[FM23] Schalke 04 - Can Jens Mustermann turn it around?

[lfds89]

9 horas atrás, warlock disse:

It would be harsh to be sacked for failing that kind of target, but you might have passed without those final results.

You'll surely need to kick on next season. I'm sure you will 

I probably wouldn't have made many more points if I were to play my first team. In this sequence, in the first round, we had 4 points, 3 of which were in the game against Bayern when they were tired. Maybe we could do better against Mainz, but getting a point from Leipzig or Bayern at this point is more a case of a lucky strike mixed with a perfect plan than just an objective.

I just wish these objectives had a clearer explanation, like "finish above 14th/12th,..."

[lfds89]

END-OF-SEASON UPDATE

Seems to be safe now!

Season

Year

Club

League

Position

Cup

Stage

CC

Stage

League PPG

League Win %

League GF

League GA

01

2022/2023

Schalke 04

GER1

14th

Pokal

1stR

DNP

DNP

1,12

26%

32

33

Season	Year	Most Minutes	Most Goals	Most Assists	Most Clean Sheets	Highest AvR	Most POM
01	2022/2023	Moritz Jenz – 3035	Keke Topp – 9	Assan Ouédraogo – 4	Andreas Linde – 6	Assan Ouédraogo – 7,01	Tim Skarke – 3

Season	Year	Avg Attendance	Start Balance + Loan	End Balance + Loan	Start Wage	End Wage	Squad BPR
01	2022/2023	59724	-301 158 912,00 €	-294 034 279,00 €	3 225 503,00 €	2 549 907,00 €	1 394

Overall, finances haven't improved much, but I don't think I'll buy many more players and I can still offload some. Wages will be even lower next season so that should help as well. Also, these numbers are pre-sponsorship deals so a few days forward and balance is in the positive (here balance was -20M, now it's +5M).

	FC SCHALKE 04
	2022/2023
	PLAYERS
	Goals			Assists			Minutes
	Keke Topp	9		Assan Ouédraogo	4		Moritz Jenz	3 035
	Sebastian Polter	6		Tim Skarke	3		Thomas Ouwejan	2 208
	Tim Skarke	5		Alex Král	3		Tom Krauß	2 061
	Michaël Frey	4		Amine Adli	2		Sepp van den Berg	2 022
	Assan Ouédraogo	3		Rodrigo Zalazar	2		Alexander Schwolow	1 890
	Progressive Passes /90			Key Passes /90			Headers Won /90
	Alex Král	6,3		Thomas Ouwejan	3,3		Moritz Jenz	6,7
	Thomas Ouwejan	6,0		Rodrigo Zalazar	1,9		Sebastian Polter	5,6
	Tom Krauß	5,7		Tim Skarke	1,8		Simon Terodde	5,2
	Niklas Tauer	5,3		Tobias Mohr	1,5		Leo Greiml	5,0
	Tobias Mohr	5,3		Assan Ouédraogo	1,4		Sepp van den Berg	4,9
	Possession Won /90			Dribbles /90			Average Rating
	Moritz Jenz	17,3		Tobias Mohr	3,8		Assan Ouédraogo	7,0
	Leo Greiml	15,5		Tim Skarke	3,5		Keke Topp	7,0
	Cédric Brunner	15,0		Sôichirô Kôzuki	3,3		Tim Skarke	6,9
	Sepp van den Berg	14,9		Amine Adli	2,9		Tom Krauß	6,9
	Niklas Tauer	13,1		Mads Roerslev	2,8		Andreas Linde	6,9

	TEAM
	Most Used Formation			Formations Faced			Best Results
	4-4-1-1 2DM	37%		4-2-3-1 Wide	25%		Freiburg (H)	4-1 W
	4-4-2	17%		4-3-3 DM Wide	18%		Stuttgart (H)	3-0 W
	4-1-4-1 DM	13%		4-4-2	15%		Union Berlin (H)	3-0 W
	5-2-3 DM Wide	9%		5-3-2 DM WB	12%		Bayern (H)	3-0 W
	5-2-1-2 DM AM	5%		5-2-2-1 DM AM	11%		5 games	1-0 W
	Highest xG			Highest xG/Shot			Less Shots Conceded
	Freiburg (H)	2,21		Dortmund (A)	0,19		Hertha (A)	4
	Bochum (H)	2,07		Freiburg (H)	0,18		Gladbach (H)	5
	Bayern (H)	2,00		Leipzig (H)	0,16		Bochum (H)	5
	Freiburg (A)	1,97		4 games	0,15		Stuttgart (H)	5
	Dortmund (A)	1,94					2 games	6
	More Shots			Highest Conversion			Less xG Conceded
	Bochum (H)	24		Freiburg (H)	33%		Augsburg (A)	0,08
	Stuttgart (H)	18		Union Berlin (H)	30%		Stuttgart (H)	0,16
	Hertha (H)	18		Stuttgart (A)	25%		Hertha (A)	0,18
	Bayer (H)	16		Bayern (H)	23%		Hoffenheim (H)	0,25
	4 games	15		Stuttgart (H)	17%		Union Berlin (H)	0,26

	MOST USED ELEVEN
				Alexander Schwolow, 1890 min
	Sepp van den Berg, 2022 min		Leo Greiml, 1683 min		Moritz Jenz, 3035 min		Thomas Ouwejan, 2208 min
			Alex Král, 1616 min		Tom Krauss, 2061 min
	Sôichirô Kôzuki, 1670 min						Tim Skarke, 1575 min
				Rodrigo Zalazar, 1556 min
				Sebastian Polter, 1580 min

 

TRANSFERS

A different profile from Keke Topp, will complement him. I'm not sure about Polter's continuity with us. He was very harsh about the objectives not being met. 

 

I'm dealing with 2 prospects: one is a GK ending his contract. I don't know if he'll be useful, but there's a gap between Linde and all the others, especially the youngsters, he can fill so I might take him on a low wage; the other one is a CM/LW, left-footed. He's almost as good as Zalazar, low fee, low wages - seems like a good deal even if I don't need him as much.

 

If I find a starter RB I'll go for it. I'll lose van den Berg and Roerslev; Brunner doesn't have the quality to be a starter; Bulut and Aydin are still not there yet; Matriciani is not great either as CB or RB. This leaves me with a weakness and we can't have such weaknesses in the coming season. The objective set by the board is mid-table so we can't take risks.

Once again, I would love to know what mid-table is.

 

On the way out, besides a bunch of players ending their contract, we still have some loanees returning I don't plan to keep: Larsson (valued 1-2M); Matriciani (1-2M) might stay over Brunner (1-2M) due to wages, but it's also possible both leave; Pieringer (1-3M) is the same profile as Keke Topp and Polter (1-2M) so I won't keep all 3; Bozdogan (2-6M) is similar to Zalazar (2-4M), so one leaves (since I have Gulliksen and Ouédraogo who can also play there); Idrizi (750k-2M) doesn't have the quality to stay. There are some more players around 1M that might leave but pre-season will be the definitive test. That should be around 6M+ in and some wages available.

I also got 1M from a clause on Weston McKennie. The clause was being valued at 600k throughout the season but I was waiting for it to be increases and when it got to 1M I decided to sell it as I don't think it would be worth much more in the future.

[lfds89]

Forgot to post the Seasonal Evolution:

Improved

Name	Best Pos	Personality	Age	Best Rating	BPR Variation	BPR Variation
Niklas Barthel	D (C)	Light-Hearted	18	59	2,5	4,2%
Niklas Dörr	ST (C)	Fairly Determined	17	60	3,6	6,0%
Edion Gashi	AM (L)	Balanced	17	54	2,1	3,9%
Emmanuel Gyamfi	AM (L)	Balanced	18	55	2,8	5,1%
Mattes Hansen	M (C)	Balanced	19	57	4,5	7,9%
Til Heitzmann	D (C)	Balanced	17	56	3,5	6,3%
Alex Král	DM	Fairly Determined	25	67	1,8	2,7%
Mateusz Lipp	D (C)	Balanced	19	54	2,0	3,7%
Assan Ouédraogo	M (R)	Resolute	17	62	4,3	7,0%
Meik Pusch	D (L)	Balanced	15	45	2,8	6,4%
Luis Rödel	GK	Balanced	19	50	4,4	8,9%
Sidi Sané	AM (L)	Fairly Sporting	20	63	2,3	3,6%
Taylan Bulut	D (R)	Resolute	17	60	3,2	5,4%
Keke Topp	ST (C)	Balanced	19	63	3,6	5,6%
Sepp van den Berg	D (C)	Fairly Professional	21	65	1,9	2,9%
Steven van der Sloot	AM (R)	Balanced	20	54	3,0	5,5%
Zaid Amoussou-Tchibara	ST (C)	Balanced	17	59	3,3	5,5%

 

Ouédraogo, Král, Topp, and van den Berg were first-team players, however Král and van den Berg were just here on loan.

Sidi Sané, Hansen, Heitzmann, Dörr and Bulut are next in line to have a chance in the first team.

 

Declined

Name	Best Pos	Personality	Age	Best Rating	BPR Variation	BPR Variation
Tim Albutat	DM	Fairly Professional	30	57	-0,3	-0,5%
Grace Bokake	AM (L)	Balanced	21	53	-2,7	-5,0%
Dominick Drexler	AM (C)	Balanced	33	62	-2,2	-3,5%
Amine Harit	AM (L)	Balanced	25	67	-1,0	-1,5%
Blendi Idrizi	M (L)	Balanced	25	60	-2,3	-3,8%
Marcin Kamiński	D (C)	Fairly Sporting	31	61	-1,6	-2,6%
Michael Langer	GK	Fairly Professional	38	58	-1,8	-3,1%
Pedro Neto	AM (R)	Resolute	23	65	-0,2	-0,3%
Tristan Osmani	AM (R)	Balanced	18	54	-0,1	-0,1%
Reinhold Ranftl	M (R)	Balanced	31	59	-0,7	-1,3%
Tiago Silva	M (C)	Fairly Professional	29	64	-0,3	-0,5%
Niklas Tauer	DM	Fairly Determined	22	63	-0,1	-0,2%
Simon Terodde	ST (C)	Resolute	35	63	-2,1	-3,4%
Yannick Tonye	AM (R)	Balanced	18	50	-1,2	-2,3%
Rodrigo Zalazar	M (C)	Fairly Determined	23	63	-2,9	-4,6%

Albutat, Drexler, Harit, Kaminski, Langer and Terodde have already left the club. Neto and Silva were on loan. Expect to sell Idrizi and Raftl. Zalazar was the biggest disappointment. I'm not sure he'll stay.

 

[shd34_216_42]

On 12/09/2024 at 05:33, lfds89 said:

 

Once again, I would love to know what mid-table is.

Mid-table should mean below top half but avoiding the relegation battle (so probably like 10th-13th or so). That means your point target is probably closer to 45 this season.

[lfds89]

9 horas atrás, shd34_216_42 disse:

Mid-table should mean below top half but avoiding the relegation battle (so probably like 10th-13th or so). That means your point target is probably closer to 45 this season.

I don't think it's about points, I think it's place only. I was 14 points away from the playoff spot, 16 from automatic relegation. It should be clear enough.

I'm guessing 13th+ (as you said) or even 12th+ is the board's target.

[lfds89]

Em 11/08/2024 em 18:02, lfds89 disse:

SQUAD

95 players under contract between 3 squads and loans.

Breaking it down: 10 players out on loan; 12 players as regular starters or superior; 22 squad players or below; 51 prospects/youngsters. Out of those I have 9 loans in.

By age: 43 U19; 12 Over 30; 40 between 20 and 29.

The whole squad is valued at 149M if we could get the upper limit transfer value for each player. However, top 5 players are players loaned in, so not really our value (they amount to 55M). So squad value is in fact below 95M.

This was the state of the club when I got here. In comparison:

Season	Year	Players Under Contract	Loan Out	Loan In	U19	O30	19-30	Squad Value
01	2022/2023	95	10	9	43	12	40	149M
02	2023/2024	76	10	0	36	3	37	291M

The transfer window isn't over but I don't expect many changes. No loans taking over and developing players for other teams; increased value; reduced players declining; drastic decrease in players under contract. If this club wants to be viable in the long term, this is the change we need.

Should be noted that a substantial part of the increase in squad value comes from Ouédraogo. He represents almost 20% of our value and 3 times more than second and third. Keke will probably increase his value as soon as I can get him on a new contract (which will get him out of a very low release clause of 3,4M).

 

I'm still in the middle of the transfer window, there'll be an update soon.

[shd34_216_42]

On 17/09/2024 at 02:58, lfds89 said:

I don't think it's about points, I think it's place only. I was 14 points away from the playoff spot, 16 from automatic relegation. It should be clear enough.

I'm guessing 13th+ (as you said) or even 12th+ is the board's target.

It is all about placement, but I'm guessing that it will take about 45 points to get said placement.

[lfds89]

Em 18/09/2024 em 19:19, shd34_216_42 disse:

It is all about placement, but I'm guessing that it will take about 45 points to get said placement.

I agree, should be around that.

I didn't have much time to play on the last few days, but pretty sure between tomorrow and the weekend there will be an update.

[lfds89]

Season 02 - 2023/2024

TRANSFERS and SQUAD

It took a lot of time and wheeling and dealing...

Transfers In

TRANSFERS
In	In Fee	Value Now (lower end)
Gulliksen	4 500 000,00 €	11 500 000,00 €
Jenz	4 000 000,00 €	4 700 000,00 €
Krauss	3 000 000,00 €	14 000 000,00 €
Tiago Tomás	2 200 000,00 €	16 000 000,00 €
Essanoussi	1 100 000,00 €	8 200 000,00 €
Skarke	1 000 000,00 €	1 300 000,00 €
Benkovic	850 000,00 €	550 000,00 €
Saïd	300 000,00 €	600 000,00 €
Gimber	0,00 €	2 300 000,00 €
Vutsov	0,00 €	4 400 000,00 €

Fee values presented include future clauses.

This sums to nearly 17M spent and an overall player value of 64M.

 

Transfers Out

TRANSFERS
Out	Out Fee
Harit	5 000 000,00 €
Brunner	2 500 000,00 €
Kôzuki	1 700 000,00 €
Bülter	1 500 000,00 €
Mohr	900 000,00 €
Karaman	525 000,00 €
Terodde	0,00 €
Kaminski	0,00 €
Drexler	0,00 €

This sum to 12M. So we have a direct transfer deficit of around 5M.

 

RETURNING FROM LOAN
In	In Fee	Value Now (lower end)
Flick	0,00 €	2 100 000,00 €
Aydin	0,00 €	1 700 000,00 €
Larsson	0,00 €	1 400 000,00 €
Çalhanoglu	0,00 €	1 100 000,00 €
Matriciani	0,00 €	800 000,00 €
Pieringer	0,00 €	750 000,00 €

We added some players who had been out on loan.

 

PROMOTIONS
In	In Fee	Value Now (lower end)
Bulut	0,00 €	9 800 000,00 €
Becker	0,00 €	100 000,00 €

Promoted another 2 so they can be close to the first team. Although they can play in both squads.

 

PROSPECTS
In	In Fee	Value Now (lower end)
N'Diaye	200 000,00 €	750 000,00 €
Ndiaye	0,00 €	475 000,00 €
Amoussou-Tchibara	0,00 €	35 000,00 €

We had 2 transfers already arranged (bottom 2) and there was a decent scout for a cheap LB so I took the chance. Worst case scenario, it's usually easy to sell an LB.

 

LOAN TO SELL
Out	Out Fee
Polter	445 000,00 €
Wouters	330 000,00 €
Idrizi	134 500,00 €

These players are loaned out with mandatory fees involved. Fees will be higher, for instance, I know Polter is around 800k, but I can't find the installments, not even on the clauses screen.

Speaking of Polter, he kept being unhappy about everything and his training was always the poorest of all the squad, so I couldn't keep him around.

 

And lastly, the guys who were here just on a simple loan.

ENDED LOANS
Out	Out Fee
van den Berg	0,00 €
Frei	0,00 €
Tauer	0,00 €
Tiago Silva	0,00 €
Adli	0,00 €
Roerslev	0,00 €
Kral	0,00 €
Neto	0,00 €

 

In summary:

In Fee	Value Now (lower end)	Out Fee	Dif
17 150 000,00 €	82 560 000,00 €	13 034 500,00 €	-4 115 500 €

We added a lot of value to the team. The 4M deficit isn't real as we reduced the wage by something like 300k/month (3.5M/year) since the end of last season and we got some money from clauses we had (Kabak, Malick Thiaw and Weston McKennie) - around 1M and we will receive more than what I have on the table for the loans with mandatory fees.

 

Almost had Szoboszlai or Casadei on loan on deadline day, but I felt it could break my wage budget so I didn't take the deal. I hope I don't regret this in the future. 

Right now, we must make this club viable, so I'm happy that this decision contribute to this:

 

Our final squad. The first and second options are with the first team, third option is on the second or youth squads or on loan (except for Saïd - he's not exactly a third option, he's the second option in 3 spots).

 

STAFF

We were allowed to add 2 more scouts so we took the chance to improve the team. One of the scouts we had was transferred to another role.

Our sports scientist was promoted to Head of Sports Science so we filled the vacancy.

A new physio, a new analyst (as we are still only allowed 3), and a loan manager.

I don't see much use to a loan manager, but the vacancy was there, so might as well use it. It's one more person to help with knowledge.

 

FORMATIONS and LINE-UPS

The running of the season might lead us in a different direction, but as a starting position, we will have three formations we can make from a single starting line-up. These formations were decided based on the formations we face the most and some key principles: one more CB than their ST, 1vs1 through the field except our ST vs their CB. Since we are mostly facing 4-2-3-1 (we will use 4-3-3), some 2 striker formations, mainly 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 (we will play in 5-2-3) and 4-3-3 (we play in 4-2-3-1 either with wingers in midfield or as attacking midfielders depending on the opposition). This accounts for roughly 70% of the formations we faced.

It's a 4-4-1 and an extra player where it's needed: extra CB, extra DM, extra CAM, or extra ST.

Flick's ability to play both DM and CB; Krauss's ability to play both CM and CM; Ouédraogo's ability to play CM, CAM, and RW; and Gulliksen playing LW, CM, and CAM allows us to change without choosing different players. We can also change it to a 4-4-2 with Tomás playing upfront and Ouédraogo on the wing, for instance.

Don't pay much attention to the roles as they will most likely change (I've been running FB-A/CWB-A + IF-S and a balancing midfield).

      

 

Similarly we can do the same thing with the subs: Bulut can play RB, DM and CM; Matriciani is RB and CB; Gimber is DM and CB; Bozdogan is CM and DM; Zalazar is DM/CM/CAM. Even upfront, Saïd and Larsson can play in all three positions, and Skarke can play in both wings.

      

This is the last one but with Gimber in the midfield instead of Bulut and Matriciani moving to RCB.

 

PLAYING STYLE

I will have some instructions kept through all the formations as a basis for the way we want to play:

IN POSSESSION: Narrow Width; Wait for Underlaps; Shorter Passing; Run at Defence.

IN TRANSITION: Distribute to CB/FB; Counter-Press.

OUT OF POSSESSION: Mid Block; Press More Often; Drop Off More; Trap Inside; Invite Crosses.

 

Some other instructions we will play with depending on the opposition and the selected formation:

Pass Into Space - when we have pace superiority or we are playing a pacey striker (not Topp or Pieringer).

Play out of Defence - When we play 5 at the back

Distribute to Flanks - When playing against very narrow formations (e.g. 5-2-1-2)

Counter - I believe in most cases we will play like this but it's not definitive in our playing style (maybe because Topp is our striker and he doesn't help much on counters)

Hold Shape - mostly when we play 5 at the back

Slow Pace Down - also when we play 5 at the back

Trap Outside - when facing a diamond formation

 

OBJECTIVES

The board objective was already discussed, they are aiming for mid-table, whatever it might be. We need to do as well or better. So I have some more specific goals to reach:

Objective	Points	GS	GA	GD
Total	47	40	33	7
Per Game	1,38	1,18	0,97	0,21

Same GA as last year, 8 more goals scored, it amounts to a +7 goal difference and should lead us to 47 points which is the amount of points Leverkusen had last season (they finished 9th; 37 GS; 38 GA; -1 GD).

And to put into perspective, our different phases last season:

	GD	SD	STD	xgD	CRD	xg/ShD	Pts
First 9 games	-0,44	-1,78	-1,67	-0,29	-0,01	0,01	0,89
Next 6 games	1,17	3,67	2,00	0,76	0,08	0,05	2,00
After winter break	-0,67	0,50	0,33	0,08	-0,08	0,01	0,33
Final Push	0,44	4,22	0,33	0,30	0,03	0,00	1,67
End of Season	-1,00	-13,00	-5,75	-1,34	-0,05	-0,01	0,25

GD - Goal Difference; SD - Shots Difference; STD - Shots on Target Difference; CRD - Conversion Rate Difference

And in graphic:

We started on the wrong foot; I made big adjustments to the way I was playing; then we had a slump after the winter break; and the final push was strong.

I didn't include in the graphic the end of the season because we weren't trying to be competitive in that phase.

 

The cup isn't very important. We'll do our best as the schedule won't be that packed, but I have no goals here. Although it's tempting to try something:

But it's difficult to rival Leipzig, Bayern and Dortmund.

[Hootieleece]

Winning the Pokal and getting Europe that way might be the way to balance the budget.

 

I restarted my save with Schalke. I am in 2039 and the best I have done is 8th in Bundesliga, but have won the Pokal and had success in Europe winning the Europa League the season after. Crashed hard in the Champions League the subsequent season and in Bundesliga 13th.

 

[lfds89]

10 horas atrás, Hootieleece disse:

Winning the Pokal and getting Europe that way might be the way to balance the budget.

 

I restarted my save with Schalke. I am in 2039 and the best I have done is 8th in Bundesliga, but have won the Pokal and had success in Europe winning the Europa League the season after. Crashed hard in the Champions League the subsequent season and in Bundesliga 13th.

 

It's probably risky to count on Europe when we are still far from being a top team. Let's see how this season goes.

I'm counting more on selling one or two players along with some decent performances in the league. I don't expect to reach Europe this year, but with our evolution, maybe next year we can get there through the league.

[lfds89]

Still about the CHANGES FROM LAST SEASON:

SK	RB	CB	LB	DM	CM	CAM	RW	LW	ST
Alexander Schwolow	Sepp van den Berg	Moritz Jenz	Thomas Ouwejan	Alex Král	Rodrigo Zalazar	Michaël Frey	Sôichirô Kôzuki	Amine Adli	Sebastian Polter
Michael Langer	Cédric Brunner	Leo Greiml	Jere Uronen	Tom Krauß	Mousa Dembélé	Assan Ouédraogo	Tim Skarke	Marius Bülter	Keke Topp
Luca Podlech	Taylan Bulut	Éder Balanta		Niklas Tauer		Kenan Karaman	Dominick Drexler	Tobias Mohr	Simon Terodde
		Maya Yoshida
		Marcin Kamiński
		Nedzhib Hadzha

This was my squad and in red is every player that left. 20 out of 31 are gone—massive change.

Successfully promoted Ouédraogo and Topp, Let's see if Bulut and Becker can make it this season, Hadzha and Dörr are also close. There's a lot of competition from homegrown talent.

 

EXPIRING CONTRACTS

Name	Best Pos	Personality	Age	Agreed Playing Time	Monthly Expenses	Transfer Value	Best Position	BPR	Pot BPR	Pros	Cons
Can Bozdogan	M (C)	Balanced	22	Squad Player	51 100,00 €	5 800 000,00 €	DM	63	65		Aer
Aleksandar Özgen	DM	Determined	16	Youngster	275,00 €	4 700 000,00 €	FB	50	63		Att Tec
Henning Matriciani	D (R)	Professional	23	Squad Player	37 000,00 €	1 500 000,00 €	CB	62	62	Men
Marvin Pieringer	ST (C)	Fairly Determined	23	Squad Player	47 900,00 €	1 400 000,00 €	ST	63	63	Aer	Def
Amin Alloush	D (R)	Fairly Professional	16	Youngster	275,00 €	950 000,00 €	CM	49	61		Def Att Aer
Dries Wouters	DM	Spirited	26	Out On Loan	33 200,00 €	900 000,00 €	CB	61	61	Aer
Blendi Idrizi	M (L)	Balanced	25	Out On Loan	55 900,00 €	400 000,00 €	DM	60	60		Aer
Zaid Amoussou-Tchibara	ST (C)	Balanced	17	Future Prospect	10 900,00 €	375 000,00 €	ST	58	69		Def Men
Steven van der Sloot	AM (R)	Balanced	21	Breakthrough Prospect	10 550,00 €	350 000,00 €	WF	55	58		Aer
Reinhold Ranftl	M (R)	Balanced	31	Out On Loan	81 700,00 €	250 000,00 €	DM	58	58
Tristan Osmani	AM (R)	Balanced	18	Breakthrough Prospect	8 550,00 €	230 000,00 €	WF	54	63		Def Aer
Yannick Tonye	AM (R)	Balanced	18	Future Prospect	5 300,00 €	160 000,00 €	ST	49	58		Def Att
Bleron Krasniqi	AM (C)	Balanced	21	Youngster	5 200,00 €	130 000,00 €	ST	58	62		Def
Nicholas Engels	D (C)	Fairly Determined	19	Youngster	9 600,00 €	120 000,00 €	CB	54	61		Att Tec
Moritz Flotho	ST (C)	Balanced	21	Out On Loan	7 950,00 €	65 000,00 €	ST	59	62	Aer	Def

 

Bozdogan is not a massive part of the squad, but he's decent. His Monthly Expenses (ME) are low so I might offer him a new contract.

Özgen and Alloush already have new contracts, but it's only in effect when they turn 17.

Matriciani and Pieringer are in the first-team but aren't that good and although they are on low wages, I'm inclined to let them go. I'll make my decision by December.

Wouters and Idrizi are on loan with mandatory fees. Ranftl is also on loan but couldn't find a team that would take him on a mandatory fee. Still has an optional. If they don't take it, he'll be released.

Tchibara just signed for us and doesn't want to sign a new contract yet, but I'll keep him. Just wait another month or so until I make an offer.

The rest are players with low potential. Some might stay to be part of the II squad, but guys over 21, or if they demand high wages, will leave.

 

The next update will be about the August and September games. I have played 5 of them, still 3 to go.

[lfds89]

AUGUST and SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Couldn't wish for a better start.

 

Dif to Objective	Points	GF	GA	GD
First 6 Matches	0,78	0,49	-0,30	0,79

I've separated my league fixtures in groups of 6 matches, so this isn't counting with the match against Frankfurt. But we are almost 1 point per game above our objective; over half a goal per game; under one goal conceded every 3 matches and with a positive difference of 0.79 in goal difference.

 

This is unexpected, to say the least.

 

vs BAUTZEN - National Cup

I won't bother you with details. We played the second string against a semi-professional team and we are through to the next round where we'll face Bochum (Bundesliga 2)

 

vs FREIBURG (A)

Our luckiest game. They had 3 disallowed goals!

Gulliksen and Topp showed some glimpses of a good partnership on the way.

 

vs LEIPZIG (H)

2 missed penalties, one for each side. We deserved the win.

Tomás debuted on the scoresheet.

 

vs WERDER (A)

It was an uneventful game from both sides. They played an "anti-football" 5-3-2. I hate playing against this formation. They have a hard time creating chances and they prevent us from creating as well with numbers near their goal.

 

vs HOFFENHEIM (H)

At the time it was 1st against 2nd in the league.

This time Topp scored the penalty, and one more goal from a set-piece following Jenz against Leipzig. And our last goal was a long-distance run by Ouédraogo.

 

vs HERTHA (A)

Our worst game so far. We just didn't play. Can't find a reason, it was just one of those games where nothing goes our way. The sending-off didn't help us.

 

vs KÖLN (H)

This is probably the game with the most evidence of a tactical change making an impact. We usually play narrow, but since Köln was playing a 4-4-2 Diamond I asked the team to play wide and you can see on the second goal Krauss playing the ball from one side of the goal area to the other for Tomás to finish.

 

One more goal from a set-piece this time by Gimber and another one for Topp after Aydin won the ball near their box.

 

vs FRANKFURT (H)

A pretty eventful first-half and an opposite second half. Larsson scored; Topp left injured; it doesn't show but Larsson was injured in the 36th minute; Gimber was sent off, being our second red card in 3 games (I'm a bit concerned); Tomás had a goal disallowed. We remained in control in the second half and took the win.

A nice one-man job: won the ball, dribbled past one; shot.

 

NEXT MATCHES

Don't expect much from Bayern, but let's see what we can do against Mainz who are overperforming expectations and Augsburg.

[lfds89]

OCTOBER UPDATE

FINANCES

This time, let's start with finances:

We are 5M in the red. This time last season? 26M in the red. It's quite an improvement. We need to keep this going for a few seasons since we still have a lot of debt to clear:

 

MATCHES

Not good. I expected much better against Augsburg mainly. But we are still on course for our season objectives.

 

 

vs Bayern (A)

Adding insult to injury, we added 2 more injuries in Tomás and Pieringer and a bunch of yellows.

With Topp, Tomás and Pieringer injured, that's our 3 first options as ST are out.

 

vs Mainz (H)

I wasn't paying attention in the first half and we probably didn't win because of that. Also, 2 disallowed goals, one would have been our prospect Dörr's first competitive goal.

 

vs Augsburg (A)

It was a game where we couldn't create decent chances. Even with those problems, we still managed to score one and have another goal disallowed.

 

vs Bochum (H)  - Cup

With Topp back in full fitness, the match was made easy. Let's see who we get in the next round.

 

NEXT MATCHES

2 home games and against 13th, 11th and 15th, we should pick up some points.

[Hootieleece]

At least your board hasn't decided to replace Veltins Arena yet.......wait till you have a positive bank balance.......

[lfds89]

Em 28/09/2024 em 21:12, Hootieleece disse:

At least your board hasn't decided to replace Veltins Arena yet.......wait till you have a positive bank balance.......

Yet...

 

OCTOBER UPDATE

MATCHES

A good month, with 7 points out of 9.

 

We stand in 6th in the league. It's way above the mid-table objective.

We are now above 50% of our points objective (24 of 47) and at 50% in goals scored (20 of 40 goals scored) and 42% in goals conceded (14 of 33). We achieved this in 38% of the matches, so one month in hand.

 

Dif to Objective	Points	GF	GA	GD
First 6 Matches	0,78	0,49	0,30	0,79
Second 6 Matches	-0,05	0,16	-0,53	-0,37

We weren't as good in the second 6 matches (the last game of this month is not included in this set), but we are still above expectations and more importantly, above the objectives set.

 

vs Gladbach (H)

Low xG shows it wasn't a great game, Also an assist from our GK Linde. 

It looks like a Sunday league goal, but Topp was very opportunistic.

 

vs HSV (A)

We conceded 3 goals from 0.74 xG, so I can't be happy. And with 2 more disallowed goals on their side. We had a lot of trouble with their crosses (every goal came from a cross). It was my mistake when setting up the tactic. I set the press on their midfielders, but forgot to set the instructions to trap inside and their wingers and wing-backs were destroying us physically and then got their crosses at will.

 

vs Union (H)

The score looks better than the performance.

We also had some trouble controlling the opposition in this game. We started with our standard 4-3-3 with 2 wingers in the AM strata.

These were the first-half statistics. We allowed them 10 shots! Mind you they are 18th in the league. That was simply terrible.

I dropped the wingers to the midfield strata and set Ouédraogo to BWM alongside Krauss and Zalazar as DM in a RPM role. Topp was also changed to DLF instead of Poacher. Regarding the team, I asked to play wider, play out of defence and slow pace down in transition. This was how we finished the match:

And the second half statistics:

More possession, fewer shots conceded, dropped their passes completed ratio to 74% (from 90) and went from -37 in final third passes difference to +13. We didn't create much as well (truth be told) but I prefer it this way.

 

NEXT MATCHES

2nd, 3rd, 17th and 5th. That's a tough way to end the year. Winning the game against Darmstadt is crucial. Let's hope we get some points against the others.

 

DYNAMICS

With good results came a totally different team dynamic. Everybody is happier even with half the squad being new here.