Not soft enough to see them finish above though) 14 hours ago, GIMN said: Looks like it's shaping up for a fantastic battle for the title this season. Just 4 points separating the top 5 clubs. Have Gencler reinvested their windfall from Melih to help strengthen their title bid? Also, any consideration for abandoning the Mediterranean journey and casting your eyes on the Leipzig job so Melih can leave you for a 3rd time!? I would like to think that at some point in my career, I'll manage him again. It's one of those little side-stories that helps me with the immersion. I'll be keeping an eye on the Bundesliga as he and Tai Sodje are now there. 15 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: I like your recent transfers, especially the wingers (though need work on decisions). I agree and I absolutely rate decisions as an attribute. However, I find that the players who are good mentally are often the next step up and we're not quite there yet. I'm hoping that, as they're young enough, they can develop and - whilst they'll never be elite - they could reach a decent 12/14 level, which, when added to a host of other attributes in that area, feels about right for where we are. 15 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: What’s up with the DM slot in your squad depth screenie? It's the depth chart for next season but, as of the 1st July 2027, I will have zero players who play there! That's why I desperately need to recruit rather than using players who I've earmarked for other slots. 15 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: Been meaning to ask, where do I find contract end date on your player profiles? There isn't! It's a part of the player profile that I need to re-work as I do actually look at it a lot. 14 hours ago, GIMN said: Really like the addition of Mevlut - seems a very solid player who looks more suited to playing further up the pitch than the DM role for Antalyaspor. Be great to see what he can achieve under your stewardship. Yes. He's not the destroyer, or even the intelligent holder that I like to have in the DM area, especially with such fluidity in front of him so definitely see that his minutes will be in more attacking areas. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted January 6, 2023 Share Posted January 6, 2023 4 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Yes. He's not the destroyer, or even the intelligent holder that I like to have in the DM area, especially with such fluidity in front of him so definitely see that his minutes will be in more attacking areas. As a fellow Villa fan, he reminds me a bit of a young Steven Davis. A willing runner with a touch of creativity, but not quite technically gifted to make the step up to the big time. 4 hours ago, _Ben_ said: I would like to think that at some point in my career, I'll manage him again. It's one of those little side-stories that helps me with the immersion. I'll be keeping an eye on the Bundesliga as he and Tai Sodje are now there. Feels like there's a very niche journeyman concept there somewhere. The first 10 years (or however long) your goal is to build your reputation and secure the best job you possibly can, and from that point on, your goal changes to "getting the band back together", where you've got to try and fill your squad with as many players you've previously managed as possible. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: I agree and I absolutely rate decisions as an attribute. However, I find that the players who are good mentally are often the next step up and we're not quite there yet. I'm hoping that, as they're young enough, they can develop and - whilst they'll never be elite - they could reach a decent 12/14 level, which, when added to a host of other attributes in that area, feels about right for where we are. I agree with the next step up. Getting to 14 would be excellent, though 12 will be as you said, good for your team. 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: It's the depth chart for next season but, as of the 1st July 2027, I will have zero players who play there! That's why I desperately need to recruit rather than using players who I've earmarked for other slots. That’s not ideal! Though does mean you’ll either be testing your recruitment or tactical strategies depending on who’s out there 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: There isn't! It's a part of the player profile that I need to re-work as I do actually look at it a lot. Ah, that makes sense. I was looking for it near wages, previous club, then age. Can see this being an essential addition for you Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 4 hours ago, GIMN said: Feels like there's a very niche journeyman concept there somewhere. The first 10 years (or however long) your goal is to build your reputation and secure the best job you possibly can, and from that point on, your goal changes to "getting the band back together", where you've got to try and fill your squad with as many players you've previously managed as possible. It’s like that Sly Stallone movie, The Expendables Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 7, 2023 Author Share Posted January 7, 2023 16 hours ago, GIMN said: As a fellow Villa fan, he reminds me a bit of a young Steven Davis. A willing runner with a touch of creativity, but not quite technically gifted to make the step up to the big time. Steven Davis MBE, repeatedly proclaimed to be the next Frank Lampard? I can see where you're coming from with this one! To answer your previous question - Gencler have brought in winger Martin Ojeda: looks really good but is also being paid 3x the amount that the next highest earner, Tim Iroegbunam, is being paid. Typical A squad building... 11 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: That’s not ideal! Though does mean you’ll either be testing your recruitment or tactical strategies depending on who’s out there Absolutely. However, the work needed to find that is in place and can run for a few months before I need to act upon it. If I really can't find that destroyer, then there'll have to be a change in ideology as I can't have two really offensive minded centre mids in front of them. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... 16 hours ago, GIMN said: Feels like there's a very niche journeyman concept there somewhere. The first 10 years (or however long) your goal is to build your reputation and secure the best job you possibly can, and from that point on, your goal changes to "getting the band back together", where you've got to try and fill your squad with as many players you've previously managed as possible. 11 hours ago, Sonic Youth said: It’s like that Sly Stallone movie, The Expendables I could actually get together quite a decent little team with players I like who I've managed before: GK: Martin Turk CB: Ibrahima Soumare DM: Tim Iroegbunam MC: Cem Bilgin MC: Ismaila Coulibably MC: Ahmet Tamrak ST: Melih Demir ST: Tai Sodje ST: Seydou Traore Just need to find a few more players who I have enjoyed some success with... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted January 7, 2023 Author Share Posted January 7, 2023 February 2027 I can't say that I'm too happy with this as I was only following rules that the UEFA sets out! If the previous manager hadn't decided to omit a lot of the best players, I'd have not needed to use all the spaces on re-adding them back in! However, our draw is in: The thumbnail will take you to the full draw. Tough but every opponent at this level will be. --- Trabzonspor 3-0 Fenerbahce Lessons learnt and game plans executed to perfection as we progress in the Turkiye Kupasi Sixth Round. Last time out, Daniel Podence caused us all kinds of problems - so I sacrificed the offensive prowess of Kagan Yalcin and went for a DW(s) and full back Carles Soria ahead of a IWB(d) behind him. I then set about closing some passing lanes, noticing that the build up is largely between the left centre back, DM and Podence out on the left wing. Traore had the ball in the net after just three minutes but was adjusted offside although made up for it just seven minutes later as a Mostovoy cross fell nicely to him. Henrique nodded in from a Mostovoy corner in the second half before Seydou added his second thanks to a delightful through ball from Mevlut, making his debut a a late substitute. Considering the form that Fener are in, this is a great win. --- Trabzonspor 1-2 Galatasaray Just three days between fixtures and I think the performance and effort we put in took its toll as we faded to defeat, handing the advantage back to Gala in the title chase. With Pjaca injured - again - I was forced to field Traore and he opened the scoring inside nine minutes with a lovely low drive, but that was, to be fair, against the run of play as we had started really sluggishly and I worried about our ability to perform at all in the game. Things were looking ok - our chances were fewer and farer between than Gala's but, overall, higher quality as we carved them open whereas the tended to shoot from further out, not attempting to bypass our defence as much. We kept the ball better - something that I'd instructed given the fatigue and how that wouldn't be beneficial for too much off the ball work, but, as we entered the last quarter, we faded badly allowing Jonathan Rodriguez in twice to score. --- Trabzonspor 1-1 Marseille A great performance in the first leg of the Knockout Round Playoff and a draw snatched at the death but I am pessimistic for the return leg as a trip to France on already tired legs will be tough. Seydou scored late on and could have had a hatful as we produced some really strong chances. The reaction to their early goal was great as we set ourselves and immediately got back into the game. For some reason, I'm not getting pass maps for any games, so all of my work is either guess work, watching previous games myself or waiting until half time (or earlier if I see I can see it clearly) to act upon things. This time, I got it right. In a 5-1-2-2 shape, their midfield triangle of Gerson, Dahoud and Boubakary Soumare was hungry for possession but quite easy to contain, even if it stopped us utilising the full extent of our midfield's attacking prowess. A goal at the death gives us hope but it'll be a tough task. --- Adana Demirspor 0-2 Trabzonspor Very sloppy performance but one that brought us three points. We opened the scoring after a Tamrak shot was blocked but, as the keeper had already committed to the dive, Mevlut Hun was left with a simple tap in to take his February to 1G+1A - a sign return as he finds his feet at this level. The second was made by Kagar Yalcin, whose tally of three assists in his time here has really impressed me laid on Ahmet Tamrak for his fifth of the season - another player who has come on leaps and bounds under my stewardship. From there, it was all about attempting to rest tired legs see the game out with minimal disruption - but what actually happened was quite a poor defensive display, littered with unnecessary turnovers at the back, something that we're usually pretty good at avoiding. --- Marseille 2-0 Trabzonspor Marseille beat us tactically here! They switched from what I felt was an AP-CM ish combo to almost certainly a double Mez behind two really creative strikers and we just couldn't deal with it. There is no shame in losing to a team of their quality and we did have our chances although were comfortably second best on the night. The European run is over but there are more pressing issues to resolve at home... --- Trabzonspor 3-0 Alanyaspor Back to winning ways thanks three new players: Emir Bars, Mevlut Han Ekelik and Massa Outtara, scoring after coming on for his debut. Alanyaspor had been in great form but we controlled the match and left them with just a couple of low xG shots to show for all of their possession. I've also looked at ways to combat the DM issue ready for the summer. Pape joins on trial after leaving Spurs at the start of the month. He's barely had a kick for them but fits the mould as an all-round midfielder. I will take a look at him during the trial and see if he's the kind of player that could kick on alter in his career given the lack of chance to do so earlier on, following his big money move from France. Also being scouted is a Turkish international, Ozan Tufan. Tufan is playing at Hull in the Championship right now and fits the bill as a more tenacious defensive midfielder. His contract is expiring but I envisage some issue in terms of the demands he'll want, especially for a man nearing the end of his career. I will continue to monitor, observe and watch though. --- Trabzonspor 2-0 Gaziantep Seydou Traore, taking his tally to nine in nine, opened the scoring before Matheus Uribe doubled our lead from the softest penalty I think I have ever seen VAR not overturn. Gaziantep had little to say as we kept the momentum high going into March. --- The league has really opened up again - with Istanbul hitting a tough spell and Alanyaspor now not winning in three, stopping it becoming a top 6. Gala have pulled away a little and Gencler have dropped back a little even though they've stayed unbeaten. It's going to be a superb run in over the next ten games and whoever wins the league will have truly deserved it... Our next few fixtures are quite kind as I look to progress in the cup and take on three mid-table sides, meeting Slaven Bilic again as he hopes we don't come away with another 6-0 win. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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