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Rikulec

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Rikulec last won the day on August 22 2023

Rikulec had the most liked content!

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2,194 "Show me the money!"

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    Lech Poznań

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    Nõmme Kalju FC U21

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  1. I think that even with our slightly weaker form of late we should be able to win the league. There's simply too much quality in this team, we're probably only going to face proper competition once we get promoted.
  2. Thank you! The Esiliiga B is actually the third tier of Estonian football, and the first team is battling it out for the title in the top division. We can get promoted to the Esiliiga, which is the second tier, and that's the highest we can get. Oh yeah, and Thursday is surely going to be a stressful day for us!
  3. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - July 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B It seems like the juggernaut form is gone, we're a bit erratic at times, as proven by a surprise defeat to Saku Sporting and letting a three-goal lead slip against Tammeka U21. Nevertheless, Maardu seemed to have imploded and we've extended our lead at the top to a huge twelve points. Estonian Cup We're writing our very own fairytale! Within a single month we eliminate not one, but two top tier clubs as we advance to the quarter final of the Estonian Cup! They seem to be underestimating us a bit each time, they're not playing their full strength teams and we're just punishing them, it seems. Even better yet, in the quarters we've been drawn at home against Flora Tallinn's C team, another shock participant. Don't be fooled though, they're effectively Flora's reserve team with no age restrictions and they're bound to have some good players. Transfers Unfortunately, we've lost some good quality players in this window. On the flip side, the first team have brought in some decent U21 players and stuck them in the reserves, enabling me to promote them to our squad (yeah, the whole system may be a little bit confusing ). As a result, we've been able to register Joonas Vahermägi, Kirill Aleksandr Antonov, Andero Kivi (who was promptly sold, I had no control over it), and Robin Kane.
  4. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - June 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B We responded well to the first defeat of the season, which allowed us to extend our lead to eight points as we approach the halfway point of the season.
  5. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - May 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B Yes! The first perfect month of this save as we're absolutely flying at the moment, six points clear of Maardu and a massive fifteen points clear of Saku Sporting.
  6. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - April 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B We remain unbeaten, although the draw to Läänemaa was a bit of a disappointment. The first team is also starting to take notice of our performances, as a result we had a bunch of players unavailable for the Maardu game. Estonian Cup Another victory over a 5th tier side.
  7. Thank you! This season the first team isn't using our players anywhere near as much as before, which means I get to play with a much stronger squad, and I think it shows. Thanks, and welcome aboard!
  8. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - March 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B What a start! The goals are flying in and we find ourselves in the top spot. Our unbeaten run started last season extends to 21 games. Estonian Cup A good performance against a lower league team.
  9. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Pre-Season - 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Friendlies An almost perfect pre-season, including a demolition of a lower league side Tallinna Wolves. Transfers Siim Ilves, Nikita Mõttus, Jakob Kuresoo, Artur Kesküla, Kermo Larin, Tauri Stepanov, Jürgen Saar, and Stanislav Tõevälja have all been moved to our squad. I'm particularly excited about Stepanov, here's hoping he doesn't go straight into the first team!
  10. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Season Preview - 2024 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Board Expectations: Esiliiga B: Mid-table finish Estonian Cup: Be competitive My Expectations: Esiliiga B: We have a stronger team than last season and a well established tactic. We should be aiming for automatic promotion here. Estonian Cup: Not really important, but it could serve as a benchmark if we get drawn against teams from the higher divisions.
  11. A successful season for the first team. While the 4th placed finish in the league is pretty much exactly what is expected of them, they actually went all the way in the cup and brought the trophy home after beating one of the two big Tallinn clubs in the final. This means they'll have a shot at the Europa Conference League qualifiers next season, which is always a good thing. Now let's have a look at some of our players who have, to varying degrees, broken through in the first team squad this season. Kevin Kongi is probably the most successful one here. Even though he looks pretty raw technically, his physicality was enough to earn him a very respectable 17 starts in the league with 17 more appearances off the bench. With only two league games missed all season, you could say he's cemented his place in the squad. Well done, Kevin! Tanel Henn is another full back who has been promoted to the first team squad this season and, arguably, he already looks like he could become a better player than Kongi despite being four years younger. 21 appearances in the top division, including six starts, at the age of 16 seem to further prove that point. Surely one of the players to keep an eye on in the future. Rommi Siht was one of the players I listed as some of the best we had at the beginning of pre-season. So far he hasn't quite developed though, and despite being handed a few chances in the first team (mostly off the bench), he didn't manage to become a regular feature there. On the plus side, however, he has earned his first U21 national cap despite being only 17. Still plenty of time for him to develop, fingers crossed next year could be his breakthrough season. Evgeny Nefedov looks like one of the most exciting academy products at the club at the moment. In his first senior season he earned no less than 26 first team appearances in the league and, even more impressively, came close to achieving a 7,00 average rating. He has also scored his first Meistriliiga goal. I'm quite surprised he's still yet to make his U19 national team debut. Last but not least, Kevin Timofejev is a striker with great potential and some really good attributes in the right places already. No wonder he's already being given minutes in the first team, nine league games and one goal to his name. Another player who could become important for the club in the next few years.
  12. Erkki Karpela's Management Career - Season Review - 2023 - Nõmme Kalju FC U21 Esiliiga B Results (Mar-Jun) - Results (Jul-Sep) - Results (Oct-Nov) Competition Performance: 4th In our first sixteen games we picked up eighteen points. At that pace we would have finished somewhere mid-table after an uninspiring season. After the tactical change we got a massive 49 points from the remaining twenty games. This PPG average over the course of the whole year would have given us the league title. We gave everyone around us a massive head start and in the end fell short by the thinnest of margins. As things stand, we're sixteen games unbeaten and ready to come back with a vengeance. Estonian Cup Competition Performance: Second Round We got eliminated by a stronger team, no complaints here. Squad (1) - Squad (2) We've got a bunch of really talented kids here, some of whom are already too good for the level we're at. We could do with a little bit of depth in pretty much every position apart from goalkeeper, but as the U21 manager I can only work with what I'm given. There are some more decent players who have just come up in the youth intake, hopefully I can use them for some time before they're snapped up by the first team! Player of the Season 1st - Janek Kruusalu - he was only given a chance to become a starter after Evgeny Nefedov was moved to the first team, and boy, did he take his chance. 10 goals and 14 assists is a wonderful return for any player, let alone a 15-year-old in his debut season in senior football! It's going to be interesting to see whether he can maintain this level of performance consistently. 2nd - Maksim Petrov - probably the best goalkeeper and one of the best players in the league overall, and he has some great performances to show for it. I also like the fact that he decided to represent Estonia instead of Russia, and he's already got six U21 caps. 3rd - Richard Sepp - every team needs a big man in the heart of their defensive formation, and we're no different. Enter Richard Sepp, who's already got five goals in the league for us this season and cemented his place in the starting XI after a year of solid, consistent performances. Probably the most reliable player across our back line. Next Season After a season like this it would be silly not to be aiming for promotion. These kids deserve to be playing at a higher level, especially if we can get the right reinforcements from the U19 squad.
  13. I probably shouldn't be complaining, given that we didn't turn up for the first half of the season. The game where we threw away a two-goal lead in the dying minutes to lose to none other than Viljandi ****ing Tulevik turned out to be the decider. Even drawing that one would have been enough to send us to the play-off.
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