[FM21] Schalke 04

[SimpleFM]

Long time lurker, first time trying this, I will copy some of format from the popular posters in this forum.

 I wanted to right some wrongs of the real life version because at the moment they are 24 games without a win, rooted to the foot of the table and not looking likely to get much higher anytime soon, the media is already asking if they will each the 31 games record of no wins and I want to turn this ship around. The last few years have been a struggle for Schalke on and off the pitch,  right now they are in huge financial debt and FM has them listed with a 160 million pound loan of which they are currently paying 2 million off per month. They also have made some rather interesting transfers, manager moves and in general multiple errors year after year. Another painful issue that is not helping is seeing their greatest rivals Dortmund doing so well and winning titles, signing exciting young superstars and playing nice football as well.

A quick look around the internet and you see these news articles. This is truly a club in crisis and on the verge of a civil war. I jumped into a few fan forums and the general mood is "When we get relegated" and "The worst team in Bundesliga history"  etc etc

Its surprising but Schalke are yet to win a single Bundesliga title and instead have finished 2nd on 7 occasions and this is surely unacceptable for a club of this size as the 3rd biggest in the country and now adding some salt into those wounds is that FM now think Schalke is also not very good anymore, they have them ranked as finishing 17th from 18 teams for this season.

One of the major fundamental problems I have seen with Schalke is their inability to hold onto their best players. I found this online picture from a 2019 article, it lists all active former Schalke players still playing for other teams, most of these are actually players from their famous youth system and while my aim is not to use Schalke youth only, its simply to show the potential of this massive club!

This is a high quality first 11 that could likely win the Champions League

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

First Team Squad...

Highlighted areas are the changes I've made, mainly looked to move out high wages and problem players while also making the squad more balanced and younger. I very much wanted to sell 90% of the entire squad but resisted that urge.

Very happy that Bayern were more than accommodating with us, they allowed 2 of their future stars to join us for first team experience, the signing of Jack Wilshire is a gamble but he has the quality to help us and Thiago Almada will be nurtured into the squad as a key piece to our rebuild/reset of Schalke. The sales of Nastastic, Sane, Mascarell, Uth and Fahrmann would likely be seen as a gamble but they were all on high wages, getting too old and from what I've seen on the real pitch, totally not worth being here.

There was a single change to the staff, we bring in Dirk Mack as our new number 2, he was previously Assistant Manager Shandong Luneng in China, while also having been the Germany Under 20s Assistant for 5 years from 2008-20013

Edited November 28, 2020 by SimpleFM

[ITFC_Blue]

Good luck! Was my aim at some point this FM to give Schalke a go and turn round their fortunes also!

[scarp]

Good luck. I doubt that eleven from ex-Schalke 04 could win Champions League though. I do not think they would win Bundesliga either. 

[SimpleFM]

5 hours ago, scarp said:

Good luck. I doubt that eleven from ex-Schalke 04 could win Champions League though. I do not think they would win Bundesliga either. 

Surely an 11 with Neur, Sane, Ozil, Draxler, Rakatic and Goretzka at the peak of their powers would go very close? You have 4 winners right there alone, then add in Matip who's also won it.

Update out today.

[SimpleFM]

Midseason update...

The good -  Winning games, some great performances so far against Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen and Hoffenheim and was never in danger of breaking the 31 game record. Smashing Dortmund 4-1 in our very first Revierderby has been the main highlight of the season.

The Bad - Wildly inconsistent, the gap between our best and worst games is very far as you can see in the games vs RB Leipzig, Mainz and Stuttgart 

The Ugly - Our defence is terrible, its the main cause of our bad games, we have been put to the sword a few times.

Possibly one of the most random tables I have ever seen in FM this early on, Mainz are dominating at the top of the table and their only loss so far is away to Bayern. Newly promoted Stuttgart are also having a wonderful time back in the league, mainly due to the form of Silas Wamangituka who has 12 goals in 16 games so far this season.

Not sure what is going on in Hertha or Hoffenheim but they are both really really struggling.

Top 3 Schalke Performances

1. Benito Raman - Goals and assists

2. Hamza Mendyl - Chipping in a few assists and causes some panic down the left

3. Ozan Kabak - We seem to be far more solid when he plays

January Window

There was a few players causing issues, they also were the highest wage earners and some had expiring contracts. All January deals are highlighted below.

I moved them all out in January to save wages and get a small fee. Now the main aim is bringing all individual wages below 50k per week and after this mini clear out we are on track with this goal and there is only 1 player left above this number on 53k. We started the season with a monthly wage budget of around 894k, these moves have seen it come down to around 600k per month, and as we are losing money fast thanks to the loan payments this is good news. We have already wiped out over 25 million in 6 months from the balance sheet.

Exploited the loan market to bring Curtis Jones he can cover multiple positions and will jump into the first 11 straight away and negates the loss of Schopf,  Victor Kovalenko will replace Bentaleb in the squad for almost 60k less wages a week as he was our former highest earner and Ahmedhodzic has come in to replace the highly disruptive and bad influence Stambouli who we are almost too happy to see leave. The last signing was a young promising forward from Koln, Thielmann comes in to replace the very ageing Ibisevic who leaves after playing the single game.

Edited December 3, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

The run home...

We came out in the new year in great form, only dropping a game to Gladbach in the last match before the final two months and the last 8 games of the league. This run of form has also seen us cruise into the semi finals of the DFB, our opponents in that will be Bayern!

Also to note, we have done the double against Dortmund.

Very tight at the top, we hold a slim 3 point lead but Bayern have a game in hand. We are well above where we should be, right now I am just happy to have some European action next season and at this stage its looking very good.

Both Mainz and Stuttgart have slowed down their fast starts, still at the moment its quite a good season for both and at the bottom we see Hoffenheim in the relegation positions with Hertha not far above them. 

A major factor in our form is how well Paciencia is going for us and his return of 17 goals in 20 games has really helped us. He has a clause in his loan agreement when I can sign him for 9 million.

[SimpleFM]

The Finish...

Things didn't go to plan at all, we threw away all the good work from the previous 3 months and limp home and finish in 4th, quite annoying because there was very winnable games against bottom sides and in the end we only miss out on top spot by 7 points as nobody really stood up and took charge of the league title.

However lets be realistic, its a great season overall, we finished 13 places above where the media thought we would, we achieved the boards request of top half and we have Champions League football to play next season.  

Still a strange looking table in the end, Mainz finished in 3rd, Dortmund in 10th and Hoffenheim in 15th. The biggest shock was seeing Hertha get relegated, they were actually well beaten by Hamburg in the playoff and despite all the money, the signings and hype its going to be season in the 2.Bundesliga for them next year. 

We clearly need to improve and improve our defence next season, I think this will be the focus of the transfers and tactic reshuffle for season 2 in Germany.

Top 3 Schalke Performances

1. Anel Ahmedhodzic - Signed in January, looks to be really good talent for us to build around, we should have 4 fairly decent Central Defenders for the next season as there has been some moves made in this position already.

2. Goncalo Paciencia -  On loan and the main threat up front, he ended the season with 20 goals and thats a decent return from him. Despite this success, we will not be exercising our rights to sign him for 9 million and he will return back to his home club Frankfurt.

3.  Tanguy Nianzou - Another loan star for us, hes really talented but sadly Bayern want 67 million to make it a permanent move and this is far more than I can afford.

Edited November 30, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

Pre-season...

Very busy, much work was to be done, so I made a quick checklist and summary.

Upgrade left back position…. failed

Upgrade right back position...passed

Replace 2 forwards who were on loan...passed

Replace 1 goalkeeper who was on loan... passed (not happy about it but passed)

Upgrade central defenders....passed

Sell Luke Wilshere...failed

Replace the entire staff roster...passed

Invent an alternative tactic... passed

Add talent to the wide forward areas...passed

Transfers...

The board were slightly generous and provided some backing, we also managed to balance out as best we could with sales. 

Weston McKenie, there was nothing I could do as the fee was built into his loan with Juventus but the fee was nice, we also moved on Raman for 19 million in another good sale for the club. The other transfers were just fringe players, nothing too important but the sale of Rudy was the most important as we wanted to shave his 84k a week wages from the bill.

Coming in  will be RB Salzburg pair Patson Daka and Jerome Onguene and they look like good bargains for that price and being able to speak German was another great incentive to add them to our rebuild, I did try to buy a few of the Salzburg players but they ended up being a little too expensive for us.  We next added talented wide players Calvin Stengs and Talles Magno and another Dutch international member in Deyovaisio Zeefuik from relegated Hertha to strengthen the right back position. Rounding out the incomings are 4 free transfers with Karius, Gomez, Otavio and Ambrosius all adding extra talent for no risk free transfers. The Karius transfer could be a gamble but for free, it was worth the shot as there is a talented player there somewhere behind those real life calamities. 

Tactic Reshuffle...

Still testing both, the DM is the new one being trained for this season and the other is what we used for all games last season to finish in 4th.

The Board...

The board is not expecting much again, just to avoid relegation and be somewhat competitive in the Champions League

Champions League...

This is pretty tough group for us, its possible we can take 3rd from Marseille but still a very tough group for our return.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

Midseason update...

The good -  Sitting in 2nd place at the winter break, winning 3 games in the Champions League

The Bad - Getting knocked out in the group stages of the Champions league despite winning 3 games and needing only to draw the last match, average production from most players who should do more and Dortmund won the derby

The Ugly - We were put to the sword by Arsenal and Juventus

Quite the turnaround and fall for last years surprise teams Mainz and Stuttgart and Hoffenheim the struggle is still very real for them.

Dortmund again at failing to really produce the results they should be but still hanging around enough they could make a run, we are in a well tight group of teams from 1 through to 7th and need to pull out of the slump we had in the end of November and into December before the World Cup.

Champions League...

Started well despite the 4-0 hammering from Arsenal but we then won 3 in a row and topped the group. The last matchday against Juventus was quite ugly but they had 5 shots and scored 6 goals and we had 12 and scored the 2 goals, so maybe not as bad as it looks.

We now head to the Europa and Monaco await us, I think we should be good enough to beat them and move on.

Top 3 Schalke Performances...

1. Patson Daka - Settled in quite well, on track to score 20 + goals and maybe closer to 30 but I wish he was more clinical.

2. Anel Ahmedhodic - Quite the rock at the back, seems to win all his tackles and aerial duels  and was injured in the games we slumped. Sadly he's also now unhappy and wants to leave the club due to the interest shown in him and not really enjoying the life in Germany.

3. Fredrik Andre Bjorkan - I didn't think he was going that well but he has provided 7 assists so far and seems to also work hard down his left side.

January Window...

A couple of players incoming for January, both players that I chased in the preseason but was not able to make it work.

The board asked me to shift my expectations for the season and I agreed so they kindly added more funds the available transfers. I actually was not too unhappy with Karius, he was playing quite well but I just didn't see enough from him to suggest he was our long term option in goals, there was a few 'Karius' moments that didn't help and I actually wanted Livakovic before we signed Karius for free in the summer. We sent our back up Ivan in the opposite direction and the fee for Livakovic ended up being around 7 million once his sale was finalised, this was 20 million less than they wanted before the season started. While I was in the boardroom with Dinamo, we also finally agreed on the sale of Ugarte, another player I wanted since the start, he rejected me the last few times I tried but in the end he's finally on his way.

Also a few other players have left us, most notably was Kovalenko who was homesick and returned to Shakhtar for a profit and we also let Amine Harit leave for China because he was not playing and his wages were too high for a squad/bench player.

Edited November 30, 2020 by SimpleFM

[ITFC_Blue]

Great work! Inspired by this save, I started as Schalke this weekend and coming up to finishing my first season. I too have also signed Dominik Livakovic. He really is a top keeper on FM. 27 games, 20 gals conceded and 17 clean sheets for me!

[SimpleFM]

6 minutes ago, ITFC_Blue said:

Great work! Inspired by this save, I started as Schalke this weekend and coming up to finishing my first season. I too have also signed Dominik Livakovic. He really is a top keeper on FM. 27 games, 20 gals conceded and 17 clean sheets for me!

Awesome! How's it going for you? Been a nice save so far, perfect introduction to FM21.

Thankfully there is good prize money to help with the loan..

[ITFC_Blue]

1 minute ago, SimpleFM said:

Awesome! How's it going for you? Been a nice save so far, perfect introduction to FM21.

Thankfully there is good prize money to help with the loan..

Not too bad, currently sit 6th with 3 games left, however it's very tight for European spots! I think there is 4 teams below me who are all within a point or 2. 

I have managed to arrange transfers for Sebastian Esposito & Dominik Szoboszlai, so hoping they'll fire us up the league a bit more next season. 

[SimpleFM]

5 hours ago, ITFC_Blue said:

Not too bad, currently sit 6th with 3 games left, however it's very tight for European spots! I think there is 4 teams below me who are all within a point or 2. 

I have managed to arrange transfers for Sebastian Esposito & Dominik Szoboszlai, so hoping they'll fire us up the league a bit more next season. 

They were both available for me as well but I had to resist the urge as I had signed them both in almost all my saves in FM20 so there was a mini transfer ban on both!

Best of luck, keep me informed of how you go. 

[SimpleFM]

January Window...

Made a very late incoming for the January window, I saw Steven Bergwijn was transfer listed but I made an offer to loan him and he's joined for the last half of the season.

Tottenham wanted an option future free of 13.5 million so if he does become a star in the team and perform well then we have the ability to pick him up at the end of the season and add him for the future campaigns but for now he's a high level cover to give Stengs a rest as he was becoming jaded from playing all games.

 

[karanhsingh]

Interesting, I didn't realize Schalke start off so poorly on the game. Good going.

[ITFC_Blue]

13 hours ago, SimpleFM said:

They were both available for me as well but I had to resist the urge as I had signed them both in almost all my saves in FM20 so there was a mini transfer ban on both!

Best of luck, keep me informed of how you go. 

Ha, I have never managed either of them, so was just happy to get them both!

Managed to finish the season in 5th, which, considering after the first 10 games I was sitting bottom, is a bit of a miracle. Made wholesale changes and now about to start the new season.

Great signing in Bergwijn, keep up the really good work!

[SimpleFM]

The run home...

Superb again after the break, very very similar to last season.

Despite winning all but 2 games, we did exit the Europa League to EPL side Wolves who were in 14th place at the time but knocked us out on away goals. This was really disappointing and shows we still have quite far to go before we can get any sort of European success.

Most games are still quite tight, we struggle with putting teams away and after the Wolves defeat we changed our system to open games up  more and not be so tight and rigid. It seems to be working so far, scoring 18 goals in 4 games since that defeat.

We remain just ahead of Bayern who we play next, then we play RB Leipzig straight after so that could make or break the season in those 2 fixtures alone.

Here is our run home and remaining fixtures, the plan is to do better at this stage than last season and keep up the momentum. We have a winnable fixture in the DFB against Gladbach

[SimpleFM]

2 hours ago, ITFC_Blue said:

Ha, I have never managed either of them, so was just happy to get them both!

Managed to finish the season in 5th, which, considering after the first 10 games I was sitting bottom, is a bit of a miracle. Made wholesale changes and now about to start the new season.

Great signing in Bergwijn, keep up the really good work!

Nice! 5th is still pretty good, if you didn't make huge changes in the first season and used the default squad then its very good. I think ill have only 1 of the starting squad left after this season in Ozan Kabak, the rest have all been moved on.

Bergwijn has been superb actually! I didn't think I would be thinking about signing him but he's been amazing so far.

[ITFC_Blue]

5 minutes ago, SimpleFM said:

Nice! 5th is still pretty good, if you didn't make huge changes in the first season and used the default squad then its very good. I think ill have only 1 of the starting squad left after this season in Ozan Kabak, the rest have all been moved on.

Bergwijn has been superb actually! I didn't think I would be thinking about signing him but he's been amazing so far.

I didn't in the first season. I signed the keeper which you did, Macias from Chivas, Rasmus Kristensen from Salzburg, Thiago Almada from Velez and Daniel Podence on loan from Wolves.

This pre-season, I have signed;

Farinez, Stergiou, Mwepu, Tijani, Szoboszlai (all 3 from Salzburg) Esposito. I'm trying to find someone who can cover both left/right back and I'm after a 3rd choice keeper. I did try signing Daka also, but he went to Leicester. 

[SimpleFM]

2 minutes ago, ITFC_Blue said:

I didn't in the first season. I signed the keeper which you did, Macias from Chivas, Rasmus Kristensen from Salzburg, Thiago Almada from Velez and Daniel Podence on loan from Wolves.

This pre-season, I have signed;

Farinez, Stergiou, Mwepu, Tijani, Szoboszlai (all 3 from Salzburg) Esposito. I'm trying to find someone who can cover both left/right back and I'm after a 3rd choice keeper. I did try signing Daka also, but he went to Leicester. 

Seems we are both targeting Salzburg players! 

I bagged 2 very good looking players in my youth intake, one of those is a keeper to watch so I am hoping he can turn into my 2nd/3rd very rapidly.

I wanted to sign Mwepu as well, mainly for giving a friend to Daka to have. Maybe I should look at Kristensen as well, I need back up for RB and I've just noticed Wober is listed for 9m!

Esposito moved to Fiorentina in January, hes scored 13 in 8 so far for them... Im going to get sad for not signing him. I know it.

[ITFC_Blue]

51 minutes ago, SimpleFM said:

Seems we are both targeting Salzburg players! 

I bagged 2 very good looking players in my youth intake, one of those is a keeper to watch so I am hoping he can turn into my 2nd/3rd very rapidly.

I wanted to sign Mwepu as well, mainly for giving a friend to Daka to have. Maybe I should look at Kristensen as well, I need back up for RB and I've just noticed Wober is listed for 9m!

Esposito moved to Fiorentina in January, hes scored 13 in 8 so far for them... Im going to get sad for not signing him. I know it.

Got to be done, they produce amazing players!

Happy days! I had a good AMC, but I don't play with those. Hopefully I can retrain him as a centre mid.

Mwepu was brought in as a rotational player really. I'm trying to retrain him so he's fully trained as a centre mid, as I feel that's where we really lacked in the first season. Kristensen has been phenomenal for me, only cost £6m as well. Wober I tried signing in the first season, but he ended up at Palace which I was gutted about. 

Ha, I'm glad I've got him, hopefully he hits the ground running.

[SimpleFM]

The Finish...

That loss to Hoffenheim, they did the same thing in the same game last season. They needed to win to ensure they avoid relegation and they scored in the 84th and 89th minute. That was a hammer blow.

With 2 games to go, it was all square on 67 points between us and Bayern.

We had to play Freiburg and Leverkusen who are 11th and 8th while Bayern play Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim who are 9th and 12th at the time.  Everything went to plan against Freiburg and we win that game and Bayern also win their game against Wolfsburg by the same 2-0 scoreline.  So then we had a last day thriller, Bayern in 1st on 70 points and a GD of 34 and us Schalke also on 70 points and a GD of 33.

Of course, Daka got injured at the start of the game vs Leverkusen so it was an uphill battle from there in a game we had to win and probably score a few goals. We went in at HT 0-0 and Bayern was 1-0 up against Hoffenheim. It was not to be however, Leverkusen pinched a goal after I pushed forward to attack hard and they then they scored again at the death as we pushed too hard for goals.

Bayern then cruised to a solid 2-0 win and the title in the process.

At the bottom, Hamburg are going straight back down and Stuttgart will be joining them. Coming up will be Bochum and St Pauli, the playoff will be Union Berlin vs Werder Bremen.

We did however win the DFB, smashing Wolfsburg in the final 4-2

Top 3 Schalke Performances..

1.Patson Daka - 34 goals on his debut season was exactly what we wanted from him. I am still working out his best position but he started being more clinical towards the end of the season when played as a poacher and with true wing support. None of his 34 goals were from the spot, he's actually quite poorly rated in FM in that area. I am not sure how but he was also named "German Footballer of the year" despite not even being from Germany! 

2. Talles Magno - Took a few games to find out where he was best, I had him playing out wide on the left but soon moved him to Shadow Striker and he finished with 22 goals.

3. Thiago Almada - Deep lying playmaker, chipped in with 12 goals and 10 assists and I think should get better again next season.

I found this quite pleasing and interesting, Schalke have the best Turnover ratio in the league, our self imposed wage cap seems to be paying off. The load will be fully paid out in 2027, so we still have another 5 years to go and paying 2 million a month. I think for now, we continue with the wage cap, I will look at moving that to around 75k after next season but it does really limit getting the highest quality players to join us, they all want much higer than the 50k we are sticking with at the moment. (I did notice that Almada is being paid 83k and I think I made a mistake on a contract clause so I am going to allow it and pretend its a marquee player wage)

I am not sure Lewandowski is going to be happy playing in behind Daka but its a good sign for Daka to be picked as the leading forward in the league after topping the charts.

Edited December 1, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

27 minutes ago, ITFC_Blue said:

Got to be done, they produce amazing players!

Happy days! I had a good AMC, but I don't play with those. Hopefully I can retrain him as a centre mid.

Mwepu was brought in as a rotational player really. I'm trying to retrain him so he's fully trained as a centre mid, as I feel that's where we really lacked in the first season. Kristensen has been phenomenal for me, only cost £6m as well. Wober I tried signing in the first season, but he ended up at Palace which I was gutted about. 

Ha, I'm glad I've got him, hopefully he hits the ground running.

That Stergiou is a good shout! Thanks for pointing him out. I think I am going to look at getting him but Wober is now down to 3.2 million on the transfer list!

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by SimpleFM

[ITFC_Blue]

1 hour ago, SimpleFM said:

That Stergiou is a good shout! Thanks for pointing him out. I think I am going to look at getting him but Wober is now down to 3.2 million on the transfer list!

 

Yes, I sold Nastastic to accommodate Stergiou, can't wait to see how he gets on. I'd try and get both of them, Wober would be a stel at £3.2m! 

Unlucky on not winning the title, but well done on the Cup. Hopefully you can go one better next season.

Random question, are you only allowed squad numbers up to 40? 

[SimpleFM]

Pre-season...

Plan was to upgrade the backups/reserves this off season, also wanted to added a world class player to the squad. We also had the board upgrade all the facilities as well, we need to start producing more of the famous Schalke Youth squads.

We had to upgrade both reserve LB and RB spots...passed

Sign a World Class player...passed

Sell or get rid of Luke Wilshire...passed

Upgrade the bench and squad depth...passed

Find youth players to under to the under 19s squad with high potential...passed

Sign a first team right footed winger...failed (Demir is going to play there but he's left footed so we change the system to Inverted Winger and use Hoffman on rotation as a winger) 

Transfers...

Improved the squad depth quality dramatically, both Bjorkan and Zeefuik played over 44 games last season and we had to ensure this didn't happen again and I feel quite confident in both Passlack and Mittelstadt who know the league and speak German and I thought this would be a good benefit of shopping local. Marcos Antonio was the player I wanted all of last season and we signed him well before the window opened, he will be our new playmaker. This will mean that Almada will lose his starting spot but he will now move up the pitch and back up Magno at Shadow Striker, a position he's probably more suited to.

Demir is super talent and will cause a change of the system for us, we had deployed 2 traditional wingers towards the end of last season and Bergwijn excelled on the right but he also wanted 115k wages to make the move permanent so that was an easy decision. I also bring in Jonas Hoffman from Gladbach as an experienced reserve and he provided 12 assists in that position last season for them so he should be perfect.

Arne Maier is a player I've always liked, we had to find a replacement for Serder as he decided he wanted to leave because he thought he was no longer good enough for our squad. I actually didn't want him to leave but he moved on to RB Salzburg where he should be quite good. Maier was getting annoyed down in 2.Bundesliga with Hertha and should be a like for like replacement with more  upside potential.

Leonidas Stergiou, not a player I had on my radar but was given the tip from @ITFC_Blue and because Anel Ahmedhodzic was continuing to push to leave we swapped him in. He is probably a bigger talent anyway so it makes sense.

The signing of Calderon was not needed, I saw him in January and was able to sign him on a precontract and in hindsight that was a mistake but maybe he can play some cup games to rest others.

The last signing of the window was Tete from Shakhtar, mostly because I was starting to lose trust with Fischer to cover both wings and Tete was seen as an upgrade on him and will then be trained to play down the left as well.

Tactics...

Started using something like this towards the end of last season, mainly to get the most from Daka at the front and set him up for goals. With Demir coming in the only change will be the Winger will change to Inverted Winger for the game he starts

Champions League...

I fancy 2nd place in this group, also a nice reunion for Antonio and Tete going home to Shakhtar and I assume FM Atalanta wont be as dangerous as their real life counterparts.

[SimpleFM]

On 02/12/2020 at 01:14, ITFC_Blue said:

Yes, I sold Nastastic to accommodate Stergiou, can't wait to see how he gets on. I'd try and get both of them, Wober would be a stel at £3.2m! 

Unlucky on not winning the title, but well done on the Cup. Hopefully you can go one better next season.

Random question, are you only allowed squad numbers up to 40? 

I didn't notice the squad numbers before but now you mention it, looks like it yes.

[ITFC_Blue]

10 hours ago, SimpleFM said:

I didn't notice the squad numbers before but now you mention it, looks like it yes.

Ahhh, not just me then! Frustrating as 2 of my players have favourite squad numbers over 40, but I can't give them to them! I'll query that.

Also, you have definitely missed the trick with Esposito. I honestly think he is the best player I have managed n any FM series. In total, 23 goals in 18 games so far. He's been unreal! 

[SimpleFM]

1 hour ago, ITFC_Blue said:

Ahhh, not just me then! Frustrating as 2 of my players have favourite squad numbers over 40, but I can't give them to them! I'll query that.

Also, you have definitely missed the trick with Esposito. I honestly think he is the best player I have managed n any FM series. In total, 23 goals in 18 games so far. He's been unreal! 

Hahaha oh man! In my last save of FM20, I sold him for 200 million to Chelsea at aged 24, I think he scored 54 goals that season but I also signed him at 17 (I think hes that young in FM20) 

Daka is doing the business for me now, 34 goals last season and Magno over 20 is good.

How's season 2 going?

[ITFC_Blue]

1 hour ago, SimpleFM said:

Hahaha oh man! In my last save of FM20, I sold him for 200 million to Chelsea at aged 24, I think he scored 54 goals that season but I also signed him at 17 (I think hes that young in FM20) 

Daka is doing the business for me now, 34 goals last season and Magno over 20 is good.

How's season 2 going?

Blimey, some going!

I was gutted to miss out on Daka, but not sure if he would've fitted in with Esposito in such fine form!

Had a slow start again, but now find myself in 3rd place. Beat Dortmund 2-1 away and the Bayern at home 3-1 all in the space of 4 days. Then, whilst in an unbeaten run of 12 games, I lost 5-2 away at Freiburg! Freak game as I was 2-1 up with only 20 minutes left! 

[SimpleFM]

Small sneak peak before I do the midseason update

There is 1 game before the break for the World Cup and Dortmund are in big big trouble

Edited December 3, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

Midseason update...

The Good - Top of the league, amazing defence and scoring lots of goals. Beating Bayern to win the DFL Supercup and our 2nd trophy.

The Bad-  Lots of injuries to key players so we are tapping into our reserves. Thankfully we upgraded those and its not been too much of an issue. We still cant compete very well against a side like Man City, this is despite beating Bayern on a few occasions.

The Ugly - The 1-0 home defeat to Atalanta, just days after we put away Bayern 3-1. Again a massive failure in the Champions League.

Super fantastic start to the season, we are clear away at the top of the table and our defence is very very good and we remain unbeaten heading into the World Cup and 8 points clear of Bayern. 

Considering we had at times only 3-5 players on the beach due to injuries, its been a fantastic start to the campaign. Stengs was in hot form, he had scored 12 goals in 16 matches before hurting his knee, Demir was also in good form with 3 goals, 4 assists in 7 games before he got injured and we also had Almada, Zeefuik, Gomez, Kabak and Maier all out at the same time.  Thankfully both Daka and Magno stayed fit and they have been powering in the results along nicely but also very much down to our defenders being in top form. The new signing of Stergiou has been a blessing because we have conceded only the 5 goals in the league so far.

In the Champions League, we shamefully finished 3rd again as injuries and fatigue really took their toll when it counted,  It was already looking a little worrying heading into the last 2 games as they were both to be played away and heading to play Shakhtar in Ukraine is never a great time but we win that and its feeling ok and maybe we can get a draw or a tight loss against City...

 However we to Manchester to play City and they put 3 passed us, Atalanta then beat Shakhtar 6-1 to get through on GD. We have lost 3 games all season and all 3 being in the Champions League, the home loss to Atalanta was the key game and a game we dominated but didn't score a goal

Other than Dortmund in the relegation playoff, the table looks more like a real table.  I had a quick look at Dortmund and they sold Haaland and Sancho in the summer and that appears to be their main issue as the rest of the squad is still good and capable. IF they go down, then we will try and poach a few players.

Europa League...

Of course Real Madrid are also in the Europa..

Top 3 Schalke Performances..

1, Patson Daka - Main main up front and scored 19 goals in 23 games. Rejected a bid of 57 million from RB Leipzig.

2. Calvin Stengs - Scoring 12 goals from left wing and causing many problems with his pace. Missed him when he went down injured

3. Talles Magno - Usually pops up with a goal when Daka does not, they have a good understanding and partnership

Edited December 3, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

January Window..

This window was all about goalkeeper shuffles

Karius started to get upset about not playing, Livakovic is much better and also our captain so Karius was moved on to Hamburg who are sitting 12th in 2.Bundesliga for a tidy profit from a player signed for free.

Tried to find somebody with quality and experience who could back up for around the next 2  years,  they all wanted over well 50k in wages so a few decent players could not be signed to replace.  In the end we sign Leo Weinkauf from 2.Bundesliga side Hannover for 165k and while he's not amazing, he's a former Bayern 2 player and is happy to sit on the bench and play his part. 

I am working towards promoting Schalke academy player Willi Wachter who is 17 at the moment but should be ready to move into the first team as the number 2  in the next few years,  we also have a promising 18 year old Dutch goalkeeper in the under 19s and I also signed a 16 year old from Finland who has potential.

So we have a mini pipeline of talent in the works, so all we just need Livakovic to stay fit and Weinkauff to be happy on the bench for around 2-3 years.

The other transfers are just a continuation of the prospect signings for under 19s

Edited December 4, 2020 by SimpleFM

[abu645]

You have been very successful! I had a terrible time with Schalke and ended up resigning before I was pushed after 25 games. 

I had the transfer windows turned off at the start so it was very interesting to see who you moved on and how much you managed to raise for them!

My main issue was that I really struggled to create any chances, and in games where we had chances we missed them. Paciencia was absolutely terrible up front - only 3 goals in 20.

The only ones with an average above 7 were Oczipka who took the set pieces and then Suat Serdar, Nastajcic and Fahrmann.

[SimpleFM]

20 hours ago, abu645 said:

You have been very successful! I had a terrible time with Schalke and ended up resigning before I was pushed after 25 games. 

I had the transfer windows turned off at the start so it was very interesting to see who you moved on and how much you managed to raise for them!

My main issue was that I really struggled to create any chances, and in games where we had chances we missed them. Paciencia was absolutely terrible up front - only 3 goals in 20.

The only ones with an average above 7 were Oczipka who took the set pieces and then Suat Serdar, Nastajcic and Fahrmann.

The default starting squad is pretty terrible, not surprised you didn't have a good time. I only have Ozan Kabak left from the first squad.

Paciencia has done well for Frankfurt since returning there, 15 and 18 goals in the last 2 seasons.

[SimpleFM]

The run home...

Finally lost our first league match, we lost to Mainz who were in the relegation spots at the time but played like a 2000s Barcelona side. Relegation threated Mainz > Unbeaten Schalke. Just FM things,

Thankfully it didn't seem to derail our efforts too much, we win the remaining games in January.

In the Europa, we travelled to play Feyenoord away and they caused the upset with 1 shot on target and scored in the 80th minute to knock us out.  The gap between our league form and European form is massive, we should have beaten them easily, we had 12 shots on target and failed to score. 

The loss to Feyenoord then triggered a poor run of form, we kind of of  slowed that with the draw to 2nd place RB Leipzig.

We have 8 games to go in the league, it would appear the race is between Schalke and RB Leipzig as Bayern are a little further back

[FM_Prospect]

Currently reading through this as Schalke are struggling IRL!, quick question, where did you get the FM21 dark skin?

Edited December 7, 2020 by FM_Prospect

[SimpleFM]

The Finish...

The draw to Leverkusen in March had me worried, my lead was shrinking, at the end of March with 5 games to go we held a 7 point lead over Leipzig.

I was quite thankful that we had a 14 day break in-between the Leverkusen game and Paderborn, this allowed me to send some key players for a short rest. This rest was designed to power us home with some fresh legs! It seemed to pay off we as thrashed Paderborn with all the rested players coming out on fire. We were 5-0 up in the first 24 mins!

The next match was Werder, there was a short turnaround before the DFB semi vs Stuttgart so we rotated players in, I didn't seem to effect the squad and we run out easy winners. The title is looking good, we have a hard game away to Munich left but a result there would secure the title for us away against the Champions.

In the DFB, we win that vs Stuttgart 5-0 and into back to back finals, our opponents will be the devastating Mainz who thrashed us 3-0 earlier and beat Bayern in the other semi final.

The game vs Bayern in the league, we are 7 points clear of 2nd placed Leipzig and if we can beat Bayern we will be crowned the new Champions at the home of the current ones

Champions! 

Fair result in the end, we thank former Schalke player Manuel Neuer for making the mistake to allow Daka to score the winner. 

We ended up a very nice 12 points clear in the end, a very strong performance with the 2 losses and an exceptional attack and defence.

Despite being hammered 5-1 by Schalke on the final day, Wolfsburg narrowly avoid the playoff, instead its Freiburg who will take on Hertha Berlin for a place in the Bundesliga next season. The promoted sides will be Hannover as Champions and Stuttgart who placed 2nd.

We also win back to back DFB cups, taking some revenge on Mainz for ruining our unbeaten run in the league. This means we do win the domestic treble this season.

Top 3 Schalke Performances..

Hard to find exactly 3 this season..

1. Patson Daka - No surprises really, he's our main guy leading the line and scored 39 goals for us this season. Will need to find a reliable backup for him, he played another 45 games this season.

2. Yusuf Demir - Scored 10 goals, assisted a further 15 and still only 18 years old. Hes a big talent.

3. Marcos Antonio - Dictates the play from deep, also does a huge amount of work defensively. Added 15 assists, mostly were long through balls to Daka and if he can another few goals to his tally that would be ideal.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by SimpleFM

[SimpleFM]

41 minutes ago, FM_Prospect said:

Currently reading through this as Schalke are struggling IRL!, quick question, where did you get the FM21 dark skin?

If you google "Dark Polish Skin 21" you should be able to locate it. I cant remember exactly where It was when I found it.

[SimpleFM]

Pre-season...

We need to translate League form into European form, so transfers were aimed at that.

Exciting time as Schalke manager, we welcomed Leroy Sane back to the club. He was available for 81 million at Bayern so we jumped at the chance to bring him back to the club. We had to spread the payment out over 3 years to make it happen.  Hes still only 27 and I like the fairly tale of him joining us back to try and win a league title with his boyhood club and help us finally push further in Europe. To fit him into the side, we did actually have to sell Stengs, he moved to Milan for 32 million, sad to see him go but Sane is better and will play 90% of the games.

Adding more excitement, we also convinced another former Schalke alumni in Leon Goretzka to join us, again we had to structure the payments out over 3 years but he adds another level of interest for me with the former youth re-joining his boyhood club. This did also again quite sadly mean that Nicolo Rovella was moved on, he joined Fiorentina for 40 million. Leon Goretzka also wanted to be named our Vice Captain so he will replace Jerome Onguene in that position.

We also bring in the very talented Sandro Tonali, Milan didn't make Europe last season and he was transfer listed and unhappy so we spend 54 million to bring him and partner Antonio/Goretzka in the middle. 

The only other transfers for the first team were all young players to add depth, we had to sell Ugarte, Zeefuik and Almada as they all wanted to leave (I didn't want  to sell them but they wanted new contracts as they all had at least 3 years left and so I refused so they requested transfers) so to replace them we sign 3 talented younger players in Niklas Jeppesen, Thomas Bache and Savio. 

Not really a transfer but Matias Arezo will join the first team again this season, he spent last season on loan playing in Belgium for Brugge and he did well scoring 17 goals. I wanted to find a player who could take 5-8 games away from Daka for fatigue management and he should be ok. 

lastly, I continued my campaign of signing youth players for the under 19s, there is a very nice and albeit expensive little side growing there at the moment.

The transfer of Ugarte to Man City was for some reason added to last seasons transfer list

There was a huge amount spent this window, but if you add Ugarte sale to the 127 million its around 170 million of sales as well. Net spend is around the 100 million mark (the prize money for winning the league)

 

 

[SimpleFM]

Midseason update...

Unbeaten in the league again heading into January, we also managed to finally qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions league. We won 5 from 6 games, the loss away to Liverpool was somewhat of crazy game.

I am not sure how we played that bad, we were in amazing form and we continued in amazing form after that but they scored 7 goals and it ranks as one of the worst games of my entire FM career spanning 15 years. I did feel better after seeing they won all 3 of their home games 5-0, 6-1 and 7-1 ...

We also started off the season winning back to back DFL Supercups, ive started to relegate DFB Pokal to the reserves and youth players, we need to manage fatigue for the back end of the season. Despite this, we are through the first 2 round with minimum fuss

The Good - Unbeaten in Germany, comfortably on top of the table

The Bad - Again too many injuries, its been rare I can field the best 11

The Ugly - Obviously the 7-1 away loss to Liverpool

Dusseldorf and Mainz, another one of those seasons for them and their form is holding up as we failed to beat both. Was surprised but not shocked to see Bayern in 3rd, I was expecting a pullback in quality from them after losing a fair amount of talent and their other stars are now also quite old.

Dortmund, again they are having a bad start. I am quite tempted to take them over in the future and build them up again, was also looking at Hertha and Hamburg for the same idea.

January Window...

Again, I couldn't resist a feel good story by bringing home yet another former Schalke player in Alexander Nubel, he was once the captain of the club as well.  Unsurprisingly he was unhappy at Bayern for game time behind Manual Neuer. what is surprising is that Neuer is now 37 and I would have thought he would bide his time and wait it out for his chance but no, he was super happy to come back to Schalke and was happy with backup status.

A few people are leaving us, the first being Matias Arezo as he was not happy being 2nd choice behind Daka. He was filling in quite well and helping manage the load with a few goals here and there but was starting to cause issues in the dressing room. I will look into my Under 19s and find a replacement for him.  I also then allowed 4th choice defender Stephan Ambrosius leave for Granada, he also was not happy with game time and we have a few exciting prospects that could be promoted. The 4.5 million we gained was a nice fee for a player that was signed for free from Hamburg.

However of course, the day after Ambrosius was sold ,we then lost Leonidas Stergiou for 3 months due to injury......

We were back down to 3 fit and healthy CBs (including a promotion from the under 19s) and then I got an idea to sign yet another former Schalke youth product.

Welcome home Joel Matip, his contract was running down and Liverpool only wanted a modest 2.9 million for him. He will join for 2 years and helps us cover the 3 months we will be without Stergiou. 

The other signings are just more youth players for the under 19s

Who's being promoted to the first team?...

Quinones will be our backup for Daka, will get a few games but maybe not more than 5 but will be helpful and Truelsen Gron will also move up from the under 19s and assume the 3rd or 4th choice CB position. He will however have to play a far amount with Stergiou out for the next 3 months.

Player performances...

Edited December 9, 2020 by SimpleFM

[Polski97]

On 07/12/2020 at 05:52, SimpleFM said:

The Finish...

The draw to Leverkusen in March had me worried, my lead was shrinking, at the end of March with 5 games to go we held a 7 point lead over Leipzig.

I was quite thankful that we had a 14 day break in-between the Leverkusen game and Paderborn, this allowed me to send some key players for a short rest. This rest was designed to power us home with some fresh legs! It seemed to pay off we as thrashed Paderborn with all the rested players coming out on fire. We were 5-0 up in the first 24 mins!

The next match was Werder, there was a short turnaround before the DFB semi vs Stuttgart so we rotated players in, I didn't seem to effect the squad and we run out easy winners. The title is looking good, we have a hard game away to Munich left but a result there would secure the title for us away against the Champions.

In the DFB, we win that vs Stuttgart 5-0 and into back to back finals, our opponents will be the devastating Mainz who thrashed us 3-0 earlier and beat Bayern in the other semi final.

The game vs Bayern in the league, we are 7 points clear of 2nd placed Leipzig and if we can beat Bayern we will be crowned the new Champions at the home of the current ones

Champions! 

Fair result in the end, we thank former Schalke player Manuel Neuer for making the mistake to allow Daka to score the winner. 

We ended up a very nice 12 points clear in the end, a very strong performance with the 2 losses and an exceptional attack and defence.

Despite being hammered 5-1 by Schalke on the final day, Wolfsburg narrowly avoid the playoff, instead its Freiburg who will take on Hertha Berlin for a place in the Bundesliga next season. The promoted sides will be Hannover as Champions and Stuttgart who placed 2nd.

We also win back to back DFB cups, taking some revenge on Mainz for ruining our unbeaten run in the league. This means we do win the domestic treble this season.

Top 3 Schalke Performances..

Hard to find exactly 3 this season..

1. Patson Daka - No surprises really, he's our main guy leading the line and scored 39 goals for us this season. Will need to find a reliable backup for him, he played another 45 games this season.

2. Yusuf Demir - Scored 10 goals, assisted a further 15 and still only 18 years old. Hes a big talent.

3. Marcos Antonio - Dictates the play from deep, also does a huge amount of work defensively. Added 15 assists, mostly were long through balls to Daka and if he can another few goals to his tally that would be ideal.

 

 

From what is supposed to be a struggling team ... to win it all in 3 years is just a bit ... unrealistic. Proves the point that the game is way too easy this year. 

[SimpleFM]

6 hours ago, Polski97 said:

From what is supposed to be a struggling team ... to win it all in 3 years is just a bit ... unrealistic. Proves the point that the game is way too easy this year. 

Have not won everything yet, I dont find its it that much easier than previous versions. I think if you have played the last few and especially FM20 you will have a decent chance to start well in FM21.

[SimpleFM]

The Finish...

Far too easy in the end, we cruised to back to back titles and we only dropped the single game all season. That was away to 2nd place Leipzig on the final day where I sent out an a very weak side to rest for both the upcoming finals we had to play. I probably should have tried to go for the unbeaten season but I also really wanted to beat City in the Champions league and didn't want to risk getting players injured.

We also won the DFB Pokal again, we used reserves all the way to the final and beat Koln to win our 3rd straight cup. This also completed the domestic treble. 

I'll probably end this save now, I dont think there is more to do or I'd like to achieve with this side. Winning the Champions League in the 4th season would be considered to be well over achieving and I would like to move onto a more challenging longer save.

Here is the final squad and the stats from last season, Patson Daka with 45 goals was unstoppable at times. Hes scored more and more each season. Talles Magno also stepped up huge this season, he scored 29 goals and 10 assists from the AM position.

 

 

 

[john1]

Wow winning Champions League within 4 seasons with Schalke is crazy!  What is next for you? new save?

[someoneelse]

Hi All,

 

Currently playing as Schalke and enjoying the challenge of rebuilding a fallen giant.

Just wondering what tactics everyone is using? I've got two that I'm training at the moment (4-2-3-1 Control Possession and 4-3-43 Direct Counter) but neiher and setting the world on fire and I'm struggling to score goals. Defence is doing well with lowest goals conceded (11) but only scored 17. 

If I was to say what style I'd like to play, it'd be a counter style that's direct and gets the ball to my playmaker quickly and gets him and wingers driving at the defence and feeding my striker. 

Cheers

[smplfc123]

2 hours ago, someoneelse said:

Hi All,

 

Currently playing as Schalke and enjoying the challenge of rebuilding a fallen giant.

Just wondering what tactics everyone is using? I've got two that I'm training at the moment (4-2-3-1 Control Possession and 4-3-43 Direct Counter) but neiher and setting the world on fire and I'm struggling to score goals. Defence is doing well with lowest goals conceded (11) but only scored 17. 

If I was to say what style I'd like to play, it'd be a counter style that's direct and gets the ball to my playmaker quickly and gets him and wingers driving at the defence and feeding my striker. 

Cheers

I used a 4-4-1-1 with a similar aim for my playing style and managed to finish 2nd in my first season, with my wide players being the stand out performers!