Chevie
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Posts posted by Chevie
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Always good to read through a Dong21 transfer update! One of the best when it comes to building a squad on a budget
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Always enjoy a squad rebuild by Dong so catching up on this thread has definitely been enjoyable
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That new CB looks like a real bargain and definitely proves the worth of the DoF as an additional source of scouting! Good luck for the season ahead and fingers crossed you can survive this treacherous first year in charge.
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Congrats on the promotion!
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So I'm making another return to my FM19 save, currently half way through the 11th season. I set up the game with the database from the rule set of just the top two English divisions and, I don't know if anyone else has this issue, there is a very large lack of well rounded world class talent out there, especially in central defence.
Does anyone know if there was something with AI development where defenders weren't trained to be good on the ball, or is this simply a consequence of the lack of squad depth outside of the two loaded leagues?
Not too big a deal at the moment since De Ligt and Dias are still going strong for me but it's a worry for a few year's time when they start their decline haha
This has also become noticeable with how the save is going, there's no other saves I have had such consistent domination against even the biggest sides. I would say it makes me bored of the save but then it's always nice to return to some wins if I have another save that's hitting a bit of a rough patch
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I've been very much enjoying the CM (A) this year in a lower tempo tactic. It lines up as:
------------------- CF (S)
IF (S) --------------------------------- IW (A)
----------- BBM (S) --- CM (A)
------------------- DM (D)
FB (S) --- BPD (D) --- BPD (D) --- IWB (S)
------------------- SK (S)
The idea is to have the FB, BBM, IF and CF create an overload to draw the opposition to that side, the play is then spread to the IW to attack the isolated FB. They either hit the byline and cut the ball back or cut inside and whip a cross for the CM (A) to steal in unnoticed and score. The IWB helps to cover against a counter attack into the space the CM (A) vacates when he surges forwards.
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Brilliant rebuild of the squad - one more DM/CM if you have the budget may just be the icing on the cake!
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You are an absolute sucker for pain and torment aren’t you @Dong21 hahaha
Good luck in the revival!
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That must be some feeling having cash to burn for the first time in 4 seasons! Seeing your history with free transfers it definitely makes sense to give yourself such a large wage budget to work with. Good luck!
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BREXIT PROBLEMS:
Thanks to the Brexit, I now have a new issue to contend with when it comes to future signings. All British players will now be considered as non-EU. Slovak league rules allows a MAXIMUM of 5 non-EU players in my match day squad. I will need to be careful when building my squad using players who haven't made it at United, ensuring I keep this limit in mind. This throws a large spanner into the works and I hope doesn't mess with the challenge too much!
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DECEMBER 2020:
Results:
Just a single game at the start of the month against bottom of the table Senica. We were missing our first choice keeper as well as David Jones and Alder Da Silva who picked up knocks in the week leading up to this game. Even with these in injuries we still made more of a meal of this game than we should have having to come back from 2-1 down at half time to claim the victory against a side who have only picked up one single point all season. Bernard Petrak stepping up with two goals and an assist in Da Silva's absence.
Table:
Unsurprisingly, Dun. Streda also won their game this month meaning we went into the mid-season break a single point off top spot.
Monthly Awards:
After our brilliant first half of the season, I have been named as the Slovak Manager of the Year.
The Month Ahead:
So now as we hit January 2021, player contracts are now reaching their final 6 months. This means there are a selection of Manchester United players we can look into signing. The wages on many of these players is too high for us to afford so we will continue to monitor their situation and sign anyone appropriately available when the opportunity arises.
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NOVEMBER 2020
Results:
Performances weren't as up to scratch as previous months. We were heavily reliant on Adler De Silva's form to get us through with a few late goals to pick up points. Progress again in the cup sees us reach the Quarter Finals where we will play 3rd division side Inter Bratislava giving us a very good chance of reaching the Semi Finals. We received a big injury hit with the news that first choice goalkeeper Libor Hrdlicka would be out for 6-7 weeks just before the Michalovce game. With the mid-season break coming up he will only miss 4 games in total but this was still a big loss ahead of huge games against Michalovce and Zlate Moravce.
Table:
With those two drawn matches, we dropped off top spot due to the fact that Dun. Streda do not stop winning (they have won 9 of their last 10 - the only blemish a recent 1-1 draw with Michalovce, seen that a lot recently!). We have now guaranteed a top half finish ahead of the league split after 22 games so we can look forward to guaranteed competing for Europe, and the title, rather than relegation.
Monthly Awards:
N/A
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OCTOBER 2020
Results:
And so the unbeaten run had to come to an end eventually. A brilliant game between the top two teams in the division where we unfortunately could not come out on top. Petrak's late goal gave me hope but we couldn't grab an equaliser. This was followed up with a late, late win over current champions Slovan Bratislava. We had thrown away a 2-0 lead in this match before David Jones stepped up to score a beautiful 93rd minute free-kick. Worth the wages I had to fork out to get him in! Progression in the cup and two further wins in the league keep us top of the table, now by just a single point. We've just started the return games against all teams, completing league doubles over struggling Nitra and mid-table Trencin.
Table:
As mentioned above, we are still holding onto top spot despite losing our unbeaten start to the season. A gap is now starting to form between the top two and the rest so looks like we may be in a two horse race for the title.
Monthly Awards:
N/A
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SEPTEMBER 2020
Results:
Another brilliant month of results for the team. 4 more unbeaten in the league and progression to the next round of the cup. The signing of David Jones has also seen an improvement in the performances of James Weir who grabbed his first goal of the season against Serad. This month also saw Adler Da Silva hit a hot streak of form with 6 goals across the 5 games.
Table:
All this has lead to a 4 point lead at the top of the table after 9 games, although this could get cut to 2 if Zlate Moravce win their game in hand. My next two games are against Dun. Streda, currently second, and Slovan Bratislava, the reigning champions, so I'm expecting some difficult games coming up.
Monthly Awards:
The brilliant team form is evident with both Adler Da Silva and David Jones finishing first and second respectively in the Player of the Month award. This shows me complete justification for the effort I put in to signing Jones. His extra little bit of quality in central midfield, as well as set piece prowess, has improved the side greatly.
James Weir's first goal of the season also made the top three in the Goal of the Month award. In my opinion it involved some suspect goal keeping but it was still an excellent strike from distance.
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#WELCOMEDAVIDJONES
In honour of David Jones signing I was trying to find a compilation video on YouTube of his greatest moments but all I could find was this time he hit the bar with a free-kick for Burnley in 2014 and a delightful indirect free-kick for Wolves:
Enjoy! Hopefully we see some of the second video over the course of the season
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DONE DEAL - FK POHRONIE SNAP UP DAVID JONES
And just like that, David Jones has finally joined! I at last have the midfielder that I hope can lead to James Weir rediscovering his pre-season form, on a contract for half the wage he originally wanted. I had to commit to a second season but his experienced head will be a good thing to have around when I am signing more of the younger players being released by Manchester United from next summer.
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AUGUST 2020
Results:
Well, what a start to the season that was! A brilliant team showing to kick things off away to Nitra. It was an almost perfect performance from back-to-front, letting up just 2 shots (both off target) and creating 17 chances of our own. Following that were two scrappy wins (firstly though a goal from a set piece against Trnava and then the penalty against Trencin), however against two sides predicted to finish in the top five I wasn't expecting a win at all! The excellent defensive showings continued into our 4th game were we played Zlate Moravce who has also won their opening 3 games. It was a very cagey affair with only 6 total shots between the two sides. Then came a real to-and-fro match against Ruzomberok where we finally conceded our first goals of the season but still manged to come out on top.
I really didn't expect to see such a good start to the season based on our pre-season odds but I'm happy to see the form we did build up in pre-season has transferred into competitive games.
My main concern is in central midfield. James Weir had an excellent pre-season in the Mezzala role, however with the fact I have as yet not been able to tie David Jones to a contract he has had to be shifted to my Deep Lying Playmaker and he has not been able to keep that form up (4 goals and 1 assist, average rating 7.11, in 6(1) pre-season games to just 1 assist, average rating 6.34, in 5(0) competitive games). Jones continues to play hardball with his demands but I will keep persisting as my other central midfield options are not defensively aware enough to be my holding midfielder so i need to sacrifice Weir still.
Table:
Joint top after 5 games is beyond my wildest dreams when I started this career. Hopefully we can keep this up and continue to defy the odds as the season progresses. Current title holders Slovan Bratislava are languishing down in 8th so I am expecting a resurgence from them soon.
Monthly Awards:
On loan central defender, and current club captain, Petr Pavlik finished third in the Player of the Month award after our brilliant defensive performances throughout August (just 0.64 xG per match so far - it was just 0.48 before the end-to-end Ruzomberok game).
I would also give a shout out to young forward Bernard Petrak, who wasn't considered first choice but an injury to Alder Da Silva just before the opening game and then a lack of fitness before the Ruzomberok encounter gave him two starts in which he popped in 3 goals. Certainly staking his claim to be my starting forward!
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EVE OF THE SEASON - WHAT LIES AHEAD?
Well, I think this says it all about what we can expect this season. After their 11th placed finish in 2019-20, FK Pohronie are the longest odds to win the league at a staggering 700-1. A long season ahead I'm sure but my good pre-season gives me at least a little hope of a relatively successful year.
As things stand, I have as yet been unable to bring in any former Manchester United players on a free transfer or currently youth players on loan. As mentioned previously only David Jones is of any quality for free agents but he wants over £2k in wages and we can only offer around £1k. In terms of loans, only Dylan Levitt, Ethan Galbraith and Anthony Elanga are available for loan (the rest are set to unavailable so I can't even tempt United with a bid! - there's also issues around not being able to sign a pro-contract until you're 17 and can't be loaned abroad until 18 which gives no options from the U18s that I can sign on loan). Levitt and Galbraith's loan requirements are not possible to cover (£9k and £7k respectively) so only Elanga (£1k) is affordable. Unfortunately central midfield is the position of most concern for me so David Jones (who's trial has been extended for 4 weeks) is the number 1 target I want to bring in. Hopefully the longer he remains a free agent the lower his wage demands become!
Back to the season, our opening game is against Nitra (predicted to finish 8th with odds of 200-1) away from home so expecting a tough encounter. Wish me luck!
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PRE-SEASON RESULTS
Well, pre-season couldn't have gone much better. No-one is going to complain about 7 wins from 7.
Average 57% possession is a good start for my goal to be playing possession based football. 15 shots per game also shows that it isn't possession with no end product.
Hopefully we can carry this form into the start of the season and can look forward to a positive and progressive season.
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Nice to have you on board @RaySunshine and @Dong21 - hope i won't let you down
6 minutes ago, Dong21 said:When I saw you had taken Brown on trial, I was hoping it was Wes!
Oh how I wish it was, would have been a perfect first signing!
6 minutes ago, Dong21 said:With regards to your philosophy, in addition to signing former United players, can you also take current United players on loan?
I hadn't thought of this, but I don't see why not? My main targets will still be those released by United but could expand this to give those there currently a chance to play first team football. Especially this early on in the save when there isn't many former players available.
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FIRST GAME, FIRST WIN, JAMES WEIR MAN OF THE MATCH
So, I don't plan on doing match-by-match updates for this career, but since the whole reason I'm at this club is down to James Weir I thought it was worth talking about my opening match between the First and Second XIs.
Not only did James Weir score the opening two goals, but he also set up the third goal to finish the game off. Not a bad start for the man who brought me to FK Pohronie!
The first one was a bit special too, popping it into the top corner from 25 yards out. The second, a lovely team move showcasing an early example of the entertaining, passing football I want to see.
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FORMER MANCHESTER UNITED PLAYERS BROUGHT IN ON TRIAL
So to start as I mean to go on with the new philosophy, I have offered trials to all free agent players I could find on my database who had spent time in the Manchester United academy.
Unfortunately, Danny Simpson, Ravel Morrison and Aiden Barlow rejected my trial offers. Considering they all have interest from a slew of Championship clubs back in England I can't really blame them to be honest!
I have managed to get in the rest of those I offered a trial to:
David Jones, Chris Eagles, Cameron Stewart and Reece Brown are the most recognisable names here. Unfortunately only David Jones appears that he would be of any use in my current squad with 3.5 star current ability. Although I am tempted to bring in Sam Allardyce for the name alone!
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EARLY TACTICAL THINKING
So based on the players currently in the squad, a 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 would be the best shapes to start with. These are good formations for a possession based side with the 2 central midfielders and attacking midfielder giving me 3 players in central areas (and then a 4th since my left backs aren't the best at crossing so an IWB will be used here).
So these are my early thoughts on a formation and instructions. The in possession team instructions should lead us to being careful when we have the ball, looking after it and working for opportunities. Out of possession we want the ball back quickly. In transition doesn't fully match with a possession based strategy but who doesn't like the thrill of a goal on the counter?
The IWB plus the gap left by the MEZZ, DLP covers the FB so keep a better shape in defensive transition. The FB and W should provide outlets to supply the IF and AF.
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DAY ONE - A WELCOME TO THE CLUB
The club vision for this team fortunately has little to no restrictions, with no playing style or transfer preferences I need to adhere to and with an expectation to only "Fight bravely against relegation". This gives me freedom to go with my philosophy of signing former Manchester United players with a bit of leeway if things take a while to get going!
CURRENT SQUAD REVIEW
Goalkeepers:
Two decent goalkeepers, Hrdlicka and Jenco, to start with here. Although both are only rated as good for 2. Liga. There's high potential in reserve with Dovec but he's not near being ready for the first team yet, especially with those poor technical attributes when I'm playing on a possession based side eventually! Repisky, currently out on loan, also has okay potential but my main development focus will be on Dovec.
Defenders:
Britto, Pavlik and Heurtaux give a good base for a defence, Zupa could be improved upon at left back though. The back up defenders don't inspire too much confidence but at least they have room to improve.
Midfielders:
A couple of decent players here but certainly need more. Weir is almost certainly a starter which is a good sign since he was the main reason for this save!
Forwards:
Here is definitely an area of the squad I will be looking to invest in. My best forwards, both currently and potential wise, are on loan.
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[FM24] C.F Estrela da Amadora - "I Love This Game!"
in FM Career Updates
Posted
Congrats on the cup double
