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

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2064.

DC.

1st Team. (57a) Lima (CPV)(POR) 6'2" *** & (54a) Fati (GNB)(POR) 6'1" ***. (54a) Fati (GNB)(POR) 6'1" *** & (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" **. (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" **
B Team. (64d) Mahler (POR) (SUI) 6'2" & (59d) Coxi (ANG) 6'1" *. (59l) Cassamá (GNB) 6'0" DC * & (60c) Leonardo (POR) 6'1".
U23's.
U19's. (61d) Santos (POR) 6'4" DC & (64f) Guerra (POR) 6'4".
Sell.
Loan.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2064. 

MC.

1st Team. (55a) Mavioso (POR) *** & (62a) Pereira (GNB)(POR) ***. (47k) Tavares (CPV) * & (55c) Sousa (POR) *.
B Team. (60b) Costa (POR) & (59b) Cruz (POR) MC.  & (61i) Lopes (POR)
U23's. (62k) Popó (BRA)(ITA) & (59a) Bari (POR). (60j) Sá (POR)
U19's. (63a) Bettencourt (POR) * & (61g) Dumange (POR) (SUI). (60j) Sá (POR)
Sell. (49a) Odhiambo (POR) SELL, (54m) Loureiro (POR) SELL
Loan.

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2064. 

ML & MR. 

ML.

1st Team. (58a) Flores (NED)(SLV) & (53b) Espínola (POR) *.
B Team. (61c) Novak (PER) (CRO)
U23's.
U19's. (63i) Keita (SEN)(FRA) ML, (63i) Keita (SEN)(FRA) ML & (64c) Rowley (WAL).
Sell. (49e) Madruga (POR) SELL
Loan.

MR.

1st Team. (55b) Cunha (BRA) *** MR & (54b) Soares (CPV)(POR) *** MR.
B Team. (60g) Vieira (POR) * & (63b) Rodrigues (POR) MR **.
U23's.
U19's. (63k) Maxted (ENG)
Sell.
Loan. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2064. 

SC.

1st Team. (50l) Bartlett (ENG) * & (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) ***. (59i) Fernandes (POR) (CPV) * & (57c) Inácio (POR). (54f) Sales (POR) *.
B Team. (60a) Farny (POR) (SUI) * & (61h) Fradinho (POR). (61a) Mateus (BRA) (POR) SC * & (64g) Gonçalves (POR)
U23's.
U19's.  (62b) Indjai (GNB)(POR) & (64a) Conceição (POR)
Sell.
Loan.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2064. 

Liga Bwin. 4 games, 4 wins, 4 clean sheets, 15 goals scored. 

Benfica, Braga & Porto have all already dropped points in the league. 

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. I know this is a trophy, but it really not a big deal, (although it's always nice to smash 4 unanswered goals past Benfica). 

Goal-scoring GK's. 4 goals in the opening 5 games of the season is decent, but I'm just happy that he's scoring from the spot again after a complete disaster last season from the spot. 

Finances.  We got close to returning to credit, but not quite. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2064.

Liga Bwin. I guess this is another season where we don't have to worry about losing our unbeaten record late in the season and having our hopes dashed. Far better to get it out of the way early.  On the plus side, after sticking 4 goals past Benfica in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, we stuck 7 more past them in the league!  

UEFA Champions League. The Reserves did us proud in Europe, (although they left it late against Sturm Graz). 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2064.

Liga Bwin. A draw means that Sporting are the top of the league for the 1st time in about.......30+ years. We might have drawn, but only a 90th min GK goal stopped it from being a loss. Benfica have already dropped points in 4 of their 10 games so far and Porto have already lost twice. 

UEFA Champions League. The Reserves give us a great win against a good Real Madrid side. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. A much more comfortable win than the 2-1 score suggests. 

Allianz League Cup. Not at all a comfortable win, but a win nevertheless. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 3 penalties from Ako this month, but only 1 of them resulting in a goal. 

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Nov 2064. 

Liga Bwin. We beat Sporting, but unfortunately we had already lost to Leixoes and so Sporting still retain a 3 point advantage over us. Benfica are conceding 1 goal per game and Porto are conceding even slightly more than that so finding it hard to keep pace at the top.

UEFA Champions League. Our Reserves have competed well in the Champions league so far, and while the away defeat to Real Madrid, (by a single goal), is no big disaster, also losing away to Lyon is a tiny bit of a disaster. It was even a weakened Reserve Team and I think I weakened them too much. Our last game is home to Sturm Graz and I would expect to win that even with a weakened Reserves side. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. A comfortable win for the Reserves. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Awards. Dec 2064. 

FIFA Ballon d'Or winner. This is the 3rd time we have won this award in the save, and it's the 2nd time Ako has won it, (also having won it last year). 

FIFPro Player of the Year. This is the 3rd time one of our players has won this, and again it's the 2nd successive year that Ako has won it. 

World Golden Glove. Over the last 22 years, we've only failed to win this award 7 times. Ako has won it 9 times on his own and 6 times in a row now. 

FIFA Best Mens GK. Again, Ako has won this on 9 of the last 10 occasions, including each of the last 6. 

FIFA Best U21's Mens player. This is the 9th time one of our players has won this award but although Pereira won the European Golden Boy last year, (without winning this), he couldn't do the double this season and won this but not the Golden Boy award. 

FIFPro Team of the Year. I would really like to have more than 2 players in this team, especially as the GK is just about guaranteed because of their goal-scoring. 

African Footballer of the Year. 3rd place is the best we can do here. 

African XI of the Year. We've got the 3 best African defenders, but all 3 of them play centre-half, so only 2 of them get in the Team of the Year. 

African Award Winners. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Dec 2064. 

Liga Bwin. Another loss, (to Porto), sees us fall to 4 points behind a resurgent Sporting. 

UEFA Champions League. After 2 losses we bounced back with a win to secure 2nd place and qualification to the Knockout stages. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. The Reserves with another good win.

Allianz League Cup. This was tight, but we we squeezed to the win. 

Youth Intake preview. 3x AM's and 2x wingers. Not what I was hoping for at all. Maybe 1 of the centre-backs rated at "C" will be good enough, but I'm not holding my breath. 

AFCON Nations call-ups. This really isn't ideal. Coxi, Lima & Fati are all centre-backs. Tavares & Pereira are both central midfielders. This is a real problem. 

5 members of the São Tomé and Príncipe squad are products of our Academy. 

5 members of the Guinea-Bissau squad are products of our Academy. 

3 members of the Cape Verde squad are products of our Academy. 

2 members of the South Africa squad are products of our Academy. 

2 members of the Angola squad are products of our Academy. 

1 member of the Congo squad is a product of our Academy. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

 

Finances. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2065.

Liga Bwin. We've dropped 2 more points and have slipped to 3rd, but we have 1 game in hand on Sporting and 2 games in hand on Porto. There's still lots of football to be played.

Taça de Portugal Placard. This is frustrating, but it's the way it goes. We just had too many players away at AFCON and it weakened us too much. 

Allianz League Cup. We've made the last 6 Finals now, winning 5 of them. We;ve actually made 14 of the last 15 Finals, but we've only won 7 of them.

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Sonic Youth]

Too many draws plus the heart of your defence going to Afcon doesn’t help either. Hopefully a Portuguese Defender in the next intake 

[Thebaker]

There was me thinking that Sporting are not doing much. Surprised that Cape Verde don't have more of your players since it seems like you have had a lot come through even if 2nd nat.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Too many draws plus the heart of your defence going to Afcon doesn’t help either. Hopefully a Portuguese Defender in the next intake 

16 year old (64d) Mahler (POR) (SUI) 6'2" is decent & 21 year old (59d) Coxi (ANG) 6'1" * will be around for a while, but after that our centre-backs are either 27 years old+ or struggling for PA, (or with low CA meaning that reaching their PA will be difficult). I don't think things are desperate quite yet, but they're getting there. 

[Jimbokav1971]

46 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

There was me thinking that Sporting are not doing much. Surprised that Cape Verde don't have more of your players since it seems like you have had a lot come through even if 2nd nat.

I think we had some decent (CPV) players who have retired in recent years. More recently it seems to have been (GNB) players that we've seen come through. 

[Thebaker]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

16 year old (64d) Mahler (POR) (SUI) 6'2" is decent & 21 year old (59d) Coxi (ANG) 6'1" * will be around for a while, but after that our centre-backs are either 27 years old+ or struggling for PA, (or with low CA meaning that reaching their PA will be difficult). I don't think things are desperate quite yet, but they're getting there. 

with 3 dc's and maybe a midfielder or rb who could play there (as many seem to) there is still a good chance of a decent player. Especially since intake previews in terms of pa is only a range and the cb's could be the best players in it.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Thebaker said:

with 3 dc's and maybe a midfielder or rb who could play there (as many seem to) there is still a good chance of a decent player. Especially since intake previews in terms of pa is only a range and the cb's could be the best players in it.

I have to remind myself that everything is relative to Ako's career, (and he's 30 now). I only have to find players to play while he plays. As soon as he stops I stop. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2064. 

Liga Bwin. We were weakened against Moreirense because the PSG was 3 days later, but I'm still frustrated that we dropped points. We're now 5 pts behind Sporting with 9 games remaining and we're going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag to win the title from here. 

The 1 advantage we have is that we still have to play Sporting, (although we are away), and if we win that then the gap is down to just 2 pts. After that we play Braga, Porto & Guimaraes, so while our fixtures aren't easy, Sporting have a similar schedule. 

#

UEFA Champions League. On the one hand a draw at home isn't great, but on the other hand, at least it's a scoreless draw so any score draw away and..... I really can't get it into my head that there are no away goals in Europe anymore. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Ako has only scored 15 penalties at 75% this season after a good start. It's really frustrating. 

 

 

 

Finances. 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Mar 2065. 

The preview said that we should expect 3x decent AM's and 2x decent wingers. 

What have we actually got? An AM and a ML are the Top Talents, but they are both only 3.5 PA. 

Squad by PA. 

• 3x Africans. 
• 3x English. 
• 4 players with poor Det. 
• 2 of the poor Det players are also Unamb. 

Squad by Actual PA. 

• 4 players at 130+ PA. 
• The top 4 players by PA also have decenet CA. (73+). 

It's not an awful intake, but it's not great either. I was looking for a centre-half and I've sort of got one in (65l) Kassoma (ANG) (POR), but the problem is that he's Angolan which means that he will likely also be at any future AFCON with all my other decent centre-backs. 

[Thebaker]

low det is as bad as unamb with a low det i've realised. I had a player through with 3 det who was balanced, low det also means low ambition <10, unambitious is <5 and variable determination

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

low det is as bad as unamb with a low det i've realised. I had a player through with 3 det who was balanced, low det also means low ambition <10, unambitious is <5 and variable determination

Yeah, any mixture of Low Det + Unamb is a real disaster. I'm not that bothered about it because Ako is 30 now so we're looking at 5-7 years left on the save. in 7 years a 15 year old now will be 22, so I'm not sure how much impact any of these players will have on the save. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2065. 

Liga Bwin. We're still 5 points behind Sporting and Benfica and Porto are just 2 and 3 points behind us respectively. It's squeeky-bum time and someone is about to choke! There are 7 games of the league campaign remaining. 

UEFA Champions League. After drawing the 1st leg at home to PSG we were really good in the 2nd leg and deserved to win by a greater margin. We've got Dortmund in the Quarters.

Goal-scoring GK's. 16 penalties and 1 direct free-kicks sounds good, but Ako has missed 5 penalties now this season and that's just too many.

 

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2065. 

Liga Bwin. The draw against Leixoes was bad, but as Sporting lost to Braga, we still had a chance as long as we beat Sporting in the last game of the month. We didn't beat Sporting in the last game of the month and it's all over bar the celebrating, (by Sporting), who will win their 1st league title for 28 years and their 1st domestic trophy for 27 years, (although they won the UEFA Conference League in 2041 and the UEFA Europa League & Europa Super Cup in 2058, (so their sudden improvement has been a few years in the making). 

UEFA Champions League. We comfortably beat Dortmund in the 2nd leg of the Quarters, but we will have to come from behind again to get past new Spanish giants Real Sociedad. 

UEFA Youth League. I don't usually report on winning this trophy, but we've won it so many times I thought I would mention it. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2065. 

Liga Bwin. We finished the season 3rd after we dropped points in the last game of the season against Porto, and Benfica, (who only lost 1 game all season), sneaked into 2nd place ahead of us. 

We scored 7 goals more than anyone else and had the joint best defensive record. Our goal difference of +72 was 15 goals better than the next best. 

UEFA Champions League. We lost the 1st leg by a single goal, so a draw in the 2nd leg wasn't good enough to send us through to the Final. 

Goal-scoring GK's. I know it's ridiculous, but I'm disappointed that Ako only scored 20 goals this season. 

Finances. 

[Sir_Liam]

There's a couple of observations you've made regarding goalkeepers taking penalties which match what I feel I've experienced on FM myself, albeit in different ways.

I've long felt that players with a high penalty taking attribute are more likely to miss penalties than score, which sort of links to your experience of players with bad penalty taking scoring a lot.  At the very least the penalty taking attribute doesn't seem to matter much whichever way you look at it.

Secondly morale seems to really affect goalkeeper performances.  For you they started missing penalties, for me I had a goalkeeper who was statistically the best in the league.  He then became unhappy due to transfer offers I rejected and all of a sudden his stats and performances dramatically declined.  I ended up having to sell him as he was costing us so many points.  My new goalkeeper came in and our form really improved as we started conceding a lot less goals.  There was no other changes in terms of either personnel or tactics.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2065. 

Club World Cup. I wasn't expecting to win this, (because of the fitness bug), and I had completely forgotten that we would be playing in it, (wasn't even a priority at all), but obviously decided to give it along when it came up. I think we got lucky with the way the fixtures fell. 

1st we had Boca Juniors and we were better than them with a fit(ish) squad. 
2nd we had our easiest game so I rotated everyone I could and fielded a weakened side. 
3rd up we had our toughest game and we had the advantage of having rested our players 2 days later & our 1st choice team sneaked through on pens after coming from 2 goals down. 
4th game was part of the new season and the fitness issues had resolved themselves and we were back to normal. 
5th game was the Final and we had 4 days rest and fitness issues were normal again in the new season. 

In summary it appears that the fitness issue bug is only experienced in the old season and as soon as if click over to the new season it goes away. Having said that, having to play Bayern, PSG, Boca Juniors & Flamengo is a much tougher set of fixtures than it used to take to win this. 

Records & Awards.

Goal-scoring Keepers. 3 goals at the CWC mean that Ako finished on 23 goals for last season. The goals were all scored before the season clicked over to the new season so he has 0 goals for the new season. 

Finances. 

[Sonic Youth]

A trophy to finish the season with 

Pity about the league as having the best fore and against is usually enough to win it.

Real Sociedad in Europe in the quarters is a coin flip now for Belenenses and unfortunate to be drawn against them. Did they go on to win the final?

Bartlett I keep reading as starlet 

[Jimbokav1971]

41 minutes ago, Sir_Liam said:

There's a couple of observations you've made regarding goalkeepers taking penalties which match what I feel I've experienced on FM myself, albeit in different ways.

I've long felt that players with a high penalty taking attribute are more likely to miss penalties than score, which sort of links to your experience of players with bad penalty taking scoring a lot.  At the very least the penalty taking attribute doesn't seem to matter much whichever way you look at it.

Secondly morale seems to really affect goalkeeper performances.  For you they started missing penalties, for me I had a goalkeeper who was statistically the best in the league.  He then became unhappy due to transfer offers I rejected and all of a sudden his stats and performances dramatically declined.  I ended up having to sell him as he was costing us so many points.  My new goalkeeper came in and our form really improved as we started conceding a lot less goals.  There was no other changes in terms of either personnel or tactics.

I don't think that penalty taking attributes are reversed. I just think that it's irrelevant. It's also interesting to note that in games we're not involved in, penalty taking is as you would expect, with players with a high penalty taking attribute more successful. 

With regards to morale being linked to form, I think that makes sense. That's what you would expect isn't it? It's certainly what I'd expect. I've long been a fan of letting a striker on a goal-drought play a friendly against the U19's, (or someone else rubish), so that he could bag himself a few goals, but while we pretend it's about him scoring goals, it's actually about a morale boost and the benefit that will give him in the next performance. 

The thing with GK performances being linked to morale is that it's a vicious circle. Letting my GK take my pens sort of obliterates that because form is measured by match ratings and, (rightly or wrongly), match rating are rubbish and effectively what I'm doing by making my GK's take penalties is gaming the match ratings. Because I'm gaming the match ratings, even if the GK is performing poorly, their match ratings are often getting boosted by an "undeserved" goal or assist and so they are never actually in poor form, (ever). The flip side of this, (there is always a flip side), is that my GK is taking these match rating boosts away from an outfield player, because the outfield player who would have taken the pens, is no longer taking the pens so his match ratings are lower. 

I think that GK's are key to teams and often overlooked in favour of other players. You can get away with athletic players who are poor in some areas, but in my experience you can't get away with a poor GK. 

[Jimbokav1971]

11 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

A trophy to finish the season with 

Pity about the league as having the best fore and against is usually enough to win it.

Real Sociedad in Europe in the quarters is a coin flip now for Belenenses and unfortunate to be drawn against them. Did they go on to win the final?

Bartlett I keep reading as starlet 

Yeah, it wasn't announced as a treble, (because it was a 1st of the season rather than a 3rd), but it's a trophy all the same. 

Both ourselves and Sporting lost 4 games each, so perhaps the team that should feel most hard done by are Benfica who lost just 1, (but drew 10 and that's what cost them the title). I was relatively happy with our league campaign. Had we beaten Sporting then we would have been tied at the top and won the league on the basis of our head to head record. By such fine margins is the league decided now. 

Real Sociedad were beaten in the Champions League Final by Benfica.  

[Jimbokav1971]

21 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

Bartlett I keep reading as starlet 

(50l) Bartlett (ENG) * is doing ok, but he's certainly no starlet anymore. 

He was the top goal-scorer at the club last season with 21 goals, or at least he was until Ako went and scored 3 goals at the CWC to take him from 20 goals to 23 goals. 

He was always 2nd choice behind (45c) Rosa (POR) * & (44a) Simões (POR) *, but he's still able to do a job now. 

He's scored 265 career goals in all competitions, but 126 of them were scored for the B Team so it's not quite so impressive. He's still scored 82 Liga Bwin goals for us though, and that's not too shabby when he's been 2nd or 3rd choice for most of his career with us. 

17 Cup goals and 31 European goals mean that he has been very valuable for us over the years when I have looked to rotate the squad. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065. 

GK. 30 year old Ako has 4+3 years left on his contract. 

1st Team. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0"
B Team. (61j) Monteiro (POR) 6'0"
U23's. (58g) Rocha (POR)
U19's. (64k) Sequeira (CPV) 6'0" *
Sell.
Loan. (60d) Ribeiro (POR) 6'0", (63c) Vieira (GNB) (POR)

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065. 

DL. Our 1st choice pairing of the Martins brothers, (they aren't brothers), are 29 and 30 years old and they have both been happy for more than 12 months. I'm not too concerned though. The 2 players out on loan are good enough to do a job even if they're not as good as I would like them to be. 

1st Team. (52b) Martins (POR) * & (50g) Martins (POR) (FRA) DL *.
B Team. (60m) Lehner (POR) (SUI) *, 
U23's.
U19's. (64c) Rowley (WAL)
Sell.
Loan. (57b) Trindade (POR) * DL, (57d) Kravchuk (POR) (UKR) *

Edited September 11, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065. 

DC. This has been a weak area for a while now and that doesn't look like changing anytime soon. I've arranged to sign 2 ex players on a free in January but they are very much short-term backups rather than the answer to what is a long-term problem. 

1st Team. (57a) Lima (CPV)(POR) 6'2" *** & (54a) Fati (GNB)(POR) 6'1" ***. (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" & (59d) Coxi (ANG) 6'1" *. (49h) Ndlovu (POR)(RSA) 6'0" * & (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" **.
B Team. (65l) Kassoma (ANG) 6'0" * & (64d) Mahler (SUI) 6'2" ***.
U23's. 
U19's. (60c) Leonardo (POR) 6'1" & (64f) Guerra (POR) 6'4".
Sell.
Loan. (59l) Cassamá (GNB) 6'0" DC *, 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065.

MC. Over the last couple of decades this has been a really strong position, but we're just lacking a tiny bit in depth at the moment. With that in mind I have re-signed (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) * again, (this time on a free). The plan isn't for him to be a starter, but he should be very influential in a weakened team and from the bench. The 1st time I re-signed him he was great, but we were paying him too much money and that was the reason I sold him again. Now he's on a much more reasonable wage and we've got him for 2 more years with a clause that will trigger 1 more if he plays 10 league games in his 2nd season. 

1st Team. (55a) Mavioso (POR) *** & (62a) Pereira (GNB)(POR) ***. (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) * & (55c) Sousa (POR) *. (47k) Tavares (CPV) * & (49a) Odhiambo (POR) .
B Team. (60b) Costa (POR) & (63a) Bettencourt (POR) *. (61i) Lopes (POR) & 
U23's. (59b) Cruz (POR) MC & (59a) Bari (POR).
U19's. (65b) Delgado (CPV) (POR) * & (65j) Davies (WAL)
Sell.
Loan. (61i) Lopes (POR), (61g) Dumange (POR) (SUI), (63d) Alves (CPV)

[ucdark]

En 11/9/2022 a las 15:16, Jimbokav1971 dijo:

Jul 2065. 

Club World Cup. I wasn't expecting to win this, (because of the fitness bug), and I had completely forgotten that we would be playing in it, (wasn't even a priority at all), but obviously decided to give it along when it came up. I think we got lucky with the way the fixtures fell. 

1st we had Boca Juniors and we were better than them with a fit(ish) squad. 
2nd we had our easiest game so I rotated everyone I could and fielded a weakened side. 
3rd up we had our toughest game and we had the advantage of having rested our players 2 days later & our 1st choice team sneaked through on pens after coming from 2 goals down. 
4th game was part of the new season and the fitness issues had resolved themselves and we were back to normal. 
5th game was the Final and we had 4 days rest and fitness issues were normal again in the new season. 

In summary it appears that the fitness issue bug is only experienced in the old season and as soon as if click over to the new season it goes away. Having said that, having to play Bayern, PSG, Boca Juniors & Flamengo is a much tougher set of fixtures than it used to take to win this. 

Records & Awards.

Goal-scoring Keepers. 3 goals at the CWC mean that Ako finished on 23 goals for last season. The goals were all scored before the season clicked over to the new season so he has 0 goals for the new season. 

Finances. 

Amazing, you've won every title available to win, now what? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065.

ML & MR. In terms of depth, we're much stronger on the left than the right, but a by-product of this is that there is more competition for places and so players might actually get less game-time during their development period and development might be stunted as a result. 

ML. 

1st Team. (58a) Flores (NED)(SLV) *** & (53b) Espínola (POR) * & 
B Team. (61c) Novak (PER) (CRO)
U23's.
U19's. (65f) Costa (POR) ML *, (65a) Tomás (POR) *, (64b) Lambert (FRA) ML, (65d) Lakay (POR) (RSA), (63e) Canário (BRA)(POR), (61l) Soares (CPV) (POR)
Sell. (49e) Madruga (POR) SELL
Loan. (63i) Keita (SEN)(FRA) ML, (56l) Morais (CPV) (POR)

MR.

1st Team. (55b) Cunha (BRA) *** MR & (54b) Soares (CPV) *** MR.
B Team. (63b) Rodrigues (POR) MR **
U23's.
U19's. (63k) Maxted (ENG), (65e) Rebelo (POR), (64e) Lima (POR)
Sell.
Loan. (60g) Vieira (POR) *

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, ucdark said:

Amazing, you've won every title available to win, now what? 

Now it's all about Ako and how many career goals he can score. 

He's 30 years old at the start of the 2064/65 season and has 249 career goals. He's currently signed to a 4+3 deal.

He's scored 23, 17, 26, 18, 25, 28, 19, 18 & 15 goals over the last 9 seasons, (averaging out at 189/9= 21 goals a season). If he can average 20 goals a season over the next 4 years then he will have scored approximately 330 career goals and if I can keep him playing for the full 7 years of his contract, (and he continues to average 20 goals a season), then he will reach something like 390 career goals. 

The idea that 300 career goals might be a possibility would have seemed ridiculous in the past, (with my record at 167 or 176 or whatever it was), but the idea that 400 career goals for a GK might be possible is absolutely mind-blowing. (I may even have to start sending him up for corners if that becomes a possibility but unfortunately he's only 6'0" and his jumping reach is 11 so not idea at all for that). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2064. 

SC. The fact that our GK Ako was our top goal-scorer last season perhaps offers an indication that we're not as strong in this area as I would like, but actually the goals were shared around a little with (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** (10), (59i) Fernandes (POR) (CPV) * (17), (50l) Bartlett (ENG) * (21) & (61a) Mateus (BRA) (POR) SC * (8) all chipping in. 

I'm considering going with double AF's up front. I just don't seem to be getting the nest out of our 2nd striker (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** who is one of the best players in the World, (but not playing like it). It will only be for him though. When someone else comes in, they will continue to play with the standard tactic, (which means F9 at the moment). 

The B Team starting pair of (64a) Conceição (POR) *** & (64g) Gonçalves (POR) * are not the strongest at all, but at 16 and 17 years old there is plenty of room for development so they need the game time. My plan is that they will start games, (when fit), and I would hope that the Ass Man/Manager would replace them with 

1st Team. (50l) Bartlett (ENG) * & (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) ***. (59i) Fernandes (POR) (CPV) * & (54f) Sales (POR) *.
B Team. (64a) Conceição (POR) *** & (64g) Gonçalves (POR) *. (61h) Fradinho (POR) & (61a) Mateus (BRA) (POR) SC *
U23's.
U19's. & (63j) Sousa (POR) & (65g) Dias (POR).
Sell.
Loan. (57c) Inácio (POR), (58c) Pires (POR), (60a) Farny (POR) (SUI) *

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jul 2065. 

DR. I've just gone to save the Team selections for the coming season, (it saves time and stops me having to come back here and look again and again), and have realised that I completely missed out right backs. Interestingly I got to the B Team before I realised. 

We seem to be just a little bit short of numbers here, if not overall quality. You might see 14 players on the list, but I see (54b) Soares (CPV) *** MR is a winger, (64d) Mahler (SUI) 6'2" *** is a centre-half, (59l) Cassamá (GNB) 6'0" DC * is a centre-half, (49h) Ndlovu (POR)(RSA) 6'0" * is a left-sided centre-half, (65c) Téo (BRA) (POR) 6'2" is a centre-half, (62i) Meireles (POR) 6'2" DC is a centre-half, (which reduces our 14 players to 8 players, and with the exception of the 1st 4 listed here, none of them are any good. Trying to find someone decent to play for the U19's was not easy. 

1st Team. (56a) Juromito (POR) *** DR & (59e) Marques (POR) **.
B Team. (63n) Lourenço (POR) * & (59c) Yufeng (CHN) 6'0" DR.
U23's. (60h) Freixinho. (POR)
U19's.
Sell.
Loan. (62d) Delgado (POR)(CPV)

[Jimbokav1971]

Top goal-scorer odds. Jul 2065. 

Over the course of this save I've liked looking at this item and compared the quality of the opposition players to our players, and then  laugh as we've managed to outscore them. Now though, I think we have one of the best strikers in the World, but until now I've been playing in a more conservative role and he certainly isn't the main goal threat. It might not be good for him, but imo it's better for the team. He has played as a DLF and a F9 and last season he played as a CF. I think the way the team is set-up though means that the left sided striker gets far more opportunities. 

Luís Fabiano scored 17 league goals last season and although he's scored 179 goals for Benfica in all competitions over the last 8 seasons, I can't see him winning the Golden Boot this season. 

João Cleber scored 18 league goals for Sporting last season in what was his 1st full season for them. I think he will go close this season. 

Baybora Ay had a storming season for Porto with 19 goals and 10 assists last season, (after a £44.5M move from Bayern), but I'm not keen on him. He will do well to perform like that again this season. 

Robson won the Golden Boot last season with 25 goals from 25(5) appearances, (and has scored 16, 20 & 20 in the previous 3 seasons). I'm honestly surprised that he scores so many goals playing at Guimaraes. 

Marcel Herrero scored 13 goals in 24(1) appearances last season for Braga and I think there is a fair chance that we will have 2 striker and a GK who score more goals than him this season. 

(53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** puts them all to shame I'm sure you would agree, but because of the way we've been using him, he has been nowhere near as prolific as he might have been throughout his career. He's never scored more than 15 league goals in a season and I do wonder how many he might plunder if I played him on the left.....

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2065.

Friendlies. Winning the CWC at the beginning of the season has given us a nice little morale boost and that has helped us through pre-season.

Liga Bwin. We dropped points against Leixoes, but we're still unbeaten. I do think that we might be capable of going unbeaten if I was to manage games rather than use the IR button, but I don't think it's possible with the IR button. Still, it will be good to see how long we can remain unbeaten in the league. 

Champions League group draw.A decent group. Inter are still one of the big boys, but PSV & Brugge shouldn't be too much trouble. 

Top goal-scorer in the Liga Bwin. After just 4 games of the season, (57c) Inácio (POR) of lowly Estoril has already scored 8 goals in the league as he was awarded MOM on each of his 4 league games this season. Juve took him on loan at one point and wanted to buy him, but he has never really got a chance for our 1st team and only ever really been 1st choice for the B Team twice. He didn't exactly set the World alight in either season. His 5th game this season was a Cup match, (and he also scored in that but didn't get MOM). I know he's had relatively easy fixtures so far, but still....... That's a mighty impressive start to the season. 

Goal-scoring GK's. I know we've had months where no GK goals were scored, but I think we took and missed penalties in those months. To not have been awarded any penalties in either team is a bit of a shock. 

Finances. 

[Sonic Youth]

9 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

(53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** puts them all to shame I'm sure you would agree, but because of the way we've been using him, he has been nowhere near as prolific as he might have been throughout his career. He's never scored more than 15 league goals in a season and I do wonder how many he might plunder if I played him on the left.....

What if you just played him on the left anyway…?

[Jimbokav1971]

51 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

What if you just played him on the left anyway…?

He would 100% fill his boots, but who plays on the right then? 

It is certainly an idea though. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2065. 

Liga Bwin. 3 good wins keep us unbeaten, but still behind an in-form Braga who have a 100% record. Benfica in 3rd have already lost twice, and although Estoril have lost twice now, they're still confounding expectations with (57c) Inácio (POR) on 9 goals and 3 assists from 7 games. 

UEFA Champions League. The Reserves ease us to 2 wins and we're already 4 pts ahead of Inter. 

Goal-scoring GK's.  250 goals for anyone is pretty good. 250 goals for a GK is ridiculous! 

Finances.  Although we're overdrawn at the bank, (and owe £15.75M on a loan), we still have a transfer budget of £185M available, as well as only spending £10M of a monthly £20M wage budget. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2065. 

Liga Bwin. Well at least we no longer have to worry about losing our unbeaten league record.  On the plus side, Benfica have already lost twice and defending Champions Sporting have lost 2 and drawn 3. 

UEFA Champions League. The Reserves with a decent draw against Inter. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. This could have been a BIG score. 

Allianz League Cup. Guimaraes are decent and our Reserves came unstuck here. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2065. 

Liga Bwin. Braga are still unbeaten and although we're not scoring as freely as I would like, we're keeping it reasonably tight at the back, (which obviously means we're going to concede loads in December). We've got a game in hand on Braga & Benfica so apart form not being unbeaten, I'm happy with how things are going in the league. 

UEFA Champions League. We've qualified for the Knockout stages already and our last game is against Club Brugge, (so we should comfortably top the group). I weakened the squad against PSV and they made us pay. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. I prioritised this game this month and it worked a treat as we bossed it. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2065. 

Liga Bwin. You might remember that last month I commented that we were doing well defensively, but that by commenting on that we would probably concede loads of goals in December. Needless to say Benfica smashed 3 goals past us in the 1st game of December and it took a 95th min GK goal to rescue a late draw. 4 clean sheets after that helped to balance things out thought. 

UEFA Champions League. Despite topping the Group, we have been drawn against Real Madrid in the 1st Knockout Round, (which is a little frustrating). 

Taça de Portugal Placard. The 1st Team had just beaten Porto on the league, so I decided to play the Reserves in the Cup in the hope that our better fitness and morale would make up for our lack of quality, (and it worked out well). 

Allianz League Cup. Despite hitting Maritimo for 6, we have still crashed out of this competition because we lost our 1st game. 

Awards. It will come as no surprise that (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" is still smashing it. He has just won the Ballon d'Or, (for the 3rd consecutive year), FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year, (for the 3rd consecutive year), World Golden Glove, (for the 7th consecutive year & for the 10th year in the last 11), FIFA Best Mens GK, (for the 7th consecutive year and for the 10th year in the last 11).

Youth Intake preview. This really doesn't mean anything in my opinion. This could be a fantastic intake. It could also be absolutely rubbish. 

Goal-scoring GK's,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finances. 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2066.

Liga Bwin. We continued our good form in the league and the 2 goals we conceded against Moreirense were both as a result of our GK taking a wide attacking free-kick and us losing the ball with him stranded upfield. 

We might be out of both domestic Cups, but we now have a 5 point lead at the top of the table after a really hectic month. Braga might have a game in hand but their now 12 points adrift and the title would seem to be down to just us and Benfica again. 

Taça de Portugal Placard. Technically I consider this a draw and a loss on penalties rather than an actual loss, but it matters little because we're still out of the Cup. Braga are decent and at least deserved the draw so I can't complain. I did prioritise the league games around this fixture so I can't really complain. 

Goal-scoring GK's. It's really frustrating but Ako will now be out for a couple of months. (61j) Monteiro (POR) 6'0" has stepped up from the B Team and scored on his 1st Team debut against Marítimo. (64k) Sequeira (CPV) 6'0" * will step up to the B Team while Ako is out. 

 

Disaster!  He was in great form too, (scoring 9 goals in his last 15 games before this). 

Finances. 

The board have finally realised that we're losing money and have slashed the transfer budget from about £184M to £1.5M and cut the wage budget almost in half. While I'm not bothered in the slightest about the transfer budget, it does now mean that we're over our wage budget, but that seems a bit harsh when I had already agreed to bring 2 players in at the start of January, and there is another one arriving at the end of the season. I think I might have to sell someone good at this rate.  At the same time as slashing our budgets, they are already telling us that we can have a transfer budget of £92M next season. 

Although we're £380k per month over our wage budget for next season, I know that we will save £360k per month with the retirement of 37 year old  (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) *. He's contracted until the end of next season, (and has a +1 clause if he plays in 10 league games which he has already done this season, 7(9) to be exact), so the game thinks he is staying and is including his wage in next season's total. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan Transfer Window. Jan 2066.

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Mar 2066. 

I'm not sure how much impact any of these players can make with us only playing the save until Ako retires, (although I'm certainly not going to start another save so never say never).

What are we expecting? Well the Preview suggested a centre-half, an attacking mid and a winger, (ideally a righty). 

 

What do we want? A centre-half, a right winger and a full back. 

What have we got? Well a Generational Talent is certainly more interesting than yet another Golden Generation. 

There are a few that jump out at me here. 

• A Generational Talent could be a big deal, (although it's too late in the save really. 
• Because we also have an "Elite Talent", maybe the Generational Talent really is a special player. The 2.0 CA also isn't lost on me. 
• This is the best Intake Distribution I have ever seen. 1x GK, 2x players all the way through the middle, (+1 AMC), 1x each full back and 2x wingers on each side, (1x attacking +1 normal on each side). I like that. 
• None of the 4 players on show are a centre-half. 

Squad by PA. 

• 4x Unamb is not good. It's really not a good group of personalities. 
• 1x (RUS) player is not good, (in light of real World issues currently). 
• 2x (CPV) players. (Despite the issues this causes with selection during AFCON, I actually love this and it has sort of inspired my FM23 save idea). 
• 1x (GNB) players. 
• There is a fair bit of CA on show here. (1x 2.0 CA and 8x 1.0 CA). We have good players at the club so 1.0 is decent. 

Predictions. I try and anticipate how what I can see impacts what I can't see yet, (the PA for example), and while I do it in my head each year, I'm usually so keen to check the CA/PA that I rush to it before posting my predictions. I'm chilled right now so have remembered in time so let's go with it and see how I do. 

• I think that players from Nations with high Youth Ratings are given Day 1 reports more positive than the real situation. In this case I predict that the Argentinian, and both the Spaniard, will be ranked lower by Actual PA than they are by PA stars. 
• In contrast, I think that players from Nations with low Youth Ratings are given Day 1 reports more negative that the real situation. In this case I predict that the 3 African players will be ranked higher by Actual PA than they are by PA stars. I should point out that these are both very general points, but it's something that I have noticed over an extended period and multiple saves. Before you get carried away, this still might be impacted by the Nations I have loaded in my saves. 

Squad by Actual PA. I really like this intake.

• (66a) is maybe no quite a Generational Talent, but he's certainly very good and importantly is CA is significant. 
• We've got 3 players at 130+ PA.
• We've got 6 more players at 120+ PA.
• Only 3 players at <100 PA. 

(66a) Alves (POR) looks brilliant, and the only question is where to play him. I love a DLP and that was my initial thought, however........ I remember @Sonic Youthmentioning recently that I should consider playing (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** on the left up front, and with (50l) Bartlett (ENG) * 31 years old now, (and he was never really a starter until the last few years), maybe (66a) could play on the right up front, (with a little training), and 28 year old (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** could have a proper go in our key position on the left up front. I have beginning to think that he's wasted in his current role, but I was a little nervous at swapping things too much in case it impacted negatively the number of penalties we win, (and directly impacts Ako's goal-scoring opportunities). I was tempted to do it while Ako was injured, but it just never seemed the right time. I think (66a) is going to start on the right up front as soon as he is available. The only question is what role(duty). Any suggestions? 

(66j) Rosário (CPV)(POR) looks like a perfectly good DLP. 

I don't like (66c) Galvão (POR). He looks like a TM, but he's 5'10"! He's not quick enough to play on the left and even if he was quick enough, his finishing isn't good enough. Nah, he won't be playing for me. 

I like (66e) Gabriele (ARG)(ITA), but not as a ML, (we have loads of them). Instead I see him as a DL. 

(66n) Frias (POR) 5'10" is a centre-half and he's not African so won't go missing in January so what's not to like? 

(66g) Costa (GNB)(POR) is a 2nd decent looking DLP. 

(66o) Serrano (POR) 6'5" looks surprisingly good actually. AND he's 6'5" at 15 years old!

(66b) Sabino (POR) is the 2nd left back in the group. He looks a little light in technicals, but his physical ability is very good for a 15 year old. 

(66f) Sampaio (POR) 5'11" is a centre-half so great! but he's also starting from quite a low CA starting point.