[FM11] Power In Motion - Dinamo Moscow (11.3)

динамо москва

Welcome, comrades, to my Dinamo Moscow save. My aim is to guide Dinamo to the Russian championship and to the knockout rounds of a European competition, employing only Russian players* and Soviet or Eastern Bloc staff. Bearing in mind Dinamo haven't won the title since Soviet days in 1976, I think this is a nice challenge, especially with limiting my available resources. I welcome questions on my save, which I'll answer as best I can. If you'd like to find out more about Dinamo you can look here. I hope you enjoy following the thread, and good luck you all in your own saves.

* Regens from my own academy with Soviet or Eastern Bloc nationality (I believe this can happen due to staff nationalities) will be considered as Russian for my purposes.

Database - 11.3 with subtle changes to some clubs colours (some hurt my eyes or have low contrast) and starting in January 2011. Top divisions from England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are loaded with the top two tiers in Russia. I've also loaded all players from top division clubs in Europe, players with a national reputation in south America, and all international players from Africa - I think it totalled about 55k players.

Finally a word on my sponsor - this thread is sponsored by Vladimirs Tractor, Submarine and Plutonium Supermarket.

Code to follow.

2011 Preview

Last season Dinamo finished 7th and outside of European qualification; this season the chairman has demanded qualification, and the media think I might just manage it with a prediction of 6th - that would let me sneak in as long as one of the top clubs wins the cup. There won't be any additions to the playing staff but I've still to analyse the coaching staff; there isn't much room for manoeuvre anyway, with £0 for transfers and the salary budget of £252k just about maxed - Dinamo are plainly not the nouvo riche of Zenit! But it's more satisfying to work hard for success.

With that in mind, I'm planning on being more 'dynamic' with my tactics in this save - by that I mean making changes to suit the resources, whereas in the past I've just bought players to fit my existing generic approach. Any good regens I encounter will come through the system to a slot that fits his abilities, so tactics will need updated as the seasons go by. For the 2011 season I intend using the formation below.

The players I have were fairly straightforward to select, the only selection giving me a problem was for between the sticks - both keepers had pluses and minuses, and I just opted to start with the most experienced one and take it from there. Here are two notable players at the club. Kuranyi takes up about 1/3rd of my wage budget with his £82k salary and I hope he justifies it with plenty goals (he's the second highest earner in the league, behind only Roberto Carlos at Anzhi). Smirnov is a major prospect and can hopefully develop into a playmaker.

I think that's all for now. I may return for a mid-season update or before that with any significant news. Good luck everyone.

Wonderful start, your style is easy to follow and has some nice touches. I have a youth in my Bayer Leverkusen save labelled as the next Kevin Kuranyi, I just hope he isn't as demanding on the wage bill in the future! Anyway, good luck and I'll be following closely.

An unofficial pre-season update, just to get the ball rolling - not a regular thing.

After consultation with my coaching staff I scrapped the twin formation idea; we'll just be going with the 433 (edited the previous post accordingly). After a closer look at the players, there's a reasonable amount of technical ability, but the mental attributes are lacking, especially determination. So any regens I buy are going to require good attitudes to begin with, there's not much scope for tutoring. Wilkshire was the only notable player I wanted to sell, but he was keen to stay and nobody convinced him otherwise; silly boy, he won't be playing!

We played seven friendlies and it went generally OK - not outstanding, not terrible. The only aim for me from pre-season anyway is match fitness and good morale, and we achieved that. There was matches against western European sides available, where I would've made a small profit; but I played against teams from other nations who have significant winter shutdowns for a bit of added realism (I thought), despite them costing me money. Two comments on player performances though - Kuranyi didn't score a goal in seven matches, so he better buck his ideas up; and Voronin had a good run of form to make up for Kuranyi.

That's all for now. The boys are fit and ready for the matches ahead. Voronin is in form. Kuranyi is in for a wake-up call. And Wilkshire is persona non grata. Good luck to everyone.

Wonderful start, your style is easy to follow and has some nice touches. I have a youth in my Bayer Leverkusen save labelled as the next Kevin Kuranyi, I just hope he isn't as demanding on the wage bill in the future! Anyway, good luck and I'll be following closely.

Thank you JT. It's a thin line between detail in here or playing time on the game, but I like to play more than I write - hopefully enough content to keep a handful of folk interested though. There's half a dozen threads here I want to catch up on, your Leverkusen save being one. I've played them a couple of times on '11. They're a great team to start with - nice players, you're in Europe, and Germany has a good set-up. I even got a new stadium with them! Happy days.

Summer 2011

At the halfway point we're in the chasing bunch, as we should be really. At this point I'd be surprised if we dropped off enough to let Amkar catch up. It's just a matter of putting enough form together to sneak into the European places, rather than missing out by a point or two. Terek are punching above their weight, with a media prediction of 10th.

Form has been very inconsistent, dropping points in 'easy' games, but we've had our good moments too, even if it was a bit smash and grab -

Kuranyi has been disappointing, and I'm actually struggling to find a consistent partnership amongst the four forwards. Wilkshire and Aguiar got moved on for just under £2m. I've not brought anyone in at all, and I don't plan to - sticking to my hopes in regens. I'll plug on with what I've got and hope we can hit a bit of form.

Good luck everyone.

2011 Summary

If ever you wanted an example of a mediocre season then this is it. After mid-season we put a few wins together, including a penalty win in the cup. But that was followed by an equally poor run - including an exit in the cup! On the last day, we did have a chance of finishing 5th ahead of Rubin, but it didn't work out. To be honest, if I was offered 6th at the start of the campaign I would've taken it - in fact, I think the next few seasons are just about avoiding the chop. Terek had a good season, but Lokomotiv disappointed.

Curiously, with finishing 6th, I think we need to wait until the following spring to find out who wins the cup to discover if we're in Europe or not. For the moment we're not and the board weren't happy, despite the chance we could later be included LOL. My position was very insecure; I brass-necked it and suggested to the chairman I'd encountered a tough run of fixtures even though we hadn't really, and Mr Gullible accepted that explanation, and I held on to my job.

Even the players performances were middling. Nobody really excelled and, with the exception of Kuranyi (or as I like to call him, lanky waster), nobody really disappointed. With that in mind, Voronin won the player of the year award from the fans.

Despite being approximately the sixth biggest club in the league we experienced poor attendances. The second poorest of the top tier in fact. I was surprised at that, and I'm just glad I'll be relying on youth players - it could be very tricky trying to BUY a team with that kind of income. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the new 45k stadium is completed in a few years.

That's all for now folks. Good luck everyone.

VLADIMIRS - Situation vacant: Sales executive/bodyguard. Must have good inter-personal skills and current firearms certificate.

Post 2 updated (slightly!).

Smirnov looks like a gem! Good luck . Will be following this.

2012 Pre-season

The chairman and media have the same outlook as last year - 4/5th and 6th respectively; I feel the media have a better grip of reality. And the bookies make us 20-1 for the title. As some coaching staff left at the end of their contracts three replacements were brought in - a Ukrainian and a couple of Belorussians (sticking to Soviet staff fairly narrows your options regarding quality!). Club captain Semshov was sold for £550k - he did well but his physical stats were plummeting due to age. With £6.6m available for transfers and around £50k for wages I could strengthen the pool, but I need to blank that out my mind and focus on regens. There was a couple of decent youngsters with the intake and a couple were bought from other clubs. Yegerov is probably the most promising -

During pre-season Kuranyi picked up a 4/5 month injury (who signed this waste of skin?) and Cesnaukas a 6/7 month one. With the Cesnaukis blow leaving me with just one wide player I decided to re-hash the formation into a narrower one.

Good luck everyone.

Smirnov looks like a gem!

Yeah. After saying I thought he could develop into a playmaker I reconsidered though; I think a box to box type is more likely. His natural fitness will hold him back, but I'm trying to get his stamina sky-high to compensate a bit. As long as I carefully manage his playing time he should have a future at Dinamo (assuming the chairman lets me stay around until then!)

2012 Summer

Again, it looks like we're playing for 6th place. After five matches the chairman was unamused and my status was (again) very insecure - I'm getting the impression this club isn't big enough for both of us, I just feel it. I did have quite a lot of injuries to deal with though, particularly in attack. Even two 15yo got games because there was nobody else; one of them even scored a winning goal, and was then injured for 6/7 months. Jeez.

We got entered for the 3rd qualifying round of the Euro cup thanks to our 6th place in the league and CSKA fighting out the cup final with Zenit. That raises the point though - the chairman could've sacked me earlier because I didn't AUTOMATICALLY qualify for Europe like he wanted, but I still DID - just a few months later. Strange. Another thing - I've never been asked to set a squad bonus for Europe.

In the summer that pile of garbage otherwise known as Kuranyi returned from injury; only to turn down a contract extension and force me to sell him. He went to PSG, but only when I agreed to pay him £30k pw for a year

Form improved just enough to satisfy the board. Performances weren't great, but when it's touch and go and the job centre beckons pragmatism wins every time. We despatched Hajduk in the Euro 3-2, to be drawn with Maribor in the 4th qualifying round later on.

That's all for now. I've finally caught up with where I am in the save too. Good luck everyone. See you in the winter.

2012 Summary

I had a feeling this wasn't going to end well at some point With three games to go my status was insecure again, after a poor run of results. We were in 7th going into the last match, Lokomotiv in 6th (my target) with the same points. Dinamo had to win and Lokomotiv drop points for us to go ahead of them, but it never happened - and I got my marching orders. The funny thing was, I got a new contract just a couple of weeks previous LOL. Voronin who was probably my most consistent player got suspended for the last 3 matches which didn't help the cause.

A few points to end with. We beat CSKA 1-0 to end their 15 match winning streak What's more the match came just 43 hours after our Euro cup match! My Argentine defender got capped by Russia after being in the country for 7 years.

In the 4th qualifying round of the Euro, Voronin netted a 84th minute goal to send us through and avoid exiting on the away goals rule. We were seeded 3rd in the draw and got Chelsea, Metalist, and Kayala from Greece. With the league campaign in mind I fielded weakened teams in the Euro, and suffered accordingly. This being the high point (another bit of smash and grab!) -

And there I leave you comrades. I hope it's interested a few of you, and I'm sorry it had to end here. I'll be back soon with another try.

VLADIMIRS - We regret the passing of TheMisters reign at Dinamo. He takes with him our best wishes and, as a token of thanks, keeps the sponsored club vehicle; an armoured personnel carrier is reliable and can accommodate all the family.

Sorry to hear that! Will be patiently... or impatiently awaiting your next try!