Motlhen Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 The Ultimate World Club Challenge started by @lionel messi can be found here. The basic notion is to win everything, everywhere! I'm using Timo's pack for the additional leagues: (Most on view only) The challenge begins in the nation with the two-letter abbreviation: FM.Flag pack The national stadium, the Yap Sports Complex is one of only two full-sized pitches on the island. In the 2015 Pacific Games Group Stage, Micronesia's U23's were involved in three of the top four largest International losses since 1997. There's a clip of all of the goals from their 46-0 loss here. Unemployed and unqualified, I am in the world's worst footballing nation attempting to get a job in their 2nd tier. I'll be on the sideline wearing this: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 Sep 2019 Nimgil Youth Organization YFA Island Wide League Last season's fourth place finishers finished 3 points from bottom in a really tight fight to avoid finishing last. This wasn't good enough for the board & I've come in as the replacement manager, taking the helm in preparation for the 2020 season. The club's expectations are that we become an established 2nd tier side, but I think we can progress beyond that in 5 years! My predecessors record: The team's name reflects the club culture, with a big emphasis on youth & the first news I am greeted with was a preview of our next youth intake. It was brought to my attention by Fairfield, my assistant manager and the only other staff member at the club. I was going to ask him if he wanted to broaden his role at the club & also work as a scout, but he denied any contract negotiation stating he's ready to move on to a more prestigious club. I've inherited a squad with obvious issues. Including our most used striker, Philip's 6.24 average rating last season. Our top scorer last season with 6 goals was our another striker Ligohr, who is the best rated player at the club according to my assistant but played half of his games coming on from the bench. The other top rated players are all attackers. Our youth intake doesn't mention central defenders, which is where I'll look to improve the squad once the transfer window opens in January 2020. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 6, 2020 Author Share Posted October 6, 2020 (edited) Oct - Dec 2019 Youth Intake There was a reason the centre backs weren't mentioned by my assistant, they are the three worst rated players! The most promising must be related to my assistant Fairfield (the islands population is ~12k so I feel it's improbable that they aren't!) but I don't see him making any real impact. I'll sign them all on to amateur contracts, but I have picked out a few that I think could become useful players for the first team. Top-rated Tainuwopuy wouldn't have made my list of top prospects from what I can see of him, but we'll see how he fairs in pre-season to gauge whether he'll live up to the hype. The only good thing about a bad intake is a stronger argument for investment, which is what the board have agreed to on two fronts. Staff In I've hired some other staff members.Graham & Hilario will have dual responsibilities as they have both agreed to add Scouting to their main responsibilities. Edited October 9, 2020 by Motlhen 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) Jan - Feb 2020 Transfers In COM-FSM's 2nd place finish in the top tier wasn't enough for the board & their player-manager was sacked. He's agreed to join as a backup as well as our U21 Manager. My first signing at Nimgil Youth, where the board have stated it is against club policy to sign over 30's, is a 53 yo! The rest of our signings fit the club's transfer policy of signing U25's. & we made a few more additions to the backroom staff too. Ligohr is club captain. Olmos is VC. We're predicted to finish 4th. I'm raring to go, but with a pretty unproductive pre-season, the first few games will still be helping me figure out the squad. Edited October 9, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 Mar 2020 I'm starting from scratch with tactics, so have adopted this very basic 4-4-2 for the opening game. My thinking is that the players are terrible, so simplicity is key. "Kick the ball in the goal!" And we did dominate the game. But we couldn't convert our chances, even though we worked some great openings including 7 half chances! Including a 95th minute penalty that would have got us a more-than-deserved point at the last! Gutted to have started with a loss, but an encouraging performance bar the finishing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) For our second match I want more of the same, but with goals! I've pulled back our front line in the hope to create more space for our forwards to get in behind with our direct passing. & we did get more of the same. We reduced our opponents to mostly long shots, whilst we littered their goal from close range. But if it wasn't for another 95th minute penalty, which we converted this time, we would have come away disappointed again. Our first win, which is massive, but we need to score from open play! We've had enough chances & from decent positions, hopefully the goals will come like buses. Edited October 9, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 I've switched up the formation for this one. I've dropped both of our wingers back to wing backs. Both have great natural fitness and should be able to provide something to both our attack and defence. This has allowed me to opt for 3 at the back & 3 up front. Hopefully we'll be able to create more chances & surely eventually one will go in!? We had a total of 24 shots. No goals. I told the players to work the ball into the box for the second half, maybe I need to tell them to work the ball into the 6-yard box? The shots that have ended up on target are mostly straight at the 'keeper. Although saying that, it didn't matter for the oppositions goal as we slump to a second defeat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 (edited) We've tried 2 up front as well as 3 strikers, so why not try four!? I've brought in two natural inside forwards to broaden our attacking width. This has left our midfield light. To ensure we're not committing too many men forward I have switched from having wingers as make-shift wing backs to having one natural wing back and one full back as a makeshift wing back. This should provide more security down the wings. We did score, but we come away with only a point. Again, it's more disappointment. We only created 2 half chances whilst they had 2 clear cut chances meaning we were probably lucky to come away with a draw. & we still haven't scored from open play. fk.mp4 So far this season we've had 56 shots, 23 of which have been on target. We've hit the woodwork 4 times, created 10 half chances & 8 clear cut chances. I am hoping that the goals will arrive like buses; wait ages for one and loads come at the same time! Our first month has not produced enthralling results, but our overall play has been encouraging. We have a clear weakness: not converting chances, so we know what training will be over the next few weeks. One positive to focus on is that we're in a healthy financial position. & the board have decided to fund our goalkeeping coach / scout to help him get his first coaching license. As I've noticed a drop off in his stats, I'm more than happy to see investment in his coaching course rather than my own. Since signing, Hilario has dropped by one across the following attributes: Mental Determination GK Distribution GK Shot Stopping Judging Player Potential Tactical Knowledge But he's increased by one on GK Handling, so at least it's not all negative! Edited October 9, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 Apr 2020 We're playing Island Chihuahua in the next match, one of two teams yet to win a game. In the pre-match press conference their manager has been slating the state of our pitch. Does he not know we all share the same home ground because it's the only pitch on the whole island!? I'm continuing with the radical "6-6" formation. I've coined it this the defending is up to the 3 defenders, 2 wing backs & BWM and the attacking is up to the 4 forwards supported by the wing backs. I'm resigned to concentrating on the play in either final third as the quality of player doesn't particularly allow for many advantages to dominating the middle third. We grabbed a second win! But we've had a defender & two central midfielders score, not our four forwards. The header from Andrew was inside the box, but the two others were screamers! Again, I feel we're lucky to win as we cannot convert the simple chances. Another 5 half chances, 4 of which were missed. If we hadn't have scored the two long shots, we would have lost to conceding two goals from set pieces. Jaghar Paul, our target man, has the best finishing by some way of the members of the squad with 14. Since making it into the starting XI, he's had a game with no shots & then also the two below. We need to get him into better positions more regularly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 To get Paul into better goal scoring opportunities, I've changed him to an advanced forward as well as asking his strike partner to drop a bit deeper. The other alteration is to ask the wing backs to push wider to exploit the space left by the inside forwards runs, when they cut in from the wings. We created 3 clear cut chances and 3 half chances, didn't take any of them & to add the cherry on top we lost to a preposterous own goal. 9275d0d4fcbf0092e0308ce98dae4761.mp4 If only our strikers could find the bottom corner like that! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 (edited) The less said about the next game the better. I wouldn't be coming to watch us play if I didn't have to! The only positives for us were the performances from our two centre backs and our goalkeeper to ensure we got a point. We are still playing with 4 attackers, but for once we didn't create any real chances. A mixture of blocks & saves meant we kept them out & a clean sheet, but our finishing was wayward. Edited October 13, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 We had to wait until our 8th game for one of our strikers to score from open play & it wasn't a joyous occasion as it came in the form of a 91st minute consolation. We hit the woodwork, again. We created clear cut & half chances, again. We come away empty handed & disappointed, again! We managed to find the back of the net 3 times, but twice from an offside position. So I know that we can finish, we just need to start working better openings. Finding a way to do that is my task! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) For the next game I reverted to a more traditional formation, with a striker sacrificed for more security in midfield. Our BWM drops deep with a Carrilero coming into midfield to broaden the options to move forward. Sasao got us off to a great start and a penalty also early on gave us the security to go on and win the game! A huge 3 points & a convincing win. As usual, the stats show that we should have inflicted more damage. With our shots coming a lot more centrally & from closer range too, it's surprising that it stayed at 2-0. With a mixed bag of form ourselves, we sit in a pack from 2nd to 2nd from bottom separated by 2 points with 5 games to go. Edited October 14, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Probably our best game was followed by what was definitely our worst. Quietly optimistic of a change in fortunes, I made no changes to our starting lineup or formation for the first time this season in the hope of putting in a late surge for 2nd, but Weloy Strikers did what we have failed to do all season: finish clinically. Conterro got his first goal of the season & Olmos, who has our highest average rating so far this season, played his worst match in a Nimgil shirt. I am really hoping that this was an off day and that we can recover. This was the first time we have been truly outclassed, although still we created more half chances, but weren't able to take advantage of them. We have 4 games to go, ending with the leagues probable winners, Maap. Whether I'll remain in charge until then remains to be seen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 The transfer window is open again. A bit late for any transfers to make an impact this season, but we'll need to make improvements for next. I am worried that our league position will have an influence on whether we'll be able to keep hold of our current players too, if they are bid for by any of the other teams. First up this month though is a match against 2nd place G&B. Injury & suspension mean we've been forced into a couple of changes, but the core of the team remains the same from the drumming we took last time out. I'm hoping for vast improvements! But the same old story followed. We went 1-0 up through Jack's freekick, but then couldn't push on to a comfortable position & conceded twice from set pieces ourselves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 15, 2020 Author Share Posted October 15, 2020 (edited) After a poor start to my managerial career at Nimgil Youth, it was no surprise that I was sacked in 7th of 8 in the second tier of the world's worst footballing nation. Only in one game did we score more than one goal from open play. Results weren't going our way even with dominating performances & a majority of chances falling to our team. I am happy to be looking for a fresh start. And that fresh start came in the form of last season's 4th place finishers Tamil. They were the last team I beat as manager of Nimgil Youth & have been manager-less for the whole of the 2020 season. Nimgil managed two wins from three without me to finish 6th. The major difference between the two clubs that share the same home ground is that Tamil are a semi-professional club. One of 4 clubs in our division that aren't Amateur. I'm not sure the true benefits to this aside from a potential ability attract better players on semi-pro contracts, although I don't believe that the financial infrastructure in Micronesia is solid enough to support this. It'll be an adventure either way. I've agreed to start at the start of the new season, so I still have a couple of weeks before I take the reigns. Edited October 15, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Tamil None of my previous colleagues were interested in making the switch, so I have brought in Cantero as my assistant. He's helped me figure out the squad balance and where we need improvements. Last year's stats: Our best player & Micronesia international, who may be hard to keep hold of is Paul. Our finances aren't great. And a majority of our youngsters are on £25p/w wages, which we can't afford, even though we're semi-pro. I've offered them all appearance fee based contracts for when they turn 17. Our youth intake wasn't great either, with zero standouts. Luckily I could convince them all to join on appearance fee based contracts so I'll monitor their progress over the coming season to see if there is any chance of them becoming part of the match day squad, but it's unlikely. The highlights from the rest of the squad are: A right winger that can't dribble who got the highest average rating last season at 6.99. Our best rated striker and second-best rated overall player: Last season's first choice goalkeeper: Top goalscorer: Top of assists & the only player to feature in more than a dozen games; starting all 14: It's a stark reminder that things aren't going to be easier. The squad leaves much to be desired & the pool of potential signings doesn't yet look like it will improve the squad massively either. I've brought in some more staff & have arranged a few future transfers who will arrive at the end of the year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted October 17, 2020 Author Share Posted October 17, 2020 Jan 2021 Although I couldn't coax any staff to follow me from Nimgil to Tamil, I did convince some players: GK Torbiong BWM Olmos As well as someone my successor signed, Barnabus They were joined by: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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