Black Forest Football

[zlatanera]

September 2020

Long shots...long shots everywhere! Despite having conceded 19 goals in 6 games Mitryushkin is averaging 7.00 which perhaps tells its own story...yet the first we concede in a game is always from distance. There's an abysmal lack of closing down players on the edge of the box for some reason - in the Bayern game Alaba was allowed to drive in from deep into the box without challenge before laying it off to Lewandowski. I know lack of common language between players may be holding us back somewhat, but still...not good.

[john1]

Not good start  Hopefully you can do better in October!

[zlatanera]

More wheeler-dealing and youth development - October 2020

I like to secure signings a few months before the transfer window, when there's less likelihood of a bigger club bidding just for the sake of it and driving up the cost. Obviously for the first team this has been hard given my changing tactics, but I've made some youth investments:

A decently well-rounded playmaker. Portuguese players are often great value on FM. Personality is pretty bad, he'll probably get two loans then a sale with a sell-on fee.

Thielmann doesn't join until next July as he's on loan and had already played a competitive game for Köln, so wouldn't be able to play for us. Hopefully Linz keep playing him. 

Another young striker, this one also doesn't have the best personality. But he has strong attributes in all the right places to be a stellar AF in the long term.

Yet another Atletico youth product makes what is becoming a pilgrimage to Freiburg to further his career. Despite that squad status he'll probably be loaned out as he's too old for the u19 squad and Freiburg II don't seem to develop players. 

I haven't completely abandoned the club's own youth though...we have a newgen GK playing in the cup games, and "potential best of his generation" 2019 intake Nils Brenscheidt became the club's youngest ever player!

He picked up two yellows, but that's my fault for not taking him off when high ratings for my CDs suggested our opponents were breaking with regularity. 

[zlatanera]

October 2020

I switched to a flat 3 in central midfield, and altered some instructions before the Bielefeld game. We were by far the better team but couldn't take advantage, then after Brenscheidt got sent off I was happy with a point. We were also hard done by against Mönchengladbach - they had a dodgy VAR penalty and scored another when we failed to clear a corner and a shot got through about 8 bodies into the net, whilst we also had one disallowed by VAR for a tight offside. But then...we finally won a game!

Probably the worst performance of the month, but a win is a win. This was a heavily rotated team featuring 3 of my 2019 youth intake: Brenscheidt, Kaizumi (a RB playing on the right of the back three) and Manuel Miranda in midfield:

Only the youngest player in league history, so no pressure there then! 

We then lost a tight game to Leverkusen and couldn't hold a lead for more than a minute against Wolfsburg, but we're up to 17th! That's only 3 points off Bayern in 12th, but with the worst goal difference in the league. 

I've further continued to set us up like a German Sevilla, securing the signing of a young CB for the first team:

 

He's young enough he should eventually get HG at club status, which is good as I do intend to eventually reach Europe. The agent locked in those release clauses but I don't mind as making a £40m profit on him would be superb, and all these relegation release clauses mean were we to go down and I somehow held onto my job, we'd be the richest club in the Bundesliga 2.  

[zlatanera]

November 2020

On account of Lars Gruber's recent pivot into a German wannabe Monchi, I've elected not to keep doing my detailed transfer posts - I'll just do a season summary: No. in, No. out, money in, money out etc. This was in part prompted by the fact that I currently have 15 incoming transfers and none of them will be in the first team.

"Lars Gruber is the German Mourinho" said numerous unimaginative Twitter 'experts' no doubt. We play more expansive than that, but it does seem to be the case that we lose the possession battle. Given our next 4 games are Werder (H), Leverkusen (A), Schalke (H), Dortmund (A), I'm glad of the breathing room this run has given us in pushing us up to 11th (between Bayern and Leipzig, because the Bundesliga is weird on FM)

[zlatanera]

December 2020

If you'd told me I'd take 4 points from that run I'd have been very happy, didn't expect it to happen the way it did though. Nils Brenscheidt continued his outstanding [/sarcasm] start to his career by pushing a guy over in the penalty area off a corner which let them get 1-0 up pretty early, and we never threatened after that. Nils Petersen's late equaliser at Schalke was a glory to behold - running onto a deep pass from Marin, hit it first time pretty sure it came off his shin into the bottom corner. Bayer was our best performance of the season, and Dortmund have so many pacy dribblers playing a proactive style against them is always a risk, I can't be too unhappy at losing to them .Justo Ferreira arriving late to smash it into the far corner on the half-volley again Pavard-style was fun to watch too.

That leaves us with what is actually our worst first half of the league yet, but whereas last season (our best) we had already begun our collapse. This year I do expect us to improve - by the time of the October international break we had 2 points, in the 10 games since we have 18 and a relatively easy ride until May (Leverkusen, Schalke and Dortmund consecutively). We've only interest in two of our players - Heintz and Rodrigues - who we could survive without too, so there's minimal risk of disruption due to unsettled voices in the dressing room. 

 

[zlatanera]

Just in case I didn't sell it how mad I'd gone in the transfer market!

[Hootieleece]

Brendscheit might be a generational player but has a horrible personality.

Do you have anyone with the right personalities to mentor players like him?

What is your HOYD's personality? It does have an effect.

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Brendscheit might be a generational player but has a horrible personality.

Do you have anyone with the right personalities to mentor players like him?

What is your HOYD's personality? It does have an effect.

I have a couple of guys with seemingly quite high professionalism in Petersen and Günter, but they're both F. Pro 13 Det. My HoYD is also F. Pro 13 Det. Given his personality tends to only really have a noticeable effect on generational players, I"m not too concerned about getting rid of him. I'm hoping Petersen will influence Brenscheidt, which is why I've kept him in the first team squad even though he won't get many games unless we suffer quite a lot of injuries in central positions. My squad personality is Ambitious which is rare, usually I have a Professional squad 18 months into a save. 

More concerning is my entire squad suddenly deciding we're short on depth in defence, despite the fact I've actually improved it in January by bringing in Toni Lato as Günter's backup at LB. 

[zlatanera]

January 2021

Mainz scored 4 against us for the third consecutive fixture. Their first goal was ridiculous: Gaston Pereiro hammered his free kick into the wall, then the rebound, then another rebound, then scored with his fourth shot. Haberer, who we sold to them this summer, scored 2 more against us - one off a rebound off a corner and one a volley of a kick out of their goalkeeper's hands. You can see why some people think the game is rigged. Rebounds were a feature in the Hertha game too, yet another one where our GK pushes is out quite wide off a corner yet its still volleyed in. Luckily they got an early red card and we were able to overcome them. Hannover are 2nd somehow, so no shame in losing to them.

One issue that's propped up, in addition to the imagined lack of depth in defence, is that Antonio Marin is demanding a new contract - he's on £15k per week so ordinarily I'd agree with him, only his agent has locked in a £14.75m release clause when he's valued at £13m and his current release clause is £62m. So he's unhappy, if it affects his performances and I have to drop him it'll only get worse. 

[zlatanera]

February 2021

Three consecutive games without scoring - admittedly against Leipzig and two teams who were in 2nd at the time of the games, led me to make a couple of tweaks and move back to having a player in the AM slot. We promptly went out and comprehensively outplayed Bayern, with Libero Dani Olmo getting MOTM purely on the strength of his all-round play (Andreas Pereira previously got MOTM at that position but it was because he scored a 30 yard free kick). Then just in case I was getting too hopeful we went and lost to the last-placed team in the league - they opened us up with a long ball, then a Freiburg academy product scored a 30 yard free kick. 

I'm not sure I'll persevere with the Libero thing beyond this season - more likely I'll go back to basics with a 442, or 4411 given the amount of AMs on the books - as the playing style just isn't quite how I imagined, given the idea of what a Libero is supposed to do. We're still mostly reliant on crosses, so it makes more sense to use a formation that has more players to whip them in. Although Dani Olmo is now competent at DC so perhaps if that leads to and improvement...well, never say never. 

[john1]

Good to get win over Bayern  

[Hootieleece]

Libero/Regista needs PPMS like Long passes and Switch ball to other flank to be effective is my guess.  But then I want all my midfielders to be a combination of Pirlo and Kante

Is your Libero at least helping to protect your back Four?

Speed, decisions and anticipation are some important attributes of adventuresome defensive midfielders.

[zlatanera]

19 minutes ago, john1 said:

Good to get win over Bayern  

Yeah, first time I beat them since 1st season. They're only 3 points ahead of me at present, its a weird league at one point the top two were Hannover and Hoffenheim. 

1 minute ago, Hootieleece said:

Libero/Regista needs PPMS like Long passes and Switch ball to other flank to be effective is my guess.  But then I want all my midfielders to be a combination of Pirlo and Kante

Is your Libero at least helping to protect your back Four?

Speed, decisions and anticipation are some important attributes of adventuresome defensive midfielders.

I was hoping to see them bringing the ball out more actually, but I can't give them the ppm until they're at least accomplished at DC. I gave Dani Olmo Runs With Ball Often at least. 

I expect them to be a liability more tbh, but no sometimes, that Bayern game being a prime example, Olmo can be pretty great at making a couple of interceptions. 

[zlatanera]

Youth Intake

The overall quality is low, but there are 4 good prospects there, one of whom is another "generational talent". They've got good personalities too.

Shpat Stubula is the "potential best of his generation". Looks like a very well-rounded player, handy with free kicks too which is useful. I'm thinking an alternating training regime of RPM and BBM to make him into someone who'll be useful no matter what tactics I use going forward.

[zlatanera]

March 2021

3 different tactics, 3 different results. The first game I played with 2 wingers and a striker as my front three, and we were reduced to long shots for a lot of the game. Frankfurt continued to justify their spot at the bottom of the table, but were helped to be put down by two screamers from Olmo and Sangaré as we had 3 CMs and two strikers. Then against Wolfsburg I had an AM and two strikers, and we had earned a deserved draw...

Yeah, closet Wolfsburg fan Mitryushkin is dropped for the next game, that was dreadful. If you play SK-At you expect the odd dawdle on the ball leading to a tackle and an open goal, but he's on G-De and I don't care if you have Play Out Of Defence selected, you clear that. 

[Hootieleece]

I have love/hate relationships with my goalies...

They only tend to look good if the defense is solid and even then they pull "Miryushkin's" which make me want to pull my hair out.

[zlatanera]

9 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

I have love/hate relationships with my goalies...

They only tend to look good if the defense is solid and even then they pull "Miryushkin's" which make me want to pull my hair out.

I've been repeatedly punished by sweeper keepers, I was just so shocked to see such a moment of lunacy from a normal G-De. I call them "Sportiello's" from when I played him as SK-At for Fiorentina on FM17 and his mistakes effectively cost me the title.

[zlatanera]

April 2021

Full disclosure: starting with the Wolfsburg game for the first time in this career I used a tactic that's not my own. I've been using Rashidi's Lyon 5212 Libero tactic: 

If it weren't for the goalkeeping mistake we would have won 5 on the bounce! The highlight was the Augsburg game where after Koo Ja Cheol curled one in from 25 yards against us we then went down to 10 men as Stenzel decided to only interpret the "Tackle Harder" part of the BWM role, so to come back and win it was special. We also avoided relegation in that game. We're now 11th, 2 points ahead of Bayern and 7 ahead of Leipzig and whilst it is possible we could beat our 10th place finish from the first season, given our remaining fixtures are Leverkusen (H), Schalke (A) and Dortmund (H) its unlikely. 

I'm not too sure how I feel about proceeding with a tactic that's not my own. I technically did it in my Ajax save to win the Champions League using Herne's Tiki-Taka thread, but that still relied on my switching mentalities and instructions using the thread as I guide. It may depend on those final three games - if I somehow got 9 points I'd want to see how far I could go, but otherwise I'll probably go to a back 4 again. 

 

[zlatanera]

Transfer Summary

So, as previously mentioned I've gone mad in the transfer market, snapping up a ton of young players, and also some in their early 20s on frees so that in April I already have 15 transfers lined up to arrive on 1st July. So, I thought it best to summarise this season's business (excluding loans - I am trying not to loan anyone in and nobody cares about who I've loaned out).

In: 30 players for a total of £61m

Out: 18 players (and 4 paid loans) totalling £47m

That makes this the first season I've not made a profit on transfers. Given the only starter I sold this season was my GK this is unsurprising - you can't expect Leverkusen to overpay for a young GK every season like they did with Frommann. 

We have ended up down to 25% of transfer revenue, so I do expect to make a big sale this summer - we're paying off £35m over 10 years for the stadium which we move into next summer.

[zlatanera]

May 2020

We were unlucky to draw to Leverkusen, they scored a 90th minute header off a corner: the scorer, William Bianda, is taller than anyone on my team and has 16 Jumping Reach so there's not much we could really do. We then followed that up with two absolute crackers - against Schalke we got 3 off set pieces whilst they got 3 from open play, which was an interesting contrast. Then on the final day of the season we had a significant effect on the title race. The top four stood:

Borussia Mönchengladbach: 62pts
TSG Hoffenheim: 61pts
Borussia Dortmund: 60 pts
Hannover 96: 58 pts

Hannover held BMG to a draw and Hoffenheim were held to a stalemate by Werder, so if the bookies had been right and Dortmund beat us, they would have been champions. Instead, Nils Petersen became our all-time top scorer with a brace, taking him above Jogi Löw in the standings with 82 goals in 171 games. 

[zlatanera]

End of Season Stuff

A couple of direct free kicks and my placing him at the far post waiting for knock-downs on corners the last few months of the season, as well as being a threat on the breakaway from defending corners, allowed Antonio Marin to take full advantage and be our top scorer this year. That nobody got more than 5 assists is due to both inconsistency of playing style, heavy rotation (some of it enforced, a couple of players missed 2 month chunks of the season) and multiple competent set piece takers. 

This was truly a weird league - nobody scored that many goals, but nobody was any good at keeping them out either. Certainly this is the lowest points total for Bundesliga champions in at least a decade, possibly this century. We ended up 1 point lower than our first season finish, in the same league position, with slightly fewer scored and slightly more against - largely down to our abysmal start. I was surprised to see us end up above Bayern, Leipzig and Frankfurt (CL qualifiers the previous season), making us something of a model of consistency compared to a lot of the teams in the league. 

I'm still undecided in which direction to go next season - whether I'm going to stick with a tactic copied from YouTube (but admittedly not a perfect tactic, in the video he changes a lot of TIs and PIs) and just enjoy the football and the wheeler-dealing, or if I'm going to go back  to doing everything myself, including the tactic, in which case the Libero will most likely have been a one season thing and I'm going to have to try to make a flat 442 with 4 playmakers in the wide positions (which could be fun). 

[zlatanera]

Season Preview 2021-22

After our strong finish last year, we've been predicted to finish 10th again. I've decided to go with the Libero system for another season, so that's my minimum expectation for the season - I'm really hoping we can push into the European spots to break in Achim Stocker Stadium in style in 2022.

[zlatanera]

Job Offer

Borussia Mönchengladbach are the reigning champions. 

[zlatanera]

August 2021

Not the most auspicious of starts...a screamer apiece in the cup, Brenscheidt becoming the club's youngest goalscorer. In the first game the unsettled Mitryushkin played a howler, credited as a Dani Olmo mistake leading to a goal. In the second game Dani Olmo made a mistake leading to a goal, credited to Guido Guerrieri in goal because "mistakes" are apparently a bs stat.

[zlatanera]

Transfer Summary

In: 21 players, £10m

Out: 9 permanent, 27 loans, £31.5m

The most notable additions are Maximilian Philipp for £5.75m from Dortmund and Martin Odegaard on a free. The latter, like four others, could not be loaned out even at 0% wages which was bizarre. It'll be a balancing act trying to get 27 players enough game time as demoting a player to Freiburg II pretty much guarantees we're not getting a penny for him. 

[zlatanera]

September 2021

Better, but still concerning in the long run as we concede first every time. Nurnberg's goal admittedly was a screamer - the guy tackled one of ours 30 yards from goal and scored with his next touch - but letting Hoffenheim and Hertha race into 2-0 and 3-0 leads, respectively, before we score is ridiculous. I do wonder if Antonio Marin's 10 Finishing and Maximilian Philipp's 8 Composure are holding us back somewhat when we get through on goal, or if its just confirmation bias because if we scored every 1v1 we generated we'd score 3 in every game. 

As an added bonus Sebastiano Luperto (CD) and Guido Guerrieri (GK) both got 3 month injuries, which means we have only one backup CD and no backup GK until 2022. 

[Jean-Luc]

Oh! Wow!

I haven't been active here for a few weeks, I totally missed this!

That's brilliant stuff.

By some weird coincidence, I also happen to be a very close follower of Monaco, and was very disappointed with real-life Tielemans, but to think that you got him to join Freiburg is still kind of cool. Also: You got Maxi Philipp back! The guy was a fan favorite in Freiburg before he left for Dortmund to pursue his career there.

Good to see that you were able to keep Günter and Petersen still at the club.

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, Jean-Luc said:

Oh! Wow!

I haven't been active here for a few weeks, I totally missed this!

That's brilliant stuff.

By some weird coincidence, I also happen to be a very close follower of Monaco, and was very disappointed with real-life Tielemans, but to think that you got him to join Freiburg is still kind of cool. Also: You got Maxi Philipp back! The guy was a fan favorite in Freiburg before he left for Dortmund to pursue his career there.

Good to see that you were able to keep Günter and Petersen still at the club.

Yeah I'd heard all this stuff about him at Anderlecht, captaining the club at 17 and stuff like that, so was surprised when he ended up at Leicester, although he scored this weekend so that bodes well. Yeah I was surprised he wanted to come , especially on such reasonable wages. To be honest, with Philipp I thought he was HG at the club, so kinda disappointed on that front. But he took a £30k wage cut to join

There's been a shocking lack of interest in both of those two, except for a Chinese club briefly flirting with bringing in Petersen when we were on fire in 2nd season. But Günter appears to be one of the better German LBs in-game so I expected to lose him, but given he's 29 now I reckon he'll retire at the club. 

[zlatanera]

October 2021

We dominated Köln, and there's no shame in losing to Mainz - they're top, having finish 4th, 3rd then 5th in this save, basically they're the team I wanted to be before I got distracted by Liberos and stuff. Still, I was ultimately unsatisfied with a tactic that wasn't my own as if something goes wrong I don't know what to do. So as of the Ingolstadt game I switched to a Balanced 442. My Liberos (Dani Olmo, Andreas Pereira) can play MR, AMs (Abdülkadir Ömür, Martin Odegaard) are both left-footed so will fill in on the left flank for now. 

[zlatanera]

November 2021

Things started off great - a third consecutive clean sheet with the 442, beating Dortmund again no less. After the international break a lot of players were tired, and despite their lowly (then 16th) position BMG are the reigning champions. We then bounced back against Frankfurt, showing what we can do at full strength as we should have scored more. I fully rotated my starting XI against Werder as we have a big game against Bayern in a few days, but a couple of missed chances and a couple of screamers from them made me regret it a little - if we beat Bayern it'll be ok though.

[zlatanera]

Villarreal have a thirst for the Gruber yet again!

Currently 7th in La Liga

[Hootieleece]

Enjoying the job offers...

It is unfortunate that the tactical experiments have come to an end. 4-4-2 is boring even if it works..(LOL like I should talk shackled as I am to the 4-2-3-1 Wide Gengenpress)

[zlatanera]

@Hootieleece yeah they came in droves this time second season when we did well too. Hopefully this season ends better. 

If I play this long enough to establish us as a dominant Bundesliga side, the experiments will return. But otherwise I’ll save it for when I next play with a big team. Weirdly I was never much of a 442 man until about 8 months ago managing Hamburg on FM18 as they were perfect for it, before that it was always 4231 or strikerless

[zlatanera]

December 2021

On the face of it, a winless month sounds awful. But Bayern are Bayern, Schalke, much like real life, are a yo-yo team who can hammer anyone on their day. Hannover are riding high and scored two perfectly placed long shots so that was frustrating. 

This league is weird. Hamburg have been on an upwards trajectory, sure, having kept hold of the likes of Arp and Vagnoman, Mainz I've already mentioned and Hannover came 3rd last season. But the gap between 4th and 15th is 8 points, and one win could potentially have us at 9th, or one loss within reach of Hoffenheim in the relegation play-off spot. 

[zlatanera]

Sevilla are 10th in La Liga. Given I've effectively ripped off their model, this one flatters me more than the other offers. 

[zlatanera]

January 2022

There's no shame in avoiding defeat to Leverkusen - they may have been below us on goal difference and they may have just sold Julian Brandt (Bayern) and Paulinho (Man City) for a combined £150m but they won the league two seasons ago. Hamburg meanwhile were flying high in 1st, despite having just sold Fiete Arp for £80m so to beat them so convincingly was brilliant. Leipzig in 5th were the team that bought Arp for £80m, he scored 2 in his first game and 2 again against us. 1-2 would have been a fair result but long shots do happen. Overall a decent month.

[zlatanera]

I don't know why this screenshot is showing so small, but I just found this a curious oddity in the course of the save. 

[zlatanera]

Facilitiiiieeesssss

At the start of our save our facilities looked like this:

Now, thanks to Bundesliga riches, a healthy financial position in no small part down to my transfer dealings, and high board confidence almost from the day I took over, they look like this:

I'm actually partially hoping we don't get better corporate facilities in the new stadium, even though that's highly unlikely, as that's not really what football is about is it?

[zlatanera]

Youth Intake

A weaker intake than in recent years, but I could see at least one right-footed winger coming good out of the pack.

[zlatanera]

February 2022

A really good month! Only one blot, and it's bigger than it first appears. Hamburg had spent just under half of their Arp money on Josh Sargent so getting another clean sheet against them was fun. Nürnberg game was 3-1 to us on 87 minutes, then Petersen got one and they got two off corners in added time to genuinely scare me. Against Hoffenheim Antonio Marin channeled old-school Cristiano Ronaldo - picked up the ball on the sideline, drove at his man, cut inside and blasted it into the far top corner! 

The Hertha game was slightly worse than seems because our player loaned to them, Ivan Petrovic scored. Meaning in two games against us he's scored 2, gotten 1 red card but most importantly won 2.

[zlatanera]

March 2022

A poorer month that performances might have suggested. We really missed Maxi Philipp though, he's been out since the Hertha game in February and due to Patrick Cutrone having the Likes To Beat Offside Trap trait we don't really have anyone of the requisite quality for the DLF role. Although Simone Lo Faso and Irvin Cardona may be finally coming good. 

Mainz are riding high in 2nd, and a weird VAR call gave them a penalty - I have no idea what for as the camera had panned away to our counter (Cutrone through on goal) when play was stopped. 0-0 would have been fair. Darmstadt were 18th, no excuses we were poor at both ends. Against Wolfsburg after the international break I played a heavily rotated team because of the upcoming cup game - but playing Andreas Pereira as DLP-De was never going to go well, you need good Positioning for that role but TIelemans' backup is Georgian and thus as a Bundesliga quality player they run him into the ground every single game. Despite fielding a team with 3 defenders and 4 playmakers, and Nils Petersen getting a red in the first half, we were still unlucky to lose as all 3 of their goals were long shots and only one saw their guy really get much time on the ball. We bounced back against Leverkusen though, Irvin Cardona being the second replacement DLF in 2 games to score his first goal for the club just when I was getting worried they'd bring on someone pacy in ET and do us, before Petersen nabbed his 9th of the season to finish them off.

 

[zlatanera]

April 2022

Dortmund were dispatched in a ruthless fashion - of their 15 shots 10 were from distance, and Cutrone got his first goal for the club in his 7th start, our first shot on target. Borussia Mönchengladbach's miserable title defence got worse - they must be really hating that I turned them down when Ståle Solbakken left for Arsenal - with Dani Olmo the renaissance man continuing to excel in new positions, this time as DLF-Su. I then rotated heavily in preparation for the cup game, and Frankfurt duly destroyed us on the counter, the scoreline flattered as it was two individual bits of brilliance from Ömür that kept us in the game for a while. 

The semi-final was crushing, we were undone in extra time in one of those only-on-FM situations where our man made a slide tackle facing towards goal near the centre circle which rocketed right through our defence for Thomas Müller to live up to his rep by arriving in the right place to slot home from just inside the box. The Werder game was most notable for Cutrone executing a perfect 1v1 on the 'keeper: running onto a long ball his first touch completely removed the GK from the situation, the second the finish. We then got our revenge on Bayern, I particularly enjoyed that we scored the same corner routine twice. Tielemans played it low to the edge of the box where Marin took a touch then blasted it into the top corner. Marin was denied a hat-trick by an injury which rules him out for our final two games. More worrying though is Christian Günter breaking his leg. He may have 16 Natural Fitness but he's 30 and I worry I may have to replace him. 

[zlatanera]

May 2022 and a brilliant transfer

An entertaining 0-0 against Schalke, followed by a 1-0 defeat of 3rd placed Hannover for a happy send-off for Schwarzwald-Stadion saw us rise to 7th.

Yes, 7th! And with Bayern and Mainz, both above us, contesting the Pokal, that means we're heading to the Europa League!!...qualifiers...in the season disrupted by the 2022 World Cup. Still, means the debut game at our new stadium will be a European tie, something the club have only achieved 3-4 times in their entire history.

The title was even closer than it looks, Leipzig a single point above Mainz before round 34 where they played...Mainz. So effectively a winner takes all game. Poor Mainz must have been in dreamland when they scored in the 4th minute, but Fiete Arp got 2 to clinch the title - that £96mil prize money just eclipsing the £80mil they spent on him. 

Once you get away from that excitement, that really is one weird looking league table though. Except for the bottom 2, they were nailed on from the start. 

Speaking of that Fiete Arp transfer though...he moved in January, before the league started up again. This is the form of Leipzig and Hamburg when Arp was at Hamburg:

Yeah Hamburg were top, Arp had 6 in 13 and Leipzig weren't doing too shabby. 

Now look at it once Arp transferred:

Ignoring our Champions League form (in this low-points era of the Bundesliga that my save is in), and you'll note Hamburg were much worse, whilst Leipzig were the best in the country. You've got to assume 15 goals in 17 games (5 MOTM) had something to do with that!

Interestingly one of our players, Toni Lato, gets Bundesliga winners medal as he made 1 appearance on his £1m 6 month loan to them. I'm hoping it increases his rep so we can get a bigger loan fee for him the next two years before selling him on.

[zlatanera]

More End-of-Season Stuff

As I'm not possibly going to do a screenshot of every player I buy, I thought I'd show the statistics of the players who actually got games for the club

Not in the picture are Federico Dimarco (3 apps, 6.65) Toni Lato (10 apps, 1 assist, 6.84) and Robin Koch (10 apps, 1 goal, 1 assist, 6.86). 

Antonio Marin had his second consecutive 11 goal season, given he can't really finish and spent the entire season in roles he's not a natural at I'd say that's pretty good. I'll be hoping for more next season though. Nils Petersen and Maximilian Philipp both got 9, the latter would probably have had more but missed 2 months with injury. Martin Ødegaard and Andreas Pereira led the assists with 6 apiece, Marin got 5 and surprisingly Irvin Cardona got 4 in only 10 starts. 

In terms of disappointments, the only real one was Patrick Cutrone. Arriving in January I expected more than 2 goals, even if they were 2 well-taken goals, one of which won a game. Hopefully once he learns German he'll nab more and perhaps push after Papiss Cissé's 24 goal record for a single season.

Going forward I may look to move on some of my playmakers, although I'm not sure who - at £17m value Pereira would fetch the most, yet is also on the lowest wages at £15k/week until 2025 and is easily talked out of unhappiness by Nils Petersen. Still, we have too many young wingers at the club to keep fitting square pegs in round holes - I'm particularly intrigued by Ivan Petrovic, whom I mentioned scored against us for Hertha in both games. He's brilliant physically and mentally for his age, but not great technically, has some interesting traits for a Winger (killer balls, distance shots, one-twos, arrives late) and got 9 goals for Hertha.

[zlatanera]

Transfer Summary

Incoming we had 25 players for a total of £22.5m.

The ones who played a part in the first team were Federico Dimarco (Inter, free), Guido Guierrieri (Lazio, free), Sebastiano Luperto (Napoli, free), Irvin Cardona (Monaco, free), Martin Ødegaard (Real Madrid, free), Simone Lo Faso (Palermo, free), Giorgi Chakvetadze (Brno, £1.2m) [Georgian DM], Mauricio Carabalí (Independiente del Valle, £1.5m) [Ecuadorian CB], Patrick Cutrone (Milan, £5.25m), Jonas Jacobsen (Brøndby, £5.5m) [Danish LB] and Maximilian Philipp (Dortmund, £5.25m).

Outgoing we had 10 permanent transfers and 34 loans bringing in £43.5m to the club.

 

Some of the effects of our Monchi gambit can be seen in the Facts section of the Team Report:

- 32% Domestic Bias compared to a league average of 70%

- 22 nationalities represented of 58 in the league overall

- 12 current internationals, the most in the league (the patch removing the German national team does play a part in this)

- 30 players used (highest was Werder with 31, lowest Hertha with 21)

 

I'm already in negotiations for 13 players to join the club, with 2 outgoings confirmed, so the chaos is not abating any time soon!

[Jean-Luc]

The "Achim-Stocker-Stadium" warms my heart as SC Freiburg fan.

Great season! Go and rock Europe!

(The Bundesliga podium looks extremely weird, though. Although you explained the upward trajectory of Mainz. How is Hannover up there? Did they get extensive investor money?)

[zlatanera]

5 hours ago, Jean-Luc said:

The "Achim-Stocker-Stadium" warms my heart as SC Freiburg fan.

Great season! Go and rock Europe!

(The Bundesliga podium looks extremely weird, though. Although you explained the upward trajectory of Mainz. How is Hannover up there? Did they get extensive investor money?)

It really irritates me that its not "Achim Stocker Stadion" given we're in Germany.

I'll do a breakdown on what's up with those clubs in another post.

[zlatanera]

This Bundesliga Be Weird, An Exploration

Mainz have gone full "Well Run Club". Sandro Schwarz is still in charge. They've had about £50m net spend over 4 years and seem to have made good signings - they've got the likes of Dani Ceballos, Odysseas Vlachodimos, Maxime Lopez, Kerem Demirbay, Noah Okofor and Ismaila Sarr at the club and haven't lost Aaron Martin for example (they also loaned Dominique Heintz and bought Robin Koch from me this season). Weirdly their GD have been quite close in two years: 21, 10, 6, 20 suggesting tight games definitely break in their favour. 

Hannover likewise still have Breitenreiter in charge, and they've got a -£6m net spend. The only signings that stick out are Jonathan Calleri (free), Alassane Plea (loan) and Thilo Kehrer. This season they're 14th for chances created (we're on a level with Mainz and Bayern just below the top). They finished 15th then 14th the first two seasons too, but suddenly the defence tightened up two seasons ago: 31 against (joint 2nd best record) then 25 against (best). 

Hamburg, yet again, have kept their manager from first season. After beating Stuttgart in the play-off, they stabilised in mid-table (9th with 3 GD, 8th with 1 GD) before challenging for the title early this season until Leipzig stole their best striker and they had to settle for 4th, picking up 16 less points in the 2nd stage than the 1st. They've not spent much money though, I think CL money could potentially turn them back into a powerhouse if the extra games don't sink them.

The big clubs have definitely underachieved at various stages, despite all doing well at retaining / replacing players.  

Bayern: 77pts (1st), 52pts (6th), 45pts (11th), 57pts (5th)

Leverkusen: 63pts (3rd), 69pts (1st), 51pts (6th), 45pts (11th)

Dortmund: 47pts (11th), 42pts (12th), 60pts (3rd), 48pts (9th)

Schalke: 45pts (13th), 64pts (2nd), 47pts (9th), 47pts (10th)

Borussia MGB: 51pts (9th), 47pts (11th), 63pts (1st), 45pts (12th)

Leipzig: 65pts (2nd), 53pts (5th), 39pts (14th), 67pts (1st)

A common theme is terrible title defences, so expect Leipzig to be relegated next season 

[zlatanera]

The Italian Job - Denied!

Inter finished 3rd in Serie A this season and won Europa League (2020), Serie A (2021), Italian Cup (2021) during this save. They still have a lot of their best players such as Icardi, De Vrij, Skriniar. But I intend this to be a one-club save so they were turned down.