[FM20] Champagne Football II: Calcio Offensivo

[ManUtd1]

2 minutes ago, noikeee said:

I call it "Champagne YesIKnowItLooksStupid".

[noikeee]

April 2025: If it looks stupid, but works, it isn't stupid
 

 

So I went into the Verona match randomly on this new "Champagne YesIKnowThisLooksStupid" tactic just for the hell of it. The idea was to try to get more out of the advanced forward, and hopefully the AMC/mezzala too, who both had been underperforming, and ramp up the risk to get more goals overall. Little did I imagine it'd result in a perfect month with 6 wins and 6 clean sheets. The first match wasn't that promising neither - sure, we beat Verona and had a few chances, but the only goal came from a corner, predictably.

 
 

I did not expect what happened in Rotterdam for the Conference League quarters. We played like a pack of possessed wolves. Bordignon as AF? 2 goals. André Anderson as AMC? 1 goal, 1 assist. DLF Orsolini and RW Den Otter also scored, for a massive 5-0 rout, all of them away goals to bring back home for the 2nd leg. Magnificent performance from my lads.

 
 

And it continued. We hosted Napoli for Serie A, 3rd vs 5th, an important match if we wanted not to slip out of Champions League places. It was a confident 2-0 win. We even spent 19 minutes down to 10 men after Koné was sent off, Napoli still did nothing.

 
 

On the return leg of the Conference League quarters it was probably the least convincing performance of the month, as the lads looked complacent. We still won 1-0 with a late Den Otter goal. It didn't matter, it was 6-0 aggregate. Zurich follow in the semi-finals - is it arrogant to be a tiny little be confident about that?

 
 

And it the league the big wins kept on coming. Away to Cittadella? 3-0. Home to Salernitana? 5-0 and we even missed a penalty. It was nice to see Pellegri score a brace too, he's been slightly disappointing in these first few months for the club. We did get some help from our youth player Alberto Toubba who's on loan to them - was sent off early 2nd half.

 
 

Well suddenly this is all pretty great and exciting. We're all but qualified for the Champions League for the first time, still have an outside chance for the Serie A title although we'd need to have a perfect May whilst Inter would need to lose 5 points, and we're looking good for club's first modern European final (Bologna had a few appearances in things like the Mitropa Cup and the Anglo-Italian Cup way back then). May's gonna be a huge month...

[noikeee]

More good news...

Yes that's an expensive paid loan, and it'll be the 3rd season he'll be with us on these terms, but it's been more than worth it. He's been AMAZING. Currently 12 assists in 34 matches with a average rating of 7.45.

What I'm looking at is hiring him permanently on a free. Nearly happened this year as his contract was running out, but then I think Chelsea triggered a 1 year extension.

[noikeee]

May 2025 (1): Into an European final, but Italian title chance slips away
 

 

Onto the big Conference League semi-final, I wanted to get it over with on the 1st leg and threw the absolute best 11 we have (on form rather than on paper). It worked. It was as one-sided as it gets. Both André Anderson and Riccardo Orsolini scored twice, Afonso Sousa got 3 assists, and we demolished them 6-0.

 
 

This was great but I got even more excited for the following match, in Serie A. Inter had just lost away to Atalanta, so it was a golden choice to cut the gap to them from 5 to 2 points. The problem? I had to face my former side Cremonese, away, although when they sacked Nuno they did not hire Mourinho but rather Senegalese manager Aliou Cissé. And that turned into a bit of a disaster. Bad pass from Tejera, goal by Vignato. Bad pass from Bordignon, 2nd goal by Cremonese. Orsolini misses his interception? Boadu makes it 3-0. We managed to reduce at the very end but it was too late. I think this was our golden chance to still sneak in an Italian title this season, and we let it go.

 

But we're still well into contention for the Conference League. In the return leg in Switzerland, Pellegri scored twice and we won comfortably again, 3-1, for a massive 9-1 aggregate. The news here wasn't our match but the other semi-final, as Rennes having lost to Lazio 3-0 away, somehow beat them 4-0 in France. It's gonna be Bologna v Rennes in the final which will be played in Belgrade.

 

Shame about the missed chance in the league, but attention now switches to the final match of the season in Belgrade. Can we win this funky cup, which would be the first trophy in my career?

Edited May 3, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

May 2025 (2): Big disappointment
 

 

On the final stretch of the Serie A, one match still seemed like it had a bit of importance - home to Udinese, who were part of the pack chasing us for 2nd. We dealt with this great, winning easily 3-0 with 2 goals from centerback Joris Gnagnon. This qualified us mathematically for the Champions League.

 
 

Next we went away to Brescia. We won 3-2, but this was the first signs something could be off. We had dominated, and really shouldn't have conceded twice, but we did. Inter clinched the championship the same day after they beat Napoli.

 
 

So the final day in the league didn't really matter - I rotated everyone and gave first appearances to January signings Zdravko Zivadinovic (GK) and Raúl Machado (ST). On hindsight, maybe I shouldn't really have done this. We played pretty badly, and lost 2-1. Pellegri got a goal but still came just one goal short of being top scorer on Serie A, on goal Zivadinovic did great and saved us from conceding more. Was this a meaningless defeat as it mattered nothing to the league table, or a blow to morale and confidence at a critical moment?

 
 

Because next it was the big European final. In Belgrade, we were without RB Mauricio Tejera and CB Samuel Obasi. This is no excuse. We started horribly. A through ball down the right freed Despodov - a player I hired and managed for a season for Cremonese - and it was 1-0 for Rennes. 3 minutes later, Quincy Promes shot from outside the area after a corner, 2-0 for Rennes and only 9 minutes had gone by. We sleptwalked into half-time, playing really badly.

We woke up better after half-time though! Orsolini had a big chance - missed. Bordignon had a big chance - missed. The minutes went on, I replaced both forwards, and finally we reduced, through Paolo Gozzi on a corner. A couple minutes later, 2-2! But no! Simone Rabbi was offside, clearly offside tbh. And immediately afterwards, their RW Florian Marty who I've been following for a while, won the byline, and crossed for Promes. He headed it in. It was all over. Rennes win the Conference League.

 
 

This felt terrible, not the way I wanted to end the season. We were so close to our first trophy here. Either way, it was a positive season - 2nd in the league and a European final was much more than what the board had asked, and a big step over last season. It just feels bitter to come so close to the taste of champagne... and end up with a cheap knockoff fizzy drink instead.

[kidthekid]

Fantastic season but a rough finale. Hope Jefferson can figure it out. 

Edited May 3, 2020 by kidthekid

[quee]

Great season to finish 2nd, unlucky with the final. Momentum does play a factor, it seems.

I'm very impressed your Cremonese is still going strong without you.

[Hootieleece]

Juventus is 10th! How badly are the AI managing them?

Qualifying for Champions League is quite an accomplishment.

Losing Finals always hurts...better luck next time.

[noikeee]

On 03/05/2020 at 21:29, kidthekid said:

Fantastic season but a rough finale. Hope Jefferson can figure it out. 

I'm giving him another chance next season. But tbh I just hope someone comes in with 40 million or even 30 million and gets him off my hands. And I'm talking about a player valued 48M€ by the game, by miles the standout in my squad... It's really quite incredible how **** he managed to be for his skills on paper.

On 03/05/2020 at 21:40, quee said:

Great season to finish 2nd, unlucky with the final. Momentum does play a factor, it seems.

I'm very impressed your Cremonese is still going strong without you.

Momentum/morale is absolutely everything in this game. The only way to break past it is have a seriously good tactic which overpowers it, which I don't think I've quite managed to reach that stage yet, despite all the tweaks and complete overhauls of systems every season.

Cremonese have a tycoon who joined when I got them promoted to Serie A, that's why they're keeping up.

On 03/05/2020 at 22:28, Hootieleece said:

Juventus is 10th! How badly are the AI managing them?

Qualifying for Champions League is quite an accomplishment.

Losing Finals always hurts...better luck next time.

I'm really quite amused at how bad the AI has managed to do with Juventus. They still have a wonder squad, yet their last 4 seasons... 5th, 4th, 8th and now 10th.  They kept Sarri for far too long then have now gone through Simone Inzaghi, Marcelo Bielsa (!!!) and now Daniel Farke.

Their end to the season was amazing:

Thrilling.

[quee]

24 minutes ago, noikeee said:

They still have a wonder squad

Can I have a look at their squad?

[noikeee]

37 minutes ago, quee said:

Can I have a look at their squad?

Sure.

"Wonder squad" is probably being too kind to them as lots of these players are past their peaks, but look at the names, I mean come on, how the **** are they 10th.  De Ligt, Dybala, Bentancur, Dominguez and Moro who are awesome on the game (I had them both at Lyon), Schick, Umtiti, Coutinho and Isco who are past their best on their physicals but I guess are still Coutinho and Isco, Lozano, etc etc. Oh and upfront they have Piccoli who was a major nuisance when he played at Atalanta, every time we faced him. He's a beast.

Edited May 5, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

Season review - Bologna - 2024/2025

Competitions

• Serie A: 2nd
• Coppa Italia: Knocked out in the 1st round by Salernitana
• UEFA Conference League: Lost in the final to Rennes

Club vision

The board loves me and gave me an A+ again. Like I said, I think this was a good season but it ended on a bitter note that took the fun out of it...

Finances

 

We've now spent most of the Torresi money but the run in Europe did give us a bit of cash. 47M€ in the bank is looking solid. On the other hand the wage bill has risen dramatically the last couple of years as I've increased it to retain and attract better players.
 

Squad statistics

 

Top 5 players of the season

5. Samuel Obasi (DC)

 

An excellent January signing as PSG went completely insane and let a wonderkid go for less than 9M€. He made a wonderful centerbacks duo with Gnagnon, averaging an excellent 7.44 rating. It's not a perfect duo as he's on cover duty and I don't think he's quite quick enough for it, but it'll do for now, both of them are too good to be benched.

4. Lennart den Otter (MR)

 

It wasn't entirely clear who was my best winger as both den Otter and Vuckovic, both kids I signed this season, were thereabouts on the same level. I think Vukovic played better on the more difficult Serie A fixtures, however I think den Otter deserves the top 5 mention because he was outrageously good in Europe to compensate. With a total 11 goals and 14 assists he was the player most involved in total goals for us this season.

3. Riccardo Orsolini (ST)

 

Overperforming by quite some distance, Orsolini who isn't even all that great a finisher ended the season as our top scorer on 20 goals (!), 13 of them in Serie A, the other 7 in Europe. For whatever reason he's just proven the perfect DLF on the pitch. And this number of goals comes despite the fact he missed 2 months to injury, AND that I signed Pietro Pellegri in January to basically directly replace him in the squad. He still managed to hold on to his squad place for now.
 

2. Joris Gnagnon (DC)

 

If last season we were struggling a little in set pieces, this year we were devastating on them, scoring loads from corners and indirect freekicks. The player to most regularly put them in the back of the net was our reliable French centerback, who scored an incredible 9 goals. His performances were magnificent, attacking and defending, averaging 7.46.

1. Daniel Bragança (DM)

 

The other part in this set piece equation is who takes the FKs and corners and being on these duties allowed Daniel Bragança to shine to a ridiculous level, despite playing DM. Averaging 7.48, he managed to grab 13 assists, scoring twice as well. On top of set piece ability he also sprayed passes all over the pitch to metronomic precision. I'm delighted to renew his loan for next season.

Other honourable mentions

Giuseppe Amoroso (DR)

 

We now have several players my staff estimates at absolute maximum potential, but the kid I really do wish reaches that potential is Amoroso, who is a Bologna youth product and who I've been playing as RB (IWB) in the Conference League. I thought his progression was slightly disappointing actually, but he did play well on the pitch and even scored twice and assisted twice.

Individual competition stats

Serie A:

Pietro Pellegri's move from Lazio to Bologna in January may have cost him the top scorer award - he was on 11 goals with his previous club, and although he also grabbed 7 for us in the rest of the season, he came just one goal short of Anthony Martial. He wasn't the only Bologna player to shine - Gnagnon finished 3rd in average ratings, and Lafont in goal got a lot of clean sheets. But just look at our former man (and youth product) Torresi.. 18 assists for the champions, bloody hell!

Conference League:

Only one player here despite the fact we made the final, and it's a surprising one. Leftback Caio Henrique didn't play well in Serie A but terrorised the opposition in Europe with a crazy 9 assists.

[quee]

33 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Sure.

"Wonder squad" is probably being too kind to them as lots of these players are past their peaks, but look at the names, I mean come on, how the **** are they 10th.  De Ligt, Dybala, Bentancur, Dominguez and Moro who are awesome on the game (I had them both at Lyon), Schick, Umtiti, Coutinho and Isco who are past their best on their physicals but I guess are still Coutinho and Isco, Lozano, etc etc. Oh and upfront they have Piccoli who was a major nuisance when he played at Atalanta, every time we faced him. He's a beast.

Lots of original players still staying at Juventus as well! In my save, most of those players are gone by the 3rd season. They definitely should be doing better than 10th!

Agreed with Moro, he's on-loan at Bologna in my save, and always a danger despite still being 18/19.

[Sheriff7]

11 hours ago, noikeee said:

Competitions

• Serie A: 2nd
• Coppa Italia: Knocked out in the 1st round by Salernitana
• UEFA Conference League: Lost in the final to Renne

Then definition of what is football and football manager..

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2025-2026: A strange Summer of stability
 

Well now this is unusual. Only 3 new players? Yes. Actually that's 2 new players, given Bordignon has been here on loan the last 2 years. That's what happens when you don't have much cash in hand but also already have a pretty well settled squad, too.

That being said there was still room for improvement and I was eyeing two positions - LB and GK. GK was left for another time, as I decided to raise as much cash as I could to get the LB. This meant sales of lesser players - one of the two LBs was sold, Caio Henrique, for 4.6M€, and I also let RB/CM Pablo Galdames go for 6M€, plus backup homegrown striker Alberto Cristiano for 600K€. A bunch of kids that weren't gonna make it were sold too, such as Ariel Mosor, Alberto Toubba, Marco Molla.

The big news was probably the thing that almost happened, but didn't. I had a big offer for Joris Gnagnon from Juventus, that I accepted, and naturally I had a replacement lined up as well. Then Gnagnon rejected the move - presumably he wants to play in the Champions League rather than move to the Turin minnows... It's not impossible he might still move in the few days left before the transfer window ends, Man Utd are interested.

The other free transfer I could grab on, beyond 21 year old striker Antonio Bordignon joining permanently... is another pretty decent 21 year old striker. Former Arsenal and Norwich (on loan) star van Mosselveld perhaps is just slightly short of being the world class striker we should be eyeing for the coming seasons, but you can't pass up on players like this on a free, specially since there was space for him in the squad.
 

And the Dutch contingent grows further with the new LB, I paid a rather handsome 16M€ for him. That's because there's a big scarcity of proper attacking WBs that actually can defend as well, this was the best player I could find that fits my budget. Bit of a gamble as my scouts warned me he might struggle to adapt himself to live abroad, let's see.
 

Current squad and starting 11:

Well, bar Wijndal, it's the same team. I'm gonna try starting the season with Jefferson and Pellegri as starters to see if they perform better now. Pellegri should do fine, and he has to play either way because Orsolini just picked up an injury that'll stop him until maybe early October, but I've got my doubts on Jefferson...

[quee]

Loved the size of your squad, just enough but packed with qualities! It shows planning to get where you are and I really like that. The fact that only 3 transfers came in was justifying the choices so far as well.

[noikeee]

15 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

Then definition of what is football and football manager..

I feel like José Peseiro, 2005.

If this reference is too obscure, he was managing Sporting at the time and fighting for the league and the Europa League. In the space of one week he lost both - including the Europa League final being played at home, in Lisbon, in Sporting's own stadium, against CSKA Moscow, in absolutely shambolic fashion. Sporting missing the equaliser as their RB Rogério hits the post from the goal line, only for CSKA to score in the immediate counter was hilarious.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Nx44nv_Ik (that epic move starts at 1:30)

Peseiro has since become a running gag of Portuguese football. That Sporting team played pretty damn good football to be fair, but ever since, he keeps getting sacked then somehow falling upwards to take more and more emergency caretaker manager roles despite failing with all of them. 

[noikeee]

8 minutes ago, quee said:

Loved the size of your squad, just enough but packed with qualities! It shows planning to get where you are and I really like that. The fact that only 3 transfers came in was justifying the choices so far as well.

It's... rather short, I usually have like 26 players.  I just managed to loan out the excess this year so hopefully they can develop with first team football... there's players like Cangiano (winger, Bologna homegrown), Jakobsen (DM, I hired him last year), Zivadinovic, Raúl Machado, Hebibovic, Esposito (all regen youngsters I hired over the last 2 years), they're all out on loan.

[quee]

Youngsters are youngsters, until they became part of your first team squad

[noikeee]

Oh, great.

[Northernpilgrim]

13 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Oh, great.

[quee]

At least you can't complain it's a boring group!

Mine in the 2nd season were with Barcelona, Bayern, and Lyon I enjoyed it despite finishing 4th

Edited May 7, 2020 by quee

[noikeee]

August 2025: Dodgy start

We begin with 2 matches against teams that have just gone up from Serie B. Easy, right? Looked like it in the 1st half at Empoli, Pellegri giving us the lead from the penalty spot. Then we conceded twice against the run of play - new signing Wijndal went sleeping and allowed the opposition to run past him and cross at the backpost; and then it was the now routine conceded goal from a long shot after a corner, both goals scored by a very average winger. We had loads more chances, shots on target, ball possession, but felt awfully uninspired.

 
 

The next match was the same except we didn't concede. 39 shots, 20 on them on target, and we only score once, from a long shot? It's a win, but we've got work to do...

 
 

I've got a bad feeling about this, we can't be playing like this against the likes of Man City and Barcelona.

[Hootieleece]

That's not such a bad group...LOL!

The worst run of opposition teams I have ever had was as FLA (Brazil Super Team) in the World Club Championship...where I had to beat Napoli, Barcelona, PSG, and Man City to win the Trophy...you Got this

[rodesire]

7 hours ago, noikeee said:

Party group!

[noikeee]

September 2025: Strong in Europe, inconsistent in Italy
 

 

September started with a bloody brilliant match in Bergamo. Facing an Atalanta that did not wish to defend too much, it was a delight for the neutrals. We were winning 2-1 by minute 8, scored another before half-time, wobbled a bit when Atalanta reduced again but eventually ran out 4-2 winners. Fun.

 
 

Next was our Champions League debut with the easiest match of the group, home with Leverkusen. It went well, Leverkusen were feisty but we were better with our finishing. 2-0 win with Vukovic shining, goal and assist from the wing.

 

Then it was back to Serie A and back to shambolic mode. I made the mistake of rotating the whole side, I shouldn't have done this. But come on.... 30 shots to Cagliari's 5 and we lose 1-0? Admitedly lots of our shots went anywhere but the goal, but this felt frustrating. We absolutely must be winning matches like this.

 
 

I dreaded the following fixture, away to my former employees Cremonese in such inconsistent form sounded like a recipe for disaster. And it was... for Cremonese. We suddenly clicked on a glorious afternoon - specially for Serbian winger Nikola Vuckovic who was at his very best with an hat-trick plus an assist. 4-0 win!

 
 

So we're back on form then? Hold off there for a second. This Bologna side this season doesn't appear to like easy looking matches at home. So of course we had to mess things up against Brescia. Dull 0-0, again lots more shots than the opposition (16 vs 3), but at least we didn't concede. But this is a serious problem, and one that frankly I didn't have at all last season, so I'm very confused about this. We seem to have forgotten how to break down defensive teams. Is it because they're going even more defensive, as we grow in reputation? Idk.

 

So off we went to Camp Nou, expecting to get smashed by a Barça side that is the stuff of dreams - as if Ansu Fati, Kai Havertz, Kingsley Coman, Rodri, Todibo, Zinchenko all at their very peaks wasn't a strong enough side, they've gone and added both Mathias de Ligt and Erling Haaland in the last transfer window. I tucked in my seat and expected to count the goals. They scored mid first half. I tucked deeper, looked barely over the corner of my eyes in terror. The minutes went on, we were sort of surviving the onslaught, just 1-0. Minute 92, substitute Simone Rabbi who isn't even all that great of a winger and was playing MR, half fit, puts in a cross to Bordignon. Goal! 1-1 and it's over. We're party poopers in Catalonia.

 

We've started great in Europe, honestly 4 points is what I was expecting from the whole group, we've got them already. But there's serious trouble in Serie A, alarmingly we seem to have forgotten how to break down defensive sides, that is very bad.

Maybe I should take some lessons from that Inter side - they're absolutely smashing everybody up, it's insane.

[quee]

Wow +20 already in just 6 games!

[noikeee]

13 hours ago, quee said:

Wow +20 already in just 6 games!

They're up to +27 in 8 now, and Torresi has just been insane for them.

[Sheriff7]

On 07/05/2020 at 02:42, noikeee said:

I feel like José Peseiro, 2005.

If this reference is too obscure, he was managing Sporting at the time and fighting for the league and the Europa League. In the space of one week he lost both - including the Europa League final being played at home, in Lisbon, in Sporting's own stadium, against CSKA Moscow, in absolutely shambolic fashion. Sporting missing the equaliser as their RB Rogério hits the post from the goal line, only for CSKA to score in the immediate counter was hilarious.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Nx44nv_Ik (that epic move starts at 1:30)

Peseiro has since become a running gag of Portuguese football. That Sporting team played pretty damn good football to be fair, but ever since, he keeps getting sacked then somehow falling upwards to take more and more emergency caretaker manager roles despite failing with all of them. 

Υou should watch this final...

 

[noikeee]

October 2025: Signs of recovery

So next we went to Turin to face Juventus, and, well, this is the first time in a long time they actually felt like anything like proper Juve. Before the match I thought they were suspiciously defensive on a deep 4-1-4-1 but they actually dominated the first half and scored twice through Dybala. I realised I was making a tactical mistake, using the assymetrical setup with no winger on the left, getting dominated down the wings, and reverted to the old Raumdeuter-on-the-left setup. It made us play much better for the 2nd half, but it was too late, we still lost 2-0.

 

That match we lost because we started with too much risk, however the following match was at home. And although we faced Lazio who I didn't expect to defend too much, in our matches at home this season we've been coming short because of a lack of risk, not too much of it. So I decided to further increase it in a 4-4-2ish setup, swapping the AMC for an extra left winger. It worked brilliantly - 4-0 win! Bordignon particularly benefitted, with a hat-trick, but the hat-trick of assists of Lennart den Otter was also remarkable.

 

Up next it was Man City for the CL at home and we struggled a little in the first half, conceding right before half-time, and nearly going 2 goals down from the penalty spot, but they missed it. However we did well in the 2nd half and Dutch forward Eric van Mosselveld got his first goal for the club out of the bench. It finished 1-1 and I'm quite happy, I did not expect to still be undefeated in the CL after 3 matches in this group.

 

Back onto Serie A away to Genoa. The first half was... rough. I had to exhaust all my 3 subs due to injuries, Genoa had 2 guys injured as well, and a red card. So we found ourselves winning 1-0, after Gozzi had gotten one in a corner, and against 10 men - this looked just fine, match in the bag. Except they equalised in a corner as well, and now we were in trouble. I increased risk switching to the 4-4-2 I had experimented with against Lazio, and although it took a while, we finally got the winner through a penalty kick. But this match might cost us due to all the injuries - Vuckovic will now stop from 3 to 4 weeks and Pellegri for 6 to 8 weeks.

 

 

We're still only 6th in Serie A, and although catching Inter at this rate just isn't gonna happen, I think 2nd place is within our reach, we're really only 2 points behind Napoli who are 2nd. We're starting to look a little better now, even if we lost to Juventus, the 1st half with Juve was really the only bad part of this month.

In Europe it's going better than expected, I'm still not sure we can get out of the group, but I'm now more confident we can salvage at least a Europa League spot.

[noikeee]

Bologna tactics by 2025
 

So I've talked about the 4-4-2 I experimented with against Lazio (resulting in a 4-0 win!). That's my latest, newest "high risk" strategy:

I still need to adapt Jefferson to the ML position but I feel I can get him much more in play than from the AMC slot. He's now fully integrated and has shown some sleek things here and there, but unfortunately in this match engine I can't get anything directly from AMCs (it's still valuable to have one on the pitch in some circumstances to free up space for other players), so I'm just wasting a mega player by having him there.

 

The main plan has for a while, of course, been the following one:

The main change since the last time I showed this, is that the AMC is no longer a AM/A but a AM/S. This puts him slightly more in play and I've noticed him capable of playing the odd through ball to the AF, when there's the space to do so. He has a very modified role with lots of instructions such as pass shorter, shoot less, dribble more, take more risks etc. But as I said above, unfortunately whatever I do with AMCs they're always a secondary figure at best.

 

And of course we still retain the following option, as the lowest risk setup of the 3:

It's not a defensive setup by any means but this is definitely the most solid solution defensively of the 3, with wingers helping the fullbacks in both wings and a trio of central midfielders.

[noikeee]

So, Parma had started the season with 12 defeats from 12.

Then they go and do this.

 

This league man, this league...

[noikeee]

November 2025: Continued recovery in Serie A
 

 

November started with a tricky home match against an aggressive Milan side. We actually scored in the very first minute, but to no avail as they quickly equalised. It was a really open match and we went a goal down in the 2nd half. I threw everything upfront in the 4-4-2 (I'd actually started on that too but then retracted) and we started creating loads of chances. Until finally in minute 87 Jefferson ties it, it'd end 2-2. It was only a home draw, so not brilliant, but still felt good - we created a lot, only didn't score more thanks to Donnarumma making a sequence of saves, and finally Jefferson scores his first goal for the club! With a pretty important goal, too.

 
 

Next was another super tough European match, away to Man City. We put a real fight - took it 1-1 to half-time, then went one up again mid 2nd half, we immediately tied it, and held on to the 2-2 result until minute 87.... then Lautaro Martinez scored 2 in quick succession to make it a hat-trick and a 4-2 win for the home side. Fair tbh, City had been the better side, but at least we created a few chances and scored twice.

 
 

Back to the league and away to Salernitana. This was a prety convincing 4-0 win but the most relevant thing about this match is Jefferson has well and truly arrived. On the AMC position which has been so tough to make players shine on, no less, he scored twice within the first 15 minutes and still added an assist. Nice!

 
 

2 much bigger matches were coming, the first was again in Serie A but at home to Napoli - this is the team in 2nd place we were chasing in the table. I went with the 4-4-2 again (I'm doing this for every home match now, unless it's a really superhard tie like Barça or City), and it went great. First it was a delicious long ball from Bragança that found André Anderson rushing forward from the mezzala position, he dribbles past a couple players and scores the first. Then early in the 2nd half a Vuckovic cross found Bordignon for the 2nd goal, the young forward having a great season so far with lots of goals. Napoli immediately reduced but we held on. Vital win as we try to approach the top positions in the league.

 
 

Back to Europe and the other key fixture here - away to Leverkusen, a match that could decide qualification either way. Much like the earlier match against them at home, this was really, really tense and even. The difference is this time we did not score and it finished 0-0. They had had more shots, we had had the better chances. I guess it's fair - it'll go down to the final match.

 
 

Then to finish off November we went to nearby Florence for a seemingly fairly routine 1-0 win. We struggled a little at the end though when Fiorentina threw caution to the wind, but held on. This match could've had several more goals either way...

 

 

We're definitely back on track in the league now, onto the CL spots where we should be, and only 1 point off Napoli for 2nd which is my goal now - a title challenge is written off for this year, I think.

In Europe, an exciting final day in the CL group is being set up. We host Barcelona and frankly I don't know what will happen. A win for Barcelona and we're out of the CL. A win for us and we're through. A draw, and we should be through, but it's not impossible Leverkusen can win in Manchester, if unlikely - that would drop us to the Europa League.

[noikeee]

December 2025: Perfect record month propels us to clear 2nd in Serie A and to the CL knockouts
 

Home to Parma I didn't expect much resistance and gambled with rotating the side. It worked, easy 2-0 win. We were winning 2-0 by minute 8 and then the goals dried up, Rabbi missed the chance of scoring his 2nd penalty kick of the afternoon. But I don't care, it's 3 points and we dominated.

 

I had rotated against Parma because I knew the following match was the really big one. Home to Barcelona in the CL where we could go anywhere from 2nd place and qualification, to out of Europe altogether. Soon it became clear that the out of Europe scenario wasn't gonna happen as in the other match Man City were smashing Leverkusen, it would eventually end 6-1. But we were struggling to contain Barcelona, knowing a goal would drop us to the Europa League, as they had several chances. This continued and continued through the entire 90 minutes, and the prospect of a 0-0 draw, which was enough for us, increased. Then on minute 95 we decided to finish this off in style - Gnagnon scoring for us in a corner. It's a fortunate win, but we're through! And Barça are out of Europe altogether, bottom of the group!

 

Back to Serie A, a slightly tricky looking match in Udine. They're not on the mega form they were last season, though, so we took advantage of that. First we scored a ridiculous goal after RB Tejera put in an incredible rabona cross to van Mosselveld's head, then late in the match another Dutchman scored the 2nd for us, den Otter. Deserved 2-0 win.

 
 

Then we were set up to finish the calendar year with 2 matches at home. First against Cittadella, again I rotated a few players. This didn't result in any problems at all. An inspired van Mosselveld again opened the score, and eventually we'd run out 3-0 winners, Cittadella down to 10 men and failing to get a single shot on target.

 

The final match looked tougher, against Roma who are chasing the European slots. But the increasingly impressive van Mosselveld was on fire again. The Dutch forward scored twice and also assisted Afonso Sousa for a nice solo run goal, we easily won this match again, and by a bigger scoreline, 4-0.

 

 

We seem to be at our best now, let's see for how long this lasts. Home form has been fixed with the new 4-4-2 being clearly effective at breaking teams down, whilst away the good old assymetric tactic is doing fine most of the time. This means we've now quickly climbed to 2nd in the league and are already starting to open up a gap over Napoli for 3rd. The title still seems unachieavable, but Inter just lost their 2nd match of the season, you never know, if we somehow remain on this form and Inter hit a bad patch....

In Europe it's been a surprising success, I did not expect to get out of this group. It's a special tie in the last 16 as I face the club I actually support. They are very strong in-game, I'm following several of their players who are superb, so I don't know about this tie, but it could've been a far worse draw, we certainly have a chance.

[quee]

Wow, Mendy and Moura for bottom-placed Parma 

Seems to be lots of regens for them, as Adorante is the only original Parma player left.

[noikeee]

4 minutes ago, quee said:

Wow, Mendy and Moura for bottom-placed Parma 

Seems to be lots of regens for them, as Adorante is the only original Parma player left.

Yeah that was a weird looking squad, I remember clicking on them both during the match and thinking, "wtf".  They've both declined dramatically, I don't know what the hell happened with Mendy because he's not that old.

[noikeee]

Time to sell a great player

 

Clubs have been wandering around Gnagnon for a while and I was starting to think it was the right time to sell. He's hugely valued in the market, is just about to turn 29 already, and although he has been playing great for us for a few seasons, I already have another 2 great center-backs on great form, Samuel Obasi and Paolo Gozzi. Plus that's a better fitting duo of CBs as I can play the quicker Gozzi as covering CB in our high line systems, whilst neither Gnagnon or Obasi have super brilliant pace like he does.

The downside is, of course, we lose a great player that always performed great for us, and he still had another couple of seasons in him. We become short on depth for the CB position, with only Obasi, Gozzi, and Anguissa who is also 30 years old already and unhappy. We absolutely need 1 new CB, maybe 2 when I get rid of Anguissa, and right now we don't have a ton of cash to invest, with the board not letting me use much of the Gnagnon money, and I hadn't noticed Lyon were gonna get a big chunk of that too. But I'll figure something out.

[quee]

That's great money! Did you offered him out or the bid came on it's own?

[noikeee]

4 minutes ago, quee said:

That's great money! Did you offered him out or the bid came on it's own?

No, I waited for the bids to come in and negotiated it. I already nearly sold him in the Summer but then he didn't accept the move.

[quee]

1 minute ago, noikeee said:

No, I waited for the bids to come in and negotiated it. I already nearly sold him in the Summer but then he didn't accept the move.

Double his value is great business! He's not capped?

[noikeee]

53 minutes ago, quee said:

Double his value is great business! He's not capped?

Yeah that's a bit odd, I guess he's committed to France where the competition is tough, but would've had a ton of caps had he switched to Ivory Coast

[noikeee]

January 2026: Starting to mount a title challenge as wins continue
 

On the transfers front it's 2 CBs out, 2 CBs in, as I decided to sell not just Gnagnon but also the 30 year old, unhappy with lack of playing time Zambo Anguissa.

The 2 new CBs:

 

Tbh I rushed too early in securing this loan, this was just to ensure some squad depth with a decent player for the rest of the season, until I found a proper long-term replacement for Gnagnon. Then I actually found a great deal so not to end up with 5 CBs I sold Zambo Anguissa.

 

And this is the great deal. He's definitely not at the level Gnagnon was... yet, because he's only 17 years old. With his potential though he could well surpass him and become a proper world class CB, even if that's not quite guaranteed. I got him for 11.5M€ from Juventus, 2 years after they'd spent 11.75M€ on him from Lyon so actually they've sold him at a loss! If this transfer goes well we've got a top class CB for a decade, and he's ready to play already, well adapted to Italy.

 

 

We kicked off 2026 losing points in Genoa to Sampdoria. We were the better side but they were the ones to go a goal ahead just before half-time. We weren't very inspired and struggled to create many chances, but near the end the man of the moment Eric van Mosselveld scored an important goal again, a superb first time shot from outside the area, to at least salvage a draw for us.

 

Now the next match was critical. Home to Inter it was a golden chance to approach them a bit on the table - with the gap Inter had upfront over us and everybody else, this was pretty much our last chance to still launch a title bid. We dominated the whole match but luck wasn't on our side in the first half, as they were the ones that scored. However thankfully we came out of half-time at our best, scoring 3 times in an inspired 5 minutes stretch, to win this 3-1 and make this season of Serie A a bit more interesting!

 

Next up was a cup tie v Brescia, home. Our 2nd string players didn't play particularly well and we held a tiny 1-0 advantage most of the match until Bordignon added a 2nd goal in minute 94. We're through, that's what matters.

 

Back to the league and a much more convincing performance - against Empoli we went 4 goals up, easy win, even if they reduced near the end. 4-1.

 

Away to Frosinone and I gambled rotating players again (including a CBs duo of our new guys Papetti and Cousin), risky to do this away from home! But we got away with it. Went 2 goals up, they reduced, went attacking at the end and we trembled a bit, but survived. 2-1 win.

 
 

Onto the cup again, we're getting lucky that these cup ties are all at home, but this one was a tough one (on paper) against Napoli. I'm trying to focus on the cup a bit, as we're yet to win any competition and I think the cup is a great chance. So we threw everything at Napoli and it worked as we dominated. But, the goal took a while. Rabbi missed a PK in the first half and Napoli kept resisting well onto mid 2nd half. Until Jefferson took a rebound at the far post to make it 1-0. A little later, André Anderson had a superb run through the middle of the park before unleashing a missile from outside the box, 2-0. It's a win with lots of Brazilian flair to put us through the semi-finals, where we face Atalanta...

 

And speaking of Atalanta, if the following match was a test run for that cup semi-final, we easily passed the test. 4-0, total domination, with Eric van Mosselveld at his best again, scoring twice and assisting once, but shootout too to Jefferson who assisted both goals the Dutch forward scored.

 

We're now on a run of 16 consecutive matches without defeat, I feel it's the highest point of my career so far. Everything seems to be in the right spot - I now have a couple of different well-tuned tactics to use depending on the occasion, a squad I've built over a few seasons to fit these tactics well, a very harmonious and cohesive dressing room with everyone happy, everyone part of one single social group (except for just 1 player!), the 3 team leaders with "professional" personality which is near ideal, and a board with low expectations (they only demanded a top half position in Serie A).

Whether this can continue for much longer is anyone's guess, as momentum doesn't last forever - complacency is already starting to show in some players. If I can manage that, there's things to fight for this season. We've now recovered to just within 1 point of Inter in Serie A, albeit with a game in hand, but the title fight is well and truly on. In the cup the final is within our reach as I fancy our chances against Atalanta. In the Champions League, everything is obviously tougher, but we do have a chance against Porto. Is this the year I finally add some silverware to my empty trophies cabinet?

[noikeee]

February 2026: Undefeated run comes to an end
 

Off to Sardinia to face Cagliari. No problems, routine 2-0 win.

 

Next was the 1st leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final, home to Atalanta. Given that recently we beat them 4-0 in the league I expected this to go easy. I was wrong. It was a super entertaining open match and they actually had more shots than us. We went in front of the match twice, they drew twice. Thankfully we had Jefferson on good form with a goal and a assist and later on van Mosselveld gave us the winner. But a 3-2 win isn't a comfortable result to take to Bergamo for the 2nd leg.

 

The signs continued that we were starting to lose some steam, next when we hosted a Cremonese side that still retains a lot of my signings. We won 2-1 and 17 year old centerback Noah Cousin got his first goal for the club. However this is misleading - they had by far the better chances and we were very fortunate to win this.

 

I was concerned with these signs of a downturn in form incoming, before the big CL tie at home to Porto. It proved to be another very difficult match and they went a goal up first. We immediately equalised, through a wonderful curling long shot to the top corner by Daniel Bragança. But the rest of the match was tense and even and it all finished 1-1. This actually meant we broke a decades long record, making it for the first time in the club's history a run of 20 consecutive undefeated fixtures. But this didn't feel nice - it's a very tricky result to take to Portugal for the 2nd leg as they have the away goal, and are effectively ahead in the tie.

 

 

And finally, our luck ran out in Brescia. In the most ridiculous classic FM way. We utterly, utterly dominated and they even went down a man after a red card. So of course they would somehow manage to score 1 goal out of just 2 attempted shots, with just 10 men, and end up winning this one 1-0. Our run is over.

 

This of course made me very concerned for the following match as we faced Juventus and they're actually having an almost decent season (and beat us earlier when we went to Turin). Well, we couldn't have bounced back better. 4-0 win with Pellegri shining from the Raumdeuter role on the left with 2 goals, after I switched to the not-a-Diamond tactic midway through the match. This was made sweeter by Inter losing at home to Atalanta the next day, so their gap over us in the league was brought back down again to 4 points.

 

If we're already past the downturn in form, and all that cost us was the match in Brescia, that would be the ideal scenario. We're still in contention for the league although there's a danger we'll run of fixtures for Inter to slip up in, as the end of the season is fast approaching.

The danger though, is that we've not gotten ourselves in a very comfortable position coming into the 2nd leg, of neither the Coppa Italia semi-finals neither the CL last 16. At least we're winning over Atalanta but things look tough for the trip to Portugal.

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2026
 

 

Riccardo De Franco looks amazing, but my staff say he only has limited potential...

@ManUtd1 do you want a Georgian keeper, I'm releasing him on a free.

[noikeee]

March 2026: Still alive in all 3 competitions

Onto the big cup semi-final 2nd leg, we brought a 3-2 advantage, I was nervous knowing a Atalanta goal would put them ahead. I shouldn't have worried. van Mosselveld was inspired and scored twice in the first half and we were safe for the day, albeit Atalanta had their chances too. At the end it was a 3-1 win. So this means I'll be on the Coppa Italia final for the first time in my career! In there, of course, we'll have to face Inter, the best team in Italy...

 

Then Serie A, away to Lazio, tough match, yet I still had to rest a few players because fixtures were piling up and the big CL match was coming. This may just have cost us 2 important points here, as we could only get a 0-0 draw. Wasn't for lack of trying though, as we had a ton of chances, specially in the 2nd half. Disappointing.

 
 

Then the big one in Portugal, the greatest stadium in the world, Estádio do Dragão. Like the 1st leg it was a 50/50 super even match. We had to chase a result as Porto carried the away goal but then we got lucky! A cross from Vuckovic on the right found the head of Jefferson on the far post, it hit their keeper who was on the floor, and bounced in! We then held on to that goal, to book a place in the CL quarter-final! 

 

Next we had a easy one. Home v Genoa, 3-0 win despite rotating some players. By this stage Inter were starting to lose a few matches and we had cut the gap to just 1 point!

 

If only their rivals didn't help them. That's because next we went to the San Siro to face AC Milan and we found ourselves losing 1-0 by half-time. We actually played pretty well in the 2nd half then, and managed to tie it and get a 1-1 draw, which is a pretty creditable result, but that's lost points to Inter again.

 

We're through to the cup final (for the first time!), through to the CL quarters, and still within the title fight. However I'm not sure I fancy my chances in any of these 3 fronts. Inter look a tough draw in the cup, Bayern look an even tougher draw in the CL, and it's still advantage Inter in the league for now. We'll do our best - we have to play and beat the best if we want to reach the top!

[noikeee]

[noikeee]

April 2026: Setting up the final big battles against Inter

Home against Salernitana, it's an easy 3-0 win, never in doubt. With den Otter and Afonso Sousa one in either wing, they both shone assisting each other for a goal each. But the big news is, of course, that Inter lost the same day to Juventus handing us the league table lead for the first time in the season!

 

Over to the Champions League quarterfinals. Bayern didn't do much all match, however, frustratingly, they went a goal up in a set piece. We pushed and pushed and finally near the end got the equaliser. Again just like against Porto we draw the first leg 1-1 at home, a dodgy result to take it away.

 

So with the big games coming fast and tiring our key players, the last thing we needed was a super tough match in Serie A right after we had taken the table lead. But yeah, that's what we got, a trip away to Napoli. And this wasn't a great evening. They scored first then we fought like hell all match long to try to equalise. It was all over though when they got a 2nd goal with 5 minutes to go. There was still somehow some time for another goal at each end, the winners had been announced though. With this loss we immediately lost the lead again to Inter...

 

Over to Munich for the 2nd leg of the CL. To my amazement, we scored immediately, a scrappy goal from Jefferson in a corner, and we were ahead in the tie! But that didn't last long - 5 minutes later our keeper Lafont dallied on the ball, got mugged, 1-1. And much like back home in Italy we took some initiative of the match having more shots on goal than Bayern. However, to be fair, they did have the better chances. And eventually took them, one penalty kick before half-time, then in our desperation to attack through the 2nd half they killed us at the very end in a counter, 3-1. Our European run is over but I'm proud of my boys, we made Bayern fight for it.

 

After the most unusual run of 2 consecutive defeats, we needed to bounce back. What better than a big 4-0 at home v Fiorentina? Two notable things about this match - a nice rare brace by homegrown winger/forward Simone Rabbi; and the most ridiculous red card to our RB Mauricio Tejera, who had just come onto the pitch with 10 minutes to go then the first thing he does is to immediately get sent off the same minute. In a **** easy match that we're winning 4-0 at home!! **** off, Mauricio.

 
 

Then away to Cittadella, and it's another easy win. 3-0, wonderful long shot by Jefferson to open it up right at the beginning, the opposition down to 10 from early on too.

 
 

And we finish April with a slightly tougher 1-0 win away over Parma, single set piece goal, but good enough. Meanwhile Inter have lost some points so we've cut the gap back down to just 1 again.

 

We're out of Europe but I can be very happy with our CL performance. Knocked out Barcelona, reached the quarterfinals, only lost 2 matches away to City and Bayern. I can settle for that at this stage.

But what would make this season a truly delicious one would be a trophy. We face Inter in the cup final soon. We also face them in the league, being just 1 point behind them... and guess what is the final match of the season. Inter v Bologna, at the San Siro, round 38 of Serie A. This just seems to all be gearing up to be decided in a dramatic way in that final day, isn't it?

[Hootieleece]

You can do this! Inter needs to lose Attacking Italian Football for the win...(even if I am turning into a defensive minded manager in my saves)

[noikeee]

8 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

You can do this! Inter needs to lose Attacking Italian Football for the win...(even if I am turning into a defensive minded manager in my saves)

Well to be fair to them they've been pretty damn attacking all year long too. Usually line up in a pretty terrifying 4-2-3-1 with Torresi on the right, Odegaard as AMC if I'm remembering it correctly, and a very good teenager regen forward. This after they've already sold another monster regen forward for stupid money, from memory I think it was 158M€ to City in January.

 

Idk if anyone noticed but I'm struggling to find a good format to write updates this career, and keep constantly changing. I think the initial all written down format was better presented and easier to read than all these screenshots, but felt like too much work after a while. On the other hand I do still want to at least write one little sentence about each match. Any ideas?

[quee]

3 hours ago, noikeee said:

Idk if anyone noticed but I'm struggling to find a good format to write updates this career, and keep constantly changing. I think the initial all written down format was better presented and easier to read than all these screenshots, but felt like too much work after a while. On the other hand I do still want to at least write one little sentence about each match. Any ideas?

I prefer the screenshots + some written comment where needed. If all written only, I tend not to read everything and just scrolled through them until I saw something interesting or highlighted in bold.

I actually have the same dilemma as you. I wanted to start my own thread and not sure what is the best format. Makoto Nakamura's format seems to be good? (Screenshots then some comments)

I'm also toying with keeping the format I used at the Calcio thread by using the spoiler tag for the screenshots. Thoughts on this?