FM 10: Official Cypriot League Management Thread

Featuring a patch from Hershie (me): http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159823

Thanks to the new editor, for the first time ever we are able to properly to play in Cyprus!

Cyprus is a small island nation in the Eastern Mediterranean, a member of the EU, and a former British Protectorate. The island is known for it's year-long sunshine, friendly people and fantastically varied cuisine. But too, Cyprus is becoming increasingly known for it's football.

The Cypriot League is one of the most ethnically diverse and fast growing league structures in Europe, over recent years attracting players from across the world and becoming a force to be reckoned with in Europe, with Cypriot teams competing in the Champions League group stage for the past two years.

Players such as Maciej Żurawski, Bruno Aguiar and Nuno Morais have turned down the chance to play for big British sides to play in Cyprus, and international players from across the world have chosen Cyprus to be their home.

For all the positives however, there is a negative side to the Cypriot game. The rapid growth and the hunger of the fans for an ever higher standard of football has left much of the league in financial turmoil. There is very little money to be won below the top division, and for the top sides to maintain their position of financial security, success and participation in European football is a must.

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The top-flight of Cypriot football, the Marfin Laiki League (otherwise known as the A division) is a hugely competitive league with 14 clubs fighting it out for 3 European places, with a further 3 relegated to the B division.

The teams competiting in the Marfin Laiki League for the 2009/10 season are:

- AEL Limassol

- AE Paphos

- Aris Limassol

- Anorthosis Famagusta

- APEP Pitsilia

- APOEL Nicosia

- Apollon Limassol

- APOP Kinyras Peyias

- Doxa Katokopia

- Enosis Neon Paralimni

- Ermis Aradippou

- Ethnikos Achna

- Nea Salamis

- Omonoia Nicosia

Of these 14 teams, the 'Big Three' of Cypriot football are undoubtedly APOEL, Anorthosis and Omonoia.

These 4 players I would suggest are the spine of the team. I am playing with 4-5-1 formation with Morais as the anchorman, with Alexandrou as Att mid left, and Charalambidis Att mid right, and Miro as the target man. Seems to work quite well thus far. Qualified for champions league; dominated 3 -0 by Dinamo away, but got a very pleasing 2-2 draw at home with AZ.

The area for improvement I would recommend would be left back position, as Haxhi is getting old and seems to be quite error prone. Ilia offers good back up as he is primarily a right back but can play left back.

Possibly a new centre back would be a good idea, as Kontis is getting on a bit and I'm not convinced Paulo Jorge is up to the task. I tried to kill two birds with one stone and signed Nigerian Ifeanyi Udeze on a free as cover as he can play Def centre and left. So far he seems to be more than adequate.

APOEL have many attacking midfielders such as Paulista, Breska, Kosowski and Pinto that can do a job if the first choices of Charalambidis and Alexandrou are unavailable.

In the defensive midfield positions there is Satsias, Michail, Broerse and Morais. So personally I believe Midfield is not an area in need of improvement immediately. As back up for Miro, Sikora and Zewlakow are definitely good enough for the top division in Cyprus.

As the game predicts, APOEL have a good enough squad to win league, however, to be successful in the champions league a major overhaul will be needed.

Nice start mate

Did what I was too lazy to do, well done .

I have finished my first season as Apoel. I thought it might be helpful to post a few screenshots. As said previously I believe Apoel have 4 "star" players. The first one being Chiotis. Here's his stats at the end of the season:

As you can see, he did very well in the Cypriot league, but conceeded many in the Champions League. Although, even Buffon or Van der Saar would have struggled with the quality of the back four in front of him.

The anchor man:

Again, Broerse, was excellent in the league, and did pretty good in the holding role against Europe's elite. He did what was asked of him as an anchor man, and he also deputised as a centre back when needed.

The creativity came from this man:

Charalambidis, as in real life, is a very skillful player, and made many key passes, ok, he didnt get many assists but his passing was always accurate, and he often ran past the left back, and contributed a few goals. He is also able to play in centre midfield, or in the hole, but I found him to be most effective as an advanced winger. He was an integral part of the team, and the formation was partly designed with him in mind. The other winger was:

While, Alexandrou's attributes aren't great on paper(screen) he was always a threat. He is an out and out winger with good pace and acceleration. I also happen to have met him while out in a bar in Cyprus, and he's a throughly nice fella. His value steadily increased throughout the course of the season, and I received offers for him, but all were rejected and he is also very loyal to Apoel.

The main goal threat came from:

Miro was given the job of being the lone striker, with target man settings. His goal tally of 13 in 18 game is very impressive if you ask me. Again, we were totally outclassed in the Champions league, our solitary point coming from a 2-2 home draw with AZ. He is only 32, so has got another couple of seasons in him at least. You may find playing him up front with Sikora or Zewlakow more fruitful, but I was happy with his contribution over the course of the season.

The formation used over the season was as follows: (Broerse should be in the holding role with Morais set as a defensive central midfielder)

The end of season finances looked like this:

A nice hefty £10million profit made over the course of the season, around half of that came from the champions league and increased attendence money for big home games against Arsenal and Az. The board at the start of the second season has given me free reign to spend all the clubs money on transfers, obviously I wont but its nice to know that if you have a successful first season, you can build in the future.

The final league table is as follows, as can be seen it was a close run thing, and in all honesty the Cyprus league is pretty much a two horse race. Anorthosis are dangerous, but how Paralimni managed to have such a good season I dont know. At one point they were 8 points ahead of us and Omonoia:

I only made 3 signings over the course of the season, all frees but they did very well in their first season in Cyprus:

As can be seen he is now valued at £2.1million. But I fully intend on keeping him.

I also signed:

The fact that I signed two defenders indicates where I believed the squad to be lacking at the time. Also worth noting that both players were called back up to their respective international squads for the World Cup.

The season's transfers looked like this:

As you can see I also signed Mavrogenidis. This was an impulse buy, as Apoel didn't really need any more defensive minded midfielders, but due to his experience I thought why not? I was lucky because as the end of the transfer window approached a couple of Greek clubs expressed an interest and I was happy to let him go, and made a nice £350K profit along the way!

Here's the season summary: (I just noticed that the two free transfers above were noted as the best signings of the season, just goes to prove searching for those bargains really does pay off!)

The final screenshot is the end of season player stats:

I guess the main noteworthy items here are Omonoia's Zurawski's impressive goal tally and Makridis' numerous assists. You can also see where Apoel made up for the lack of a better than a goal a game striker; the passing ability of the defensive midfielders.

Well thats it, I hope that this has been useful to anyone considering managing in Cyprus, and while this going to sound like the end of a corny speech at some second rate award ceremony but... none of this would have been possible without Hershie's incredible editor file enabling us all to finally manage in Cyprus (go to the editors hideway, and download the file, and discover for yourselves the joy of managing in Cyprus). Here's the link to the thread where you can download the file: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=159823 .Thanks Hershie!

You said you just had England, Greece, Cyprus loaded yes?

Still not sure what leagues to load for Cyprus But I'll be managing Anorthosis.

Started my Anorthosis save.

I loaded:

Brazil (Top Division)

Cyprus (Top Two Divisions)

England (Top Division)

Greece (Top Two Divisions)

Portugal (Top Two Divisions)

Spain (Top Division)

AND

All current International Players

All Players from Argentina's 1st division.

All Players from the top clubs in Serbia, Poland and Bulgaria.

I'll be posting my progress .

I beat Genk in the Europa League qualifiers with Anorthosis, and now have to beat FC Twente to qualify. I won't beat Twente but it was good getting as far as I got.

I qualified for the Europa League

Tough games but I got the tactics spot on .

Totally forgot about this thread.

Anyway, I've still not got into a long-term game, but I've just started over again as APOEL. I strongly recommend having a good number of players from South America loaded, as there are some gems (from Ecuador in particular). Cristian Mora is a top goalie should you choose to sign him, and is available on a free at the start.

I've been working on new logos and facepacks for my patch, and these should be released soon. I've also sorted out a few contract/transfer issues, added Theodosis Kyprou to the DB, and declared Dobrasinovic for Cyprus. More to come.

Keep the thread alive.

Most epic finish to a league ever:

Won on the last game

Hershie says a new version of the edit will be released soon that will really make things perfect

Been playing as Omonoia and Im drawing close to the end of my fourth season.

http://bildr.no/view/557962 <- Its been fun

Just beat Tottenham 3-2 with my Anorthosis Famagusta side . I missed out on making the Knockout Rounds of the CL by a point though

Just started a game with APOEL. Let's see how we get on Only got the Greek Super League loaded alongside a medium database (laptop isn't too good) so might be a bit limited for players. Never mind.

Currently playing in the second flight with PAEEK. Should be a fun challenge.

Any update for FM 2011???