FM2019 From Bradford to Flamengo

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Welcome to my first career on FM19!

The title could have been Bradford city to the champions league but it wasn't meant to be. I have already played many seasons into the save.

I started off as unempolyed, professional(regional) footballer with no badges. Got the job with Bradford City. They have been down in league 1 for 5 years. The last season they finished 11 in League 1.

 

 

The squad

Key players: Jack Payne on loan from Huddersfield, Eoin Doyle our pressing forward, Jacob Butterfield on loan as well.

Injury: Billy Clarke is out for 5 months, Jake Reeves out for 10 months

 

 

Transfers

With limited budget i could only sign loan players. My plan is to loan some players from the premiere league,

3 loans  at the start of the season:

Brandon Galloway from Everton (CD, Left back cover)

Luke Amos Midfielder from Spurs

Mason Bennet Winger from Derby 

 

Tactic

Mainly i use 4-1-2-3

2 CD Defend - 2 wingbacks support- 1 DLP Defend - 1 Ballwinning midfield -1 central midfield attack - 2 inside forwards - pressing forward

Higher line of defence, Higher line of engagement, Play from the back, Press higher, Counter press

Expectation

Board expectation is top-half finish

My expectation is to not get fired.

First half of the season

Don't exactly remember where i was at the first half of the season but we overachieved.

Lost EFL cup first round to Bolton on penalty

Loft 1-3 at home to Paul Schole's Oldham Chekatrade trophy north second roound

Through to FA Cup third round

Transfer window

3 new loans for us:

Philippe Sandler Center-back, Defensive mid from Man City

Soufyan Ahannach another winger from Brighton because Mason Bennette didn't do well for us at all.

Jack roles another midfielder from spurs since Luke Amos is doing so well.

End of Season

January: 2 wins in 5, knockout of FA Cup by Middlesborough

Feb:  3 wins in 4 games

4 wins in 12 games from March to the end of the season.

TABLE

Somehow we ended up getting promoted. 

it was a close season only 1 point above 3rd place portsmouth, if we had fallen out into the playoff i am not confidence we could beat anyone in the playoff because our form really dipped at the end of the season.

From the premiere league: Winner :  Liverpool  Relegated: Bournemouth, Cardiff, Huddersfield

Championship: Promoted Stoke, Derby, Bristol City, Relegated: Preston, Bolton, Rotherham

To the next season

Bigger trouble to come since we have to play bigger teams in the championship with no money still and i had not taken any coaching course because the club had no money to pay for the course.

 

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Season 2

Most of our key players are on loan. Without money we still have to rely on loan players. Board expectation is that we fight bravely against relegation.

Transfers

Players out

Jack Payne loan season is over and he already signed contract to other clubs. We will need to find a new inside forward.

Jacob Butterfield loan is over and now out of contract. We will try to bring him back.

Players in

Jacob Butterfield : wages 19k that is a large chunk of our budget.

Oliver McBurnie: this is a risk. 10k for loan each week

Jack Grimmer: Right-back from free transfer. Got released from Coventry. 9k 

Baba Traore: left-back fro free-transfer 5.75k

Thomas Agyepong: winger 5.5k 

Luke Amos, Jack Roles, Brandon Galloway are still on loan with us for another season

WE HAVE 2 NEW LOANS FROM MAN CITY:

Jack Harrison and Luka Illic. Have to pay 10k per week for Jack Harrison.

That is all our pre-seasnon signing.

Tactic

Still Using the same 4-1-2-3 from last season with Jack Harrison in for Jack Payne as inside forward on the right and Luka Illic as playmaker on the left

First half of season

We begin the season draw 0-0 with wigan and losing to Norwich 2-1 at home and beating Bolton 3-0 (EFL cup first round) in the first 3 matches. Beating Bolton really helped our morale. Not a bad start but i noticed something that when I use Brandon Galloway on the left-back position, we are very poor defensively. The game with Bolton I use Baba Traore as left-back. Galloway had a very poor positioning of 8 and we conceded from deep cross to the far post. Traore positioning was 12, 8 positioning may had been good enough in league 1 i don't know because i used him as central defender in league 1 and we survived somehow. So, this season i decided that Traore is our main left-back.

We did well in the firstmonth beating Barnsley(the club that got promoted with us last season as winner)  twice, one in the EFL cup after penalty shootout. Oliver McBurnie played all 7 games in the league but only got 2 goals and 1 was from penalty. Hope Akpan was in top form got 4 goals in the first month as ball-winning midfield. it is his last year of contract and report from coach is that he is only league 1 decent player and not consistent of shooting. I kind of had a feeling that his form will drop once he got the contract and usually he didn't score many in league 1 for us.

Oliver McBurnie last start was in September.  After the game with WestBrom. He had 6.4 so i gave Eoin Doyle some chances. Lost heavily against Bournemouth who were playing 4-2-4. Had back to back games with reading in the league and in the EFL Cup. Beat them in the league lost to them in the cup. I kind of hoping we have a good draw against big team in the cup so we can make some money. that never happened.

October was good 3 wins in 4 and that pushes us up the table and then everything went down hill. Only 2 wins and 2 draws in 10 in November and December. Had some injury to Luka illic, i had to use Thomas Agyepong as Left winger. Came in played well against Millwall and helped us beat Villa. We saw no wiin in December, only 1 draw and that was 3-3 against Barnesley.

January Transfer window

If our form continue like this we will surely go down. There is real problem with the strikers. Mcburnie didn's played well, i had to use the second or third option. It seems that our third option Shay McCartan is the best option, but he really had a lot of injury problems, our goal mostly came from inside forward or midfield and our defence is not really at this level. Our GK is only league1 standard and we have no second option.

2 new signings and 1 loan

Gaetano Monachello: italian striker from Atalanta 5.5k bought him for his off the ball alone. 

Abel Suarez: probably to replace Hope Akphan i'm still not sure who's better. He seems to have lots of 10+ in attributes.

Last is Viktor Gyokeres loan from Brighton option for the flank.

Second Half

We continue our winless streak in the same fashion. Our first win in January which was not really a win is against Reading in FA Cup third round against old friends: Reading. We had already played them like 4 times this season and we are through to 4th round. Expecting some big team ( or may be really weak team). No, we draw against our fiecest rival, Huddersfield our neighbor in the same division. Better than us at their home. So the game played last match of Jan and the results. 2-1  to them we are out of FA cup.

Somehow in February, our form improves, the forwards start scoring and defense stops leaking. I guess that's recipe to win football match. Our January signing Monachello made a different, his movement was better off the ball start moving into the channel and luka illic roaming from the left cutting in and illic got 4 goals in 7 matches. Monachello got 3.

Last 4 games of Feb was, 1-0,2-0,3-0,4-0 , so i was expecting 5-0 by March but no we got 1-1draw against nottingham.  2 wins in 3 for March. We struggled in April but these teams we played against are really pushing for promotion. I didn't feel we had a chance. First it was Leeds, their forward Kemar Roofe, i felt he was capable of playing in the Premiere league. Lost heavily against Huddersfield then Aston Villa that time it was Brandon Rodger with the villa playing 3-4-1-2 (2dm)  beating us 5-1. Ended the season with 2 wins against Millwall and ipswich. Mill wall was overperforming. Like us they had lowest wages in the league but still twice more than us.

Season Summary

We finished the season at 8 only 3 points behind play-off. 

Our top scorer: Jack Harrison 33 games 11 goals 12 assists

 Second: Luka Illic  31 games 10 goals 7 assists

we still have them for the next season, with same wages 10k contribution for Harrison.

From the premiere league: Winner :  Liverpool  Relegated: Watford, Derby, Bristol City

Championship: Promoted Bournemouth, Sheffield Utd, Leeds Relegated: Sheff Wednesday, Wallsall QPR (the 2 sheffield teams go their seperate way)

League 1: Promoted Preston, Portsmouth, Rotherham Relegated: Wimbledon, Oldham, Rochdale, Crawley

 

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Season 3

Welcome to the third season! The board expectation for this season is to fight bravely against relegation. Transfer budget 0. We are still relying on core group of loan player, Jack Harrison, Luka Illic, Luke Amos. But this season i have done some scouting and signed a couple of players out of contract. 

Transfer

Olivier Verdon: Central defender playing in French ligue 2 relegation team last season. 5.75k

Ethen Vaughan: Right-back from Norwich 550 per week. This is a risk but scout says he has potential.

 

These two are signed from the since January. 

We have new Goalkeeper: Freddie Woodman from Newcastle signed for free. not 100% scouted but we have to take some risk. But he looks good once we got him seems like a great keeper for championship team.

 

Agent offer: Agdon Brazillian striker had been playing in portugal second division. came in on trial. Got him for 3.8k per week. Lots of 13+ for mental and physical.

2 loans Kazaiah Sterling: strikers and inside forward from tottenham.

Tosin Adarabioyo: CD from Mancity

We still have players who are on loan from last season:

Jach harrison: top scorer from last season

Luka Illic: also from Man city

Luke Amos: from Tottenham had been with us since league 1 might as well stay with us forever.

Jack Role: also from tottenham came 6 months after Amos and been with us since then.

Player out

Brandon Golloway returned to Everton and out of contract

Oliver McBurnie returned to Swansea

First half

Really slow start 1 win and 2 draws in the first month. Beating Rochdale EFL cup first round and losing to Cardiff on the second round. There are 2 weeks break at the end of August so i arranged 1 friendly to get our morale up. We are unbeaten in September with 3 wins and 2 draw. 1 lost in October and November, we are hard to beat and we are second in the league after the first half of the season.

The only transfer in Jan is Gary Gardner central midfield signed on free  8k per week,thats a lot of money. Our scout didn't know that he was injury prone. What did our scouts know?

The second half

Our forms are good our morale is strong:

 

Begin January with FA cup third round against Rotherham. Beat them on the replay by penalty shootout. Got a 4th round draw against: Bournemouth again top team in our division away match. We lost that game 2-1 and that disrupts our unbeaten run. Next game was westbrom in the league and they are tough, i have no idea why they are still in this division since they had so much money. We lost that one too 1-0. We lost 3 games in Febuary against Watford, Cardiff and Forest. Watford and Cardiff were tough. Won 2 next matches against Reading and Swansea. These 2 are promotion contenders. Swansea was 1st in the league and Reading is in playoff race. Swansea just lost their manager Ralph HasenHuttl to Watford and had their new manager John Terry. 

One lost in the last 11 games. We are 3rd in the league. Watford 1st, Swansea 2nd. we are 5 points behind Swansea.

Team in playoff: Bradford 86 points, West Brom 81 points, Huddlesfield 76 points, Reading 71 points.

We are up against Ryan Gigg's Reading, our old enemy from last season. We have beaten them twice these years 3-1 home and away.

West Brom as i said with their money they should have been promoted already, we simply do not have money to compete with them. 

Huddlesfield got the new manager Brandon Rodgers from Aston Villa. The one that beat me 5-1  last season with Aston villa.

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The Playoff

Here comes the push for Premier League.

First game playoff against Reading at the Madejeski Stadium

0-0  Reading had some scary chance, i wasn't confidence about winning. Luka Illic got sent off on the 77 minutes he won't be available for the second leg.

The second leg

We lost. 2 early goals from Reading with Madou Barrow running at our defence and provided 2 assists. We got 1 back from counter from corner.

Season summary

Reading went on the beat Huddlesfield in the playoff final. Premiere league is the only way to get us some money to compete. Championship money is too low and we are not able to compete with the bigger teams or relagated teams from the premiere league. I am not sure we will be able to compete at the same level next season.

From the premiere league: Winner :  Man City Relegated: Fulham, Stoke, Sheffield Utd

Championship: Promoted Watford, Swansea, Reading Relegated: Preston, Wigan, Banseley (Our friends who came up with us has departed)

League 1: Promoted Sunderland, Mansfield, Sheffield Wednesday Relegated: Forest Green, Scunthorpe, Shrewsbury, Plymouth 

 

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SEASON 4

We have survived in the Championship for 2 seasons. But this season is going to be tough.

Our Finance

prize money for last season was only 75k and TV money was about 3 mill, i had managed to take coaching course last season and begining the national B licencse.

with limited wage budget i intend to shift all the transfer money to wages. and sign only free players. There will be a real problem this season as Brexit starts. I'm still unsure of the work permit required. Many scout reports that certain players might not obtained the work permit but rules say that the wages need to be minimum 9K for first team to obtain work permit. That is absolutely crazy since we cannot afford to pay 9k for foreigners. So, this year our squad is very thin.

Transfer

There will be problem this season. Luke Amos left Tottenham and signed for MLS team. We  did not have the chance to sign him, somehow when his contract was running out other teams can approach him but not us. May be it's a bug?

Jack Harrison contract with Man city contract is up on 1st January we only have him for half a season and i'm not sure we will be able to get him on free transfer.

Tosin Adarabioyo contract is up we can get him in free transfer but the wages demand will be a club record.

Player in

This one is very risky: Callum Gribbin on free transfer. 2.9k a week

Coach only rated him as league 2 player. Some good attributes in technical, but very weak in mental and physical plus real problems with injury.

Marco Carraro: Midfield from Atalanta 9k per week as Brexit kicks in and required 9k minimum for first team who required work permit. 

Looks solid for championship team. Replace our Luke Amos.

Daishawn Redan :striker on loan from Chelsea

 

Got him for pace. Don't know about this one.

Had tried to loan other players but got rejected.

Amaechi didn't want to play for us but go on loan to Middlesborough instead.

The problem with this year loaning is many clubs wanted wage contribution. It is not going to be easy. 

Players out

Anthony O'conner our Center back left for hull for 45k.

Hope Akpan left on loan because his wages of 8.5k as i need to free some wages to get better players in.

Paul Caddis 33 yrs Right-back left on free, we could not afford him.

This is how our squad looks after the signing:

Tactic

Jack Harrison decided to represent USA instead of Englanda and got called up to play for Gold cup.

Jake Grimmer and Freddie Woodman are wanted by many teams. I'm afraid we are going to lose them.

 

[Deisler26]

A very interesting start.

I’m impressed with your train of thought regarding signings

Have you tried getting a parent club to give you loans for free?

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1 hour ago, Deisler26 said:

A very interesting start.

I’m impressed with your train of thought regarding signings

Have you tried getting a parent club to give you loans for free?

We didn't have any affiliate links at all parent or feeder and the club never bother looking for one so i never bother asking.

Perhaps the board think its a short term thing being in the championship by going back down very quickly.

it would have been nice if we had got one of the top EPL club to be  our parent clubs and get one of 

their top prospect playing for us but from past experience, they were gonna send a few u18s to us anyway which is not what we needed,

we kind of need someone who are better than the players we have to make our team better not u18s. So, i tried to loan 2 from 2 clubs in the top 6 to be our main core and keep them as long as possible hoping they will sign with us when out of contract.

 

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First 10

10 games into the season with only 3 wins and 2 draws we are 16 in the league.

Losing 3 straight games in a row. Got knocked out of EFL Cup 1st round by Huddersfield.

Our Standing in the league.

We signed Tosin Adorabioyo from free, but a lot of signing fee.

Our players wages.

Our wages compare to the rest of the league

I had interview offered from palmeiras went to the interview but was rejected.

 

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After another 11 games with 4 wins and 2 draws i had interview with Flamengo another team from Brazil, i decided to take the job. As i was unable to improve the performance.

We basically going nowhere, and Our best players on loan from Man City, Jack Harrison signed for Italian Serie A relegation candidate Frosione 14k per week.

This is the real struggle because when we tried to sign him he wanted 30+k per week. But once he is out of contract he signed for other teams for half.

The manager to replace me was Karl Hooper manger from Oxford city.

In summary, i really enjoy managing team in the championship as you really have the ability to develop the future premiere league players. You really had to depend on them for your survival.

It is not like signing some wonderkids and let them play with some top quality players in your team so that they develop. Championship teams often have to depend on them to carry the team forward.

I hope i could stick with Bradford but i hate losing and the frustation is too much and i accepted Flamengo, it will be the first time i manage in Brazil. I really felt that Brazil league actually lack in-game Managers,

Many of them offer Job interviews, i had offered from Palmeiras, Corinthians and Flamengo. Also from some other teams in the championship and also from Newcastle in the premiere league.

I had no interest in managing other clubs from the same league and no interest in Newcastle, but Flamengo looks interesting.

Bradford survived the relegation after i left and ended up at 18 in the league with 3 wins in the last 4 games really got them out of the relegation.

From the premiere league: Winner :  Man United Relegated: Swansea, Crystal Palace, Reading

Championship: Promoted Sheffield Utd, Hull, Fullham Relegated: Rotherham, Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday.

League 1: Promoted Bolton, Charlton, Bristol Rovers Relegated: Oldham, Accrington. Lincoln, Fleetwood

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TO FLAMENGO

The confusion

So accepted the job on 11 December 2011, The season just ended. 

Last season they finished 4th in the Serie A.

I was just looking at the squad on holiday expecting to come back on the end of December???

First confusion. So just over 3 weeks of end of season break.

Second confusion. We have no matches schedule, our Serie A starts in May so i don't really what we are supposed to do.

We are supposed to play in these state championship but no schedule is out yet so we are just going to arrange friendly.

Money

Money we never saw in Bradford, Here we have about 50 mill to spend and 800k on wages.

Manager reputation

Yeah this is going to be problems. When coming in my reputation is lower than many players and most of them oppose me.

Transfer

Many are tageted from European clubs and they wanted to leave because manager reputation is so low.

I am so new to this league i have no idea who to sign. We have Director of Football to sign many players for us. Most of these are director jobs.

Main player lose is Martin Campana, a team leader. Goal keeper of the year in the previous season.

Actually previous 2 seasons. I think he may be the best keeper in the Division. 

Wanted to leave for Tottenham so we sell.

Rather than using the scout, what i do is go through other teams players for replacement. I am looking for GK from other teams in the same league as us to weaken them at the same time.

May not be ideal but the best i found from other teams in the league. 20 teams in the league, 20 first team GK and this is the best of them from Santos. So we signed him 5.25 Chile international.

We also needed center defender. I did the same thing looking through other teams and scout a few of them. This is what i have.

Looking for some free transfer and transfer listed Brazillians from around the world, i got Renatinho and Matheus Olivera transfer listed from Everton.

Our coach didn't like Renatinho, only a decent rating for Brasileirao and injury prone and 30 years old. He has no future but he's free and my old habits from Bradfor dies hard.

Matheus Oliviera did't realise he was our product. spent 3 years at Everton got transfer listed, didn't have enough game time, may be we can help him restore his confidence.

4 other players were signed by the DOF (Lucas Pratto, Rodrigo Echeverria, Augustin Baldi, Ricardo Guilherme), he went out, made the offer, negotiate the contract and i accept. Simply because i didn't really know what i'm doing and they were pretty cheap less than 1 mill. but the last signing was pretty big.

This is also from DOF. It was 16 mill not 1 mill.

So i simply took the risk only looking at previous stats because when DOF signs there will be no scout reports. They don't work in cohesion.

20 yrs wonderkid, Garrinchincha.

SQUAD

The quality comparing to where i came from, is pretty good, i'm sure we can win things, we'll see how that goes. But here are a few key players i identified,

Victor Bobsin,  been here 2 seasons ago, signed from Gremio.

Admilson, Academy product bee on loan to Atletico Paranese for 1 season should be ready for first team this season.

Currently, have a few strikers, Raniel looks to be the best.

Best Left-Back we have, Ailton.

Squad Depth:

 

Tactic

I will try with our old tactic at Bradford and see how it goes:

We have no ball winning midfield so i go with Admilson on Central midfield and Marcos Guilhemer as Mezzela Attack.

Marcos Guilhermer is not natural at midfield he's a natural shadow striker but we will train him at Cm for now. 

Kenedy previousely at Chelsea and on loan to Newcastle in real life is natural at left-right and can play almost all position on the flanks.

 

 

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State Championship

We started state championship. First few matches look shaky.

 

2 draws and 2 unconvincing wins in the first 4 matches.

I noticed other teams were really playing different styles to what i usually see. This is Brazil.

I have to adjust and experiment with other formation and team instructions.

Some teams we played against use very low block, low engagement. very narrow, very cautious.

Basically they park the bus using 1 dm, 2 dm 4-1-4-1 playing very cautious.

It is hard to break down.

Against Vasco i used a different formation.

Using Ailton as complete wing-back on attack with overlap left. Lucas pratto-shadow striker. This is only temporary.

Beating Nacional 5-0 in Copa Libertadores using the same formation.

Back to brazil with the same formation. Result and stats may be ok but performatnce is not convincing.

So, try something else, here comes diamond.

And the diamond got destroyed by Corinthians in the Libertadores.

Start using some 4-2-3-1 2dm

Lost to Corinthians in Libertadores again. 

But this time we played a bit better.

The idea is try to utilise the partnership of Deep lying forwad and shadow striker. Lucas pratto-Marco Gulihermer

There is something about Corinthians. I'm not exactly sure how they stand in Brazillian football. Predicted to finish 4 and we are predicted to finish 5 so i guess they are about the same level as us.

But in the state championship we have to play a lot against smaller cautious team so we pour the men forward.

Then we have to play against big teams and we got countered. 

Corinthians plays 4-4-1-1 and had some really good players.

Celso Luiz is really the best up and coming Brazillian GK but i didn't think he was ready for first team.

Solid back 4: Marcinho, Rodrigo Ciao, Pedro Henrique are very good for the league

David Neres: Winger i didn't know much about him i had him on target for a while but i didn't know how he is rated among other wingers in the league.

Angelo Araos: No 10 position. 25 years chilean international. Already had 2 goals and 1 assist in 2 games against us.

Some really top youngster:

Gianluca

Using 4-2-3-1 we drew 3-3 against Vasco and beat them on penalty in turn two final:

Then went on to final against Fluminese:

First-leg

and disappointingly collapse in Libertadores losing 3-1 against atletico talleres

That means we are out of Libertadores finishing 3

Take notes of those 2 top scorer on the right.

We won the state championship but i don't know if we should be happy. I have a feeling that this competition may be a chance to develop youngster but i went with the best team because the boards expect to win it.

 

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First game in Brasileirao against Cruzeiro

Tactic

Heat map

Well not what i had in mind. Olivera and Bobsin as playmaker on the left. But the play generall go right side.

Using kenedy on the right as winger is contradicted to what he should be as inside forward.

I'm not sure about this but sometimes i felt the ai always keep wide players on weaker foot and when using them as inside forward.

They were forced out wide and reluctant to get cross in. This way they will naturally wanted to cut in goal-side but they are wider and cross when forced outside.

Using Raniel as pressing forward, i would have preferred a deep-lying forward, but Raniel is our best striker but he has this trait, like to beat offside trap.

He always running try to beat the trap.

Marcos Guilhemer is key in this tactic. Expecting him to get inside the box but ended up coming deep, dribble, take long shot just outside the box.

4 in the league. some weird with only 1 game in June???

Lost to Sao paulo in the last game.

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Mid season Transfer

Transfer is getting busy in July.  Many of our players are wanted from European Club. Starting pre-season in Europe, many teams will make offer for our players.

Players out

Victor Bobsin: our best midfield moves to Brighton 19.5 (release clause)

Ailton: our key left back moves to Villareal 19.5

Wesley: Right back moves to Fulham 7.5 mill

Robert Piris: ball winning midfield 10 mil

Giorgian De Arrascaeta.: Always had motivation playing with me as manager so moved on to Palmeiras  15.75

Players in

Luizao: Signed from free from FC Porto. slightly worse than Victor Bobsin. signed to replace Bobsin. May have problems with player trait('Get forward')

Andrey: 1.4 mill from Vasco Utility midfield

Manager reputation effect

just a note

Many times when i field players and ass man comments have problem playing for me. We always struggle

Arrascaeta on the left inside forward

Jolan on the right as advance playmaker.

Raniel as strikers.

When these 3 plays we struggle, since the state championship.

when we won the state  manager support got better but these 3 were always problem and it was these 3 that i designed my tactics for at the beginning.

So had to change,

Lucas Pratto  our new signing Deeplying forward center,

Kenedy winger right

Oliviera or Garringchincha also both are new signings Playmaker left.

The only 1 of 3 team leader that supports me was victor Bobsin.

End of Season

Some reailly heavy months.

Facing Cruzeiro 6 times this season.

2 League 2 wins

Copa de Brasil final- 2 wins

Sudamericana 1 lost and 1 win advance trough penalty.

2 Games against Santos.

1 draw and 1 lost.

Player of the season

Wins serie A player of the year.

Raniel top goalscorer for our club with 13

Alex Mesquita wins young player of the year

Sudoamericana

We won the Sudoamericana against Atletico Paranese 4-1 in final.

 

Player performance

Just a note on player performance. We play many derby and big games during season but many players have personality doesn't enjoy Big Matches.

Matheus Oliviera, Murilo, Andrey

Player who enjoys big match: Raniel

This reflects in the score when we play big teams. Our key players missing in Big games if things don't start well.

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SEASON 2 FLAMENGO

Club philosophy

After finishing the 1st season i'm begining to know more about Brazillian football, the club standings and the player.

I come up with the philosophy to improve Brazillian national team.

1. We are going to be a selling club to top European team.

We want to be biggest club in Brazil and challenge for trophy so i cannot emphasis on building our on youth.

If their standard is not good enough, they will go on loan.

Bring highly rated youngster into the club with clause 30-40% profit sharing. This will help the original club financial.

We will try to get players ready by the age of 23-24, that means giving them enough football.

if European teams interested in the players and bid we will always accept.

2. We will be the home for Brazillian players abroad without enough game time.

This point is important because many players went to Europe, may be too early and lack development.

These players will have trouble with game time. They may be trasfer listed, loan listed or runs out of contract.

The wages and asking price for these players are usually high and with no interest for other teams.

The problem with this is other teams in Brazil will probably cannot afford the wages but we can.

Perhaps waiting long enough, this players will let the contract runs out and signed for lower wages,

We will move in before their contracts are out so they do no waste another 2-3 years on the bench.

Usually these players age may be young as 23 or late as 27-28.

We will try to bring them back to Flamengo, let them have game time and re sell them in 2-3 years if they are young enough.

Example of this is Luizao(24) from Porto or Kenedy from chelsea, Matheus Olivera (age 27).

They are not bad players by no mean but when Luizao contract is up, no ai teams are interested.

Brighton instead pay 19.5 for Victor Bobsin. But given time to develop Luizao can perhaps be as good as Bobsin.

SANTOS

I want to talk a little bit about Santos because i feel they are my biggest threat and the team that i don't like to play against

Santos is the only team in the league playing 3-1-4-2 or sometimes 3-4-3

Usually they played different to other teams and we have problem when we play against them.

Our game against them last season.

The manager Jorge Sampaoli been here since the beginning of the save.

Already won 3 leagues in a row from 2018-2020

The way they play differently is they usuall press high and counter-press.

3 Defenders very mobile, ball-playing D.

Dm position caneiro is a wonderkid and very good. 

They already signed David Neres from corinthians.

Very good midfield.

Transfer

This is pretty sad but this is what i do. Afraid of Santos, i went to their squad and try to steal players from them.

Identify 2 targets.

Victor Yan 21 yrs old midfielder. Not really 100% scouted. Crazy 26 mill fee. But we'll try anything to stop Santos

Lyanco Center back 18.25 mill. After selling Kaique Rocha my key CB last season to Porto.

We also have been using 2 scouts roaming South America and Brazil for hot prospects.

After a year we have a few targets.

Juan Henrique Baldin playmaker from Atletico Paranese

Francisco Baldinas forward from  Estudiantes

This signing is a bit of a risk since we have not fully scouted him but at the time he was targeted by At madrid, Man u, Liverpool so we got him first.

Gabriel Cazeres forward from Velez

Transfer out

Many players left us at the beginning this season.

Victor Gabriel forward 4.2 mill to Middlesborough

Admilson our 20 yrs old key midfilder last season sold to Valencia 17 mill. Deserved a chance in Europe not going to be a back up.

Kaique Rocha 21 Yrs old CB Already have 1 Cap for Brazil 17 mill to Porto may be going to be a back up.

Alex Mesquita 19 yrs old right back. Young player of Brasileirao last season. 18.75 mill(release clause) to Bayer Leverkusen. I felt he should have continued his development with us for another year or two.

Lucas Pratto to Leeds United

Jorge Luis our back up keepee to Mancity 7.5 mill. May be he will have better development there i'm not sure. We are in the win now state so can't really play young keeper

State championship, Copa Libertadores and Recopa

After adjusting to other team style we tried something different.

After buying so many midfield, i played Matheus Oliveira at Regista. May be improving our results against very defensive teams having 2 runners in midfield.

The problem with the DM position i have is that what i had planned to use Luizao at DM, but he has this trait of getting forward often. Victor Yan our new signing is also another option having not 100% scouted him before buy, also comes with the same trait.

Other option is Andrey in DM(d) is ok but other players gonna complain, Andrey only comes as back up, he won't complain if not played.

So i could use Oliveira at DP(d) but physically Oliveira is not strong as Bobsin so, we played him registar with Victor Yan or Luizao further forward as screen(cm support of Carrirlero) Physically very strong, good team work, good positioning. not very good tackling.

This is what we go against very defensive teams. Someties using left IWB(attack) for 15 minutes 

Play out of D,Running with the ball ( i felt very necessary against defensive teams in this league)

We played with 2 systems one with counter press and one without.

With counter press we played slower, higher d, controlling possession

With out conter press we played faster, counter attack, higher d. The idea is that if using attacking wing back going high line they get back to position quickly after losing posession.

Most teams will play out of D in this league sometime counter with one player running with the ball from their own half to our 18 box. So counter pressing is not very good in this case if we could not win the ball back. May be have to shift to 4-2-3-1 to counter press.

We won all games but there were few worries:

1. Second game against Palmeiras in Recopa.

In the first game, we beat them big, the second game they had 1 players i was worried.

Nicolas Raniero was roaming as inside forward on the left and he basically represents all Palmeiras's threats.

I tried to mark him with our right back. But he still got 2 goals.

This season we won the Recopa, State championship without losing and through to the knockout stage of Copa Libertadores. But we hadn't really face any big team yet.

Brasileirao and Copa do Brasil

First game in Copa de Brasil against Atletico Paranese and our defence begins to show problems. Leading 3-0 in the first half, concede 3 goals in the second half and got a goal in extra-time.

First game in the league against our rivals Palmeiras, 

There is some thing against this guy that we could not stop him. At the end of the match, i used 2 dm just to cover the area he cuts in with out having to man mark and facing surgin full back.

Third game against Vasco.

Vasco also had one intersting player, Yago Pikachu, he was used as right back last season overloading the right flank and with good crossing he had the most assists in the league.

This season he is used as right winger. Against natural winger i, changed my IWB to full back and mark him.

Again somehow ai managed to got him to drop very deep and pushing their fullback on the right to cross freely.

Yago got a goal from freekick.

We are through to Copa de Brasil quater final after beating Atletico Paranaense. 

First game against Santos this season in the league 0-0.

Copa de brasil Quater final against Caera. 2-0 and 1-0 both wins. through to face CSA Semi final

Copa Libertadores second round against River plate. 4-1 on aggregates through to face Palmeiras in Quater final.

Copa de brasil Semi final against CSA. 2-0 and  2-1 both wins. through to face SANTOS in the final.

Copa Libertadores Quarter final against Palmeiras 

Losing 3-2 on the first leg, Raniero scored again and Matheus Fernandes looks to be very good.

The second match:

We got away. Quick goal really helped take the pressure of us a little bit. Victor Yan is not a big match player something our scout didn't pick up when we signed him.

We are through to Semi Final against SANTOS

All our schedule

We are top with 4 points clear in the league.

This is getting personal, we will have 5 match against Santos in the next 2 months, 2 in Copa de Brasil, 2 in Copa Libertadores, 1 in the league. Our biggest enemy.

Updating our transfer

Players out:

Garrinchincha: after only spending just over a year with us, Garrinchincha is now Man utd player 40.5 mill. He is going to be a world class player for them.

Thuler another solid center back 23 yrs old to Shaktar 19.75 mill

Rodrigo Echeverria, Dof signed him for less than a mill, gone to Corinthians 6.75 mill. Have to free up foreign players space.

Player in:

Roberto: Scouted recommend as buy whatever the price. This is really the case of stealing youth from other clubs. Other teams have done it to us also, the players that weren't given first team and have very low release clause.

We got him for 575 k. Madness even i feel bad.

Douglas Costa: Free transfer from Juventus. try to improve squad personality

Solomon Rondon: Fee Signed to improve squad personality

Luis Marcelo: 16.75mill 20 yrs old attacking midfielder from Bahia. I felt we had to buy someone as we made too much profit this season selling a lot of players. Leading players in the League

 

 

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AGAINST SANTOS

first game: Copa Do Brasil final leg 1

this is embarassing. 3-0 defeat first leg defeat Copa do Brasil and they are not even using their strongest striker.

lots of card lots of hard tackling in this game.

Second game in the league.

Outplayed but survived. 47% possession with only 6 shots against their 15.

Third game Copa do brasil leg 2

i don't think we are gonna come back from 3-0 so fielding some youth.

Lost 4-2. 

David Neres played in 2 out of 3 games against us and got 4 goals 1 assist.

Got a break beating Figueirense 1 match and back to Santos in Libertadores

First leg Copa Libertadores

Bad results scared of losing went with 3 dm formation

At loss didn't know how to play against them.

Back to the league with 2 wins and 1 draw. 

Santos is closing in on us in the league. They are 3 points behing with 1 game in hand. We have better goal difference.

Back to Copa Lbertadore Leg 2 at home a must must must win match or we'll lose everything to them,

Got the win. Early goal from Raniel and David Neres got sent off in 7 minutes. We took control for the first time in 2 years.

First, Played 2 natural wingers right and left. and cross far post, early cross.

Second, we played out from the back against their press. Have to, in order to compete for posession. Played faster.

Raniel played this game got us early goal. Big game players, lost his spot this season.

At least, we got into the final of Copa Libertadores against Cruzeiro. We have not beat Cruzeiro this season. 1 lost and 1 draw.

 

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The league

1 lost and 2 draw in Games. We are on equal points with Santos in 2nd.

If we win the next 2, the league is ours. We are so much better in Goal Difference but before that we have cup final against Cruzeiro

Got the goal eventually, 118 minutes after Gaston Gimenez got sent off in overtime.

We won the Libertadores. Morale sky high.

Back to the league games last 2 matches. First up, Botafogo our local Rivals.

This season:

2nd stage turn one final: 1-1 beat them on penalty

wins 4-2 2nd stage turn two

1-1 Brasileirao at home

It seems like they are treating this match a very big match.

We lost 3-0 all 3 goals from counter.

They defended really well got the break and got the first goal.

We pushed forward even more conceding another 2.

Santos drew the match, they are 1 point ahead of us. it is out of our hand.

Won the last game against Bahia 1-0 Santos also won.

The league is theirs even after we took 2 players from them.

But our season is not yet over, we still have World club cup

First game, against Al-ahly

To the final, against Liverpool champion of Europe. Klopp still manager at Liverpool.

The plan we go cautiously and try to counter.

18 minutes: Jose Gimenez played long to Asensio beats our right back and put low cross in for Firmino to finish.

Liverpool 1-0

Half-time

go very attacking counter-press, pass into space.

46 minutes: Callao (gk) short kick to Jose Luis Gomez(right back) hit long into space for Caceres to run onto and finish

1-1

48 minutes: throw in from the right Jose Luis Gomez to Baldin, Baldin heads it back, Gomez crosses, Caceres wins header against Joe Gomez heads it back to Matheus Olivera at the edges. Smash in

1-2

We slowed the game down try to contain liverpool attack.

58 minutes:

Callao cleared the ball to Giminez, Giminez plays to Joe Gomez hits long ball towards Firmino on the left flank, Firmino holds the ball, played it back to Asensio, Asensio passes shorts to Gedson Fernandez free at the edge of the area. Gedson Fernandez hits it 

2-2

Liverpool still pushing us, especially on the left with Firmino into the channel and Robertson pushing forward, We tried to counter using inside forward attack on that side but Robertson was too good, always sprint back in time.

Gedson Fernandez got so many chances on the edge of area against us.

80 minutes:

Firmino runs with the ball down the left: Got tackled by Doria. Got injured and Liver pool had already used 3 subs.

Firmino continued to play. We also already made 3 subs.

It's do or die. Go very attacking, counter press, tack harder

90 minutes:

Victor yan runs with the ball find Luis Marcelo running into the box.

Luis Marcelo finishes.

2-3

The game is over. We go very defensive.

93 minutes:

Asensio dropped deep on the left, Played the ball ahead of Firmino on the right Firmino went down from tackled by Matheus Reis our left back. 

Reis got sent off, we are down to 10. But it's only a free kick. Asensio hits the wall.

95 minutes:

We got the corner. Oliviera took the corner, Gedson clears, Benjamin Heinrich got the ball and is running at us down the left, he crosses, Victor Yan clears as far as fabinho, fabinho plays the ball ahead to Firmino who's free on the right inside the box.

Firmino hits

3-3

 the referee blows. We go to extra time. Our morale shattered.

Extra time allows one more sub. Firmino off, i don't really care anymore.

104 minutes:

Asensio found Salah with ball into space. Our defensive line were too high. Salah off to the finish

4-3

too have come so close and lose the match.

 

 

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Season 3 Flamengo

New season we are bringin in some players, targeting positive personality players because our youngster suffer from poor squad personality.

Transfer

We are looking for a back up goal keeper. A defender because one of ours might be leaving before the end of the next season, A defensive midfield.

Andre Anderson from Fc Koln transfer listed 20 mill Resolute persnonality

Danilo DM from Corinthians. One of the top Dm in the league. Transfer listed by Corinthians. 16.75 mill

Leo Santos from Dortmund: CB failed to get into starting line up at Dortmund, Career is stagnating. Should have been called up by Brazil by now considering our young center back Kaique Rocha already had a call up few years ago. 24 mill

Other signing, Joaquin Rikemberg from Velez had been scouting him for couple of years. Interesting option 5.25 mill

Players out

Many player leaves to European club considering its their last chance if they don't go now. I'm willing to accept lower price.

Raniel 28 yrs moves on to Bordeaux 11.25 mill

Jose Luis Gomez Already 30 yrs, 11.25 mill to Bournemouth in the premiere league.

Marcos Guiliherme 28 yrs Brasileirao player of the year 2 years ago, 13.25 mill to Bristol city in the premiere league.

Baldin is wanted by Barcelona and Liverpool we are negotiating with them, he may leave with loan back option until the end of season.

Luizao and Victor Yan wanted by Hull and Fulham. Luizao deserves another chance in the big league, we will accept bids for him.

State championship

Losing state championship to Botafogo this year. Losing the second leg 3-0.

The league and Copa do Brasil

 

Second in the league behind Palmeiras

Losing 3 games against Gremio, Palmeiras and Velez shows sign of troubles.

We are adjusting and went with 4-4-2 (2dm) at the moment.

Transfer

Further transfer sold our right back Daniel Boza to Club Brugge 5.25 mill got him on loan till the end of the season.

Transfer in

Signed Lincoln on a free: he had been on loan with Gremio last season, could not break through first team at FC Porto

Joao Pedro from Werder Bremen 23.5 mill to solve our right back problem

Gabrial Brazao GK to challenge for 1st spot. Signed on free from Parma.

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The league and Copa Libertadores

Manage to win the league this season.

Award winners:

Players of the year: Gianluca from Corinthians again now only 22 yrs old won player of the year and striker of the year  twice in a role.

Our team only have Matheus Reis won left back of the year.

Matheus Reis and Lyanco in team of the year.

There are many new young players winning awards this year. 

 

Copa Libertadores final against Santos

Lincoln scored the only goal of the match in 81 minutes

Kenydy won best player award.

Club world cup

Again playing in club world cup this year will be against man city in the final.

Surprisingly, beating Man City.

After winning everything in Flamengo, i am perhaps looking for a move in the next season.

With club world cup schedule we only have 1 week off season.

So, i decided to send the players on  rest for another 2 weeks.

This season signing we only have 1 new players coming:

Alexander: DM from Guarani for 6.75 mill

This will be a quiet off season with not much transfer going around the league. We are going to wait and see until 31 Jan, what offer we get for our players.

[ucdark]

nice work, you should've added the color fix for brazilean teams before starting the save :c