Chris_ANZFM

Always fascinating hearing you analyse the incomings and how they’ll fit into the plans going forward. Even if the match engine doesn’t always quite represent the idea you had in mind.

Authors Note: Just a reminder that due to our inability to make a decision we had already made some decent progress with this file before deciding to bring it to the forum. In this post I’ll cover off my initial tactical ideas before getting into a pretty quick fire summary of the first few months results. ————————————————————— Tactics Tactical I went into this save with the idea of trying to replicate or at least stick to the a similar approach that Lincoln City have taken in real life. This to me, makes the most sense at the start of a save because that’s what the squad will have been built for. I also wanted to keep things simple due to the fact that this is a multiplayer save and I don’t want to be spending hours and hours doing the research to accurately replicate the style as it will only hold up the progress of the save. I’ll save that long winded stuff for my own blog which is coming a little later on With that in mind though I had a few key positions/roles in mind when it came to laying out the basic shape. Those being a support striker, inverted winger(s) and a late arriving central midfielder. It’s fair to say that we’re lacking when it comes to striking options. There are only a couple of recognised ST on the books and one of those is still a youth player. The squad is rather bloated with players in the AM strata and almost all of them are best suited to the inverted role on the left hand side. We do have one incredibly physically gifted out and out winger in Jordan Garrick who has played himself into the 1st XI and remained there. Depending on what happens in the January window there won’t be too much overhaul in these areas until the end of this initial season. So until then I will just make do as best I can with what’s available. That will do us for now, I’ll do a deeper dive somewhere closer to the new season when I’ve had a chance to do some recruitment of my own. ————————————————————— Results For these first couple of posts this will likely just be a quick summary of things for now but going forward I’ll look to bring more detail. That might be in regards to my tactical approach or just some random musings while I get to grips with the new match engine July There was a preseason tour of Scotland already loaded into the schedule when we launched the save so I just went with it. Plenty of green as you can see but the ultimate goal here was to get some cohesion growing among the team and start to build up match fitness. August Off to a dream start here both in the League and also the domestic cups. The 4-1 victory at Stoke a particular highlight where I tried out the “new” low block for the first time. The main blip here being the loss of our first H2H fixture. I won’t lie, neither of us are particularly big fans of how the ME plays in a H2H (oh the irony). September So far so good, a fairly high scoring affair in Cambridge was decided late on. The Derby game didn’t really come as a huge surprise, FM has no idea of their troubles in real life so ultimately they’re just a team that is far too damn good for League One. October Far from a good day out in Bolton but business as usual elsewhere. Away wins at Ipswich and Barnsley were a good boost especially when coupled with clean sheets. That Barnsley win ensuring us qualification out of our Papa Johns group as winners. November Cup successes all around this month as we progress in all three domestic competitions. The best one coming in the Carabao Cup as we eliminate Middlesbrough who had knocked out Chuck’s Fleetwood side in the previous round. It was at this point where I started to wonder if we might be winning a bit too often in the league though. A weird thought I know but as expressed in the intro post I had no intention of getting promoted too early and up to this point we firmly secured ourselves in the playoff picture at the very least. December A bit less green here thankfully as we only manage the one win from five league fixtures. Our Carabao cup dream comes to an end as we receive a small hiding on a trip to London. The financial benefits are absolutely enormous though as we take in about 600k from the game at Tottenham and we look to extend that number further with the FA Cup second round win which now puts our name in the hat for that prized Premier League away day. ————————————————————— That will be all for now and in the next post I’ll cover any transfer dealings in the coming January window while also catching you up on the next two months of fixtures which will get us caught up to real time. As always, cheers for reading.

What an epic read this has been so far! Your work is always some of my favourite here on the forums but I’m usually far too behind the action to ever comment. Congratulations on the promotion! I look forward to reading how you get on next season! Oh and thanks for the skin! It is absolutely incredible!

Well hey, I'm Chris. Chuck already did the introductions so let's not waste any time. Here's a rundown on my beloved Lincoln City. Lincoln City Football Club Founded: 1884 Ground: LNER Stadium (But it will always be Sincil Bank) Rivals: Grimsby, Scunthorpe History I have a tendency to waffle at times so I'll keep this as brief as I can and to ensure that I will stick to the more recent history. It has been a rather wild ride for Lincoln City over the last 20 years or so with the lowest point surely coming during May of 2002 and who could then forget the 6 dull years that followed down in the National League, but from that point on though there has barely been time to look back. Many will recall that magical FA Cup run from the 2016/17 season which saw City become the first non league side in 100 odd years to make an appearance in the quarter final. Also in that same season the club would finally regain their football league status after being named champions of the National League. More winning followed in the 2017/18 season which saw the club lift the EFL Trophy this time, this would also mark the clubs first Wembley appearance. They also managed an appearance in the promotion playoffs before ultimately losing out to Exeter City. The season after saw no such troubles as Lincoln managed to hold down the top spot on the table for a consecutive 8 months on their way to being crowned League Two champions. The 2019/20 season will always be remembered for the departure of the Cowley's as they made a deserved move up the football ladder for an opportunity at the helm of a Championship club in Huddersfield. Michael Appleton was appointed the replacement manager at Lincoln City. His arrival also brought about some changes, not only in the style of play on the field but also a change in the clubs approach to recruitment/transfers. Sadly this season was then cut short by the arrival of covid leaving Lincoln to finish 15th via a points per game system that left many EFL fans perplexed. The 2020/21 brought back some of the feel good factor from the Cowley seasons when the club made a somewhat unexpected trip to the playoff finals. Unfortunately for them though Blackpool would overturn a 1-0 deficit to beat City 2-1. I say an unexpected finals trip as the 2021/22 season saw Lincoln end up finishing down in 17th position and the departure of Appleton as manager soon followed. Rather timely really as this is where we come in. Facilities/Staff As previously mentioned the club play at what is currently known as the LNER Stadium, you can see that we are blessed with both good training and youth facilities which at this level is no joke and will be a huge help in achieving the objectives that our board and supporters have for us, more on that later though. The famous FA Cup run Lincoln City went on back in 2016/17 season generated a rumoured £1,000,000 and those winnings were put towards building the Elite Performance Centre which gives The Imps a purpose built facility for developing young talents. There is some work to be done in terms of the junior coaching and our youth recruitment but I see those as longer term goals right now as my initial focus will be geared more towards scooping up young released talent before selling them on for a profit. I have no intention of making any changes to the current staff before the end of the initial season with the intention of building a coaching staff only comprising of those who share the same or similar principles to that of my own manager. Preferred formations and tactical similarities will be prioritised over the coaching abilities/attributes. I'm curious to see how much of an impact this sort of thing has on the development of players. Where possible I would very much like to bring in ex players to add that level of experience. If I can bring in ex Lincoln players then that will be even better. Before I dive in here please ignore the fact there is already some green here, we were already a few months into the save before electing to bring it across to the forums here. Club Vision As I already mentioned you can see that one of the boards main objectives is to sign players for a profit, this is something that fans refer to as "The Model" but anybody who knows football at this level knows this is the way that most clubs have to operate just to stay afloat. Lincoln have been making excellent progress in this regard in real life as evidenced by the departures of players such as Tayo Edun, Anthony Scully & Cohen Bramall and in even more recent times it was reported that Regan Poole was mere minutes away from a move to the Championship at transfer deadline day. So as much pain as it will cause me I will absolutely be looking to keep up with this strategy. The new supporter vision rather conveniently aligns with "The Model" via their desire to see the club sign U23s for the first team. You can also see their wish for the development of the clubs own youth players, I'll save my judgement on this area until I've had a chance to get an idea of the quality of player produced in our intakes. If we turn our attention to the competitive side of things it would seem that the board are fairly patient in their expectations, mid-table in this first season followed by a desire for the playoffs in the next season. It isn't until seasons 4 and 5 that the board want us to start working towards promotion to the Championship. This suits me just fine as I have very little interest in getting promoted any earlier than is required. It is well documented that the Championship is notoriously difficult to get out of and also rather expensive which is just not a situation that we can afford to get ourselves into right now. If it takes a few years to go up then so be it, I'll use that time push us towards becoming ever more sustainable. The Squad I'll just come right out and say it, I requested this to be our save this year simply because of my excitement around the squad that Lincoln had been building in the last few years. I felt it had underperformed last season and then with the additions that were made I just had to get my hands on it. There is a good balance of both younger players and more established on the books with a healthy sprinkle of loan players too. I will use this section to focus on a few of the players that I am most excited about and then perhaps we can look at the squad as a whole in a future post. GK - Carl Rushworth Lincoln have been spoiled with some pretty fantastic young goalkeepers in recent years and Carl is the next inline, in on loan from Premier League side Brighton he will prove to be a key component of the strong backline that I hope to build. If things go to plan I will look to extend the loan into a second season but in truth I would expect to see him earn a move to a Championship side next season and as such will likely be left looking for another option. DC - Regan Poole Regan is arguably the best player currently on the books at Lincoln, he spent the vast majority of the 2021/22 season playing out of position at CB due to an injury crisis. Unfortunately for Regan he will once again be called upon to continue deputising as the injuries problems continue on in the early parts of this season. As mentioned earlier Poole was the subject of major transfer speculation in real life and I expect to have a pretty tough battle on my hands trying to keep him at the club. DC - Lewis Montsma Arguably the other best player at the club, sadly a knee injury has kept him on the sideline for a pretty lengthy period at this point and that injury will continue in the early parts of this save game. I have massive plans for Lewis, he's one of my favourite players at the club and I will fight tooth and nail to keep him here for the length of the save provided he can return to a competitive level after recovering from the injury. MC - Tashan Oakley-Boothe Look, rightly or wrongly I'm a Tottenham Hotspur fan and I have been a fan of Oakley-Boothe for many a year after discovering him in the Tottenham youth teams (on Football Manager of course). He's always been a transfer target in my previous saves but have never managed to actually bring him in. Now that doesn't matter because Lincoln did it for me in real life, unfortunately for me though it will likely only be this season on the current loan deal. Depending on how he performs I think his in game reputation will prevent me from making it a longer term appointment. AM - Ted Bishop Bishop is a prime example of the recruitment strategy that Lincoln have moved towards having been purchased from Ipswich towards the end of his contract. Ted is a little older than the normal buy low, sell high target but he remains a player with tremendous ability who has played a good number of games at a Championship level. Injuries have slowed his progress in real life but this season I intend on him being a pretty focal part of my tactical plans due to his ability and positional versatility. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ That about does it for me on this initial post, if you're reading this then thanks for your time. We hope you enjoy following along on our little adventure.

It’s bloody good seeing you back in the fold Mr Aqua and what a fantastic save to do it with!