[FM 15] RB Leipzig - Now with extra Taurine.

RB Leipzig - Now with extra Taurine.

An Introduction

After playing FM(unsuccessfully) for a few years, I have never really delved deep into a proper save. So I have decided this year is going to be different and I'm going to try my hand at a proper career and try to build something of a dynasty.

In previous versions I would always choose to be an established top flight club with realistic ambitions of being title challengers, but I fancied a bit of a change this time round. I scoured through the leagues to find a club that would peak my interest. That's when I came across a club that is part of everyone's favourite corporate franchise: RB Leipzig.

Game Information

Large Database

Countries and Leagues

England - League 2 and above

France - National and above

Germany - 2. Bundesliga and above

I have also disabled first transfer window budgets just because I tend to have a bad habit of jumping straight in to transfers and wanted to spend a little more time in learning about the current squad I currently have.

RB Leipzig - Now with extra Taurine.

Club History

RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V., commonly known and deliberately promoted as RB Leipzig, is a German association football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded by initiative of energy drink-maker Red Bull who purchased the license of fifth division side SSV Markranstädt with the intention of advancing the re-modeled club to the top-flight Bundesliga within ten years.

Founded in May 2009, RasenBallsport Leipzig is the fourth football club that Red Bull have invested in, following Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, the New York Red Bulls in the USA and Red Bull Brasil in Brazil. Unlike these other clubs, the sponsor's name was not permitted as part of the team name in Germany in accordance with the regulations of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund). In order to comply with these rules, the club instead adopted the unusual name RasenBallsport Leipzig ("Leipzig lawn ball sports") and then, through the use of the initials "RB" and key elements of the Red Bull corporate logo, the sponsor's identity was preserved in the team logo. In addition, majority control of a club by a single entity (person, or company) is not permitted by the league, and the German law for clubs. The law suggests a registered club should have minimum 7 members. The league requires that either a club, or a limited company which is controlled by a club with 50% + 1 vote can get a license to participate in the German first or second league. In lower leagues like the one of Saxony, it is required to be a club RB Leipzig has 9 members, all employees of the sponsor.

In 2014, RB Leipzig became the first team since the introduction of the 3. Liga to achieve promotion to the 2. Bundesliga after only one season.

So the initial goal set by the powers that be was to reach the 1.Bundesliga within ten years of forming. Well five years in and the club are already sitting pretty in 2. Bundesliga; one promotion away from their objective with five more years to play with. Why stop there? Let's aim to be champions within that time! The foundations of the club are solid enough for me to build something that will topple the increasing German monopolisation by Bayern.

The Squad

A reasonable squad to start with. Good depth and variety in the midfield with some decent options upfront. However, the defense leaves a lot to be desired and the wide areas are paper thin for quality. I'll round up the scouting team and sent them on their way to find some possible January targets if we are in need of strengthening.

Key Players

With no less than ten clubs in the hunt for him (including the mighty Barcelona and Real Madrid) it's plain to see I have a real starlet on my hands here. A brilliant technician with a great team ethic, although a little naive defensively for a DM. The only issue I'm going to face is fending off interest from more reputable clubs.

Diego Demme - DRL, DM, MC

A real workhorse. Should be an ideal partner for Kimmich with his ability to tirelessly harass the opposition and win the ball back with gusto. His downfall will be his inability to read the game as it goes and the lack of strength isn't desirable.

Ante Rebic - M/AML, ST

On loan from Fiorentina, the Croat is the only quality wide man I have at the club. Right footed left winger with good dribbling ability and decent in front of goal, an Inside Forward if I ever did see one.

RB Leipzig Season Preview: 2014/15

Board Expectations

2. Bundesliga: Achieve a respectable league position

DFB-Pokal: Reach the Second Round

Personal Expectations

2. Bundesliga: Challenge for promotion

DFB-Pokal: As far as possible

If I am to exceed the ten year target set by the owners IRL, I need to give myself the best possible chance by gaining promotion as soon as possible. A good cup run wouldn't go a miss but neither would it be the end of the world if we were to be knocked out in the earlier rounds.

I could have been a tad more ambitious with my league expectations but with the likes of Nurnberg, Kaiserslautern and Dusseldorf all having come down from the top division in recent seasons; the media's prediction of a 10th place finish for us is justified.

Budgets

Transfers: £0

Wages: £153,415 per week (current wages: £128,944 per week)

As explained earlier, I disabled first transfer window budgets so I obviously wasn't expecting anything more than what I have been given. The wage budget is very nice to say the least. I have roughly £24,500 to use for contract extensions, loans, etc. and considering my average wage is £2,600 things are certainly healthy on the financial side of the club. So they should be. Thank you, capitalism.

RB Leipzig Preseason: 2014/15

Friendlies

Other than a slight mishap against our affiliates at FC Liefering, it was easy going for us in our preseason fixtures to help boost morale and tactical familiarity without having to break out into too much of a sweat.

When going through the squad and checking their contract status' I noticed that Joshua Kimmich had a clause in which we could extend his contract by another two years. I'll be having some of that please and thank you. Kimmich is now tied down until the end of the 2016/17 season... Or so I thought.

When I listed Joshua as one of my prospective key players for the upcoming season, I pointed out that there were a whole host of clubs tracking him. Fast forward to Master Kimmich knocking on my door, explaining to me that he wishes to play at a higher level. What European giant had turned his head? Barca? Real?...... Nope. Almeria. The very same Almeria who escaped relegation from La Liga by one point the previous season IRL. I tried my best to convince him to stay but alas he was having none of it. I best get those scouts on the lookout for a replacement deep-lying playmaker.

Then to add insult to injury (or should it be injury to insult) Kimmich’s midfield partner Diego Demme suffered a torn hamstring in training which rules him out for two months.

A couple of sour notes in an otherwise positive preseason. First up in our quest for promotion: Aue at the Red Bull Arena.

RB Leipzig: August to September 2014/15

2. Bundesliga

August

It wasn't the most electrifying of starts with us playing out two nil-nil draws against sides I feel we should be beating. We shaded it against Aue on attempts alone, but a late red card for my left back Anthony Jung meant any late surge to grab the win was curtailed. Karlsruhe we were probably lucky to get a point, this was reflected by my 'keeper picking up Player of the Match.

After two unconvincing performances, I wasn't overly looking forward to taking on the joint favourites for promotion, Nurnberg. Well maybe I shouldn't have been so worried? First win, first goals. We ran out 3-1 winners after a very solid performance. We were made to worry tad when we conceded a penalty which allowed them to level the scores at 1-1 but we persevered and came away with a deserved three points.

A 1-1 draw against left me somewhat seething with just how we didn't win. FSV Frankfurt took the lead from a set play and exactly what my defenders were doing, I still can't fathom now. It was one of two attempts that the opposition actually managed throughout the match. Ante Rebic grabbed a deserved equaliser, and his first goal for the club, to leave us undefeated in August.

September

After an unbeaten yet unspectacular August I decided to tweak around with my tactics and it proved to be a change for the better (for now at least). Bochum were the next visitors to the Red Bull Arena and proceedings didn't get off to the smoothest of starts. Bochum took the lead after 20 minutes as we failed to deal with a ball in to the box from outside. But we soon levelled as Palacios-Martinez grabbed the equaliser. We came out in the second half and went on to dominate as we secured a comfortable victory. 1860 Munchen were next and they were surprisingly struggling at the foot of the table. Maybe not so surprisingly they lined up with quite a defensive approach as they used two DM's. We struggled to break them down up until I decided to move Kimmich further forward to make the most of the space in front of the two 1860 defensive midfielders. Kimmich grabbed himself a goal and the Player of the Match award in what was hard fought win.

The next result had me foaming at the mouth. We dominated from start to (almost)finish against St. Pauli, however we were made to pay for not being clinical enough as the team from Hamburg scored with the last kick of the game to steal a 1-1 draw. So we entered our last game of the month, looking to put right what we'd managed to throw away in our previous fixture. After an evenly contested first half against Union Berlin, things massively swung our way in the second. Union had a player sent off early after the restart and we capitalised with two quick goals before the hour mark. Then with eight minutes to play, Berlin score a long range effort, which was their only effort of the entire game. It could(should(would)) have set up a tense finish if they hadn't decided to play a bizarre 2-5-2 formation for the closing stages. We picked them off with ease and rounded off a relatively easy 4-1 victory.

Sitting pretty in second spot and unbeaten. Not a bad start to life in East Germany.

DFB-Pokal

The draw wasn't kind to us with it pitting us against Leverkusen. Even though we didn't give a bad account of ourselves we were outdone by the superior team. We couldn't have any complaints.

Overall Thoughts

Not a bad couple of months to start off. We haven't kept a clean sheet since our opening goalless draws, which is somewhat concerning but considering some teams have hardly troubled me and have 'lucked out' in scoring one of few chances, maybe I'm looking too much into this. The exit from the cup will be brushed off and we will move on to our main focus of gaining promotion from the league. and this is what lies in wait for me in October:

Sandhausen (A), Heidenheim (H), Braunshweig (A), Furth (H)

A seemingly tough month ahead with games against the three teams that make up the top four alongside me, with two of them being unbeaten. Surely someone will have their first loss inflicted upon them?

RB Leipzig: October 2014/15

2. Bundesliga

Well. What was supposed to be a tricky month turned out to be quite a leisurely walk in the park.

The month started off in a favourable fashion when the league organisers asked if I would like my game against Heidenheim to be postponed as we had a few players away on international duty, including Ante Rebic. Please and thank you, so the game was pushed back a couple of days. But before that was a small matter of the battle of second against third. Sandhausen, like us, were undefeated... but not for much longer. A comfortable 2-0 win with Dominik Kaiser and Rebic getting on the scoresheet yet again. It was also our first clean sheet in six games which was a welcome bonus. The postponed Heidenheim match was to follow. Despite delaying that fixture, Rebic wasn't able to make back it in time. He wasn't missed to be fair. Apart from a glaring 'keeping error from Thomas Dahne, as he failed to collect a routine cross, it was a simple victory with Kaiser relishing his Lampard-esque role as he added two more to his season's tally.

We next made a trip to Braunschweig for another meeting of two undefeated teams. They sat in the lofty top spot whilst we closely followed in second. The 0 had to go right? Well it so nearly did, for us anyway. The first half was just a complete write off as we just didn't turn up for some reason or another. 1-0 Braunschweig - through a poorly defended corner on our part. 2-0 Braunschweig - a header from 18-yards that defied all laws of physics to nestle in to the net. Thankfully a stirring interval team talk did the trick as we snatched a point from the jaws of defeat. Phew. Still an 0 in the L column. A routine win against a Furth side who were beginning to slip away closed the month for us as we remained unbeaten and......

we took the lead of the table for the first time this season.

Overall Thoughts

Over the moon that we have managed to extend our run to 12 games and now hold pole position. Now just another 22 games to navigate. Speaking of which here's what I have to look forward to in November:

Kaiserslautern (A), Ingolstadt (H), Darmstadt (A), Dusseldorf (H)

Hmmm. Potential banana skins with Kaiserslautern and Dusseldorf, both were highly favoured to be challenging at the top before a ball was kicked, although they are placed lower than what they should be for the quality that they have, or so the bookmakers would lead you to believe. I am going to have to tackle this month without my prolific, rampaging midfielder Kaiser after he damaged his knee cap in the win over Furth. Bad times.

Oh and one final note...

We were't even a full three months in This management lark isn't all what it's cracked up to be.

RB Leipzig: November to December 2014/15

2. Bundesliga

November

The month kicked off well with victory over Kaiserslautern. Jung scored directly from a free-kick, which surely would have needed some goal-line tech assistance, as it hit the underside of the bar and bounced over the line and out. 1-0. Kaiser' pulled it back to all square as we failed to defend a corner properly(again) right on the hour mark. But we took the deserved win as Jung turned provider and whipped in a cross for Poulsen to finish with aplomb. Ingolstadt would hold us to a drab 0-0. We were reduced to taking several long shots and then failed to capitalise when our opponents were down to 10-men, for the last 15 minutes, as their left back saw a straight red.

The Darmstadt fixture was pushed back due to our players' international commitments. That's when Dusseldorf brought us back down to earth, after our superb unbeaten start, with a home defeat. Things started well as Teigl gave us the lead with his first of the season. Unfortunately that was as good as it got as we only mustered one more shot on target for the rest of the day. Dusseldorf took control and eventually punished us with.... *sigh* a goal from a poorly defended corner. Time to brush ourselves down and bounce back against lowly Darmstadt. Well it didn't go to plan to start with as we went one down, thanks to....? You guessed it: a poorly defended corner (broken record, I know). Thankfully my weakness became my strength as we grabbed the leveller through a c-word (not that one!!). We exchanged goals with Darmstadt to leave us both chasing the win and thankfully it went our way as Kimmich tucked away from the spot for a late win.

December

Aalen were the final team we hadn't faced yet in the league this season and we didn't ease their relegations fears as we took a 2-1 win after falling behind early on. Hierlander picking up two assists to take him in to double figures for the campaign, which made him the leading creator in the division. Games against Aue and Karlsruhe saw us come away with two pretty unspectacular 1-0 wins. Both were matches of few chances for all teams involved, with the Karlsruhe encounter having us register the solitary effort on target. We ended the month, and the year, with a bit of a whimper in terms of our performances, not necessarily our results.

*5th place is Sandhausen.

Overall Thoughts

Despite the results, the last two months have left we feeling quite concerned. Maybe excluding the opening game against Kaiserslautern, we were bang average verging on bad in every other game we played. One reason that could be leaving us in this position is the fact I cannot get my strikers to score or be dangerous enough. The majority of my goals have come from the midfield, most notably Rebic and Kaiser. My strikers are decent, but are all not quite varied enough in their ability to fulfil the role I want them as a lone striker. Thankfully the winter break has arrived, along with the transfer window, so I have the options to tweak my tactic or delve in to the market to add the missing piece of the puzzle.

But I may be forced to do the latter as Dominik Kaiser approached me with the news that Hertha Berlin are interested and, much like Kimmich, wants to play at a higher level. I convinced that him that I will look improve the squad to match his ambitions. Hopefully 'the little boy inside him' will approve of the signings I make, if any, and decide to stay and help us push on for the second half of the season.

RB Leipzig: January Transfer Window/Winter Break 2014/15

So I come in to my first transfer window as RB Leipzig manager under prepared. I hadn't identified any targets, down in part to my scouts unable to find any players when under stricter instructions of what I specifically wanted. But I have a month of nothing to do. Players are on Holiday for the winter and therefore I have no fixtures to prepare for.

I had made two promises to two of my players that would be directly involved with this window:

Joshua Kimmich - I promised him that I would let him leave the club, against my will, when an offer from a bigger club came in.

Dominik Kaiser - I promised him that I would add quality to the squad to match his ambitions.

I did hope the board would free up some funds for this window but alas they did not. Best start checking the back of the settee for loose change.

I went in search through my scout reports, the ones that they had managed to compile, to see if there were any eye catching names available for a free transfer or possibly a loan. That was when I stumbled across this gentleman:

Free Transfer - Wout Brama

A dutch international in, what could be considered, the prime of his career at 28 had no club and no contract offers. A good all round midfielder especially at this level could not be sniffed at. His wage demands were very modest and I had a large amount of my wage budget being wasted on nothing, so I put in a contract offer. As I waited for his response, more reputable clubs from across Europe began to show their interest. In the end he made the right choice and was on his way to Leipzig. Though he isn't as technically gifted as Kimmich, I felt he could fill in suitably for this season if the young German did end up leaving the club during the window. Kaiser was pleased by this signing and was satisfied that his ambition was being matched by me.

The weeks passed by and no one had made an approach for Kimmich despite all of the interest he was attracting at the start of the season. However...

I did incredibly well to get £4.5 million for him as well a '30% of next sale' clause in to sweeten the deal for us. Sevilla and Basel came in with bids of £1.8 million to start, but I wasn't going to let them buy for less than his market value, especially in monthly instalments. All parties were happy, that is except Dominik Kaiser who was now unhappy because letting our most talented player leave wasn't considered an ambitious move.

I had to appease Kaiser, I couldn't risk upsetting the vice-captain who was arguably my best player so far this season. So a mad dash began. It went all the way down to the wire but this is who we ended up with:

Leverkusen - Loan - Vladlen Yurchenko

The creativity and technical ability we lost with the Kimmich sale was soon replaced by the talented Ukrainian. In all honesty, Kimmich hadn't been setting the 2.Bundesliga alight. So to sell him for a sizeable fee and replace him with a loan signing who was marginally better going forward turned out to be a coup.

MK Dons - £2.7m - Dele Alli

I was most excited by the proposition of the fresh faced Englishman. I had been trying to utilise a central winger in to my tactic and when I found Dele he ticked all the boxes. Pacey, a good dribbler and, for an 18 year old, physically solid. The best part of it all is that he so much room for improvement according to the staff. Alli could be a lynchpin for the side for years to come.

Other Transfers

With the upgrade in quality, the abundance of wage money quickly evaporated. Sebastian Heidinger and Fabian Franke were released as neither had made it anywhere near the first team all season so were surplus to requirements. Matthias Morys was allowed to go on Loan to Bielefeld as I had more than enough options for the right wing position. These outgoings didn't weaken the team but helped considerably in getting the wage bill back under control.