[dafuge's FM19 challenge]

Season 2020/21 Review - Lancaster City in the Vanarama National League North

League Table | Playoffs | Season Review | Goal of the Season

So close.  I got tired of getting punished by long balls whenever we misplaced a pass and changed to a deep and direct approach of my own. We now focus on keeping shape and winning set pieces over stringing passes together. It's incredibly boring to watch, but reliable in a way that's frankly more important to us right now than high scorelines. Screw the fans!

3rd. Playoffs. And they started well enough with a 3-1 win against Spennymoor. Then Barrow — the team that didn't lose a game until December, whose 2 regular strikers have 63 goals between them, who beat us twice in the regular season... And did so here as well. I can't even be mad about it; they're on a different level right now. We just 'gotta keep building toward that ourselves.

Squad | Transfers

Minor improvements, with the notable exception of Denton who came in as a dominating target man. Unfortunately, his headers rarely threaten and his link-up play is much too slow for our counter-attacking style. What's kept him in the team is set pieces where he's frankly unplayable and scores almost all of his goals. In open play we've once again had to rely on Mallass who thankfully had the time of his life chasing down long balls. 31 goals speaks for itself!

Finances

They don't look great, do they? The board did inject £80K in march, so hopefully those pockets are deep enough to keep us out of serious trouble.

Aim for next season: Promotion!

Season    League                 Finish   Notes
2020/21   Vanarama South         3rd      Knocked out in Playoff Final
2019/20   Vanarama South         8th      -

 

[dafuge's FM19 challenge]

57 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

I am 1 and a half seasons in now, i have noticed that not one player has increased in any attributes beyond determination, in fact most have decreased slightly. I know the club has only basic training and it is part time but most of the players are young and some have played quite well in 40+ games.

Is anyone else noticing the same?

Only one of my players improved and he kept an 8.5-9.5 training rating all season. The rest have all declined ever so slightly.

Hard to say if it's the facilities or my awful schedules. 

[dafuge's FM19 challenge]

Season 2019/20 Review - Lancaster City in the Vanarama National League North

League Table | Season Review

Not bad. I'll take 8th. I may have spent an embarrassing amount of time cursing at the screen in response to the awful football on display, but hey — we made it work. I'm still grappling with the new training and some of the new screens, so I should be able to build from here. I hope.

Also... Um, surprise! We have a new chairman already! £7K the media says we're worth, though the bank loan is actually for a little more than that. Fine by me.

Also... Um, surprise! We're building a new stadium! Yes, really. No, I don't know what they're thinking; I'm too busy fighting off panic attacks from imagining 20 years stuck at a ~5K capacity ground.

Squad | Transfers

Nothing too exciting here. I play a pretty straight-forward flat 4-4-2 and employ pretty straight-forward players for it. Baker does probably deserve a mention, what with scoring 21 goals (7 pens) from his MR position. That's on par with my best striker while providing almost as many assists as my best central midfielder. I'd say that deserves a contract extension!

Finances

We're alive. For now. Oh God, he's going to take out a loan for that new stadium, isn't he...

Aim for next season: Reach the playoff spots.

Season    League                 Finish   Achievements
2019/20   Vanarama North         8th      -

 

[dafuge's FM19 challenge]

Let's give this a whirl with Lancaster.