[FM24] Saving Bremen

[Slipky]

In what I consider my last attempt at a FM24 career update, I decided going for something... Different. Seeing as I spent most of my FM24 honing my player recruitment and development skills, I have decided to take over a team in a save that a dear friend of mine made with Makkabi Berlin, reaching the 2042/2043 season. While he turned Makkabi Berlin into a German powerhouse with multiple titles and three UEFA Champions League wins, some clubs have obviously declined, and weirdly enough, that interested me enough to start a save with SV Werder Bremen, currently in the second Bundesliga, and try to use the knowledge I've gathered from people like @_Ben_ and @danielgear , and make it into a reality in a world I don't really know. A world with a lore of its own that will prevent me from going to the wonderkids I know or players I think of as "guaranteed purchases".

Enter Gunther Bauer. A Bremen academy coach - He was promoted to handle first-team affairs in August 2042. A Bremen local, born in 2003, Bauer experienced Werder winning the German Supercup in 2006, the cup win in 2008, and the UEFA Cup run that followed it. He entered the Werder Bremen academy in 2018 and managed to break into the reserves in the following years but retired in 2026, aged 23 after being released - Claiming he "doesn't want to play for any other team.". Bauer quickly started his coaching career at the Werder Bremen academy and was put in charge of the youth teams until his promotion to the assistant manager post of Werder Bremen II in 2035, following by a promotion to the manager role in 2037.

 

[Carambau]

Good luck at Bremen  

[john1]

Good luck

[danielgear]

Good Luck mate

[Deisler26]

Good luck fella

[Slipky]

As I started the journey with Bremen, I had to look at the squad to get a good perception of what I'm currently working with. The squad itself is fine, with a few pressing issues - The lack of proper centre backs, a desperate need of another left defender and perhaps a few acquisitions to cover an elderly attack, that clearly doesn't have many years to run together anymore.

The players I'm looking to build around are the following gems:

Press on the overview picture for a profile!

Fresnel Mputu, a player which I've marked as 'the future of Bremen'. A real gem of a defensive midfielder which I am going to situate as a DLP or an anchorman. He's got great mental skills to his age and quite the release clause - Sitting at a whooping seventy-one million euros. He's a local prospect, coming through the academy at the 39/40 season.

Soner Arslan, a Holland U20 international, is our current leading striker. He's got the technical abilities to score, and the physical abilities to create himself chances just by running. I'm hopeful that Soner will deliver this season, as we need him in his finest form.

 

As I didn't set up the recruitment team for this summer, I was going to try and bet on players I find interesting from a statistical POV - Showing their superiority in the stats, and not necessarily attributes. As usual, click the scouting/stats image to enter the profile.
Shall we begin, then? Enter player number one, Gabriel. A left-back from the Brazilian second division - I decided to bring him in due to his impressive tackle-won ratio and pass-completion ratio. His stats suggest he's great at moving the ball up the pitch and helping the offensive flow of the game. A deal of 1.3 million euros was made and Gabriel signed for us, being my first transfer for this save.

Coming up next was Matthias Schulze. Coming from Lotte, an amateur side, this ex-Borussia Dortmund player was playing football that's a class above Lotte's. I decided to take a huge bet on him and bring him in on a free transfer, since such dominance stat wise is rare for me to see, even on an amateur level.

Next up, it's time for Wisla Plock's Leandro Unbehaun to shine. This striker is going to be a project of mine to turn into a Wide Target Forward. He looks like he dominates the Polish premier league and it seems moving on is the right thing for both sides.

Next up - Niklas Lehmann. One of the signings I made based on PREVIOUS season records, and not current ones. He's getting noted by Hoffenheim's staff and already played 19 games last season in 3. Liga, so I acted fast and signed them as my fourth transfer since arriving at Bremen.

Now, the last two signings are perhaps my boldest bets so far, however - They're relatively cheap and I don't mind betting that kind of money on them. First, is Amadou Ouédraogo - Burkina Faso's up and coming star, with one cap to his name at 18. The sole game he's played for Salitas FC this season, combined with his 7 goals and 8 assists from the AMC position last season, made me happily pay 130,000 euros to land him in Bremen. He's a long term investment at this point which I hope would do justice to my recruitment style.

The last signing, Korean AMC Ahn Chul-Soo from Daegu, was one I definitely jumped into blind. With no official games or any data other than the fact he's been called up to the Asian Games aged 18, I decided to take a gander and sign Chul-Soo to try and get a cheap bargain, considering his release clause was only 1.3 million euros, which I happily paid.

TRANSFERS SUMMARY - Summer 2042

[_Ben_]

Kudos for such a brave recruitment drive! You've brought in some really high-performing players to complement what you already have. What are your honest predictions for the season?

[Slipky]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Kudos for such a brave recruitment drive! You've brought in some really high-performing players to complement what you already have. What are your honest predictions for the season?

I'll honestly be perfectly fine with a top-half finish. I consider this more of an adjustment season to work on the basics of recruitment, tactics and youth development. Due to this, I honestly just aim to be short of promotion and allow myself another "building year" in the second division, if you want to call it that.

[Slipky]

Having finished the summer window with an improvised recruitment tactic - I've now decided to delve into my recruitment strategy for Bremen, so I could have a proper pool to recruit from. I focused on leagues that could potentially become a good ground to recruit from such as Denmark and Sweden's first tier, the Argentine premier league, the Chilean premier league, and a few potential African gem factories such as Ivory Coast and Cameroon.

I have made a chart to track my scouts and their assignments:

We're very limited in the scouting department size-wise, but I believe we'll start seeing progress in the scouting department rather quickly, especially with Aigner's stay in Sweden and Denmark. I also have high hopes for Schmoldt with his stay in Ivory Coast and Cameroon, two countries known for producing quality players in the past. I have a soft spot for ASEC Mimosas as they're generating Ivory Coast wonderkids quite often. For the next 4-5 months, these are the focuses I'd like my scouts to tour in:

And a month later, I've got a quick impact from the Ivory Coast focus! Schmoldt has identified two new players in a relatively quick fashion. Both of them play as DC/DM and both of them play for ASEC Mimosas. The first is Daniel Brossou, a central defender who is already an Ivory Coast international aged 19, with four caps to his name. He's going to fill the substitute Half Back position and in the future he should be playing alongside Mputu quite often. Brossou came in for a bargain price of 275,000 euros, a steal for a player like him. I think Bremen would be a great ground for his development.

Next is Serge-Alain Lézié, another central defender I hope to turn into a DM, this time for the Segundo Volante role. I think he's got the offensive qualities for it and that it'd be a waste to keep him as a central defender. He's definitely more fitting as a Segundo Volante and I think the change of position will do wonders for Serge. He is an Ivory Coast international as well, with four caps to his name, just like Brossou.

Edited July 13 by Slipky

[danyates8]

Loving the graphics bro really clean 

[_Ben_]

Really nice couple of signings there! Do you have the Ivorian leagues loaded? Also - are you scouting nations or top leagues? Always been something I've pondered but never fully tested...

[Slipky]

54 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Really nice couple of signings there! Do you have the Ivorian leagues loaded? Also - are you scouting nations or top leagues? Always been something I've pondered but never fully tested...

I don't have the Ivorian leagues loaded, no. It's a save I originally got from a friend so I had no control over the game's setup.

As for the nations/leagues debate: I'm debating it myself. I scout Germany using the top three leagues and the cup as a base, while all the other assignments are nation-based. So far, nation-based scouting has proven more effective but I'm only a few months in.

[Slipky]

I've just realized that we're a few updates in already, and I haven't covered any tactical aspect of this save yet! Honestly, the fact it took me quite a while to get a satisfying style of play for my Bremen team is a central part of the tactical post delay. However, I've been reading tactical articles non-stop, namely Rashidi's Positional Play Guide, and a few other tactical bits from this forum throughout other career update threads. However, I'm finally satisfied with what I have in hand, so, behold - Bauer-Ball, here we go!

The idea is to defend as a 4-3-1-2, but when we have the ball, we turn into a vicious 3-2-3-2, allowing us attacking fluidity and creating overloads in the final third. The two advanced forwards even go to the flanks allowing the SVs to get into the box, kind of creating a 3-2-5 formation in the final third sometimes! There were a few lovely moves using this formation and I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to achieve with it. 

 

[_Ben_]

Looks a really nice 3-2-3-2 shape! How has the Engache worked out so far? I like the idea of a static playmaker but haven’t quite found a way to create many, many runners off him, which would be required for a counter attacking side. 

[Slipky]

31 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Looks a really nice 3-2-3-2 shape! How has the Engache worked out so far? I like the idea of a static playmaker but haven’t quite found a way to create many, many runners off him, which would be required for a counter attacking side. 

I find the Enganche a bit of a hit-and-miss so far. It's providing the passing behavior I expected, but the inconsistency of Ahn Chul-Soo makes him a little rocky, and his stats (Stats Page, Season Stats + Last Game) are probably underwhelming. However, he is developing nicely, so I hope that'll change in the future. Perhaps when I'll have a little more than twenty-ish games under my sleeve I'd have a more detailed answer. I appreciate you following this - That means a ton to me.

[_Ben_]

4 hours ago, Slipky said:

I find the Enganche a bit of a hit-and-miss so far. It's providing the passing behavior I expected, but the inconsistency of Ahn Chul-Soo makes him a little rocky, and his stats (Stats Page, Season Stats + Last Game) are probably underwhelming. However, he is developing nicely, so I hope that'll change in the future. Perhaps when I'll have a little more than twenty-ish games under my sleeve I'd have a more detailed answer. I appreciate you following this - That means a ton to me.

Of course! Also - I'm becoming more acutely aware of the natural inconsistencies of younger players and, despite Chul-Soo looking really promising, can see it'll take a while to nail down a plan for him.

Good luck for the season when it comes!

[Slipky]

30 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Of course! Also - I'm becoming more acutely aware of the natural inconsistencies of younger players and, despite Chul-Soo looking really promising, can see it'll take a while to nail down a plan for him.

Good luck for the season when it comes!

A season update is soon to come! I don't intend to keep this going past one season, mainly due to the huge debt Werder has and the fact I'm not really invested in the save - I don't actually have a bond with the team and I only took it from my friend as a PoC to my recruitment style. I do, however, plan on having one last long term save that I'll be writing on more thoroughly when this is over.

[Slipky]

So, after mostly writing informative posts about my tactic, recruitment style, and some save background, here's the long-awaited games update! I've arrived at Werder three games after the season's start - And they didn't go so well. A loss against St. Pauli and two draws versus Hannover and Mainz, respectively. The club's been lying in the fourteenth place. This was not enough for the Bremen board and they've decided to bring me in at this point.

We had two games left in August, and another three during September. August ended weakly, with two 2-0 defeats against Hamburg on my debut, and against Osnabruck in a game that was an offensive and a defensive shame altogether. September had us improving a little, collecting five points out of nine available. At this point, I suspected my 4-2-3-1 system was not working for Bremen and started planning my 4-3-1-2 I wrote about earlier. We've had one last win with the 4-2-3-1 against  Stuttgart which we owe mostly to luck, and then I changed the tactic to the one I went with for the remainder of the season, the 4-3-1-2. And voila, it worked. October was really positive, and the only disappointment in it was our elimination from the cup by Bundesliga side Magdeburg. It was a blessing in disguise, if you ask me, as it allowed me to focus on the league.

November and December were shaky but all in all, it was pretty positive. The tactical change proved effective, except for the defeat against Karlsruhe. It was immediately followed by a 3-0 hammering of Paderborn which were leading the league at that point - That gave me the final seal of approval regarding the tactic I'm using. I was very happy to see Ahn Chul-Soo continuing to make an impact at that point. Despite the two draws against Dresden and Schalke, we ended the first round of the league on a high after two consecutive wins versus Chemnitz and Cottbus, which put us in fifth place. All in all, I'm happy with the vast improvement we've made during the 14 games I had so far. We're looking good and in a strong position to defy my own expectations of a top-half finish.