[FM22] Overhauling SAD Franchise, (completed) and now Portugal. (Portugese edition). (Youth Only)............... Maybe!

[Thebaker]

5 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Yeah, good spot with regards to teamwork. It wasn't that I missed it and more that I don't really know what it does. I've always considered it to be more important from a defensive point of view, but maybe timing runs and stuff like that to link with a pass is included here, (although that's off the ball isn't it?)

 

Teamwork (or selflessness) for an attacker could be tracking back defensively or just passing to a teammate ina better position to score. thats how i see it.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2055.

Liga Bwin. The Benfica win is a good one. They are still top of the table with a game in hand, but at least they no longer have a 100% record. 

xG watch. Although I'm concerned about the xG against us, I'm prepared to ignore the Benfica numbers and instead look pleasantly at the Moreirense numbers. 
Belenenses 2.48 - 2.35 Benfica.
Moreirense 0.55 - 2.82 Belenenses.

UEFA Champions League. We've won the Group with a game in hand. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. We ease into the next round. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Just the 1 goal this month. 

Finances.   

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2055.

Liga Bwin. 5 wins is great, but 4 clean sheets is even better. We're still 5 pts behind Benfica but they have won 15 of their last 16 games, (and the game they lost was against us). We play them away in April, but even if we win that, if they don't drop points in other games then they're still going to win the league. To give you an idea of quite how dominant they are, they have only won 2 games by a single goal margin this season and are scoring 3.8 goals per game on average. 

xG watch. I'm really pleased with the improvement of our xG against this month, but it's a shame we conceded against Famalicao.
Belenenses 2.66 - 0.13 Farense.
Dezembro 0.13 - 2.84 Belenenses.
Esgtrela da Amadora 0.70 - 2.50 Belenenses.
Belenenses 2.02 - 0.75 Famalicao.
Belenenses 2.47 - 0.27 Portimonense.

UEFA Champions League.

Taça de Portugal Placard.

Youth Intake preview. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances.   

[Sonic Youth]

8 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Overall cash balance? 

Yes. Cash. Helps to include it when I’m commenting on it 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2056.

Liga Bwin. We're doing ok but events somehow conspired to cause us to lose the Sporting game. I still don't know how we lost, (actually I do and my GK being in the wrong half of the pitch might be to blame and by "might" I mean "absolutely was"). We're 8 pts off Benfica now and they are disappearing off into the distance. 

xG watch. Can't we just decide the leagues based on xG please? 
Leixoes 0.90 - 2.90 Belenenses.
Belenenses 1.42  0.43- Braga.
Sporting 0.81 - 3.10 Belenenses. How did we lose this game? 
Belenenses 2.44 - 0.15 Varzin.

Allianz League Cup. I'm starting to flippin hate Benfica. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 

Finances.   

[Jimbokav1971]

Clauses. Feb 2056. 

In previous saves I've been big into clauses when I sell players, but in this save I haven't really had that much of an opportunity because we have sold so few players, (with me largely preferring to let players leave on a free rather than sell them with 12-18 months left on their contract), although that is changing now. 

(42e) Crespo (POR) * is a decent right back, but he was behind better right backs at the club so I sold him to Ajax for £8.5M and included a 25% sell-on fee and £1M after 1 International appearance. He's unlikely to ever play for Portugal, (despite being decent), but I can flog the 25% sell-on clause for £4.53M now.

He's worth £31M-£45M, so £4.5M for 25% of that isn't a great deal, but he;s 28 and is contracted for 2.5 more years and nobody is interested at the moment so I think I'm going to cash it in. 

(51d) Almeida (CAN) (POR) was never going to be a regular for us so I sold him to Juve for £7M. He's only 20 years old and in Juve he's at a big club, (and playing), so I think it's likely he will be offered another contract so I'm not going to cash in on teh clause.

(46i) Silva (POR) 6'0" is just 1 of a number of decent GK's we have produced. He's never played for is in the Liga Bwin, because although he's certainly not rubbish, he really isn't great either. I wouldn't expect him to be starting for Porto though, (and he is), and I certainly wouldn't have expected Porto to be 2nd in the league with him in goal, (and they are), so he's doing well. We sold him for a nominal fee because I really just wanted him gone so that he would be playing, so I'm not going to cash in on this clause because I think his value will rise, (and £57k is nether here nor there). 

(46h) Carlos (BRA) (POR) 6'1" is decent, but I had other centre-backs I preferred, (with more coming through), so I decided to offload him for some cash. The 20% profit clause, (I couldn't be bothered to convert it into value rather than profit and was too lazy to up it from 20% to 25%), is only worth £189k right now and if we sold him for £2.4M and is sold again for the top end of his valuation of £6.4M, then that would generate £4M profit and 20% of that is £800,000, so it doesn't make sense to cash the clause in at all. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2056. 

Liga Bwin. We're up to 2nd and there are now 7 pts between us and Porto, but there are now only 4 pts between ourselves and Benfica after they drew 2 of their last 3 games in the league. They also lost the 1st leg of their Champions League tie with Man Utd 3-0 so it looks like they are crashing out of that, and I'm hoping that will cause a further knock to their confidence/morale. 

xG watch. I'm really happy with our defensive displays in recent months and this has largely been achieved by not playing (50a) Amarante (POR)(CPV) 5'10. He might have great potential, but the truth is that he just isn't suited to playing centre-half and even if he's not directly causing us to concede goals, his lack of dominance in the air is inviting pressure onto us and causing us to concede chances that otherwise wouldn't occur. 
Belenenses 2.52 - 0.30 PdF.
Gil Vicente 0.59 - 2.17 Belenenses.
Nacional 0.38 - 4.16 Belenenses.

UEFA Champions League. We had a player sent off after 32 mins and a goal ruled out on 83 mins. I'm  confident that we can turn them over in the 2nd leg. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

(50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" has 3.5 +3 years left on his contract so I'm all good there, but he's "only" being paid £129,000 per month and is after a new contract. This hasn't been helped by Real Madrid sniffing round him. Obviously he's my #1 GK and he's scoring goals at a decent rate so I want to keep him, but if I want to keep him then I need to keep him happy, (otherwise there isn't much point in him staying because he will keep missing penalties). With that in mind I have offered him a new contract, but he wants £527,000 per month and I really don't want to pay him that. Negotiations have broken down so in the short term I expect him to struggle from the spot until it's resolved. 

His agent has 9 other players on his books who are a product of our Academy, but only 1 other of them is still at the club. I should be able to do a deal with him though. 

While (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" failing from the spot would have fit my narrative nicely, it's not as clear cut as that and there are degrees of unhappiness rather than a player being simply happy or unhappy. There are lots of positives and only 1 negative, (that's only in the 2nd, (I think), stage, and of course I'm on his list of favoured personnel. I was ready for him to miss, (but am delighted that he didn't), but I still know that this is something that needs resolving and isn't going to go away just because the Transfer Window is closed 

 

 

His unhappiness has now moved to the next level. I don't fancy his chances from the next penalty. 

I've failed for a 2nd time to negotiate his contract. 

Finances.   

Edited July 12, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Sonic Youth]

Good form continues. It does look like the occasional blips are getting ironed out.

Ako’s unhappiness must be getting concerning. How much would his demands break your wage structure by? Is Jensen still at the club?

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Good form continues. It does look like the occasional blips are getting ironed out.

Ako’s unhappiness must be getting concerning. How much would his demands break your wage structure by? Is Jensen still at the club?

Yeah. Our losses this season in all competitions are as follows. 

Benfica (N) in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, (which is the Charity Shield). 
Braga (A) in the Liga Bwin.
Porto away in the Liga Bwin.
Sporting (H) in the Taça de Portugal Placard. (This was a poor performance but they were also good on the day). 
Sporting (A) in the Liga Bwin.
Benfica (N) in the Allianz League Cup FInal. 

Even better than that, our goals against in the league, (starting with the most recent games), look like this. 

00000200010000300  We've kept 13 clean sheets in the last 17 Liga Bwin games, but in the 1st 10 games of the season we conceded 11 goals, keeping only 2 clean sheets, (and dropping 8 points). I honestly put it down to the high PA short centre-half. 

No losses in Europe yet, (and we're into the Quatrter Finals), 2 losses to Benfica in Finals at neutral venues, 2 away losses in the league to Porto & Braga, (who have made it a big 5 with the Big 3 and us), and then 1 single home loss against Sporting. I would like to convert the home loss into a draw, but other than that I don't think that's awful, (if you ignore us losing 2 Finals to Benfica). 

I was getting a little worried about Ako and considered dropping him and playing someone who was happy, but he scored 1 while a little unhappy and then scored 2 more when he was properly unhappy so he's hanging in there. Better than that he's scored in consecutive games in March too so it's still not having a huge impact, (but I'm sure it will). 

Jensen? I can't remember a Jensen? Let me have a look..... No, can't remember or find a Jensen. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Mar 2056.

What do I want? A DL, ML or MR.

A PF is not what I need in a SC, but we will have to wait and see. 
No different Nationalities on view so far. ~
3x DC's. 

Squad by PA. A few more different Nationalities on view here, and I particularly like the 2x CPV players. We've already got 2x Varela's, we now have 2x Tavares' & have certainly had a Morais come through the Academy in the past and moved on, but I keep checking and no brothers so far. 

Squad by Actual PA. I don't like this intake. We have been given 1 really good player, (and a Model Citizen), but nobody else will ever play for the 1st Team.

(56a) Juromito (POR) * isn't a SC, but at this early stage I'm not sure what he is, but he's more like a DR than the MR we're looking for.

[Edit]

There was a 153 PA player (55b) Cunha (BRA) * who came through the Academy last season and is an MR, so it makes sense for (56a) Juromito (POR) * to be trained as a DR. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2056. 

Liga Bwin. We've been in goof form recently but Benfica are still 7 pts ahead, (although they have played 1 game more). They play us in the league next month as well as Braga in the Cup and a tough Quarter Final against Atletico in the Champions League. If we beat them, (yes it's a big ask), then they just might implode. 

xG watch. We're still playing really well according to the stats and it makes men wonder what might have been had I not persisted with the centre-half that can't jump.
Belenenses 3.08 - 0.52 Porto. 
Estoril 0.56 - 4.65 Belenenses.

UEFA Champions League. We have Bayern up next. 

UEFA Champions League draw. We have dodged Atletico, Benfica & R.Madrid so I think we've done well here. Bayern have made the Final in 3 of the last 6 seasons though. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances.   

Edited July 13, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Sonic Youth]

16 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Jensen? I can't remember a Jensen? Let me have a look..... No, can't remember or find a Jensen. 

Sorry wrong story thread. I guess I was getting at cover if something happens.

I like your one and only youth intaker from your last intake. Definitely a DR though 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Sorry wrong story thread. I guess I was getting at cover if something happens.

I like your one and only youth intaker from your last intake. Definitely a DR though 

If something happens to (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" then the simple answer is that someone else will step in for him in the short term. 

In terms of the med to long term we have a few more options. Both Porto & Guimaraes have First Choice GK's who are products of our Academy and Porto even also have a backup who has come through our Academy. 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2056. 

Liga Bwin. A 4th loss of the season sees us trailing Champions Benfica by 7 pts with just 6 pts still available. They have only lost 1 game and drawn 2 more and they have scored 107 goals with 2 games left to play so I can't really complain about being Runners Up. It's not that we haven't been good enough, (we haven't). It's just that they are too good. They're really good. 

xG watch. We were well-beaten by Benfica both in terms of xG and the actual scoreline. 
Belenenses 1.64 - 0.45 Guimaraes.
Benfica 2.12 - 0.73 Belenenses.
Belenenses 3.53 - 1.43 Estrela da Amadora.
Belenenses 3.90 - 0.52 Moreirense. 
Farense 0.30 - 3.16 Belenenses.

UEFA Champions League. We were awful in the 1st leg and it was all over before we played them here. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 16 goals in a season is pretty impressive for (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" and he still has 2 more games to play barring injury. He's up to 59 career goals and is only 21 years old.

Finances.   

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2056.

Liga Bwin. We might have finished 2nd, but we scored 100+ goals for the 1st time. Benfica are proving a tough nut to crack.

Goal-scoring GK's. I'm happy with 17 goals in a season, but it could have been 19. 

Finances.   

[RoguPL]

Last few seasons really show that you are really one of the top3 teams atm. 

Well I would even say it's between you and Benfica now as Porto and Braga seem to be losing pace. 

Slow gradual progress. 

Congrats 

[Rikulec]

Isn't this your all-time best points total as well? Benfica were just unreal this season.

[Sonic Youth]

100+ goals and almost 90 points, Gk getting over 15 goals, Rosa with back-to-back hat tricks?  

Benfica are something else 

[Jimbokav1971]

11 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Last few seasons really show that you are really one of the top3 teams atm. 

Well I would even say it's between you and Benfica now as Porto and Braga seem to be losing pace. 

Slow gradual progress. 

Congrats 

Yeah, it's basically us and Benfica now but Benfica are phenomenal. They just do such good transfer business it's really hard to compete with them. I basically need to beat them in both league games against them, and hope they are a little off and we are bang on it for the rest of the season. 

After finishing 3 for 4 successive seasons we've finished 1st or 2nd in each of the last 6 seasons now, (winning just 2). 

[Jimbokav1971]

10 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Isn't this your all-time best points total as well? Benfica were just unreal this season.

They were really good. They dropped 5 pts in their last 2 games of the season and still beat us by 2 pts. 

88 pts is indeed our best yet, (the previous best was 86 in 2051/52, and 104 goals scored beat our previous record of 98 goals scored in 2052/53. We only conceded 13 goals in 2051/52 and I would love to get back down to those sort of numbers. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

100+ goals and almost 90 points, Gk getting over 15 goals, Rosa with back-to-back hat tricks?  

Benfica are something else 

Benfica are indeed very impressive. 

(44a) Simões (POR) * finished the seaon on 30 goals, (without pens), but I feel he should be scoring more. 
(45c) Rosa (POR) * scored 23 goals this season but only started 14 games and was largely used off the bench. 
(50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" scored 17 goals but missed 2 pens so it could have been 19. 
(41c) Abrantes (POR) * is the right-sided striker and he contributed 15 goals. 
Both wingers (51a) Marinho (POR) * & (49e) Madruga (POR) hit souble figures for both goals and assists. 

I think we can do better. 

I had decided that I was going to sell (45c) Rosa (POR) * because of his injury issues, but I'm torn and his late season form makes me think I should keep him now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Poached. Jul 2056.

I'm sure this isn't working as intended. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2056. 

GK. 

1st Team. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0"
B Team.  (52j) Candé (GNB) (POR) 6'2"
U23's. (51k) Diniz (POR) 6'4"
Loan. (50f) Loris (LUX) (FRA) 6'0"
Sell. 

[Jimbokav1971]

DL. 

1st Team. (52b) Martins (POR)
B Team. (50g) Martins (POR) (FRA) DL
U23's. (52c) Pinto (POR)
Sell. (50i) Faria. (POR) SELL & (53e) Pêgas. (POR) SELL.
Loan. (55d) Trindade (POR)

[Jimbokav1971]

DR. 

1st Team. (48c) Bronze (POR) 6'0"
B Team. (54b) Soares (CPV) (POR) *
U23's. (56a) Juromito (POR) *
Sell. (45f) Basto (POR) I'm selling him because in (54b) Soares (CPV) (POR) * & (56a) Juromito (POR) * I have 2 high PA right backs on the way through the system, (with excellent personalities). 
Loan. (50d) Fitas (POR)

[Jimbokav1971]

DC.

1st Team. (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" *, (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" &  (47f) Santos (POR) 6'5", & (49h) Ndlovu (POR) (RSA) 6'0".
B Team. (54a) Fati (GNB) (POR) 6'1" *, (51n) Varela (CPV) (POR) 6'1" & (53k) Charrier (FRA) 6'1".
U23's.
SELL. (50a) Amarante (POR)(CPV) 5'10's height, (together with his jumping of 11), means that he is a liability when he plays. Has anyone managed to get a short centre-half working in the game?  (48a) Côdeas (POR) 6'2" SELL & (46f) Mesquita (POR) 6'5" SELL.
Loan. (53h) Alexandre (BRA) 5'10" is another 5'10" centre-half with jumping of 11. 

[Jimbokav1971]

MC.

1st Team. (51j) Vicente (POR) & (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) *, (49a) Odhiambo (POR) (KEN) &(47k) Tavares (CPV).
B Team. 55a) Mavioso (POR) * (is recovering from a broken ankle) & (51c) Alves (POR), (51e) Clayton (BRA), (55c) Sousa (POR) & (54h) Tavares (POR) (CPV).
U23's.
Sell. (48d) Vilarinho (POR) SELL
Loan. (49f) Santos (POR), (53f) Diogo (POR)

[Jimbokav1971]

ML & MR. 

ML.

1st Team. (49e) Madruga (POR) & (46d) Osório (POR).
B Team. (51l) Kwiatkowski (POR) & (50h) Mickaël (POR) (FRA)
U23's.
Sell. (54i) Izzy (ENG) (IRL) SELL
Loan.  (50b) Pablo (ESP) ML

MR. 

1st Team. (51a) Marinho (POR) *, (41a) Gil (POR) * & (55b) Cunha (BRA) *.
B Team. (52e) Oliveira (CPV) &  (52i) Simões (POR)
U23's.
Sell.
Loan.

[Jimbokav1971]

SC.

1st Team. (44a) Simões (POR) * & (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *, (45c) Rosa (POR) * & (41c) Abrantes (POR) *.
B Team. (50l) Bartlett (ENG) & (53g) Lopes (POR).
U23's.
Sell.
Loan. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Job Offers. Jul 2056. 

I don't usually pay too much attention to job offers now, and I have stopped telling you about them, but this is the 9th (NINTH) time that Spain have offered me the job and I just think it's really weird. All the Spanish Managers out there and they keep approaching me but...... I was about to say that Portugal never had, but I see they offered me the job back in 2040 and I wasn't interested. I probably thought that I still had much work to do with the club side 1st. The International job I really want is the Cape Verde National job. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Big Offer. Aug 2056. 

£80M is a HUGE amount for us, but (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) *  has 3+1 years on his contract so there is really no reason to sell him at this stage. The big sales have dried up in recent seasons, but I'm happy with that as it means we're retaining out better players. We have £170M in the bank and a transfer kitty of £210M so we really don't need the money. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2056.

Liga Bwin. We dropped points against Varzim which is frustrating. Even more so when we won the xG battle 1.33 - 3.10. We're still unbeaten though, (together with Sporting & Benfica). 

UEFA Champions League. Being drawn in a group with Barca & Bayern, I have settled for 3rd place, (if we can manage it). I am playing weakened sides in the 4 games against the big boys but will be doing everything I can to do the double over Rangers. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Quite a slow start to the season for our keepers, but I'm pleasantly surprised that unhappy GK (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" converted again from the spot. 

Finances. 

[Jtomsett11]

On 20/07/2022 at 15:45, Jimbokav1971 said:

DC.

1st Team. (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" *, (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" &  (47f) Santos (POR) 6'5", & (49h) Ndlovu (POR) (RSA) 6'0".
B Team. (54a) Fati (GNB) (POR) 6'1" *, (51n) Varela (CPV) (POR) 6'1" & (53k) Charrier (FRA) 6'1".
U23's.
SELL. (50a) Amarante (POR)(CPV) 5'10's height, (together with his jumping of 11), means that he is a liability when he plays. Has anyone managed to get a short centre-half working in the game?  (48a) Côdeas (POR) 6'2" SELL & (46f) Mesquita (POR) 6'5" SELL.
Loan. (53h) Alexandre (BRA) 5'10" is another 5'10" centre-half with jumping of 11. 

I had success a few years ago with a CB with 12 jumping, but use to watch the games and swap him on to shorter strikers and it seemed to work quite well.  It was youth only so I kept playing him as I didn't have many other decent options and we won Serie A with him as number 1 cb. Generally speaking though I've struggled. I think average ratings take a huge hit if they're small so I always look at headers won and where they win/ lose them as often my cb's with lower % are losing offensive headers from corners rather than headers in their own half (more concerning). 

Can you convert him to a CM as he's got a lot of potential? I can't remember what his attribute spread is like.

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I had success a few years ago with a CB with 12 jumping, but use to watch the games and swap him on to shorter strikers and it seemed to work quite well.  It was youth only so I kept playing him as I didn't have many other decent options and we won Serie A with him as number 1 cb. Generally speaking though I've struggled. I think average ratings take a huge hit if they're small so I always look at headers won and where they win/ lose them as often my cb's with lower % are losing offensive headers from corners rather than headers in their own half (more concerning). 

Can you convert him to a CM as he's got a lot of potential? I can't remember what his attribute spread is like.

Because of the way I play, (using the IR button), swapping him onto shorter strikers isn't an option. 

I've loaned him out to Shakhtar, but he will still have 1+3 years left on his contract after this season. 

I suppose what I should have done is give him individual instructions to change his role from BPD(d) to BPD(c) and this would hopefully cover up hid inadequacies, but his acceleration is also poor so I'm worried about that (and rule out the BPD(s) role as a result).

He's missed the 1st 2 months of the season at the Olympics with (POR) U23's, (where they lost in the Final to Germany), but it should also be said that they were only 1-0 down when they dragged him off at HT. He was only winning about 50-60% of headers playing for us, but then again maybe that's down to his role(duty). I should really look at this when he comes back.

Interestingly, there is an ex player of ours who has 118 Caps now and is often used as a centre-half at International level despite being only 5'7" and having jumping of 7. (I don't think he played centre-half for us even once in an emergency).

Against Ukraine he missed 15 of 19 headers in the Euro Championships, but Portugal strolled to a 5-2 win so maybe they were more attacking headers rather than defensive ones? Like us, Liverpool never play him at centre-half. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2056.

Liga Bwin. Two more wins keep us nicely on track, but I'm a little peeved that we conceded 2 late goals against Sporting. We're 1 point behind Benfica but they have played a game more. 

UEFA Champions League. This isn't what I had planned at all. When I originally saw that we had been drawn against both Barca & Bayern, I immediately decided that I would go for 3rd in the Group and have another pop at the Europa League. All I would have to do is finish above Rangers and as they are unlikely to get any points anywhere else it was simply going to be a matter of winning our head-to-head against them. We lost the away game 2-1, but I was confident that we would win the home game by more than 1 goal, (and so we did), but after that game when I went to look at the league table I was astonished to see that Rangers had somehow beaten Barca, (1-0 with a late penalty), so now, even though I beat them in the head-to-head they are 2nd and the team we're actually competing with for 3rd is Barca...... And they smashed us 3-1 in the 1st game so we either need to take a point of Bayern away, (unlikely), or win our head-to-head with Barca, (which seems a bit of a stretch at the moment). With 2 games to go, the smart money is on us finishing 4th in the Group I think. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. The Reserves eased through this and teenager (53b) Espínola (POR) was the star of the show. He really doesn'ty# look very good but has been playing really well when I have thrown him in this season so I might have to keep en eye on him. 

Allianz League Cup. Avoiding defeat at home to Gil Vicente will see us through to the Knockout stages. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 63 career goals is pretty decent for a 22 year old. For a 22 year old GK it's absolutely mental! 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Double figures. Nov 2056. 

We might have hit 10 against lower league opposition in the Cup before, (but I don't think so), but I'm pretty sure we haven't scored 10 in the league before now. 

I've seen an 8-0 and 8-1 in the last few years, and there were a couple of 7-0 wins last season, but I can't see anything bigger than that without going back to before we were in the top tier. 

We've got a bit to go before we beat the club record. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2056.

Liga Bwin. It's been a while since I hit double figure goals in a league match and while it means that we have scored 13 more goals than 2nd placed Benfica, (who have played 1 game more), I would give up quite a few of them to drop our goals against column by a few. I'm  not happy at all with how things are going defensively. 

UEFA Champions League. I went with our strongest possible line-up against Bayern, but we came up a little short & they were well deserved winners in the end. 

Assuming Bayern beat Rangers.....

If we beat Barca by 2 or more goals then we will finish 2nd in the group astonishingly. 
If we beat Barca by 1 goal then we will finish 3rd and drop into the Europa League. 
If we draw or lose to Barca then we're out. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. The Reserves romped to a comfortable win against our old local rivals. It's seems a LONG time ago that beating them was a big thing. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Both GK's have scored 5 goals so far this season in 20 and 12 games played. I feel there is a GK hat-trick just around the corner. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jtomsett11]

10 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Because of the way I play, (using the IR button), swapping him onto shorter strikers isn't an option. 

I've loaned him out to Shakhtar, but he will still have 1+3 years left on his contract after this season. 

I suppose what I should have done is give him individual instructions to change his role from BPD(d) to BPD(c) and this would hopefully cover up hid inadequacies, but his acceleration is also poor so I'm worried about that (and rule out the BPD(s) role as a result).

He's missed the 1st 2 months of the season at the Olympics with (POR) U23's, (where they lost in the Final to Germany), but it should also be said that they were only 1-0 down when they dragged him off at HT. He was only winning about 50-60% of headers playing for us, but then again maybe that's down to his role(duty). I should really look at this when he comes back.

Interestingly, there is an ex player of ours who has 118 Caps now and is often used as a centre-half at International level despite being only 5'7" and having jumping of 7. (I don't think he played centre-half for us even once in an emergency).

Against Ukraine he missed 15 of 19 headers in the Euro Championships, but Portugal strolled to a 5-2 win so maybe they were more attacking headers rather than defensive ones? Like us, Liverpool never play him at centre-half. 

I can see the issues as he doesn't really suit any role in your side. He can't pass and has poor work rate so doesn't suit a more destructive midfield role really,  while he also can't cross so full back isn't an option either. It may be you can get a decent fee from him instead perhaps. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2056. 

Liga Bwin. At the half way stage we're top of the league by 6 points and that must be pretty galling for Benfica who have not only not lost, but who have also conceded only 10 goals. In the big game against them this month we had a player sent off as early as the 16th minute and still didn't lose. Whisper it quietly........ 

UEFA Champions League. I thought the most likely result here was that we would lose or draw and go crashing out, but not only did we win, but we won by enough to finish 2nd in the Group and qualify for the Champions league knockout stages. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. The Reserves ran riot in both Cup games this month. It shows that our squad is really improving as well as our top end players. 

Allianz League Cup. 

Youth Intake preview. In the past I think that we have received some "A" grades because there were 2 decent players in 1 position rather than 1 really good player and it boosted the rating somewhat. We have a GK, MC, SC & WB who have all been given "A" stars. Maybe just maybe eh? 

Goal-scoring GK's. 4 goals for Ako this month beings him up to 69 career goals. He's still only 22. I was so desperate for him to get a 10th goal before the half way stage, but it just didn't happen. Still, if he can replicate this over the 2nd half of the season then he will score 18 goals this season, (except that he won't because we don't play as many Cup games in the 2nd half of the season). 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I can see the issues as he doesn't really suit any role in your side. He can't pass and has poor work rate so doesn't suit a more destructive midfield role really,  while he also can't cross so full back isn't an option either. It may be you can get a decent fee from him instead perhaps. 

Yeah. In hindsight I should have identified his weaknesses earlier, accepted that I couldn't fix them and just adapted him to a different role. I didn't and this is what we are left with unfortunately. 

[Jimbokav1971]

BIG Transfer. Jan 2057. 

When a player leaves I immediately put them on a shortlist and as I can only sign players who have already been at the club and come through the Academy, it gives me a snapshot of who we are able to sign at any given sign. 

I noticed that a couple of Turkish clubs were in for (40b) Ramalho (POR) * and the wages he was asking didn't look ridiculous so I thought I would stick in a little £6M bid, (the same as them), just to see what would happen. They upped it to £8.5M, but when  you have a transfer budget of £210M, £6M or £8.5M is neither here nor there. 

Although he wasn't 1st choice at Juve, he is still classed as a World class midfielder, and while he won't be 1st choice here, he will certainly get regular game time. He's got 130 Caps for Portugal and we will be playing him as a DLP so even if his legs go a little, (or even a lot), he will still offer us something. At £500.000 per month he's on a big wage, but we're enormously limited as to the players we can sign so when a player like this becomes available we have to make sure we do everything we can to sign him. I also think he could be a big player for us. With that in mind I was a little cheeky when negotiating his contract. He's 32 years old and only wanted a 1 year deal, but I insisted on a 2 year deal and then stuck in a +1 and also a +1 during last years contract if he makes 15 appearances. 

His biography tells it all, but I'm not unhappy at all that I sold him. Back in 2044/45 £31.5M was a lot of money to us and we had a few good players playing in midfield. 

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

BIG Transfer. Jan 2057. 

When a player leaves I immediately put them on a shortlist and as I can only sign players who have already been at the club and come through the Academy, it gives me a snapshot of who we are able to sign at any given sign. 

I noticed that a couple of Turkish clubs were in for (40b) Ramalho (POR) * and the wages he was asking didn't look ridiculous so I thought I would stick in a little £6M bid, (the same as them), just to see what would happen. They upped it to £8.5M, but when  you have a transfer budget of £210M, £6M or £8.5M is neither here nor there. 

Although he wasn't 1st choice at Juve, he is still classed as a World class midfielder, and while he won't be 1st choice here, he will certainly get regular game time. He's got 130 Caps for Portugal and we will be playing him as a DLP so even if his legs go a little, (or even a lot), he will still offer us something. At £500.000 per month he's on a big wage, but we're enormously limited as to the players we can sign so when a player like this becomes available we have to make sure we do everything we can to sign him. I also think he could be a big player for us. With that in mind I was a little cheeky when negotiating his contract. He's 32 years old and only wanted a 1 year deal, but I insisted on a 2 year deal and then stuck in a +1 and also a +1 during last years contract if he makes 15 appearances. 

His biography tells it all, but I'm not unhappy at all that I sold him. Back in 2044/45 £31.5M was a lot of money to us and we had a few good players playing in midfield. 

Needless to say, in his 1st start we go to penalties in the Cup and all 11 players have to take 1, but our only player who fails to score is...... (40b) Ramalho (POR) * 

ps. The opposition GK was P.Moutinho who took their 10th penalty, (and scored). 
pps (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" took and scored a penalty during the 90 mins. 
ppps. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" also saved a penalty during the 90 mins. 
ppps. Of course (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" scored his penalty in the shootout. 

Honestly, if your GK's are not taking penalties by now then you need shooting! 

3x GK's pens taken & scored in this game at 100%. 
22x Outfield pens taken in this game with a 86% success rate. (No I'm not being serious using these %'s by the way. It is a joke but it's also true!) 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2057. 

Liga Bwin. Our unbeaten record in the league has finally gone just when I started to dream of becoming an invincible. We missed an early penalty against Portimonense and then had a player sent off in the 1st half and it was just too big a hurdle to overcome with 10 men and they countered us twice more late on as we pushed.  Our xG was about double theirs and we had 17 shots on target to their 5. None of that matters though. They scored 3 goals and we scored 0. It's not the disaster it might have been though because although our lead was reduced from 6 to 4 pts by the loss, Benfica drawing away at Porto means that it has been extended to 6 pts. Benfica might be top of the table now, (by a single point), but we now have 2 games in hand. Porto are 3 pts behind us, but we also have a game in hand on them. We are still very much in the driving seat. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. I don't know how we got through that game, but we did. 

Allianz Cup. I'm not getting fed up with the save or anything like that, but my hatred of all things Benfica/Porto is growing stronger by the day......

We have been Runners Up 7 of the last 10 seasons. 

The Taça de Portugal Placard history does look a little better, but not much. 

Add in the League and it's a wonder I'm not suicidal with being Runners Up to these 2 clubs on no less than 12 occasions in the last 10 seasons. 

Transfers.

Goal-scoring GK's. I've been banging on and on about GK unhappiness this and GK unhappiness that, and all the way through the evidence has backed up my claim that it's an enormous driver as to the result of a penalty, but  (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" is just confusing the hell out of me. He's been unhappy for quite a while now and yet he went on a successful streak of 20 penalties before seeing 1 saved, (the previous failure hit the bar). I know he's unhappy. The evidence is there for all to see, but for whatever reason he kept scoring, (until recently). I wonder if that might change now?

[Jimbokav1971]

Is it possible that Benfica might go unbeaten through the whole league season and still not win the league?  

Edited July 22, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2067.

Liga Bwin. I'm frustrated that we dropped 2 pts at home to Varzim, (because we battered them), but the real kicker is that we conceded the equaliser in the 89th minute. I can't really complain though as we scored an even later winner at Estrela da Amadora the week before. We're still top. (on goal difference), but have a game in hand on Benfica. 

UEFA Champions League. When I show you the goal we conceded, (look at the bottom of the Goal-scoring GK's), you will understand my frustration. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

[Rikulec]

So you just casually put seven past Porto in the league and didn't even mention it in the write-up?

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

So you just casually put seven past Porto in the league and didn't even mention it in the write-up?

Yeah well..... when you have already spanked 10 past someone in the league, 7 goals isn't so much, and Porto are decent but they're no Benfica. I only have eyes for them. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Mar 2057. 

What did the preview tell us to expect? GK, MC, SC & W.

What would we like to see? GK, DL, DC & ML.

It's a Golden generation, but aren't they all? 

What have we got in terms of PA stars? DC, DL, WBL & SC. I'm happy about the DC, DL & WBL and you can never have too many SC's. 

Squad by PA.

What have we got in terms of Actual PA? DC, WBL, DL & DL. 3 left backs is a bit overkill, but (57d) has Det of 6 and is also (Unamb) which is pretty rubbish and (57o) has a pretty low starting CA of 52 so neither of them are going to be playing left back for the 1st Team anytime soon.

Squad by Actual PA. 

[Sonic Youth]

3 hours ago, Rikulec said:

So you just casually put seven past Porto in the league and didn't even mention it in the write-up?

 

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Yeah well..... when you have already spanked 10 past someone in the league, 7 goals isn't so much, and Porto are decent but they're no Benfica. I only have eyes for them. 

Very casual!

[Sonic Youth]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake day. Mar 2057. 

What did the preview tell us to expect? GK, MC, SC & W.

What would we like to see? GK, DL, DC & ML.

It's a Golden generation, but aren't they all? 

What have we got in terms of PA stars? DC, DL, WBL & SC. I'm happy about the DC, DL & WBL and you can never have too many SC's. 

Squad by PA.

What have we got in terms of Actual PA? DC, WBL, DL & DL. 3 left backs is a bit overkill, but (57d) has Det of 6 and is also (Unamb) which is pretty rubbish and (57o) has a pretty low starting CA of 52 so neither of them are going to be playing left back for the 1st Team anytime soon.

Squad by Actual PA. 

I feel this intake was built up massively, though your International ambitions for the Cape Verdean national team grows. If he chooses them.