[FM24] Saving the Swans - Swansea AFC

[keeper#1]

Saving the Swans - Season 1 Update 1

If I can figure out how to make a cool intro banner in Canva, I will but, for now, I'll stick with the larger font bold type intro.  I kinda got bored with the Birmingham save but I still wanted to stay in the Championship and have a save with a bit more recruiting direction.  I felt aimless at Birmingham and with the promotion to the Premier League and I didn't feel like we had a cohesive strategy and our roster showed that.  I want to try again and want to try at one of the best clubs in a smaller nation but in a big league: Swansea.  I was torn between Swansea and Cardiff but in researching the two clubs:  I appeared that Swansea had a stronger commitment to youth and to playing a possession-based, attacking style of football.  So, I went with them.

 

Swansea Recruiting Strategy

I intend to send my scouts on deep dives into specific regions of the world.

1. First and foremost - we plan on knowing everything on just about every person playing for a club in Wales or participating on one of Wales youth national teams (u18, u19, and u21).  We want to find the good young Welsh players before the Premier League clubs are able to buy for pennies on the dollars.  We want to be the club that does that and then force the Premier League teams buy them from us.
2. We want to have an in-depth knowledge of the other smaller nations in the UK and Ireland.  Want to do something similar that we will do in Wales in Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.  I feel that Ireland has the most untapped potential of the three nations.  Most of the clubs are semi-pro whereas we are professional club and those young players will develop faster in a professional environment.  It will be a little harder to convince the players to move away from home and come to Wales but I feel that it is something that can be achieved over time.
3. Of course, we can not leave England out of our recruitment strategy.  We will need quality English players if we are to maintain and then improve our standing in the English game.  This means going down into the lower levels of the league (League One, League Two and even the National leagues) to mine talent.  I don't think we will be able to poach youth national team from England as most of them will already be playing for the larger clubs.  Any English youth that we have will likely be produced by the Swansea academy.
4. We want to go up into Scandinavia and go looking for cheap, young talent in those counties.  I feel like as we progress as a club that the scouts will be able to pull talent from the more better nations.  The scouts will likely be able to pull from Finland and Iceland first.  Again, like Ireland, most of the clubs in those nations are semi-pro and players will feel the pull of professional level training to enhance their development.  The question will be: "do I want to move away from home and play in Wales?"  Wales is not right around the corner like it is for Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland so it will be harder to pull players from this region but I think we can do.  It will likely start in Finland-Iceland before moving into Norway and then finally Sweden and Denmark.

This recruitment strategy folds right into the club objective of "sign youth players to develop for profit."  The board wants to us to find, develop, and sell.  We will need to start small before we are able to turn the small fish into medium fish into big fish.  

We will need to find players that want the ball and do something once they have the ball.  They don't want to watch "holds it.  holds it.  HOLDS IT!" when they come to stadium.  They want to be entertained.  They want to see goals scored.  They would rather us win or even lose 4-3 than lose 1-0.  It should be fun to develop tactics in this way since I prefer to be strong at the back and win games 1-0 or 2-1.

We have a relatively small transfer budget to go out and bring in talent.  But most of the nations where I am looking, at present, the players are not overly expensive.  Once I find and hone in a few key talents, I should be able to bring a few youngsters to the club that I can develop and spin for a profit in a few seasons.  This is definitely going to be a long-game type of save that should keep me busy during the summer when I am home more and traveling less.

 

[keeper#1]

Our First Signing

Sidklev has already earned some caps with the Sweden U19 team and my scouts think that he has great potential and may be even an EPL caliber goalie in the future.  It's always a long game with goalkeepers because they take a long time to develop.  I was able to bring him in on a 450k total transfer fee.  But half of that is spread out over three seasons along with some appearance clauses.  I've still got just over 1M to spend in the transfer budget.  He will come into the club next season and will likely be handed the starting job to aid in his development. 

Make that 1.6M in transfer funds.

Edited June 16 by keeper#1

[_Ben_]

Love this recruitment strategy and I definitely remember that keeper from my time in Sweden. He’s coming from an established youth setup so will surely push on for you! 

Will keep a close eye on your progress!

[keeper#1]

3 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Love this recruitment strategy and I definitely remember that keeper from my time in Sweden. He’s coming from an established youth setup so will surely push on for you! 

Will keep a close eye on your progress!

Thanks.  I love the Nordic nations but hate playing there because it's a summer season.

[keeper#1]

Saving the Swans - Season 1 Update 2

We've reached the halfway point in the season and it has been a great season for us thus far.  Picked to finish mid-table.  We are flying high in 4th place.  This would put us WAY ahead of schedule so while I'd like to see us get promoted to the Premier League, I'm afraid that we would have a roster that would see go right back down.  We just aren't ready yet.

We are riding the league's best defense to our 4th place standing.  The offense has not been too shabby ranking in the top 10.

   

The advanced stats expect us to regress to the mean and fall into a tough fight for the playoffs.  Which I feel is about right.  We aren't a top five teams.  Definitely not a team that should fighting for automatic promotion.  Can the defense continue it's stellar first-half of the season play?  The answer to that question will likely determine if we stay in the playoff places or fall into a top-half finish.

In terms of the team stats, there are three things that stand out: OPPDA which is one of the worst in the league but our tactic doesn't rely on constant pressure on the opposition.  We force the opposition to bring the ball up and pounce on any mistake that they make and hit the opposition on the counter.  Our crossing is not the best in the business.  We rely on the fullbacks and wingbacks for the majority of our crosses and they aren't the best at it right now.  Our shooting is not the best either.  If we continue with this level of shooting, we will eventually struggle to score to goals.

The average ratings have not been kind to our team either.  We've only got four players over 7.00.  Our center forward, Mykola Kukharevych, leads the squad with 9 goals.  He will be missed in our next couple matches as he decided to scissor kick a midfielder down right before he was subbed off against Preston.  The attacking midfield strata has been a mixed bag as we searched for a tactic that we could settle into.  Left winger Charles Sagoe has been our player of the first half of the season.  Sagoe has seven goals to go along with four assists.  A solid loan signing.  The loan signings are another reason why I think we would struggle if we won promotion into the Premier League.  On any given match, my best starting lineup can feature five loan signings as starters.  As part of the recruiting strategy, I want to reduce our use of loan signings so we can develop our own players.  Right back Josh Key has been good when he has been healthy which has been an issue for him all season and our loan signing goalkeeper, Carl Rushworth, has been a solid backstop for us.

Our schedule shows how hard it was, in the beginning, to find something that worked.  We started with a conventional 4-2-3-1 then switched to a 4-2-4 then to a 5-2-1-2 back to a 4-2-3-1 before settling on the 4-2-4 formation which is unconventional in naming and shape because it's not really a 4-2-4.

We give the inside forward room to cut inside by shifting the AM(a) over to the right.  This shift allows the DLF(a) and AM(a) two different channels to slot into and the IF(s) cutting inside creates an overload in the middle which we overload the right flank with a W(s) and a FB(a).  This creates a problem of the fullback because he has two players to potentially mark or the winger needs to track all the way back to mark the fullback.  The centerback can't slide over because he's dealing with the AM(a).  So, we are creating problems for the back four.

 

[keeper#1]

 

2024 Youth Intake - Here Come Kids

What a great class of kids!  Three of the top five are born and raised in Swansea while we made in-roads to England and Austria for some of the top talents in the class.  I'm excited by this group.

Dane Allen 24A made the long trip from Austria to join the club.  He could be a much needed option on the right side of the formation.  He has great dribbling skills and pace but needs to spend A LOT of time in the weight room.  Could be a great option off the bench in a few years when we need some speed against a tired backline.

Luke Rice 24B - the hard-working center back from England will be a fixture in the Swansea backline in the future.  He isn't an elite play in any one area but does a lot of things very well for his age and wants to put in the work to be a great player.

Darren Norris 24C can rule the left side of the back line for many years and is the pride of Swansea.  He is an elite tackler and is willing to put the needs of the team above his own needs.  He's a touch undersized but hopefully he will grow into the position both literally and figuratively.

Robert Roberts 24D is an interesting forward.  He's not a true goal scorer but doesn't have the traits that would make him be an elite creative center forward.  He will be a great option off the bench in a couple of years before moving into true reserve/spot starter role.  Not 100% convinced that he will move into a true #1 option at the center forward position.

Ian Marshall 24E will be a deep lying playmaker type of midfielder to watch for the future.  He can pass the ball very well and wants the team to do well.  He will be perfect for a deep lying role that brings the more attack minded players into the game.

 

 

[keeper#1]

So Close Yet So Far

We finished the season just two points off of the playoff places.  The fans will point to our 2-1 collapse to Huddersfield late in the season as to why we didn't make the playoffs.  If that loss becomes a win, we finish on 82 points and bump Middlesbrough out of the playoffs.  However, I will point to our absolutely dreadful January where we took only one point from a possible 12 as to why we didn't make the playoffs.  That's why.  If we win any of those matches and we had plenty of chances to win those matches, we qualify for the playoffs.  Am I disappointed? Yes.  Making the playoffs would have been a solid achievement for the club.  But also, no.  The last thing I wanted to see if we qualified for the playoffs was for us to get hot, win the playoffs, and get promotion, ahead of schedule, to the Premier League.  So 7th place, it is for us and we work on building the squad up to make a more serious run at the playoffs next season.

The stats do show that we are a very good team both offensively and defensively.  However, we do have places for improvement.  On the offensive side, we do need to improve our crossing which can be solved by getting wingers who are better at crossing the ball or getting interior players who are better at winning the service.  Now, the forwards definitely need to improve getting the ball on frame.  It's just average.  We improve that to above average or even slightly above average and we don't through a month like January where we struggle to score costing us a spot in the playoffs.  What we do need is a center forward behind Mykala Kukharevych.  Mykala led the team with 18 goals but the two forwards behind him Jerry Yates and Josh Thomas combined to scored just eight goals.  They were out-produced by some more rotational options like Charles Sagoe, who could play across three positions in the attacking midfield strata, and Jamal Lowe, who could play both wing positions in addition to the center forward position.  In line with our recruitment, I'll need to see if we have an internal option before going through the shortlists to bring in a better option.

In the midfield, we were solid at the attacking midfield position.  Liam Walsh had grown into the central role and was second on the team with 10 goals.  Then, he broke his leg against Huddersfield and will miss the next six months.  Hopefully, he produces at the same level when he returns from injury but this is something that we will need to keep our eye on.  The defensive midfield is aging.  34-year old Joe Allen will be shipped to the Houston Dynamo in a few days for 120k because the MLS is a retirement home.  Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton are decent but can be improved upon.  The defense is solid on the wings with Josh Key and Josh Tymon.  The central defense can be improved upon as they are very turnover prove even when not under pressure.

Scouting the Great White North

 

I've already discussed Filip Sidklev in an earlier post.  During the winter, I continued to pound the great region of Scandinavia.  I thought I was going to have to mine Finland and Iceland for talent and then head to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.  But during the winter, I was able to pull a player from those three regions and I couldn't be happier.  Bork Bang-Kittisen is a right winger from Odds in Norway.  He has yet to crack any of the Norwegian youth teams but my scouts found him while working through the club scene in the region.  He has the potential to be a solid right winger for us going forward and could push Ronald for the starting right forward position.  Next we went into Sweden and Denmark where our scouts, hopefully, found our center back pairing of the future.  Malcolm Jeng comes over from Sirius in Sweden where he has featured in 36 league matches while making six appearances for the Swedish U21 team as a 19-year old.  Villads Nielsen, from Nordsjaelland in Denmark, will partner with Jeng.  Nielsen is a tough tackler and strong in the air.  He has only made two senior appearances for the club but my scouts believes he has a lot of potential.  

 

[keeper#1]

Summer 2024 Transfer Window

External Players

We brought in six new faces in addition to the five new players that we brought in June.  It was a very busy summer window.  In the month of July, we went very defense heavy and players that provide the club with depth.  We start with a pair of defensive midfielders Jensen Weir and the experienced and well-traveled Nathaniel Chalabah.  Heading into the pre-season friendlies, these two will provide back-up behind Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton.  We made a small purchase bring over Anthony Ralston from Celtic.  Ralston was the best of a large group of reserve right-back options behind Josh Key.  It came down to Ralston and free agent Dominic Iorfa.  Iorfa was the more physical player and could slide into the central defense as well but Ralston is the better overall player.  Octavian Papescu is the only offensive player in the group.  Papescu can play across the entire attacking midfield strata which is good because I want to create more attacking fluidity among that group.  Positional versatility will be vital for that group this season. Frans Kratzig was brought in deadline day on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich.  We needed a reserve left-back as Kristian Pedersen and Nathan Tjoe-A-On both left the club on transfers.  The last player Edwin Agbaje is a long-term project at right back. 

Promotions from the Academy

I was able to focus on defense in the transfer market because I was able to promote two attacking midfielders from the academy.  The compliment each other positionally perfectly so it is great that I could bring them up as a pair.  On the left side, 19-year old Ben Lloyd earned a promotion the senior team.  He will battle Papescu for starting minutes on that side but he can also slide into the central midfield as well.  On the right side, 20-year old Cameron Cosgrove is almost a carbon copy of Lloyd but on the right side.  Cosgrove will back up Ronald on the right wing but, like Lloyd, he can slide into the central midfield.  The third academy call-up is third-string goalkeeper Evan Watts.  Watts will train with the senior team while starting for the U21 team.  

The 11 new faces brought in via the transfer and free agent market and the three academy promotions now give me a U21 core on the senior team that looks like this.

In line with our recruitment, we have three Welshmen, three Swedes, a Dane, and a Norwegian in this group.  Joining them is a Romanian and a German (on loan).  

[keeper#1]

2024-25 Season - Update 1

The Swans have used a red-hot start to put themselves into the fight for automatic promotion.  We could have really put a gap between ourselves and the rest of the Championship if we had kept up our form throughout November and December.  However, we have slipped a little bit which has allowed Norwich and Nottingham Forest to slip past us in the standings.  We get a second chance against Nottingham Forest during the Festive Fixture season.  A win would allow us to stay in the mix while a loss would sink us further into the battle for the playoff spots.  The offense has been firing on all cylinders all season.  Teams have started to find some gaps in our defensive square - more on that in the statistics and player breakdown section.

The first thing that stands out in the first half of the season is we have a variety of players who can score goals.  Attacking midfielder Pontus Dahbo leads the way with six goals while chipping in with six assists as well.  He is well on his way to a 10 goal/10 assist season.  I love seeing those from my midfielders.  Two more new signings are also finding themselves toward the top of the goal chart.  Bork Bang-Kittilsen (6 goals 1 assist) and Octovian Popescu (5 goals 4 assists) have been banging in the goals from the attacking midfield strata.  Our center forward, Mykala Kushareych, is still banging in the goals (5 goals 1 assist).  The problem has been finding a reliable replacement for him when he is tired or is carrying an injury.  It's becoming clear that Jerry Yates and Josh Thomas aren't cut out for the primary back-up center forward.  I'm willing to cut ties with Yates over the summer but Thomas will stick around because of his age and roster registration requirements.  

Matt Grimes has been a great asset for us in the defensive midfield.  He is always willing to track back and break up attacks.  He has been quite lethal in picking out the proper pass to send a player in behind the defense as he leads the team with seven assists while winning 84% of his tackles.  Very pleased with his efforts for us this season.  However, I have struggled to find a partner for him.  Nathaniel Chabaloh has shown flashes of being a good player and then has matches where he completely switches off and plays "controller disconnected."  Jensen Weir has been serviceable as a rotational option and Jay Fulton is a player who can easily be replaced.  

In the future, I will have a solid center-back partnership with Malcolm Jeng and Villands Neilsen.  However due to injury to Josh Tymon, I have been forced to move Jeng out to the left back position and back-fill the center-back position with Nathan Wood, who is still a young defender in is own right.  The other options are an upset Harry Darling who wants a new contract that would earn him a starter's salary or Ben Cabango, who has proven to be the 5th best center back on the team.

Right now, I have the following players that can be moved for just about any price: Cabango (5th best defender), Yates (a center forward at the peak of his game but not good enough for a backup role), and Ronald (a winger who is in a similar contract situation as Darling but also, now, questioning why I subbed him out of a game - sorry I'm the manager - you do that and you'll play for someone else).

My winter transfer market wish list: a reliable back-up at center forward and a significant upgrade to the defensive midfield

[keeper#1]

Tough Day In The Transfer Market

Watts is a player that was in the U21 team but had a blocked pathway so he wasn't a big loss.  I was able to sell the unhappy and unprofessional Ronald to Genk for full value.  I'm claiming that as a win.  Losing Ben Lloyd is tough.  He is a top U21 Welsh international - a player that I want to keep at the club.  He's a player that is only going to better as his game develops.  However, the board went over my head twice (I was able to block the first move) and cashed on a player for below his market value.  I could have sold him for double or triple with another year or two of development.

[keeper#1]

A New Group of Kids - 2025 Youth Intake

A diverse group of youngsters have come through the Swansea Academy and joined the U18 team.  In the top five prospects, we have three Welshmen, a Scotsman, and an American with a British passport.  Three right-footed players and two left-footed players.  A defender, a center forward, an attacking midfielder, a holding midfielder, and a winger.  A good mix of personalities too.  A very solid group that is joining the club.  They will be the first group to be fully integrated into training and concepts used by @rmelo0387so we see how they develop over the next couple of seasons.

A hard-working and motivated local lad, Connor Richards 25A could be the anchor of our defense in the years to come.  He has the potential to be a a solid and hard-working center-back that will be tough to get around.  Like most players, he is missing some elements of his game especially when he is on the ball and he needs to work to become more effective in the air.  But based on his driven personality, he is a player that wants to get better and improve.  A highly coachable young player.  One layer ahead of him is another local product of Swansea, Lewis Rowlands 25E.  The only weakness, that I see, in Rowlands game is his willing his to give up when things get tough on the pitch.  Other than that, he looks like a good defense-first player.  Fast of mind with ball but a little plodding when getting from point A to point B.

Daniel Montiel 25B could become a player that would in the mix for the starting center forward not only with Swansea but also with the US National Team.  He is a good all-around center forward.  He can finish at a high level.  He moves well without the ball.  He reads the game well and he has a silky first touch.  A great addition to the club.  Just behind him is another Welshman in Craig Clarke 25C.  Not the strongest player but he makes up for it by being the best player on the ball in the class.  Clarke is tough to get off the ball once he gets the ball.  He is willing to fight and give everything for the club.  My type of player.

Out on the left wing, we have Fraser Moore 25D.  Another small-ish player who can pushed around.  When he has the ball, however, he is tough to move off of it.  More of an attack-minder winger, he can move the ball up the pitch and ping in a good cross.  He is a player that I project to be more of role player with the club given his small size (167 cm - 5 feet 6 inches and 50 kg - 110 pounds) but still a player that I expect to stay with the club for a good portion of his career.

[keeper#1]

Crazy Final Day

We went into the final day in 4th place on 92 points behind both Nottingham Forest and Leeds who had 95 points.  We needed to win against Hull City and hope that both clubs lost road games to West Brom and Coventry while making up some goal difference as well.  We did our job thrashing Hull, 3-0, which improved our goal difference to +46.  We got the help we needed from both Coventry and West Brom, who soundly beat Forest (+44) and Leeds (+43) by large enough margins to allow us to move past both clubs and into second place.  The playoffs are going to be a war with Forest and Leeds both on 95 points, Luton on 89 points and Norwich on 83 points.

 

[leobiazzi]

Good job on getting the promotion!

[keeper#1]

Now to continue my Welsh-Scandinavian project in the Premier League!

[keeper#1]

Season 2024-25 Review

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the top four teams in the league were spandex tight.  Any of the four teams could have finished in the automatic promotion places.  Middlesbrough played a thrilling 4-3 match at Norwich which clinched them the Championship title.  Swansea, Leeds, and Forest all finished tied on 95 points.  Our superior goal difference, thanks to a 3-0 victory over Hull, was enough to push us into the runner-up slot and avoid the absolute battle for the last promotion place.  Leeds and Forest both in 95 points, Luton on 89 points and Norwich on 85 points all battled for the last promotion slot.

The semi-finals were an absolute slugfest.  3rd place Forest was able to advance, 4-2, over 6th place Norwich.  The 4th-5th place semifinal was a thriller.  Leeds and their 95 point effort during the season was all for nothing as 5th place Luton Town upset Leeds, 5-4.  Forest, in the final, made sure that top three teams got promoted to the Premier League as they held Luton in check en route to a 3-1 victory at Wembley.

As a team, we were absolute ****-kickers who loved scoring goals.  Racking 83 yellow cards during the season and scoring 88 goals.  What this did was absolutely intimidate our opponents in retreated into a defensive shell and not getting stuck in for 50-50 balls.  We finished with the second-best defense as we allowed just 42 goals - less than a goal per game something that I absolutely love.

We fouled our opponents about two more times per game but we were rewarded with one of the best defenses in the league.  Everything on the offensive side of the ball was above average except for cross completion and even that stat was above our rate from the 2023-24 season.  We went into every match thinking that we could win.  Even when the defense had a bad day, the offense was there to pick up the slack and score enough goals to either tie or win the match.

What made us hard to defend: the offense did not come from just one source.  It came from a variety of sources and the service came from every strata.  We could beat you with a short pass in the penalty box, we could beat with a long ball from the defensive midfield or we could beat you from out wide with the cross pinged into the box.  We only had two players, Mykoa Kukhareych and Bong Bang-Kittilsen, scored more than 10 goals.  Kittlisen was part of 14 goal scoring moves most of which were off the bench in a spark plug reserve role.  Kukhareych was a part of 17 goal scoring moves including a team-high 14 goals.  In the attacking midfield strata, Pontus Dahbo, was the primary creator with 10 assists which ranked third on the team while he participated in a team-high 18 goal scoring moves.  Sliding back into the defensive midfield, hard-working Matt Grimes led the way as he tied for the team lead with 12 assists and chipped in with five goals.  Josh key had shown flashes of brilliance on the right flank.  His primary problem was staying healthy to round in good form.  In the second half of the season, he stayed injury free and tied Grimes for the team lead with 12 assists.  

Right now, we are a year ahead of schedule.  There are some places where the team does need improving.  We need some help in the defensive midfield.  That is probably our weakest area of the pitch.  In an ideal world, I'd like another attacking option.  We are a very young team.  I think that young talent should continue to develop in the Premier League.  I don't want to bring in a bunch of new faces in a hope to fight off relegation.  I think this team with the proper defensive midfield additions is good enough to stay up.  It will be a tough fight but I think we are up for it.

[Jogo Bonito]

Late to the party here, but for some reason i have always had an admiration for Swansea and it's nice to see them doing well under your control. Very impressive so far in your two seasons, next year might be tough though!

[keeper#1]

Yeah.  I've just ticked over to the new season and the media have us as 1000-1 odds to win the title.....dead freaking last.

Hopefully, I can scrap enough points to finish 17th.  That's the goal.

[keeper#1]

Season 2025-26 Summer Transfer Recap

We brought in A LOT of new faces during the summer transfer window.  A lot of those July 1 signings are signings that are for our U21 team to give some depth across the board as we have purged most the deadwood from the youth teams over the last two seasons.  This paragraph will focus on the five senior team signings.  We got busy on June 10, when the window opened, bring in two new faces.  Cameron Humphreys is a 21-year English midfielder from Ipswich Town.  Humphreys wanted to stay in the Premier League and activated his 13.5 million pound release clause.  We took advantage of that clause and brought him in to run our midfielder.  I think he's capable and if we stay in the Premier League for a couple of seasons, his value is going to double or triple to bring us a nice profit if we decide to sell.  Stephen Welsh is a center back who will bring us some experience of starting in a top flight league and some experience in playing continental football.  He is another good value buy at only nine million pounds.  The very next day, we continued to improve our midfield by bringing Scott McTominay, who had been released back in January by Manchester United.  He wouldn't think of playing for us in the Championship but as a Premier League club, he was willing and we had the salary space available.  Anton Matkovic is player that had been our radar since the beginning of the season.  He is a dynamic center forward that will be a great deputy for a season before taking over the starting job next season.  We dipped into The Netherlands to bolster our depth in the attacking midfield with Levi Simans.  He could take a starting role in the attacking midfield or he could be a very solid depth option/spark plug off the bench.  I feel very good about the five senior team signings that we made.  Usually, I feel like we have to upgrade everywhere but not this time.  We have players who are growing into their careers and having an older player brought in front them would only hinder that growth.  Looking at the outgoing transfers, we swapped Chalobah and Fulton for Humphreys and McTominay.  That's a good upgrade to the position.

Our Premier League Start

What's coming in September - two matches against Arsenal

Senior Team     Our Young Core - 4 starters 3 top bench options 1 backup GK 1 depth option

U21 Team

U18 Team

 

[keeper#1]

September 2024 Update

We started the month, previous month, with a 3-1 victory over Everton.  The next two matches gave us the highs and lows of Pontus Dahbo.  The high came in our 1-0 upset victory over Arsenal.  The low was an absolutely shocking tackle that led to a red card in a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest.  Arsenal got some revenge on us in the League Cup trouncing us 4-0.  But I am not reading to much into that result since I am not taking the cup competitions seriously this season.  We need to focus on the Premier League matches.  Arsenal beat our senior team backups 4-0 in the League Cup.  The starters, minus Dahbo who is serving his red card suspension, were well rested and beat up on an unsuspecting Chelsea team 2-0.

October is a light month for us with only three matches.  Two tough matches against Manchester United and Liverpool await us.  But we have been giant killers so far this season.  We may be able to sneak away from these two matches if one of these teams is napping.  The match against Wolves will, likely, make or break our month.  I want to win but nothing is guaranteed in road Premier League matches.

General Performance      Attacking Performance     Defensive Performance     xG Table     Table

Pros: Winning the ball back, Opposition touches before defensive action, Shots on target %, Goals per game

Cons: Fouls per match (almost 18 per match), Shots per match, Cross completion

We are currently overperforming in the table based on our xG and I can't argue with that.  We are pressing the opposition and right now don't have the talent to beat the opposition on talent.  We have to outwork them.  Press high.  Press often.  Force turnovers in the opposition half, quickly counter, score to get an early lead, make the opposition chase the game.

 

[keeper#1]

October 2024 Update

We did what I hoped we would do against Wolves.  Claimed all three points as we do what we do best.....make the opposition chase the game.  The defense did a great job keeping Wolves off the board and then the offense chipped in a late insurance goal.   We traveled home to host Manchester United.  Again we jumped on them early scoring two goals in the first 20 minutes of action.  United cut the lead to one goal late in the first half.  They continued to push for a second goal.  We generated a late counter attack which led to a goal mouth scramble.  Cameron Congreve found the loose ball and passed it into the back of the net to give us all three points.  At Anfield, Liverpool did to us what we have been doing to everyone else.  They got on board first and quickly added a second.  Pontus Dahbo did a great job of letting the center forwards push the defensive line back to gain some space and cut the Liverpool lead to one.  But it wasn't enough.  Six points in a month when I was only hoping for four points in a best case scenario makes this a good month for us.

General Performance     Team Attacking     Team Defense    xG Table     Table

[keeper#1]

November 2025 Update

A rough month of 1-0 losses.  All three of the losses came when we lost concentration after the 80th minute.  This led to a very disappointing month for us.  Just three points from the possible 12 and we have started to drift down the table.  The only bright spot was a 3-1 victory over a struggling Aston Villa side.  We will need a good December, which is a very active month, to stop our slide down the table.

General Performance     Team Attacking      Team Defending     Table     xG Table      Stats

All matches against teams in the bottom half of the table.  A great chance to make up some ground and put the question of relegation to bed during the winter instead of it dragging out into the spring.

[keeper#1]

December 2025 - Midseason Update

The month started with a tough 3-1 loss to Bournemouth.  Then, we started to get hot again as we went unbeaten for the rest of the month. The goals were slow to come until Bork Bang-Kittlesen found the net late against West Ham.  Manager-less Aston Villa kept us out of the net but so did we in a lifeless 0-0 draw.  Against Brentford, our center forwards led by Mykala Kukhareych, started to find the net again.  Kukhareych scored both in a 2-1 victory.   Pontus Dahbo was able to get freed up in the attacking midfield as teams focused on our center forward.  He scored twice.  Attacking midfielder Cameron Congreve added a third and left back Josh Tymon netted what would be in the game winning in a Boxing Day thriller against Newcastle.  The midfield led the scoring in a 2-1 victory over Leicester to end the month.

General Performance     Team Attacking     Team Defense     Table      xG Table

Pros: Goal scoring (0.38 above xG), Cross completion (while still below league average has improved during the first half), Possession Won, OPPDA

Cons: Fouls per game, Team Discipline (42 yellow cards - 3 red cards), Shots per game, Dribbles per game

Player of the First Half: Shadow Striker Adiele Eriugo - 4 goals 3 assists

[keeper#1]

January 2026 Update

Manchester City beat us on New Years Day, 2-0, in a match that just shows the gulf in quality between ourselves and the class of the league.  We never got a sniff at goal and most of the match was played in our half of the pitch.  Continuing my philosophy, this season, of not caring about the cups; we put out a full reserve side against Aston Villa in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup.  Villa just abused our reserves en route to a 5-1 victory.  I'm not really that worried about the FA Cup loss nor is the board.  Then, we went out and won two of last three league matches to close the month.  Mykola Kukhareych has been on fire this month.  He scored three goals in those three matches and the defense was solid in the victories while they got out of the gate slowly in our 2-1 loss to Arsenal.  But we have breezed past the 40 point mark and relegation really is not a question for us any more.  We are battling for a European place but we have a very tough month of February ahead of us with matches against Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool.

General Performance     Team Attacking     Team Defending     League Table     xG Table

[keeper#1]

February was, as expected, a rough month for us.  Chelsea absolutely thrashed us up and down the pitch scoring twice in the first half and early in the second to eliminate any chance of a comeback.  The tailspin continued as we gave up yet another goal after the 80th minute as Wolves came back to salvage a draw.  We fought hard to come back against Manchester United only to completely switch off after we tied the match as Mason Mount put United back in front.  But we carried some momentum into the Liverpool and got a huge upset victory over the Reds thanks to a goal by Mykola Kukharevych, who has really upped his form in the second half of the season.  We could not carry that momentum down to London with us.  Tottenham needed only a first half penalty kick goal to claim a 1-0 win as our offense decided to take the night off.  Back at home against bottom half of the table, Middlesbrough, where we claimed an easy 2-0 victory in a match that was never really close.

General Performance     Team Attacking    Team Defending     Table    xg Table

Youth Intake

Not quite as good based on the star ratings but our current players are getting pretty good so take that for what it's worth.

RF Levi Rogers 25A

GK Stuart Cunningham 25B

CF Dean Peters 25C

CB Paul Morris 25D

CM Dor Mor-Yosef 25E

 

[keeper#1]

2025-26 Season: European Swans

We entered the last two months of the season in a battle for the "secondary European competitions" which if you asked me back in August that we would be in contention for these places, I would have laughed you.  We have been played good football....at times.  We have also played bad football....at times.  Consistently inconsistent has been our season.  Every time, I think we are going to on a massive run; we shoot ourselves in the foot with a bad match that turns into a few bad matches.  Once we get on a bad run, we have a match where we do everything right and start a string of winning matches.  The best example of this these last two months.  We had two bad stretches: lost to Aston Villa, draw against relegation candidate Burnley, loss to relegation candidate Bournemouth.  At this point, I completely shook up the lineup but not the formation.  The fresh legs completely wiped the pitch at Burnley 5-0.  Carried that momentum into a 1-0 victory over West Ham before closing the run with a 4-1 victory over Newcastle.  The run came to an end after we drew with Brentford.  We started well against Leicester who needed a win to fight off relegation.  They played well in the last 30 minutes scoring three goals, saving their season, and closing our season with a 3-1 loss.

General Performance   Team Attacking      Team Defending    League Table     xG Table

As the season went out, the teams at the bottom end of the table started to sit back and play 10 or 11 men behind the ball to make it difficult for us to get the ball into the box and to score.  This partially explains our poor form against the bottom of the table especially on the road and why we were more successful against the top of the table.  Those top teams are willing to play open against us and we can exploit that space in their half of the pitch as opposed to the bottom teams who just clogged their defensive half with bodies.  We struggled in a bunch of areas: cross completion (most of our crosses came from the wingbacks who were pushed up), getting shots off, dribbling through a defense, and fouling the opposition.  However, we were very good at converting the few chances that we did, winning the ball back, pressing the opposition and keeping clean sheets.  On the whole, we finished the season with a net negative xG and still finished in 6th place when the xG stats had us finishing down in 12th.  Honestly, 12th place is better representation of our season than our 6th place finish.  

Team Tackling    Pressing Intensity     Aerial     Team Shooting   Team Passing

These five scatter graphs show why we were very inconsistent.  Our defense in the key areas of tackling and winning aerial balls was very poor - around the worst in the league.  However, we countered with sitting with the big boys when in came to pressing the opposition and our shooting efficiency.  We were the epitome that a good defense is a good offense.  That said, when the passing is in the middle of the pack, our offense would be inconsistent.  We need the offense to take the pressure off the defense.  We needed to get out to the early lead and make the opposition chase us.  If we had to defend for medium to long stretches, we are going to give up goals.  As the season went on and teams hunkered down against us, goals were harder to come by which put more pressure on our defense leading to more goals allowed which led to us chasing more matches.  So, I think the defense is the area which needs improvement.  If we can defend better, we can give up fewer goals and create more matches where the opposition is chasing us not us chasing the opposition.

 

As you see, we are super soft in the air with only center back Malcolm Jeng finishing the season winning more than 70% of his aerial challenges.  In fact, he was the only player who finished the season above 70% winning aerial challenges and 70% of his tackles and he barely cleared that bar sitting right on 70%.  Stephen Welsh couldn't win 70% of his aerial challenges and only a little better on his tackle percentage.  We have a very soft center back pairing.  Out wide, Josh Tymon was very good all season long.  But even he is showing signs that he not cut out for the Premier League,  The injury bug struck Josh Key

again this season - the injuries impacted both his development and his stats.  He is very weak in the air but strong in the tackle.  Tymon is just average to below average in both categories.

Moving up the pitch, Scott McTomnay proved why he is a good player for a Premier League club.  He was the rock in our midfield but picked up A LOT of cards - 16 yellow cards but never found a way to pick up a red card all season.  Chipped in with two goals.  Cameron Humphreys had a tough first season running the offense from the defensive midfield only completing 86% of his passes while adding four assists to the cause.  Charlie Patino and Jensen Weir took some steps back from their good form last season in the Championship.  Those could be a combination of reduced playing time and a lack of development as well as facing better midfielders in the Premier League.

Mykola Kurhareysh is a steady center forward but he too is showing signs that he is just too inconsistent for the Premier League.  He did score 12 goals to lead the team but he only added one assist as the opposition was able to cut out his passes to the attacking midfielders.  He is a good bench option/spot starter.  Ideally, I'd like Anton Matkovic to take over the starting center forward job from him but he also showed signs of inconsistency.  His form really dropped off in the back half of the season.  He went from starter to bench option as he scored only seven goals and two assists on the year.  The attacking midfield is the one place where I feel most comfortable.  Adiele Eriugo has a very high ceiling and spent most of January with Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.  Levi Smans had a great season considering he missed four months of the season with a broken ankle.  The two of them paired with Pontus Dahbo should give us a nice attack going forward in this player group.

Offseason Priorities

1) Improve the defense - especially the center back position

2) Upgrade the center forward position

3) Upgrade the central midfield

4) Find young talent within the club to move into reserve roles with the senior side

 

[keeper#1]

2026-27 Season Update #1 - Meet The Team

I'm a few seasons into this save and there has a been good amount of roster turnover so I think it's time that we meet the current squad"

Goalkeepers:

Starting in goal for all the league matches, barring injury, will be Filip Sidklev, who was brought in from IF Brommapojkarna for 500,000 euros.  He is a rapidly growing talent in goal.  He is only 21 years old but has been the starter for us since he was 18.  He has gotten two caps for the Swedish National Team.  He drew some interest from Dortmund during the summer but I was able to lock him up to a contract extension to ensure that Dortmund would not poach him from us since we don’t have a EPL ready back-up on the roster.  Sidklev is backed up by Ted Curd, an English U19 international.  My scouts discovered Curd at Forest Green.  Curd is a product of the Chelsea Academy but wasn’t good enough to get a place on their goalkeeper pipeline.  He is good enough to be a serviceable back-up for us and will start all of the cup matches, both domestic and in the Europa League, so he can gain some experience in bigger matches than he got last season with our U21 team.

Defenders:

I’m going to talk, mainly, about our center-backs since we are attempting to shift to a back three from the back four that we had been running.  I wanted to give the opposition a different look and I want to be constantly evolving.  Force the opposition to adapt to us and not adapt to what they are throwing at us.  In the back, the starters will be Stephen Welsh on the right side, new signing Lorenzo Pirola from Salernitana, and Malcom Jung on the left.  Pirola was one of the best center-backs, based on the stats, in Serie A on a team that got relegated.  Low average rating but the stats look good and he’s strong in the air.  I need center-backs who are good in the air.  I expect a lot of balls crossed into the box since I only have one player out wide.  Welsh and Jung move out as wide center-backs after playing as our center-back pairing last season.  I’ve got a solid group of players backing these three players up.  Villads Neilsen returns as a reserve center-back.  He was our center-back off the bench last season and will continue in that role again this season.  New signing, Nathan Zeze, joins us on a free transfer from Natnes, Zeze is a left-footed center-back so he can slide into the left wide center-back position easily.  Swansea Academy product Luke Rice (24B) will be our “swing” center-back.  He will be our #3 reserve center-back on the senior team but will available for the U21 manager to select so he can continue his development through playing time with U21 team while got spot minutes with the senior team.

Midfielders:

This is a fun group that can do a lot of different things in both defensive and attack.  Out wide, we continue with “The Joshs.”  Josh Tymon, on the left, and Josh Key, on the right, are two of the remaining first-team players from when I took over the club.  Both players are good enough to keep their jobs while scouts search for their replacements.  They may have found them this offseason though both players need some seasoning at this level before they, potentially, take over the starting roles.  On the right side, they found Mitja Ilenic.  Ilenic is a Slovakian international at just 21 years old and he was the starter for Birmingham the last two seasons.  He had an expensive relegation release clause but I feel he would be worth it if he continues to develop.  On the left side, they found me a wonderkid in Dauda Collins who is only 19 years old but the starter at Standard Liege last season and has six caps at the U21 level for Belgium.  A great dribbler can threaten his opposing number and fast enough to track back and play defense. 

In the central defensive midfield, I have two players who can play a destroyer-creator combination against weaker opposition and against strong opposition I can bring in a second destroyer can complete wreck the opposition attacking midfield when I run a 3-4-2-1 formation.  Captain Scott McTominay is our primary destroyer.  I still can’t believe we were able to bring him in on free transfer after Manchester United released him.  Our creator is a hard working English midfielder Cameron Humphreys.  He is a solid and reliable midfielder who likes to create and is still able to play some defense when needed.  Our second destroyer is new signing, Jacob Wright.  Wright was an odd-man out at Manchester City.  He spent last season on loan at Aberdeen and did some solid work for them.  We paid 300,000 pounds so we could negotiate with him before his contract expired.  I could have signed as a free agent but Manchester City was matching his contract forcing a 1.6 million pound compensation payout.  The other formation, I’m going with a 3-3-2-2 formation.  In that formation, only one of the destroyers is used in that formation as an anchor.  I can move the creator in to the true central midfield strata where I pair him with one of the more attacked minded center midfielder players.

I’ve got some attack-minded center midfielders who work as creators and some that work better as a secondary scoring option.  I’ll start with new signing from Wolves, Italian Niccolo Piselli.  Piselli was signed as a 20-year old by Wolves to upgrade their midfield in the EPL but he wasn’t quite ready.  He wasn’t quite ready to be an everyday starter and struggled.  He has decent enough stats that showed he had upside if he could be put in the right position playing with a team that wasn’t dependent on him to be the primary creator/scoring option.  He will be sharing time with a diverse group of similar young internationals: Pontus Dahbo from Sweden, Levi Smans from the Netherlands and  Luka Vrbancic from Croatia.  Dahbo has been with us for a couple of season, Smans joined us last season an Vrbancic is a new summer signing.  The goal is to let  these four players battle for the two or three, depending on formation, attacking center midfield roles and give the starts to the most productive players/most in form players.  I’m really splitting hairs over these four players.  They all can do similar things but do some things better than the others but, on the whole, all four are same type of players.  Backing up this entire group are Matt Grimes as a defensive midfielder and Emilio Lawrence as an attacking midfielde with Cameron Congreve as a swing midfielder who can play both offense and defense as needed

Forwards:

A group that has one “seasoned” player in Mykola Kukharevych, who has been with me since day one.  He is good but has maxed out his ability as a player and he is more suited for a reserve role with a Premier League team and not a starting role.  The one player, who is poised to break out, is Nigerian Adiele Eriugo.  We sign Eriugo from Enyimba for 1.4 million pounds a couple of years ago.  He has already gotten four caps and one goal with the Nigerian National Team.  He is a rapidly developing center forward who can drop between the defense and midfield and either create playing others in or creating a chance for himself.  Anton Matkovic is another center forward who is poised to breakout.  The Croatian international is more of a pure goal-scorer compared to Eriugo.  They make a great pairing in the 3-3-2-2 formation as a False Nine-Advanced Forward combo.  I can also play Eriugo as a False Nine in the 3-4-2-1 formation and have him play in the on-rushing two attacking midfielders or as a lone striker up top and let the attacking midfielers play him in.  It’s one of the reasons why I call the 3-4-2-1, the “Shape Shifter.”  I’ve got a bunch of attacking players who can play in a variety of roles in the same position.  I can mix-and-match based on the opposition.  Backing up this entire group is Norwegian Bonk Bang-Kittilsen who can play everywhere in the center forward and attacking midfield strata. 

Transfer Dealings

 

 

The Systems

 

Early Results

 

 

[leobiazzi]

Wow, good signings and great first season in the Prem. I don't think the squad is ready to qualify for the UCL, but you'll put up a good fight!

[keeper#1]

1 hour ago, leobiazzi said:

Wow, good signings and great first season in the Prem. I don't think the squad is ready to qualify for the UCL, but you'll put up a good fight!

No, we are definitely still a Europe League/Conference caliber team.  All depends on the how the ball bounces for us this season.  Hopefully, we are as lucky this season as we were last season.

[Jogo Bonito]

A great squad review and it looks like you have plenty of talent there. A very good start in the league, especially solid at the back so far.

[keeper#1]

Quickie End of Season update because I got tied up with work and then got too involved with the save to post an update.

Regressed a little bit from 6th place to 7th place.  The biggest issue was we allowed more goals this season (41 to 50) while scoring about the same (63 to 65).  I thought the second striker would give us a more potent offense but we were about the same.  The switch to a back three was harder for us to adapt to.  Part of me wanted to switch back to four back system midway through the season when I saw that things weren't quite clicking.  But I wanted to see the season through with the three-back system to see the results.  I may go to back to a four back system for next season.

 

We made a deep run in the Europa League reaching the quarterfinals.  We will have Europa Conference football for next season which is probably more our level.

Finances are in great shape.  We need to improve across the board.  We have a lot of "Leading Championship/Decent EPL" type players.  Need to sell and upgrade at a number of positions while backfilling the rosters with some of young academy products.  I'll do a full roster breakdown to start next season once I things settle down over the weekend and early part of next week.