[FM21] Can the Red Army conquer Europe once again? - a career at FC Spartak Moscow

[Enzo_Francescoli]

INTRODUCTION

FC Spartak Moscow is the most succesful Russian football club. Founded back in 1922, they won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dynamo Kyiv) and a record 10 Russian championships. What inspired me taking them over on Football Manager, however, is my fond memories of the team in the 1990s, led by Oleg Romantsev, and a major force in European football. Most of you know that Red Star Belgrade won the European Cup in 1990-91, making them the last Eastern European club to win the trophy to this date (and probably for a very long time). What many won't remember though, is that Marseille, Red Star's opponent in the final, met Spartak Moscow in the semi-final, who defeated Maradona's Napoli and Real Madrid en route to a finaf four appearance.

Later on, they made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 1995-96, where they lost to a very memorable Nantes team, and to the semi-final of the 1997-98 UEFA Cup, getting eliminated only by eventual winners Inter.

These teams, built by Romantsev, played a technical brand of football, and, faithful to the Soviet school, they did it at a breathtaking speed. Very pleasing to the eye, what made it the most impressive in my personal opinion, is that the team was all-Russian. In the late 90s, Spartak started to employ a number of Brazilians, but up until that point, no notable foreign players featured in their line-up (except for countries of the former Soviet Union of course).

My favourite player of the era was Ilya Tsymbalar, who sadly passed away in 2013, aged only 44. This was an epitome of a footballer with absolute world class talent, whose lack of all-conquering ambition and relentless professionalism prevented him from realizing that potential. Tsymbalar was the rare player who could do anything he pleased with the ball. On his good days, he was able to put on passing displays rivaled only by the very greatest players of the sport. This save is dedicated to him.

If it wasn't painfully obvious by now, this is very much a nostalghia save. I will be signing and using Russian players and staff only (except for the manager, as I'm playing as myself, but I hope to gain Russian nationality eventually). This necessitates a heavy focus on youth development, as the club's current foreign players will be gradually phased out. Moreover, unlike my usual approach, this will not be a save where a rigid club DNA drives my tactical and recruitment decisions. The tactics will be flexible in order to best suit the players I have at my disposal. Similar to Romatsev's methods thorough data and opponent analysis will be part of our operations. The aim is to become the first Eastern European club since Red Star to win the Champions League.

Those of you who remember the Spartak team from the 90s, will not be shocked to find out who my new assistant manager is. He has a job for life, even though he's not very good at it.

I'm already halfway through the first season, so the plan is to summarize what happened so far, and then post more regular updates.

 

***DISCLAIMER: I willingly admit that the title is a shameless clickbait, since CSKA Moscow used to be the Army's team in the Soviet era. Spartak (named after the Roman slave who led the rebellion against the greatest empire the world has ever known) were more of a people's team, that maintained a fierce rivalry with Dynamo Moscow (who, in turn, were supported by the KGB). The club's nickname, 'Meat' (which is kind of awesome), comes from the patronage of food factories and unions in the 1930s.

(sources: Wikipedia and my own memories)

 

***EDIT

I forgot to mention that there will be some tactical restrictions in place as well:

1. I will NOT use any exploit tactics.

2. I will NOT Gegenpress at any point (it's still so OP, I personally consider it borderline cheating).

3. I will NOT use Extremely Urgent Pressing (see above).

4. I will try to avoid using the 4231 and the 433 DM Wide (it's just a personal preference).

Instead, I will be trying to design sensible, balanced tactics, which I think are best suited to the players we have AND am comfortable with as a long-time football fan.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

 

CLUB AND PLAYER ASSESSMENT

 

Our initial media prediction was 5th in the Russian Premier League. The board expects qualification for the Europa League.

Let's take a look at our key players.

New vice-captain Djikia can play either a traditional full-back or a ball-playing central defender. A good personality and solid defensive atributes will make him a regular player whatever system we will be using. My only real issue is the lack of positioning, so I immediately put him on individual training focus, but, at his age I don't expect major improvements. This means we have to minimalize the risks this holds. His lack of vision doesn't bother me that much, because, as you'll see later on, I'm using BPD's not for Hollywood passes, but for bringing the ball up the field.

Ayrton Lucas is useless defensively, but immense as an attacking wing-back. His speed and ball control helped him dominating the RPL in the first half of the season. Sadly, he has no long-term future at the club, as it's another four years before he can apply for Russian nationality, which goes beyond his current contract.

Moses is another one I wouldn't ever play as a defender. He's on loan from Chelsea, where he's on outrageous wages, which we're paying in full. It makes him by far our highest paid player. His lack of football  intelligence makes me looking forward to the day his loan expires.

 

Now we're talking. New club captain Zobnin is a versatile, all-around great player. Not a great passer, but his mentals are close to an elite level and his personality ensures I will build the team culture and mentoring around him. I already managed to extend his contract, which doesn't seem to deter Barcelona from showing interest. I won't willingly sell this player, ever.

Our best striker is good at many things, great at none. I need more speed at that position, but we'll make do with him until we find someone better.

Kral can play in defense, as a DM and even in central midfield (only as a CM(d) though). I like the personality, but not his marking.

I used to have him at beginning of the save. Since then he's been sold (more on that later). Described as a powerful centre-back, it is however his passing ability and traits (which includes brings the ball out of defence and gets forward whnever possible) that proved to be the latest in many circumstances which led me to the decision to design a libero system for our first season.

Our new HOYD. I went for personality first and foremost. None of the Russian Model Pro's wanted to work for us at that position, so Andrey has the job for now. I also hired a DoF and an U18 Manager, whose presonalities are Pro and Perfectionist, respectively, even though I don't really use a DoF. In my experience, the personality of some staff members contribute to some sort of a club identity or culture, if you will, which in turn has impact on youth intakes. It has never been confirmed by SI, but I'm more and more convinced that even squad personality has some effect on the personalities of youth players coming through the ranks.

So far, so good.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

TACTICS

As I mentioned in the introduction, tactics will play a major part in this save. One of the reasons for that is that it's the element of the game I enjoy the most. The other, more important reason is that due to our self-imposed transfer policy, it' more than likely that we'll never be able to achieve our goals out of sheer quality. We must strive to establsih systems that bring the best out of the players we have, but also to tweak, change, or even replace those systems to enhance our strengths and hide our weaknessess.

With that being said and in reference to my previous post about squad assessment, this is our tactics for the  first season.

The two IF's swap positions and the BPD's are asked to dribble more. The Libero is told to close down less. (This last one was a change I made during the season, based on an evaluation of all the goals we had conceded up to that point. I may go into that in greater detail later, if anyone's interested in that stuff).

The idea is to play fast attacking football. We have three players in the defence who are tasked with bringing the ball up the field. The WB's move higher up the pitch and stay wide, meanwhile the wide attackers tuck in and attack the box. The CM's are central passing options and support the attacking play as the second wave, but their primary responsibility is to disrupt opposing build-up play. The CF roams and leads the line.

As for TI's, I prefer to keep them minimal. Direct passing is added because I'm not using any playmakers and I want the ball up the field at the earliest opportunity. Run at defence further articulates that. Our build-up is set up to be based not on short, intricate passing play, but on speed and non-stop running.

Play out of defence was tested and rejected for the time being. I found that my defenders looked for the pass instead of bringing the ball up, and that is not in line with our aprroach.

To support that approch, GK distribution is aimed at our CB's. Initially, I didn't have counter on, but then saw too much deliberation on our players part when gaining possession. It is something to keep an eye on though, should we prioritize keeping the ball against cerain opponents. Counter-press is used situationally, mostly when the other team is playing exclusively on the counter.

Again, i want all my defenders to contribute to our build-up and it's enhanced by using a higher d-line. We press more urgent because our mid-block is designed to win the ball at midfield. This is very much a wide press and so our central players have to be aggressive to drive play to the flanks when we don't have the ball. We also press more urgent because, well, FM21.. Defensive width is situational. 15-20 minutes are usually enough to spot the opponent's patterns of play. If they force everything through the middle, I usually go narrow. If it's their wide players who want to run at my defence like there's no tomorrow, then I defend wide.

 

Match preparation is  something I intend to give a lot of time in the future. So far, extensive match planning has been used only two times, as we don't play in Europe and I want to establish our operations first.

One time was our home match against Zenit, then the league leaders, and widely recognised as the best team in the country. The opposition scout report told me they were playing a 442 wing-play with a TM-AF combo at forward. I went out and looked at some of their previous games, and indeed, most of their key passes were made by their wide players (I seriously think key pass analysis is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to the tactical part of the game). So naturally I set our defensive width wide and I changed the left WB to support and the left IF to attack. I decided we couldn't afford Lucas being constantly out of position during defensive transitions, so we needed to hold him back a little. At the same time I wanted both our wide attackers in higher positions during our attacking transitions to take advantage of their system that requires all the wide players bombing up the field. It worked well:

 

The other time was our second game against CSKA Moscow (the first one was right in Game Day 1 of the league and ended up 0-0 which I thought was fine at the time). This was Game Day 16 and we both were unbeaten at that point. CSKA lines up like this:

Needless to say they are very strong defensively and had conceded the fewest goals in the league. Their wing-backs are absolutely crucial for their system to work. So my game plan was to defend narrow but take their WB's out of the game at the same time. And so force opposition inside was ticked and I told my wide forwards to mark the opposing wing-back on their side. This ensured we had a true five-man defence to deal with their central threat (which meant four, at times five players if their DM came to join their attacks). We essentially parked the bus, knowing that they'd park the airplane. I counted on us still having significantly more offense than them, which should be enough for us to dominate the game. 

 

Absolutely frustrating result, since our plan worked like a charm, we totally battered them, even frustrated them to a straight red card and we still lost on a goal from a long shot.. After they took the lead, we just couldn't break them down. The quality of our chances was generally poor, yet we still should've been able to get something out of this game. Lessons learned, we need to be smarter next time. Out went our unbeaten record and this defeat had even further ramifications which can derail what had been an excellent first season up to that point.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[deltablue]

Good luck in Moscow.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

YOUTH SYSTEM AND RECRUITMENT

PART ONE

As previously mentioned, the board expects us to build the best youth academy in the country (needless to say, I do aim even higher than that). True to their word they have already agreed to upgrade our academy coaching and youth recruitment. Our facilities look like this as of now:

 

 

Not bad, but let's take a look at how we compare to the other big players in Russia.

CSKA Moscow:

 

Dynamo Moscow:

 

Lokomotiv Moscow:

 

We already enjoy priority over our rivals for Moscow-area youngsters. Dynamo have better training facilities though.

Zentit St. Petersburg:

 

Krasnodar:

 

While their recruitment level is not up to ours, Krasnodar seems to be the club to constantly keep an eye on for promising young players.

 

Our B-Team currently plays in the second tier called the Championship. It is of utmost importance that they stay there, because getting youngsters match experience in the second league could prove to be invaluable to our youth development. Spartak-2 started their campaign rather poorly, so I'm already making several first-teamers available for them - which helped them to move out of the relegation zone.

 

This page seems to suggest that our second team is somewhat of a separate entity. (There is also another Spartak-2 in the lower leagues which I don't quite understand.) My main problem is that unlike our U21s and U18s, Spartak-2 don't use the same tactics as the first team. They're instead playing a rather bad 442 (I have almost exlusively played on the 442 in FM21 so far, and also for the entire FM20 cycle, so I can tell it's bad). Now as I managed in Spain before this save, I know that they have a similar system there, as in B-teams are part of the league pyramid and are listed as affiliates to the main team, with the condition that players may move freely between the two. But that time, my B-team did play my tactics. Something to figure out. In the meantime, I've concluded that as long as he keeps getting results, the B-team manager is safe, and we'll evaluate our options after the first season.

 

This is our first youth intake preview:

 

Looks promising, but we've learned that these previews can be wildly misleading. If it's true, though, we are almost certainly going to have to abandon the 523 system, since both our starters at WB are foreigners and likely to leave come summertime, and I see no point in training a system that we will not have the players for. Unless of course we can sign long-term starters AND competent backups in that position. But that's for another update.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

YOUTH SYSTEM AND RECRUITMENT

PART TWO

Here's our B-team squad:

 

The Under 21s:

 

And the Under 18s:

 

I don't see many of these players on a Champions League winning team in the future, but let's take a lot at our best prospects.

 

Ruslan Litvinov is made available for the B-team. Quite honestly, I don't see him ever becoming a player. No off the ball makes him a defensive player exclusively, but he has no tackling either. To make things worse, he's way too slow even for a central defender, which, to me, is his best position anyway. He's already 19 and a half and his personality is meh. I intially put him on BBM training, but that proved to be too much for young Ruslan, as he refused to develop in the six months I've been training him. So now he's training at BWM(s) position for more concentrated development, with an additional focus on quickness. He's also being mentored by Djikia who's Resolute. All in all, I don't have a good feeling about this, which is too bad, because some of his mentals are top class, including bravery and concentration which I hold in a very high regard.

 

Umyarov is our most promising prospect. He's more of an all-rounder, although I wouldn't mind if work rate was one his many decent attributes. Mentored by Zobnin, he's training as a BBM, because he needs to improve physically. He's getting first team minutes, but he'll be 21 by the end of the season, so I need to speed up his development.

 

Denisov is a younger player, so has more time to develop. Which he will need every second of, because he has work to do. Rated at 3.5.-4.5. PA, he has to make major improvements in basically everything. So he's on BBM training and mentored by Zobnin. Even though he's available for the B-team, his manager is not playing him, which tells a lot. He recently turned 18, so he's one to watch. He needs playing time and if he doesn't get it in Spartak-2, then I may reluctantly have to loan him out.

 

Another one with 3.5.-4.5. potential and I just don't see it. Krasnodar are interested in him and.. I still don't see it. Hopelessly slow for a winger, not good enough of a passer and horrible as a defensive player, Dmitry is at least playing regularly for the second team. He's on an IW training regime, but I didn't even bother to bring him up to the main squad, which I set the training schedule for. A player with no real future with us.

 

He has some speed, which is a start. He started on the Winger training, but I'm putting him on RMD because I need start doing something about those mentals. Has a PA of 3.5.-4.5. stars.

 

Basically the same player as his twin brother, he has more advanced mental attributes - except for work rate, which is a must if you want to play for this team. He's training as an AF at the moment, because he's fast and a good finisher, but I need to re-evaluate him soon. His best role and duty is without a doubt a Winger on attack, something we don't currently use. PA: 3.5.-4.5. stars.

 

The lesson, as always, is don't pay attention to the star ratings. These are regarded as our highest potential youngsters, but I do not envision any of them being of any use for us, except for Umyarov and even he has fundamental problems. I took Titov off of reporting on players, but our HOYD, who has way better JPP ithinks exactly the same as him. Let's conclude with a look at two players with lower potential, according to the coaches at least.

 

Maslov may have a future at Libero, or as a full-back should we decide to change the system. He's available for the B-team, but I need to try and give him first team minutes. He's being mentored by Djikia.

 

The three attributes I value most for GK's are command of area, rushing out and decisions. Then come aerial reach, reflexes, handling, anticipation and agility. Mikhail at least has some fundamentals in place which can't be said of many of the higher regarded prospects above. He may not develop into anything noteworthy, but I'm keeping an eye on him nevertheless.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Hootieleece]

Interesting Premise.....I did something similar with Arsenal Tula in a save on FM20.

 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

YOUTH SYSTEM AND RECRUITMENT

PART THREE

As previously mentioned, Samuel Gigot, our starting Libero was sold during the winter transfer window. His contract was up in 18 months and I was never going to extend it. He's a good player, but unfortunately for him he was born in the wrong place. (Avignon, to be more precise, which is a little outside of Mother Russia - being born in Provence over Siberia does have some disadvantages.) Samuel didn't perform especially well at the Libero position, but watching the highlights, some of that originated from the fact that we faced many teams with one striker, so their press inevitably concentrated on our most central defender. (Note to self: keep an eye on this.) Real Sociedad paid 6.75 million up front, 7.5. million in three 6-monthly installments and 81k. per game for his first ten appearences. All in all, it's a 14 million deal, which I'm happy with. 

Kral can replace him at Libero, but I think I'll first try Hendrix at that role.

He proved to be solid but unspectacular as a BBM, and I suspect it's because of his lack of speed. He should make a fine Libero.

 

I signed one player during the winter window.

He's one of most promising Russian youngsters currently and he better realize his potential, because we paid 2.5 million up front and 5 million more over three years and this fee can rise to 8.75 million after 50 league appearences for us. I consider acceleration, agility and balance the holy trinity for any wide forward and he does check all those boxes. Zobnin was asked to welcome him to the club and I'm secretly hoping for a change in personality because his determination is already relatively high.

 

I have also started to identify the cream of russian youngsters. There are three players I will look to sign if I have the chance.

 

 

 

CSKA players are out of the question for now, because their agents keep telling me they won't sign because of the rivalry (I do have Chalov on the shortlist just in case, but it's nothing more than a pipe-dream). Initially Dynamo players held the same stance, but their team kind of sucks, so now they're willing to join us. The club are demanding exorbitant fees however, so we'll play the waiting game.

 

Elsewhere, both Zobnin and Djikia have signed new contracts until 2025. Bakaev, who's home-grown and been our best attacker so far, also agreed to an extension which kicks in at the end of the season.

 

This will be a tough challenge, but according to various sources, Russia has a youth rating of 118 in the game, so the talent will be there. My job is to identify and develop it, and then put our players to the best position to succeed.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

36 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Interesting Premise.....I did something similar with Arsenal Tula in a save on FM20.

 

Thank you!

May I ask how'd that go? 

[Hootieleece]

1 hour ago, Enzo_Francescoli said:

Thank you!

May I ask how'd that go? 

It went ok....I won RPL several times...in Ten years but utter failure in Europe. Best player was a Ukrainian with a Russian Name. He was like a Eastern European Sadio Mane. U

Like most of my saves I end up with free transfers and Castoffs and build a team that maxes out at top 6 in a league on average.

Same thing is happening in my current save with Grenoble in France on this forum.

 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

9 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

It went ok....I won RPL several times...in Ten years but utter failure in Europe. Best player was a Ukrainian with a Russian Name. He was like a Eastern European Sadio Mane. U

Like most of my saves I end up with free transfers and Castoffs and build a team that maxes out at top 6 in a league on average.

Same thing is happening in my current save with Grenoble in France on this forum.

 

I'll make sure to check that out, France is probably my favourite country to manage in.

I know what you're saying. It's not easy to make that leap, you gotta be ruthless.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

 

LEAGUE PERFORMANCE

Here are our league results so far:

 

 

It took about one month into the season for our players to get familiar with the new system, but then they really took off - up until that CSKA game I mentioned earlier. The end of our unbeaten streak must have frustrated the players even more than their manager, because they simply failed to show up next week against Akhmat. I made a half-hearted attempt to analyze exactly what happened, but it was pointless - the guys mailed that game in big time. After that unacceptable performance, I did everything in order to to right the ship, and we did beat Arsenal Tula next (who are somehow a Top 5 team this year). I hope to get back to our winning ways after the break, because it's going to be a tight race.

 

The current league standings:

 

 

Since CSKA are refusing to lose, I believe we have to win 9 out of our 12 remaining games to get the title. The winners are guaranteed a spot in the Champions League Group Stage, and it would be nice to make it for the first time of asking. I didn't expect to challenge for the title in the first season, but now, naturally, I want to win it.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Cheez3y]

I love a good Eastern Europe save.

Good Luck with Spartak.

 

Although I have to root for Krasnodar, because I managed them 2 years ago.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

PART ONE

I intend to do some sort of performance analysis twice a year: one during the mid-season break (those cold Moscow winters are great for some numbers crunching) and one at the end of the season. 

 

Here is our current first team squad:

 

 

And some relevant player data:

 

 

For evaluating goalscoring impact, i like to at xG/Shot first. This will give me hints about a player's efficiency: if he's taking a high amount of shots which are generally of the lower quality, that means the player of that shoot first, ask questions later type. Conversely, a higher number in this category can mean the player is getting into good scoring positions, and that is what I want to see. I also like to look at shots on target ratio and minutes/goal.

The data here confirms the eye test: Bakaev is our best attacker. Umyarov is worth taking a further look at. Sobolev is somewhat of a disppointment, although his goal contributions are remarkable. Tashaev is an outlier, he only played cup games which we dominated and doesn't quite meet the minutes threshold either.

For passing performances, I prefer what I call Key Pass Percentage over Key passes/90. This one measures the number of key passes the player made to all the passes he attempted. The reason I prefer this one is that not all players are expected to hit a bunch of key passes every week, but I do like to know if they are efficient with the ball or just dump it off to the nearest teammate. To a lesser extent, I also like to look at Pass Completion Ratio, but this one must be evaluated within the context of the tactical approach. 

After taking away the outliers, Zobnin rules the day. He's our best player and it's not even close. Ayrton Lucas is a pleasant surprise. Putting these together with his distinctly average scoring metrics, it's now clear that Larsson is not good enough, so our new signing Suleimanov would take his place even if Larsson was Russian.

For defensive performance, my go-to stat is what I call Interception Percentage. This one calculates defensive actions (tackles + interceptions) and then looks at what percentage interceptions take up of all defensive actions. This is a good metric, but one that shall always be put in context. Zobnin is not great here, but his role is BWM, so it's in his job description to make tackles. Still, I would want this a bit higher. I like Djikia's and Bakev's (who's an Inside Forward!) numbers here, while it's clear to see that Kral's lack of marking is letting him down here - he played almost the same minutes at CB as Djikia, but is performing at a lower level. Int/90 sophisticates this data a bit further.

I also look at Tackle Completion Ratio and for centre-backs, Headers Won Ratio. Well, it's not pretty. Ideally, I would want both of these over 80%. I need to take it into consideration , however, that attacking headers are probably counted, but even if we give our CB's somewhat of a pass for not winning headers for attacking corners, both Djikia and Kral's numbers are concerning. Now I know I should've looked at this before I sold Gigot. So, lacking a better option, I went to league stats, only to find out he won 87% of his tackles and leads the league in headers won. Damn it. WHY ARE YOU NOT RUSSIAN, SAMUEL?? 

This confirms that I probably need to sign a centre-back during this winter window. I'm not comfortable going into the title race with the guys I have.

Finally, for wide players, I look at Dribbles/Game, Fouls Against and Cross Completion Ratio. Lucas is slightly better than Moses and Bakaev is more of a goalscorer than a winger.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[karanhsingh]

I recently finished a very long save in Russia which finally ended with winning the CL with Zenit. It was a lot of fun but also very challenging. 

I think you will find your task very difficult with only Russian players. The quality of the newgens is decent but nothing great. 

However the kicker is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get players from your rivals. As Spartak this means every other big team in the league. 

There was one excellent newgen that I just could not get from Dynamo, eventually he moved to BVB and I got him a season later for 7 million. When he was in Russia I had offered up to 30 million. 

Roman Yevgenev (easily the best Russian defender in the game) never wanted to join my side due to the rivalry. This despite us being the best team in the country by far and his club struggling. 

Your best bet is to wait for the good Russian players to move abroad and bring them back when they don't get games. 

The ones who did well for me were - 

Pavel Maslov became a good CB and RB

Zelimkhan Bakaev good winger 

Fedor Chalov got him from PSG top scored 3 seasons running 

Sobolev was good back up for Chalov

Safonov I got as GK from Krasnodar but I believe you have a good keeper too 

Utkin is excellent if you can get him. Suleimanov may be worth a look too. 

I had Ozdoev & Karaveev too but I think they will be hard for you to get. 

There's a good German CB who has Russian dual nationality, his name escapes me though. 

I would recommend considering opening up transfers to Eastern Europe at least. I had two serbian wonderkids and one Croatian who played a key role in the last few seasons. 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

4 hours ago, Cheez3y said:

I love a good Eastern Europe save.

Good Luck with Spartak.

 

Although I have to root for Krasnodar, because I managed them 2 years ago.

Thank you.

Gotta love those FM affiliations. Me too i have a bunch of teams all over the world that I'm a "fan" of, just beacuse I've had a good save with them on FM.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I recently finished a very long save in Russia which finally ended with winning the CL with Zenit. It was a lot of fun but also very challenging. 

I think you will find your task very difficult with only Russian players. The quality of the newgens is decent but nothing great. 

However the kicker is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get players from your rivals. As Spartak this means every other big team in the league. 

There was one excellent newgen that I just could not get from Dynamo, eventually he moved to BVB and I got him a season later for 7 million. When he was in Russia I had offered up to 30 million. 

Roman Yevgenev (easily the best Russian defender in the game) never wanted to join my side due to the rivalry. This despite us being the best team in the country by far and his club struggling. 

Your best bet is to wait for the good Russian players to move abroad and bring them back when they don't get games. 

The ones who did well for me were - 

Pavel Maslov became a good CB and RB

Zelimkhan Bakaev good winger 

Fedor Chalov got him from PSG top scored 3 seasons running 

Sobolev was good back up for Chalov

Safonov I got as GK from Krasnodar but I believe you have a good keeper too 

Utkin is excellent if you can get him. Suleimanov may be worth a look too. 

I had Ozdoev & Karaveev too but I think they will be hard for you to get. 

There's a good German CB who has Russian dual nationality, his name escapes me though. 

I would recommend considering opening up transfers to Eastern Europe at least. I had two serbian wonderkids and one Croatian who played a key role in the last few seasons. 

Thanks for your comment and recommendations. I know i'm up against it. I thought about extending the transfer pool to Eastern Europe, but then I had a save with Dynamo Kyiv on FM20 where I had that policy in place, and my club were well on the way to becoming a who's who of Serbian and Croatian prodigies when i quit the save and FM20 altogether.

I'm already getting a taste of this rivalry problem, and also the ridiculous overpricing, but it will at least  make me REALLY selective when it comes to incoming transfers.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Hootieleece]

30 minutes ago, Enzo_Francescoli said:

Thank you.

Gotta love those FM affiliations. Me too i have a bunch of teams all over the world that I'm a "fan" of, just beacuse I've had a good save with them on FM.

Arsenal Tula....The only "real" Gunners!

but also Debrecen in Hungary, Hertha in Germany, ASSE, Clermont, and Grenoble in France, as well as a few others just from FM.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

Until this very day, I'm looking at how Toulouse are doing because I had an epic save with them on.. what? FM2007 I think..

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

PART TWO

After major concerns emerging as laid out int the last update, I went back and looked at the analytical data of all our league games so far. It turns out that very few of our headers lost actually occurred in our own box. Djikia and Kral combined for exactly zero headers lost in our box. The thing is, we're taking a bunch of corners and literally all the aerial challanges they're losing are in the opponent's box. SI should really introduce a stat that measures aerial challenges separately, or at least headers in own box or something like that. Please?

The other thing is the game continues to have major problems with counting stats. CCC's are actually so broken I'm not even looking at them anymore.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at some team stats quickly.

 

Who cares?

 

Good. 

 

Fine.

 

 

Fine. Next.

 

 

 

 

I think we're fine here. I'd like to take shots against down a little bit, but otherwise I see no major problems.

Let's go win that title.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

FEB-MAR 2021

Results:

First, we crashed out of the Cup on a BS penalty. On a related note, I also learned that the Russian Cup doesn't have VAR.. We were the better team, but just couldn't score. I didn't like what I saw. It was the same story against Lokomotiv (our goal was a direct free-kick), which prompted me to tweak the tactic. We then beat Rotor who barely set foot on our half until the 80th minute. Finally, we overcame Zenit in a close game, although we went up 2-0 and had the better chances throughout:

 

League table:

CSKA keep on winning, so it's going to be tough.

 

Things just didn't quite click after the winter break, so felt I had to alter our a tactic a little. Djikia just can't play BPD, he popped out of the screen in a wrong way, as he kept pissing the ball away into nowhereland. Our Libero is now on attack, because I need more attacking contribution from him and believe Hendrix can actually pull it off. I also benched Sobolev, since I can't trust him with any role right now, besides maybe TM to see out games. Ponce is starting now, even though he's not the solution either, not least because he's not Russian, but he's passable as an AF. The striker position has to be at the centre of our summer recruitment. I dropped  more direct passing too, beacause our new set of roles and duties already makes our attacks quite vertical, without actually using that TI.

 

1

I made some other role changes to better suit the players and our revised attacking plan. Two games is a small sample size, so I'm going to watch the next few games on comprehensive highlights. There are still a few things to solve about our system, but I'm sure that, at the end of the day, this formation continues to give us the best chance to win, so I'm sticking with it for now.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

YOUTH INTAKE 2021

 

 

 

My HOYD proudly states that has been shaping the mentality of Lyutnyanskyi - which is that of Low Determination.. I had a long, hard thought about firing him on the spot, but then brushed it off with that he's just probably drunk again. He's gone in the summer. Anyway, for a so-called golden generation, this is pretty weak. I signed 10 of these players, but most of them are super long-shots.

 

 

Shabolin is the most promising of this crop and I can see him making it as a playmaker-type on the flanks or at AMC. A technical player with good decision-making already. The thing is, I'm very reluctant to use players with bravery that low anywhere on the field, and it's one attribute that never goes up by much.

 

 

Volkov goes straight into the main squad for mentoring purposes. If I don't manage to change his personality soon enough, he's out of here.

 

 

i like Aleshin. Everything about him screams BWM, but if he really develops, he can make it as a BBM. Even if he's "only" a good BWM for the future, I'm happy.

 

 

Star ratings notwithstanding, Trubitsin is my favourite in this intake. He has great personality, some already solid mentals and positional versatility. He's started his training as a BWM to give him some good fundamentals and I'll re-evaluate in 6-8 months time.

 

The other ones signed are Shamov. Kudinov, Bolonin, Khaziev, Fedorov and Melkonyan, most of them in order to see if their decent personalites can help them overcome the long odds they have right now.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

APR 2021

It's been a busy month, so it gets a separate update.

 

Results:

 

We should've won the Rostov game. I hope I'm wrong, but it may well cost us the title. Somewhat inevitably, teams are playing more and more defensively against us. These five games in April saw 20 shots against us combined, 8 of them were on target. That's crazy. We're not that good defensively.

 

League table:

 

 

It's a two-horse race, but a very close one at that. Arsenal Tula gave CSKA their first defeat of the season and I can't thank them enough for that. Their second one was at the hands of Zenit who are crazy good with their new manager, 73-year-old Yury Semin. In the mid-season update, I predicted we had to win 9 of 12 of the remaining games. We're 6 out 8 so far, well on course. It's all in our hands now. However..

 

Remaining schedule:

 

 

I'm really furious about that. Our title dreams will probably go down to those last two matches, away from home against very good opponents, and we have to play them two days apart. 

 

CSKA's schedule:

 

 

Even though they're playing in the cup final, they don't have the kind of fixture congestion that we have. I say it's rigged. RIGGED. Hopefully, Rostov do to them what they did to us.

 

Facilities:

 

 

Gotta ask while you're winning.

 

Future transfers incoming:

 

 

 

He's already one the best players in Russia and still has some room to grow. 4.5M of the fee is up front, the rest is in installments over 3 years. I spent almost all the money from the Gigot deal on this one, but if we're serious about our goals and our Russian-only policy, moves like this have to be made.

 

 

 

The scouts are not very fond of this guy, but I like his attribute spread. For a 15-year-old centre-back, he has no weaknesses, apart from strength, and we will see to that. If he manages 4-5 attribute point gains at key areas, we have a player. So we're getting him in at the earliest opportunity and start working.

 

Mentoring:

I mentioned a few updates ago, that I was hoping for a quick personality change for our big winter acquisition Suleimanov. After a warm welcome to the club and then some mentoring by Zobnin, he's now Resolute.

Speaking of whom:

 

 

A bunch of nobodies are after our captain, but he's going nowhere.

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

MAY 2021

 

Results:

 

 

 

In the end, the title race proved to be largely anti-climatic. Thanks to some odd scheduling and CSKA kind of imploding, we went into the Tambov game already crowned as champions. Once I learned, however, that surging city rivals Dynamo were going to play a 4231 gegenpress against us (which seems to be the, ahem, go-to tactic this year), I got into this weird competitive streak . I played my first 11 and we put on a counter-attacking clinic. Lower LOE, attacking mentality, a few changes in duties, it was a joy to watch. Definitely the game of the season tactically. Then, as a reward, I kind of let the boys loose against Krasnodar. We went all-out of attack for this last game. I hope they enjoyed it (I didn't) because it won't happen too often.

 

League table:

 

[deltablue]

Yay, champions!

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

2020-21 END-OF-SEASON PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

 

Team stats:

 

 

Our tackle win rate continues to be a concern. Otherwise, we were great at the areas I want us to be.

 

Player stats:

 

 

I revised the formula for calculating defensive actions and it now considers fouls made, too. I went back and forth on this one, because it probably includes handballs and pushes at attacking set-pieces, but I've concluded that these two are few and far inbetween to really skew the numbers. Ideally, I would go with tackles attempted instead of tackles made, but, sadly, the game doesn't count that one, at least for me all the numbers are zero.

Some takeaways:

Ponce justified my decision of putting him in the starting 11, scoring goals and being efficient. I'm now tempted to keep him for another year, despite him being Argentinian, because we are really short of goalscorers. Bakaev is great, but he's no striker and his high xG/shot has a lot to do with him being our designated penalty-taker.

Speaking of Bakaev, his consistently strong defensive numbers suggest he's viable at wide midfield too, should we decide to change the system.

Suleimanov looks like a good signing, but a series of smaller injuries took away from his impact. He needs to stay on the field.

Zobnin continues to be irreplaceable.

Young Pavel Maslov played well as a Libero in limited minutes, but his lack of physicality and natural fitness puts his usability for other defensive roles in serious doubt.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Hootieleece]

Good work....you seem to have a solid core to build around....except Ponce.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

17 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Good work....you seem to have a solid core to build around....except Ponce.

Thank you. Big summer decisions await when it comes to our remaining foreign players.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

2021-22 PRE-SEASON

 

More news from nowhere:

 

 

I have a feeling it's a state-owned telecommunications company.. We'll take the money, though, it almost tripled our bank balance.

 

 

We're getting there.

 

 

We won the league, guys. Way to aim high. Although this might turn out to be a transitional season for our club, in which case it's more than realistic.

 

 

I already wrote about Yevgnejev and Pletnev.

 

 

I looked through the 2021 youth intakes of the bigger Russian clubs and Semka is one the very greatest of all youngsters coming through this year. With good fundamentals and already elite speed at the age of 15, he has every chance to become a perennial Russian international in the future. And that is the kind we will be collecting.

 

 

I also appointed Vadim Romantsev, who I think is son of Oleg, as B Team Manager. If he's half the coach his father was, Spartak-2 is set for the foreseeable future.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

FOREIGN PLAYERS UPDATE

 

We have seven non-Russian players remaining at the club, and there is interest for almost all of them.

 

 

I really like Kral. He has been playing BPD for us, but he's also adept at Libero or as a DM or CM(d). Some lowball offers already came in which were promptly rejected. I intend to keep him until January at least. Champions League football will drive up his value.

 

 

Hendrix is our starting Libero on ridiculous wages. (For comparison's sake, we paid more than 4m for one year of Victor Moses, who is not very good.) Inevitably, he has recently come to me asking for a new contract. I wanted to tell him we're not giving new contracts for non-Russian players anymore, but I didn't have that option. So now he's unhappy. If a good offer comes in, I'll let him go, even though he's one of our best players.

 

 

Larsson is not quite good enough for this team and hasn't been playing especially well. He has the speed and other attributes to play AF, though, and our lack of forward depth makes me really think twice about this one. And it's not just our club, mind. Russia has an abundance of great defenders and midfielders, but not many good strikers right now. With the exception of Fedor Chalov (who's not interested in joining us) and a bunch of target man types, there is no one I could sign right now and say I've just made our team considerably better.

 

 

On a related note, Ponce played striker for us in the second half on last season, and I'm almost certain that had I not replaced Sobolev with him, we wouldn't have won the title. He's the only one with no interest from other clubs so far, so he stays. We need him too.

 

 

I have been trying O'runov at right wing-back since Moses left. He's not very good, but has recently got injured, so I guess he stays for a little longer.

 

 

I like Rocha's semi-decent defensive attributes and more than decent teamwork, but ultimately he's no more than a useful squad player for us. Once again, since we're paper-thin at forward, especially when it comes to Russian nationals, I'm a bit reluctant to sell him until we can get some depth up front. A good offer can change my mind.

 

 

I simply can't replace Lucas right now. If he goes, we'll have to abandon the 523 system.

 

We also have Guus Til on a 2-year loan at Freiburg which expires at the end of the season. He certainly won't need to rent an apartment in Moscow.

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Number seven]

I like the Russian only profile, but why not naturalize the South Americans?

[Enzo_Francescoli]

21 hours ago, Number seven said:

I like the Russian only profile, but why not naturalize the South Americans?

That's a good thought and something to consider. They have to play in Russia for 6 continuous years for that. Neither Rocha, nor Ponce (who have 2 and 4 years left, respectively) is good enough to be worth the trouble. As for Lucas, I've thought about it. He has three and a half years remaining though, which is beyond his current contract. I would have to make him a star player which he kind of is - for now, but he's not someone who can start for a Champions League winning team.

Ultimately, I think it wouldn't feel quite right.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

JUL-AUG 2021

 

Results:

 

 

We won the Super Cup in an incredibly tight match. We started okay in the league, but we are not playing especially well. I continue to attribute that to the lack of true goalscoring presence up front. That said, I started to develop a new tactic, which is a 42211 with two DM's. It looked good in a friendly against Monaco, but it's obviously way too defensive for the RPL. I intend to spend this autumn working on two striker systems, because quite simply none of our strikers is good enough to play alone up front.

 

League table:

 

 

CSKA are very strong once again and they made it to the CL Group Stage through the qualifiers. Them and Zenit (who just spent a sh*tload of money on new players) look like our  primary challengers.

 

Speaking of the CL:

 

 

Yeah, well. This will be a great opportunity to work on a counter-attacking system. Can we get just 1 point? We'll see.

 

Notable transfers:

 

 

Decent fee for a player with no future with us.

 

 

Russian international joins from Zenit for 8.25m. We needed a WB on the right, because I'm not ready to change the tactic just yet. He's surely an upgrade on Moses.

 

 

We also loaned Cheryshev from Valencia. We're paying a 100k monthly fee and half of his wages. He can cover for Lucas at left WB (we didn't have any alternatives at that position) and can play at forward too.

 

Our biggest concern, as mentioned, is still at the striker position. I was unable to recruit any Russian player who's an upgrade on what we currently have. Out of sheer desperation, I offered a transfer fee that could reach 27m for Fedor Chalov, but he wasn't interested in joining us. I even tried to loan Kokorin from Fiorentina and he too wasn't interested. For the lack of a better option, I probably have to come up with a tactical solution for this and come up with one soon. 

I also succesfully bid for Atalanta's Miranchuk, but he chose Leverkusen. He's not especially my type of player, but his technical ability would've dominated the RPL in a tactic built around his passing. Too bad,

Edited March 26, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[deltablue]

That doesn't look like an easy group.

[karanhsingh]

Well done winning the league. I am surprised you managed to get Yevgenev and Karaveev from rival clubs at decent fees! You must tell me how you did it, I went up to 60 million for Yevgenev on my save over a period of 4 seasons and was always flatly rejected, not even the hint of a negotiation 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

22 hours ago, deltablue said:

That doesn't look like an easy group.

I don't know how it's even possible because of the seeding. Apparently, Barcelona was a 2nd seed, and Inter 3rd. Stiil, what are the odds? Predictably, we're not doing too well in the CL so far.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

20 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Well done winning the league. I am surprised you managed to get Yevgenev and Karaveev from rival clubs at decent fees! You must tell me how you did it, I went up to 60 million for Yevgenev on my save over a period of 4 seasons and was always flatly rejected, not even the hint of a negotiation 

Thanks.

I was constantly on the lookout for Yevgeneev, asking his agent every two weeks, like the crazy stalker that I am. I swooped in the right time, when we were 1st and Dynamo 7th, so he didn't care that much about the rivalry. Also, they had some financial problems, at one point in the summer, all of their first team players were transfer listed, something I haven't seen before.

As for Karaveev, Zenit brought in Aurier to play right back for them, so I guess he became expendable.

[Hootieleece]

Good work winning the Russian League. You were given a stern test in the CL Group Stage.

 

 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

SEP-OCT 2021

 

Results:

 

 

Truth to be told, we kind of suck right now. I've been experimenting with tactics quite a lot lately, but that's no excuse for dropping that many points in the league. The Dynamo game, in particular, was unacceptable, although the manager did perhaps choose the wrong time to try out a Wide Target Man system... As for the CL, we never really were in the Bayern game, but did well against Inter, a match we didn't deserve to lose. Then we actually flat out outplayed Barcelona and should have, for all intents and purposes, won that game. Based on that one sample, our 451 counter attack tactic is worth further exploring.

 

League table:

 

 

It's a three-horse race, and both Zenit and Dynamo look very strong this year. We gotta bring our A-game from now on.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

NOV-DEC 2021

 

Results:

 

 

We are very far from the European elite, that's for sure.

 

 

 

F-ck off.

 

 

Despite our preformances not being up to par, we're still leading the league at the winter break.

 

 

It says golden generation, but it doesn't look very good.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

FEB-MAY 2022

 

Results:

 

 

We kept focused and went onto a long winning streak. The key game was against Dynamo who were our main challengers this year. We played our new 451 tactic and we bossed the game while having 37% possession.

 

League table:

 

 

We won it with a higher point total than last year. We also won the cup this time around, and although it took two penalty shootouts to get there, it was well deserved.

 

Youth intake 2022:

 

 

 

 

Popov has every chance to become a star. It's players like him coming through that will get us where we want to go.

[abulezz]

I agree - Popov looks great. Good technique, good passing, he is going to do well. 

[Enzo_Francescoli]

28 minutes ago, abulezz said:

I agree - Popov looks great. Good technique, good passing, he is going to do well. 

Needs better vision, though, if he ever wants to be a playmaker. Right now, we're focusing on his physicals, and he's developing nicely so far.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

2021-22 END-OF-SEASON PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 

 

 

The emergence of Glushenkov (who had been loaned out)  is the main story here.

 

 

He's no world beater by any means, but has good attributes at all the right places, has consistency and, most importantly, has a Russian passport. I gave him a chance and he took it. His offensive numbers are better than anyone we've had at the striker position.

 

Elsewhere, Yevgenjev has been as good as expected, and he even scored 11 goals off set pieces. He's a man among boys.

 

We sold Kutepov during the winter break. He's a good CB, but was no more than a squad player for us, and so I wasn't going reject a 7.5m bid from Krasnodar. We used that money to pick up Glebov from Rostov and he has actually outperformed Umyarov. He looks like a good signing.

 

 

Karavaev has been worth his transfer fee as well. We have a strong team right now, and it's time to integrate our most promising youngsters. Sadly, our B-team got relegated from the FNL, so our player development plans took a big time hit. Also, the inevitable departure of Ayrton Lucas looms large, as there is no Russian LWB currently who can come close to his abilities.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli

[Enzo_Francescoli]

 

2022-23 PRE-SEASON

 

Transfers:

Pre-arranged transfers in:

 

 

And the rest:

 

 

I'm only signing youngsters now, because every Russian player who's an upgrade on what we have, is out of reach. And there aren't too many of them anyway.

We got decent money for some fringe players from other Russian clubs. As for the foreigners, Ponce is gone and Larsson has a transfer arranged for January. No one seems to want Orunov and Guus Til (myself included), but I'll surely get rid of them somehow. That leaves Ayrton Lucas, Alex Kral and Jorrit Hendrix. All of them have two years left on their contracts which expire in June 2024. There are all core players for us, too. I either let their contracts run out and win the league two more times (boosting our reputation and getting CL money) or I sell them this January for a good fee. If I wait till next summer, it's dubious I can keep my asking price high enough, since then they'll only have 1 year left on their contract. I've already seen that with Larsson and Til. We don't need the money right now. Facilities are almost maxed out and we currently have 70m available for buying 16-year-olds. Besides Chalov, the two Miranchuk's, Oblyakov and maaaybe Utkin, I'm not interested in any of the established Russian players, because they won't make us considerably better. Utkin is the only of these who's at least remotely interested in joining us and he's not worth his asking price.

Tough decision. I've started giving minutes to our most promising youngsters, but they are definitely not good enough yet, not even for the RPL. Some of them might be ready in 2024.

 

In the meantime:

 

 

Once again, not one team that's not distinctly ahead us when it comes to overall quality, but it's at least slightly better than last year's horror-show. (Speaking of which, Red Star Belgrade drew the exact same teams like we did last year, I mean what's up with that?) I will have to go all tactical against these teams, analysing, preparing, adjusting tactics, otherwise we stand no chance. We'll see how far that takes us. I want us to have at least 4 or 5 points this year.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Enzo_Francescoli