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It was a problem I had last season, mainly in the first half. We lost way too many points against bottom-5 teams. This year we already played against the current bottom-5 and we have: Montpellier (3-0 W); Metz (6-1 W); Sochaux (0-2 L); Ajaccio (5-0 W); Auxerre (6-0 W - will be on the next post). Overall, I can be pretty happy with those. We have been dominant with clear wins. The Sochaux game was really the only outlier. It's a shame that before the missed penalty we were not having that type of game. We were playing as usual, creating some chances. We had 0.40 xG in the first 10 minutes with 2 shots on target and then we "flatlined" until half-time and they scored through a penalty... I checked PSG's results across the last 3 seasons: [25 / 7 / 2], 2,41 ppg ; [26 / 5 / 3], 2,44 ppg ; [29 / 3 / 2], 2,65 ppg; and this season they are on [12 / 0 / 1], 2,77 ppg. We are on 2,38 ppg, had we won against Sochaux we would be on 2,62 ppg. We are getting there. They'll still lose more points this season, I don't think they can keep this rhythm (at least I hope they don't). Let's wait and see.

Speaking of the situation IRL, U23 is just a continuity from the youth system. They are still playing with players of the same age group. When you are at a B team, you play against everyone. It's a bigger world. Porto doesn't have a U23 team for instance, as they don't see value in that league.

It's fantastic. Now I've stopped playing and I'm making faces for every player lol

I've mostly shown the octagon for some players, but if you want I can post the attribute page. And yes, that's definitely it. Last season, it was the first in Marseille and I wanted to get a grip of the players I had and the level of the competition. Now, I'm constantly checking my player's attributes and traits (this was most important when changing Maxi to CB and Guendouzi to RPM) and trying little changes to see where we can be better. Right now, only thing I can't understand is Turati. Atubolu only has 6 attributes where he's better than Turati and mostly by 1 or 2. In the rest, Turati is miles better but he simply can't perform. I'm hoping it's about adaptability and he soon starts playing better. Maxi Guendouzi

@Jtomsett11 can you post an example of your training schedule, please? I've been working around mine, but I'm not happy with the results on young players. I get one or two developing really well but mostly is not satisfying.

How do you do that?

About that contract and some more improvements Their first offer was 67,5k. I’m on 65k. It’s laughable. Only thing I liked about the offer was the duration: 4 years. Shows they want me here for long-term. My counter-offer was 80k, 50% drop if we are relegated, 150k prize for winning the league. Then we went back and forth and ended up with: 72,5k + 80k prize money + 50% reduction if relegated for 4 years. Rennes’ manager is Artur Jorge and he’s on 152k. Feel like I’m way underpaid, but I still don’t have the Pro Licence, so I concede a bit. If the season goes to plan, then we’ll talk at the end of it. Following this, they came to me to ask if I wanted to increase the Wage Budget, which I agreed but then move the fee to the Transfer Budget as I feel the Wage is good as it is for now. I don’t understand where those numbers come from. Basically, we had a 7M budget and it was increased to 7,7M. Transferring that to the Transfer Budget, we managed to increase it from 2M to almost 10M. And as they were so willing, I requested an upgrade in training facilities. They are “Excellent” already, but it’s always good to upgrade what we can. Just a shame it's only ready in April. October [Ligue 1] vs Metz (H) Some important things to note here: I tried Guendouzi as RPM. Feels like it suits him. Miath got not just his first goal in Ligue 1, but also his second! And he’s now the youngest ever to score in Ligue 1 (to add to the last accolade of being the youngest to score in the UCL). Inspired by @_Ben_, I looked into Metz’s manager style and as it was Route One, I dropped my defensive line. They barely created any chances with only 2 shots on target and 0,51 xG. The IWB (Maxi Rodríguez, “18”) I’m trying, created the first goal with a through ball to the MEZ (Arda Güler, “10”). Their LFB and LW were attracted to Harit (RW) and Arda (RCM) took advantage of that space. And the IWB-MEZ connection was also crucial in the second one: Maxi was in an interior position, played into Arda, who found Afif (“8”) behind their defensive line and he passed it to Beier ("9") who just had to tap it in. [Ligue 1] vs Sochaux (A) We are on a great run, and when do we decide to bottle it? Against the (arguably) worst team in the league. Arda missed the penalty, then decided to take the day off; and so did Beier and Afif. Terrible. I talked to them after the game, and they responded positively. Also spoke to Turati who has an average rating of 6,61 (worst of all the squad) and 1 clean sheet out of 8 games. My GK needs to do better. It’s not all on the defenders. [Champions League] vs Braga (H) 2 early goals set us on the way, Braga never got a shot on target. I’ve decided to move Rodríguez to BPD as he’s been improving his defensive attributes, Nagy played on the right as IWB. Atubolu deserved his chance, mainly after Turati’s poor performances. And with a 7,4, he’s keeping his place. 3 games, 3 wins in the UCL. In the last 3 seasons, the last-placed team in the play-off always had 9 points, the last-placed team with direct qualification had 17/17/16. We have 9 already and there’s no reason we can’t beat PAOK, Benfica and Betis to make it 9 more and end with 18, even if we don’t get any points from the games against Liverpool and Bayern. Bayern game is the last of the series, and so If we are qualified already, it’ll be time to rest players. [Ligue 1] vs Ajaccio (H) We weren’t as good as the score shows. I would even say they were better than us in the whole first-half. We then made some corrections: Guendouzi was set to BBM instead of RPM; showed them inside (I should have it from the start as we had 3x2 in the midfield); and dropped the defensive line a bit and we controlled the second-half. First-Half: Second-Half: [Ligue 1] vs Bordeaux (H) When we play well, we make it seem easy. Beier with 2 goals, Arda Güler with 8 key passes, Nagy and Rodríguez were incredible in defence. Standings If it wasn't for that Sochaux match, it would have been a perfect month and we would be just 2 points away from PSG and already 8 away from 5th. Also, Lyon has only lost 1 match in the last 2 months (against PSG) and won all the others. Surprisingly, Lens has been way below expectations and is only 10th. Contracts Still need some adjustments. They are not easy to make. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Stefano Turati GK 26 630 3,5 187 000,00 € €8 500 Alessandro Greggio - Acquaintance 10/7/2027 30/6/2032 €26M - €33M Important Player Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 29 750 3,5 351 000,00 € €16 250 Paolo Piccoli - Close 13/12/2024 30/6/2029 €49M - €53M Star Player Andrei Nagy DM 20 731 3,5 84 500,00 € €3 900 Grigore Croitoru - Close 1/1/2027 30/6/2031 €129M - €150M Important Player Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 28 724 4 372 000,00 € €14 250 Zoé Warmez - Acquaintance 10/7/2023 30/6/2029 €86M - €95M Star Player Akram Afif AM (L) 30 403 3 298 000,00 € €13 750 Mohammed Al-Sayed - Very Close 10/6/2025 30/6/2028 €27M - €29M Important Player Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 30 384 3 419 000,00 € €19 250 Romain Cavelier - Close 1/7/2026 30/6/2029 €52M - €62M Important Player Maximilian Beier AM (L) 24 845 3,5 378 000,00 € €18 750 Felix Brinkies - Very Close 26/7/2026 30/6/2031 €84M Important Player Wage Sum 2 089 500,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 7 Max 4 555 000,00 € We have too many important/star players. Pezzella still is our only choice as LB, Morales needs to develop a lot. Afif and ASM are 30, so they need to slowly leave their places. Daoud is pushing for the LW position, but I need my prospects to develop (Hassan, Ristic, Tozé, Castelli, Lafont) so they can also be part of the first team and then the first eleven. Nagy is on a low wage for his value and importance to the team. That also needs to be revised soon. We have some spare budget and he has many years left in his contract, so it’s a good time to do that. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Hans Hateboer D (R) 33 52 2,5 206 000,00 € €9 750 Federico Facciolo - Acquaintance 5/4/2027 30/6/2029 €3,2M - €4,3M Regular Starter Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 28 778 3 366 000,00 € €16 750 Heiko Richter - Very Close 9/7/2025 30/6/2030 €30M - €37M Regular Starter Ludovit Reis DM 27 342 3 223 000,00 € €10 250 Adrián Rico - Acquaintance 18/8/2025 30/6/2030 €41M - €49M Regular Starter Kanya Fujimoto M (C) 28 183 3 348 000,00 € €16 000 Naoko Kasahara - Acquaintance 15/7/2026 30/6/2030 €46M - €50M Regular Starter Amine Harit AM (L) 30 580 3 353 000,00 € €16 250 Romain Cavelier - Acquaintance 11/7/2025 30/6/2028 €12M - €13,5M Regular Starter Wage Sum 1 496 000,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 5 Max 7 317 142,86 € From the “Regular Starters” group, I would want them all to become squad players. Hateboer is declining; Reis lost his place to Soumaré; I don’t fully trust Balerdi and plan to sell him and give his place to Rodríguez; Fujimoto has been replaced by Arda Güler; Harit has always been a second option in both wings, he needs to accept that he’s not a starter. If all of them drop, wages need to be revised as they are all above the limit for that group. Name Best Pos Age Mins Ability Wage Appearance Fee Agent Begins Expires Transfer Value Agreed Playing Time Noah Atubolu GK 25 360 2 132 000,00 € €10 000 Uwe Lindel - Acquaintance 10/6/2027 30/6/2029 €700K - €1M Backup Maximiliano Rodríguez D (R) 20 356 3 58 000,00 € €4 000 Aaron Llanos - Very Close 1/1/2027 30/6/2031 €65M - €92M Squad Player Lars Lukas Mai D (C) 27 720 2,5 94 000,00 € €5 500 Marc Peters - Acquaintance 1/2/2027 30/6/2030 €7,6M - €9,2M Squad Player Marvin Friedrich D (C) 31 333 3 167 000,00 € €9 250 Martin Wittek - Close 1/2/2027 30/6/2029 €3,7M - €8M Squad Player Federico Morales D (L) 20 240 2,5 47 500,00 € €2 700 Sergio García - Acquaintance 21/6/2027 30/6/2032 €5,8M - €7M Squad Player Amadou Haïdara M (C) 29 189 2,5 217 000,00 € €12 500 Coumba Sissoko - Very Close 8/7/2025 30/6/2029 €15M - €16,5M Squad Player Boubakary Soumaré M (C) 28 770 3 322 000,00 € €18 500 Luke Morgan - Close 1/7/2025 30/6/2029 €6M - €7,4M Squad Player Arda Güler AM (C) 22 703 3,5 337 000,00 € €12 000 Özgür Yıldız - Very Close 16/7/2026 30/6/2030 €79M - €89M Squad Player Karim Daoud AM (L) 20 510 3 113 000,00 € €6 750 Rodrigue Santiago - Very Close 7/8/2027 30/6/2031 €43M - €50M Squad Player Wage Sum 1 487 500,00 € Total Allowed 2 220 000,00 € 9 Max 11 201 818,18 € In the “Squad Player” section, we have some players that need to be promoted. Rodríguez, Soumaré and Güler are the most obvious; Daoud will make the jump next season as well. Really wanted Morales to develop, but he hasn’t shown many good signs. Might need to search for another player and loan him out. Atubolu, Mai, Friedrich are good where they are. Haïdara is my main doubt. He has been dropping his attributes and I can probably replace him with Scherrer, Castelli, Traoré or even Sithole next season.

I really like your breakdown by style. Besides "Play out of Defence" against Gegenpress do you have any "defaults" against other styles? Speaking of which: I'm guessing since pressing is not really fine-tuned in FM, it still works best if you have a numerical advantage. Like in the first image, you have 4+1+1 (or 2+3+1) vs 3+2, there's always a free man. Do you take that into account? (I still can't think of any formation where you wouldn't have the numerical advantage with 6 players in the build-up - no preset formation presses with 6 players in FM, I think)

A look into the opposition An overview of prediction, managers and preferred formations. Key notes: 5 teams with 2 strikers 4-3-3 still dominant Only 4 teams with 3/5 at the back Quite a team there: Petrescu, Blanc, Tudor, Grosso, Diarra, Almeyda, Garritano, Clement, Conceição, Sheva! Name Prediction Manager Formation Ajaccio 17 Pantaloni 4-4-2 Auxerre 16 Shevchenko 4-3-3 DM Wide Bordeaux 12 Guion 4-3-3 DM Wide Lens 2 Tudor 5-2-2-1 DM AM Lille 9 Jovicevic 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Lorient 7 Almeyda 4-3-3 DM Wide Lyon 6 Martínez 5-2-3 DM Wide Marseille 5 Leal 4-3-3 DM Wide Metz 14 Petrescu 4-3-3 DM Wide Monaco 4 Clement 4-4-2 Montpellier 13 Blanc 5-3-2 DM WB Nice 8 Conceição 4-3-3 DM Wide PSG 1 Garitano 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Rennes 3 Jorge 4-4-2 Saint-Étienne 11 Grosso 4-3-3 DM Wide Sochaux 18 Rey 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide Strasbourg 10 Bachar 4-3-3 DM Wide Troyes 15 Diarra 5-3-2 DM WB 5-3-2 DM WB 2 4-3-3 DM Wide 8 5-2-3 DM Wide 1 5-2-2-1 DM AM 1 4-4-2 3 4-2-3-1 DM AM Wide 3 And a sum of top-5 attributes. Once again: TEC: Dribbling, First Touch, Passing, Technique; MEN: Anticipation, Concentration, Decisions; PHY: Jumping, Pace, Strength. Name Prediction TEC MEN PHY Average Rank Ajaccio 17 70 67 75 71 17 Auxerre 16 70 71 75 72 16 Bordeaux 12 71 70 77 73 13 Lens 2 76 75 76 76 7 Lille 9 77 73 78 76 5 Lorient 7 74 73 80 75 8 Lyon 6 77 75 78 77 4 Marseille 5 79 75 77 77 3 Metz 14 73 71 75 73 12 Monaco 4 74 74 77 75 9 Montpellier 13 72 71 76 73 13 Nice 8 75 78 76 76 6 PSG 1 85 83 81 83 1 Rennes 3 79 75 81 78 2 Saint-Étienne 11 70 71 76 72 15 Sochaux 18 70 67 72 70 18 Strasbourg 10 74 71 79 75 10 Troyes 15 70 72 77 73 11 Rank 2 5 8 3 Looking at the attributes, we need more anticipation, pace, and strength. With some renovation of the central defenders, we'll probably get there; wingers will also have to be changed in a few seasons. September [Ligue 1] vs Rennes (H) Besides PSG, Rennes is the biggest contender. In this game we were superior, but Kalimuendo is always there to make some damage. Beier missing a penalty didn't help us. [Champions League] vs Porto (A) My first game in the UCL and my first win as well. Might turn out to be a very important win. Let's see how the rest of the games go. [Ligue 1] vs Troyes (A) An early goal helped us set the tone, then a penalty and one more goal from a set-piece. [Ligue 1] vs Montpellier (H) We've easily beaten our rivals. They didn't even record a shot on goal. Set-pieces are helping us. [Ligue 1] vs Strasbourg (A) Strasbourg is a challenging team, but we proved our worth. Letting them shoot as much and getting to an xG of 1,00 might be a bit too much. Improvements in defence are needed. Belardi's average rating has been poor and Mai and Friedrich only have decent average ratings due to their goals. [Champions League] vs Austria Wien (H) Easy win. In the second half, I gave a European debut to 3 U19 players: Vincent, Husser, and Miath. Only Miath seems to be on his way to being a first-team player, but why not give them the chance? In this game, Miath set a new team and UCL record: Standings PSG lost to Monaco; Rennes only lost a point to us in our draw; Lorient lost 2 and drew 1. Arda Güler has been impressive. I had no reason to start him over Fujimoto but figured I should give him the place so he could start and develop. Part of the assists come from set-pieces. And on the other statistics, you can see who we are facing: Kalimuendo is the big star at Rennes; Mbappé, Saka, Hakimi and Nmecha are taking PSG to the top. Meanwhile, Beier has been underperforming maybe due to the rejected bid. In the UCL It doesn’t mean much at this stage, but being upfront is always nice. New contract is on the way

Good luck with this new adventure. UCL isn't easy for a Portuguese team. Let's see who gets there first you or @warlock. Just messing with you guys!

I haven't thought much about it. As you say, there's plenty of time until we play again. I'll probably have to adapt a little bit. Drop the wingers to the midfield strata, play more direct, and lower the block. Something along those lines. Don't know if they are the only ones in the way. Lorient and Rennes are quite strong as well and even Lyon is much better than what they played last season. There's also something to keep in mind: the difference between PSG and all the other teams is much bigger than mine to the others; that means they are less likely to have those 0-0/1-1 games or those games where we concede 1 shot in a counter, they score and we keep missing,

The Season has started [Ligue 1] vs Nice (H) Clear winners, we were way better. Great way to start the season, Beier at top level and Daoud had his debut with an assist. [Ligue 1] vs PSG (A) They are so much better than us. Mbappé didn’t play, but Hakimi ran us to the ground. This is also a team that can afford to play Bellingham as BWM… And by the way, I liked their right side with a FB – CWB-A ; RCDM – BWM-D (or S?) ; RW – IF-S (or A?). Right winger moved inside, CWB took care of the wide space and the BWM provided cover out wide (he was very wide, almost like a CAR). Needs a top-level wing back but who knows if I’ll have one in the future. This was one of their combinations where Hakimi played to Bellingham and he found Saka in depth. Beier was never in the game, so I gave Miath some minutes. He got a taste of a big game. Still managed to get a shot and a dribble. And he got a record: [Ligue 1] vs Lille (H) This marks my 200th career game. We made it easy. It’s great to see this kind of display. And ironically, they had to pay me for using a player. [Ligue 1] vs Saint-Étienne (A) We scored early but couldn’t score the second, making it harder for us. Then they scored and it was quite a nervous game until Arda Güler and Beier connected and we controlled the game until the end. It wasn’t hard to guess who’s top of the table, is it? One last signing? Maybe two? I know I don’t really need another attacking midfielder, nor a central midfielder, but his attributes were too good to pass on a 500k transfer. Souleymane already has one cap for Ivory Coast. Well, it wasn’t just one. We also found Joshua Sithole, an 18-year-old already capped for Australia. He’s natural at CB, can play CM, either footed and with a resolute personality. I’m thinking of him as either a prospect CDM or RB. He could play LB as well, but he doesn’t seem as attacking as I want my LB to be. Focus now is on a CB and a GK for the future. Probably only in the next summer window or when we sell one of our most valuable players. And at the last minute, we receive a bid for Beier. Just with 2 hours left! And he wants to leave. No way I can replace him on such short notice. 55+15. I talk to him and he’s ambitious. He wants to win the UCL and we both know it’s unlikely to do it here, but I compromise with him and promise to let him leave for 84M. I should add that Arsenal seems as unlikely as us. They have been 5th, 6th and 4th in the last 3 seasons... Final Squad & Prospect Squad Hassan ended up being loaned out to Vitória de Guimarães, but for organisation, I'll keep him here. Name Best Pos Personality Stefano Turati GK Spirited 25 Noah Atubolu GK Balanced 25 Name Best Pos Personality FB Andrei Nagy D (R) Fairly Determined 19 69% Maximiliano Rodriguez D (R) Determined 20 66% Name Best Pos Personality FB Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) Resilient 29 67% Federico Morales D (L) Fairly Determined 19 62% Name Best Pos Personality CB Marvin Friedrich D (C) Fairly Professional 31 69% Hans Hateboer D (C) Resolute 33 66% Lars Lukas Mai D (C) Spirited 27 66% Leonardo Balerdi D (C) Spirited 28 66% Name Best Pos Personality CM Matteo Guendouzi M (C) Balanced 28 72% Boubakary Soumaré DM Fairly Ambitious 28 69% Ludovit Reis DM Resolute 27 66% Amadou Haïdara M (C) Ambitious 29 63% Name Best Pos Personality AM Arda Guler AM (C) Resolute 22 73% Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) Spirited 28 69% Name Best Pos Personality WF Akram Afif AM (L) Fairly Determined 30 70% Amine Harit AM (C) Balanced 30 68% Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) Fairly Ambitious 30 68% Ashraf Hassan AM (R) Driven 20 58% Name Best Pos Personality ST Maximilian Beier ST (C) Professional 24 67% Karim Daoud ST (C) Model Citizen 20 64% Prospects - Most of them are loaned out; some are still changing positions as they develop. Name Best Pos Personality Age Ricardo Planche GK Fairly Professional 19 Gregory Bauduiin GK Fickle 16 Name Best Pos Personality Age FB Joshua Sithole D (C) Resolute 18 60% Arthur Carriere D (R) Fairly Professional 16 52% Name Best Pos Personality Age FB João Sousa M (C) Fairly Sporting 18 51% Kaylan Hamidou D (L) Balanced 21 52% Name Best Pos Personality Age CB Patrick Guldager D (C) Professional 20 63% JD Koffi D (C) Determined 22 60% Jérémy Dumas D (C) Mercenary 18 54% Joel Tchami D (C) Fickle 18 51% Name Best Pos Personality Age CM Jonathan Castelli AM (C) Determined 20 61% Souleymane Traore AM (C) Resilient 19 59% Thomas Scherrer M (C) Light-Hearted 18 57% Axel Vincent M (C) Fairly Professional 17 51% Name Best Pos Personality Age AM Mamadou Maiga M (C) Balanced 18 54% Amadou N’Diaye AM (L) Balanced 18 53% Name Best Pos Personality Age WF Radenko Ristic AM (L) Driven 20 61% Ashraf Hassan AM (R) Driven 20 58% Tozé Sá Martins AM (R) Balanced 19 57% Gael Lafont AM (R) Balanced 21 57% Name Best Pos Personality Age ST Marco Travaglini ST (C) Ambitious 20 60% Gérald Miath ST (C) Balanced 16 50% Champions League Fixtures We’ll be spending some time in Portugal: Porto were champions 3 times out of the last 4; Benfica was the other champions in those years and finished 2nd in the other seasons; Braga was champion 5 season ago and has finished 3rd ever since; then there’s Betis who finished 4th in La Liga 2 times in a row; PAOK who are 2-time Greek champions; Austria Wien who were champions last season but were out of top-3 for the 4 seasons before this one; and the big ones: Liverpool and Bayern. We have to beat PAOK and Austria Wien, I don’t see anything special about the Betis team; Braga is the same; Benfica and Porto have decent teams, but are beatable; and we’ll try our best against the other two. Another thing I’ll have to take into account is fatigue/condition (with heavy rotation) and training schedule. Last season we had very regular schedules: Sunday – Thursday – Sunday. This season we will have: Friday/Saturday – Tuesday – Saturday/Sunday; Saturday/Sunday – Wednesday – Sunday. So, I need three training schedules for the week before, and four schedules for the UCL week. Finances Overview The evolution since I arrived. Last year after August there was a big dip. This year, we have CL money coming in, it’ll help us. Status is Rich! We have also dropped a bit in wages (7,3M to 6,5M). The wage structure isn’t still in order, but at least the spending is more controlled. With this information, it's hard to understand such a low budget, but I'll have to manage it.

Transfer Window Update I wanted a new GK but I didn’t know how to handle Pau López. Then tried to include him in an exchange with West Ham and they accepted. Paid below 8M upfront and 4,5M in 2 installments. And he’s on a lower wage than Pau. On the other way, something I believe to be an important piece of business. Might be making a mistake, but it’s on me. Mitrovic has shown signs of decent potential and developed a bit when he was on loan. But he’s temperamental and I don’t like that. If he develops into a great player we have the 35% of profit and a buyback clause, so we win either way, I think. I had 2 doubts about my squad: the 4th winger spot and the backup striker. Regarding the first subject, I had Castelli, Ristic, Hassan and Tozé as options to fill the space. Castelli Ristic Hassan Tozé They are all basically the same age; Ristic is the only left-footed; Tozé and Castelli can also play CM; Hassan and Castelli are non-EU; they are all rated with a potential of at least 4 stars. Tozé was the first to leave on loan. He had a decent loan last season at Valencia and they were interested again, so he went there. Don’t think he’s good enough to merit a spot yet. I wanted to keep Castelli, but he doesn’t have the speed I want for a winger and in midfield I already have decent options, so loaning him seemed a decent idea. He went to Málaga. Ristic was the best of the bunch in the preseason. This was the most difficult one. I didn’t have a great choice to send him on loan (only one team made an offer), but he’s too good to be a 4th option. So that left me with Hassan. He has the least potential from all 4, has the speed, has workrate and a great personality, and although his passing attribute is low, he has vision and technique. On the second part of the dilemma, after selling Mitrovic, I had Travaglini and Miath as the only sensible options. But I should add Afif and Harit as players who can play as strikers. Travaglini Miath Just like Ristic, I felt like Travaglini could do better on loan, and would be a waste to have him just as a backup (since my 2nd team doesn’t play in a competitive league). He went on loan to Guingamp on the 2nd tier. Miath is only 16, but he has done his work in the preseason. 4 goals in 6 starting appearances and a sub one. One goal against Hannover (Germany 1st tier) and two goals against Seattle Sounders (MLS team) which is quite impressive. He has the bonus of being able to play for the U19 when he’s not needed on the first team. But just when I was about to “close the shop” and leave it at that, I made an exploratory offer for a Frecnch wonderkid, Daoud, from Nantes (I was trying to offload them Sala whom they were interested in). His form is not that impressive with 11 goals in 28 appearances on the 2nd tier, but his attributes are, and his personality is fantastic. They rejected the first offer, didn’t even try to negotiate anything; for the sake of it I sent another offer only marginally better and they accepted it. Couldn’t offload Sala as he was not interested in moving there, but I bought him nonetheless. Now Miath will be occupied with the U19 team, while still training with the senior squad and Daoud will be our backup and he’s also a decent backup for the LW spot. So, if I can find a loan for Hassan, he goes. He won’t get many chances here and I prefer to have a smaller squad. Where do I buy my players from? Inspired by @SixPointer, I was curious with something he said: I don’t have a lot of data to look into, but just from the first 3 transfer windows: Arda Güler – Fenerbahçe – Turkey 1st Tier Tozé Sá Martins – Belenenses – Portugal 2nd Tier Max Beier – Hoffenheim – Germany 1st Tier Maxi Rodriguez – Newell’s – Argentina 1st Tier Andrei Nagy – Cluj – Romania 1st Tier Jonathan Castelli – Olimpo – Argentina 3rd Tier Marco Travaglini – Indep. Santa Fe – Colombia 1st Tier Lukas Mai – Lugano – Switzerland 1st Tier Marvin Friedrich – Strasbourg – France 1st Tier Noah Atubolu – Eibar – Spain 1st Tier (although after relegation confirmed) Federico Morales – Lanús – Argentina 1st Tier Stefano Turati – West Ham – England 1st Tier Karim Daoud – Nantes – France 2nd Tier Right now, I can't say I focus on specific places… Argentina has been my main target, but with only 4 non-EU spaces, this needs to stop. I would like to buy more in the inside market, mostly high-potential kids as France develops a lot of talent. Top Player Odds Odd indeed… Nagy was never a starter last season. Season Preview and Objectives The media prediction for us is not very enthusiastic: 7th. Tied with Lyon and Lorient and above Nice. Don’t know if I agree with this, but let’s wait and see. A league still clearly dominated by PSG And Boadu might leave… The board wants a top-4 finish so we can keep going to the UCL. In the Coupe de France, the board has set the goal in the QF, but I’ll try and win it as I promised Beier we would fight for silverware. For the UCL, the board only wants me to be competitive. It’s my first time managing a team in this competition, so I’m glad there’s no pressure to succeed, but we’ll do our best. Tactics for the Season The first tactic and most likely to use is the same which ended last season: 4-3-3 with a DM. Then a 4-2-3-1. I’m still working on it. I want to give Arda Güler some emphasis. And the last one is a variation of the first. Mostly a formation with more creativity, to use where/when I expect to dominate the other team.

Clearly Marseille could do with a better manager

I've been reading everything over the past week. What a journey! I loved reading it! And I hope you can carry on the success of this season! I have always been curious about managing in Spain. La Liga's FFP seems to be quite challenging. In my save, there are many "rich" teams in Spain but almost every one of them has positive net spend (they sell more than they buy, I mean).

I like that "Progressive Action x Possession Lost". Will use it.

Development Update Senior Squad Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Pau López GK 0 0 0 0 Gonçalo Tabuaço GK 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Hans Hateboer D (R) -3,5 0,5 0 -4 Maximiliano Rodriguez D (R) 2 0,5 -0,5 2 Name Best Pos Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) 0 0 0 0 Marco Sala D (L) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Andrei Nagy D (C) 2,5 0,5 1,5 0,5 Éric Bailly D (C) -3,5 0 0 -3,5 Marvin Friedrich D (C) 0 0 0 0 Leonardo Balerdi D (C) 0 0 0 0 Lars Lukas Mai D (C) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Matteo Guendouzi M (C) 0 0 0 0 Boubakary Soumaré DM 0 0 0 0 Ludovit Reis DM 0 0 0 0 Amadou Haïdara M (C) -1 0 0 -1 Name Best Pos Arda Guler AM (C) 7,5 2,5 3,5 1,5 Kanya Fujimoto AM (R) 0 0 0 0 Lovro Zvonarek M (L) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Akram Afif AM (L) 0 0 0 0 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (L) 0,5 0,5 0 0 Amine Harit AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos Maximilian Beier ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Bamba Dieng ST (C) 0 0 0 0 4,5 4,5 4,5 -4,5 Guler improved a lot, Nagy also improved a bit and Rodriguez as well. Hateboer and Bailly regressed. Bailly is no longer a problem as he is retiring. In my last update, the total change was negative 8,5; which represents an upgrade in 13 points. Youth Squad Name Best Pos TOT TEC MEN PHY Ricardo Planche GK 0 0 0 0 Gregory Bauduin GK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Xavi D (R) 0,5 0 0,5 0 Arthur Carriere D (R) 6 1,5 2,5 2 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Kaylan Hamidou D (L) 0,5 0 0,5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Patrick Guldager D (C) 4,5 1,5 1,5 1,5 JD Koffi D (C) 2 0 1,5 0,5 Joel Tchami D (C) 1,5 0 1,5 0 Rémy Levi D (C) 1 0,5 0,5 0 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Thomas Scherrer M (C) 3,5 1 1 1,5 Axel Vincent M (C) 1,5 0 0 1,5 Mamadou Maiga M (C) 5 0,5 2,5 2 Mateo Lambert M (C) 8,5 2,5 2,5 3,5 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 João Sousa M (R) 5,5 1 3,5 1 Tozé Sá Martins AM (R) 2,5 0,5 1 1 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Castelli AM (C) 0 0 0 0 Ashraf Hassan AM (R) 13 3 7 3 Gael Lafont AM (R) 5,5 1,5 3 1 Radenko Ristic AM (L) 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Name Best Pos 0 0 0 0 Marco Travaglini ST (C) 0 0 0 0 Nenad Mitrovic ST (C) 0,5 0 0 0,5 Gérald Miath ST (C) 0 0 0 0 63,5 13,5 29 21 In the last update we had +39 in overall change. It's an increase of 24.5 points. Lambert, João Sousa, Carriere, Maiga, Lafont and Guldager did very well. Lambert and Carriere on the U19; João on the senior squad but playing for the U19; Maiga, Lafont and Guldager were on loan. The biggest upgrade came from Hassan with +13 who was on loan (at Servette, in Switzerland and statistics show he never played, which is odd). Squad Planning and First Transfers I've already sold Tabuaço and brought in Atubolu for next season. Dieng is also sold. Morales, a young LB is coming in and I expect to sell Sala. Noah Atubolu Federico Morales GK RB RCB LCB LB DM CM AM RW LW ST A P Lopez Maxi Nagy Friedrich Pezzella Reis Guendouzi Fujimoto ASM Afif Beier SubA Atubolu Hateboer Balerdi Mai Morales Soumaré Haidara Guler Castelli Harit Mitrovic B Planche Xavi Koffi Guldager Hamidou ? Scherrer Tozé Ristic Hassan Gil SubB/U19 Bauduin Carriere Rémi Levy Tchami Pellegrin Lambert Vincent Maiga Husser Bertrand Miath Extra ? Pellenard Pinault ? ? ? J Sousa Grandel Hourcade Lafont Travaglini Comments P Lopez or buy one? Hateboer is regressing Good! Need a serious contender for the season after Good! Nagy can be an option, need someone to develop Scherrer on loan? Castelli can play here. Tozé on loan? Ristic, Hourcade on loan? Hassan, Lafont on loan? Mitrovic or Travaglini on loan? Gil on loan? Need a backup? I think I should have a better GK and a better DM, however, Pau López was one of the best GKs in the league last season and between Nagy, Soumaré, and Reis/Guendouzi it's hard to find someone better defensively. Important to notice that my Second Team can't get promoted so they are stuck in a non-playable league. I tried to get a French affilliate but my chairman thinks we already have too many links. To some extent we did. We had links with many local clubs. I cancelled almost everyone of them. Don't think they' would help us anyhow and I needed "room" for more important ones. So, everybody you see on the B/SubB/Extra is likely to be loaned out if they are above 18. Improvements Some much needed improvements. Let’s hope they make an impact on the next intake. If you haven't seen EBFM's latest video, I recommend it. We were the last team to have the recruitment day in the league last season. Let's hope it doesn't happen this season, but there's still room for improvement. Around the World Nation Top3 Relegated England Aston Villa, Liverpool, Man City Nottm Forest, QPR, Boro France PSG, Nice, Marseille Angers, Nantes, Brest Germany Bayern, Leverkusen, Leipzig Bremen, Union Berlin Holland Ajax, PSV, AZ ADO, NEC, Sparta Italy Juve, Roma, AC Milan Salernitana, Cremonese, Fiorentina Portugal Porto, Benfica, Braga Setúbal, Sertanense Spain Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Eibar, Málaga, Gijón Atubolu was bought with an active relegation clause, something I always like to keep track of. Awards for some players Career Update Competitions Season Year Club League Position Cup Stage CC Stage League PPG League Win % League GF League GA 01 2022/2023 Sertanense PT4 1st TdP First Round DNP - 2,27 69% 70 32 02 2023/2024 Sertanense PT3 3rd TdP Sixth Round DNP - 1,56 44% 33 26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense PT2 3rd TdP Third Round DNP - 1,76 50% 59 36 04 2025/2026 Sertanense PT1 9th TdP Third Round DNP - 1,29 35% 46 50 05 2026/2027 Marseille FR1 3rd CdF Third Round UEL Semi-Final 1,79 50% 70 37 Players Season Year Club Most Goals Most Assists Most POM Highest AvR 01 2022/2023 Sertanense Karamoko – 31 Quaresma – 9 Karamoko – 8 Kisley – 7,42 02 2023/2024 Sertanense Karamoko – 23 P Mendes – 10 Karamoko – 5 L Madeira – 7,26 03 2024/2025 Sertanense Karamoko – 21 Miccoli – 8 Karamoko – 7 Karamoko – 7,10 04 2025/2026 Sertanense Karamoko – 22 Costinha – 9 Costinha – 4 Karamoko – 7,02 05 2026/2027 Marseille Beier – 30 A Harit – 12 Beier – 10 Beier – 7,34 Finances and Attendances Season Year Club Income Expenditure Profit Avg Attendance 01 2022/2023 Sertanense 1 353 447,00 € 1 411 118,00 € -57 671,00 € 662 02 2023/2024 Sertanense 1 485 040,00 € 1 942 059,00 € -457 019,00 € 1266 03 2024/2025 Sertanense 9 730 336,00 € 11 047 343,00 € -1 317 007,00 € 1876 04 2025/2026 Sertanense 6 747 649,00 € 7 290 128,00 € -542 479,00 € 5296 05 2026/2027 Marseille 269 469 620,00 € 252 138 019,00 € 17 331 601,00 € 56937 I usually post my all-time used 11 but there was no change from last season.

I can see all of them

U19’s Title The boys have done it. Some have been training with the A squad but I still think we could have a better squad. Squad Breakdown Team 8.4 XPTS above 3rd is good. This season the focus was on offense and getting it to work. Seems like next season I'll have to focus a bit more on my defence. We were the second-best team in the second half of the stage. Right now it's impossible to get near PSG, but if we keep this form for next season we'll do well. Name Pos Gls/90 NpxG/90 Sh/90 Conv % npxg/Sh % Dif PSG 1 2,62 1,93 19,38 13,5 10,0 3,6 Lens 4 1,71 1,36 12,44 13,7 10,9 2,8 Nice 2 1,65 1,32 14,24 11,6 9,3 2,3 Monaco 6 2,12 1,78 16,38 12,9 10,9 2,1 Strasbourg 5 1,41 1,13 13,12 10,7 8,6 2,1 Troyes 8 1,18 0,97 10,09 11,7 9,6 2,1 Marseille 3 2,06 1,80 17,12 12,0 10,5 1,5 Rennes 7 2,03 1,71 15,26 13,3 11,2 2,1 Dif to first post -4 0,66 -0,06 -0,41 4,05 -0,10 4,14 % -57% 47% -3% -2% 51% -1% -158% The most important statistic is that we gained 4 positions and to reach there, we also increased 0,66 in goals/match. The conversion rate went 50% up to a decent 12%. Still below 4 other teams, but way better than our starting point. Name Pos Corner Gls DFK Gls IFK Gls PK Gls Set-Piece Gls PSG 1 7 2 2 6 17 Lens 4 6 1 4 1 12 Nice 2 3 2 5 3 13 Monaco 6 14 1 1 3 19 Strasbourg 5 5 0 3 1 9 Troyes 8 1 0 5 1 7 Marseille 3 5 2 4 3 14 Rennes 7 5 1 2 5 13 5,00 1,00 4,00 3,00 13,00 When I focused on this problem we were dead last from these teams with just 1 goal from set-piece: a DFK. We end the season 3rd-most with 14 set-piece goals. Much thanks to Friedrich who contributed with 7 league goals in half a season. Individuals Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Pau López GK Marseille 46 4140 2,00 0,00 0,00 21,72 88,00 0,00 0,00 0,43 0,00 0,00 2,00 0,00 0,00 1,00 8,11 0,00 3,11 6,92 Gonçalo Tabuaço GK Marseille 5 450 0,00 0,00 0,00 20,40 87,00 0,00 0,00 0,20 0,00 0,00 2,20 0,00 0,00 2,00 6,60 0,00 3,40 6,60 Pau López had a decent season, but I don't think he can be our main GK if we are to fight for more. Tabuaço is clearly not at the level I need, so I'll sell him. Already have someone coming in. Will talk about it later. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Giuseppe Pezzella D (L) Marseille 35 (6) 3001 0,00 0,00 0,12 49,42 85,00 2,49 88,00 3,69 27,00 1,17 1,02 4,38 65,00 0,00 16,31 4,32 14,22 7,04 Hans Hateboer D (R) Marseille 35 (4) 2927 1,00 0,06 0,12 61,00 89,00 2,18 80,00 3,66 47,00 0,92 0,98 6,15 72,00 0,00 18,08 1,60 12,11 6,96 Marco Sala D (L) Marseille 16 (14) 1547 0,00 0,00 0,12 46,37 86,00 2,33 78,00 3,55 13,00 0,99 1,51 4,07 69,00 2,00 16,12 3,43 14,20 6,90 Maximiliano Rodríguez D (R) Marseille 10 (10) 991 0,00 0,00 0,09 60,21 90,00 2,72 86,00 3,91 13,00 0,54 1,00 4,00 46,00 0,00 17,16 1,09 10,26 6,89 Reeve Frosler D (R) Marseille 5 (9) 605 0,00 0,00 0,00 46,26 85,00 3,57 77,00 3,87 6,00 1,04 0,74 3,72 50,00 0,00 16,66 3,87 13,09 6,81 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Giuseppe Pezzella 7,35 5,79 13,14 2,09 0,12 -0,03 Hans Hateboer 6,76 2,58 9,34 5,97 0,18 0,01 Marco Sala 6,87 4,71 11,58 1,92 0,12 -0,01 Maximiliano Rodríguez 7,17 2,09 9,26 6,90 0,09 -0,04 Reeve Frosler 8,48 4,02 12,50 3,57 0,00 -0,04 Pezzella and Hateboer were decent starters. I was expecting more involvement in goals by Pezzella. Sala was better than what I expected as a backup. Rodríguez is still finding his place, but he's young and he will develop. Will try to play him more next season (possibly will start over Hateboer). Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Leonardo Balerdi D (C) Marseille 41 (2) 3582 1,00 0,03 0,00 71,08 92,00 0,75 75,00 3,59 16,00 0,75 1,06 9,80 82,00 2,00 21,48 0,03 6,73 7,03 Marvin Friedrich D (C) Marseille 15 1350 3,00 0,47 0,00 70,60 93,00 0,93 74,00 2,80 8,00 0,73 0,93 9,07 71,00 0,00 18,93 0,13 6,00 7,34 Chancel Mbemba D (C) Marseille 15 (1) 1314 0,00 0,00 0,00 66,92 94,00 1,10 76,00 3,84 4,00 0,41 0,89 6,30 61,00 0,00 20,00 0,07 5,14 6,93 Andrei Nagy D (C) Marseille 13 (5) 1254 0,00 0,00 0,00 70,05 93,00 1,22 81,00 3,73 9,00 0,65 0,72 5,17 73,00 1,00 17,51 0,43 6,32 6,85 Samuel Gigot D (C) Marseille 9 (3) 876 0,00 0,00 0,00 67,09 93,00 0,51 63,00 3,80 2,00 0,51 1,34 7,81 67,00 0,00 17,98 0,31 6,47 6,87 Éric Bailly D (C) Marseille 7 (1) 660 0,00 0,00 0,00 66,00 91,00 0,41 43,00 2,59 6,00 0,68 0,82 6,27 58,00 0,00 16,77 0,14 7,23 6,65 Lars Lukas Mai D (C) Marseille 4 (1) 392 0,00 0,23 0,00 70,71 93,00 0,92 80,00 3,21 1,00 0,69 1,15 7,12 65,00 1,00 15,61 0,00 6,20 6,94 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Leonardo Balerdi 5,09 0,81 5,90 14,75 0,03 -0,06 Marvin Friedrich 4,46 1,27 5,73 12,93 0,47 0,25 Chancel Mbemba 5,35 0,41 5,76 14,86 0,00 -0,05 Andrei Nagy 5,60 0,86 6,46 11,19 0,00 -0,01 Samuel Gigot 4,82 0,52 5,34 11,51 0,00 -0,08 Éric Bailly 3,68 0,55 4,23 9,54 0,00 -0,02 Lars Lukas Mai 4,82 0,69 5,51 9,41 0,23 0,14 Balerdi was our number-one choice all year. Friedrich ended the season with almost a goal every 2 games which is great. Funny that is header won ratio is inferior to Balerdi (probably has to do with his challenges on corners). Nagy had some minutes and will play more next season. I'm also counting on him to play as DM-D when I need a more defensive-minded player there. Bailly will retire soon (thank God as his performances were terrible). Mai didn't have many chances but I think he's a decent enough backup. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Matteo Guendouzi M (C) Marseille 42 (5) 3404 2,00 0,11 0,21 57,37 82,00 2,17 77,00 1,56 51,00 0,48 0,29 2,83 58,00 2,00 9,78 2,14 15,44 6,97 Kanya Fujimoto M (C) Marseille 34 (6) 2686 2,00 0,34 0,30 50,53 83,00 2,11 84,00 1,24 7,00 0,20 0,34 1,44 33,00 2,00 6,94 1,01 15,75 7,17 Ludovit Reis DM Marseille 27 (9) 2342 0,00 0,08 0,12 55,72 84,00 1,73 71,00 1,58 12,00 0,42 0,38 2,11 45,00 0,00 8,88 0,54 12,07 6,89 Arda Güler M (C) Marseille 17 (28) 2235 2,00 0,24 0,40 46,99 79,00 1,37 63,00 1,85 9,00 0,32 0,44 2,58 47,00 0,00 7,89 1,45 18,00 6,94 Amadou Haïdara M (C) Marseille 17 (21) 1801 1,00 0,15 0,10 54,37 84,00 2,75 73,00 1,20 26,00 0,50 0,55 1,80 40,00 0,00 7,85 1,15 13,54 6,87 Boubakary Soumaré DM Marseille 16 (24) 1730 0,00 0,00 0,16 57,07 82,00 1,40 59,00 1,30 9,00 0,62 0,16 4,01 83,00 1,00 9,99 0,62 13,06 6,80 Lovro Zvonarek M (C) Marseille 2 (4) 191 0,00 0,00 0,47 50,89 81,00 2,83 86,00 1,41 3,00 0,00 0,47 4,24 75,00 0,00 6,60 2,83 16,02 6,83 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Matteo Guendouzi 4,21 4,55 8,76 -5,66 0,32 0,01 Kanya Fujimoto 3,55 3,73 7,28 -8,81 0,64 0,14 Ludovit Reis 3,73 2,80 6,53 -3,19 0,20 0,04 Arda Güler 3,54 4,23 7,77 -10,11 0,64 0,01 Amadou Haïdara 4,45 3,55 8,00 -5,69 0,25 0,06 Boubakary Soumaré 3,32 2,75 6,07 -3,07 0,16 -0,03 Lovro Zvonarek 4,24 4,24 8,48 -9,42 0,47 -0,16 Guendouzi ending the season with an average rating below 7 is surprising. He was good all year and helped me out in CM and DM. Fujimoto and Guler were our creative players. I still find it hard to play Guler from the start as he loses possession a lot. Reis, Haidara and Soumaré are decent backups but I needed a better starter. If I play Nagy as DM, Guendouzi can play CM, but I'll need another CB or I can find another DM. Either way, from the 3, one will have to leave, not sure who. Zvonarek barely played. We have some players on loan, who will certainly be considered to stay with the team, especially Castelli who signed for us in January. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Akram Afif AM (L) Marseille 42 (4) 3116 2,00 0,40 0,29 32,52 78,00 2,57 78,00 1,91 31,00 0,46 0,12 2,46 36,00 0,00 8,58 2,60 16,49 7,00 Allan Saint-Maximin AM (R) Marseille 34 (4) 2563 3,00 0,32 0,28 35,33 80,00 2,32 84,00 1,47 23,00 0,28 0,49 0,95 19,00 0,00 7,48 5,48 20,02 7,15 Amine Harit AM (L) Marseille 24 (20) 2254 2,00 0,24 0,48 34,10 78,00 2,20 81,00 1,56 36,00 0,44 0,28 1,40 21,00 0,00 6,67 2,64 17,97 7,00 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Akram Afif 4,94 5,75 10,69 -7,91 0,69 0,09 Allan Saint-Maximin 4,07 8,46 12,53 -12,54 0,60 0,12 Amine Harit 4,20 6,08 10,28 -11,30 0,72 -0,02 The "three musketeers". They had a great second half of the season and were the main reason we played so well. I will add a youngster (Ristic, Hassan, or someone else who has been on loan) to rotate with them next season, but I have to be careful as they are 30, 30 and 29, respectively and ASM just got a nasty injury. Name Pos PL Club Apps Mins PoM Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat Maximilian Beier ST (C) Marseille 38 (5) 3011 10,00 0,90 0,27 19,37 81,00 1,73 78,00 0,90 79,00 0,24 0,24 3,05 29,00 0,00 4,12 2,21 9,56 7,34 Bamba Dieng ST (C) Marseille 10 (15) 1178 0,00 0,61 0,00 21,32 86,00 2,06 79,00 0,92 30,00 0,08 0,31 1,83 19,00 0,00 4,81 1,76 9,02 6,84 Marco Travaglini ST (C) Marseille 1 (7) 193 0,00 0,93 0,00 18,65 68,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 9,00 0,47 0,47 5,60 40,00 0,00 3,73 0,47 13,06 6,77 Name DA OA D+O Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Maximilian Beier 2,87 5,68 8,55 -5,44 1,17 0,14 Bamba Dieng 3,06 3,82 6,88 -4,21 0,61 0,06 Marco Travaglini 0,47 3,27 3,74 -9,33 0,93 0,39 The main man, Beier, was our hero this season. Almost 1 goal each 90 minutes and still got some time to provide some assists. Next year, Dieng will leave as he isn't good enough. Travaglini will probably be sent out on loan to play more. Miath, our big prospect, will certainly train with the senior squad and Harit will provide backup. I'll surely need someone else to help in this position. The weights of every statistic from our most used 11: Gls/90 Asts/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 Drb/90 Poss Lost/90 Av Rat GK 0% 0% 4% 9% 0% 0% 2% 0% 25% 0% 0% 14% 6% 0% 2% 9% D (R) FBS 2% 7% 12% 10% 11% 10% 16% 16% 12% 15% 14% 0% 14% 8% 9% 9% D (L) WBS 0% 7% 9% 9% 13% 11% 16% 21% 13% 10% 13% 0% 13% 22% 11% 9% D (C) BPDD 1% 0% 14% 10% 4% 10% 16% 13% 14% 23% 16% 29% 17% 0% 5% 9% D (C) CDD 17% 0% 13% 10% 5% 9% 12% 13% 12% 21% 14% 0% 15% 1% 5% 9% M (C) CMS 4% 12% 11% 9% 11% 10% 7% 8% 4% 7% 11% 29% 8% 11% 12% 9% M (C) MEZS 13% 18% 10% 9% 11% 11% 5% 4% 4% 3% 6% 29% 5% 5% 12% 9% DM DMS 3% 7% 11% 9% 9% 9% 7% 7% 5% 5% 9% 0% 7% 3% 9% 9% AM (L) IWA 15% 17% 6% 8% 14% 10% 8% 8% 2% 6% 7% 0% 7% 13% 13% 9% AM (R) WS 12% 16% 7% 9% 12% 11% 6% 5% 6% 2% 4% 0% 6% 27% 15% 9% ST (C) AFA 33% 16% 4% 9% 9% 10% 4% 4% 3% 7% 6% 0% 3% 11% 7% 9% And an award to Arda Güler: Finances Income By Type Expenditure By Type

The color scheme had to do with Sertanense and I was supposed to change according to the team. But then, blue and white would have been stranger so I kept it like this. Don't know how to do it, really. Will certainly change the match screens for next season. The ones I made this season took me a lot of time and they don't add much detail for people reading this, I think.

Thanks! I don't know what it feels like reading from the start because I had never written something like this before and I've been changing my style throughout the journey. I hope you like it!

Honors for Beier He deserves it, next step is a call-up. Unexpected news from England Their stars are Macías, Moussa Diaby and Burkardt who was behind Beier on the German Player of the Year award. Moussa Diaby has an average rating of 7,70 out of 6 goals and 2 assists as LM. I’m intrigued. Youth Graduates Name Best Pos Personality ShStop Physical Speed Mental Comm Ecc Aerial Dist Total Status Gregory Bauduiin GK Fickle 11 7 5 9 6 2 11 7 36% U17 – P2,5 Name Best Pos Personality Def Physical Speed Vision Att Tech Aerial Mental Total Status Best Rating Best Position Gérald Miath ST (C) Balanced 4 9 9 11 13 13 8 8 47% U15 – P5 56% AM Rémi Levy D (C) Balanced 9 9 7 5 6 6 11 11 40% U17 – P2,5 50% CB Ibrahima Adou ST (C) Light-Hearted 5 9 8 9 8 11 9 10 43% U15 – P4 48% AM Antonin Pellegrin D (R) Driven 10 8 8 8 6 9 7 12 43% U17 – P3 47% CM Matheo Pinault D (R) Fickle 8 7 7 5 5 7 10 10 37% U17 – P2,5 44% CB Cheikh Ndaw M (C) Balanced 6 8 6 8 6 7 2 11 34% U17 – P3 40% CM Miath is clearly the star. In fact, he played 3 games for the U19 and scored 8 goals. I’m also curious about Rémi. He’s 190cm already and his stats are decent for a 15-year-old. Only 2,5 stars in potential is a bad sign, but let’s wait and see. End of the Season! Finally, it ended. Quite an emotional ending, but we can be happy with the result. In Europe, we lost 1-0 on aggregate to Arsenal. We played our substitutes in the first round and lost. Couldn’t turn it around in the second round. The objective was QF, we have reached the SF. In the league, we won 2 of our last 3 games and ended in 3rd just behind Nice and PSG. The objective was to qualify for Europa League (5/6th), and we qualified for UCL. Monaco had a terrible end to the season. They were 2nd but lost 4 and draw 1 of their last 5 games and ended in 6th. We qualified directly to the UCL group stage and won 15M in the process, we also added another 6+ M in prize money from Europa League, but our budget for the next season is just 8M… Hope they review it as I need that money. Milestones In the meantime, we broke some team records: Most Matches Won in a Row – 7 (Previous 5) Most Matches Without Losing – 11 (Previous 10) Most Matches Without Winning – 3 (Previous 4) Most Overall Goals by a Player in a Season – 30, Beier (Previous 20, Milik) Most League Goals by a Player in a Season – 20, Beier (Previous 14, Milik) Most Goals by a Player in a League Match – 3, Beier (Previous 2, Various) Most POM Awards in a Season – 10, Beier (Previous 9, Gérson) I'll go over individual performances and other details in the next post.

Solid start to the season. Good luck!

Youth Intake Not much to be excited about. Was hoping for some defenders and a goalkeeper. You’ll need to review our youth situation when the season ends. But Miath seems to be a real gem. Long April Dividing this into the competitions we were in. Europa League. I said it before, I was going to rotate the squad for the games against Lazio. I did. First game we lost 1-0, home; but in the second game the guys showed me they were up for the task and we have beaten them 3-1. [Europa League] vs Lazio (H) Final Score: 0-1 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 79 – 41 38 – 39 8 – 3 1,05 – 1,05 3 – 2 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals - Assists - Rating Tackles Shots on Target Pezzella 7,1 Pezzella 3 Guler 2 Hateboer 7,0 Rodriguez 3 Afif 2 ASM 6,9 ASM 2 ASM 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,2 Sala 3 Harit 4 Mai 0,2 Hateboer 3 Guler 4 Hateboer 0,2 Mai 3 Dieng 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Guler 0,2 Mai 7 ASM 5 Fujimoto 0,2 Soumare 5 Sala 4 ASM 0,2 Afif 4 Harit 3 Evenly matched. We got more shots on target, but not very menacing. [Europa League] vs Lazio (A) Final Score: 3-1 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 67 – 85 47 – 43 9 – 6 2,31 – 2,22 2 – 6 50 – 50 Individual Highlights Goals Dieng, Mai, Hateboer Assists Sala, Guler (x2) Rating Tackles Shots on Target Hateboer 7,7 Soumare 4 Haidara 2 Dieng 7,5 Sala 4 Guler 2 Sala 7,5 Rodriguez 3 Hateboer 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Dieng 0,9 Mai 3 Guler 5 Guler 0,9 Rodriguez 2 Haidara 1 Afif 0,1 Guendouzi 2 Afif 1 xA Headers Won Dribbles Sala 0,6 Mai 8 ASM 3 Guler 0,3 Rodriguez 4 Sala 3 Rodriguez 0,2 Haidara 3 Haidara 2 2 more assists for Guler, one from a corner. We won and we are happy to be in the Semi-Final (the only French team in European competition), but we lost rest time and we lost Saint-Maximin—terrible news not just for the team, but also for him as a 30-year-old. We will play Arsenal in the semi-finals. This will be the last match of April, but it’ll be in another post. Regarding the league, the results weren’t very positive, but as everybody is playing everybody we are all losing points and we get to keep our 4th place with 3 matches to go. [Ligue 1] vs Strasbourg (H) Final Score: 3-0 W Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 75 – 63 45 – 28 8 – 2 2,49 – 0,74 5 – 2 54 – 46 Individual Highlights Goals Beier, Dieng, Guler Assists ASM, Harit (x2) Rating Tackles Shots on Target Harit 8,4 Rodriguez 5 Beier 3 ASM 8,1 Afif 3 ASM 2 Sala 7,7 Guendouzi 2 Harit 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,9 Sala 5 ASM 4 Dieng 0,4 Rodriguez 4 Sala 3 ASM 0,4 Friedrich 4 Guendouzi 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,7 Friedrich 6 ASM 10 ASM 0,6 Rodriguez 5 Guendouzi 2 Sala 0,5 Guendouzi 3 Afif 2 10 (!) dribbles by ASM, along with 4 key passes and 2 shots on target. Harit started from the bench, but he came on and decided the game for us with 2 assists. [Ligue 1] vs Nice (A) Final Score: 0-2 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 79 – 68 50 – 46 9 – 5 1,50 – 2,11 3 – 4 53 – 47 Individual Highlights Goals - Assists - Rating Tackles Shots on Target Rodriguez 7,0 Hateboer 3 Beier 3 Pezzella 6,9 ASM 3 Harit 2 Friedrich 6,8 Beier 2 Friedrich 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Beier 0,7 Pezzella 5 Guendouzi 3 Guler 0,4 Hateboer 4 Haidara 2 Fujimoto 0,1 Beier 3 Harit 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Fujimoto 0,4 Friedrich 12 ASM 3 Harit 0,3 Fujimoto 6 Pezzella 3 ASM 0,3 Pezzella 5 Beier 2 Not much to say. They were better, we didn't create much. [Ligue 1] vs Rennes (H) Final Score: 2-3 L Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 94 – 59 55 – 30 9 – 9 4,00 – 1,45 7 – 4 61 – 39 Individual Highlights Goals Dieng, Travaglini Assists Harit Rating Tackles Shots on Target Harit 7,6 Harit 4 Friedrich 2 Travaglini 7,4 Hateboer 4 Dieng 2 Friedrich 7,1 Pezzella 2 Balerdi 2 xG Interceptions Key Passes Dieng 2,0 Hateboer 7 Harit 6 Friedrich 0,6 Balerdi 4 Fujimoto 4 Travaglini 0,4 Guendouzi 3 Guler 3 xA Headers Won Dribbles Harit 0,9 Balerdi 12 Pezzella 4 Friedrich 0,9 Friedrich 11 Guler 3 Balerdi 0,4 Hateboer 8 Harit 2 Unfair result. With an xG of 4 we can't lose and score only 2 goals. But Beier was injured and Dieng only scored one of the expected 2 for him. The youngster Travaglini still scored one. He has 2 goals in 4 sub-appearances. My CBs hit the target 4 times, but none of them scored a goal. On their side, Kalimuendo is on another level and he ran the game against us with 2 goals and 1 assist. [Ligue 1] vs Monaco (A) Final Score: 3-3 D Final Third Passes Progressive Passes Shots on Target xG Chances Possession % 74 – 41 49 – 33 4 – 6 1,62 – 1,18 6 – 4 57 – 43 Individual Highlights Goals Guendouzi, Fujimoto, Afif Assists Afif (x2), Guler Rating Tackles Shots on Target Afif 8,7 Afif 4 Fujimoto 1 Guler 7,4 Nagy 4 Guendouzi 1 Guendouzi 7,2 Balerdi 3 Afif 1 xG Interceptions Key Passes Afif 0,6 Balerdi 6 Afif 3 Harit 0,5 Friedrich 4 Guler 2 Fujimoto 0,3 Guler 3 Nagy 2 xA Headers Won Dribbles Afif 0,6 Friedrich 12 Pezzella 9 Guler 0,4 Balerdi 10 Afif 4 Harit 0,2 Hateboer 5 Harit 3 More even than the game against Rennes, but we were still superior. At least we got a point from this one. Tried to play Beier who was still returning from injury, but he wasn't ready and had a bad game, then I had Harit play as ST with Guler on the wing, but eventually, Harit was also very tired (we don't have ASM and Zvonarek to play in the wings so Afif and Harit are having all the minutes there) and Dieng came in. Will need to get a better backup striker as Dieng doesn't have enough quality and Travaglini is also still a bit far from the requirements. And the standings with PSG just parading their most recent trophy. What’s left to play? We are playing 9th, 11th, and 17th. Above us: Monaco plays 6th, 3rd, and 7th. Nice plays 7th, 2nd, and 9th. Below us: Lens plays 13th, 15th, and 8th. Strasbourg plays 2nd, 9th, and 11th. Rennes plays 3rd, 16th, and 2nd. And we cannot finish below 7th which guarantees us European competition next year. I would say the calendar is favourable to us but we need to convert this into points.

The calendar until the end of the season is interesting (let's put it that way...) That's 6th / 2nd / 7th / 3rd / 8th / 10th / 16th. Pretty much the whole season is on the line. Certainly, the same happens to all of the others. In fact, Nice has just lost to PSG, but they also have to play Strasbourg, Monaco, Rennes, Nice, and Saint-Étienne; Monaco faces all the top 9 except for 8th. I will certainly play the subs against Lazio. Don't care much about Europa League when compared to finishing top-3 and having direct access to the league/group stage of UCL. The club objective was the quarter-final, so I'm good.