&#65279;noikeee&#039;s FM16 Euro/LatinAmerican Journeyman

Winter was pretty busy this time as 4 players were given the freedom to leave, whilst I hired another 4. I was pretty unhappy with centre-back Denys Choknadiy who I'd hired in the Summer and had been a pretty big failure, so he was off to Spisska Nova Ves whilst I brought in Belgian Aaron Vandendriessche, who could also do the whole right-wing. Sadly he was just as terrible.

In the midfield I let go of Letsie Mahlangu who had been underperforming ever since he arrived last year; and replaced him by Brazilian Lucas Souza, who was perhaps a little better but not that great neither.

Finally there was quite the revolution upfront as I was sick to death of Andrej Majsitnik's lack of finishing edge; and I got a decent (15.25K€) fee for Brazilian youngster Terra who was inconsistent. I wanted more of a false 9 type so had huge hopes in another Brazilian I hired named Índio, who again also proved a bit of a failure, with lots of injuries and few goals. I did have a little more luck with the other forward I picked up, Hungarian teenager Szabolcs Gulyás who didn't score a lot (he's a false 9 after all) but did put in some promising performances.

DOXXbet Liga - East

Mixed feelings on the last few fixtures of the regular season - we lost to Rim. Sobota in an open game; but a late goal vs Spisska Nova Ves next qualified us for the playoff. We finished with two draws against difficult opposition in Bardejov and Lokomotiva Kosice, which put us in a final, very nice 3rd place.

However whilst 3rd in the regular East season was nice, we got lumped in with the West teams for the Promotion Stage and the biggest West sides seemed to have gotten more points up until here, so we started Promotion Stage in 7th and not looking all that likely to end up top and promoted.

DOXXbet Liga - Promotion Stage

There were no easy sides left to face in the Promotion Stage but there's no denying we really struggled. I fiddled a ton with tactics until I got a decent system here, and for our first 6 fixtures we lost 3 and drew 3. We tanked to the bottom few places, and the breakthrought I think was the heavy loss to Senec 1-4 at home. It was horribly unfair, unrepresentative of what had happened on the pitch but it did give me the excuse to call a team meeting. Morale shot up, I think I finally started getting my tactics straight, and we got 3 home wins in the remaining fixtures, which allowed us to recover to a decent but very unspectacular 9th, from that starting position of 7th, 14 points short of promotion.

Summary

Not the greatest 2nd half of the season, but I'm not letting myself feel defeated just yet, I think I'm starting to identify the missing pieces and I believe some of them have a transfer already arranged for us for next year... Either way I still rate this season higher than last year, thanks to having made it to the promotion stage.

Ultimately this feels like a really tough league to get out of, just like Costa Rica was before. My luck is that the board's been injecting a bit of money and keeping us clear of financial danger, otherwise I'd be pretty screwed by now. Whatever happens I'm certainly not giving up just yet!

noikeee · January 22, 2016

2021/2022 - Season review - Dolny Kubin

Squad and tactics

This is my brand new possession 4-3-3, inspired by many different things, like Cleon's Art of Possession; Mr U Rosler's Tianxia tactic (I'm slightly embarassed to admit I did end up having a look at the downloads forum to see what's working for people at the moment); and even Tomtuck's setup in his career.

This is just one of my current plans however and possibly even the one I'm using the least. For tougher matches I bring back the AML and AMR to ML and MR, as tweaked WM/A roles to mimick inside forwards (this tactic also has "more roaming" TI to try to add more movement); and for easier matches I pull the DLP up to a MC position making it a flat midfield 3. It's also worth mentioning there's the odd PI here and there, most notably the false 9 is told to "shoot less often" to minimize pointless long shots; and the BBM is told to go forward often.

Notice nobody's getting many goals, I expect them to come mostly from the IFs and the BBM but all 3 players I use in these positions at the moment are not good finishers! Also the most used left IF is left-footed and the right IFs are all right-footed which doesn't help them score goals in my opinion. I think there's a lot to gain if I get proper players in here...

Finances

Michal Kosik (AML / AMRC)

Looking much better than it should thanks to several cash injections from the board.

Youth watch

I got a better youth intake this time with a few decent players, right-back Lesko and midfielder Grman possibly the brightest prospects in here even if neither are amazing:

Vojtech Grman (M/AMC)

Zoltan Lesko (DR / WBR)

Pavol Varga (AMC / MC)

Vladimir Weiss (GK)

Top 5 players of the season

5. Michal Horodnik (AML, ML, AMC) - Top scorer on 8 goals as he managed to steal last year's player of the season Martin Janco's spot at inside forward on the left. However his ratings dropped as the season went on, and he's hardly a player I'm 100% convinced with.

4. Onyekachi Kalu (DL) - I'm gutted he's about to leave on a Bosman as he's unwilling to renew his contract, he's been improving remarkably over the course of this season. Earlier in my 4-3-3 I was using wingback roles which seemed to hugely flatter the ratings of both my fullbacks, and he was no exception.

3. Daniel Andreev (DC) - By far the better of my usually pretty incompetent centre-backs as this is a position I've been having lots of problems with ever since I arrived in Slovakia. Great ratings, reliable bloke.

2. Lukas Migala (DR, MR, ML) - A strange situation that I'm about to willingly let go one of my most influential players this season. Whilst I used wingback roles, he excelled as a reliable provider of assists and had ridiculously high ratings, plus a lot of player of the match awards. However once I decided we played better by being more restrained with my fullbacks, his ratings tanked and as he ages his pace is going down too, and pace is absolutely key in my defenders! Thanks for that little fantastic streak of form earlier this year, but it's time to go now Lukas.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Marcel Oravec (MC, AMC)

The one guy that absolutely rocked all year long, and in a position he is only "competent" in, as I play him as MC ever since I switched to 4-3-3 (and I think I've got the "player stuck in competent whilst training a new position" bug). Doesn't make that many assists or goals, but his reliable passing is absolutely key to our possession game, and he ended up with ratings far higher than everyone else.

[b]Season  League                            Cups                                        International                      Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Berwick Rangers (Scotland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
15/16   League 2 - 5th                    Cup 2nd Rd, LgCup 1st Rd, TrCup 1st Rd      ---                                Resigned at end of the season
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loughgall FC (Northern Ireland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
16/17   Championship 1 - 10th             IRC 6thR, LC 3rdR, ITC 2ndR, MUC winners    ---                                Sacked; won Mid-Ulster Cup
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Municipal Turrialba (Costa Rica)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
17/18   Ascenso - 4th (1/4f) / 5th        ---                                         ---
18/19   Ascenso - 3rd (fin.) / 3rd (1/4f) ---                                         ---                                Apertura finalists
19/20   Ascenso - 5th / 4th (fin.)        Copa de Costa Rica 1st Rnd                  ---                                Clausura finalists
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolny Kubin (Slovakia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
20/21   DOXXbet Liga - 8th / 1st (RlgSt)  Slovnaft Cup 1st Rnd                        ---
21/22   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 9th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 3rd Rnd                        ---

noikeee · January 23, 2016

2022/2023 - Pre-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

It's a revolution. Determined to improve the standard of my squad, I hired 10 new players.

At the back we needed two new left-backs after both Onyekachi Kalu and Martin Mravec left on frees. Their replacements were Michal Janec and Bosnian youngster Radovan Pantelic. With veteran Hungarian CB Miklós Balogh and right-back Lukas Migala also leaving on frees, and later as I got rid of Belgian CB/RB Aaron Vandendriessche, I needed to swap them for another 3 players so in came CBs Ivan Hladik, Dimitar Popov, and Argentinian right-back Leonardo Godoy.

In midfield there was only one signing but he's a really good one. Ghanaian Michael Tawiah looks like a very complete player.

But probably the truly big upgrade was upfront. First, who's gone... I released wingers Robert Gesnabel and Peter Fieber on a free, whilst forwards Marek Sovcik and Índio also left (the latter for a decent 11,25K fee). I wanted to invest in proper inside forwards, so in came Ratislav Gajdos and Loïc Gagnon for the right, and the hugely expensive Gábor Makrai for the left as I'm paying him a stupid high wage (I was desperate for a player like this). Finally, striker Rene Durkot looks like truly a special player and I think he can score goals on top of also playing the false 9 role.

Squad

This is the most exciting pre-season I've had in this career yet, as I feel like I've given this squad a big boost. The defence is still a bit dodgy, but upfront we've gone a whole new level. We still probably have 1 or 2 players too many for the wings as I failed to get rid of either Janco or Horodnik, and I only kept Varadin cause he's a cheap backup on zero wages.

Fixtures

Pre-season looked extremely promising, as always it's misleading as I tend to just set up a bunch of home friendlies vs crap teams to boost morale, but we looked good.

First league match was pretty hard as we faced Kosice who has just gone down from Fortuna Liga - we beat them 4-2 pretty convincingly; and then another win over Presov put us top of the table already. A loss to Teplicka was a minor setback, but we recovered back to the top with a win over Ruzomberok, and then a superb 5-0 trashing of Rim. Sobota, probably the best I've ever seen my team play. Everything looked convincing and smooth...

I wasn't too unhappy with a 3-3 draw at Lokomotiva Kosice, it was frustrating as we'd had opened a 3-1 lead but we were very unlucky. However suddenly a 4-0 loss at Podbrezova put us down back to earth, and down to 3rd place too. Still, it was another stupid unlucky match where we scored 2 early own goals!

Meanwhile the cup started and for the first time ever we were drawn against a lower league team. We were humbled as they took us to penalties, and even if we managed to win it there as we scored all of ours, this match was probably the most concerning sign yet.

Summary

The last few matches have looked a little less smooth, but I'm still happy with the start. I'm convinced my team is much better than last year and we're playing some excellent football at times. I'm not sure this is the season we're going up, but I expect to put a proper fight for promotion unlike last year. I want to win the East league or at least come close, and certainly finish higher than last year's 9th in the promotion stage.

Dexter_Morgan · January 24, 2016

decent start there

noikeee · January 24, 2016

decent start there

Thank you Dexter.

noikeee · January 24, 2016

2022/2023 - Mid-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

2 things happened during this period - I finally managed to sell inside forward Martin Janco, who I'd picked as our player of the season 2 years ago but I sadly felt he didn't cut it anymore. And I hired midfielder Jonathan Bijimine who's an exciting versatile type of player, perfect for our possession game.

Slovnaft Cup

We put in an excellent game at Sered - they are leading the DOXXbet Liga West, and we managed to nullify them completely despite resting most of our players for a league match that was only a few days after. Unfortunately once it went to penalties, a complacent Frederik Bilovksy missed the only one for us, and we were out.

DOXXbet Liga - East

We had finished August on a bad run, and it continued with a loss at Bardejov. However a big 4-0 win over Liptovsky Mikulas would start a pretty nice, lenghty undefeated run for us.... if only it wasn't mostly draws. We've been playing an increasingly controlled game that rarely scores many for us, but does really well at nullifying the opposition. This has improved our away form noticeably - I've been very happy with results like drawing at Haniska and Teplicka, and beating Kosice 3-0 away is probably the highlight of these last few months. And when things go well at home, they go very well. Unfortunately there's also been quite a few days we fail to turn our possession into goals at home, like the draws with Zvolen, Ruzomberok and Podbrezova. And in a tight league, our defeat vs Rim. Sobota right before the winter break dropped us to 4th.

Summary

We have the exact same amount of points as last year at this stage, despite having clearly better players. Strangely, I'm happy with that. It's not reflected in points but we're just much more controlled with the matches feeling way less random. Our goal difference is much better now, and I feel we're more prepared to tackle the Promotion Stage (and we'll surely make it, there's a 9 points gap over 7th). We're probably still missing a little edge to get promoted this year, but we're slowly getting there.

AGK · January 24, 2016

Slow but steady progress mate. I love when you have the feel for the team and a few additions here and there every year can make a massive difference. Next year it will be your year. (Sound like a Liverpool fan)

Dexter_Morgan · January 25, 2016

Going well again, you're certainly looking like you are becoming one of the better sides in the division

noikeee · January 25, 2016

Slow but steady progress mate. I love when you have the feel for the team and a few additions here and there every year can make a massive difference. Next year it will be your year. (Sound like a Liverpool fan)

I really want next year to be our year and believe it's possible, about time I get a bloody promotion, it's been 8 seasons without acheiving anything really.

Going well again, you're certainly looking like you are becoming one of the better sides in the division

We're getting there but I think next update will show that a lot more clearly - I've been feeling an improvement for a long time but results had been slightly unconvincing... up until now.

noikeee · January 26, 2016

2022/2023 - End of season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

Our only winter signing was Belgian defender Mikayil Yaman - quick and silly brave but a bit on the short side in terms of height. This meant a centre-back had to go, so we let go of Summer signing Ivan Hladik who had been a bit crap. I also got rid of veteran Brazilian midfielder Lucas Souza.

DOXXbet Liga - East

It was quite a worrying return from the pre-season, as we started our match at Liptovsky Mikulas pretty badly, and despite recovering with a couple of good chances failed to score and lost. We salvaged a 2-2 draw at Zvolen despite a considerably worse performance; and then finally claimed back a win winning Bardejov pretty easily 3-0 at home. Then frustration set in as we dominated Haniska, but things got more difficult when new signing Mikayil Yaman got sent off and we could only get a 1-1 draw.

Quite frankly I wasn't happy with this finale to the regular season, it's not so much because of having finished 5th place instead of the 3rd we got last year, as we finished on the same 35 points; it's because on the West division Sered suddenly pulled off a mighty lead, and pretty much made things impossible for the Promotion Stage as we entered it 11 points behind them.

DOXXbet Liga - Promotion Stage

We didn't start Promotion Stage particularly well, with a loss at leaders Sered - which was a little on the unfair side, but pretty much killed any vague hopes of promotion, as we dropped 14 points behind them. Not that it was remotely on my mind... but on hindsight, after everything that happened afterwards, maybe it should have. We just went on a mighty unbeaten run up until the end of the season. It all started with 4 consecutive wins, then momentarily paused with a home draw with Dubnica, but we recovered with a great win over Sered, who did become eventual champions. Weirdly all our draws were at home, and we just kept on winning away.

With promotion out of the realm of possibility, 2nd place started looking like a more attainable goal, although we drew with the team we were chasing for that place, Nitra. Fortunately 2 more wins, despite one poor home draw vs Zilina B, managed to give us just that at the end. And remarkably we managed to cut the gap to Sered to just 6 points from 14.

Summary

This was a sensational campaign in the Promotion Stage, and as much as I suspected we were gonna do better there this season, I never imagined a run like this. It's a shame we dropped so many points earlier during the regular season, as it just gave us a massive handicap we could never recover from.

Next year there is only one objective - to go up. It's been 8 years in my managerial career and my reputation is still pretty low, if I want to progress I need trophies, I need achievements. Leaving Slovakia isn't remotely in my mind for now, I've got a job to finish here and we're closer than ever to do that.

noikeee · January 26, 2016

2022/2023 - Season review - Dolny Kubin

Squad and tactics

After many more months of continuous tweaking, I feel I've finally settled on something nice. For a start you might notice the normal balanced plan has been thrown out, and instead I've got an aggressive plan for the home matches (pictured), and a more cautious away plan. A breakthrough has been switching the striker back to Complete Forward role from False 9 - this goes away a little from our possession plan, but adds more goals, and why not take use of the better multi-skilled forwards I have now...

The away plan differs most from using a 4-1-4-1 shape and not using "close down much more" neither "get stuck in" - although we still use a Control mentality and still want to dominate possession and take control of the game... just in a more sensible way.

Finances

David Benko (AML / ML)

I've been taking advantage of routine "board investments" (donations) which I believe is a sketchy mechanism of FM to avoid clubs getting bankrupt. Cheers board. This is what makes things look respectable, to be fair I've always been within our wage/transfer budgets, so it's the board's fault for giving me such ridiculously unsustainable budgets in the first place.

Youth watch

It's been a decent intake but nothing spectacular, with 2 players of note:

Milan Kuzma (DC)

But the real news on the youth front has been a very nice progression of last year's graduate, right-back Zoltan Lesko, who's been tutored with great success by Leonardo Godoy.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Rene Durkot (ST) - Not great ratings as he finished the season on slightly underwhelming form, but he did take good advantage of the mid-season switch to Complete Forward role as he scored 12 goals and also contributed with 6 assists.

4. Ratislav Varadin (AMR, MR) - A weird situation - I just put him aside from the beginning of the season as I had hired two left-footed inside forwards for my right wing, and he had been nothing special the 2 previous seasons he'd been on loan for us. When an injury crisis struck at the beginning of Promotion Stage, I was forced to call him up as he hadn't done a single minute for us. To my shock, he absolutely killed it the remaining few matches! 5 assists in just 9 matches and the highest rating in the team.

3. Marcel Oravec (MC) - Not our greatest star anymore as I've been hiring better players, but still influential, and recently broke the record for most league starts for our club, now at 187.

2. Michael Tawiah (MC) - Simply a fantastic signing. I use him mostly as box-to-box midfielder where I feel he's an absolutely perfect fit but he can pretty much do every position in midfield, and even cover for centre-back if there's huge necessity. A shame he's 32 and his attributes are starting to drop.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Leonardo Godoy (DR, MR)

There's no doubt whatsoever attacking fullbacks are silly overrated in this match engine, at least in terms of ratings, and this year's right-backs, as I give them a more aggressive role than the left-backs, were no exception (backup Martin Kovanic also did really well). But it takes a talented player to fully take advantage of this issue, and Leonardo was great all year long, both as a FB/A role then later as a WB/S when I decided to switch to that. Ended with a ridiculous 9 player of the match awards.

[b]Season  League                            Cups                                        International                      Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Berwick Rangers (Scotland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
15/16   League 2 - 5th                    Cup 2nd Rd, LgCup 1st Rd, TrCup 1st Rd      ---                                Resigned at end of the season
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loughgall FC (Northern Ireland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
16/17   Championship 1 - 10th             IRC 6thR, LC 3rdR, ITC 2ndR, MUC winners    ---                                Sacked; won Mid-Ulster Cup
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Municipal Turrialba (Costa Rica)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
17/18   Ascenso - 4th (1/4f) / 5th        ---                                         ---
18/19   Ascenso - 3rd (fin.) / 3rd (1/4f) ---                                         ---                                Apertura finalists
19/20   Ascenso - 5th / 4th (fin.)        Copa de Costa Rica 1st Rnd                  ---                                Clausura finalists
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolny Kubin (Slovakia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
20/21   DOXXbet Liga - 8th / 1st (RlgSt)  Slovnaft Cup 1st Rnd                        ---
21/22   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 9th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 3rd Rnd                        ---
22/23   DOXXbet Liga - 5th / 2nd (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 2nd Rnd                        ---

noikeee · January 30, 2016

2023/2024 - Pre-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

Despite not intending to make a lot of changes I ended up signing another 10 players like last year. Centre-back Dimitar Popov is not really new as he was here on loan last year but arrives permanently now. Meanwhile the board have been generous enough to let me scout the whole of Europe starting this season, so this made it easier for us to attack new markets such as my homeland Portugal, and from there I picked up another centre-back, Luís Silva, as well as a top class left-back, Pedro Amaral. At the back we also switched backup goalkeepers, having let Jozef Kapicak go to recruit Frantisek Plach on loan.

For the midfield, there are two changes. Whilst Dusan Kolek and Frederik Bilovsky had their moments for the club in past years, they were getting on a bit and I believe I have got a considerable upgrade for both of them, in Aleksandar Aleksandrov (yet another Bulgarian in my squad!) and the exciting young Egyptian Kareem Ibrahim.

I also wanted to add firepower upfront if possible, albeit here the transfers have been more motivated by players wanting to leave than anything else. First, I made the hard decision of letting striker Rene Durkot go after he became unhappy I rejected a few bids for him. He was a key part of our system so needed to be replaced accordingly and I thought I had found the perfect replacement in young Bulgarian Georgi Popov, on loan. That is until he actually joined our club and my staff realized he was inconsistent, which is a huge red flag for me. In panic I signed another guy, 33 year old Kennedy Nwanganga, on silly wages, and I seem to have hit jackpot as he has already scored 5 goals in August alone. To fund this move, I sold winger Ratislav Gajdos whilst our former top scorer Michal Horodnik had also departed from our department of wingers - replaced by Muhamed Djamanca. Finally, on late August I picked up the hugely exciting Radim Jurca on loan from our parent club, which will enable us to soon finally sell Gábor Makrai who like Dukrot was bitterly unhappy I had rejected a few bids for him (and is playing horribly).

Squad

Despite all the changes, I am not 100% convinced that this has been much of an upgrade, unlike last year. And I am also spending a stupid amount of wages at the moment. However I find that necessary as we need all the help we can get if we're to get promoted this season.

Fixtures

I have tried a slightly different pre-season this time with a few away matches and one or two against tougher opposition, and we did okay, we never looked spectacular but also didn't lose any match which I find a suficient performance and a good test for the proper season.

The league started with quite possibly the wildest match I've had in ages, a 5-3 win over Liptovsky Mikulas where our attack did spectacularly well but our defence didn't impress. Nevertheless it extended our run of games without losing to 12 as it continued from last season. Yet soon enough that ended, with a hard to comprehend loss at Bardejov, a tight match where we were slightly better and the only goal coming from a direct freekick. We recovered well with a convincing win over Presov but then failed to beat the deep defence of Teplicka in the one game so far I think my tactics were unsuitable. This because our following fixture, another loss, was just as desperately unlucky as the one at Bardejov, as the goal again came from a direct freekick, after we dominated the match. What can I do in such circumstances?? A hard fought 2-1 win at Rim. Sobota raised our spirits a little to finish August.

Summary

I am not happy at all with this start, if there's something I've learnt from last season is that we absolutely must not let other teams run away with an advantage during regular season, as points accumulate for the Promotion Stage and by then it's too late to recover. We're already 6 points behind as 2 teams in the West group have 16 points... Nevertheless, like I've said, I believe we've been desperately unlucky so far, and perhaps once the new players get a little more acquainted with the club we'll get better results. But I'm a little concerned, promotion is an absolute must for me this season and I'm now slightly unsure about my chances...

Dexter_Morgan · January 30, 2016

It's strange how when looking from the outside i'd say you are off to a decent start and well in touch of top spot but the person playing is critical, i've been guilty of doing it myself As you say though you've got a few new signings so hopefully they'll settle in quick and things should improve

noikeee · January 30, 2016

It's strange how when looking from the outside i'd say you are off to a decent start and well in touch of top spot but the person playing is critical, i've been guilty of doing it myself As you say though you've got a few new signings so hopefully they'll settle in quick and things should improve

I know I'm in touch and nothing's lost yet, I just don't want a repeat of last year, we finished regular season in 5th place in our group and 11 points behind; and by the time promotion stage ended we were 2nd overall and missed it by only 6 points. If we hadn't slept in the regular season and let all of these little silly unlucky draws and losses accumulate, we'd have gone up.

noikeee · January 30, 2016

Also, the leaders don't lose any points in the West group. I'm now in mid-September and up to 2nd in our group and just 1 point behind in here, but compared to the West the team that's top has 9 more points than us, and they get to retain all of that for the Promotion Stage...

edit: make that 12 points. I think we're done for this season already.

noikeee · January 30, 2016

2023/2024 - Mid-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

Early September we completed the sale of Gábor Makrai, as expected; and later in October we picked up a Greek winger by the name of Dimitris Tzoumakis.

Slovnaft Cup

We've been having an interesting cup run, with the particularity that we haven't yet faced a big team unlike in previous years, and all matches have been at home. First we beat Sered, then we struggled a little vs Vrable where we rotated players and they took us to penalties with a late equalizer, fortunately we won there. Then we put one of our best performances of the season again with a rotated squad, beating Teplicka 3-0 with a hat-trick by Hungarian striker Szabolcs Gulyás. This put us in the quarter-finals which is the furthest round I've reached yet, it'll be against Zlate Moravce who are a league above us.

DOXXbet Liga - East

We started September with a 2-0 win vs Zvolen but soon would face quite inconsistent form. I wasn't shocked to lose at Kosice who are pretty good, and then we beat Ruzomberok; but two further away defeats were quite concerning even if in-between we got a big 4-1 win. It certainly didn't help that somehow the league set up 4 consecutive away fixtures but the damage was done, as Skalica in the other group (West) started opening up a huge lead that matters in the long-term. I thought I was starting to recover when we got 3 consecutive wins, but we went into Winter Break on pretty poor form again after 2 draws and yet another away defeat, and now Kosice have opened up a lead in our own group as well.

Summary

I'm afraid this won't be the year we're going up, again. We have the exact same, slightly underwhelming number of points we had at this stage last year, and Skalica and Kosice have just been excellent, I doubt we can catch them even if there are many matches to play yet. A more realistic revised goal will be to try to reach 3rd place overall when the league splits. Meanwhile, I need to take a good look at why are we struggling so much away from home this season, and why are we not scoring enough goals.

It might seem like harsh criticism, but I need to look at the details if I want to keep up with the other 2 teams - this is a harsh league by itself where only 1 out of 24 teams goes up, so we need to hold ourselves to the highest standards if we're to become the lucky ones.

Deisler26 · January 31, 2016

Still dreadfully inconsistent. Could it be to do with the professionalism/handling pressure makeup of your squad?

deltablue · January 31, 2016

We've been discussing the strength of our teams on my thread and it's interesting seeing the quality you've got and seeing your point about the differing league strength.

noikeee · January 31, 2016

Still dreadfully inconsistent. Could it be to do with the professionalism/handling pressure makeup of your squad?

My squad personality is "fairly professional", the only guy that "doesn't enjoy big matches" is my star MC Oravec; and the only players that are "inconsistent" are my 2 backup STs, and my right-back Godoy who gets silly high ratings every single match anyway.

I think it's tactical, I'm actually very happy as it is with our home form, it's the away form that has been awful, for whatever reason the away tactic that did so well for us last year isn't working now. All 6 of our defeats have been away...

We've been discussing the strength of our teams on my thread and it's interesting seeing the quality you've got and seeing your point about the differing league strength.

Yeah but I think by now I've got players that should be good enough to tear apart this league.

noikeee · February 6, 2016

2023/2024 - End of season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

Just one transfer in January - guess who's back, back again... it's not Eminem but Rene Durkot, the forward that got 12 goals for us last year. We got him back on loan, and I guess he was alright but not as good as last year, scoring just 4 goals in 12 appearances.

Slovnaft Cup

We were already deeper in the competition than ever when we hosted Zlate Moravce - of the league above us - at home for the quarter-finals. In a pattern that would be familiar for much of this 2nd half of the season, we dominated the match but could only salvage a draw, after Zlate had scored earlier. Thankfully we were rescued by the penalty shootout and went even further into the semi-finals.

The fact the semi-finals were over 2 legs was news for us, but it didn't matter much as things were over within the first 20 minutes of the first leg, as Slovan Bratislava had already scored 3 - again after they simply nailed their finishing instead of outplaying us badly or anything. We brought back home a tiny bit of hope after we got the away goal very late in the game, we'd need a miracle but it didn't happen, Slovan beat us again 1-0 with a penalty goal. To be honest it was still a great cup run!

DOXXbet Liga - East

Things worked out pretty well in the cup, and we were in a decent league position coming into the Winter Break. But don't be mistaken, this is when everything started going seriously wrong. I knew Kosice were always going to be difficult opponents and wasn't shocked to be beaten 3-1 at home, but certainly didn't expect Podbrezova to make it an even harsher 1-4 defeat next... and it was three in a row when we went to Ruzomberok. I panicked and tried a different, counter-attacking version of my tactic and promptly dispatched Lokomotiva Kosice 4-1.

Like the many other times in this career I had switched tactics and suddenly got a good result, I had regained some optimism. But even all the optimism in the world couldn't offset the reality that we were to start Promotion Stage a massive 17 points behind, making any sort of promotion challenge completely impossible, after coming 3rd in our group in the regular stage.

DOXXbet Liga - Promotion Stage

Fear not, Promotion Stage actually started in quite decent form for us, as we didn't lose any of the first 7 fixtures! Well that included 4 consecutive draws, but we can't have everything. The experiment with counter-attacking versions of my 4-3-3 seemed to be going pretty well, but the damned crossed goals we were conceding were driving me nuts. It was working on average and we were slowly climbing up the table and catching up with the top teams, but I felt like we had no real control over the matches, ever. And my fears were well founded when we suddenly crashed with 3 consecutive defeats, the last of which was almost funny, as stats shown it had been a really tight match yet we lost 3-0. When you're unlucky all the time it's probably time to question whether it's really a matter of luck.

This prompted me to yet another tactical change. Now the formation became more defensive (a completely flat 4-5-1), but our game more aggressive, as I pushed back to control mentality and a high pressing game. This gave us two narrow 1-0 wins to finish off the season, salvaging a decent 6th place even if that's not quite what I wanted.

Summary

What an incredibly frustrating season. I started off convinced this was the year we were gonna get promoted, after last season's excellent run of form at the end, yet ended up juggling tactics all year long, and never reaching any conclusion. The daftest thing was the feeling we often had the better of the matches, having more chances, not really giving too much space for dangerous counter-attacks neither, yet the opposition's finishing was always much better than our inept players'. I must've used the end of match "you were unlucky" team talk in, like, 15 different occasions.

I suspect it was more a matter of players than tactics. Remember I made a lot of transfers at the start of the season. The guys I hired looked great, but one thing is looking great another is to perform great on the pitch. Inside forward Radim Jurca missed a ton of goals; striker Nwanganga was awful past that great run of form in August; centre-back Luis Silva's lack of concentration and high aggression was hugely frustrating; left-back Pedro Amaral didn't tear up the league as I expected; even the guys that remained and had shone last season like midfielder Michael Tawiah dipped their performance big time.

I'm starting to doubt whether I've really got the skills to get out of this harsh league, but I'm going to hang on for just a little while longer...

noikeee · February 6, 2016

2023/2024 - Season review - Dolny Kubin

Squad and tactics

I used a 4-3-3 most of the season, switching to a counter-attacking version of it from March/April onwards, after insisting with the possession-based Control tactics earlier. For the final 2 matches I switched to the pictured formation and instructions, the idea is to, at all costs, try to kill off the extremely annoying massive fields of space given to the opposition full-backs in this match engine, which then destroy us with crosses from deep. By fielding wide midfielders and a high pressing game there's not much space for that to happen.

Our plan to attack the opposition is pretty much the same as the last couple of years, except I don't want to be as possession-obsessed, I felt short passing, retain possession sometimes stiffled our own ability to cross. The roles I use tend to give us a lot of possession and a patient game by default anyway.

Finances

Ladislav Varadin (DC)

The board keeps on saving my arse through investments/donations, cheers for that.

Youth watch

We've got a pretty promising centre-back, needs a big boost in mentals but the potential is there for a future first-team player:

2022 youth graduate, right-back Zoltan Lesko continues to progress remarkably, after quite a few more tutoring sessions by Leonardo Godoy. I reckon he's a bit too limited technically however, specially for our possession type of play, so I have been reluctant to use him and he hasn't played for the first team yet.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Dimitris Tzoumakis (AMR, MR, AML, ML) - I was very unconvinced by this Greek winger most of the year, but late in Promotion Stage he had a couple of magnificent performances from the right-wing, taking perfect advantage of an injury to Radislav Varadin. Ended on 5 goals, 5 assists, which isn't amazing but I have big hopes for him next year if he continues on his recent form.

4. Jonathan Bijimine (MC, DM) - With Michael Tawiah's abrupt downturn of form (he's 33 and getting old very quickly), I turned Jonathan from the deep-lying playmaker into the box-to-box midfielder, which is a role that also suits him due to his good finishing, even if his physicals and aggression aren't terribly impressive. I've got quality performances from him all year long and he's one of the few players I feel I can rely on.

3. Leonardo Godoy (DR, MR) - Had been our player of the season last year when I gave an attacking role to the right-back and a more restrained to the left-back, this changes ratings dramatically in the current ME with attacking fullbacks seriously overrated. I switched sides on the fullback roles around this year, to accomodate Pedro Amaral on the left who is even more attacking and has the "gets forward whenever possible" PPM, however Godoy still got the higher rating of the 2, which is remarkable and shows just how good he really is.

2. Radislav Varadin (AMR, MR) - What a shame he's constantly plagued by injuries, first he torn a groin muscle and stopped for 8 weeks, then broke his leg in April. Still got an absolutely excellent 8 assists in 17 matches, and it's also a shame this was the last year he played for the club as parent club Senica finally wants to recall him. Thanks for 4 great years on loan.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Marcel Oravec (MC)

Last year I said he was "still good but I now had better players". It probably says more about the performance of everyone else than about him, that I chose him as player of the season back again - there just wasn't anyone consistently great over the whole year. Still, Marcel just about to got to marginally improve on his ratings from last year, which is quite the feat when the whole team didn't play as good and we lost a lot more matches. He's just great at controlling possession on the midfield.

[b]Season  League                            Cups                                        International                      Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Berwick Rangers (Scotland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
15/16   League 2 - 5th                    Cup 2nd Rd, LgCup 1st Rd, TrCup 1st Rd      ---                                Resigned at end of the season
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loughgall FC (Northern Ireland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
16/17   Championship 1 - 10th             IRC 6thR, LC 3rdR, ITC 2ndR, MUC winners    ---                                Sacked; won Mid-Ulster Cup
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Municipal Turrialba (Costa Rica)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
17/18   Ascenso - 4th (1/4f) / 5th        ---                                         ---
18/19   Ascenso - 3rd (fin.) / 3rd (1/4f) ---                                         ---                                Apertura finalists
19/20   Ascenso - 5th / 4th (fin.)        Copa de Costa Rica 1st Rnd                  ---                                Clausura finalists
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolny Kubin (Slovakia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
20/21   DOXXbet Liga - 8th / 1st (RlgSt)  Slovnaft Cup 1st Rnd                        ---
21/22   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 9th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 3rd Rnd                        ---
22/23   DOXXbet Liga - 5th / 2nd (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 2nd Rnd                        ---
23/24   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 6th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup semi-finals                    ---

Dexter_Morgan · February 6, 2016

I'd say you are right giving it a while longer, there's probably not much better jobs available to you at the moment. If after you feel it isn't working then maybe reconsider then

noikeee · February 6, 2016

I'd say you are right giving it a while longer, there's probably not much better jobs available to you at the moment. If after you feel it isn't working then maybe reconsider then

I've been watching my reputation closely and it's finally gone up from 10% to 15% ( ), so I don't think it's impossible to get a decent job elsewhere. But I don't want to jump around carelessly and not have the time to build something, it would feel like I'm resetting my progress back to zero... I really wanted for this club to be the place I finally achieve a promotion. It's been 9 seasons without any achievements now really.

noikeee · February 7, 2016

2024/2025 - Pre-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

More changes as I tried to replace all the players I wasn't happy with. At the back, we got a whole 3 new centre-backs as we sold Luís Silva and released Mikayil Yaman - their replacements were Jorge Silva, Martin Sluka and Englishman Lloyd Kelly. Also, backup right-back Martin Kovanic moaned he wanted to leave so much he convinced me, so I swapped him for Vladimir Franic; and we also got a new backup goalkeeper in Martin Krizek.

On the midfield, we sold another two players: Aleksandar Aleksandrov and Michael Tawiah. The new guys that came in for their places seem really good: Polish Szymon Drewniak, and Thanasis Moutesidis from Greece. But the real big investment was on the wings, as I let Loic Gagnon and Muhamed Djamanca go and didn't want to renew the loan of Radim Jurca neither. We paid big money to bring in promising Michal Bartos for the left, and also signed Jorginho and the hugely exciting Dawid Rybak, who has started in superb form.

Finally when it comes to strikers, young Marek Mazan on loan from Slovan Bratislava is Kennedy Nwanganga's replacement.

Squad

I'm pretty sure this is the strongest squad I've had yet... maybe I'm lacking a striker I truly trust in, but otherwise it's fine and by now we clearly have one of the most talented groups of players in the division.

Fixtures

We went to Austria for pre-season and I also booked a ton of friendlies to try to get tactical familiarity up (I'm having a few problems as tactics seem to take ages to get fully fluid). It all looked pretty good as we scored plenty of goals, but you can never really tell with friendlies. Quite a few of these were against crap teams...

When the league started it was a different story. We seem as inconsistent as ever. We started off with a win, but we struggled at the start of the match vs Bardejov, and despite later regaining control we then were unable to recover. That defeat at least had some logical basis, whereas the next two matches were just lolz. We outplayed Zvolen but two lapses from our defence made it a 2-2 draw, then lost to Humenne 0-1 with the very first cross in the match. I wonder if there's somewhere I can take my savegame for an exorcism. For once luck went our way in the next match with a 93th minute winner - after annihilating the opposition all match - and then Rene Durkot pulled an amazing performance with an hat-trick to sink Kosice. But then we finished August with another disaster, Ruzomberok took advantage of our high line to score twice early, and when we sorted things out, we couldn't even do much vs 10 men as they got a man sent off.

Summary

I don't get it. It feels like I'm doing all the right things, but my team is just unlucky way too many times for it to be truly a matter of luck. I'm watching every single match on comprehensive now, and tactically reacting to what's going on, and often manage to change the course of the game dramatically but either the damage's already done after 20 minutes, or my team miss 5 clear cut chances, or, or... something always happens. It's as if we're cursed.

To an extent I think we're better than last year, Dawid Rybak in particular feels like an incredible signing that's giving us an extra edge, but we're not consistently translating our football into results. Not sure what to think now.

Jason the Yank · February 7, 2016

I've been watching my reputation closely and it's finally gone up from 10% to 15% ( ), so I don't think it's impossible to get a decent job elsewhere. But I don't want to jump around carelessly and not have the time to build something, it would feel like I'm resetting my progress back to zero... I really wanted for this club to be the place I finally achieve a promotion. It's been 9 seasons without any achievements now really.

My rep is still at 5% even with a cup win.

noikeee · February 7, 2016

This is the first time I'm linked to a job, ever since I started this career. Zlate are bottom of the league above us, the Fortuna Liga, with just 5 points from 16 matches. I'm not interested but this is a good sign that I might have a career beyond Dolny Kubin.

noikeee · February 7, 2016

2024/2025 - Mid-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

We didn't need any more players but I liked the look of Mexican midfielder/winger Osvaldo Lozano, and signed him in September.

Slovnaft Cup

Podbrezova, regular opponents in the league, were who we had to face in the first round of the cup. We were well on top most of the match, scored first and then Radoslav Homer missed a penalty. On the 93rd minute Podbrezova suddenly equalized, brought the game to penalty kicks, where Homer missed again, as well as centre-back Jorge Silva, and we were knocked out of the cup early and harshly.

DOXXbet Liga - East

As part of my regular process of fiddling with tactics, I did something that had been a constant tweak in previous matches to correct things as the match went on - I got rid of "push higher up" and "close down more" (whilst still keeping a relatively adventurous mentality of Control). It worked brilliantly with a 3-0 win at Teplicka, and although we could only draw 0-0 at home with Lokomotiva Kosice, it was clear we now seemed much more solid defensively. We suffered at Podbrezova as despite playing better we could only equalize in the 91st minute, but I kept faith in my new tactical tweak.

It rewarded me with a spectacular performance next. We had our finishing spot on and demolished Spisska Nova Ves 5-0 away in one of the best matches I've had since I've arrived to Slovakia. Further wins over Bardejov and Liptovsky Mikulas followed, and if we could only draw 1-1 away at Zvolen, I was alright with it as that's a tough place to travel to. A further win over Humenne put us top of the table in the East group.

That made it a sequence of 8 undefeated matches, but a trip to Kosice next was always going to be one of the hardest fixtures of the season. Kosice were probably the slightly better team on the pitch and deserved a 2-0 win, and that was a major setback for us as they're rivals in the title/promotion race, and all other rivals also won their matches. We did however recover quite well with an easy win over Rimavska Sobota, and an extremely hardly fought win at Ruzomberok to climb back to the top of the table.

Summary

This is more like it. I feel well in control, as we have the highest amount of points we've ever had at this stage, our defence looks tighter than ever, and I doubt there's any other team in the division playing football this convincing. Also of the 4 remaining fixtures in the regular stage, 3 of them are at home and look easily winnable. The one problem is what's going on in the other group, as Pohronie are on a roll and effectively have a 8 points lead over ourselves, as that's what'll happen once the league splits and we're all put into the same group.

There is another big problem brewing, however. Out of the 31 goals we've scored this season, 13 were by striker Rene Durkot (top scorer of the league at the moment), and 8 by winger Dawid Rybak. Not only are we completely dependent on these 2 players, Rene's about to leave soon as his loan ends in the middle of the Winter Break and his club won't accept a loan extension. I don't trust neither of my backup strikers Szabolcs Gulyás and Marek Mazan, and we're above our wage budget so can't sign anyone else. If we were to keep Rene I'd be confident in continuing this form, trimming down the 8 points gap to Pohronie, and claiming promotion; but I'm afraid we'll miss him.

noikeee · February 7, 2016

Further signs I don't need to worry about my career - apparently I'm now wanted back home in Portugal. This was mildly tempting, Leixões are definitely a bigger club than Dolny Kubin, they're 17th in the Portuguese 2nd tier at the moment. But I certainly don't wish to move now.

Dexter_Morgan · February 8, 2016

Much better keep it up

noikeee · February 9, 2016

Much better keep it up

Cheers Dexter.

I've got another job offer:

This one's particularly interesting because Moreirense look well on their path to rejoin the Portuguese elite, as they're currently TOP of the Segunda Liga. It's an excellent career opportunity, but I wish to build my career overseas and therefore don't intend to manage in Portugal (at least not in the next few years); whilst I also really don't want to abandon Dolny Kubin right now when we're in the middle of a title push and having our best season yet.

noikeee · February 9, 2016

I don't usually post mini-updates, but this is how the league table looks like now, just after regular stage ended (we won the East group), and the league has just split:

Looks like a 4-way fight for the title and promotion, between Pohronie, ourselves, Bardejov and Kosice. But we have all the momentum, arriving at this stage on great form. There's 12 matches to go. Exciting times!

Dexter_Morgan · February 9, 2016

Looks like things might be going your way at last, certainly seems a good choice to at least stay this year as there looks to be progress

dan_simmonds · February 9, 2016

So close! Keep going.

noikeee · February 9, 2016

Looks like things might be going your way at last, certainly seems a good choice to at least stay this year as there looks to be progress

So close! Keep going.

I played just another 3 matches yesterday as I was excited about our form and couldn't go to sleep. Those 3 matches were a sudden complete disaster. It's not this year again, folks.

noikeee · February 13, 2016

2024/2025 - End of season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

... and our big January signing is... *drumroll* ... Rene Durkot. Eh? After spending months trying to extend his loan beyond January, which parent club Borcice vehemently refused as they wanted to "give him a chance in the first team", the loan finally expired and he returned. Just in case, the day after he moved back, I offered to loan him again, and to my shock and delight, they were more than happy to send him back to us. I wonder if he learnt much in training the 4 days he spent at Borcice.

Meanwhile, in the days before this, I was panicking as to how on earth I was going to replace him, and sold midfielder Kareem Ibrahim desperately trying to gather some funds to hire another striker. Kareem never performed as well as I expected, but had a lot of potential, and I really could've done better than to sell him at half his market value without any future fee clauses.

DOXXbet Liga - East

We returned from the Winter Break with a 1-0 home win vs Teplicka. Rene Durkot was injured so Marek Mraven took his place upfront and took his chance well by scoring. However we suffered quite a big scare when Teplicka missed a penalty! This match will last for a while in memory as we crossed the ball a ridiculous 78 times, highlighting perhaps a few flaws in the match engine...

Anyway, next up was Podbrezova and they surprised us by putting a very fierce performance at our home. We were perhaps slightly unlucky not to win but a 1-1 draw was still fair. This is not what we wanted though, and it looked like we were about to crash badly away at Lokomotiva Kosice next as we found ourselves trailing by 2 goals. However for once I was a bit inspired and a couple mid-game tactical changes worked like a dream, although we also benefitted from the fact Lokomotiva got a man injured when they already had made all their substitutions. Either way it was a brilliant comeback as we won 2-3. Then to finish the Regular Stage, we had yet another extremely hard fought win as Spisska Nova Ves tied the match in the 2nd half, and we had to wait until the 76th minute for English CB Lloyd Kelly to score the winner in a corner.

Regardless of how difficult all of these matches had been, they gave us a lot of points. We just about beat Bardejov and Kosice to finish top of the East group; whilst in the West Pohronie's lead had been cut dramatically after the Winter Break, which meant they started Promotion Stage with just a 2 points gap over ourselves.

DOXXbet Liga - Promotion Stage

With the wonderful recent form in the league, and generally positive vibes all the way through this season, I wasn't prepared in the slightest for what would come next. It was a total, sudden disaster. It started with just a hint of bad luck - a loss at Dubnica was heavily influenced by a red card to centre-back Lloyd Kelly, as we were winning up until then. Against Senec at home we outplayed them and got more chances but could only get a 1-1 draw. Our 2 points gap to Pohronie had been extended to 7 as they'd won both matches, and we were to play them right next. A defeat would definitely put us out of title/promotion contention, a win would put us back in the run.

But they just beat the crap out of us. 4-0 defeat, their striker Gabriel Rares Flueras on a roll with a hat-trick, and us completely swamped by their 4-3-2-1 (Christmas Tree) formation. Our hopes for the season were over. This ruined our morale, and yet again with a hint of bad luck we were surprisingly beaten by Dusa Sala too, 0-2 at home. We briefly recovered with two wins, a happy 4-1 over Banska Bystrica included, but then embarked on another poor run of 4 matches without winning. It has to be said we did manage to nick a draw from Pohronie this time, even if it took a very lucky cross from Pedro Amaral that went in directly into the back of the net to equalize, and this was the first time Pohronie lost any points up until then in the Promotion Stage (!!). We finished the season with an eventful 3-2 win over Banska Bystrica and then a very nice 3-0 over Nitra, which was just about enough to claim back 4th place overall from Ruzomberok.

Summary

I'm so disappointed again, we had done so well in the regular stage but it seems like every year we either nail the regular stage or the Promotion stage, and never both in the same season. This was still a slight improvement on last season overall, as we got 7 points more and finished 4th over 6th; but still not as good as 2 years ago when we came 2nd.

Logic would dictate this is the time to seriously consider a new challenge - I've given Slovakia 5 seasons and have pretty much been stuck at the same level for the past 3. I'm getting linked to increasingly better jobs elsewhere, too. However I am a stubborn idiot and still feel like I have an unfinished job here so I'll give it at least one more year, again.

noikeee · February 14, 2016

2024/2025 - Season review - Dolny Kubin

Squad and tactics

I'm going in circles here. The big breakthrough in early season was to get rid of "push higher up" and "close down more", which had made us much more solid defensively and made things click at the time. However, in Promotion Stage things fell apart a bit, and the main problem was that the opponents often managed to corner us in our own half. The fix for that, that I've been trying lately? Adding "push higher up" and "close down more" back again; AND going back to my earlier 4-3-3 formation. But my plan A is still the one pictured above, and I only switch to that when I feel things are really going badly.

I've recently opened another thread in tactics forum to ask for help, and I give more details of my tactics there.

Finances

Vladimir Augustini (DL, DC)

We continued the usual nonsensical routine of losing tons of money, and the board just giving us the missing money by magic.

Youth watch

I'm not feeling this year's intake, these were the two better (as in, less terrible) guys:

Marian Hyza (DC)

Meanwhile I made a partnership with lower league club Puchov who have become our feeder. I sent a couple kids of the previous season intakes out there on loan, but unfortunately none have developed much there. Right-back Zoltan Lesko, who was loaned to Haniska instead, continues to be our better prospect, but even him I don't think will make it.

Top 5 players of the season

5. Osvaldo Lozano (MC, ML) - A good mid-season signing, he is inconsistent and lacks technical attributes (a particularly dodgy thing to have in a team that tends to play possession) and took a long time to warm up, but ended the season as pretty much the only guy to have improved his performances during our poor run in Promotion Stage.

4. Rene Durkot (ST) - Besides the bizarre episode of him going back to his parent club then returning immediately, he was hugely important on his return season to the club, as he finished top scorer with 16 goals. However I thought he dipped in performances considerably in the last few months of the season with no goals in the final 6 matches, he was far from the killer striker of earlier.

3. Pedro Amaral (DL, ML) - Last year I expected the world of him when I signed him, and thought he had disappointed just a little, this year he exploded justifying all my expectations, adding to his strong overall game (a high average rating of 7.37), a total of 8 assists.

2. Marcel Oravec (MC, AMC) - Another player that suddenly added lots of assists to his game (8, too) that was already pretty good, he was well on course for an extraordinary season with ratings far above all the previous years, but really disappeared the last few months. I think age is starting to be a factor with him, as he has just turned 31, and I have a serious problem in my midfield now as Drewniak, Bijimine and Moutesidis are all within the ages of 30 and 31 too.

PLAYER OF THE SEASON - Dawid Rybak (MR, AML, ST)

What an incredible signing. I knew he looked good on paper but never quite expected this, as he scored almost as many goals as Durkot (14), made most assists than anyone else (11), and picked up a quite staggering 10 Player of the Match awards. I now have a real battle in my hands to retain him beyond next year, as he wants silly money to renew his contract and there's plenty of teams interested in him.

[b]Season  League                            Cups                                        International                      Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Berwick Rangers (Scotland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
15/16   League 2 - 5th                    Cup 2nd Rd, LgCup 1st Rd, TrCup 1st Rd      ---                                Resigned at end of the season
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loughgall FC (Northern Ireland)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
16/17   Championship 1 - 10th             IRC 6thR, LC 3rdR, ITC 2ndR, MUC winners    ---                                Sacked; won Mid-Ulster Cup
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Municipal Turrialba (Costa Rica)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
17/18   Ascenso - 4th (1/4f) / 5th        ---                                         ---
18/19   Ascenso - 3rd (fin.) / 3rd (1/4f) ---                                         ---                                Apertura finalists
19/20   Ascenso - 5th / 4th (fin.)        Copa de Costa Rica 1st Rnd                  ---                                Clausura finalists
[b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dolny Kubin (Slovakia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b]
20/21   DOXXbet Liga - 8th / 1st (RlgSt)  Slovnaft Cup 1st Rnd                        ---
21/22   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 9th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 3rd Rnd                        ---
22/23   DOXXbet Liga - 5th / 2nd (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 2nd Rnd                        ---                                DOXXBet Liga runners-up
23/24   DOXXbet Liga - 3rd / 6th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup semi-finals                    ---
24/25   DOXXbet Liga - 1st / 4th (PrmSt)  Slovnaft Cup 1st Rnd                        ---                                DOXXBet Liga East Group winners

Dexter_Morgan · February 14, 2016

I thought you was going to nail it this year As you say you're getting good job offers so at least you should be fine getting a new job if it doesn't work out this season

deltablue · February 14, 2016

It would be great to see you up at last

noikeee · February 14, 2016

I thought you was going to nail it this year As you say you're getting good job offers so at least you should be fine getting a new job if it doesn't work out this season

I really thought so too, it was so weird how everything suddenly stopped working once the league split.

I'm starting to think I might stay not just another year but a few more, regardless of whether I go up or not. The reason is there's a new patch coming out soon, and I feel it'll force me to adapt my tactics again, as they're built a bit around the quirks of the current ME. Easier for me to do that with a team and players I'm well acquainted with, than to do it whilst having to adapt to a new team or league too.

It would be great to see you up at last

Yeah, I think it would be great too.

noikeee · February 14, 2016

2025/2026 - Pre-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers

This Summer was dominated by news of player sales. It started with pretty much the worst possible news for us as Romanian side ACS Poli paid Dawid Rybak's release clause, so we lost our player of the year, and soon another winger was off through the release clause too, Dimitris Tzoumakis moving back home to Greece. I also sold midfielder Jonathan Bijimine and centre-back Daniel Andreev; and to my surprise someone was willing to pay 80K€ for our youth product Vojtech Grman, an attacking midfielder - please don't tell them but I was willing to let him go for free...

As for new signings, to start off with we signed permanently three players that were here on loan last year: midfielder Radoslav Homer (who had been here on loan for 5 years, since my first season!!), full-back Vladimir Franic and striker Marek Mazan. These are players I trust. The departures of Andreev, Dimitar Popov and Michal Janec meant I needed to sign three defenders, and so in came American CB Sam Golan, veteran Bulgarian CB Iliya Milanov and young left-back Thodoros Antoniadis. None of these 3 are expected to be starting regulars.

The real reinforcements are on the midfield and on the wings. Acácio Flores looks fit for the box-to-box role whilst also capable of covering the right-wing, Emiliano Bogado has the unenviable task of replacing Dawid Rybak (although he seems less of a finisher and more of a creator, compared to Rybak), Iason Pantelidis shall be his backup; and late in the transfer period, although I had more than enough midfielders, I decided to pick up Yulian Mitov as a long-term replacement for my advanced playmaker Marcel Oravec who's getting old. Finally, 18 year old Ladislav Hlavac is a new option for the striker position.

Squad

I'm well aware there's 2 or 3 players too many. In terms of quality I'm unsure there's really any upgrade over last year (after all we lost our best player), but you'll soon see it's working out better, so who knows.

Fixtures

Pre-season looked more convincing than ever when we faced crap sides, pretty much trashing them one after another; yet we did badly with two defeats in two slightly tougher matches I set up in the middle of July. I came away from it not knowing what to expect.

Turns out the trashings were the better indicator. We started on superb form, easily beating Teplicka 3-0 with a stunning hat-trick by young striker Marek Mazan, and not having any problems at all away vs Rim. Sobota next. We also sealed another away win, vs Humenne, early on with 3 first half goals, but things started getting progressively tougher since. It took a lot of persistence and a bit of tweaking to turn around the game vs Podbrezova as they scored first; and vs Zvolen it all looked set for a tame 0-0 when Jorginho got the late only goal. It was still a brilliant start of 5 wins in 5, but we did get a 0-0 next at Liptovsky Mikulas (despite largely dominating the match). Vs Presov things were happier as a very clear win was never in doubt. And counting the last 2 matches of last season, we're on a 9 match unbeaten run.

Summary

It's been a really good start. We've barely conceded at all, have dominated almost every match and turned almost all of them into wins. I've got 10 seasons of experience to know that this won't last forever, but it's a pretty happy time at Dolny Kubin and we've almost forgotten last season's disappointment. Almost.

Of course, odds are now then that we'll either fall apart in a bad run soon; or keep up the form up until Promotion Stage and only then fall apart spectacularly. Or is this really our year? Surely not?

Dexter_Morgan · February 14, 2016

Fingers crossed you can keep this run going

noikeee · February 16, 2016

Fingers crossed you can keep this run going

So far, so good...

noikeee · February 16, 2016

2025/2026 - Mid-season update - Dolny Kubin

Transfers