Bundesliga or Death!

[higgins]

This year I closely watched the Bundesliga, having great fun thanks to lots of exciting young talents, enthusiastic crowds and state of the art stadiums; those were the reasons behind the save I'm going to start, managing FC Augsburg, a small Bavarian team media predicted to be 18th, a very average team on a low budget and a serious relegation candidate.
In real life, after last year promotion, they finished 14th, bravely avoiding the drop.


Leagues loaded: Germany, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Switzerland, Brazil and Serbia.
Patch: 12.2.2

If you're interested and you want to know more about Bundesliga, you should read Bundesliga Fanatic, a great blog about German football.

[higgins]

A quick look at the team:

Keepers: Simon Jentzsech (35), Mohamed Amsif (22)

Full-backs: Dominik Reinhardt (26), Matthias Ostrzolek (21), Paul Vehraegh (28), Marcel de Jong (24), Axel Bellinghausen (28)

Dc's: Jonas De Roeck (31), Sebastian Langkamp (23), Gibril Sankoh (28), Gibril Sankoh (28)

Central Midfielders: Jan Moravek (21), Ku Ja Cheol (22), Lorenzo Davids (24), Dawda Bah (27), Daniel Baier (27), Daniel Brinkmann (25), Andrew Sinkala (32), Akaki Gogia (19)

Wingers: Tobias Werner (26), Stephan Hain (22), Marcel Ndjeng (29)

Forwards: Sascha Molders (26), Nando Rafael (27), Edmond Kapllani (29)

italic = on loan

As I said we have no money to invest, but some adjustments have to be done, I want to play a counter-attacking 4-2-3-1, mainly due to the lack of decent strikers, so I have to bring in at least a left winger, a young striker and a ball winner in the middle; without money I had to sell Verhaegh (1.5M to Wolfsburg), Kapllani and Sinkala, while de Jong was sent on loan to Hoffenheim.


In

• Teles (Dl), 150k from Vit. Guimaraes
• Tommy Oar (winger), on loan from Utrecht
• Mads Albaek (Mc), 875k from FC Midtjylland
• Branimir Hrgota (striker), 550k from Jonkopings
• Jakub Rzezniczak (Dr), on loan from Legia

I could buy another player if the right occasion comes (Mc? Dc??), however my main aim for the season will be to stay clear of relegation.

[aaberdeenn]

Good luck and nice presentation!

Germany is great fun to manage in, I had a 25 year career there on FM11 across 4 clubs.

That save included taking a team from the bottom tier into Europe (Hansa Rostock), a couple of Bundesliga titles including an unbeaten season with a big gun (Bayern Munich), a few years restoring a fallen giant (Werder Bremen) and finally a spell taking a second tier side into Bundesliga mid-table safety (Aachen).

[higgins]

Good luck and nice presentation!

Germany is great fun to manage in, I had a 25 year career there on FM11 across 4 clubs.

That save included taking a team from the bottom tier into Europe (Hansa Rostock), a couple of Bundesliga titles including an unbeaten season with a big gun (Bayern Munich), a few years restoring a fallen giant (Werder Bremen) and finally a spell taking a second tier side into Bundesliga mid-table safety (Aachen).

You had an outstanding career, I considered managing Hansa Rostock as well, then chose Augsburg, a decent challenge.

[aaberdeenn]

http://i.imgur.com/Cmulu.jpg - Unbeaten season and my finest ever on FM.

I documented some of the save here although I eventually got to 2035 I believe in the 6 or so months of real time I played the save for: http://sortitoutsi.net/forum/topic/5...round-germany/

Good luck for your save! I'll be following closely as I'm a big fan of German football.

[higgins]

I knew the team was poor, maybe not so poor, as a matter of fact after a nice start (3 wins in a row), I suddenly realized our weak points: we're slow and have huge issues to score, Sascha Molders is the only decent striker I've got, Rafael is out and Hrgota is too young.
Some days before the market deadline I sold De Roeck (Dc) to Cercle Brugge for 700k, a good deal as he asked to leave and I brought in Mauricio, a promising centre-back on loan from Palmeiras.
Actually I am thinking about some sort of tactical twist, but it's too early for such a move, I'll try to finely tune my 4-2-3-1 for now, then we'll see.
We're sitting, not so comfortably, 11th in the table, not bad but the table is really tight at the moment, we have to improve to avoid relegation; Leverkusen are surprisingly leading still unbeaten.

[higgins]

...and the winter break is coming too in Germany, the first half of the season was gone and we finally found some consistency, our best striker, Molders, is finding the net regularly, Moravek is supporting my offensive line with inviting through balls and we climb up to 9th place.
A big win (3-0) vs. Bayern was the highlight of our season so far, while a 4-4 draw with Dortmund confirmed our good attacking form. Meanwhile I changed my tactic a bit, still the same shape (4-2-3-1) but now I use a trequartista in the hole and two inside forwards beside him, my defensive line is more aggressive as well, with two attacking full-backs bombing down the flanks.

Another player I'd like to cite is our keeper, Simon Jentzsch, in spite of his age (35) he's performing amazingly and orchestrating our defence safely, a nice surprise for me.

[higgins]

Wow, this is surprising...

[DazRTaylor]

Enjoying this read.

Out of interest, what skin are you using?

[higgins]

Enjoying this read.

Out of interest, what skin are you using?

Thanks, the skin's name is The Silence.

[DazRTaylor]

Thanks mate.

Found it and downloading it to give it a try. Will take a lot to beat FM Crew, but it looks gorgeous.

[higgins]

Thanks mate.

Found it and downloading it to give it a try. Will take a lot to beat FM Crew, but it looks gorgeous.

It's not bad bro, it's not bad...