[FM21] We have conquered the nation, now it's time to conquer Europe (Journeyman career)

[noikeee]

Hello and welcome to another thread. Prior to this I have been managing FC Porto from the beginning of FM21, in what was effectively a one-club save (with a slight overlap of managing the national side), and although I thought of extending that career for a little longer and take another team, I've come to think a fresh start is better.

Previously in this forum we have seen a sequence of careers the "Nearly Men", popularised by @ManUtd1, in which he takes all the teams that lost Champions League finals through history, and takes them to glory, making for a great journeyman save. My idea for this is similar, except I want to do my own thing and manage slightly different teams, rather than go through Leverkusen Partizan Atletico etc etc, all over again. Therefore I will be managing teams that have been national champions but have never been in an European final, 1 from each nation.

 

My thread my own rules, and the way this works is the following:

 

• Rule 1: The teams I manage must've won in their history at least 1 domestic national title.

This includes extinct nations like East Germany or Soviet Union, and previous versions of national leagues that don't exist anymore, such as the English Premier Division pre the Premier League era, or even the cup format that existed in Portugal prior to the creation of the league in 1934. So basically ANY national league title, I'm taking the widest possible definition to allow as many teams as possible.

 

• Rule 2: The teams I manage must've never participated in any European final, winners or losers.

This only includes the Champions League / European Champions Cup, Cup Winners Cup, and the Europa League / UEFA Cup. Been in any final of those, ever, the team is inelligible. Intertoto, Fairs Cup, Anglo-Italian Cup, those aren't real European finals and don't count.

 

• Rule 3: Once I win the Champions League I "complete" a nation and I move on to a team from another nation.

So I don't need to do ALL the teams from every single nation, which would take forever. In theory I could keep playing this until I complete all playable European leagues that come with FM by default (I haven't added any edited leagues), but let's see how far my patience goes.

 

• Not a rule but I'll try to follow it: I'll try to avoid teams I've managed in the past in the forum for any lenghty careers. So I'll try to stay clear of Lyon, Bologna, Derby County etc.

Examples of elligible teams:

• England - Newcastle, Sunderland, Preston North End, Derby County, Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday
• Italy - Genoa, Bologna, Pro Vercelli, Cagliari
• Spain - Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Betis
• France - Lyon, Nantes, Le Havre, Lens, Bordeaux, Nice

But also big teams from smaller nations like

• Greece - Olympiacos, AEK (not Panathinaikos!)

Or basically almost any team from minnow nations.

Right, off we go!

Edited January 8, 2022 by noikeee

[noikeee]

We start off only with the big leagues. I'll be adding and removing as the career goes.

And head off to..................... a pretty important trading port in the Baltic sea?

[noikeee]

I am delighted to kick off the career being appointed manager of FC Hansa Rostock.

 

 

There was an almost endless choice of clubs in Germany, even more so given that I included East Germany champions as possibilities. Kaiserslautern, Greuther Furth, Nurnberg, Dynamo Dresden, Holsten Kiel, Eintracht Braunschweig... many fantastic possible choices there. In the end the wonderful club badge and kits convinced me:

 

 

I also wanted to start from a fairly low place in the ladder, as long as it wasn't too terrible a standard of football, and Hansa's place as one of the strongest teams in the 3.Liga, albeit not among the outright favourites for promotion, seemed just perfect. The club has been at this level for a few years now.

 

 

Hansa are elligible almost only on a technicality - their only domestic title in their history was the 1990/1991 East Germany trophy. The very last time East Germany had a league and a champion. European successes are unheard of, I'm not even entirely sure they've ever played in UEFA competitions, although they did finish 6th in the Bundesliga a couple of times after re-unification.

 

 

 

Onto the current squad. It looks like this and it's quite decent for the standard of football I believe.

 

 

The following players are the current stars.

 

 

The Dutch striker Verhoek is in a mould I don't particularly like much, but I'm quite excited by Türpitz, I think he could cause damage in this division.

 

At the moment the club seems to be cautiously managing its finances in the face of Covid, with no transfer budget, but there's a lot of room to play with for the coming seasons, with the money we have in the bank and the free wage budget. It's hard to get great deals in the 1st season and I want to get acquainted with the current players, so if I don't make too many transfers to start off with, that doesn't concern me much.

 

 

 

And these are the tactics I've prepared to start off with, planning to use the 4-3-3 as default, then switch to the strikerless versions as alternatives when needed.

 

  

I could've stuck to the Porto tactics, which by the end were so good they were a cheat button, but I wanted to slightly alter them to give a different flavour to this career. I miss using an inverted winger! Let's see how it goes.

 

Time to see what the German 3.Liga is like! Off we go!

Edited October 16, 2021 by noikeee

[ManUtd1]

[john1]

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2020/2021 / September 2020

We have picked up 4 players on frees and loans:

 

Below average physical ability isn't great in the German leagues, but he's a very good bench option for both the DM DLP and the MC AP positions.
 

Centerbacks were our problem position and so I picked up 2 of them on loan. I was lucky that Sam turned out to be this good as I couldn't scout him.

 

The other centerback, minor upgrade on what I had. He's a U23 of German nationality which is useful as I need to field 4 of those in the matchday squad.

 

Pacey boy who also works very hard which is exactly what I want from my pressing forward. Also good in the air, although he is clearly limited in a bunch of skills. Started great and already has 3 goals.

 

And the start to the season has been pretty damn great. We bullied a lower league team in the cup, and then took the morale boost to start the league season with 2 big wins. New signing Ousman Manneh, winger Philip Türpitz, and mezzala Nik Omladic, have all been superb so far.

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

October 2020

 

First half of the month we stopped scoring as many goals but kept doing well anyway, but then stopped putting away our chances at all, even though we had loads against both Viktoria Köln and Kaiserslautern. The Kaiserslautern match was just classic FM, we took 30 shots, 12 on target, a 3.0 xG and then they score the winner from 0.58 xG on the 93rd minute.

We drop out of the promotion places, but we are playing well, if we keep this up surely the ball will find the back of the net more often than not.

[Deisler26]

[noikeee]

November 2020
 

 

A poor month as we kept on struggling to turn our chances into goals in too many matches, and we were now on a 6-match winless run. The win over Bayern hopefully is a turning point, and it comes at a key stage, because if we continued this we would completely fall off the promotion battle.

There's more bad news though, as right winger Türpitz, possibly our best player, will miss out for a few months injured after ruining his hip against Dresden. We won't see him again until February or possibly later.
 

Edited October 17, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

December 2020

We managed to pick up this guy on a free transfer and I am delighted as I think he'll be a fantastic forward for this level.



 

This was looking like a stellar comeback month, and the win over Ingolstadt away was huge, beating a promotion rival as we climbed back to automatic promotion spots on the table, up to 2nd. However the match away at Zwickau tamed the enthusiasm as we struggled a little against the home side's combative 4-4-2, and we are now 3rd (a playoff spot).

Nevertheless we finished the month on a high, as we knock out Heidenheim, currently on the 2.Bundesliga top half, from the cup - a late goal on his debut from Nils Quaschner sunk them, after we had nullified them on our most defensive shape, the strikerless 4-1-4-1-0.

 

 

I have also slightly modified our main tactic, pushing up the playmaker from the MC slot to a modified AM/S role. This is a subtle tweak but I felt we needed more threat in and around the area and this seems to have had a positive effect, with Rhein being more involved and us scoring more goals.

Edited October 17, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

January 2021

 

We sold unwanted forward John Verhoek, also before that a couple months back we'd gotten rid of centerback Sven Sonnenberg which I didn't mention before.

 

A really disappointing month, we seem to have suddenly lost our mojo. A couple injuries haven't helped but don't quite explain what's going on, I don't know why we're conceding so many goals, really.

 

 

[noikeee]

February 2021

 

What a contrast, we were much better this month, I just hope it's not too late as the teams above have been in good form as well, and we're still 5 points off a playoff spot and 8 off automatic promotion. We have Philip Türpitz back which should help a lot.

Prior to the good run in the league we did a bit of giant killing and knocked out Hertha from the cup! After a 6 goal thriller ending on penalty kicks! We will be facing Augsburg in the quarter-finals now.

Edited October 19, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2021

 

Not bad.

[noikeee]

March 2021

 

 

Would you believe that! We're in the cup semi-finals! It was a strange match, Türpitz scored twice and then got sent off, and despite us being one man down, Augsburg didn't do much and we still added another. We'll be facing RB Leipzig in the semi-final.

In the league, despite continuing on pretty positive form with 2 wins and 1 draw, we haven't claimed back any ground on the top 3 teams, as we're still 5 points off the playoff spot, although we're up to 4th.

 

 

[noikeee]

April 2021

 

 

Away to title favourites Dresden, the difference in quality was shown in the pitch and we lost, but the rest of the month we did quite well with 4 straight wins. With Ingolstadt suddenly losing surprisingly to Zwickau at home... it very much looks like there's a window opening up here for us, if we still want to make it to a playoff spot. Because the next league match is... against Ingolstadt!!

The issue, though, is that the Ingolstadt match is 3 days after the RB Leipzig cup semi-final. It's an impossible call, do I rest players in the CUP SEMI-FINAL or do I go full beans 100% at it and then have tired players for the key promotion match just 3 days later?

 

[noikeee]

May 2021 (1/2)
 

 

The cup semi-final was the worst that could've happened, in a way. We put a strong resistence in the 4-1-4-1-0 strikerless formation, and just kept them away for as long as we could, and that turned out to be 120 minutes. All in vain as we lost it on penalty kicks - so close to the cup final!! Plus, Omladic and Quaschner, two of our key players, got injured. And everyone was super tired in advance of the key Ingolstadt match...

Somehow, we got the job done against Ingolstadt though - and we're up to a playoff spot! But we really had to fight to hold on to it in the following match, having to turn it around after going into half-time losing 0-1.

As it stands with 2 matches to go we're 3rd. But is there a little window still opening up for automatic promotion, somehow? Duisburg are in freefall and next they face... Ingolstadt.
 

[noikeee]

May 2021 (2/2)

 

 

We went away to Unterhaching with an eye on the Duisburg-Ingolstadt score, and the worst news came from there as Ingolstadt were winning... but the rel problems were happening on our own match as we went missing, we went a goal behind and couldn't really respond. This set up a final day in which we needed to win AND wait for either Duisburg or Ingolstadt to slip up.

The final day we were doing fine helped by an inspired Philip Türpitz which is always good, but we needed the other teams to help. And they did! Ingolstadt went a goal down at home to 1860 Munchen, and we nervously awaited as the result persisted 0-1. Later on Ingolstadt had a man sent off and couldn't equalise, and so that stayed 0-1 and we just about sneaked in to a playoff position!

In the playoffs we met Sandhausen and we put in a really confident home performance, winning 2-0 and looking great to get promoted on the return. Over there things looked tougher as twice their forward Daniel Keita-Ruel put them a goal up. But we twice equalised, and in the 2nd half really kicked up a gear to score yet another 2 goals - we always look great on the 4-1-4-1-0 whenever we're underdogs, as the through balls just slice past the overconfident defence. And we're promoted!

 

[noikeee]

Season review 2020/2021

• 3.Liga: 3rd place (promoted through playoffs)
• DFB-Pokal: semi-finals

 

Top 5 players of the season

5. Ousman Manneh (ST) - Lost his place in the team as Nils Quaschner arrived, but might've actually been the better of the 2 strikers, put in higher average ratings and more goals in only a few more minutes. 12 goals and 5 assists.

4. Korbinian Vollmann (ML, AML, MR) - A good share of 14 goals and 4 assists from the left wing position, as I fiddled with his role for a long time until settling on a modified WM/A with dribble more, instead of the advanced IW/S I was using earlier.

3. Sam Hughes (DC) - An excellent loan signing that finished the season on the 2nd highest ratings in the squad (7.20), he'll remain in Germany as Eintracht Braunschweig have poached him on a free for next year

2. Nik Omladic (MC, ML, MR) - Astonishing specially in the first half of the season as mezzala, the fact he took penalty kicks until Türpitz returned plus corners and free kicks helped, but he had the highest ratings in the team (7.33) and 13 goals and 5 assists.

1. Philip Turpitz (MR, AMR, ML) - Simply the side's best attacking player, the fact he missed almost half the season through injury and still finished as top scorer (17 goals) is quite telling.

 

[noikeee]

Little finances update:

The cup run was critical as we banked 5.4M in prize money in it. The board even gave us a generous 1.2M€ transfer budget for next year, I'm going to be cautious for now, I've already have a few free transfers lined up, let's see what kind of squad can I build without going too nuts.

Edited October 20, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2021/2022

 

Here's all the transfer dealings as I adapt my squad for playing at a higher division:

I had lots more money to spend but didn't find targets that were worth it, I'd rather save it for when my scouts tell me, BUY THAT GUY.

 

Last minute loan deal that was quite great, I think he looks like one of our best defenders.

Another last minute loan deal, I am a huge fan of Rodrigo Valente in the game (I've had him a few times before), I think he'll dominate our midfield.

One of several different options for centerback and can also add cover for DM.

Eh, I could've passed him up, this was a transfer I lined up months ago and now it doesn't look that great.

Depth player for the midfield.

Another solid option for centerback, might be the position we're best packed with talent at the moment.

Possibly our most exciting attacking signing, this left winger looks a great upgrade on Vollmann on the left but can also play upfront.

A nice upgrade on the goalkeeper position although he has eccentricity.

The game rates our rightback Butzen superhigh, I am not that sold on him and think Freeman can steal his position, even if I play the rightback as IWB which doesn't super suit him due to traits.

Bit of a luxury lazy player but can add flair through the middle or wings.

 

Which means our squad now looks like this:

I expect some trouble, I don't think this squad is to the standards of this division. Upgrades for the leftback and striker (or shadow striker in the 2nd tactic) positions are the 2 next priorities whenever I can find them.

[noikeee]

July 2021

 

A surprisingly good start. We were battered the first match but somehow managed not to concede, and in the 2nd one we pulled a shock comeback from 3-1 down to winning 3-4.

 

[deltablue]

Well done going up.

[noikeee]

August 2021

 

Some remaining transfers that happened this month, as we bring in 3 players and get rid of Scherff and Herzog.

 

This guy is the upgrade at leftback I was looking for (hopefully).

 

Very nice alternate option for either wing, on loan from Hannover.

 

I'm not super sold on him as the perfect solution for striker, but West Brom lets him play a season for us on loan, on very minimal wages and I think he might be useful.

 

 

Well that's the continuation of a very fine start to the season. We got our giant-killing done in round 1 of the cup already, they had the likes of Sandro Tonali, Piatek and Matheus Cunha on the pitch, but we had our 4-1-4-1-0 and a healthy dose of faith. We frustrated them all the way into extra time and then put 2 goals past them.

In the league, Philip Türpitz is starting to get acquainted to the pace of the 2.Bundesliga, and scored in every one of our 3 matches this month to keep us in a frankly ridiculous early 2nd place. 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

September 2021

 

 

Uhhh.. we seem to be running away with the league.. this is a thing that's happening.

What's going on (I think) is that since the opposition identifies that they're stronger than us on paper, they attack and give us space, and since I'm resorting to the plan B 4-1-4-1-0 much more often (for defensive reasons to try to stiffle the opposition's attacks, or to try to hold on to a lead any time we go in front), that plan B absolutely LOVES space and pings deadly throughballs to the shadow striker and to the winger all day long. It's quite telling that after 9 matches in the 2.Bundesliga Nils Quaschner has more goals, than in twice the matches he played in the 3.Liga for us.

I don't know if this is sustainable, but I'm kinda scared of the idea of getting back-to-back promotions, because at this stage playing teams from the Bundesliga every single week would hurt.

 

[noikeee]

October 2021

 

 

We suffer our first defeats, on the league at home to Aue, and then on the cup as well, as we come well short of the deep cup run to the semi-finals of last year.

However, we immediately recovered in style with a 4-0 win away at Nürnberg and still retain a 6 point lead over the chasing pack, which is starting now to form, led by Mainz and Bremen. Veteran mezzala Nik Omladic has been the star of the month, and together with striker/shadow striker Nils Quaschner, seems to have elevated his game playing on the higher division.

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

November 2021

 

 

Only 2 matches this month, which is good because we just lost our top scorer Nils Quaschner to injury for a few weeks, so it's handy that in November/December/January things slow down a bit.

Who didn't slow down was our side against Holstein Kiel, with the biggest win of the season so far, 6-0. Philip Türpitz followed up his hat-trick by scoring the opener away at Augsburg, an absolutely sensational missile from range and from an angle (he has 17 for long shots and "shoots with power", which has proven to be an amazing combo), but then Augsburg turned the game around later on. This puts a little more pressure on us, as Paderborn chase us from 3 points back and Augsburg themselves from 5 points back now.

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by noikeee

[noikeee]

December 2021

 

 

Another short month and another couple of wins. Over Heidenheim it was fairly easy with Marcus Ayomide's best performance of the season so far; and away to Bochum we had to rely on our subs - a Quaschner returning from injury straight back into the scoresheet, and midfielder Simon Rhein's first goal of the season giving us the win on minute 88.

At the halfway mark we're top with a 3 points lead. It's a surprise that we're in the promotion battle at all, I remain having "mixed feelings" over the prospect of getting promoted again immediately, as I think the squad quality gulf in the Bundesliga next season would be huge. Let's see if we can hold on during the 2nd half of the season or not.

 

[withnail316]

[Aquaplex]

Great career so far bud.

[noikeee]

 

**** you Arteta.

I've never seen this before. Recalled because I was playing him as "ball playing defender" instead of "central defender".

[Jimbokav1971]

I like this as an idea for a save. It's using the @ManUtd1 template and then cranking up the difficulty a notch. 

You will have to keep an eye out for Belenenses in Portugal. (1 of only 2 league winners outside the Big 3). If they make their own way from Tier 4 to Tier 2 you should deffo give them a go.
 
Ooh! Different colours in your position selected column. Not sure if I like that or not.  Other than that though it looks a good skin. What is it? 

Just looking at your Champagne 433 tactic with the pushed up Rhein, isn't that area a little "crowded" with the IW coming inside? Ah ok. I see from a later post you have dropped the IW back and swapped him to a WM. 

(21A) looks decent. Your blue colourings including 10 confuses me. 

Congrats on the promotion. 

You've got a few quid to spend on players now. This should be the springboard you need. Wasn't expecting you to being in a N.Ireland lad on loan though. (Looks great!)

Valente looks good too and I'm guessing you know all about him. I never use loans enough even in saves that suit. 

Ayomide is going to tear it up!I don't think it matters where he plays. Just so long as he plays!

You really love a transfer don't you!  I show FAR too much loyalty to existing players. 

You are flying now. 

Grudge with Arteta throughout the save? 
 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I like this as an idea for a save. It's using the @ManUtd1 template and then cranking up the difficulty a notch. 

You will have to keep an eye out for Belenenses in Portugal. (1 of only 2 league winners outside the Big 3). If they make their own way from Tier 4 to Tier 2 you should deffo give them a go.
 
Ooh! Different colours in your position selected column. Not sure if I like that or not.  Other than that though it looks a good skin. What is it? 

Just looking at your Champagne 433 tactic with the pushed up Rhein, isn't that area a little "crowded" with the IW coming inside? Ah ok. I see from a later post you have dropped the IW back and swapped him to a WM. 

(21A) looks decent. Your blue colourings including 10 confuses me. 

Congrats on the promotion. 

You've got a few quid to spend on players now. This should be the springboard you need. Wasn't expecting you to being in a N.Ireland lad on loan though. (Looks great!)

Valente looks good too and I'm guessing you know all about him. I never use loans enough even in saves that suit. 

Ayomide is going to tear it up!I don't think it matters where he plays. Just so long as he plays!

You really love a transfer don't you!  I show FAR too much loyalty to existing players. 

You are flying now. 

Grudge with Arteta throughout the save? 
 

Hi woah lots of things to answer.  

The skin is "TCS '21 v1.0".

I do a lot of transfers yes, I find wheeling and dealing to be one of the most fun parts of the game for me - I've tried youth only saves and it bored me after a while. Plus in this kind of save I really do need to move a ton of players, I'm trying to take a third tier team to become European champions as fast as possible. I'm brutal with players, no time for feelings.

I really don't think this is any harder than the Nearly Men, I just wanted a different choice of teams. If I go for Leicester, Lyon, Real Sociedad, Olympiacos, it's really not that tough.

Belenenses are elligible but tbh I don't think I'll be in Portugal any time soon, I've already done a lot of Portugal with my club Porto in FM21.

Valente and Ayomide have been a bit **** tbh. They're regular starters but haven't shone much.

Cheers!

[noikeee]

January 2022

 

Beyond losing Ballard to Mikel Arteta's incompetence, we also moved on Breier and got a pretty decent fee for Rhein who wasn't playing much this season.

To replace Ballard and Rhein we brought in 2 short-term loans, so I don't commit too hard in building a squad right now, when I don't know if next season we'll still be playing at this level or in the Bundesliga:

 

I like him quite a lot, nice replacement for Ballard.

 

This Portuguese lad of Austrian descent also looks really good, I think it's perhaps time for Valente to take Omladic's place as mezzala (although Omladic continues to overperform this season, but he's getting old), with Händel performing the other more playmaker-ish role next to him.

 

 

Not a brilliant return from the short winter break. Tbh playing Mainz away is one of the toughest matches all season long, but we were outplayed and a bit fortunate to get a goal back at the end. This means we have been caught by Paderborn at the top of the table.

 

[noikeee]

February 2022

 

 

We are grinding out lots of difficult, hard-fought narrow wins, which I can't quite tell if it's a bad sign (that we're cutting it so close) or a great sign (just keep on getting the 3 points like champions do).

We did briefly lose the lead of the table, for the first time since all the way back in August (!) as we lost to Paderborn and they overtook us, but they've just slipped up and let us back on top again.

 

[noikeee]

March 2022

 

 

Not sure there's a coherent narrative this month as each match was its own story. Against Bremen it was a fantastic 5-1 win with all 6 goals coming in the 2nd half, away to Braunschweig we were poor and deserved to lose, back at home against sorry Duisburg we were much better than them, and away to St Pauli we survived a penalty kick against us and then only just about nicked a win in the 91th minute - we've been having a few matches like this, this season. Oh and in the middle of all this we lost leftback Niko Hämälainen to injury for the rest of the season.

I don't know if we'll beat Paderborn to the title, but it's starting to look like promotion might well happen. We've got 10 points over Bremen who are in a playoff spot (although they have a game in hand), and 12 over Mainz. 7 matches to go. We just need to hang on to this now.

 

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2022

I was told this is a golden generation, but not so sure I agree...

[noikeee]

April 2022

 

 

This month all we did was to try to nick a goal early on, then drop to the 4-1-4-1-0 shape to try to hold on to the lead for as long as possible. Pretty boring, but extremely effective, specially now that the AI are starting to be wary of us and don't attack us as much - we are on a string of 7 consecutive wins but notably it's not just that, it's 7 consecutive clean sheets.

With this the points have been piling up, and against Augsburg we knew that pretty much any result would get us promotion. We scored on the very first minute and then just thrashed them. It's done.

 

 

There is absolutely no way this should've happened, I think the tactics are just OP, specially the slightly more boring but extremely effective strikerless version. Next season is already looming and it looks scary, about half of our squad are "good 3.Bundesliga players". Also the finances look like this (following screenshot), which is probably nowhere near the standard of our opposition. I am happy with the achievement but I have a lot of work to do to upgrade the squad!

 

[noikeee]

And the following day, as Paderborn lose at home...

[withnail316]

7 clean sheets on the way to promotion. That's outstanding, Well done, man. 

[Carambau]

Congrats! Well done, a very convincing season with great transfers too. Good luck in the Bundesliga!

[deltablue]

Nicely done.

[noikeee]

May 2022

 

 

We actually ended the season on a defeat, but comfortably champions. This late season run was key.

 

 

[noikeee]

Season review 2021/2022

• 2.Bundesliga: 1st place (promoted)
• DFB-Pokal: second round

 

 

 

Despite us starting almost every match on the 4-3-3 (which has really morphed into something more like a 4-2-3-1 now), I think we spent more time on the pitch on the other tactic this season - I always reverted to it whenever we went a goal up.

 

 

Top 5 players of the season

5. Phillip Türpitz (MR, AMR) - Less capable of dazzling at this level than in the division below, as we could see his lack of speed being more of a hindrance. Nevertheless, still got 10 goals and 4 assists.

4. Marcus Ayomide (ML) - A poor first half of the season but then got going and surprisingly still ended up on a rather healthy sum of 10 goals, 7 assists.

3. Jonas David (DC) - Last year he kept on missing a lot of headers on set pieces and I guessed that was because of his attribute of 9 at heading, but somehow he managed to score 6 goals from corners/indirect FKs this season. One of our best defenders, too. I'm gonna guess his parent club Hamburg will want him back, so it's goodbye from us and I've already lined up 2 new center-backs for the Bundesliga.

2. Nik Omladic (MC) - He really shouldn't still be performing at this level and at the age of 32 his skills are further diminishing, but he was just as good in the 2.Bundesliga as he'd been last year, and rocked the mezzala position with 9 goals and 11 assists, AND the highest average rating in the side (7.19). Taking our set pieces help him look good, but he's been very good on open play, too.

1. Nils Quaschner (ST, AMC) - A true case study as last year he was poor for us, but now a division up he exploded. Came just short of being the division's top scorer on 18 goals.

[noikeee]

On 27/10/2021 at 23:42, withnail316 said:

7 clean sheets on the way to promotion. That's outstanding, Well done, man. 

 

On 28/10/2021 at 07:36, Carambau said:

Congrats! Well done, a very convincing season with great transfers too. Good luck in the Bundesliga!

 

On 28/10/2021 at 11:10, deltablue said:

Nicely done.

 

Thanks for the comments folks, we will try to keep it up in the Bundesliga.

[noikeee]

 

Holy ****! What a prize money transfer! This makes a little difference to our finances:

 

[Deisler26]

Cracking result

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2022/2023

 

As you'd expect I desperately tried to adapt this squad to the Bundesliga by bringing tons of people.

Tried to save as much money as I could by not paying transfer fees for any single player, and by getting some small amounts for players I didn't need anymore.

 

Very minor upgrade at leftback, he isn't really Bundesliga level but was the best I could get at the moment.

 

Depth guy for the wings and upfront, he's very fast which is always useful, and comes on cheap wages on loan.

 

One of the final transfers I managed to get, this Portuguese youngster is quite exciting as he has potential, he will be fighting for one of the two more advanced midfielder roles with other two signings Fraser and Ince.

 

A quite exciting winger, I think playing on the right will suit him best, need to adapt him to MR for the 4-1-4-1-0 system.

 

I lost both our centerbacks who were here on loan, so this Uruguayan once capped guy is one of my 2 new CBs, not particularly great in physical skills which is concerning, but solid player otherwise.

 

The other new CB, like Velázquez he's just solid and not a standout.

 

I'm not entirely sure yet what I'll do with him but he can play pretty much anything on the midfield 4 ahead of the DM (either slot of the more advanced central midfielders, or left winger, or right winger).

 

One of my better signings, very solid advanced midfielder, I see him as a killer mezzala in the making.

 

Not a spectacular guy by any means, but should be my starting DM now, and also offering cover for the CB positions - or may even win the CB position as he's physically more impressive than the other 2 new guys there.

 

This is an odd player, massively gifted technically, still only 18, super highly rated by the game as this precious high potential gem, but physically he's awful, I'm looking to play him as AMC , or as MC playmaker in the 4-1-4-1-0 but I'm unsure if he'll work out as he's just slow and weak.

 

My most expensive signing in terms of wages, I loaned him from Bayern to see if he can make the difference for us upfront or even on the wing.

 

Perhaps an unnecessary signing as last year's new keeper Jannik Huth had an excellent season and he's not a noticeable upgrade, but as a young promising German keeper I thought picking him up on a free was a solid deal.

 

We are looking like this now:

 

Starting 11 is a work in progress, and this squad is still in flux, I am trying to sell our star of the last couple of seasons Phillip Türpitz to raise some money - as we're now way above the wage budget.

I am concerned about this season, even with all the signings this is not a Bundesliga level squad, and our defence in particular is weak, but then again we've been pushing above our weight thanks to the highly effective tactics, so who the hell knows what will happen.

[noikeee]

July 2022

 

 

An easy win over a lower league side in the cup, with Velázquez and Gordon scoring on their debuts.

[noikeee]

Salary table for this season, as we're about to make our first Bundesliga match... and this is after I've overspent beyond the wage budget.  

 

[noikeee]

August 2022

 

We have indeed ended up selling right-winger Phillip Turpitz, our player of the season in the 3.Liga 2 years ago, and last season's goalkeeper Jannik Huth who was superb in the 2.Bundesliga. Both were in the final year of their contract, and had no longer a starting 11 place after all the signings, and I desperately wanted to free up a bit of wage budget. No brainers there.

And then on deadline day, a window of opportunity for a (relatively) big deal came up. I didn't plan to sell left-winger Marcus Ayomide, but his contract was also running out at the end of the year, and I was struggling to figure out what to do, as to renew he wanted a big raise we couldn't afford. In came Tottenham (?!), after a bit of negotiation we settled on 4M€ + 30% profit of next sale, this is our record sale and sorted the finances.

We also still picked up another 2 players:

 

I searched the loan market for players who could come in on cheap wages, Man City was willing to let this kid go for just 10% of his wages which was perfect, he can cover for centerback or even possibly win the RB position and play IWB for us. It's a very weak position for us so no reason he can't do it.

 

My last minute desperate scramble replacement for Ayomide, he's nothing like the same kind of player (Ayomide was a classic, dribble and cross left winger) but we needed some other kind of attacker. I think he'll fit perfectly as shadow striker/pressing forward, with maybe Zirkzee moving over to the right wing then.

 

 

We started life in the Bundesliga just great, went a goal up away to both Gladbach and Schalke and still nicked an away draw in both matches, and also smashed Köln 3-0. However the rest of the month wasn't quite that great and we came down back to earth, either way we now have 8 points in 7 matches, if we can keep this average we will surely stay away from relegation, so just need to keep it up the rest of the season.

What doesn't help us is the very congested calendar due to the Qatar World Cup, this definitely plays against me as this season I have a shorter squad than I like (and some absolutely rubbish backups) and I also play an intense pressing game, as you'd do in FM21 of course.

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by noikeee