noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 **** you, Mourinho. We were slaughtered. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 April-May 2030 Competitions You guys already know what happened in the Champions League. An even match at home ended with a 1-0 defeat, and a much worse performance in Old Trafford in a 2-0 defeat. Mourinho wins yet again. In the Bundesliga, we continued on an unlikely pursuit of Bayern with two big 3-0 wins, over Wolfsburg and Frankfurt. We looked on good form prior to going to Munich, and the gap had even shrunk to 3 points so there was a window of opportunity here. The match in Munich would, however, be a punch to the face. I risked everything radically switching to a 4-2-3-1 like Bayern themselves play (and Man Utd, or Dortmund) and it proved a disaster. Against the run of play, Jordy Ngongé equalised twice, the second of which in the 87th minute, but there was still time for Tinajero of all people to score the winner against us. Our hopes were over but I still didn't expect the amazingly poor run of form this would spark. Faced with Dortmund at home next, the 4-2-3-1 flopped again and we were beaten. With another defeat at Hoffenheim, we let Dortmund leap ahead of us for 2nd place. For the final two matches, I took the time to experiment with yet another system, and it was a grim end to the season with another draw and defeat, but at least I did learn some stuff here. Wow, this ended up being a really poor end to the season. I think I panicked here a little and all my attempts at trying to stop the tide of bad results backfired and only made it worse. This is definitely a bit of a tough time I'm having here, but I've decided to keep going for one more year. Those failed experiments did give me ideas, and I still want to crack the puzzle here in Hamburg, so it's back to the drawing board and keep on trying. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Season review 2029/30 Not a great season for the club - another small step back see us complete a totally trophyless season, slip back from 2nd to 3rd in the league, and be knocked out by a minor club in the cup. The only minor positive was going one round further in the CL compared to last season, making the quarter-finals. Finances There are no issues, with 103M€ in the bank, but this number has been higher, due to the very large wage bill now, plus all the investments in player signings we've made. Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season 5. Santiago Quiñones (ST, AMR, AML, AMC) - It's a promising beginning at the club for the Argentinian striker, with 8 goals in 13 appearances. He's looked good but then got caught up in the whole bad run the entire team is stuck on, I am however sure he can be a huge asset for us in the future. 4. Jordy Ngongé (MC, AMC) - Another good season from the French midfielder with 9 goals and 9 assists. Word out too to Federico Gords who got 12 goals and 10 assists, but Gords does play higher up and perhaps didn't have the same level of consistency. 3. Wim de Jong (DC, DM) - A slightly better season. My staff think both Guadalupe and Dimitrijevic are better CBs, but I still trust more the Dutchman I brought over from Twente 6 years ago - I've now been managing him for almost a decade. 2. Alfonso Martínez (ST, AMC, AML) - Most goals (16) and most assists (15). It's a bit bizarre that these numbers are so low, specially the goals tally, but it's explained by the amount of rotation we did, and turnmoil the club's been in, with the previous goalscoring star Fabián López having a poor season. Alfonso is clearly emerging as one of our main stars now, however - either as 2nd forward, shadow striker, or even the most advanced of strikers (though that's now usually a place for Quiñones). 1. Russell Fillion (DL) - Worthy of being named our best player again, however the sharp decline in the number of assists is very noticeable - from 25 last season to just 11 this year... It's not entirely his fault though - for a large portion of the season, I've removed the poacher as an obvious outlay for his crosses, swapping him for less direct roles. This hurt Fillion's numbers. Mourinho watch Mourinho's Man Utd side remains an uttterly incredible team, which is helping him to amazing personal success. He has mathematically guaranteed a 5th consecutive Premier League title, and is on the Champions League final - a Manchester derby against Man City. And he's rumoured to want to add Tinajero to all of this... Career progress table *** CLUB *** Season League Cups Continental Other -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Central Español (Uruguay) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016 Segunda Div - 4th 2017 Segunda Div - 1st Champions, promoted 2018 Camp. Uruguayo - 2nd (Ap. 4th, Int. finalists, Cl. 3rd) Qualified for Libertadores -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nacional (Uruguay) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2019 Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 4th, Int. Grps 2nd , Cl. 1st) Libertadores 1st Pre. Rnd Lost Champions Playoff 2020 Camp. Uruguayo - 1st (Ap. 2nd, Int. winners, Cl. 1st) Libertadores winners League+Int+Libertadores treble -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twente (Netherlands) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2020/21 Eredivisie - 13th Joined in December 2021/22 Eredivisie - 9th KNVB Beker semi-final 2022/23 Eredivisie - 1st KNVB Beker 3rd round Champions 2023/24 Eredivisie - 1st KNVB Beker winners, JCS winners CL groups, EL semi-finals Won domestic double+Supercup -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HSV (Germany) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 Bundesliga - 2nd DFB-Pokal quarter final Qualified for Champions League 2025/26 Bundesliga - 4th DFB-Pokal quarter final CL groups, EL 1st KO round Qualified for Champions League 2026/27 Bundesliga - 1st DFB-Pokal winners CL 1st KO round Won domestic double 2027/28 Bundesliga - 2nd DFB-Pokal winners, Supercup finl. CL winners Champions League + Cup double 2028/29 Bundesliga - 2nd DFB-Pokal 3rd rnd, Supercup finl. CL 1st KO r, USC win, CWC fin. Only won UEFA Supercup 2029/30 Bundesliga - 3rd DFB-Pokal 2nd rnd, Supercup finl. CL quarter-finals *** INTERNATIONAL *** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ivory Coast U23s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Olympics - finalists -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Portugal U23s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2028 Olympics - winners -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Costa Rica -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2030 World Cup playoff - winners, qualified for World Cup Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 I've opened a thread in the tactical forum about my current tactical struggles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 World Cup 2030 - Spain - Squad announcement Say hello to the 23 guys I've brought to Spain: They will have the strange preparation of not even a friendly because I screwed things up and didn't have "arrange friendly matches" ticked up for my assistant manager... now all teams reject us for friendlies. Expected starting 11: GK: Greivin Venegas (Montreal Impact) DR: Ricardo Barrantes (New England) DC: Giovanni Brenes (Saprissa) DC: Cesar Vargas (Alajuelense) DL: Eduardo Portuguéz (New York City) MR: Carlos Aguilar (Marseille) MC: Alonso Tiedemann (Chicago) MC: Kike Gómez (Saprissa) ML: Joseph Cunningham (Toronto FC) AMC: Jorge Arnáez (Alajuelense) ST: Rafael Zamora (NY Red Bulls) It's just not a very talented bunch, with the 2 wingers the main highlights but even then they're nothing outstanding. Goals Don't get slaughtered. A point, in a group with Argentina, Italy and Croatia, would be good enough already. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Uh, I know these guys are good, but I highly doubt a player from Norway or Romania will win the Best Player award... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie laaaaaaaad Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 It's going to be fun next season when you get over the hump and conquer the league Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Well.. I did say this was a tough group. In rather hipster fashion Italy rolled out a 4-2-4-0 strikerless, because why not. This was right about the ideal thing to defeat our also very open and not-far-away from the same tactic setup. It was an absolute disaster. They were 3-0 up midway through the 1st half and I decided to withdraw one of the forwards to introduce a DM, to try to stop the rush of goals. Ultimately, that didn't really work neither. The only saving grace is I've just signed Italy's best player for HSV. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 - Hey Luis, how's the mood around the lads? - They feel like death. There is a darkness in their hearts. Their souls have been ripped apart and fed to the dogs. - ..... *blank stare* - But the mood is still highly positive sir! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 1 hour ago, ollie laaaaaaaad said: It's going to be fun next season when you get over the hump and conquer the league Given my results in recent months I think you're the only believer. Not even I think we'll get over the hump. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 And a quick intermission between all the news of doom and gloom. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 There goes our chance for a point. That being said, this was a completely different match to the Italy one, we were winning (after an excellent cross from Aguilar to Zamora) and probably did deserve a point. A switch to counter mentality and using a DM from the beginning (our formation was a DMCL - MCR - AMCL - STCR assymetric twist on the 4-4-2) seemed to work very well. Ultimately the Croatians just about managed to put their much superior talent on the pitch, and did miss a penalty kick. edit: and we're out already: So we'll be playing the reigning world champions Argentina merely for honour. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Gah! I'm not going to pretend we were better than Argentina, but again, we could've gotten something out of this here. We genuinely started better, then Argentina grabbed control of the match and finally broke us after half-time with 2 quick goals. However, there was still time for 19 year old midfielder Giovanni Diaz to grab his first goal for Costa Rica, in a rebound from a corner. It's slightly disappointing to come home with 0 points, and specially such a poor goal difference after the smashing from Italy, but given the good performances against both Croatia and Argentina I don't feel like my players are owing me anything. They did their best in these 2 matches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 World Cup 2030 - Spain - Tournament review It's a zero points World Cup for Costa Rica but at least we did look respectable in our final 2 matches after the first match humilation. Statistics and best player Giovanni Diaz - A major surprise. I started the tournament not expecting to play him, and not expecting to field any DM, but then due to necessity against Italy I introduced one, then moved the MC DLP/D to DM position for the remaining 2 matches and the youngster excelled in the position, even scoring his first international goal against Argentina. He arrived to the World Cup uncapped and came out of it the best player in the national team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 1st knockout round match. This is going to make things awkward between Quiñones and his Mexican team-mates when everyone comes back home to Hamburg... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Ha! Tempting, but I've already made this mistake once before... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Quinones! *Shakes fist * Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjoe Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Ouch. Not a pleasant ending to that season. I was hoping to have seen you knock Man Utd down and then beat Bayern off the top, but sadly not. Must've been good to spend the summer with some much needed succes at least. Tough World Cup for Costa Rico! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Tehran, Iran - 21st of July, 2030 Well I did say I would use this opportunity with Costa Rica to possibly access new jobs after the World Cup. So I-ran away to Asia to become Iran manager. Yes this is kind of a weird option, given that I could've probably taken a much bigger national team around, but my thinking here is that in about 6 months, there's the Asian Cup. So I'd rather have a shot within 6 months already of a big continental trophy, than **** around in endless qualifiers and friendlies and UEFA Nations League or whatever the hell is that, with an European side. I could've chosen Australia who are the reigning champions but it looked to me Iran was slightly stronger. Despite the fact Iran are only 3 places above Costa Rica in the World Rankings, I think this is a much, much more talented side. Let's look at the squad here (that went to the World Cup and also came back home with 0 points, bottom of Group D with Denmark, Senegal and Mexico): This time, quite a few players are familiar to me. The 3 highest rated: A very strong centre-back that I've had my eye on, as HSV manager. Weirdly there's 2 quality 24 year old Iranian CBs at Marseille at the moment. This is the slightly better one of the 2. A former player! Al-Assaf was the goalkeeper of my Twente side a few years back, however in recent years he's been pissing his career away in Belgium. Should've made it to one of the top leagues (at some point I was also interested with HSV). The big attacking star. Southampton just hired this guy from Benfica and he's a true quality old school winger who's been terrorizing the Portuguese league for nearly a decade. The goal is evidently to win the Asian Cup (or come close), and this time I have a ******** of friendlies in September and October which will let me familiarize better with the side and possibly tweak things tactically - at the moment the plan is to insist in the Hipstergasm variants developed with Costa Rica, now considerably tamed down - by the end of the World Cup I was playing on Counter mentality (!!) and also having introduced a DM. The only bummer is I just activated the Costa Rica leagues all for nothing, but hey. By the way that little experiment of activating the league didn't really produce a ton of players good enough for the Costa Rica team, maybe a few backups but that was it. And it only got activated after the World Cup so I didn't get to manage them at all. I could add Iran now, but it'll only come active a year from now... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 9 hours ago, deltablue said: Quinones! *Shakes fist * You've became fond of Mexico after managing them at some stage, haven't you? Honestly it's amazingly ****** luck they came across Argentina in the round of 16. With the squad Mexico has (just look at the 3 crazy Mexican forwards I've managed over the last few years), they should be aiming at semi-finals at least. 3 hours ago, Benjoe said: Ouch. Not a pleasant ending to that season. I was hoping to have seen you knock Man Utd down and then beat Bayern off the top, but sadly not. Must've been good to spend the summer with some much needed succes at least. Tough World Cup for Costa Rico! There's always next year. And next next year. And........ well maybe Mourinho will retire one day, and Tinajero too, and we might beat all of them then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjoe Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 2 minutes ago, noikeee said: There's always next year. And next next year. And........ well maybe Mourinho will retire one day, and Tinajero too, and we might beat all of them then. Looking forward to that happening in FM25! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Here's a mini World Cup review, too: I don't have the slightest idea of how on earth Switzerland made it to the final. Somehow they beat England, an incredibly strong Argentinian side, and an Ukranian side that was losing finalists in the Euros 2 years ago (to Russia - awkward...). Italy, now playing a 4-2-3-1 after their strikerless plan was apparently only used against my Costa Rica side to humiliate me, became world champs conceding 0 goals in the knockout stages. But the truly nice news was this: Why? You don't know Paul Diaby yet, but you're about to know, soon. He's our new star player. I just hired the World Cup's Golden Ball for HSV... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 6 minutes ago, noikeee said: I just hired the World Cup's Golden Ball for HSV... So desperate to get one over on Bayern you're now renting trophies? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 10 minutes ago, BoxToBox said: So desperate to get one over on Bayern you're now renting trophies? I had just named our new tactic the "Desperate 3-Headed Beast" so you're not far off the mark. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 June-July 2030 - Pre-season transfers Player sales and loans: Total: 96M€ 4 first team players left us. First, there was a bit of a bad deal, but there was nothing I could do - goalkeeper Leandro Altamiranda's contract ran out after he's been unhappy for the past 2 seasons - he was now only the backup to Maletzki so we're fine. Then there was a really big and somewhat unexpected transfer: Liverpool poached AMC Mauro Romero from us in a 51M€ deal that can reach 77M€ if a ludicrous amount of scenarios come true and all clauses get activated. Romero was a supreme player in theory, but never played like it on the pitch, and at the age of 28, I took the chance to buy a similar, yet younger player for a similar price. The other 2 major departures were: 1) fullback Ersel Gemici, to Arsenal for 22M€ (29M€ after clauses), as he was 29 and I decided to not even replace him as we've got a couple of interesting promising young homegrown fullbacks; and 2) German-Albanian midfielder Artan Stafa, who's been a backup for many seasons now but at this level doesn't really cut it so I took his 17M€ fee to raise money for an upgrade. New signings: Total: 99M€ Again just 3 players in as these days we're extremely selective and only hire players of the absolute highest caliber. I'm not sure he's better than our most defensive minded starting midfielders in Calvillo and Rrapaj, but if not he's not far and he's certainly better as a backup than Artan Stafa was. Homegrown in Germany, and a much needed gritty, holding midfielder 3rd option. A slightly unnecessary signing but when I found a player this promising available for 1,1M€ I'd be an idiot not to take it. I loaned him out immediately to Schalke, and my hope is that a year developing in a now much more competitive league will improve him enough to gain him a place in my squad next year. Our new superstar. This transfer was an opportunity sparked by the sale of Mauro Romero and although he's different than Romero and slightly worse in some aspects, I think we might've come out as winners here. Fresh out of a World Cup title and major personal accolades as Golden Ball, Diaby arrives at the perfect time as I'm debuting a new system built around a AP/A role that looks an absolutely perfect fit for him. By the way, I've been tracking him since way back when I was at Twente and he was a teenager - I remember trying to loan him out... The main squad for the 2030/2031 season: Notice I'm including a number of youngsters, many of them from our academy. We've got a few real prospects nowadays, it's been a while since I've done a special post on this generation of youth but it's long overdue. Also notice the formation I'm giving my players is now looking slightly different... This pre-season I've been developing a new twist on the Shy3HB, which, as previously stated, I've nicknamed the "Desperate 3HB". It's actually proving an immensely exciting time and I'm delighted at how this is turning out on the pitch, although the friendlies are hardly a very trustworthy test for the tactic. You can read more about this setup in here. If it works on the competitive matches, it might be the step forward we've been waiting for a long time now. Or just another false start. We'll see... Meanwhile, there's an uncomfortable thing to deal with in August - Champions League playoffs. That's right, the 3rd place in the league last year cost us direct qualification and we'll have to dance through a playoff again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 In the Champions League playoffs we got a relatively easy draw in Guimarães. Easy in theory, not so much on the pitch where their 4-2-3-1 did seem to cause some problems to our new system. However, some minor tweaks to make us slightly more direct (dropping shorter passing, switching from Very Fluid to Flexible) seemed to work in breaking them apart, without changing any of the core tactic dynamics, and at the end it was a comfortable 5-0 aggregate win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 I'm not a huge fan of this draw - there were few worse combinations possible. We should still be favourites to go through along with Man City, but can't afford any lapses of concentration. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Interesting group, but should be able to get through to knockout round Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 9 hours ago, john1 said: Interesting group, but should be able to get through to knockout round They'll stone me in Hamburg if I don't. This is a proper big club now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 On 12/07/2017 at 23:46, noikeee said: You've became fond of Mexico after managing them at some stage, haven't you? Well that and being half-Mexican Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 18 minutes ago, deltablue said: Well that and being half-Mexican I think we've had this conversation before a couple of times. I'd love to manage Mexico at some stage (or in Mexico!), but the opportunity hasn't opened up at an appropriate time. Might come too late too, as our two current Mexican beasts are aging - Fabián's 29 and Alfonso's 28. I'd love to try a front trio of Fabián-Alfonso-Tinajero. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 My first friendly in charge of Iran was a mildly positive one with a win, but the result wasn't amazing. This was largely due to conceding from 2 long shots. A pattern seems to be emerging - again the result was not as good as the performance. Although in the screenshot above it looks as if we were even in shots and possession, in reality we largely dominated a defensive Venezuela, clearly getting better chances, but conceded first from a penalty kick and could only equalize pretty late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 Tactics update Entering the 15th year of my career it's worth having again a quick reminder of all the main tactical options I have available to me these days, developed through all these years. This is now a large arsenal... 1) Werther's Originals The first tactic I developed at the very beginning and used as the main plan through all my years in Uruguay, eventually winning me the Libertadores with Nacional. Trying to port it to Europe proved less successful. I used it for 2 mediocre years with Twente before ditching it, and whilst I reverted again to it for my first season in Hamburg with good results (a surprise 2nd place in the Bundesliga when our squad was relatively weak), I would move on from it later and have not used it in a few years now. 2) Old Bus A plan B used sporadically in my Uruguay days, specifically for when the Originals proved vulnerable against formations such as the 4-4-2 diamond or others that swamped the center of the pitch. I never got it to work well in Europe. 3) Uruguayan Tiki-Taka I developed this through my time at Nacional I think, specifically to counter very negative tactics such as the defensive 4-1-4-1. It has accompanied me to this day through my time in Holland and now in Germany, never as a plan A but I do still switch routinely to it. I suspect my brand new tactic (see #7 below) might be even better at picking apart buses, so this tactic might finally fall out of rotation for me. 4) Dutch Diamond Developed at Twente as an attempt to counter the 4-2-3-1 that was popular in Holland, it proved sporadically successful but never consistent enough for me to use it as a long-term main plan. 5) 3-Headed Beast The tactic that eventually gave me a big breakthrough in Holland with 2 Eredivisie titles. It might've taken Holland by storm, but any attempts to revive it later in Germany with Hamburg never worked at all, and I've taken it out of rotation for a while now. 6) Shy 3-Headed Beast Developed with Hamburg first as an attempt to turn the 3-Headed Beast into something strikerless, and then quickly flipped on its head with the addition of a very conventional striker, it would prove successful (and fun to watch!) with 1 Bundesliga title and 1 Champions League. However performance with it faded out over the course of the last 2 seasons, and attempts to introduce a more complete striker backfired. Successful also at international level, as I used it to win the Olympics for Portugal. 7) Desperate 3-Headed Beast The new monstruosity being currently developed as of pre-season 2030/2031 with Hamburg. The signs all seem hugely promising as I'm really enjoying what I'm seeing, but it's still completely unproven on competitive matches. 8) Hipstergasm Designed as a half-serious half-pisstake experiment (it even had a ridiculous duo of IWB/CWB as FB/WB in each flank at the very beginning!), I entertained myself with it through last year's pre-season with Hamburg, and then attempted to actually use it competitively, but only at international level with Costa Rica. Fun to watch but ultimately unstable, specially for such a limited side. 9) not-so-Hipstergasm As I progressed with Costa Rica I ended up taking more and more steps to tame the Hipstergasm's wildness, to the point it became this now mildly cautious, almost conventional setup. I now plan to use it with Iran but it's still sort of in development, and I've not yet settled in a mentality for example - I'm wandering between everything from Counter to Attacking. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 August-September 2030 Transfers Having done most of my business early, there was nothing else to report than a bunch of loans and sales of HSV II players. Competitions We kicked off the season with a routine 3-0 away win over lower league opposition in the cup as usual. Next, was the Champions League playoff against Guimarães. They were feisty but we would end up beating them 5-0 in aggregate, if a slightly exaggerated result. The groups kicked off with City visiting us in Hamburg, it wasn't the result as I expected as we struggled to contain them and we lost 3-2. In the Bundesliga, we started with a narrow 2-1 win over Hoffenheim, Paul Diaby announcing himself to German football with a magnificent two goals. However, I got cocky away at Wolfsburg and decided to rest my entire 1st team ahead of the CL match with Man City... big mistake, 3-2 loss. And then, after the City game had gotten lost too, we were surprised with a very open 6-3 goalfest at Dortmund - again, not in our favour. Our morale was tanking big time and it was very noticeable on the pitch. So nothing like two routine wins over Frankfurt and Stuttgart to try to restore it. Well, I was under the impression the new tactic was invincible, that clearly isn't true anymore. However there's still reasons for optimism. The 3 defeats had pretty clear reasons for it - I faced two great teams and then I had weakened my own team in the other match because I'm an idiot. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our attacking movement too, so at least I can rest on that front - it's just that the defence has been shaky sometimes. Let's see how this works on the long run. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 An acceptable performance against a world class team (which featured HSV players Granit Rrapaj and Max Buttenhauser). We looked dangerous on the counter and equalised twice, before being dismantled in the final minutes. This was more concerning. We struggled to create chances all match long, and whilst for a very long time we restricted Peru to pointless long shots, as the 2nd half progressed they became genuinely more and more dangerous, and finally broke us down with 2 goals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 By the way, "Max Buttenhauser" sounds like the villain in a cheesy 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManUtd1 Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 17 hours ago, noikeee said: Tactics update Entering the 15th year of my career it's worth having again a quick reminder of all the main tactical options I have available to me these days, developed through all these years. This is now a large arsenal... 1) Werther's Originals The first tactic I developed at the very beginning and used as the main plan through all my years in Uruguay, eventually winning me the Libertadores with Nacional. Trying to port it to Europe proved less successful. I used it for 2 mediocre years with Twente before ditching it, and whilst I reverted again to it for my first season in Hamburg with good results (a surprise 2nd place in the Bundesliga when our squad was relatively weak), I would move on from it later and have not used it in a few years now. 2) Old Bus A plan B used sporadically in my Uruguay days, specifically for when the Originals proved vulnerable against formations such as the 4-4-2 diamond or others that swamped the center of the pitch. I never got it to work well in Europe. 3) Uruguayan Tiki-Taka I developed this through my time at Nacional I think, specifically to counter very negative tactics such as the defensive 4-1-4-1. It has accompanied me to this day through my time in Holland and now in Germany, never as a plan A but I do still switch routinely to it. I suspect my brand new tactic (see #7 below) might be even better at picking apart buses, so this tactic might finally fall out of rotation for me. 4) Dutch Diamond Developed at Twente as an attempt to counter the 4-2-3-1 that was popular in Holland, it proved sporadically successful but never consistent enough for me to use it as a long-term main plan. 5) 3-Headed Beast The tactic that eventually gave me a big breakthrough in Holland with 2 Eredivisie titles. It might've taken Holland by storm, but any attempts to revive it later in Germany with Hamburg never worked at all, and I've taken it out of rotation for a while now. 6) Shy 3-Headed Beast Developed with Hamburg first as an attempt to turn the 3-Headed Beast into something strikerless, and then quickly flipped on its head with the addition of a very conventional striker, it would prove successful (and fun to watch!) with 1 Bundesliga title and 1 Champions League. However performance with it faded out over the course of the last 2 seasons, and attempts to introduce a more complete striker backfired. Successful also at international level, as I used it to win the Olympics for Portugal. 7) Desperate 3-Headed Beast The new monstruosity being currently developed as of pre-season 2030/2031 with Hamburg. The signs all seem hugely promising as I'm really enjoying what I'm seeing, but it's still completely unproven on competitive matches. 8) Hipstergasm Designed as a half-serious half-pisstake experiment (it even had a ridiculous duo of IWB/CWB as FB/WB in each flank at the very beginning!), I entertained myself with it through last year's pre-season with Hamburg, and then attempted to actually use it competitively, but only at international level with Costa Rica. Fun to watch but ultimately unstable, specially for such a limited side. 9) not-so-Hipstergasm As I progressed with Costa Rica I ended up taking more and more steps to tame the Hipstergasm's wildness, to the point it became this now mildly cautious, almost conventional setup. I now plan to use it with Iran but it's still sort of in development, and I've not yet settled in a mentality for example - I'm wandering between everything from Counter to Attacking. You really need to implement the DL-Poacher role somewhere. Revolutionary stuff that could take Hipstergasm to the next level... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManUtd1 Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 2 hours ago, noikeee said: By the way, "Max Buttenhauser" sounds like the villain in a cheesy 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Wasn't he the villain in Die Hard? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 October-November 2030 Competitions In the Bundesliga there was a surprise home draw to Bremen, before we just scrapped through an away win over Hertha - it was in this scenario that we went to face Bayern in one of the big matches of the season. Surprisingly, and contrary to what has happened in recent seasons, we overturned an early conceded goal to beat them 2-1 - a great result. We were still chasing Dortmund at the top though, and continued the chase with a crazy 4-3 win at Leverkusen. Then, disaster: a 2-1 home defeat to Freiburg was very poor. We recovered with wins over Hannover and Schalke to close down the distance to 3 points. In the Champions League, we had it all to do after losing to City in the first match but we fared quite well. Relatively comfortable away wins over Besiktas and Napoli set us up for a good place, and we confirmed our qualification for the next round with an even more comfortable 3-0 at home against Napoli. However as we went to Manchester I decided to rotate my entire team to rest them for Schalke and came out of there with a heavy 4-0 defeat. In the cup, a routine 4-0 over Furth put us through as expected. Mixed feelings here, I don't think things are clicking perfectly and there's been the odd concerning match here and there, but we're still in contention everywhere and generally do still play well. Beating Bayern for once was a huge breakthrough - but unfortunately Dortmund are emerging pretty strong this season too, so beating Bayern is not enough. One strange concern has been how dependent we've been on Alfonso Martinez this season. The Mexican forward we hired from Dortmund 2 years ago has had an absolutely bonkers time as DLF in the new system, scoring 19 goals in 16 appearances!!! However, the next top scorer has... 4 goals. I'm a bit concerned about how unbalanced this seems and am searching for solutions, but don't want to ruin the rest of the dynamics that do work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Sick of poor results with not-so-Hipstergasm, I switched to the tactic I'm using at club level (Desperate 3-Headed Beast) against Argentina, using our decent wingers as fullbacks. And you know what, it was a great performance and result! We even went 2-0 up but their immense talent still nicked a draw from us. The match against the new world champions didn't go as well. It was a very very dull one to watch, but Italy scored in the few chances they had. Against Saudi Arabia, totally within our level, we also failed to win, which was also concerning. We did have a bunch of key players far from 100% fit here, but this isn't the test I wanted ahead of the Asian Cup. Speaking of the Asian Cup... This is a good group, China might prove tough opponents but I expect to go through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 ... but the coolest thing about the Iran-Saudi Arabia match, was that I noticed we have something peculiar going on about player numbers... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 I don't think we've come across Barça yet. We'll face Barça then. And again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Asian Cup 2031 - South Korea - Squad announcement No huge surprises in the squad as we prepare my first tournament in charge of Iran: Expected starting 11, on the Dsp 3HB (I've decided this will be the main tactic, switching to Shy 3HB or not-so-Hipstergasm depending on circumstances). Please notice the fullbacks are wingers... in fact in this lineup I would say the back four (or false back four given that the fullbacks aren't expected to defend much) are by far our biggest strength. Upfront, the goals are expected to come from Heydari: GK: Abdullah Al-Assaf (Oostende) DR: Hamid Reza Habibi (RB Leipzig) DC: Naser Mansouri (Marseile) DC: Aref Hossaini (Marseille) DL: Majid Ghasemi (Southampton) DM: Jamal Asadzadeh (Esteghlal) DM: Mohammad Kashi (Stade Reims) MC: Sultan Al-Dossari (Foulad) AMC: Ali Sabouri (Persepolis) ST: Shahab Rashno (Al-Sadd) ST: Hasan Heydari (Leverkusen) Goals I've not been happy with the way the friendlies have unfolded, so I'm skeptical we can come home with the trophy. Nevertheless, Iran has the potential to be up there with the best. I'm aiming for a semi-final myself. The board wants the final... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Wow, a really big win for us to kick off the tournament. I feel we got lucky, in no way do the stats support even any superiority from us, let alone a 3 goal margin superiority! We scored 2 very early goals and that put us in a great position all match long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 No surprises here, we easily picked apart a side of completely unknown players. Unless something very weird happens and we're battered by India, we're through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenzar Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Interesting to see you with Iran. Will the Asian Cup be any good for HoF points? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 3 minutes ago, Lenzar said: Interesting to see you with Iran. Will the Asian Cup be any good for HoF points? If I win it, it will! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 I pressed submit by mistake and missed a golden chance to rotate/rest half the side. A bunch of 80%-90% fit players shot at India's goal 31 times but only a freekick went in, which isn't a great sign. By the way that's Jamal Asadzedeh's first international goal. I'm waiting for all the groups to play out to have any idea who we face in the 2nd round... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenzar Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 Who are the big threats in this tournament? I'm going to guess Australia and South Korea? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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