#FM23 - PEPS DISCIPLES!

[FMCTVaughaniola]

Well hello everybody. It's me back again with a new save, and the problem is with this one, I can't tell you how long it will last. Running this alongside a Scale the Tower duos save which I am doing with my buddy @CapLFC450 which we will be posting regular forum updates for that save, taking full inspiration from the Climb the Ladder save created by @TerminalPortugal.

However this one is one that I will be doing on my own, not alongside a friend, just a solo save that I will enjoy and hopefully you guys do too. This challenge was created by one of my good friends however, @brooke, so I hope you lot go over there and show her the love and respect she deserves for her work, without further or do, here are the rules to this save (will just copy and paste the rules from Brooke's post on this).
 

PEP’S DISCIPLES
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Teams:
Arsenal 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - M. Arteta
Bayer Leverkusen 🇩🇪 (1) - X. Alonso
Burnley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (2) - V. Kompany
Barçelona 🇪🇸 (1) - Xavi
Leicester City 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - E. Maresca
Manchester United 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - E. ten Hag
——————————————————————
Premise of the Save:
Replicate what Man City have done
          - Dominate the leagues
          - Create a super team
          - Win the club’s elite treble (League, FA Cup, UCL)
          
          - Overtake Pep
                                        - Win 2 UCLs
                                        - Win every trophy in the country you can
                                        - Become the best——————————————————————
Feel free to take on this challenge yourself! - this can be done on either FIFA or FM which will require two different things:
             - FIFA:
                         - a new save every time you complete one | manager career of the season you beat it
            - FM:
                      - take control of a new team once you complete the challenge | NOTE: Editor can be used to switch teams ONLY. If you use the editor make sure to send how many times the editor’s been used along with your managerial career.
- Brooke


So I hope that you now understand the rules and premise for this save. I know this one was just a short blog, however I will be back with more very soon, once I have decided on the club I will start at, and have gone a decent bit into the season, thank you for reading.

[FMCTVaughaniola]

PEP'S DISCIPLES #01

Back again after not too long. And I have decided on my team that I will be starting with! There were six teams to choose from, those teams being:
Arsenal
Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen
Burnley
Leicester
Manchester United

I thought this was an even spread of teams, spread across three nations and four divisions, it really made it tougher to choose the team that I will begin this journey at. You had Burnley, which would've certainly made the save tougher, starting in the second division, however I would have a team that were cut out to play Premier League football, if I could get them promoted in Season One. Then you had Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona. Three teams that are already challenging at the top of their respective leagues, three teams that wouldn't necessarily be hard to complete the challenge with. Then there were the middle teams, or the Goldilocks teams; should I say. Bayer Leverkusen and Leicester City were two teams that I could certainly have challenged for at least top half football in the first season (with Leverkusen being a bit of a stronger side than Leicester). They weren't too good, they weren't too bad, they felt just right.

In the end, after a long thinking period I decided to start my journey off at Bayer Leverkusen. A team that I could certainly have in the Champions League within the first few seasons, and a side that aren't really too far away from the clubs challenging for 2nd, my toughest challenge, would be trying to overhaul Bayern Munich and becoming the best team in my league, alongside trying to win the trophies that I need to, to make this challenge complete. The only problem that I had with starting in Germany was the fact that it would be hard to drop myself to the level of Burnley when the time comes, they were the team I planned to join second in this challenge...

Here we are then. Arriving in Germany to finally be announced as the Bayer Leverkusen manager! After months of rumour and speculation, it is final! Pep Vaughaniola --> Bayer Leverkusen, Here. We. Go.



Since this is a challenge revolving around Guardiola, the players he managed, and trying to emulate his success at said players currently managed clubs. I will be using a tactic that tries to copy the Pep way, within my best capabilities, try to attack more using fast-paced passing, shorter passing, and playing it out from the back. Hopefully this tactic can help me win games, and take Leverkusen to the top!

With Wirtz injured for the start of the season, Amiri will be taking up the Box-to-Box Midfielder roles and Andrich taking up the Advanced Playmaker role. If Wirtz was fit, Amiri would be playing as the AP and Florian playing as the Box-to-Box.

Early on I attempted to sell some of the ageing players in the squad, as it came to my realisation that we didn't have enough money to make the signings that would take the club to the next level. But did we even need new signings? Were we already at that level? These were the sort of questions I asked myself when simming through the first pre-season of this save.

When I introduced myself to the players, I set high targets to aim for. Qualification for the Champions League (which is top 4 in the Bundesliga), reaching the DFB Pokal final and getting out of the group stage in the Champions League. Pretty bold considering I don't know what the groups are in the Champions League yet, and I don't know my "road to the final" in the DFB Pokal yet! Oh well if I set the bars higher then there's something hard to aim for.

I normally wouldn't make a big deal over a friendly to be fair, but this was the first "Disciple Derby" (if you will) of the save, and it was quite a tough one for my boys. Manchester United at home in a friendly... let's see how we did.

We lost! 1-0! But not worry though, it was only a pre-season friendly, the real test begins on the 30th September, the first round of the DFB Pokal.


However before we get into that game, here is how pre-season went, it was a pretty bad pre-season if you look at it as a whole, but I see it as a building ground to create a start for the next season coming up.

Unfortunately I am really disappointed with the result in this one, however it looks like the tactic is really reaching it's desired effect, which is to help us hold the ball. But only winning 2-1 against a 4th tier side is really upsetting, especially when I didn't really rotate the side at all. But you know, got to give the players time to adjust to the new tactic for them!

Anyway that's gonna be it for the first blog. Hope you guys like the set up and how I have written it out. Until next time!
 

Edited June 20, 2023 by FMCTVaughaniola

[FMCTVaughaniola]

PEP'S DISCIPLES #02

Well it was Borussia Dortmund that we had to face on the opening game of the season. Quite a tough test for a side that had a completely new style of football. With me trying to emulate the tactic of Guardiola closely, in the up coming 23/24 Premier League season, I will be trying to watch more Manchester City games to really get a feel for how he likes to set out his team, and how it works so well for him! 

Facing such an elite German side in Borussia Dortmund away from home in the first game of the season. I think it'll be a pretty hard fixture, the bookies odds don't see Leverkusen and Dortmund too far away from each other in the season preview, so lets make sure that this is shown here today and let's try get our first three points on the board! Up the Bayer!

Well then... I didn't think I would be here after Matchday One talking about an own goal, a red card and three yellow cards, but here we are... The tactic apparently really doesn't work! Granted, we shared 64% of the possession in the game, but that's not good enough. Taking 5-0 losses like that against teams that we're predicted around in the league is deplorable, and I am utterly and truly disappointed with that result. I know it's early on in the save, but really debating switching up our style of play completely for the next game, as that, was f*cking dreadful.

Well after deciding it was time for a switch up, I did a complete switch up, and decided for the next few games it was time to test out a 5 at the back formation, these are probably the players that will slot in, in these exact positions too. I have high hopes for the next game, facing Augsburg at home, a team that are predicted to face a relegation dog fight this season, should be a certainly winnable game.

Now that is more like it! 5 at the back has certainly make a change! It looks like we finally have a way into European Qualification this season! Who would've thought that said way in would've been through using a 5-1-1-3 assymetric! Certainly not me! Anyways, the game went well, as you can see. Schick played astonishingly, as did Jonathan Tah in my personal opinion. I thought Diaby could've had a better game, as could Callum Hudson-Odoi, but you know, according to player ratings neither were as bad as Mitchel Bakker. That's the problem with playing on key highlights, I don't get to see my players make mistakes, or even make good challenges, I think from next game onwards, I will be using Extended Highlights.

Before the next game against Hoffenheim, I have signed a new Centre-Half from 2. Bundesliga outfit St Pauli, Jakov Medic. His stats look decent, and I look forward to having him play in our side.

 

And that is two wins from the first 3 games of the season! Granted the other was a 5-0 loss, but we move on, and we progress to success! I can't even think to pick one stand out player from this game, if I had to, it would probablies be Edmond Tapsoba, we would've certainly conceded without him being an absolute brick wall in the back line. Onto the next and final game of this blog. We face Mainz 05 away from home.

Before the game was the UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw, since we weren't in seed one, I knew that there was going to be at least one team that we would most certainly lose to in the groups, however, I still prayed for some version of reality where I would face 3 easier sides and progress straight on to the Round of 16.
 

To be completely honest, we got one of the easier draws out of the ones available, and I think 3 of the sides are on a similar level, and then you have AC Milan who will probably dominate the group and finish top with 18 points! But hey-ho, lets give it our best shot at qualification.

Unfortunately we face our 2nd loss of the 4 games in the 22/23 Bundesliga season. And we can't get away with this one... another blatant loss, which clearly displays that it's not the tactic it's the team. However the tactic really helped in me in the previous two fixtures, so I am really unsure as to what the problem is in the side in the early stages of the season.

I will be back for the next blog that will involve the month of September in 2022. Thanks for reading, take care now.