g1nh0 Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 (edited) Emerging The Club and Nation (Lyn TF & Norway) So after my solo Malaga save, which I have decided to stop, for now at least, and in addition to my current online save I still have going, I want to undertake one last solo challenge which I hope I can make last a good while. I researched all previous European finals (including the new / old UCL, UEFA cup / Europa League, Cup Winners Cup. I also then looked for any nations that haven’t reached either the World Cup or Euros finals. My idea was to take a club in any nation that has never competed in any European final in their history, and also in a nation that has never reached a national cup final World or Euro’s. I also wanted something a bit different to the normal and a nation that contained a club considered a fallen giant, or has had some degree of history to them. I’ve managed in Sweden before and I know their schedule is a bit out of sync. But I haven’t managed in Norway before. I then thought it would be nice if any team was going to have success, to be in a major city of this nation. With Oslo being the capital and none of the considered real big clubs at present being located there, I figured a club from this City would interest me. And with Norway as a nation have never appeared in a World Cup or European final, gives me the option to manage the National team if I ever wanted to although I generally am not keen on INT management. I also wanted the club to have a decent football kit! So this then seemed to leave me with two options: Valerenga – considered a fallen giant, although now back in the top tier. Have had some decent history winning some league titles and domestic cups, but nowhere near the level of Rosenborg based in Trondheim. They have a professional football club status and were founded in 1913. They also have some great facilities to start off with. If I wanted to make them the most successful side in Norway this would be my pick. Lyn TF – they also have quite a long and varied history with most of their success happening in the 1960s. They’ve won a couple of league titles and domestic cups but are now currently languishing in the third tier. They were the first Norwegian team to reach a European Cup Winners Quarter Final stage where they eventually went out to might Barca. The club also were declared bankrupt in 2010, of which they then dropped down all the way to the 7th tier in Norway. They also only have a semi-professional football club status and one of the oldest football clubs in Norway founded in 1896. The facilities here are pretty dire. If I wanted to resurrect a club back to the big time from the lowest tier and develop them as a club, this would be my choice. -- My Choice – Lyn TF Deciding to go against a club already with a good infrastructure, I’ve ended up choosing Lyn TF. I tend to struggle staying at clubs for a long period, but I’m hoping with the difficulties I’m bound to experience here and the highly varied club’s history, it may end up being more rewarding and may give me more motivation to stay here for the very long haul. Time will be limited most likely having a couple of games on the go. So I’ll again update when I feel the need to post something. I expect they might be more frequent at a point we are more competitive within the nation – assuming I’m not sacked of course. If I do get sacked, I’ll keep my options open but I can only apply for clubs in Oslo – and at the same time, if I feel I can’t take this club further then I won’t rule out applying for another club in Oslo. But my intention from the off is to stay at Lyn TF for the long haul. For that reason I’m also starting with no coaching badges and a Sunday league reputation. First job will be to try and move them up the leagues, but also become a club at a professional status. Then it will be to try and bring back the successes they had back in the 60s, and for the first time ever, have them represent a Norwegian club in any European football final. -- Managerial Honours Lyn TF (24/07/2023-present) Domestic -x1 PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 1 (Tier 3 League Title) -x1 OBOS-ligaen (Tier 2 League Title) -x2 Eliteserien (Tier 1 League Title) -x1 Braathens Cup European -x1 Europa League Managerial -x1 OBOS-ligaen (Head Coach of the Year) -x1 Eliteserien (Head Coach of the Year) -- Season Club League Position Domestic Cups European Cups Awards 1 Lyn TF (NOR) PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 1 (Tier 3) 1st - Champions (promoted) Braathen Cup - Runners Up - - 2 Lyn TF (NOR) OBOS-ligaen (Tier 2) 1st - Champions (promoted) Braathen Cup - SF - OBOS-ligaen - HCOTY 3 Lyn TF (NOR) Eliteserien (Tier 1) 1st - Champions Braathen Cup - SF - Eliteserien - HCOTY 4 Lyn TF (NOR) Eliteserien (Tier 1) 1st - Champions Braathen Cup - Winners Europa League - Winners Eliteserien - HCOTY 5 Lyn TF (NOR) Eliteserien (Tier 1) 6 7 8 9 10 11 Edited June 9 by g1nh0 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 25 Author Share Posted May 25 Season 1 Preview – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 1: Reach Playoffs (Top 2 Finish) Braathens Cup: Be Competitive Media Prediction: 5th -- I had a small squad to start with, but one with a good number of young players. I’m hoping they’ll have a bundle of energy to help us with an expected challenge for promotion. We did however lack some numbers and I’m having to rely on some youth players to provide our squad depth. We also only had 3 strikers and I would ideally need 4 to employ my two striker 424 system that I've designed to try and grind out results with. My Team / 424 Formation for the Year Riki Alba Signing So I was able to find 28 year old Riki Alba. Unattached contract but with good experience playing at a higher level, he was the ideal single signing to help with our push and I believe will be an important one. Otherwise, we would have been relying on 37 year old Ibba Laajabb with pace and acceleration of 7! So I was happy with our squad for this year. If we can avoid any long term injuries whilst hoping some of our younger talent can show promise, then with any luck we’ll give promotion a good shot in my first year here. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 26 Author Share Posted May 26 Season 1 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) League Progress Things are going extremely well so far, and I didn’t expect to have created a 12 point gap after half of the season gone. I didn’t realize there would be few teams in Norway, but I quite like there are less games in each division. I may eventually end up watching games at a slower pace (I often blitz through my games quite quickly). Anyhow, a lot of the teams in the league are dropping points. With only one team able to gain an automatic spot we’re looking in very good shape at this moment in time. With 14 teams in this division, there are 26 games in all here to play. Cup Progress We’ve had some real battles but we’ve somehow come through unscathed and are in the quarter finals where we’ve drawn Lillestrom away. We have already had to knock a couple of teams out in the second and the top tiers. Brann was a notable victory whom were 7th in the top tier at the time. We had a 2-0 lead but they ended up equalizing last kick of the game in normal time. It eventually went to penalties and we won. Although I highly doubt we’ll get any further, it has meant our board are very pleased with our progress made in this competition, so this is all good in us having a good board rating – helping them to offer renewing my contract, which I of course accepted. Notes We are now sadly in debt, and sliding quite alarmingly. So it was good at the very start of my tenure I asked to learn a National C license badge which they accepted. The other notable event is probably our star player Anders Bjørntvedt Olsen is being chased by 14 clubs. I had a really good offer from GAE which would have cleared our 120k GBP debt. Only problem is he is such a key player I can’t afford to lose him. Given I’m now expecting us to ensure we gain promotion, with his contract due to end at the end of next season irrespective of whether he renews or not, I can’t afford to consider letting him go. My only hope is if we do go up and are able to turn to professional status, maybe he’ll be willing to renew. But with the quality of clubs after him, it is highly unlikely. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 26 Author Share Posted May 26 Season 1 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) - Braathen Cup QF Mourinho Masterclass - (Braathen Cup QF ~ Lillestrom 1 – Lyn TF 2) -A Mourinho Masterclass sees Lyn TF shock second placed tier 1 Eliteserien outfit Lillestrom on their own turf to make the semi-finals of the Braathens Cup.- We led the game twice, first going 1-0 up after an 11th minute penalty, and despite conceding soon after HT, we hit back quickly to regain our lead in the 55th minute. But then Meinseth after a reckless tackle saw us go down to 10 men with still a significant chunk of the game left. Despite being a man short after the 69th minute - of all minutes, and already having missed a penalty in the 41st minute to have a 2 goal cushion, it became all hands to the pump to hold on valiantly for the last 20 or so of this one. The aim then become to restrict them to as few set plays as possible and low xG shots from outside the box. And so after using four different mentalities and a whole host of differing player roles to try and get through this game, Lillestrom were never quite able to create that clear cut opportunity to bring the tie level which undoubtedly would have given them a massive advantage and momentum to put the tie to bed. The last moments typified how our plan played out. A long range short resulting in a corner, which putting all our bodies on the line, were able to clear and we held onto a memorable and hugely unexpected win. Semi Final Draw With the semi final draws made, we have another tough away trip to mid-table tier 2 team Sandnes Ulf. The other semi sees giants Bodo Glimt square off vs Molde, with the winners of that game likely going to be the eventual cup winners. Financial implications of making the final would be a substantial one. With the losers of the final set to pocket a little over 110k GBP, for a club like ours it would be a massive boost, and may increase our chances of moving onto a professional club status. Can we cause one more shock? I’ll be praying we can, but it may be in the FM gods to decide whether our luck is now due to run out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 26 Author Share Posted May 26 Season 1 End – Lyn TF (NOR) As my last post ended up detailing our cup quarter final match, I’ll start off with reviewing how the Braathen cup played out… Braathen Cup – Proud "Runners Up" Well after our giant killing we had another higher tier side in Sandnes Ulf to play at their place in the Semi Finals. In another close affair, this time we were able to hold more of our own in normal play. A game which saw both teams hit the target 3 times and a very similar xG overall, it was the in demand Olsen with an early goal after 10 minutes, proving enough to take us into the Cup Final with a hard earned 0-1 victory. However it came at a huge huge cost. Four of our players got booked, and all four were players that would end up missing the cup final. The other semi saw Bodo Glimt push aside Molde, which was not what I wanted as they are definitely the strongest team in Norway – and they did end up as Champions in the top division. Lyn TF 0 – 1 Bodo Glimt (Braathen Cup Final) I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but probably much the same way things panned out vs Lillestrom. But the one huge difference, as above with over a third of our team missing this game with suspension and a few of them providing our offensive threat, with what we had left to come in there really was no hope in causing them any problems. And sadly for us, my prediction came correct. They bossed the game from minute one to the end, and we weren’t able to muster one single shot on their goal. They also failed to convert a penalty, a brilliant save from our keeper. But to compound our misery in this game, we were actually valiantly holding them to a 0-0 score line until another cup red card in minute 74 killed off any hope of a miraculous upset, which most likely would have come through set pieces as I trained them specifically for this game. And so the deadlock was eventually broken – not by being carved open, but by a stunning 25 yard free kick belter that beat our helpless keeper in the 79th minute, just five minutes after the red. That in the end proved enough for Bodo to see it through comfortably. Well honestly, I didn’t expect to get anywhere near a cup final appearance – and we pocketed over 110K GBP from it. Very proud with the efforts every one of our players put in…perhaps on another day with our missing 4 players available, we may have caused them more of a threat on the break… but it just wasn’t to be. On the positive side, if we somehow took it home, it most certainly would have affected our league form next season having to contend with European football. So looking at the bigger picture, it may have been for the better, as we really need to focus on the league next year - and I'll be more than happy to sacrifice a cup run next season if it means we can reach a top 6 playoff spot, or automatic promotion. (the top two sides go up in the second tier OBOS-ligaen to the top tier) PostNord-ligaen Avdeling 1 – Invincibles / Champions / Record Breakers In the league, I was smelling the potential of an invincible season here. We had a couple of close calls in games, but we were able to score a couple of late goals to keep this potential achievement in tact. And from the start of September until the season’s end in mid-November our league form was not near perfect, but perfect. Winning 8 games in a row, it saw us complete an invincible whilst surpassing the 68 points tally which was the previous league record total in this division. We ended up with 72 points. It’s worked out very much like my time at KSC Lokeren in my Belgium save. And I feel our overachievements has led to both a significant boost in club reputation, but the board’s willingness to invest in myself too. My applications to improve my licenses have been improved, and currently working towards a National A License. The board were also willing to improve training facilities, and are “planning” a move to professional status. But it’s been months and I haven’t heard any movement on it, which isn’t a good sign – so I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will eventually happen, as I don’t want to be forced to move clubs. Notes So my aim of a straight promotion was achieved, and an unexpected cup final run was really great to have. Fortunately none of the contracts of our players this year are expiring. I will be identifying the areas I’ll try to bring probably a handful of players in to try and stabilize us in the division above, or quietly hoping for a playoff spot / promotion push. But next year will be a problem, as a dozen or so players will be out of contract - and not one is interested in staying. Not sure how things will be yet budget wise, as with the cup funds and the usual revenue you receive at the start of the year, with any luck I’ll have a little to play with. But with our reputation status still remaining at semi pro, attracting players will also prove extremely difficult and I’m guessing a number of loans may be the order of the day with my recruiting over the Summer. I’ll also look to see whether our board will provide room for some more staff members as this will also prove important in our aim to have a good season next year. But if this club has any ambitions which is a must to meet my own, then it is imperative we move to a professional status. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronFM Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Lovely to see another save in Norway! A great first season, and no shame in defeat to a side like Bodø/Glimt in the final. Finances could be tough to manage in the off-season, but hopefully you are able to shift a couple of lesser important players off to help clear this instead of losing key men! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 4 hours ago, CameronFM said: Lovely to see another save in Norway! A great first season, and no shame in defeat to a side like Bodø/Glimt in the final. Finances could be tough to manage in the off-season, but hopefully you are able to shift a couple of lesser important players off to help clear this instead of losing key men! Glad to have joined the FM24 Norway gang! Seems quite popular to manage in this year Yeah indeed, they seem to be the benchmark team of this nation. Will take a while to get to their level, but with a bit of luck the club will be ambitious enough to allow me to build something here. Very much in limbo at the moment. I'll know more by end of this season most likely what exactly needs to be done! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 (edited) Season 2 Preview / Start – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives OBOS-ligaen: Reach Playoffs (Top 6 Finish) Braathens Cup: Be Competitive Media Prediction: 5th -- Well it was a productive Summer and we were given enough funds to manoeuvre fairly well in the market. We were able to strengthen in the goalkeeping, central defensive, midfield, and striker department with 6 players coming in, 5 of which were loans. We’re expected to reach the playoffs this year (top 6) and be competitive again in the cup. I was also able to let a few go all whom ate up some wages, and they were players I would have no use for this year. But unfortunately there is no change to our professional status which leaves us at a considerable disadvantage this year. Transfers Ismael I’m trusting will give us a bit more quality in midfield, and Lamba would give us real solidity at the back and be better able to play a high line. Eriksson I hope will do a solid job between the sticks this year, which then left a good striker needed to fill that last area I wanted improved. And I found one, the one permanent signing being striker Andrade, who I feel was going to be very important in our push this year – only to now have him suffer a 3 month injury in a late pre season game!!! So all my plans at this moment are in tatters. It was important for us to have a good start to the campaign, but with this now in jeopardy my goals will need to be immediately changed. Zero expectations of an automatic promotion push. Mid table would be a good solid first year in the division. But the worry is with a lot of our players likely to depart, is whether we can build a competitive squad from next year onwards. I’ll have to worry about that another time. For now, I just need to push on with this season, and try as much as I possibly can to prevent a real crisis of player departures at the end. Season 2 Start – Lyn TF (NOR) Initial Panic After our loss to Bodo Glimt which was our only defeat through the whole of last season, I was in for more of a rude awakening. Sandnes Ulf who we KO’d in the semi finals of the cup last year had a chance for revenge on their own turf in the very first league fixture – and we got absolutely battered losing heavily 1-4. This seems to be a theme with my saves, as with Liege after beating PSG in the UCL final they KO us immediately out the WCC. But honestly this game I was dumbfounded - I didn’t know what made us capitulate so badly. And worryingly our new on loan keeper got a 5.9 rating. Considering how well and consistent we performed last year, this really did set off the alarm bells. I already wondered if the players I brought in may end up bring a horrific mistake… Hot Streak But fast forward on 8 games, we won all 8 (7 in the league and one in the cup taking us into round 2). This has catapulted us into top spot in the table, leading Stabaek by 4 points and more importantly 3rd placed Mjondalen by 6 points. I gambled on moving Olsen into the striker position to replace the 3 month injured signing Andrade, and it seems to have worked out well. I’d compare him to Sonnie at Spurs, more a wide man but can do a job down the centre. So yes, things are looking a lot better than they were. I’m hoping we can keep out form consistent enough through the year, but there’s still so many games left to be played. We’ll know more what a realistic target will be after half of the 30 games have gone. Teams will undoubtedly adapt too, so we just have to keep taking each game as it comes. Edited May 27 by g1nh0 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 Season 2 End – Lyn TF (NOR) OBOS-ligaen - Winners (Promoted) After our strong start to the league campaign, we kept this going right up until the end of the season. Avoiding any more defeats and drawing only a few games, we ended up with a 26 won, 3 drew and 1 loss record – this happened to equal the record for this division, with Brann securing identical results when they set their 81 points league record at this level. With our problems at the start of the year, and also we faced some at the end with our keeper out for a couple of months, we did extremely well to remain consistent and at times, it felt like we were just going through the motions. To my amazement there was a degree of inevitability with us going up as Champions, and I was panicking after our first result and injury issues. So back to back promotions see Oslo’s oldest football club finally return to the top tier. It means we get a chance to rekindle our fierce rivalry with Valerenga in the Best I byenn Oslo Derby, one I'm very much looking forward to. Braathens Cup – Semi Finals (lost 2-3 vs Viking AET) I had hoped that this form would translate into another cup run. Well it did, but it ended up almost a carbon copy of last year, but instead all of our injuries came in our semi final clash with Viking. We produced heroics to get to this stage, and produced another masterful performance beating the mighty Rosenberg 0-1 at their place. It was very much a smash and grab performance, as we only had 2 shots all game both on target. They had over 20, but they weren’t chances of real quality, registering zero clear cut chances. Another defensive masterclass by us in this one. But sadly this time around come Semi Final time, we were missing three first team players all through injury and suspension. Our goalkeeper, who really improved and was integral to our consistent form suffered an injury keeping him out 2 months, along with both our first team CBs!!! Honestly, it couldn't be any worse missing three key players in those areas of my back line.... So quite predictably, come our semi final when this year we had fire power, we went ahead twice - but without any defenders or keeper, they pegged us back each time and scored a winner in Extra Time, and we were fully left exposed without our players there - now I know how ETH feels You cannot do s*** without any defenders nor keeper available! I haven’t had much luck with injuries and suspensions, especially in this competition. But I think this year’s game is very much ridden with these, especially on the injury front. I actually seem to feel every single FM season I play I'm not getting any luck with them haha But otherwise, we had some enjoyable moments and another nice run in the cup, and it wasn’t to any detriment of our league performance - which was the most important thing. Congrats to Viking, who ended up winning the whole thing beating Brann in the final. Not only that, but they only just won the Eliteserien League Title too! So both years, we've effectively lost to the team in Norway that has completed a domestic double, Bodo and Viking. I don't feel so bad now =) Player Departures…. One thing I’ve continued to emphasize was the importance of turning professional. The moment our promotion was confirmed, our board agreed to move us to a pro club status – but luck again, meant this was too late and a couple of our more important players and Olsen a higher valued asset already agreeing contracts elsewhere. And those that did not, they were suddenly interested in renewing their contract! So all I could end up doing, was renewing the majority of players that would simply help us meet the registration requirement and provide us with squad depth. I was however able to keep one of our loan signings Chico Lamba, as his club FC Midtjylland didn’t renew his contract, and with him being only 21 years old, despite his ludicrous demands I can see him playing a part of the squad long term. If he reaches his potential, then despite the match highest earner clause being agreed, I guess I’ll have to take that hit. If he does fall short of being a star player though, then that would be a good time to ship him off if it gets activated. He has recently earnt a couple of International Cap, so I hope with his age, he has time to develop, especially in the composure and decisions department. Our main / permanent contract departures were Alba, Olsen and backup keeper Pederson. Loan wise, we’re losing both full backs in Kaib and Barroso, Ismael our DM and our loaned keeper Eriksson too. All are significant misses as they all settled in extremely well and were game changers for us this year. It’s not an easy time to try and loan them again, but I’ll have to see closer to the time the start of next season approaches. Areas to strengthen So at this moment, I had feared a complete overhaul as 10 players initially were going to be out of contract and weren’t willing to renew. A few I have decided to not renew by choice. Our midfield area centrally wasn’t the strongest, and with Ismael no longer here and the other players not really of top tier standard, I’ll look to bring a couple of new players in this area. A good keeper is also going to be very important, and ideally with a decent backup too if we still have a budget left for it. Both left and right full-back spots must also be replaced. This won’t be so easy I expect but I hope I can find a couple of players that can do a good job. And up front, with Alba gone and Olsen too, I ideally need a couple of good strikers and also a wide player on the right / left flanks. Olsen’s durability will be missed in that respect. Notes We won’t yet have the reputation to attract real quality yet, nor have the finances too. Currently now repaying a bank loan and negative in the bank balance, investing by way of transfer fees isn’t an option yet. The board have already indicated they just want us to avoid relegation next year. So I’ll need to go in with that mindset, and make sure the signings I do bring in are capable of helping us maintain our top tier status next year. I’ll also make sure we have some good staff that will try to get the most out of our squad during the year. Fortunately we have a stadium large in capacity, so there won’t be issues with number constraints if more fans look to attend our games. On a personal level, the club have treated me well and my ambitions. I'm now studying for a Continental B License. Considering I had no badges just 2 seasons back, that's pretty good progress compared to what I've experienced in other saves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 28 Author Share Posted May 28 (edited) Season 3 Preview / Start – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives Eliteserien: Avoid Relegation Braathens Cup: Be Competitive Media Prediction: 15th A Very Tough Window After being awarded the Head Coach of the Year last year, the smile brought to my face then quite quickly dissipated! This main Winter Window, although was relatively decent on paper still wasn't sufficient enough. With the number of departures we had and not now being in a great financial state (500k GBP in the red and still a 425k GBP bank loan to pay off), recruiting players for adequate depth didn’t happen. This makes me highly concerned for the year, as although I was able to bring in players to fit into the first XI that replaced our loan and permanent departures, what we have on the bench at this higher level hasn’t improved at all, but I would say has actually declined – and there lays the problem. Any injuries we have this year in pretty much any position is going to impact us significantly. So backup wise I don’t have a decent keeper for this level, fullbacks not good enough, central midfielders certainly won’t cut it, and we don’t have any good strikers to rely on off the bench either. We may have had some okay results last couple of years again teams at a higher tier. But when you’re playing much better teams each week, morale will become more of a factor too. They won’t be one off games we can get ourselves up for, but a tough challenge every week. Another problem was adhering to the 16 player registration rule of players being developed in Norway. We just about hit the minimum 16, but with no decent Norwegian players available on Bosmans our ability to try and snap up a couple of more decent squad players wasn't there. Perhaps the most positive area I'm confident in, was recruiting backroom staff. In all aspects coaching, recruiting, and medical departments, we are ranked in the top 2 clubs in the Division. I'm hoping they can bring out the very most in our sub-par squad players, so we can remain at least competitive when we're missing players through suspension or injury. Expectations Being predicted to finish 2nd from bottom is probably quite a realistic assessment, and the board’s aims of avoiding relegation is the best we can try to hope for. 3 teams in total can potentially go down, with two automatic and the third in a playoff against the team from the lower tier. I’ll be delighted if we can avoid getting in a tense scrap for a bottom 3 spot. Key Signings Although we have no depth, I was able to bring in a 20 year old keeper Emerson Lezcano with great potential, and a 25 year old striker Isaac Camargo that I believe is good enough to provide us with a regular flow of goals at this level. Both came across from Columbia. Providing these two players don’t get injured, then we have a chance to stay up. If either do, and long term too, then we are quite simply screwed. The other biggest worry would be our midfield and striker depth. Playing a 2 man midfield, we lack any quality off the bench, and with the striker area having the same problem, it’s going to mean in, and during many games this year we will have glaring weaknesses at this level. It’s therefore going to be critical that we are able to perform well and get the results against teams in the lower half of the division. If we can do well enough here, then we have a decent chance of survival. But I expect the game’s will be tough and tense. No more comfortable games during the league season anymore. Edited May 28 by g1nh0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 28 Author Share Posted May 28 Season 3 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) Changing Expectations Well I can’t have imagined the season has gone as well as it has done so far. After half a season gone, being predicted 15th, my initial expectations of avoiding a relegation scrap are no longer a realistic one, simply due to how we have over performed so far. It is important to stress that injuries have generally been kind to us, well until this last week . But it has meant we’ve been able to have a fairly settled side, and with some easy cup ties too, I’ve been able to involve everyone in our squad. And despite being predicted second from bottom, after 15 games we’re sitting top of the tree 5 points ahead of Bodo Glimt. We’ve had some fantastic results so far. Our best performance was probably 2-0 vs Molde where they didn’t have a single shot all game. Result wise, the away 0-2 win at Bodo Glimt was a real eye opener along with a 0-3 away win against Champions Viking. And we also in the cup beat Molde again 7-1 with 32 year old Andrade scoring two hatricks! The only game we dropped points in was away to Rosenborg, who we have in the Semi’s of the cup. We were 0-2 up, but then we had a red card. The game ended up 3-3 by the time the FT whistle went. European Hopes Still I expect Bodo Glimt to have too much quality and importantly depth to end up taking the league title. And I of course have zero expectations to challenge for it. Honestly I'm not even sure what we're doing in top spot. Definitely expect a slump now we're about to hit the second half of the season. But the top 4 spots in the league gain a European place. We are 19 points ahead of 5th placed and fierce rivals Valarenga, and also 12 points ahead of Viking in 3rd place. With first spot having the opportunity to quality for the UCL and the second spot Europa League, ideally second place with the current gap we have, is something to strive for. Otherwise, ensuring we qualify for European football is my new target, and we’re in such a good position to make it happen, it would be hugely disappointing if we failed to finish in the top four spots. Keeper Injured However we have just lost our goalkeeper for 5 weeks, and we don’t have any decent backup – so this next period will be critical in determining what our end target will likely be, as I expect he’ll be missing the next 5/6 games. I'll be relying on Viktor Engh between our sticks. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 28 Author Share Posted May 28 Season 3 (Second Half) – Lyn TF (NOR) Injury Crisis After not suffering too many nasty injuries in the first half of the season, I was half expecting FM, in usual style, to start producing them left right and centre. And well, it failed to disappoint. In addition to missing both full-backs for a considerable amount of time, our keeper was out for another lengthy spell on the sidelines too. And from our fixtures / results, it was quite clear to see the points we were suffering. Our keeper missed all games in November and those in August. Our outfield crisis came during the middle to the end of September. (This typically being our full-backs and defensive mids missing several games, leaving us a lot more vulnerable defensively.) A Cup Embarrassment (lost 0-4 Rosenborg) At the mid September point, a once commanding position at the top had reduced to a mere 1 point, along with an embarrassment handed to us in the Cup Semi’s by Rosenborg losing 0-4 in that one. I was now fearing the worst and felt it was at this stage our inevitable slide down the table was going to start. Bodo Glimt were the eventual Cup winners, putting Rosenborg to the sword in the final winning 3-0. But October was an important month for us in maintaining a good league position going into the final straight. We won all four games, leaving us with a little more room for error. Teams Adapting In addition to our side weaker and less stable from players frequently missing, it seemed like my tricks against the more superior sides was starting to wane. They had obviously given us more respect this second half of the season, and our results / performances in general were not as good against them. With everything I was seeing, one can understand where our lack of confidence seemed justified. But I kept trying to motivate the side to bounce back from our set backs, as a good response could still keep us in with a chance come the end of the season. Final Day Decider So it led to a tense finish, where the league title went to the very final day of the season. However on this final day, it needed a five goal swing in Bodo Glimt’s favour, in addition to them winning and us losing – so it did seem our 2-1 victory vs Viking the previous game week would be enough. Eliteserien ~ Lyn TF ~ Relegation Favourites = Champions! And fortunately for us, neither the results or goal swing happened. We had Rosenborg at home that was very loseable, whilst Glimt had already relegated Jerv away which, was a very winnable 5-0 game. But somehow they could only draw at Jerv, 1-1 whilst we ended up drawing in a 0-0 snoozefest – which would have been enough to clinch the title. Ecstatic to have gotten over the line, and never expected to have achieved this with the squad and injuries we endured. So predicted to be relegated but ended up as League Champions in the top tier following back to back promotions. That’s actually a first for me. The closest I’ve been to winning a top tier title with a side expected to go down was with GAE on FM 23 where I finished second to Feyenoord. It sees Lyn TF lift their first League Championship since 1968, three back to back league titles from Tier 3 to the Top tier, and a chance to play back on the big European stage next year in the UCL playoffs. Things are looking bright for the oldest team in Oslo. (I'll make a couple of posts with screenshots of the squad that made this happen in due course) Key Areas How did we achieve this feat? I actually think our squad had a lot of similarities to how Ranieri’s Leicester City won the Prem. We had a good striker to get us the goals in Camargo, a very good wide man in Hylan, a good keeper when he was fit, in Lezcano, and two solid CBs. The only thing we didn’t really have was a Kante. But at this level, being able to get back into position and having a strong back line was sufficient enough. In addition using my favoured natural setup for more underdog sides, it meant we could grind out results vs these superior sides, and teams that weren’t that strong would still expect to do well against us and setup more offensively on this basis. We would always have some room to exploit behind their fullbacks. And as below, we didn't need to have the best xG overall. In certain games we didn't look to create more chances but rather better quality ones. This proved crucial in achieving unexpected results vs the big boys. Notes Strangely with our keeper problems, whenever Engh had to step in he performed poor vs the not so big sides, but performed very well in two games once vs Glimt which we won 1-0, and in this final day draw with Rosenborg. Is he a potential long term back up? Maybe if he improves with age and his consistency, he might be able to do a job. With him being home grown at the club too, either way he’ll form part of our 25 man squad long term. Our two on loan full-backs were absolutely key as well to our amazing achievement. Both starting in our first XI, much like last season they played at a really high level in their respective divisions. With both expected to not return, it again leave the same gaping hole. I was lucky to replace them last year, but if I fail to find players in par for next year, we’ll certainly perform at a considerably lower level. I already know our transfer budget – that is zero. Yes, zero. With the club having debts to pay off, despite our 2.1mil GBP prize money for finishing top it hasn’t really resulted in any chance to invest. We do however have some room in the wage department. So I will need to look our for some Bosmans, or attempt an adjustment to try and give us money to invest in some homegrown talent to meet registration rules. I may also try to sell a player if it will help generate funds to reinvest. At this moment, next season is going to be very tough if we can’t improve areas plus aren’t able to replace the loan fullbacks adequately. I’ll be scouting / hoping I can find players to help us at least have a decent season next year. That being, with the expected second season syndrome, challenging for a top 4 spot would be the very best I could hope for – but a good performance in Europe and a top half finish wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 29 Author Share Posted May 29 Here's our squad for our first season back in the top flight, expected to go down but stole the crown from last year's winners Viking: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 29 Author Share Posted May 29 Here's our squad for our first season back in the top flight, expected to go down but stole the crown from last year's winners Viking: (Continued) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted May 30 Author Share Posted May 30 Season 4 Preview – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives Eliteserien: Top Half Braathens Cup: Quarter Finals Media Prediction: 8th UCL: Unconfirmed -- Transfers It has proved to be another tricky Winter Window. I’ve been able to extend the loan of left back Duric whilst bringing in Pajaro to do the job at right back. I’ve also been able to bring in a good DM in 23 year old Perez and a striker in Janderson to replace Andrade whose contract expired, and at age 33 had no intentions to keep him. However with the registration rules, I ended up selling up last year’s DM 30 year old Parra for 300k. This was quite handy financially, as it also enabled me to have enough funds to push through the Duric loan deal late on. So I was able to replace some of the players that went out. I was able to very slightly improve our depth in the CB and Striker areas where a couple of our Norwegian backups were out of contract, and I brought in two Bosmans to replace them. But they aren’t of a top team quality, so it’s not a considerable improvement to our depth. I also wasn’t able to find a better backup keeper that was Norwegian in home grown status either. I also don’t have a good first XI partner for the new Perez in midfield. And without having a stronger, and better midfield technically, being predicted eighth more teams will play cautiously against us. Lacking quality in that midfield area could result in us having problems in breaking sides down when we have the ball whilst the other team park the bus against us. Overall it leaves us in the position where we’re very similar to our squad last year (bar minor improvements in midfield and depth), but with the added European fixtures to contend with. Priorities That leaves me in a dilemma how to prioritise competitions. We desperately need European money this season, especially after having to upgrade both training and youth facilities following their decline in rating. At the same time, getting into Europe is the only way to really make headway financially in this league it seems. I will likely go with the mindset of making the most we can financially competing in Europe this year, with the expectancy our league form will suffer this time around. Then hopefully next Winter, we might be in a better position to start investing in some more homegrown talent / and quality depth. Expectations Last year’s title win was a one in a millennium occurrence. But we do have a team now expected to finish mid-table. The ideal result this year would be a good European run that really helps the clubs finances, as well as ensuring that top half finish. But with four strong sides in the division (Bodo Glimt, Viking, Molde, Rosenborg), and with only 4 European spots available, fourth spot at the very best has to now be the aim each year (hoping one of the big sides has a bad season), until the stage the club has the finances and infrastructure to invest in the better quality homegrown players to compete at the same level with the big boys. This year is quite an important one to continue our development, and one that if goes well, can bring our club to be considered a real contender for being a top 4 side. Fingers crossed we don’t have any injuries anything like the second half of last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 1 Author Share Posted June 1 (edited) Season 4 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) Before the season began, I was able to eventually generate some interest into our non-homegrown DM Mpdini. A player I attempted to bring in at the start of the window (but we couldn’t offer the wages) was still available on a free. I went in again for him, and this time around I was able to nail my target in Jack Hinchy. This worked out well, as I'm on the limit for non-homegrown players so Hinchy was simply a replacement for Mpdini's departure. He perhaps does not have anywhere near the aerial prowess of Mpindi, but he had attributes that were more suited to us having more of the game. So for our team’s development and general potential ability which at 23 years of age is higher, he’s probably the best upgrade I could have got for free, and I hope he may also be a player I can utilize for the medium – longer term, especially where we are now in a phase of trying to improve our finances. It has been swaying between Okay and Insecure. So going into the start of the season, I feel the squad is probably as good as I could have made it, and I am confident we can give top 4 a real push again this season. -- So with a few months played of the season: Eliteserien Another terrific start to this season, just as we had last year. Winning 9 and drawing 1 from our first 10 games has placed us in a strong position with a third of the fixtures gone. Bodo Glimt appear to be the strongest challengers despite currently being in 3rd place as they were the side very close to us at the start. But a home 3-0 against them resulted in their only defeat of the season so far. It was an important game I felt despite being early in the year, as it gave us the chance to set the tone for the rest of the year. Rosenborg however are showing a solidity this season so far, currently undefeated and lay in 2nd six points behind. With a lot of games still to go, remembering we only have a squad expected to finish mid-table, we’re going to have to continue to perform well both consistently and in the big games if we want to ensure European football, and perhaps after this good start, try again to miraculously be in with a shout of retaining our league title. Braathens Cup We’ve had a really nice set of fixtures to take us to the Semi Finals stage where we’re due to play Tromso away from home (the only side to take points off us in the league so far). Lillestrom was a tough game where we won 5-2 AET at home. But otherwise we’ve played teams at least 2 tiers below us and it’s been a great opportunity to give my squad players some game time. The other semi has Viking coming up against Sandefjord. Viking will definitely be favourites in that one, and surprisingly a lot of the big sides failed to make it this far. Other News I also finally have word of when the UCL qualifiers will start. We are due to enter the Champions Path Playoff 19th August 2026. Currently we’re on middle of July, so a month and a bit before that kicks off. We currently have a couple of injuries, Gundersen our backup striker and first XI CB Chico Lamba. Gundersen should be back in 4 weeks, by Chico unfortunately could be out up to 6 weeks. We have a lot of league games leading up to the UCL games too. It’s important we can try to keep our performance levels up and get results without Chico – whose been a very important player so far this year, and is our main threat from set plays too. Some good news however. After both our training and youth facilities having declined, both upgrades have very recently been completed bringing them up to average status. But they aren't yet to the standard I really need at this club, and both can do with a further upgrade. When this may be however is anyone's guess. A lot will really depend on how good a run we can have in Europe. Currently we are -3.7mil GBP in the red in our balance, with 375k GBP still owed for the bank loan. Edited June 1 by g1nh0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 1 Author Share Posted June 1 (edited) Season 4 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) Going to Plan Since the last update, we’ve now got to the second week of October with 22 games now played in the league, the Braathen Cup finalists decided, and a couple of European Group phase games now being played. Braathens Cup Our semi-final game away to Tromso came around the point we were picking up injuries with things just getting worse – to a point we had 7 first teamers out and I was forced to change formation. Nevertheless, for this game I had a few missing but for the first time in a while we had a winnable game at this stage of the Cup. And we played well in this one, taking the lead in the 25th minute – although we were pegged back just 3 minutes later, which was a kick in the teeth because we were dominating proceedings. However we kept our composure and didn’t let that affect us. A quick response saw us regain the lead, and in the second half we scored our third which put the tie to bed, leaving us 3-1 victors to get back to the final of this Braathens Cup. It’s one high on my priorities this year, because it’s the only trophy I haven’t won domestically in Norway, and in all divisions (that’s also including managerial trophies too). And even better news, was in the other Semi Final Viking suffered a shock home defeat to bottom of the table at the time and still bottom, Sandefjord. Eliteserien Going from the above reference made to Sandefjord, well we suffered a shock home defeat ourselves – to strugglers in the relegation zone Asane Fotball. It was another one of those games I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. It felt like any changes I made just weren’t making any positive effect, and came to the conclusion it was just one of those inevitable FM games that had to happen. We had a poor performance the week before too against Sarpsborg where we drew 3-3. So things were not all rosy. We had a good August month domestically, which saw us re-establish a solid position at the top of the table. It was also the month we had the UCL playoffs – but unfortunately we drew a tough Celtic. We lost both ties by 2 goals, seeing them go through 7-3 on aggregate. They simply had too much in midfield and too much quality up top / or perhaps we just lacked in both areas too to compete at this level. So we ended up falling into the Europa League. This didn’t affect our league form fortunately. And although September was the month we had our 7 player injury crisis and a formation change to a 4231 (which I never like doing - happened vs Rennes in the Europa detailed later), we were still able to pick up 2 draws and 2 wins in the league, which in the circumstances was brilliant – because one of those wins came against Bodo Glimt away (a game we were still missing our keeper and both first team strikers for), whom along with Viking are our closest challengers. We’re at the stage now we have a 9 points gap over Viking and 12 over Bodo with 8 games left to play – we also have Viking next. If we’re able to take a home victory there, then we’re in a very good position to retain our title despite having a few very tricky games left. A defeat though will definitely see a tense finish yet again, especially as we have a lot of Group Europa League games to play between our league fixtures. Europa League After going out to Celtic, we’ve played a couple of Group Stage games which we’ve produced a couple of great results in. First game we were able to take out Rennes at our place 2-1, coming back from a goal down. (A game we had to use a changed 4231 system in and was the very start of our huge injury crisis, with x3 injuries suffered in game all out for 6+ weeks each - our keeper and two first team strikers). We then were able to win by the same scoreline using the same formation a week later against Shamrock Rovers. Not really having any aspirations in this competition, but I’m hoping the experience will prove a good one for our players and boost our reputation as a club. Finances & Development This Europa League competition this year is also purely to help raise funds. Despite going out in the UCL playoffs, we ended up bringing in about 7mil GBP which allowed us to immediately improve our training & youth facilities and also invest in youth recruitment too. Any further prize money from our Europa League Group games is a bonus. So things are actually going to plan very nicely this year. I’m improving our infrastructure, we’re now much closer to being even on the bank balance sheet (clearing our near 4mil debt), we’re in a good position to retain our title, and have the possibility of getting our hands on the Braathen Cup too. I’m also seeing some promising signs of development from Hinchy in midfield, whilst identifying where else I feel we need to improve upon to really get this team at a top 4 in the league level. So I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the season ends up and to having another transfer window. It was always going to be a building year this one, but if we’re able to keep the success coming too it will be pretty much be as good a season as it could get. It would be even more satisfying because of the rubbish injuries we've had yet again along with all the extra fixtures we have had to contend with. Edited June 1 by g1nh0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 1 Author Share Posted June 1 (edited) Season 4 End – Lyn TF (NOR) Eliteserien - Winners With the 8 games to go and a massive game against Viking, I was hoping for a confident performance with our home advantage. Despite us having a lot more shots and a much higher average xG per shot, we somewhat got FM’d quite hard in this game. After they took the lead in the 26th minute, our finishing throughout was extremely poor, in addition to their backline all scoring high ratings. They held on to take a 0-1 win. I was far from pleased… But despite the win they weren’t able to capitalize in the following games. Drawing a couple of games with us bouncing back, the lead they had threatened to start chasing down they never did. After that loss we won the next 7 games in a row and stormed our way to retaining our title. Viking ended up slipping to fourth place with Brann taking second spot, and we ended up winning the title by a very comfortable 17 points. Braathens Cup - (Lyn TF 3 - 1 Sandefjord) After our league success came the end of season cup final. Our second appearance, but with a squad only missing one player through injury (our RB) and a much more competitive one. A goal after 19 minutes from Janderson set us well on our way, and just before the break Hinchy doubled our lead. The game was looking very comfortable and Sandefjord weren’t really offering much offensively. Early in the second half we struck again with Janderson grabbing his second of the game. The game was pretty much over at this point and we were going through the motions. But credit to our opponents they scored a late consolation to make the score much more respectable at 3-1. But coming in with confidence after a hugely successful and again unexpected success, Sandefjord already relegated, didn’t have enough to make this a close contest. So the glory days of this cup have been brought back to Lyn, with their last success dating all the way back to 1968. The board were delighted, and I was happy to win the last trophy I was missing managing in Norway. Europa League (In Progress) With the league season period as it is here, this competition is still ongoing. But we’ve now played 6 league games winning 5 and losing 1 which was away to Red Star Belgrade. One very good result was the 0-1 away win at Real Sociedad which has been a major reason why we’re in a great spot. We’ve already made the playoff stages, but haven’t yet secured an automatic spot for the knockouts. Two away games await us against Rapid Bucharest and Royal Antwerp. Not easy games but if we can get a victory in one of these, I think that will be enough to see us qualify inside the top 8. Overview At this point in mid December we now have 3.25mil GBP in the bank, better facilities and completing the domestic double, all whilst still in the Europa League. I couldn’t have imagined we’d be in this position. With the registration requirements, the only position I can look to try and improve with what we can attract may be a slightly more experienced keeper. Lezcano can put in some good performances, but with him not enjoying the big games, being fairly injury prone and not having the great composure and decision making, I’ve decided to sign on a free another Colombian keeper that is a better allround keeper, and at 28 years old will be more experienced. I plan to loan out Lezcano and if he develops well I will bring him back into the fold. Otherwise, we had a few home grown players out of contract – but as usual, no one decent was available and interested on a Bosman. So I’ve ended up renewing them again for a couple more years. One that I didn’t renew, I found a replacement. But it was very poor quality, replacing very poor quality. I’m hoping by the time those renewals expire, I’ll have further upgraded our facilities and have some money available to spend on home grown players. With a better club reputation, we might be able to attract some talent from the bigger clubs – or find some young talent abroad and train them at our club for 3 years. We are now listed as the fifth highest rep team in Norway, only now behind the big four. Goal of the Season - Real Ronaldo-Esque I had to upload a clip of one of the goals we scored. Janderson our Brazilian reminded me of Ronaldo Luiz Nazario with this one, it was brilliant! No exaggeration… Dribbling all the way from inside his own half, like the Real Ronaldo always did, he made the opponents look silly, getting himself out to the edge of the box and smacked in a fantastic strike in passed the helpless keeper. Don’t recall seeing one like this, made me think of the golden age of football. One positive of FM 24 at least =) Edited June 1 by g1nh0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 2 Author Share Posted June 2 Season 5 Preview – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives Eliteserien: Top Four Braathens Cup: Quarter Finals Media Prediction: 5th Europa League: Be Competitive -- Coming into my fifth season at the wheel, it looks like I’ve reached the standard I was looking to get to, that being predicted to finish 5th behind the big 4 clubs of Bodo Glimt, Molde, Viking and Rosenborg. It’s not going to be easy to break into that top four especially in the way of player recruitment. Board expectations are also higher. Given we’re predicted 5th and they want top 4 there is a lot less room for error. But I have been able to further agree with the board to improve our training / youth facilities, and youth recruitment investment too. We are still only at 3 star, with most of the big sides having between 3.5 and 4.5 stars. So there is still much work to be done here with improving our facilities. Transfers I have arranged a couple of free transfers that are due for completion during the normal European transfer window of end of July. This should hopefully improve my AML position in Sylvester Jaspe (a 25 year old and 26 capped Bulgarian Int), and I should have a solid backup that is homegrown in the GK position in Sander Lonning. (although he’s a bit short at 183cm, his all round game is solid). Otherwise, the now 29 year old Colombian Keeper has joined me Manuel Arias, and I was able to arrange a loan out of Lezcano to Dundee Utd. I feel that given his experience, is at present a slight upgrade, although technically Lezcano has very slightly better handling and facing one on one situations. It's the composure, concentration, decision making and more consistent in the player report that for me sets Arias apart. He also hasn't got an issue with playing in the big games either. The other transfer is Oregaard coming in to provide last resort depth in midfield replacing our emergency backup Urnes. Oh, and Duric our on loan left back from Red Star again returns for us - I really hope I can make him permanent at some point down the line. x2 FUTURE TRANSFERS - 21.07.27 Europa League (currently in QF) I’m currently at the date of our first league fixture (10.04.27). The league phase has now been completed where we eventually finished in second spot. We have also played a round 16 game vs Hadjuk Split where we went through 3-0 in agg. Currently we are in the Quarters vs Ferencvaros from Hungary. The first leg has been played where we earnt a 1-1 draw at their place. The home leg is due very soon, and if we were to get through this tie the competition left is now pretty tough. Braga, Shaktar, Newcastle, Nice, Spurs and Beskitas are all fighting for the Semi Final spots. If we are able to get through to the Semi’s that would be a really good achievement. It’s probably as far as we could realistically get given the competition and the teams left in it. It’s all very odd having European games during the start of our league season and the end / and during the off-season. I’m hoping we can still start off well domestically, but my concern is after not really having much of a break our squad could get very fatigued early this year. Notes With the circumstances we are in, I’ll be very happy to just meet our board objectives this year, for the reason the sheer volume of fixtures we’ve had and a short off-season break could impact us negatively. I’m generally happy though with the recruitment we have both immediately and planned transfers coming in a few months. They are slight improvement to the team, and will hopefully bring a new enthusiasm to the team after achieving back to back league titles. I’m a firm believer it’s important to keep things fresh in the squad for added motivation to perform at the highest levels. Also I’m extremely happy with the board agreeing to further improve our facilities. It is another building year, but once these have been improved we’ll be on par with Bodo Glimt Rosenborg and Viking in this aspect, all at 3.5 stars. Only Molde have superb training facilities at 4.5 star. And on a personal level, I'm close to completing all my coaching licenses currently learning the Continental Pro License. I expect by the end of the season this should be completed, so hopefully I might be able to have the statistics that allow me to contribute more in our training sessions. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 Season 5 Update – Lyn TF (NOR) So with the new season under way, I’ve got to the point where I’ve played a third of the leagues games – with also the normal European leagues having finished, the destination of the Europa League has also now been decided. Eliteserien We’ve had our best start to a league campaign in the top flight so far. Despite having to contend with the later stages of the Europa League, although some performances have been a bit lacklustre we’ve had enough to dig out a few key results. A couple of key games saw us beat Rosenborg 2-1 at home whilst beating Bodo Glimt away 0-3. It sees us with a 6 point gap at the top after a third of the year played. Braathens Cup Four rounds we’ve had to compete in so far, and all have been comfortable ties, with only Haugesund the top tier team faced so far. It means we’ve reached the quarter final stages, where we do now have a tricky home tie against Viking. A lot of lower tier sides have made it this far, with only Brann and Molde the other two top tier sides competing in the last eight. Europa League From my last update where we draw at Ferencvaros at their place in the Quarters, we took this one at home comfortably 4-0 in the home leg which saw us book a Semi Final tie vs Braga – definitely the team I would have preferred facing in a two legged affair. Playing the away leg first, we played extremely well and really should have won the game. But poor finishing saw us take a 0-0 draw to the home leg. Looking to bring our strong away performance to the home leg, we were successfully able to do this, and along with their keeper having a shocker of a game, it saw us win 4-0 at home to make the Europa final – where Newcastle beat Spurs in a tight all English affair and be our opponents, due to be played at Schalke’s home stadium in Germany. Europa League Final – Lyn TF 3 – 2 Newcastle (Winners) What can I say – this was one dramatic game, which in all honesty is a hard one to understand what happened, and that’s from both teams perspectives. I can only think that on this day, we were lucky – and if we were going to win, that was only ever going to be the way we would have won. Even on their off day and a great day at our end, with the quality they possess not even that would have been enough - or maybe not?? Scary Opponents Newcastle fielding players such as Chevalier in goal, Botman and Akanji at CB, Guimares and Tonali dictating in midfield and Konate up front, they didn’t have any weaknesses in any part of the pitch. And well, the Toon took the lead in the 22nd minute with Horta scoring a 25 yard free kick. With them having the lead, I didn’t think there would be a way back coming up against such a strong side and now being a goal down. But in the 42nd minute we were able to work the ball into their box, where the ball eventually came to Janderson’s feet and from close range struck the ball passed Chevalier to tie the game up just before HT. This was such an important goal to galvanise the team go go again in the second half. The game remained evenly contested, but it was one of their subs Pedro Goncalves who popped up in the 80th minute where he scored with a fantastic strike into the corner from an acute angle and quite a distance too. Sleepy Toon So two quality strikers, the game felt done and dusted at this point because surely a team with such quality would be able to manage the game until the end. But just one single minute later, they fell asleep. A simple throw near the half way line and a through ball from Hinchy found Hylen in a lot of space leaving him one on one with the keeper and he kept his cool to place it passed the keeper. Now the game was 2-2 with just under 10 minutes left with added time to play. Would there be a winner? Well both sides kept positive in their approach. With the quality on our bench and the thought of another 30 minutes to play against such quality opposition, playing for penalties didn’t cross my mind. Newcastle were pushing for the win, but after losing the ball in our third and them leaving space in the midfield to exploit, we worked the ball swiftly into this area and further up the pitch, where Perez eventually found our sub that came on late in the game Leandro Otormin. The ball eventually reached him just outside their box on the left hand side. Having a little bit of space to run into, he attacked this area and wrong footed their retreating defender, giving him adequate time to get a strike on goal which he did – and flew passed their keeper, directed into the bottom left corner making it 3-2 to Lyn TF! With all that happening in minute 94, there wasn’t long left of injury time to play no more than a couple of minutes. The Toon tried to get the ball into our third from the kick off, but after repelling their attack we calmly were able to work the ball back into their third and were able to win a free kick from striking distance. Otormin had the chance to shoot and took a pop of goal that was saved – and that was the last highlight of the final, with the game ending and Lyn’s first ever European trophy in their history now in their cabinet. Hylen got MOTM in this one averaging 8.1, but it was our two DMs in Perez and Hinchy that performed extremely well averaging 7.4 / 7.3 respectively, putting in two good performances in that area of the pitch. It gave us the sold foundation to keep competitive against a midfield 3 of theirs, and when looking at the game stats overall they didn’t have one clear cut chance, didn’t really control possession, and we had a significantly better xG especially given around the same number of shots were taken from both sides. They certainly didn’t play as well as they could have done, but it would be wrong to say we didn’t deserve this success on the day. Europa Final Goals A New Direction? Team & Tactical My aim at Lyn TF was to bring them success at the top of Norway and achieve European success. This has now been done. It does make it hard to me to continue working here. Always struggled to be a long-term one club man. But as I have started off at Sunday League Level and No Coaching Badges, it’s a save I think is one I will try carry on but without the pressure to stay in Norway but feel the freedom to go where I fancy. So if there are any jobs that appeal I may well apply there. I’m also quite keen to play football in a different way as I have now had success in my other saves here using a 424. I’ll therefore be looking to build my next football teams with something different. Two formations I haven’t used much in FM recently are the 4231 and the 442 diamond, both of which I will enjoy giving a play around with. Suggestions Welcome! What nations will interest me? No idea yet to be honest. But, I’m liking the idea of AC Milan if it becomes available. I would love to bring across my style of the 442 diamond to Italy, and try bring them back to their old heights. I also think with the 442 diamond not the strongest formation in the modern day, it may be a little more challenging to succeed with. Otherwise, I’m open to ideas would love to hear any. Another potential one is going to France. PSG are dominant, and Pep is now their manager. Still with Emery and Mbappe and a strong squad it could take a long while to topple them. Or I could simply try to keep motivated and stay at Lyn TF for longer, aim for a decade and see how much further I can improve the club at all levels. Though just checking the UCL history of winners, and since Mourinho's success at Inter in 2010, not one single Italian club has won it. So I'm leaning towards this at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 Season 5 End – Lyn TF (NOR) After leaving things with the league 10 games in and the Europa League now safely in our cabinet, we had another couple of minor cup finals to attend to before our domestic league and cup came to their end. EUR / SAM Club Challenge Lyn TF 5 – 0 River Plate I don’t really know anything about this cup, so when I saw we had another trophy to potentially win this was nice, especially where the UEFA Super Cup we qualified for we would have to go up against PSG of all teams. (Hoping we would avoid embarrassment in that one) And well, I was confident if we turned up and were on our game we could be competitive despite us being inferior to them, and assuming they themselves turned up. However it seemed the South American giants completely underestimated us. We started quickly out the traps and took the lead in minute 11, to then see us score another 3 more goals before the break giving us a 3-0 HT lead. Expecting River to come back strongly second half, well that never materialized. They only registered 1 shot on target all game with no clear cut chances created, compared to our 7 on target and 5 CCCs made. So brilliant, another and unexpected trophy that will only help with our club reputation and hopefully on a worldwide scale… Janderson – Leg Break But it came at a huge cost to us – Janderson who had proven to be our best forward suffered a leg break that would see him miss the rest of the year, expected to be out for 6 months. So I desperately searched the market as at this time there were some players unattached with this happening middle of July. Fortunately I found a guy called Conrad Harder, whom had some very similar attributes with the exception of being a beast in the air. He was also 22 years old with potential to improve a good amount. With no one else going in for him I was lucky to be able to welcome him to the squad. Although the registration window was due to open around a month from this point, it was going to be no more than a handful of games to try and compensate not having a top striker amongst our ranks. UEFA Super Cup Lyn TF 2 – 3 PSG I was expecting to be embarrassed in this one, much like we did to River in the EUR / SAM cup. But I was very wrong, and we gave an excellent account of ourselves. We twice took the lead, once in the first half and once in the second half. But PSG were too strong going forwards for our defense to handle. I thought we had made penalties and were desperately trying to cling on. But Xavi Simons who grabbed a brace for them scored with the last kick of the game. It was a shame we couldn’t take the game to penalties as maybe we could have got lucky. But despite us scoring only 2 of our shots on target, our average xG per shot was actually higher than theirs. So it was a very pleasing effort, and we could now refocus all of our efforts on trying to achieve another successful domestic campaign. Eliteserien - Winners With our league campaign, we carried on our excellent start to the season for the most part. We ended up securing the title over Ole Solskjaer’s Molde (he returned) with a good 4 or so games spare. It was at that point our form started to dip a bit, which I guess after securing the title in good time could potentially have always happened. I wasn’t best pleased though, because we still had a Braathens Cup Final to attend to – where during our campaign, we got through all the knockout stages to come up against probably the league’s second best team quite clearly this year, Molde. They also trounced us in the league 3-0 for one of our defeats, so I’m hoping our boys would be rather motivated as we owed them one, rather than be fearful. Braathens Cup - Winners Lyn TF 6 – Molde 0 After that shocker of a league performance against them at their place, I tried to motivate our team for this one to gain some revenge in the pre match team talk. And it seemed to do the trick, because right from the very off we showed that we meant business. We took the lead in the 4th minute, and after only 19 minutes we actually ended up going 3-0 up. OGS can’t have been too pleased at all! It was just a case of us then keeping our concentration and not give them any hope to come back into this one. And their hopes were pretty much dashed as soon into the second half we grabbed a 4th – to then score two more before the end of this one. Definitely a game OGS and Molde would want to forget very quickly. Although they took half the shots of us, they failed to create any good opportunities where as we created 5 clear cut chances in this one, and were very clinical on the day. UCL Progress I was glad we avoided having to go through qualifiers to get into the UCL this year. Financially it’s going to be huge for the club, especially if we are able to pick up some points in the league phase – which we have done so far. Played 6 games, won 3 and lost 3. Pretty much the best I could have hoped for, with some varying difficulty of fixtures. We’re currently in the playoffs, but we have the two top teams so far in the UCL this year to play away and at home in Arsenal and Chelsea. So the likelihood is we won’t make the knockout playoff round, but we’ll have earnt some much needed cash with whatever happens. The plan is to continue investing in our facilities as well as our squad. Notes There haven’t been any jobs that have tempted me to move. I mentioned about trying to change things up tactically. And looking at the Norwegian home trained players, there are very few strikers available. So I have decided to carry on here at Lyn TF for now but I will have quite a large overhaul of the side, which will be now geared towards playing a 4231 and trying to replace some of the older players. It is the perfect time to do so, because after all our successes this year the board have given us a little over 20mil GBP to spend on transfers. And with our club reputation also now having grown to not only be the best in Denmark, but also now at a Continental reputation, a few more decent players with greater potential are interested in joining us. It’s a good time to now be managing Lyn TF, so it will be quite a fun window coming up to see whether we can rejig our team to take the side in a new football direction. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
g1nh0 Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 (edited) Season 6 Preview – Lyn TF (NOR) Board Objectives Eliteserien: Win Braathens Cup: Challenge Media Prediction: 1st UCL: Reach UCL I was excited with the cash we had available, and I’m very glad at my decision to not just stay, but go in a new tactical direction. I will indeed be playing the 4231 this year, and with a shortage of any good homegrown Norwegian strikers I think it was a good choice to play now with an AMC, as there were a couple of decent ones I could bring into the club. It was a great opportunity as well to part ways with players that have served the club well which were not home grown, and using those funds in addition to what the board gave us to improve our first XI and bring much greater depth, whilst just about being able to stay within the registration requirements. Our board were also very willing to continue to invest in our training and youth facilities. We are now at the point of having 4 stars on each, with only Molde now having better facilities than us. We are also in the process of improving both of these too, so it will be a matter of time before we have the best facilities of any club in Norway. Both my personal reputation and club reputation have also grown (also now top of Norway). So last year was a huge year for us, and with a transfer window I feel has been an excellent one, puts us in a very strong position to now have the edge over all teams in this league, and hopefully perform respectably in European competition too. I’ve got to the point where we are due to play our first league fixture. So there is an update due on our current UCL run which I’ll go through in due course. Transfers With everything done and dusted, we have what I consider 6 new first XI starters, and 5 new squad players providing better quality depth. The oldest player in our squad is now 27, in 3rd backup striker Gundersen. Everyone else is 25 and under, with a number of really great young prospects too. The main highlights / key players for us going forward: Mads E Myklebust – our Norwegian capped 20 year old GK bought from rivals Molde for 4mil GBP. An absolute steal and being home grown too is a real bonus. No weaknesses appear evident in his game, and also great in one v one situations and a fantastic attitude will surely see him have a long a successful career. Gonzalo Garay – a 20 year old Argentine who is our striker this year which we spent 6.5mil GBP on. Great pace with great composure, if he can improve his finishing he could become a very clinical striker, especially as he is strong with his left foot and very strong with his right Odin T Holm – Although 25 years old, he was the best home grown available to play at AMC this year. Costing 8.5mil GBP from Celtic, he’s already shown he’s very capable of putting in some real quality performances. Jon Etxebarria – A 19 year old midfielder not only capable technically, but it’s his character and leadership qualities which really do shine. I’ve already appointed him captain at such a young age. But with his leadership, determination and bravery I don’t have anyone better for the job than him. Thomas Nilsson – A really good find, costing just 2.4mil GBP from Malmo and one of our new starting CBs. He’s not a giant CB, but he’s tall enough with some great physical and mental attributes, notably his stamina, ability to jump whilst bring very brave too. Also good decision making and composure means he’s very capable at playing the ball out from the back too. Semming Ben-Jamour – The other new CB we invested it. At only 18 years of age costing 2.5mil GBP from Lillestrom, he’s someone seeming to have great potential. Not the best technically or brave, but extremely tall, determined, and has good positioning and anticipation for such a young age. He’s not the slowest either. I’m hoping with his character, with a lot of game time he can improve substantially. -- Otherwise, we’ve invested well in the fullback-positions. Duric is now with us permanently, and I have good depth on both sides too. So we have a pretty strong squad, and it justifies fully why the media are now predicting us 1st in this Division. It’s taken five full years at the helm, and now moving into the sixth the club is in a fantastic place both in the present, and for the future too. UCL – The Fairytale Lives On I honestly can’t believe what has happened so far in the competition. We scraped through in the group stages in the end, finishing 22nd and only the top 24 would qualify for the next stages. Porto - Dumped Out We drew FC Porto in the knockout round. Winning 5-1 at home gave us a great platform going into the away leg. But there were some nervous final minutes as we were 3-0 down with 7 mins of normal time left to play. Fortunately we held on – but then we were handed a draw to Milan in the final 16. Milan - Dumped Out Given home advantage first leg again, we shocked them and ended up winning this leg 3-0 at home. It was fully deserved too. In the away leg, we were much better compared to the Porto game, where we were able to score 3 goals. Milan also scored 3 as well, but it was much more comfortable this time around. Arsenal Next? So we’re currently in the Quarter Finals and have already played the first leg away – against Arsenal. This was a true FM’ing and were very lucky to come away with a very slim 0-1 victory. They had 3 CCCs but were unable to convert. I still expect us to go out at home, but we do perform better there – so at least we go into the game with a chance of causing a massive upset. Getting to the last eight with this side though is a great achievement whatever happens. The large amount of money spent on improving the club’s infrastructure and heavy investment in the squad this Window, will certainly be helped with this deep run in the UCL. Notes So a really great Window for us and a great run in the UCL really puts us in a good position to continue to grow as a club. Our finances are currently stable too, and although our transfer debt is a bit over 16mil GBP our bank balance is healthy. Also in some of our home games we are filling up our stadium to the full – so once our facilities are in a very good state, buying a new stadium or expanding our current one is something I’ll definitely be proposing to the board. I’m finally having that squad of players I am enjoying managing, so hopefully I can continue at the club for a while longer yet in this career save. Below is also a brief look at my 4231 I'll be running this year, and look to build on at this club long-term. Edited June 10 by g1nh0 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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