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Shrewnaldo

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Shrewnaldo last won the day on January 27

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1,130 "Here's Johnny!"

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    http://footballmanagerveteran.wordpress.com/ - A blog dedicated to my ramblings on Football Manager - tactics, guides and tips

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  1. I'm loving the recruitment posts... maybe a little bit too much as they're prompting a bit of nostalgia for my Feralpi/Hellas save. I don't get the opportunity to do this sort of recruitment much in my Sporting save... giving me some thoughts of a return to Italy... I'm also loving the bar charts you've done on cost per minute played. Really effective way of showing which players are over-valued and should be moved on. Would you think about doing something similar with other statistics? Goal contributions would be the obvious one but I wonder if it would also work with selected statistics for specific roles? Progressive passes and xA for deep creators, for example?
  2. Going to second this. Fabbian was brilliant for my Hellas Verona side - I think he scored nearly 20 in Serie A and scored 2 in the Coppa Italia final. Should be brilliant in 2.Bundesliga
  3. A sneak peak rather encapsulates the transfer policies... Mexicans in: Non-Spaniards / Mexicans out: Could probably have got more for the sales but we have £166m in the bank and a £116m transfer budget so, you know, YOLO.
  4. Yeah, I remember spotting that during the alpha for FM23 when it was introduced ( But I think that's just a different means of calculating the stat rather than the stat itself not working. My concern atm is that it seems to be just wrong - or at least calculated differently for human player games than generated games. It's more of a "feel" than a "know" though. It just "feels" like the human player OPPDA is always oddly high
  5. Ouch, those personalities. It's a real shame that Maucksh's positioning is so low as otherwise he could make a decent 'keeper. How well do your signings suit the 4-3-3? Anyone left out?
  6. At the moment, my first team options at centre-back are 30 year-old IRL guaje José Gragera, 31 year-old Czech international Ladislav Krejčí and 22 year-old Mexican newgen Rafael González. I've just brought 19 year-old Mexican newgen Radamés Solano up from the B-team to provide extra cover too. In terms of Mareo newgens, I've only got 16 year-old Carlos - who I've just put in the B-team , Raimundo Montiel - who I see as more of the left inverted full-back and have just demoted to the B-team, and 18 year-old Federico Navarro. I could look to bring Manuel Navarro back to the club but I think Spurs would want £10m and I doubt he's worth it.
  7. I was confused there - when I first read it you'd only given me the first answer! Haha Anyway: I like this idea - my only concern would be if Ayesa gets annoyed by the lack of game time, but it protects me in case Gil has a shocking run of form I'm 100% aligned I'm definitely shifting Aguirre to the right but I'm completely undecided on López still... I suspect you're right on game time though If I could find the right loan for Gil then I think this would be a good idea, but he isn't attracting any loan interest. I've asked the board for a new loan affiliate so I'm hoping they find a suitable non-Spanish club Same as Litmanen then and I agree with you both. I definitely have other guajes who can come in. Hugo Quiñones would be the first option I just can't decide on this one I feel you're right on Mouriño. Rosas is just too injury prone to rely upon. The problem is that I don't have many guaje centre backs to pull on so was keen to get Mouriño into the centre I like Escribano as a squad option because he can cover a few roles and won't moan about game time because of his rep. I think keep him around but prioritise Elvira for game time is the option
  8. Dilemmas A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón So I left off the truncated last post by talking about difficult choices I'm about to face and I guess such choices are a key part of the game, indeed likely a key part of football management. Choices between tactical styles, trade offs between committing players forward or conservatively protecting your own goal, deciding recruitment priorities and which players to bring in. For me, it's about when to let senior players move on and bring the newgens through. Some examples: Dilemma 1 - Goalkeeper Gaizka Ayesa has been excellent for us, since replacing the error prone CJ Sánchez in 2028. A £5.5m signing from Bodø/Glimt, he's gone on to keep 28 clean sheets in 70 league games and broke the 7 mark for average rating this season. At 29, he's just hitting his peak years for a goalkeeper and signed a new 'star player' contract in January to keep him here for another 3 seasons. In truth, that was so that I could maintain his value and Saudi clubs came sniffing early in the window. I'm tempted to let him go but the £30-40m they've offered thus far is just too low. Carlos Gil came through the third intake alongside wonderkids Aguirre and Javi. Until the arrival of Corominas this intake, he's been my best hope for a newgen 'keeper and has been progressing relatively well this far. A loan spell at Racing de Ferrol last term and the B-team spot this campaign has given him 75 LaLiga2 games (19 clean sheets, 93 conceded). In 2027/8, I have him 19 first-team games and he did pretty well - 7 clean sheets, 23 conceded. Having turned 20, I feel Gil needs top flight football to see him kick-on. His attributes aren't great yet with Reflexes and Positioning of 10 the obvious weaknesses, so selling Ayesa and making Gil first-choice will cost us goals and points. Worth it for the long term? I can't see him getting a top-flight loan as first-choice in Spain - unless at a relegation candidate where his development might suffer for poor performances and morale... so the option might be a foreign loan for a mid-table club in Scandinavia or maybe Netherlands? We don't have any foreign affiliates with loan options and I've never noticed any interest generating naturally from such countries... So what would you do? Dilemma 2 - Playmaker Aarón Molínas joined us from Boca Juniors in our final season in LaLiga2, initially on loan and then triggering his £5.25m future fee once we were promoted. He's been an absolute stalwart of our success - first as the linking 10 in the 5-2-2-1 and then as a mezzala or centre mid playmaker in the 4-3-3. 31 league assists in 4 LaLiga seasons is decent, but then last campaign he managed only one - primarily as other players started taking set pieces. I almost let him go last summer thanks to his discomfort during big matches but the few offers we received for him were derisory. Mario Martínez came through the fourth intake and had one stellar season in the under-19s (scoring 14 and assisting 7 in 15 starts), before a successful loan spell with Segunda club Zamora. The following season he performed brilliantly for the under-19s, earning a promotion and was instrumental in the B-teams promotion from the Primera. Fast-tracked to the first-team, he played 2089 minutes this season and turned in some impressive numbers (0.43 assists per 90 [0.21xA], 1.59 OPKP/90, 5.04 progressive passes per 90). My favourite start of his is that whilst he was on the pitch the team conceded only 0.6 goals per 90 - perhaps an indication that he brings an element of control to the midfield. To a much lesser extent than Gil, Martínez's attributes are not of LaLiga level - certainly physically and he still lacks a little technically. So again, I would have to accept some drop off in quality compared to Molínas. So what would you do? Dilemma 3 - Inside Forward Diego López is my most expensive signing by quite some distance - costing me £16.5m to bring him back to Spain from Brentford. Unlike Ayesa or Molínas, López is a Mareo graduate but left for first Real and then Barca before finding game time at Valencia and a move to the Premier League. He was absolutely superb in his first season, playing as a 9, before having a really poor season in 27/28. For the next two seasons he's been moved to inside forward at AMR in the 4-3-3 and has scored 20 in 68 starts. He's a big game player with a good personality and, according to my coaches at least, consistent. My biggest problem with López has always been that he's a low volume shooter - in 3520 minutes this season, he took only 1.3 shots per 90 - 0.43 of which were outside the box, at 0.15xG per shot. Ander Aguirre has been well-documented on these pages recently - a clear talent for whom I'm struggling to find a slot in the team. He's not suited the DLF role that I'm using at 9 and has struggled to perform as a left-winger. Inside forward from the right makes a lot of sense - his physicals suit it perfectly, he can dribble and has great movement. He's also much better in the air than López which will help get the best out of left-winger Javi. This one I think is a done deal - Aguirre should be the starting inside forward next season. The question is whether or not to sell López. Listed as a regular starter, he may get irritated by a lack of game time. However, he's capable of covering the three forward positions and, at 28, is the only experienced player likely to get game time in the forward line. Feyenoord are interested and he should be bring in £30m, plus release his £42.5kpw wage. We also have no shortage of options coming through that could pick up game time if López left. Álex has done really well this season when given his chance, scoring 7; whilst Seydou Diawara is attracting interest from Inter and Benfica. Then there's golden boy Sergio Lozano - but he might be better served with a loan deal this season, guaranteeing him regular game time to get those attributes moving in the right direction. And we've got Vicente Cuadrado, Carlos Cerro, Oscar Villenueva and - according to the game the top prospect at Sporting currently - Fernando in the second string waiting to come in. How important is it to keep an experienced option around? At the risk that he throws his toys out of the pram? What would you do? ------------------------------------------- I have these sorts of dilemmas all over the park. Should I move Jonathan Mouriño to right-back where he has deputised for the injury-prone Guille Rosas so well this season, or pull him back into the centre and buy in cover for Rosas at right-back? Is it better to loan out Iván Elvira, or sell Domingo Escribano and let Elvira take his game time? Fun times and I'd love any opinions on any of these dilemmas. I think I've made up my mind on the three main ones above but opinions always welcome.
  9. Do you think OPpDA is working correctly?
  10. It's a fair point and I do think we're overachieving, given the constraints that I've put on team selection. We have £100m transfer budgets now and a spare £400kpw wage budget - so in an 'ordinary' save I could just go splash that to challenge the big three but it's just not my style. I think my issue with the HoYD has been the lack of pull-through on the personality - but then Márquez had "only" a professional personality with Reserved media handling. So I'm wondering whether the Perfectionist is going to give a more-rounded pull-through - with high Determination, Professionalism and Ambition. Plus he's Level Headed which implies decent Loyalty. One bad intake out of six isn't a bad record for the old HoYD but it's the personality thing that's been bothering me for three or four of those. I'm assuming your striker is not developing now? I'm finding the loan market a bit hit-and-miss, and pretty high risk. I've had quite a few players go out and just stagnate. I can't make up my mind whether or not it's any better than time in the B-team
  11. Cheers I use this pack from Susi with the newgan manager thing https://sortitoutsi.net/graphics/style/33/ultra-realistic-newgan-faces-megapack
  12. Best of the Rest? A Sporting Heritage - The Guajes of Gijón A successful season as we managed to negotiate continental football and retain our fourth spot to get back-to-back campaigns. The biggest disappointment of the campaign was the Copa del Rey semi-final defeat to Betis. Having beat them 2-1 in the first leg, I was left with that awkward position where I'm never sure whether to play aggressive and try to put the game out of sight early-doors - or go conservative and try to hold onto the one goal lead. And then, in typical FM style, I could tell from kick-off that we were destined to lose and a 2-0 reverse put us out. In the Champions League, we started with a hilarious game in Czechia when three of the goals were complete farces ... ...and yet took the win to combine with later victories over Olympiakos, Gladbach and Arsenal. A draw with Liverpool came between losses to Nice and Porto, before we finished off the campaign with a home defeat to Bayern. That was, surprisingly, enough for us to finish 11th but we came up against Enzo Maresca's Spurs in the playoffs where a 3-2 aggregate defeat flattered us. In the league, 6 fewer goals scored and 4 fewer conceded brought us four more points than last season - three defeats becoming three draws. Meanwhile, the B-team's first campaign in LaLiga2 was super successful - finishing 7th and one place outside of the playoffs they couldn't qualify for anyway. And the under-19s retained both their Under-19 Cup, defeating local rivals Oviedo 4-0 in the final, and the U-19 division - scoring 114 goals in the league phase and then knocking 7, 6 and 6 past their knock-out phase opponents. Dominance. Pleasingly, we did all this whilst boosting both the squad proportion and game time given to Mareo graduates. Gragera and Diego López, real life guajes, and newgens Francesc Polo, Ander Aguirre and Javi all saw >3000 minutes - whilst Mario Martínez, Jonathan Mouriño and Carlos Rojas all got between 2000 and 3000 minutes. The foreign contingent is made up of Czech centre back Ladislav Krejčí, Argentine playmaker Aarón Molinas and two Mexican defenders - Alejandro Gómez and Rafael González. The latter has been particularly good and will be joined in the summer by wonderkid Saúl González. González's arrival will mean that we have three of the world's top five wonderkids according to the NxGn award and has prompted me to consider the next stage of the squad's evolution - selling Krejčí and Molinas to make the squad entirely Spanish and Mexican, with the domestic contingent consisting of 9 Mareo graduates to every one bought in. This wasn't part of the original plan but the game has slowly been creeping in as I've subconsciously overprioritised the guajes and Mexicans. Ideally, I'd like it so the Mexican players only fill gaps in the guaje production - something which is definitely the case with Alejandro Gómez at left back and Rafael González at centre back. But Saúl is the sort of signing I never make - just a really good player in a position that I don't really need. That, together with some general dissatisfaction with the 4-4-2, prompted me into some tactical experimentation over the latter half of the season. The main impetus for the experimentation was my desire to get the most out of Ander Aguirre. The winger/striker was the undoubted star of the third intake and has developed into a hugely promising player in the four years since. He scored on his debut and in his first senior season he scored 10 in 16(9). Then in 2027/8, he scored only 5 all campaign - completely unsuited to the DLF role up top and struggling as a left winger. But I really want to fit Aguirre, Javi and Polo into the same side. Javi's technicals mean that he can only really be a winger, whilst Polo has been moulded into the link player that Aguirre isn't. The obvious option is to put Aguirre on the right as the inside forward but that slot is intended for golden boy Sergio Lozano in the long-term and is currently occupied by Diego López. So the 4-2-3-1 seemed like an obvious choice - allowing Polo to link from AM and Aguirre to play a striker role to which he is more suited. It hasn't really worked out though - results have been fine but the 9 doesn't get enough shots to make his lack of general involvement worthwhile. It also comes without the defensive shape that I prefer (4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3). So the 4-3-3 seems like it'll be back as the primary option and I have a choice to make on Aguirre versus López for right wing. Indeed, there are quite a number of choices to make as the newgens from intakes four, five and six start to challenge for places. Selling Krejci and Molinas will free up a couple of spaces, whilst Welton (22, newgen), Dani Quiepo (28) and Manu Garcia (32) are also surplus to requirements; and Romanian Florin Chiripus is the first decent newgen I've allowed to leave - sold to Cluj for £2.2m. --------------- Apologies, partial post but interrupted by family stuff and don't want to lose what I've typed so far.
  13. Ah bloody hell. I assume "BR" was "briggs". I had no idea. What a shame.
  14. I do remember the name. Didn't you used to post stories on TD? I do have 'fog of war' or attribute masking on. I find it a little odd the way the game treats it but I much prefer to playing without it. I think if you go to watch a game yourself then you should reveal attributes in the same way as sending scouts - or even when you play against other teams, but for some reason it doesn't work like that which I find very annoying. I think on Gonzalez, I've just accepted that I'm going to have ~75% of my players from our academy with the other ~25% either other Spanish players or Mexicans. And he is properly good so I couldn't pass him up two years on the bounce. Lozano is still listed as 'Fairly Professional' which is another reason for my disappointment in his development so far. He's had nearly 1000 first-team minutes this season but seems to be in a similar position to your players - he isn't playing that well so his morale is relatively low and therefore he doesn't develop? How long are you planning on sticking at Leverkusen? If the non-active promotions are based on reputation then you could get into 3.Liga within 3 seasons? Not sure how much the B-team would cost you but worth a shot? But I'd definitely agree that Bundesliga2 games with Duisburg will be much better - the only downside there is that you can't control the system they'd be playing in, or influence the game time the same way you can with a B-team. I'm absolutely with you on this intake. Underwhelming is definitely the word I'd choose. I do like Corominas a lot and I think Carlos is pretty decent but it's way behind all of our other intakes in terms of excitement factor. I ended up sacking our HoYD and bringing in Thomas Caers. Little bit of an experiment this one but I wanted the personality more than the attributes or the nationality. I have no idea if his lack of scouting knowledge in Spain will affect the intake at all. I don't think it does and I don't recall seeing anything in Evidence Based FM's videos about it, but it's always possible. Hopefully Caers can help us back into a better intake next year AND see some pull-through with the personality. Agree, I really like him. I'm just not sure what role is best suited for him - which is weird for me because I never sign a player unless I'm absolutely sure where he'll fit into the planned system.
  15. indeed, some of them are just personal favourites too. Polo is now our top scorer even though he can be a bit streaky and Escribano is a really solid option in the middle. So far, I'm finding it no different. The board have no great expectations and so I'm willing to take the risk that we miss out on Champions League football by just playing them. We don't really need the money and I'm liking the slow burn rather than just bounding straight to the top. The only one who is causing me any concern is Lozano - the wonderkid from the last intake. He's actually regressed since spawning and I'm wondering whether I should have left him in the unders for a bit longer. I know there's 'official' feedback about players developing better if they play unders until 18 and whilst that obviously isn't always the case it certainly seems to have been with Lozano. One year in the under-19s might have been best. Or the b-team. Now that they've made it to LaLiga2, I've noticed a big difference in the development players are getting from their game time - so it's definitely a really important bridge for my side. At 3rd and 4th tier level... it was useful but no doubt that the step up to tier 2 is hugely beneficial. Leverkusen have a B-team?
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