[FM12] The complete world encyclopedia of insults shouted at virtual football players

[noikeee]

Good luck in the final stage.

Thanks, hasn't started particularly well tho.

[noikeee]

Westerlo - Youth intake 2017

Best player

Utterly useless bunch.

[noikeee]

March 2017

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Mons 1-1 Westerlo (Montero)

A late equaliser saved us, substitute Keko assisting substitute Montero, as we tried every tactical trick in the book to stop Mons’ narrow 4-4-2 diamond but never quite pulled it off.

It’s the end of the regular season and with points sliced in half for the top 6 teams, we head into the playoffs with 2 less than Standard, equal points with Genk, 1 ahead of Club Brugge.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Anderlecht 1-0 Westerlo

We didn’t deserve this. We made Anderlecht utterly harmless all game, and bothered them more than they bothered us through set pieces, but they scored one from nothing late in the game.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Westerlo 1-0 Standard (Djidji)

So important to beat the leaders at this stage! It feels like I’ve written this a billion times before, but it’s happened yet again: we set our defense tight, deep and in many numbers, then made things happen for us in set pieces and counter-attacks (in this case a corner). That may sound like I play just like Greece, but the difference is we love to have the ball and have plenty of fluidity!

Player of the month

Bernard Malanda (DR) – This young full-back went directly into the starting 11 when he arrived in the Summer and never lost his place, this month he was the only player to have a 7.0 rating or above in all the 3 games we played.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Summary

With pretty much only big games remaining and such a tight group at the top, anything can happen. I’m delighted to have diminished the gap to Standard, not so much to watch Genk profit from our win and move to 1st – a remarkable turnaround given 3 months ago they were 7th and 17 points from the top (albeit with 3 games in hand).

[noikeee]

April 2017

Transfers (in)

Óscar Jiménez (ST / AMR) (free) – Super quick 21yo striker who looks good enough to challenge Naert and Montero for a first team place, arrived injured tho.

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Genk 1-1 Westerlo (Montero)

We were on the back foot heavily all game long and they eventually scored. That forced us to set up a much riskier strategy and that led us to an equalizer.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Westerlo 1-0 Mons (Djidji)

Should’ve won this by a few more given we had a bunch of good chances, but we didn’t and that made for a tense game until the end.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Club Brugge 0-1 Westerlo (Al-Kuwari(og))

Tight game, pretty much no chances either way, a hilarious owngoal gave us an immensely valuable away win.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Westerlo 4-0 Anderlecht (Djidji, Titi(og), Larrosa, Ortiz)

Huge win but it we were nowhere near as dominant as the result suggests, Anderlecht missed a fair amount of chances and the first 3 goals were from corners!

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Standard 3-2 Westerlo (Naert, Ortiz)

Epic game which unfortunately didn’t go our way – when we would’ve deserved clearly better –, and probably will win the title for Standard as they pull a 4 points advantage. We scored early by Naert but they turned it around before half-time with two shots from outside the area. We went all out for it and eventually equalised through a penalty kick but 5 minutes from injury time a poor tackle from Rune Rasmussen went inside our own goal.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Westerlo 1-2 Genk (Larrosa)

Oh dear, another hugely important match that went horribly wrong, Genk move 3 points ahead of us in 2nd place severely diminishing our chances to reach the Champions League. It was undeserved tho, we had far more chances but they took theirs to go up 2-0 in the 2nd half. A corner goal gave us some hope but it was too late.

Player of the month

Koffi Djidji (DC) – Superb form from the Ivorian centre-back, including 2 goals and 3 consecutive MOM performances.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Summary

Such a shame, we were in fantastic form as we arrived to the two big matches 1 point behind the leaders Standard, but then we lost somewhat undeservedly both of them. The title’s gone, 2nd place (and Champions League qualification) could still happen, it’s not looking good but there’s still 2 games to play and Genk plays Standard.

[noikeee]

May 2017

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Mons 0-2 Westerlo (Naert, Cidinho)

We were winning 2-0 by the 15th minute and after that pretty much nothing happened.

Jupiler Pro League Championship Group: Westerlo 3-0 Club Brugge (Al-Kuwari(og), Naert, Ceppelini)

Surprisingly comfortable win as we were considerably better than Club Brugge. There was big drama in the Genk match as they lost a lead with 3 minutes to go which would’ve given them the title, but a draw was still enough for them to hang on to 2nd ahead of us.

Player of the month

Remi Naert (ST) – One goal in each of the final two matches.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Summary

I am very much frustrated by how this season eventually panned out because I thought a long time ago I had at least 2nd place in the bag, and the subsequent Champions League qualification which would’ve been a massive financial breakthrough. This way a 3rd place only equals my best season here in Belgium two years ago, albeit finishing 1 point behind the champions is encouraging. Given only last season we had a bad year and languished in the table midfield I suppose it’s big progress.

I want to do at least another season in Belgium as surely we don’t need to improve a lot to get the extra 2 points we needed to become champions, but am also worrying we may be hitting a ceiling in club development.

[noikeee]

Analysis, highlights and numbers – 2016/2017 season

Tactics and usual starting eleven

Little interest in tactical terms as this is the same base tactic as last year except some player roles have changed, but in terms of players it’s remarkable that despite no squad revolution there’s 5 or 6 different starters from last season’s picks.

Squad

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Remi Naert (ST) – Had quite a poor patch in the first few months of the season but picked up later on, was this season’s top scorer albeit with a slightly underwhelming figure of 15 goals.

4. Bernard Malanda (DR) – Great signing as he ensured no-one else got anywhere near being considered for the right-back spot, despite an extremely promising kid named Jorge Vera next on the pecking order.

3. Henrique Miranda (DL, ML) – Consistency personified, the man can do left-back and left-midfield with the same high level of performance.

2. Koffi Djidji (DC) – The improvements in skills since his arrival a few years ago have been astonishing, he keeps getting better and better and this season netted 8 goals plus was mentioned 7 times as Man of the Match.

1. Cidinho (AMC, MC) – When I set out to take control of the game he was invaluable, even in cagier games he solved things like his memorable brace vs Chelsea. Great player, could have less injuries though.

Match of the season

Westerlo 2-1 Chelsea

We were hugely lucky, but nevertheless beating our world class parent club was fun.

Awards

Jupiler Pro League Goalkeeper of the Year – Silvio Proto (3rd)

Jupiler Pro League Pro of the Year – Koffi Djidji (1st)

Jupiler Pro League Ebony Boot – Koffi Djidji (1st)

Season Summary Mentions

None.

Career overview

[b] Season   Club (nation)     League (tier)                            Notes[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/12    Delémont (SWI)    Challenge League (2) - 1st               Promoted
12/13    Delémont (SWI)    Axpo Super League (1) - 9th       
13/14    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 8th / EP group  
14/15    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 3rd             Belgian Cup finalists 
15/16    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 8th / EP final  Belgian Cup winner 
16/17    Westerlo (BEL)    Jupiler Pro League (1) - 3rd 

[deltablue]

Wow, very close this time around.

[noikeee]

Pre-season: June/July/a little bit of August 2017

Transfers (in)

Ivo Culina (GK) (free) – Quality goalie altho I’m not sure if he’s gonna have any playing time as I only use homegrown goalies.

Alexis González (DM / MC) (free) – Necessary strong alternative to Coppens and De Petter for a starting DM spot.

Ebenezer Edwini-Bonsu (M/AMR) (625K€) – He looks a very good improvement on the right-wing position, not as quick as my other options, but a lot more complete and crucially, very capable of scoring goals.

Rudy Cardozo (AML / ML, AMC) (140K€) – I definitely needed a boost on the left-wing as well albeit my assman doesn’t rate him super-high, I think he’s good tho.

Fernando Martins (AMC / MC) (950K€) – This 20yo Portuguese will probably be a starter and has the potential to become a superstar.

Zakhele Pillay (MC) (750K€) – I didn’t really need him but for this price it’s an absolute bargain, great promising midfielder, will compete directly with Ortiz for a MC spot.

Silvio Zacarías (AMC / MC) (free) – The 21yo is a good attacking midfielder but probably will be just behind Martins and Ceppelini on the pecking order.

Jose Reddy (ST) (1M€) – Had to do a lot of financial engineering to get him, Jose becomes my most expensive signing so far in this career, it must be worth it, he has amazing pace and should still get better.

Also hired the usual bunch of youngsters: Qatari left-back Mohammed Ahmed Al-Khater, Czech cetre-back Ondrej Petrzela, and forwards Rubén González, Filip Milosavljevic and Victor Manuel Antonini, an Argentinian, Bosnian and Puerto Rican respectively. All on frees. González is the most promising as he has 4.5 stars of PA and would be on the verge of a first team role if not for a couple quality strikers ahead of him.

Total spending: 3.5M€.

Transfers (out)

Got rid of many players including some I didn’t expect to. I sold Wout Bastiaens, Keko, Liliu, Arthur Lecat, Jente Daniels, Jens Cools, Fredy Montero for money which was all acceptable. I also released on frees a few, most notably the aging Jeanvion Yulu-Matondo, full-back Thabo Matlaba who had been rotating on loans forever to save on wages, also long-serving defender Stef Wils retired. A few youngsters who got minor playing time last year were loaned to ensure they get more experience, namely Dede Sanou, Julius Holm, Hugo Horemans.

The big news however, were the sales of the very promising forward Jonas Andersen, by merely 675K€, and last year’s absolutely key player Cidinho, also for a rather meagre 450K€. Neither transfer may make sense on first glance but Andersen’s departure is explained because I desperately needed money to get Jose Reddy; whereas Cidinho had a 30% yearly wage rise clause and was being paid way more than I could afford.

Total income: 2.6M€.

Competitions

First competitive match is only on the 5th of August as the league kicks off, we’ve been entertaining ourselves with some friendlies of course.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary

Think I’ve made more squad changes than I should, the squad’s also looking dangerously too young/inexperienced, but we hired a couple proper footballers and overall I think we’re stronger. Time to find the extra edge to claim the title?

[AK22]

Unlucky to miss out on the title by one point- very frustrating!

[noikeee]

Tbf that was 2 points, if we had tied with Standard they'd have won because of higher league table position pre-final stage.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Very decent showing Noikee.

[noikeee]

Very decent showing Noikee.

Thanks, time to attack the new season now.

[noikeee]

August 2017

Transfers (out)

Young right-back Dalibor Maksimovic was sold by 100K€, and veteran winger Jair Céspedes by 45K€. Céspedes is a special case because he used to be a special player. Just merely over 1 year ago he was our star man. I felt he had a bad season though, and was starting to get past it. The fans were not happy, as he is a player they had a connection to, after so many great games for us.

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 0-1 Genk

Disappointing start to the season. I risked going attacking despite Genk being strong but we didn’t create many chances. I wasn’t punished much defensively for the attacking stance neither, but they scored from an epic long shot deep into the 2nd half.

Jupiler Pro League: AA Gent 0-2 Westerlo (Cardozo, Patotski)

We should’ve conceded a few after a terrible first half, however somehow we held on and wingers Cardozo and Patotski who both came from the bench at half-time had a superb match clinching it for us with 2 goals in the final ten minutes.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 4-0 Sint-Truiden (Pillay, Arslanagic(og), Ceppelini, Naert)

Great result and we looked very exciting going forward, but stats-wise it was actually quite even, we just happened to take our chances.

Europa League 4th Qual. Rnd : Levski 0-1 Westerlo (Ceppelini)

The Bulgarian side from Sofia were drawn as our first Europa League opponents, and we did very well to get a precious away win with a confident performance.

Jupiler Pro League: Lokeren 1-1 Westerlo (Patotski)

We rested most of the team after a tiring mid-week European match and it turned out to be a bad idea. We could never get a proper hold of the match even after a Lokeren player was red-carded, despite Patotski coming from the bench to equalize.

Europa League 4th Qual. Rnd : Westerlo 2-0 Levski (Reddy(2))

After a couple disappointing matches finally the South-African super-forward Jose Reddy did it and confirmed our qualification for the group stage – fully deserved after a good game from us.

Player of the month

Bernard Malanda (DR) – Astonishing start of the season by my right-back, on 7.68 average rating at the moment.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: We’ll soon find out who’s our first opponent.

Europa League: Group stage opponents are Wolfsburg, Dnipro and Crvena Zvezda (aka Red Star Belgrade). Not “easy”, but it’s far more pleasing that last year’s crazy draw and gives us a realistic chance of going through.

Summary

An okay beginning. Given we’re in this to try to get the title, it’s not nice that Genk has pulled away, but at least we’ve done the job in Europe. With all the new signings, once I get a starting 11 more settled perhaps we’ll see more consistent results – I’m a little worried Europe might prove too much of a distraction though, particularly in terms of player fitness.

[noikeee]

Squad - 2017/2018

A subtle but steady improvement on last year's team. Notice how much some of our youngsters have been progressing, notably JC Larrosa, Geo Ortiz, Remi Naert, and the not-so-young anymore but still improving wildly Henrique Miranda, Koffi Djidji and Pablo Ceppelini. Homegrown midfielder Wannes Vanderbrouck is moved to the first-team after impressing a lot on a loan deal last season.

I think the squad's too young though, it's almost exclusively made of under-25s.

[deltablue]

Nonsense! You can be very successful with a very young side.

[noikeee]

A team of youngsters is very good in financial terms because they improve constantly and raise their value through first team football. However sometimes I really do feel experience is an asset. Youngsters are more prone to feeling the pressure in key moments.

My worries for this season is not just youth but also I may have screwed the gelling of the team, which is what happened two years ago when we finished 8th in the league. The defence is exactly the same tho which is the critical part, the attack so far has looked quite flowing, so it doesn't seem like we'll repeat that major step back.

[noikeee]

September 2017

Transfers (in)

Roberto Díaz (DR, DC) (free) – Promising 19yo Basque defender.

Thomas Horak (DM / DR) (free) – Not as promising but still alright 19yo German midfielder.

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 4-1 KV Kortrijk (Martins, Ceppelini, Djidji, Cardozo)

Awful start with a conceded goal and a very poor first few minutes, but we gradually got back into the game thanks to some quality intricate possession football and turned it round. It got even better when Kortrijk had a man sent off midway into the 2nd half.

Jupiler Pro League: Club Brugge 2-3 Westerlo (Patotski, Naert(2))

Epic game! I tried to pull the play-like-Greece trick but they scored 2 without any clear cut chance, so went to half-time losing 2-0. The second half I sent my players to attack relentlessly and that’s exactly what they did, with fantastic commitment to turn the game around.

Europa League Grp F: Westerlo 4-1 Dnipro (Naert(2), Patotski(2))

Dnipro may be Ukraine’s 3rd biggest side (behind Dynamo and Shakhtar of course), but in this match they were rather easy opponents for us, we killed the game early with 3 goals.

Jupiler Pro League: Mons 0-1 Westerlo (Naert)

There could’ve been like 50 goals in this match (in either side of the pitch), by miracle it only came in the 91st minute and in our favour.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 3-1 Waasland-Beveren (Jiménez, Pillay(2))

Given we were playing a rubbish recently promoted side, I rested most of my team and brought in 2nd string players. They were all nervous, we went to half-time tied, Silvio Zacarias got sent off for a double yellow after coming from the bench on his debut for the club. Despite all that, we still won by a rather decent 2 goals margin.

Player of the month

Remi Naert (ST) – Can’t argue with 5 goals and 2 MOM awards in 3 matches played in September. His value is skyrocketing, and I had to offer him insane wages to convince him to renew for 2 years beyond the 2 he was contracted for. Meanwhile it’s also worth mentioning the Portuguese attacking midfielder Fernando Martins who has been a spectacular signing so far for us – this month he grabbed 4 assists, 1 goal and 2 MOM awards too…

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: Lower league Torhout away to start with.

Europa League:

Summary

5 games, 5 wins, topping the league table, thrashing soviets in Europe, playing wonderful football. Okay the Club Brugge game was the only truly difficult fixture, and we did have a couple unconvincing moments this month, but at the moment this is looking encouraging isn’t it?

[noikeee]

Wanna see something interesting? This is Vanderbrouck 2 years (plus a few months) ago when he burst out of my youth academy womb:

This is him now:

Such a shame I can't give him any playing time because there's superplayers like Pillay and Ortiz ahead of him. Nevertheless, a fantastic club homegrown player.

Also:

Remi Naert when I hired him / Remi Naert now

Geovanny Ortiz when I hired him / Geovanny Ortiz now

Jurgen Coppens when I hired him / Jurgen Coppens now

And the most astonishing of all:

Koffi Djidji when I hired him / Koffi Djidji now

[TheGreatTraveler]

WOW!!! Huge improvement from all of them

[SRL88]

Ding dong .

[SnakeXe]

Love the 3 point increase in decisions from Djidji. But for me the most impressive is the 7 point gain in strength by Vandebrouck - the kid has been eating a lot of steak!

[noikeee]

WOW!!! Huge improvement from all of them

Absolutely, way beyond my expectations..

Ding dong .

I don't get it.. is that a reference to knocking on door of the title maybe?

Love the 3 point increase in decisions from Djidji. But for me the most impressive is the 7 point gain in strength by Vandebrouck - the kid has been eating a lot of steak!

Vanderbrouck is just bizarre, when he came out of the academy I even said the whole generation looked rubbish, a successful loan season last year seems to have done wonders for him.

Djidji improved a freak amount too, but I am most impressed by the boost to his physicals.

[B.W.G]

Going well so far,the improvement are quite scary in the regens are very impressive.Looks like Vandebrouck will be useful in the future afterall!

[deltablue]

It's great to see players improve like that.

[AK22]

You won't win anything with kids....

[deltablue]

Funny you should say that, very nearly called my career thread 'winning everything with kids'

[Scarman]

Love the increases, there really is something satisfying about going back and looking at a player when you got them, and seeing how much they've improved

[Nobby_McDonald]

Vandenbrouck seems a very good prospect.

[noikeee]

Tks folks, I'm definitely loving the improvements as well!

[noikeee]

October 2017

Fixtures

Europa League Group F: Wolfsburg 2-0 Westerlo

One of those typical games. We sat back and had all the better chances on the break. At least until they scored midway through the second half… twice.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 2-0 Standard (Ceppelini(2))

Big game, but we’ve not done very well recently with our most defensive tactics so I said “f*ck it” and went out for it. Took us quite a while (we dominated the whole match) but eventually Pablo Ceppelini scored a brace from the left wing in the 2nd half.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 3-0 OH Leuven (Edwini-Bonsu, Martins(2))

Freak game as we scored in our first shot then in right about the next 2 chances. Leuven could do nothing after that.

Europa League Group F: Crvena Zvezda 1-1 Westerlo (Stankovic(og))

We started awful and conceded immediately but gradually got back into the game and grabbed one positive away point.

Jupiler Pro League: Anderlecht 2-0 Westerlo

The first half was theirs, the second half we bounced back and hassled them all game particularly after they had a man sent off. 2 minutes from injury time they got another red card so we pushed further forward but conceded a stupid keeper own goal on a counter. A bitter blow to our league title charge.

Player of the month

Jurgen Coppens (DM) – Superb stuff from my young defensive midfielder as he got two assists on top of his defensive duties, and a phenomenal performance vs Crvena Zvezda (8.6 rating) gave him the MOM award.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: Still Torhout to face.

Europa League:

Summary

A bit of a form blip yet, it looked like we were keeping it up in the league, particularly beating Standard, but that defeat from Anderlecht puts us back into a group with many teams fighting for 1st place - indeed if Anderlecht win their game in hand they go 1st. In Europe we also didn’t do particularly well but both results were acceptable and we’re still in a strong position to qualify.

[deltablue]

Could do it this time.

[noikeee]

Indeed we could, my fears are that we've been in this position before and crumbled afterwards; the other issue is a lack of options upfront. If Remi Naert gets injured, we're f*cked, the alternative was supposed to be Jose Reddy who looks immense in theory, but on the pitch has been nearly useless, he is constantly nervous and always underperforms, any ideas on what could be causing it and how to deal with it? Perhaps it's the 1M€ transfer fee,a club record? Homesickness even if he hasn't complained about it?

Nevertheless at this stage the important thing is to stick with the front pack and not let anyone run away with too much of an advantage, things in Belgium are only really decided in the final 10 matches mini league.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Should do it this time...

[noikeee]

November 2017

Transfers (out)

Silvio Zacarías was sold by 350K€ + 25% profit of next sale. He had very few opportunities in the squad after arriving in the Summer, was already complaining about it, was getting a bit late for him to fulfil his potential particularly not having any first team football, so it made sense to let him go.

Fixtures

Cofidis Cup 6th Rnd: Torhout 1-2 Westerlo (Reddy, Vervoort(og))

We were awful but still avoided the embarrassment of losing to this very small club.

Jupiler Pro League: Beerschot AC 0-3 Westerlo (Djidji, Naert(2))

The kind of win every manager likes: thoroughly convincing and never in doubt. Pleasing.

Europa League Group F: Westerlo 4-2 Crvena Zvezda (Naert(3), Cardozo)

Fantastic match as we turned around a very poor start conceding after a poor backpass who freed up Red Star’s striker, then going down again 2-1 right after equalizing. Remi Naert was on a roll scoring a hat-trick and clinched it for us with the two equalizers and the winner – Rudy Cardozo only added a tap-in in front of an open goal to make it 4-2 and confirm the win very late.

Jupiler Pro League: Liège 0-3 Westerlo (Martins, Cardozo, Djidji)

The goals only came in the second half but we were by far the better team, another easy win.

Jupiler Pro League: KV Mechelen 0-3 Westerlo (Djidji(2), Naert)

Yet another comfortable away win, we’re really on great form at the moment.

Jupiler Pro League: Genk 2-2 Westerlo (Naert, Cardozo)

We did well to avoid defeat after going down 1 goal twice, but it still feels frustrating to only get a point after having all the better chances all match long.

Cofidis Cup 7th Rnd: Westerlo 2-0 Waasland-Beveren (Ortiz, Naert)

There was only one team on the pitch really, but we couldn’t turn that into too many clear chances and instead ended up relying on two successful long shots.

Player of the month

Remi Naert (ST) – Scored 8 this month (plus 1 assist), I can’t really ask for more. Albeit centre-back Koffi Djidji scoring 4 all from set pieces was quite impressive too.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: Facing OH Leuven in the quarter-finals, I’m quite pleased with that. Standard’s been knocked out of the competition too which is good if we want to get the trophy back.

Europa League:

Summary

Shame about the lost 2 points at Genk ruining what otherwise would be a perfect month. I think this has been our strongest season to date, we haven’t lost the early season momentum and remain at the top of the league; in Europe that win over Crvena Zvezda was crucial and puts us in a very promising position to qualify; in the cup we have a clear path into the semis with two accessible opponents to face.

[noikeee]

December 2017

Transfers (in)

Hired a Russian AMC named Andrey Mironov on a free, and a Swedish centre-back named Peter Käll. Both youngsters to sit in the reserve U21 side.

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 1-1 AA Gent (Edwini-Bonsu)

Disappointment doesn’t come any bitterer than this, we dominated the whole game but failed to score until Edwini-Bonsu finally got us the winner in the 89th minute. Wait a minute, the winner? Nope, Gent strike back immediately and equalize in injury time.

Europa League Group F: Dnipro 1-3 Westerlo (Naert(2), Ceppelini)

Always pleasing to show Europe what we can do – Dnipro were big favourites by the bookies but I knew very well we could deal with them and that’s what we did, easily. This clinches qualification: first time we progress beyond the group stage!

Jupiler Pro League: Sint-Truiden 1-2 Westerlo (Ortiz(2))

Fascinating tactical battle against a fluid, talented 3-4-3. We never felt comfortable despite always having the better chances and got progressively pinned back deeper and deeper – however we did get the lead in a counter-attack. All our efforts trying to restrict the opposition to danger were for nothing when they scored from a freak fantastic long shot, so we had to go for it again and just about managed it with a late penalty kick.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 4-1 Zulte Waregem (Ceppelini, Peeters(og), Naert, Patotski)

An easy win, we only got a minor scare right after half-time, when they reduced from 2-0 to 2-1 and looked dangerous, but a Remi Naert goal quickly took care of that.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 1-1 Lokeren (Duarte(og))

Not a point I expected to lose, particularly after going into half time winning 1-0! They equalized with a screamer from distance and we couldn’t find another goal. Unfair but we weren’t particularly inspired.

Europa League Group F: Westerlo 1-1 Wolfsburg (Reddy)

Dead rubber so I tried a youngster or two, and played attacking despite facing a stronger team than us. The result was that we nearly won on merit and only a late equalizer from our former forward Jonas Andersen prevented it. Man of the match? 18 year old Westerlo academy graduate Wannes Vandenbrouck! … who broke a toe in the last minute of injury time and will sit out for 2 months.

Jupiler Pro League: KV Kortrijk 0-2 Westerlo (Djidji, Edwini-Bonsu)

An early red card put us with one man more than Kortrijk, and soon we’d use the advantage to score in a corner. After conceding so many goals recently I decided to turn our strategy into something more secure from there onwards (wingers dropped to MR/ML, “retain possession” shout) and the win came quietly to us, a second goal too arriving later on.

Cofidis Cup ¼ Final 1st leg: Westerlo 2-0 OH Leuven (Edwini-Bonsu, Jiménez)

There was only one team on the field and it was us. Looking very secure for the 2nd leg then. However there’s some bad news as our alternative striker Jose Reddy picked up a 3 month injury.

Player of the month

Pablo Cepellini (AML, AMC, MC) – There’s been no outstanding player this month but Pablo did have his moments with 2 goals and 2 assists, and a particularly great performance vs Zulte Waregem. He’s had a fantastic season so far, fitting in seamlessly in right about any position in the midfield, and has already stacked up a remarkable season-long stat of 7 goals, 12 assists.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: 2-0 up on OH Leuven in the quarter-finals after the first leg.

Europa League:

Next opponents are Villarreal. That’s the likely end of the campaign then. It would be funny if we go through because then we face the winner of Celtic vs… Barcelona.

Summary

Silly points lost at home to Genk and Lokeren hindered us from barging clear of the chasing pack in the league, but we’re still looking stronger than ever. Also very pleasing to make it out of the Europa League groups for the first time.

[B.W.G]

Doing very well so far.I reckon you could surprise yourself and beat Villarreal in the next round.

[AK22]

You're in a great position, although it could be a three horse race if Anderlecht win their games in hand!

[noikeee]

Doing very well so far.I reckon you could surprise yourself and beat Villarreal in the next round.

I don't know, that assumes overachieving over two legs, we've got wins in the past against Chelsea, Juventus, Lazio, but always on isolated matches in the middle of the group stage. I think we could make it close, but can't see us going through honestly.

You're in a great position, although it could be a three horse race if Anderlecht win their games in hand!

It's a 4 or 5 horse race, points are halved after 30 games opening it up for anyone who isn't too far back.

[noikeee]

January 2018

Transfers (in)

Ange Dogba (ST) (free) – Bit strange to hire a Thai player from the Thai league but he is decent and fills the backup striker void left by Gonzaléz’s exit as we’ll soon get to that.

Christopher Lund (M/AMR) (loan) – Second consecutive season Chelsea sends us Lund, last year I didn’t give him a single minute, but can’t say no to a good free player who we’ll pay nothing for wages.

Sondre Moe (DC) (loan) – Chelsea has decided to send us 2 players this time, and Sondre is quite on target to becoming a beast of a centre-back in the future, handy already at the age of 19.

Yoo Jae-Suk (DL / DRC, ML) (free) – Last minute transfer, this talented versatile 18 yo South Korean was without a club, and will now fill up holes in the bench, if needed, very nicely.

Transfers (out)

Big news is my board chickened out and accepted a 1.4M€ + 50% profit bid from Lyon for the hugely promising forward Rubén González. Thanks a lot for that. To be fair I allowed the negotiations to happen, as I asked for 2M€ from them.

Backup keeper Jasper Otte left for 30K€, useless winger Tarek Dridi for 120K€, unsettled young centre-back Roberto Diaz for 475K€. I forgot a sale on the December update too, defensive midfielder Alexis González went for 375K€, he was quite a flop signing this season as I weighed some expectations on him but he never delivered.

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 0-0 Club Brugge

We should’ve won this by a landslide. Not just because we dominated, but also because I played this game before and won by an empathic 5-1, a wonderful performance. Then the game crash dumped as I uploaded a compilation of 3 beautiful team goals in this match to youtube.

Jupiler Pro League: Standard 1-3 Westerlo (Cardozo, Naert, Coppens)

Wow. Quite the fantastic, deserved win and whilst Anderlecht is slowly emerging as our biggest title rivals, always nice to put a blow like this to what still is probably Belgium’s best side. For posterity, Jurgen Coppens scored a beauty of a direct free kick, and Bernard Malanda saw a late red card.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 1-0 Mons (Naert)

Relatively lucky win as we incomprehensively were pinned back most of the game in our own half, saw very little of the ball, and only scored when Naert outpaced their defence after a ball was hoofed upfront.

Cofidis Cup ¼ Final 2nd leg: OH Leuven 1-3 Westerlo (Jiménez(2), Patotski)

A poor 1st half saw us briefly be 1-0 down, but eventually we turned it around with a more confident display in the 2nd half and added a further advantage to the 2 goals we brought from the 1st leg.

Player of the month

Jurgen Coppens (DM) – In a month nobody excelled consistently, that fantastic free kick vs Standard edges it for him.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: A choice of Anderlecht, Genk and Club Brugge as possible opponents to face in the semi-finals doesn’t look entirely comfortable.

Europa League: Still waiting for Villarreal in the 1st knockout round.

Summary

Still first in the league, still not running away with it. As ever, it’s going to be decided in the final mini-league after points are halved, but it’s better to arrive there in the lead than not. Worth noting we’ve just broke a club record of games unbeaten, 19 matches since last losing to Anderlecht in the 1st of November.

[Scarman]

Doing pretty well this season, hopefully you can keep your advantage for the league split

[deltablue]

Probably need to extend that lead a bit.

[ManUTactician247]

Tough break on the first match, I always save my games before doing any uploading because I fear the game shutting down like that.

[DBurns]

A good career so far

Some of them younger players have developed rapidly under your management!

Keep it going, good luck with the rest of the season!

[noikeee]

Doing pretty well this season, hopefully you can keep your advantage for the league split

Thanks.

Probably need to extend that lead a bit.

Well that would be nice, but arriving to the playoffs without a disadvantage to any team would already be an improvement over the past few seasons. I think what we really need is step up and get the results in those final matches when we need it the most.

Tough break on the first match, I always save my games before doing any uploading because I fear the game shutting down like that.

Yeah, I almost always save after a big win, not that I ever replay a match on purpose (that'd be a big cheat), but you obviously don't want to lose great results, this time I forgot saving. And didn't cross my mind that uploading could get stuck or crash or whatever.

A good career so far

Some of them younger players have developed rapidly under your management!

Keep it going, good luck with the rest of the season!

Thanks. Been very very pleased the way my players have developed. 6 or 7 of my youngsters are regular starting 11 players and that helps a huge amount, improving the facilities and the staff over the years have helped too.

[markyosullivan]

Should win the title this year. What's your plans once you win the title?

[noikeee]

I'll consider leaving if we're champions, but would like to contest at least one season of the Champions League with this squad. Particularly since I just got a couple of my most promising stars like Naert and Larrosa signed for a few more years. Am ideally waiting for a job offer from a big, title chasing club in a league like Portugal, Holland, or Russia. Which could very well happen, I'm not as in demand as I've used to be but just last Summer I was linked to the Benfica job.

[noikeee]

February 2018

Fixtures

Jupiler Pro League: Waasland-Beveren 0-2 Westerlo (Naert, Cardozo)

It looked like we were set for a potentially easy game with the goal surely about to come sooner or later when Geo Ortiz made a terrible tackle and got sent off midway through the 1st half. We were forced to drop deeper and play on the counter, still managing to grab 2 goals in the 2nd half thanks to the obligatory passes beyond the backs of the defence for Remi Naert’s runs. Unfortunately, Henrique Miranda picked up an injury.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 3-0 KV Mechelen (Naert(3))

Superb stuff from my star striker Naert as he scored two first half beauties, one a dribbling solo effort, the other off the post into the top corner - and then completed the hat-trick in the second half with a header. Mechelen had no answer at all to him.

.

Jupiler Pro League: OH Leuven 2-2 Westerlo (Cardozo, Jiménez)

Freakishly open game in which we never looked comfortable. We were fairly fortunate to come back from a 1-0 disadvantage to a 1-2 lead on half time, but in the 2nd half they got theirs. That was probably a fair result. We missed Naert who was suspended for yellow cards.

Cofidis Cup ½ final 1st leg: Westerlo 3-0 Club Brugge (Patotski, Edwini-Bonsu, Naert)

Not much more to say other than we fully deserved it with a convincing performance, Brugge only briefly looked like a football team at the beginning of the 2nd half.

Jupiler Pro League: Westerlo 3-1 Anderlecht (Cardozo, Naert, Martins)

Key match vs our closest league chasers. It turned out to be quite even but we had the better finishing. We got momentarily 2-0 up in the 2nd half but they scored a little later afterwards which turned the finale into something tense. Until substitutes Lund and Martins combined to fabricate a 3rd goal in injury time.

Europa League 1st KO Rnd 1st leg: Westerlo 3-0 Villarreal (Coppens, Naert(2))

WOW!! It was actually an even game, few chances either way, but we took ours much better. The key moment was the 1st goal, already into injury time of the 1st half, when Jurgen Coppens scored an absolute beauty of a free-kick. Then the ever impressive Remi Naert put us into an unlikely comfortable position going into the 2nd leg, by scoring another 2.

Jupiler Pro League: Zulte Waregem 1-3 Westerlo (Naert, De Petter, Patotski)

Took us a while to get point as our first shot was only around the 30th minute mark, but we eventually showed our cards and went 3-0 up. Youngster Yoo Jae-Suk who was having a remarkably strong debut unfortunately scored an own goal, hopefully that won’t knock down his confidence.

Player of the month

Remi Naert (ST) – Scored in every game he played this month, a total of 9 goals in 6 matches. 2 assists too. Absolutely fantastic! I think he’s the best player in the league and is in the form of his life.

Competitions

Jupiler Pro League:

Cofidis Cup: 3-0 over Club Brugge going into the 2nd leg of the semi-final.

Europa League: 3-0 over Villarreal going into the 2nd leg of the 1st knockout round. Possible next opponents Barcelona lead by 2-1 over Celtic.

Summary

Fantastic month! We pulled a great lead over Genk and Anderlecht, now on 8 points, which will soon be cut as points are halved, but would still be very nice to bring a 4 point lead into the playoffs. I’m also a lot more comfortable seeing Standard so far back, they’re always very threatening when up there.

In the cups it’s great to have a 3-0 lead in both, particularly so in the Europa League which was just an astonishing result. Unless thing go awfully wrong in the El Madrigal, I better start getting ready to face Barcelona…

As long as we keep Remi Naert going this will be a memorable season.

[SnakeXe]

What a result against Villarreal! Running really well in the league too.

[noikeee]

What a result against Villarreal! Running really well in the league too.

Thanks. Fingers crossed we'll keep the advantage in the final playoffs...

Delighted with the 3-0 over Villarreal although I'd wait for the next update.

[noikeee]

Westerlo - Youth intake 2018

Best player

I suppose we've had worse generations of players, but I'm not entirely sure on what use could I give to 4 average strikers.