[FM14] The Fabulous Baker Boys

After the demise of my Icelandic save due to an over load of players populating the game I'm finally getting into a save on FM14 after toying around with the editor for a long time with no result. Not sure if this is going to being a one club save or a journeyman, all I know is I want to try to focus on youth and at the bottom of a loaded league. I'm going to try to update this quarterly game time (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec).

Nations loaded: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Rep, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

Anyway, without more ado I bring you...

Chapter 1: Taking the Red Bull by the horns

Australian Sunday league footballer, John Baker, has controversially been named manager at RasenBallsport Leipzig. The man whose career ‘highlights’ include being relegated midseason was seen as strange choice to take over at Red Bull Arena (Leipzig). Though he sites a career save on football manager 13 where he managed Icelandic side HK to regular Champions League group stage competitors and a boring office job as reasons for going into management. Only time will tell how well this experiment succeeds.

I am expected to play possession style football while achieving a top half of the table finish, the media think I’ll finish 7th and the bookies haven’t completely written me off as a title contender but I need a little luck and things to go my way for it to happen.

It appears that during my talk with my assistant manager I got a little muddled, meant to say no need to rock the boat and finished of with upsetting the apple cart.

This is my squad, pretty weak in the centre of the park and that needs to be fixed soon. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it.

My best player and Captain Daniel Frahn.

My best Youth Player, Matthias Engel, already attracting attention from half the Bundesliga.

Quarter of the season over and we're doing pretty good, we sit in second place after a six game winning streak. It should be noted that the 4-1 win over Saarbrucken is their only loss and they sit in first place by a point.

Seven goals from our Captain has put us in a good position during this early part of the season.

Picked up French midfielder, Adrien Trebel, from FC Nantes on a season long loan. With luck I'm hoping to get some transfer money and make the deal permanent as me assistant says he can be a good Bundesliga player. Also picked up two central defenders, Alassane Toure from RC Lens, and Patrick Fabian from Bochum who'll only be season long loans as they don't look to have future potential.

German Cup has been and gone for us. Entered because they won a regional division last season, we snick past VBF Wolfsburg before falling to a supposedly out of form Leverkusen. The end of match summary was strange in that they expected us to win, even though the bookies had us at long odds to even draw.

We won't be back here unless we win promotion this season.

All is quiet on New Year's Day

2013 finishes with us on top of the table by five points from Saarbrucken. My performance was rewarded with a new contract that promptly brought us our run to a grinding holt. A 5 game winning streak was ended with two draws, 1-1 to 15th placed Stuttgarter Kickers and 0-0 against 8th placed Eufurt, sandwiched a 3-1 loss to 10th placed Darmstadt.

Quite excited that Youth Striker Matthias Engel will Turn 17 during the break and should then be eligible to play in the league.

Edit: Nope, Still can't play despite now being 17 and registered. Very irritating expecially since Frahn broke his collarbone first game back after the break.

Frahn looks incredible at this level! How long is he out for?

Looks like he'll be out until early March, he'll miss 6-8 games. He'd scored 12 goals in 18 games up until that point, so now I need to hope everyone else can chip in with goals while he's out.

After the break we continued with our inconsistent form. Two more draws meant our last seven competitive games picked up just 8 points and our lead was being whittled away. Though it appeared at some point I'd changed team tactics from control to counter attack and as such once we reverted back to control the wins started to flow again.

We still cant string more that two or three wins about together without a draw, and typically agains a team we should be beating but at least we're not losing.

We still sit top of the table by 9 points and 6 games to go thanks to Saarbrucken dropping a few points themselves.

During March we had Youth intake day. A couple of good future talents but wont see first team football for some time.

Savvas Manolopoulos

Chris Hentschke

They should definitely be good players before too long.

Yeah, I'm really excited about them coming though so early and If I can keep the Bundesliga clubs hands off them they should be a part of my team for years to come. IT seems they have to be 17 before the season starts though so Hentschke will get in the team before Manolopoulos.

I'm already knocking back bids of 2M GBP plus for Engel so I'm hoping first team football this season will help him want to stay, now that he's shown any signs of wanting to leave just yet.

Finishing off the season with four draws and two win was a rather tame way to end it and fortunately it wasn't a close run thing. Nine draws in total after the break, half the games we played, probably speak of some tactical failings and maybe some player shortages. Some nil-all, some we came from behind, and some we lost the lead so at least they were different.

We need to be more lethal in front of goal but losing our best striker shortly after the break for 8 games due to a broken collar bone really seemed to hamper the forward line. 60 goals and a quarter of them came from our captain. Only one other player, Danish striker Yussuf Poulsen, hit double digits in the goal tally.

Defensively we were pretty good, only conceding 30 though, I'd have been a lot happier if they didn't concede a lot of them, but I'm probably being too harsh.

The board are happy with me

3.Liga team of the year. We had three players in the team of the year, all defenders. Probably goes to show i am being a little harsh on them.

RB Lepizig team of the year.

Elsewhere.

Top Division Winner\Cup Winner

Australia: Central Coast Mariners (Premiers) \Brisbane Roar (Finals)

Austria: RB Salzburg\Wolfsberger AC

Belgium: Genk\Standard

Czech Republic: Slovan Liberec\Sigma Olomouc

Denmark: Randers FC\Hobro

England: Manchester City\Manchester Utd (FA & League cups)

France: AS Monaco\Nice

Germany: Bayern\Bayern

Holand: Ajax\Ajax

Italy: Juventus\Juventus

Poland: Legia\Cracovia

Portugal: Benfica\Porto

Serbia: Radnicki\Napredak

Spain: Real Madrid\Athletic Bilbao

Sweden: Elfsborg\Malmo

Switzerland: Basel\Thun

Champions League: Bayern 5-3 Barcalona

Europa Cup: Fiorentina 3-2 AC Milan

European Super Cup: Bayern 1-0 Chelsea

Well done on going up.

Thanks Delta. I have a feeling I haven't spent well in the off season though. Bought too many youth players forgetting that U17's can't play in the league. Hope my defence can hold out.

Thanks Delta. I have a feeling I haven't spent well in the off season though. Bought too many youth players forgetting that U17's can't play in the league. Hope my defence can hold out.

I've made that mistake myself on FM13.

This season is about consolidation. I don’t want to be storming up the leagues as I don’t believe I have the short term resources to survive if I fly though this division. I took a chance and chose a top half finish in the Bundesliga 2 for the extra transfer funds and wage budget though I genuinely feel we can finish where I said we could.

My off-season spending was a little on the light side in teams of first team improvement as I spent heavily on youth. Two of the players that I signed on loan last season were signed to permanent deals for free as their contracts expired with their former clubs and they weren’t renewed. Canadian central defender, David Edgar, and Dutch Left Back Kaj Ramsteijn were also signed on frees and a Loan deal for Tyler Blackett was also signed to shore up my defence against better opposition.

The final day of the transfer window saw Dortmund and Leverkusen throw bids of up to £1.5M for Manolopoulos and Hentschke, both clubs were told to come back when hell froze over. The Media have labelled Manopoloulos the next Schweinsteiger while Hentschke has been labelled as the next Stefan Reuter

Engel has finally made his first team debut and three games later got off the mark with a brace, he backed that up a couple games later with a second brace. It’s good to see that I’m not completely crap at spotting potential stars.

We currently sit 5th after ten games, Winning 5 drawing 2 and losing 3. The most infuriating result was the 2-2 draw with Furth, cruising comfortably I told my players not to get complacent and maybe my German confused them and they thought I meant something else because they slipped up and instead of closing out the game they let in 2 late goals.

Into the third round of the German Cup seeing off 1860 Munich and FSV Frankfurt giving us a tie angainst Nurnburg in the third round.

In other news, Argentina went on a goal scoring blitz in the knockout stages to take out the World Cup.

Very good start to Second Division life.

Thanks Delta,

Overall, I'm happy with the position. I just wish we weren't so wasteful in front of goal, even if we just got more shots on target I'd be happy. a lot of games were coming out with 60% possession and 10+ shots at goal with only 3-5 on target. If we get that right were going to habsolutely tear some unlucky team apart.

Another year over and a new one just begun.

We finished out the year in 5th but it was a bit of a rollercoaster to get there. At one point we held the playoff spot but that lasted all of one week, and any time we looked to push into those promotion spots, the physio was immediately called on to administer the Heimlich Manoeuvre. Only 2 points separates 2nd from 5th though so if we hold this position I’ll be happy to consolidate for a promotion push next year.

Looking at the results I can’t help but feel it’s is very mixed, there’s no consistency or long streaks of any type of results. Losses to East German Rivals Dresden along with midtable teams Karlsruhe and Cottbus were especially frustrating.

Possibly the most insane game I’ve experienced ever I’ve had games where Ive been flogged and games where I’ve handed out floggings but I’ve never had such a high scoring game like this.

Goal of the season last year... http://imgur.com/account/favorites/OviU102

Not so surprising given it's the rather mad St. Pauli.

Good first half of the season. Crazy match vs St Pauli - I had a similar one in my save recently. Goalkeepers might as well not have been on the pitch at all.

I kinda feel sorry for Alassane Toure though, he was directly responsible for three of St Pauli's goals. The own goal, he gave away the penalty and a mistake that lead to Verhoek's goal. but eh, it's more memorable this way.

Midseason transfer window was quiet for me on purchase front and only a couple players leaving on loan, though I probably should have been on the hunt for a new goalkeeper.

The usual interest in Chris Hentschke and Savvas Manolopoulos saw a flurry of bids before Barcelona launched an audacious bid for Matthias Engel who is only half way through his first season in the first team.

We continued floating around 5th spot and I feel this is where we’ll finish up baring a dramatic change in form for better or worse. I really need a few youth players to hurry up and come of age for next season to add some depth. Tired legs are costing us at the death especially when we have games really close together.

German Cup Quarterfinal saw us take on Leverkusen who last season, scrappily knocked us out in the second round. We went a goal down inside the first minute and I fully resigned myself to a heavy defeat until we hit back 2 minutes later through Clemens Fandrich. The match was pretty quiet until Leverkusen scored in the 68 minute taking back the lead. With ten minutes left I switched to overload and just pumping balls into the box. Lennart Thy then pounced on a loose ball just outside the 6yd box slotting home to level the game at 2-2 breaking a 15-hour goal-scoring drought.

Palacios-Martinez scored in the first half of extra time to give us a 3-2 lead with 15 Minutes to play. Thy then added a second goal three minutes after the break before Adrien Trebel was sent off for a second bookable offence. I was going to sub him at fulltime but van Anholt was really suffering with his condition and playing slightly poorer so he was subbed instead using my only central midfield replacement.

Leverkusen closed the gap to a goal with three minutes remaining and threw everything but the kitchen sink at us and almost a 3rd of their shots on goal came in a 2 minute period after their third goal. Palacios-Martinez finally put the game to bed with his second goal in extra-time to hand us a semi-final birth against Shalke 04

Very critical of our 3-5 loss to Dusseldorf and 2-4 loss to Furth as well as our draws with Sandhausen and FSV Frankfurt.

Engel and Hentschke have also made their debuts for the German U19 team.

I know I said I wanted to consolidate this season and hold off on promotion, yet to go so near and lose in a playoff is agonising. My best winger came to me before the playoff against Mainz and asked to move to a bigger club I was shocked, when I told him we could achieve promotion within a year he didn’t feel he could wait that long and so I told him he could go and no sooner had I said that than Kobenhavn and Hannover, who had won the 2. Bundesliga, came in with offers of up to £4.9M and away he went. Maybe I should have waited until after the playoff games to have that talk. Oh Well I’m playing in Europe next season, he won’t be.

Daniel Frahn

Ever-present leader who did the hard yards up front, shot us into the German Cup final with a brace against Schalke, dragged us back into the game against St Pauli to keep us in the playoff spot, scored another brace against Bundesliga Winners, Bayern Munich, to give us the German Cup… but seemed to go missing against Mainz, only one shot on goal over two games. Going down 3-2 away before being held to a 0-0 draw at home when we only needed to find one goal to be promoted.

German Cup

The adventure was almost over before it started. Scraping out of the first round on penalties after finishing 1-1 with 1860 Munich, we then exceeded the board’s expectations for the cup by knocking off FSV Frankfurt 1-0 in the second round. In the third round we brushed aside Nurnberg 3-2, we lead 3-0 just before the hour mark but our usual concentration slips allowed Nurnberg to get back into it with a quick fire double though we held off the fast finishing Bundesliga side.

Leverkusen were knocked out in the quarterfinal as mentioned earlier leaving a meeting with Schalke in the semifinal. Frahn scored in the 8th minute losing his marker in the 6yd box before Dutch defender Kaj Ramsteijn doubled the lead four minutes later with a mishit cross that snuck in at the far top right corner. Schalke hit back with some fast play down the left wing on the half hour mark as Fuchs crossed to the far post for Clemens to volley home from inside 6yds. Frahn then restored the two-goal advantage from the spot sending the keeper the wrong was and slotting home the shot into the bottom left corner.

I was happy to make the final. Bayern had won the Bundesliga so all I had to do was show up and European football was mine next season. We repelled constant raids by Lewandowski, Robben, and Gotze until the 40th minute mark. A free kick from just outside our own box, hoofed up field by Vachoux Frahn loses Matthias Ginter to steal in and slot home the finish. GOAL!

Lewandowski heads home a Robben corner to level things up just before the hour mark.

With time fast running down and Bayern having just had a corner we found ourselves playing the ball around midfield when young Midfielder, Jordan Beck, plucked from obscurity earlier in the season from Worthing, sees Yussef Poulsen out on the right, Poulson lobs a pass forward to Frahn who loses Ginter yet again glides towards the box and chips it towards the top left corner, over Neuer into the back of the net. Frahn had returned from where ever he was during the playoff and helped Leipzig lift some impressive silverware.

Glad to see they trust me now after last season where they were a little uneasy about a top half finish.

Team of the year

Top Division Winner\Cup Winner

Australia: Melbourne Victory (Premiers) \Newcastle Jets (Finals)

Austria: RB Salzburg\SCR Altach

Belgium: Standard\Standard

Czech Republic: Sloven Liberec\Pribram

Denmark: FC Kobenhavn\FC Nordsjœlland

England: Chelsea\Chelsea

France: AS Monaco\OM

Germany: Bayern\RB Leipzig

Holand: Ajax\PSV

Italy: AC Milan\Torino

Poland: Legia\Lech

Portugal: Porto\P. Ferreira

Serbia: Red Star\Partizan

Spain: Real Madrid\Vallarreal

Sweden: AIK\Malmo

Switzerland: Young Boys\Lausanne

Champions League: Real Madrid 0-1 Chelsea

Europa Cup: Olympique Lyonnais 1-0 Leverkusen

European Super Cup: Fiorentina3-2 Bayern

Club World Championship: Flamengo p0-0 Bayern

Incredible performance to win the German cup! Shame you didn't get through the playoffs. Hope you get on well in Europe next season and manage to get promoted next time.

Thanks

I think what annoyed me more about it was Poulsen's behaviour just before those games. I feel it took something away from the games knowing out best winger wanted away there and then.

As for Europe, I'm straight into the group stages I don't know if I'll be seeded cause I'm a German team but If I can avoid some big names, I don't see why I should,'t be able to be competitive. I now just have to worry about club home grown players as the youth players haven't been here three years yet.

Wow, fantastic achievement in the cup! The Leverkusen win especially looked like a cracker. I found it especially amusing since they absolutely slaughtered me (8-0) I think when I made the final with a Second Division team (Hoffenheim) myself on FM13.

I don't mind admitting that it was brown trousers time when they pulled it back to 4-3 with us being a man down, they were camped in the goal box just shooting at my keeper.

Expectations: Board Vs Mine

2. Bundesliga: Promotion\Promotion

German Super Cup: Be competitive\Not embarrass ourselves if Bayern are out for revenge

German Cup: Second Round\Quarter Final

Europa League: Group Stage\Not embarrass ourselves in the Group Stage

(It should be noted that I’m already in the group stage for Europa League while the 1. Bundesliga teams have to qualify. :j )

SV Sandhausen 0-2 RB Leipzig (2B): Frahn runs onto a through ball from Thy and chips the Sandhausen keeper from the ‘D’ 31’. Johan Martial heads home a Trebel corner at the near post to score on debut, 50’.

PoM: Johan Martial.

RB Leipzig debuts: Gabriel (GK), Mitchell Dijks (LB), Johan Martial (CB)

Goals: Frahn 31, Martial 50

RB Leipzig 1-0 FSV Frankfurt (2B): A very lacklustre match with possibly some overzealous refereeing as we conceded 16 fouls with four Yellow cards and a red for a second bookable offence. Only six shots on goal from both sides resulted in one goal in stoppage time just before the half time break.

Attendance: 18,336

PoM: Clemens Fandrich

Goals: Fandrich 45+2

Debuts: Giuseppe De laco (DM)

Alassane Toure played his 50th league game for RB Leipzig.

Adrian Trebel sent off for second bookable offence.

RB Leipzig 0-2 FC Bayern (GSC): This is how I expected the final to go last season. Though unfortunately for me, this was my third competitive fixture in six days and while focusing on the league, my better players were looking a little tired and so they had to be rested. Bayern were all over us like a cheap suit and we just couldn’t shake the Bundesliga Champions.

Debuts: Vincent Radiega (RW), Riccardo Sardella (CM)

ASV Cham 0-3 RB Leipzig (GC): Dominance. 65% possession 15 shots on goal, 9 on target and three went in. Lennart Thy Hat-trick made sure we went though to the next round.

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Thy 6, 34, 54

RB Leipzig 3-1 Saarbrucken (2B): Something about this win irks me I just can’t put my finger on it. It may just be Saarbrucken’s numerous but wayward shots on goal. Thy’s form over the last two games has been pleasing though. Last season he scored 4 goals, he’s now scored 5 in his last two games. Although one of those games was against lower quality opposition.

Attendance: 18,315

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Fandrich 18; Thy 43, 47

Debuts: Ettore Cerbara (LW)

Thy scored 25th career league goal

Cerbara becomes youngest RB player by 125 days at 16 years and 353 days. (I didn’t think 16 year olds could play?)

Koln 0-1 RB Leipzig (2B): Distinctly average game with Koln restricted to long shots. First shot on target was the only goal of the game, slotted home by Daniel Frahn from the penalty spot.

PoM: Johan Martial

Goals: Frahn Pen 63

Debuts: Afonso Silva (LW)

RB Leipzig 1-0 Furth (2B): 62% possession. What are we doing with it? Getting into attacking positions and losing it. Maybe I need to play a more patient game.

Attendance: 18,822

PoM: Matthias Engel

Goals: Engel 61

Johan Martial sent off for second bookable offence.

Braunschweig 2-3 RB Leipzig (2B): Kind of disappointed by the number of fouls we’re giving away. I don’t think I have them tackling hard but I am trying to mark closely and get in quickly to shut them down so maybe that’s the problem. Trebel opened the scoring with a left footed shot across the face of goal only for it to be immediately cancelled out. Braunschweig took the lead five minutes before the break and we went into the halftime down 2-1. The hairdryer treatment at halftime really snapped the attention back into the game and 10 minutes after the break, swift counter attach lead to Engel’s first goal. He added his second ten minutes from fulltime with a turn in the box and slotting it between keeper and the left-hand upright.

PoM: Matthias Engel

Goals: Trebel 12; Engel 53, 79

Results

Europa Cup Group

Matthais Engel finished the European Under 19 Championship leading equal leading goal scorer with three goals but missed out on the top award by playing more games.

IN

Gabriel: I didn't feel Vachoux was quite ready for the second division yet, nor would he be ready if we got promoted to the 1. Bundesliga this season. So Gabriel was bought from AC Milan for 325K The Brazilian Shotstopper seems reliable so far in his first performances and also looks to have better potential than Vachoux so may end up keeping the first team spot should we get promoted.

Mitchell Dijks: Dijks was signed on a free transfer after being released by Ajax. Signed as a replacement for Kaj Ramsteijn, sold to FC Groningen for 1.4M, Dijks already looks like a more than suitable replacement.

Beram Kayal: Former Celtic Midfielder signed on a free after being released, to be used in a rotation for my CM's or to allow van Anholt to shore up the RB position.

Hendrik Bonmann: With the purchase of Gabriel, Vachoux was sent out on loan to make sure he continued getting first team football. Bonmann was signed when I realised that I didn't have a keeper old enough to sit on the bench. Will probably be between Bonmann and Vachoux for the bench spot. Bonmann was signed for free after being released by Dortmund.

Ricardo Kishna: Signed from Ajax for a record 6.5M. A bit of a rough diamond I hope to polish up for our promotion chances. Needs some serious work on stamina though as he hasn't finished a game that he's started yet.

OUT

Yussuf Poulsen: Sold to Hannover for 4.4M Should have pushed the envelope and tried for a little more.

Kaj Ramsteijn: Sold to FC Groningen for 1.4M probably should have pushed for a little more but he was a free signing and so was his replacement.

Jeremy Vachoux: Loaned to feeder club Bielefeld in the 3. Liga to keep getting first team football

Tomas: Young signing from Betis Valladolid had potential, but needed the transfer money that Schalke were offering (2.1M) to prop up the wage budget.

Superb start to the season, and a good set of signings (although I must say I'm jealous of your wage budget!)

RB Leipzig 4-0 Aalen (2B): This is what I’ve been waiting for. Finally dominance is shown on the scoreboard. I still thing our shooting needs to be better as we had more shots off target than on, but we converted most of those anyway.

Attendance: 18,311

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Alekov 22; Frahn 24; Thy 33; Engel; 77

Debuts: Ricardo Kishna (LW)

Gabriel made 50th career league appearance

Alekov scored first career league goal for RB Leipzig

Frahn scored 150th career league goal

Frahn scored 100th career league goal for RB leipzig

Regensburg 2-1 RB Leipzig (2B): With my first Europa Cup game coming up and the Aalen game 2 days prior, I rotated a few squad players in giving my senior players time on the bench. Unfortunately it didn’t work out so well consigning us to our first loss of the league season. Regensburg were gracious hosts though and even scored a goal for us.

Goals: O.G. 45

Debuts: Hendrik Bonmann (GK); Beram Kayal (CM)

RB Leipzig 1-0 Villarreal (EC): We went into this game as pretty big underdogs and if someone offered me a draw before the game, I’d have probably taken it. Instead we snatched a well-taken goal after seven minutes and then hung on for dear life. Stats were pretty even and we did deserve to win the game, I just wish it wasn’t so nerve wracking towards the end there.

Attendance: 23,527

PoM: Johan Martial

Goals: Frahn 7

RB Leipzig 1-1 Ingolstadt (2B): We should have won this, Maybe I should have put more experience out on the field but the young guys need some time also and against second last place Ingolstadt this should have been the opportunity. Jordan Beck scored from inside the 18yd box after 16 minutes and they hit back through Denis Thomalla, on loan from us, two minutes later.

Attendance: 18,795

PoM: Mikko Sumusalo

Goals: Beck 16

RB Leipzig 3-0 FSV Frankfurt (GC): Absolutely dominated them, way better than our league match against them at the start of the season. 63% possession and putting most of our shots on target away was very pleasing.

Attendance: 13,486

PoM: Pele van Anholt

Goals: Kishna 7; Thy 16; van Anholt 67

Frankfurt 1-4 RB Leipzig (2B): Normally after we dominate a game we slacken off, so I’m delighted in the way we backed up our German cup performance against the other Frankfurt with this one. 58% possession, 10 shots on target, dominant in the air the only disappointing part was conceding the goal.

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: van Anholt 3; Trebel 39; Thy 45 +1, 82

Swansea 1-1 RB Leipzig (EC): Went on to Wales and came away with a point. We probably didn’t deserve a point but I’ll take it anyway.

Goals: David Edgar 63

RB Leipzig 4-0 Union Berlin (2B): Designated a fan day by the club and we didn’t disappoint. We’re starting to string some really good performances together now, goals are flying in and we’re really solid defensively.

Attendance: 23,523

PoM: David Edgar

Goals: Edgar 39; Palacios-Martinez 62; Thy Pen 65, 79

Thy made 25th League appearance for RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig 6-1 Duisburg (2B): I thought our last three games were something special. This was stunning. Consistently finding the net is something that has irritated me over the last two seasons and even earlier this season. I know it’s still early in the season but if we make the most of this form, We should be promoted with ease.

Attendance: 18,957

PoM: Ricardo Kishna

Goals: Kishna 15, 38, Pen 67; Frahn Pen 17; Thy 43, 83

Diego Demme made 75th League appearance for RB Leipzig

Adrien Trebel made 125th career league appearance.

Ricardo Kishna scored first career league goal for RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig 1-1 Olympique Marseilles (EC): Very even game that could have gone either way, a draw is probably a fair result. Played better in the second half though.

Attendance: 26,932

PoM: Johan Martial

Goals: Fandrich 65

Dresden 3-1 RB Leipzig (2B): Well, that bubble burst rather spectacularly, I honestly don’t know where it went wrong. Dresden opened the scoring with a stunning goal before a defensive lapse let them score another before halftime. We just kept losing the ball in midfield I think, looking too had for that killer pass. One swallow doesn’t make a spring so hopefully they bounce back before the Bochum game.

Goals: Frahn 84

Bochum 2-2 RB Leipzig (2B): Well this almost went tits up also. A rather uninspired first half lead to a four goal second half with Bochum taking a two goal lead before we struck back with goals in the 88th minute and a supposedly dodgy penalty three minutes into Fergie time. With decent rotation due to the Dresden game two days prior, I can’t be to upset.

Goals: van Anholt 88; Frahn Pen 90+3

Engel played 25th career league game for RB Leipzig.

Superb start to the season, and a good set of signings (although I must say I'm jealous of your wage budget!)

Thanks

Yeah, My wages are probably a little overblown, european money is helping offset that this season, but I'm definitely going to have to get promoted this year to keep it going.

great start to the season! and congrats on the 100 game milestone!

Thanks Becks Nice to have it in a decent fixture also.

Good start to the season had been a bit stop and start recently, a new update shortly should show how though.

Olympique Marseilles 1-1 RB Leipzig: Some reason the pundit thought I was favourites against the Ligue 1 third placed Marseilles, though the bookies were paying 5.50 for me to win. I trust the bookies more and considered us long shots went down early to a fluke goal lobbed in from a ridiculously acute angle and from then on it was a scramble for an equaliser. Finally it came in the 93rd minute as Trebel found an unmarked Thy on the edge of the box and slotted the ball into the bottom left hand corner.

PoM: Adrin Trebel

Goals: Thy 90+3

RB Leipzig 2-1 1860 Munchen (2B): I wish we wrapped this game up more comfortably but I’ll take it after four games without a win.

Attendance: 19,501

PoM: Ricardo Kishna

Goals: Frahn 2; Kishna 65

Karlsruhe 2–1 RB Leipzig (2B): Ugh, a terrible performance and our only goal was from a dodgy penalty. I don’t know what happened to that team I was managing a couple months ago but damn I wish they were back.

Goal: Thy pen 10

Villarreal 2-3 RB Leipzig (EC): Given our poor league form I had serious trepidations about this match especially travelling to Spain. Paying £11 for the win we were rank outsiders and my fears were pretty much justified. Missing both Frahn and Thy, Matthias Engel had to lead the line and the captain’s armband fell to Rik Schouw playing in the unfamiliar right wing position. We got a penalty early on that Finnish Left back Mikko Sumusalo slotted home with ease (I don’t know why he was taking penalties either, tactical oversight on my part.). Kishna then showed the Villarreal defence a clean set of heels latching onto a pass from van Anholt to smash the ball into the top right hand corner. Villarreal hit back shortly after and we headed into the break with a 2-1 lead. Ten minutes after the break, Villarreal levelled the scores and I started to feel the pressure, could we hold on to this draw? We retook the lead after an attacking raid down the led started by Kishna played on to an overlapping Dijks who crossed into Engel at the near post to bang it home comfortably. We hung on grimly to our lead and it was enough to see us go top of the group. Due to results OM in second place have qualified already, though a draw with Swansea will see us though also A loss will knock us out on head to head.

PoM: Ricardo Kishna

Goals: Sumusalo Pen18, Kishna 36; Engel 57

RB Leipzig 3–1 St Pauli (2B): After an ordinary first half, we started the second half fast. Worns scored his first senior goal four minutes after the break only to have St Pauli hit back ten minutes later. A further 10 minutes saw Engel get on the score sheet to retake the lead we finally put the match to bed in stoppage time when Engel bagged his brace.

Attendance: 19,532

PoM: Matthias Engel

Goals: Worn 49; Engel 67, 90+2

Andraes Worns scored first career league goal for RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig 2–3 Leverkusen (GC): Leverkusen… How did we beat them last year when they were second when this year we lost and they are second last? Another thriller though. We went 2-0 down rather quickly to a Stefan Kießling brace around the 20 minute mark before van Anholt pulled one back just after the half hour mark. Wearing the Captain’s armband Trebel dragged us back to level pegging with a goal of his own and into extra time. We battled hard through both periods of extra time until with almost the last play of the game a Leverkusen corner snuck through. To give them the tie and the quarterfinal spot I’d been hoping for.

Attendance: 40,189

Goals: van Anholt 35; Trebel 72

RB Leipzig 3–1 Swansea (EC): Dominance, flat out dominance. If we’d come away with anything less than a win with this performance I’d have been disappointed. 60% possession 13 shots on goal to Swansea’s 3, only 4 on target but three of those when in. Nil all at half time, I told the team to go out and do something special. 10 minutes in Thy dispossesses Shelvey outside the box, flicks it back to Kishna who switches it out to the right for Fandrich to run onto and drill it back across goal into the bottom left corner. Two minutes later Thy goes through the Swansea defence like a hot knife through butter, draws the keeper before switching it to the left setting up Kishna for our second. Swansea hit back in the 75th minute pegging us back to 2-1. Three minutes later Kishna who’d switched to a central Attacking midfield role covering for the injured Thy passed to Palacios-Martinez who crossed it to the far post for Fandrich to bundle the ball into goal picking up his second and returning the two goal advantage.

With Marseilles playing out a meaningless draw, we go through top of the table and hopefully avoid a fallen Champions League giant.

Attendance: 25,143

PoM: Clemens Fandrich

Goals: Fandrich 57, 78; Kishna 59

RB Leipzig 1-1 Sandhausen (2B): Rotated the squad out after the Swansea game two days before hand and while dominant, couldn’t turn it into goals. Michalis Sgouralis made his debut after being signed from Zwickau at the beginning of last season. (I don’t remember why my DoF bought him and it seemed to annoy my fans). Hopefully this performance won them over.

Attendance: 18,882

PoM: Michalis Sgouralis

Goals: Sgouralis 10

Debut: Michalis Sgouralis (AMC)

Michalis Sgouralis scored first career league goal for RB Leipzig

Michalis Sgouralis becomes youngest RB player by 7 days

John Martial made 125th career league appearance

FSV Frankfurt 1–2 RB Leipzig (2B): Come from behind win, very scrappy. Gave away too many fouls for reasons I’m unaware of. Maybe the referee just isn’t a fan of Red Bull as he was biased towards Frankfurt, this happened in our earlier league game also.

PoM: Clemens Fandrich

Goals: Fandrich 55; Trebel 72

Rik Schouw made 50th league appearance for RB Leipzig

This is what awaits me in the Europa Cup knockout legs

And possibly

Great performance in Europe, and looking good in the league. Looks a tricky draw for the next round of the Europa league though.

Cheers

Galatasaray I'm 50-50 on, but I'll be cheering on Genk in their matches though. I don't fancy facing Atletico and I can't imagine it'll get any easier from there.

Well done coping with both a promotion push and a European campaign at the same time.

Thanks Delta, I'm just glad some of those youngsters I bought a season ago are now old enough to play otherwise there'd be some VERY tired legs as I'm often having to play Thursday and Saturday. I'm also grateful for the good start to the season and that I went straight into the group stage because If I'd had to start in the first round like Gladbach and their trip to Gibraltar I doubt I'd be this far.

Summer Transfers

In

Elton Xhumba - Teuta £400k

Darren Fletcher - Free

Out

Marco Breitenreiter - Wolfsburg £1M

Andreas Worn - HSV £1.5M

David Hempel - HSV £1.3M

Matthias Morys - Free

Saarbrucken 2-4 RB Leipzig (2B): Started after the break with a spanking win, Lennart Thy bagged a hat-trick and could have had a couple more with a little luck. We also had two goals ruled out for offside.

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Engel 8; Thy 25, 34, 78

Debuts: Elton Xhumba (DC)

Adrian Trebel makes 75th league appearance for RB Leipzig

Clemens makes 125th career league appearance

Rik Schouw made 50th league appearance for RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig 1-0 Koln (2B): Scrappy game, scraped a goal from a corner that was enough to win.

Attendance: 19,593

PoM: Johan Martial

Goals: Martial 55

Debuts: Darren Fletcher (CM)

Clemens Fandrich makes 75th league appearance for RB Leipzig

Daniel Frahn makes 300th career league appearance

Galatasaray 1–0 RB Leipzig (EC): Not up to the challenge as the experienced old legs of Drogba, Vidic, and Sneijder were too much for my side. Kinda disappointed really.

Furth 1-3 RB Leipzig (2D): Hard slog in the rain but a well deserved win. I don’t thing I’ve seen such accurate shooting though with 14 out of 16 shots on target. Took the lead with an Edgar header from a corner to go into the break 0-1. Furth levelled the scores up just after the restart before they gave away a penalty for us to retake the lead. Van Anholt then finished off the scoring with a cross gone wrong as it skidded across the box, over the diving Furth keeper and in off the far post.

PoM:David Edgar

Goals: Edgar 38; Thy Pen 51; van Anholt

RB Leipzig 1-0 Galatasaray (1-1 Agg 5-4 Penalties)(EC): We came into the game knowing we had an uphill battle, we needed to score and keep the Turks goalless. Fandrich stepped up to the place with a cracking shot on the 17th minute to get the ball rolling. We didn’t hang back though always looking for one more in case Galatasaray levelled the scores and picked up an away goal. A couple of injures sent flutters through the squad as we used all our subs by the hour mark so players on yellows couldn’t be subbed off at the start of extra time. We held strong through extra time though we’re unable to land our own knockout blow.

We kept our nerve in the shootout to advance to the next stage and play Atletico.

Attendance: 25,651

PoM: Diego Demme

Goals: Fandrich 17

RB Leipzig 0-1 Braunschweig (2B): most of the senior players got a rest after the penalty win over Galatasaray and so a weakened squad was sent out against Braunschweig. Very disappointing result from those guys looking to push for first team spots. Especially to lose to a stoppage time goal just before fulltime.

Attendance: 19,473

Debuts: Dominik Kiefer (RB)

Pele van Anholt makes 50th league appearance for RB Leipzig

Aalen 2-4 RB Leipzig (2B): Much like the Saarbrucken game. A couple of soft goals conceded, fortunately for us we had four of our own. One of which Demme scored direct from the corner.

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Thy 5; Palacois-Martinez 22; Demme 26; Engel 38

Atletico 2-3 RB Leipzig (EC): Wow. I need to stop being surprised at what this team can do. Fandrich opened the scoring after 90 seconds with a spectacular piece of counter attacking football.

Demme makes the interception and scrambles it away. Kishna wins the ball in the air from Garijo. Kishna nods it on to van Anholt, Van Anholt nods it on to Thy. Thy passes along the floor. Trebel picks up the pass to his right. Lovely ball from Adrian Trebel to Fandrich, Fandrich finds himself in space. Clemens Fandrich has a pop. GOAL!!!! GOAL FOR RB LEIPZIG!!!

That movement is almost becoming like a set piece for us. Fandrich has 8 goals so far and I’d be hard pressed to remember one that wasn’t scored like that.

We went two-nil up thanks to an own goal before Atletico capitalised on some lazy defending just after the half hour mark to peg it back to 2-1. That man scored again, Fandrich turning in the box from another Trebel pass slots it the left hand goal to secure his second. He denied a hat trick due to being offside, slightly mistiming his run that would have been a carbon copy of his first goal.

Atletico pegged it back to a one goal game again ten minutes from time, but we really looked the more dangerous side and thoroughly deserved our win.

PoM: Adrian Trebel

Goals: Frandich 2, 38; O.G 19

RB Leipzig 1-0 Regensburg (2B): Two days after the Atletico game, this was always going to be tough. Heavy rotation saw an almost completely different starting eleven, though many of them could have been first team regulars. A rather uneventful game with the only goal of the game coming from a Palacois-Martinez mishit cross looking for Engel whose run was checked, only for the Regensburg keeper to make an absolute meal of it and see the ball go in the back of the net.

Attendance: 18,889

Goals: Palacois-Martinez 75

Matthias Engel makes 50th career appearance.

RB Leipzig 4-3 Atletico (7-5 agg)(EC): Lets just say I’m glad for the brown trousers. Taking three away goals into this game was great because we needed every one of them. Atletico started with a point to prove and Leo, coming in for Diego Costa who was injured in the last leg, was the exclamation mark. Losing his marker and pouncing on a lose ball in the box he opened the scoring after just five minutes. Five minutes later he doubled the lead, again losing his marker and heading home a lobbed pass into the box. Atletico now lead 2-0 and 3-4 on aggregate.

21st Minute: Atletico win a corner Gabriel can only parry it, Dijks wins the header and gets it out to Kishna. Kishna plays the ball out to Thy, Thy jinks inside one beats the tackle of the second, takes the ball down field. GOAL!!! Leipzig pull one back on the counter and go ahead on away goals.

81st minute: Johan Martial Levels up the match with a header from a Trebel corner. We now have the lead in the tie with 10 minutes left in the game.

89th minute: Jose Sosa tries an out swinging corner, Alekov misjudges the header, Trebel puts the ball in the back of the net. Own goal from Trebel. Scores are 2-3 for the match and 5-5 on aggregate at full time, even away goals cant separate the teams.

100th Minute: Demme takes the throw in, Thy passes backwards to Demme, Demme sprays a one touch pass 20 yards to his left for Schouw. Schouw feeds the ball into the danger area, Frahn loses his man, looks for Thy, Thy back to Frahn, takes the chance. GOAL RB LEIPZIG!!! Has there been a more important goal in his career than this one?

116th minute: Kishna moves the ball forward to Trebel, Lovely ball from Trebel to Thy. Lennart Thy gets into a dangerous position. Godin wins the ball in an inch perfect tackle but the ball goes free in the box. Frahn unmarked on the right wing he takes the shot, beats the keeper. GOAL RB LEIPZIG!!!

Attendance: 43,434

Goals: Thy 21; Martial 81; Frahn 100, 116

Ingolstadt 1-2 RB Leipzig (2B): And heart rates return to a normal level after that Europa League game. Rik Schouw gets us off the mark with a 25 yard shot after 18 minutes. Engle doubles the lead on the half hour mark with a controversial goal. Ingolstadt pull one back at the hour mark.

PoM: Rik Schouw

Goals: Rik Schouw 18; Engel 31

Darren Fletcher makes 225th career league appearance

RB Leipzig 3-0 Frankfurt (2B): A rather physical encounter saw us run out winners 3-0 even going down a man for a second bookable offence inside 10 minutes.

Attendance: 19,147

PoM: Lennart Thy

Goals: Kishna 3; Thy 56, 87

Diego Demme sent off for second bookable offence

Union Berlin 1-4 RB Leipzig (2B): A good win leading up to our Europa League Quarter final. High possession, shots on goal and on target along with few fouls means I’m very happy with the performance.

PoM: Adrian Trebel

Goals: Thy 24; van Anholt 30; Trebel 47, 79

Pele van Anholt played 125th career league game.

Alassane Toure played 100th career league game.

Congratulations on promotion, and good to see you going strong in Europe too

Thanks Mark, I didn't realise how far in front I'd been until I got that news message. Though to be fair I'd really only been focused on Karlsruhe as competition for the title.

This European adventure is just a laugh now, it feels like Europe is a wild ride while the league is my day job.

Looks like we've gained some fans outside of Germany

134 of them now have authentic team shirts.

RB Leipzig 1-1 PSV (EC): Come from behind draw at home in the first leg. Need to find a goal or two in The Netherlands to keep the dream alive.

RB Leipzig 2-2 Dresden (2B): I’m glad I don’t have to play Dynamo Dresden next season. They’re developing into a bogey side for us having only taken 4 of a possible 12 points on offer. We went down inside ten minutes and only hit back five minutes after the break and took the lead just after the hour mark. With less than 5 minutes left on the clock we conceded an own goal to level up the scores and that’s the way it stayed.

Attendance: 25

Goals: Martial 49; Thy 65

PSV 2-2 RB Leipzig (a3-3 Agg) (EC): I’m just going to let the time of the goals tell this story.

Duisburg 1-3 RB Leipzig (2B): Was developing as a quiet game until Duisburg has a player sent off for a second bookable offence. We hit 2 to take it to 3-0 before our keeper spilled a corner into the back of the net. All in all the win was a good birthday present from the team.

PoM: Adrian Trebel

Goals: Trebel 40, 78; Toure 83

Alassane Toure scores first league goal for RB Leipzig

Hendrik Bonmann made 25th Career league appearance

Mitchell Dijks made 25th League appearance for RB Leipzig

Federico Palacios-Martinez made 50th Career league appearance

Federico Palacios-Martinez made 50th Career league appearance for RB Leipzig

Daniel Frahn made 175th Career league appearance for RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig 0-2 Bochum (2B): A rather poor game with one eye on the Europa League Semi-final and one eye on the League title we won by Karlsruhe slipping up against Sandhausen two days prior. No excuses, We should have won against a mid table side easily, we can’t afford to be doing this next year.

Attendance: 25,736

Beram Kayal made 200th career league appearance.

Lazio 0-2 RB Leipzig (EC):

1860 Munchen 1-2 RB Leipzig (2B): A good game hot on the heels of our Lazio win. We didn’t slacken off after the good performance in Europe. I was a little worried when they levelled the scores but we held our nerve and scored close to the break to retake the lead and secure the win.

PoM: van Anholt

Goals: Kishna 4; van Anholt 41

RB Leipzig 1-0 Lazio (3-0 agg)(EC):

RB Leipzig 2–0 Karlsruhe (2B): Finally a win over Karlsruhe after four starts. Afonso Silva got us off thee mark with his debut goal after 25 minutes, He was denied a second goal after being called offside just before the half. The game was headed towards a 1-0 win before Silva set up Thy with two minutes left to double the lead.

Attendance: 29,561

PoM: Afonso Silva

Goals: Silva 24; Thy 88

Toure sent off for second bookable offence.

St Pauli 2–3 RB Leipzig (2B): I’m going to miss playing St Pauli, they’ve definitely been entertaining and high scoring games. I was disappointed to ship 2 late goals, and two others disallowed for offside.

PoM: Adrian Trebel

Goals Trebel 14; Fandrich 43; Kishna 54

Just, wow!!!!

Wow, who've you got in the final?

This game... It's almost like all the entertainment was used up in the Atletico and PSV games. Not saying I won't take it, and especially since I'd foolishly used several stars against St Pauli in a meaningless game at the end of the season with the title already won. It's probably fair, Porto left their shooting boots at home squandered possession. We scored from a corner, though it was a pretty good corner. Diego Demme hit an outswinging corner for Johan Martial to volley home from just outside the six yard box. Looking at the ratings it wasn't a spectacular game, only 4 players rated 7.0 or better and two of those were involved in the only goal of the game.

With all that excitement, I jumped into first for Australian Managers.

well done

congratulations! a remarkable achievement

Thanks guys

It gives me confidence that we can be competitive in the 1. Bundesliga, the teams we beat weren't push overs and we held our nerve in a lot of them when it could have been easier to just capitulate. Though week in week out will be the bigger test.

Just randomly, in the heat of the moment after that win I orded a RB Leipzig shirt, I'm now one of those 134 people

2. Bundesliga: We won, and we won it pretty easily in the end. I didn't realise we were that far in front. Probably why I received the notification that we'd won the league without kicking a ball after the Duisburg game. To be honest, there were a few wins I wasn't happy with, and if we play like that this season we'll probably get trounced. That said we did hold our nerve a lot in Europe and that puts a positive feel on things.

German Cup: I wanted to read the Quarter final, while the board were happy with the second round. The team split the difference and we were knocked out rather cruelly by a last gasp corner before time was to be called and we headed to penalties.

Europa League: Holy Hell, We got out of the group stage but nothing suggested that we could go on and win the damn competition. I thought we blew it against Galatasaray, then the thriller against Atletico The two all draw against PSV that will be one for the ages. Absolute classics that'll go down in the annuls of RB Leipzig history as the moment they announced to the rest of Europe, "We're not going away."

Star player: Lennart Thy was a phenomenon this season, last season I signed him on a free transfer, he scored 4 goals all season, two in the league and two in that German Cup Quarterfinal. This season he scored 22 in the league and 28 in all competitions. I'll need him to step up more in Europe this season though.

RB Leipzig Team of the Year: Don'y have any real complaints about the players picked, just the formation. This was more my Europe formation I tended to play with an AMC instead of DMC in the league. Thy should be AMC or Striker, and Trebel Should be CM not DM. Special shout out to Clemens Fandrich, 6 of his 9 goals this season came in Europe.

Expectations: Board - Me

Bundesliga: Be competitive - Midtable

German Cup: Third Round - Quarterfinal

Euro Cup: Group Stage - Second Knockout round (Again pretty sure we're already in the group stage to start with, so easy done there )

European Super Cup: Be competitive - Not embarrass ourselves against a rampant Chelsea.

I get eased into Bundesliga life with an away game against fellow promoted side SV Sandhausen before welcoming FC Bayern to Red Bull Arena.

Heh, Just randomly the Starting XI for my team of the year cost £6.8M in transfer fees. Not bad considering that £6.5M of that was on Ricardo Kishna.