DutchSoccer Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 FM15 I still remember visiting the “Oosterpark stadium” for the first time as an 11 year old boy with a friend. Born and raised in Groningen...I knew: I want to play for FC Groningen one day.. I had a season ticket for ten years (I moved abroad the last 15 years, but still visit a game every year); I experienced it all, relegation, promotion, european soccer, moving to the Euroborg. The 1990/1991 season was the best season FC Groningen ever had. Third place, and in the title race until the end. For the non-Groningen knowers; some top-level players came out of our youth ranks. Most well-known are Arjen Robben and the Koeman brothers. But Groningen is mostly known for there excellent scouting; Luis Suarez, Dusan Tadic, Virgil van Dijk, Marcus Berg, Tim Matavz where some excellent signings. But also Granqvist and Nevland... Wait, I am going off... Before I move on, I have to mention Milko Djurovski, maybe FC Groningen's fan favorite. So I never got to play for FC Groningen, but now I get to be the manager!!! Looking at the league PSV, Ajax,Feyenoord, Vitesse, Twente and AZ definatly have a better squad than us. We have an ok budget, so let's see what we can do on the transfer market. This is my best 11: Padt; Kappelhof Botteghin vd Laan Burnet; Kieftenbeld Lindgren vd Velden; Chery De Leeuw Antonio Lindgren, De Leeuw, Botteghin, and Chery are my top players. vd Velden, Antonio, Burnet, van der Laan, Kieftenbeld and Kappelhof are useful. Our goalie Padt is not good enough to get to the top... We need more money to bring in better players.... Kieftenbeld has his limitation, is worth some money and Feyenoord wants him – let's sell him. We need a new goalie, attacking fullbacks, a replacement midfielder for Kieftenbeld, another winger and a striker.. Wow, that is a lot of players... Let's get to work! My best choice for goalie: Kuszczak (free agent) Only got him on a one year deal, but outbid Leeds and M'brough...! I found several decent attacking left defender, but Ricardo (100k) was my first choice Got Ivan on loan for the right attacking back. Will train Burnet to also play right back, so will have an alternative. I was tough to get ride of Kieftenbeld, but finally Genk took him! And Virgil van Dijk moved to OM, so got some extra cash from that deal also. I found Savitskly, a winger who can finish too..($100k) Estrada will be perfect for our midfield (free agent)... 31 year Chili-man. Great center forward (free agent)! What a bargains! My staff told me Botteghin could get injury problems, and van der Laan is not more than decent. So put my last money into Strandberg, a center back (350k) I like the barca style of play, had to make some adjustments, but pretty much played like wwfan did in his Barca post http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/275877-The-Barcelona-Style-My-Interpretation We are no Barcelona, but for the Dutch league we should be able to dominate with this team. Enough technical players, smart midfields, good level attacking full backs and cutting in wingers: this is what the team looks like: After a good pre-season, and some nice Europa league play-in games, the first Eredivisie game: AZ away... We where the better team, but a 1-1 draw... To get into the group stage of the Europa league we had a decent draw: M.Haifa.. Give the fact Lokomotive Moscow, Spurs or Real Soceidad where the other options... But unfortunately a 2-0 loss.. We had the better chances, but my defense is not gelling yet.. vd Laan is also new at the club, new goalie, new full backs... Should of at-least gotten the away goal. Oh well, Johan Cruyff told me: “every disadvantage has an advantage”. We don't make it into the group stage that's ok. We don't have a large squad to rotate, and my players will be to tired for league play with the Euro league.. I don't think it is going to bring in a whole lot of money, and we may not have the team to get really far anyway.. European experience? True, but better do one thing right than two things half... At home we where also the better team vs. M.Haifa, but fell short... only a 1-0 win... Out of Europe, next year better. We didn't have a plan B to fall back on to force the goal.. I only trained one formation... My staff told me to work on more formations... Well better late than never, so created a more aggressive attacking style, control with less short passing... And the third option of playing will be a true route 1: 4-2-4 all balls high to target man Stracqualursi... Most center backs in the Eredivisie are pretty weak in the air, so a true plan B if the passing game is not working... The league is going great! 9 wins in a row so far... Against NAC we used our high ball plan B formation for the last 10 minutes, and Straq did his job! 1-0 last minute, hehe. Pretty easy schedule so far, but soon we will have Feyenoord and Ajax away though... A 7 point gap with Ajax... What a start of the season! Title dreams are realistic If we don't get to many injuries... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Great start! Groningen are a constant 4th-8th side by 2023 on my Dutch save, with one 17th finish. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hope you can keep it up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Good luck with this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Thanks guys! We're still going.. will update soon Deisler: Read your MVV/AZ story - good stuff! Hehe, to funny Low being fired at Groningen.. He only won the world cup.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 YESS! The double my first season!! Dominated the league and an easy cup win Party on the "grote markt"!! Championsleague here we come! With champ money we should be able to make the squad deeper, we dropped some points due to a red card, injuries en suspensions. For awhile we where looking to stay undefeated! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Congratulations!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanks Deisler! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 2015/2016 season On to the second season! Be great if we can concur Europe, if we get 3th place in our championsleague group, winning the Europa league could be a realistic goal. In the Championsleague there will be to many teams 'out of our league'.. I got a 8 million euro (!) to spend, and got an 12 million salary budget. In addition I sold: - Botteghin (3 million - contract up next year, and we can get better) - Chery (we can get better, and got 5 million!) - Antonio (5 million) - Kappelhof (1 million) - Hoessen (2 million) After a lot of scouting and patience.. These where my transfers in: I used a lot of my transfer money to increase our salary budget... I know, not a lot of Dutch players anymore.. My goal is to have a 50% dutch squad in 5 years. In addition like to get a few Groningen youngsters in the squad. Bacuna looks promising right now (his older brother got through the Groningen system also). I am very excited about Rotariu, only 20 and already this good. My loan deals Bentaleb and Hazard are more than good additions... And I signed Jimenez on a 3 year deal – he is old and his natural condition isn't to high... Shoot! didn't pay attention to that... He might be a good help as a tudor. Our team: GK: Kuszcack - Padt - vd Lei D R: Ivan - Gunino D C: Sorensen - Boye D C: Strandberg – van der Laan D L: De Ceglie - Ricardinho DM C: Bentaleb – van Nieff M C: De Leeuw - Odegaard - Bacuna M C: Lindgren - Estrada MA R: Rotariu - Kakuta F C: Stracqualursi - Hazard MA L: Savitskiy - Jiminez We got a lot better of a squad than last year. Maybe Ajax will challenge us more.. They have a nice team, didn't sell anybody and signed some good players. I don't expect anything out of PSV, great players but Cocu's formation doesn't seem to work... Let's go for our 2nd title, and Europe watch out... FC Groningen is coming! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Cocu is an appallig manager on FM. He never does well with PSV Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 2nd double in a row!!! Doesnt' get boring winning those titles Also a Johan Cruyff schaal. For a while Ajax was a treat, but we got our form back on time. Rotariu was the man of the season, and Strac did his job scoring. Europe was dissapointing again We started of really well.. Beat Shaktar at home 2-0, and tied Juventus 0-0 away from home. Where even with Real Madrid till minute 80th and lost.. After that we lost 3-1 away at Real, lost to Shaktar away. Only needed to beat Juventus at home.. Where winning 1-0, but they tied it up 5 minutes before time.. Last place, so no Europa league... We could hang with the better teams, so that is promising. Next season better!! I had two exciting signings during the winter; Aje (17 year old Norwegian defensive mid) but he won't join us for another year, likes to stay on loan in Norway.. And Vagner Love. Love had to get use to playing, so didn't do so much. But hope he will be the man next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Congrats on the second consecutive title! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 2016/2017s goal: I think will be able to dominate the league again. We have to get out of the Championsleague group... 3th place is ok, so we can compete in the Europa league. But be nice to upset some big clubs, I think it's possible. 2016/2017 team: Got a deeper squad, so we can rest players more often to compete in Europe... Veendorp came back from loan, very excited how Vagner love will do.. He can do great in the "Messi half nine role", the big signing in Jovic for 7 million, only 18 years old.. Loaned Bacuna out to NAC, him and Veendorp are home grown.. Will have to get them into the team! Nobody wanted to loan my USA player Stencel (i think he's a regen) - that's ok, I still need to train him more to fit into the system. Curious how my new midfield will do... Odegaard will be my new deeper playmaker, and Hazard advanced playmaker.. GK: Kuszcack - Padt - vd Lei D R: Ivan - Gunino D C: Sorensen - Boye D C: Strandberg – Veendorp D L: Tagliafico - De Ceglie DM C: Bentaleb – Ajer (another norwegian wonder child - not coming till winter) M C: Hazard - De Leeuw M C: Odegaard - Lindgren MA R: Rotariu - Kakuta F C: Vagner Love - Stracqualursi MA L: Savitskiy - Jovic - Stencel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Holland beat Germany in the 2nd round of the euro, but lost in the 1/4 finals to Italy... Coach Janssen got sacked, I applied for the job.. But Fred Rutten got it! FRED RUTTEN?! I didn't even get to sit down with the federation.. I was planning on doing both teams at the same time... FRED RUTTEN of all people!! He didn't have any success with Feyenoord... Maybe Fred will get sacked also after the world cup... But plenty of time in my career to take the national team job, very little change on success anyway.. Unless your team is stacked.. van Persie and Robben will be to old anyway.. Zivkovic and Depay will have to do it for Holland.. Will they become as good as RVP and Robben though..? Belgium won the euro, they have a great team! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Thanks Deisler! Who won the euro and world cup in your save? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Wow back to back title Hope you can make better improvements in Champions League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 2016/2017 results... 3th title and cup in a row! Also Super cup again. In Holland we are dominating!! Record on points! A pity we couldn't get the undefeaded league season... Vitesse is the tough nut to crack. Lost to them in the league, and needed our 4-2-4 everything or nothing formation in the Dutch cup to beat them!! Championsleague... Ai ai Finally out of the group stage, 1/16 round Benfica 3-0 at home.. Lost 4-0 away... !@#$&^%**! Need to go back to the drawing board, and develope a better away tactic.. We did had a great game vs. Liverpool... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted February 28, 2015 Author Share Posted February 28, 2015 2017/2018 season Cameroon! Looked for a National team as a 2nd job - it being a World Cup year... Martino job was on the line after he didn't win the Confederations Cup... But he beat Brazil in a friendly, and things calmed down in Argentina.. So I took the Cameroon job! We do have to beat Congo in a playoff to get in the WC... Interesting team, hope we can surprise! Was able to extend all contracts, except Odegaard; in July 2018 he would walk out for free.. PSG bought him for 60 million euro.. So have some decent money.. Didnt' really spend it.. Got Gaston Gill Romero for 7 million and Tielemans (loan from Man City) to replace Odegaard, picked up Bonomo last winter (18 year super Italian goalie) for only 500K. Also got Acosta for free. Stracqurlursi will move to Boca in november - Needed a plan B target player, so for Luke de Jong for 7 million.. Yes, a Dutch player! The Team: GK: Bonomo Kuszcack - vd Lei D R: Fabinho - Gunino D C: Sorensen - Boye D C: Strandberg – Veendorp D L: Tagliafico - De Ceglie DM C: Ajer - Bentaleb M C: Hazard - Bacuna M C: Romero - Tielemans MA R: Rotariu - Acosta F C: Vagner Love - Luuk de Jong MA L: Savitskiy - Jovic Developed an away tactic (from the pairs and combination pdf - thank you Llama!). 3322 counter short passing.. More people behind the ball, so might be able to counter better! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Wow another league title in a row Decent money from Odegaard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchSoccer Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Wow another league title in a row Decent money from Odegaard Thanks John1! Dutch league is not difficult anymore... Europe is so much more difficult!! Hehe... IRL I think the most expensive Eredivisie player ever was Ruud van Nistelrooy - ManU bought him for 57 million euro... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Thanks Deisler! Who won the euro and world cup in your save? Italy won back-to-back World Cups in 2018 & 2022 Where as Belgium won Euro 2016 & France won Euro 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torminator Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Groningen Koningen! Want als ik weg ben dan mis ik de straten, vanaf de Toren, tot aan Westerhaven. Ik mis de grachten, de mensen, Stadjers, studenten Het allermooiste accent Geen Frankrijk, laat staan Kameroen. Doe mij maar het gras, Het gras van het Noorderplantsoen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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