lfds89 Posted July 14, 2023 Author Share Posted July 14, 2023 9 horas atrás, warlock disse: I couldn't say for sure, but my feeling is that the important attributes at corners are first, jumping reach, and second, heading. Got to get to the ball, and then get the header on target. But I think corner goals are hard to come by in the latest ME. I'd be more concerned about the lack of productivity from your attacking midfielders - at Brentford and Benfica my striker was/is our greatest scoring threat but I get far more goals, collectively, from the AMs and more progressive CMs. More generally, I find CMs - particularly B2Bs and volantes - very wasteful with shots from outside the area. It's like they have a hidden "shoot on sight" instruction. Very annoying! About corners I would say Jumping to get there, Heading to direct the ball, Strength to have the position, Bravery to go for the ball. Eventually Off the Ball as @SixPointer said to move into the right spot. I would also add Anticipation and Agility as minor contributors. I'm very much in doubt about decisions. The ball was sent your way, you are inside the box, what decision is there to make? But I was trying to follow the game information as possible. Goals from corners are probably harder as they were too easy on earlier versions of the ME, but still I can't go half a season not scoring a single goal from corners. (btw, I had a cup match where eventually Hateboer scored from a corner - the other team was quite weak so any other player would have probably scored as well) Regarding the CMs and AMs, Fujimoto is quite creative, Guendouzi is unhappy but he's our best player by far and Reis has been decent. I would say exchanging Guendouzi with Reis will be a good move (I played one game that way and I liked the result). About the AM/Wingers is the most difficult part. I'm a bit stuck with ASM's contract and the lack of funds to actively change the personnel. The introduction of Harit seems a good choice. Probably giving Guler some more game time will also help as he's not just a creator but also a decent finisher. I'm now also experimenting with roles and duties. I didn't like Harit as IW-A, but it doesn't make sense to keep ASM as W-A. My initial thought was to use his speed to send the ball into space, but he's getting the ball mostly with their full back still to beat. I don't know the answer yet to this dillemma. I really needed another type of winger (I have a dribbler and 2 creative players, not a single shooter/physical presence). I'm also paying more attention to the possession statistic. Each time I see my team going to something like 60% I immediately change pass directedness or tempo. 60% or above seems to translate in just keeping the ball with no intent or keeping the ball too far from their goal (this only relates to my situation as Marseille is definitely not a dominant team in the league - I would expect to get to 60% with PSG rather easily). When I change, it usually has a good result. Moving from FM20 to FM23, I noticed a big change in player roles. They seem to be more "strict" to their definition and with some things happening "under the hood". When do players move, where do they move, the decisions they make, ... For instance, the BPD and the dwelling on the ball, seems like they all have that trait. I'm now finding myself changing my BPD to CD when I play against a 2-forward formation so they move the ball faster. It's strange that there's little info in the game about this and no way affect these settings. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 15, 2023 Author Share Posted July 15, 2023 The year ends Just 4 games this month. I wanted 4 wins out of this, but we have drawn the first one. Still, 3 wins to end the year is always nice. [Ligue 1] vs Saint-Étienne (A) Final Score: 3-3 D Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 79 – 26 55 – 29 6 – 3 2,00 – 1,41 6 – 2 63 – 37 Individual Highlights Goals Fujimoto, Beier (x2) Assists Afif, Guendouzi Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 8,2 Beier 3 Beier 3 Fujimoto 7,5 Hateboer 3 Fujimoto 1 Balerdi 7,4 Fujimoto 2 Afif 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,9 Mbemba 6 ASM 5 Fujimoto 0,3 Balerdi 5 Fujimoto 2 Afif 0,3 Hateboer 4 Guendouzi 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles ASM 0,5 Balerdi 21 Afif 5 Guendouzi 0,4 Mbemba 10 Pezzella 3 Fujimoto 0,3 Fujimoto 4 Beier 2 An early goal gave them the lead, then we turned it around and made it 3-1, but then we just let them score 2 more to draw level. Beier scoring a brace was the theme this month. Some firepower from the midfield with Fujimoto scoring. [Europa League] vs Galatasaray (A) Final Score: 4-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 41 – 71 49 – 40 7 – 3 2,38 – 0,91 8 – 1 56 – 44 Individual Highlights Goals Beier (x2), Guler, ASM Assists Hateboer, Beier, Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 9,2 Haidara 4 Beier 3 ASM 7,8 Harit 4 ASM 1 Hateboer 7,6 ASM 2 Haidara 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 1,6 Gigot 6 Guendouzi 4 Guler 0,2 Balerdi 5 Afif 3 ASM 0,2 Hateboer 5 ASM 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Sala 0,4 Sala 6 ASM 6 ASM 0,4 Balerdi 6 Sala 3 Guendouzi 0,4 Guendouzi 5 Afif 2 We played this game with a half-rotated squad. Galatasaray has been terrible in the Europa League (they have 2 wins and 4 losses). This time ASM scores and another midfielder, Guler, also scores. With this win, we have at least guaranteed a play-off spot. [Ligue 1] vs Montpellier (H) Final Score: 4-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 121 – 29 65 – 17 10 – 0 2,50 – 0,05 6 – 0 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals Fujimoto (x2), Beier (x2) Assists Reis, ASM, Beier Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 8,7 Beier 3 Beier 4 Fujimoto 8,7 Pezzella 3 Fujimoto 2 Reis 7,9 Frosler 2 Harit 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 1,2 Mbemba 10 Reis 6 ASM 0,5 ASM 4 Hateboer 3 Hateboer 0,5 Reis 3 Guler 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Reis 0,5 Mbemba 9 Pezzella 9 ASM 0,2 Beier 4 ASM 5 Pezzella 0,2 Guendouzi 4 Hateboer 3 Big and easy win against Montpellier. Both Fujimoto and Beier with a brace. I'm also particularly happy they have finished the game with 0 chances and shots on target. [Coupe de France] vs Louhans-Cuiseaux (A) Final Score: 7-2 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 67 – 20 60 – 26 14 – 3 4,36 – 0,32 7 – 1 65 – 35 Individual Highlights Goals Dieng (x3), Ristic (x2), Haidara, Hateboer Assists Guler (x3), Harit, Ristic (x2) Rating Tackles Shots on Target Ristic 9,6 Frosler 1 Dieng 4 Dieng 9,5 Ristic 1 Balerdi 2 Guler 8,9 Haidara 1 Ristic 2 xG Interceptions Key Passes Dieng 1,7 Balerdi 5 Guler 8 Ristic 1,5 Frosler 5 Ristic 5 Haidara 0,4 Sala 2 Dieng 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guler 1,5 Balerdi 10 Sala 2 Ristic 0,8 Hateboer 9 Frosler 1 Harit 0,6 Bailly 8 Dieng 1 Last game of the year was the Coupe de France game against a team that plays in the same level as our 2nd team. I rotated a bit. A bit disappointed we conceded two goals, but we scored 7. Masterclass by Ristic with 2 goals and 2 assists; Dieng with an hattrick and Guler with an hattrick of assists. In this month, I have to talk about Beier: 6 goals and 2 assists in 3 games played is immense. It also helped our form that Fujimoto scored 3 goals in 3 matches. And a little note: we have overperformed our xG in every single match. We also finish the league's first round and stand in 6th. One youngster in, one oldie out In this case, it’s not just a youngster but someone I can count on just now. I know we need someone strong in the air for the centre of defence, but I couldn’t pass on this player for 4,3M. Going the other way is Milik. He barely played and was on massive wages, so I’m happy to see him leave. Next should be Mbemba. He was a starter for the first part of the season, but he’s 32; his attributes are dropping; he ends his contract at the end of the season; and with Nagy coming in, he’ll be an overpriced bench player. He already has 2 offers, so it should only be a matter of time. Development over the last 6 months Terrible development. I’ll change some of the staff at the end of the season and I’ll also loan out some youngsters as we still have too many players in the club. I would prefer to have a decent affiliate where we could send some players on loan. We have a ton of affiliates but they are all local clubs who play at very low levels. I can’t ask for another one as I got one at the beginning of the season for reputation/merchandising purposes. Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Pau López GK 0 0 0 0 Gonçalo Tabuaço GK 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Hans Hateboer D (R) -2 0 0 -2 Reeve Frosler D (R) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 0 0 0 0 Marco Sala D (L) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Éric Bailly D (C) -4,5 0 0 -4,5 Samuel Gigot D (C) -2,5 0 0 -2,5 Chancel Mbemba D (C) -3 0 0 -3 Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 0 0 0 0 Boubakary Soumaré DM 0 0 0 0 Amadou Haïdara M (C) 0 0 0 0 Ludovit Reis DM 0,5 0 0,5 0 Name Best Pos Arda Guler AM (C) 1,5 0,5 0 1 Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Akram Afif AM (L) 1 0 1 0 Amine Harit AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 0 0 0 0 Radenko Ristic AM (L) 0,5 0 0,5 0 Name Best Pos Maximilian Beier ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Bamba Dieng ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Senior Squad -8,5 0,5 2 -11 Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Ricardo Planche GK 1 0 1 0 Riviere-Santiago GK 1,5 0 0,5 1 Name Best Pos Arthur Carriere D (R) 15 2,5 6 6,5 Name Best Pos Willem Pander D (L) 0,5 0 0 0,5 Kaylan Hamidou D (L) -0,5 0 -0,5 0 Name Best Pos Patrick Guldager D (C) 2 0 0 2 JD Koffi D (C) 0 0 0 0 Joel Tchami D (C) 2,5 0 0 2,5 Mickael Gille D (C) 0 -0,5 0 0,5 Name Best Pos Thomas Scherrer M (C) 1 0 0,5 0,5 Mamadou Maiga M (C) 1 0 0 1 Axel Vincent M (C) 5,5 0,5 2 3 João Sousa M (R) 0 0 0 0 Salif Keita AM (R) 1 0 0 1 Mateo Lambert DM 6,5 1,5 1 4 Name Best Pos Hourcade M (R) -0,5 -0,5 0 0 Gael Lafont AM (R) 0,5 0 0,5 0 Ashraf Hassan AM (R) 0,5 1 -0,5 0 Name Best Pos Nenad Mitrovic ST (C) 1,5 0 1 0,5 Noah Gil ST (C) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Youth Squad 39 4,5 11,5 23 The only good surprise was a U19 player, 16-year-old right back Arthur Carriere. He’s consistently the best performer in training for the team. Probably next year I’ll let him train with the first team (I’m also considering adding him already this season, but we have to loan out some players first). I will also start the Continental Pro Licence. It’ll take me one year to have it but it’ll be worth it. Still about the underperformance problem I compared the top-3 scorers (most overall goals with 5+ starting appearances) for each team in the top-8. Team Name Pos Gls/90 Name Pos Gls/90 Name Pos Gls/90 PSG Nmecha ST 1,05 Mbappé LW 0,75 ESR CAM 0,49 Lens Hojlund ST 0,97 Edwards CAM 0,65 Pessina CAM 0,40 Nice Stengs RW 0,87 Thuram DM 0,36 Diop LW 0,25 Monaco Boadu ST 0,97 Embolo ST 0,83 Ikoné RM 0,36 Strasbourg Ajorque ST 0,31 Diallo RW 0,45 Minchev LW 0,20 Troyes Ouattara ST 0,72 Baldé ST 0,28 Nteka CM 0,28 Marseille Beier ST 0,95 Fujimoto CM 0,42 Afif LW 0,19 Rennes Kalimuendo ST 0,55 Terrier ST 0,55 Pogba CM 0,33 Beier has been excellent, Fujimoto is quite good as well (particularly this month), but our 3rd player is the worst of all top-8 teams. I really need to get Harit and/or Afif scoring more. The next game is against Nantes for the Coupe de France. I’ll play Harit as IW-A on the left and ASM as W-S on the right and see if that changes anything. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 16, 2023 Author Share Posted July 16, 2023 "Say what, boss? You want the wingers to participate more in the goals? Say no more..." 3 goals and 2 assists. Harit was injured so Afif played. ASM got a 10.0 rating; Afif 8.6. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 I'd lost track of this since you left Portugal but things seems to be going relatively well in France for you! I like how you're addressing the little issues one at a time and working methodically through them. More questions will surely come when I re-read, as I have found useful with your thread this year! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 16 horas atrás, _Ben_ disse: I'd lost track of this since you left Portugal but things seems to be going relatively well in France for you! I like how you're addressing the little issues one at a time and working methodically through them. More questions will surely come when I re-read, as I have found useful with your thread this year! Could be better, as our performances merit some better results, but I'm working on it. Now, that I have some time in the team, I believe I can tell exactly what those problems were: Aging squad (which seems to be happening with every AI-controlled team); inefficient wage structure; lack of youth development (I have some 20/21-year-olds with 4+ star potential, they'll never get there now, but they had the chance before - no homegrowns with the chance to stay in the team); somewhat unbalanced squad (not a single center-back was good in the air; not a single fast striker; we don't have a defensive-minded midfielder; ...). Working on everything bit by bit while trying to adapt the tactic to fit all this with barely any budget. As always, if you have any questions, please ask. Sometimes I write for myself and forget I'm writing for others to read and might not be explaining my thought process very well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 Quick Update on Nagy, the wonderkid CB i signed for 4,3M! I want to sell him right away! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 20, 2023 Author Share Posted July 20, 2023 January, so far We still have two games to play in January, but an update is needed. Our goal in the league should be about 1,9 points per game; we only managed 1,67 with 2 draws and 1 win. The game against Lyon was an odd one. We didn’t play well, but we were winning 2-0 and let them draw. We now have Fujimoto injured for 3 weeks, Beier injured between 2 to 4 weeks, and Harit has missed every single game this month. So backup is thin and when we have a busy schedule, we need to rotate in-game and there’s a big dip in quality between starters and substitutes. This needs work but it’s a long-term adjustment the club needs. [Coupe de France] vs Nantes (H) Final Score: 3-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 113 – 38 52 – 15 9 – 1 3,56 – 0,46 12 – 1 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals Afif, ASM (x2) Assists ASM, Afif, Pezzella Rating Tackles Shots on Target ASM 10,0 Pezzella 4 ASM 3 Afif 8,6 Beier 3 Afif 2 Pezzella 8,6 Afif 2 Hateboer 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 1,1 Nagy 8 ASM 5 Beier 0,9 Balerdi 3 Reis 5 ASM 0,5 Afif 3 Afif 4 xA Headers Won Dribbles ASM 1,3 Balerdi 13 Pezzella 8 Afif 0,7 Pezzella 6 Hateboer 3 Pezzella 0,4 Nagy 4 ASM 3 One more round in the Coupe de France. We made it easy with a dominant performance. I spoke about this game already: my wingers scored 3 and assisted for 2. [Ligue 1] vs Lille (A) Final Score: 1-1 D Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 38 – 103 32 – 44 4 – 2 0,86 – 1,13 2 – 2 43 – 57 Individual Highlights Goals ASM Assists Fujimoto Rating Tackles Shots on Target ASM 7,3 Fujimoto 7 Beier 2 Fujimoto 7,3 ASM 5 Ristic 1 Pezzella 6,7 Pezzella 3 ASM 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,5 Nagy 4 Fujimoto 4 ASM 0,1 Pezzella 3 Reis 2 Nagy 0,1 ASM 3 Ristic 1 xA Headers Won Dribbles Reis 0,3 Hateboer 5 ASM 5 Fujimoto 0,2 Pezzella 4 Hateboer 3 Guler 0,1 Balerdi 4 Guler 2 A difficult game against Lille. They played in our half but didn't create much. One more goal for ASM. [Ligue 1] vs Bordeaux (H) Final Score: 3-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 115 – 35 74 – 26 10 – 1 1,99 – 0,33 5 – 1 59 – 41 Individual Highlights Goals Beier, ASM, Travaglini Assists Afif, Beier, Soumaré Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 8,0 Reis 4 Balerdi 2 López 7,6 ASM 4 Afif 2 Afif 7,6 Guendouzi 2 Beier 2 xG Interceptions Key Passes ASM 0,5 Afif 4 Guler 6 Beier 0,4 Nagy 3 Afif 4 Travaglini 0,4 Hateboer 3 Reis 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Reis 0,4 Balerdi 16 ASM 5 Soumaré 0,4 Hateboer 8 Hateboer 4 Afif 0,3 Pezzella 7 Afif 4 Easy win against Bordeaux. My front three once again involved in many goals and the debut goal for the prospect Travaglini. I'll introduce you to him in a moment. [Europa League] vs Vitesse (H) Final Score: 2-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 77 – 56 59 – 32 8 – 2 2,29 – 1,38 4 – 3 58 – 42 Individual Highlights Goals Afif, Beier Assists Beier, ASM Rating Tackles Shots on Target ASM 8,2 ASM 3 Beier 5 Beier 7,7 Haidara 1 Haidara 1 Rodriguez 7,4 Rodriguez 1 Afif 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 1,6 Rodriguez 6 ASM 4 Guler 0,5 Nagy 5 Guler 3 Afif 0,2 Bailly 3 Rodriguez 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles ASM 1,0 Nagy 14 ASM 6 Rodriguez 0,7 Soumaré 12 Rodriguez 2 Sala 0,1 Sala 11 Afif 2 We rotated a bit, but we played well. Most of the danger they created was after our 2-0 lead. The front three keep their nice form. [Ligue 1] vs Lyon (A) Final Score: 2-2 D Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 47 – 79 34 – 38 3 – 7 0,88 – 1,80 3 – 4 54 – 46 Individual Highlights Goals Coppolo (OG), Afif Assists - Rating Tackles Shots on Target Hateboer 7,0 ASM 3 Soumaré 1 Reis 7,0 Pezzella 3 Afif 1 Afif 6,9 Reis 3 Balerdi 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,3 Hateboer 7 Guendouzi 2 Hateboer 0,2 Reis 4 Guler 1 Dieng 0,2 Balerdi 2 Reis 1 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guler 0,2 Hateboer 10 Pezzella 6 Reis 0,2 Balerdi 8 ASM 4 Dieng 0,1 Pezzella 6 Hateboer 2 Our worst game of the month. Simply because he had it in the bag and lost the 3 points. The injuries aren't helping but I need to have more confidence in the bench and definitely need to work on a second tactic. The biggest individual performances in this run of games were clearly the front three: ASM with 4 goals and 2 assists in 5 matches; Afif with 3 goals and 2 assists in 4 matches; and lastly Beier with 2 goals and 2 assists in 3 matches. About the underperformance Statistics show we are taking less shots, but making more of them. Goals/90 has increased by 0,30 in the league; conversion rate increased 2,10% (we still have the lowest from the top-8) and a result of this is the expected goals per shot and conversion rate are closer and near zero (we still need this to be a positive number as we are the only top-8 team with a negative difference). Name Pos Gls/90 NpxG/90 Sh/90 Conv % npxg/Sh % Dif PSG 1 2,55 1,98 20,15 12,7 9,8 2,8 Lens 2 2,15 1,51 13,35 16,1 11,3 4,8 Nice 3 2,00 1,35 14,85 13,5 9,1 4,4 Monaco 4 2,15 1,81 16,55 13,0 10,9 2,1 Strasbourg 5 1,40 1,00 12,95 10,8 7,7 3,1 Troyes 6 1,20 0,85 9,70 12,4 8,8 3,6 Marseille 7 1,70 1,76 16,85 10,1 10,4 -0,4 Rennes 8 2,20 1,66 15,40 14,3 10,8 3,5 Dif to last post 0,30 -0,10 -0,68 2,10 -0,17 2,27 % 21% -5% -4% 26% -2% -86% We still need to work on the set-pieces as the difference to the other teams keeps getting bigger. More on that later. Name Corner Gls DFK Gls IFK Gls PK Gls Set-Piece Gls PSG 4 1 2 5 12 Lens 5 1 4 1 11 Nice 3 1 4 3 11 Monaco 10 1 0 2 13 Strasbourg 4 0 3 0 7 Troyes 1 0 2 1 4 Marseille 0 1 0 1 2 Rennes 1 1 1 5 8 Dif to last post 0,00 0,00 0,00 1,00 1,00 In the top-3 scorers, Saint-Maximin has improved massively and is now in the top-3 and the difference between number 1 and number 3 has halved which shows a lot less dependency from our main goalscorer. Team Name Pos Gls/90 Name Pos Gls/90 Name Pos Gls/90 PSG Nmecha ST 1,01 Mbappé LW 0,81 ESR CAM 0,41 Lens Hojlund ST 1,00 Edwards CAM 0,63 Pessina CAM 0,37 Nice Stengs RW 0,70 Richarlison ST 0,46 Thuram DM 0,36 Monaco Boadu ST 0,97 Embolo ST 0,85 Barak ST 0,43 Strasbourg Diallo RW 0,41 Ajorque ST 0,25 Sissoko CM 0,20 Troyes Ouattara ST 0,65 Nteka CM 0,30 Baldé ST 0,23 Marseille Beier ST 0,91 Fujimoto CM 0,37 ASM RW 0,34 Rennes Kalimuendo ST 0,57 Terrier ST 0,45 Kanga RM 0,32 -0,04 -0,05 0,15 -4% -12% 79% Top3 Gls/90 1st/3rd 2,23 2,46 2,00 2,70 1,52 1,94 2,25 2,26 0,86 2,05 1,18 2,83 1,62 2,68 1,34 1,78 0,06 -2,32 4% -46% In all competitions, we have improved in goals/90, shots/90, shots on target/90, NP-xG/90, Conversion Rate (even by position only dropped in CBs). Gls/90 Shot/90 ShT/90 NP-xG/90 Conv % Shots % Gls-npxg Most used 11 2,18 16,59 7,20 2,08 13,1 0,10 Dif to last post 0,50 0,35 0,31 0,13 2,80 0,37 Most Used FBs 0,05 1,12 0,25 0,09 4,5 6,9 -0,04 Most Used Cbs 0,04 2,14 0,80 0,20 1,9 13,2 -0,16 Most Used Cms 0,57 5,22 0,87 0,20 10,9 32,1 0,37 Most Used Wfs 0,65 4,86 2,05 0,56 13,4 29,9 0,09 Most Used ST 0,91 4,67 2,48 0,84 19,5 28,8 0,07 Attacking Corners Just watched some goals from corners from teams from my league. Here are some of them: The first one was a Saint-Étienne goal by Ferro on the far post: One player sitting back, two in the edge of the area, one in the near post, one attacking the far post, maybe 4 with get forward instruction. The second one, from the same game, this time by Monaco, scored by Badiashile on the near post: One player sitting back, two in the edge of the area, one attacking the near post, one in the far post, one attacking the far post, 3 with get forward instruction (maybe). Then, one goal by Lens, scored by Vestergaard on the near post: The pattern of one player sitting back and two in the edge of the area is repeated; then one player attacking the far post is clear; maybe one attacking from deep; I don’t know if Vestergaard is instructed to attack near post or just go forward; and 3 players most likely with get forward. Lastly, a Strasbourg goal by Sissoko. Scored at the near post, but the ball was played into the far post and Ajorque headed into the near post. Once again: one player sitting back; two on the edge; one attacking the far post; maybe 3 with get forward. Then, I think one is challenging the GK; and one attacking the near post. From this, we got: 1 GK; 1 taking the corner; 1 sitting back; 2 outside the area; 1 attacking the far post; at least 3 get forward. That’s 9 players with set positions for every team. (I will also rethink defensive corners based on this, but right now the focus is on attacking corners) I implemented this but still no result... Transfer Window Out: Milik – ST – 675k – 278k/month – 32 years old Frosler – RB – 5,5M (7M) – 178k/month – 29 years old Mbemba – CB – 1,4M (1,8M) – 230k/month – 32 years old Total – 7,6M – 686k/month (in 6 months: 4,1M) And a bunch of loans... In: Maxi Rodríguez – RB – Free – 56k/month – 19 years old (now valued 33-48M) Andrei Nagy – CB/DM – 4,3M – 85k/month – 19 years old (now valued 104-123M) Jonathan Castelli – CM – 1,2M – 20k/month – 19 years old (now valued 8-10,5M - I loaned him back to where he was) Marco Travaglini – ST – 2M – 31k/month – 19 years old (now valued 10,5-15M) Total – 5,5M – 192k/month (in 6 months: 1,2M) Travaglini was the only one I hadn't written about. I didn't like our prospect strikers, mostly because of Mitrovic's personality. Still a long way to go until he reaches Beier's level, but I believe he can get there. Solving Problems As I said, we had mainly for issues when I first arrived: 1. Ageing squad (which seems to be happening with every AI-controlled team) Age Start/Last Season 27,3 Actual/January 26,8 I sold 3 29+ years-old and bought 4 19-year-olds. We have now managed to reduce it a bit, but we still need more youngsters. 2. Inefficient wage structure Wage Start/Last Season 5 704 000,00 € Actual/January 5 124 500,00 € We still don't have the best structure as we moved from having a 7-5-12 (24 players) to 8-4-10 (22 players) when we want 4-7-11 (Star/Important - Regular - Squad/Fringe). But we reduced wages on the first-team while maintaining/improving the squad, and we reduced the numbers so we can focus more on some players and give youngsters some chances. 3. Lack of youth development (I have some 20/21-year-olds with 4+ star potential, they'll never get there now, but they had the chance before; no homegrowns with the chance to stay in the team) U23 Minutes Start/Last Season 880 Actual/January 1594 Out of the 880 minutes played last season, 859 were from a loaned-in player. The 1594 figure is steadily increasing with Guler and Nagy. Maxi Rodriguez, Ristic and Travaglini will also have decent minutes during the season. 4. Somewhat unbalanced squad (not a single center-back was good in the air; not a single fast striker; we don't have a defensive-minded midfielder; ...) I've cancelled Dieng's loan and brought in Beier so now we have strikers who can make a difference with their speed. Beier is also decent in the air. Now we need to address the center-back and the defensive midfielder issue. I'm more concerned with the center-back as we have the option of playing Soumaré and Guendouzi in DM. They are not BWM, but they are decent enough defensively. Getting a better CB, will also let me play Nagy as DM, which he is very much capable of. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 2 hours ago, lfds89 said: the focus is on attacking corners I recently switched mine - gone back to a very simple setup with the big men on the near post. We're now up to 5 for the season, with three of those coming in recent matches so it seems to be working. My theory was that 'keepers are much better at coming to claim corners so the less time the ball is in the air, the less chance to 'keeper has to pick it off. It's a good theory 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 22, 2023 Author Share Posted July 22, 2023 Em 20/07/2023 em 21:35, warlock disse: I recently switched mine - gone back to a very simple setup with the big men on the near post. We're now up to 5 for the season, with three of those coming in recent matches so it seems to be working. My theory was that 'keepers are much better at coming to claim corners so the less time the ball is in the air, the less chance to 'keeper has to pick it off. It's a good theory I have played FM17, FM20, and this one and I always felt Near Post is always "favored" by the match engine. It's only a feeling, though. Do you assign one as "lurk" and one as "attack near post" or just one of the options? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 On 22/07/2023 at 10:57, lfds89 said: Do you assign one as "lurk" and one as "attack near post" This . I think SI said they nerfed, reduced the effectiveness of near-post corners in the winter update, but it still seems the best option to me. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 24, 2023 Author Share Posted July 24, 2023 The end of January 1 win and 1 loss. Our first loss in 11 games. We are through to R16 of the Europa League without going to the playoffs, so 2 fewer games on the calendar. We are now out of the Coupe de France. We can be happy with our performance in the Europa League so far. Beier also tops the scorer’s list with 8 goals in 7 matches (an average of one goal every 64 minutes). And the end of the transfer window We made 2 more signings: Lukas Mai and Marvin Friedrich. Both were signed as backups. They provide bigger aerial threats than the options available. In the case of Marvin, it was a deal involving an exchange: Gigot. We traded for a (not much) younger and more suitable player and got rid of a player I didn’t trust much. Mai has some more years in him than Marvin and he’ll provide cover for Balerdi. As a precaution for injuries, I’ve decided to bring in Lovro Zvonarek on loan. He can play on the wings or as a Mezzalla. On the way out, there’s no more news after Gigot. I had to dispatch a loan army all over Europe as we can’t have more than 7 in each country… Hope they develop more than what they had when they were with us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 24, 2023 Author Share Posted July 24, 2023 Friedrich's first game: 2 IFK goals assisted by Güler. Important for the future as this is a way to unlock games. Remembering in the first half we lost points against 3 of the last 4. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 26, 2023 Author Share Posted July 26, 2023 Crazy good February Only 4 games allowed us to recover some injured players and the accumulated fatigue. We also worked on our motivation with 4 wins in all 4 games. Pretty happy for the team. [Ligue 1] vs Angers (H) Final Score: 4-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 80 – 42 71 – 29 8 – 2 1,84 – 0,42 6 – 1 68 – 32 Individual Highlights Goals Friedrich (x2), Harit, Afif Assists Guler (x2), ASM Rating Tackles Shots on Target Friedrich 8,5 ASM 3 Harit 2 Guler 7,8 Reis 3 Friedrich 2 Harit 7,7 Hateboer 3 Soumaré 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Friedrich 0,5 Hateboer 5 Guler 6 Harit 0,4 Pezzella 3 Harit 2 Afif 0,3 Friedrich 3 ASM 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guler 0,7 Balerdi 14 ASM 4 ASM 0,4 Friedrich 11 Pezzella 4 Rodriguez 0,2 Hateboer 7 Afif 1 I had already shown a screenshot from this game. Friedrich had a great debut with 2 goals, helping us with our set-piece situation. Harit played as ST and scored, Afif also got in the scoresheet, and Guler showed his strength on set-pieces. [Ligue 1] vs Lorient (A) Final Score: 2-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 111 – 35 35 – 29 5 – 2 0,99 – 0,26 1 – 0 53 – 47 Individual Highlights Goals Afif, Haidara Assists Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Haidara 7,9 Pezzella 3 Afif 1 Friedrich 7,5 Afif 3 Haidara 1 Afif 7,4 Haidara 3 Guendouzi 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,3 Friedrich 5 Guler 2 Zvonarek 0,2 Pezzella 3 Guendouzi 2 Friedrich 0,2 Balerdi 3 Harit 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,3 Balerdi 5 ASM 8 Guler 0,2 Pezzella 2 Pezzella 3 Haidara 0,1 Zvonarek 2 Afif 3 Not a great game but we were the better team, ASM with 8 dribbles created havoc on the wing. Afif's goal followed an aerial challenge from Friedrich in a set-piece. [Ligue 1] vs Metz (H) Final Score: 2-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 94 – 34 52 – 34 4 – 4 1,92 – 1,25 3 – 2 59 – 41 Individual Highlights Goals Beier, Afif (pen) Assists Zvonarek Rating Tackles Shots on Target Balerdi 7,6 Rodriguez 2 Afif 1 Pezzella 7,3 Harit 2 Balerdi 1 López 7,3 Haidara 1 Harit 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,9 Pezzella 5 Harit 5 Beier 0,3 Balerdi 4 Guendouzi 3 Harit 0,3 Harit 4 Haidara 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Fujimoto 0,3 Balerdi 15 Pezzella 7 Harit 0,2 Friedrich 7 Harit 6 Soumaré 0,2 Pezzella 6 ASM 4 We weren't any good in the first half but managed to turn it around in the second half. Beier was back on the field and scored one more. [Ligue 1] vs Lens (A) Final Score: 2-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 90 – 60 41 – 29 2 – 4 0,28 – 0,97 0 – 3 59 – 41 Individual Highlights Goals Beier, Afif Assists Guendouzi Rating Tackles Shots on Target Guendouzi 7,6 Fujimoto 4 Beier 1 Beier 7,0 Guendouzi 4 Afif 1 Fujimoto 7,0 Nagy 3 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,1 Balerdi 6 Guendouzi 2 Beier 0,1 Nagy 4 Soumaré 1 Pezzella 4 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guendouzi 0,1 Friedrich 9 Nagy 5 Balerdi 5 Pezzella 5 Beier 3 Guendouzi 4 Our worst win of the season, but I'll take it. Only 0.28 xG, no chances created, only 2 shots on target... Beier and Afif are once again in the scoresheet. Lens had a terrible month with just 1 win and 3 losses in the league and also being eliminated from the Coupe de France. Afif with 4 goals in 4 games, 1 in each is our player of the month. We are now 4th and we managed to distance ourselves from Rennes. We have 1,875 ppg, very close to the goal of 1,90. 10 games to play, 30 points on the line. Statistically, we have fewer expected goals which might be concerning (although Beier barely played and he doesn’t have a great backup) but we have greatly improved in goals/90 and conversion and we now have way more goals scored from set-pieces with 1 corner, 3 IFK and 1 penalty this month. Name Pos Gls/90 NpxG/90 Sh/90 Conv % npxg/Sh % Dif PSG 1 2,67 2,01 19,75 13,5 10,2 3,3 Lens 5 1,92 1,39 12,71 15,1 10,9 4,2 Nice 3 1,79 1,30 14,29 12,5 9,1 3,4 Monaco 2 2,17 1,91 17,09 12,7 11,2 1,5 Strasbourg 6 1,38 0,96 12,58 11,0 7,6 3,3 Troyes 7 1,21 0,91 9,83 12,3 9,3 3,1 Marseille 4 1,83 1,64 16,04 11,4 10,2 1,2 Rennes 8 2,21 1,67 15,54 14,2 10,7 3,5 Dif to first post 0,43 -0,22 -1,49 3,42 -0,39 3,81 % 31% -12% -8% 43% -4% -145% Name Pos Corner Gls DFK Gls IFK Gls PK Gls Set-Piece Gls PSG 1 6 2 2 6 16 Lens 5 6 1 4 1 12 Nice 3 3 2 4 3 12 Monaco 2 13 1 0 2 16 Strasbourg 6 4 0 3 0 7 Troyes 7 1 0 4 1 6 Marseille 4 1 1 3 2 7 Rennes 8 3 1 2 5 11 And another piece of great news After a good month, Guendouzi is finally happy to stay with us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted July 27, 2023 Share Posted July 27, 2023 6 hours ago, lfds89 said: We are now 4th A good month. PSG are gone (again) but everything else is up for grabs. Still room for improvement on the set-pieces 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 8 horas atrás, warlock disse: A good month. PSG are gone (again) but everything else is up for grabs. Still room for improvement on the set-pieces PSG are in a world of their own. Don't know how I'll get there. Very happy with the improvement on set-pieces. Don't think we can keep this rhythm, but if we can do better than in the first half of the season, I'm happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 The Squad Forgot to show the whole squad on the previous posts. Here it is: Clear signs I need a new GK and have to pay attention to defence (although Nagy and Rodriguez will be better with time), mainly LB. Marching on (too much?) Through to the Europa League QF, 2 more wins in the league and the expected loss against PSG. [Europa League] vs Galatasaray (A) Final Score: 1-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 73 – 70 43 – 45 3 – 2 0,60 – 0,88 1 – 2 60 – 40 Individual Highlights Goals Guler Assists Guendouzi Rating Tackles Shots on Target Guler 7,6 Haidara 5 Guler 2 Haidara 7,5 Rodriguez 3 Mai 1 Rodriguez 7,4 Guler 3 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,3 Rodriguez 9 Pezzella 2 Guler 0,2 Balerdi 5 Guler 2 Mai 0,1 Pezzella 4 Haidara 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Haidara 0,3 Mai 9 ASM 10 Guendouzi 0,1 Guendouzi 6 Beier 3 Guler 0,1 Sala 6 Harit 3 Was expecting an easier game but 1-0 away is always good. [Ligue 1] vs Troyes (H) Final Score: 2-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 99 – 49 62 – 19 9 – 1 2,06 – 0,01 5 – 0 58 – 42 Individual Highlights Goals Fujimoto, Friedrich Assists Beier, Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Friedrich 8,3 Pezzella 5 Friedrich 3 Fujimoto 8,1 Harit 3 Fujimoto 2 Pezzella 7,8 Soumaré 3 Beier 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Fujimoto 0,8 Nagy 9 Harit 6 Harit 0,4 Pezzella 6 Fujimoto 4 Beier 0,3 Friedrich 5 Guler 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,6 Friedrich 14 Pezzella 6 Fujimoto 0,5 Nagy 4 Afif 2 Beier 0,4 Hateboer 4 Guendouzi 1 Good win over a team that has been around us all season. One more goal for Friedrich! [Europa League] vs Galatasaray (H) Final Score: 5-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 74 – 30 65 – 26 13 – 4 3,01 – 0,91 8 – 2 64 – 36 Individual Highlights Goals Beier (x2), Guler, Harit, ASM Assists Guendouzi (x2), Haidara, Reis Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 9,0 Harit 3 Beier 4 Guler 8,0 Haidara 3 Harit 4 ASM 7,9 ASM 2 ASM 2 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 1,2 Balerdi 4 Harit 6 Harit 0,8 Guler 2 Guler 5 ASM 0,4 Rodriguez 2 ASM 4 xA Headers Won Dribbles ASM 0,5 Balerdi 10 ASM 4 Guendouzi 0,4 Nagy 8 Sala 3 Haidara 0,3 Beier 6 Haidara 2 This was what I expected from the first game. Clear win, We were way better. [Ligue 1] vs PSG (A) Final Score: 2-4 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 69 – 88 44 – 50 5 – 12 1,37 – 2,69 8 – 4 47 – 53 Individual Highlights Goals ASM, Afif Assists Guendouzi, Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Harit 7,4 Afif 6 Afif 2 Afif 7,1 Hateboer 4 Guendouzi 1 Guendouzi 7,1 Balerdi 4 Hateboer 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes ASM 0,3 Hateboer 4 Harit 3 Afif 0,2 Pezzella 2 Reis 2 Guler 0,2 Sala 2 Guler 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guendouzi 0,3 Guendouzi 3 ASM 4 Pezzella 0,3 Beier 2 Pezzella 3 Harit 0,2 Pezzella 2 Afif 2 They had Hakimi and Mbappé injured so it was a good time to face them, however, we gave them the first half and we went to the lockers losing 3-0. We still managed to fight back and I would say we were better in the second half, but it wasn't enough. [Ligue 1] vs Brest (A) Final Score: 3-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 50 – 31 43 – 30 7 – 1 2,99 – 0,27 5 – 0 63 – 37 Individual Highlights Goals Beier (1+pen), Afif Assists Fujimoto, ASM Rating Tackles Shots on Target Beier 8,2 Pezzella 3 ASM 2 Fujimoto 8,0 Guendouzi 2 Beier 2 ASM 8,0 Hateboer 2 Pezzella 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 1,8 Rodriguez 3 Fujimoto 6 Afif 0,8 Friedrich 3 Hateboer 3 Friedrich 0,1 Balerdi 3 ASM 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles ASM 1,0 Balerdi 18 Beier 4 Fujimoto 0,7 Friedrich 8 ASM 3 Haidara 0,2 Soumare 5 Harit 3 One of those matches we have drawn in the first half of the season but we are now winning. We’ll play Lazio and if we get through we play the winner of Arsenal vs Wolfsburg. With 7 games to go in the league, we sit in 4th. 3 points away from 5th; 6 from 7th the last european place; and 9 points away from falling out of european competitions. We are on our way. Looking the other way, we are just 2 points away from 2nd. The table from just the games from the 2nd half of the season shows we are doing quite well. Should I be worried? With our good form, the interest in our players has risen. It makes me wonder if we were to sell everyone for their value, would it be good? I could do a lot with 160M, but the most interesting players to sell would be Balerdi and Reis and if I could get 60M out of those two, it would be wonderful. And one more international player Only 19, has a great future ahead of him. NXGN 2027 Two players in the list: Hassan and Nagy. Strange that Maxi Rodriguez was just capped by Argentina and he didn’t make it. Was also expecting Ristic to be replacing Hassan, but probably Hassan has a bigger reputation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted July 28, 2023 Share Posted July 28, 2023 9 hours ago, lfds89 said: Looking the other way, we are just 2 points away from 2nd. Do you have to play Nice or Monaco between now and the end of the season? I'd say you're looking - on form alone - good for there and that'll increase your rep and finances enough to be able to keep hold of the sought after players. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 28, 2023 Author Share Posted July 28, 2023 12 horas atrás, _Ben_ disse: Do you have to play Nice or Monaco between now and the end of the season? I'd say you're looking - on form alone - good for there and that'll increase your rep and finances enough to be able to keep hold of the sought after players. The calendar until the end of the season is interesting (let's put it that way...) That's 6th / 2nd / 7th / 3rd / 8th / 10th / 16th. Pretty much the whole season is on the line. Certainly, the same happens to all of the others. In fact, Nice has just lost to PSG, but they also have to play Strasbourg, Monaco, Rennes, Nice, and Saint-Étienne; Monaco faces all the top 9 except for 8th. I will certainly play the subs against Lazio. Don't care much about Europa League when compared to finishing top-3 and having direct access to the league/group stage of UCL. The club objective was the quarter-final, so I'm good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 30, 2023 Author Share Posted July 30, 2023 Youth Intake Not much to be excited about. Was hoping for some defenders and a goalkeeper. You’ll need to review our youth situation when the season ends. But Miath seems to be a real gem. Long April Dividing this into the competitions we were in. Europa League. I said it before, I was going to rotate the squad for the games against Lazio. I did. First game we lost 1-0, home; but in the second game the guys showed me they were up for the task and we have beaten them 3-1. [Europa League] vs Lazio (H) Final Score: 0-1 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 79 – 41 38 – 39 8 – 3 1,05 – 1,05 3 – 2 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals - Assists - Rating Tackles Shots on Target Pezzella 7,1 Pezzella 3 Guler 2 Hateboer 7,0 Rodriguez 3 Afif 2 ASM 6,9 ASM 2 ASM 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,2 Sala 3 Harit 4 Mai 0,2 Hateboer 3 Guler 4 Hateboer 0,2 Mai 3 Dieng 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guler 0,2 Mai 7 ASM 5 Fujimoto 0,2 Soumare 5 Sala 4 ASM 0,2 Afif 4 Harit 3 Evenly matched. We got more shots on target, but not very menacing. [Europa League] vs Lazio (A) Final Score: 3-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 67 – 85 47 – 43 9 – 6 2,31 – 2,22 2 – 6 50 – 50 Individual Highlights Goals Dieng, Mai, Hateboer Assists Sala, Guler (x2) Rating Tackles Shots on Target Hateboer 7,7 Soumare 4 Haidara 2 Dieng 7,5 Sala 4 Guler 2 Sala 7,5 Rodriguez 3 Hateboer 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Dieng 0,9 Mai 3 Guler 5 Guler 0,9 Rodriguez 2 Haidara 1 Afif 0,1 Guendouzi 2 Afif 1 xA Headers Won Dribbles Sala 0,6 Mai 8 ASM 3 Guler 0,3 Rodriguez 4 Sala 3 Rodriguez 0,2 Haidara 3 Haidara 2 2 more assists for Guler, one from a corner. We won and we are happy to be in the Semi-Final (the only French team in European competition), but we lost rest time and we lost Saint-Maximin—terrible news not just for the team, but also for him as a 30-year-old. We will play Arsenal in the semi-finals. This will be the last match of April, but it’ll be in another post. Regarding the league, the results weren’t very positive, but as everybody is playing everybody we are all losing points and we get to keep our 4th place with 3 matches to go. [Ligue 1] vs Strasbourg (H) Final Score: 3-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 75 – 63 45 – 28 8 – 2 2,49 – 0,74 5 – 2 54 – 46 Individual Highlights Goals Beier, Dieng, Guler Assists ASM, Harit (x2) Rating Tackles Shots on Target Harit 8,4 Rodriguez 5 Beier 3 ASM 8,1 Afif 3 ASM 2 Sala 7,7 Guendouzi 2 Harit 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,9 Sala 5 ASM 4 Dieng 0,4 Rodriguez 4 Sala 3 ASM 0,4 Friedrich 4 Guendouzi 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,7 Friedrich 6 ASM 10 ASM 0,6 Rodriguez 5 Guendouzi 2 Sala 0,5 Guendouzi 3 Afif 2 10 (!) dribbles by ASM, along with 4 key passes and 2 shots on target. Harit started from the bench, but he came on and decided the game for us with 2 assists. [Ligue 1] vs Nice (A) Final Score: 0-2 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 79 – 68 50 – 46 9 – 5 1,50 – 2,11 3 – 4 53 – 47 Individual Highlights Goals - Assists - Rating Tackles Shots on Target Rodriguez 7,0 Hateboer 3 Beier 3 Pezzella 6,9 ASM 3 Harit 2 Friedrich 6,8 Beier 2 Friedrich 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,7 Pezzella 5 Guendouzi 3 Guler 0,4 Hateboer 4 Haidara 2 Fujimoto 0,1 Beier 3 Harit 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Fujimoto 0,4 Friedrich 12 ASM 3 Harit 0,3 Fujimoto 6 Pezzella 3 ASM 0,3 Pezzella 5 Beier 2 Not much to say. They were better, we didn't create much. [Ligue 1] vs Rennes (H) Final Score: 2-3 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 94 – 59 55 – 30 9 – 9 4,00 – 1,45 7 – 4 61 – 39 Individual Highlights Goals Dieng, Travaglini Assists Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Harit 7,6 Harit 4 Friedrich 2 Travaglini 7,4 Hateboer 4 Dieng 2 Friedrich 7,1 Pezzella 2 Balerdi 2 xG Interceptions Key Passes Dieng 2,0 Hateboer 7 Harit 6 Friedrich 0,6 Balerdi 4 Fujimoto 4 Travaglini 0,4 Guendouzi 3 Guler 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,9 Balerdi 12 Pezzella 4 Friedrich 0,9 Friedrich 11 Guler 3 Balerdi 0,4 Hateboer 8 Harit 2 Unfair result. With an xG of 4 we can't lose and score only 2 goals. But Beier was injured and Dieng only scored one of the expected 2 for him. The youngster Travaglini still scored one. He has 2 goals in 4 sub-appearances. My CBs hit the target 4 times, but none of them scored a goal. On their side, Kalimuendo is on another level and he ran the game against us with 2 goals and 1 assist. [Ligue 1] vs Monaco (A) Final Score: 3-3 D Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 74 – 41 49 – 33 4 – 6 1,62 – 1,18 6 – 4 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals Guendouzi, Fujimoto, Afif Assists Afif (x2), Guler Rating Tackles Shots on Target Afif 8,7 Afif 4 Fujimoto 1 Guler 7,4 Nagy 4 Guendouzi 1 Guendouzi 7,2 Balerdi 3 Afif 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,6 Balerdi 6 Afif 3 Harit 0,5 Friedrich 4 Guler 2 Fujimoto 0,3 Guler 3 Nagy 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Afif 0,6 Friedrich 12 Pezzella 9 Guler 0,4 Balerdi 10 Afif 4 Harit 0,2 Hateboer 5 Harit 3 More even than the game against Rennes, but we were still superior. At least we got a point from this one. Tried to play Beier who was still returning from injury, but he wasn't ready and had a bad game, then I had Harit play as ST with Guler on the wing, but eventually, Harit was also very tired (we don't have ASM and Zvonarek to play in the wings so Afif and Harit are having all the minutes there) and Dieng came in. Will need to get a better backup striker as Dieng doesn't have enough quality and Travaglini is also still a bit far from the requirements. And the standings with PSG just parading their most recent trophy. What’s left to play? We are playing 9th, 11th, and 17th. Above us: Monaco plays 6th, 3rd, and 7th. Nice plays 7th, 2nd, and 9th. Below us: Lens plays 13th, 15th, and 8th. Strasbourg plays 2nd, 9th, and 11th. Rennes plays 3rd, 16th, and 2nd. And we cannot finish below 7th which guarantees us European competition next year. I would say the calendar is favourable to us but we need to convert this into points. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted July 31, 2023 Author Share Posted July 31, 2023 Honors for Beier He deserves it, next step is a call-up. Unexpected news from England Their stars are Macías, Moussa Diaby and Burkardt who was behind Beier on the German Player of the Year award. Moussa Diaby has an average rating of 7,70 out of 6 goals and 2 assists as LM. I’m intrigued. Youth Graduates Name Best Pos Personality ShStop Physical Speed Mental Comm Ecc Aerial Dist Total Status Gregory Bauduiin GK Fickle 11 7 5 9 6 2 11 7 36% U17 – P2,5 Name Best Pos Personality Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total Status Best Rating Best Position Gérald Miath ST (C) Balanced 4 9 9 11 13 13 8 8 47% U15 – P5 56% AM Rémi Levy D (C) Balanced 9 9 7 5 6 6 11 11 40% U17 – P2,5 50% CB Ibrahima Adou ST (C) Light-Hearted 5 9 8 9 8 11 9 10 43% U15 – P4 48% AM Antonin Pellegrin D (R) Driven 10 8 8 8 6 9 7 12 43% U17 – P3 47% CM Matheo Pinault D (R) Fickle 8 7 7 5 5 7 10 10 37% U17 – P2,5 44% CB Cheikh Ndaw M (C) Balanced 6 8 6 8 6 7 2 11 34% U17 – P3 40% CM Miath is clearly the star. In fact, he played 3 games for the U19 and scored 8 goals. I’m also curious about Rémi. He’s 190cm already and his stats are decent for a 15-year-old. Only 2,5 stars in potential is a bad sign, but let’s wait and see. End of the Season! Finally, it ended. Quite an emotional ending, but we can be happy with the result. In Europe, we lost 1-0 on aggregate to Arsenal. We played our substitutes in the first round and lost. Couldn’t turn it around in the second round. The objective was QF, we have reached the SF. In the league, we won 2 of our last 3 games and ended in 3rd just behind Nice and PSG. The objective was to qualify for Europa League (5/6th), and we qualified for UCL. Monaco had a terrible end to the season. They were 2nd but lost 4 and draw 1 of their last 5 games and ended in 6th. We qualified directly to the UCL group stage and won 15M in the process, we also added another 6+ M in prize money from Europa League, but our budget for the next season is just 8M… Hope they review it as I need that money. Milestones In the meantime, we broke some team records: Most Matches Won in a Row – 7 (Previous 5) Most Matches Without Losing – 11 (Previous 10) Most Matches Without Winning – 3 (Previous 4) Most Overall Goals by a Player in a Season – 30, Beier (Previous 20, Milik) Most League Goals by a Player in a Season – 20, Beier (Previous 14, Milik) Most Goals by a Player in a League Match – 3, Beier (Previous 2, Various) Most POM Awards in a Season – 10, Beier (Previous 9, Gérson) I'll go over individual performances and other details in the next post. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonic Youth Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 Just finished page 1. You’ve been busy what with two consecutive promotions I like how the best signing in the league was also a defensive midfielder I like your statistical approach too. Will continue reading, just noting a few moments. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 1, 2023 Author Share Posted August 1, 2023 6 horas atrás, Sonic Youth disse: Just finished page 1. You’ve been busy what with two consecutive promotions I like how the best signing in the league was also a defensive midfielder I like your statistical approach too. Will continue reading, just noting a few moments. Thanks! I don't know what it feels like reading from the start because I had never written something like this before and I've been changing my style throughout the journey. I hope you like it! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 4 hours ago, lfds89 said: I've been changing my style throughout All good! Took me a while to get my brain around all the numbers in black-and-white text but I'm with it now and enjoying the ride. Looks like the board need a lesson in "invest for success" but hopefully continued success will loosen the purse strings. Keep it up! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 1, 2023 Author Share Posted August 1, 2023 34 minutos atrás, warlock disse: All good! Took me a while to get my brain around all the numbers in black-and-white text but I'm with it now and enjoying the ride. Looks like the board need a lesson in "invest for success" but hopefully continued success will loosen the purse strings. Keep it up! The color scheme had to do with Sertanense and I was supposed to change according to the team. But then, blue and white would have been stranger so I kept it like this. Don't know how to do it, really. Will certainly change the match screens for next season. The ones I made this season took me a lot of time and they don't add much detail for people reading this, I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 1, 2023 Author Share Posted August 1, 2023 U19’s Title The boys have done it. Some have been training with the A squad but I still think we could have a better squad. Squad Breakdown Team 8.4 XPTS above 3rd is good. This season the focus was on offense and getting it to work. Seems like next season I'll have to focus a bit more on my defence. We were the second-best team in the second half of the stage. Right now it's impossible to get near PSG, but if we keep this form for next season we'll do well. Name Pos Gls/90 NpxG/90 Sh/90 Conv % npxg/Sh % Dif PSG 1 2,62 1,93 19,38 13,5 10,0 3,6 Lens 4 1,71 1,36 12,44 13,7 10,9 2,8 Nice 2 1,65 1,32 14,24 11,6 9,3 2,3 Monaco 6 2,12 1,78 16,38 12,9 10,9 2,1 Strasbourg 5 1,41 1,13 13,12 10,7 8,6 2,1 Troyes 8 1,18 0,97 10,09 11,7 9,6 2,1 Marseille 3 2,06 1,80 17,12 12,0 10,5 1,5 Rennes 7 2,03 1,71 15,26 13,3 11,2 2,1 Dif to first post -4 0,66 -0,06 -0,41 4,05 -0,10 4,14 % -57% 47% -3% -2% 51% -1% -158% The most important statistic is that we gained 4 positions and to reach there, we also increased 0,66 in goals/match. The conversion rate went 50% up to a decent 12%. Still below 4 other teams, but way better than our starting point. Name Pos Corner Gls DFK Gls IFK Gls PK Gls Set-Piece Gls PSG 1 7 2 2 6 17 Lens 4 6 1 4 1 12 Nice 2 3 2 5 3 13 Monaco 6 14 1 1 3 19 Strasbourg 5 5 0 3 1 9 Troyes 8 1 0 5 1 7 Marseille 3 5 2 4 3 14 Rennes 7 5 1 2 5 13 5,00 1,00 4,00 3,00 13,00 When I focused on this problem we were dead last from these teams with just 1 goal from set-piece: a DFK. We end the season 3rd-most with 14 set-piece goals. Much thanks to Friedrich who contributed with 7 league goals in half a season. Individuals Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Pau López GK Marseille 46 4140 2,00 0,00 0,00 21,72 88,00 0,00 0,00 0,43 0,00 0,00 2,00 0,00 0,00 1,00 8,11 0,00 3,11 6,92 Gonçalo Tabuaço GK Marseille 5 450 0,00 0,00 0,00 20,40 87,00 0,00 0,00 0,20 0,00 0,00 2,20 0,00 0,00 2,00 6,60 0,00 3,40 6,60 Pau López had a decent season, but I don't think he can be our main GK if we are to fight for more. Tabuaço is clearly not at the level I need, so I'll sell him. Already have someone coming in. Will talk about it later. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) Marseille 35 (6) 3001 0,00 0,00 0,12 49,42 85,00 2,49 88,00 3,69 27,00 1,17 1,02 4,38 65,00 0,00 16,31 4,32 14,22 7,04 Hans Hateboer D (R) Marseille 35 (4) 2927 1,00 0,06 0,12 61,00 89,00 2,18 80,00 3,66 47,00 0,92 0,98 6,15 72,00 0,00 18,08 1,60 12,11 6,96 Marco Sala D (L) Marseille 16 (14) 1547 0,00 0,00 0,12 46,37 86,00 2,33 78,00 3,55 13,00 0,99 1,51 4,07 69,00 2,00 16,12 3,43 14,20 6,90 Maximiliano Rodríguez D (R) Marseille 10 (10) 991 0,00 0,00 0,09 60,21 90,00 2,72 86,00 3,91 13,00 0,54 1,00 4,00 46,00 0,00 17,16 1,09 10,26 6,89 Reeve Frosler D (R) Marseille 5 (9) 605 0,00 0,00 0,00 46,26 85,00 3,57 77,00 3,87 6,00 1,04 0,74 3,72 50,00 0,00 16,66 3,87 13,09 6,81 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Giuseppe Pezzella 7,35 5,79 13,14 2,09 0,12 -0,03 Hans Hateboer 6,76 2,58 9,34 5,97 0,18 0,01 Marco Sala 6,87 4,71 11,58 1,92 0,12 -0,01 Maximiliano Rodríguez 7,17 2,09 9,26 6,90 0,09 -0,04 Reeve Frosler 8,48 4,02 12,50 3,57 0,00 -0,04 Pezzella and Hateboer were decent starters. I was expecting more involvement in goals by Pezzella. Sala was better than what I expected as a backup. Rodríguez is still finding his place, but he's young and he will develop. Will try to play him more next season (possibly will start over Hateboer). Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Leonardo Balerdi D (C) Marseille 41 (2) 3582 1,00 0,03 0,00 71,08 92,00 0,75 75,00 3,59 16,00 0,75 1,06 9,80 82,00 2,00 21,48 0,03 6,73 7,03 Marvin Friedrich D (C) Marseille 15 1350 3,00 0,47 0,00 70,60 93,00 0,93 74,00 2,80 8,00 0,73 0,93 9,07 71,00 0,00 18,93 0,13 6,00 7,34 Chancel Mbemba D (C) Marseille 15 (1) 1314 0,00 0,00 0,00 66,92 94,00 1,10 76,00 3,84 4,00 0,41 0,89 6,30 61,00 0,00 20,00 0,07 5,14 6,93 Andrei Nagy D (C) Marseille 13 (5) 1254 0,00 0,00 0,00 70,05 93,00 1,22 81,00 3,73 9,00 0,65 0,72 5,17 73,00 1,00 17,51 0,43 6,32 6,85 Samuel Gigot D (C) Marseille 9 (3) 876 0,00 0,00 0,00 67,09 93,00 0,51 63,00 3,80 2,00 0,51 1,34 7,81 67,00 0,00 17,98 0,31 6,47 6,87 Éric Bailly D (C) Marseille 7 (1) 660 0,00 0,00 0,00 66,00 91,00 0,41 43,00 2,59 6,00 0,68 0,82 6,27 58,00 0,00 16,77 0,14 7,23 6,65 Lars Lukas Mai D (C) Marseille 4 (1) 392 0,00 0,23 0,00 70,71 93,00 0,92 80,00 3,21 1,00 0,69 1,15 7,12 65,00 1,00 15,61 0,00 6,20 6,94 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Leonardo Balerdi 5,09 0,81 5,90 14,75 0,03 -0,06 Marvin Friedrich 4,46 1,27 5,73 12,93 0,47 0,25 Chancel Mbemba 5,35 0,41 5,76 14,86 0,00 -0,05 Andrei Nagy 5,60 0,86 6,46 11,19 0,00 -0,01 Samuel Gigot 4,82 0,52 5,34 11,51 0,00 -0,08 Éric Bailly 3,68 0,55 4,23 9,54 0,00 -0,02 Lars Lukas Mai 4,82 0,69 5,51 9,41 0,23 0,14 Balerdi was our number-one choice all year. Friedrich ended the season with almost a goal every 2 games which is great. Funny that is header won ratio is inferior to Balerdi (probably has to do with his challenges on corners). Nagy had some minutes and will play more next season. I'm also counting on him to play as DM-D when I need a more defensive-minded player there. Bailly will retire soon (thank God as his performances were terrible). Mai didn't have many chances but I think he's a decent enough backup. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Matteo Guendouzi M (C) Marseille 42 (5) 3404 2,00 0,11 0,21 57,37 82,00 2,17 77,00 1,56 51,00 0,48 0,29 2,83 58,00 2,00 9,78 2,14 15,44 6,97 Kanya Fujimoto M (C) Marseille 34 (6) 2686 2,00 0,34 0,30 50,53 83,00 2,11 84,00 1,24 7,00 0,20 0,34 1,44 33,00 2,00 6,94 1,01 15,75 7,17 Ludovit Reis DM Marseille 27 (9) 2342 0,00 0,08 0,12 55,72 84,00 1,73 71,00 1,58 12,00 0,42 0,38 2,11 45,00 0,00 8,88 0,54 12,07 6,89 Arda Güler M (C) Marseille 17 (28) 2235 2,00 0,24 0,40 46,99 79,00 1,37 63,00 1,85 9,00 0,32 0,44 2,58 47,00 0,00 7,89 1,45 18,00 6,94 Amadou Haïdara M (C) Marseille 17 (21) 1801 1,00 0,15 0,10 54,37 84,00 2,75 73,00 1,20 26,00 0,50 0,55 1,80 40,00 0,00 7,85 1,15 13,54 6,87 Boubakary Soumaré DM Marseille 16 (24) 1730 0,00 0,00 0,16 57,07 82,00 1,40 59,00 1,30 9,00 0,62 0,16 4,01 83,00 1,00 9,99 0,62 13,06 6,80 Lovro Zvonarek M (C) Marseille 2 (4) 191 0,00 0,00 0,47 50,89 81,00 2,83 86,00 1,41 3,00 0,00 0,47 4,24 75,00 0,00 6,60 2,83 16,02 6,83 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Matteo Guendouzi 4,21 4,55 8,76 -5,66 0,32 0,01 Kanya Fujimoto 3,55 3,73 7,28 -8,81 0,64 0,14 Ludovit Reis 3,73 2,80 6,53 -3,19 0,20 0,04 Arda Güler 3,54 4,23 7,77 -10,11 0,64 0,01 Amadou Haïdara 4,45 3,55 8,00 -5,69 0,25 0,06 Boubakary Soumaré 3,32 2,75 6,07 -3,07 0,16 -0,03 Lovro Zvonarek 4,24 4,24 8,48 -9,42 0,47 -0,16 Guendouzi ending the season with an average rating below 7 is surprising. He was good all year and helped me out in CM and DM. Fujimoto and Guler were our creative players. I still find it hard to play Guler from the start as he loses possession a lot. Reis, Haidara and Soumaré are decent backups but I needed a better starter. If I play Nagy as DM, Guendouzi can play CM, but I'll need another CB or I can find another DM. Either way, from the 3, one will have to leave, not sure who. Zvonarek barely played. We have some players on loan, who will certainly be considered to stay with the team, especially Castelli who signed for us in January. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Akram Afif AM (L) Marseille 42 (4) 3116 2,00 0,40 0,29 32,52 78,00 2,57 78,00 1,91 31,00 0,46 0,12 2,46 36,00 0,00 8,58 2,60 16,49 7,00 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (R) Marseille 34 (4) 2563 3,00 0,32 0,28 35,33 80,00 2,32 84,00 1,47 23,00 0,28 0,49 0,95 19,00 0,00 7,48 5,48 20,02 7,15 Amine Harit AM (L) Marseille 24 (20) 2254 2,00 0,24 0,48 34,10 78,00 2,20 81,00 1,56 36,00 0,44 0,28 1,40 21,00 0,00 6,67 2,64 17,97 7,00 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Akram Afif 4,94 5,75 10,69 -7,91 0,69 0,09 Allan Saint-Maximin 4,07 8,46 12,53 -12,54 0,60 0,12 Amine Harit 4,20 6,08 10,28 -11,30 0,72 -0,02 The "three musketeers". They had a great second half of the season and were the main reason we played so well. I will add a youngster (Ristic, Hassan, or someone else who has been on loan) to rotate with them next season, but I have to be careful as they are 30, 30 and 29, respectively and ASM just got a nasty injury. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Maximilian Beier ST (C) Marseille 38 (5) 3011 10,00 0,90 0,27 19,37 81,00 1,73 78,00 0,90 79,00 0,24 0,24 3,05 29,00 0,00 4,12 2,21 9,56 7,34 Bamba Dieng ST (C) Marseille 10 (15) 1178 0,00 0,61 0,00 21,32 86,00 2,06 79,00 0,92 30,00 0,08 0,31 1,83 19,00 0,00 4,81 1,76 9,02 6,84 Marco Travaglini ST (C) Marseille 1 (7) 193 0,00 0,93 0,00 18,65 68,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 9,00 0,47 0,47 5,60 40,00 0,00 3,73 0,47 13,06 6,77 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Maximilian Beier 2,87 5,68 8,55 -5,44 1,17 0,14 Bamba Dieng 3,06 3,82 6,88 -4,21 0,61 0,06 Marco Travaglini 0,47 3,27 3,74 -9,33 0,93 0,39 The main man, Beier, was our hero this season. Almost 1 goal each 90 minutes and still got some time to provide some assists. Next year, Dieng will leave as he isn't good enough. Travaglini will probably be sent out on loan to play more. Miath, our big prospect, will certainly train with the senior squad and Harit will provide backup. I'll surely need someone else to help in this position. The weights of every statistic from our most used 11: Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat GK 0% 0% 4% 9% 0% 0% 2% 0% 25% 0% 0% 14% 6% 0% 2% 9% D (R) FBS 2% 7% 12% 10% 11% 10% 16% 16% 12% 15% 14% 0% 14% 8% 9% 9% D (L) WBS 0% 7% 9% 9% 13% 11% 16% 21% 13% 10% 13% 0% 13% 22% 11% 9% D (C) BPDD 1% 0% 14% 10% 4% 10% 16% 13% 14% 23% 16% 29% 17% 0% 5% 9% D (C) CDD 17% 0% 13% 10% 5% 9% 12% 13% 12% 21% 14% 0% 15% 1% 5% 9% M (C) CMS 4% 12% 11% 9% 11% 10% 7% 8% 4% 7% 11% 29% 8% 11% 12% 9% M (C) MEZS 13% 18% 10% 9% 11% 11% 5% 4% 4% 3% 6% 29% 5% 5% 12% 9% DM DMS 3% 7% 11% 9% 9% 9% 7% 7% 5% 5% 9% 0% 7% 3% 9% 9% AM (L) IWA 15% 17% 6% 8% 14% 10% 8% 8% 2% 6% 7% 0% 7% 13% 13% 9% AM (R) WS 12% 16% 7% 9% 12% 11% 6% 5% 6% 2% 4% 0% 6% 27% 15% 9% ST (C) AFA 33% 16% 4% 9% 9% 10% 4% 4% 3% 7% 6% 0% 3% 11% 7% 9% And an award to Arda Güler: Finances Income By Type Expenditure By Type 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 3, 2023 Author Share Posted August 3, 2023 Development Update Senior Squad Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Pau López GK 0 0 0 0 Gonçalo Tabuaço GK 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Hans Hateboer D (R) -3,5 0,5 0 -4 Maximiliano Rodriguez D (R) 2 0,5 -0,5 2 Name Best Pos Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 0 0 0 0 Marco Sala D (L) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Andrei Nagy D (C) 2,5 0,5 1,5 0,5 Éric Bailly D (C) -3,5 0 0 -3,5 Marvin Friedrich D (C) 0 0 0 0 Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 0 0 0 0 Lars Lukas Mai D (C) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 0 0 0 0 Boubakary Soumaré DM 0 0 0 0 Ludovit Reis DM 0 0 0 0 Amadou Haïdara M (C) -1 0 0 -1 Name Best Pos Arda Guler AM (C) 7,5 2,5 3,5 1,5 Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) 0 0 0 0 Lovro Zvonarek M (L) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Akram Afif AM (L) 0 0 0 0 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 0,5 0,5 0 0 Amine Harit AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Maximilian Beier ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Bamba Dieng ST (C) 0 0 0 0 4,5 4,5 4,5 -4,5 Guler improved a lot, Nagy also improved a bit and Rodriguez as well. Hateboer and Bailly regressed. Bailly is no longer a problem as he is retiring. In my last update, the total change was negative 8,5; which represents an upgrade in 13 points. Youth Squad Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Ricardo Planche GK 0 0 0 0 Gregory Bauduin GK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Xavi D (R) 0,5 0 0,5 0 Arthur Carriere D (R) 6 1,5 2,5 2 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Kaylan Hamidou D (L) 0,5 0 0,5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Patrick Guldager D (C) 4,5 1,5 1,5 1,5 JD Koffi D (C) 2 0 1,5 0,5 Joel Tchami D (C) 1,5 0 1,5 0 Rémy Levi D (C) 1 0,5 0,5 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Thomas Scherrer M (C) 3,5 1 1 1,5 Axel Vincent M (C) 1,5 0 0 1,5 Mamadou Maiga M (C) 5 0,5 2,5 2 Mateo Lambert M (C) 8,5 2,5 2,5 3,5 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 João Sousa M (R) 5,5 1 3,5 1 Tozé Sá Martins AM (R) 2,5 0,5 1 1 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Castelli AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Ashraf Hassan AM (R) 13 3 7 3 Gael Lafont AM (R) 5,5 1,5 3 1 Radenko Ristic AM (L) 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Marco Travaglini ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Nenad Mitrovic ST (C) 0,5 0 0 0,5 Gérald Miath ST (C) 0 0 0 0 63,5 13,5 29 21 In the last update we had +39 in overall change. It's an increase of 24.5 points. Lambert, João Sousa, Carriere, Maiga, Lafont and Guldager did very well. Lambert and Carriere on the U19; João on the senior squad but playing for the U19; Maiga, Lafont and Guldager were on loan. The biggest upgrade came from Hassan with +13 who was on loan (at Servette, in Switzerland and statistics show he never played, which is odd). Squad Planning and First Transfers I've already sold Tabuaço and brought in Atubolu for next season. Dieng is also sold. Morales, a young LB is coming in and I expect to sell Sala. Noah Atubolu Federico Morales GK RB RCB LCB LB DM CM AM RW LW ST A P Lopez Maxi Nagy Friedrich Pezzella Reis Guendouzi Fujimoto ASM Afif Beier SubA Atubolu Hateboer Balerdi Mai Morales Soumaré Haidara Guler Castelli Harit Mitrovic B Planche Xavi Koffi Guldager Hamidou ? Scherrer Tozé Ristic Hassan Gil SubB/U19 Bauduin Carriere Rémi Levy Tchami Pellegrin Lambert Vincent Maiga Husser Bertrand Miath Extra ? Pellenard Pinault ? ? ? J Sousa Grandel Hourcade Lafont Travaglini Comments P Lopez or buy one? Hateboer is regressing Good! Need a serious contender for the season after Good! Nagy can be an option, need someone to develop Scherrer on loan? Castelli can play here. Tozé on loan? Ristic, Hourcade on loan? Hassan, Lafont on loan? Mitrovic or Travaglini on loan? Gil on loan? Need a backup? I think I should have a better GK and a better DM, however, Pau López was one of the best GKs in the league last season and between Nagy, Soumaré, and Reis/Guendouzi it's hard to find someone better defensively. Important to notice that my Second Team can't get promoted so they are stuck in a non-playable league. I tried to get a French affilliate but my chairman thinks we already have too many links. To some extent we did. We had links with many local clubs. I cancelled almost everyone of them. Don't think they' would help us anyhow and I needed "room" for more important ones. So, everybody you see on the B/SubB/Extra is likely to be loaned out if they are above 18. Improvements Some much needed improvements. Let’s hope they make an impact on the next intake. If you haven't seen EBFM's latest video, I recommend it. We were the last team to have the recruitment day in the league last season. Let's hope it doesn't happen this season, but there's still room for improvement. Around the World Nation Top3 Relegated England Aston Villa, Liverpool, Man City Nottm Forest, QPR, Boro France PSG, Nice, Marseille Angers, Nantes, Brest Germany Bayern, Leverkusen, Leipzig Bremen, Union Berlin Holland Ajax, PSV, AZ ADO, NEC, Sparta Italy Juve, Roma, AC Milan Salernitana, Cremonese, Fiorentina Portugal Porto, Benfica, Braga Setúbal, Sertanense Spain Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Eibar, Málaga, Gijón Atubolu was bought with an active relegation clause, something I always like to keep track of. Awards for some players Career Update Competitions Season Year Club League Position Cup Stage CC Stage League PPG League Win % League GF League GA 01 2022/2023 Sertanense PT4 1st TdP First Round DNP - 2,27 69% 70 32 02 2023/2024 Sertanense PT3 3rd TdP Sixth Round DNP - 1,56 44% 33 26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense PT2 3rd TdP Third Round DNP - 1,76 50% 59 36 04 2025/2026 Sertanense PT1 9th TdP Third Round DNP - 1,29 35% 46 50 05 2026/2027 Marseille FR1 3rd CdF Third Round UEL Semi-Final 1,79 50% 70 37 Players Season Year Club Most Goals Most Assists Most POM Highest AvR 01 2022/2023 Sertanense Karamoko – 31 Quaresma – 9 Karamoko – 8 Kisley – 7,42 02 2023/2024 Sertanense Karamoko – 23 P Mendes – 10 Karamoko – 5 L Madeira – 7,26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense Karamoko – 21 Miccoli – 8 Karamoko – 7 Karamoko – 7,10 04 2025/2026 Sertanense Karamoko – 22 Costinha – 9 Costinha – 4 Karamoko – 7,02 05 2026/2027 Marseille Beier – 30 A Harit – 12 Beier – 10 Beier – 7,34 Finances and Attendances Season Year Club Income Expenditure Profit Avg Attendance 01 2022/2023 Sertanense 1 353 447,00 € 1 411 118,00 € -57 671,00 € 662 02 2023/2024 Sertanense 1 485 040,00 € 1 942 059,00 € -457 019,00 € 1266 03 2024/2025 Sertanense 9 730 336,00 € 11 047 343,00 € -1 317 007,00 € 1876 04 2025/2026 Sertanense 6 747 649,00 € 7 290 128,00 € -542 479,00 € 5296 05 2026/2027 Marseille 269 469 620,00 € 252 138 019,00 € 17 331 601,00 € 56937 I usually post my all-time used 11 but there was no change from last season. 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lfds89 Posted August 8, 2023 Author Share Posted August 8, 2023 Transfer Window Update I wanted a new GK but I didn’t know how to handle Pau López. Then tried to include him in an exchange with West Ham and they accepted. Paid below 8M upfront and 4,5M in 2 installments. And he’s on a lower wage than Pau. On the other way, something I believe to be an important piece of business. Might be making a mistake, but it’s on me. Mitrovic has shown signs of decent potential and developed a bit when he was on loan. But he’s temperamental and I don’t like that. If he develops into a great player we have the 35% of profit and a buyback clause, so we win either way, I think. I had 2 doubts about my squad: the 4th winger spot and the backup striker. Regarding the first subject, I had Castelli, Ristic, Hassan and Tozé as options to fill the space. Castelli Ristic Hassan Tozé They are all basically the same age; Ristic is the only left-footed; Tozé and Castelli can also play CM; Hassan and Castelli are non-EU; they are all rated with a potential of at least 4 stars. Tozé was the first to leave on loan. He had a decent loan last season at Valencia and they were interested again, so he went there. Don’t think he’s good enough to merit a spot yet. I wanted to keep Castelli, but he doesn’t have the speed I want for a winger and in midfield I already have decent options, so loaning him seemed a decent idea. He went to Málaga. Ristic was the best of the bunch in the preseason. This was the most difficult one. I didn’t have a great choice to send him on loan (only one team made an offer), but he’s too good to be a 4th option. So that left me with Hassan. He has the least potential from all 4, has the speed, has workrate and a great personality, and although his passing attribute is low, he has vision and technique. On the second part of the dilemma, after selling Mitrovic, I had Travaglini and Miath as the only sensible options. But I should add Afif and Harit as players who can play as strikers. Travaglini Miath Just like Ristic, I felt like Travaglini could do better on loan, and would be a waste to have him just as a backup (since my 2nd team doesn’t play in a competitive league). He went on loan to Guingamp on the 2nd tier. Miath is only 16, but he has done his work in the preseason. 4 goals in 6 starting appearances and a sub one. One goal against Hannover (Germany 1st tier) and two goals against Seattle Sounders (MLS team) which is quite impressive. He has the bonus of being able to play for the U19 when he’s not needed on the first team. But just when I was about to “close the shop” and leave it at that, I made an exploratory offer for a Frecnch wonderkid, Daoud, from Nantes (I was trying to offload them Sala whom they were interested in). His form is not that impressive with 11 goals in 28 appearances on the 2nd tier, but his attributes are, and his personality is fantastic. They rejected the first offer, didn’t even try to negotiate anything; for the sake of it I sent another offer only marginally better and they accepted it. Couldn’t offload Sala as he was not interested in moving there, but I bought him nonetheless. Now Miath will be occupied with the U19 team, while still training with the senior squad and Daoud will be our backup and he’s also a decent backup for the LW spot. So, if I can find a loan for Hassan, he goes. He won’t get many chances here and I prefer to have a smaller squad. Where do I buy my players from? Inspired by @SixPointer, I was curious with something he said: Citar So I have the leagues I shop in saved and average ratings as a filter. I don’t have a lot of data to look into, but just from the first 3 transfer windows: Arda Güler – Fenerbahçe – Turkey 1st Tier Tozé Sá Martins – Belenenses – Portugal 2nd Tier Max Beier – Hoffenheim – Germany 1st Tier Maxi Rodriguez – Newell’s – Argentina 1st Tier Andrei Nagy – Cluj – Romania 1st Tier Jonathan Castelli – Olimpo – Argentina 3rd Tier Marco Travaglini – Indep. Santa Fe – Colombia 1st Tier Lukas Mai – Lugano – Switzerland 1st Tier Marvin Friedrich – Strasbourg – France 1st Tier Noah Atubolu – Eibar – Spain 1st Tier (although after relegation confirmed) Federico Morales – Lanús – Argentina 1st Tier Stefano Turati – West Ham – England 1st Tier Karim Daoud – Nantes – France 2nd Tier Right now, I can't say I focus on specific places… Argentina has been my main target, but with only 4 non-EU spaces, this needs to stop. I would like to buy more in the inside market, mostly high-potential kids as France develops a lot of talent. Top Player Odds Odd indeed… Nagy was never a starter last season. Season Preview and Objectives The media prediction for us is not very enthusiastic: 7th. Tied with Lyon and Lorient and above Nice. Don’t know if I agree with this, but let’s wait and see. A league still clearly dominated by PSG And Boadu might leave… The board wants a top-4 finish so we can keep going to the UCL. In the Coupe de France, the board has set the goal in the QF, but I’ll try and win it as I promised Beier we would fight for silverware. For the UCL, the board only wants me to be competitive. It’s my first time managing a team in this competition, so I’m glad there’s no pressure to succeed, but we’ll do our best. Tactics for the Season The first tactic and most likely to use is the same which ended last season: 4-3-3 with a DM. Then a 4-2-3-1. I’m still working on it. I want to give Arda Güler some emphasis. And the last one is a variation of the first. Mostly a formation with more creativity, to use where/when I expect to dominate the other team. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 12, 2023 Author Share Posted August 12, 2023 The Season has started [Ligue 1] vs Nice (H) Clear winners, we were way better. Great way to start the season, Beier at top level and Daoud had his debut with an assist. [Ligue 1] vs PSG (A) They are so much better than us. Mbappé didn’t play, but Hakimi ran us to the ground. This is also a team that can afford to play Bellingham as BWM… And by the way, I liked their right side with a FB – CWB-A ; RCDM – BWM-D (or S?) ; RW – IF-S (or A?). Right winger moved inside, CWB took care of the wide space and the BWM provided cover out wide (he was very wide, almost like a CAR). Needs a top-level wing back but who knows if I’ll have one in the future. This was one of their combinations where Hakimi played to Bellingham and he found Saka in depth. Beier was never in the game, so I gave Miath some minutes. He got a taste of a big game. Still managed to get a shot and a dribble. And he got a record: [Ligue 1] vs Lille (H) This marks my 200th career game. We made it easy. It’s great to see this kind of display. And ironically, they had to pay me for using a player. [Ligue 1] vs Saint-Étienne (A) We scored early but couldn’t score the second, making it harder for us. Then they scored and it was quite a nervous game until Arda Güler and Beier connected and we controlled the game until the end. It wasn’t hard to guess who’s top of the table, is it? One last signing? Maybe two? I know I don’t really need another attacking midfielder, nor a central midfielder, but his attributes were too good to pass on a 500k transfer. Souleymane already has one cap for Ivory Coast. Well, it wasn’t just one. We also found Joshua Sithole, an 18-year-old already capped for Australia. He’s natural at CB, can play CM, either footed and with a resolute personality. I’m thinking of him as either a prospect CDM or RB. He could play LB as well, but he doesn’t seem as attacking as I want my LB to be. Focus now is on a CB and a GK for the future. Probably only in the next summer window or when we sell one of our most valuable players. And at the last minute, we receive a bid for Beier. Just with 2 hours left! And he wants to leave. No way I can replace him on such short notice. 55+15. I talk to him and he’s ambitious. He wants to win the UCL and we both know it’s unlikely to do it here, but I compromise with him and promise to let him leave for 84M. I should add that Arsenal seems as unlikely as us. They have been 5th, 6th and 4th in the last 3 seasons... Final Squad & Prospect Squad Hassan ended up being loaned out to Vitória de Guimarães, but for organisation, I'll keep him here. Name Best Pos Personality Stefano Turati GK Spirited 25 Noah Atubolu GK Balanced 25 Name Best Pos Personality FB Andrei Nagy D (R) Fairly Determined 19 69% Maximiliano Rodriguez D (R) Determined 20 66% Name Best Pos Personality FB Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) Resilient 29 67% Federico Morales D (L) Fairly Determined 19 62% Name Best Pos Personality CB Marvin Friedrich D (C) Fairly Professional 31 69% Hans Hateboer D (C) Resolute 33 66% Lars Lukas Mai D (C) Spirited 27 66% Leonardo Balerdi D (C) Spirited 28 66% Name Best Pos Personality CM Matteo Guendouzi M (C) Balanced 28 72% Boubakary Soumaré DM Fairly Ambitious 28 69% Ludovit Reis DM Resolute 27 66% Amadou Haïdara M (C) Ambitious 29 63% Name Best Pos Personality AM Arda Guler AM (C) Resolute 22 73% Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) Spirited 28 69% Name Best Pos Personality WF Akram Afif AM (L) Fairly Determined 30 70% Amine Harit AM (C) Balanced 30 68% Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) Fairly Ambitious 30 68% Ashraf Hassan AM (R) Driven 20 58% Name Best Pos Personality ST Maximilian Beier ST (C) Professional 24 67% Karim Daoud ST (C) Model Citizen 20 64% Prospects - Most of them are loaned out; some are still changing positions as they develop. Name Best Pos Personality Age Ricardo Planche GK Fairly Professional 19 Gregory Bauduiin GK Fickle 16 Name Best Pos Personality Age FB Joshua Sithole D (C) Resolute 18 60% Arthur Carriere D (R) Fairly Professional 16 52% Name Best Pos Personality Age FB João Sousa M (C) Fairly Sporting 18 51% Kaylan Hamidou D (L) Balanced 21 52% Name Best Pos Personality Age CB Patrick Guldager D (C) Professional 20 63% JD Koffi D (C) Determined 22 60% Jérémy Dumas D (C) Mercenary 18 54% Joel Tchami D (C) Fickle 18 51% Name Best Pos Personality Age CM Jonathan Castelli AM (C) Determined 20 61% Souleymane Traore AM (C) Resilient 19 59% Thomas Scherrer M (C) Light-Hearted 18 57% Axel Vincent M (C) Fairly Professional 17 51% Name Best Pos Personality Age AM Mamadou Maiga M (C) Balanced 18 54% Amadou N’Diaye AM (L) Balanced 18 53% Name Best Pos Personality Age WF Radenko Ristic AM (L) Driven 20 61% Ashraf Hassan AM (R) Driven 20 58% Tozé Sá Martins AM (R) Balanced 19 57% Gael Lafont AM (R) Balanced 21 57% Name Best Pos Personality Age ST Marco Travaglini ST (C) Ambitious 20 60% Gérald Miath ST (C) Balanced 16 50% Champions League Fixtures We’ll be spending some time in Portugal: Porto were champions 3 times out of the last 4; Benfica was the other champions in those years and finished 2nd in the other seasons; Braga was champion 5 season ago and has finished 3rd ever since; then there’s Betis who finished 4th in La Liga 2 times in a row; PAOK who are 2-time Greek champions; Austria Wien who were champions last season but were out of top-3 for the 4 seasons before this one; and the big ones: Liverpool and Bayern. We have to beat PAOK and Austria Wien, I don’t see anything special about the Betis team; Braga is the same; Benfica and Porto have decent teams, but are beatable; and we’ll try our best against the other two. Another thing I’ll have to take into account is fatigue/condition (with heavy rotation) and training schedule. Last season we had very regular schedules: Sunday – Thursday – Sunday. This season we will have: Friday/Saturday – Tuesday – Saturday/Sunday; Saturday/Sunday – Wednesday – Sunday. So, I need three training schedules for the week before, and four schedules for the UCL week. Finances Overview The evolution since I arrived. Last year after August there was a big dip. This year, we have CL money coming in, it’ll help us. Status is Rich! We have also dropped a bit in wages (7,3M to 6,5M). The wage structure isn’t still in order, but at least the spending is more controlled. With this information, it's hard to understand such a low budget, but I'll have to manage it. 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_Ben_ Posted August 13, 2023 Share Posted August 13, 2023 Strong start, PSG aside! What plans do you think you'll have for that return fixture in Marseille? They are, probably, the only thing stopping you winning the league but, at least, you've got plenty of thinking time! Is it a case of adapting to their game or making them play yours? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 13, 2023 Author Share Posted August 13, 2023 10 horas atrás, _Ben_ disse: Strong start, PSG aside! What plans do you think you'll have for that return fixture in Marseille? They are, probably, the only thing stopping you winning the league but, at least, you've got plenty of thinking time! Is it a case of adapting to their game or making them play yours? I haven't thought much about it. As you say, there's plenty of time until we play again. I'll probably have to adapt a little bit. Drop the wingers to the midfield strata, play more direct, and lower the block. Something along those lines. Don't know if they are the only ones in the way. Lorient and Rennes are quite strong as well and even Lyon is much better than what they played last season. There's also something to keep in mind: the difference between PSG and all the other teams is much bigger than mine to the others; that means they are less likely to have those 0-0/1-1 games or those games where we concede 1 shot in a counter, they score and we keep missing, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 16, 2023 Author Share Posted August 16, 2023 A look into the opposition An overview of prediction, managers and preferred formations. Key notes: 5 teams with 2 strikers 4-3-3 still dominant Only 4 teams with 3/5 at the back Quite a team there: Petrescu, Blanc, Tudor, Grosso, Diarra, Almeyda, Garritano, Clement, Conceição, Sheva! Name Prediction Manager Formation Ajaccio 17 Pantaloni 4-4-2 Auxerre 16 Shevchenko 4-3-3 DM Wide Bordeaux 12 Guion 4-3-3 DM Wide Lens 2 Tudor 5-2-2-1 DM AM Lille 9 Jovicevic 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Lorient 7 Almeyda 4-3-3 DM Wide Lyon 6 Martínez 5-2-3 DM Wide Marseille 5 Leal 4-3-3 DM Wide Metz 14 Petrescu 4-3-3 DM Wide Monaco 4 Clement 4-4-2 Montpellier 13 Blanc 5-3-2 DM WB Nice 8 Conceição 4-3-3 DM Wide PSG 1 Garitano 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Rennes 3 Jorge 4-4-2 Saint-Étienne 11 Grosso 4-3-3 DM Wide Sochaux 18 Rey 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Strasbourg 10 Bachar 4-3-3 DM Wide Troyes 15 Diarra 5-3-2 DM WB 5-3-2 DM WB 2 4-3-3 DM Wide 8 5-2-3 DM Wide 1 5-2-2-1 DM AM 1 4-4-2 3 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide 3 And a sum of top-5 attributes. Once again: TEC: Dribbling, First Touch, Passing, Technique; MEN: Anticipation, Concentration, Decisions; PHY: Jumping, Pace, Strength. Name Prediction TEC MEN PHY Average Rank Ajaccio 17 70 67 75 71 17 Auxerre 16 70 71 75 72 16 Bordeaux 12 71 70 77 73 13 Lens 2 76 75 76 76 7 Lille 9 77 73 78 76 5 Lorient 7 74 73 80 75 8 Lyon 6 77 75 78 77 4 Marseille 5 79 75 77 77 3 Metz 14 73 71 75 73 12 Monaco 4 74 74 77 75 9 Montpellier 13 72 71 76 73 13 Nice 8 75 78 76 76 6 PSG 1 85 83 81 83 1 Rennes 3 79 75 81 78 2 Saint-Étienne 11 70 71 76 72 15 Sochaux 18 70 67 72 70 18 Strasbourg 10 74 71 79 75 10 Troyes 15 70 72 77 73 11 Rank 2 5 8 3 Looking at the attributes, we need more anticipation, pace, and strength. With some renovation of the central defenders, we'll probably get there; wingers will also have to be changed in a few seasons. September [Ligue 1] vs Rennes (H) Besides PSG, Rennes is the biggest contender. In this game we were superior, but Kalimuendo is always there to make some damage. Beier missing a penalty didn't help us. [Champions League] vs Porto (A) My first game in the UCL and my first win as well. Might turn out to be a very important win. Let's see how the rest of the games go. [Ligue 1] vs Troyes (A) An early goal helped us set the tone, then a penalty and one more goal from a set-piece. [Ligue 1] vs Montpellier (H) We've easily beaten our rivals. They didn't even record a shot on goal. Set-pieces are helping us. [Ligue 1] vs Strasbourg (A) Strasbourg is a challenging team, but we proved our worth. Letting them shoot as much and getting to an xG of 1,00 might be a bit too much. Improvements in defence are needed. Belardi's average rating has been poor and Mai and Friedrich only have decent average ratings due to their goals. [Champions League] vs Austria Wien (H) Easy win. In the second half, I gave a European debut to 3 U19 players: Vincent, Husser, and Miath. Only Miath seems to be on his way to being a first-team player, but why not give them the chance? In this game, Miath set a new team and UCL record: Standings PSG lost to Monaco; Rennes only lost a point to us in our draw; Lorient lost 2 and drew 1. Arda Güler has been impressive. I had no reason to start him over Fujimoto but figured I should give him the place so he could start and develop. Part of the assists come from set-pieces. And on the other statistics, you can see who we are facing: Kalimuendo is the big star at Rennes; Mbappé, Saka, Hakimi and Nmecha are taking PSG to the top. Meanwhile, Beier has been underperforming maybe due to the rejected bid. In the UCL It doesn’t mean much at this stage, but being upfront is always nice. New contract is on the way 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 About that contract and some more improvements Their first offer was 67,5k. I’m on 65k. It’s laughable. Only thing I liked about the offer was the duration: 4 years. Shows they want me here for long-term. My counter-offer was 80k, 50% drop if we are relegated, 150k prize for winning the league. Then we went back and forth and ended up with: 72,5k + 80k prize money + 50% reduction if relegated for 4 years. Rennes’ manager is Artur Jorge and he’s on 152k. Feel like I’m way underpaid, but I still don’t have the Pro Licence, so I concede a bit. If the season goes to plan, then we’ll talk at the end of it. Following this, they came to me to ask if I wanted to increase the Wage Budget, which I agreed but then move the fee to the Transfer Budget as I feel the Wage is good as it is for now. I don’t understand where those numbers come from. Basically, we had a 7M budget and it was increased to 7,7M. Transferring that to the Transfer Budget, we managed to increase it from 2M to almost 10M. And as they were so willing, I requested an upgrade in training facilities. They are “Excellent” already, but it’s always good to upgrade what we can. Just a shame it's only ready in April. October [Ligue 1] vs Metz (H) Some important things to note here: I tried Guendouzi as RPM. Feels like it suits him. Miath got not just his first goal in Ligue 1, but also his second! And he’s now the youngest ever to score in Ligue 1 (to add to the last accolade of being the youngest to score in the UCL). Inspired by @_Ben_, I looked into Metz’s manager style and as it was Route One, I dropped my defensive line. They barely created any chances with only 2 shots on target and 0,51 xG. The IWB (Maxi Rodríguez, “18”) I’m trying, created the first goal with a through ball to the MEZ (Arda Güler, “10”). Their LFB and LW were attracted to Harit (RW) and Arda (RCM) took advantage of that space. And the IWB-MEZ connection was also crucial in the second one: Maxi was in an interior position, played into Arda, who found Afif (“8”) behind their defensive line and he passed it to Beier ("9") who just had to tap it in. [Ligue 1] vs Sochaux (A) We are on a great run, and when do we decide to bottle it? Against the (arguably) worst team in the league. Arda missed the penalty, then decided to take the day off; and so did Beier and Afif. Terrible. I talked to them after the game, and they responded positively. Also spoke to Turati who has an average rating of 6,61 (worst of all the squad) and 1 clean sheet out of 8 games. My GK needs to do better. It’s not all on the defenders. [Champions League] vs Braga (H) 2 early goals set us on the way, Braga never got a shot on target. I’ve decided to move Rodríguez to BPD as he’s been improving his defensive attributes, Nagy played on the right as IWB. Atubolu deserved his chance, mainly after Turati’s poor performances. And with a 7,4, he’s keeping his place. 3 games, 3 wins in the UCL. In the last 3 seasons, the last-placed team in the play-off always had 9 points, the last-placed team with direct qualification had 17/17/16. We have 9 already and there’s no reason we can’t beat PAOK, Benfica and Betis to make it 9 more and end with 18, even if we don’t get any points from the games against Liverpool and Bayern. Bayern game is the last of the series, and so If we are qualified already, it’ll be time to rest players. [Ligue 1] vs Ajaccio (H) We weren’t as good as the score shows. I would even say they were better than us in the whole first-half. We then made some corrections: Guendouzi was set to BBM instead of RPM; showed them inside (I should have it from the start as we had 3x2 in the midfield); and dropped the defensive line a bit and we controlled the second-half. First-Half: Second-Half: [Ligue 1] vs Bordeaux (H) When we play well, we make it seem easy. Beier with 2 goals, Arda Güler with 8 key passes, Nagy and Rodríguez were incredible in defence. Standings If it wasn't for that Sochaux match, it would have been a perfect month and we would be just 2 points away from PSG and already 8 away from 5th. Also, Lyon has only lost 1 match in the last 2 months (against PSG) and won all the others. Surprisingly, Lens has been way below expectations and is only 10th. Contracts Still need some adjustments. They are not easy to make. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Stefano Turati GK 26 630 3,5 187 000,00 € €8 500 Alessandro Greggio - Acquaintance 10/7/2027 30/6/2032 €26M - €33M Important Player Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 29 750 3,5 351 000,00 € €16 250 Paolo Piccoli - Close 13/12/2024 30/6/2029 €49M - €53M Star Player Andrei Nagy DM 20 731 3,5 84 500,00 € €3 900 Grigore Croitoru - Close 1/1/2027 30/6/2031 €129M - €150M Important Player Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 28 724 4 372 000,00 € €14 250 Zoé Warmez - Acquaintance 10/7/2023 30/6/2029 €86M - €95M Star Player Akram Afif AM (L) 30 403 3 298 000,00 € €13 750 Mohammed Al-Sayed - Very Close 10/6/2025 30/6/2028 €27M - €29M Important Player Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 30 384 3 419 000,00 € €19 250 Romain Cavelier - Close 1/7/2026 30/6/2029 €52M - €62M Important Player Maximilian Beier AM (L) 24 845 3,5 378 000,00 € €18 750 Felix Brinkies - Very Close 26/7/2026 30/6/2031 €84M Important Player Wage Sum 2 089 500,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 7 Max 4 555 000,00 € We have too many important/star players. Pezzella still is our only choice as LB, Morales needs to develop a lot. Afif and ASM are 30, so they need to slowly leave their places. Daoud is pushing for the LW position, but I need my prospects to develop (Hassan, Ristic, Tozé, Castelli, Lafont) so they can also be part of the first team and then the first eleven. Nagy is on a low wage for his value and importance to the team. That also needs to be revised soon. We have some spare budget and he has many years left in his contract, so it’s a good time to do that. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Hans Hateboer D (R) 33 52 2,5 206 000,00 € €9 750 Federico Facciolo - Acquaintance 5/4/2027 30/6/2029 €3,2M - €4,3M Regular Starter Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 28 778 3 366 000,00 € €16 750 Heiko Richter - Very Close 9/7/2025 30/6/2030 €30M - €37M Regular Starter Ludovit Reis DM 27 342 3 223 000,00 € €10 250 Adrián Rico - Acquaintance 18/8/2025 30/6/2030 €41M - €49M Regular Starter Kanya Fujimoto M (C) 28 183 3 348 000,00 € €16 000 Naoko Kasahara - Acquaintance 15/7/2026 30/6/2030 €46M - €50M Regular Starter Amine Harit AM (L) 30 580 3 353 000,00 € €16 250 Romain Cavelier - Acquaintance 11/7/2025 30/6/2028 €12M - €13,5M Regular Starter Wage Sum 1 496 000,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 5 Max 7 317 142,86 € From the “Regular Starters” group, I would want them all to become squad players. Hateboer is declining; Reis lost his place to Soumaré; I don’t fully trust Balerdi and plan to sell him and give his place to Rodríguez; Fujimoto has been replaced by Arda Güler; Harit has always been a second option in both wings, he needs to accept that he’s not a starter. If all of them drop, wages need to be revised as they are all above the limit for that group. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Noah Atubolu GK 25 360 2 132 000,00 € €10 000 Uwe Lindel - Acquaintance 10/6/2027 30/6/2029 €700K - €1M Backup Maximiliano Rodríguez D (R) 20 356 3 58 000,00 € €4 000 Aaron Llanos - Very Close 1/1/2027 30/6/2031 €65M - €92M Squad Player Lars Lukas Mai D (C) 27 720 2,5 94 000,00 € €5 500 Marc Peters - Acquaintance 1/2/2027 30/6/2030 €7,6M - €9,2M Squad Player Marvin Friedrich D (C) 31 333 3 167 000,00 € €9 250 Martin Wittek - Close 1/2/2027 30/6/2029 €3,7M - €8M Squad Player Federico Morales D (L) 20 240 2,5 47 500,00 € €2 700 Sergio García - Acquaintance 21/6/2027 30/6/2032 €5,8M - €7M Squad Player Amadou Haïdara M (C) 29 189 2,5 217 000,00 € €12 500 Coumba Sissoko - Very Close 8/7/2025 30/6/2029 €15M - €16,5M Squad Player Boubakary Soumaré M (C) 28 770 3 322 000,00 € €18 500 Luke Morgan - Close 1/7/2025 30/6/2029 €6M - €7,4M Squad Player Arda Güler AM (C) 22 703 3,5 337 000,00 € €12 000 Özgür Yıldız - Very Close 16/7/2026 30/6/2030 €79M - €89M Squad Player Karim Daoud AM (L) 20 510 3 113 000,00 € €6 750 Rodrigue Santiago - Very Close 7/8/2027 30/6/2031 €43M - €50M Squad Player Wage Sum 1 487 500,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 9 Max 11 201 818,18 € In the “Squad Player” section, we have some players that need to be promoted. Rodríguez, Soumaré and Güler are the most obvious; Daoud will make the jump next season as well. Really wanted Morales to develop, but he hasn’t shown many good signs. Might need to search for another player and loan him out. Atubolu, Mai, Friedrich are good where they are. Haïdara is my main doubt. He has been dropping his attributes and I can probably replace him with Scherrer, Castelli, Traoré or even Sithole next season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted August 18, 2023 Share Posted August 18, 2023 This is such a great read! Really invested and trying to learn about your players and your decision making. For me, the tactical nuances are some of the most pleasing things to get right on this game - and I'm glad it worked against Metz. I feel that you're in a similar situation as I was with Atalanta - needing to be 'perfect' to topple Juventus but, in your case, it's PSG. I think you're getting close! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 4 minutos atrás, _Ben_ disse: This is such a great read! Really invested and trying to learn about your players and your decision making. For me, the tactical nuances are some of the most pleasing things to get right on this game - and I'm glad it worked against Metz. I feel that you're in a similar situation as I was with Atalanta - needing to be 'perfect' to topple Juventus but, in your case, it's PSG. I think you're getting close! I've mostly shown the octagon for some players, but if you want I can post the attribute page. And yes, that's definitely it. Last season, it was the first in Marseille and I wanted to get a grip of the players I had and the level of the competition. Now, I'm constantly checking my player's attributes and traits (this was most important when changing Maxi to CB and Guendouzi to RPM) and trying little changes to see where we can be better. Right now, only thing I can't understand is Turati. Atubolu only has 6 attributes where he's better than Turati and mostly by 1 or 2. In the rest, Turati is miles better but he simply can't perform. I'm hoping it's about adaptability and he soon starts playing better. Maxi Guendouzi Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted August 19, 2023 Share Posted August 19, 2023 3 hours ago, lfds89 said: If it wasn't for that Sochaux match, it would have been a perfect month Yes, those are the results you have to try to eliminate from your game. I had the same with Brentford in my last save - had to be almost perfect to compete with Man City and Liverpool. Imagine it's exactly the same in Germany and Spain, although Italy seems more competitive now. At least in Portugal, I'm "that team" with Benfica 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 19, 2023 Author Share Posted August 19, 2023 10 horas atrás, warlock disse: Yes, those are the results you have to try to eliminate from your game. I had the same with Brentford in my last save - had to be almost perfect to compete with Man City and Liverpool. Imagine it's exactly the same in Germany and Spain, although Italy seems more competitive now. At least in Portugal, I'm "that team" with Benfica It was a problem I had last season, mainly in the first half. We lost way too many points against bottom-5 teams. This year we already played against the current bottom-5 and we have: Montpellier (3-0 W); Metz (6-1 W); Sochaux (0-2 L); Ajaccio (5-0 W); Auxerre (6-0 W - will be on the next post). Overall, I can be pretty happy with those. We have been dominant with clear wins. The Sochaux game was really the only outlier. It's a shame that before the missed penalty we were not having that type of game. We were playing as usual, creating some chances. We had 0.40 xG in the first 10 minutes with 2 shots on target and then we "flatlined" until half-time and they scored through a penalty... I checked PSG's results across the last 3 seasons: [25 / 7 / 2], 2,41 ppg ; [26 / 5 / 3], 2,44 ppg ; [29 / 3 / 2], 2,65 ppg; and this season they are on [12 / 0 / 1], 2,77 ppg. We are on 2,38 ppg, had we won against Sochaux we would be on 2,62 ppg. We are getting there. They'll still lose more points this season, I don't think they can keep this rhythm (at least I hope they don't). Let's wait and see. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted August 19, 2023 Share Posted August 19, 2023 15 hours ago, lfds89 said: Right now, only thing I can't understand is Turati. Atubolu only has 6 attributes where he's better than Turati and mostly by 1 or 2. In the rest, Turati is miles better but he simply can't perform. I'm hoping it's about adaptability and he soon starts playing better. Since I don't use attributes in the normal sense of the word, I've really enjoyed diving in to watch how players play and react in game situations. I'm not familiar Atubolu but maybe it's just that entirety of his game and hidden stuff that does it? I do love that kind of player! 1 hour ago, lfds89 said: I checked PSG's results across the last 3 seasons: [25 / 7 / 2], 2,41 ppg ; [26 / 5 / 3], 2,44 ppg ; [29 / 3 / 2], 2,65 ppg; and this season they are on [12 / 0 / 1], 2,77 ppg. We are on 2,38 ppg, had we won against Sochaux we would be on 2,62 ppg. We are getting there. They'll still lose more points this season, I don't think they can keep this rhythm (at least I hope they don't). Let's wait and see. How have they improved then? Either player wise or style wise. I know it's earlier in the season but they're better than their average last year. Is there anything that you can do to mitigate that improvement? Those are the kind of marginal gains I'd be looking to make! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 19, 2023 Author Share Posted August 19, 2023 (edited) 3 horas atrás, _Ben_ disse: Since I don't use attributes in the normal sense of the word, I've really enjoyed diving in to watch how players play and react in game situations. I'm not familiar Atubolu but maybe it's just that entirety of his game and hidden stuff that does it? I do love that kind of player! How have they improved then? Either player wise or style wise. I know it's earlier in the season but they're better than their average last year. Is there anything that you can do to mitigate that improvement? Those are the kind of marginal gains I'd be looking to make! PSG changed from Faivre to Garitano in 06/2026, so that has affected last season and this one. Don't know what was Faivre's formation and style as he has retired. Garitano plays a Fluid Counter in 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide. About the players, there weren't many changes either. 3 seasons ago they got Lukas Nmecha and Locatelli and mostly only lost Renato Sanches. They had no backup Striker then, Ekitike was never an option for them so he didn't develop; last season they got no one but Nmecha had a very decent season; and this year they got Bellingham. Probably it also has to do with the whole league. There is no clear "best of the rest", so you have many teams at almost the same level: Rennes, Lyon, Lorient, Lens, Lille, Monaco and us. Then Strasbourg, Troyes and Saint-Étienne had really great seasons last year. All these 10 teams can beat all of the others in a single game, but they are all far from PSG. So while they are all competing with each other, they are creating a bigger gap to PSG. For instance, this year Rennes spent 62M but they have almost the same quality as last season, it's all about Kalimuendo still. If I can mitigate that improvement? I don't know if there's something I can actively do. I can't steal players they want to buy; I can't unsettle their players; I can't help other teams fight them or build their squads... I'm only noticing a problem in their defence: Kimpembe is 32, Marquinhos 33, their backups are Tanganga and Nelsson. Edit: Just to add a comparison between my first 11 and theirs: Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST Hakimi 12 14 18 14 15 14 9 13 68% 71% Andrei Nagy 14 14 14 12 10 12 13 15 65% 69% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST N Mendes 12 13 15 12 12 13 9 13 62% 66% Giuseppe Pezzella 13 14 15 10 11 11 12 14 63% 67% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST Kimpembe 16 15 14 10 10 11 15 16 67% 78% Marquinhos 16 13 12 12 10 12 13 16 65% 73% Marvin Friedrich 14 12 12 10 9 9 16 13 59% 69% Maximiliano Rodriguez 15 13 15 9 8 10 12 14 60% 68% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST Vitinha 13 14 14 16 13 16 5 15 66% 74% Bellingham 13 15 16 16 15 16 13 16 75% 76% Matteo Guendouzi 14 14 15 15 12 15 12 14 69% 72% Boubakary Soumaré 13 15 11 14 12 14 12 13 65% 69% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST ESR 8 13 15 16 13 15 9 13 64% 71% Arda Guler 4 12 13 16 15 16 11 11 61% 73% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST Saka 10 15 16 15 14 15 8 15 68% 75% Mbappé 4 15 20 16 18 18 7 14 70% 86% Akram Afif 4 13 15 15 14 14 6 12 58% 70% Amine Harit 7 11 14 16 12 15 5 11 57% 68% Name Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total FB CB CM AM WF ST Nmecha 6 14 15 13 14 14 13 13 64% 69% Maximilian Beier 8 13 15 13 14 13 13 12 63% 67% Only 2 spots where I compete: Arda over ESR at CAM and Pezzella over Mendes at LB. Edited August 19, 2023 by lfds89 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted August 19, 2023 Share Posted August 19, 2023 4 hours ago, lfds89 said: Garitano plays a Fluid Counter in 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide. Are there any players that they particularly counter through that you could double up on? I'm guessing Bellingham is somewhat heavily involved in that! I also really like to see that little rating % you have used throughout this because, as someone who starts at the bottom of the game, I rarely ever get to manage the real stars and don't know much about them but, obviously, know the likes of ESR, Saka, Bellingham, Mbappe, so have a good comparison. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 19, 2023 Author Share Posted August 19, 2023 39 minutos atrás, _Ben_ disse: Are there any players that they particularly counter through that you could double up on? I'm guessing Bellingham is somewhat heavily involved in that! I also really like to see that little rating % you have used throughout this because, as someone who starts at the bottom of the game, I rarely ever get to manage the real stars and don't know much about them but, obviously, know the likes of ESR, Saka, Bellingham, Mbappe, so have a good comparison. Both Vitinha and Bellingham. They have 69 and 65 passes completed/90 respectively and around 9,5 progressive passes/90 (each). Vitinha is the DLP, and Bellingham's role is BWM. I use the % as a quick way to evaluate players. For each position, I select some of the stats from the octagon and average them in relation to 20 in each stat. They are not even weighted, so it's really basic, but it's easier for me to get a first impression of the player. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 20, 2023 Author Share Posted August 20, 2023 Show me the money! And it’s gone… World’s Best Mbappé was the winner. We have no players in the top-50. From the league: Mbappé #1; Bellingham #21; Donnarumma #28; Saka #31. The unexpected: Koundé, Barcelona #10; Salah, Liverpool, 35-years old #17; Porro, Tottenham #18; Ricci, At. Madrid #26; Gaya, Valencia #32; Oyarzábal, Real Sociedad #34; Tielemans, Inter #38. November [Champions League] vs Liverpool (H) Nice, balanced game. Might have won had I played my first eleven, but I’m happy with our performance (except Turati and Balerdi, they have been awful). Our second goal was a beauty. It’s a shame there’s no easy way to record the whole play, but I’ll show you the end. Before this, the ball passed through everyone in the team except Turati GK and Harit RW. Once again, the IWB positioning and influence on the play makes me happy. [Ligue 1] vs Auxerre (A) Once again, Arda fails to score the penalty to put us in the lead, but this time the team responded magnificently. Beier with a hat-trick was the notorious man of the match, but I want to put the spotlight on ASM: 6 key passes, 9 dribbles, 3 shots on target, 1 assist. A complete offensive game. [Ligue 1] vs Lorient (H) We conceded first but managed to turn it around. Daoud with another great performance. Important win as Lorient are 5th. [Champions League] vs Betis (A) Tough game. I had some players needing a rest so I had to switch the team a bit, I believe it hurt us, mostly on defence. This time I can’t fault Turati, he did very well. [Ligue 1] vs Monaco (A) We couldn’t deal with their strikers and it cost us. An abysmal game by Guendouzi as well. Mai's rating is deceiving. He lost his duels against Emegha. Tried to move them inside so we could defend 3v2 in the middle but it was never effective. Maybe due to Guendouzi's bad game. I also have to be careful with fitness: Guendouzi, Pezzella, Arda, and Nagy were all tired and had to be substituted. They are our core along with Beier and I can’t have them last 60 minutes every game. Standings We have the same goals scored as PSG and “only” 4 more conceded. 7 points away from 5th-placed. 2,27 ppg. Next month we play Lyon and Lens for the League to end the first round and we also play in the Cup and against PAOK for the UCL. Speaking of which: Rennes vs PSG Was looking forward to this game. This is our biggest opposition to 2nd place (alongside Lyon) versus our biggest opposition to 1st. PSG's only 2 losses this season were against teams who play 2 strikers (Monaco in the League and Club Brugge in UCL). Rennes play a 4-4-2 so it could be an important factor. Dembélé scored from a tight corner following a corner. Tanganga equalized with a header from a set-piece. Then Nmecha took the ball away from João Mário and scored in a 1v1 against the GK. And the last goal was a team move. Rennes only created danger in bursts. They only had one half-chance through a combination between both strikers. PSG rotated a bit and their CAM was more involved than usual. Not much information to use here... Maybe thinking about playing my IW-A as IF-A so he's closer to the striker and they can combine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 22, 2023 Author Share Posted August 22, 2023 December [Ligue 1] vs Lyon (H) We were tied in points in the league, so this was a massive game for us. I started with Turati; Nagy, Rodríguez, Friedrich, Pezzella; Reis, Fujimoto, Guendouzi; ASM, Afif, Beier. 4-3-3 DM. Guendouzi as BWM, the rest as usual. I wanted Guendouzi as BWM so he’s more aggressive without the ball, mainly on their double pivot. He would also play a bit closer to the DM and eventually attract one of their DMs (although they would still have 3+1 in the middle). It’s always tricky for the striker to play against these bottom-heavy formations. They started in a 5-2-3. It’s their manager preferred formation, but they have been playing 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide. They play Cherki or Aouar upfront, so they are counting on goals from their IFs. Taking this into account, I wanted them to play wide, not letting their wingers move inside and be a threat. Also no point in pressing upfront as they have numbers. Didn’t happen much until half-time. Then I noticed Guendouzi was having some trouble with his passes. 9 intercepted and 6 unsuccessful. One example where he’s pressed by two players and has another in from of him and “punts” it. Another one, this time with less pressure. He tries to find Daoud in space. In other situations, the ball was lost because he was trying to find Beier. I tried some changes: Pezzella as WB-A, Daoud as IW-S and Beier as CF-A. Looking into it with more detail, maybe I could have just ticked off the pass into space instruction or asked him to play shorter/fewer risky passes. However, it worked as he only lost possession with passes 6 times in the second-half (subbed of in the 79th minute). This change also allowed us to play 5v5 against their deeper line. Since we were controlling them, it didn’t feel like much of a risk. Our positions in the first-half: And until the goal: How the goal started: The 2-3-5 pattern and 1v1 in the offensive line is clear. Eventually, the goal came from a bit of a scramble. Beier was dribbling towards their box, Stergiou tackled the ball into ASM, he was dribbling when Cardona tackled him, then he recovered and crossed to Daoud who finished on the far post (note: on the commentary it said that ASM surged past Cardona and crossed – the visual was a bit different). After our goal they immediately change to 4-2-3-1 and we revert our changes to our traditional style. There were no more chances for both sides until the game ended. Ending the game with 0 shots on target conceded and below 0,20 xG conceded is great. We could have won by a bigger margin, but I’m fine with this result. [Champions League] vs PAOK (A) Tougher than I expected. Although we were superior, we were finding it difficult to score. Hateboer clearly can’t play as IWB-S. He has a trait that kills it in my tactic: “Gets Forward Whenever Possible”. He gets into positions as if he were a IWB-A. When I switched to Maxi Rodríguez, the team became more stable and they ceased to create chances. In the end, Miath found Harit in the box and we got the winning goal. To add to this, Miath played the next day for our youth squad in the Youth League and scored 3 more. He now has UCL: 1 goal + 1 assist in 2 sub appearances Ligue 1: 2 goals in 6 sub appearances France U19 National Team: 2 goals in 2(1) appearances Youth League: 6 goals in 2(1) appearances French U19 League: 14 goals in 7 appearances He’s still 16! [Ligue 1] vs Lens (A) Can’t explain this one… 2 shots from long range, 1 lucky goal from a corner; 1 goal-line clearance, and 1 shot hit the woodwork,… Don’t get me wrong we allowed them to play. They fielded in a Direct Counter 5-2-2-1 AM, unusual tactic. In spite of being a direct counter tactic, the players with the most passes in their team are both DMs. I asked my players to stay off their CBs and press+tackle their second line: WB+DM. Eventually asked ASM to man-mark their LWB so our RB could man-mark their LCAM and our DM would man-mark their RCAM and we got 2v2 in midfield and 2v1 in the last line (our CBs vs their striker). Probably should have asked Beier to be close to one of their DMs. We are now definitely out of the race against PSG and both Lyon and Rennes won their games so they are now close to us. [Coupe de France] vs Ajaccio (H) Quite an easy game before we get some rest and get prepared for the second part of the season. Youth Intake Preview Looks quite bad. We really need to invest in the youth recruitment which is only deemed as “Good”. I also changed the responsibility for the intake to my DOF as he has JPA/JPP of 18/19, extensive knowledge of many countries, “fairly determined” personality and a higher reputation than our actual HOYD. Mighy have been a mistake on my part. New affiliate club Marítimo from Portugal. Their finances are not good, but they have pretty decent facilities. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 28, 2023 Author Share Posted August 28, 2023 This is a big update, so I'll divide it into two: the first one is about transfers, then I'll post about the games. First Award for Daoud Coaching Qualification I now have the Continental Pro Licence. This is now my profile: Since taking my last licence the difference is: Attacking +1; Defending +2; Fitness +1; Technical +2; Mental +2; Working With Youngsters +2 Determination +1; Player Knowledge +1; Youngster Knowledge +1; Level of Discipline +1; People Management +2; Motivating +2 Winter Transfer Market Two big concerns regarding our squad: CB and DM. Nagy and Maxi are good defenders but they lack height. My aerial threats are Mai and Friedrich. Mai doesn’t have the quality to play UCL and fight PSG; Friedrich is 32 so I can’t count on him for much longer. In the DM spot I have been playing Soumaré and Reis. Reis has a Get Forward trait that doesn’t suit the position; Soumaré has “tries killer balls often” which I don’t want in a more cautious role. I’ve been trying to remove these traits, but no success yet. Also, neither of them is a particularly strong defender. I also have Haidara who has been playing well this season as CM but he’s even worse at defending so I haven’t played him there yet. Money doesn’t help as we have 20M available. We have 2 clauses near the trigger: 5M for Arda and 8M for Beier, which will leave us with just 7M. On this front, Harit will renew is contract for 100k/month less. That gives us a bit extra room, but not much. I need to sell someone to make this happen. From all our loans, Koffi doesn’t have much potential, but he was unhappy so I decided to bring him back. He’ll most likely be loaned out again. Ristic was also brought back because he didn’t play a single game for Gent. I don’t know if he’ll stay or not. This brings us to Afif. He ends is contract in the end of the season and he has been asking for wages that we simply can’t pay him. He’s on 300k and is asking for wages around 550k. He’s 31 and has been our worst performer from the 4 wingers. Lucky for us, there are teams interested in buying him now, so we might get something around 15M plus his wages. Done deal with Burnley! We now have the funds to go for a CB, so after some research we found Carboni. Not the biggest threat in the air, but decent; can play both CB and LB; he’s left-footed and we had no left-footed CB. And he accepts a squad player status. Then, something I wasn’t expecting: The situation is: he’s a team leader; one of our best players (if not the best); 28 years-old; and has 1,5 years left in his contract. He’s also worth 89-98M. Financially, it would be wise to sell him now. Sportingly, I sincerely doubt it. Other players might become unhappy and I don’t think I could replace him with someone as good as or better than him. And a few days later he handed over a request to leave (this was just before the PSG game). Juventus came with an offer of around 60M we rejected, he got mad, I agreed to let him go for 87M. Juventus came back with some more offers, I eventually let him go for 74+9. The board gives me 55M. Club record fees for this transfer and for a season. Where are we spending it? I wanted someone who could make an impact and move us a level. So Badiashile was the choice. I asked the DOF to handle it and he made an offer with everything upfront… Don’t know if this was the best option but at least he was able to negotiate a pretty decent contract and with no promises. Badiashile ticks some important factors I want to take into account: French player (still uncapped with Fofana, Saliba, Lucas Hernández and Upamecano taking his place – Lucas is 31); we weaken a rival; he’s one of the best in the league in the air; a player that can match PSG’s quality. After his arrival and Carboni, we now had one too many CBs and Mai was triggered. We received two bids from Udinese and Roma. He opted for Roma. He was bought as a backup and to try and prove we could do better in corners. He did his job and we sold him with a 250k profit. After all this, we still had a busy deadline day. It started with an offer for Ristic from Man Utd. He’s reported to have a 5-star potential, but he’s 20 and isn’t developing. Nothing much happened to him here and when he was on loan. I decided to accept it. It’s only 5M upfront and can increase to 13,5M over time however, it has a future profit percentage of 40%. He was bought for 325k so either way we make a big profit (although some will go to his former club). For almost the same price we sold him, we got Vormer. He’s the same age and same potential, but he’s closer to being ready to play for us. We also got Svanberg on loan from Inter to replace Guendouzi. On 174k p/m and with a squad player status and no mandatory future fee. Good for depth. And lastly, 2 youngsters to bolster our defensive prospects that were lacking: Sebek and Balazic. Sebek can either play as RB or CB. He wanted to be loaned out and his club wanted him, so I left him stay until the end of the season at Slovan Bratislava. Balazic was at Maribor. He’s a CB who can also play DM. His low aggression (3) and bravery (8) are concerns, but I think he can develop into a pretty decent CB. He’ll remain at Maribor until the end of the season. Overall: we are weaker in midfield and slightly weaker in attack (although Afif was already losing his place to Daoud); we are way better in defence and we have more options for the future. OUT Name Best Pos Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total Comment FB CB CM AM WF ST Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 14 14 15 15 12 15 12 14 69% 72% 70% 71% Akram Afif AM (L) 4 13 15 15 14 14 6 12 58% 69% 70% Lars Lukas Mai D (C) 13 11 11 11 8 11 16 13 59% 66% Radenko Ristic AM (L) 4 11 16 11 9 13 7 11 51% P5 55% 60% 56% IN Name Best Pos Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total Comment FB CB CM AM WF ST Benoit Badiashile D (C) 15 14 14 12 9 11 16 14 66% 68% 74% Andrea Carboni D (C) 14 13 13 11 8 9 15 14 61% 63% 70% Mattias Svanberg M (C) 12 13 14 14 13 14 11 13 65% Loan In 66% 68% 68% Mettin Vormer AM (L) 5 13 16 13 13 13 11 12 60% P5 64% 67% 65% Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 January [Coupe de France] vs Strasbourg (H) Second round with a L1 team, but we made it easy once again. Next round, we face, yet again, a L1 team. This time it’s Monaco. Still this month. [Ligue 1] vs PSG (H) That game… I watched their last UCL game against At. Madrid and took some notes. They add to what we already know. Mostly: they defend in 4-2-4, both their wingers and their CAM are very attack-minded (Nmecha often drops deeper than ESR); their CBs are in front of the GK in defensive corners, so the best bet is to aim to near and far post not the center; Hakimi and Nuno Mendes need to be tracked, especially Hakimi – when they venture forward, both Bellingham and Vitinha cover for them and leave the middle a bit more vacant. Taking this into account, I created a tactic from scratch: 4-4-2 DM. LM as Wide Playmaker so he moved inside, RST as F9 (it was supposed to be Arda Güler but he caught a cold, so I replaced him with Daoud). Dropped the mentality to cautious, playing a bit more direct and also dropped the lines (both pressure and defensive). They had a game midweek for the Cup and played their best players against a L2 side. Don’t know why they didn’t rest some players, but good for us. In consequence, Vitinha didn’t start, and Fábian was still injured so they started Kimpembe in midfield and Tanganga in the back. Since we had 2v2 in their backline, I opted to try and condition their CBs to their weaker foot, expecting them to play less progressive passes. But I asked my LM to man mark Hakimi and both my strikers to mark the DMC positions, both left and right, respectively. One of the most entertaining 0-0 I’ve played. Very balanced first half. Just like the second. Any team could have won it. In the last 30 minutes, they had to make many changes: Mbappé, ESR, Nmecha, Mendes and Tanganga all left the field. Vitinha came on and I should have changed my tactic a little bit. He was playing as a VOL in front of our DM-D so he had plenty of space before we got to him. Tactically we only changed when Fujimoto came on for Daoud – he dropped to the RCAM position as AM-S (and in the final minutes AM-A). We managed to keep Hakimi quiet, Mbappé is always a threat but even he couldn’t hit a single shot on target. In the last few minutes, we had some chances through Fujimoto and could have scored in some set-pieces as it was noticeable that we were better in those moments. A shame Arda couldn’t play as he could have made a difference and having Daoud on the bench would have helped in the final push. [Ligue 1] vs Lille (A) Quite an easy game in the first half, then the players got tired and I didn’t want to make many subs as I wanted the other players to be fully fit for the midweek game and we could have been in trouble. Good for us they failed to score. [Champions League] vs Benfica (H) Disappointing defeat. We were better all the way. They didn’t do much besides both goals. Once again, our fitness and lack of solutions played a trick on us. We are now on the verge of direct qualification. The last game is against Bayern. I was expecting to make rotations on the last match, but now I can’t risk it. [Ligue 1] vs Saint-Étienne (H) Should have been an easy game, but 2 injuries to both our left-backs (Pezzella and Morales) made us play a youngster (Aarseth), and as he doesn’t have great technical skills I tried by backup 4-3-3 with 2 IWB and 2 MEZ. We dominated possession but had some trouble creating the final chance. However, we were much better in the first half and declined a lot in the second. [Champions League] vs Bayern Munchen (A) Nagelsmann prefers a 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide formation, however, reports suggest he’s playing a 4-2-2-2 DM AM Narrow. First time I’m facing this formation. I attended their game against RB Leipzig but unfortunately, they played the 90 minutes in 4-2-3-1. These are the standings before our match: Benfica plays Austria Wien; Aston Villa plays Legia. We can’t expect them to lose or even draw their games. Our main focus is RB Leipzig. If we win we get their place, if we draw Juve (vs Galatasaray), Milan (vs Celtic) or even Barcelona (vs PSV) are likely to beat us to the spot. They have in fact played in 4-2-2-2. I tried countering that with playing wider than usual, dropping the mentality. In the middle of the game, I tried to man-mark their wing-backs, tried playing out of defence, everything… We were lucky to lose only by 3… It was a disgrace. At least we qualify for the playoff. 2 more games to play isn’t doing us any good, but we are still in the competition. In the meantime, our kids are through to the next round on the Youth League. [Coupe de France] vs Monaco (A) Once again, we control the first half and we die in the second. At least we are through to the quarter-finals. We will play the other Paris team, Paris FC. I have no screenshot of the standings, but we remain in second, tied with Rennes. UCL Draw We were a seeded team, so we avoided Juventus, Arsenal, Chelsea, Leipzig, Barcelona, Liverpool and Frankfurt. We could face: Leverkusen, Inter, Roma, Nice, At. Madrid, PSV, Porto or Braga. Luck hasn’t been kind to us lately. It’s not impossible, however. Let’s see how it goes. Final Squad and Prospects Need to get a good RB next season, and probably sell Balerdi to move Nagy/Rodríguez inside. Need a DM and a CM as Svanberg ends his loan and I'll probably sell one of Reis, Soumaré and Haidara. For the CM position, I'm confident in promoting Castelli. Traoré will get his chance if Arda (or Fujimoto) leaves. For DM, Sithole probably won't be ready to be a starter, so he might go on loan again and I'll have to find another player. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
warlock Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Unlucky against PSG and St Etienne, but looking good overall. Hopefully, you can push through the extra Champions League game. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Really like the 442 you constructed. Gives nice balance and a lot of opportunity for overloads. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 8 horas atrás, warlock disse: Unlucky against PSG and St Etienne, but looking good overall. Hopefully, you can push through the extra Champions League game. PSG was already better than expected, so I'm happy. But we should have beaten Saint-Étienne. We had a bad pre-season (training-wise) and lack a bit of quality in depth, so every time it gets to 60/70 minutes or if I have to start bench players, our quality drops significantly. I've already played some more games and can say there is good news on the UCL front (not so much on the league, but still on course). 2 horas atrás, SixPointer disse: Really like the 442 you constructed. Gives nice balance and a lot of opportunity for overloads. Yeah, I really liked it too. Haven't picked it up yet again, but I might use it later in the UCL. I'm also thinking about changing my main formation to a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 either with 2 DMs, so this will certainly be a starting point. Something I'm really looking into is a playmaker out wide. I've used it again to good effect, you'll see it in the next games. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 February Second month in a row with 7 games (spoiler alert: this month will have 8 games). The squad isn’t that deep. Let’s see how it goes. [Ligue 1] vs Rennes (A) Tough game. We had the possession, we were playing good passes, but they had all the chances. Pezzella out, Morales still recovering and Carboni lacking fitness, so our LB position wasn’t healthy and it showed. Dembélé run us to the ground. [Champions League] vs At. Madrid (A) One more very balanced match. We were lucky to score in the first minute, then we defended very well. Most of their shots were either from long-range or from corners. Clearly missing Guendouzi in midfield. Svanberg was feeling apprehensive so I didn’t play him. In the next game, he’ll have his chance. [Ligue 1] vs Troyes (H) Had to start Miath and Vormer as ASM, Daoud and Beier were recovering from injuries. We created some chances but couldn’t finish them. It’s a match we should win and it might cost us. [Champions League] vs At. Madrid (H) We were managing the game pretty well, but the sending-off set us on the way to victory. They removed their LW from the field and so left our right lane all open. IWB turned into CWB, asked the team to focus on the right side, and first asked Fujimoto to play RM as WP-S with Arda coming in to play as RCAM as AM-S, then switched to our usual formation with Fujimoto in LW as AP-S and Arda as RCM also as AP-S. Our 3rd goal was a clear reflection of what I wanted with some luck in the mix and Miath scored. We are through! [Ligue 1] vs Montpellier (A) One more team playing a 5-3-2 formation and another one difficult to break down. Took away the “Counter” instruction, asked to play through the CBs and FBs, and switched the FBs to CWBs to have more width and focused play through both wings. ST was also changed to DLF-A. We managed to score late in the match and secure the 3 points. [Coupe de France] vs Paris FC (A) Not a difficult game, as expected. We managed to let some players rest which is great at this time of the season. Beier was already near 2700 minutes, so he stayed on the bench. Vormer got his first assist for us. The semi-final is against PSG. The other game is Saint-Étienne vs Lyon. I’m hoping I can get to the final. [Ligue 1] vs Strasbourg (H) Great game! I wanted to have this game decided as soon as possible so asked the team to play with a higher mentality (“Attacking”). It turned out pretty well as we scored 2 in 15 minutes and the 3rd before halftime. I was thinking of subbing off Beier but didn’t have any strikers on the bench and he was on a good day so I let him play and eventually scored a hattrick. Vormer got another assist. This month still has one more game, but I'll leave that one for the next update. UCL R16 Draw We are part of the unseeded teams And the ones we might face: PSG, Madrid, City and Bayern are clearly the ones I want to avoid. The other ones are not as frightening. We face Ajax! Their manager is Brandon Rodgers. Their schedule wasn’t very different from ours. We also played PAOK, Braga, Porto and Liverpool. And they are 3rd in the Eredivisie. I’m confident of our chances. And the board for all the matches: A romantic Liverpool vs Milan and some very good games: Arsenal vs Real Madrid; Juventus vs City; Chelsea vs PSG. If we get through, I wouldn't mind playing the winner of match 3 or 8, but at this level it's "pick your poison". Development Arda’s progress since he arrived (16/07/2026 – 1,5yrs) is fantastic. He’s world-class. Daoud’s on his way as well. (Arrived 07/08/2027 – 0,5yrs) The next one to follow will be Miath. (Youth Intake in 04/2027 – roughly 1 year) My biggest development so far in 6 months for a senior squad player had been Arda with 7,5 increase. This time we have: Arda again with 7,5; Daoud 10,5; and Miath 14,5. Going the other way is Hateboer. His physical attributes are declining very rapidly. By the way, Turati also had some improvement in the GK attributes, but I don't keep track of that, so it doesn't show on the table. Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Stefano Turati GK 2 0 1,5 0,5 Noah Atubolu GK 1 0 1 0 Hans Hateboer D (R) -6 0 0 -6 Andrei Nagy D (C) 0 0 0 0 Maximiliano Rodriguez D (R) 0 0 0 0 Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 0 0 0 0 Federico Morales D (L) -1 0 -1 0 Benoit Badiashile D (C) 0 0 0 0 Andrea Carboni D (C) 0 0 0 0 Marvin Friedrich D (C) 0,5 0,5 0 0 Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 0 0 0 0 Boubakary Soumaré DM 0 0 0 0 Mattias Svanberg M (C) 0 0 0 0 Ludovit Reis DM 0 0 0 0 Amadou Haïdara M (C) 0,5 0 0 0,5 Arda Guler AM (C) 7,5 0,5 3 4 Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) 0 0 0 0 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 0 0 0,5 -0,5 Amine Harit AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Mettin Vormer AM (L) 0 0 0 0 Karim Daoud ST (C) 10,5 4 4,5 2 Maximilian Beier ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Gérald Miath ST (C) 14,5 4,5 4,5 5,5 Senior Squad 29,5 9,5 14 6 Regarding the youth squad, I’m a bit disappointed with Carrière. Last season he developed really well, but he seems to have stopped. Maybe he needs a bigger challenge, but it doesn’t look great. Mateo Lambert had a very big improvement since arriving to the youth squad (almost 2 years ago), but he started from a very low base, so even with all the development he’s still far from the quality needed. The rest of the boys are not deserving of a particular mention. It’s a shame I can’t see the graph for the loanees. I’m curious about some guys’ development. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 Forgot to include the league standings once again... Here it is: 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfds89 Posted September 3, 2023 Author Share Posted September 3, 2023 Just a little rant The board is concerned with the number of conceded goals And so are the fans That 1 conceded goal really hit them hard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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