[FM13] Athletic Club: The Morning After the Night Before

[JPKD]

The Premise

The idea of my career is to replace Athletic Club manager Marcelo Bielsa, who nearly did leave the club this summer, but to continue to use his footballing philosophy to attempt to achieve the three objectives that narrowly alluded him in the 2011/12 season.

Club Background

At the start of the 2011/12 season Bielsa's goal had been Champions League qualification but a poor start to the league (1 win and two draws in their first 6 matches) combined with an end of season slump meant that the side was only in the Top 4 for a single week in the entire season and they finished 10th and 10 points short of Champions League football.

Despite this the side went on two remarkable cup runs; which was partly responsible for their poor league form as the season drew to a close. An emotional Europa League run saw them defeat Lokomotiv Moscow, Manchester United, Schalke and Sporting Lisbon in the knock-out stages on route to the final against Atletico Madrid. Against Atletico they failed to surpress the irresistible Ramdel Falcao who scored twice in his sides 3-0 victory. Just two weeks later and emotionally shot side lost the Copa del Rey final to Barcelona.

Although they fell at the final hurdle in the Europa League they played some stunning football. I was fortunate enough to have seen them beat Manchester United 3-2 at Old Trafford and it was quite simply the best performance I have ever seen from any side. For vast periods of the game United barely had a touch of the ball and I consider Oscar De Marcos' goal to be the best I have ever seen; even if it was offside. See the goal here -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EkX25ZOhnA .

My goal is to continue Bielsa's brand of attacking possession based football and to lead the side in to Europe but also to promote players from the famed Athletic Cantera. Athletic have a loosely defined policy of only playing players from the Basque region of northern Spain. The terms of the policy are not defined anywhere within the club and they change gradually over time but as things currently stand only players who had 'had their footballing education in the region' are considered for selection.

Athletic are also a club with great history. Alongside Real Mardrid and Barcelona they are the only side never to have been relegated since the formation of La Liga in 1929. As a fiercely Basque club they are great rivals with Real, who represented the Franco's Nationalist regime, and they also have a fierce local rivalry with Real Sociedad of San Sebastian; also in the Basque region. Sociedad once had a cantera policy also but they have since relaxed it to first sign players from Spain only before removing the policy all together to sign players of any nationality.

As far as past success goes it has been some time since Athletic have won a competition but their past is rich with domestic glory. They have won La Liga on eight occasions and only Barcelona (26) have won the Copa del Rey on more than Athletic (23). Historically the club has also taken its influences from England with the club formed after British skilled workers brought the game over to the port of Bilbao, by Southampton fans, and the local mines, by Sunderland fans. Although nobody is sure whether it was Southampton or Sunderland who first lent them their first red and white striped shirts.

In short they are a famous club who play an interesting brand of attacking football and I want to try and develop both of these aspects to create an interesting career. I have played as Athletic in the past two releases of FM and in 2012 I also lost the Europa League Final, to Manchester City, but qualified for the Champions League by finishing second to Barcelona in La Liga. In my second season I exited the Champions League in the group stages finishing below Lyon and Inter Milan, who I did manage to beat 2-0 at home, and left the club at the end of the season (and deleted the game to ensure that I passed my degree, which I did).

I plan to do weekly updates every Monday (in-game) to develop a 4-6-0 tactic and finish in the top 4 within two seasons and attempt to reach the Europa League Final once again.

ENJOY!

[JPKD]

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[JPKD]

Game Setup

Just quick section this. I have selected 7 playable nations (Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) and 4 view only nations (Nederlands, Portugal, Russia and Ukraine). The database is a custom one with 35,000 players in it which uses real players, allows first transfer window budgets and attribute masking. Further to this my manager has professional experience; which I don't.

Squad

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Attackers

Star Players

Iker Muniain

One of the most exciting prospects to emerge from the Cantera in recent years. Already coming in to his fourth season of La Liga football Muniain has 94 league appearances for the Athletic First XI and has scored 11 goals. Under Bielsa he operated on the left hand side of the attacking three with license to roam but under my system he will become the central focal point.

Ander Herrara

Signed from Real Zaragoza shortly before Bielsa arrived at Athletic Ander became the pivot on which Athletic attacked from in the centre of midfield. He is a crucial part of their game as the playmaker who dictates the tempo of their play. He role is unlikely to change under me.

Andoni Iraola

The captain in the absence of Carlos Gurpegi for most of the 2011/12 campaign he is a forward thinking full back who has 7 caps for the Spanish national side and provides width to the side from deep.

Tactics

The basic idea of the tactic is to create '2 vs 1' situations across the pitch when attacking and to retain a spare man in defence with the side divided in to three separate zones.

The two central defenders and the defensive midfielder form the defensive zone. It is there job to remain in position and when in possession give it to the more technically talented players to attack.

The middles zone is comprised of the two wing backs and the two midfield playmakers. In defence they press opponents hard in an attempt to win the ball back quickly. In attack the wing backs create the sides width and look to get beyond the oppositions wide midfielders and often the opposing full backs. The midfield playmakers recycle possession and supply through balls to the forward players.

In the attacking zone the central figure (Muniain) is supported by two wider attacking midfielders. While the Trequartista is withdrawn to pick up possession and draw defenders out of position. With the width created by the wing back the two attacking midfielders are free to break beyond the Trequartista and get in behind the opposition defence.

Hopefully it will become something of a hybrid between the 3-4-3 and 4-5-1 formations with a withdrawn striker. The average position chart shown above comes from Athletic's 3-2 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in March. The longer I play the more the tactic will develop over time. For now this is the template but I hope to make the forward line interchangeable and fluid to suit certain situations which may in some circumstances include playing a striker.

Staff Responsibilities

To remain in keeping with how the club works I have restricted my responsibilities to the first team and given responsibility for transfers to the Director of Football Jose Amorrortu although I will be making recommendations and bringing in my own coaching staff.

Having done this I re-vamped the backroom coaching staff completely making sure that each of the coaches could speak Spanish.

Transfers

OUT

Fernando Llorente to Tottenham for £20 million

Xabi Castillo to Rayo for free

You might be surprised that I am selling Llorente. He is without doubt one of the best strikers I have played FM with but he wants to leave Athletic at the end of the season and rather than get nothing for him I wanted the £20 million. Also as I am working to a two year plan it would be silly to include him now if he is leaving next season. Surprisingly he chose Spurs over Chelsea.

IN

Benat from Real Betis for £17.5 million

Anaitz Arbilla from Heracles for £1 million

Benat was perhaps a little over-priced but I had over £40 million to spend and the Director of Football completed the negotiations for me. He will plays as the deep-lying playmaker alongside Ander Herrera in midfield. He also has a decent long range shot on him. He is also my designated set piece taker.

Arbilla is just a utility player who was signed by the DoF. As I had little cover at right back I chose to sign him for the £1 million. Hopefully his appearances will be restricted to squad rotation.

[JPKD]

Results

After a routine friendly victory over FC Andorra and an experimental side dominating Baskonia who scored with their only two shots the season began in earnest with a Europa League Qualifier against Isreali side Bnei Yehunda. It was a poor start. Bnei scored from a corner in the second minute. But from this point onwards Athletic dominated. Ander Herrera equalised after following up a long range effort from Benat. Before half time it was 2-1 when Andoni Iraola's low cross struck Markel Susaeta.

For an hour I used Muniain as a false-nine in the 4-6-0 formation and this was the result in terms of average position.

And this shows the freedom which Muniain experienced across the pitch.

In-between the two legs of the Qualifier the side took on Inter Milan and beat them 3-1 at home. Playing on the swift break the side had less possession but Inter had just 5 attempts on goal compared to Athletic's 16. Athletic's attempts are shown below on the left.

The goals came from 19 year old midfielder Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta, an own goal from Inter's goalkeeper and a late goal on the break from striker Aritz Aduriz; though most of the game was played in the 4-6-0 formation.

The second leg of the Europa League qualifier saw Athletic dominate possession and emerge 2-0 in Tel Aviv with goals from Iraola and Aduriz off the bench once more.

I have decided to do monthly updates focussing on different aspects of the sides tactics and general play. More later this week.