[FM24] The Ugliest City in the World

[wils2603]

Royal Charleroi Sporting Club

 

 

In 2008 Charleroi was voted the ugliest city in the World by a Dutch newspaper. The once capital of Belgium's mining economy lies 37 miles south of Brussels. Once famed for its steel and mining, Charleroi is now more famous for its infamous title, high unemployment rate, depressing post industrial architecture and being home to a notorious serial killer peadophile.

 

 

Charleroi is also home to Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, which suffice to say has not fared much better than the city it resides in over its 119 year history.

 

Formed in 1904, they reached the top division in Belgium football 43 years later and played their first season in the top flight in the 1947- 48 season. Since then they have had long stints in both the top division and the second division and recently they are enjoying a stint in the Juplier Pro League where they have been since 2012-13 season.

 

Their highest ever league finish was a runner up in the 1968-69 season and their most successful run in the Belgian Cup was losing the final in the 1992-93 season.

 

As you can see this is where I come in….

 

I have taken over the reins of Charleroi with the hope of finally bringing league and cup success to this club. 

 

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the club I thought I'd just mention how I came to choosing Charleroi for this save, which will also be the first time I have ever written about a save in the 25 years or so of playing this game.

 

I'm sure all these reasons will be cliches in some way, but it's nice to write them down for full disclosure.

 

• League outside Top 5 European Leagues

• Team outside the “top teams”

• Team/location with an interesting history

• Never won a trophy

• Phillippe Albert started and finished his career in Charleroi

• Team colours are also black and white

 

So that's that, as a Newcastle fan I was particularly drawn to the last two and also Charleroi being a grand industrial town like Newcastle there is some nice synergy there.

 

That's hopefully not where the synergy stops. My goals for the save are the following:

 

• Win the League

• Win the cup

• Domestic honours take president, but any European success would be welcome.

• Find the modern day Phillipe Albert and utlise in Libero role once we have him.

• Develop tactic taking influence from Eddie Howe’s Newcastle.

 

The Belgian league is highly competitive and there are some big clubs who have considerable resources not just in terms of finances but also through their superb youth academies. Winning the league and the cup will be a great challenge.

 

There was a temptation to create an “ugly tactic”, winning ugly etc and maybe we will have one as a backup/defensive tactic but we will be incorporating bits of ugly into our main tactic. Pressing, playing for set pieces, getting stuck in, time wasting where necessary. Eddie Howe famously went to Athletico Madrid to watch the training being taken by Simeone and if you watch how Newcastle play he has certainly incorporated some of the darker arts in to how Newcastle play and I will be doing the same in Belgium. 

 

Can we bring success to the ugliest city in the World? Or will we only add to the misery?

 

In the next post we will check out what state the club is in and what the squad looks like.

 

Cheers,

 

Wils

Edited October 23, 2023 by wils2603

[wils2603]

So here we are

 

Running the traditional football manager database, not your world etc.

 

 

Here is an overview of the club:

 

 

It's funny that they have only won once in the second deivison too, that is their only trophy. These guys really have had a barren run. Hopefully that will change.

 

As you can see, fierce rivals with Standard Liege who I'm sure need no introduction. But there is also a much more local rivalry with Olympic Club Charleroi who play their football in Nationale 1, Belgium's 3rd tier. Their stadium is a mere 850m away from our stadium. Will be interesting to see how they get on, it would be great if they got promoted to the top division. 

 

Decent sized stadium and some good facilities which is a nice start and hopefully we can unearth the next Philippe Albert sooner rather than later.

 

Transfer budget is not disastrous, but I'm not sure we will be making wholesale changes just yet. General finances are bleak though with a large amount of debt which amounts to a 850k per month for the first season it looks like. That will have to be managed.

 

Club Vision:

 

Just focusing on the first two years here, all fairly routine.

 

 

 

They finished 6th last season IRL, so hopefully we can achieve something similar if not better. Would be a disaster if we could not finish top half.

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by wils2603

[wils2603]

The Squad

 

 

The Squad I have inherited have typically been playing a 3 at the back IRL, I will be playing a 4 at the back so there is a little imbalance that we will try and rectify in the first few windows.

Let's take a look.

 

Goalkeepers:

 

Herve Koffi obviously the stand out here and will be our No 1. He has been here for a few years now and is more than capable. Some well balanced attributes as you can see below.

 

 

I think we will look to improve this position eventually though, good distribution will be needed. Also due to registration rules in the Belgian league, 6 players in the match day squad have to be homegrown so having a GK who fits this bill would be very helpful.

 

Defenders:

 

Some solid defensive options here, but we will look to reduce the number of CB’s. We will also need to add depth or strengthen our full back positions. 

The pick of the bunch here though is Stelios Andreou, 

 

 

who is well thought of  IRL and highly rated in the game. I hope we will be able to build the backline around him over the next few years. However, I'm sure it will be hard to hang on to him if we do not deliver progression quickly. Funnily enough he is “wanted” by Newcastle at the start of the game. I will offer a new contract to keep the suitors at bay! 

 

Midfield:

 

We will be playing a 3 in the middle. So we have plenty of options here. Trebel and Morioka are on quite high salaries compared to the rest of the team. The average wage is just below 4k per week however they are both on 12k. Trebel has only just signed and has good all round attributes for the league and is only on a one year contract. I will look to sell Morioka who I'm sure can be improved on.

 

I've signed Guiagon on previous versions of FM and he is a solid signing so im happy hes at the club, Ill likely play him as a mezzala or in one of the wing positions as an inverted winger or forward. As you can see below he should be well suited to both.

 

 

Forwards:

 

Well Stacked in the forward positions, we will likely let one of the strikers go. Benbouali probably the man to depart. Nkuba is a good prospect but is injured at the start so we might need some depth there. 

 

I will be playing with one striker, Dabbagh, Badji and Stulic fighting for the starting berth. Who all look great for this level. Badji and Stulic look like they can improve considerably too.

 

Oday Dabbagh

Youssouph Badji

 

Nikola Stulic

 

Overall the squad is useful and we should be able to get a 433 working out of what we have with one or two possible additions.

 

Next up I will show the tactic I will be using.

[wils2603]

Season 1 Tactic

 

As mentioned in a previous post I will be looking to draw inspiration from the way Newcastle play under Eddie Howe focusing more on the fundamentals of how I see them play rather than focusing on formation and roles specifically. That being said, season 1 we will be lining up in a 433, but as the seasons progress I want the flexibility to chop and change as I see fit depending on what is in front of us in either a specific game or at the start of the season due to players available or unavailable to us.

 

That being said we will at all times be trying to adhere to the following principles:

 

• High Pressing

• Quick in transition

• Aggressive defence

 

This might seem overly simplified or perhaps broad, but I like to keep things simple. I'm not overly fussed by possession. If we have it, I want us to use it effectively. If that means going direct then that's what we will do, if a more patient approach is needed then I hope with limited in possession instructions the players will make the right decisions which of course will influence my transfer strategy as we go through this save.

 

Here is how we will set up.

 

 

The full back positions will be a work in progress as the midfield 3 and the front 3 will be quite high up the pitch when we are in possession. So committing too many bodies forward might not work especially against the big teams, that being said I would like to play really positive football against anyone, especially at home.

 

In possession, keeping it simple. Play out from the back, let the player roles do the talking and play for set pieces - any opportunity to create more opportunities is a good opportunity. The roaming playmaker at the base of midfield is how I see Bruno Guimares playing for Newcastle. I like this role to be 6/8 hybrid and I'm not sure how this will play out in the match engine and in game but we shall see but I want the midfield to contribute at both ends of the pitch. The BBM and a player in the DM position hopefully should ensure that. Obviously the Mez on attack will be the most advanced of the roles but I'm fine with that. I have never gotten much tune out of a pressing forward in previous versions from a goal contribution point of view, so hopefully that changes this version. This role might change, but it suits our pressing style.

 

In transition - lets win the ball back as soon as possible and get on the front foot. Ball Playing defenders should help with transitions. I will need to improve my CB’s passing and vision via training and I will look at this if we need replacements in the transfer market.

 

Out of possession we will press high up the pitch, our defensive line will be adjusted against certain teams and away from home. I want us to sit narrow and compact as a unit and force the opposition out wide. We have some tall players in our team, particularly in defence so I hope this strategy will play into our hands by forcing the opposition to cross more. Height is definitely something I will look for when looking for new players, height and strength, I want this team to be incredibly hard to play against. The front three will be key in winning the ball high up the pitch and will be the first line of defence.

 

I am by no means a tactic bod, but I'm hoping we should be able to get a tune out of this.

 

Next up will be signings and then on to the first few league games.

 

Cheers,

 

Wils.

[wils2603]

Season 1 Transfers

 

Players out:

 

Our highest earner off the books, and another over 30 player leaving in Damien Marcq. We managed to offload a CB and a striker who both are surplus to requirements. All players leaving also ease the stress in managing squad registration.

 

Players in:

 

I got a little carried away and I did not help the squad registration stress. However, I have found a couple of gems which will improve us no end.

 

Suk Hyun-Jun and Valerian Gvillia were both signed as backup strikers and box to box midfielders respectively after both performing very well on trial in our pre-season friendlies. I'm not sure I needed Suk Hyun-jun but he was so good from set pieces in the friendlies i thought he would be a good plan b option. 

 

We were short at right back so we signed Tomas Silva, 23 year old Portuguese right back who has great pace, stamina and work rate. 

 

The other two I'm excited about.

Salifou Diarrassouba

 

My scouts found this guy after I set up a recruitment focus in West Africa. Really great all round attributes, I will be utilizing him as a Mezzala. A snip at 275k.

 

Karel Pojenzy

 

Another find by scouting, this time in Eastern Europe. We only had one left footed CB, so we needed another one. Young, tall, good passing and vision for his age and good all round physicals. Hopefully he will develop nicely and form a formidable partnership with Stelios Andreou.

 

That concludes our transfer business. 

 

Our first ten games of the season present a tough start with Standard at home and Genk, Anderlect and Club Brugge all away.

 

In the next post we will see how we got on.
 

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by wils2603

[Sizeman21]

Tough run of fixtures to open the season. I have fond memories of Charleroi in FM. My old Standard Liege side always found the Stade du Pays de Charleroi tough to play in. One of my bogey teams early on.   Let's go RCSC! 

[wils2603]

24 minutes ago, Sizeman21 said:

Tough run of fixtures to open the season. I have fond memories of Charleroi in FM. My old Standard Liege side always found the Stade du Pays de Charleroi tough to play in. One of my bogey teams early on.   Let's go RCSC! 

Yeh i had a really fun save in Belgium at the end of FM22 and didnt really play much of FM23 so I thought Id return. Its a great league, really competitive and a lot of well known players that pop up randomly and of course great youth!

Thanks for reading.

[Rikulec]

Interesting idea for a save, I'll be following. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Good idea for save. 

If you get sacked, (which I'm sure you won't but just in case), the other 9 Ugly Cities in the Top 10 are as follows, (not in correct order). 

Guatemala City, Guatemala
Detroit, USA. 
Derry, N.Ireland.
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Luanda, Angola.
Amman, Jordan.
Norilsk, Russia.
Guangzhao, China.
Manilla, Philippines. 

[wils2603]

8 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Good idea for save. 

If you get sacked, (which I'm sure you won't but just in case), the other 9 Ugly Cities in the Top 10 are as follows, (not in correct order). 

Guatemala City, Guatemala
Detroit, USA. 
Derry, N.Ireland.
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Luanda, Angola.
Amman, Jordan.
Norilsk, Russia.
Guangzhao, China.
Manilla, Philippines. 

HAHA, that could be quite the career arc! 

[wils2603]

First 10 Games of the Season

 

We have had an interesting start to the season. We lost the first game at home 1-0 to OH Leuven which was disappointing. We weren't at the races at all, 2 shots all game. We bounced back with a great performance against Cercle Brugge scoring 3 and keeping a clean sheet. We then lost two on the spin against Standard in the derby and then Genk. I felt like we performed well, we just were not clinical in front of goal. 

 

 

We then went on a superb unbeaten run winning the next 5 games in a row which started with a 2-1 victory against Anderlecht. 

 

 

The best performance of the lot being the 3-1 win over a very strong Club Brugge side with our new Mezzala Diarrassouba picking up 2 goals.

 

So after 10 games we are in second place which is somewhat surprising. After losing 3 of the first 4 games I wasnt sure where we would pick up the points over the next few games, but the tactic started to click and we have had some great performances from Guiagon and his compatriot Diarrassouba which have propelled us forward. Remains to be seen if we can maintain this as we have only kept two clean sheets in 10 games.

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

Wils

[Emozil]

Great save idea mate. Looking forward to future updates. 

[wils2603]

20 minutes ago, Emozil said:

Great save idea mate. Looking forward to future updates. 

Cheers mate! Have you started a save yet?

[marktonge]

Great idea for a save! I like hearing about teams I'm not too clued up on and Charleroi definitely fits that bill! I think I love Belgium because of their hobby of eating fries and mayo whenever and wherever they can! 

The Home kit is a beaut! Fantastic start to the season, long may that continue!

[Emozil]

4 minutes ago, wils2603 said:

Cheers mate! Have you started a save yet?

Have a save going with Villa. I'll do that until full game and then get into something long term. After a bit of a break from here I'm going to start posting save updates when the full game is out. It'll be  a journeyman but I've already decided the first team. (Rushall Olympic)

[Rikulec]

58 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Good idea for save. 

If you get sacked, (which I'm sure you won't but just in case), the other 9 Ugly Cities in the Top 10 are as follows, (not in correct order). 

Guatemala City, Guatemala
Detroit, USA. 
Derry, N.Ireland.
Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Luanda, Angola.
Amman, Jordan.
Norilsk, Russia.
Guangzhao, China.
Manilla, Philippines. 

Surprised my Polish hometown isn't on the list tbf.

[wils2603]

34 minutes ago, marktonge said:

Great idea for a save! I like hearing about teams I'm not too clued up on and Charleroi definitely fits that bill! I think I love Belgium because of their hobby of eating fries and mayo whenever and wherever they can! 

The Home kit is a beaut! Fantastic start to the season, long may that continue!

Its a very admirable hobby! Happens to be one of mine also!

[wils2603]

We are just over half way through the season now, the January transfer window has just slammed shut and we have made a couple of signings. 

 

We signed Yari Verscharen from Anderlecht. Belgian national, young and versatile. Can play pretty much anywhere in offensive midfield positions and in attack. I am bringing him in to add depth to the mezzala position and wide areas. 

 

 

He should be a great addition to our squad depth and home grown! We do have an option fee of €43m so there is next to no chance of us signing him if he performs well. But if he plays well he could be another strong loan option for next season.

 

Our second signing is very much for the future, although he may play a small role from now until the end of the season before we hopefully can find a good loan for him next season. Our scouts found him whilst scouting in Sweden.

Good finishing and great physicals and only cost just over €500k for a player with a huge potential upside.

 

We had one departure in Daan Heymans (DM/MC), who only played one game for us so no great loss. Although he coincidently scored the winner against me for his new team - an FM classic right there! 

 

We also managed to pull off a bit of a transfer coup. I had my eyes on him at the start of the game when I saw he was transfer listed and his contract was expiring. I couldn't get him on loan at the start of the season as fees and wages were extortionate. But we have managed now to sign him on a pre contract in the summer. 

 

We’re bringing back a Belgian player who left the Juplier Pro league for Serie A and then the Premier League. Welcome back (in the summer) Dennis Praet.

 

 

I have to say I am quite excited about this, he will give us some much needed experience, two footed and will be able to play in the mezzala role or BBM and even out wide if necessary. 

 

Anyway before that signing happens I have to make sure we have a good second half of the season. We have now played 23 games and this is where we are.

League Results
 

 

 

8 wins out of the 13 games which is great stuff. We lost against arguably the two strongest sides. Antwerp are defending champions and then we lost the derby again which is frustrating. Not a great start to my derby record. Played 2 lost 2.

 

We seem to be quite free scoring which is great, but we are leaking goals. I will look to rectify this, possibly dropping our high line and altering our full backs and even changing one of our CB’s so we do not have two ball playing CB’s. 

 

Salifou Diarrassouba has been one of our stand out performers so far this season. 11 goals and 6 assists in 23 games. He is our top scorer, Isaac Mbenza has chipped in with 9 goals from Inside Forward and Youssouph Badji who has won the starting spot at striker has 8 goals. Pascal Guiagon also has 4 goals and 11 assists.

 

Unfortunately we had a dismal showing in the cup. Won in the 6th round but then got knocked out in the 7th round by Genk. The wait continues!

 

Hopefully we can continue our good form for the rest of the season, we have 7 games left until the end of the regular season and then the league splits up where the top 6 then go into a mini league and play each other again where the 6h place team can win the league depending on how their results go. Seems a bit unfair on the team who finish 1st up to this point, could be a serious bottle job. Anyway, anyone has a chance at that point. 

 

As long as we do not finish 6th at the end of it….there might a chance of Europe

 

 

Cheers,

 

Wils

[wils2603]

RCSC has a great win at the weekend IRL against Antwerp! 2 penalties from our BBM Marco Ilaimaharitra who I confirm is also good at penalties in the game and has scored every one he's taken.

[wils2603]

So we have just reached the end of February and we had a mini wobble, losing 2 in a row and drawing one. All very winnable games as well. 

 

 

Thankfully we rounded off the month back on track with probably our best performance of the season. Genk had leapfrogged us into second place and they arrived at the Stade du Pays de Charleroi bang in form. We needed a victory not only to keep some breathing space from us in 3rd to the teams in 4th and 5th but also to give us confidence going into the top 6 playoff knowing we can beat these teams.

 

And we did it convincingly, superb team performance. 

 

This is how the league looks now with 3 games left until the Top 6 Playoff.

 

[wils2603]

Youth Intake is ok. The two fullbacks the pick of the bunch.

[wils2603]

 

This is how the Top 6 Championship playofff looks like. Your season points up to that point get halved and then you play each other twice. Genk the inform team. It will be tough to catch the top 2 but I think if we can finish 3rd or 4th that would be a great season with a chance of getting into Europa league or Conference league. 

 

Heres what our fixures look like.

 

Cheers,

Wils

[wils2603]

Season 1 Review and Looking Ahead to Season 2

 

 

Well that's that then, season 1 finished and it's been an excellent season. Whilst the wait for a trophy goes on, we have taken great steps to achieving our goals and have been playing some great football along the way. The first half of the season was arguably better and we seemed to run out of steam in the end but we clung on for a 3rd place finish with a win on the last day of the season and secured our place in the Europa league playoffs for a chance of making the Europa League proper. All in all a great result and bettering the 6th place finish IRL Charleroi made last season.

 

 

Our rivals Standard walked away as champions, and our record against them was terrible all season. Lost every game against them, a record I will be determined to better next season. OH Leuven who placed 13th in the regular season lost the relegation play off to be relegated which must be a tough pill to swallow after finishing 8 points ahead of the bottom two. But that is the weird and wonderful Juplier league for you. Everything all to play for at both ends of the table right up until the end.

 

Players of the Season

 

It was a strong collective effort overall from the team. Although we struggled to keep clean sheets with just 6 clean sheets all season, offensively we had no issue. Three of our players hitting double figures for goals and five players with seven assists or more which really showed how much the team contributed from all areas of the pitch. 

 

However, there were three standout players this season which propelled us to a third place finish. Isaac Mbenza scored 13 goals and contributed 4 assists from inside forward on the right. A combination of his pace, dribbling and strength made him a constant threat for us going forward and he often popped up with a decisive goal. At 28 years old he's coming into his prime now and we continue to be a key player for us in the coming seasons. Parfait Guiagon was our creator in chief, the inverted winger racked up twelve assists and 8 goals and was a joy to watch his mazy runs before whipping in dangerous balls or scoring from long range. Two footed and with great vision he's been a star player for us from the inverted winger position on the left. He is developing nicely and at 23 years old still has room to grow. But my player of the season goes to our new signing Salifou Diarrassouba. What a season from him, 13 goals and 8 assists from mezzala. He was involved in everything that was good about our play. Destructive on the counter, dynamic in possession and clinical in front of goal. Ive always loved the mezzala role in FM and in this version the role performs even better and it just looks so good on the new match engine when in full force. Hopefully we see more of the same from him next season.

 

What’s Next?

 

Looking ahead to next season is going to be interesting. We surpassed expectations of a top half finish by finishing 3rd and securing a potential european place. This surpassed my own expectations personally and I feel we are probably a year ahead of schedule which whilst this can be seen as successful it can also lead to new problems and the dreaded second season syndrome. With that in mind in I feel a few changes tactically are required and some personnel changes needed to not only build on this season but also to evolve the style of play that we want to conduct. As mentioned before we found it difficult to keep clean sheets, defensively we were quite vulnerable on the counter, playing a high line and committing a lot of bodies forward. In a way to combat this I have changed a few things tactically, see below for how we will line up in season 2.

 

I have changed the full back positions to Inverted wingbacks. This gives us a 235, or 2323 when in possession and  by having 3 players operating in the defensive midfield strata on and around the halfway line when we are building from the back gives us protection centrally if we lose the ball. I'm happy to give up space out wide to enable us to stay compact and narrow if we lose the ball high up the pitch. Also with the added BWM in dm position gives us more protection and also someone who can win the ball back for us and start the counter. The mezzala is unchanged after the success last year but we have moved the RPM from DM to CM to get him to be a little bit more effective in the final third. And also support the inside forward who has a PI of stay wider so that more space is created not only for himself but also for underlaps and interplay with the RPM and IWB. Similarly the IW also has stay wider PI for the same reasons. Although we are playing a high press, I might change the pressing forward to an advanced forward to see if i can get more goals, but we will see how we get on. See image below for how we line up in possession. I like the shape and I love that the Mezzala and RPM can occupy those half spaces.

 

 

I'm hoping these changes not only give us more structure in possession and ultimately be able to create more goal scoring opportunities but will also protect us from being vulnerable on the counter. I also think this steady evolution will keep opposition teams from finding us too predictable in this second season.

 

Second Season Aims

 

It will be a challenge to better our league position this coming season and I think we are a year or two of really be able to challenge for the the title but there are still a few things that i would like to achieve this coming season:

 

• European Football

• Winning derby record against Standard Lierge

• Better record against the “Top 4” (Standard, Genk, Anderlecht, Club Brugge)

• Better defensive record. More clean sheets.

• A Deep cup run

 

Anything better than the above will be a bonus. It would be great if we can make our mark on the Croky cup after our poor showing last season.

 

In the next post we will look at some personnel changes and the squad we have for season two.

 

Cheers,

 

Wils

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by wils2603

[TelcontarTargaryen]

Given the title, I was expecting a save in Belgrade 

[wearesporting]

Enjoyed a save with them in FM23. Won the league somehow in the first season with them, was harder going after that as Charleroi are a bit behind with facilities.

[FM Roo]

A good first season there. Good luck in the next !

My greatest ever FM save (30 seasons on FM12) began in Belgium with a tiny club called Patro Eisden.

 

Looking forward to hearing what happens next.

[wils2603]

On 28/10/2023 at 20:25, wearesporting said:

Enjoyed a save with them in FM23. Won the league somehow in the first season with them, was harder going after that as Charleroi are a bit behind with facilities.

Thats great going, finding things a little tougher over here. HAHA

[wils2603]

On 29/10/2023 at 22:53, FM Roo said:

A good first season there. Good luck in the next !

My greatest ever FM save (30 seasons on FM12) began in Belgium with a tiny club called Patro Eisden.

 

Looking forward to hearing what happens next.

Cheers mate!

[wils2603]

Right, this next post was meant to be a review of our transfer business and looking ahead to our first few games of the season. However with limited time at the moment (2 kids + work) I thought I would play some games first and then come back and update on the tranfers. But the start of the season has been very challenging to say the least, allbeit my own fault for letting my no1 keeper and backup depart and then not bringing in a proper replacement as I splashed the whole budget on some other positions but more on that later.

Our start of the season looked like this.....

And i thought to myself Id be dissapointed not to pick up 6 or 7 wins and then maybe a result off Genk, Club Brugge or Anderlecht. 

How wrong I was. A mixture of changing a tactic that wasnt neccesarrily broken (just needed a few tweaks) and playing a young goalkeeper who is nowhere near the first team led us to 6 losses in our first 8 games with the lowlight being a 6-1 humillation defeat at home by Kortrijk. Who?! I hear you ask. Well exactly!

6 shot on target and 6 goals. Things were not good at all.

We bounced back with a win against Gent in the next game and we chopped and changed a few things reverting back to our season 1 Howeball. We then lost two games in a row in the league only scoring once and conceeding 6 goals against Club Brugge and Anderlecht. We then won our first game in the Europa League against Rapid Bucuresti 2-0 which was then followed up by a 2-1 defeat again at home against newly promoted side Deinze.

Things were inconsistent shall we say. This prompted another tactical tweak, our roaming playmaker in the cm strata was just not working for us, but i didnt want to move them back to the dm strata which we had for season 1 as despite results I liked having a ball winner in the dm for more defensive solidarity......Sounds like its working I hear you cry?! That 6-1 defeat proves it....

Instead, we kept the Ball winner in DM and chanaged the full backs from inverted to a wingback on attack on the left which worked so well for us last season and the full back on support on the right. Ahead of the DM we have gone for a double mezzala. Ive decided attack is the best form of defence. Invoking not just the intensity structure and energy of Eddie Howes Newcastle but now also Keegans if you score 3 we'll score 4. At least I hope. With the ball winner holding his postion and providing cover in the central areas of the pitch the mezzalas are able to reak havok in and around the edge of the box hopefully arriving on to balls by our wide players and linking up with our striker.

The other positions are as they were. See below for how we are shaping up now.

Team imstructions fairly simple, win the ball high up the pitch. 5 offensive players plus an attacking wingback to counter and create some chances with plenty of players in and around the ball for when we do.

 

After 2 wins in 8 games, we employed this double mezzala tactic and have gone on a run to win 4 league games in a row including handing out a 6-1 druming ourselves against Mechelen which really helped heal the scars of our own humillation. 

 

 

In the Europa league we lost to Bodo/Glimt which was dissapointing but we managed to pull off a big result in the next game against Feyenoord winning 2-0 at home. A superb result and some much needed prize money to replenish the depleated coffers.

Perhaps a slightly fortunate result when you look at the stats, but that meant 5 wins in 6 games and quite the turnaround to a very very poor start.

So at the end of October we are 8th with 18 points after 12 games and only a point off the championship playoff places in 6th. We have our rivals Standard Liege in our next game and this will reall be a test to see if this new tactic can really make us go on a run. We are yet to beat them in this save...

Also a quick word on our other rival (which rather annoyingly they are not listed in game as rivals but as mentioned previously their stadium is 850m from our own), we have drawn Olympic Charleroi in the Croky Cup.

 

They actually got promoted last season to the second division so only one league away from us now.

Transfers

I guess we should look at our transfer business quickly. I thought we recruited very well and pulled off a few transfer coups until I realised I had nothing left to sign a first team worthy goalkeeper which has been nothing short of a disaster, although the ship has steadied a little. But. GK is a top priority for us as long as we have the funds to do so which does not seem likely at the moment.

 

Dennis Praet joined on a pre contract and since changing to a mezzala has been performing well.

Silas Gnaka was signed on a free and can play pretty much anywhere along the back line and in DM and has actually been starting for us at LCB in our recent good run of form.

 

Solid attributes for this level and versatile.

We managed to raid Crvena Zvezda for two top talents in Jovan Sljivic and Vladimir Lucic who were both found by my scouts while scouting Eastern Europe. 

 

Jovan Sljivic fits perfectly in our team as a mezzala and Lucic the more developed of the two add competition with Guiagon in the inverted winger position on the left. Both players although have started slowly to life in Charleroi Im in doubt will be a huge success for us and ultimately we should be able to make a sizeable profit from them.

Im sure you have noticed there is a rather big name player on that list of transfers....

 

We have managed to bring back Thomas Menuier to Beglium and along with Dennis Praet I couldnt be happier. A one year deal on relatively cheap wages was too hard to ignore. Our poor run of form hasnt helped his settling back into Belgian life and he actually lost his place to our right back from last season Tomas Silva but Im hoping with a lot of season left he will be invaluable to us as the season goes on.

As mentioned we are a little light in the goalkeeping department. An understatement.

 

Not exactly what you would call first team quality even for this standard. Chiacig has actually performed pretty well and has been in goal for our recent good run of form while Osayi was out injured. But this is all we have till at least January, and then hopefully we can do some business but likely on loan if the finances allow.

One final thing you might have noticed a name in the starting XI and on the scoresheets above that hasnt been mentioned yet. Anthony Descotte, we were lucky to be able to bring him back from a loan as he was on loan at FC Utrecht last season and ended up being joint top goalscorer in the Eredivisie, hes come back and been our starting striker scoring 5 goals and assiting 4 and this new tactic seems to be getting more out of him now. Hes one of thos players that is a lot of fun to watch in the match engine. Still young and homegrown he is a great addition to our squad.

 

So that concludes this update, apolgiies if a little all over the place. Work and 2 kids and general life stuff getting in the way makes it challenging to play the game and update but Im enjoying documenting this save and really enjoying playing as Charleroi.

Thanks for reading.

Wils

[wils2603]

 

Superb derby result away at Standard, 2-0 down and we came back to draw. Mbenza coming up clutch! We've got some great momentum now.

Edited October 31, 2023 by wils2603

[wils2603]

 

Great performance in our final Europa League game and we managed to take the victory that allowed us to finish in 8th place in the league. Only lost once in 6 games. Im not actually too familair with how the next stage works, I guess we will find out

 

[wils2603]

We have been in cracking form since our tactical tweak. Unbeaten in all competitions since our loss to Bodo/Glimt in the first week of October. We headed to our rivals Olympic Charleroi on the 22nd December for the 6th round of the Croky cup. Our injuries were racking up (something which seems a little too frequently in this beta - Has anyone experienced similar?) so I rotated heavily for this game but we went to the Stade Yvan Georges just across the road from us full of confidence. Olmpic Chareleroi on the other hand were languishing in the relgation spots in the Challenger Pro League.

 

 

And of course we lost on penalties! We were so wasteful in front of goal. Another season where we crash out in the early rounds of the cup and my derby record taking another hit. Alas, we move on.

Edited November 1, 2023 by wils2603

[wils2603]

Our unbeaten run finally game to an end in the last game before the winter break. 12 games unbeaten which has been a monumental turnaround since the start of the season. Nut we lost 3-2 to Gent who have been in great form themselves. All good things come to end and we are in good shape. 5th in the league on 36 points.

 

[wils2603]

This is how the league is looking as we head to the January Transfer window.

 

We will be looking to do some business in January, namely Goalkeeping reinforcements. We also have had some players who have said they will be "exploring their options" when their contract comes up at the end of next season, so I might need to cash in on them now or at end of the season to make sure I can maximise the profit. Its dissapointing but I guess thats the game at this level. My scouts have been working hard so we have a great shortlist of replacements. But we do need to sell to buy first.

Edited November 1, 2023 by wils2603

[wils2603]

January 2025 Transfers

 

Transfers Out

 

We managed to get rid of two back up squad players in Ozornwafor and Jackson Tchatchoua who had made a handful of appearences between them off the bench and some decent money for them. I hadnt planned on selling Pojezny who has been a great player for us for 18 months as our LCB. We signed him for €925k and sold him for €7.5m which is good business although if it wasnt for him moaning about a contract we could have possibly hung on to him to the summer and maybe got more for him but a great profit either way which gave us some much needed funds to spend where we need to. We also have Gnaka who has been playing well in the LCB position also and we have Knezovic who is able there so all in all I dont think it will hurt us too much. Chris De Valck heads on loan to our affiliate for the rest of the season.

Transfers In

 

We finally were able to sign some adequate goalkeeping reinforcements and our new No1 is quite the find.

 

We broke our transfer record to get him and I think he be great for us, very good atributes for a sweeper keeper at this level. We also brought in two players on loan, Desplanches is a young keeper who is quite promising but is there for depth and Malcolm Jeng i tried to sign on loan as a young u[ and coming left sided CB but Atalanta swooped in but they were happy to loan him to me.

Hopefully I wont be ******** it every time the other team has a highlight now we have a proper keeper in goal.

 

[Rikulec]

Tobiasz is indeed a good goalkeeper, also rated quite highly IRL, although his concentration and development suffered a bit after he found a new girlfriend a few months ago. Good luck in the second half of the season! 

[wils2603]

36 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

Tobiasz is indeed a good goalkeeper, also rated quite highly IRL, although his concentration and development suffered a bit after he found a new girlfriend a few months ago. Good luck in the second half of the season! 

Hes started well! Hopefully he girlfriend has joined him Charleroi....

[wils2603]

We have rattled through the second half of the season playing some great stuff and we have maanged to finish in the championship playoffs once again.

 

We won 6 out of 9 games which is a great effort to finish in 4th.

It was pretty compettive this year for 4th-6th so we needed to play our best stuff. When we lost 2 in a row i thought uh oh, here comes the wobble but we rallied and finished strong.

 

Unfortunately we had a pretty poor showing in the Europa League and gort knocked out by Braga. Hopefully we can get Europa again or even better this year.

 

 

Championship Group

So this is what the champiohship group looks like after they halve the points. 4 points off top. Can we do it? Our record against the top teams has been slightly better this season but not by much. Id love it we could finish in 3rd again. Better than that might be tough, but not impossible. Our squad is in good health.

10 games to go. First up is Anderlecht who are in a rich veign of form. We held them to a draw last time out, lets go one better....

[Rikulec]

40 minutes ago, wils2603 said:

Hes started well! Hopefully he girlfriend has joined him Charleroi....1

I imagine it wouldn't be easy for her to move from Warsaw to the ugliest city in the world! 

[wils2603]

 

Yesssss! Our first derby win. And what a time to do it. 1-0 away from home and down to 10 men for 45 mins. 2 wins and a draw from 3 games of this championship playoff. Great start!