[FM22] Matryoshka

[_Ben_]

Preface

I have pondered long and hard about a name for my new save but have settled on an object; something which is remarkably similar to the name I used for my FM21 save – Swiss Army Knife. The matryoshka, or Russian nesting doll, or even the Babushka doll, is a quintessential representation of Russian peasant life and, for the past hundred years or so, has been one of the country’s most memorable exports. Just like the Swiss Army Knife, this object symbolises what I’m planning on this save.

We’re heading NORTH EAST…

There are several reasons why I have chosen to manage here and why the matryoshka was the chosen symbol for this thread and save. Russia is a place that I have never really managed in, aside from an old save on FM Touch about five years ago with Luch Vladivostok, a now defunct team. I was drawn then by the fact that this side is so far east that it’s just completely unnatural to even be in the same league as the Moscow teams.

A quite wonderful book I’m reading at the moment, Prisoners of Geography, explains Russia in far better words than I:

RUSSIA IS VAST. IT IS VASTEST. IMMENSE. It is six million square miles vast, eleven time zones vast; it is the largest country in the world.

Its forests, lakes, rivers, frozen tundra, steppe, taiga and mountains are all vast. The size has long seeped into our collective consciousness. Wherever we are, there is Russia, perhaps to our east or west, to our north or south – but there is the Russian Bear.

It is no coincidence that the bear is the symbol of this immense nation. There it sits, sometimes hibernating, sometimes growling, majestic, but ferocious. Bear is a Russian word, but Russians are also wary of calling this animal by its name, fearful of conjuring up its darker side. They call it medved, ‘the one who likes honey.’

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But actually, it is all the things that the matryoshka stand for, that my game will (hopefully) delve into:

Russian Geography

As the largest country, by land-mass, on this planet – this is a huge opportunity for me to delve, deeply, into a country I, admittedly, know very little about. With several thousand miles separating Moscow from Vladivostok in the Far East, the inhabitable parts of Siberia with the warm Caucasus air as well as the port of Kaliningrad and the contentious Crimean region with Sevastopol – this country has it all.

Russia has 46 provinces (known as oblasti, singular - oblast), 21 republics, 4 autonomous okrugs, 9 krays, 2 federal cities and 1 autonomous oblast.

Now, I’d be a fool to try and manage in all of those but a look at the map of the teams competing in the Russian top flight this year shows that there is representation as far south as the well-known (for the wrong reasons) area of Dagestan but nothing east of Sverdlovsk, with the majority of the clubs coming from the Moscow region, probably as expected.

The National League (second tier) does contain the relatively western Baltika Kaliningrad as well as SKA, from the far eastern Khabarovsk as well as Tom (from Tomsk) and Yenisey (from Krasnoyarsk) showing that football can occur at all ends of this vast nation.

The third-tier houses once-heavy weight Anzhi, now fallen upon much more meagre times along with multiple second teams and the renowned Chertanovo, who, for those unaware, aren’t allowed to sign any players except those who come from their own youth side.

It appears that football in the far north, the Arctic Circle, is limited, to say the least. A club by the name of FC Sever Murmansk once plied their trade in the second tier but appear to no longer exist. This leaves Zenit, of St. Petersburg, as probably the most northern club but their average December temperature of -1° seems to pale into insignificance when compared with Khabarovsk, which records an average of around -22° at the same time of year.

The scope is huge and I’d really love to spend a little bit of time in the lower leagues learning about the parts of Russia that I visit.

Mother Russia

The doll, across many forms, has come to symbolise ‘Mother Russia’ – an older lady cradling a young baby. As an outsider, this imagery does not fit my preconceptions about this country, but I’ve read that the more feminine side is something that is trying to be pushed. In this save, as with pretty much every other one I’ve done, it’ll be able developing those young players as best as I can. Whilst they have a relatively solid national team, Russian identity, in continental competition, has been marred by racism and those players that are creating headlines are normally imported from other parts of the globe.

On an international scale Russian football clubs have long been a dominant force. Nowadays, teams such as Zenit St. Petersburg and the Moscow clubs of Spartak, Lokomotiv, CSKA and Dynamo ply their trade in the Russian Premier League, but they have also competed in Europe many times in the past. In 2005 CSKA Moscow won the UEFA Cup, the competition that is now known as the Europa League, and in 2007 Zenit St. Petersburg achieved the same thing, also winning the UEFA Super Cup in the same season.

Russian football is a unique thing insomuch as it is simultaneously quite young but also has a long and successful history behind it. Here we’ll tell you all about the sort of stadiums you’re likely to encounter should you go to that part of the world to watch a bit of football. We’ll also let you know about the Russian football league system and we’ll tell you about the history of the nation itself.

Peasantry

The Russian football league has improved immeasurably at the top-end of the system as it has benefited from the recovery of the old system of play and the influx of cash from private owners, businesses, and enterprises to help return the teams to the top level in Europe. There are sixteen teams in the Russian Premier League, with a further eighteen in the second-tier. This is known as the National Football League and is a self-governed league. The Second Division is the lowest level of professional football in the country and is administered by the Russian Football Union.

The Amateur Football League comes after the Second Division. This is split up into ten different zones based on their geographical location, within which are different regions; the Northwest, Golden Ring, Moscow and Podmoskovye all fit into the Moscow region, for example. The entire football system in Russia is structured into two different but interconnected football leagues, with promotion and relegation between them all.

It is the lower leagues in which I have a desire to manage in first and foremost, experiencing life as a semi-pro manager in a completely new culture and financial state to the teams at the top.

I hope you will join me on my journey, starting on the 9th November...

Edited October 31, 2021 by _Ben_

[_Ben_]

Other Reading

This is certainly not a ‘look at me’ section, nor an endorsement of any of my other threads, merely a chance for me to keep all of my old work in one place and a chance for people to see the development of my thinking over the last few saves and how I’ve reached where I am now with my playing style.

 Pre-FM19 I was active on a few other boards, namely The Dugout and FM Now – but the few re-incarnations of these sites mean that I no longer have any previous saves anywhere online.

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I have been playing CM since 2001/2002 but my style has massively developed over the last few years. The early FMs would see me try and create dynasties, particularly in Italy, where I, to this day, have a soft spot for a lot of lower league teams. I have managed a range: Pistoiese, Milazzo, Messina, Castel di Sangro, Calcio Catania (the other one), Venezia, Cesena and many, many more! A lot of the time, I holidayed games and paid very little attention to what was going on with my players – merely just signing the best ones each window, sticking them into a downloaded tactic and leaving it to holiday for a few hours at a time.

It wasn’t until FM17 when I wanted to make a change to how I played…

 During that version, I spent time with First Vienna, under a Japanese moniker inspired by a FM16 player I had – although I can’t remember who he was or where he was from. After nearly twenty seasons, I had developed a wide range of feeder clubs who were providing great youth players to me and was rewarded with an in-game son, too. Later in calendar year, I started with Lyn, in Norway, where I used an Ivorian manager to bring an African feel to the club, before moving to the Norwegian national team and then the Ivorian. I think I became the first manager, in save, to win two successive World Cups with different nations.

FM18 saw a brief stint (well, for me) with Le Mont in Switzerland, where I took a seventh-tier team to the top tier before the in-game mechanics made it impossible to continue. Following that save, I used a Rwandan manager and dominated world football with BX Brussels, a club that is owned, in real life, by Vincent Kompany. I was also lucky to have a son in this save too, and he went on to be the all-time top scorer for Rwanda and, eventually, my assistant manager. This was the first save that I played without attribute numbers on – as there was a feature, at this time, that allowed the use of graphical bars instead.

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[FM19] Not all that glitters is gold was my starting save from FM19 and saw me take over Beira-Mar, a fallen giant(ish) of Portuguese football. As FM19 removed the graphical bars, I played this save with numbers but really got into the player development side of the save and this save also saw my hatred for attribute stars rise as key player and club legend Andre Folha was only rated at three times despite being the best scorer in Europe! A couple of issues arose, maybe as I started with the Beta game, so I ended after a couple of league victories.

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[FM19] One night in Serravalle… saw me take a plunge into the depths of Sammarinese football – playing the save without attributes (back to bars) and without CA and PA stars. It took a while and I rose through the depths of Italian football, building a squad largely from youth players with a selection of ‘marquee’ signings – players who I brought in, with great personalities to be team leaders and standout stars. I brought in some additional data captures using Microsoft Excel to track the development of some of my younger players. This game, for me, was important as it was the first time I had developed brothers from the academy and also saw me sign Dario Samaniego, who went on to become the manager in my first FM20 save…

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[FM20] Tequila and Mariachi? Was my first foray into FM20 and started with my using a skin that removed all sight of numbers from the game, relying on attribute ‘bands’ instead. I didn’t solely go youth only but towards the end of the save I spent the majority of my time developing players using a much more in-depth Excel system to track personalities. This save also saw an in-game son, Dario Samaniego, who spent a lot of time in the first team but sadly never reached the same heights as the squad. In this save, I developed the best first team that I think I have ever done before and was lucky enough to develop a lot of quality players from the intakes.

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[FM20] Voltaço saw me leave Europe and head to Brazil where I tried to create a talent factory that would see as much young, Brazilian talent moved on to Europe. In the end, over £500m of talent was moved on as I played a lot more with the in-game intricacies and made massive use of the ‘squad’ feature, building two teams to feature in the State Championships as well as the League. I think that the squad that was assembled was amongst the best I have ever done.

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[FM21] Hometown Heroes was my first FM21 save and I plumped for something I haven’t done for a long time – manage in England. What is more, I went to my hometown, Redditch United. Not only did I manage to take one of the worst sides below the Vanarama North all the way to an established Premier League team over a 25+ year career, I did so whilst building a solid recruitment and development model. I attempted to set up scouting ‘areas’ focusing on both my in-game manager’s back story, but also places significant to the past and present of Redditch. I also dabbled in youth development through specific pathways for u23 players, building on key areas, all whilst focusing on players from as local to Redditch as possible. In the end, the save fell short as the riches of the Premier League go against pretty much everything I stand for as a football manager.

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[FM21] Swiss Army Knife was my final FM21 save and, in all honesty, the best save I’ve ever had. After holidaying for five years, Joao Fernando, the best player from my Volta Redonda save, took over fourth tier Meyrin, before moving to Fribourg and onto Luzern, who themselves were down in the second tier. It’s the first save in which I’ve moved clubs and this was a key part of the ‘realism’ factor that I’ve grown super keen on. I moved away from Excel (or, at least, screenshots of tables) and moved towards using notes in game and then using data collected to create more visuals than ever before – both for own team performances and players I wanted to recruit. In terms of depth – this save had it all for me as I spent countless hours learning about tactics from watching more games, tweaking and evolving player roles and the training that the team undertake. One Europa League and seven league titles were won in a wonderful ten years in Lucern.

[_Ben_]

Game foci

As with my last FM21 save, I have no specific plans to manage any team and I want to move around, managing across the vastness of the country, experiencing the different leagues and learning about the myriad of teams. Therefore, the idea of holidaying for a few years and jumping in mid-season provides the ideal opportunity to land on a team whereby things probably aren’t perfect from the start.

I am also not likely to go into this with any kind of tactical creation in mind – therefore will probably stick to my own personal likes and dislikes within tactical play, where appropriate to do so. Therefore, this section, I guess, becomes more of an ethos of Ben rather than how I want to play this save!

I’ve developed a set of Mission Statements for each area of the game, and these are in in bold, below.

What I do also want to do though, more for me than anyone else, is to map out when the things will happen. There is little to no point spending hours developing youngsters in the lower echelons, knowing they’ll be lucky to stay in the (professional) game but there are definite bonuses developing a tactical ideology and building my own knowledge of the country at an early stage.

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Tactical – progressive forward-thinking football driven by stats, involving fluidity of shapes to counter pre and in-game identified opposition threats built around a core ideology of decisive, determined, hardworking and fit individuals.

Whilst not in any way a tactical recreation, great concepts can be taken from many real-life managers. For example, this quote, taken from a Manchester Evening News article on Pep shows the huge gap between tactics and ideologies.

Guardiola’s tactics are remarkably complex, with each player given highly detailed positional instructions to ensure the team’s shape is perfect at every moment. The basic idea behind playing possession football rather than counter-attacking at speed is to maintain an evenly-distributed shape, gradually working up into the final third to suffocate and overwhelm the opposition. Guardiola does this by splitting the pitch into 24 zones, and demanding that no two players are ever occupying the same space. If the winger is on the outside, the full-back must dip infield, for example, while every single player needs to be alert to shifts in the overall pattern.

This is what Pep does. Jurgen Klopp will do something like this. Marcelo Bielsa, too. In fact – every manager has learnt from somewhere or someone. I want to build an ideology around how Russian football is portrayed in the game and, to make this feel more realistic to me, am going into this completely blind – taking absolutely no evidence from real-life coaches or from in-game experiences.

What is more – my style will change. My formations will change. According to the Premier League website, Everton only used their favoured 4-3-3 ten times in the 2020/21 season, utilising ten different shapes. For too long, I’ve relied on one tactic, one style and just tried to be better than the opposition. I want that to develop based on opponent, based on my own squad, based on the time in the season, based on the time in the game.

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Training – Tactical periodisation featuring strong development of key attribute areas that runs throughout the club. A whole-staff philosophy comprising of like-minded individuals will drive the development of players, paying special attention to ‘marginal gain’ areas such as set pieces.

To quote Spielverlangerung, tactical periodisation can be defined as:

Tactical Periodization is a football training methodology developed around 35 years ago by Vítor Frade, a sports science professor from Porto University in Portugal.

Since its creation, it has become one of the most widely adopted and implemented training methodologies worldwide. (Bordonau & Villanueva, 2018). Jose Mourinho was an early advocate for this coaching methodology, and one of the first coaches to prove this methodology’s success. From 2002 to 2004, as head coach of FC Porto, he guided the team to two Portuguese league titles, a Europa League title and a Champions League title. He has since moved on and coached at elite clubs in England, Italy and Spain, achieving significant domestic and European success.

While Mourinho is the most well-known proponent of Tactical Periodization, this training methodology has also been adopted successfully, by André Villas-Boas, Brendan Rogers, Nuno Espírito Santo, Marco Silva, Carlos Carvalhal, Vitor Pereira, and Leonardo Jardim, to name a few (Bordonau & Villanueva, 2018)

Tactical Periodization is a training methodology that derives from the study of different sciences and inter-disciplines that apply to football, including neuroscience, theory of complexity, chaos theory, systems theory, physiology, psychology, fractal geometry, and sociology. (Oliveira G. in Farias, 2016). In all these aspects considered, the game of Football is viewed in a holistic perspective, maintaining its complex identity.

As the name Tactical Periodization implies, the tactical dimension is the overarching dimension of the Football game and the physical, technical and psychological dimensions exist within this tactical dimension. This perspective is contrary to popular belief, where the four dimensions are viewed in isolation, and with the same level of priority.

Moreover, the word “periodization” is not used in its traditional sense, in relation to periodizing the physical load of training, it refers to the periodization of the tactical principles trained throughout the week. This weekly periodization of tactical principles is called the “Morphocycle”. The Morphocycle is the weekly learning plan for the way the team wants to play. (Frade in Oliveira R., 2014).

For me, it is the holistic perspective that interests me the most and has really changed my viewpoint on how I play FM. I used to hate the training module but now I feel it is the single most important one, in the game, and, when ignored, things don’t work as well. For me – it is the centre of it all: five days training for just 90 minutes of match action, working as a group for just a personality change, spending time working on a new skill just one attribute to rise by one point or a new trait to be learnt. It all comes through this module and studies like this are key for me to maximise what I can get out of FM.

I have used the following setup in the past to good effect and will continue to explore what works well at different levels and times:

Match Day + 1: Complete rest or Match Review. Match Review will give gains on the Teamwork attribute but, realistically, I’d like the playing squad away from the training ground here. Although, I am tempted to look into making this a physical day but then remembering to rest all the players involved in the game for it – meaning that the rest of the squad are involved in physical training at this point.

Match Day + 2: As a team, we recover back at the training ground. From there, the week starts in a fairly steady way, getting time on the football and then working the extra session on either attacking or defensive preparation for the next game.

Match Day + 3: The heaviest day and one we do as a team. As it is the furthest away from either match day, this is where physical training takes part but the amount of that mixes up and down depending on the match load.

Next Match Day -2: As we begin the countdown to the next match, the intensity drops and we focus more on the next game. Here, I’ll focus on the other aspect to what was done on Tuesday – either offensive or defensive with an extra session on that area of Match Prep to really drill home the sessions prior to this.

Next Match Day – 1: This is a full preparation day – working on any areas that we haven’t already covered and hitting some specific tactical work, which, as mentioned before, will be much more fluid than it has been to date.

I may look to develop my approach from last year and include various different mesocycles that work on offensive and defensive areas – building approaches with progressive overload; for example – a team cannot defend engaged if they are unable to defend disengaged as, in my opinion, the latter revolves around the base attribute of positioning whereas the former then adds the likes of Marking, Tackling and Bravery to the mix.

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Player Development – Bespoke schedules and game time plans for promising youngsters, encompassing the core ideology of player attributes and fluidity of positional play, encouraging their introduction into the first team from a young age – with special focus on their performances at a youth level. Prioritising home-grown players over imported talents but not ignoring or writing players off at a young age.

This is a quote from The Guardian, who have nailed my feelings on a Footballing IQ:

Asked about football intelligence, most fans would cite Sheringham, along with the likes of Paul Scholes, Andrea Pirlo and Xavi – players who seemed able to pause the game to take in a 360-degree camera angle of the action. But defining the attribute is complicated. Unlike traditional athletic powers, intelligence has no measurable metric. The football brain is frequently referenced by the fans and pundits, but what is it? How does football IQ manifest itself on the pitch? How does the brain coordinate the superhuman actions of a top-level player? And does an elite footballer’s brain have superior powers to that of an amateur turning out on a Sunday morning?

Before poking around a footballer’s brain and 55–70 billion neurons powering 90 minutes of pass and move, we need to know what in-game intelligence looks like through the lens of those at the top level.

An elite footballer performs 150–250 intense actions during a game, according to a study in the Journal of Sports Sciences. For every one of those actions, there’s a mass of information to digest – visual cues, instructions from the coach, calculating force and angles, spatial awareness of a wide area – all of which a player has to process in real time to make a quick, potentially game-changing decision. On top of that, they have to (in normal circumstances) cope with the emotion teeming from the stands.

To further this, this quote from a paper published by Ricardo Duarte and Telmo Frias stood out to me:

This relation between individual and team behaviours revealed that players’ decisions and actions are very dependent of the whole behaviour of the team, as well as team’s behaviour depends also on the individual behaviours of each player. This property of complex systems (as a football team, for instance) is called as interdependency (Bar-Yam, 2004). In this sense, the performance of a football team during the game can be viewed as a collective intelligent behaviour not centralised in any player (or coach) awareness, but distributed among all the players. This kind of intelligence is expressed by the collective behaviours of the teams, which emerge from the coordinated actions of the players.

Therefore, this one little attribute, just one thirty-sixth of all visible attributes, becomes the single most important thing I look for in my tactical design.

Taken directly from the manual (bar Work Rate), these are the key attributes that will shape my player development and recruitment ideologies of the course of this save:

·         Decisions refers to a player’s ability to make the correct choice both with and without the ball a majority of times. Similar to anticipation it’s an important attribute for all the players, and reflects how likely a player is to feel under pressure at any given moment, and to make the best choice accordingly. A player will high Decisions will make less mistakes and be more able to do the right thing within each situation. A player’s Decision making is important in all phases of play whether it’s to picking out passing options, play through balls in the right moment, decide to close down or not, run forward or stay put, shoot from outside the penalty area or dribble. Basically, it’s one of the most important attributes linked to tactical instructions, movement and the effect of player traits.

 ·         Determination is one of the most important single attributes for any players. It describes a player’s commitment and hunger to succeed both on and off the pitch. He will give everything in order to win. This ties in with Bravery as it predicts a player’s commitment (e.g., to win the ball, score goals or simply do his best for the team by putting himself into risky situations. A player with high determination is often described as a mentally strong player and is used in conjunction with his Ambition, Pressure, Sportsmanship, Professionalism and Loyalty to impact his personality. Determined players will also have a hunger to improve himself and may be more inclined to develop faster with the right training and personality. Players with low determination will most often react more negative when going one down.

 ·         Work Rate is, in its simplest form, how hard a player will work. It is used to describe their on the ball and off the ball work and this, combined with determination and teamwork, can assist in a player in putting the team first. Players with high work rate are likely to want to run all game (even if their legs cannot allow that) and goes hand in hand with other attributes, such as decisions and anticipation.

 ·         Natural Fitness is not a typical attribute in regard to competency on the pitch, but describes more his genes and level of physic. The level of Natural fitness indicates how well the player stays fit when injured or not training – like maintaining his form. A player with higher natural fitness is not only able to recover quicker from injuries, but is also more likely to be able to perform better for a higher number of matches throughout the prolong season AND recover faster between matches meaning their condition will likely increase faster than one with lower Natural Fitness. It’s also an indicator of how well they retain their physical attributes as they go past their peak, meaning a player with poor ratings in Natural Fitness will decline faster once they turn 30 or more and see their attributes in Stamina, Quickness and Strength decrease faster. It’s an important factor in the modern footballing world where the schedule is tough playing over 40 matches per season.

Every view I have within the game, be it my own players, at any level, or recruiting players, will show these attributes. Whilst the initial period of time will see the vast majority hidden behind the attribute masking – everything will come through this and players will be developed, fined, recruited and trained to excel in these areas, firstly.

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Team Development – The team is greater than the sum of its parts – developing a ‘family atmosphere’ through focused discussion with players. Using mentoring to develop player links and experienced heads within the dressing room to ensure that the team is performing as a cohesive unit.

To quote Tuckman (1965), there are five stages of team building – Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Mourning. Now, I’m dealing with computer generated numbers and not real people here but we can still follow a similar model in the save.

To form the team, I want to build around the key concepts mentioned above – both statistically, with mention to the key attributes, as players. I will look for a common language, nationality (harping back to the aforementioned Russian culture), the personality of a player and the likelihood that they will fit into the social groups and dynamics of the club.

The Storming phase is where we mentor, receive fines and have discussions around poor performances and I ascertain who is really cut out to player under me. It is no coincidence that two attributes in my DNA intertwine with the storming phase – as Work Rate and Determination can increase when a player is warned, or fined, for their last performance. Additionally, players with better personalities are more likely to accept the fine and, in my observations, more likely to see the knock-on attribute impact from it. It really will bring everything together.

The rest of the phases will flow naturally as I get through the seasons. Whilst there will be times when the process restarts – presumably when I move clubs – there will also have to be smaller, more manageable shifts as players move on, either because they have outgrown the club or have failed to develop/fit into the cohesive unit that my management style requires from them.

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Recruitment model – Utilising a model of ‘buy low, sell high’ to safeguard the financial future of the club. Identification of key areas as well as undervalued and under-utilised players but recruitment will be heavily structured and player performance will be heavily scrutinised before a deal is concluded.

Reading this masterpiece by our very own @MattyLewis11 pretty much sums up everything I want to achieve with my recruitment model this year. I don’t want to mention Moneyball but I can’t really not – given my want to utilise statistics and a model whereby every player has a value and I will attempt to utilise a stats-based approach to find out players who are performing better than their Average Rating may suggest. I will attempt to bring in reviews whereby I combine statistical analysis with my own viewing of matches and self-scouting, as well as thoroughly using my own scouting and analysis team.

As time progresses, I will ensure that my recruitment model focuses on players who fill fit into my Team Building model, combining the attribute DNA as well as personality and social group factors. Furthermore, and to quote Timon Pauls, Head of Youth Scouting and none other than FC Bayern:

“You also have to know your club’s philosophy, how they play. We made the mistake a few years back of signing a striker who scored lots of goals for a lower league team, where they played lots of long balls over the top for him to use his speed. At Bayern, there are so few opportunities for that, with the play in the opposition’s final third most of the time, so it did not work out. You have to make sure a player’s attributes are a match for your playing style.”

I need to take into account who I am scouting and where they are from. Russia, seemingly, has an affinity for players of African descent, particularly in the lower leagues but I must consider the strength of the league that they are playing in.

The last area of interest, and a new one of me, is summed by Bruno Costa, SJ Earthquakes and Brazil scout:

“Look to see how a player is composed on and off the field. Coming into pro-team environments you need players who are going to be good inside the dressing room. If a player does not have a good body language, then having a good composure around teammates, the referee, the fans, with the media that is going to be hard for them in their future.  That is something we take a lot of consideration of when signing a player. We like to see their character on and off the pitch.”

I have never looked at the Body Language of a player when scouting. Now, I know that personality/media handling and Determination is likely to have an impact but have I ever looked at how they react to their manager demanding more? No. I barely watched games, let alone looked for how another manager uses his touchline shouts and then how the player I am interested in reacts to them. But do I want a player that gets anxious every time the game is tight? No. Absolutely not. Is this likely to happen with a Balanced/Media Friendly player, who I have little idea of their ability to handle pressure. Yes.

The final piece of this jigsaw will be how my own manager fits in:

The above flow chart is taken from Liverpool’s current structure and I am keen to ensure something that I create is similar, within the constraints of FM.

First and foremost, there is no Director of Football model here but I do enjoy working with one. This man is, essentially, my boss and will be in charge of a number of things that I do – leaving my role to really be the Head of Player Development – encompassing the in-game performance and growth of the players within my squad. As manager – I want to be working with, managing if you wish, four key areas:

-          Assistant Manager

Even though I will be conducting all the training at a senior level, the knowledge from my main assistant is invaluable as I will look to get feedback from them as the save progresses across all areas of playing. I will also listen to their suggestions in regards to tactical changes and player development changes, although I have the final say. He will also be in charge of putting together the senior coaching team as he’s their manager – in a realistic way. I will have the final say on anyone he does sign though, should this actually be an option.

-          Head of Youth Development

This man is not only in charge of the intakes, but will be running the training – both team and individual – for the youth side. He’ll also be in charge (just like the assistant) of hiring his own u18/u21 coaching team, although I may have the final say on committing them to a contract.

-          Head(s) of Analysis

With the Data Hub being so key this year – having a say in the Head Performance Analyst is imperative. He’ll sign the rest of the team but work with me and pull whatever reports I can get my hands on. I have included the (s) here because I would also consider the Head of Sports Science and Head Physio key staff members because they cover the recovery part of the game that is so key. Again – hopefully, they can pick their own team (if not – I’ll us the DoF to sort) and work together from there.

-          Head of Recruitment

My chief scout is key in unearthing the next talents, setting his team out to scour the globe for players who meet my criteria. I will, however, be using my Director of Football to submit the offer and complete any contractual agreements. Whilst this is an ideal real-life approach, it does have its flaws on FM, and I’ll probably be monitoring this closely to ensure stupid offers aren’t made!

[_Ben_]

The manager

Who else?!

I had long considered a foreign manager, either Toni Gonzalez or Anderson Costa from my Swiss adventure, but eventually settled on a Russian in the form of my favourite Luzern left back, Nikita Zakharov. Nikita possessed a bullet throw and was instrumental in seeing us make those marginal gains and win the Europa League. I could not withhold a dream move to Turin though but he made the club €51m richer. I have always been a sucker for an alternate universe manager and Nikita follows in the footsteps of the likes of Joao Fernando, Neyveson and Dario Samaniego - three legendary players for me in my FM career. As I said - it was more about the impact that he made rather than the development I got from him (although I did convert him from a winger!)

Here is a little more about him (and some Wiki links for a bit of extra reading should you wish)…

Nikita hails from Ryzdvyanyy (Russian: Рыздвяный), which is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Izobilnensky District of Stavropol Krai, geographically located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia. The town has a population of just 7,710 (2010 Census); showing a slight increase since the breakup of the Soviet Union [7,468 (2002 Census); 6,284 (1989 Census)]. This small town is just an hour and a half drive from the equally small town of Privolnoye, birthplace of the first and last Soviet Union President, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Stavropol Krai is bordered by Krasnodar Krai to the west, Rostov Oblast to the north-west, Kalmykia to the north, Dagestan to the east, and Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia to the south. The western area of Stavropol Krai is considered part of the Kuban region, the traditional home of the Kuban Cossacks, with most of the krai's population living in the drainage basin of the Kuban River.

It is one of the most multi-ethnic federal subjects in Russia, with thirty-three ethnic groups with more than 2,000 persons each. Norwegians aren’t listed on the ethnic groups that populate the area but I have retained the dual nationality that Nikita had when he arrived at the Rosenberg academy.

[john1]

Seriously can't wait for this  

I am going to try and adopt your development route with the set up from academy into first team, which I don't have any patience for  

[HurkaDurk69]

And the journey begins 

[MattyLewis11]

Thanks for the plug mate, so happy to be able to follow this save from the off! 

Follow button has been hit and I have strapped myself in for the ride! 

[OlivierL]

What a great read once again.. after reading those opening posts i can't wait to start myself and i'm really in doubt if i'm going to wait till 9 november.

You are triggering me not only to start a big (detailed) save with a special project but also giving me vibes to think about restarting my real tife youth coaching situation  

Go and write a book !

[Sonic Youth]

10 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Go and write a book !

He really should, though then we wouldn’t get these great FM stories 

[Sonic Youth]

Love the world building you done here Ben 

Are you waiting for the full game because of what happened with youth development in FM21?

[Toin]

This will be awesome, can't wait! Great choice of country as well.

[abulezz]

Just the intro posts and it is already an awesome read! Following this for sure. 

[jcoll]

Looking forward to see how you get on in Russia!

[karanhsingh]

Will definitely follow - love the Russian league! And the bigger teams are definitely strong enough to eventually compete for and win the CL. 

[sherifdinn_]

Russia is going to make for such a grimey save. can't wait!

[Campos]

The most anticpated thread of FM22, can't wait for this @_Ben_!

[Vladis]

Fantastic preview! Will definitely follow!

And I`m from Khabarovsk - the Far East of the Russia! So would love to help you if you have any questions about the country and Russian football.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Vladis

[_Ben_]

21 hours ago, john1 said:

Seriously can't wait for this  

I am going to try and adopt your development route with the set up from academy into first team, which I don't have any patience for  

21 hours ago, HurkaDurk69 said:

And the journey begins 

21 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said:

Thanks for the plug mate, so happy to be able to follow this save from the off! 

Follow button has been hit and I have strapped myself in for the ride! 

21 hours ago, OlivierL said:

What a great read once again.. after reading those opening posts i can't wait to start myself and i'm really in doubt if i'm going to wait till 9 november.

You are triggering me not only to start a big (detailed) save with a special project but also giving me vibes to think about restarting my real tife youth coaching situation  

Go and write a book !

10 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Love the world building you done here Ben 

Are you waiting for the full game because of what happened with youth development in FM21?

8 hours ago, Toin said:

This will be awesome, can't wait! Great choice of country as well.

6 hours ago, abulezz said:

Just the intro posts and it is already an awesome read! Following this for sure. 

6 hours ago, jcoll said:

Looking forward to see how you get on in Russia!

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Will definitely follow - love the Russian league! And the bigger teams are definitely strong enough to eventually compete for and win the CL. 

4 hours ago, sherifdinn_ said:

Russia is going to make for such a grimey save. can't wait!

3 hours ago, Campos said:

The most anticpated thread of FM22, can't wait for this @_Ben_!

Just now, Vladis said:

Fantastic preview! Will definitely follow!

And I`m from Khabarovsk - Far East off Russia! So would love to help you if you have any questions about the country and Russian football.

Wow!

Thank you everybody for the kind words!

Really looking forward to Russia, and, as has been mentioned, will be holding off until the full release in order to work on the lower leagues. In the mean time I've been working on some various things for my save such as this skin:

Trying to think about how I present the data in each post has meant that I have completely gone out of my comfort zone and, with huge thanks to @BuzzR, have been able to build this - although it's still a huge WIP (as you can see from the panels at the bottom being unfinished and pretty much every other part of the game being untouched at this point). I want to be able to screenshot things and keep as much viewable as I can, so that people can keep up with the screens I see every day - so have made a training, report and stats view that, in my opinion, look pretty good but include a lot of info for the reader.

I have also been busy on Excel building an interactive statistics analysis tool as well a comparative analysis tool and just some pretty standard data visualisations.

[Makoto Nakamura]

I can't wait to see how this plays out, I love Russian lower league, especially in the Far East, managed Nogliki back in around FM14 and they're definitely worth a shot! Best of luck, I'm definitely following!

[Hootieleece]

I should be jealous! Of course I pick the country @_Ben_ picks for my save! I know that I can't compare to the Tactical Analysis, Training, and Squad Building that you do!

Anyway let's Tame the Bear together!

Pyotyr Romanoff says hello from the other end of the country.....Kaliningrad.

I will be the light reading.....

While you are the Dostoyevsky.... 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by Hootieleece

[_Ben_]

51 minutes ago, Makoto Nakamura said:

I can't wait to see how this plays out, I love Russian lower league, especially in the Far East, managed Nogliki back in around FM14 and they're definitely worth a shot! Best of luck, I'm definitely following!

Thanks Makoto! 

39 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

I should be jealous! Of course I pick the country @_Ben_ picks for my save! I know that I can't compare to the Tactical Analysis, Training, and Squad Building that you do!

Anyway let's Tame the Bear together!

Pyotyr Romanoff says hello from the other end of the country.....Kaliningrad.

I will be the light reading.....

While you are the Dostoyevsky.... 

 

Don't be silly! I just enjoy using 1000 words when sometimes a picture would suffice but I really enjoy reading your games and Baltika is certainly a place that interests me, geographically.

[Carambau]

This is one of the most interesting saves I have ever read on here. Can´t wait to read more  

[withnail316]

I love the look of this save. Looking forward to following along. Best of luck, mate. 

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Looking forward to this. The sheer amount of detail into introductory posts have me captivated. Russia has been home to a good couple saves for me personally, so I expect an enjoyable read here.

[Ceching You Out]

On 31/10/2021 at 11:05, _Ben_ said:

I have also been busy on Excel building an interactive statistics analysis tool as well a comparative analysis tool and just some pretty standard data visualisations.

Well done on the captivating first post!

Nerd question - how are you accessing the game’s attributes and statistical data to populate the player info in your tools? Not sure I’d ever do it personally as it overlaps too much with my professional life but I’m extremely curious how it works after years of assuming it wasn’t accessible.

[_Ben_]

On 31/10/2021 at 19:34, Carambau said:

This is one of the most interesting saves I have ever read on here. Can´t wait to read more  

On 31/10/2021 at 22:49, withnail316 said:

I love the look of this save. Looking forward to following along. Best of luck, mate. 

23 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

Looking forward to this. The sheer amount of detail into introductory posts have me captivated. Russia has been home to a good couple saves for me personally, so I expect an enjoyable read here.

19 hours ago, Ceching You Out said:

Well done on the captivating first post!

Nerd question - how are you accessing the game’s attributes and statistical data to populate the player info in your tools? Not sure I’d ever do it personally as it overlaps too much with my professional life but I’m extremely curious how it works after years of assuming it wasn’t accessible.

Thank you all, again!

As for the data, @Ceching You Out, it's exported from a view I have in game. I certainly do not have the time to export it manually so just print screen and then copy and paste over. There are, annoyingly, some things that it misses but it does a decent job for me!

[_Ben_]

Russian Football

With another week left before the game is due out and then a period of a few days whereby I ensure the correct editor data is available and then holiday to the point whereby I want to jump in means that I have time to kill. What better way to kill that time by taking a deep dive into the football of the country? I’ll split it into three parts: historical stuff, modern day football in Russia and then, using the beta database, what the players currently in Russia are like.

 

History

I’ve read so much on the history of football across the world that it wasn’t really surprising that football first appeared in Russia in the late nineteenth century, 1893 to be exact and, as expected, was sandwiched in between other games; in this case, tug of war and horse racing.

I was also not surprised to read that it was brought over by the British but it was one man, in particular, named Arthur McPherson who was the real father figure. He was born in St Petersburg in 1870 but his grandparents came from Perth, Scotland. Arthur was interested in sports, and, whilst being known affectionately as the 'Russian Scotsman,' became a successful stock exchange dealer and timber merchant. Throughout his life worked tirelessly to promote football in Russia, playing in some of the country’s earliest matches. Sadly, MacPherson was arrested by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution in 1917 and imprisoned. Whilst there, he contracted typhoid and died in 1919. There were rumours he had been tortured and executed but these were dismissed when his body was finally discovered, buried beneath 40 others.

Crews of visiting British ships were eagerly invited these shipyards to provide opposition teams for these groups of workers. Russians began to take an interest in the beautiful game and wanted to participate. St Petersburg Football Club was founded in 1879, and after a Frenchman published the rules of the game in Russian other teams began to form. The Viktoria Football team, the first in the country, was formed in 1894, three years before the first-ever fully organised match was arranged - made up a mixture of Englishmen, Germans and Russians. The newly formed Sport joined them in 1902.

Early football in Russia, like many other places, focused on the factory worker teams, who, in this case created to stop people drinking so much vodka on weekends. However, as time went on, the Soviet government began to promote sports, football became a form an entertainment for workers. Each government department created its own team: CSKA for the army, Lokomotiv for the railway workers...even the Secret Police got involved. Today their club is one of the most recognisable names in Russia's football scene: Dinamo Moscow. 

The Soviet Top League (named the Higher League after 1970) was dominated by Russian clubs throughout its 54 years. The league was one of the strongest in Europe, although its clubs failed to bring home much in the way of continental trophies.

Russian clubs won the championship an incredible 34 times, with Spartak Moscow (12), Dynamo Moscow (11) and CSKA (7) at the head of that list. Only Ukraine’s Dynamo Kiev (13) won more championships than the Moscow clubs and Dinamo Tblisi (Georgia), Ararat Yerevan (Armenia) and Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) were the only non-Russian/Ukranian winners. In fact, as many Russian clubs (31) participated in the top league as the rest of the Soviet republics combined. 

Controversy in the top league, though, was never far away however. Eduard Streltsov is considered to be the greatest Russian outfield player ever to play, but his career was interrupted prior to the 1958 World Cup after allegations of rape. Streltsov was told that if he pleaded guilty, he could play in the tournament, but found himself sentenced to 12 years in the Gulag instead. CDKA, the predecessor to CSKA Moscow, dominated the early days of the Soviet league but found themselves blamed for the Soviet loss to Yugoslavia in the 1952 Olympics. The club was disbanded.

---

Post-Soviet Era

The post-Soviet chaos that engulfed Russia in the ‘90s was mirrored in its football. The Russian Top League went through a number of formats, with plenty of teams hinting at success before falling away and disappearing completely. Eight former Top League sides disbanded after losing top flight status (including former champions Alania Vladikavkaz), four of whom have been resurrected in the years since. One thing that was constant was the domination of Spartak Moscow, who won nine of the first 10 championships (Alania being the only other team to win the title).

The turn of the century has seen a revolution in Russian domestic football however. While the Soviet era saw a number of state-sponsored teams dominate, the 21st century has seen the rise of the billionaire owner. Five different clubs have won the Russian Premier League in the last 15 years, a variety that is bested only by France when it comes to Europe’s top leagues. CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg are the biggest fish, but Spartak, Lokomotiv and Rubin Kazan have been there or thereabouts over the years as well. Recent years have also seen the emergence of sides in Krasnodar and Rostov. Russia’s domestic game is in very good health.

A total of 50 teams had competed in at least one season at the top division. Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Moscow are the only teams to have played in the top division in every season since the league's inception at 1992. The teams in bold participate in the 2021–22 Premier League.

And what of the national side? Well, the early comparisons to England return again. Russian appearances at the World Cup since the collapse of the Soviet Union have been disappointing, and the side is yet to make it out of the group stages. This is true at all but one European Championships, although the run to the semi-finals in 2008 brings back fond memories for Russian football fans, not to mention players like Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko. 

---

The Football Manager view

Taking a leaf from @Matt_1979's Girona save – I wanted to have a look at what football in Russia is represented like in FM. Now, I know that countries have a newgen template, which alters how they are formed – meaning you get better passes in Spain, tactically able Italians and physical sub-Saharan West Africans.

Now, my idea of Russia was, well, I didn’t know. I didn’t imagine a league whereby there was an abundance of technical class and, I guess, the negative stereotype of Russian thugs meant that I possible foresaw an aggressive, physical style. However, when taking an average of all of the players in the Russian main national team (Red) and youth sides (yellow), you can see that Russian elite football is not what I had thought.

Technical players who are good on the ball but also mentally very strong (look at Concentration, Decisions, Determination, Work Rate and Teamwork in particular) and a naturally fit group of players. Literally, the whole ideology that I am going to try and build is evident within these players. Yes, at youth level, they’re lacking Flair, Leadership and are weak at Set Pieces but the building blocks appear to be there.

However, the national team does consist of two dual national Brazilians (Guilherme and Mario Fernandes) as well as three players who also have dual nationality (2x German and 1x Spanish) who haven’t come through Russian academies. At youth level there is a part-Crimean and part-Ukrainian, both of whom moved to Russia after spending time in academies of their own countries.

In total, just twelve of the 60+ players ply their trade outside of Russia, so it seems worthwhile to delve a little deeper into the domestic leagues and the talent that is available there:

A top flight average of just around 12, with slight strength defensively and in the midfield in the top flight with a dip of just one point between the first and second flight.

This is all valuable information for me as I prepare to dive in.

[MattyLewis11]

Class mate, a nice touch looking at the national team to establish some baselines! I also am a fan of the league average visual...I really should get on with some writing to keep my thread ticking over, four more sleeps! 

[Shrewnaldo]

I forgot about the attribute biases for newgen creation and I really like what you've done with the attribute analysis of the current internationals... Something I'll probably look at whilst I'm waiting for Tuesday too

[Matt_1979]

Nice write up 👏👏

[Hootieleece]

I think we are going down the same rabbit hole with what type of players we want....

That is really interesting about the Newgen Template for Russia....

[Sonic Youth]

Thanks for the extra history 

How do you get the data for the National/Youth team graphs? I’d never thought of newgen template before. Which is why I’m wondering to get an idea how much I’ll be expecting certain types of players to come through.

Truely creative players in a completely youth only could be tricky getting to get in Russia.

I still remember Arshsvin v Liverpool. He was unbelievable in that game, and definitely in his pomp at that point.

[DefinitelyTaylor]

Superb post my friend.

[_Ben_]

16 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

That is really interesting about the Newgen Template for Russia....

To be clear, this is not the newgen template. I just wanted to see what type of player Russian's create (obviously pre-game) but I guess that there will be some overlap with how the game produces them. 

12 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

How do you get the data for the National/Youth team graphs? I’d never thought of newgen template before

Just an average of all of the visible attributes from players within the national teams.

[Sonic Youth]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Just an average of all of the visible attributes from players within the national teams.

That makes sense, and what I thought you were going to say. Basically a custom view of all player stats in the national sides is set up and then copied and pasted into excel? If so, not too long a process 

[karanhsingh]

This seems to make sense, I have always noticed russian players having strong mentals. Chalov springs to mind who always seemed to outperform his attributes due to this. 

[Sysiphus]

Following, of course! Good Luck Ben.

[Chris_ANZFM]

What a magnificent thread this is already and the full game has only just come out. Thoroughly enjoyed your last couple of threads with Redditch and the Swiss Army Knife but have only ever really lurked. 
 

Before I babble too much I just wanted to say thanks for some incredible writing, it’s really interesting seeing how you approach the game and I’ve even been inspired to take some of your methods into my own saves. 
 

Very much looking forward to seeing how the rest of this pans out! 

[RogerC]

I had somehow managed to miss this thread! Excellent intro, can't wait for you to get started!! I'm following this!

 

On 31/10/2021 at 17:05, _Ben_ said:

I have also been busy on Excel building an interactive statistics analysis tool as well a comparative analysis tool and just some pretty standard data visualisations.

This is what I'm most interested in! I'm planning/building something really similar right now, I look forward to seeing more of this!!

[Netm]

Great thread already. I'm thinking of getting back into FM, haven't played since FM10. I love your detail and it does help me understand what's new, and how to approach it. Especially training is much more complicated since then, so I look forward to your analysis.

Back in 2011 I considered moving to Moscow, but ended up in Shanghai instead, funny how life turns out sometimes.

[Shrewnaldo]

hey, @_Ben_ - have you seen there are some bugs with the Russian league? Some stuff on twitter about it - 

 

 

Not sure if your league edit will supercede this anyway?

[BuzzR]

So we are going to Russia, eh ? 

I've got my fur coat and hat, ready for the Russian winters. 

[_Ben_]

6 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said:

hey, @_Ben_ - have you seen there are some bugs with the Russian league? Some stuff on twitter about it - 

 

 

Not sure if your league edit will supercede this anyway?

I just want to get it started! There seems to be a few databases in the works from people but any editing doesn’t seem to override the prize money bug, so I’ll have to wait for a hot fix or similar. 

Thanks for the heads up on this. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by _Ben_

[Shrewnaldo]

OJ reckons you can't fix it with the editor, sadly. Given the number of completely broken leagues, there might need to be an urgent patch to fix them all sooner rather than later

 

 

[Hootieleece]

I got $27.5k for coming in second in the RNL in my save. I didn't know if it is supposed to be more!

 

Edit.  I just checked the prize money rules for the 22-23 season in my FC Baltika save, but it might be a few days until If the totals are applied in game. (until I play that far)

(Screenshot)

This is a save that started in the Beta.

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Hootieleece
edited to become gramatically correct

[Jtomsett11]

You know it's going to be a good post to follow when 35 people follow it before you've played a game! Superb back story and thoroughly looking forward to this once you start!

[MattyLewis11]

@Jtomsett11never has a truer word been spoken. 

In @_Ben_we trust 

[_Ben_]

On 10/11/2021 at 19:44, Shrewnaldo said:

 

OJ reckons you can't fix it with the editor, sadly. Given the number of completely broken leagues, there might need to be an urgent patch to fix them all sooner rather than later

 

I’ve found a file in the Steam workshop that, so far, doesn’t seem to be impacted. It’s got 5 tiers of Russian football and seems to look like key stuff has been added. Going to run a few tests before committing too it but I may finally be able to get up and running. 

Then comes the bit where I have to work out why Lokomotiv Moscow, for example, have 5 teams (‘M’ side, ‘2’ side [both in playable tiers] and then an u19 and u18!) and learn how to pronounce the teams and players. A wonderful Reddit article has provided me this, though:

Fascinating breakdown of Russian and eastern European club names:

* CSKA stands for Central'nyi Sportivnyi Klub Armii, which means the Central Sport Club of the Army. This club was founded by the Red Army in 1923 and its previous names were OPPV (The Experimental and Show Field of the Vsevobuch [Vsevobuch was the Army program for universal civilian military training]), CDKA (Central Red Army Club), KKA (Red Army Team), CDSA (Central Soviet Army Club) and CSK MO (Central Sport Club of the Ministry of Defence). When the club was taken away from the Vsevobuch and transferred to the Moscow officers' recreation club, it was known as CDKA and CDSA (with the exception of 1941, when it was called KKA and represented the entire Red Army). Then they transferred to ownership to the Ministry of Defense and changed the name to CSK MO, but it was very hard to chant and the fans hated it. Hence another change, to CSKA.

* Spartak is the Russian name of Spartacus, the leader of a famous Roman slave uprising, immortalized by a Hollywood movie with Kirk Douglas. Originally the team was known as MKS (Moscow Sports Circle) and was founded by young workers from the Krasnaya Presnya area in Moscow. A couple of decades of affiliation and name changes ensued, before the name Spartak was adopted in 1935. The story of Spartacus was popular in the pre-war Soviet Union, as his struggle agains the Roman oppression was very dear to Soviet ideology.

* Torpedo means just that, even though the modern Russian name for the underwater weapon is now spelled torpeda. Nobody knows for sure why the automobile-plant team adopted this name. Some say it's what they called a certain car part in those days, some say it's simply supposed to represent the speed, a concept very important in the automobile industry.

* Dinamo is the Russian spelling of the word "dynamo", which is a machine that transferred kinetic energey into electric power. Originally, when it was founded in 1923, the club was supposed to represent the electricians' trade union, but was taken over by the NKVD (the Soviet secret police). The name Dinamo was kept however, either for conspiratory purposes or simply because the new bosses liked it.
Dynamo Kiev was founded in 1927, also supposedly as an electricians' team, but was quickly transferred to the police. Later on, the USSR Sporting Society "Dinamo" was created, unifying all police teams in the country. This is why there are so many "Dinamoes" out there now.

* Lokomotiv does indeed mean "locomotive". The team was founded (and is still owned) by the Ministry of Transportation in 1935. Before that, it was a railroad workers' team in Moscow.
EDIT: Thank you klapaucij for pointing out that this is slightly out of date. Lokomotiv is currently owned by Russian railroads, which are in turn owned by the state. 

* Shakhtyor (Shakhtar in Ukrainian) does mean "coal miner". Coal mining is a very important industry in Donetsk, Ukraine, where the team plays. Originally the club was called Ugolshchiki ("coal diggers"), then Stakhanovets, after Stakhanov, a hero coal miner of the early Soviet times.

* Chernomorets (there is one team in Russia, from Novorossiysk, and one in Ukraine, from Odessa) means Black Sea Sailor. Edit: and apparently at least 3 in Bulgaria. 

* Shinnik (the team from Yaroslavl) means "tire maker". The club used to be owned by the local tire factory.

* Zenit (St. Petersburg) means "zenith". For some reason, this is what they called teams that represented military-industry plants and factories in those days. Zenit was owned by the Leningrad Metalworks Plant (LMZ), which did some military projects. The old affiliation is no longer in place, but the name stuck.

* Krylya Sovetov (Samara) means "The Soviet Wings". The club used to represent a plant which built airplanes. 

* Alania (Vladikavkaz) is named after the part of the Russian Federation where it is based. Alania is the local name for the Republic of North Ossetia.

* Kuban (Krasnodar) is named after the Kuban River, which flows through the region. It's primarily assotiated with the Kuban Cossacks, who have inhabited the valley for a long time.

* Amkar (Perm) was founded by a chemical plant in 1995 and its name is composed of two words, ammiac and carbamite, the company's two main products.

* Rotor (Volgograd) is named after the rotating part of the motor. The club was founded by a tractor factory and was called Traktor and Torpedo in the old days (after the Moscow side, all automobile-industry teams began calling themselves Torpedo), then switched to a steel mill and became Stal ("steel"), then went to another factory, then finally settled down at a plant which made car parts. Hence the name Rotor. They are now an independently owned team but the fans love the name.

* Rubin (Kazan) is the Russian word for "ruby". No idea why this name was chosen, other than the fact that ruby is a nice-looking stone. True to the name, the team plays in red kits.

* SKA - Energiya (Khabarovsk) - means "Sport Club of Army - Energy"
* Neftekhimik (Nizhnekamsk) - "Petrochemical industry worker"
* Salyut (Belgorod) - "Salute"
* Tekstilschik (Ivanovo) - "Textile worker"
* Znamya Truda (the oldest Russian football club, founded in 1909) - "Banner of Labour"
* Fakel (Voronezh) - means "Torch"
* Sokol (Saratov) - "Falcon"
* Luch - Energiya (Vladivostok) - "Ray (of light) - Energy"

Edited November 12, 2021 by _Ben_

[Hootieleece]

Great Post! Fascinating seeing the origins of the team names.

Good Luck with your save. I will know at the end of this season if the Prize Money is still bugged. Since Baltika is now in the RPL.

 

 

[_Ben_]

Final tests running before I kick this off! 49 posts and 36 followers before a ball is virtually kicked is mad! Hope I can live up to my billing!