Les Gones

[zlatanera]

February 2023

Dijon FCO (H): Some dreadful finishing from Moussa Dembélé and a lucky deflection for Luiz Aráujo allowed Dijon to overturn Samssékou’s 2nd half opener and make it 2 defeats in a row.
Toulouse FC (A): 45+2’ just when it looked like they’d make it to half-time as Aouar missed his header from a throw and Issiaga Sylla intercepted, the Toulouse player decided to pass it across his own 6 yard line and Gouiri gratefully pounced! 63’ the referee - either bribed by PSG or a Saint-Etienne fan wanting to maintain their record - gave penalty for a ‘push’ by Aarons that was definitely outside of the box. Pablo Hervías stepped up but was so distracted by Lopes’ waving his hands around above his head that he shot straight at them! The entirety of added time was a highlight where we kept messing up the final pass then coming at them again, but ultimately it ended 1-0. This all Su duties thing may not be working…
EA Guingamp (H): I accidentally played my strongest lineup for this one, despite only having a three day gap to the Arsenal game. 24’ Fekir won a penalty and Gouiri duly converted. 36’ a good team move worked some space out on the right for Fekir, and his right-footed cross was looped over the goalkeeper by Gouiri! 47’ Peyrard (newgen ST) smashed an absolute rocket free kick past Lopes to make it 2-1. We hit back almost immediately, Fekir yet again creating for Gouiri to get his hat-trick! 58’ Ndombele headed home from Aouar’s corner. 80’ Memphis’ corner was flicked on by Ndombele for Dembélé to finish.

Arsenal (H): A more realistic rotation than usual, as I brought in the guys who on the Dynamics page appeared unhappy with their playing times - Guilherme Arana, Edmar Rondon and Evander - and Fekir picked up a knock so Okafor got a rare start, but otherwise played my strongest lineup (tbh my full backs are equal anyway, Evander is mentally worse than Aouar but does have those long shots as a weapon to set himself apart). We were dominant in the first half but Arsenal still had the best chance until 26’ when Memphis crossed low and Gouiri was pushed over by Süle whilst attempting to meet it, the ball then catching Kimpembe by surprise and being deflected into the net! We were dominant for the rest of the game, but kept fluffing our lines when we got into the box - the best chance of the remainder of the game came at 90+2’ when Lisandro Martínez strode out of defence, cut into the centre and unloaded from 45 yards with a shot that dipped at the last second causing Areola into a spectacular one-handed save. Still, a win is a win and no away goal! Areola got MotM and deservedly so.

Rennes (H): 11’ Memphis took a free kick 30 yards out, very centrally positioned, and absolutely smashed it into the top left corner! 18’ Aouar closed down and tackled the centre back Pavlovic, driving towards the box and crossing for Gouiri to make it 2! 33’ Pavlovic fouled Gouiri to give away a penalty, which was converted for 3-0.

FC Nantes (A): Dembélé kicked off back to Aouar, who played it forward to Pintor, knocked inside to Evander who released Guilherme Arana down the left, he ran it forward then drilled one low across the penalty area for Dembélé to finish after only 19 seconds! A special way for his 100th league goal! 27’ Evander whipped in a free kick and Deering headed in our 2nd, out-jumping our loaned player El Hadj Coly. 48’ and FM19 indirect free kicks giveth, FM19 indirect free kicks taketh away as Julien (newgen) assisted Le Normand. 50’ under pressure from Coly Zagadou smashed it into Denayer and it deflected in. 86’ Okafor received a clearance on the edge of their box, cut into the centre and unloaded with his weak foot to put us ahead! 90+3’ Rondon cut inside and played a brilliant through ball to unleash Dembélé who made it 4.

OGC Nice (H): 10’ Memphis’ corner was headed back across goal by Tousart for Martínez to put us ahead. 11’ our press forced their defender into a stupid long-range looping backpass, the goalkeeper could only head it off the line and Gouiri chested it down, took a couple of touches just to give them some cruel, cruel hope then finished! 22’ Martínez headed in Fekir’s free kick. 47’ Aouar received the ball about 30 yards out, turned his man, drove to the right side of the D then hit it low back to the opposite side of the goal for 4! 72’ Grabara could only parry Ndombele’s shot and Fekir converted. 86’ we won a penalty and Martínez sealed his hat-trick!

[zlatanera]

Youth Intake 2023 - Milan Lyon: The Home of European Defending

When we got a "potential greatest of his generation" I was hoping for a long-term successor to one of my full backs, but instead its yet another centre back! Overall 4 guys who look like something will become of them - although France's loan limitations mean unless he develops spectacularly I'll probably not stick with the goalkeeper Blanchard long enough to see him fulfil his potential. Ultimately it looks like I'll be signing 12 of the intake - 4 because of their potential and the rest to keep the u19s squad personality at a decent level given its importance in FM19 and beyond. Anyway the two standouts are below:

Andrés Ortiz is, unlike our other young CDs, not French but instead Spanish! I had almost a reincarnation of 2010's Cesc Fabregas come through on a Lyon save on FM16/17 so this isn't wholly unexpected, but still a pleasant surprise. I would have liked a lot higher technique but hopefully he can develop that - the guy was born after Cristiano Ronaldo won his first Champions League after all, he's got plenty of time!

Algerian-French dual national Belkhïr is one of those rare newgens with all the right attributes already strong, and whilst I'm not about to go Man United circa 2013 and have my strikers taking Corners I'll definitely be focussing on that Free Kick Taking to get him some goals. Left-footed too which is a nice thing to have in the team. 

Edited November 21, 2019 by zlatanera
spelling & grammar

[zlatanera]

A youth transfer

AMC is actually one of the better stocked positions in the youth ranks, but given we no longer have the OP tutoring system, the opportunity to sign a high potential domestic youngster who is a Perfectionist is one I'm not going to ignore, so in comes Nigeria-born Lawrence Effiong! You most likely won't hear anything else about him until the 2025/26 season though.

[zlatanera]

March 2023

Bordeaux (H): Dominant, but only scoring 1 goal isn’t great. Dembélé’s 22nd minute header getting us the win.

Arsenal (A): With only a narrow 1-0 lead from the first leg you might expect me to sit off a little. However I simply don’t know how to set that up, and only have one midfielder who is naturally defensive-minded (Tousart is now a CD in my mind, despite only being natural at DM) so we’re much better suited for pressing from the front. I experimented a bit with the tactical briefing - as I knew they would consider most of my instructions too attacking for the opposition, I instead said “everyone needs to step up in Amine Gouiri’s absence” (suspended) and got 11 thumbs up! 15’ following a throw near halfway the entire team switched off and allowed Iwobi to run diagonally to the edge of the box before feeding Zaha to make it 1-0. 43’ Kimpembe sprinted from the goal line and somehow managed to head in their 2nd despite jumping up and away from goal. 45+2 Lorenzo Pellegrini picked up his 2nd yellow to give us hope! 73’ a truly absurd own goal. From a free kick Torreira knocked it short to Nelson, who ran wide then crossed past everyone to the other flank where Süle knocked it back in, hitting Aarons, Tousart then Ndombele to make it 3. A dreadful loss - they only had 3 shots on target, we dominated every stat except the one that counts, and now Guilherme Arana will want to leave as we didn’t make the “latter stages” of the tournament (Quarter Finals).

SM Caen (H): Playing the bottom team in the league, I decided to give a couple of debuts: Charly Hubert - signed from FCSM in 2020/21 - comes in at CM-De and Dylan Beale - English Lyon academy product - at AM. 23’ a moved appeared to break down as Deering recycled it back to Thomas deep on the right, but he decided to just run with it, and kept going until he was in the box burying it in the far bottom corner! 44’ Pintor’s corner was headed away from the far post, and 25 yards out Deering volleyed it first time into the opposite top corner!! The young Englishman has a penchant for a cartwheel celebration and it was deserved for that one! 78’ we played out from the back, Pernot playing it out wide to Guilherme Arana on half-way, who played a short one into Lenny Pintor’s feet. Pintor turned, about 5 yards beyond half-way, drove past three defenders and unloaded into the far top corner from the edge of the D! Both debutants got 7.0 ratings, although one particular ball into the channels from Beale deserve better than the meek finish Dembélé applied to it.

AS Saint-Etienne (H): 2’ from a short throw Ndombele quickly crossed and Memphis headed home from a tight angle at the back post! 28’ Gouiri scored our 2nd from the spot. 32’ they cleared it long and Anthony Lopes foolishly rushed about a yard out of his box and headed it into the path of Stepinski, who lobbed it over him and into the goal. 48’ Memphis crossed from deep and Gouiri’s presence distracted 3 defenders, allowing Fekir to tap in at the far post. 69’ our throw was cleared only as far as Caqueret, who switched it to Mendy whose first-time cross was volleyed into the net by Fekir! 72’ Martínez headed in Memphis’ corner. 90+2 Tousart had a goal disallowed by VAR for offside.

Amiens SC (A): 45’ Mendy decided to push over Samuel Ghoddos instead of challenging for a header, and Rybus scored the penalty. 49’ Gouiri collected Samassékou’s short throw, turned and curled one towards the far post where Thomas headed it in to equalise! 75’ Dembélé put us ahead with a sliding finish!

[zlatanera]

April 2023

Dijon FCO (A): 15’ Evander’s free kick was claimed by Koubek, who held it then kicked it long to Luiz Araújo, who found PSG loanee Melvin Laporte (newgen) who ran through and put Dijon 1-0 up. Following the goal Dijon could regularly be seen with 11 men behind the ball and I worried we were in for a 1-0 slog, but 30:00 exactly Edmar Rondon used the acres of space they conceded out wide well to pick out the head of Dembélé, who levelled it up! 49’ when Dembélé lost an aerial battle the ball fell to Evander, who picked his spot from the edge of the box to make it 2! Despite it going a bit end-to-end in injury time, ultimately it was a comfortable win that flattered Dijon as we retained the Coupe de la Ligue! That win saw me top the France Hall of Fame!

OM (H): 45+1 after a first half that had gone all our way, Origi headed in Nakajima’s corner at the near post to send them into the break ahead. 54’ a well worked move saw Thomas turn in the box and cross, and it deflected off Cristian Romero into the net to level things up. 60’ Memphis’ corner didn’t beat the first man but the header fell to Thomas on the edge of the box and as he drove in Serge Aurier chopped him down, conceding a penalty. Gouiri stepped up and placed it perfectly into the bottom corner! 72’ Sokratis saw a straight red for a desperate foul on - who else - Thomas.
Reims (A): 70’ after a lot of sterile dominance we finally broke through: Evander switched it wide to Rafael, who cut in onto his right foot and drilled a cross that Fekir hit first time! 78’ they equalised through an indirect free kick. 90+2 Lopes decided to interpret his SK-Su role as “Libero Keeper”, dribbling out beyond his centre backs before eliminating half of the Reims team with a long pass to Okafor, but we wasted the opportunity and the game ended level.

OM (A): When Rafael cut inside and curled one onto the post after 30 seconds I felt confident, and sure enough 13’ (last week’s) history repeated itself, as Pintor had the beating of Aurier, who went to ground and gave us a penalty which Dembélé scored. 44’ we failed to clear a free kick and Origi took a couple of touches before smashing it into the bottom corner. That was Marseille’s first shot, so undeserving of a half-time tie. Injuries disrupted us in the 2nd half and so it ended at 1-1.

Paris SG (H): 4 points ahead with 8 games to go this match had the potential to be a title decider. It should really have decided that the title was staying in Lyon, but our strikers couldn’t hit a continent with an atomic bomb.

Nîmes (A): 25’ from a wide angle on the edge of the box Memphis curled one in off the post! 30’ Lopes caught their free kick, and after a moment to settle rolled it out to Tousart. He played it quickly into Fekir’s feet, and Fekir ran at the defence, drawing 5 players to him before playing it in behind for Memphis to run onto and finish at the near post for 2-0! 44’ Fekir cutting in again pulled the Nîmes defence all over the place, before laying it off for Ndombele who came sprinting out of nowhere and hit the long shot first time to make it 3! 50’ Bozok’s header hit the post then Lopes and went in - that was their first shot and it was a goal. 52’ Aaron’s took a short throw down and crossed to the far post where Okafor headed in! 58’ Okafor played it to Aouar, who took a couple of touches to get into the box and added our 5th! 67’ Fekir took a touch, turned and placed one into the top corner from 25 yards.

Montpellier (H): Evander & Thomas on the scoresheet in a routine win (our record vs Montpellier is W9 D2 L0 21F 2A)

LOSC (H): 19’ Deering placed one into the far corner from the edge of the box! 44’ Memphis scored a free kick. 55’ we countered from their corner, treating fans to the rare sight of Ferland Mendy sprinting up the right flank, all the wa into the box where he crossed for Gouiri to tap in! 63’ Deering was fouled into the box and Gouiri converted the spot kick. 66’ Caqueret added one from outside the box. 73’ Martínez headed in from Fekir’s corner.

FC Metz (A): 7’ Dembélé turned and fired in from the D. 33’ Wissa equalised with a header. 40’ Evander put us back ahead with a free kick. 48’ Pintor cut in and finished from outside the box. 56’ they could only clear Evander’s corner back out to him, he played it to Denayer on the edge of the box, who took a touch and let fly into the top corner! 70’ Guilherme Arana’s cross found Dembélé somehow in space on the penalty spot, and it was 5! 90’ sub Rafael crossed to sub Okafor, who buried the rebound from his header to make it 6.

[zlatanera]

May 2023

Strasbourg (A): Pintor, Denayer & Zagadou.

AS Monaco (H): 3’ Aouar crossed and Memphis scored at the second time of asking - the referee went to VAR to confirm it. 7’ their defender could only head away Fekir’s cross as far as Memphis, who took it on the bounce and smashed it into the bottom corner! 29’ Aarons crossed from inside the box and Memphis headed home for a perfect hat-trick! 78’ Memphis played a one-two with Aarons over 30 yards across the pitch and scored his 4th with a first time shot! 84’ young newgen CB Doumbia headed in a consolation from a corner.

Troyes (A): 41’ Pepê put Troyes in front with a free kick. 81’ Lucas Tousart was harshly sent off, picking up his 2nd yellow for handling off our corner. Despite that, we were still the only team trying to play football. Ultimately though Troyes held out for 3 points that secured their safety.

LOSC (H): Our loss at Troyes means it all comes down to the final day when PSG, 1 point behind us, are away to - guess who? Troyes! I’m not sure I can count on them beating both of the top two in consecutive weeks, so we’ll have to smash Lille. Despite that, I’ve still rotated my team as I’ve kinda backed myself into it - having such strength in depth means players easily become unhappy if they miss a couple of games. 14’ news came through Troyes had gone 1-0 up against PSG1 25’ Evander’s free kick rebounded off the wall to the lurking Memphis, who took a couple of touches and blasted it into the back of the net! 27’ Neymar drew PSG level at Troyes. 42’ Aarons’ cross caused chaos in the box, and Memphis pounced to make it 2! 66’ Gomes found himself in acres of space 30 yards out, and curled one onto the underside of the bar, bouncing in off the keeper! 72’ Sander Berge put PSG ahead, and 87’ Jovic added to their lead - my Champions League experience 2 seasons ago meant I wasn’t counting our chickens just yet - but our game finished at 3-0 meaning we retained the title!!
Paris SG (N): As it stands, 4 teams have lifted the Coupe de France 3 times in a row: Red Star FC (1921-23), LOSC (1946-48), PSG and ourselves, with PSG winning it 5 times in a row (2015-19), so if we win we’d become only the 2nd team to do 4 in a row! Having been beaten by us twice in the league, and in the Trophée des Champions and Coupe de la Ligue, you’d better believe PSG will be motivated for this. We line up at full strength - only Lenny Pintor is missing with injury and he probably wouldn’t even make the bench - as do PSG, although both of us use our cup goalkeepers and theirs (Keylor Navas) is a bit better than ours (Anthony Racioppi). The first half was a tense, forgettable affair. 54’ Aouar drove into space on the right then cut it back for Gouiri, who took a couple of touches then hit the post…as the rebound trickled along the line Memphis rushed in and Keylor Navas leapt on it, knocking it into his own goal! 78’ Fekir cut inside and played it into the path of Gouiri, just short of the D, who paused a second then played it through for Memphis on his left, whose heavy first touch carried him into the box before his second - with his weaker foot - placed it into the bottom corner! 82’ I brought on PSG academy grads Dan-Axel Zagadou and Moussa Dembélé to really rub it in, and 87’ Dembélé headed in Ndombele’s cross! 90+4 Fekir laid it off to Gouiri inside the D, who took a touch on the turn then blasted it low into the net! That completed our 2nd consecutive domestic Treble!! (Quadruple if you’re one of those weirdos who likes supercups).

[zlatanera]

2022/23 Final League Table & Club Awards

We scored and conceded more (2 and 1 to be precise) yet finished 5 points behind last season, which shows just how incredible we were that year. PSG meanwhile attained 1 point more than last season despite losing Kylian Mbappé, which even when you have and spend as much money as them is an impressive feat. They did score 20 fewer than last year, but also conceded only 12 goals, with Reims being responsible for a quarter of those. Bordeaux are a paragon of consistency, yet again achieving European football whilst Monaco and Marseille finished right where you'd expect given their financial advantages over the rest of the teams below them. Dijon and Strasbourg were the positive surprises - from 11th & 12th last season to 5th & 6th this year - as were newly promoted Troyes although there's only 5 points separating them from 6 places further down, that's more to do with us and PSG beating everyone down equally than any black mark against them. Guingamp beat Lorient in the play-off, which disappointed me as Damián Ramírez, on loan at Lorient, is ready for Ligue 1. Both Guingamp and Saint-Etienne have dropped off considerably over the past two years - 6th & 7th in 2020/21, 13th & 16th in 2021/22 and now 18th and 16th. Although I would undoubtedly miss having a derby I'm really hoping Saint-Etienne go down and stay there for a season or two!

Speaking of financial advantages: We had the lowest net spend - £35m profit - whilst Marseille (£46m), Dijon (£36m), PSG (£33m) and Monaco (£30m) were the only ones spending over £5m net. Our salary of £88m is just over 1/3 of PSG’s £252m and also lags behind Monaco’s £130m. Looking at this now I'm really thinking Dijon may have had a take-over: in the previous 4 seasons they had a net spend of £3,632,000 and their record transfer over that period was £3.1m. Then in 2022/23 they spent £49.5m, beating us out for the signature of highly rated full back Kévin Danzé (£4.6m), bringing in Sepp van den Berg for £9.75m, José Izquierdo for up to £10m and spending more than that previous £3.1m record on 4 other players to boot. They're now this season being linked with £20m wonderkids who are also interesting myself, Napoli and Everton, teams with bigger stadiums, more European money and (us excepted) in richer leagues. 

Looking at the stats I found something interesting: FC Metz had the most Clear Cut Chances over the season, with 60, ahead of ourselves and Saint-Etienne with 58. Metz were relegated in 19th and Saint-Etienne finished 16th. Our rivals had the worst defence and Metz the 2nd worst, suggesting they’re completely open at the back in order to create all of those chances, and don’t actually finish any of theirs.

That Champions League exit was irritating, and may yet cost me Guilherme Arana as I'd promised him we'd get to the Quarter Finals. It's still only a minor, non-public concern at the moment though so unless Barcelona (who are listed in his plans) come in we may be able to keep him. Still, a clean sweep of the domestic trophies is excellent! 

Its nice to see our defenders get some recognition, as they're so important at both ends (Even the centre backs). Of our two first team signings Edmar Rondon definitely was the most impressive, and whilst that's partially down to his role as our full backs get a lot of assists whereas Claudio Gomes as a DLP is more about keeping the ball, Rondon's performances in the league were outstanding. Evander vs Aouar in the Team of the Season must have been a close call, and I prefer the Frenchman, not least because he scored our Goal of the Season in a derby!

After two years of our AMs taking all the plaudits, our switch to all Support duties from January onwards meant the strikers were the main goal threat once again, reflected in Dembélé being our top scorer and Gouiri 2nd with 19 goals. As recently as the Coupe de la Ligue final I would not have expected to see Memphis on this list, he'd been far below the standards he'd set in previous years (44 goals and 26 assists in two seasons), but he went on a well-timed hot streak at the end, scoring 10 of his 16 goals in his last 6 appearances! Gomes' appearance on this list just confirms what I was saying about Rondon getting Signing of the Season. 

We had three other players reach double figures for goals in Nabil Fekir (12G 14A), Houssem Aouar (10G 6A) and Lenny Pintor (11G 6A) with Thomas, Evander, Martínez and Okafor all reaching 5 goals or more. Our full backs were assist machines again - Mendy (12), Rondon (8), Guilherme Arana (7), Aarons (4) and Rafael (3) setting up 34 goals between them. 

I'm kinda glad Tanguy Ndombele appears in this list because he's the player giving me a headache in this save - although I don't expect him to replicate his Lampard-esque 2019/20 season at any point, I feel like playing him in the double pivot as CM-De may be a waste of his talents:

Highlighted are all the attributes for the CM-De role and as you can see he's pretty great at all of them (although only good at Tackling). Even accounting for the fact that our tactic is so aggressive that CM-De's mentality is Positive and as such he ended up contributing to 10 goals (4G 6A) this season, I still feel like its a waste using a guy with those Dribbling, Flair, and Off The Ball attributes in such a defensive role. If somebody comes in for Evander I may switch to a 4-3-3 with Aouar and Ndombele flanking Caqueret in order to get more out of Tanguy (but I wouldn't do this with Evander still in the team due to low Positioning, Teamwork and Work Rate on his part). Otherwise, I guess he's just one of those guys whose talents are sacrificed for the good of the club, like you could argue was the case for Wayne Rooney as he played out of position to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo? 

Edited November 2, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

2022/23 Individual Awards

18 clean sheets in the league may be the fewest he's kept yet, and he may still have only managed all 38 games twice in his entire career (2014/15 and 2019/20) but Lopes' performances were still strong enough to earn recognition from his peers.

Moussa Dembélé clinched this award by virtue of less playing time - which is another way of saying if I wasn't so stubborn with my rotation he could've hit 25-30 goals. Concerningly Melvin Laporte, a PSG loanee, looks like the real deal as he'd only made 1 substitute appearance in Ligue 1 until this loan and then hit 19 in all competitions. Memphis' late spree has been spoken about before, but I'll just add that if as planned he leaves this summer, I'll be glad it went how it did - him sucking for most of the season loosened my attachment, but that late run of form, in particular the 4 goal haul versus Monaco, was a good way to enjoy him. 

Of our loanees Giorginio Rutter couldn't repeat the previous season's 17 Bundesliga goals, and whilst Oumar Traoré hit 15 for Stuttgart the Bundesliga has a lot of goalscorer so it didn't put him in awards contention. Fouad Hadji's loan to Ajax however, was successful as he became an Eredivisie winner, performing at a high level and developing well. He's arguably outgrown Ajax now - if he's not going to be a part of our squad next season it'll be better for him to play week in, week out in a stronger league and play Europa League football than get a few games in the Champions League then wreck Eredivisie defences without breaking a sweat. 

[zlatanera]

Uefa Coefficient

Hmmm...two CL places in a league that is effectively a duopoly? I can't possibly see how that won't harm the long-term health of the league! [/sarcasm]

[04texag]

@zlatanera

 

What are your plans for FM20? I'd follow your next save. 

 

I'm starting one with Real Sociedad, and starting with an expansive fluid 4231. We've gotten off to a good start, but still learning some of the new ME changes. 

[zlatanera]

@04texag I don't intend to purchase it at present. Still plenty I want to do on FM19, like make a Serie A save stick beyond a season (Roma the most likely candidate) and win a European trophy on this save, and given the way Mac users (of which I am one) suffered during FM19 I don't want to risk a similar experience. 

Real Sociedad are one of my go-tos, but I haven't done it on FM19 as it sucked seeing the drop-off in quality compared to FM18 with Odriozola and Martinez. I imagine they'll be pretty fun on FM20 though - their transfer policy appears to be to look at lists of FM wonderkids, given they've got in Odegaard and Isak! 

[zlatanera]

Summer Transfers (Incoming) 2023 - 1,2...6 for the future!

In addition to the pre-arranged transfers of Kawikue Sousa Vaz and Manor Solomon, we spent another £68m on newgens, none of whom will be going into the first team either due to age or nationality. 4 of them had release clauses - as I waste so much time on negotiations when I have to sell someone, I'm finding more and more I only want to go for guys with clauses, bargains be damned. 

First in (by a few hours) was Allan - a well-rounded, technical midfielder who likes to keep it simple, I seem him as a future DLP-De in my 4-2-3-1, but what made him stand out was that he also has good Off The Ball - although not highlighted for the role, in a system where we spend large amounts of time camping in the opponent's defensive third everyone needs to be good at moving into space. It should also help when we come up against a club big enough to press us, in evading his marker and advancing the ball up the field. No sooner had he arrived than I shipped him off to Spain for two years to gain citizenship - although our usual deal with Real Sociedad would have been ideal, instead it was Real Betis (Hispalis in FM) who came up with an offer of decent playing time, and Champions League football!

Arriving soon after Allan was another Flamengo release clause deal, in #10 Cláudio. Much more deliberation over this one as Brazil seems to be firing out AMCs at a rate of 2 Kaká-level talents per season. I see him as a superior option to Evander in the long run - less versatile, but a much harder worker and team player, whilst still good at set pieces (and I've not used Evander further back anyway, only occasionally on the flanks). Long Shots need some work, though aged 18 he has plenty of time. He too has gone to Real Betis for 2 years - I had two even offers but placing him with his compatriot appealed to me. 

One for further into the future than the first two transfers, I'm hoping Juan Sanchis will come up with some divine interventions in midfield c. 2028. A very well-rounded, technical midfielder although not great defensively I still think he has a place in the pivot in the future, when Samassékou and Ndombele will have aged out of the team / been sold. As he's an EU citizen and only 16, he'll stay in the u19s rather than being shipped off on loan.

We definitely overpaid for Bakaye Touré - although the board seems happy enough - as Monaco accepted my first offer, and I boosted up the wages to beat off interest from Everton. Plenty of young French full backs in this save are looking good age 17/18, but most of them are going for £30m and my scouts reckon they've peaked, whereas Touré has significant room for growth. As we had no DLs come through yet, I was willing to splash the cash. Technical and two-footed, with a great personality to boot, he'll be able to slot in either at DL in a couple of years when Mendy is moved on, or at DR should Aarons / Rondon throw their toys out of the pram before then. He also will remain in the u19s for now.

Similar to "Pascal the punt", Siméus isn't actually rated too highly by my scouts. I discovered him using the player search filters to trying and find any young Sweeper Keepers, and although he'll likely never trouble the first team I figured bringing him over to France and loaning him to clubs with better facilities should allow the 21-cap Haitian to develop into a solid top tier 'keeper. He's been loaned to SM Caen and so far has started all of their games as they top Ligue 2.

One final Brazilian sign-and-loan-to-Spain (need to think of a snappier way to say this), I would have liked to get Lincoln Fernando in either earlier or later, but initially I didn't have the money, then when I was happy to wait until January and let him have a 3rd full season as a starter in Belo Horizonte, Valencia forced my hand. Luckily, our reputation and promises to teach him French and loan him out to develop swayed him into picking Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes over the Mediterranean. When offering him out for loan, guess who came in for him? That's right, Valencia! So now they get their starting striker for 2 years, and then we hopefully get a significantly improved forward with EU citizenship! 

In summary, that's £60m of players brought in, and if all goes to plan there'll be exactly 0 appearances for the Lyon first team between them come 2025. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Summer Transfers (Outgoing) 2023 - Wrong Ones Out

Summer 2022 I started some succession planning, pre-arranging the transfer of Manor Solomon. He was intended to come in as a replacement for Memphis, 29 and probably at peak value come 2023, and his nEU status didn’t bother me as I expected interest in Evander. So of course all 3 of those players were still on the books come 1st September!

Memphis had “Major Interest” from May until present following that great run of form, yet other than a non-negotiable bid from Arsenal that barely reached his value nothing was doing. Evander meanwhile, despite being a full international and a consistent performer in a team doing a second consecutive domestic clean sweep, had 0 interest - not even the ‘wnt’ icon! This left me with both too many attacking midfielders, and too many non-EU players. The solution? Drop Evander’s status to Backup, check daily until his agent no longer advises me he’d be unhappy to be offered out, and loan him out to Inter for a season. When he returns, Guilherme Arana will hopefully have French nationality with Lisandro Martínez close too. This allows Titouan Thomas to finally get a run at AMC and Solomon, who has a Fairly Strong weak foot, to back up Nabil Fekir in place of Noah Okafor, who finally goes to Liverpool two seasons after signing for them.

Of the guys who actually did leave, only one was semi-planned. I had high hopes for Mathis Louiserre, going right back to the opening posts of this thread and he broke through somewhat prematurely, making 23 appearances in 2019/20 before being loaned to Feirense then Dijon. After playing all 38 games for Dijon I renewed his loan but they didn't play him last season so he had to move to Toulouse in January. He then came back appearing to have little room to grow, and although he was to be loaned again for a fee, when Standard came in with a decent offer I couldn't hold him back. Rafael meanwhile was a faithful servant for me through the save - I'd had my doubts about him initially due to his low Positioning, Composure and Concentration but he made 166 appearances under me (a lot of sub appearances in the last two seasons) setting up 31 goals. He had one year left on his contract and I'd previously talked him out of wanting a new challenge, but I noticed his favourite club, Botafogo, were interested so I agreed to offer him out. I actually rejected higher offers from other Brazilian clubs as he was only ever going to either his boyhood club or Fluminense, where he started his career. We're paying £6,750/week of his wages. His career in Europe has a nice symmetry to it - 8 years in England, 8 years in France then back home!

Peter Deering I really didn't want to lose. A natural Inside Forward, Technical, Physical and Intelligent beyond his years he'd made a good contribution last season and I planned to use him as Fekir's backup (given what happened with Evander he would most likely be loaned out) but when PSG came in he demanded to leave. Normally I'd hard-ball, but between his unhappiness last season due to wanting to win trophies, and then being unwilling to sign a new contract due to interest I could easily see us getting to the 2025 expiry without a new deal. So I got him to agree to a £50m price, which PSG met with straight cash. I'm sad to lose him, as you can see below he's pretty great so I can only hope he was an early peaker and we haven't let go of the next Sancho. 

Moussa Dembélé was always the one with the clearest succession plan - Giorginio Rutter, Oumar Traoré and Rodrigo Rocha Santos all waiting in the wings. He was valued at £64m and I'd previously had a £95m sale to Chelsea before a crash, but this time Man City came in and kept making non-negotiable offers that would struggle to reach £55m, and he was demanding to leave. I accepted his transfer request and used interest from Chelsea to eventually get a price of £72m (0 up front). 

Our loan army has now reached 28 members, so expect to either see 2024's version of this post be much longer or 2024's incomings to be blank. 

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The New Guy

All of that transfer activity listed above has actually led to only 2 changes in our first team personnel for the coming season. Manor Solomon hasn't changed much since I signed him, but Amine Gouiri's backup Rodrigo Rocha Santos has spent 3 years on loan at Real Sociedad and come back looking very promising!

He scored 36 goals over his 3 seasons in San Sebastián, which doesn't sound that impressive but given he outlasted 2 managers before coming alive under Claude Makelélé's tutelage in the 2022/23 season where he scored 19 goals in all competitions. Dembélé's leaving allowed Gouiri to take the No. 9 shirt, so Rodrigo takes his old No. 19. He needs to get that Work Rate and Long Shots up but he has a very interesting combination of Flair and physicality that should offer a lot.

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August 2023

Paris SG (N): We’re unbeaten in 10 against PSG, but they’ve changed managers now - Luis Enrique took over the Napoli job and Maurizio Sarri has come in from Milan to takeover. As usual for this fixture, I put out a weakened team.This meant Rodrigo Rocha Santos getting his debut 3 years on, and Manor Solomon also making his debut. 15’ Claudio Gomes somehow got away with going through the back of Asensio, but Neymar scored the free kick. 27’ an idiotic pass across our own area from Solomon let Chiesa in to make it 2. 42’ Neymar got in behind and made it 3. 60’ Zagadou dawdled on the ball, Soler ran forward and tackled him, then shot, Lopes saved but he got in on the second try. Truly, a dreadful performance from everyone except Lopes, who prevented it hitting double figures.

LOSC (H): 11’ Aarons’ cross was headed back out and Samassékou recycled it back to him, most people will claim he mishit his cross but when he cut in into his left and curled one over into the far corner it really did look deliberate! 13’ Aarons’ low cross was turned in at the back post by Memphis. 30’ our press forced a poor touch from Lucas Lima which allowed Fekir to get it, cut in and lay it off to Gouiri, who turned and - instead of playing the one-two - curled it into the top corner from 20 yards! 39’ Fekir’s corner was headed away, Samassékou headed it back into trouble and Tousart slid in to finish. 40:00 exactly Fekir whipped in a 25 yard free kick! 45’ when Gouiri went down in the area the referee waved play on, but as Lille countered VAR intervened, stopping play and awarding a penalty which the No. 9 finished! First time I’d seen VAR do it like that!

Bordeaux (A): 21’ Solomon played his corner out to Thomas, whose shot deflected in off a Bordeaux defender. Bordeaux, who have quietly been one of the most consistent teams in the league during this save, always posed a threat of Mason Greenwood punishing our profligacy on the break, but luckily they couldn’t quite get the final ball, so we got the win.

Strasbourg (H): In the build-up to this match Anthony Lopes damaged his achilles tendon - he’ll be out for 5 months. Aged 32 he’s most likely not going to be the same again, but I’m hoping his Agility at least stays at a decent level - if he loses his Acceleration fine, we just have to limit 1v1s, but if he loses Agility he’s no good as a shot-stopper. None of the newgens so far look like actually making decent Sweeper Keepers so I may have to splash the cash. The obvious replacement, Indonesian-Italian Emil Audero, moved earlier in the summer to Leverkusen which means I’ll have to disrupt both my nationality and age-based signing policies. 10’ Tannane managed to injure both Fekir and himself. That disrupted the game somewhat as there were no highlights in the first half. 59’ from a short throw Aouar turned and played the ball towards the edge of the box, the camera angle showing nobody, but Gomes came rushing in late and smashed it into the net on the half-volley! 65’ Ndombele headed in Memphis’ corner. 85’ Mendy crossed from inside the box for Solomon to volley in his first for the club!

Montpellier (A): 19’ Rondon’s cross was headed away but Solomon rushed in and volleyed home! 84’ on the counter Solomon raced away, outpacing both teams so his cross was headed away but Pintor collected, cut in and finished low into the corner to wrap up the win.

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Champions League & The Other New Guy

Ha! And people say the Champions League is the same old teams...well our group having 3/4 of the same teams in consecutive seasons puts paid to that! 

Also, I thought I'd share a screenshot of Lucas Cassou, the youth product recalled following Lopes' injury:

I wish he had better Rushing Out and Technique, but with that Vision he should play the SK-De role well. He's actually inferior to Racioppi in most ways, so he'll probably only play the cups, but I have higher hopes for him in the future. 

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September 2023

Rennes (H): I decided not to make a permanent transfer for a goalkeeper, and instead recalled Lucas Cassou - loaned to Sevilla, later in the window they loaned in a superior option from Chelsea so he wasn’t going to learn much. 2 hours after being recalled, he injured himself for a week, so Racioppi gets the nod for the 2nd game in a row. I may use Racioppi in Ligue 1 and the Champions League and Cassou (currently only rated Ligue 2 quality) in the domestic cups. 11’ Fekir’s corner was headed onwards by Martínez, and Ndombele applied the finishing touches! 19’ Mendy’s cross was headed away from goal and Aouar volleyed home! We’re really just doing a fancy version of winning 2nd balls, aren’t we? 33’ they played an indirect free kick short, but Ndombele stole the ball, sprinted the length of the pitch past two desperate sliding challenges, shaped to place it into the far post then powered it into the near post! 45+2’ Luuk De Jong headed away Fekir’s corner, Memphis collected and laid it off to Aouar, who went past one man and curled it into the top corner from the edge of the box! 53’ we passed our way into the box, Gouiri manoeuvred himself some space and placed our 5th into the net! 84’ Masuaku headed away another corner, Aouar knocked it down to Samassékou then returned it and Aouar fired it in low to complete his hat-trick!

Toulouse FC (A): 30’ when Beale slid the ball into Solomon in the box I expected a quick turn and shot, but instead the Israeli dribbled out of the box, beating the same man he’d initially ran past to receive the ball, before curling one in off the upright! 47’ Thomas headed in at the back post from a Guilherme Arana cross, and 74’ the Brazilian curled a 30 yard free kick low into the near post! 90+3’ we failed to properly clear our lines and the ball was crossed back in for Guignard (newgen) to head in a consolation, denying Cassou a debut clean sheet.

FC RB Salzburg (H): 38’ Memphis scored a 30 yard free kick! 87’ we finally got another, Aarons drifting into the centre and feeding Aouar in the box. 89’ Aouar added another, his shot from distance so powerful the goalkeeper couldn’t stop it despite getting 2 hands to it!

EA Guingamp (A): A bore draw - loads of possession, plenty of shots from actually promising positions but its like all our players were trying to wind the goalkeeper, they kept hitting them straight at him.

FCSM (H): PSG drew for the 2nd time this season, so a win would put us 2 points clear. Fekir (2), Gouiri and Memphis would make it so.

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October 2023

Young Boys (A): 2’ Claudio Gomes came deep to collect the ball, then carried it from near our box to the Young Boys final third before playing it to Rocha Santos, who took a touch then smashed it into the bottom corner! One hell of a way to open his account for the club! 26’ Aïssa Mandi headed in from a corner to level it up. 68 seconds later Zagadou headed in from our own corner to restore the lead! 47’ Pintor played a one-two with Tousart then looped one in off the post from the edge of the area. 60’ Zagadou headed in from a Solomon corner again, this time from the opposite flank! 67’ another Solomon corner, this time Pintor getting a run on his marker and heading in.

Reims (A): Our luck seems to be running out with injuries - Ferland Mendy broke his leg making a tackle in training and will be out for 6 months. I recalled Melvin Bard to cover - he’s most likely not got a future at the club long-term but is our 3rd best DL and if he performs well it’ll boost his sale price. His history is messed up - it says Troyes loaned him for £1m but its actually £100k/month so was more like £300k - but I bet after 7 separate loan spells over 5 seasons he thought he’d never make his debut for us! In the match, goals from Aouar, Gouiri (2 and a missed penalty) and Memphis meant our loanee Grégory Leclerc’s goal was for nought.

AS Monaco (H): Monaco didn’t come to play football, so we racked up 67% possession and an astounding 36 shots - Rulli had to save 15 of them - with the average positions map showing them with only one player outside of their half, whilst our centre backs were stood on the half-way line. They only had one shot, from a free kick, and Cassou saved it well.

Man Utd (A): It took under 90 seconds for them to make their aerial supremacy count as we repeatedly lost second balls until Bentancur got space just inside the box to open the scoring. 68’ Rashford added their 2nd with a free kick. 90+4’ injury was added to insult as Guilherme Arana sustained a two week injury in a tackle with Lewandowski.

Paris SG (A): 31’ Milenkovic put them ahead from a Neymar corner. 36’ they played right through us and Asensio added no. 2. A draw would have been a fairer result but our entire attack decided to have an off day.

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November 2023

AS Saint-Etienne (A): The 1st half was uneventful. 50’ we countered, Solomon causing chaos with his dribbling on the right before playing a through ball for Rocha Santos to finish from close range! 52’ another counter, Thomas carrying it forward before being tackled, the loose ball falling to Solomon who assisted Pintor this time. 68’ Denayer recovered a hopeful ball over the top, playing it to Solomon just inside their half. He turned, spotted the run of Rocha Santos and played it over the top for the Brazilian to get his 2nd! 90’ Rondon picked up the ball deep in the Saint-Etienne half, driving forward right through their defence into the penalty area, where a last-ditch tackle only got the ball as far as Rocha Santos who completed his hat-trick! PSG lost to Nantes so we’re back on top too.

Man Utd (H): 13’ Aarons cross took a slight deflection and Aouar half-volleyed it into the bottom corner! 23’ from a short throw they went right through us and Lingard levelled it up. 32’ Aouar intercepted, drove forward and laid it off to Gouiri who hit it early from the edge of the area, surprising De Gea making it 2-1! 68’ Guilherme Arana played a one-two with Aouar, crossing from the space he’d created, Gouiri headed it on and Fekir volleyed it into the net! 90+3 we pressed them all the way back to De Gea, Aouar and Gouiri rushed in and Gouiri bravely took a clearance to the face, making it 4!

Brest (H): Gouiri, Memphis.

Dijon FCO (A): We paid the price for having so many internationals at all levels of the club here - our first teamers were tired, all the best youth prospects even more tired, and so out went the regulars to struggle to break down Dijon for 95 minutes.

FC RB Salzburg (A): 2’ Samassékou quickly threw it to Guilherme Arana from near halfway, the Brazilian looked up, took a couple of touches then played it over the top for Rocha Santos, who volleyed it low into the corner! 4’ Rocha Santos dropped deep and wide to receive the ball, skilled his way past Kostic on the right, ran down the flank and crossed for Pintor to head in our 2nd! 73’ Rocha Santos pounced on a loose ball, played a one-two with Pintor and volleyed it into the net!

Edited November 8, 2019 by zlatanera

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The Decline of Anthony Lopes

When a 32 year old picks up a long-term injury you're always going to worry...I hoped given Lopes is a goalkeeper, the position with the most longevity, it might not be too bad. But no, after officially ending the "rehabilitation phase" of his treatment for a Damaged Achilles Tendon (he's now in the stage where he has no match fitness and can still have General Rehab as his individual focus) this is the damage:

In his coach report there are two negatives: "Is very one-footed", which I don't care about at all as I train all my goalkeepers to avoid their weaker foot, and "Has shown worrying signs of total collapse as a footballer over the last three months". That one, I worry a lot about. Maybe he'll play himself back into better shape before a real decline in a year or two given his 15 Natural Fitness and good personality (he's always been a good performer in training as well as on the pitch) but he's never going to be the same again. Still a lot better than any of my other options, but not what he was. 

Whilst Lucas Cassou and Anthony Racioppi are acceptable goalkeepers for mid-table Ligue 1 teams, and the former has room for improvement, it looks like my next big signing will be a goalkeeper...should one come along who actually looks like turning out as good as Lopes. There seems to be a shortage of goalkeepers who have decent Rushing Out, Technique, Passing and actually have some room for improvement - the newgens just aren't any good, whilst all the top class goalkeepers you think of in real life (I could afford Jan Oblak’s transfer feeif I really wanted to, but his wages would obliterate my £100k ceiling) are only a couple of years younger than Lopes. I'm going to try to use the short-term scouting focus a little differently - I already have a set of 4 focuses used twice yearly, where my team go out and search for young prospects with the number scouts available for it set by my Chief Scout. Now I might set 4 scouts to scour every region for goalkeepers for the next couple of years until we find one, because come 2026 I think we'll be looking at having to either change our playing style (i.e. drop the defensive line) to accommodate the more conventional stylings of Cassou (that Tendency To Punch excepted) or drop £100m on a GK (André Onana, whom I sold for £52m, being the prime candidate).

Edited November 8, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

December 2023

OM (H): 43’ Bard took a throw in an advanced position short to Ndombele, who sprayed it out to Caqueret - equidistant from the D and the centre circle - who quickly drilled a pass to Fekir in the box, Fekir took a touch then shot low to make it 1-0! 80’ another show, this time on the right. Aarons short to Caqueret, who switched it to Ndombele 25 yards out, he hit it first time low as if his boots were powered by Saturn V rockets, leaving Werner with no chance! 84’ Rocha Santos led a counter, and Djene lashed at his through ball so hard it ricocheted off his teammate’s back and into the path of Aouar - the original intended recipient - who placed it past the keeper. Marseille didn’t even have a shot on target!

Young Boys (H): Rondon, Thomas (2), Ndombele.

Amiens SC (H): Fekir, Aouar, Memphis.

Troyes (H): Pintor, Rocha Santos, Gomes.

FC Nantes (A): 3’ we worked the ball up the pitch carefully, overloading the left before a quick switch to the right left Aarons in acres of space to pick his man, Memphis heading in! 49’ Aouar took the ball at the D, turned and whipped it into the top corner! 89’ Guilherme Arana cleverly played it down the line for Memphis, who cut inside past 2 men before playing a 30 yard ball ahead of Fekir, who half-volleyed it in at the near post to round off the win.

FC Nantes (A): With only two days rest between trips to Nantes, if it were an option I would have booked out a hotel and a local sports centre for the team rather than spending so much time travelling. I decided to start two u19s - Christian Pernot (DC, 18 1st team apps) and Dylan Beale (17, 2 1st team apps) - but around 70 minutes it looked like I might be regretting the latter as he missed our best chance of the game, crashing a shot off the bar from close range. 73’ though Rocha Santos and Gomes pressed Le Normand into giving away possession, it was quickly played to Beale, who paused them played it to Pintor who hit it first time for the only goal of the game. That’s 2 games and 2 assists now for Beale!

Bordeaux (H): Lucas Cassou has performed well, keeping 11 clean sheets in 14 appearances, but Lopes gets his return. 2’ Memphis’ corner was headed away, but Samassékou recycled it to Fekir, who found Martínez in space in the area. The defender turned and placed the shot into the bottom corner with his weak foot! 6’ Memphis’ free kick was headed away and Fekir took it on the turn and rifled it into the top corner at the near post! 34’ we countered and Caqueret played a square ball for Gouiri to finish.54’ we failed to clear a corner and one-time transfer target Emerson pulled one back. 66’ we again failed to clear a set piece and this time Emerson’ shot deflected off Greenwood’s face and over Lopes into the net. Bizarre stuff as Greenwood got the goal credit. 94’ Solomon collected from a throw deep in our half, ran through the entire Bordeaux team and forced a good save from Sergio Rico, but it finished 3-2.

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2023 Annual Awards

Only two awards saw my players in contention this year - perhaps given our form Lopes would have had a chance of getting 2nd or 3rd in World Goalkeeper of the Year but for his injuries. 

Realistically, Mbappé takes all the headlines. But no Pogba, Griezmann etc. as two of our academy products' great years are recognised. Gouiri's really kicked on this year, and him and Aouar are both considered world class.

Memphis kept up his form from the end of 2022/23 for the rest of the calendar year (well there were no more 4 goal games, but he contributes to a goal per game at the moment) and deservedly claimed this award for the first time since 2018.

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January 2024

Athlético Marseille (A): Caqueret & Memphis put us ahead in the first half, before Amine Gouiri decided to handball and give the a penalty in the 2nd. Then they equalised through a direct free kick. Martínez headed in from a corner to restore our lead, before Gouiri wrapped it up in added time.

Nîmes (A): Nîmes had changed managers, hiring Hervé Renard as two consecutive finishes on the verge of the European places had given way to a relegation battle. I don’t know why they didn’t wait until after this fixture, you don’t want to attempt a New Manager Bounce against a team in the sort of form we’re in. 20’ after a bout of sustained pressure Solomon put us ahead. That it took until 85 minutes for Solomon to get a 2nd on the counter says more about our failings than Nîmes’ strengths.

Paris SG (A): PSG had signed a newgen, Henrik Brettschneider, for £78m. At just 19 the kid already looks like one of the greatest wide players in German history and he’ll only get better, and he went straight into the starting lineup. After Guilherme Arana had successfully held up to him in a tense game they brought on Kingsley Coman at 72’, so when a highlight appeared moments later I was assuming we’d lost. Instead however, 76’ from a throw Aarons got a cross away but hit it with so much curve it came back outside the box, where Memphis quickly passed it to Ndombele, who took a couple of touches then hit it low from 30 yards in off the woodwork! That proved to be the winner!

Montpellier (H): 79’ after dominating them for the entire game without result, they countered and scored through Alphonso Davies. We promptly went more direct and I made a triple substitution. 90’ it paid off, Houssem Aouar finishing off Bard’s near post cross at the second time of asking. 90+3’ we expertly pulled apart their defence to open up space for Bard to whip in another cross, this time to the far post, and Solomon applied the finish! PSG meanwhile have drawn 3 consecutively in the league, meaning we have a healthy 8 point gap!

Strasbourg (A): Gouiri’s 4th minute header was the only goal as we failed to fully take advantage of our dominance yet again.

OM (A): The first half was a tight affair - our only route to goal appeared to be either from the inside forwards taking their marker inside leaving space for the full backs, whose crosses were easily handled by a back 3. 57’ Rocha Santos got the breakthrough with a free kick! They never looked like hurting us, but we never really looked like scoring either. Still, a win is a win and we’re in the final for the 3rd season in a row!

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January Transfer Window 2024 - You wait for 1 Brazilian No. 10 to cross The Atlantic, then Lyon buy them all at once!

Firstly, I'll list all the transfers that didn't happen:

- Djibraïl Dib and Olivier Michaud had both had their loans renewed in the summer, but Amiens and BMG respectively weren’t playing them as much so both were recalled. Dib went out to try and rescue Grasshoppers from relegation in Switzerland whilst Michaud returns to his former club Toulouse, riding high in 5th.

- PSG made increasing offers up to £145m cash for Caqueret, but I declined, so they switched to a low-ball offer for Ndombele instead. Luckily he was also content to stay.

- Man City unsettled Max Aarons yet again - its looking like his time at the club may be up in summer, as if he won’t sign a new contract he’ll only have 2 years left, so maximum sale price before a drop-off. Bayern also unsettled youngster Pernot, but I have faith he’ll calm down - when I asked his reasons for leaving he said Bayern would make him a Key Player, which is laughable.

- Man Utd waited until deadline day to try to unsettle Claudio Gomes, then only bid as high as the £44m we paid for him despite his £55m valuation and significant growth as a footballer over the past 18 months, so again I refused to sell.

- Real Madrid meanwhile were strong suitors for our newgen CD Andrés Ortiz, their maximum bid being £13.75m+.

- Anthony Martial was transfer listed by Man Utd for £48m. Whilst his wages were a bit much, we could have had him on loan for 18 months at only £48,000/week, until I realised that my fan-worship had blinded me to the fact that whilst he would make a short-term improvement over Lenny Pintor, Oumar Traoré - who had so far scored 29 goals in 49 appearances on loan at Stuttgart the past two seasons, carrying what was a mid-table Bundesliga side up to 3rd at the time of writing - was pretty close to his level already, 8 years younger and actually contracted to us so it was a no-brainer to cancel the transfer. Martial then moved on loan to Napoli instead, who promptly sacked Luis Enrique so who knows how that’ll work out.

- I had hoped Lucas Cassou’s performances with the 1st team would allow me to set him up an 18 month loan in January, however the only suitors were Bochum, rooted to the floor of the Bundesliga table and I didn’t see how that would help him (unlike what happened with Jordan Pickford, my experience on FM is that in a struggling team your goalkeeper will not improve). So he'll just stay and train with the first team, hopefully improving his personality through mentoring then kicking on next year with a well-chosen loan. 

Finally, our 1 incoming transfer:

A bit of an impulse buy this one. I'd favoured Cláudio to Lourival when bringing in an AM in summer, due to the Flamengo player's superior set pieces and Lourival apparently having a couple of recurring injuries. But when Juventus bid for him, and I was informed by his agent that we were still his preferred destination (of this agent's 396 players, all of whom are Brazilian, we now own 8, by far the most outside of Brazil, and helped advance the career of another, Dodô, in his two years at the club) I swooped in and snapped him up before loaning him out for 18 months - at £250k/month fee - to Barcelona of all teams! He may never play for the first team but he's certain to fetch a hefty profit when he moves on. I almost repeated the summer's business by bringing in two players from the same club but Wesley, a RW whose traits and attributes suggest he's the next Raheem Sterling, signed a new contract (no doubt made possible by our money for Lourival) so I'll go back in for him in the summer. 

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Youth Intake 2024

I've established a policy of who to sign when intake day comes round - as we all know these initial reports can be somewhat inaccurate, and in previous FMs it would be worth signing everyone and tutoring the ones with bad personalities. But with the new system I sign players with 3-star+ potential and/or a good personality with Determination of 11+. This means up to 13/16 will be signed to youth contracts. The players who excite me the most are below:

Eliott Blanc has a brilliant personality for an attacker, and is pretty good in terms of attribute distribution, although that Finishing could do with some work. I'll train him on Shooting as an individual focus and see where he turns out, but he could potentially be a very interesting player.

Stéphane Bamba looks like he'll turn out similar to Oumar Traoré i.e. Anthony Martial-esque, which is no bad thing! He's already got two selfish traits so hopefully that high Teamwork prevents him from being too much of a guy who just puts his head down and runs. I half-expected to see Nabil Fekir in his favoured personnel as those are the two traits he has at the start of the game as well. 

Manoel apparently could turn out to be one of the best players of his generation, and he's a DM which is a position we don't have much backup talent in! Having a Brazilian coach in the u19s has paid off here. He's strangely a Brazilian-born French dual national who speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish and basic English yet no French! His personality could do with some work but I see him as a long-term replacement for Caqueret's role, although he'll be less effective going forward as he has no Flair. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

February 2024

SC Bastiais (A): The islanders - 3rd in National - acquitted themselves better than some Ligue 1 sides by actually getting a couple of shots on target, but it was an easy win with Gouiri, Fekir and Ndombele getting the goals.

EA Guingamp (H): 32’ after a period of sustained pressure they finally cracked, a defender pushing over Pintor in the box. Rocha Santos buried the penalty. 68’ Rondon’s cross was headed out of the area and Thomas half-volleyed it into the top corner! Some say he’s the French Paul Scholes! 78’ Pintor smashed Rondon’s cross into the bottom corner.

Liverpool (A): Inside the first ten minutes Caqueret laid on two great chances, the first squandered by Gouiri who tried to lob the keeper, the 2nd Alisson pulling off an incredible save to deny Aarons. The game settled down a little after that. 48’ disaster as Martínez, intercepting Alexander-Arnold’s cross, only diverted it past Lopes into the net. 58’ Firmino added a 2nd from a corner. 61’ with the ball in the air in a non-threatening position Ndombele handled it, gaining a 2nd yellow. I went more direct, removing the AMC position and dropping Aouar to DLP-De and almost immediately Gouiri got another 1v1 with Alisson, but once again he proved why he’s possibly the best goalkeeper on the planet. 66’ from a goal kick Lopes played it out to Guilherme Arana, who carried it into the Liverpool half before playing it over the top for Gouiri, who finally got enough space and placed it into the bottom corner! We held on for the rest of the game, so we have a chance in the 2nd leg thanks to that away goal!

Reims (H): Reims are struggling, 11 games without a win and currently sitting in 17th, but I was surprised to see that the question that caused Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to storm out of his press conference was about how he would counter our possession play. Christian Pernot meanwhile quit bitching about moving to Munich and so was granted a start. A Rocha Santos hat-trick (with 2 excellent assists from Bard, performing like a guy whose every attribute is 2 higher than they actually are) and another goal from Pintor made sure Huntelaar isn’t cheering up in a hurry.

FCSM (A): Gouiri (3) and Martínez made sure Sochaux stayed rooted to the foot of the table.
AS Monaco (A): Monaco are tight defensively - not our mere 7 goals conceded, but a more defensive style of play with a 5-3-2 formation where they seek to hit teams on the break through Pellegri and Geubbels. Our previous meeting finish 0-0, and this one lived up to type as the clash of styles again led to a tense affair, the only goal of the game coming in the 72nd minute when Solomon took down a free kick in the area and used that dribbling ability to lure in 5 defenders freeing space for Pintor to finish!

Toulouse FC (H): A suspension to Memphis meant youngster Beale coming in for a 3rd start of the season. 30’ a short throw was quickly moved to Caqueret 30 yards out, he drove into the box then lashed it across goal into the bottom corner! 36’ Fekir turned in Mendy’s cross. 84’ in a vain attempt to boost his rating I gave Beale penalty duties, but his spot kick was poor and Reynet saved it.

[zlatanera]

In terms of signs of just how far the club has come, I think Neymar being Extremely Interested in joining us! Although he's 32 and lost a little bit of pace due to a damaged achilles tendon in autumn of 2022, he's still one of the best players on the planet. Clearly he's also smart, as he recognises the true footballing powerhouse in France is no longer Qatar Paris but Lyon! 

[zlatanera]

March 2024

Paris SG (H): We’re 16 points clear and have the return leg in the Champions League coming up, so I fielded a weakened team. 31’ Milenkovic fouled Zagadou on a corner, and Rocha Santos scored the penalty! Only a couple of outstanding saves from Lafont limited the scoreline, but 83’ Gomes played it out to Pintor, who drove inside drawing 4 defenders before releasing Solomon on the far flank, Solomon beat his man, darted into the box and placed a low shot into the far corner! That’s a 19 point gap now!

Liverpool (H): 14’ Keïta erased our away goals advantage as they overload the left before changing play. 16’ a great move as Gouiri won the ball from their goal kick, we then played all the way back to Lopes and up the left flank, then switched it where Aarons had time to pick out his cross and Memphis finished at the back post! The rest of the first half followed a pattern wherein we couldn’t prevent them playing out from the back through de Ligt and de Jong, but had the better chances through counter-attacks. 54’ another great move from us ended with Alisson denying Gouiri 1v1 - that was 3 CCC’s yet only 1 goal. 68’ Gomez handled and Gouiri scored the penalty! 77’ Martínez headed Fekir’s corner onto the bar, and Tousart was on hand to convert the rebound! One 90+3’ counter through Salah had me on the edge of my seat but we held on for the win! I love that the goalscorers for us in this fixture were Memphis (reject from a big club, revitalised at Lyon), Tousart (purchased from a lesser French club and turned into an outstanding DM) and Gouiri (academy star).

Memphis' goal: move starts pretty much exactly on the centre circle with #9 Gouiri.

AS Saint-Etienne (H): Rocha Santos missed a penalty early on, before opening the scoring with a header on 55’ but when Benkhedim headed in an equaliser and at 90’ we were still level I thought that earlier miss would cost us. Solomon had other ideas, taking out 9 men with a cross Pintor converted right at the last!

Havre AC (H): Aouar, Bianda OG, Gouiri.

Rennes (A): We’ve officially qualified for next season’s Champions League after playing 29 games, as there is a 29 point gap between 1st (us) and 4th (Marseille). Goals from Rocha Santos, Zagadou & Pintor ended Rennes’ 7-game unbeaten streak whilst extending our winning run to 16 games (our previous best is 19 in 2020/21).

Dijon FCO (H): A win would see us crowned champions, but a mix of international exertions, injuries and suspensions saw a weakened team with both Pernot and Beale, the only newgens I’ve used this season, starting. When Solomon went off injured after 37 minutes it disrupted our flow and I thought we were set for a draw, but with time ticking down (85’) substitute Fekir played it to Rondon in the right channel, who crossed for Rocha Santos to volley in at the near post! I thought we’d won but 90+2 Ampadu beat Zagadou to a header and van den Berg equalised. Really disappointing, but its a question of when, not if we’re going to win the league. More damaging is a month-long injury to Solomon as whilst a minimum of 6 games in April doesn’t sound too bad, currently we’re scheduled to play in the French Cup then in the Champions League the next day, and either of those ties could then generate further fixtures.

Edited November 13, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

April 2024

AS Monaco (H): Monaco had lost four on the bounce coming into this, a run beginning with us defeating them, so I was expecting a reaction and fielded my strongest XI. 4’ we didn’t clear an indirect free kick and they quickly moved it around the box to Pellegri, who beat his man and blasted one into the bottom corner. We soon began to assert ourselves over the game, with Gouiri heading against the post minutes later. 27’ our dominance finally paid off, Caqueret switching our throw to Mendy, who took a couple of touches and buried it in the far corner! Moments later Mendy again was our most advanced player and forced Rulli into a good save, and 37’ Aarons cut inside and crashed one of the crossbar, our wingers forcing their wing backs deep meaning the full backs had acres of space in which to work. 45’ their goal was one of only two shots they’d had, and a lumped clearance was easily intercepted by Martínez and quickly moved up to Memphis, who cut inside and played a through ball to Fekir who whipped it into the corner from the edge of the box! The 2nd half was more of the same, and the final scoreline flattered Monaco’s outfield players, with Rulli having saved 12 and the woodwork 3 more. So that’s our 3rd consecutive Coupe de la Ligue!

Barcelona (A): Barcelona could almost be considered our bogey team, we’ve won 1/4 against them, but I’m hoping as Messi is no longer a regular starter this might be our year. They’re 4th in La Liga, one of 5 of the top 9 teams who have loaned players from us as we’re using Spain as a way-station in our mass migration of young footballers from Brazil to France. Our loanee Lourival has established himself as their AMC, to the extent that Lo Celso has been transfer listed. Like us they have very strong options at AML/R so our full backs will be busy, but I’m hoping Memphis can have some joy down the left as their DR is much poorer quality than DL where they have Juan Miranda and Aaron Martin. Although it was a couple of years ago 6 of the starting XI were motivated by my call for revenge. 28’ amazingly we were dominating possession and chances at Camp Nou, and when Memphis floated his free kick in from deep Martínez rose higher than everyone else and powered a header past Ter Stegen! 33:00 exactly we’d played through the centre brilliantly but Miranda intercepted the final ball, only to turn and play it back to the goalkeeper, Gouiri rushed in and took a clearance to the face to get our 2nd! That’s twice this season he’s done that! 39’ Aouar’s cross cannoned off Cancelo and set Carmelo (newgen) off on the counter, he crossed for Coutinho who lobbed Lopes to pull one back. The 2nd half was much less eventful, so we’re in the driving seat for this one!

OM (A): The first 90 minutes were a drag, our finishing so poor there weren’t even highlights. I went more direct and in the 103rd minute we were finally rewarded as Zagadou headed in from a corner. 120+1 we added another, Thomas carrying the ball 50 yards then curling it perfectly into the path of Pintor, who took a touch then finished with his weak foot. Marseille lined up with an entirely foreign XI in all three of our meetings so far this season, so to have Frenchmen responsible for 5/6 of the goals we’ve scored against them is pleasing too.

Barcelona (H): Given the past two seasons of domestic dominance, this continental tie effectively makes or breaks our season. Strangely they lined up with Marquinhos at DM and Kessie at DC but otherwise were unchanged from the previous game, I’ll be hoping for another absent performance from Dembélé tonight. We lined up the same as the previous leg, full strength but still missing our best impact sub Solomon. 30’ after a period of sustained pressure from us they countered in force, but Miranda dawdled before playing a ball that Mendy easily swept up. Straight from the 2nd half kick-off they went right down the left, switched to the right with Dembélé 1v1 on Mendy and me terrified, but Ndombele intercepted his cross. 60’ Gouiri headed onto the bar from a Memphis free kick. 87’ Fekir went off injured. 90+1’ Miranda lost his head, going through the back of Aouar and Michael Oliver awarded a penalty which Gouiri powered past ter Stegen! 90+4’ Gouiri, at AMC since Fekir’s injury, dropped deep into midfield to intercept a pass, played out to Aouar who turned and spotted the run of Edmar Rondon - the Brazilian DR on as a Pressing Forward - and hit a ball 30 yards for him which he hit first time making it 2! Sometimes it would appear all you need is a guy with 20 Acceleration up top, but the papers would probably be talking about this as a passing of the torch, with a French club out-passing and out-playing post-Messi Barcelona across two legs (he’s still on the books but has a mere 11 sub appearances this season).

FC Nantes (H): Fekir will miss a month which is…not ideal given he’s our most consistent player, one of the most talented and our captain. We need just a point from this, our first league game in 2 weeks, to seal the title so he shouldn’t be missed here. 2’ Mendy took his throw short back to Ndombele, who turned and drove towards the box before playing it out to Aarons, who cut in onto his left and whipped it inside the far post! 21’ Aarons’ cross was headed out and Aouar chested it down, took a touch into the box and placed it into the corner with his weak foot! 37’ Aarons beat El Hadj Coly to their GK’s clearance high in the Nantes half, Thomas tackled Schaeffer, shrugged off another challenge, drove towards the edge of the box and curled one in with his left foot! 39’ some end-to-end play finished with Thomas playing it into Gouiri in the box, he turned his two markers and scored. 66’ Aouar turned back from the edge of the box and laid it off to Ndombele, 30 yards out he bent it inside the post to make it 5! That goal would later win Goal of the Month. 71’ Beale won a battle in midfield, it was worked out to Mendy on the left and he whipped it into the far post where Aouar volleyed home. What a way to seal the title! We still have 6 league games to play too. That's title No. 11, we've beaten St. Etienne's record and are now the most successful team in league history!

OM (A): The league is won and although 100 points is within reach, I’m more concerned with the Champions League, and this is the first of an absurd Saturday-Tuesday-Thursday-Sunday sequence. So Lucas Cassou comes back in at GK for the first time since 2023, and we field a weakened outfield as well. AMC Dylan Beale is dropped down to the u19s as he hadn’t been performing well and could use some time out of the limelight, and ST Sébastien Hervé is promoted instead. Marseille surprisingly dominated the early runnings of the game, their back 3 cleverly drawing our press to create space in the midfield but they seemed surprised at how well they were doing - during a long highlight I’d spot a pass that could absolutely destroy us but their man would turn back and play a simple ball - but 23’ we made them regret it as we finally strung a few passes together…then a few more, and then Pintor cut inside and drilled one low into the corner! 37’ Pintor chased down his cleared cross, smashed a shot into the keeper and smashed the rebound past him for his 50th league goal for the club! 52’ Paulo Oliveira pulled one back from a Robertone corner. 87’ we countered and Edmar Rondon drove inside before playing it into the path of Pintor for his hat-trick!

Tottenham (H): The most important of a brutal week of fixtures. Spurs have won the Europa League in 2020 and League Cup in 2023, but qualified for CL football the past three seasons and Jürgen Klopp has a formidable squad - none of their main men have left, and they’ve spent large sums so we’ll have to fight to dominate a Verratti-Tonali-Kovacic midfield before we can even attempt to trouble our former goalkeeper Onana. If we beat them over two legs we may be faced with a 2021 final rematch against PSG, who face Bayer Leverkusen, whose manager they poached in March (Mauricio Pochettino, who won the Bundesliga with them). They have no injury problems, whilst we line up with 10/11 first choice players - Fekir’s injury recovery is faster than expected but he misses out here, Solomon returning from his injury to start at AMR. 27’ we played out of the back spectacularly - Caqueret effectively conducting a rondo inside our D - before countering through Memphis, who played Gouiri in on the spot…only for his shot to hit the post! 32’ Memphis again caused trouble running at Dier, the right back, before laying it off to Mendy whose first time ball to the same area as last time was volleyed in by Gouiri! 38’ we pulled them apart again and when Aarons’ cross was cleared Mendy drilled it straight back in and Solomon made it 2! 75’ our press forced them into an aimless punt forward which Mendy intercepted and played in to Memphis just past half-way, the Dutchman turned and played a ball over the defence for Gouiri to make it 3! Moments later, as I’d set Solomon to be subbed off before he re-injuries himself Tonali gave us a warning the tie wasn’t over, hitting the upright from 30 yards. It ended 3-0 though, so we’re in the driving seat for this one - 1 goal in the 2nd leg effectively puts us 5-0 up!

Edited November 15, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

May 2024 pt. 1 - The Amiens Amateurs

6 of them don't have squad numbers for christ's sake! And Hervé only got his a week ago!

In protest at this outrageous mid-week fixture, with a mere 1 day between it and the preceding CL tie and only two days until yet another league game, I handed out 6 debuts - with Melvin Bard out of position to boot - and a squad with an average age of 18!! Of the non-debutants Hervé (1), Beale (6), Pernot (18) and Cassou (14) hardly count as an experienced bunch, Bard the outlier with 131 appearances in the top flights of Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Belgium and France. Amiens may be 17th, but they’ve just hired a new manager and I’m effectively playing a bunch of Ligue 2 quality players but with no experience so anything better than a loss is a bonus. Dylan Beale got the captain’s armband, becoming the first player born in the 21st century to captain the club.

1st half was promisingly a bit of a bore, with the best chance being when Beale ran at their defence and forced a save with a shot from the edge of the area. 2nd half I changed the Tis, upped the mentality of AML/R and change AMC to a Shadow Striker, effectively turning it into yet another iteration of my my Jardim recreation. It took until 78’ to generate a highlight when Simone Merola’s corner was flicked on by Vicente Andrade and Juan de Dios Sanchis headed in from a tight angle!…but VAR ruled his armpit hair had been offside or something. Minutes later from another corner Yannick Richard hit the bar, as incredibly rather than tiring our youngsters ramped up the pressure. 86’ Merola took yet another corner, out-swinging and dropping suddenly into the 6 yard box where Andrade came rushing in to volley it in with his weak foot!! No VAR this time! This win for “The Amiens Amateurs” has got to be one of the happiest moments of the save! 

Edited November 14, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

May 2024 pt. 2 - Are we the baddies?

Post so titled because our absolute domestic dominance whilst fun for me does not bode well for the long-term future of the league. Although Bordeaux did reach the Europa League final!

Amiens SC (A): ^^^

Troyes (A): A more conventional ‘B’ line-up for this one with 167 caps and 718 league appearances for the club between them,  Dan-Axel Zagadou’s 100th. Sébastien Hervé once again struggled up top, and when at 66 minutes we had only looked like threatening through Zagadou headers from set pieces, I made a drastic change to a 4-4-2 with Rocha Santos moving up alongside young Hervé. It paid off inside 2 minutes, as they failed to clear a free kick and Rocha Santos, in a more advanced position now, headed in Guilherme Arana’s cross.

Tottenham (A): PSG hammered Leverkusen 5-1 at home for an 8-4 aggregate win, which only further emphasises the need to not throw this away. I want that rematch damnit! We’re almost at full strength, but Fekir just wasn’t quite ready so Solomon gets the nod at AMR. 18’ they regained possession following a cleared free kick and appeared to be about to pull the trigger following a good passing move when Memphis intercepted Eriksen’s pass and released Gouiri from inside our half, but 1v1 with Onana he shot straight at him. From the resulting corner, swung in by Solomon, Ndombele rose to head home! 47’ Mendy put Gouiri through against Onana again but there was much less time and he barely got his shot off before the Cameroonian was upon him. 66’ Kovacic hit one over the top for substitute Manolo (newgen) and he made no mistake in powering it underneath Lopes’ outstretched arms. 76’ they pulled us apart from a short throw, Verratti hitting a short straight pass to put Manolo on the spot where he scored again. I responded by changing our tactics to focus more on hitting them on the break. 84’ it looked to have paid off despite the initial counter breaking down, but Solomon was ruled offside by VAR. 90’ Manolo got through again but he decided to try and chip Lopes, who was wise to it and made the save look easy. Gouiri should have had 8 over the two legs, but still, we’re in the final!!

Nîmes (H): Sébastien Hervé got his 1st goal for the club, winning then converting a penalty as Nîmes’ senior pros lost their heads - both Valère Germain and Jordan Ferri got double yellows, after the latter I threw Jason Denayer up front as a Target Man just to see what might happen. As it was Pintor’s opener was the only other goal of the game.

Rennes (A): A 90 minute slog led to extra time. When the breakthrough came it was good, at least. We slowly built from the back, before coming alive in the final third as Gouiri (playing AMC) pirouetted on receiving the ball, spotted Aarons’ run overlapping the more immediate option of Aouar and paused until just the right moment before sliding it into his stride where he crossed for Rocha Santos to head across goal and in! We then just kept the ball for another 27 minutes until we were through to the final, a Rhône derby no less!

LOSC (A): We have the chance to make a record 103 points if we win this game, but I’m much more bothered about the French Cup so when normal ‘B’ AML Lenny Pintor was injured, I reshuffled and played DR Edmar Rondon up front, ST Rodrigo Rocha Santos at AML and DC Jason Denayer at DR. I’m intrigued to see if Rondon up top works as well as it did for the final 3 minutes against Barcelona, and whether Rocha Santos’ great dribbling attributes (15 Dribbling, 16 First Touch, 15 Technique, 15 Composure, 18 Flair, 15 Acceleration, 15 Agility, 12 Balance) will be better utilised with a little more space to work in. He’s also 190cm tall and weighs 85kg, which I’m sure no full back will want to deal with! 2’ Guilherme Arana won the ball in the air, heading it to Rondon, in our half of the centre circle. He turned and sprinted towards goal, going past 6!! Lille players before powering it past the goalkeeper from close range! 69’ from a short throw Thomas switched it to Denayer, whose first time volleyed cross was headed in by Rondon at the near post! 83’ Denayer the provider again as his floated cross was headed in by Rocha Santos.

AS Saint-Etienne (N): The Derby To End All Derbies. Rodrigo Rocha Santos pulled knee ligaments in training in the build up so will miss both of our finals, which is gutting both for the player and for me - he’s been outstanding this season. Lísandro Martinez misses this one too through suspension, but Zagadou should be an able - if less mobile - deputy once again. To first beat their record with our 11th league title, then prevent them from winning a trophy would be just spectacular. Nevermind that I’ve yet to taste defeat in the Rhône derby, this is a cup final, anything can happen. 3’ Pedrinho’s free kick forced a good save from Lopes. In the next 20 minutes the only highlights were Zagadou going close with headers from Fekir corners (twice) and then a counter from their goal kick that ended with Mendy’s shot going just past the post with Bajic beaten. The 2nd half was proving to be much of a muchness, and I was about to make a chance when, with their defence resetting from a corner Aouar played it into space for Aarons on the right, his cross was headed back across goal by Memphis and Gouiri headed it in! 78’ Fekir’s corner was flicked on by Tousart and Zagadou slid in at the far post. 88’ Mendy’s cross was headed away and the substitute Thomas took it down with his back to goal, turned his man and rifled one in to the bottom corner! The final whistle blew just as Gouiri looked to be ramping up to skin the entire St. Etienne team on his own. Pedrinho’s free kick proved to be their only shot of the game, we absolutely dominated them! That’s 5 in a row to follow PSG’s streak, meaning the last time one of us didn’t win it is also the last time neither team was in the final: 2013/14 when EA Guingamp beat Rennes.

Brest (A): A very unique game, this. The league actually finishes on May 18th, but as we had already won it this match, repeatedly moved due to our knockout successes, was scheduled for the next weekend. Then we reached the final of the French Cup, scheduled the day before so it was moved again, giving us only 2 days rest until the Champions League final. But still, neat to keep the rest of the league waiting nearly 2 weeks before the season can be officially declared over. Brest are 10th and could move up to 9th should they beat us, but even if they don’t this is still their highest finish of the 21st century (and possibly ever). If we win, we would beat our own record wins (32) and points (102). The injury to Rocha Santos means the Rondon striker experiment continues, with Guilherme Arana at DR this time. Gomes, Rondon and Pintor’s goals ensured we easily won the game to seal another record-breaking season!

Edited November 15, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Champions League Final 2024 - The Avengers

We go into the game with just the one injury - Rodrigo Rocha Santos missing out on what would be an incredible opportunity to finish off his breakout season. PSG’s abundance of riches meanwhile means that whilst Luka Jovic is injured they have a brilliant Ecuadorian newgen to replace him and can also afford to leave 6 top players unregistered: Mario Hermoso (DC), Nicolás Dominguez (MC), Rúben Neves (MC), Thiago Almada (AMC), Adam Idah (ST) and Henrik Brettschneider (newgen AMR signed for £76m). I’m much more preoccupied with thoughts of revenge though, after our injury time collapse and subsequent penalty loss in 2021. There seems to be something fated about the fact that the only times ourselves and PSG have reached the final is to play each other, and with this one taking place at the Johan Cruijff ArenA - home of attacking football and youth development - it feels like the stage is set for us to take the crown!

We set out our standard first XI, whilst they are clearly set up for pace on the break with Chiesa and Asensio flanking Neymar. Their midfield is a little bit more physical than ours [/understatement] and they are much stronger at DC and GK. Our bench looks deeper though - Gerard, Cissé, Yao and Mbe Soh are youth team players selected to fill the bench as their homegrown status exempts them from registration rules whilst Solomon & Pintor have scored or assisted 42 goals between them.

2’ Milenkovic’s header from Neymar’s corner was very low, forcing Lopes to go full stretch before we scrambled the ball away.

39’ Asensio drove at the defence causing panic before feeding Neymar, whose first-time shot had Lopes beat but hit the outside of the post

The 2nd half had no highlights, but I resisted making any changes until extra time rolled around. Denayer replaced Tousart and Aouar dropped back to MC, Fekir to AMC and Solomon coming on at AMR for Caqueret. They’d brought on Peter Deering  and Carlos Soler around 80 minutes for Chiesa and Berge.

94’ our first real chance as Gouiri dropped into the left channel to pick up the ball, drove at the defence before feeding Fekir in the box, where he hit the post!

99’ I changed our Tis to the Jardim preset - a drop in mentality and more direct.

105+1 Asensio forced a save from Lopes with a free kick.

At extra time half-time I decided to swap out my left flank, bringing on Pintor and Guilherme Arana for Memphis and Mendy.

Pintor immediately had an effect, carrying the ball forward on a counter, but Solomon blazed his shot wide.

115’ Deering hit the upright with a long shot.

120+1 Deering again threatened, his deflected shot forcing a save from Lopes and winning them a corner which Lopes claimed authoritatively, so it was penalties!

 

Gouiri first up…scored!

Asensio…scored.

Pintor…scored!

Neymar…scored.

Fekir…scored! That’s 3 in a row down the bottom left for us, hopefully Lafont doesn’t catch on…

Havertz…scored.

Aouar…scored! Bottom right this time.

Milinkovic-Savic…saved and held by Lopes!

Guilherme Arana…scored! A perfect penalty, clipped in off the bottom right! We’ve done it!!!!

Live scenes from Juninho's living room after that penalty

Edited November 17, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

2023/24 Final League Table & Club Awards

After last season's positively mediocre 97 points we bounced back with a vengeance. We only conceded 6 goals in our last 27 games, and dropped points once since the end of November. We scored over 10 less goals than in the previous two seasons, but also conceded more than 10 fewer than those past two seasons, which is strange as our tactics have been settled for 18 months. Looking at the rest of the league, PSG's drop off was surprising as it was the first time they hadn't cracked 90 points since 2018/19, so to finish 31 points behind us is a devastating failure for them. Looking at the rest of the league, Toulouse were the surprise package, yet also not surprising as they continue to yo-yo, their league placings in the save reading: 17th, 7th, 16th, 8th, 13th, 6th. Nîmes' collapse was also shocking as they'd been a solid upper-mid-table team for the past two years and hadn't lost any big players. Brest breaking their cycle of 5 years bouncing between Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 was also pleasant to witness. I do wish our rivals AS Saint-Etienne would either go down or kick on to the European places.

If I actually took the Trophée des Champions seriously it could have been a complete clean sweep of everything we featured in but really that's not much of a knock on the most successful season in the club's history. That average attendance is a positive - we sold out 12 of 19 home games, and we've cleared our debts so I think if we get to 19/19 I might ask the board for a stadium expansion (or perhaps not - if we're constantly sold out it creates a better atmosphere than a stadium with 10,000 empty seats). 

Max Aarons really took his game to new heights this season, averaging 7.60 and contributing 10 assists in all competitions so is a deserved recipient of an award. Solomon had no competition for signing of the season as all the others were loaned out to Spain, but its hard to deny him recognition as he was just as good as I'd hoped. Tanguy Ndombele's goal of the season also won the Ligue 1 Goal of the Season award, the 2nd time he's had this after also getting it in 2018/19 for a curved shot from distance (he's good for 2-3 of those a season which is handy). I'm surprised to see Titouan Thomas in the team of the season given Aouar's performance levels but otherwise it seems about right. 

The new all-Su shape sees our goals biased a bit more towards the strikers, so its no surprise that Gouiri is top scorer. Still, he cracked the 20 goal barrier for the first time, I'll be looking to see if we can get him to 30 next season, even if it means abandoning my extreme rotation policy. We have so much of the ball its unsurprising to see we're a clean team with only one red card - and even that was for a stupid hand-ball with the ball going nowhere in particular. So many players contributed (of outfield players only Christian Pernot didn't directly contribute to a goal) so I'm only listing those who were involved in 15+:

Amine Gouiri - 25 Goals, 3 Assists

Rodrigo Rocha Santos - 19 Goals, 1 Assist

Lenny Pintor -18 Goals, 5 Assists

Houssem Aouar - 14 Goals, 7 Assists

Nabil Fekir - 11 Goals, 7 Assists

Memphis - 9 Goals, 14 Assists

Manor Solomon - 8 Goals, 11 Assists

I'm looking at having a clear-out in the summer, rather than buying whilst we're European Champions I'd prefer to let some players move on. Prime candidates are both my AML options: Memphis is 30 and although he has 17 Natural Fitness and is a club legend I don't want him to retire at the club, and he's got 1 year left on his contract and will probably want to break my £100k/week wage ceiling so I'm hoping someone acts on their interest in him (other than Arsenal's annual non-negotiable low-ball offer which both myself and the player laugh off). In particular Real Madrid are interested and its in his long-term plans so hopefully this is his year! Lenny Pintor has been outstanding too, but I have 2 great newgens in Hadji and Traoré who could both do well at AML so I would like to see him get some offers. Further back I'd also be open to seeing Jason Denayer (28), Ferland Mendy (29) and Diadié Samassékou (28) move on - I have a ready-made replacement for the latter's role whilst my full back and centre back options do need more development, which I feel is best done under me rather than out on loan. There's still no obvious heir to Lopes anywhere my scouts have been, although Brazilian GK Paulo Renato has developed well on loan at Getafe and will hopefully have Spanish citizenship before the end of August he's only got 11 Rushing Out so most likely Lopes will be 1st choice for another 1, maybe 2 seasons. Unless I decide to reinforce our status as the true power in France by smashing both my transfer record and wage budget and bringing in Alban Lafont from PSG:

He's France No. 1, still only 25 which for goalkeepers counts as a youth player in my book, and could conceivably be our No. 1 for a decade but it still feels a little outside of what I'm trying to do in this save. We'll see, I guess.

Edited November 20, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Individual Awards

Anthony Lopes didn't make his usual sweep of the goalkeeping awards as first injury then my desire to give Cassou more experience meant he made only 16 league appearances (12 clean sheets) with Cassou making 19 (15 clean sheets). Still, there was some recognition for my players:

Can a guy whose hit double figures for 5 consecutive seasons now be considered to have a breakout season? If so, this was Pintor's as that hat-trick against Marseille announced that he's not just for when I want to scrape a win against the relegation candidates whilst saving Memphis. This was definitely Rocha Santos' breakthrough though - he'd scored 19 goals the previous season as he finally came good for Real Sociedad, but to repeat the feat with his highest league total yet in a team with much more competition for places shows he's really something. Gouiri also got 13 league goals, which put him 6th in the league as Kasper Dolberg (Bordeaux) and Julián Alvarez (Toulouse) both got 14. 

If we were going purely on the highest average ratings here most likely it would be an entire Lyon XI, but clearly that's not the only metric. Still, this was Claudio Gomes' 2nd season with us and he looked much more comfortable in our system. The DLP-De role isn't especially glamorous, more of a deep conductor (although Caqueret's line-breaking ability meant he got 5 assists in the league) but he was on the pitch for 73 of our 94 goals and had a 94% pass completion rate (the highest in the league). 

As ever, two teams of the season does seem redundant. However Stars Team of the Competition shows a little more variation away from the likes of Lyon and PSG. So its a surprise to see Melvin Bard in it! He didn't tear up any trees in his 8 appearances for Troyes, and my coaches tell me he's surplus to requirements yet for us he contributed 5 assists in 23 appearances, averaging 7.33.

Edited November 17, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Champions League Awards

He may not have troubled Lafont in the final, and could have had another 8 goals against Spurs with some more composure but Gouiri was the top scorer in the competition! 

We had a very tight defence, and given for the group stages we played Ligue 2-quality Racioppi that was down to the outfield, so its pleasing to see Tousart and Aarons recognised here.

5 players get a mention here, which is unsurprising given we won the whole competition, but still pleasing to see - we may very much be a team, but if we weren't a team of high-performing individuals we wouldn't win possibly the biggest competition on the planet. 

[zlatanera]

The New Guy (Assistant Manager Edition)

Gérald Baticle was a 4-star Assistant Manager, and a faithful servant to the club having been in position since 2011. But I always felt I could do better, or failing that, that I could get an ex-pro to take the position but none of the ones I'd hired were ready. Then, by coincidence (I think I was looking for a reserves coach) I found Cris:

Many of his attributes are actually inferior to Baticle, and although his preferred formation and pressing style match up with mine, his marking style and playing mentality don't. However, I ignore most of my coaches' advice on most things so more important here is the nostalgia factor, and he has it. 225 league appearances for Lyon between 2004 and 2012 with 4 Ligue 1, 3 Trophée des Champions and 2 Coupe de France! He also managed the under 19s and then the reserves between 2016 and 2018. Cláudio Caçapa counts him as a friend too, which is nice.

[zlatanera]

Pascal the Punt Revisited

On 07/08/2019 at 00:15, zlatanera said:

Pascal the Punt

Meet Pascal Lacroix. Looks pretty darn good for a 16-year old in Ligue 2 right? A high amount of interest from other Ligue 1 clubs including Monaco suggests he's going to be a somebody.

Pascal Lacroix has now been on the books for 4 seasons, playing 45 times for the reserves then spending the last season on loan as a regular right back for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga, being a losing finalist in the DFB-Pokal. 

Despite that his development has been nothing spectacular, and my HoYD in his report rates him as "Currently playing at close to his full potential" and "Currently operating at a Ligue 1 Conforama level". So it's clear he's not going to be turning out a spectacular signing i.e. Steve Rowley was right when assessing him back in 2021. Despite that, he's now valued at £2m, having been signed for £450k, and can probably earn £1m loan fee this season, so he'll be a tidy little earner. Similar to signing coaches with low levels of qualifications, this hasn't been as spectacular of an idea as I'd hoped, but isn't a bad one. 

[zlatanera]

A big offer

I'm struggling to get interest for most of the players I want to sell, and have resorted to transfer listing a couple of them. But the ones I want to keep...(and its not like the ones I want to sell aren't top players):

The only bids I've had higher on FM ever are for de Ligt on my longest Ajax save. But I want Gouiri to spend his entire career with the club... or leave for £200m aged 27 I can't decide, so it was rejected.

[zlatanera]

Coaches Revisited

In preparing for a rebooted Lyon save I realised that whilst one of my last posts was to update any readers on the status of 'Pascal the Punt', I hadn't said anything about the far more interesting (to me anyway) endeavour of training up my own coaching staff. Of the 90 contracted staff members at the club in 2024 (manager included) I'd only taken screenshots of about 7 of them when they joined the staff, limiting the sample size of the experiment somewhat. But anyway, here are 5 of them:

Johann Durand, National C Licence

Johann Durand, Continental Pro Licence

Johann Durand completed 7 coaching courses during his time at the club. Increases in his coaching attributes (Attacking +4, Defending +3, Fitness +2, Mental +3, Tactical +4, Technical +4) are significant - if we're comparing coach development to player development, Titouan Thomas over the same period saw increases of a maximum of +5 in some of his attributes - and he's now a 3-star coach according to my custom view. 

Mauro Galvão, Unqualified

Mauro Galvão, Continental A Licence

Mauro Galvão was an incredible find in the beginnings of the save - with no qualifications he was a brilliant coach, so training him up I was unsure if I'd see any improvements at all. Sadly he didn't get a rare 20 attribute in Defending, but we did see improvements (Attacking +2, Mental +2, Tactical +1, Technical +1). However there have also been declines (Fitness -1, Determination -1, Man Management -1, Motivating -10!) which suggests that similar to players coaches have a maximum ability and as I forced improvements in coaching attributes there was a decline in mental attributes to balance it out. The loss in Motivating was particularly drastic, otherwise I would have suggested it was a slow descent into senility as he passed age 60. I should have left well enough along here.

Laurent Lesgent, unqualified

Laurent Lesgent, Continental Pro Licence

Laurent Lesgent was hired, similar to Durand, on account of his high Working With Youngsters (with such a young first team squad this attribute is still important) and the vital DLoDM mentals. He's completed 7 coaching courses with us, right to the top. His changes (Attacking +5, Defending +5, Fitness +2, Mental +5, Tactical +5, Technical +4) are significant, yet he too has seen Motivating change -1. Significant improvements though, he's now rated as a 2.5-star coach. 

Patrick Müller, National A Licence

Patrick Müller, Continental Pro Licence

Patrick Müller, a 4-times Ligue 1 winner as a player with the club, has accomplished 4 qualifications in his time as our Reserves Coach. His changes (Attacking +2, Defending +3, Mental +3, Tactical +2, Technical +2) were minor but targeted as he improved mostly on his pre-existing strengths. He's now a 3.5-star coach.

Jérémy Morel, National B Licence

Jérémy Morel, Continental Pro Licence

Jérémy Morel had already begun his coaching qualification in his final (and my first) season at the club, hence the first screenshot where he already attained his National B Licence. He then powered through the remaining 5 qualifications to hold a Continental Pro Licence. He did improve (Attacking +3, Defending +2, Fitness +2, Mental +1, Tactical +2, Technical +2) but has not turned into a world beater, being a highly qualified 2-star coach.

In summary I'd say this experiment is a qualified success. I'd been on the right track in picking out coaches who already had the key mental attributes for their roles, and a significant improvement is possible - I'd count Johann Durand and Laurent Lesgent as the biggest successes - but much like I've never experienced a newgen starting with a blue-grey-starred CA turning into a Champions League quality player, I wasn't able to bring anyone up to a 4-star standard coach. 

I'd probably recommend this method if you are planning on building a club from the ground up - given the modest wage rises most coaches request you could potentially end up with a decent set-up paid like a poor set-up - but less so if you're at the top level where you really need the best coaches. I'm something of an FM romantic in that I always hire all the former players on as staff, so I will continue to do this but perhaps be more picky - if I see somebody at the level Morel was at when he was first hired on I'll know they're probably a waste of time. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Le Redémarrage

The past quarter of a year or so has seen me repeatedly starting up careers that last anywhere between two months and two seasons. Not linked are some of the other rapid launch failures that caused @Muttley84 to repeatedly make the same comment in (I hope mild) mockery:

On 29/12/2019 at 16:21, Muttley84 said:

Reserved

The reason I keep starting over, other than a not perfect mental state and a bit too much free time on my hands (even before the quarantine) is that I've only found myself having three truly enjoyable saves on FM19; with Manchester United, Freiburg and Lyon. In all three there is a lingering sense of unfinished business; with United I was only just starting to integrate Mason Greenwood and Angel Gomes before I messed it all up by unnecessarily splurging my budget, with Freiburg I got distracted and derailed my club-building project with a 2-year dalliance with a Libero and hoarded so much players a transfer window would take a week, and with Lyon…well, I’ll explain further below. I've attempted to start over with United repeatedly but am torn between 19.1, where I could actually make a success of Lukaku and Sánchez, and 19.3 where Rashford got a bump. I also attempted to start over with Freiburg. 

In terms of going back and actually making an enjoyable sequel (Star Wars: Episode VII rather than IX) Lyon seems like the most optimal to apply all the lessons I've learned over almost 18 months with FM19 to make Le Redémarrage  my most successful save yet:

[Yes I'm going to keep translating random parts of my post into the language of the club I manage, I'm bored and wish I made more effort to build my language skills beyond Year 9]

#1 - Delegate

I've found that I quite enjoy having a Director of Football reduce the number of clicks per save drastically by entrusting him to renew all staff contracts, confirm transfers and even on occasion hire staff members.

I’ve also toyed with setting up schedules upon schedules, but with the youth teams I honestly can’t tell if I’m helping or hindering their development. There is some evidence to suggest the latter, whilst my most successful development of youth prospects came with Lyon where I set up the individual training and allowed my exceedingly competent Head of Youth Development (Jean-François Vulliez) to run team training.

#2 - ...but not too much

I am, however very pleased with the effects of my first team training schedules. Schedules with a focus on match preparation inspired by @Guimy youth set-up (itself apparently inspired by a post on a Discord channel) allowed me to rapidly increase tactical familiarity and double down on individual role training whilst the generally low intensity meant I no longer felt the extreme rotation policy found in these pages was necessary, allowing me to finally have a player win a league golden boot!

This in turn should prevent me feeling the need for such absurdly deep squads that most youth actually can’t get a look in unless someone retires, which is one of the issues that prevented me continuing with Les Gones in its first iteration.

#3 - Tactical Versatility

On 23/12/2019 at 22:54, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

what have a learned from the save, and what would I now do differently?

 

#1 - use early years in the Academy to build positional versatility.

There's a certain romanticism around implementing a club philosophy from top to bottom; the obvious examples being Ajax and Barcelona playing 4-3-3 at all levels.

This is fine if you know you plan to play 4-3-3 forever, but as you'll have seen, I typically develop a playing style but frequently adapt formations to the players I have available, opposition etc. and, at times, would have liked more options. Plus it's infinitely better to go through the transitional period of learning a new position at U19 level where results are less important, as opposed to the pressure of the first team.

Considering the core of the 'golden generation', I'd like to see them learn the following positions.

Geronimo Rulli - GK
Gedson Fernandes - DR, WBR, MR, MC, AMR
Alex Pinto - DC
Victor Bobsin - DC
Alex Grimaldo - DL, WBL, ML, MC, AML
Florentino Luis - DMC, DC, MC
Tiago Dantas - MC, DMC
Xadas - MC, AMC
Jota - AMR, AML, AMC, MR, ML
Umaro Embalo - AML, AMR, AMC, ML
Joao Felix - AMC, MC, FC

This would have given me far more tactical flexibility to use 3 at the back or 2 up front depending on the opposition.

As the save went on I increasingly abandoned playing anything resembling the first team tactics; instead deliberately playing players in new positions so that by the time they arrived in the first team they can play 2, 3 or even 4 positions well.

At the time I used the 4-1-4-1 (which at the time I expected to be much more of a long-term feature); but would instead be using this:

Simply because it gives Florentino Luis a year at centre back; Dantas and Alvaro learning to play DM; Jota, Embalo and Oliveira game time at AMC and Joao Felix practice as a striker. I'd unlikely use this shape competitively, and would change it each year depending on the needs of the players coming through.

It now almost seems a wasted opportunity to play an U18 player in position.

Whilst I’m not about to go into the level of constant changes you’ll find in that thread, there are definitely perks of training your players in multiple positions. For this reason, despite almost never using it I now like to use a 4-1-4-1 for training purposes as it allows me to utilise all of the roles that cover the widest spread of attributes;

• Full Back (Attack) 
• Ball Playing Defender (Defend) 
• Roaming Playmaker 
• Inverted Winger (Attack) 
• Complete Forward.

That way if I do need to use the AM or WB positions the players should already have a suitably broad spread to excel in such a role (and if I find that, for example, my entire Reserves squad need to train in roles best served in a 3-4-3 DM or something I’ll still do so). I haven't listed the Libero role as unless a young centre back came through with already high Dribbling I wouldn't see the point. 

Furthermore a lot of the top Head of Youth Development candidates in the game have 4-2-3-1 as a preferred formation, making it more than likely the players will already be naturals in the first team's primary formation.

#4 - Tactics: Just Do It

In the previous iteration of this save I started out on a Balanced mentality and increased it year on year as I felt going straight for the higher mentalities when attempting a possession style would lead me into trouble unless I had an absolutely perfect squad for it. Of course what actually happened was I struggled to apply myself to some of the lower mentalities before the save truly came alive once I hit Attacking. My Ajax and Roma saves - in particular the latter - are a proof-of-concept that I can just apply my ‘Jardim Control’ preset from the get-go. Sure I might get a couple of pastings but I’d rather lose games 3-4 failing to out-score a larger team than 0-1 just flat out failing to score.

#5 - No More Posting Half-Ideas

If you were to visit the last page of my previously linked Roma thread you'll find a lot of posts that have been 'erased' down to a simple . in fact there is an entire deleted thread (well, the introductory posts) wherein I've been taken with a whim to start a new save, or completely change my tactics and squad DNA, written it all up and may not even have booted up FM before I got bored. 

In spite of this being posted after 2am that is not what's happening here - this idea has been floating around in my head on and off since the post in Caixa Futebol Academy that I quoted earlier, but really got stuck in there and started to formulate over the past week as I've struggled to get that other save moving. This is going to see me through the quarantine! 

Edited April 17, 2020 by zlatanera

[Muttley84]

Just some friendly mild joke, no harm intended. Good luck! 🙂

[zlatanera]

22 hours ago, zlatanera said:

#1 - Delegate

I've found that I quite enjoy having a Director of Football reduce the number of clicks per save drastically by entrusting him to renew all staff contracts, confirm transfers and even on occasion hire staff members.

I’ve also toyed with setting up schedules upon schedules, but with the youth teams I honestly can’t tell if I’m helping or hindering their development. There is some evidence to suggest the latter, whilst my most successful development of youth prospects came with Lyon where I set up the individual training and allowed my exceedingly competent Head of Youth Development (Jean-François Vulliez) to run team training.

...and I'm already considering re-thinking this after noticing that none of the default schedules contain set piece training, which explains why in the original save we saw Maxence Caqueret's Corners increase by 1 over 4 years, and Titouan Thomas' Corners and Free Kick Taking increase by 2 and 1, respectively, despite constantly having an added individual focus. 

Oh well, I'm in no rush to press Continue for the first time! 

[zlatanera]

Configuration du Jeu et Potentiels Variables

Active Leagues

Spoiler

 

Unlike last time out I'm not adding in Liga NOS. I don't sign many foreign youngsters so wouldn't gain from the cheap Portuguese youth, I haven't noticed much of a difference in European performance from Benfica, Porto and Sporting with the league loaded versus not, and it will help maintain game speed. Win, win, win.

 

Manager Style

Spoiler

 

I noticed when playing around with the Style Focus selector over my many, many save setups that some seemed to offer more points to play around with than others. In a way I felt like this was a little unfair that someone who perhaps just wanted a based from which to slightly adjust their manager's attributes would have less to utilise than someone who knew exactly what they're doing from the get-go, given its something you set at the beginning of the game and the majority of players will pick top division teams where you won't even have the chance to develop through coaching badges. So I decided to count the points:

• Default: 223
• Disciplinarian: 220
• Motivator: 221
• Youth Development: 216
• Knowledgeable: 218
• Tactician: 214
• Taskmaster: 216

The two I most commonly went for in the past were Youth Development and Tactician, two of the three style focus' with the lowest number of points!

So for my manager this time I selected Default, then using the magical powers of screenshots I adjusted him to match up to the Youth Development focus, giving me 7 extra points to play with. I did more than just boost them though as something about me doesn't like too many attributes with the same number. I don't know why. Je suis folle.

 

Variable Potentials

Spoiler

 

Quite a few of the players in the Reserves and Under 19s don't have set attributes, personalities and/or potential abilities, so it was inevitable there would be some changes. Luckily this is the only thread where I took a screenshot of them, allowing for a direct comparison between two saves.

Anthony Racioppi and Oumar Solet appear not to vary in their baseline except for personality and Natural Fitness. The former has 2 more Determination whilst the latter has 2 fewer, making for a pitiful 3 Determination. In the starting Reserves squad at least, quite a few of the less notable players have better personalities than before, which should limit their capability of dragging down the more important prospects. We've gotten luckier with our strikers with Griffiths (+4) and Oulaembo (+6) possess significantly better personalities. As ever, Amine Gouiri is the absolute standout option.

As ever the Under 19s, by virtue of both their sheer number and researchers being less confident of a player's ceiling at that age, are much more of a mixed bag. Mathis Louiserre and Melvin Bard, two of my favourite over-performers from last time around, appear to have set capabilities as even their personalities are identical to last time around. 

Lilian Perrier in midfield seems to have more potential to go with an improved personality this round, but sadly Dijbraíl Dib - rated as one of the highest potential players in both saves - has a mere 1 Determination and probably won't make it. Although given he isn't yet 16 time is on his side, especially once I remove the players with equally bad personalities but no potential come January. 

Titouan Thomas again matches a great personality with only 10 Natural Fitness but appears more mentally well-rounded than last time out. Most of the forwards have worse personalities but El Hadj Coly looks like he can actually do something with his potential this time - previously I couldn't improve his lacklustre 7 Anticipation enough which prevent him from ever being a reliable goalscorer, whereas this time around it starts off in the green.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

L'Instruction

Okay so despite what I previously said, I've gotten really into the training module this time around. There was a spreadsheet 

There is still a strong focus on individual role training, but I'm also introducing individual training rotations alongside team training sessions to address some common weaknesses in the roles I use - Sweeper Keeper, Ball Playing Defender, Inverted Winger, Inside Forward, and Complete Forward. 

On 13/04/2020 at 02:15, zlatanera said:

#3 - Tactical Versatility

Whilst I’m not about to go into the level of constant changes you’ll find in that thread, there are definitely perks of training your players in multiple positions. For this reason, despite almost never using it I now like to use a 4-1-4-1 for training purposes as it allows me to utilise all of the roles that cover the widest spread of attributes;

• Full Back (Attack) 
• Ball Playing Defender (Defend) 
• Roaming Playmaker 
• Inverted Winger (Attack) 
• Complete Forward.

You know what they say about best laid plans? 

Well it turns out most of my young wingers have Positioning, Tackling and Marking equal or greater than their Flair and shooting so are being retrained as full backs. This means there are actually only three players in the entire club being trained in the MR / ML position; Yu Junwei (no potential), Djibraïl Dib and Lenny Pintor. As I have quite a few strikers training at AMR / AML for versatility, both teams now play 4-3-3 (or 4-1-4-1 DM Wide as its now called).

Individual Training

Spoiler

My preferred individual training roles hit a wide range of attributes, particularly in the technical and mental categories. However the attributes that don't get trained tend to be shared among the aforementioned roles, namely; Decisions, Teamwork, Work Rate, Balance, Strength, and Stamina. So I've introduced the following quarterly rotations:

• SK-Su - additional focus on Agility & Balance <-> Strength 
• FB-At - additional focus on Long Throws <-> Final Third 
• BPD - additional focus on Agility & Balance <-> Quickness 
• RPM <-> SV / BBM
• IW / IF <-> RMD / SS
• CF <-> PF 

I noticed goalkeeper roles don't train many physical attributes despite most of the top goalkeepers possession good attributes in the likes of Balance, Strength and Stamina. Long Throws is to hopefully reduce the amount of idiotic 'short flat bullet throws' as I'm now calling them, that give away possession whilst Final Third is introduced to boost Vision. Only Libero of the DC roles can train Acceleration, Agility & Balance and even then you have to train undesirable attributes in order to do so, an additional focus is more appropriate. The one blind spot of Complete Forward training is it doesn't hit Concentration, an attribute I've noticed a lot of Poacher-type players such as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Bas Dost score highly in, Pressing Forward is the only role that does so, whilst also hitting most of the Advanced Forward attributes.

Pre-Season

Spoiler

I generally only like to play 4-5 friendlies in a 4-5 week pre-season. This allows me to get at least one week of purely focussing on physical training - a sort of boot camp - two weeks with one match and one week with two. The schedules are really intense in order to build up fitness for the long season ahead. I also figured pre-season is a good time to train Penalties as we have more time to focus on this important but seldom-used attribute. I also slip in some match preparation sessions as they're low intensity so good for S3 whilst complementing the friendlies in boosting our cohesion before the real football begins.

First Team

Spoiler

As previously stated I'm generally quite happy with the results of my match preparation-focussed schedules, but I'm always looking to tweak it to give us an edge. 

On a rare week off I like to slot in some physical training and penalties alongside the match preparation. I've structured it so that despite having three sessions Sunday is like a half day in terms of workload. 

In a week with just a weekend fixture I manage to fit in 9 sessions that train outfield players' individual roles (7 for goalkeepers) plus a shadow play session for each outfield unit. I know match preparation sessions' impact on the upcoming fixture don't stack, but I really see that boost as a secondary focus anyway. A new focus for this save is much more emphasis on set pieces, hence the Delivery and Penalties sessions (although Penalties is the first one I'll remove should I find something else I need to train).

In a busier week I make sure to boost set pieces before each fixture as they could be vital in breaking a game. The one or two free days are focussed on individual training.

Reserves & Under 19s

Spoiler

All non-first team players train their individual focusses at double intensity. Whilst the Reserves play in a professional league the standard is so low they might still gain more from training, and both squads don't play as many fixtures as the first team, with it having been confirmed time and again that under 18 players - the majority of the Under 19s - gain more from training than matches.

Weekly training includes a minimum of two Physical sessions in order to take advantage of players being at an age where they are most capable of rapid improvement in this area whilst also addressing a common weak spot of their individual roles. The general session covers more bases than the more intense Endurance, Resistance and Quickness sessions whilst also hitting that important (to me) Natural Fitness attribute. 

Attacking / Defensive Shadow Play balances out the increased workload with low intensity sessions whilst targeting relevant mental attributes (the general Tactical one trains Positioning onto attackers, and Off The Ball on to centre backs which I don't want). I appear to be unable to set these teams' set piece takers but I would hope the Delivery sessions will end up focussing on the players who have a set piece as their individual focus (which is most of them actually). 

In a week with zero fixtures we also find time to train the entire squad on Penalties (well, goalkeepers work on saving them) but I had real trouble deciding what to put in S3 on a Wednesday. In the end Match Tactics won out as that makes it three sessions a week that cover Decisions and Teamwork, two of the attributes less likely to be included in role training. 

When it comes to a big game I do care that match preparation schedules stack. I only use one of each, allowing me to also fit in every set piece session for a real kick to our dead ball play. Shadow Play are just low intensity sessions to prevent injury. 

Mentoring

Spoiler

Whilst I've previously gotten quite precise with mentoring, I'm not really that interested in fully delving into hidden attributes - it was getting to the point in the linked examples where I figured I'd need to either just go all in and get the Editor, or just go back to accepting that some things just can't be known exactly...I chose the latter. 

One factor making mentoring slightly trickier to set up with Lyon than Roma, Ajax etc. is that at the start of the save there is only 1 Team Leader - Nabil Fekir - so I had to pick between some Highly Influential players with similar personalities. I knew from experience that Anthony Lopes will become a Team Leader, so he was chosen. Marcelo as our Vice Captain and I figured this gives him the best chance of also rising in influence. Finally Rafael was chosen simply because Perfectionist is the best personality in the squad, and I like him. Previously I would try to mentor absolutely everyone, and whilst that might be a good idea with a squad like Ajax's with Model Citizen Team Leaders, the likes of Aouar and Tousart actually have equal or better personalities than Fekir et. al. already, so I've only picked those players where I do think there is a point in trying it. 

• I do like to try to match players to positions, and Lopes' group was actually decided last so I put Anthony Racioppi in with him - he plays for the Reserves but trains with the first team - then decided to just double down on the Resolute influence with Mathieu Gorgelin. 
• Part of the reason the likelihood of Marcelo becoming a Team Leader was so vital is that Jason Denayer is already Influential despite having just joined, and has made nearly 100 first team appearances, so I need a mentor who can retain a hold on him. Oumar Solet, as stated in a previous post, has a terrible personality right now. I'm confident even if Marcelo doesn't influence him the squad will. 
• I'm not expecting miracles from Rafael's group, especially given there is barely 3 years between him and Dubois, but I'm hoping a confluence of sharing a common position, and Rafael having a great personality will see some movement.
• Martin Terrier and Maxwel Cornet share positions with Fekir, and obviously as our Team Leader I know he'll have influence in the group, but also I don't mind them picking up one of his traits. Pape Cheikh Diop was the last man assigned a group - I really wasn't sure what to do with him given I don't have a central midfield mentor. I looked at what my assistant recommended, and asides from some unnecessary mentoring he did place PCD with Fekir, and whilst I don't want him picking up Fekir's traits his attributes make this unlikely.

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by zlatanera
added Mentoring

[zlatanera]

Août 2018

I had to start over on the first game after realising I’d forgot to set up my defensive set pieces. They were all on my reset routine, meaning every player stays forward - I noticed when Amiens had a corner, 7 players unmarked in the box and Racioppi still claimed it!

• Amiens SC: Aouar (6) Fekir (20) Ndombele (69) | MotM: Fekir (9.0)
• Reims: Tousart (32) Fekir (41) Cornet (63) Dembélé (pen 79, 87) | MotM: Rafael (9.2)
• RC Strasbourg Alsace: Aouar (4) Terrier (20) Memphis (43, 50) Fekir (48) | MotM: Memphis (9.6)

Edited April 15, 2020 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Un Joli Jeu de Mots

[zlatanera]

Septembre 2018

• OGC Nice: Dembélé (45) Traoré (60) Memphis (66, 90) | MotM: Memphis (8.6) - he was a sub!
• SM Caen: Ndombele (55) Traoré (82) | MotM: Traoré (8.3)
• Viktoria Plzeň: MotM: Dubois (7.9)
• Marseille: So far a model of inconsistency - they’ve lost to Monaco, Nîmes, and Toulouse yet also put 6 past Stade Rennais and 3 past Guingamp. Meanwhile we’re top on goal difference despite PSG already having won a game 7-1 (against Guingamp - they’re going down). We’ll have to watch out - this playing style leaves us very vulnerable to Balotelli and Thauvin’s counters - so its not ideal we’re still missing Fekir. 24’ Marseille’s attempt to head-tennis it up the field was snuffed out by Tousart knocking it down to Ndombele, he gave it to Traoré on halfway, the Burkinabé sprinted forward, the Marseille defence backed off and he cut in to the centre and fired through Mandanda’s hands from the edge of the box! 39’ Dembélé came deep to intercept and sprayed it out wide to Memphis, his cross was met by Dembélé but blocked, ricocheting to Ndombele who probably didn’t know much about his finish, they all count though! 59’ Memphis’ corner was aimed towards the 6 yard box, Tousart running back from the post to head across goal and in off the woodwork! 67’ Rafael had a throw 16 yards out, short to Cheikh who drilled it into Mendy’s feet outside the area, be burst into the box, his shot charged down by Sarr deflecting into the path of Aouar, he knocked it to his left to make space and finished high with his weak foot! | MotM: Ndombele (9.0)
• Dijon FCO: MotM: Tete (7.5)
• FC Nantes: Ndombele (39) Morel (50) Dembélé (63) | MotM: Morel (8.4)

[zlatanera]

Octobre 2018

• Dortmund (H): Memphis (3) | MotM: Memphis (8.3)
• Paris Saint-Germain (A): We’re ahead of PSG on goal difference, 4 points clear of Dijon in 3rd. Memphis will miss out through injury, with Tousart and Dubois suspended, but luckily for us Neymar is in rehab and Dani Alves and Kurzawa will also miss out. 8’ Mbappé paused his run and turned it back wide to Meunier, he drove down the right and delivered it into the 6 yard box with Cavani lurking, Lopes came out but Denayer just wasn’t looking and it deflected off his head and in. Bizarre. 19’ Di Maria cut inside past Rafael, both Cheikh and Marcelo just watched as he went between them and laid it off to Mbappé in the area who blasted it into the top corner. 36’ Denayer pushed Meunier in the area, Cavani converting the penalty. Half time I went more direct. 54’ Rafael threw up the line to Fekir, he came deep and gave it to Cheikh, Ndombele switched it out to Cornet who cut in and squared it to Ndombele about 25 yards out, short to Aouar, Fekir, wide to Rafael whose low cross was squeezed in off the post by Aouar! 56’ Thiago Silva launched it forward, Mendy intercepted and after a minute of short passes in the middle third Aouar gently lifted it down the left for Mendy whose cross was powerfully headed in at the near post by Dembélé! 63’ Verratti’s corner was delivered to the near post and with Lopes out in no man’s land Rabiot guided his header over, dropping in at the far post. 73’ Verratti’s free kick from deep was claimed by Lopes who paused then booted it ahead of Fekir, his right-footed ball to the 18 yard line took out 3 defenders and Traoré - with his first touch since coming on - received it, shaped to shoot right then powered it in at the near side instead! Sadly we couldn’t get the 4th to level it up. Denayer screwed us there, Lopes taketh away but then giveth, he just taketh away. | MotM: Mbappé (8.3)
• Nîmes Olympique (H): Marçal (pen 38) Traoré (47) | MotM: Traoré (7.7)
• Manchester City (H): Like PSG, these guys are everything we stand against. A French club, owned by a Frenchman, developing their own youngsters (and signing other French ones) versus an English club, owned by terrorist-financing authoritarians yet in a government-built stadium (which the government paid more to redevelop than the club), signing 21-24 year olds for absurd sums. 11’ after some short passing play on the right De Bruyne attempted to send Sané free on the left, but Rafael intercepted, Fekir picked up his header inside our half and surged forward, making it all the way to the edge of the City box where Mendy slid in, taking the ball but letting it run to Aouar whose one-touch pass gave Dembélé space on the spot to take a touch and blast it low past Ederson! 34’ in our half Rafael threw short to Ndombele, Aouar switched it to Memphis on the touchline, he dribbled past 3 men, cutting inside and into the box, before sliding it in to Dembélé again near the spot to make it 2! 38’ Kyle Walker shoved Marcelo, and Dembélé sealed his hat-trick with the penalty! 62’ Tousart expertly slid in, taking the ball away from Mahrez and back to Denayer in one movement, he hit it first time to Memphis just inside our half, he cut in then slid it in to Aouar who took it in his stride, 25 yards out he drove it ahead of Fekir in the right then moved towards the back post, when Fekir drilled the cross slightly behind play he burst through the crowd to finish at the near post! | MotM: Dembélé (9.5)
• Angers SCO (A): Dembélé (8) Terrier (22) Fekir (50, 82) | MotM: Fekir (9.2)

I thought I would post up the league table not because standings this early mean that much, but because my inner weirdo absolutely loves that our Goal Difference and Points are the same! 

Edited April 15, 2020 by zlatanera

[Hootieleece]

Nice Beat down of Man City!

 

[zlatanera]

Novembre 2018

• Bordeaux: The league has generously given us a Friday fixture with a view to the visit of the hated blue ‘Mancunians’ next week. 3’ Tousart was injured. 22’ Rafael picked up Costil’s long goal kick about 25 yards from our goal, used our centre backs as a screen to run into the left channel then surged forward, pushing the entire Bordeaux team back as he went right into their half before laying it off to Memphis about 35 yards from goal and continuing his run into the box, Memphis cut in then centred the ball and Traoré volleyed in at the far post! I’m not using CWB this time so I was really surprised at that run from Rafael! 37’ Mendy’s cross for Cornet was cut out in the centre, Sankaré wasn’t closed down allowing him time to look up and launch it over our defence, Cornelius easily outpaced Morel and then lobbed Lopes to level it up. 47’ Rafael took an attacking throw short to Ndombele who moved into the centre then played it wide to Mendy, his cross was partially cleared but Memphis recovered it in the box, knocked it out to Ndombele and made space so when he received the return he was able to fire one in the far bottom corner! 82’ Pablo hacked down Traoré in the box, injuring him, yet it wasn’t given as a penalty. 84’ from a throw on the left Bordeaux played Diarra into space, he switched it over to Sabaly near the byline, his cross was headed away by Dubois, back into it by Kalu and in a mess of bodies - 2 defenders, Cornelius and Lopes - it trickled in. I went for a 4-2-4 but there no highlights. To add injury to insult Tousart (1 month) and Traoré (1 week) will both miss the CL tie. | MotM: Memphis (8.8)
• Manchester City: So yeah, rotation and an extra day didn’t work - Tousart is possibly the only truly irreplaceable player in the squad. 15’ they countered, Bernardo Silva’s cross was blocked but Walker picked it up and his went all the way to the back post, it would have gone out but Tete headed it “away” as far as Sterling who volleyed in. 30’ City came at us again, Marçal cut out Agüero’s attempt to play it wide, but only headed it as far as De Bruyne who gladly slid it down the right for Walker to cross low and Sterling grab a second. 64’ I went more direct, and with Ndombele tiring and me not wanting to give Caqueret a debut in these circumstances I dropped Aouar back, re-shuffled the attack and brought on Cornet. 67’ a series of blocked shots ended with Sterling getting on a lucky deflection and whipping his hat-trick goal past Lopes. 75’ Tete threw it short to Fekir who turned his man and switched it out to Marcal, he cushioned a volleyed pass inside for Cornet, his shot was blocked by Ederson’s chest but he followed in and finished the rebound from a tight angle! A very frustrating result in that every statistic but the one that counts that was a dead heat. | MotM: Sterling (9.5)
• EA Guingamp: Cornet (34) Fekir (46) Dembélé (73) | MotM: Fekir (8.7)
• AS Saint-Étienne: I know we’re overwhelming favourites - and I never lost one in the last edition of this save - but I can’t help myself, I get excited for derbies. So excited in fact that I chose my set piece-heavy ‘Big Match’ schedule for the week leading up to this fixture, and played my strongest possible line-up. Sadly that doesn’t include Nabil Fekir, he’ll miss two months with sprained knee ligaments. 6’ somehow, in amounts a tangle of about 5 sets of legs where the ball eventually rolled free for Ruffier to collect it, VAR spotted a foul by Subotic and gifted us a penalty, Dembélé gratefully converted! 25’ Ruffier cleared it up field, Beric out-jumped Cheikh but his header was weak and Ndombele collected, charged through the centre before laying it off to Traoré who cut in to the edge of the D and let one fly into the top corner! 49’ ‘The Burkinabé Arjen Robben’ cut in again and shaped to shoot but instead kept going left and overhit a pass for Memphis, he managed to recover at the by-line and crossed, Dembélé headed it down towards the spot and Ndombele half-volleyed in! 55’ Khazri’s free kick was millimetres from being fully over the line when Lopes’ full stretch save stopped it. | MotM: Ndombele (9.0)
• Viktoria Plzeň: Marçal (pen 13) Cheikh (19) Cornet (30) | MotM: Cheikh (8.3)

 

I’d seen a hint of my players trying something interesting at corners before, and it finally came off against Viktoria Plzeň:

Possibly my favourite set piece goal in all of my time playing FM!