fmCharlie

Season 1 Review That wasn't really supposed to happen... In the end, predictions, and internal expectations, of mid table obscurity never really looked likely. The season started with five straight wins and we never looked back. It was a strange feeling, I'm not sure I've ever won a league on FM and felt so little pressure, as I was expecting and probably hoping for at least one more season in the Eerste Divisie. Put rather simply, we just won a lot more games, and scored a lot more goals than anyone else. The 84 goals we scored wasn't close to being matched, and similarly our 27 wins left us out in front. That's pleasing considering one of our main objectives is to play entertaining, attacking football. Here's some stats that showcase our attacking excellence in the first season: Transfers Generally I don't do a lot of business in a first season, especially incoming transfers. I feel like having a season to assess what you've already got to work with provides a good platform. The business that I did conduct included bringing in a veteran goalkeeper with high determination, Piet Velthuizen, to add some needed experience and personality. This was very much a signing for the changing room, rather than the pitch. The only other signing I made was Marcus Melchior, who joined in January after signing a pre contract. A 22 year old attacking midfielder from Norway who naturally plays centrally, but can also play on the right. I signed him to fill a gap we had in the starting XI on the right wing. 16 Flair and 15 Vision make him the exact sort of player we want in attacking positions. He also has a number of traits that make him a very dynamic attacking player, such as Plays One-Twos and Tries Killer Balls Often. Players In most my saves I'm often asked during press conferences why I use so few players, as I prefer to operate with smaller squads. This season was a big departure from that as I regularly tried to give young players minutes wherever possible, especially if they have been excelling in the youth or reserve team. 15 players were handed debuts across the season, and six players under 20 made over 15 appearances. The fact we were so successful while blooding a number of youngsters is making me very excited for the future. I'll run you through he stand out performers: Rick Ketting - I haven't mentioned him in previous posts as he's 28 and has been wanted by other clubs since the start of the save, meaning I don't bank on him being around too long. He is, however, the lynchpin of our defence with an average rating of 7.16. He also contributed 9 goals! He has informed the club he will consider his options when his contract ends in a years time... Diego van Zutphen - A young left footed centre back who ended the season as Rick Ketting's regular partner. First team football has helped his already promising stats further develop. He is still severely lacking in physicality, particularly his strength, though there has been some improvement to his pace. However, technically and mentally he is very good for his age. For me he's one of the top prospects at the club and I can see him becoming at least a good Eredivisie defender. Levi Smans - I highlighted him in in my first post as the top prospect at the club, and he delivered in season one. 8 goals and 6 assists was a solid return, although I do feel like someone who's such a good finisher should be scoring more. Still only 20 he has a couple more years to carry on developing, and Eredivisie football is coming at the perfect time for that. Soulyman Allouch - VVV's best player had a great season. 14 goals, 7 assists, 7.21 average rating, he led the league in a number of metrics. He too, however, has decided to consider his options with 1 year remaining, sadly. At no point did he show any interest in signing a new contract, even after promotion. We have a couple of young wingers who got plenty of game time last season, but I don't think they're ready to replace Soulyman. Something to think about in the off season. Guus Willemssen - This is an interesting one, you know one of those players you just take a shine to? I didn't even really notice him initially, but we had a serious lack of options up front. In fact, when I joined the first team had 3 strikers on loan because of this. Two of those I terminated, and one I kept around despite not wanting to waste minutes on another club's player. Then Guus started scoring for the reserves. The coaches don't rate him as a trequarista, but I think there's something there. He has solid all round attributes for the role, except for a weakness in decision making. He lacks determination but regular game time has helped him to improve a lot, and he ended the season with 7 goals and 8 assists from 16 starts and 11 sub appearances. Not bad right? I'm not convinced he's ready to lead the line in the Eredivisie, but one of my aims is to prioritise developing VVV's academy boys, so... VVV have an annual award, named after former player Jan Klaassens, which is given to the academy's best player that season. Previous winners include Smans, and fellow current player Thijme Verheijen. This year I think it's got to go to Diego van Zutphen, for a brilliant break out season in the heart of the defence. In the end, I have irrational mixed feelings about this promotion. I'd hoped for another season to offer more minutes to young players, and worry that promotion will mean some young players on the fringe will get left behind. On the other hand, players like Levi Smans need football at a higher level now, and all the young players will benefit from that. It will come down to how much nerve I have to trust them I suppose. Regarding the aims I had for the save, the football we're playing is a resounding success. As mentioned, I'd like to move on tactically, away from a 4-2-3-1. That may have to happen more slowly now we're playing at a higher level but it's something I'm conscious of. Our youth development I'd also say has been successful so far. We've got a good crop of young players who are getting regular minutes, though I'm not sure we have any elite young players in our midst. I'd say the ceiling for most of them is being solid Eredvisie players. And our first intake was quite unremarkable. We currently have good training and youth facilities, with good academy coaching and above average youth recruitment. I managed to get the academy coaching improved early in the save, and I'll be looking to move forward in other areas ASAP. As you've seen, recruitment has been minimal so far. Our only signing did come from Scandinavia, which is one of our areas of focus. I'm still on the look out for that first Japanese star... With a couple of our best players looking likely on to move to pastures new, it's going to be an interesting summer in Venlo.

Haha cheers, we'll see how that goes. I can't actually scout outside Central Europe yet so may take some time before our first imports.

Tactical Approach What generally gets me hooked into a save is a tactical idea. The overarching idea for Albin Hamelink at VVV was attacking football. But I wanted to outline some core ideas, firstly to help with the actual construction of the tactic, and secondly to make it more interesting than just “attacking” football. Interchanging positions - One of the main principles that brought Dutch Total Football to the fore in the 70’s was players interchanging positions. My interpretation of this is using players roles that are multifunctional. For example, using a trequartista up front, therefore having someone who can find space in more than one area of the pitch, while being a goalscorer and creator. Other roles I’d like to utilise in some way are: inverted wingbacks, libero, regista, roaming playmaker, false nine, wide centre back. Back Three - This is purely a personal preference, I just love a back three. I always think of reading how Marcelo Bielsa preferred a spare man against teams with a front 2. I also like how it is more difficult to press in build up from the goalkeeper. Now with the positional play and roles such as libero and the wide centre back I think a back three is even more viable in as an attacking team in Football Manager. I want to take inspiration from Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta, the way they are still so entertaining and aggressive despite operating with three centre backs. Controlling the centre of the pitch - One of Pep Guardiola’s key principles, having your best players in the centre of the pitch to provide control of the game, as well as numerical superiority. Whichever shape I’m using, this will be a guiding thought. Relentless positivity - Ange Postecoglou has gained many plaudits since arriving in British football. His teams are undeniably exciting to watch, and I want to replicate the constant intensity to play. This won’t just be in the set up of the team, but also decision making within games. The focus will be to take the most aggressive option, always look for another goal. Current Setup 4-2-3-1 doesn't really excite me, but the current setup is a blend of the principles I want to implement, and making the most of players inherited in the VVV squad. The options at centre back weren't good enough to go straight in with a back three frustratingly, but I have managed to fit in an inverted wingback and trequarista. The team instructions will stay broadly the same regardless of shape, so the aim is to build the squad with a move to a back three in mind. I tried not to use with too many instructions, focussing on taking risks with the ball, and being compact and on the front foot without it. Player roles were largely chosen with a focus on getting the best out of our top players. I wasn't too sure about the IF (mainly due to a lack of personnel) or the BBM, but in practice both have worked so far. This does feel like a stop gap to something more interesting, but there are a few things I wanted to highlight. Interaction of the AM & Trequarista I wanted the striker to offer fluidity in attack, contributing to both the build up, and taking, of chances. With the trequarista often leaving space through the middle, the attacking midfielder needed to offer a threat beyond and in the box. Levi Smans, our best prospect, is ideally suited to complement the trequarista with 16 finishing and decent off the ball movement (8.08 xg in 31 games, second highest from open play show his willingness to run beyond). In practice these two often operate like a fluid front two, regularly being on the same horizontal line on the pitch. Both players can be involved in the build up, but also will threaten the back line, making our attacks more unpredictable. It reminds me of the way Brighton often build up in a 4-2-4 under De Zerbi, where both of the central attackers are willing to drop in and contribute to build up play, creating an overload in the centre of the pitch. Isolating Wingers The best player in the team is Soulyman Allouch. He's a direct winger who wants to constantly run at his man. We create 1v1's for him by leaving him wide, while the inverted wing back comes inside. The BBM also plays a role, often operating in the channel between the full back and centre back. This poses the opposing defenders with constant questions as to who to press, which frequently leaves Allouch in a 1v1 and the space to get at his marker. He averages 6.27 dribbles per 90, comfortably the highest in the league. Weakness in build up One thing I'm not a massive fan of is the shape we get into during build up. It's a lop sided 2-2 as we play out, with the LB tucking in and the CM dropping, while the RB pushes on. Everyone else is advanced of the ball. This does give us lots of options to break lines with progressive passes, but when we can't find those it limits the options for recycling the ball. This means we look easy to press, and when we do give it away, there is very little chance of us stopping a shot on our goal. Against higher level teams we'll need to find a balance between wanting to have all those forward passing options, while also keeping a strong base. As I've mentioned, the aim is to develop this into something more exciting/experimental, and bring in some more interesting player roles as the squad evolves. For now I'm satisfied that we're playing a fluid, risk taking style of football that seems to be simultaneously be effective. Here's a couple of examples of the boys in full flow. Firstly, a probing attack that showcases how fluid the team is in attack, the LCM ends up breaking into the box to cut it back to the treq. Secondly, a goal from back to front, finished by Allouch isolated on the LW. I've just finished my first season, so an update will come soon...

VVV for Venlo After rediscovering the Football Manger blogging community in the past couple of months, following the release of FM24, I thought I’d try my hand at contributing. Venlo is a Dutch city, found close to the south eastern border with Germany, 50km from Eindhoven, and 160km from the red lights of Amsterdam. VVV-Venlo is a Dutch yo-yo club, kitted in yellow and black, founded in 1903, and with a recent notable history of brining Japanese players to Europe. See Keisuke Honda and Maya Yoshida. VVV also boasts impressive youth facilities and recruitment for a club in the Eerste Divisie. This all intrigued me enough to install myself as a young Dutch coach, Albin Hamelink. Scandinavian in heritage, with a deeply held belief in attacking Cruyffian-inspired voetbal, it seems to be the perfect marriage that will bring VVV-Venlo supporters the entertaining football, and focus on the homegrown talent, they crave. The overarching themes of this save therefore will be attacking football, youth development, and a grounded transfer policy. What I mean by that is I will stay true to what has come before. In practice this will mean a reliance on domestic talent, supplemented by neighbouring nations such as Germany and Belgium. Also targeting traditional markets for Dutch football (in my mind at least), such as Scandinavia. The youth teams of VVV already contain a number of young Germans because of Venlo’s proximity to Germany. Hopefully this will be reflected further in future intakes. I also want to continue the tradition of Japanese imports, which should be helped by the introduction of the J League’s into this years game. The current squad I’ve inherited has no Japanese players, so that’s something to rectify as soon as possible. The dream would be to get a Japanese affiliate in a few years. I’ll dedicate further posts to detailing the ideas and plans for attacking football and youth development. Like most squads in the Eerste Divisie, VVV are weighted very young. In fact there is only 1 player over the age of 30, centre back Roel Jansen. I suppose this is to be expected in what is essentially a development league, within a nation that has garnered a reputation as producers of talent for the more affluent leagues. In fact, within the 20 teams there are 4 Jong teams (AZ, Ajax, PSV, Utrecht) who are not allowed to be promoted. The board seemingly has minimal aspiration to return to the Eredvisie, prioritising maintaining the current league position over the next few years. I thought this strange considering VVV were in the Eredivisie as recently as 2021. However, this should prove to be a good environment to blood youngsters, although I won’t test their patience and lack of ambition for too long. The team that has been inherited has a nice group of young players with hopeful scope to develop, and the club will need to move with them in an upward trajectory or risk losing them. Here’s a look at the first team players that have stood out on initial inspection… Soulyman Allouch - A young Dutch-Morrocan winger, with high flair and solid winger attributes. This will be his second year since joining from Jong AZ, and looks like he could continue to develop into an Eredivise winger. He's also reminded me that Morocco should be on my recruitment list, considering the large community in The Netherlands. Elias Sierra - Joined this season in real life from Hercules on a free, the young Belgian is a passer in midfield. At 21 he has room to improve, although his off the ball (9), positioning (7), and flair (5) do make me wonder what role he is best suited. Simon Janssen - A VVV product who has already nearly played 100 games for the club. He's got great teamwork, and nicely rounded technicals. Most excitingly he gives me the option to play an inverted wingback, which should help to play the type of football we want. Levi Smans - The most promising player at the club. At 19 he's already featured in the past 2 seasons. He has great mentals for a teenager, and the 16 finishing for an attacking midfielder is eye catching. Next up, Albin Hamelink’s tactic breakdown…