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Fortuna Favors The Bold....


BoxToBox

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Despite all the injuries, the spirit of Shia was with us as we went to Switzerland to take on Ronald Koeman's Basel.

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I have no idea how that happened. I also have no idea why the entire team stopped playing with 35+ minutes on the clock.

I did bollock the lad that gave away the peno, he even finished with a 9.0 rating....

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9 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

:(

I'm expecting them to come straight back up again, like FC Dordrecht before them, they're still professional, and by far the biggest club in the Tweede Divisie. I'll try and help them along when they're up, when and where I can.

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Fun times in Europe.

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The spirit of Shia is alive and well as we handle our group, the spirit of Hakan is thriving in Greece as Olympiakos provide the upset of the tournament so far, pumping Madrid to the Europa. Ajax navigate a tough group, which is great for the nation. Then Monaco get kicked despite being level on points with Zenit and having a much better goal difference.

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This Norn lad was coming along great guns, and looked a real shout for making the first team. Two torn hamstrings in two seasons, and still seventeen, well, seems like that's going to plague the lads career.

 

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We're at the midseason break, and doing quite well for ourselves.

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Cracking away in the league, but Feyernoord could easily pull out in front. Drew Arsenal in the CL, Ajax got Bayern.

Kind of fancy a tactical shakeup though, dunno, just not feeling it lately. If we score early, it's usually a rout, If not, most teams stand off and it's pretty much 22 guys doing not much of anything. Once I get bored of waiting, we switch to ye olde faithful Giza/Hoyvik 3 striker system and see what happens. We have a large squad, lots arriving in January, maybe I'll mess about with something fun. Depends on if a selling spree finally happens, I guess.

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I don't know why I do this to myself, ugh! It's like I'm managing an Italian team. I have no idea what to do with all these.

In other news, as the season turned over, the board had the usual meeting where they suggest increasing some staff wage allowances, I of course said I'd prefer it to be spent on youth recruitment, and they agreed to that, pumped it to established, in Dec. the option to ask for recruitment was available, so we're after skipping to well established when at our last intake we were above average.....

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*catches breath*.... and we're done!

I was actually expecting more of a fight to keep some of my key players, but it never really happened, barring Atletico feeling the waters fro Sanchez, and Sevilla throwing a pretty crappy 7m bid at Yuri.

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Bastien was tidy depth, I didn't have to sell him as he had years to go, but when RKC came in(I rejected 100k from Telstar), I offered him to them for no fee, they could certainly use him a lot more than us. Leeuwenburgh wasn't getting enough football, so when GA Eagles wanted him, I was happy enough to negotiate. Esajas is a rubbish "prospect", Cerri was having a fairly meh season, so when the Saudis came in for him, I was happy to talk, the money was very useful.

A lot of the incomings were pre-arranged, some with years! I'm like a kid in a candy shop if I don't restrict myself, and we have way too many players now, luckily most are 18-19, so a season of reserves won't hurt the ones that didn't get loans, and we're dealing with lots of knocks.

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Really excited about Otalvaro! Might re-train him as a striker, but I reckon he may be wasted by not developing a strikerless system to get the most out of him. If I was playing a standard 4-3-3, he'd be part of a cm partnership, as a CM(a). He's got the quality for a tonne of roles.

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Needs work, but an unusual sighting, a big targetman who's also technically gifted. His movement needs work, Has some competence at AMC, could be interesting to make him some kind of target 10, ala Fellaini when he was at Everton.

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More if a classic playmaker, again movement issues, but could be used more as a pivot that holds his spot and let the others move around him.

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If we can get him to work on his creativity we might have a real nice holding mid on our hands.

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CB was a looming issue, so when I saw this lad available on deadline day, cheap, I couldn't resist. Jumping sucks, but he's tall enough and in three at the back systems you can get away with a shorter(or weak leaping) CB that's more about running around clattering blokes and making interceptions.

Oh, also on deadline day, I pre-arranged deals for two more Colombians..... Squad will have more Colombians than Dutch.....

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Youth Intake Day!

Our first after the massive jump to Well Established, I've been looking forward to this since December.

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*sad trombone*

Ehhhhhhh..... Not much to look at here, even if two with 4* should be a good thing. Most of the ones picked are for personality, of course.

Our Portuguese affiliate sent us a lad, he's either footed, but just in that he's equally useless on either side. We also picked up a probably useless Spanish lad, probably due to having a Spanish coach.

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This is the one the staff have claimed is pick of the litter. Can't dribble, unfit, lacks intelligence. Skilful on the ball though, has the look of those academy grads you see that get hyped up from when they're dicking on the u-15's with tricks and flicks but never amount to much. Plus, in terms of expected PA(for AMC's), he's 11th on the depth chart.

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The other 4*, yeah, if we get a 4th choice out of him, I'd be surprised.

 

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Perhaps I'm being overly harsh, but after getting two really good players with much, much worse recruitment, I was hopeful of a lot better after getting two upgrades. Might even just be a down year for intakes across Holland, if there are already a lot of high level prospects around.

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45 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Perhaps I'm being overly harsh, but after getting two really good players with much, much worse recruitment, I was hopeful of a lot better after getting two upgrades. Might even just be a down year for intakes across Holland, if there are already a lot of high level prospects around.

Time to sack your HoYD?

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Season Review.

We had an absolute stormer of a season, when 3 at the back failed us, the backup of 3 up front done the trick! Neck and neck with Feyernoord and PSV for ages, we pulled away after winter. Punted out of the CL in the first KO's after drawing Arsenal, and we sent the backups into the cup semi due to fixture congestion.

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Massive, massive summer coming up. Finally teams should be chasing our players, and with our squad overload, I need to sell, I need to make decisions on who I want to stay, and who I don't. Lots of serious decisions need to be made, why........

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Zero self control....

I'd like to find a pair of BPD's, too, having three plain CD(d)'s seems a bit silly when I could have one get more involved in play. The incoming Goiria could certainly make it as one, but isn't starter level, yet.

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1 hour ago, Keano16 said:

Nice one! And if that's the business you do before the window even opens, well then I think the club need to cancel your card.....

I can understand the board rejecting my constant advances for more funding, to be fair.

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So, after quite an unsuccessful pre-summer window search for some Ball Playing Centre Backs, John Drake was sitting in the club canteen, reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, mulling over retraining players.

Suddenly, he leaped up, roared "Liberos, of course!" threw down his copy of Rabona Intteruptus, and ran straight out of the building, muttering to himself "Of course, Hakan always said Liberos were the future...."

I've said before, I've never been happy with the Libero in FM, never gotten it to work, but if I'm retraining players anyway, and want to make the spare man more useful, it makes sense..... I guess! So we'll take a proper crack at it.

I can't really get the dynamic all round player I'd ideally want, but we'll make do. Yuri would be good there, but I'm not yet ready to give up his influence in midfield.

So, we'll have a quick look at the first friendly played with it....

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New guy Arzura is the Libero, and this I love, we had won the ball and launched it quickly forward, Arzura instantly bolted 5-10 yards ahead of the defensive line. Just what I want.

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Here's an opposing AMC receiving the ball, only to be instantly picked off by Arzura...

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...who instantly picks out our striker, setting up an attack. Perfect.

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This I didn't like, sometimes Arzura and Yuri(as a CMd) got in each others way.

Arzura finished after 60 minutes, the game with a near perfect game 12 interceptions, 6 headers won, 3 tackles, 0 mistakes. His replacement a similar, accounting for half the pitch time, numbers.

I really, really like this! There's a lot of promise with this system. What about the game as whole, and our opponents in white?

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We outplayed Spurs, a top Prem side. Two notes though, one, we only won with an injury time goal, two, they were only in the game at that point because on 88 minutes, Higuain launched on in off the bar from 35 yards, against an 18 year old youth team keeper.

I started the game with a Shadow Striker at AMC, but changed it to a Trequartista for the last half an hour, which I think worked better overall, and suits our players better anyway.

...

Now, to order the Telleus collection on Netflix....

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It's been a while since I had the time to have a decent look in here, but what I find infuriating interesting is that you're doing pretty damn awesome with narrow tactics in here, which makes me jealous curious as to what are you doing differently to my experience in Holland, as I get pretty much obliterated down the wings by very attacking teams with very attacking fullbacks. On first glance at your setup, you're not doing anything dramatically different other than maybe the libero so I don't get it. Maybe it's something in the player attributes. Are your wingbacks and midfielders particularly good at winning the ball back quickly?

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23 minutes ago, noikeee said:

It's been a while since I had the time to have a decent look in here, but what I find infuriating interesting is that you're doing pretty damn awesome with narrow tactics in here, which makes me jealous curious as to what are you doing differently to my experience in Holland, as I get pretty much obliterated down the wings by very attacking teams with very attacking fullbacks. On first glance at your setup, you're not doing anything dramatically different other than maybe the libero so I don't get it. Maybe it's something in the player attributes. Are your wingbacks and midfielders particularly good at winning the ball back quickly?

The wingbacks and midfield are quite handy at winning the ball back quickly, but the main thing is whenever I feel I need to chase the game I switch to an aggressively attacking 4-3-3 with 3 strikers.

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As Oscar Wilde once said, "I can resist everything except temptation."

This turned out to be by far the wildest summer I've had in any save in ages. Finally, money was made, and oh boy, was money spent!

We began with 6m to spend and a 20k wage surplus, and end up with 8m left over and 170k wage surplus.

To the sales.

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Watford came in with a far enough offer for Febas, and with incomings we were very strong in the middle, so the money was more than handy.
Whiteside, the Norn prospect, well, it was a very good deal, and a player I was afraid to trust after multiple hamstring tears. They also included a friendly, which ended up as the test bed for the Libero.
Mahlambi wasn't happy, wasn't Important, and we had plenty of depth, well rid.
Sanchez, that hurt, but PSg had his head turned(and wouldn't bid more than 20), Leipzig came in with 30m, straight up, which was too good to ignore with his unhappiness, despite his world class potential.
Berg, I really like the Great Dane, but the money was good, and I already had a replacement at the club, if not two. One matches much closer in style to starter Zarate, too.
Bilbao was a good offer for a player low down the depth chart.
Husband wanted to move on to Spain, and I accepted a bid, but was reluctant to confirm for ages, turns out well though.
Antolovic was a regen prospect I picked up on a free that went toys out of the pram when I didn't accept a deal with Liverpool, I talked a frankly ridiculous number out of them and well rid, was never gonna be more than depth here.
Calabresi was a victim of depth.

So, on with the incomings....

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That's right, 100m! Frankly bonkers money for Holland. The thing is though, the way the deals are structured, the club is actually currently on a 34m profit for the season!

A lot of prospects, I won't go into many of them, as much as the key deals.

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Lundberg is one prospect I would like to mention though, really weird balance in his lack of physicality, but pop him up front and chuck a ball in his direction and it's going in. If we can get another yard of pace, and a bit more composure out of him, I reckon he'll be quite special. At least as an option player. He'll kill in the 3 striker setup, as he can just stay up front and has a pair of partners to do all the running.

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Arzura was brought in to be the Libero, before our finances took the sharp upturn, and the role was usurped. I'll still train him in it, but expect most of his minutes at CM.

So, what do you do when life gives you lemons? That's right, you replace your potential worldie CB with two potential worldie CB's!

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Gozzo I've been chasing for years already! Of course, both of these guys are a step back on Sanchez short term, but they have the personalities to catch up quickly.

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Semedo is the fellow who'll now be taking up the Libero mantle. Massive wages by our standards, but he's the best by far that's within our means. His physical attributes combined with high anticipation should make him a monster to deal with.

As Husband was leaving, I had expected a 3.4m deal with Chelsea for the transfer listed Baba Rahman, but his contract demands were frankly outrageous, especially as Chelsea offered to keep paying him his current 83kpw too. So that fell through and I fretted for a few days, until this lad popped up unhappy at Atletico.

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Unhappy due to a lack of playing time, well Theo, you can certainly fill yer boots here! He's going to be brilliant.....

After that, I was quite happy, but when a deadline day opportunity arrives, well....

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Unhappy due to PSV rejecting a deal with Monaco, and PSV are having a mare of a season too(sitting 13th), well, I was all too happy to do a deal, a massive upgrade on our current starter and has the personality to develop the prospects at the club. Really delighted with this move.

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Congrats on the incredible season and incoming transfers!  Semedo looks like a solid stand-in at libero to start with, too.

Rabona Interruptus truly is a great source of inspiration.  I've continued to get it, even if I'm behind on reading.

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Sorry about the divorce, man.. :(  ((Your husband left, you get it?)

But nice transfers, and will be interesting to see how your tactic works out over a longer period but seems promising to start.

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11 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

The wingbacks and midfield are quite handy at winning the ball back quickly, but the main thing is whenever I feel I need to chase the game I switch to an aggressively attacking 4-3-3 with 3 strikers.

An attacking narrow flat 4-3-3 makes lots of sense. I think I'll try that. My 4-3-1-2 is kinda similar, but I think a flat 4-3-3 poses an extra dillema to these 4-2-3-1s with attacking fullbacks that we face in Holland. If they overcommit the fullbacks, then we can hit it quickly upfront and it's 3 strikers vs 2 centrebacks - with the wider strikers well positioned to occupy the vacated space behind the fullbacks, which will stretch the CBs wildly out of position. If alternatively the AI fullbacks don't go up, then their 4-2-3-1 will struggle to attack effectively pretty badly.

I should've thought about this earlier, because in my previous career (playing a assymetric 4-1-4-1 with a AML) I tended to struggle against the flat 4-3-3, it was my bogey formation. I had some limited success trying to keep the wingers high up and hitting it directly towards them (again to try to catch out the AI overcomitting the fullbacks in this 4-3-3), but it was hit-and-miss. So clearly now that I'm in the opposite scenario I should use against the AI what they used against me!

Amusingly I found the solution to facing the flat 4-3-3 in Uruguay with 3 at the back. The 3-4-1-2 isn't very good against it, but a 3-3-2-2 (with a DM in line with the WBs) is. The 3 CBs + the DM form a 4-man block against the 3 strikers, and the formation is in perfect place to counter immediately.

Now that we've talked enough tactics, that's a crazy amount of transfer dealings and money going round! You must be in a conspiracy to keep money moving and generating income for a few player agents! :D

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10 hours ago, Keano16 said:

Some very nice transfers, is Semedo's PPM a bonus do you feel? His decisions might be a bit low but he's class.

His decisions and otb could be better. I expect the PPM to be a massive help, I want him getting in  the mix. He's not perfect, but he's close enough for where we are in the footballing world.

Ideally, I'd imagine we'd want a lad like Rabiot.

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2 hours ago, noikeee said:

An attacking narrow flat 4-3-3 makes lots of sense. I think I'll try that. My 4-3-1-2 is kinda similar, but I think a flat 4-3-3 poses an extra dillema to these 4-2-3-1s with attacking fullbacks that we face in Holland. If they overcommit the fullbacks, then we can hit it quickly upfront and it's 3 strikers vs 2 centrebacks - with the wider strikers well positioned to occupy the vacated space behind the fullbacks, which will stretch the CBs wildly out of position. If alternatively the AI fullbacks don't go up, then their 4-2-3-1 will struggle to attack effectively pretty badly.

I should've thought about this earlier, because in my previous career (playing a assymetric 4-1-4-1 with a AML) I tended to struggle against the flat 4-3-3, it was my bogey formation. I had some limited success trying to keep the wingers high up and hitting it directly towards them (again to try to catch out the AI overcomitting the fullbacks in this 4-3-3), but it was hit-and-miss. So clearly now that I'm in the opposite scenario I should use against the AI what they used against me!

Amusingly I found the solution to facing the flat 4-3-3 in Uruguay with 3 at the back. The 3-4-1-2 isn't very good against it, but a 3-3-2-2 (with a DM in line with the WBs) is. The 3 CBs + the DM form a 4-man block against the 3 strikers, and the formation is in perfect place to counter immediately.

The version I use isn't a completely flat 4-3-3, I still have a DM.

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That's the base version, when chasing the game I'll load up on closing down, tempo, etc, and switch to attacking.

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

Now that we've talked enough tactics, that's a crazy amount of transfer dealings and money going round! You must be in a conspiracy to keep money moving and generating income for a few player agents! :D

Always be hustling. :cool:

Funnily enough, agents hate me since I constantly reject new contract requests and get them sacked.

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8 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

The version I use isn't a completely flat 4-3-3, I still have a DM.

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That's the base version, when chasing the game I'll load up on closing down, tempo, etc, and switch to attacking.

Interesting. I think that makes sense, the DM helps out shut out the opposition AMC (when they play 4-2-3-1). But I'll attempt a flat 4-3-3 first, this way at least I'm not just copying you. :D I was also thinking of having the forwards the other way around, the wide guys on attack and the central guy on support. Not sure this would work better or worse - need to experiment.

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17 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

I knew Rabiot was good. I watch a lot of PSG games, but I did not now he will be this good in the game. How much was he sold? I bet he wasn't even playing at PSG

48m after the first season, and to be fair to PSG, he started 32 games and was subbed on in 8 more.

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I forgot, with all the buying and selling, etc, the academy. Our two brightest prospects via intake are coming along great guns.

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I need to chuck someone to get Regis into the first team full time, really like how he's coming along, and he's performs well as a trequartista when given a chance. Not bad at DLP either when he got a game or two deeper in emergency situations.

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Bakker has joined the first team full time, for now as second choice right wingback, well on his way to being a monster.

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