[FM23] Lietuvos

[myrvoldmartin]

 

I’ve decided to take on a big challenge with my latest save. Taking Lithuania - one of the smallest European football nations into the top of European football - both in club and national team football.

 

In this save I will take control of one Lithuanian club in addition to the Lithuania national team.

My long-term objectives will be:

• Take a Lithuanian club to domestic honours
• Getting a Lithuanian club to European competitions
• Improving the national team in the Fifa Ranking and reaching our first championship

 

All three objectives are ambitious if you take into consideration that Lithunia is currently one of the 7 lowest ranked European nations in the Fifa Ranking at the start of the game.

In the standard database the Lithuanian league is not playable. To make this save possible I have manually set up the leagues and cup competitions according to the information on the federations website and the rules for the leagues.

 

So lets look at the domestic league and how everything is set up!

• A League consisting of 10 clubs with two teams relegated
  • Winner gets to 1 UCL 1Q round,  teams on 2-4 gets 3 UEL 1Q round (1 UEL spot is dependendt on the winner of the Lithuanian Cup)
• I League consisting of 16 clubs with two promoted teams and two relegated teams
• II League consisting of 18 clubs with two promoted teams and no relegation
• Lithuanian Cup and a Super Cup

The season runs from March to November and there are no games played during the winter months. All of the 10 clubs in the A League are professional while the clubs in the rest of the football pyramid are either semi-professional or amateur.

To make the youth level more competitive for the long term I have also set up a youth league with two groups. Both groups have 19 teams which is added automatically from the best teams in the country.

 

So you might wonder what level the Lithuanian league is at the moment?

Not great to be honest. The A League is ranked just below the Norwegian Second division and the Slovenian Second League with a 2 star rating.

We can compare ourself to our two neighbouring countries. Latvia and their Optibet Virsliga is a bit below us in the ranking with their 1,5 star rating. The same goes for Estland and the Estonian Premier League which also have a 1,5 star rating.

Two leagues that we should compare ourself to in the short-term are Finland (64th) and Iceland (62nd). Both of their top leagues are above us, and a short-term goal for me will be to surpass both.

 

State of the domestic clubs

In terms of domestic clubs the biggest one is Zalgiris with a 2 star rating. They are the champions of the A League in the two last seasons. Sūduva is the second biggest club after finishing 2nd behind Zalgiris for the last two seasons.

 

The state of the national team

Our national team is one of the 7 lowest ranked European national teams according to the Fifa Ranking. At the start of the save we sit at 137th in the Fifa Ranking. The only European nations below us is San Marino, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Malta and Andorra. Both of our closest neighbours are above us with Latvia in 124th and Estonia in 110th.
 

The short-term objective here will of course be to surpass both of our rivals and get into the top 100 of the Fifa Ranking.

 

Looking at the national team

So - how can we build the national team up to a new level? We have to focus on young talent. Lithuania is not one of the teams with the best youth rating in the game and from the start of the game the youth rating is 59. That´s below both Latvia (63) and Estonia (62). The good thing is that the youth rating is dynamic and with time we should be able to improve it as long as we get good results for both club and country.

 

But how is the current state of the national team you might ask?

Overall quite poor but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In the U21s and U18s there is some talented players but in the short-term my focus will be on the national team. For startes I have identified the four main players that I want to build the national team around.

 

Goalkeeper - Titas Krapikas - Ternana Calcio

A determined character with a massive jumping reach and overall good abilities to pick up crosses in the box. His passing is not the best so I will not expect him to do massive things with the ball at his feet.

 

Central defence - Edgaras Utkus - Cercle Brugge

The biggest talent and also the one playing at the highest level in the top league of Belgia. Utkus is good on the ball and a good marking player compared to the squad´s overall level. He learnt his trade at AS Monaco so it’s clear that Utkus has potential.

 

Right back - Justas Lasickas - Olimpija Ljubljana

Our right back Lasickas is quick and with his dribbling and flair he can get past opponents. He’s not the best defender so I might look into playing him in a more advanced position.

 

Striker - Edgaras Dubickas - Pordenone

Our best striker is Dubickas who plays in the Italian Serie C for Pordenone. He’s not the best finisher, but his movement and speed could be a real threat for us going forward.

 

That’s all folks for the first update Follow along for the next one where I will look more into the Lithuanian club that I have chosen.

Edited November 24, 2022 by myrvoldmartin
Cleaned some formatting.

[myrvoldmartin]

Club update

When deciding on a Lithuanian club my choice fell down to two things. First I wanted a club that had some history. Secondly there had to be some potential in terms of the size of the city. I could do the easy thing and pick one of the two biggest clubs in the country, Zalgiris and Sūduva. But for this save to be a fun challenge I quickly looked away from both.

 

After some pondering I landed on FK Ekranas Panevėžys from the city of Panevėžys.

The city of Panevėžys is situated in the north east of Lithuania and it's the 5th biggest city in the country with a total population of 124,000.

 

FK Ekranas Panevėžys

FK Ekranas was founded back in 1964 but the club has gone through many big changes since it's start.

 

 

As a 7 time A League-champion the club is one of the most successful in Lithuania, but their last league title came back in 2012. Ekranas has won the Lithuanian Cup on 4 occasions.

After winning the A League for five consecutive times between 2008 to 2012 Ekranas found life more difficult with a 3rd and 6th place in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

During the 2014 season Ekranas was having major financial difficulties and the club was declared bankrupt a year later. A new club was formed in the city with FK Panevėžys and most people would have thought that was it for FK Ekranas Panevėžys. They were right. Until 2020 - when FK Ekranas Panevėžys emerged once again.

 

FK Ekranas Panevėžys is playing in the I League this season and the national media is expecting us to finish 14th this season. In other words - no big expectations.

 

The board requires me to work within the wage budget, finish mid-table in I League and be competitive in the Lithuanian Cup. A bonus would be to grow the club's reputation. A big part of our supporters are in the Core and Family group and as expected we have a very small Corporate profile among our supporters due to the low reputation.

A total of 20 season ticket holders is not much but I expect us to attract more supporters over time once we advance in the league.

 

Staff

Player/assistant manager - Arnas Borodinas

To support me in the daily running of the club I have 1 assistant manager. Arnas Borodinas take up the role of player/assistant manager and he has allround abilities for the role for this level. Over time we need to attract better quality into our staff, but due to our low reputation there is very little quality staff to attract early on.

 

The playing squad

When you take into consideration that we are expected to finish in the bottom three of the I League there is clearly some holes in our squad. For us to take the step and get into the top flight we need to build a core of young talents who have room for improvement. And there are already several good prospects in the club - for this level.

Goalkeeper - Darius Kublickas (19)

Lets start at the back. In Kublickas we have a talented 19 year old goalkeeper with good reach and reflexes. He is also a current U19 international for Lithuania which is promising both for the club and national team. He is the clear first-choice for us.

 

Central defence - Motiejus Slivka (19) and Kajus Stankevicius (19)

What's a goalkeeper without a good defence in front of him? In Slivka and Stankevicius we have two very talented Lithuanian centre halfs. The latter has already been capped at U21 level for Lithuania. Both players lack technical attributes so we will clearly not play out from the back with these two youngsters.

 

Central midfield - Arnas Borodinas (23) and Jerry Omeke (17)

In front of the defence we have a few quality players but the 23 year old Borodinas look like the best of the crop. 17 year old Nigerian Jerry Omeke is also one who stands out and with time he can become a really top player in Lithuania. Skybinskyi who has been capped at U21 for Ukraine has some good physical attributes in addition to some allround good technical qualities.

 

Striker - Eimantas Abramavicius (20)

At the top of the pitch Abramavicius will be our main goal threat. He’s quick and can move past oppostion with his good dribbling skills. For this level he's also a good finisher. Abramavicius has been capped at U21 level for Lithuania which is also a massive plus.

 

Club facilities

We play our home games at the Zemynos progimnazijos stadionas with a capacity of 500. Don’t worry though because the average attendance does not look like it will be anywhere near full.

 

Our training facilities are one thing we need to focus on in the long-term. We have both training and youth Facilities with below average standard. Our junior coaching is average and we have only a fairly basic youth recruitment. Massive room for improvement in other words.

 

In the next update we will take a closer look at the first half of the 2022 season which sure is going to be exiting for Ekranas Panevėžys 

[SixPointer]

Great idea. Best of luck in Lithuanian following 

[SteinkelssonFM]

Variety is the spice of life they say, not seen a Lithuanian save on here before so keen to see how you progress.

[myrvoldmartin]

Season update 2022 - 1/2

Club

As mentioned earlier we are expected to be 14th this season by the national media. Due to my poor knowledge of the league I'm cautiously optimistic of our chances this season.

 

Let's take a look at how the first half of the season went!

I League - Pirma Lyga

 

March & April

We started the season well and drew the first three matches after a cup win against Be1 NFA. Our first loss came against Atmosfera before we managed an unbeaten month of April. We also progress through the first two rounds in the Lithuanian Cup.

 

May & June

Our good form continues and we end May unbeaten. The loss at home against Zalgiris B is quickly shuffled away as we progress to the fourth round of the Lithuanian Cup and win against the B teams of both Banga and Riteriai.

 

July

Another month with great results! We look really solid at the back and we are finding the net frequently which is really nice to see.

 

The fantastic results in the first half of the season puts us way above our expectation and we sit comfortably in 3rd after 20 games!

 

The remaining 10 games will definitely be exciting for us as we are in touching distance of promotion. Can we do the unthinkable and reach the A League already in our 1st season? Follow along

 

National team

 

Due to it being no World Cup og European Championship qualifications this year, the only competition we enter is the Uefa Nations League. In the last two editions of the Nations League Lithuania have been in the league C which is the third division of the Nations League. This time it's no different. The Nations League has been heavily critizised by many, but for me this looks like a great opportunity to get plenty of game time against similar(ish) teams and also an extra chance to get into the European Championships.

 

UEFA Nations League C - Group 1

 

We are drawn in group 1 with Bulgaria, Slovenia and Luxembourg. All teams well above us in the Fifa ranking but we should have a shot of getting something out of these matches. Slovenia will most likely be the best team of the bunch here with Jan Oblak and Benjamin Šeško their standout players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

June

Group 1 started off with four games in June. We managed to get a draw away from home against Luxembourg and then another draw away from home against Bulgaria. Two strong results for us. Slovenia with Benjamin Šeško as their main man proved to be way too strong for us and the result could have been way worse since Slovenia had 20 shots with 9 on target.

 

Augustinas Klimavicius was vital for us and scored the winning goal against Luxembourg.

 

Overall I´m quite happy with the results and especially the draw away from home against Bulgaria. If we look at the group in total Slovenia are already winners of the group after four straight wins. That means that the two remaining games in Septembe will only will affect our ranking position. That could be a good time for me to test out some new players in the team.

 

So - how do you think the remainder of the season will go? Follow along for my next update where we will find out how both Ekranas and the national team end the 2022 season!

Edited November 26, 2022 by myrvoldmartin
Cleaned some formatting.

[SixPointer]

Very very good start to life in Lithuania! How have you been tactically setting up? 
 

Personally being from Scotland am a big fan of the nations league, mainly cause it’s the only way we have any chance of qualifying for anything these days 🤣

[myrvoldmartin]

7 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Very very good start to life in Lithuania! How have you been tactically setting up? 
 

Personally being from Scotland am a big fan of the nations league, mainly cause it’s the only way we have any chance of qualifying for anything these days 🤣

I have been playing with this 4-3-3 formation since the start of the save.

I want my team to stay quite compact hence the low block. When we regain possesion I want the players to play the ball quite direct and we have managed some nice counter-attacks so far which is nice In some games where we struggle to create chances the DLP is changed to a support role, but I'm still tinkering with some other details. Both of the wingers have a PI to man mark the oppostion fullback.

[myrvoldmartin]

Season update 2022 - 2/2

FK Ekranas Panevėžys

Going into the final stage of the season we are in touching distance of promotion. Both Dainava and Nevėžis look strong though so it will be a challenge to get past them and win that promotion. After that surprisingly good firsth half of the season though the team is flying high with confidence!

 

 

August & September

A League club Jonava stops our cup run with and we simply don't manage to pick ourselfs up after that defeat. Four draws follow and in for us to be promotion contenders Marijampolè, Riteriai B and Be1 NFA should be teams to beat. Our main goalscorer Abramavicius is struggling and did not find the net in August or September.

All this means that we need to win our last 5 games and either Dainava or Nevėžis need to drop a lot of points. Can it happen?

 

October & November

In short - no   We continue our poor form and only manage 1 win against the B team of Zalgiris. In the end we make it to 3rd and are 12 points shy of promotion.

 

League table

 

Reputation, revenue and supporters profile

You would think our surprising 3rd place in the league would make more people want to follow us. But in the FM world that did not happen

 

We have formed a partnership with A League Club and local rivals FK Panevėžys. The added income is definitely a bonus.

 

Just before the season ended we did get a youth intake which is interesting!

Youth intake 2022

Rakasius, Poskus and Cesnauskis all look really promising! Let's have a look at both Rakasius and Poskus.

Both could become really good for us with the right development. All three of our best players from the youth intake will without a doubt get a chance for the first team next season as we make another push for promotion to the A League!

 

National team

 

UEFA Nations League C - Group 1
Our first four games in the group stage ended with a record of 1 W - 2 D - 1 L. With Slovenia already the winner of the group our last two matches would not get us promoted. Still - more matches to get internation experience for many of our players.

Upcoming matches

Two difficult games, especially against Slovenia away from home. No big changes in our squad as we are trying to establish a core group of players from the start.

Let's take a look at how the matches went:

Spoiler

Results

We struggled against Bulgaria's 3-4-3 formation and their main man Iliyan Stefanov netted both goals against us.

After the defeat I would have expected a better reaction in the game against Slovenia, but that did not happen. Šeško once again proved too difficult for us and our goalkeeper Krapikas unfortunately had a really poor game. In total only 22% of Krapikas passes were to his teamates and he made several key errors.

TL;DR: We have a lot of work to do!

 

A dissapointing end to the 2022 season for both club & country sadly, but we must build on the positives for next season! My next update will be a short preview for the 2023 season

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by myrvoldmartin

[myrvoldmartin]

Season preview 2023

FK Ekranas Panevėžys

We go again in the I League (Pirma Lyga) and the hunt for promotion continues!

 

The board expects us to avoid relegation from the I League and to be competitive in the Lithuanian Cup. Both very much achievable objectives. Personally my goal is to challenge for one of the two promotion places. The national media expects us to finish mid-table:

 

Finances

Our finances are not looking good and we are €41,150 in the red before the 2023 season kicks off. And according to projections our balance will only get worse with a projected €73,060 at the end of the 2023 season.

It doesn't help our finances that we don't exactly break records in season ticket sales.

 

Transfers

Due to our poor financial situation the club is only allowing me to sign players on amateur contracts. That means that some key players probably will leave if bigger clubs come nocking.

Before the 2023 season kicks off we have already lost our main striker last season Eimantas Abramavicius to A League club Hegelmann, and both our first and second goalkeeper in Kublickas and Urbonas have left the club on a free. Motiejus Slivka, who occupied one of our two central defender positions also agreed to take the chance in the A League with Nevėžis.

 

There are some positives though! Young Nigerian central midfielder Jerry Omeke has turned down many offers from both A League and I League-clubs and he will stay with us. To combat the loss of some key players we have  bolstered the squad with a few new players, both established players and emerging talents.

 

Transfers in
Let's take a closer look at the incoming players:

Spoiler

Left back - Deividas Gineitis
At 24 years old Gineitis is a good fullback at this level. He has good physical attributes and overall good defensive abilities. He is not great going forward so I might have to change up the role for us to get the best out of him. He will mainly feature as a backup option for this season.

 

Central defender - Andrius Kežūnas
A young centre half with good pace and overall good marking abilities. He lacks strength and any kind of technical abilities on the ball so that needs some work. Due to us loosing Slivka to Nevėžis, Kežūnas will be one of our two first-choice central defenders for this season.

 

Central midfielder - Kipras Obolevicius
Obolevicius comes from A League club Riterai and he brings good technical abilities and good decision making. He can do a job both in the DM and MC position this season.

 

Yahaya Fawzi - Right back

Fawzi has been brought in as a backup option at right back from Jonava. He's got good pace and certaintly some potential for us to work with.

 

 

Left winger - Nojus Lukšys
This is a real coup for us! Lukšys is quick and he will be a big threat for us going forward. He has been capped at U19's for Lithuania as well. Lukšys will move straight into our starting eleven.

 

Right winger - Pijus Srebalius
Srebalius will be the perfect winger for us with his good technical abilities and crossing. Although he’s quick his poor dribbling means that he might struggle getting past players 1v1. In spite of that I think he will feature a lot for us this season.

 

Striker - Mantas Karcemarskas

A young striker that was without a club at the start of 2023. At this age he is already a quite composed finisher, but we need to work hard on improving his physical attributes and some poor mental attributes. He will get some games for the first team this season to aid his development.

 

Playing squad

We have a small squad at the moment and we really lack depth in the goalkeeper position. That's something that I will have to work on. After loosing Abramavicius up front I also have some doubts on where our goals will come from - but my hope is that Keliauskas will take his chance now and show consistency.

Apart from that I am happy with our squad going in to the season. Overall we have a lot of young players which is important for the coming years.

 

National team

 

It's finally qualification time! The UEFA European Championship is up next for us. The championship will be held in Germany in 2024 and the qualification will start in March and end in November. From the 10 groups there will be in total 20 teams that qualify through the qualification. This is a great chance for us to get a good amount of international experience altough I see our chances of qualifying as quite slim.

 

As a Norwegian I found this fan poll before the draw a bit interesting. Maybe the Haaland effect?

 

Norway is definitely not one of the worst teams we can end up with. But our fans' hopes were not met, and the draw gave us this group:

 

Definitely a though group. Belgium, Poland, Georgia and Romania. Belgium are the big favourites here but Poland will also be a major obstacle for us. For us to go qualify we need to beat both Georgia and Romania - but also get some good results against Poland. I look at the games against Belgium only as a bonus for us really.

 

One positive thing is that the 15 year old Justas Freidgeimas has chosen to represent Lithuania. Freidgeimas has dual citizenship of both Norway and Lithuania, and he has come through the academy of Norwegian title holders Bodø/Glimt. Already at 15 he has some promising mental attributes. Hopefully we will find an opportunity to bring him into the national team this season.

 

We are looking forward to the first two matches against Georgia and Belgium in March!

[myrvoldmartin]

2023 Season update 1/2

 

Lietuvos - National team

Let's start with a closer look at our first two matches in the qualification to the UEFA European Championship in 2024. In total we will play 10 international matches this year, but our first matches are against Georgia and Belgium. In an ideal world we should be able to get something from the match against Georgia. But Belgium will be a massive obstacle for us.

March

Squad

No big surprises in the squad and our key players will be Krapikas, Lasickas, Utkus and Novikovas. While I had hopes for some more younger players to break through there is not anyone ready to take the step at the moment.

 

Results

While we were close to picking up a point away from home against Georgia - a late goal from Valeriane Gvilia in the 80th minute killed any hope. Looking back at the game the scoreline was higher than the quality of chances. Georgia had 1.00 xG and we had 0.81 xG.

 

The same can not be said about the game against Belgium. They dismantled us. Belgium had 36 shots against our 1 shot. 3.18 xG versus our 0.04 xG. Both Milašius and Lasickas was sent off and that made the game much more difficult for the remaining players on the pitch.

 

All in all a dissapointing start to the qualifying campaign. We had to dust this off for our two next matches against Poland.

 

June

Squad

Freidgeimas, Satkus and Olberkis are new in the squad. Players like Utkus, Krapikas and Dubickas are getting more and more experience and hopefully they can grow  even more with the international match experience that they are getting.

 

Benas Satkus have played regurlarly for VfL Osnabrück in the 3. Liga in Germany this season and deserves the call-up. I am looking to build a good partnership between him and Edgaras Utkus.

 

Results

So close to winning! Poland had the biggest changes throughout the game but two early goals from Dubickas and Slivka set us up for a good result. Lewandowksi showed his class in that second half with two goals. Can we recreate this performance away from home in three days?

 

What a result! Poland - the 26th best ranked team in the world - take the lead through a Zielinski goal. Vorobjovas and Černych turn the game around for us with the second goal coming in the 44th minute. Poland equalise after 55 minutes played, but Černych is there again for us again in the 62nd minuted and makes it 3-2!

 

 

Two great results that puts us in a good position in the group, after 4 matches played. The results so far means that we have keep going and it will be crucial to beat Romania and Georgia to stay in the qualification spots.

 

Next up is our match against 5ht placed Romania in September. I have also arranged a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago the same month.

 

FK Ekranas Panevėžys - I League (Pirma Lyga)

March

We kick of the season with three league games and a cup game against Neptūnas. A solid start to the season which is a good platform for us to build upon.

 

April

Only league games this month and sadly we start conceding far too many goals for my liking. Scoring three goals against Garliava should have been enough for us to take the win but a hat-trick from Dominyk Kodz deny us from any points. The biggest dissapointment is the loss against Atmosfera though - a team tipped to be in the bottom half of the table.

 

May

A strong result against Jonava in the Lithuanian Cup is a nice start but then we can't follow up in the next matches. A poor perfomance against Marijampolė where Kežūnas gets injured, is followed up by a horrific 3-6 loss against the B team of Žalgiris. Their striker Oyinlola Kayode nets 6 goals in this match. Frustrating but quite amazed to see the same player netting that many goals in one match.

We then pick ourself up and get two wins in the remaining two matches this month. Something to build on perhaps?

 

June

Not at all. We drop points against Be1 and then a narrow defeat against Banga follows. The B team of Hegelmann is brushed aside before we trash out of the Lithuanian Cup against Minija who we won against last month.

 

Before the last league game of the month against Šiauliai B, the league table looks like this:

Despite a dip in form we are still in the running for promotion with only four points up to Garliava. We score a lot of goals but the amount of goals conceeded are worrying.

 

A positive thing is that our finances are steadily improving

 

It sure will be an exciting second half of 2023 both for Ekranas and the national team!

Edited December 11, 2022 by myrvoldmartin

[guncius]

Could you share the download link to get the Lithuania leagues? I can't find any and I am Lithuanian myself and I want to try a challenge.

Edited April 15, 2023 by guncius