[FM14] We Don't Need Gotze - A Dortmund Career Mode

"We don't need Gotze, Lewandowski who? Borussia Dortmund, we love you." will be the new chant spreading like wildfire if all goes to plan. With the infamous loss of star Mario Gotze and the imminent loss of world-class striker Robert Lewandowski both to heated rivals Bayern Munich, Dortmund's rise to power has taken a quick stop. I will be hoping to take control of the club and kick start it back into gear, continuing the recent rise in reputation they've had over the last few years.

With stars such as Marco Reus, Ilkay Gundogan and Mats Hummels still faithful to the team, Dortmund have the ability to be a dominant force if they can keep bringing in or developing players of that caliber. What will have to be avoided is the temptation to sell them for anything other than astronomical amounts.

Ladies and gentlemen - mostly gentlemen, I'm sure - this is the second career mode that I will actually be doing. My first, "Bringing Out the Big Gunners", was fairly successful considering it was my first real venture into the story updates side of the FM community. Well, successful until I accidentally destroyed the authenticity of the save and nearly the save altogether. Now, due to the only vote that I received by the deadline (not surprised about that, early days), I will be doing a Dortmund career mode. Despite the loss of arguably their two best players (although I think Reus would disagree) to their rivals, I believe that Dortmund are still a class above most Bundesliga teams, with Schalke also looking like they could be on the same level in less than a decade. Whilst Bayern are - in my opinion, with Barca and Real hot on their heels - the best team in the world, Dortmund aren't too far behind and a combination of good signings and even better football could push them to the top with a bit of patience. This update will simply be my opinions on the squad, the formation, tactics and players I will be using this season (before making any signings). Expect the first match update tomorrow, although I might be able to tonight. Doubtful, but we'll see.

Whilst it may happen all the time in your career modes, I decided to sign San Lorenzo prospect Angel Correa for a fee of just £2.9m. Whilst his potential is only 3.5* bordering on 4*, he's a good backup to Mkhitaryan and is likely to blossom into at least a good first team player if not a star.

That's it for the first update, I was meant to do a tactics and squad analysis, but I had some prep work for something tomorrow that had to come first, I'm afraid. Tomorrow will be that tactical analysis, the friendlies summary and the general build-up to the new season. I'll see you all then

"We don't need Gotze, Lewandowski who? Borussia Dortmund, we love you." will be the new chant spreading like wildfire if all goes to plan.

Their supporters singing in English? Doubt that for most of them dont even have a degree in elementary school. let alone foreign language degree Good luck in your career with BVB though!

Their supporters singing in English?

ja es ist die beste Sprache.

brauchen wir nicht Götze, Lewandowski, wer? Borussia Dortmund, wir lieben dich.

Anyway Dortmund are my 2nd favourite team so I will follow this.

Their supporters singing in English? Doubt that for most of them dont even have a degree in elementary school. let alone foreign language degree Good luck in your career with BVB though!

Aha, well I doubt many people on the forum would've understood if it had been in German, and thanks Maw for letting me know the German

ja es ist die beste Sprache.

brauchen wir nicht Götze, Lewandowski, wer? Borussia Dortmund, wir lieben dich.

Anyway Dortmund are my 2nd favourite team so I will follow this.

sorry to be pedantic but its

Wir brauchen keinen Götze, Lewandowski wer? Borussia Dortmund wir lieben dich (add "so sehr" at the end for a rhyme)!

A combination of the pre-season taking longer than I expected and some after school work meant that I couldn't get an update out yesterday, but I can now and let's jump straight into the pre-season.

My second signing was the transfer-listed Luis Pedro Cavanda. For just £1.6m, he should be a good replacement for Piszczek, who - as usual with a Dortmund career mode - has a long-term injury. It's unfortunate, but with some good attacking stats and decent potential, Cavanda should be able to do the job needed.

My third, likely final and definitely biggest signing was the FM legendary wonderkid Timo Werner. Whilst it may not be a unique signing, experience with the teenager tells me that he could be Lewandowski's replacement. If not, he'll at least be our new first team striker once he leaves and should become a solid player to complete the squad, regardless of whether or not he reaches Robert's ability.

We were drawn against Wilhelmshaven in the 1st round of the German cup, and I've never heard of them but they seem like a much weaker side and I'll be expecting a win there. Obviously, I don't know much about German football so if there is a name (like the way the English cup is the FA Cup) for the cup, please let me know. I don't want to make it sound robotic.

Despite some great mental and physical abilities, Schieber's attacking abilities let him down as a striker and I decided to sell him on. Despite it being to a rival, and for less than half his value, I'm just glad to get rid of some deadwood. He left for £825k to Gladbach, and I won't really miss him.

After making those three signings, this is the squad that it seems I will be playing with for the season (although there's still plenty of time in the transfer window for things to change):

GK Weidenfeller, Langerak

LB Schmelzer, Durm

CB Hummels, Subotic, Sokratis, Friedrich

RB Grosskreutz, Cavanda

CM Gundogan, Bender, Sahin, Kehl, Jojic

AML Reus, Hofmann

AMC Mkhitaryan, Correa

AMR Aubameyang, Blaszczykowski

ST Lewandowski, Werner, Ducksch

Friendly Recap w/our goalscorer(s):

Dortmund 1 - 1 Shakhtar - Aubameyang

Dortmund 1 - 0 Zenit - Ducksch

Ajaccio 0 - 2 Dortmund - Lewandowski, Weber

Cardiff 0 - 2 Dortmund - Ducksch, Taylor OG

Fulham 0 - 0 Dortmund

German Super Cup: Dortmund 1 - 0 Bayern - Aubameyang

Nancy Lorraine 1 - 1 Dortmund - Werner

I left the friendlies to my assistant manager, with generally positive results and youngsters getting on the scoresheet fairly often, which is satisfying to say the least.

Tomorrow we have the German Cup game against Wilhelmshaven and the first game of the Bundesliga season up against Hertha. Hopefully we can pick up two wins and gain momentum straight away. After an admittedly lucky win against Bayern in the Super Cup, we could get on a roll if we won our next two games. I'll see you all tomorrow where we'll find out if we can do that

Well, I've continued my updating form from the last story and been inconsistent again I seem to underestimate the amount of time these updates take, it's a habit I really need to break. Anyway, on with the update!

German Cup First Round: Wilhelmshaven 1 - 9 Dortmund

Murakami 58. - Correa 2. 10. 37. Reus 5. 67. Hummels 11. 16. Grosskreutz 30. 45.

I wasn't expecting it either! Despite the huge gap between the two teams, I wasn't expecting a 9 goal massacre. Now, I'll have to dumb down the goal description slightly for this one, otherwise it might take up most of the update by itself. Just two minutes in, Grosskreutz passed to Correa and he pulled off a great shot on the turn to give us a great start to the game. Just three minutes later, Reus scored from a Correa corner rebound to double it. Correa sealed the game within just 10 minutes by heading in a simple chipped cross from Gundogan. 3 goals in 10 minutes, the game was already over, but no-one was going to just sit down at this point. Literally one minute later, Reus's low corner was volleyed in by Hummels to make it 4-0. Five minutes later, exactly the same thing happened, except with his head this time. On the half an hour mark, Grosskreutz's cross was palmed in by the keeper - who might as well have been a wet box - and that made it 6 goals in a third of the game. Seven minutes later, Weidenfeller's long goal kick was headed along by Werner, picked up by Correa making a run and buried to complete his hat-trick. A hat-trick with 8 minutes to go in the first half.. I can't think of many better debuts. The 8th and final goal of the first half came just before the whistle blew when Grosskreutz scored in exactly the same way - a cross that was palmed in by the keeper. This might have been the best reaction I've seen by a player after scoring, though: I **** you not, Grosskreutz watched it go in, stood there for a few seconds staring at what he just witnessed and began to walk back to his kickoff position with his head down. Brilliant. The second half wasn't as action-packed, and in fact Murakami ruined our clean sheet by netting a low and accurate cross. It's weird, Weidenfeller got a stupidly high rating despite conceding to the only shot on target from the team throughout the whole match. Logical! Reus finished the absolute decimation of Wilhelmshaven with a free-kick driven to the far corner from just outside the box. An incredible performance from everyone except Weidenfeller, although in fairness he wasn't challenged very often and therefore couldn't prove himself. Unfortunately, there was one major casualty from the game: The debuting Correa, who had a half-time hat-trick, picked up a huge injury - a broken leg. He'll be out for half the season, and that might damage his potential slightly. It isn't a torn ACL, which can essentially completely kill a player's ability, but it's a big injury and I'll have to hope that he's young enough to shake it off by this time next year.

I've chosen Weidenfeller as captain and Hummels as vice, because I don't see myself playing Kehl.. well, pretty much ever! With Sahin, Gundogan, Bender and Jojic in the team, Kehl probably won't get much game time for me and I don't see the reason as to why he should be the captain. Sorry to any major Dortmund supporters out there who think see him as a club legend, but it's much more practical to have a captain that will play.

The German Cup second round draw has been quite kind again, matching us up against the Bundesliga 2. team Paderborn. A step up from Wilhelmshaven, but it should still be quite easy.

Dortmund 2 - 1 Hertha

Subotic 11. Brooks OG 14. - Wagner 87.

We had 29 shots compared to their 6, which shows the dominance we had and how many goals we could've scored compared to how many we did, but we still picked up a win. 11 minutes in, Reus's corner found Subotic at the far-post and he rose up high and smashed the header into the back of the net. Three minutes later, Gundogan's cross was toe-poked past Kraft by Brooks, who (I assume) was trying to pass it out before Lewandowski got onto it. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. We looked on course to keep a clean sheet on the opening day of the Bundesliga until Niemeyer played Wagner through on goal and he spotted Weidenfeller coming out, taking the opportunity to stop the ball and chip it perfectly over him. It was a brilliant goal and I can't take anything away from it, despite the fact that they didn't deserve it. A solid win, but 19 shots off target needs to be lowered urgently.

A good start to the season, although Correa's injury after his debut hat-trick was a bitter sweet match for him. Hopefully, the injury doesn't effect him that much. I'll see you all tomorrow for an away game against Gladbach and the mighty ter Stegen followed by a home game against Nurnburg. Cya then