[FM21] BackTheBulls - Jersey Bulls: a charge into the football league

[Jtomsett11]

23 hours ago, Pompeyboyz said:

who won the play off final BTW?

Shrewsbury, Preston or the Mighty Portsmouth?

It was the mighty Preston in the end!

21 hours ago, Punch said:

Oh, I have the spread sheet, I meant these views?

I've only just seen that your Notts Co game might be lost, sorry to hear that as you were doing so well! Here are the views.

 

Outfield stats.fmf

[Sonic Youth]

That IR really has done a number on you in important games 

Got some decisions to make with strengthening your squad. Maybe even who gets sold?

Good season making the playoffs with hopefully winning promotion next season 

[Jtomsett11]

12 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

That IR really has done a number on you in important games 

Got some decisions to make with strengthening your squad. Maybe even who gets sold?

Good season making the playoffs with hopefully winning promotion next season 

Yes, we've let a few go this summer who weren't up to it anymore and we've strengthened with two good players, although I wish it were more!

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season 2032/33

The board approached me about this, so I'm very pleased we'll be a category 3 by the end of the season. I'm not entirely sure what impact this has beyond compensation deals, but any increase in youth 'stuff' can't be bad.

Transfers in

We've struggled again as most players want £150k a year +, which would mean we need to sell more players just to fund their arrival. We've settled (so far) for two additions.

Park joins on a free but he does have a release clause of £3.6million. He's definitely an improvement in the DLP role for us. Clarke may end up with less games, but that's a good thing in my opinion for a 18 year old.

Istead we've actually spent money on; £135k. I know he isn't much of an improvement on Turner-Cooke, but I think he'll do well as our advanced forward, even if he does 'come deep to get ball'. He's on a lot of money for us, but on a one year deal if he doesn't make it we can simply cut our losses.

Transfers out

First of all, we let our backup DLP, CB and GK go as we now have adequate cover in DLP and GK. CB has been an issue and is continuing to be so; I think I may end up using Robbins as backup CB/BWM as Clarke may play a few games there if Park proves as successful as I think he's going to be in the DLP role. 

We then had an unfortunate bid:

Brooking has a £3.5million release clause, and despite many teams then meeting my requirements for £2.9million + all the usual jazz (friendly, 50% next sale and loan back) he has gone for Fulham.

He actually wasn't brilliant last season, and it saves us £100k a year in wages. I think we may regret the lack of a % clause though. It's funny that he was 28K yet is the first player to go to the Prem. 28A is Majernik who still has 5 star potential, so we will see how good he gets (he shows no sign of slowing down his development).

It does leave a sizeable hole at AML though. Perhaps time for another young player to step up?

I decided to spend some of the money to continue to develop the club.

Season ahead

We're up against another old boy this year!! 

I think another play-off push would be a great performance to be honest. 

This is the squad. In reality, Barzey probably won't get many games as Robbins and Clarke are more than capable there. There's some notable improvements, but also some serious areas of weakness. As usual, we play on the fine line between squad depth, wage limits, promoting youth and aiming to continue our promotion challenges. 

[Sonic Youth]

More dilemmas! A hands tied on top of that 

A training upgrade can only make your players better. Will be good to see more players turn blue (75 or higher right?) because of this upgrade 

[Jtomsett11]

10 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

More dilemmas! A hands tied on top of that 

A training upgrade can only make your players better. Will be good to see more players turn blue (75 or higher right?) because of this upgrade 

Yeah, it's 75 or higher for blue.  I'm hopeful that the training upgrades in the long run will benefit us more than a 50% clause which may never be realised. 

I think one thing I need to think about is my head of youth development,  who is now just average rather than well above the level we were at a few years ago. He's on 50k a year until the end of this year so I'll see how the next intake goes and then reassess the options. 

[Jtomsett11]

August 2032

This increase is quite significant considering we are in the same league as last year. I've noticed our reputation has popped to 2 stars at some point, so perhaps that's behind it. We're also starting to sell out some games more regularly, so at some point I imagine the board will expand the stadium again (I think it has a maximum capacity of 7000).

We've made a really good start to the year if you ignore the Carabao Cup (who doesn't?). We've only conceded once in the league too.

When Istead got injured after the AFC Wimbledon game, I was very worried.

I shouldn't have been.

Turner-Cooke reminds me he's still here and capable of banging the goals in!

We're top, but don't get ahead of yourselves! There's a long way to go!

I'm also really pleased with some of the young players.

Rowlands is getting a bit more game time now Brooking has gone as although he's right footed, he is natural on the left. He rewarded me here with a brace from tight angles within 3 minutes. 

We're losing more than ever each month now as our staffing costs (both players and backroom) go up. It's probably not the best model, but with our youth intakes being good enough to generate cash when we need it so far, I'm happy to keep the investment up in the hope that it yields better growth for our young players who then yield better sales for us to invest again.

[Jtomsett11]

September 2032

Turner-Cooke could have had 5 in 2 games! Instead it's 3 from 2 and two dropped points.

The next game saw an unlikely scorer!

His career stats do not make for good reading do they?

Overall, it's another positive month. We did drop 4 points, but beating relegated Charlton is an incredible result really. 

It's noticeable that we're still wasteful in attack. We're also the best in the league defensively. Majernik is developing into a fine goalkeeper.

The league table looks very good.

Again, I'm not getting too excited. We will lose at some point because we're not particularly lethal in front of goal and at some point we'll concede more than we can score. I think what is clear is that we have grown as a squad and we're more capable this season. 

I didn't mention at the end of September, but as the transfer window shut it did so with very little fuss. We had one bid for Bondswell who is probably the next big one to go, but other than that nothing. In one way, this is great as it means our squad is likely to be settled for this season and maybe into next season. The likes of Knill and Robbins, while still showing signs they want to play for better sides (probably due to our reputation being lower than most League 2 sides), we can mostly rebuff interest and so the average-to-good players in our squad are here for the long run. However, the flip-side of stability is that we will also probably need a sale at the end of this season to break even, so we are reliant on one of the young'uns progressing enough to warrant interest. Bondswell is the one I think will go, perhaps for £4-5 million, but there are others such as Majernik and Clarke who are developing rapidly, so you never know.

 

 

[Punch]

Good start there, positive signs 

[Jtomsett11]

October 2032

It's been a funny month this one. I paused and went to bed after the Mansfield game as our first loss of the season in the league came after some questionable selection decisions from me.

Nightingale being out means Pennell has shifted to the left wing and we also missed both our LBs here through injury. I probably shouldn't have mixed that by playing our essentially second choice midfield partnership. Kalantari was also on international duty, as was Majernik. Yes, too many changes (some enforced).

Our away form has been excellent all season (6 wins and 2 draws) and we continued that against Shrewsbury. Why we didn't do this in the second leg of the play-off semis last year, I don't know! Noticeably, Turner-Cooke came back in to the side and Rowlands followed up his earlier goals this season with a great performance at RW. 

Before the Barnsley game we lost arguably one of our best performers.

However, with the emergence of unambitious, determination now 6 (up from 3) Mackenzie who continues to develop despite his personality, I was quietly confident that we'd be okay. We won 1-0, so a clean sheet for our new CB duo.

Our home form, unlike our away form, is not great. All 3 losses this year are at home. I decided after this to throw more caution to the wind. We've been playing our 'balanced' mentality tactic for a few seasons now and haven't used our 'positive' one which also focuses on overlapping fullbacks. I used this for the next two home games and was handsomely rewarded. Of huge help was having Nightingale back.

Overall, this leaves us in a very promising position.

Now, I think at this point I'm getting more confident that we're in a title fight. We need to keep relatively injury free and we need to continue to improve our home form. Our defense is pretty water tight and that could help us hugely over the season compared to most of the teams 3rd and down. 

Youth results

I don't pay too much attention to my youth results as until last season neither my U23s or U18s played in a league. However, this form shows we've got some decent players and hopefully our U18s will be promoted this year. This is more impressive as we've moved most of the best U18s into the U23s to try and ensure each player is allocated to one spot without subs to ensure game time. 

Transfer clauses

I've only just noticed this. It wasn't there at the end of September. I'm a little disappointed how low this is.

Let's see how much it would take to buy him.

I might be able to get them lower, but I think there's a little more money in Geddes. He's contracted until 2036 so I'm going to wait this one out a little.

 

 

[Punch]

Getting to the top is good, now staying there is the hard part. Good looking season so far though.

Loving how you follow your former players.

[Jtomsett11]

On 01/11/2021 at 21:04, Punch said:

Getting to the top is good, now staying there is the hard part. Good looking season so far though.

Loving how you follow your former players.

Speaking of former players, one became available at the end of December.

He would definitely improve our left wing options.

This is hilarious. Firstly, he spent 9 years at the club including his academy time. 

This is one of those parts of the game where you lose immersion as the game has picked up something that doesn't represent what's actually happened. To be honest I wouldn't mind him saying 'I don't want to go backwards in my career', or 'I want a new challenge abroad', but this reason is just silly really!

[Jtomsett11]

November 2032

We had a pretty good month all in all. 

The second round win in the FA cup has seen us land a nice third round draw too.

We are having some issues with scoring more than 2 goals.

Istead in particular is on a barren run and isn't scoring any goals. 

The Sunderland loss is no surprise and saw them overtake us, before the Wycombe result and victory in one of their games in hand took them clear. We're still in that automatic promotion spot, but Charlton are in pursuit and they and Sunderland dwarf us in quality. Both sides have multiple players worth over £10 million and individuals who earn more than our entire playing squad per year. 

Looking ahead, I think we're in for a tough month as we've lost our first choice keeper.

 

[Punch]

6 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

This is one of those parts of the game where you lose immersion as the game has picked up something that doesn't represent what's actually happened. To be honest I wouldn't mind him saying 'I don't want to go backwards in my career', or 'I want a new challenge abroad', but this reason is just silly really!

Ah damn! That's a shame.

But he is still young so you may yet get another chance at him.

[Jtomsett11]

December 2032

There have been some really poor performances this month, mainly in our away games.

At home, we're much better and Istead and Folkes have got in on the goals.

Ouch, look at all that red!

I think this month shows us a lot of things. Firstly, you can put together a great run of form with underdogs, but you only need to miss a few players, or stop performing in a couple of areas for things to go south. Secondly, we can't get too excited when we win all the games in a month and therefore we can't stress too much if we lose most of the games in a month. 3 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses is 10 points from 8 games. That's mid-table form, but so far we've shown promotion candidate form.

Averaged out and we're in 3rd. I still think the play-offs would be a great result for us this season. The hope is that with a young squad, we're likely to continue our improvement over the next few seasons.

Let's take a look at our squad by potential.

Note that this doesn't include 1 5 star and 3 4.5 star PA players in the reserves and U18s.

What it shows me is that most of our squad will continue to develop, probably to Championship level (4 stars seems to be championship at the moment for us). If we keep all of our players (a big if) we'd have a core of 7-8 Champiomnship players at least once they hit full potential.

I am slightly concerned that our 5* PA and 4.5*PA numbers are down to 8 (12 in total) and one of those is on loan as it feels to me that with our exceptional youth recruitment and junior coaching that we should have more than that. We are still developing our youth level, facilities and reputation though so this should improve year on year. Still, even with this, we're not a million miles from the promotion places so incremental improvement each year should still lead us to promotion at some point and it's still possible that it will be happen this season.

[Jtomsett11]

13 minutes ago, Punch said:

Ah damn! That's a shame.

But he is still young so you may yet get another chance at him.

It's possible. If he doesn't like us now, he may never like us again unfortunately in my experience. We should still have a few players who will be better than him within 2-3 years anyway, but it would have been a nice reunion and boost after our indifferent December!

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake preview December 2032

A left winger and a CB seems to be what this is saying. A Dutch left winger! Let's wait and see. I'm hoping for a couple of players with decent attribute spread and decent potential, I don't really mind what positions as this isn't a youth only save. The one position I would like to see is an advanced forward and it doesn't look like we'll get one of those this year!

 

[Sonic Youth]

Looking good with a bit of injuries knocking the edge slightly off the form at times. I guess when you run a slim squad this happens.

Pity about Stow-Tricker. Crazy reason 

All that red I thought was the fouls, not the losses at first 

Though, it looks like your positioned nicely to at least get a playoff spot 

That youth intake preview looks interesting. Not sure where that Dutch connection comes from 

[Jtomsett11]

Mid-season Dec 2032 analysis

I thought I'd take a closer look this mid-season at how our players are performing against each other and then take the best performers and compare them against others in the league.

Goalkeepers

Gordon is better by ability, but he's made some real howlers when coming out for the ball (2 I've seen on highlights) and how they don't count as goals from mistakes I don't know. He has 15 for rushing out tendency but only 6 for one on ones and 5 for pace and acceleration, so not the best combination. He's only played so many due to cup games and Majernik's injury. We just seem to play better when Majernik plays; we concede far fewer and he doesn't need to make as many saves. 

However, in terms of goals conceded, both are in the top three for goals conceded, while they're 2nd and 4th for goals conceded/90. Apart from Gordon's errors, I'm pretty happy with our keepers.

Defenders

From the statistics above alone, I'm very happy with my defence. Our LBs intercept a lot more than our RBs, but then the RB sides has our BWM who tends to make all the tackles in front of him. Mackenzie's headers won ratio looks concerning, but is very similar to Bondswell and he wins more headers than either other CB (New being our other CB). 

How does this compare to the league? Let's use Bondswell, Holder and Haughton as reference points.

I find these statistics fascinating. My best CB is in the bottom 2% of all defensive minded players when it comes to tackles, but we've come to expect that. Just for reference, here's my two BWM options, who do all the tackling. 

What really pleases me defensively is the key tackles. All my best defensive players score well for them compared to other players in the league, especially when you consider that they make so few tackles. Our split block clearly works and we make interceptions and tackles further forward unless they're desperately needed.

My Cbs are clearly seeing a lot of action from corners too. Yes, we're top for scoring from corners. 

Interestingly, Howells and Haughton are getting the assists whereas Fitton and Holder don't create as much. 

Deep lying playmakers

I think it's fair to say, Clarke is the standout performer at DLP. He even competes with my wingers in terms of creativity.

Now, there is a caveat to this. I've watched a few highlight reels and realised that Clarke often takes corners and free kicks (he didn't when he first played) so this may be behind his number. However, half his assists in the league are from balls over the top, so he's still outperforming new signing Park quite considerably. 

Park has requested to leave, and I've accepted the request knowing it's unlikely someone will come in for him and hoping that he will improve over time.

Wingers

Folkes and Kalantari got included here as I got fed up of snipping!

I'm far more impressed with my wingers this year than I was last year, although we've also been a better team, so perhaps that's part of it. 6 goal involvements from 17 games is the lowest ratio. Pennell and Harrop are creating the most chances, but both have had runs of very poor form, especially the latter. 

Forwards

Istead has come alive in the last few games, with 5 goals in December from our home games. Both strikers therefore looks like they've done quite well, but in reality it still feels like they both under perform at times. The biggest improvement has been Folkes, who has taken advantage of an injury and multiple international call ups for Kalantari and scored 7 goals already this season, most of them recently. 

What this shows me is that Folkes can't finish as well as Kalantari and that Harrop and Pennell are pretty wasteful despite reasonable goal returns. I probably new all of those things, but it's good to have my knowledge reaffirmed.

Turner-Cooke and Istead are 11th and 18th in goal totals in the league, but 18th and somewhere below 20th for shots on target. In addition, they do well for minutes per goal.

Summary

What can I take away from this mid-season analysis? We're doing pretty well across the board considering our average player is only just League One standard and most of our second choice are League Two standard. There's not really a position that I'm worried about, but the consistency of my squad and players is perhaps the biggest issue. That may be down to the consistency of my players, but is also probably down to our lack of strength in depth compared to the teams we're competing with for promotion. Charlton have my old boy Geddes as a rotation option in AMC and ST - if he played for us he'd be starting every game no matter what.

 

 

 

[Jtomsett11]

1 hour ago, Sonic Youth said:

Looking good with a bit of injuries knocking the edge slightly off the form at times. I guess when you run a slim squad this happens.

Pity about Stow-Tricker. Crazy reason 

All that red I thought was the fouls, not the losses at first 

Though, it looks like your positioned nicely to at least get a playoff spot 

That youth intake preview looks interesting. Not sure where that Dutch connection comes from 

Yeah it's an interesting one, if he turns out to have really good potential it'll be amusing we've managed to pick him up ahead of many other teams competing for youth.

[Jtomsett11]

January transfer/ clauses 

They wanted £7 million this time from us, so I was tempted to take £2.5m, but I think I'm going to wait and see!

 

[Punch]

18 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Mid-season Dec 2032 analysis

I thought I'd take a closer look this mid-season at how our players are performing against each other and then take the best performers and compare them against others in the league.

Goalkeepers

Gordon is better by ability, but he's made some real howlers when coming out for the ball (2 I've seen on highlights) and how they don't count as goals from mistakes I don't know. He has 15 for rushing out tendency but only 6 for one on ones and 5 for pace and acceleration, so not the best combination. He's only played so many due to cup games and Majernik's injury. We just seem to play better when Majernik plays; we concede far fewer and he doesn't need to make as many saves. 

However, in terms of goals conceded, both are in the top three for goals conceded, while they're 2nd and 4th for goals conceded/90. Apart from Gordon's errors, I'm pretty happy with our keepers.

Defenders

From the statistics above alone, I'm very happy with my defence. Our LBs intercept a lot more than our RBs, but then the RB sides has our BWM who tends to make all the tackles in front of him. Mackenzie's headers won ratio looks concerning, but is very similar to Bondswell and he wins more headers than either other CB (New being our other CB). 

How does this compare to the league? Let's use Bondswell, Holder and Haughton as reference points.

I find these statistics fascinating. My best CB is in the bottom 2% of all defensive minded players when it comes to tackles, but we've come to expect that. Just for reference, here's my two BWM options, who do all the tackling. 

What really pleases me defensively is the key tackles. All my best defensive players score well for them compared to other players in the league, especially when you consider that they make so few tackles. Our split block clearly works and we make interceptions and tackles further forward unless they're desperately needed.

My Cbs are clearly seeing a lot of action from corners too. Yes, we're top for scoring from corners. 

Interestingly, Howells and Haughton are getting the assists whereas Fitton and Holder don't create as much. 

Deep lying playmakers

I think it's fair to say, Clarke is the standout performer at DLP. He even competes with my wingers in terms of creativity.

Now, there is a caveat to this. I've watched a few highlight reels and realised that Clarke often takes corners and free kicks (he didn't when he first played) so this may be behind his number. However, half his assists in the league are from balls over the top, so he's still outperforming new signing Park quite considerably. 

Park has requested to leave, and I've accepted the request knowing it's unlikely someone will come in for him and hoping that he will improve over time.

Wingers

Folkes and Kalantari got included here as I got fed up of snipping!

I'm far more impressed with my wingers this year than I was last year, although we've also been a better team, so perhaps that's part of it. 6 goal involvements from 17 games is the lowest ratio. Pennell and Harrop are creating the most chances, but both have had runs of very poor form, especially the latter. 

Forwards

Istead has come alive in the last few games, with 5 goals in December from our home games. Both strikers therefore looks like they've done quite well, but in reality it still feels like they both under perform at times. The biggest improvement has been Folkes, who has taken advantage of an injury and multiple international call ups for Kalantari and scored 7 goals already this season, most of them recently. 

What this shows me is that Folkes can't finish as well as Kalantari and that Harrop and Pennell are pretty wasteful despite reasonable goal returns. I probably new all of those things, but it's good to have my knowledge reaffirmed.

Turner-Cooke and Istead are 11th and 18th in goal totals in the league, but 18th and somewhere below 20th for shots on target. In addition, they do well for minutes per goal.

Summary

What can I take away from this mid-season analysis? We're doing pretty well across the board considering our average player is only just League One standard and most of our second choice are League Two standard. There's not really a position that I'm worried about, but the consistency of my squad and players is perhaps the biggest issue. That may be down to the consistency of my players, but is also probably down to our lack of strength in depth compared to the teams we're competing with for promotion. Charlton have my old boy Geddes as a rotation option in AMC and ST - if he played for us he'd be starting every game no matter what.

 

 

 

Another spread sheet for these charts?

[Jtomsett11]

January 2032

I would probably describe this as a rather poor month. 

At least we scored a few against Charlton.

We're currently still in the play-off places, but we do need to start winning games if that's to remain the case. I may tinker with tactics a little, but ultimately I will use the team talk function and ride out the storm of poor results.

Transfer window

We started off with a little financial boost, which was good as the Arsenal game earnt us surprisingly little. They must have sold their tickets for £2 a go for the prize money we earned!

For the first time in our agreement we make use of our affiliation with United.

Park hasn't been very good, so it's good to get another DLP option in. Jones started off really well against Arsenal with a 5.9 rating 

However, there was one more big one on deadline day.

£3.75million up front, 3 payments of £1.66million a year and then the clauses. 

Interestingly, he's worth £5million but is pretty close to his potential, changing from 5 star potential when he turned 22 a few days before his transfer. I think this is absolutely the right time to sell him, despite him being by far and away our best CB. If we'd been promoted last season, it might have been different, but this money will really help us again.

Those transfer fees are really going up!

My players immediately had a problem, despite the fact Bondswell stays with us on loan. Even better, there was no option within the team talk so they're all unhappy that I haven't dealt with it!

We're using part of the money to invest in the youth facilities. The rest keeps us topped up nicely. I may even invest in some players if our reputation gets a little bump this year and we can sign players who improve us.

 

[Jtomsett11]

February 2033 (I keep getting the year wrong!)

Ah that felt good! It may only be 1-0 and a narrow win, but it's a win!

We followed it up with much better form.

Yes, we've had 4 home games so we should probably pick up a few points. However, Barnsley and Portsmouth are doing very well, so the wins against them are much needed.

We're back up to third. 9 games to go, we're 9 points behind Charlton and 8 ahead of Shrewsbury, who do have a game in hand. It's looking like another play-off campaign unless we can do something remarkable.

This is irritating.

We've actually done incredibly well to get through this month. New and Mackenzie both missed The Portsmouth game, so we've had Barzey and then Park filling in while Mackenzie recovers from his cold. We've also done with only one right back for 2 months as Fitton dislocated his jaw. 

 

[Punch]

Looks like a good fight coming up!

1 minute ago, Jtomsett11 said:

February 2033 (I keep getting the year wrong!)

I do the same, and I'm only in second season of current save

[Sonic Youth]

Nice transfer fee 

Could you improve the back room staff?

[BustaRaymes]

On 04/11/2021 at 22:53, Jtomsett11 said:

Youth intake preview December 2032

A left winger and a CB seems to be what this is saying. A Dutch left winger! Let's wait and see. I'm hoping for a couple of players with decent attribute spread and decent potential, I don't really mind what positions as this isn't a youth only save. The one position I would like to see is an advanced forward and it doesn't look like we'll get one of those this year!

 

Oooh, Loppersum is close to Arjen Robben's birth place. Let's hope his attributes will be close as well.

Love reading your adventure, keep it up!

[Jtomsett11]

On 09/11/2021 at 06:32, Sonic Youth said:

Nice transfer fee 

Could you improve the back room staff?

I have a pretty solid backroom team to be honest. Coaching is all 4 stars, but I will take another look at this post-season.

On 09/11/2021 at 12:59, BustaRaymes said:

Oooh, Loppersum is close to Arjen Robben's birth place. Let's hope his attributes will be close as well.

Love reading your adventure, keep it up!

Interesting. I think it's fair to say he could be a tricky winger, but perhaps without the electric pace! 

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake March 2033

At first sight, this is a limited intake with a few real standout players. 

Let's take a look at the top ones.

What is not to like about this fella? Driven, two-footed and yet still scoring highly in the important attributes. I don't think Dilrosun is far off the first team squad at all! I will train him to play right wing as well as he's two-footed and this could give us some real options. 

Davidson has very solid mentals and is decent physically and technically without being sensational. Balanced personality, but not the worst and with some mentoring he could be a brilliant full back.

This is by far our best intake attribute wise.  Dilrosun is also our best ever through at intake. Perhaps he is going to follow in Robben's footsteps after all @BustaRaymes. Funny as I was going to send my HOYD packing at the end of the season. I still think I may go shopping as it's always good to improve your staff as @Sonic Youth mentioned! 

 

[Jtomsett11]

March 2033

I'm pretty sure we did that last year Mr Chairman!

March is a perfect month. 3 wins, 3 clean sheets and two of those away from home. A player who has made a real difference is Jones in midfield.

One assist and one goal from DLP in 7 doesn't sound great, but they're both in the last 3 games and his key passes are through the roof. He's really contributing.

Now, stupidly, I got really excited at our form and frustrated we then wouldn't play until the 2nd April, so I forgot to take a screenshot of the league.

I can tell you it looked like this, with all teams on 40 games:

1st Sunderland 87pts +48GD

2nd Charlton 79pts + 36GD 

3rd Jersey Bulls 75pts + 38GD

4th Barnsley 71pts +20GD

5th Shrewsbury 67pts +22GD

6th QPR 65pts +8GD

We're almost assured of a play-off place. However, we're now only 4 points off Charlton! We've gained 5 points in a month. Do you believe Jersey Bulls?! Do you believe?!

 

[Jtomsett11]

Transfer March 2033

£4 million and they let him out on loan for 2 and a half years to me! Excellent work on our part!

[Jtomsett11]

April 2033 Part 1

6 games to go. 4 points to make up.

Istead is back in form and Shrewsbury, our play-off semi final conquerors from last year have done us a huge favour!! Jones was also superb, the United loanee now the first name on the team sheet.

Next up, we're away to Tranmere and Charlton are away to Buxton. 

We can only manage a draw and Charlton win. 3 points might be a gap too far. We're home to Sunderland next and finish away to Pompey, with Scunthorpe away and Wycombe at home in between. 

[Jtomsett11]

April 2033 Part 2

The Sunderland game is a big test. I've been going much more positive in our tactics and it's been paying off, so I stick to it here.

It pays off, but unfortunately Charlton also win.

Bondswell may have scored the winner, but he's out for our remaining games. New comes back in to partner Mackenzie.

Next game Scunthorpe away. Charlton are up against Salford.

It's on! Charlton lose and Istead seals the 3 points. We need to beat Wycombe at home and Portsmouth away to win promotion to the Championship!

[Jtomsett11]

April and May 2033 Part 3

Our next game is a tight one, but Istead is again the man.

It's down to the final game.

Charlton face Middlesbrough who are 7th. We face Pompey who are 8th. Both sides are themselves in with a shout of the play-offs.

At this point, I face a crisis of confidence. Our away form hasn't been brilliant, but using our positive mindset tactic with overlapping fullbacks has yielded good recent results. Do I risk it now and go for the win, when I may only need a draw? Do I play the game myself rather than instant result? In the end I decide to stick to the positive tactic. It's gotten us this far. We'll also stick with instant result. I'm not changing tack now, win or lose.

4-0! FOUR-NIL! 

It doesn't even matter that Charlton also won 4-1. 

We're promoted on 91 points on goal difference! We were 12 points behind at the end of January and we've clawed it back to seal promotion. 

Look at that end of season form. I can't put into words how exciting this last three game months has been. I also can't quite believe we're going up. 

[Punch]

Awesome job!

This team has come so far.

[AngeloBenito1974]

Thank you for the narration.  I am learning a lot. 

¡Buena suerte next season!

[Jtomsett11]

End of season review - player performances

I thought I'd start this time with our team of the year.

Now, we still have 5 Jersey-born players in this, but two of those are on loan. We also have 2 youth players, in Majernik and Mackenzie. The latter won the fans player of the season, which is a fantastic achievement in his first year in the first team. 

His attributes are certainly in need of further development and the amount of development he'll do while remaining unambitious and with determination of 6 is questionable. However, he's been very good this season and his physicals were decent for League One. He's now one of my favourite players for seemingly overcoming his awful personality.

What I like about this is that our defense was impenetrable most of the season, whereas our attack was not clinical at all. Therefore, that final 3 month period of the season must have been ridiculously clinical to shift us so far to the right. 

So let's take a look at the squad performances as a whole.

Goalkeepers

Majernik is my number 1 and his clean sheet ratio of nearly 50% is brilliant. Gordon isn't a bad back up, although we also have a very good youth prospect so I imagine at some point we'll let him go.

Central Defenders

In the end Barzey barely played, but 3 of his 4 games were at CB as Robbins became our first choice BWM towards the end of the season. Bondswell performed superbly once he rejoined us on loan after his record-breaking transfer, but Mackenzie performs admirably compared to him on headers per game, key headers and interceptions. New became third choice, but again performed well and scored over 7 on average. This season was the first time our corner routines really paid dividends for a number of years; 12 goals and 6 assists (probably from knock downs/ rebounds) is highly impressive.

Fullbacks

Haughton and Howells were my first choice by the end, simply because they were better at overlapping and delivering the ball effectively, the former especially with his 9 assists, which was the highest of any player this season. Holder is on loan for the whole of next season, but I will continue to select Howells as he is here permanently. Fitton is a good utility option and doesn't seem too upset about his reduced role.

Ball winning midfielders

Robbins was in his element in the last three months. He came into the side more and more towards the end of the season and then played almost every game. His tackles per game are always in the top 2 or 3 for every league we play in and this year is no exception. Knill wasn't bad, but we picked up far fewer points when playing. I'm happy with both of these to be honest and when either of them plays and we start to win, they stay in the team as first choice.

Playmakers

Clarke did well enough to earn his place in the TOTY, but really that's only because Jones was only here for 11 games. 6.62 key passes per game and 5 assists and 2 goals in 11 games for Jones, whose first game was a 5.7 rating against Arsenal don't forget. I'm trying to sign him up for 9 more months on loan which is the longest I can get him for. Park was poor so the less said about him the better. Not one of my better signings. 

I do have a theory about my DLP. I think in my 4-2-4 tactic they come under a lot of pressure, so struggle to play key passes and get in positions to lay on assists. However, when they also take set pieces, they seem to hugely increase their contributions beyond just the set pieces. Only half their assists come from set pieces. It's like they get a confidence boost and then play the rest of the game well. 

Wingers

Pursall only got 6 games so we can mostly ignore him. We coped with the loss of Brooking really well and our contributions from wingers have gone up this season. Rowlands might not have picked up many points when he played, but for his breakthrough season he did well. Harrop is a potential star, but really needs to be more consistent. His 16 goal contributions came in about half of the games he played and in the rest he was really poor. Pennell and Nightingale are really consistent despite being 'League Two' quality. 

Strikers

Turner-Cooke and Istead shared most of the game time early on, but Istead scored goals at the vital points to continue being selected during our brilliant run-in. His 19 goals are at actually at exactly the same goal to game ratio as Turner-Cooke's 13, but he also contributed 6 assists. Kalantari is a funny one. I often couldn't select him due to international call-ups, which meant Folkes played far more and got more points/ game despite Kalantari offering more according to the stats. 

Nobody had broken any records recently. 

[Jtomsett11]

End of season 2032/33 review - club overview

Progress in many ways. We've been promoted for the 8th time in 13 seasons. Our reputation is growing and our average attendances are nearly filling out our stadium. Our youth facilities are being improved as we speak, while our training facilities were improved again this year. Our youth rating has also gone up again.

Next year is going to be a big challenge. Our scouting network isn't returning the sort of players that will really improve us, so I need to take a look at that over the summer and see where we can improve and who we will rely on from our own production line. 

I really enjoy looking at the overall best eleven as your team develops. This shows how far we've come and who helped us get there. I think Geddes and Parsons goals per game ratio are going to take some beating. It's a shame we had to sell Bondswell as he could have easily made 500 appearances for us. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

End of season 2032/33 attribute analysis

Goalkeepers

Majernik is continuing to improve and we now have two keepers with ratings of 70 or above! De Rosa's growth continue too; he could eclipse both our first team keepers if his 5 star potential is to be believed. 

CBs

We're going to be weakened significantly by Bondswell's departure. Mackenzie has been growing and may continue this if he overcomes his personality. I think we'll have to bring in a CB in the summer, as Sharp seems to have hit a wall out on loan and he was awful when he played for us last year. Fontaine is our biggest prospect but he's also only got 9 for jumping. Perhaps Haughton could shift across from RB, but then we lose his 9 assists...

Fullbacks

Howells is our only improving starter, suggesting the others are very close to potential. Dornan, O'Sullivan and Seymour are all interesting prospects, but Davidson could be something special I think. It'll be interesting to see how much these four improve next year as it'll indicate which ones have the potential to come in to the first team. 

BWM

Clarke continue to develop strongly and I feel playing less games this season will only benefit him. Fontaine is my biggest prospect at BWM, but at 17 he can have another season in the U23s. Black I'm not sure where to play, but perhaps BWM is the right option. 

Deep-lying playmaker

Larkin is our best choice on paper, but his physical attributes and performances for us haven't been great. He did well on loan in the Conference this season. Perhaps another loan next season? Jones is hopefully on loan for next season too. Clarke's growth has been excellent. 

Wingers

Harrop may be slowing down in his development, but he's already very good. I'm not sure i'm utilising his 19 rating for passing. Rowlands and Pursall both had strong growth this season, but Starkey is the U18 who has shone the most with more than 7 points growth. There are a lot of players here who won't make the grade as we simply have so many options. Dilrosun is immediately our 4th best winger by attributes. I will try and give him game time next year.

Deep lying forward

John is similar to Kalantari in that he lacks physical attributes, but he has done well on loan in the Conference. He may be starting to hit his peak and if so he won't get in above Kalantari, considering his form.

Advanced forward

Could Starkey be an option at advanced forward? It would be great to have a Jersey-born striker again. His finishing of 8 isn't great though. Istead is our best option and that showed on the pitch. Farmer may have come to the end of his days here due to performances. He sat in the reserves the whole season and is out of contract in June 2033. 

[Punch]

Impressive stats there @Jtomsett11, some of your players have come such a long way from their starting scores.

[Jtomsett11]

6 hours ago, Punch said:

Impressive stats there @Jtomsett11, some of your players have come such a long way from their starting scores.

Agreed, some huge leaps forward. The Championship looks another game entirely.  There's individual players on more per year than our entire squad! 

[Punch]

7 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Agreed, some huge leaps forward.

I am noticing some weird numbers with my Academy kids. Bouncing up and down by 4, 5, and 6 points every 6 months. Any tips for training/coaching set ups for them?

 

9 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

The Championship looks another game entirely.  There's individual players on more per year than our entire squad! 

My FC Isle of Man save has just been promoted to the regional premier leagues, and there are clubs spending 4-5 time what we are, but thats a whole other level of disproportion

[Sonic Youth]

That’s some form Jersey had to finish the season 

Congrats on promotion 

Going to be really interesting next season in the Championship 

Wish Bondsman was there for the journey there too.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Sonic Youth

[Jtomsett11]

On 14/11/2021 at 10:01, Punch said:

I am noticing some weird numbers with my Academy kids. Bouncing up and down by 4, 5, and 6 points every 6 months. Any tips for training/coaching set ups for them?

 

My FC Isle of Man save has just been promoted to the regional premier leagues, and there are clubs spending 4-5 time what we are, but thats a whole other level of disproportion

Hmm, I generally set individual training to match the attributes I want to grow even if its not the role I want them to play and I ensure I select individuals in the u23s and u18s, but other than that I don't do too much. I tend to only look at the end of the season as there is quite a bit of variation during it. 

I'll have to take a look at your save, haven't had much time to play or follow other careers recently!

On 14/11/2021 at 11:05, Sonic Youth said:

That’s some form Jersey had to finish the season 

Congrats on promotion 

Going to be really interesting next season in the Championship 

Wish Bondsman was there for the journey there too.

Thank you! Yeah he's going to be a big miss, especially as our low reputation is preventing us signing any decent players really. I've got a few in on trial who have been released from Prem and other Championship sides so fingers crossed we pick up one or two.  Jones may turn out to be the bigger loss of the two as he refused to come back from United on loan.  

 

[Punch]

16 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I generally set individual training to match the attributes I want to grow even if its not the role I want them to play

Interesting. I normally set them to train their best roles. Maybe I might need to re-consider this approach.

17 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I ensure I select individuals in the u23s and u18s

Not sure what you mean by this one? For games?

18 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I tend to only look at the end of the season as there is quite a bit of variation during it.

I have been checking mid-season and end of season. Maybe I should ignore the mid-season and just check yearly.

[Jtomsett11]

On 15/11/2021 at 22:20, Punch said:

Interesting. I normally set them to train their best roles. Maybe I might need to re-consider this approach.

Not sure what you mean by this one? For games?

I have been checking mid-season and end of season. Maybe I should ignore the mid-season and just check yearly.

I mean I select the players for their positions for games, sorry I wasn't very clear! I try and have a squad of 16 max in each U23 or youth team so that they play most of the games.

I think if they're improving year on year, you're probably fine and have a player with unfulfilled PA on your hands. If they start stagnating or drop over a steady period of time, then I'd think they're close to their potential or their peak.

[Jtomsett11]

Summer 2033

I thought I'd take a look at my staff after @Sonic Youth commented asking if I'd planned to improve behind the scenes.

I'm pretty happy with the coaching set-up, but I think a few of these 3.5 star and 3 star coaches (at U18s) could be improved on. 

Senior team

U18s

The scouting team also has room for improvement, but my budget for paying scouts is set at around £55k a year, and not many want to join for just £1k a week.

I always find recruitment analysts have poorer attributes than other staff members. 

My physios are good, my sports scientists aren't brilliant so we'll try and improve there.

Play-offs

Big-budget Charlton join us in the Championship!

Transfers so far

We've struggled so far.

 

This is a big blow. James and Bondswell leaving means our two best players by PCA are gone.

We have signed one player on loan so far.

I think this guy looks immense and will increase competition up front if nothing else. 

We have let a few go so far, including one poached player.

This is the first one who looks decent enough to play for us. 

We've also let the following go:

Sharp wanted too much money to stay for a 20 year old CB unlikely to play for us.

According to the bookies, our current squad makes us dead certs to go down!

I think we've got some more work to do before the opening fixture!

 

 

[Punch]

25 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I mean I select the players for their positions for games, sorry I wasn't very clear! I try and have a squad of 16 max in each U23 or youth team so that they play most of the games

Ah that makes sense, I will give that a go, and adjust the players in each of my squads accordingly.

Especially after my next youth intake, I will probably then have enough players to play academy squads in both 18's and 23's.

 

Just as an aside, I was reading something the other night that said training players for the position in your tactic is a waste of time. Train them in the position that trains the most attributes, and you will see better results.

EG: For forwards, no matter how you play them in your tactic, set their training to Complete Forward, as it trains the most attributes. for Centre Back, train them as Libero...and so on.

Make adjustments as you deem required if they are falling behind in a particular attribute.

 

I have given this a go in the Isle of Man save, and I have noticed two things after a couple of months of training. 1) A lot more yellow and green arrows on their training reports. 2) A lot higher weekly training ratings on the Friday notification.

There has also been less grumblings about training in general.

 

Now there could be something here, or it could also be related to me having added more, and better coaching staff in the 18's. But I am also seeing these changes affecting the senior squad, where there was not a huge change to coaching staff.

I am really looking forward to seeing my end of season attribute review, as it could make for some very interesting results.

 

20 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I think we've got some more work to do before the opening fixture!

Should be an exciting season for your team. Good luck!

[Sonic Youth]

7 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Summer 2033

I thought I'd take a look at my staff after @Sonic Youth commented asking if I'd planned to improve behind the scenes.

I'm pretty happy with the coaching set-up, but I think a few of these 3.5 star and 3 star coaches (at U18s) could be improved on. 

Senior team

U18s

The scouting team also has room for improvement, but my budget for paying scouts is set at around £55k a year, and not many want to join for just £1k a week.

I always find recruitment analysts have poorer attributes than other staff members. 

My physios are good, my sports scientists aren't brilliant so we'll try and improve there.

Play-offs

Big-budget Charlton join us in the Championship!

Transfers so far

We've struggled so far.

 

This is a big blow. James and Bondswell leaving means our two best players by PCA are gone.

We have signed one player on loan so far.

I think this guy looks immense and will increase competition up front if nothing else. 

We have let a few go so far, including one poached player.

This is the first one who looks decent enough to play for us. 

We've also let the following go:

Sharp wanted too much money to stay for a 20 year old CB unlikely to play for us.

According to the bookies, our current squad makes us dead certs to go down!

I think we've got some more work to do before the opening fixture!

 

 

For moving up so quickly, your backroom staff are pretty decent, and not getting cherry-picked much at all.

Alex Mascall looks an amazing signing for the coming season. Hopefully scores you shed loads of goals.

[Jtomsett11]

On 18/11/2021 at 21:02, Punch said:

Ah that makes sense, I will give that a go, and adjust the players in each of my squads accordingly.

Especially after my next youth intake, I will probably then have enough players to play academy squads in both 18's and 23's.

 

Just as an aside, I was reading something the other night that said training players for the position in your tactic is a waste of time. Train them in the position that trains the most attributes, and you will see better results.

EG: For forwards, no matter how you play them in your tactic, set their training to Complete Forward, as it trains the most attributes. for Centre Back, train them as Libero...and so on.

Make adjustments as you deem required if they are falling behind in a particular attribute.

 

I have given this a go in the Isle of Man save, and I have noticed two things after a couple of months of training. 1) A lot more yellow and green arrows on their training reports. 2) A lot higher weekly training ratings on the Friday notification.

There has also been less grumblings about training in general.

 

Now there could be something here, or it could also be related to me having added more, and better coaching staff in the 18's. But I am also seeing these changes affecting the senior squad, where there was not a huge change to coaching staff.

I am really looking forward to seeing my end of season attribute review, as it could make for some very interesting results.

 

Should be an exciting season for your team. Good luck!

Interesting, I've decided to change my positional changing to roles that cover more of the attributes and I'll see how it goes!

 

On 19/11/2021 at 04:30, Sonic Youth said:

For moving up so quickly, your backroom staff are pretty decent, and not getting cherry-picked much at all.

Alex Mascall looks an amazing signing for the coming season. Hopefully scores you shed loads of goals.

Agreed, Mascall looks solid and he's made a good start to the season!