mannojunior

September 2023 - A tactical conundrum --- Welcome back to another instalment of the Roman Regionnaire where I question my sanity and why anyone would think this was a good idea. After a moderately positive start to the season, I had to make a few tweaks to fit square pegs into round holes. Nobody said this challenge would be easy but I may have underestimated what I am working with. A set of pretty dire finances means that there is no room to recruit any local talent on a permanent basis but I am continuing to monitor the 'big' local clubs such as Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Cheltenham and Swindon in case we can pick up any youngsters on loan. I feel this shape and tactical setup is one that suits the squad I have. A pretty standard back four that is unlikely to change unless we pick up injuries. Our midfield two also picks itself, although Luke Russe is a talented defensive-minded midfielder but has failed to impress so far. There will no doubt be plenty of rotation between Smith, Clark and Russe. We are at our strongest in attack and I think our move to a 4-2-4 shows that. It's certainly nothing flashy, we are simply asking our wingers to stay wide and play as traditional wingers and go direct. What's not to like about watching a winger take on his man and knock it past him. That's what we want, direct football. Alabi and Cooke up top are giants and the Target Forward/Advanced Forward combination is perfect. A solid month. Nothing more and nothing less. James Alabi and Cody Cooke continue to be a force up top. A huge disappointment for us as we exit the FA Cup in the Third Qualifying Round to lower division Hastings. We really could have done with some FA Cup money to strengthen the squad. 5th place and a playoff place? It's early days but I would take that if offered. It's a steady start and our aim has to be to maintain a playoff position throughout the season. No prizes for guessing who tops the goalscoring charts. Big James Alabi has 10 goals, with strike partner Cody Cooke not far behind on 6 goals. Elliott Frear also started the season well but has tailed off. Loanee Jack Endacott is living up to the hype as he has registered 5 assists alongside Elliott Frear.

Top quality content as always mate! Interested to see how you settle tactically. I’ve found the Shadow Striker role incredibly powerful over the last two versions but often find myself sacrificing the 10 to shore up elsewhere.

Looking forward to following this. Always enjoy a save with a good narrative. I’m doing something similar with Ancelotti and blogging it. Will be following 💪🏻

------ I’ve been playing Football Manager since FM08 when I was introduced to the game by one of my friends. I’ve been hooked ever since then! Like most, I’ve leaned towards managing smaller clubs and working my way up to the top. I can’t actually remember the last save I did where I managed an elite team from the off. In this series that changes. Welcome to Catching Carlo. This save is also being blogged over on the FM Boot Room and you can view this here. ------ ------ Thursday 1st June 2023 – extracted from liverpoolfc.com “This is an open letter to the supporters of Liverpool Football Club. This is the end of an era. Jurgen has done wonders for this football club and he will forever be a legend. He has laid the foundations for us to grow and now I ask for your support. You may not all know who I am but I am determined to leave this club as a legend, just like Jurgen. We have the players, the infrastructure and the leadership to progress and flourish. Now all we need is you. I may not be the legendary coach you had wanted or the former club icon that so many idolise but the owners have recognised my success and potential and have given me the chance to lead this great club. The last decade has seen the club rise to the top with a Premier Division Title and a Champions League win. We now have a chance to build on this as we look to create a legacy. I have a vision. I have a philosophy and I hope you can all embrace this. I focus on nurturing the young talent available through the academy as well as bringing in young talent where available. I want to entertain, the team will give you high intensity, high pressing and a reason to roar. It has been agreed with the board that to match my philosophy and vision for the club we will be limited to a maximum of three signings per season. We will rely on young and up and coming talent from our academy and give our youngsters the chance to become the next Trent. I write this message in the hope that you will support me in my views and the blueprint that has been laid down. More than ever we will need your support and I cannot wait to meet you all in pre-season. Until then, YNWA. Carlos”. ------ An Introduction Welcome to a brand new save and a brand new blog. I must start with a massive thank you to every single one of you who took the time to read and follow any of my posts on my Spartans save. I have put this on hold for now as I look to get stuck in to my second blog save of the FM24 cycle. Having spent 6 seasons at Spartans and done a one club save I had the hankering for a save with the big boys. There is only so much time during a year of FM that you can enjoy the financial constraints of a save like Spartans but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Those who know me and especially those in the FM Library discord know that I struggle to play FM saves without a narrative. Therefore, I am pleased to introduce Carlos Nunes. Who Is Carlos Nunes? Carlos Nunes is a 37 year old Portuguese football manager, born on 10th November 1986. Born in Lisbon, Nunes started his playing career at Benfica before going on to make over 100 appearances for the club at senior level. A central midfielder by trade, the Portuguese international made 55 appearances for his country and amassed 12 goals. Nunes left Benfica at the age of 22 to join AC Milan and went on to play for Barcelona and Ajax before finishing his career at FC Porto. Nunes called it time on his playing career at the age of 35 and has managed FC Porto’s u21 team since then and is considered a hot prospect in the world of football management. ------ Save Objectives Catching Carlo has only one primary objective. Catch the Don. Carlo Ancelotti has won four UEFA Champions League titles during his managerial career, making him the most successful manager in the competition. Our aim, beat his record. Plain and simple our objective is to have more Champions League trophies than Don Carlo. Carlo currently has four to his name but as the save progresses he will have the chance to add more. As you will have seen noticed, Carlos has been given the chance to succeed Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager. Carlos will move between clubs as he sees fit but his managerial philosophy will stay the same. Carlos’ philosophy brings the following restrictions to the save: (a) a maximum of three signings per season at any club he manages; (b) focus on youth development and offer a pathway for young talent at the club to receive first team opportunities; (c) improving youth facilities and recruitment at all clubs with the aim of creating an elite youth academy at each club; (d) recruitment will focus on any new signing being 24 and younger – older players can be signed if they are considered elite talents; (e) new signings will be data driven; and (f) a tactical philosophy that focuses on a high press and high intensity game Hopefully the above explains the restrictions imposed on us as we move around clubs. We are looking to create elite youth academies whilst also bringing in young talent within the restrictions. Enough waffling, let’s get into it shall we? ------ The Foundations Our journey begins in Merseyside as Carlos Nunes becomes the successor to Jurgen Klopp. The club already has state of the art youth facilities and an elite youth setup which means that there are no improvements to be made to the infrastructure. Instead, we will focus on giving regular game time to our hot prospects coupled with a couple of young additions. As you would expect, we join the club with a very strong squad in place. Van Dijk, Salah and Alisson as our key men but all of them are now the wrong side of 30. Van Dijk and Alisson are my priorities to keep around but I am very much open to phasing out our reliance on Salah and to bring through a new front three. Remember the 2017 ‘red arrows’ as they were described? Mane, Salah and Firmino on the break and scoring goals for fun. That’s what we want to bring back. Stefan Bajcetic is arguably our biggest young talent and I will be using him as our starting DM with the option of rotating him with Wataro Endo as the season progresses. He will no doubt flourish with the exposure to Premier League and European football and is what this save is all about. Ryan Gravenberch, a familiar face for all of us FM players. At just 21 years old, he has a good few years ahead of him where he can improve and he is already an excellent option for us. In line with our philosophy, he will get regular game time in central midfield and will almost certainly contribute with goals. Harvey Elliott is another player that seems older than he is, most likely due to the prominence of his performances for Liverpool in real life but we forget he is just 20. Another who will get minutes in central midfield and who can also offer on option out on the right hand side of our attack. ------ Summer Transfer Window In line with our transfer policy we have focussed on young talent available to us. With no major outgoings we were given a transfer budget of £66 million to spend and I have decided to keep one transfer slot available for January should we need it. Upon joining the club I identified three key positions which could do with improvement with those positions being centre back, left attacking midfield and left back. I opted not to look into a new left back as although Andy Robertson is arguably not as good as he has been, we still have Kostas Tsimikas available as a more than capable back up. I therefore stepped up my search for a new centre back to partner Virgil Van Dijk. With Joel Matip set to run down his contract and Joe Gomez more of a right back, the only option to partner our skipper is Konate. I am not the biggest fan of Konate (not sure why) and I wanted to make a statement signing. This lead to the eventual signing of Goncalo Inacio from Sporting for a fee of £45 million. Incidentally, I had whittled the shortlist down to Bastoni, Inacio and Diomande, also of Sporting. Bastoni wasn’t interested in the move and upon comparison, I opted for Inacio over Diomande. At 22 he has time to develop but he is also currently at an elite level and capable of slotting straight in. Add to that the fact that he is a left footer and it makes for the perfect partnership with VVD. Yes you are reading that correctly. Kvaradonna has joined us from Napoli on a season long loan. No fees other than a very small wage contribution of £10.25k per week. It was a no brainer once we realised he was available and we acted fast. The deal makes a lot of sense for us as we look to phase out Salah and I full expect him to leave for Saudi either in January or next summer. 22 years old, quick, technical and the ability to play on the left and right, what’s not to like? He ticks all the boxes as we look to bring through the next generation of superstars. There is an optional fee in the summer of £110 million and I have no intention of paying that at this stage but he will give us a season of quality, that’s for sure. ------ Tactical Philosophy As touched upon at the start of this post, there will be a significant focus on our tactical approach. At every club Carlos Nunes manages, he will take with him his brand of football. The focus will be on a high press, high intensity style. Possession is not the be all and end all in football for Carlos. Quick counter attacks and fluid transitions will bring exciting football. Think 2017/18 Liverpool with the front three flying forward on the counter, that is what we are looking for. Pure entertainment. I wouldn’t usually use an IWB but given that we have Trent at our disposal it’s worth a shot. The main focus will be in central midfield. I have absolutely loved the double mezzala combination on FM24 and it causes absolute chaos. With a Half Back sitting in with the two centre backs it gives us a form of protection. The above is an illustration of how it works out of possession. You’ll see Bajcetic slots in between Van Dijk and Inacio and he will stick to that position and offer an extra layer of protection. The two central midfielders are pushed up and ready to press alongside the front three. Trent starts out in a conventional right back position but as soon as we win possession he slots in to midfield alongside our Half Back. It forms almost a 3-2-5 in possession as the central midfielders are so high. Chaos ball and I am all for it. ------ The Dream Start? Before we recap our first month in charge it is worth setting expectations for this season. I see it as a free hit as we aren’t in the Champions League and there is no reward for domestic success although a league title or piece of silverware would be nice. We must qualify for the Champions League this season, whether that be through league position or winning the Europa League it simply has to happen. Carlo is already getting an extra year on us and his Real Madrid side will be challenging for the UCL again this year! A unique tactical system is always likely to take time to perfect and we cannot be judged on three games but it’s a very positive start. Comfortable victories over Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United and a point against Aston Villa isn’t a bad return. Cody Gakpo has been in fine form bagging in every single competitive game so far. A relatively straightforward Europa League group on paper which will allow us the chance to rotate and blood some of the youngster in an elite environment. Anything less than top spot in Group H would be a disappointment. ------ Until next time It’s now time for Carlos Nunes to navigate through his first season at the helm of Liverpool. We will be back at the end of his first season to review progress. Until then, thank you so much for reading and enjoy your day!

August 2023 Quite the up and down month. Our season started with two losses which left me questioning whether this was a good idea or not. With a few tweaks to our tactical approach and formation we were then able to win three out of the next four games. Despite a heavy 5-1 loss to Eastbourne where we had to play with an outfield player in goal as Will Buse dislocated his shoulder after 20 minutes, we were pretty convincing. Elliott Frear playing wide left and James Alabi operating as a Target Forward up top appear to be forming a very nice partnership. Alabi leads the way with 3 goals and Frear is top of the assists chart with 4 assists. 6 games in to a very long National League South season and we are sat in 9th and hovering around the playoffs. We really can't read anything into this right now as we are only a month into this campaign and there is a lot of time for things to go wrong...or right! Our aim from here will be to maintain within touching distance of the playoffs or even sneak into a playoff place. The board want a top half finish so that's the bare minimum required to keep our job. An impressive August from Elliott Frear who has notched 3 goals and 4 assists in total. He finishes 3rd for POTM behind the winner Bradley Barry who scored two free kicks against us earlier this month. Interesting. Not sure much will happen but something to keep an eye on.

A Roman Regionnaire --- So here we are, we have taken up our post as manager of the Romans as we replace the outgoing Jerry Gill. Things are going to be tough as after setting up the player search filter we are currently only attracting around 40ish players who would be interested in talking to us. Oh and that includes players that are already at the club. This is certainly going to be interesting! --- After some extensive trialling of various players and searching the player search filter with a fine tooth comb we have managed to make four additions to our squad. F First through the door is Joseph Wragg who joins on a free transfer following his release from Bideford. The 19 year old winger was born in Exeter and was on the books at Exeter for three years as a youngster before he was released. He's not elite by any means but he's young enough to improve and he is fairly quick. With virtually no wingers at the club he is a much needed signing for squad depth. Next up we welcomed Josh Leslie-Smith to Twerton Park after he was released by Weymouth. A very solid centre back who has spent the last two years playing in the National League so he adds huge quality to our back line. The 23 year old was born in Bournemouth and came through the ranks at Poole Town. A surprise signing of sorts as we were able to finalise a loan deal for Jack Endacott. When he eventually showed up on the the player search as being interested I could see he had huge interest from National League clubs but both Jack and Plymouth were keen for his development to be with us and we were able to secure a one year loan deal. Endacott was born in Plymouth and he adds more squad depth as he's able to play at both left wing back and left attacking midfield. He will get plenty of game time for us. Our final signing of the summer was the arrival of Jack Carter on a season long loan deal from Forest Green Rovers. More of a depth signing as we didn't have a replacement right back but he will do a job. Born in Swindon the 18 year old has come through the ranks at Forest Green and spent last season out on loan at Melksham Town. --- With our summer business seemingly done here is how our squad has taken shape. Plenty of options in all positions but the squad is still quite small which means that if we start piling up the injuries we could be in trouble. I'll be looking for the likes of Elliott Frear, Jordan Dyer and Cody Cooke to put in some big performances for us this season. Ignore George Dowling being in the squad, he has been on trial with us but he wants £900pw and that is not happening. --- Just before we round off this post, here is the system we will look to play. Nothing special and certainly nothing complicated given the level of football we are operating at. We will look to use the width and play balls in behind with some quick wingers. Cooke is quite a physical presence up top which means that we can use mixed crosses to vary our delivery.

It's going to be tough! Only about 40 players interested in playing for me at the moment and that includes all players at the club!

A Roman Regionnaire --- The Romans must rise again. King Bladud will see to this. Here we are, the start of another FM24 save and not one I thought I would be embarking on so soon. For those unfamiliar with a 'Regionnaire' save then I cannot take any credit for it. It has recently been brought to the forefront of FM blogs and saves by 5StarPod member MaddFM who has written this very handy piece on what it is and how it works. I'll save the characters (wait this isn't X?) and you can check out MaddFM's written guide here. Throughout this save, I won't be going for a complete overhaul of the squad from day one. The restriction will be that any new signing must be from the region of choice and we will slowly phase out the non-regional players at the club. For those looking for a TLDR the premise is simple, we can only sign players who are born in the South West region of England. Why the South West you may ask? Well, I am not mad as I am fully aware that of all the regions in England, the South West appears to pose the stiffest challenge of all when it comes to the Regionnaire challenge. I am based in the South West and a season ticket holder at Bath City FC, which is the club we will managing throughout this series. Hang on, I don't get the Roman reference?! Well, Bath's nickname is the Romans giving the historic significance of the Romans in Bath in times gone by. Let's get one thing straight from the off, I am a slow player of FM and often don't have a lot of spare time to play. Updates will be short and sharp and may we be sporadic, we will see. Oh and if things don't go well then posts will be non-existent. On with the show! ---

Enjoyed following this so far. Terrific job done at Dartford and hopefully you can push for promotion next season at Charlton.

Depends how quickly you play and also, just go for what makes you enjoy writing! I really enjoy quick snappy updates but equally, a detailed season update when doing a long save is also a good option.

September 2023 ------ An inconsistent start to our Serie C campaign. Two poor defeats to kick off the month but we hit back with an emphatic 4-1 win over Cerignola. Our run would have continued had corrupt officials not cost us against Messina. Firenzi's winner for Messina was incredibly allowed to stand, despite him being clearly offside. Looks like I'll need to get used to this! We then finished the month in good fashion as we snuck home a 92nd minute winner at home to Picerno. Six foot four centre back Vincenzo Di Somma thumped a header in from a De Francesco corner to send the home fans into raptures! ------ Five games into the Serie C season and we are sat in 11th. Not much that we can read from this as there is a long season ahead of us but to have two wins under our belts already is one small step towards survival. ------ We've had some really good and some really bad individual performances so far. Alberto De Francesco has been the standout so far, with 2 goals and 4 assists from CAM. 17 year-old Domenico Musella has taken his chance up top and has hit two goals, albeit in the same game. Ciro Loreto from left wing back has got forward well and has contributed two assists. Hopefully more to come from him given that the left wing back has more attacking freedom than his counterpart on the right. ------ We have to give a lot of credit to this man who I reinstated after the first two defeats. He's made some big saves and has demonstrated that he will be our number one for now. I started off with Del Sorbo between the sticks but two really awful performances told me that he wasn't ready. At 26, Albertazzi still has time to improve and come into his own.

The home kit has been on my wish list for a while now! May as well get some use out of Ravasio whilst he is here.

Looking forward to following this mate!

Pre-season 2023/2024 ------ Pre-season results Six games and six wins. A really positive pre-season, although we shouldn't read too much into it. It gave me a chance to finalise my best eleven and the tactical shape for the season. ------ Tactical Approach With the players at my disposal, I have opted for a diamond, to incorporate the many central midfielders at the club. It might be ambitious, but I'm looking for a high press, pass and move system. I am trusting the technical ability of the players to deal with this tactical approach. We aren't going long, which many might favour in our position. Instead, I'm looking to move the ball quickly, keep the passes shorter and press high out of possession. I have also trained a 4-3-3 to flick to if needed. ------ I am confident that this man will score goals for us this season. He's only a loan player, so I can't get too attached but he scored 10 goals in pre-season. ------ Finances Things are looking okay and with no players coming in (obviously) it means we aren't spending an awful amount. Will be keeping a keen eye on this. ------ Having taken inspiration from @Punch I am going to be channelling my inner nerd and keeping track of progress with spreadsheets. One thing to note is that we are actually ground sharing with Potenza this season, before returning to Stadio Italia for next season.

Cracking season mate and one hell of an achievement to stay up! Finances are looking rosy and fingers crossed you'll actually play at home again soon