FM 13: RC Genk - Cristal shine

[LilSaint]

RC Genk team guide

Welcome to this closer look into managing KRC Genk. It's my first team guide so bare with me. Thanks for taking the time to read/contribute to this thread.

History

Founded in 1923, K Racing Club Genk are a professional Belgian club currently playing in the Belgian Pro League. The club play their home games at Cristal Arena and possess good training facilities and good youth facilities.

The club 's training ground is Fenix Stadion Jeugdcomplex. The Genk youth team play at Fenix Stadion Jeugdcomplex. The club also has good junior coaching & a well-established youth recruitment network.

The club retains a fierce rivalry with R Standard de Liège.

As a Club which enjoyed its best spell of success during the 2000s and their last competition win coming as recently as 2011, Genk are a club with a growing history.

Genk won the Belgian top division in 1999, 2002 and 2011 and finished runners-up two times, have five Belgian Cup wins to their name and finished runners-up once, won the Belgian 2nd tier in 1954, 195, 1976 and 1978 and finished runners-up on three occasions, and won the Super Cup in 2011 and came in second place five times.

honours

Belgian Pro League: 1999, 2002 & 2011

Belgian Second Division: 1954, 1957, 1976 & 1978

Belgian Cup: 1980, 1982, 1998, 2000 & 2009

Club overview

Facilities

Expectations

The board will also expect you to develop youth players & give them a chance in the first team. RC Genk have a great youth setup with some great talents already there, so if you like playing/developping youngsters, Genk surely is a great choice to play as.

Finances

The club finances are pretty secure, but you don't have an immense transfer budget from the start. You'll have about 2m € to spend on transfers & 300k € on wages.

[LilSaint]

Team report

Goalkeepers

Kristof Van Hout

László Köteles

Stijn Wertelaers

Grzegorz Sandomierski (loaned out)

First choice is Köteles, who is fairly decent & should get you through your first (couple of) season(s).

Backup is Kristof Van Hout. Pretty decent for a backup, standing at 2m08 he has great aerial ability & strenght, but that's about it.

Transfer targets: Copa from Lokeren (550k €) Vladimir Stojkovic from Partizan (1.3m €)

Wing backs

Right

Anele

Dani Fernandez

Left

Hamalainen

Tshimanga

First choice is Anele on the right (although he can also play centre or left), for the left back position it's a matter of preference. I'd go with Tshimanga because of his speed. Tshimanga, Hamalainen & Anele are resp. 23, 23 & 24 so they can last you a couple of seasons.

Transfer targets: Hans Cornelis (Cercle Brugge) 550k €, Romário (Vitoria) 26k€

Centre Backs

Torben Joneleit

Kalidou Koulibaly

Sandy Walsh

Nadson

Jeroen Simaeys

Joneleit & Simaeys are injured at the start of the save.

First choices: Koulibaly & Nadson. Koulibaly is only 21 but has great strength & aerial ability. Because of his age, he can be your first choice for years to come (he's the only player from the starting lineup that's still in my save in 2019, great potential there). Nadson is 28 & decent

Transfer targets: Jagos Vukovic (PSV) € 550k

Defensive midfielders

David Hubert

Bennard Kumordzi

Khaleem Hyland

Kumordzi starts the game injured. He will be valuable when he returns, especially because you don't start with many defensive midfielders.

Hubert is your first choice & could be captain of the team.

Hyland can play in this position, but i tend to play him higher up as he has good attacking play as well. You can pretty much play him anywhere you want in a central role in midfield. He works hard & has potential to develop into your first pick.

Great youth prospect: Alessio Alessandro

Transfer targets: Kilian Overmeire (Lokeren) € 975k, Zanetti (free)

CM's

Julien Gorius (who can also play AMRC)

Thomas Buffel (who can also play AMRC, S)

For me this is the position you should focus on, as you don't have many typical CM's

Gorius is a creative bloke & should play, but his style of play leans more towards the AM.

you will have players that -can- play CM, but most of them naturally play more upfield or out at the wings. Definately worth improving. (do bare in mind that your DMC's can also play MC, so not to worry, you can perfectly balance it out)

Transfer targets: Karel Geraerts (OHL) € 575k, Ederson (Charleroi) € 450k, Hinostroza (Zulte Waregem) € 450k, Mats Rits (Ajax) € 80k

Wingers

Anthony Limbombe

Ayub Masika

Benji De Ceulaer

Kennedy Nwanganga

Jordy Croux

Elyaniv Barda

Steeven Joseph-Monrose

For this position you'll be wishing you had 8 open slots in your starting XI. Your first choices should be Barda, Monrose or De Ceulaer.

Masika, Limbombe, Croux are young players with great potential & that can certainly fill in the spaces should anyone get injured. Mind you, these are only the youngsters in your first team that are promissing. In your youth setup you might want to have a look at Florian Loshaj & Lucas Walbrecq. They will develop into good players as well.

I'm not going to list transfer targets for this position as you're already going to have a tough time picking who to play & who not to play.

Strikers

Jelle Vossen

Glynor Plet (on loan)

First choice: Jelle Vossen. He is a clinical finisher & could be your captain as well (in fact, he should be)

in your youth ranks you will find Siebe Schrijvers, an amazing prospect that deservers your attention & could develop into a superb player.

Transfer targets: Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce) €2.5m, Gianni Bruno (LOSC) € 1m, Hamdi Harbaoui (Lokeren) €1m

Tactics

So, why should I play as Genk?

Genk is a great choice for a longterm save. They have a great youth setup, with great prospects already there. You can develop the youth that's there already + have a good chance of getting good regens. They have a balanced squad that can compete to be league winners from the start. Financially they're doing ok, so you won't need to worry about finances too much. And although you don't start with a huge transfer budget, you can be successful with the squad you're given for years to come & more money will obviously be available in the next years of your carreer. Personally I've started with Genk since i've gotten my copy of FM, I'm now in 2019 & haven't been bored for 1 moment. Definately worth having a go.

[Maestroik]

Good thread. I sold Barda and Nadson as they were asking for more than what they are worth to renew their contracts. I got Taravel from Lokeren and Kara( IRL just moved to Genk ) and my HOYD recommended I buy Laurens De Bock. I find Sandy Walsh also to be an interesting prospect as a RB.

Still debating whether to sell Buffel and get Malanda from Zulte in his place since I'm retraining Gorius to CM.

[fyrefuze]

great thread was hoping to start a new save after I finish with Roma.

[LilSaint]

i've sold Barda as well, since i found a great regen & because Barda demanded an expensive contract. But in the first season he'll surely get you some goals. Good choice to get Taravel, i was doubting to put him in the transfer targets as well.

I've kept Buffel for quite some time but not played him much. I struggled to fit him into my starting lineup really. He's good for tutoring a few youngsters. Same thing for Vossen, he's tutored all my young strikers.

[Robert the Spud]

Great save, but Id wait till Jan when you have Kara

[MichaelBrown]

Great thread

[iTunit]

Will be doing a Genk save after the January transfer update, for Kara.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Great thread LilSaint, Genk have some great talents. How did you find your first season? In my Standard save I found teams were all pretty much capable of beating each other and found the first half of the campaign tough.

[LilSaint]

Great thread LilSaint, Genk have some great talents. How did you find your first season? In my Standard save I found teams were all pretty much capable of beating each other and found the first half of the campaign tough.

thx! (just to be honest: since this is the first time i've ever written a team guide, i copied the layout from your thread a bit )

my save has been the same, i found the first 3 seasons to be 'tough' as the big teams would all be capable of beating each other & every now and then a small club would steal away some points too. In my first seasons the top teams were always standard, brugge, genk. Those first seasons would always be nail-biting til the end, often the top 3 teams would finish within points of each other, deciding the league winners on the last fixture.

In the next seasons the top teams sold their good players & didn't get good ones in return; making the league a bit of a walkover for me. Last season i actually lost virtually no games & even reached the semi final of the champions league, beating both barcelona & real madrid

[Dexter_Morgan]

No problem mate, when I first started writing guides I nicked peoples ideas myself

That's good to know at least it won't be easy straight away (Genk lost Vossen though in the first window which set them back a bit)

So do you reckon you have a good chance winning the CL this season?

[LilSaint]

i'm not sure, i had to let vossen go sadly (he was getting fewer games because of his age, and he wanted a new challenge) which made morale drop & this season seems to be somewhat like the first, where most teams can win from each other. I've just been drawn into group stages with Bayern .. Can't recall the other 2 by heart, at work atm

Bayern won the CL last season so i'm not sure i'll even make it past the group stages this season tbf

if i find the time i'll upload some screens of my current starting XI. Might be of interest to other users to see how players like Koulibaly & Vossen developped overtime (Koulibaly actually won African defender of the year in my save)

[LilSaint]

current starting XI, in 2019:

Bloemen is actually a kid that came through my youth academy, goes to show you really can get great potential in this save. Had to try my hardest to keep him from signing with the likes of man city

Koulibaly has won belgian golden boot, professional player of the year, belgian ebony boot & african player of the year runner up. Just to illustrate he can develop into quite the player, although his stats may not reflect his performances.

Hamalainen won best average rating, most assists runner up (he takes all corners & most indirect free kicks) & has been shortlisted for the golden boot 4 years. Hasn't won one, but still. He's won quite some points for me.

[Purefun]

Great thread. Belgian teams so cool.

[mustardpower]

Im in 2nd season with Genk and I'm really enjoying my save at the minute. I'm wanting to get Schrijvers as many games as possible but I like to play with one striker and that is usually Vossen as he is more suited to the lone striker than him. Also Spruyt the centre back looks like he could be quality and Koulibaly has been fantastic for me both seasons.

[LilSaint]

glad you're enjoying it mustardpower. I've used Vossen to tutor Schrijvers & let him play for cup games and as an occasional sub (Vossen is great as a tutor for your strikers btw). 'Unfortunately' for Schrijvers i've had 2 really amazing newgens come through my youth ranks in the first seasons so i haven't really developped him. Be sure to let me know how he turns out in your save! Koulibaly really is one of the better defenders in the league.

[mustardpower]

Just won my 2nd league title but didn't get through my Champions League group though but I did draw Chelsea,Inter and Stuttgart. I managed to finish 3rd but then got knocked out Europa League in the last 16 so hopefully my coefficients have gone up enough to get a better draw this time round. I'm not really sure who to buy this transfer window as first season I bought just youngsters so I might just stick with that strategy unless there are a few decent free agents.

[mustardpower]

Just left after winning my 6th league title and 3rd Belgian cup as nobody good wanted to join me and I fancied a new challenge rather than hanging around and dominating the league each year with ease. I left the club with £89 million balance but still couldn't attract any decent players even though I had reached the champions league last 16 4 times and quarter final once. Schrijvers turned out to be quite good but Vossen kept him out the team and won European golden shoe twice so he left on a free. I sold Sandy Walsh to Rubin Kazan for £5 million and he developed really well compared to how I thought he would. Yes I know I've done 4 seasons in 8 days.

[LilSaint]

I've done 4 seasons in 8 days.

how i wish i had that much time for the game ^^

weird that you couldn't sign decent players. Hasn't been an issue for me. Although i haven't really brought in 'real' players, mostly newgens.

I did get Aït Fana in the second season tho (on a free transfer even.. He had various offers but chose to come to Genk.. So no major joining issues on my save really)

[rickholliday]

im gonna give these a crack tonight,been out action for month or so

[LilSaint]

good luck rickholliday

[beechy85]

It would be good to try and bring some of the top Belgian players back 'home' Fellaini, Miralles, Courtois, Lukaku among others, I really need to get FM13! So many games i want to play!

[LilSaint]

It would be good to try and bring some of the top Belgian players back 'home' Fellaini, Miralles, Courtois, Lukaku among others, I really need to get FM13! So many games i want to play!

Good luck getting those back to the pro league.. I honestly don't think you'll be able to get them back, unless when their contracts run out.

If I played on the highest level in England or Spain, I wouldn't come back to Belgium either, unless to finish my carreer Maybe you could sign Nainggolan, who's also quite impressive.. but i'm not sure he'll want to join a Belgian side any time soon

maybe if you edit the clubs/league reputation you'll be able to get some of them back though!

[Spamjabber]

Started a wee genk game, loved them since signing jelle vossen and de bruyne last year or the year before. Brought in just 2 signings first season, Vicktor Classen and Jonas Svensen (both are spelt wrong I imagine) both play DLP or a similar role for me. Struggled initially with tactics, I'll be honest I can't get the tactics working in FM13 at all, feels like I'm a new player almost. But anyway I'm tweaking things and sitting top after 4 games. Long road ahead, but hope it goes well. Oh I went out of the Europa in the first game.. yet more tactic troubles.

Good to see so much potential talent in the club though, exciting stuff.