ri916's FM15 Youth Academy Challenge

[Jambo98]

Jambo 98 - Youth Challenge Attempt 1 - Scotland - Cove Rangers

Season 5 - 2019/20

Manager Profile

The Competitions

Division - Scottish League 2

Final Position - 1st - CHAMPIONS

Past Postions - Link

Challenge Cup - Knocked out round 1 by Cowdenbeath

League Cup - Knocked out round 1 by Hearts

Scottish Cup - Knocked out round 5 by Livingston (entered at Round 2)

The Season Summary

League

Wow. Absolutely Wow. I did not see that coming at all after the slog of the last 2 seasons. Pre-season i spent a great deal of time my tactics, and even more on my squad analysis. The squad analysis in particular led to 4 or 5 key changes including a bit of retraining.

We started well and won our first 2 games. The other thing i did much more of this year was changing tactics when ahead/behind in matches. Most matches I used at least 3 different team mentalities in the 90mins. However after the initial 2 wins, things looked like falling apart again. 4 straight losses had me sinking. In the end, i changed formation just for 2 matches (which both looked winable - bottom team in the league and non league team in the Scottish Cup). Once we won those 2, i reverted back to my main formation and we really kicked on. After an ok October, with a couple of wins and couple of defeats, it really started to click. Starting with our 6 game clean sheet run (earning the "Parked Bus" award) we went a total of 12 games unbeaten, winning 9 of them.

We then had a bit of a blip through January, with a couple of defeats and a few draws but we never really slumped, always picking up a win here and there. From mid feb to mid march a well timed run of 5 straight wins propelled us clear at the top of the league. I had not dared dream that we might actually win this league until this point, but with 5 games to go we were suddenly 5 points clear. Next up were games against second and third. We drew both, but both times the other team (the one we were not playing) lost so we ended up extending that advantage. A 3rd draw in a row against the bottom team showed that were were nervous, but our nearest challengers were worst, losing again, meaning we were 6 clear with only 2 games to go, and with a much better GD. Second last game was a bit of an anti-climax. We lost away to Elgin, only to be crowned champions anyway when nearest challengers Peterhead couldnt win either! We won the last game to put a shine on the season and make the margin of victory look more comfortable.

Its hard to explain such a huge turnaround. We went from conceding over 100 goals to only 44 in one year. We also were the top scorers. If i had to pick out a few of the key changes that made it possible:

- A more balanced and settled tactic, including a very high D-line and long shots

- Changed our keeper after the early 4 game loss streak and the YP brought in was great

- We were reasonably lucky with injuries, a few minor here and there but no key players were out for long spells

- Key positional changes based on the squad analysis tool

Overall, absolutely f*cking marvelous! Now to try and survive next year!

Cups

We actually had a cup run! Won through to the last 16 in the Scottish Cup, where i was a little disapointed to draw Livingston rather than a prem team. We did however make a bit of money from the away draw to Hearts in the League cup

POTY (top 3 chosen arbitrarily by me)

I can finally get back to picking 3 as well

Clark Ireland - An untagged youth from last seasons intake, he was highlighted by my squad tool as the best man for my DF(s) roll and he grabbed his chance, knocking Martin of the top scorers spot for the first time in some 4 years.

Patrick Martin - Our faithfull striker was as reliable as ever. Although his goals total was down a bit, this was partly due to better support/play from the rest of the team not relying on him as much. Heading for 200 apps and 100 goals next season with a fair wind

Scott Webster - Previously one of our terrible centre backs, he benefited from the squad tool highlighting he was a better fullback. Slotted in at right back and was near ever present and consistently solid.

The Youths

The Intake

Youth Intake Season 5 - A mixed one, lacking in depth of quality, but one excellent prospect, albeit in a position that we already have one of our best prospects.

The New Tags

YP05a - Jim Bell - a good looking CM, who is either footed and has a nice personality type (fairly ambitious). Will need to get creative to get him in the line up with YP03a being the same position and performing well but i like the cut of this lads jib

YP06b - Colin Love - Wasnt too sure on this one, but he does look like he has the attributes to possibly be a Defensive forward.

The Tag Updates

YP01a - Jamie Campbell - Benefited from squad tool suggesting him as a winger. Was retrained and became first choice at RW and did a much better job than previously, popping up with the odd goal and a good few assists.

YP01b - Jamie Scott - Lost out on starting to an untagged youth, and when he did get his chance through injuries and rotation he didnt perform. Has yet to show anything to justify my faith in him sadly.

YP02a - Danny Gilmour - The loser in the back line reshuffle that came about from the squad analysis. Another who when he did get a chance was poor. At this stage is looking strictly back up material.

YP02b - Fraser Ward - Took on the task of first choice LW and was excellent for me in that role. The jersey could be his to keep for a few years now.

YP03a - Steven O'Neil - First choice in his role and 8 goals from CM was a good return. Could see more assists but overall an excellent performer and also is developing his attributes faster than most others.

YP03b - Michael Scott - Lost to Kilmarnock for £6K compensation

YP04a - Darren McDonald - Took on first choice keeper job early in the season and ran with it. Looks much more solid than previous incumbent and actually made some great saves (which i dont often see at this level!)

YP04b - Fraser McRae - Was behind Ireland and Martin in the pecking order and in the main a super sub. Struggled to find the net but not an easy task with lots of 20min cameo appearances. Likely to remain in that role for now

The State of the Club

Finances

End of season picture - Just in the black with the prize money

Facilities

Current facilities picture - We could do with some upgrades now we are up a level. Junior Coaching is in a good place but getting expensive

Changes from last year - No change this year.

Transfers

Transfer History - A few more prunes of the squad and the 2 disappointing departures to Kilmarnock

Career Summary

[b][u]Season          Division                    Final Position           Cups                    Achievements[/u][/b]
  1             Scottish league 2              9th                     Nowt                   Avoided Relegation
  2             Scottish league 2              6th                     Scot cup Rd5         Avoided Relegation
  3             Scottish league 2              10th                   Nowt                    Avoid Relegation (just)
  4             Scottish league 2              9th                     Nowt                    Avoided Relegation
  5             Scottish league 2              1st                     Scot cup Rd5         Promoted!!!

[bl0u6344]

Great work Jambo98, think thats the first promotion. Some of your youths are starting to look good, I like the look of O'Neill in particular as a well rounded CM.

Congratulations on the first promotion of this challenge (I think!).

It looked like that Squad analysis paid off - I set my spreadsheet up last night in terms of data entry - going to fiddle with some formulas tonight but with only 17 players in the squad I can see it being more of use next year!

[Braumiller]

Jambo98! Congrats, fantastic season

[Shakes]

Good job Jambo98, glad all the setup work paid off. Bell and O'Neil can surely play together in a midfield pairing?

I hit a landmark fielding an all youth eleven, admittedly in a cup game. Felt good, although I do think I may have let a few too many experienced heads go, players struggling with expectation when they're up against the bottom sides, too many nervous players leading to poor results.

[Sanno11]

Jambo98 - Great job mate, what a turn around. Good luck for next season. Jim Bell (Yp05a) looks a real talent, very interested to see how he progresses.

[ri916]

New Laptop arrived yesterday and I have the afternoon off, then add that there doesn't seem to be ridiculous amounts of goals any more and think I know what that means . Just need to decide where to go.

[ri916]

I think I'm probably going to start in Sweden.

If there's any known reset dates not fully up to date in the OP please let me know, I realise I've been poor at keeping it up to date.

[tparsons23]

Congratulations Jambo98! A big accomplishment indeed. A great defensive turnaround, which makes me hope my team and perform some sort of a similar turnaround soon. My promising start has tailed off drastically and we're in the middle of a 9 match winless spell with a very leaky defense that just can't get its act together. We're still hanging around lower mid-table, but we're approaching the bottom fast and I hope we can secure a couple of wins in the last rotation of matches to ensure safety.

[Braumiller]

Welcome on board this year boss

[druvo]

Braumiller - So close . Shame about Danny too.

Jambo98 - What a turnaround. Congrats. Hopefully you can keep it up in the next division

[XaW]

Sooooo....... I got relegated and consequently sacked.

Gonna start this over again, this time somewhere else, but I'm not sure where yet...

[Joaquimorais]

Maidstone United - SEASON 1 - Vanarama Conference South – 1st

Results 1 Results 2 - League

FA Trophy

Cup

Youth Academy

Transfers (the only transfer was not me who did were the previous manager)

Top Goalscorer

Career Summary

[b][u]Season          Division                    Final Position[/u][/b]
 1             Vanarama Conference South          1st

[XaW]

I'm going for my neighbor country Sweden. The reset date is December 15th btw, so the OP can be updated.

I've decided to take over Enköping! My profile and information. Time to get playing in Sweden!

[darren1983]

Right, have been playing around with Dafuge Challenge as per usual but really want to give this a crack this year.

New manager of Dulwich Hamlet

Gone full on tracksuit manager and bumped up my working with youngsters stats.

[Shakes]

Histon FC - 2019/20 - Vanarama Conference North: 15th

Squad | Transfers

Mixed bag of a season really, definitely some positives to take from it, but slightly short of my hopes. We let 4 senior regulars go to start the year, which probably hurt us a bit, as our players are very inexperienced now and struggle with games they're expected to win and holding on at the end. Hopefully it's for the long term good of the team.

Set two nice milestones to bookend the league season, an 8-0 win for the club's largest victory in the first match, and an all youth XI to start the last match. Also we rarely failed to find the net, earning the Attack! achievement for 20 games in a row that we scored.

On the problem side we had the worst defense in the league. Partially this is down to a switch to a 4-4-2 as it better suits the number of strikers/wingers we have, but the lack of a DM hurt us for sure. We're pretty vulnerable when we turn the ball over (which we do often, with the worst passing rating in the league) as we're slow at the back. The other problem is I gave our youth prospect keeper more starts, and he's a tire fire. His career record (including cup games) now stands at 41 games for 2 clean sheets. Unless he shows some rapid development I don't see how he can be the future there.

Leading Players

Really was a two man effort:

(17a) Luke Marsden continued to come on in leaps and bounds, leading us with 14 assists and also providing 15 goals from the left wing. Our first player to win a player of the month award, and was also nominated for the player of the season. Now rated a good player for the conference, I suspect it'll be a struggle to keep him unless we can improve in the next couple of years.

(18b) Justin Dozzell got an early chance due to injury and forced his way into being the first choice leading striker. At one stage "Dozza" had 18 goals from 22 starts, but perhaps was asked to do too much at such a young age as he only finished with 20. Deadly on the break so long as the ball falls to his right foot, his lack of a left foot is his real flaw as he inevitably sends those into the stands.

Youth Intake

A lot of prospects here, but unlike the other intakes nobody that looks ready to make an impact over the next year or two.

• (20a) Graeme Browning - MC/DM/DR - Has some good mental stats, but lack of passing or tackling is a problem, as we're already weak in those areas.
  
• (20b) Tyler Williams - DC/DL - A slow defender, we're the slowest defense in the league already. Consistent and good in big matches though, if he can get faster he may be a good one.
  
• (20c) Karl Armfield - GK - Hopefully this guy is the future, as I really need an upgrade in goal. Honestly not that far behind the current prospect, who hasn't developed much in 4 years.
  
• (20d) Willie McNaughton - MC/DM/DC/DR - Slow with poor positioning and tackling to boot ... going to need a lot of work to make the grade.
  
• (20e) Barry Davis - DC/DL - Why does it feel like my whole defensive group are on quickness training?
  
• (20f) Antony Howell - ST/AML/AMC/AMR - A target man type striker who like most of my players in this mould completely lacks finishing.
  

Previous Season Goals

• Fine tune tactical approach, especially for away games - Partial success: I think the 4-4-2 is the way to go for this group, but we need to tighten it up still.
  
• Positive goal difference - Fail, but close. We ended with -3.
  
• Win more games than we lose - Fail, we pulled within 2 losses of our win total before I went into a more experimental mode. Ended up being 4 wins down.
  

Next Season Goals

• Don't give up the most goals in the league again.
  
• Settle on a first choice striker partner for Dozza.
  
• Push up the table: we can't just keep hanging around or our best prospects are going to look elsewhere.
  

[v1n1akabozo]

**** just got real, as i'm not having much time to play during the week i'm coding this on my spare time at work

[MADA]

what will it do?

[v1n1akabozo]

what will it do?

A few things fmrte already does, the squad sheets and a few more i've already thought of, focused on the development of players and squad analysis.

[Braumiller]

**** just got real, as i'm not having much time to play during the week i'm coding this on my spare time at work

Nice! Will you be sharing it with your friendly challenge buddies?

Shakes, another solid season building for the future

Joaquimorais, wow! Congrats. That really is quite the achievement

[v1n1akabozo]

For sure, any inputs are highly appreciated. At the momment i have six or seven fuctionalities i intend to implement. If any idea pops up in your minds just let me know

[XaW]

For sure, any inputs are highly appreciated. At the momment i have six or seven fuctionalities i intend to implement. If any idea pops up in your minds just let me know

A couple of quick questions.

1. Will this show CA/PA? - I would rather you don't as that's part of the challenge, at least for me

2. FMRTE is mostly used as a "cheating tool". Are you planning on this as well? Or rather a form of help for tracking the youth and their development?

Don't misunderstand this as some form of criticism as I applaud any innovation, but I would know before I would use anything.

Also, would ri916 accept this tool regarding this challenge? If this program follow the rules set for this challenge I would love to help you out with testing if you would like the help (I work as a software tester:) )

[Quacky]

So long as it doesn't show you anything you can't see then it should be fine.

It sounds to me like its mostly about graphing and monitoring attributes, which you can see anyway.

[ri916]

A couple of quick questions.

1. Will this show CA/PA? - I would rather you don't as that's part of the challenge, at least for me

2. FMRTE is mostly used as a "cheating tool". Are you planning on this as well? Or rather a form of help for tracking the youth and their development?

Don't misunderstand this as some form of criticism as I applaud any innovation, but I would know before I would use anything.

Also, would ri916 accept this tool regarding this challenge? If this program follow the rules set for this challenge I would love to help you out with testing if you would like the help (I work as a software tester:) )

If it shows any information that you cannot find in the game without an editor/fmrte then it's probably not allowed.

Very interesting concept if it's within the rules though .

[XaW]

If it shows any information that you cannot find in the game without an editor/fmrte then it's probably not allowed.

Very interesting concept if it's within the rules though .

Yeah, that's my general thought as well. Since I love developing youngsters in this game I feel the game doesn't allow all the things I want, a tool to do so would help out a lot.

So long as it doesn't show you anything you can't see then it should be fine.

It sounds to me like its mostly about graphing and monitoring attributes, which you can see anyway.

Yeah, I do hope the intent is within those guidelines.

[bl0u6344]

Nice solid season Shakes. Loving the physical attributes of Marsden and Dozzell (that sounds a bit creepy...!) - I'm guessing Dozzell gets quite a few from distance on the break given his long shots stats and the standard of 'keepers at this level?

Joaquimorais - Congratulations on the title and promotion - great effort!

[XaW]

Granted it's a friendly, but an

nonetheless. I'm loving the initial pass from the midfield.

I have a lot of friendlies, since I have a preseason that's lasting 110 days!

[Sanno11]

Joaquimorais -Great season mate, incredible for the first season, good luck in the conference prem.

Shakes - Another solid season, good luck closing the gap on the top half.

[Braumiller]

I'll buy a cookie for anyone who can teach me how to play consistently in FM15!

Just when you think you are onto something, boom!

[Sanno11]

[Results] [squad Stats][Transfers]* [Finances]

Sölvesborgs Season 1 2015/2016

League

With only the league to concentrate on this season (no cup entry) it made for a short and positive experience. The squad was made up of several players of real quality and a mix of youth, that although predicted to finish 9th seemed much more capable. I settled on a 4-1-3-2 wide formation which fitted my best 11 well. We began brightly winning the opening 3 games. We were unable to kick on and suffered our first defeats. This seemed to motivate the squad and we went on a 13 game unbeaten run. Unfortunately for us Gotene, a club newly promoted like us, were having an incredible season. We kept within 1-2 points behind them for weeks and weeks but unfortunately key injuries and a lack of squad depth finally told and we had a run of 3 draws which allowed a gap to emerge. We managed a solid 0-3 win away at Gotene to give us hope, but they we just to consistent in the end and ran out comfortable league winners. This did give us a chance to field a few youngsters in the final games and some made very positive impressions. Finishing 9 points above third place is encouraging and I have to believe that another season like that would see us as champions.

Players of the season

Marko Zebic

My Serbian centre back, league leader in interceptions and very consistent. 150k bids came in for him pre-season, which were rejected and unfortunately we have now lost him on a free. I may regret the decision with finances looking a little shaky, but being so close to promotion justifies it I think.

Frank Gustafsson

His pace and crossing were deadly at this level. He had a knack of connecting with the other wingers crosses and managed 10 goals, 9 assists.

Jens Andersson

Similar to Gustafsson, contributed with 12 goals and 5 assists. Asked to play in several positions and always delivered good performances.

Youth intake.

Attracting staff has been a real problem and we are without a HOYD, however my terrible assistant has found a couple of lively prospects.

Fredrick Jonson (Yp01a) Deadly pace at this level and with some fine tuning he will be a very important part of the team going forward. Missed a penalty for a hatrick in his 2nd start, so very good signs. Scored 4 in 5 apps.

Frej Jonson (Yp01b) thankfully a centreback to fill the void left by Zedic. Obvious weaknesses but will be thrown in the deep end. Showed promise in the few starts at the end of the season

Andreas Engtorp (yp01c) Really good tackling and heading, slightly short for a centreback, so he will be trained as a DM. Will get lots of opportunities to play next season.

A good range of players and at this level most will be able to feature straight away.

Really happy with the season and the squad going forward. All the other players have resigned except medic, so we will be as strong I hope. Really think promotion is realistic and will be pushing for that.

Goals

1) promotion

2) concede fewer goals.

3) get best youth players lots if playing time.

* Players already transferred by previous manager.

[XaW]

I'll buy a cookie for anyone who can teach me how to play consistently in FM15!

Just when you think you are onto something, boom!

I'll throw in another cookie! While I don't know how to fix it, I think it's the morale who really screws things up. It seems like when I get a couple of poor matches it's extremely hard to turn it around.

[Jambo98]

Good to see lots of good progresss, havent time to comment on all the updates but:

Shakes - another nice solid season, you look like your building well for the future

Joaquimorias - Wow, thats an insane season. Promoted as champions in season 1 is amazing! Love to hear more about your season and how you managed it so quickly

braumiller/Xaw - I agree that moral seems to be way over powering again this year. Its insane how important it seems to be to avoid a slump, and how hard it is to manage it. Once out of 5 years i have managed it really, which isnt a great record...

v1n1akabozo - Interesting to use VB to code something, i looked at writing my squad analysis tool in it but couldnt see that there is enough complexity to need it. Ultimately you will always have to manually enter the data, and since you wont be looking at anything like hidden attributes or CA/PA, really there is a limit to what code is actually useful. Perhaps some kind of statistical analysis of things like pass rates etc, but really there is only so much you can do given the source data.

In my own game, added my 2 new propsects to my squad analysis and it showed me some good news. Jim Bell (YP05a) is actually best suited to DLP(d) in my system, despite being an MC/AMC on his base positioning. This means i can combine him with McNeil (YP03a). That said, Bell did manage to just get sent off 47mins into his debut........

[XaW]

Btw, anyone of you excel heroes, would you mind showing me your formulas to calculate the score? I can't for the life of me get the formulas right.

Edit: Just when I wrote this I came to think of something. Do you just add the stats together and do a percentage of the max sum of 20 in each stat? Just seemed easier to me when I think it through...

[Braumiller]

Jambo98, in general how do you handle moral? Just keep praising and praising your guys when they win, at the risk of complacency? Try and keep them in check by doubting your chances in upcoming games?

My current frustration is that I cannot get my team to perform against the lower teams who I think I should be beating.

Getting to the business end of season 4 and right now I am paused as I am trying to create a 'back to basics' tactic which I am hoping is simple and effective (very wishful thinking!)

[Jambo98]

Btw, anyone of you excel heroes, would you mind showing me your formulas to calculate the score? I can't for the life of me get the formulas right.

Edit: Just when I wrote this I came to think of something. Do you just add the stats together and do a percentage of the max sum of 20 in each stat? Just seemed easier to me when I think it through...

Sum the total of the stats in question, then dvide by 20*the number of key stats

So, assuming you have a tab called "source data" where you have input all the player stats, and you have started at column B, working your way across in the same order the stats are on an ingame profile, and your looking for the % suitabillity for a Winger(support), on your output tab cell I3 contains the number of highlighted stats for winger(support), the code would be

=SUM('Source Data'!C7+'Source Data'!D7+'Source Data'!F7+'Source Data'!L7+'Source Data'!O7+'Source Data'!AC7+'Source Data'!AD7+'Source Data'!AI7+'Source Data'!AJ7)/($I$3*20)*100

Braumiller - i dont have a specific solution, as you can probably tell from my other 4 seasons, when it went bad for me it really went bad. In my winning season morale never really dropped, other than the run of 4 defeats early season. At that point it was just lucky to get 2 easier fixtures. In general i tend to go with positive post match and pre-match team talks. Dont do much individual morale management outside of that.

[druvo]

Lyra - Season 20/21

Transfers - Squad

League

This is starting to get a bit old. Many ups and downs but in the end we made it to our fourth playoff in 6 seasons.

We were drawn against Oudenaarde and the home game ended in a crazy 4-4 draw. In the return leg I thought we had everything under control but two late goals got them through on away goals.

Overall a very frustrating season which saw me losing my best striker prospect Andy Van Den Eynde because of some weird circumstances. He started the season disappointed with his lack of playing time, so naturally I had him as first-choice from the start. Unfortunately, only a few games in he suffered a 4 month injury. Once he came back from that I started him right away because I wanted him to lose his concern about playing time. Sadly, only a few games later he suffered another long injury. When he came back there were only 2 games left + playoffs and he started all those but that apparently wasn't enough to make him change his mind. Maybe it was for the better in the end because of his Hargreaves-esque injury-problems but we will never know.

In other (good!) news, we got our first international call up this season. Mohamed Berradi was called up for the Moroccan U20s and also made his debut.

Cups:

It was an interesting cup year where we won in our first 3 rounds and got an away draw to Anderlecht. We played very well and only lost 1-2. We got around 200k from that game.

Finances

Nothing new here. We keep making huge losses which means no upgrades.

Top players:

1. Mohamed Berradi (18A): Good season again with the highlight being his U20-cap.

2. Gilles Munch (18D): Berradi's CB-partner. Probably my 2 most important players at the moment.

3. Jeroen Verbruggen: A good season from one of the very few "original" players I still have left. About to be surpassed by the youngsters, though.

Youth intake:

Not the best intake but a promising MC is always nice.

Isaac Takyi (21A): Promising but I'm not sure what role he could excel in. Too low tackling for a ball-winner and too low passing for a playmaker.

Milan Bosmans (21B): Decent looking AMC with decent finish. Maybe retraining to striker.

Tom Vermaelen (21C): A striker with nice attributes. Low potential maybe but I can't say I trust my assistant...

Previously tagged youth:

Lahcen Saidi (16A): Some injuries this season but when he plays he's solid.

Ben Van De Weyer (17A): Since I switched to a tactic without wingers he's pretty much gone.

Simon Roger Ndongala (17B): 33 games and 13 goals. Not really good enough and he's developing slowly..

Aaron Van Den Eynde (18B): Bye. Enjoy early retirement and all the regrets when you see Lyra at the top of Pro League.

Dries Convalle (18C): First choice rightback now and he has developed well. Some small injury problems though.

Ali Hajji (19A): Haven't developed enough despite his determination. Got much better midfield prospects.

Léon Dierckx (19B): Possibly my best central midfielder now. Important.

Murphy Mulumba (19C): Developing nicely and I've been trying to find loans for him but no luck yet. Some nice playmaker-attributes.

Screve Mangonga (20A): Not much happening here which isn't surprising as he only plays for the U19s.

Luc Cornelis (20B): Same here. He's very promising but he's not good enough to make me drop Berradi/Munch (and they never seem to be injured either).

Aldrich Tshimanga (20C): Gave him 7 games this season and he will get more next season. Nice ball-winner.

Sven Pauwels (20D): After Van Den Eynde left, Sven is probably my most promising striker. He started 19 games (+5 subs) and scored 7 goals. Decent for his first season.

Goals before season:

*Playoff -Success

*Upgrade something - Fail

Next season:

*Playoff

*Upgrade something

[Shakes]

Given I seem to start the season well I'm wondering if it's worth scheduling easy friendlies throughout the entire season, even if it means my players are always tired. Sounds like a ridiculous solution, but I'm at a loss for what else to do to maintain form.

The scary part is that on balance it's probably not that I lose form, it's probably more accurate to say my players play above themselves when in form. 5 1/2 seasons in and I've still got a crap team, the youth players outside a couple really don't develop at this level. Making (very slow) progress but I fear that's going to come undone once I can't re-sign players.

Sanno11 - Good start, maybe the short season in Sweden means you don't have time to lose form!

druvo - Bad luck, keep getting in the playoffs and eventually you'll win one though. Takyi is quick with flair and technique ... despite his low finishing right now, if you could raise that I think he'd score as a striker.

[v1n1akabozo]

A couple of quick questions.

1. Will this show CA/PA?

2. FMRTE is mostly used as a "cheating tool". Are you planning on this as well? Or rather a form of help for tracking the youth and their development?

1. No. I don't know how FMRTE sorted out how SI saves the game. Preety sure they used reverse engineering, attached a debugger or some sort of thing like that. That said, even if i knew how to extract info directly from the memory adresses (which IMO is the most viable way), i wouldn't. The program is intended to help centralizing and querying information because i think the UI, although better now, are still highly decentralized, and 'proper' analysis still require something as a sheet.

2. 100% tracking and providing stats/indicators that would need a sheet today, i have a few on mind but i expect to provide ways to create custom indicators.

And sure, once i have anything useable i'll send to you and to anyone that wants it =]. The first functionality i will implement is the squad analysis as it's one of the most important (and the one i need the most ATM hahaha).

So long as it doesn't show you anything you can't see then it should be fine.

It sounds to me like its mostly about graphing and monitoring attributes, which you can see anyway.

Yes, plain and simple it will be a software that will collect information and provide statistics that are on FM as raw data/descentralized/not treated as useful data.

..

It's actually being written on C#. I've been wanting to learn WPF for a while now, and when i saw the sheets you guys have done i couldn't help it. It will probably take very long to be finished, even more to have all the functionality i've already planned. Would be easy if i could write it as an web asp.net mvc aplication as i'm very familiar to it, or even with windows forms (although the last time i coded using it was on VB6) so i'll be learning meanwhile i code this. (And everyone will be able to have their own portable DB to carry around, which is a must since all my internet traffic is monitored at work =/)

[Shakes]

The easiest way to extract stats from the game is setup a custom view including all the stuff from the technical/mental/physical categories then "Print Screen" from the FM menu and save to a text file.

Example output:

| Pkd  | Name                  | Position                                                                                                       | Cor | Cro | Dri | Fin | Fir | Fre | Hea | Lon | L Th | Mar | Pas | Pen | Tac | Tec | Agg | Ant | Bra | Cmp | Cnt | Dec | Det | Fla | Ldr | OtB | Pos | Tea | Vis | Wor | Acc | Agi | Bal | Jum | Nat | Pac | Sta | Str | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| STCL | (18b) Justin Dozzell  | M (C), ST (C)                                                                                                  | 6   | 3   | 7   | 12  | 9   | 5   | 10  | 13  | 4    | 5   | 6   | 2   | 2   | 7   | 4   | 9   | 2   | 8   | 6   | 5   | 10  | 8   | 5   | 11  | 5   | 8   | 7   | 11  | 13  | 12  | 11  | 8   | 13  | 15  | 12  | 11  | 
| 
... continues for rest of squad ...

As this is in effect a CSV file it's easy to import into excel or parse with a program.

[Jambo98]

The easiest way to extract stats from the game is setup a custom view including all the stuff from the technical/mental/physical categories then "Print Screen" from the FM menu and save to a text file.

Example output:

| Pkd  | Name                  | Position                                                                                                       | Cor | Cro | Dri | Fin | Fir | Fre | Hea | Lon | L Th | Mar | Pas | Pen | Tac | Tec | Agg | Ant | Bra | Cmp | Cnt | Dec | Det | Fla | Ldr | OtB | Pos | Tea | Vis | Wor | Acc | Agi | Bal | Jum | Nat | Pac | Sta | Str | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| STCL | (18b) Justin Dozzell  | M (C), ST (C)                                                                                                  | 6   | 3   | 7   | 12  | 9   | 5   | 10  | 13  | 4    | 5   | 6   | 2   | 2   | 7   | 4   | 9   | 2   | 8   | 6   | 5   | 10  | 8   | 5   | 11  | 5   | 8   | 7   | 11  | 13  | 12  | 11  | 8   | 13  | 15  | 12  | 11  | 
| 
... continues for rest of squad ...

As this is in effect a CSV file it's easy to import into excel or parse with a program.

Thanks Shakes, thats a pretty good method to get around the manual data keying element. Never realised you could output a screenshot as txt until now. Set your delimiter as | and it imports reasonable fine.

Meantime, back on the main topic, i just earned the "Attack!" achievement - we scored in 20 consecutive competative matches which was nice. I wasnt even aware i was approaching it!

[v1n1akabozo]

The easiest way to extract stats from the game is setup a custom view including all the stuff from the technical/mental/physical categories then "Print Screen" from the FM menu and save to a text file.

Example output:

| Pkd  | Name                  | Position                                                                                                       | Cor | Cro | Dri | Fin | Fir | Fre | Hea | Lon | L Th | Mar | Pas | Pen | Tac | Tec | Agg | Ant | Bra | Cmp | Cnt | Dec | Det | Fla | Ldr | OtB | Pos | Tea | Vis | Wor | Acc | Agi | Bal | Jum | Nat | Pac | Sta | Str | 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| STCL | (18b) Justin Dozzell  | M (C), ST (C)                                                                                                  | 6   | 3   | 7   | 12  | 9   | 5   | 10  | 13  | 4    | 5   | 6   | 2   | 2   | 7   | 4   | 9   | 2   | 8   | 6   | 5   | 10  | 8   | 5   | 11  | 5   | 8   | 7   | 11  | 13  | 12  | 11  | 8   | 13  | 15  | 12  | 11  | 
| 
... continues for rest of squad ...

As this is in effect a CSV file it's easy to import into excel or parse with a program.

Wow nice shakes, this can help a lot. I intend to gather a lil bit more data than that, but most of it will be optional. You gave me a few good ideas m8, cheers.

I tried before using the print option but in the profile and i wasn't sucessfull with that. Did some research on OCR as well.

Helping with the data input is on the backlog, although it's not setted as high priority, because i quite like typing the attributes of 'our guys' hahahaha.

[Shakes]

Histon FC - 2020/21 - Vanarama Conference North: 16th

Squad | Transfers

On the plus side we led the league in goals scored! On the downside we only finished with a goal difference of 0, which meant we were even more leaky than last year. We has a shocking two months from mid October to mid December where we managed only 2 draws from 9 league games. Nothing I tried worked to reverse the slump, formations, instructions, praise the players, yell at them, all had no effect.

End of the day we finish with an identical record to last year, slow and steady progress not being made here. Patience is required for this challenge but right now I'm just not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Going to be an interesting off season with a number of contracts up and with the constant stream of prospects graduating people have to go to avoid squad bloat. I'm going to need a little while to chill before I make those decisions or else everyone is going to be gone.

Leading Players

(17a) Luke Marsden set a league record with 24 assists, and chipped in 13 goals to be our second top scorer. He's a great player but with one year on his contract, he's out of here after this one. Not really sure how we're going to replace him.

(18b) Justin Dozzell set a league record of his own with 34 goals, despite missing 6 games with injury. He was also second on our assist chart with 12. Luckily I managed to talk to him at the end of the season and get him under contract, so he still has two years to run, but I'm certain he's gone after that too.

Those two guys are the team. Seriously I have no idea how we're going to cope without them.

Youth Intake

Strikers, strikers everywhere! Because scoring goals has definitely been my problem.

• 
  

(21a) Gareth Strong - ST/AML/AMC - Big quick lefty ... he's no Luke Marsden but will be groomed to be as close to a replacement as I can make him.
(21b) Simon Girling - ST - Quick and either footed is a plus, I guess I was complaining about Dozzell missing on his left.
(21c) Ryan Brill - MR/WBR - Dreads big matches, very inconsistent performer, fairly susceptible to injuries. I'm going to override the judgement of my ass man here and say he's going to flop.
(21d) Steve Beattie - ST/AML - Also has big match phobia and an injury problem, but at least he's consistent. I like his determination and finishing, may be able to overcome the weaknesses.
(21e) Jonathon Burge - ST/AML/AMC - Another with injury problems. I guess the game is saying have lots of strikers so 1 in 3 will be fit? Terrible finishing will definitely be a problem here, as I don't fancy him as a support striker.

Previous Season Goals

• Don't give up the most goals in the league again - Success by other teams getting worse, not us getting better.
  
• Settle on a first choice striker partner for Dozza - Not really ... (18a) Kenny Hatch started well and I like the look of him, but went on a big drought which affected his game.
  
• Push up the table: we can't just keep hanging around or our best prospects are going to look elsewhere - Nope, they're leaving.
  

Next Season Goals

Pray for a miracle promotion and that it's enough to convince our two stars to stay.

[XaW]

A big thanks to Braumiller and you other guys for help regarding the check for the players suitability in an excel sheet. Checking the stats I found some very interesting things including my 16 year old youngster is apparently the best central defender I have in my squad. As well as the fact that my strikers and full backs generally suck...a lot!

Guess I have a big job ahead of me keeping my team of scrap up this year.

[Braumiller]

Shakes, Dozzell and Marsden are (relative to our level) physical beasts!

What is your HOYD like to have found those? Does he have anything fitness based mentioned in his profile page?

Makes me wonder if I should set up my u18s team training to be predominantly fitness biased.

XaW you're welcome

Season 4 is in the books for Dulwich Hamlet.

No spoilers here before the write-up, which I may get a chance to do tonight but it might not be until tomorrow.

I'll let you all share in the jubilation / despair / indifference together

/ /

[XaW]

Can't wait for your update Braumiller!

I had a training match and tried to implement what the spreadsheet tells me. So I started with the best players in each position according to the tactic I've been playing. We were up against a tough opposition in Vålerenga of the Norwegian top tier and managed a very impressive 0-0 result. So, this tells me that it seem to have some form of effect since I just played another Norwegian top tier club before I got the excel work done and lost 4-1.

Hopefully this will help me as the season goes. Though it's a manual job of updating the sheet, I think I'll do it once or twice a season and try to follow it in a broad sense.

I feel like we are playing Moneyball here (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term; google it! )

[Joaquimorais]

Braumiller

bl0u6344

Sanno11

Thanks

Jambo98:

I do not know what to say, did not expect so team played very well, hit the tactic quickly was amazing

[Jambo98]

Can't wait for your update Braumiller!

I had a training match and tried to implement what the spreadsheet tells me. So I started with the best players in each position according to the tactic I've been playing. We were up against a tough opposition in Vålerenga of the Norwegian top tier and managed a very impressive 0-0 result. So, this tells me that it seem to have some form of effect since I just played another Norwegian top tier club before I got the excel work done and lost 4-1.

Hopefully this will help me as the season goes. Though it's a manual job of updating the sheet, I think I'll do it once or twice a season and try to follow it in a broad sense.

I feel like we are playing Moneyball here (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term; google it! )

Glad you found sucess with this approach. Worth being a little cautious and not 100% relying on the spreadsheet results. Look out for PPM and also for anomolies (remember you are basing it on an average of key stats - a defender could quite possible have an average of say 10 for the 11 required stats, but he might still have tacking of 4, which might be a red flag).

Also the updating doesnt have to be manual - shakes approach posted above means it takes circa 20mins at the very most to update.

Bill James would be proud of our humble spreadies!

[XaW]

Glad you found sucess with this approach. Worth being a little cautious and not 100% relying on the spreadsheet results. Look out for PPM and also for anomolies (remember you are basing it on an average of key stats - a defender could quite possible have an average of say 10 for the 11 required stats, but he might still have tacking of 4, which might be a red flag).

Also the updating doesnt have to be manual - shakes approach posted above means it takes circa 20mins at the very most to update.

Bill James would be proud of our humble spreadies!

Yeah, I found some very special cases. Such as a striker who is a good central defender according to the spreadsheet, but he still has low jumping, positioning and tackling. So he's not going anywhere near the defense! I also would give a younger player with slightly less stats than an older player some more chances due to the age. Still, it's a helpful tool to keep track. I found out that a striker I had not intended playing was actually the best one. He now has 7 goals in the 7 first matches of the season!

I did utilize the export that Shakes posted to save me some time. Still, I believe that updating it more than a couple of times a season is too much as the small increase wouldn't matter much.

[Shakes]

Shakes, Dozzell and Marsden are (relative to our level) physical beasts!

What is your HOYD like to have found those? Does he have anything fitness based mentioned in his profile page?

Makes me wonder if I should set up my u18s team training to be predominantly fitness biased.

They came through under my old one: Anthony Riviere. Don't really see anything there to suggest it was anything but luck? I haven't had them on any special fitness training, other than the usual very heavy during pre-season. Stats went up by 1 or 2 points across the board on physicals, so some normal development but they need to come in already good to reach that level. They did come in at 2 and 1.5 stars CA, so maybe good junior coaching to allow them to have enough CA to start with good physical stats?

[druvo]

v1n1akabozo - Interesting project!

Shakes - Losing your own prospects has to be the most frustrating thing in this challenge. Then again I guess you can't expect them to play in the same league forever.

At what stage do you normally turn professional in England? L2?

[druvo]

Lyra - Season 21/22

Transfers - Squad

League

Well well well. We finally did it.

The season started like the others. Mixed results but I usually dominated the games and had much more chances than my opponents but just couldn't score. This changed by the turn of the year and we had a run of 5 wins in a row. We averaged 2 points per game in the third period of the league and ended in second place which qualified us to the playoff, for the fifth time. In the quarter finals we were drawn against RC Waregem. The first game reminded me of the first half of the league season, we had the chances but couldn't score enough and we lost 2-3.

The home game was another story. We "won" the shots by 22-2 and the game 5-1 after a hattrick from Sven Pauwels (20D). The semi-final was against Hoogstraten, the team that finished in third place in our league. We played well and our strikers did their job so we won the away game 3-1 and the home game ended in a draw.

In the final we played Tienen, a second league team. We started at home and they went up to 2-0 and I almost gave up after already losing in the playoffs 4 times. Thankfully my players didn't feel the same way and amazingly turned the game around to a 3-2 win with a 90th minute goal from first-year-youth Noah De Laet.

In the away game we never gave them a chance. By half-time we were up 3-0 and they had a man sent off. It was all decided by then so we subbed on club legend Alexandre Lanclas in what will be his last game for the club as his contract expires.

If we wouldn't have gotten promoted this year we would have lost both Berradi and Munch (My 2 best central defenders) as they refused to sign new contracts before. Ugh, that would have been so frustrating.

Cups:

In the first game (3rd round) we faced Merksplas and beat them 9-0 (our highest win). After that we beat UR Namur by 1-0 and then deservedly knocked out second league-side La Louviére Centre.

Then we were drawn vs fierce rivals and Pro League-side Lierse which boosted our balance by around 150k. We were well beaten though.

Finances

Still looking bad. Hopefully the second division will bring in some extra cash. I desperately need some upgrades. Turning into a pro club would be nice too...

Top players:

1. Dries Convalle (18C): Has developed nicely being first-choice and he finally finished his re-training to the wing-back-role.

2. Lahcen Saidi (16A): My best player now. Those physical attributes wouldn't look out of place in the highest of leagues.

3. Gilles Munch (18D): Together with Berradi he keeps my defence tight. Thankfully he agreed to a new contract as it would have been a pain to lose him.

Youth intake:

After losing Van De Eynde last season I'm glad to have some new promising strikers. Not sure about the others.

Ilias El Yousfi (22A): Pacy striker with good finishing and off the ball.

Noah De Laet (20B): Probably not as nice attributes as El Yousfi but he scored some important goals already. 3 playoff goals coming on as a sub.

Previously tagged youth:

Ben Van De Weyer (17A): Lost faith in him. Contract running out this summer.

Simon Roger Ndongala (17B): Now first choice striker. 24 goals in 43 games. Still not developing fast enough though but he will have to if we're going to have a chance in the second league.

Mohamed Berradi (18A: Very solid season and I have no doubts he will have what it takes in the second division. All I want is to turn professional so we can offer him a longer contract...

Léon Dierckx (19B): Important player with some nicely divided attribues. Was sadly injured for the playoffs.

Murphy Mulumba (19C): He's improving but wasn't given many chances. Hopefully I can start utilizing the loan system a bit more after being promoted.

Screve Mangonga (19B): No games yet but as my current keeper is 35 years old I have to give the chance to some kid. Possibly to Screve but his low potential is worrying.

Luc Cornelis (20B): Looks very nice and I wish I could give him more game-time but I can't drop Berradi/Munch at the moment.

Aldrich Tshimanga (20C): Played 26 games and it made him a lot better. Lots of competition for the central midfielder position at the moment which is great.

Sven Pauwels (20D): My best striker according to my assistant and the statistics agrees. 20 goals in 32 games.

Isaac Takyi (21A): Another promising midfielder. A physical one. Started 31 games.

Milan Bosmans (21B): The competition for the striker positions is very tough and I'm not sure he has what it takes. Maybe I can find a loan for him.

Tom Vermaelen (21C): Fast striker who scored 9 goals in 30 games. Will have to step it up if he wants to keep his place.

Goals before season:

*Playoff -Success

*Upgrade something - Fail

Next season:

*Safe mid-table (Yes, I believe the squad is ready for that after my 7 seasons in the third division.)

*Upgrade something