[FM20] Numbers don’t lie | Searching The Stats

[IL Luce]

 

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I started a proper thread.

About Searching The Stats: STS is a way of playing the game by recruitment players only base on their statistics and form, while not paying attention to their actually attributes. Some of you may remember that I had a similar save back in FM18: 

While back then I started unemployed and without badges and reputation, this time I intend to make this save a little bit more personal and start the journey in my hometown. Also this time I may pay attention to 3 attributes that are not reflected in stats but that are easily spotted in real life, those are: first touch, bravery and determination.

In short, I will try to build a strong squad around statistics and try to change my hometown team fate (at least in the game) because right now goes through a disastrous management.

 

 

Welcome to Romania. Welcome to Iași

 

A brief history

The City

Iași (UK: /ˈjæʃi/ YASH-ee; FR: Jassy or Iassy; GER: Jassy; IT: Jassi), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, then of the Romanian United Principalities from 1859 to 1862, and the capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918 (during the WW1 when Bucharest was under German occupation).

Located in the North-East of Romania, Iași used to be the crossroads place of the historic trade routes that passed through Moldavia coming from the Kingdom of Poland, Habsburg Monarchy, Tsardom of Russia, and Constantinople.

Home to the oldest Romanian university and to the first engineering school, Iași is one of the most important education and research centres of the country, and accommodates over 60,000 students in 5 public universities. The social and cultural life revolves around the Vasile Alecsandri National Theater (the oldest in Romania), the Moldova State Philharmonic, the Opera House, the Iași Athenaeum, a famous Botanical Garden (the oldest and largest in Romania), the Central University Library (the oldest in Romania), the high quality cultural centres and festivals, an array of museums, memorial houses, religious and historical monuments.

By its placement (built on seven hills with altitudes varying between 50m and 400m), Iași resembles Rome and falls into the select category of legendary cities so called: "City of the 7 hills".

Who wants to discover Iași will enter here as through a huge gateway to the history of the Romanian nation. In Iași "every stone speaks of the past".

 

 

The Team

Fotbal Club Politehnica Iași, commonly known as Politehnica Iași, or simply Poli Iași, was founded on 27 April 1945 by a group of students. The club was established at the beginning as Sportul Studențesc Iași and first received the name of Politehnica one month later (Asociația Sportivă Politehnica Iași), named after the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași.

They played in the first league for 28 seasons during the periods: 1960–61, 1962–1967, 1968–1972, 1973–1981, 1982–1990, 1995–96 and 2004–2010. In all this time their best position in the league was only 6th in 1965–66.

The home stadium is Emil Alexandrescu Stadium, placed on Copou Hill next to Botanical Garden - a beautiful place to chill and watch football- and has a capacity of 11.390.

         

Not having a proper owner in all this years, being financed by the county council and the city hall, the club was always the subject of corruption and blackmail. Almost all the mayors took advantage of the citizen’s love for sport and football. In this manner the club became a political machine: with every relegation the promises of promotion has appeared and with every promotion the blackmail of cutting down the funds and going down again. The club slipped into a nasty game for personal fame, power and votes.

In the season 2009-2010 the bubble of lies exploded after the club relegated in the second league. With 3M euro accumulated debts during the years, the club has forced to declare bankruptcy.

         

Massive protests began in town demanding the county council and the mayor to resign. Being under pressure they started quickly to find a solution and in august that year, Tricolorul Breaza merged with Navoby Iași and formed a new team ACSMU Politehnica Iași that took Tricolorul Breaza place in the second division and relocated in Iași, with the promises that someday the record and the history of the old FC Politehnica Iași team will be regain and transfer to the new one. In 2011 the club was forced to change his name to Clubul Sportiv Municipal Studențesc Iași being banned to use the name Politehnica, the old colors and the logo. The supporters split into two: those who didn't agreed with the presence of a new team in town, a team without historical name and record and so they started to boycott the games and those that for the love of football and city continued to come to stadium and support the new team.

After 2 seasons, in 2012, the new team managed to promote to first league:

 

They didn’t managed to stay up and relegated in 2013. In 2014 they promoted again and since then they are playing in the first league.

In 2015-2016 they actually managed to qualify to Europa League even if they finished 7th because of the big financial problems of the other teams. Unfortunately they have been stopped in second qualifying round by Hajduk Split.

On 11 July 2018, the club announced that it earned the right to use the FC Politehnica Iași logo and name, which was considered to be the first step in the plan of regaining the club's full identity, the next one being the recovery of their record.

As you can see is a long and struggling history of a club that never managed to equal the greatness of the city. Being the second city in a country with over 19 million peoples this team should fight every year for winning the league.

 

Present situation of the club

Unfortunately even if we can use our real name and logo, without history, we are still a relatively new team formed in 2010. Also we still don’t have a proper owner and we are further at the mercy of the county council and the mayor. We are playing in the first league but the situation of the club right now is not so great. With 1.5M euro debts and 2 point away from relegation, the situation seems a little bit similar with the one in 2010. The only hope is the new manager –Mircea Rednic -appointed this winter.

 

The county council has in project to build a new 20.000 seats stadium, but with so many promises during the years and with that debt, sorry to say, but I don’t believe this s*it. On paper it looks really nice, but let’s not forget that this year is an election year, if you know what I mean.

 

 

The rules and goal

As I said, I will bring in players only base of theirs stats and 3 attributes: first touch, bravery, determination. I will also pay attention to my scouts reports, of course;

As usual I will “go on holiday” for 1 season before taking charge of the team so that I will have enough data to play with;

I have attributes masked so that I will not be tempted to make any transfer decisions based on them and also I have disabled the first transfer window for a little bit of realism, to see where the team will situate at the end of the season without a proper summer transfer window (hopefully they will not get relegated);

Even if I bombed you with so many details, it will not be a one-team save. I will try to win everything with Politehnica Iași but if something go wrong (and it is possible) and get sacked the save will continue as a journeyman type of save. This year I have started with my hometown team to have some extra motivation to play the game.

I will try to implement my vision and also I have a personal transfer policy. Being the second city in the country and situated in one of the largest region, Moldavia, the area of selection is huge, so I will be looking:

• First - to grow and promote my own players from academy;
• Second - to bring in players born in the historical region of Moldavia (and here I include also our brothers from Republica Moldova);
• Third - if I can’t find any quality in my academy or region, I will bring in any Romanian players;
• And only in the end I will be looking at foreign players.

We will not be an “Athletic Bilbao” kind of club, but I will be looking much more carefully in my yard first before making any move.

 

In the next post I will take charge of the team, we will be looking at the situation of the club, we will analyze the squad and make our first shopping list. Cheers!

 

[IL Luce]

 

 

After 26 games the league will split into two groups: top 6 teams will enter in Champions Playoff and the next 8 into Relegation Group and all teams will start with only 50% of points from the main league stage. Also the team who finish 6th in the Relegation Group will play a Relegation Playoff against the team that finished 3rd in the second league.

There must be at least 2 U21 Romanian players in the starting eleven and 1 U21 should remain in the playing eleven during the entire game. For those who like youth development challenges here is a league for you.

 

Let’s see what happened in league during my holiday:

Some huge surprises here with CFR Cluj in the Relegation Group and new promoted Academica Clinceni qualified for EL.

About us…well, we barely managed to survive by winning the Relegation Playoff with a goal in the 94 minutes.

 

Squad Overall

At first sight, we have just one player that seems to be the star of the team and I need to keep him with all the costs. 

Overall, I’m looking at players with a minimum of 15 games played and a very minimum average rating of 6.7 before even continue analyzing their stats.

I have some minimum stats requirement in my mind but the best way to see where my team is situated is to compare it with the best of the best. Logically the best teams with the best players are those who played the UCL and EL finals. They didn’t get there by chance, right? Unfortunately, we are not even close to that kind of level (yet!), we barely survived in our tiny league, so we need to be humbles and just look around us. That mean we need to look and start building our team around the statistics of the top 3 teams from our league.

 

Goalkeepers

Overall, Denis Rusu is a decent keeper. What I don’t like, of course, is his average rating and also that he have the biggest salary in the team (9k E p/m). At first sight I wanted to keep him but because of the salary I will try to sell him. The others will leave as well.

 

Central Defenders

Cosmin Frasinescu is our best defender and statistically is not too far away from the best defender in the league. Even if he’s 35 years old I intend to keep him one more year.

Marius Mihalache and Bradley Diallo are the other two decent defenders with Mihalache much better in the air. Unfortunately, theirs interceptions are way too far from Frasinescu’s and Planic numbers. Interceptions, headers and distance covered are key for me here and passes and tackles are just optional. Both may leave the club.

 

Right Fullbacks

Adria Gallego is our best right back and in some arias is a little bit better than Martic. I will definitely keep him.

 

Left Fullbacks

It seems that the last manager played Diallo as a left back, but I don’t like his stats in this position either. He may be decent defensively but in attack with only 0.09 dribbles, 5 crosses completed, 16% Crosses completed compared to crosses attempted, he can’t help me too much.

 

Defensive Midfielders – Central Midfielders

Marius Chelaru is by far our best player, an all-round midfielder and definitely my key player next season.

Nicandro Breeveld’s distance covered per 90 at 33 years old is impressive. Also base on his headers and tackle stats seems to be more defensive oriented. I will keep him one more year.

Florian Loshaj and Juan Pablo Passaglia don’t impress me with nothing and I will try to sell them.

 

Central Attacking Midfielders

Didac seems our best player in this position and while his shots stats are not so impressive his passes stats, assists and speed definitely are.

Iuliu Hatiegan’s average rating is a little bit too low, but I will keep him as a backup (if I can’t find a better player) for his shooting stats, dribbles, goals and his low salary.

 

Right Attacking Midfielders

Ovidiu Horsia is on loan from FCSB and if we look at his crosses stats is a pretty good inverted winger. Also his age will help us with the u-21 rule. I will try to re-loan him.

 

Left Attacking Midfielders

Unfortunately here we only have Doru Popadiuc that played only 669 minutes. I don’t know if I’m gonna keep him even if he has some good dribbling and passing stats though.

 

Strikers

With Andrei Cristea retiring this summer, we can only rely on Adrian Balan and to be honest I don’t like his stats too much. He is not looking like a lethal striker and that’s why he will be leaving.

 

 

Under 19 Squad

I must say that I was really impressed and happy to see such a huge number of players in my Under 19 team, but when it comes to U19 I like to have only 16 players there.

 

I’m going to carefully select them but till then 8 of them will join the first team this season:

  

Some of them will end their loans where they played regularly at some 3rd league teams, which was good for their development and some from the academy.

 

In conclusion, this transfer window we will be looking after: 1xGK; 1xDC; 2xDL; 1xDM; 1xAMR; 1xAML and 1xST.

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by IL Luce

[IL Luce]

The time was really short for transfers. I took charge of the team on 18 June and at beginning of July we already had our first official game.  Some of the players aren’t even scout properly.

When I took the team they were 400k in red, luckily we solved that situation with the players we sold. The board gave me 1M to spend but I only threw away some money when I couldn’t find any free quality player.

 

Goalkeeper

My first option was Cezar Lungu, but for a backup keeper that will barely play, his salary demands was too big. I preferred to spend some money on Stefan Dobre that, even if he had a lower average rating, some of his stats are better. He will be Teodor Axinte’s backup.

 

Central Defender

With 5.64 headers won and 83% headers won ratio, Angelo Pizzorno is a beast in the air. Also his interceptions are amazing too. He will be Mihalache’s partner in defense.

 

Left Fullbacks

Unfortunately I forgot to take screenshots when I made this shortlist and Koppel stats reset, but their stats were similar, the only difference is that Koppel is much faster, that’s why he is my first option too.

 

Central Midfielder

I wanted a midfielder that is capable of doing a little bit of everything. Very good interceptions, good headers, passing and tackling skills and his shots are decent also. 16 assists and 7 goals last season and I just hope that he can play like this for me.

 

Attacking Midfielders

Danny Barrow(AMR), will be Horsia’s backup (that I managed to re-loan) and I think he will  help us a lot when needed. Lethal in front of goals last season with 52% shots on target and 18 goals as a left winger.

Kiko Bondoso(AML) is much creative with 25.19 passes completed per 90 and also a better dribbler.

 

Strikers

Bruno Savio is the one that I actually spend some serious money on. He can pass (20.43 passes completed per 90), he can dribble (2.53 dribbles per game), he can shot (59% shots on target; 1.90 shots on target per game), he can run, and he can definitely score (10 goals in 1423 minutes).

After some games my youngsters proved me that are not ready for the first eleven yet and I brought Okitokandjo as a backup for Savio.

 

As you can see all the players came from some lower leagues teams. Should I trust theirs stats? Can they make the jump to a better league? We will see.

 

Club Vision

We barely survived last season and the board want a mid-table finish now.

 

Tactic & First Eleven

I actually call it “tactical template” because I change the roles and duties before every game based on opposition's strength and weakness provided by the scout reports but also during entire game, when the opposite manager start to react.

 

Finances

With players that we sold this summer, we are financially safe for now.

 

July&August 2020

I must say that I didn’t expected this start. We had two crazy months with just one unlucky defeat. We may have upset the big boys, but it’s a looooong way to go.

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by IL Luce

[Muttley84]

You kinda drifted a bit from the principle of relying firstly on youth, moldovan, national players by having 7 foreign players in your first eleven this start of the season. On the other hand quality Romanian players are rather expensive, so I can get that. I predict you playoff and Europa League qualification this season. Good luck! Haide Poli!

[kidthekid]

Great start. I like the idea behind the thread and I like your explanation of the stats that you are looking for.

[IL Luce]

17 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

You kinda drifted a bit from the principle of relying firstly on youth, moldovan, national players by having 7 foreign players in your first eleven this start of the season. On the other hand quality Romanian players are rather expensive, so I can get that. I predict you playoff and Europa League qualification this season. Good luck! Haide Poli!

I’m Mircea Rednic in disguise.

I preferred to keep my money in my wallet and rely on free transfers. Unfortunately the only Romanian players with good stats and able to join us free were from the 4th league. And yes, quality Romanian players are expensive, especially the U21 players. For example I wanted a kid whose value was 20k and they demanded 1million, my entire transfer budget. 

But I already have 12 U21 Romanian players in my first squad, that will see some games this season and 17 Romanian players overall.

[IL Luce]

48 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Great start. I like the idea behind the thread and I like your explanation of the stats that you are looking for.

Thanks! 

[IL Luce]

 

September&October 2020

What we've learned in this two months is that we have problems against teams that play with 2 DMs. We just can’t open them.

I must take the blame for the Cup game where I was too confident that will be an easy game and I made some selection and tactical mistakes. The board isn’t happy.

 

Key Match: Moldavian Derby

FC Botosani use to play a Cautious 4231 formation with left flank being more aggressive while the right one is more defensive and cautious. They even seemed to play with a defensive fullback there.

 

With that in mind I decided to start with a 4231 myself. Knowing that they may play with an attacking inside forward on the left I chose a CM on defense to shut down the channel that their IF may want to exploit. I also opted for a little bit more cautious FB on support to help my CM when needed. This way I protected my right zone much better and I didn’t exposed my CM in case that their AM or BTB decide to create a 2v1 situation there. Upfront I opted for an IF on attack having in mind that the BTB will roam around and that the fullback on support will join the attack from time to time during the game. In this way my IF(a) may exploit that open gap and may find himself 1v1 against their CD.

On the left side we had plenty of roam to play in and I opted for a BTB to do so. Upfront, because of their DLP(d)-FB(d) combination, there was no roam for an attack duty, so a support was a must. I chose an IW(s) to confuse them with his movement a little bit and maybe drag them out. And because they played with and Winger on support we could played with a little bit more aggressive DL.

My playmaker was in the AMC position because I thought that if their BTB will roam around a lot, he will have enough space to do his magic there.

Also, because of their mentality, I was aware that they will try to play on quick counter, so no high defensive line, counter press or any over exposing, fancy things for me here.

 

During the game they have changed their defensive FB to an attack duty and I immediately changed my IW(s) to an W(a) to exploit that zone. An IW on attack or IF may found difficult with that DLP on defense there, so the Winger was the right choice for me. I also changed the IF(a) to support, just for the balance purpose.

 

The result:

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by IL Luce

[IL Luce]

 

 

November&December 2020

After a winless November where we only managed to grab 2 points, December was much kind with us and we made 6 points against 2 of Romanian top teams. The biggest disappointment was the big loss against Chindia Targoviste. The league table is looking exciting and so far it is a very competitive season with only a few points between teams.

 

The winter break is here and we need to look at our squad a little bit. I don’t intend to make massive changes in this transfer window, I will be looking only after one cheap MC as backup and also I may activate Ovidiu Horsia’s future fee (I usually don’t loan players without a future fee), that is 550k. A little bit too much for our team, but I think is a good deal.

Frasinescu is wanted by 12 clubs and being 35 years old and in the last year of contract he may leave us this winter and I intend to force one of my youngsters into the first eleven.

 

Overall our squad is looking promising. Our striker, Bruno Savio is our best player so far with an average rating of 7.26, 14 goals and 2 assist in 22 apps. He deserve every penny spent on him in summer. Also his value increased to 575k that mean we will be making some money in the future.

Iuliu Hatiegan was the biggest surprise so far. Used mainly as a sub, he impressed me with his good form and his 7.18 average rating. A truly impact sub. This way he earned his place in the first eleven and a new contract. Good job boy! 

Cosmin Frasinescu, Marius Chelaru, Didac and Adria Gallego didn’t disappointed me so far and proved that their last season's stats were not a mistake.

We have some dead wood too. Danny Barrow and Stevy Okitokandjo, didn’t have the same impact as Hatiegan when we needed them and they may leave this winter.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by IL Luce

[john1]

Yesss you're back!  Remember reading your FM18 thread \o/ Looking forward to more updates  

[IL Luce]

On 29/01/2020 at 23:41, john1 said:

Yesss you're back!  Remember reading your FM18 thread \o/ Looking forward to more updates  

Welcome to Iasi then! 

[IL Luce]

 

We actually splash the cash this winter and our transfer budget just gone.

The biggest news is that we managed to activate Horsia’s future fee and he is our player for the next 4 years.

 

Right Fullback

We needed a much better backup in this position. My scout rated him pretty high.

7.14 average rating so far in the second league, decent interceptions, good tackles, pretty good speed confirmed also by the scout report, decent dribblings, good crossing and passing stats, his composure is pretty high too, according to my scouts. His bravery may be a concern but I think he will help us when needed.

 

Central Midfielder

Radu Chiriac, 20 years, born in Iasi. I bought him because of his passing and tackles stats. I needed a better backup especially when we play with a DLP(d) role. Unfortunately I didn’t had the patience to scout him till the end and I didn’t saw his: “run with ball often” trait. Not a good trait for how I intended to play him.

 

Right Attacking Midfielder

Vlad Mihalcea will be Horsia’s new backup. Good speed and workrate (according to my scout), good dribbling, good crossing, decent shots.

 

Central Attacking Midfielder

Didac is 29 years old and in his last year of contract. I wanted to give him a new contract but only for a maximum of 2 years, because of his age. Unfortunately, he demanded a massive 4 years contract and I decided that is time to let him go. I tried to sell him but eventually he will go for free to Apoel in summer.

Alexandru Petrus is not at Didac’s level yet, but he may have some potential. I was looking especially at the passing stats because we play with a support duty in the AMC spot. We switch between an AP(s) and AM(s) and I need a playmaker there. He only played 970 minutes but he got good passing stats, good key passes, 7 assists, 2 goals and my scout report confirmed what I was looking for: off the ball, decisions, determined attitude and intelligence on the pitch. His recommendation is a little bit ambiguous but I don’t pay too much attention on that. 

 

We have also promoted 2 U19 players base on their good stats they having this season.

Their interceptions and headers are really impressive even at this level. Dan Antal potential is rated much higher than Alexandru Evdochim, but Evdochim has better stats. 

 

Friendlies and tactical DNA tweaks

During friendlies I played around with different approaches. I want from my team to be a little bit more aggressive because I think we may have the right players to do so, but also I don’t want to ruin our good work that we’ve done so far.

We’ve ended up playing like this. I’ve changed the balance mentality to a more aggressive one. We’ve kept short passing and play out of defence but we’ve took off the higher tempo because of the new mentality.

We’ve kept our distribution and counter but now we will try to counter-press because we already had the right formation (4231) to do so.

We will try to defend narrow from now on and move the play in the opposition half. With Frasinescu departure we will play with two 17 years old CD’s in some games and I must see if they can deal with a higher defensive line. If not, we will go back to a standard defensive line.

 

Some promising result so far with the tweaked DNA:

    

 

[IL Luce]

 

January&February 2021

We’ve ended our regular season with an ugly defeat away against the bottom team of the league, but the good part overall is that we are in the Playoff. 

 

After that 50% points deduction rule applied in this stage, the league table look something like this:

Anything can happen at this stage.

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by IL Luce

[IL Luce]

 

February&March 2021

We started our Playoff campaign with a defeat away at Giurgiu. So far it seems that we are a much better team at home, while away we are really struggling. Right now we are sitting 2nd in the league but that’s because U.Craiova and Astra will play their game next month.

 

About youth intake

We’ve got only 3 kids that deserved a contract, but we also signed with some without potential, just to fill some gaps in my u19 team and make it more competitive in the league.

[IL Luce]

 

April&May 2021. End of Season

Against all odds and with a little bit of luck, we managed to finish 3rd and we will see Europa League games in Copou next season.

We needed a good result in the last game against FCSB, but luckily, despite a massive defeat, CFR also lost their game against Astra and we have kept our EL place. Astra won Romanian Cup and will play in EL next season as well.

 

About Relegation Group

Gaz Metan Medias and Academica Clinceni relegated in the second division, while Concordia Chiajna will play the Relegation Playoff against Gloria Buzau. Our rivals, FC Botosani, barely escaped the relegation playoff.

 

Players Stats

We were dependents on Bruno Savio excellent performance this season: 26 goals and 5 assists in 35 games. Unfortunately none of his backups couldn’t even score a goal and we need to find a backup player, at least as good as him, this summer.

Marius Chelaru kept his last season's good form and managed to impress once again.

Iuliu Hatiegan, Vlad Mihalcea (who joined us in winter), Teodor Axinte, but also the two youngster central defenders (Dan Antal and Alexandru Evdochim), that we promoted in winter, also impressed with some solid performances.

 

Under 19 Squad

George Martinescu will join the main squad next season and I need to find a solution for Alexandru Vladeanu as well.

With so many young central defenders in my squad I need to find a way to play them more. The only solution is to change the system and based on the players at my disposal, the right system would be some 3313 Bielsa’s kind of system. Unfortunately I don’t think I have the right wingbacks, but I will see how we gonna play next season after some friendlies.

 

Finances

Financially we are doing great right now with over 2M in the bank and the board even gave me 1.8M to spend this summer. I definitely need to ask for our facilities to be improved.

 

[IL Luce]

Season II 2021/22

 

Unfortunately my chairman don’t want to invest in improving our youth facilities.

 

 

Right-Backs

  

We’ve changed our style this season and I needed totally different types of wing backs. I've been looking after fast players with good passing stats.

Their stats are not too different but Davide Bianchi will be my first option here because of his better passing stats.

 

Left-Backs

  

Even if he’s a midfielder, Roberto Ranieri will be our new main left-back this season. Very good interceptions and passing stats.

 

Defensive Midfielder

Adrian Sut is the DLP(d) that I was looking for since last season. He will be Chelaru’s backup but a very good backup: 102 Interceptions; 39.56 passes completed per 90; 80% pass completion ratio; 81% tackles completion ratio with 4.81 tackles per game. A good playmaker that can also defend well.

 

Left Attacking Midfielder

Deian Sorescu was transfer listed by Dinamo and after I looked at his stats I immediately bought him. Iuliu Hatiegan will have a serious contender this season.

 

Striker

I couldn’t find a better backup and it is weird how some 3rd league players demand over 15k p/m when their actual salary is 1-2k and even weird is that some of them don’t even want to discuss with us.

We still need a serious backup for Savio but for now we will give Ionut Tudorache a chance. He is not a bad player, he actually scored 10 goals and helped his team to promote last season. I like his headers stats and dribbling; I actually looked for a striker good in the air. He is still very young, though.

 

 

Tactic & First Eleven

It’s still a work in progress, but this season Iasi will enter in full Bielsa mode.

Both Inverted Wingers are instructed to stay wide, this way they will make some roam for Inverted Wing-Backs before cutting inside. I don’t want classic wingers.

I don’t have a plan B yet, but Bielsa’s Leeds 4141 sound interesting as a plan B and I’ll be working on it.

 

Friendlies + July&August 2021

I forgot about the new 2021/22 Europa League for poor guys like us, so we are actually playing in the Europa Conference League and not in the big boys Europa League. Unfortunately, after 2 rounds where we scored no more than 29 goals (I didn’t had such results for years in FM), we were knocked out by HJK from Finland. Very disappointing I must say.