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dkpark51

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Still going strong, but it does look like Inter are starting to pull away. How many Champions league spots are Italy allocated? in my game it's 3, but I'm not sure if that has been reduced during the save.

Just checked in game, Italy has a total of 4 places - 3 group stage, 1 best placed play-off. England, Spain have 4 like Italy. Germany has 3 spots - 2 group, 1 playoff.

I think this changes based on how well each league does in the Champion's League?

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January 2014

Lazio 5-2 Parma (Serie A)

Cisse had a storming game with 4 goals all in the first half. Also had a sending off from one of my players and allowed Parma to get back with two goals but we held on for the win.

Cesena 1-0 Lazio (Serie A)

Lost to a penalty and got outplayed by Cesena.

Lazio 4-0 Livorno (Cup)

Rested all of my starters for this cup match and still won comfortably. Livorno had 1 shot in total and it wasn't even on target. New signing Park Gi-Dong and new loanee Gareth Barry played well. Unfortunately, Park came down with injury after scoring. Will discuss transfers at the end of the window. Darn it, drawn with Inter for the quarter-final.

Lazio 1-2 Juventus (Serie A)

A match against a “big gun.” Got dominated early and went down by two goals in the 1st half. Introduced some quick instructions and the match became even. Was only able to get 1 goal back for the loss. Cisse out for 2-3 months with a hip injury.

Novara 0-4 Lazio (Serie A)

Good to get a win after a two game losing streak in the league. Won easily against relegation candidate Novara.

Inter 2-3 Lazio (Cup)

Decided to rest most of my starters with Inter resting a good chunk of theirs as well. We took an early lead in the 3rd minute and held on until a 87th minute Inter equalizer. Went into extra time and got two goals early in ET. Inter got one back a little too late.

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Summary: Inter still quite ahead of the pack and I'm hanging onto 2nd spot. Two consecutive losses in the league isn't something I want to repeat if I want to snag a Champion's League spot. A cup win against Inter means that I have a good chance to win the Cup as other strong teams didn't make it through. I'll talk about my transfer window later tonight.

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Inter Milan have got Gareth Bales legs on full sprint, clearly :D

Bale on full sprint = no chance of catching up ;)

I don't expect to get any closer to Inter on their current form but never say never. Inter could slip up with almost half of the season still to go. Heck, I can slip up too.

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2014 Winter Transfer Window

Park Gi-Dong (ST) – €30k – A K-League striker I really wanted to sign during my Chunnam days. At 30k, wasn't much money for a back-up striker. Especially handy since Cisse has a long-term injury. Has the stats to be a decent poacher.

Gareth Barry (MC/DMC) – loan fee of €60K – was transfer listed for 500k but wanted too much wages for my liking so got him on a loan instead to act as cover for the injured Bonaventura. I'm only paying 20% of his wages. Typical Man City to cover his massive wages.

Macro Motta (DR/WBR) – €700k – Cover for my fullback positions.

Federico Agliardi (GK) – Loan fee €50k – Cover for my GK positions as two of my three goalkeepers were moaning about wanting playing time. Brought this guy in as back-up in case my two other transfer-listed keepers old (in which they didn't).

Future Arranged Transfers: Verdan Corluka was available on the transfer list but my scouts also unearthed these two Brazilian strikers Batista & Diego. My top scouts rated these two lads as PA 4.5 * and were available for cheap minimum release clause fees. I decided to gamble and will bring these two in 2015 instead of filling a starting spot.

Also, arranged a free agent signing of a young Barcelona midfielder – Rafina – for inject some youth into my midfield. Another free agent signing of Adrea Consigli a GK who my scout rates higher than Kameni. Stats don't seem to suggest so but it's a free transfer.

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February 2014

Lazio 3-0 Genoa (Serie A)

Easy win match in which we dominated. Radu, Ledesma & Park netting. Ledesma MoM with a goal and an assist.

AC Milan 1-3 Lazio (Serie A)

AC Milan at the San Siro...... hopefully it'll be an exciting match. Park Gi-Dong with a powerful header from a Weiss cross to give us the lead. Ledesma with a nice low shot from outside the box for another goal. Weiss with a cheeky lob for another goal, all within 15 minutes. AC Milan got a goal but we really had the game with those 3 early goals. A big win. Zarate out with a 2-3 month hip injury.

Lazio 2-0 Chievo (Serie A)

Decided to rest most of my starters for the Cup Semi-Final in a few days. I fairly certain this will work out well due to Chievo's terrible-ness. Generally we played a little better. Barry is proving to be a great tidy player, great range of passing, strong in the middle and hard working. Finished the game with a goal and an assist.

Napoli 2-0 Lazio (Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg)

Deservedly lost to Napoli. Our centre-backs were poor. We'll see if we can make a better showing at home in the 2nd leg.

Pescara 1-1 Lazio (Serie A)

A game we should have easily won instead we drew because of poor play from all players.

Lazio 3-0 Catania (Serie A)

Our finishing was better today in a close game. Weiss MoM with a brace and an assist.

Summary: A busy February that saw us do well in the league. A bit disappointed about our showing in the Cup tie with Napoli. 6 point gap with league leaders Inter and a 9 point gap between us and 3rd place Firoentina. Champion's League is becoming closer to reality.

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March 2014

Fiorentina 1-2 Lazio (Serie A)

Coming into this game, we're ahead of Fiorentina by 9 points in the league. Hopefully we can make it 12. Took the lead with Dann scoring from a corner kick. Fiorentina tied the game with a rocket from way outside the box. We took control of the match (shots 21-6 and had 60% possession) but couldn't grab the lead until substitute Gareth Barry put in a beauty of a low curling cross to give Manucharyan a simple tap-in in the 88th minute. A 12 point gap between 2nd and 3rd now. Good stuff.

Lazio 1-1 Napoli (Serie A)

After last match, Napoli moved up into 2nd. Couldn't make the league gap wider as we drew with Napoli. Inter lost to Cagliari and now there's only a 5 point gap now. Roma, last season's league winner, is now dangerously close to relegation at 17th place and with only one point ahead of 18th.

Bologna 0-1 Lazio (Serie A)

With my three starting attackers out with suspensions/injuries (Cisse, Zarate & Weiss), we struggled to get anything going against Bologna.

Lazio 0-1 Roma (Serie A)

Derby match with rivals Roma. Although they are struggling in the league, they still possess a decent squad. Most of my starters are rested to avoid injury and suspensions (a few with one yellow card away from suspension). Only managed one shot on target.

Lazio 5-0 (5-2) Napoli (Semi-Final Cup 2nd Leg)

Won the Semi-Final with a monster team performance. Malueka with the hat-trick in the 30th minute. Although my teams are not known for their defence, we held Napoli to only a shot on target. A great comeback to progress to the Cup Final against Sampdoria.

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Sampdoria 1-0 Lazio (Serie A)

A terrible performance to cap a terrible March in terms of the league. 1W 3L 1D is pretty awful. We'll need a much better showing in the Cup Final against Sampdoria.

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Still holding onto 2nd place but with my squad morale down and a botched team meeting to make it even worse, worries are mounting for April.

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Should be able to hold on to 2nd place there.

What's happened to Roma? they've gone from title winners to being in a relegation battle. As the Lazio boss I'm sure you're delighted to see them down there :D

I'm not sure what's happened to Roma, they didn't lose quality players from last season and I dont' think they had much of an injury crisis. I should be happy that my arch-rivals are doing so poorly but if they get relegated, I can't pick up their players on the cheap because the fans would moan about it.

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April 2014

Lazio 0-4 Inter (Serie A)

Disaster as Fontas gets a straight red in the 6th minute. Shambolic defending and being a man down early against quality opposition equals heavy loss.

Siena 1-2 Lazio (Serie A)

Grabbed the opening goal just after the start of the 2nd half. Cisse with the goal in his first start since his injury. Grabbed a great goal from a Weiss solo effort in the 80th minute to kill off the game.

Lazio 2-0 Udinese (Serie A)

Comfortable win. Two wins in a row is comforting.

Palermo 1-3 Lazio (Serie A)

Good win for us. A sending off from each team. Is it just my style of play or does the Italian leagues card easily?

Lazio 1-1 Cagliari (Serie A)

Boring draw.

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Summary: Three league games and a Cup Final left for the season. Surprisingly we're only 4 points behind Inter for the title so there's a small chance. Excited to have qualified for Champion's League. Roma dug themselves out of a near relegation spot.

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May 2014

Parma 0-3 Lazio (Serie A)

Rested most of my players because of the Cup Final in 3 days. Easy win especially with Parma having a dismissal in the game. Other news Inter lost against Catania which means I'm only 1 point behind them with two games left in the league.

Sampdora 2-2 (Penatlies 3-2) Lazio (Italian Cup Final)

Exciting match. Sampdoria scoring two long range blasts. Trailing by 1 goal until 3 minutes into extra-time Park scores off a fortunate bounce. Extra-time we were creating all the chances. Lost to penalties.

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Lazio 1-1 Cesena (Serie A)

Draw for us, win for Inter.

Juventus 0-0 Lazio (Serie A)

First 0-0 draw for us this season. Inter won today clinching 1st.

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2013-14 Summary

League: 2nd in Serie A

Italian Cup: Runner-up

Balance: €637K

Current Wages: €953K p/w

Wage Budget: €1.05M p/w

Average Attendance: 39,177

Fans' Player of the Year: Zarate

Serie A Team of the Year

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Lazio Players: Scott Dann, Mauro Zarate, Cristian Ledesma

Lazio Best Eleven

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Player Stats

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Other club watch

Chievo Relegated

Chunnam 3rd place for 2013/currently 5th, ACL: currently past the 2nd round, Jones continues to be their best player.

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Great work finishing 2nd with Lazio! :thup:
You did brilliantly to keep in touch with Inter, just a shame they never had a big slip up.

Great finish though, Champions League next season! :thup:

Excellent season with Lazio :thup:

I'm surprised how low scoring, points wise, the league was. 64 points for third place is a ridiculously low total for a 38 game season.

Hopefully you can take that last step.
Excellent début season with Lazio :thup:

Cheers everyone. Hopefully, I'll be able to improve on next season.

I did notice that the points were quite low. The other teams were just very inconsistent.

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17 Jul 11

I accepted the Argentina position. I also successfully applied for the South Korea and England position but Argentina wanted me first. Exciting to manage the attacking talents of Argentina.

Nothing but a few friendlies to manage in the future. Copa America to deal with next year. Hopefully, I'll be able to win it and give Argentina it's first Copa America since 1993.

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2014-15 Season Preview

Board Expectations

Serie A: Euro Cup

Europen Champion's Cup: Group Stage | Italian Cup: Quarter-Final

Media Prediction: 4th | Title Odds: 16-1

I think I'll be lucky if I qualify for the Champion's Cup again because: (1) I massively overachieved and (2) other teams massively underachieved last season. Given the modest transfer budget (when compared to other top teams), I don't think I'll be able to vastly improve the squad. My goal is to qualify for the Euro Cup and get to the knockout stages of the Champion's League.

My Champion's League draw

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Groups A-E

Groups F-H

Finances

Transfer Budget: €16.5M

Current Wages: €895K | Wage Budget: €950K

Balance: €19.3M

Feel like I've done well in the finances department. Trimmed the wage budget to be less than what it was last year. Significantly improved the coffers with Champion's League involvement.

Transfer Summary

Key Signing: Kyriakos Papadopoulos €8M

Total Spent: €12.5 | Total Recieved: €6.25M

A decent window as I feel the squad improved a little bit in depth. I don't feel that the team is vastly improved as I feel that Park Chu-Young (in on loan) is about equal to Cisse but less injury-prone. I brought in Andrea Consigli as I felt Kameni's eccentricity cost us some points last season. Rafinha, Saivet and Shelvey to add depth. I'm riding a lot on Papadopoulos to improve the defense. There is some concern for some of his mental stats - composure, concentration but his other stats are pretty solid.

Tactics

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Last season, I felt that we conceded a bit too much so this year I decided to address this. I was previously playing a high defensive line playing the off-side trap. This year I set the defensive line deeper and stopped using the off-side trap. Also, I changed the strategy from attack to control.

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Argentina International Friendlies 2014

06 Sep 14 Argentina 2-0 Ireland

10 Sep 14 N. Ireland 1-3 Argentina

Two comfortable wins against opposition I should really be beating. Aguero is a beast - he may have not scored many goals but he was single-handedly creating chances. Good start to my international management career.

Upcoming Fixtures

11 Oct 14 Australia Argentina

15 Oct 14 Argentina Italy

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Papadopoulos looks a bargain at eight million. Should be able to sell him on for at least double if you want to.

Not even a month into the new season but I like what see from Papadopoulos No goals conceded 4 games into the season. I do anticipate some errors but overall he's been performing well. Assistant manager thinks he still has a bit to improve.

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Lazio

2014-15 Mid-Season Update

Standings | Player Stats | Fixtures

Board Expectations

Serie A: Challenge for title (2nd in League)

Champion's Cup: Reach Group Stage (First Knockout Round)

Italian Cup: Quarter-Final (Lost in 1st Round)

Serie A

Again, I'm surprised to find myself challenging for the title half-way through the season. I find myself behind unexpected league leading Genoa by 2 points. The most startling thing about the league is how the bigger teams are quite struggling. Last season's winner, Inter, is flirting with relegation at 16th. Claudio Ranieri got the sack and now Pep Guardiola is in charge. Roma and Juventus are 9th and 8th respectively. AC Milan is 4 points behind me in 3rd.

European Champion's Cup

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I started off against Bayern and got hammered 3-0 away. Picked ourselves after that heavy loss and went onto qualify for the knockout stages. Unfortunately got drawn with Ancelotti's Barcelona.

Italian Cup

Lost in the 1st Round to newly promoted Atlanta. I take full blame for that loss as I started all my starters.

Finances

Transfer Budget: €17.78M | Transfer Budget Remaining: 0

Current Wages: €999K | Wage Budget: €1.007M

Balance: €16.2M

Balance really healthy even after significant transfer spending.

Transfer Activity

Transfer Summary

Key Signing: Fernando €9M

Total Spent: €23M | Total Recieved: €8M

Fernandois a defensive midfielder with good stats that my staff rates highly. I found him transfer listed by Real Madrid and interacted with the board. The result was the chairman arranging the transfer and the contract himself. I also loaned in Martin Olsson from Real Madrid and he is a big upgrade in the left-back position.

A big future signing was Ademir Vargas from Atlas in Mexico for €13M. I'm really excited about this guy as he has terrific stats for his age and is natural in multiple positions in the middle and right side of midfield. Understudy for Ledesma and perhaps cover for the right wing? So many choices. He'll join 01 Jul 15.

Tactics

Started the season with tactics described earlier to mixed results. I was definitely conceding less but scoring became inconsistent. I decided to switch to a 4-2-2-2 (2CM, 2 attacking wingers, 2 strikers) and found that the central midfield was way too easily overrun.

I decided to switch up to a tactic that I found the forums and am liking the results.

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Nice one, despite missing out on the title.

Thanks! Getting Champion's Cup football in my 2nd season is fantastic enough. Maybe title this year.

Donkey Kong! :thup:

:D

Seems like every side that wins the title in your save, ends up in a relegation battle the next season. Maybe you're better off not winning the league ;)

I was thinking that as well, LOL, but if I win the title I think it'll increase my chances of getting a job in La Liga as that would be my preferred location in the next season or two.

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Fair play, that's a pretty gung-ho tactic!

How do you get on when teams 'park the bus'? At times, a more patient build up is needed to break teams down.

I haven't thought much about when teams 'park the bus'. Would you recommend slowing the tempo and reducing position roaming?

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2014-15 European Champion's Cup

Current Holders: Liverpool

1st Leg

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A good home draw. Maybe a cheeky away goal to win the tie?

2nd Leg

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What an exciting game. I thought we were through to the quarter-finals when Rudnevs scored in the 77th minute but Barcelona's Leo made it otherwise.

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I haven't thought much about when teams 'park the bus'. Would you recommend slowing the tempo and reducing position roaming?

Well, it's totally your call, but from my experience, the more successful a club becomes, the more likely the opposition will play an ultra defensive tactic. When this happens, sometimes a slower, more patient build up is needed to entice the opposition into making a mistake so that you able to make the breakthrough. Just something to think about, there might not be any need at the moment :)

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Well, it's totally your call, but from my experience, the more successful a club becomes, the more likely the opposition will play an ultra defensive tactic. When this happens, sometimes a slower, more patient build up is needed to entice the opposition into making a mistake so that you able to make the breakthrough. Just something to think about, there might not be any need at the moment :)

I haven't had too many teams really play ultra-defensive on us yet but I can see that becoming a possibility in the future. Will add another tactic to next season that will address this.

Great battle between you and Barcelona!

I was hollering in my room when I scored the 2nd goal and then curse words when Barca took the lead.

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Lazio

2014-15 Season Review

Table | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2

Serie A: Winners

Champion's League: 1st Knockout Phase (Lost to Barcelona)

Italian Cup: 1st Round (Lost to Atlanta)

Serie A

Huge achievement winning the league. I may have won because other teams were under-performing but I'll take it. Genoa was leading until they faltered in the two months of the season. Inter, last season's winners, was able to safely avoid the drop by finishing 15th. I just hope I avoid this strange phenomenon of previous league winners flirting with relegation next season.

Champion's League

Playoff Tree

A decent showing in my first European Champion's League appearance. Got into the knockout phase by finishing a comfortable 2nd in the group states. Lost to Barcelona. Eventual winners were AC Milan.

Italian Cup

Lost in the our first game of the Italian Cup, next time I'll try to rest a few starters and not all. Palermo ended up winning it this season.

Finances

Transfer Budget: €17.78M | Transfer Budget Remaining: 0

Current Wages: €999K | Wage Budget: €1.007M

Balance: €41.6M

Rolling in the Champion's League dough! Hoping to see a good chunk of this for my transfer kitty next season.

Player Performance

Player Stats

Mauro Zarate and Vladimir Weiss were my top performers for the season and are currently being wanted by several clubs. I do not plan on selling them. New signing Papadopoulos was a rock in defence although he made a mistake or two, I'm hoping his new training schedule will help out his mental stats. Martin Olsson and Fernado were big factors in securing the title as they played well from the start. I will try to sign Olsson ASAP. Par Chu-Young was a huge disappointment and I will not spend 10M on his buy-out as per my loan agreement. I plan to use most of my transfer for a top complete forward as we could use a bit more offensive firepower.

Other Club Watch

Chievo: Finished 11th in Serie B. At one point in the season, they were in a relegation spot. Glad to see them avoid the drop.

Chunnam: Half-way through the season and currently 1st in K-League. Also appears to be making a decent run at the cups. Jones continues to be a goal scoring machine. He is linked with other clubs so I wonder how long he'll stay at Chunnam.

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