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[FM22] - Served on La Plata: Welcome to the Rat Pinchers' Butcher Shop


Timetxu
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Before we start this thread, let me take you back in time.

22 October 1969

Milan-Estudiantes: Football's "most violent game" turns 50 - AS.com

Estudiantes - AC Milan: the most violent game in football history - in  pictures - AS.com

Nestor_Combin_1969.jpeg

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'No, Estudiantes ... that was not manhood, it was not temperament, it was not a claw ... this was an apology for brutality and madness ... this embarrassed us all and should shame those responsible. If we really want to rescue something to continue believing in the future, let's start by repudiating this unfortunate episode.'

- Julio César Pasquato

 

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After winning the 1968-69 Europa Cup I, AC Milan were set to play the 1969 Copa Libertadores champion Estudiantes de la Plata in the Intercontinental Cup. The annual game in which the European and South American champions face off for the unofficial title of best club in the world has been held since 1960 and saw its final iteration in 2014, after which the match would be replaced by the FIFA Club World Cup.

The most infamous, however, would be held in 1969.

In what has become known as the Massacre of la Bombonera, AC Milan managed to claim the title of best club in the world for the first time, with which it broke a hegemony of three straight South American winners. The opponent, Estudiantes, were in fact the reigning champions and in the midst of winning three consecutive Libertadores titles and reaching four straight finals. 

The game itself would turn into one of the most horrific things ever seen on a football pitch.

It wasn't the first time that the Intercontinental matchup would lead to harsh confrontations; Celtic and Racing Club had played a horrible game two years prior in which riot police had to enter the pitch at multiple occasions - not to soothe the fans, but the players - but even that did not come close to what would transpire in Buenos Aires that October night.

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Amongst other things, the tie became infamous for the violent on-pitch conduct and dirty tactics employed by Estudiantes' players in the second leg of the fixture.[1]

Estudiantes' players used violence from the beginning, with Alberto Poletti and Ramón Aguirre Suárez throwing balls to a group of Milan players that were practising on the field prior to the match. With the game already in progress, Eduardo Manera pushed around goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini, then he bit Saul Malatrasi. Aguirre Suárez (one of the most violent players) injured Nestor Combin and Pierino Prati, although he would not be expelled until another violent action against Gianni Rivera.[2]

After a match which saw two Italian players badly assaulted, events took a turn for the surreal when stretcher-bound Milan striker Néstor Combin was arrested by Argentine police for draft dodging (Combin had been born in Argentina but had represented France at international level, having moved to Europe for his professional career). The match had immediate political ramifications, partly due to Argentina's bid for the World Cup in 1978. Many of the team's players were arrested and goalkeeper Alberto Poletti, who had punched Milan's "golden boy" playmaker Gianni Rivera, kicked Combin and had clashed with supporters after the match, was handed a life ban. Ramon Suárez, who had broken the nose of Combin, was banned from international fixtures for five years. The match is also partly to blame for a subsequent boycott of the tournament by European teams.

Source: 1969 Intercontinental Cup - Wikipedia

After those glory days, Independiente took over by winning four straight Libertadores titles. Estudiantes have only been Argentine champions four times since and although there was a shock Libertadores win in 2009, Estudiantes - albeit a stable mid-table side - have never again been really close at dethroning Boca and River as top cats of Argentine football.

Maybe the vile tactics used in the late 60's weren't that stupid at all. But the days of being able to beat your opponent up just to win a game are over surely?

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CLUB ESTUDIANTES DE LA PLATA

Club Estudiantes de La Plata

EDGE på Twitter: "Designed by Green Group Sustainability Consulting, Estadio  Dr. Jorge Luis Hirschi has become the first EDGE-certified stadium in the  world. The new stadium of Club Estudiantes de La Plata

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Estudiantes de la Plata might not be at the very peak of Argentine football nowadays, but it doesn't follow all too far behind the likes of Boca and River. The club, also known as el León (the Lion) or los Pincharratas (the Rat Stabbers - a reference to the medical background of the founding students), is one of the bigger clubs not from the city of Buenos Aires. Instead, it's situated just 50 km southeast in La Plata, the meticulously planned city following modernist principles. The club is most famous for its academy. Most notably the defensive talent that emanates from it. The board expecting to play defensive football, therefore, is not a strange sight.

Eight years ago, I spent a couple of months living in Argentina to do field research for my master's thesis. The club I visited most during that period was Estudiantes, which has led to it becoming my favorite team in Argentina. Looking into the history of the club, I came across those dark ages in the sixties where football games would regularly end up in MMA rather than actual football. This has led me to come up with a challenge that wishes to answer the following question:

What happens if you create a squad full of the ugliest, filthiest, dirtiest players one can gather?

Would it be possible to finish every season with the highest tally of cards? Would other teams be so scared to play us that our aggression covers any lack of talent? Is it actually possible to win the league while having the worst discipline of all teams? And are we able to get a match forfeited because we have too little players left on the pitch? I'll go more in-depth in my next updates how I aim to do this as well as presenting a first visualization of the current state of the squad. And with state I mean how many potential butchers are around.

But first, what happens if you would clone me into an Argentine alter-ego with an actual sense of strong discipline. 30 years older and 30 years fatter? That's right, meet Tato La Verga:

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A very interesting concept, good luck with it. I thought about doing something similar with Millwall before, but this has much more substance to it!

Juan Sebastian Veron (your Director) might not love the style of football as much as you...

Edited by Jogo Bonito
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I have to admit that I was completely oblivious to the history of the game between Milan and Estudiantes prior to the piece you have composed so brilliantly. This forum is brilliant for not only providing entertainment via FM but also providing somewhat of a history lesson in terms of the backstories brought to the forefront of the threads. Best of luck, I shall be following!

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17 hours ago, LUFCspeni said:

I love this! I've tried to do similar before, with little success. Good luck! 

Thank you! I'd love to hear what your thoughts are. What approach did you take?

 

17 hours ago, john1 said:

Good luck :D 

Thanks!

16 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A very interesting concept, good luck with it. I thought about doing something similar with Millwall before, but this has much more substance to it!

Juan Sebastian Veron (your Director) might not love the style of football as much as you...

Well, if he doesn't want me to play awful football, then he shouldn't have told me to play defensive football :D

15 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Is he 30x taller than you too?

Good luck with this!

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Impossible!

13 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

I have to admit that I was completely oblivious to the history of the game between Milan and Estudiantes prior to the piece you have composed so brilliantly. This forum is brilliant for not only providing entertainment via FM but also providing somewhat of a history lesson in terms of the backstories brought to the forefront of the threads. Best of luck, I shall be following!

There's so many weird stories in, say, the first twenty years after the War. More international tournaments, teams playing eachother for the first time. Clashes of styles and what not. Thanks for your kind words!

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THE IDEA OF THE SAVE:

Introduction

Credit where credit is due, the idea for this save arose when I read @Deisler26's brilliant Viktoria Berlin thread. In it, he tries to reshape his squad along certain attributes to create a clear club identity. However, where he takes the positive route in finding players with a great work ethic, I've decided to choose hell instead and take the other path: a team full of players that frustrate the opposition ad nauseam. Players who are aggressive, who have a horrible temper, are unethical and possess horrible sportsmanship. Now obviously, having players who just go about injuring other players for fun is probably going to cost us in the long run with suspensions and what not. I want horrible personalities, but still players who want to win above everything. I want Pepe's. I want Sergio Ramos'. Horrible players to play against, but the kind of players you would love to have on your team.

The Approach

This was my starting point. What is it that triggers FM players to be professional assholes on the field? I went looking into all attributes that Pepe and Sergio Ramos (and other infamous demons) have in common. I came to the conclusion that, besides Aggression, there isn't a lot that really tells you a player in FM is a horrible player to play against. I realized I needed to check under the hood. So here it goes. *ALERT ALERT*. I am definitely using the In-Game Editor in this game. But mommy, I promise, I'll only use it as a scouting tool to find the players I need. No checking CAs or PAs or changing stuff. It's just to find the rotten souls that hide under those pretty faces. I swear.

Besides the standard set of 36 attributes, every player has 13 hidden personal attributes. For those who don't know, these are the more subliminal characteristics a player has on a personal level. It tells you what kind of person he is, rather than what kind of decisions he is prone to make during a game. Think about loyalness, pressure, sportsmanship, but also dirtiness and temperament.

Looking into the profiles of known demons, I've been able to pinpoint five characteristics off which I will be scouting my players. In order of importance, these are:

Quote

Dirtiness - The willingness of a player to use unethical methods to win the game. I want this to attribute to be as high as possible
Sportsmanship - The willingness of a player to abide by the rules while trying to win the game. This attribute, of course, has to be as low as possible
Aggression - This doesn't necessarily say whether a player is dirty, but whether he is willing to get stuck in and take the risk of hurting another player in duels. This one isn't necessarily a personal trait, but rather a trigger that could lead to injuries and cards when combined with high dirtiness and low sportsmanship. I want this attribute to be as high as possible
Temperament - It took me a while to get it, but this one actually means the opposite of what you might think. A player with a high rating for temperament is able to control himself emotionally. Now, I obviously want players to go berzerk and intimidate their opponents where they can, so I need this attribute to be as low as possible

and

Professionalism - This one is the "odd" one out, because even though I want to have some horrible personalities, I do want them to remaing focussed on that which will always be most important: to win the game. It's ok to injure other players or get booked, but the golden rule is that it always has to help the team. You know when Sergio Ramos and Pepe injure a player, laugh at him in his face while he is being carried of on a stretcher and only getting reprimanded or perhaps being given just a yellow? That's what I want. I need this to be as high as possible.

The Goal

Even though my aim is to create a team full of butchers and try to get as many cards as possible, I'm still committed to making this a long-term save, so winning silverware will remain to be most important above all. However, I really want to continuously finish bottom in the fair play ranking of the league. Also, I won't be shipping out players just for the sake of getting rid of model citizens and getting assholes in asap. However I do want to see a progress in the average attribute rating of the five attributes I just mentioned, so I will be monitoring them every season.

The Method

Just like @Deisler26 I will be signing every youth intake player to a contract, but they will be evaluated at the end of their first contract whether they now fit the club identity. I don't have certain thresholds in mind yet, so I'll probably judge that as we go, but I'll be transparant about it.

I don't like to spend too much time searching for players. I'll let my DoF approach scouted players, which are being scouted for their high aggression specifically. I'll be able to confirm or reject player signings, but I'll let them do the work. I will, however, use data analysis to visualize the presence of certain PAs in different teams or leagues once the transfer market opens. This might not be according to LLM rules, because I'll mass export all these players into an analysis tool outside FM rather than have my scouts in-game give me advice, but that's what I do. This remains an experiment above all and I don't want to waste too much time having my scouts find players based off of only one of five attributes they can scout for. That would take way too long.

And that's about it! Let's see if it's possible to reach another Intercontinental Cup (ie, the FIFA Club World Cup) final while kicking and punching our opponents along the way! 

Edited by Timetxu
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Love the concept behind this, I did a small one season with Argentinos juniors and actually enjoyed the league. It is rather mad with average points etc. Huge passion for football in the country and the fact you're tapping into the aggressive nature of it, is well, very intriguing following and best of luck. 

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SQUAD ANALYSIS

So let's get to it. What is our squad like and what personalities do we find in here?

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This is the first team squad at the start of the season. I am hardly ever active in the first transfer window when playing FM and our reserves and U20s do not yet contain players up to the standard of the first team. If there will be reserves or U20s eventually playing a sizeable part of the season, they will be included in the analysis, but for now, this will be the very bulk of players we will use during the 2021/22 season. Note that the rules of the Primera División state that we are only allowed to register 6 foreign players. So far we have 4 (Rogel, Aguirregaray, Castro and Ayoví).

PA Analysis

As a way of visualizing the personalities of all our first squad players, I've combined their four PAs into a scatter plot. The most important two: dirtiness and sportsmanship are found at the x- and y-axis respectively. The further up to the top right corner of the visual, the uglier these players are and the more willing they are to stretch the limits for a victory. The color of the circles indicates the temperament of the player. The redder it is, the worse their temper is. Green means they are very calm player. Lastly, the size of the circles indicates the professionalism. The bigger the circle, the bigger their professionalism is. Small circles indicate petty players.

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To better comprehend the visual, I have added Pepe and Sergio Ramos in there as reference.

As you can see, the team is a pretty average bunch if it comes to really dirty players, although I am pleased that we have at least four players who are truly considered dirty. Leandro Díaz (16 for aggression) by far has the highest potential to be our dirtiest player, together with Tobio, Aguirregaray and Del Prete. Díaz also has a horrible temper, so that makes him the perfect player so far. Not a great professionalism, but that's the least important of the four in my eyes. Unfortunately, Díaz is on loan so we'll need to find a replacement for him after the season.

It's not great that only 4 of our 24 players so far are to be found in the "quadrant of chaos", but at least it gives us room to grow and make this an actual challenge.

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(I added arrows to point out whether I want these to be as low or as high as possible)

Regarding dirtiness, sportsmanship and temperament, we're definitely not where I want us to be. For all three of these PAs, we're on the wrong side of 10. Professionalism and aggression are in a better spot, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Edited by Timetxu
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7 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Love the concept behind this, I did a small one season with Argentinos juniors and actually enjoyed the league. It is rather mad with average points etc. Huge passion for football in the country and the fact you're tapping into the aggressive nature of it, is well, very intriguing following and best of luck. 

Thank you! I really love Argentina. There is constant talent coming through and qualifying for continental tournaments is pretty easy so even though it's a challenge, you're still able to find good players.

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TACTICS & SEASON PREVIEW

A main dish doesn't go with a good side, so if we want to fill a team full of dirty players, we need a dirty tactic.

So here it is. Park the Bus Estudiantes style.

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In real life, the Argentine league consists of 26 teams. A few years ago, 30 even. That was a horribly failed attempt to garness more interest in the league after which the organization responsible for the Primera División, aka Superliga, decided to dial back the amount of teams. That's why the league is purging two teams year by year to get back to the "ideal" number of 22 teams. Unfortunately, due to Covid, there haven't been any relegations in 2020, increasing the league from 24 to 26 and in real life, there will be no relegations in 2021 either, bringing the total amount of teams to 28. 

Luckily I am using Zato's Argentine league system workshop file. This one will bring down the amount of teams in the league back to 20 IN ONE SEASON. That means that the bottom eight in the league will go down and will be replaced by the top two from the second tier. Also, where in real life Argentina is going back to a full calendar year cycle, Zato has stuck with the European style calendar. This means the 25 league games we're supposed to play are stretched out over a full year. Making our schedule look like this:

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However, it's just for one season, after which we will revert back to a 20 team league with 38 matches. Finishing in the Top 4 guarantees us of a Copa Libertadores berth, as well as winning the Copa de la Liga Profesional (some kind of extra cup only contested by the Superliga teams invented to add some games to the calendar because of the weird amount of teams) and winning the actual Copa Argentina. The next six best teams in the league qualify for the Copa Sudamericana.

Oh and relegation happens, of course, in Argentine style:

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Relegation is decided over a three year period, so we start with a little advantage. Kind of weird how there's only 13 games and no last season (or something?) but ok. Just don't finish lower than 18th and it's ok. But given our stature, that shouldn't be a problem. Starting next year, there will be three promotion/relegation spots.

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Mid-table should be very doable. In the Copa the board wants us to reach the Quarter Final. That means we'd need to win two more games as we're starting the save in the Fifth Round after wins over Juventud Unida and Gimnasia de Mendoza.

Edited by Timetxu
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JULY 2021

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Well, we were defensive alright. We were dreadful against the poorest team in the league and they even managed to get more cards than we did! But we're through to the next round where we will be playing:

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Probably the second hardest draw still left, as all other ties contained at least one non-Superliga side.

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11 hours ago, SixPointer said:

How is Fausto Vera looking for them? He was a real player when I managed there. 

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Looks like an absolute stunner!

11 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Lovely concept! I'll be following this one closely, best of luck. :thup:

Happy to have you along!

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AUGUST 2021

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An absolute terrible month to start our tenure. I think I've gotten in my own head thinking that "playing dirty football is defensive, ugly football". I chose Park the Bus and Counter Attacking style tactics for the first five games, before reverting to a more attacking play. I also noticed that because I was playing way too defensively, I was hardly getting any bookings. I was the only team with no bookings after four games! That's why I switched to a more gegenpress style of football with higher line of engagement and that's when we finally got more bookings. So yeah. I'm still kinda doubting a bit what my tactical approach should be in this save, simply because of how the board wants me to play defensively as well as I want to have an annoying tactic on the field. But I guess parking the bus isn't gonna do it either. So for now I've switched to a more offensive 4-3-3 DM Wide. There's no point in being defensive for the sake of defensive if we're not scoring any goals.

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So yeah, not great. Especially losing to archrivals Gimnasia without getting a single booking.

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We're not doing a lot better in the Foulness Ranking, with a petty 22nd position. The amount of fouls is ok I guess, so once we get dirtier players I'm positive that we'll shoot up.
(For info: a yellow card is worth 1 points and a red card is worth 3 points).

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We also played our Sixth Round match in the Copa Argentina:

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Quite a painful loss as we conceded a goal in the 89th minute as I was preparing for a penalty shootout (Copa Argentina games have no extra time).

Edited by Timetxu
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44 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Could potentially look into how Diego Simeone sets up at athletico I would consider them well versed in the dark arts and he is Argentinian. May gave you a good starting point tactically

Good shout!

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SEPTEMBER 2021

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Switched to a more offensive style of football and suddenly we're getting better defensively. I guess the opponent can't score as long as you control the ball.

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We've left the cellar of the league behind us and now we can focus at qualifying for a continental competition again.

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The gegenpressing has really increased our amount of fouls and bookings, so that's a good thing. We've jumped up six spots in the foulness ranking, but it'd be a shame if we didn't end at least in the Top 10.

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OCTOBER 2021

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Another decent month that should've been perfect, but we lost very undeservedly against Newell's, who are quite frankly looking to go down this season.

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We're looking a lot more steady now! Might even dream of Copa Libertadores qualification, although Rosario Central won the Copa Argentina and I think that gives them a spot in the CL, so only the Top 5 will probably qualify.

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We climbed up in foulness, but we're still not in the Top 10. We're doing great in the amount of fouls, but I reckon our roster still contains way too many good guys. If we keep playing like this and add some bullies in the summer break, we might do better. Still, I'd love to see our first red card. Central Córdoba is in a league of its own right now.

---

Also, this happened after the loss against Newell's:

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Very random. They were at C before the match and we just came down from a three game winning streak. Lost a game I dominated against Newell's and suddenly all hell broke loose. Newell's aren't even a rival, so it must be some kind of bug given I'm playing with a modded file. It might have something to do with the fact the game feels like the end of the season is coming up (end of the calendar year) although our league actually lasts until June. I don't know, it's extremely frustrating. The match against Lanús was already dubbed "El Sackico" even though this is the expactation from our board:

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I was called in for a meeting and told them they had to give me until the end of the season to prove I'm doing well. Luckily they accepted it, but sheesh. Calm down lads.

Edited by Timetxu
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2021 YOUTH INTAKE

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I think I need to berate my recruiters, because these are all your perfect sons-in-law. Only Rodríguez has bastard potential, but he's the worst player in the intake.

 

Edited by Timetxu
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Love the idea for the save and interested to see how it plays out. I'm doing something similar with my dafuge challenge attempt with Merthyr Town on FM20, managed to get to the Prem and have set discliplinary records in each division we've been in.. 

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2 hours ago, jcoll said:

Love the idea for the save and interested to see how it plays out. I'm doing something similar with my dafuge challenge attempt with Merthyr Town on FM20, managed to get to the Prem and have set discliplinary records in each division we've been in.. 

Really curious how that went. Did you have a specific playing style or did you also recruit aggressive players?

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NOVEMBER 2021

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Just the one game and win against low-flying Unión de Santa Fe.

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Only three more points from a Copa Libertadores spot (assuming fifth place is needed)

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Went up another spot, but we really need some red cards now.

---

Also, still a lot of issues with the board happiness bug.

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I'm getting the "a loss in the next game could mean the sacking" message the last three games even though we're fulfilling our expectations so far. The thing I'm worried about is our next game is at Boca. That's going to be a difficult one and I'm afraid I might get the sacking there.

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DECEMBER 2021

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We head into the mid-season break with a loss at Boca. 

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We finish the first half of the season still on a Copa Sudamericana spot.

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Really happy with the amount of fouls, still. Even though we dropped in the rankings, I know the way we're playing is going to get us more cards when our players get dirtier.

---

Pretty relieved that I didn't get the sack, despite getting very ominous messages prior to the Boca game. The board is still utterly disappointed with our season for some reason. And another proof that this file seems to be a little bugged came right after the game:

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Marcelo Gallardo, probably the best manager in Argentina right now, is sacked by the River board even though they're in first place with only the one loss in fourteen matches.

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13 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Think you defo have some bugging issues. Hopefully doesn’t effect you too severely. As you have started to get your ideas across now and working out 

Yeah, really hope so too. I'm kinda hoping that there might be some offsetting happening when this calendar year is over and the AI realizes that it's still the same season. On top of that, our first game after the break is potentially a really easy one against Patronato at home, so it wouldn't surprise me if the board confidence shoots up after that.

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On 21/11/2021 at 19:18, Timetxu said:

Really curious how that went. Did you have a specific playing style or did you also recruit aggressive players?

I play with a very direct and aggressive approach, 4-4-2, Wingers (A) and a target man, think Dyche's Burnley but with Klopp's Liverpool pressing. In terms of attributes I aim for Determination, Work Rate, Teamwork and Stamina, I may possibly add aggression to that list but we rack up enough cards as it is! I have also limited myself to signing British and Irish players the whole save to extra fit the Brexit football, the ultimate goal is winning the prem and CL with them but along way off at the minute.

Currently sitting in 14th in my 3rd season in the premier league. 

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On 22/11/2021 at 21:01, jcoll said:

I play with a very direct and aggressive approach, 4-4-2, Wingers (A) and a target man, think Dyche's Burnley but with Klopp's Liverpool pressing. In terms of attributes I aim for Determination, Work Rate, Teamwork and Stamina, I may possibly add aggression to that list but we rack up enough cards as it is! I have also limited myself to signing British and Irish players the whole save to extra fit the Brexit football, the ultimate goal is winning the prem and CL with them but along way off at the minute.

Currently sitting in 14th in my 3rd season in the premier league. 

There probably are quite some mental attributes that have some correlation with a lot of cards. 4-4-2 might be a good tactic to congest many parts of the field, so I'm still thinking of maybe switching to that for the next season. Really like your setup. Proper heeve ball!

21 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

It does seem a little strange that the board are über critical of you despite matching their expectations at present… very baffling and I agree, a potential bug there. I hope it doesn’t prove to have too serious consequences.

Yeah, super annoying. Just hope it'll offset soon.

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SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW

We're in the southern hemisphere, so the December/January break means summer holiday in Argentina. This will be the first period that we can change something about the mental setup of our team. And there's quite some work to do as these four players have their loan spell with us end:

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Pretty much all of my defense is leaving. Not quite a drain in terms of the type of player we're looking for, but it's still undermining for the cohesion of our team. I'm planning to use this update for some data analysis on the possibilities that exist in the Argentine league to bolster our squad.

---

Let me start with two first additions which our DoF has already arranged for us last summer and will join us in January:

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Dirtiness: 11
Sportsmanship: 15
Temperament: 8
Professionalism: 12

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Dirtiness: 14
Sportsmanship: 6
Temperament: 11
Professionalism: 6

Both these players might not be extremely dirty, but they were cheap pickups from my DoF, decent for the width of our squad and had at least 4 out of 5 key indicators on the better side of the team average.

---

Now, with these additions, we still lack heavily in the heart and the right side of our defense. What I've done is I've made an export of all players in the Argentine league in that position who are all realistic transfer targets (that is, we should be available to pay their wage, make a realistic attempt at paying a transfer sum or are available to loan). Again, I've put them in a scatterplot:

95c6bbd1a0aa8af86e5f8ced8ccafa8c.png

Quite the mush here. Breitenbruch and Varela are the biggest outliers if it comes to dirtiness. Nicolás González and Mauro Ortiz are very unsportsmanlike. Let's focus on just the players who are at least 10 in both categories.

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Now let's filter on just the players who have at least 10 for aggression:

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I've set my scouts to gather more information on them after which I'll see which one of these we can get to come over for the remainder of the season.

I'm not intending to do these extensive scouting updates, but I've included it merely to show which way I'm using analysis to scout.

Edited by Timetxu
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MID-SEASON BREAK - PART 2

Besides Carrizo and Perdomo, we've been able to find replacements for Godoy and Rogel in two absolute monsters:

74823b61a97eb9f78dde0dd948bbc4e1.png

Dirtiness: 13
Sportsmanship: 9
Temperament: 14
Professionalism: 10

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Dirtiness: 20
Sportsmanship: 10
Temperament: 15
Professionalism: 14

Breitenbruch comes on loan for just a half year. For fun and giggles.

Let's see if our ratings changed so far:

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We've gotten considerably dirtier and aggressive, but unfortunately also quite sportsmanlike. The temper has remained more or less the same. Professionalism has decreased, but I don't worry too much about that one. Unfortunately the players who left the club were a great fit for this save.

---

And our midseason friendlies:

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Mostly rotated squads to gel the team.

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JANUARY 2022

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We start the final stretch of the season with a dominating win over the worst team in the league

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Only two points from a Copa Libertadores spot now.

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Still doing well in the amount of fouls, but not single red card yet. How embarassing it would be if we end this season without a red...

---

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Board is still as furious as ever about the league even though the mid-season break has passed. Luckily the Copa Argentina has reset. Argentina is a weird country in that the league runs according to the European format, but the Cup concurrently runs calendar year wise... 

Board still gives me an F btw.

Edited by Timetxu
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FEBRUARY 2022

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A really good month sees us really aiming for a Copa Libertadores spot!

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We're facing Racing in our first home game of March, so we have our faith in our own hands!

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Well, we try.

---

Also, the glitch finally seems to have been offset as I have been able to lay my hands on a video of our chairman in a messy cocaine smuggle.

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MARCH 2022

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We beat Racing and now we move up into a Copa Libertadores spot! Even Breitenbruch scored who I only loaned because of his 20 in dirtiness.

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I doubt whether this 6th spot will actually be enough for a spot in the Copa Libertadores as there are five spots to be won through the league and one by winning the Copa Argentina. Now the confusing thing is that the Copa runs calendar-year wise. Rosario Central won the 2021 Copa Argentina and they're now playing in the Copa Libertadores, so I THINK that's the way they qualified. I can't check whether they actually finished in the Top 5 in the season prior. So it could well be that if we finish 6th, we won't know if we'll play in the Libertadores until half a year after :')

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I mean, I'm TRYING.

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On 25/11/2021 at 23:42, SixPointer said:

Strange that your actually trying to get players booked and it’s not happening a often as teams who probably aren’t. 
out of curiosity what roles are you using??

I've been using this tactic most:

8e2f4d25ae5600c0a5cd5b0d5fc7cd3f.png

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APRIL 2022 (1)

April has been quite the confusing process so far. Let's start off with our league results:

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An absolutely insane way to end the league with a total drubbing of River being the crown jewel. We were four points off of fifth place and a guaranteed Libertadores spot with two games to go, but we overtook Banfield on goal difference on the final day:

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An absolute massacre at the bottom of the league as eight teams go down. Mind you, this is based off of average results over previous seasons. That's why Colón escapes. 

---

So I was thinking of writing a celebratory update about the end of the season and the fact that we finished in a direct Libertadores spot. Well...

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This is where stuff gets a little confusing. I knew this tournament existed, but it had been statically frozen on "will be drawn in April 2021" even though I was already in 2022. Apparently it gets drawn immediately after the league is over.

Now, in reality, this tournament was invented because of the amount of teams in the league was so high, it was impossible to have everyone facing eachother twice. This tournament gives an additional amount of matches to still have every team get to 40 matches approximately a season. In real life, however, this tournament was played in the first months of the season in two groups with the winner going to the Libertadores. However, in this file, it seems as though it's being crammed in at the very end of the season and it's played in a single knockout schedule consisting of all teams in the Superliga. 

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So yeah, it's a small tournament and I'm curious if it'll even exist next season when we'll actually have a 20 team 38-schedule season, but for now it means that our qualification for the Copa Libertadores isn't set in stone yet. It all depends on who wins this thing. There's a direct spot in the Libertadores for the winner as well as a direct spot in the Sudamericana for the losing finalist. So we're not there yet.

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Oh, and:

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We also get to enter the actual Argentine Cup again, which runs calendar-year wise. Because why not. We're playing in Quilmes, halfway Merlo and La Plata because EVERY SINGLE MATCH in the Copa Argentina is played at a neutral ground. Even though maybe over a thousand teams participate in this tournament.

Oh Argentina, never change.

 

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