FM23: Huddersfield Town - A club in rare company.

[aaaawren]

Welcome to the FM23 Huddersfield Town thread.

Huddersfield Town. Arsenal. Liverpool. Manchester United.

1923/24 - 25/26. 1932/33 - 34/35. 1981/82 - 83/84. 1998/99 - 00/01 and 2006/07 - 08/09.

Founded in 1908, Huddersfield Town is one of just 4 teams to win the English top flight 3 seasons in a row. It is the only one of those 4 clubs to have won the title less then ten times, not winning it before or since. After over 2 decades in the top flight Huddersfield were relegated in the 1951/52 season and have since returned twice, in 1969/70 and 2016/17. On both occasions the Terriers managed to stay up their first season back before getting relegated the next year.

 

Supporter Profile

The supporters have a lot of influence on the board in game, ranking at 4/5 but their demands are rather easy to meet. The only requirement is to be competitive against Leeds if you play them, which is unlikely to come up for at least a season. They desire to stay in the Championship, which you have the squad to do and they would prefer if you overcame League 1 Barnsley and League 2 Bradford City if you play them.

 

Club Vision and Expectations

The board are similarly lenient with their expectaions, providing you can match the required top half finish and be competitive in the FA cup in season 1. If you manage that the only requied expectation will be to work within the wage budget, and while they would prefer a playoff position finish in 23/24 it is not until 26/27 that they want you to actually go up, and even then it is preferred rather than required.

 

Squad

The squad is mostly compromised of players on the upper end of League 1, however it has a strong core of Championship quality players.

Lee Nicholas is the obvious choice in goal, with Bilokapic not even being League 1 quality, and the centre backs also have standout choices in the form of vice captain Tom Lees and Michal Helik. For backup you have Will Boyle, who is suspended for opening day of the season, and the on-loan Luke Mbete who, while promising, is not good enough to play at this level yet. My suggestion would be cancel the loan so you can use the spot and/or money on someone who can contribute.

Things are less clear at full or wingback, where you have 2 serviceable options on the right in the slow but defensively solid Oliver Turton and the fast, attacking but positionally weak loanee Kayne Kesler Hayden and the wish.com versions of Turton on the left in Josh Ruffles and Yuta Nakayama.

Midfield is a bit clearer, with captain Jonathan Hogg being nailed on but from there do you go double pivot with Anjorin as a 10? 3 man midfield with Russell and Kasumu helping clog up the middle? Does Anjorin or Rudoni play a bit deeper as a sort of halfway point between the last 2? What about Etienne Camara, your high potential youth midfielder? Then there's the fact that Faustino Anjorin, your highest paid player, is not really a specialist at any one thing, so do you cancel his loan to get 12,500 in the wage budget? Or do you try and make use of his finishing and physical ability to be one of your main goalscorers? I think the best way to go is decide what you're doing with Anjorin and then figure out your midfield.

On the wings there isn't much. You've got Sorba Thomas, who's great, Patrick Jones, who's raw, Duane Homes, who's decent and Connor Mahoney who is getting paid 8k a week to be a set piece taker and nothing else. He doesn't have the pace or dribbling to beat a man out wide, he can't pass, he can't defend, he hasn't got a good mind for the game, nothing. Well, he can cross but he can't get into position to cross so what's the point in being able to do that? You can also play Hayden out wide but that's leaves you without any RB cover so I wouldn't, even if Hayden/Thomas is probably the best combination.

 

Up top you have Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes, as well as Tyreece Simpson in the U21. Ward is a bit of an everyman, he can dribble decently well for a striker, he's got passable physicals, et cetra while Rhodes can finish and has a good mind for the game, but is lacking a bit physically. Simpson has the best physicals of the lot, being faster, taller and stronger then both, but is lacking a bit technically and mentally. 4-5 star potential ability though, so could be worth it if you can mentor that determination up.

As for transfers, you have no money, wages or budget, and most of the players that you could let go to bring in money are players you'd want to keep. That's why I advocate for letting Anjorin and Mbete go, there's better ways to spend the 1.6 million or so and 20k in wages that it'll get you. As for players you could possibly sell, I've already made my thoughts on Connor Mahoney clear, Jonathan Russell isn't that much better then Etienne Camara if you're not going to be starting him and you might as well try and get Josh Ruffels and his 4.5k a week wages off the books immediately rather than letting him leave on a free.

 

With money being tight and the team firmly Championship quality, can you get them back to the PL before their incredible achievment is over a century old?

Good luck, and here's to another great year of Football Manager

Edited November 9, 2022 by aaaawren

[silentwars]

That looks like it could be a challenging save. Top half finish required with, as you say, not the strongest team or budget to work with. 

[shakey.bridge]

Nice little write up mate, just started a Terriers save myself.

[aaaawren]

Mahoney is surprisingly good as a pressing forward.

[aaaawren]

Halfway through the season and I'm second place while also having 8 million for the winter window due to scamming Newcastle. Westwood was a good pickup.

[shakey.bridge]

1 hour ago, aaaawren said:

Halfway through the season and I'm second place while also having 8 million for the winter window due to scamming Newcastle. Westwood was a good pickup.

Good to see you doing well mate. I've finally started my Huddersfield save. Still sorting out Pre Season, I think 4231 is the only formation that really suits the players, I'm playing with the 1st transfer budget off so got the starting squad until January. Going to send Mbete back so I can use his wage money to give Ward a new 1 year contract as I think he has another year in him. Nakayama and Holmes are useful as they can play in lots of positions as cover. Will keep you updated.

[shakey.bridge]

Settled on a tactic, it is a tweaked Cautious Fluid Counter system 4231, with Hogg/Kasumu holding  and Anjorin/Rudoni behind Ward. Mahoney will start on the left purely because of his set piece delivery, I'm taking care to set up the set pieces because in Pre Season Helik is prolific at corners. Having the transfer budget switched off means I have plenty of time to assess as to where to strengthen in Jan. I think the only major weakness is left back (My club having poached Toffolo) I'm hoping that between them Nakayama/Ruffles can shore it up for now. Hoping for a top half finish.

[aaaawren]

42 minutes ago, shakey.bridge said:

Settled on a tactic, it is a tweaked Cautious Fluid Counter system 4231, with Hogg/Kasumu holding  and Anjorin/Rudoni behind Ward. Mahoney will start on the left purely because of his set piece delivery, I'm taking care to set up the set pieces because in Pre Season Helik is prolific at corners. Having the transfer budget switched off means I have plenty of time to assess as to where to strengthen in Jan. I think the only major weakness is left back (My club having poached Toffolo) I'm hoping that between them Nakayama/Ruffles can shore it up for now. Hoping for a top half finish.

Lowe might be available on loan for LB. I ended up completely binning off the starting options to sign him and Rose for the position.

[shakey.bridge]

I decided to terminate all 3 loans, couldn't justify the money for Anjorin as he has to play and is restricting Rudoni's development. Young full back Brodie is showing great potential so using him as cover for Turton. My finances look a lot more healthy without those 3 loanees and I have adequate cover with Boyle, Nakayama and Holmes. Won my first game 3-2 against Burnley (Ward got 2 and Kasumu 1 and an assist (was outstanding).

[ajt_27]

Nice to see a Forest fan take charge of Town (guilt from the play offs maybe  ) 

How are you guys getting on? This is definitely one of the tougher FM challenges I've had with town. 3 games to go and I am one point outside the play-offs, not too fussed about making them as we are nowhere near ready and I have achieved above expectations. Next season will be tough given the raised expectation coupled with very limited financial resources and the fact several of my key places have been loanees. Anjorin has been outstanding (20 goals) and KKH & Mbete have also been first team players. Unfortunately because of the silly personality dynamics Pep and Ten-Haag both fell out with me due to not playing players in there preferred roe (stupid) and now wont loan me players going forward. Formation wise I have settled on variations of 4 - 2 - 3 -1, but haven't really found a style I am happy with yet, this is partially down the the outrageous injury record of my squad, which tbh is pretty realistic given our injury list IRL! Away from home we have been pretty dog-**** throughout, anything like decent and we would be comfortably in the play offs. I'll drop my transfers & key players below, would be interesting to see how yours compare. One positive with Town is definitely the amount of promising youth players we have to develop, Jones, Edmonds-green, Rudoni, Crichlow and Camera should all develop into top championship players at least.

Transfers in

- Garnacho - No brainer adding his quality to the squad. A leading performer until ETH recalled him.

- Wilson-Esbrand - Added to give me an attacking threat as a wingback (Ruffles not good enough, Nakuyama average squad player)

Transfers Out

- Holmes (100k) 
-Ruffles loan
- Boyle loan
- Rowe loan
-Diarra loan
- Spencer loan

Most of the loanees I plan on selling / letting go.

Key players 

Anjorin - 20 goals/ 1 assist / 7.14
Rudoni - 6 goals / 6 assists / 7.05
Edmonds-Green - 1 goal / 7.04 
 

Big transition period coming up so I will have to do plenty of wheeling and dealing during the window, let me know how your saves are going. UTT
 

Edited November 22, 2022 by ajt_27

[aaaawren]

Halfway through the second season and I'm somehow in sixth with a GD of 0 and no player with an average rating above 7.

[silentwars]

N/A. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by silentwars