mpm2342

BWM - L1 Target = 67.2 This is a tough one to judge the stats against a benchmark as we control possession, so defensive opportunities are more limited. For this role, I like to look at relative ratings and I really want the role to get the ball and get rid of it to someone else, not looking at them to run with the ball or score. Cottrell's numbers show he plays ok in the role I described. Ganet not quite as good, but adjusted for the fact that Ganet played all the tough teams, I would likely give him a small edge on the stats front... that shows in his average rating as well. This position could use an upgrade. Ganet (58.5) was the primary BWM for the cup matches but Cottrell (54.5) played the league games to hit the homegrown quota. Rojas can play DM and has a decent rating (57.4). None of the three have potential ability to grow into and they are all a fair ways off the target rating. Ganet is at the end of his contract, Rojas would require retraining and Cottrell makes a decent backup as he can also play CD in a pinch. Plan - Keep Cottrell as backup / league player, do not retrain Rojas, but have him as an emergency only player for this role and let Ganet walk. Urgent search for an upgrade - ideally homegrown, but that is unlikely, so look for anyone in the low 60s. DLP - L1 Target = 64.4 Key played most of his games as AM, so his stats are skewed that way a bit. Parker has great numbers and Marcos as well. Key (59.9) and Marcos (56.5) are both strong options with growth. They are also the primary options at AM as well. Parker (52) is an ok backup based on ratings, but he plays incredibly well. His high work rate and teamwork must have a large impact. Plan - start Marcos and watch his growth to see if it continues. Marcos becomes homegrown in February which will help squad selection. Parker is the primary backup with Key as a third option. Look for a backup with potential for depth purposes. Winger - L1 Target = 63.2 Negrette and De Stefano are the starters and they played very well as evidenced by their stats and their average match ratings. McCafferty is a solid backup and Coombes and Yome filled in well. Yome's age and deteriorating physicals show up in his sprints/90 metric. Negrette (57.3) and De Stefano (60.4) are close to the target ratings, but their growth looks to be close to max. McClafferty (55.1) still has room to grow (1 star), so he also could get in the L1 range. Coombes is a useful backup to keep around and it is time for Yome to move on. Plan - in good shape, get McClafferty solid play time for development. Look for younger players to come in for the future. Advanced Playmaker - L1 Target = 62.5 Key played most of his games in this position his stats are good, his match rating is excellent. Marcos played here as well, but mostly in the midfield which explains his lower shot number - a bit, though Marcos has a low finishing attribute, so is not as suited to an attacking role. Barber played the third most and had decent numbers. Key (59.2) is the starter. He will likely grow to the L1 level by the end of the season. Marcos (56.1) will play DLP, but can fill in if needed. Barber (52.5) is an ok backup, but the deep bench spots should be reserved for homegrown or potential future homegrown players. Plan - start Key and look for depth options with growth. Advanced Forward - L1 Target = 61.9 Kawe has the better conversion rate and Yenpariye is way better in the air. Looking at the non penalty XG / 90 and Yenpariye has the edge, likely due to his heading. Both played well though the AF role is likely not a great fit for either one of them. Kawe (56.8) has 0.5 stars of growth potential, but declined a bit last season and Yenpariye (46.6) has 1 star of growth, so neither of them is going to get to the target in the AF role. Kawe's best role is P(A) where he is rated 60.8 and Yenpariye's best role is TF (S) where he is rated 53.2. Plan - look for a future AF to take over. In the meantime change the tactical approach to leverage what these two are best at. P(A) when Kawe is in and TF when Yenpariye plays and see how that goes.

FB - L1 Target = 60.8 Britto is the starter on the left side and Roman on the right. The stats for Diaz and Rojas are skewed due to them playing CD (75% CD for Diaz and 50% CD for Rojas). McClafferty was 75% winger, so his stats will be off, but not as much as the FB attack and the wingers support, so there is a lot of overlap. Britto has a 54.4 rating, not the 60 target, but he plays very well and is homegrown. He has a 3 star current ability and a 3.5 star potential, so hopefully he can grow closer to the 60 rating, but he is the starter for the next year or two if not longer. Roman was the starter at RFB, is natural on both sides and will become homegrown at the end of this upcoming season. At a rating of 51.4, he needs to be upgraded, but will eventually be very valuable depth. He has 3.5 stars for both current and potential ability, so I don't expect him to grow. McCafferty is about to become homegrown and is a very useful backup as a winger and FB. Right now he is accomplished at LFB, but his right foot is very strong, so could train there as well. He has 2.5 stars current ability and 3.5 potential. His FB rating is 50.4, so there is room for him to grow, but likely only to the mid 50's. Tamargo is strong with both feet and had decent stats when he did play. His rating at FB is only 47 and I don't think he has the potential to become useful, so will try and loan him out and keep him in the league until he becomes homegrown and hopefully catches on with one of the other Gibraltar teams. Plan - Britto starts. Look for an upgrade at RFB with potential with Roman starting until then and moving to backup if we find one. Develop McClafferty as FB and winger, keep Rojas around as backup CD and FB. Look to move Diaz out.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) GK - L1 target = 58.2 Hankins didn't allow a goal, but it was just in league play, so not a fair comparison, but it does show that GK is a position that needs a homegrown option to play in the league games to allow flexibility to have imports in other positions. That means I can't have an import with Star playing time expectations like Alonso is currently. It is hard to tell how well the other GK played when they played very strong teams in the Europa League matches, but the average rating is not quite as good as I would like. Alonso grew 1.2 to a 53.5 rating and he is just 20 with a 3.5 star current ability and a 5 star potential, so has a chance to get his rating to the target level. However, he will not ever be homegrown. A new name did appear in the depth chart - Leighton McCormick from the youth intake this past season. He is only 15 with a 39.8 rating and a 1.5 star current ability with a 3 star potential ability. Would like to see the potential higher, but will see in a year or two - he is a Model Citizen and has 17 determination, so would love to see him develop. Plan - default to playing Alonso and Hankins along with some time for McCormick in the "easier" league games. At the same time look for an 18 and under GK with a rating >55 and high potential. If we can find that, we will try and sign them and if successful, try and move Alonso on or loan him out for the remainder of the year. Will likely not resign Alonso, as he is on the last year of his contract, but if nothing else materializes, it will be a fall back. CD - L1 Target = 64.7 Rojas played a fair bit of his time at RFB, so his stats will not be the same as the other CDs. Nothing jumps out at me from the Stats. Hastings said he was retiring and then wanted to be move to play part time and is now just unhappy... funny guy. He is out of contract at the end of June, so will not be around next season. Rojas and Diaz are useful players, but as imports without potential to grow, they need to be upgraded. Morata and Sofikitis both have potential and both we become homegrown in two years, so they should take over the starting rotation from Rojas and Diaz. Plan - Start Morata and Sofikitis and look for an upgrade to start in the rotation. Will look into Frankie Edwards and see how he did in the year away as well as look for imports with ratings above 60 and potential to grow,

End of Season Analysis: The team average rating improved, but at a lower rate than last season, improving from 55.2 to 56.7. The next "level" England League Two is at 60 average and we have one player at that rating - De Stefano and another who will be there soon - Key, so the other positions either need to grow or they will need replacing. I will refer back to this chart as I go through the position by position review. Basic idea is that imported players should be at or above the target as homegrown players will generally be below. I also need to get cracking on developing homegrown, though it is all connected as our youth setup is improving rapidly, but that will take a few years to impact the senior squad. Our reputation and the league reputation has to improve to attract better players, though I have a LOT more money to spend, so maybe I can buy some good players or look to loans as well as another means. I suspect I will be a few (2-4 more?) years before I can get the team above L1 range. It is tricky in that I do not want to take the best players from the other Gibraltar teams because we need them to perform in Europe to get the league ratings/rankings up to help us get better players. The end of season squad depth chart is pretty similar to the end of last seasons. The major moves need to happen from now until the European registration window. This time, I will leave a few more spots open for new players, so I can keep hunting. Major positive changes in ratings: Jay Key (again) +3.7 Oscar Marcos +3.9 (Oscar will become homegrown in Feb of this season - BONUS) Michael Negrette +1.6 Aaron Alonso +1.2 Benjamin Rojas +0.9 Major Drops Yome -3.4 (second year on this list, so won't be around long) Hankins - 2.4 (this is likely due to not playing enough as I made a mistake bringing in Loic on loan planning to make him the future GK, but couldn't get him to consider a transfer and then couldn't balance the play time to keep him and Alonso happy, so kept Alonso happy, but that did not leave enough game time for Hankins) Diaz - 1.6 - this one I have to look into. He is 24 and his potential shows the same as his current, so maybe this is as good as it gets. Kawe dropped 0.9 ... he played in enough games looks like he has 1/2 star to grow, so maybe injuries got him Either way, this is concerning Interesting that I made a comment in last end of season review that said I can't wait to see what growth I can get from the after training full time. The growth was about the same as the part time year!!!! I am guessing I over worked them in training so that with all the European matches and heavier training and injuries most of the players didn't actually spend enough time training.... more digging and thought required.

Two more games to finish out the Champions Round with both ending in victories. Final table had us comfortably ahead. We had a few players lead the league in ratings, goals and we dominated the assists category. We received £539K for UEFA Europa League television revenue and £89.73K from the coefficient ranking pool money. This will help offset the last round of facilities upgrades which were £1.5M each for the training and youth facilities. Next post will be the season review of players, progression, stats and an early look at needs for next season. Before we get to that though, the team collected some awards: The board announced the initial budgets for next season and we have some money to spend!! Still not sure we will spend the transfer budget as our reputation and the league reputation is not high enough to get the really good players to come. I will try and sign a few of the homegrown stars / future stars to more expensive contracts to try and make them less attractive to the nasty, ugly, mean vultures out there... I mean the higher division teams that will try and take them from me.

Rock Cup Semi Finals: We lost a close one to Mons Calpe in a game we should have won. Final game of the regular season and a victory for us as we handled Glacis even after we went down a man. The regular season final table has us with a 9 point lead heading into the Championship Round. With a 9 point lead and only 5 games to play, we should be able to take the league title. A lot of the injured players are coming back as well which will help the cause. Ahead of the first game of the championship round, we held a team meeting and I picked the wrong motivational speech and completely tanked the team morale. There were already a few unhappy players - Key because he wants to leave and a couple of players who are pissed that I am not playing them, so that probably didn't help. The first game was a tough matchup, but the team prevailed on the backs of 3 from Kawe who had a great game. Second game and the result was a lot closer than the game looked to be from the numbers. 3 goals on 5 shots ... boo to that. We are still 9 points up with 3 to play, so a point in any of the next 3 and the title is ours. Kawe is injured for the rest of the season, so time to play the young guy again. Fortunately, we already know he can do the job from earlier in the year. Third game of the Championship Round sees us clinch the league title! A fine victory with a lovely header by Yenpariye to bring us level and then De Stefano won it late. Looks like we dominated the game from the shots etc. Something to look into at the end of the season to see what tweaks can be made as we seem to be allowing more than we should and not score quite as much as we should.

The injury and sickness bug hit the team and at one point we were down 8 players! We had enough depth to field a team, but suffered on the pitch as well with two ties. Youth intake this season is more promising for sure, with a few players who look decent. Pryce has a 15 finishing, but just ok stats other wise and Dodd looks reasonably balance. Don't think they will ever make the team, but maybe they can grow enough to help the league. Djurgardens IF from the Swedish premier division are making transfer offers for Jay Key - I really, really don't want to lose him so am refusing. He is under contract for 3 more seasons, so I can hopefully hold him through this, but seems likely that I will lose him eventually. As a side note, at the beginning of the season, I made all the top leagues in Europe playable so they would get real players etc. to see if that made a difference in the European competitions. In a very unscientific way, it seems to have made it more realistic and now they are coming for my better players, which sucks, but is also realistic.

Couple more victories in league play and the team is rolling. Rock Cup quarterfinals time and we defeat College '75 quite comfortably to move on into the semi-finals The January transfer window was uneventful for us. The only move we made was to loan out our 18yr old CD Sofikitis to Lynx. I included an optional transfer fee, so hopefully they buy him and he agrees to go as that would strengthen their squad for next season... trying to sign the young kids and farm them out to the rest of the league. Our scouts are finding lots of 18 and under players for us to look at when the season winds down.

Second game of the season against the main challengers, Europa FC went better than the first one and we won comfortably. We now sit 10 points up with 5 games left. UEFA Europa League Game 8: Final game is against Sarajevo from the Bosnian Premier League. Bosnia and Herzegovina is 35th in the Nation Club rankings and Sarajevo is 338th in the European club coefficient rankings. This game looks more like one we should have a chance in. Alas, it was not to be as we went down a man at the 60th minute mark up by a goal and proceeded to concede 3 goals the rest of the way for the loss. Happy to have made the Europa League, but was hoping for a result or two.

4 more league games and 4 wins. Lynx out played us, so we were fortunate to come away with the victory there. I mixed that lineup up too much I think. UEFA Europa League Game 7: Next up is RC Lens from the Ligue 1 Uber Eats . France is 7th in the Nation Club rankings and RC Lens is 194th in the European club coefficient rankings (that is going to take a big jump after what they have done this year). RC Lens is top of the table in the Europa League, so will try and play more defensive and see what happens. Not sure we are going to stand a chance in this one either way. The game was closer than I thought it would be as it took 2 late goals for them to win. Alonso got sick before the game, so we started the backup keeper.. probably didn't make a difference, but a couple of their goals looked savable. That result gives me confidence that maybe we are not that far away from being able to win a few in the Europa League.

Gibraltar is a lot of fun. Getting to the top of the league is not too difficult, but Europe is proving to be a significant challenge as expected. Have to be patient to develop homegrown players and play homegrown players so they develop which means don't bring in too many stars / important foreigners. That is one thing I have to adjust. Glad you have enjoyed the thread.

UEFA Europa League Game 6: Next up is Trabzonspor from the Turkish Super League. Turkey is 8th in the Nation Club rankings and Trabzonspor is 97th in the European club coefficient rankings. Not sure we are going to stand a chance in this one either. Nope, going down a man at the 7 min mark certainly would not have helped the team at all. No chance left of making the next stage, so have to hope for a result in the final games, though the next one is against RC Lens who is top of the table. We have had a tough draw so far.

Two more wins brings us to the half way point in the Gibraltar League regular season. We are controlling all the league games except for the Europa FC game we lost. Six points clear of the rest of the field at halfway is a nice lead, hopefully we can stretch that out further before the championship round. Looking at the players whose ratings improved the most from the beginning of the season Jay Key: +2.5 as AP(A) and +3.1 as DLP (S) Oscar Marcos: +2.5 as AP(A) and +2.9 as DLP(S) Michael Negrette: +1.6 as W(S) Aaron Alonso: +1.2 SK(S) Alex Morata: +1 CD(D) No major declines from any of the starters. The only change I am going to make is to switch Key and Marcos so Key is playing the DLP position. Taking a look at the half way stats and the starters are performing well, so the lineups are in good shape. Will report on the ratings and stats in detail at the end of the season.

Two more wins in the Gibraltar league has us sitting on the top of the table. UEFA Europa League Game 5: Next up is LASK from the Austrian Premier League. Austria is 10th in the Nation Club rankings and LASK is 42th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters don't give them a chance..... 83% win likelihood for us, that is crazy. I thought the polls were interesting, but this one feels so far off to not make it worth paying attention to. And sure enough, they dominated us on the pitch. not much to say about the game other than we scored.

A couple more league games including our first defeat of the season to Europa FC. We bounced back with a good showing against Man 62. Juggling the need to have 5 players who are homegrown with the rest of the playing time commitments is hard. There are 3 legit homegrown starters and the rest are backups. The problem I am running into is the better players I signed are expecting to start more and when one of the 3 get injured, it becomes tough. I think I need to slow down picking up good foreign players until I can develop the homegrown talent more.... interesting dilemma. UEFA Europa League Game 4: Next up is Stuttgart from the Bundaslige. Germany is 4th in the Nation Club rankings and Stuttgard is 72th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters actually give us a chance, but I don't. We are not ready for the top flight teams yet. I am happy we scored 3 and satisfied we kept it somewhat close. Our next game is not any easier, but we close the Europa league with 3 games we could potentially see points from.

UEFA Europa League Game 3: Next up is Tottenham from the Premier League. England is 1st in the Nation Club rankings and Tottenham is 58th in the European club coefficient rankings. The voters don't give us much chance and I don't either. This one was embarrassing with 2 send offs. How are we supposed to hold them off two men down .. sheesh. On to the next one with hopefully better results. We weren't going to win anyways, but that was a beat down.

We played a couple more league games winning both. Still mixing up the lineups a lot to manage fitness for the Europa League, injuries and homegrown. Fortunately we have a lot of depth this season to the point that I think our second team could win the Gibraltar league.

UEFA Europa League Game 2: Next up is Lazio from the Italian Series A. Italy is 2nd in the Nation Club rankings and Lazio is 26th in the European club coefficient rankings. We shouild have no chance in this game. Best bet is to try and keep the score down for score differential purposes. I don't know who they polled for the votes, but 18% think the Lions can win? They are crazy. We lost, but managed to keep it relatively close. We are just holding onto a spot in the playoff, so in a position to have a shot at it. Unfortunately, Jay Key got injured for 4 weeks. That one will hurt.

The regular league season has started and the Lions are off to a flying start with 2 dominate victories. Mixing the squad up to maintain the 5 homegrown players, deal with injuries and try to balance playing time expectations... going to be a challenge for this season, next season we get a number of players who become homegrown which will definitely help.

UEFA Europa League Game 1: First up is Rosenborg from the Norwegian Premier Division. Norway is 11th in the Nation Club rankings and Rosenburg is 130th in the European club coefficient rankings. Their average salary is "only" £879 p/w, more than us for sure, but way less than the £10K that Kobenhavn spends. The poll seems to think we have an outside shot. Kawe got hurt and is going to miss a few games, so time for the youngster to step up again. Well, we came away with a draw, which at least gives us some points. We edged them on XG, but they dominated possession which rarely happens to us, so I think we are fortunate to get a result. As a bonus, we got £180K for the draw.

Pepe Reyes Cup Two days off and the Gibraltar season kicks off with the Pepe Reyes Cup. Decided to give the main squad a day off and the backups and homegrown players some match time. It went well. We won the match, not as comfortable as with the full squad, but good to see the rest of the team step up. Once again Yenpariye shows that he is very capable as our attacker. We have a couple of weeks off and then the Europa league and regular season gets rolling. I love watching the highlights with him as he is 6'3" and 211lbs, so looks much bigger than the rest of the players.

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Fourth Qualifying Round The fourth round has us facing Kobenhavn from the 3F Superliga in Denmark. Denmark is 12th in the nation club rankings and Kobenhavn is 35th in the European club rankings. We should not have a chance here. The vote says otherwise though and gives us a glimmer of hope. First leg at home is in the books and we managed to force a draw with a late goal. Overall we were out played and out chanced, so not hoping for much when we go to their stadium Second leg and an emphatic exit from the competition. Kobenhavn is just too much for the Lions at this stage in the development of the club. Fantastic showing for the club in the Champions League give us £4.28M to spend on upgrading the club along with another £2.91M for qualifying for the UEFA Europa League League Phase. Our schedule was revealed and it looks pretty tough. We might be able to grab 3 wins from the list if things go our way and that might be barely enough to get a playoff game... either way potential for some more money and boosts to the rankings.

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Third Qualifying Round The third round has us facing Ferencvarosi from the Hungarian Division 1. Hungary is 24th in the nation club rankings and Ferencvarosi is 69th in the European club rankings. We should not have a chance in this, but the squad has played together for a while and is in good form, so maybe we have a chance? First leg away from home and we won! Amazing result in a game that was level on XG but we had the edge in shots and possession. Alonso got player of the match as he stepped up his game amidst rumours of us bringing in a GK on loan to challenge for his spot. We come back home with a one goal lead and a definite chance to pull this one out. Back home and we did it !!! Astounded that we managed to pull out the victory and move on to the next round. Kawe delivered and it looks overall like we had more shots and better chances with a significant edge in XG. Some celebration on the Rock after this one. We brought in two more players. An 18yr old GK on loan who I will try and sign after as he can become homegrown and he is almost as good as Alonso with a lot of potential. We also signed Jamie Coombes as a backup winger / midfielder. He is an important depth player who is homegrown. I love his consistency.

EUFA Champions League Champions Path Second Qualifying Round The second round was a very positive surprise. We won 6-0 at home and then took the away leg as well. Did not expect that at all. Yenpariye got 4 goals in the 2 games and is playing himself into some more starts with the way he has filled in for Kawe

7th is fantastic. You are already 15 point clear of relegation, so hopefully can focus on the Europe spots without worrying about that. The team seems to be benefiting from playing together for a few years.