FM22: The PSV story - Eendracht Maakt Macht

[SteinkelssonFM]

I have decided to pull the plug on my journey with Real Betis due to struggling to establish any emotional connection with the save. 

After spending a little time away from the game, thanks to picking up COVID for the second time and of course enjoying the festivities with the family, it is time to fire up FM and hopefully strike it off with a new team. 

Like most of you, I am keen to set myself specific criteria when looking for a team to manage and for this selection, the criteria were;

1. Outside of the big five leagues - I had a positive experience in FM21 managing Glimt, in my opinion managing clubs from outside of the big five leagues make you a better FM player. In most cases, you don’t have the resources or infrastructure in place to dominate and more often than not you will need to sell your best players in order to progress the club, making you more agile/ less reliant on individuals. 

2. A club renowned for a shrewd transfer policy - given the fact that I have an interest in the underpinning transfer policies within clubs which is what initially drew me into the likes of Monchi (Sevilla), Rangnick (Red Bull) and Billy Bean (Moneyball). I feel that the club of interest would have to also hold a similar reputation in terms of its transfer policy and recruitment network.  

3. A focus on youth development - I will openly admit that this area is one of my main weaknesses within the game, I have always been great at recruiting sub U21 players and transitioning them into the first team, either via player pathways or direct exposure. However, youth development is something which I have neglected, maybe this element will help me to see this save through. 

4. To boldly go where I haven’t gone before - that rules out Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Portugal, Austria and Norway. 

 

Eredivisie & PSV

 

Firstly, the Eredivisie is a league which sits within the top 10 (seventh) when looking at the club coefficients, it’s currently ten points behind that of Portugal which leads to a nice challenge in raising the profile of the league.

Now for the choice of club, well PSV make for a perfect choice due to the following;

1. PSV are a club traditionally renowned for their superb scouting network and shrewd transfer policy

2. Developing footballers isn’t merely a necessity at PSV Eindhoven; it's a way of thinking, a philosophy deeply ingrained into everyone who steps foot inside the historic club. 

And the results have been nothing short of spectacular with the likes of Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koeman, Romario, Phillip Cocu, Jaap Stam, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Mark Van Bommel, Dries Mertens, Memphis Depay, Hirving Lozano, ronaldo and many many more.

3. The PSV youth system is primarily run by players who were successful first-teamers for the club.

4. Youth products are exposed to playing time and are allowed to accrue the experience that will aid them in their usually inevitable step into one of Europe’s big five leagues.

 

Main Objective

PSV has set itself the goal of qualifying for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, either via securing the national title or through the alternate route (second place and qualifying duels). 

The club aspires to reach the realms of continental knockout competition, whether that be in the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League. 

The PSV Academy plays a crucial role in the development of the club and the flow of talent for Dutch football. In addition, PSV strives to operate within an innovative business model which holds professionality at its core.

 

Based on this principle PSV hold these five core values;
 

Socially involved; PSV has been contributing positively within its local community for over a hundred years. However, since 2017 all activities within the club now fall under the umbrella PSV foundation. 

The aim of the foundation is to make a positive contribution to contemporary society in the Eindhoven region with PSV and football related social activities and programs. 

Replicating this on FM will be through the regular scheduling of Community Outreach sessions, as you can see the integration of these into the training schedule is beneficial to both teamwork and cohesion.  

Innovative; One of PSV's core values concerns the constant quest for improvements and an eye for new developments. In 2019, PSV opened a Top Performance Centre (TPC) which has seen the launch of some eye catching projects stemming from 'Data analysis', '3D muscle ultrasound' and 'Personalised nutrition' all which look to continue to drive the standards within the club forward as market innovators. 

Trustworthy; Player personalities give you an insight into individuals on FM, players with high professionalism are more likely to have good training progression, work harder in training, take a professional approach to their fitness, react well to man management and support their managers decisions. For this reason we are linking the personality to trust, given the fact that players with desirable personalities are easier to manage. 

The PSV squad initially has a Determined squad personality, we will look to harvest as many individuals who are model citizens and model professionals to align with this core value. 

Welcoming; work will go into making the club have a less fragmented social group, ideally with one or two groups which make up the dynamic of the squad.

Performance Orientated; the final value will look to be embedded via the use of the in-game training performance ratings. Each month I will look to assess individuals performances and criticise/praise good training performances. This tool will be utilised to provide opportunities to high performing individuals from the B Team, where good performance will merit call-ups to the main training squad aiding development and also providing a window of opportunity for selection.  

 

Aims of the save

Win the Champions League - despite PSV winning the Eredivisie 24 times, the club has only been crowned European Champions on a single occasion, winning the UEFA Champions League in 1988.  

Target for 50% of the squad to be Academy players. 

Develop the next Dutch superstar. 

Ensure that PSV maintain 'Pioneer' status in terms of their off the pitch activities by continuing to invest in club facilities.

Improve the status of Dutch football, the National team currently are ranked 15th in the European rankings.  

 

I hope you have enjoyed the opening post, as always I would appreciate if you could give the thread a follow, the engagement is what makes this forum THE best place to document saves and enables individuals to connect over our passion, Football Manager. 

 

[SteinkelssonFM]

Given the fact that one of the save objectives is to target for 50% of the first-team squad to have come from the Academy, there is a need to understand our best candidates from within both the B Team and the Under 18s.

This will help to future plan as ideally if a First Team player is moved on, we should (theoretically) have a player trained at the club good enough to step in and play.

The above visual shows what I believe to be our best 11, followed by the individuals who I have marked as being their successors.

I have also captured the league averages in relation to each attribute, this will help me to assess when youth players are good enough to be eligible for selection. 

You will see that our squad out-perform the average in most attributes which is reflected in the media prediction of 2nd place.

The GOLD averages are attributes which we hold the highest within the league, an explosive set of players with excellent composure and concentration who are work-horses and team players, paired with the ability to run with the ball yields well for the attacking brand of football which the board demand and which I intend to bring to the club.

 

[_Ben_]

 

Wonderful premise made even sweeter by being the club that brought this man to Europe. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

11 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

 

Wonderful premise made even sweeter by being the club that brought this man to Europe. 

Here's to hoping that I can rekindle the historical gateway to stardom for Brazilian footballers, making Eindhoven the place to be.

Screen flows have been set up to cover the UEFA Youth League, Dutch U18 League, Brazilian National U20 championship and also the Olympics...going down the Romario route. 

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, MattyLewis11 said:

Screen flows have been set up to cover the UEFA Youth League, Dutch U18 League, Brazilian National U20 championship and also the Olympics...going down the Romario route

Something you’ve just reminded me that I haven’t done!

[john1]

Good luck!

Bloody hell, completely forgotten about screen flows!

[rich ruzzian]

I have been following your career update. We even spoke about it on Slack if i am correct, so i thought time to comment here. 

Are you gonna start with Vinicius as your starting Forward? Will be realyy interesting to see how your compettion wil evolve, escacially Ajax. They are the richest club in my country but in the FM world they sometimes do really stupid non realistic transfers. Interested to see how this side of the game will change if the human manager is involved in the Dutch competition. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

@_Ben_@john1 glad that I have reminded you to update the good old screen flows, for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, custom screen flows can allow you to see detail of competitions of interest.

This can be useful as by selecting 'On match day' from the scope menu will ensure that the screen stops on the overvirew/profile of the selected competitions enabling you to see at a snap-shot the high performing players which you may well like to scout. 

To access the screen flow menu simply type 'screen flow' under the preferences search bar and select the custom screen flow. 

below is what I have selected

I have also spent the usual time writing notes on my players to highlight their strengths/weaknesses and traits along with personalities.

This I find useful for the first few months of a save when I am not 100% certain on my best starting eleven, it is something which I have open on my second screen to aid selection.

A little gem which I picked up from a good friend @TheFMAcademy over on Twitter. 

4 hours ago, rich ruzzian said:

I have been following your career update. We even spoke about it on Slack if i am correct, so i thought time to comment here. 

Are you gonna start with Vinicius as your starting Forward? Will be realyy interesting to see how your compettion wil evolve, escacially Ajax. They are the richest club in my country but in the FM world they sometimes do really stupid non realistic transfers. Interested to see how this side of the game will change if the human manager is involved in the Dutch competition. 

In short, yes. Vinicius will be leading the line in the role of a Target Forward - at 6'4" he is the only player which I can utilise as a focal point of attack, I admit his heading ability of 8 is not ideal. However, the Brazilian has a strength attribute of 17 which I am certain he will use to physically bully the defence and create space/opportunities for others. 

The opening fixtures has seen many goals, youngster Jason Van Duiven scoring a first half hat-trick in the second fixture certainly raised a few eyebrows. 

I now have the beauty of facing Rapid Wien in the second qualifying round for the Champions League, nothing like competitive fixtures to build match fitness! 

Wish me luck. 

[rmcf2017]

PSV is an interesting idea, good luck. Lax work permit rules, plus a good academy system should have you producing good quality of regens

[rich ruzzian]

Yes as the second club from Holland, you have the early kwalification rounds to fight through. Rapid Wien should be possible to defeat. 

[Hootieleece]

Community Outreach is something I do either before or after each home match. I am also a big fan of the Team Bonding training block as well usually after away matches or matches that I am sure will be big losses.

Using each regularly is how I build up support for my manager and get the team going in the direction I want, and then add the occasional Match Tactics session as well! 

[SixPointer]

Nice to see you join the Dutch movement 

[DerbyJack]

Always had a soft spot for PSV. Its hard to not like a club that moulded some of the best players I've ever seen.

Hope you get your hands on the next Ronaldo soon. Best of luck!

[SteinkelssonFM]

7 hours ago, rich ruzzian said:

Rapid Wien should be possible to defeat. 

As you can see from the above, we managed to brush past Rapid Wien. The result was made much easier when Stojkovic was sent off for the visitors in the 38th minute of the second-leg. In all honesty if they had 11 men, I actually think they would have beaten us!

Shakhtar up next, I am already preparing to be playing in the Europa League! 

 

6 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Team Bonding training block as well usually after away matches or matches

This is something which I often do, normally in the free slot after travelling, in my head I imagine the players doing a little sight seeing of the city we visit...sad I know.

2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Nice to see you join the Dutch movement 

Appreciated mate, I know you are enjoying Holland and am hopeful this save can bring me the same pleasure

 

2 hours ago, DerbyJack said:

Always had a soft spot for PSV. Its hard to not like a club that moulded some of the best players I've ever seen.

The amount of talent which has passed through Eindhoven is an absolute joke, serious kudos to the club or Phillips...they were light -years in front of the curve! 

8 hours ago, rmcf2017 said:

Lax work permit rules

Do you know where you can find out this within the game? 

[SteinkelssonFM]

As expected the second leg away at the NSC Olympiyski was a very tough fixture, Shakhtar absolutely dominated, which reflects on their xG story.

Two goals in the first half from Gakpo and Vinicius was enough to turn the tie on it's head, we lost the first leg at home 2-1. 

Drommel was an absolute beast, if it were not for his form between the sticks we certainly wouldn't be standing here writing about how we took the tie to penalties. 

The tie was down to the lottery of the spot kick - we had lost the Johan Cruijff Schaal a few days early from the spot after drawing 1-1 with our rivals, we took the first spot kick  (Vinicius) and scored, this was repeated five times with Max, Thomas, Gakpo, Propper and Ramalho all slotting their kicks away. 

Pedrinho seen his kick saved by Drommel and we go again in the UCL.

Bo Henriksens men are all that stand in our way, the side from Denmark have defeated Celtic (4-1) and Genk (5-3) with Brazilians Marrony and Evander in excellent form. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by SteinkelssonFM

[SteinkelssonFM]

UCL Path Playoff

Finishing, that is the word of the day! We managed to accumulate 23 shots away from home, with only three testeing the oppositions keeper! That is a whopping 86% of shots off-target! 

This is the first time I have noticed this. However, if this becomes a trend we will have to conduct a little more analysis into the area, for now the shot map will do.

As you can see, on face value there are too many shots coming from outside the box with a low xG, in fact the highest xG from a shot was 0.3 from Cody Gakpo which was saved. Our tactic does include the shoot on sight TI as I want my players to take an opportunity if they deem one present, this may well change lol. 

 

Despite not scoring the away goal, there was an air of confidence going into the match at home, I know other FM players will know what I mean when I say that after the first few highlights I knew that we would secure the victory.

Goal contributions from all of the back four (Mwene, Ramalho and Boscagli, goals and Max with the assist) was the highlight of the match which not only puts us into the hat for the UCL it also secures the club a whopping £12.65 million pounds, which is massive given the fact that the club made a loss of EUR 22.8 million as shown in their FY June 2021 company accounts. 

The impacts of the pandemic more than halved the equity available to the club, making this additional income stream a real blessing to the Directors. 

Looking at the draw for the UCL group stage we certainly have been put in a group where we can be competitive. The clubs ranking in relation to co-efficient are as follows; 

Sevilla 12th

Atalanta 27th 

Lille 111th 

We currently sit in 56th place which shows that we have more of a European pedigree than Lille over the past five years. However, all three clubs sit above PSV when it comes to the clubs reputation...Giant Killing??

Both Ajax and AZ will both find themselves in a similar position to ourselves, both teams thinking that they will certainly be in with a fighting chance to pick up some victories and raise the profile of the Eredivisie 

There is quite a gap between ourselves and Portugal (9.2 points) and with UCL points distributed in the following;

2 - wins from group stage

1 - draw from group stage

So there are 12 points up for grabs for each team, however these will then be averaged depending on the number of clubs that the country has involved in European Football. 

Keeping it simple, we want for Dutch teams to secure more wins than Portuguese to close the gap. 

 

 

 

 

 

[rich ruzzian]

The draw gives options to go through to the next round, or at least to be in a European competition after the winter break.  Are there anymore dutch teams in the group stages? Feyenoord and Vitesse for example. 

Edited December 31, 2021 by rich ruzzian

[SteinkelssonFM]

20 minutes ago, rich ruzzian said:

Are there anymore dutch teams in the group stages?

Unfortunately not Vitesse were knocked out in the league path third qualifying round of the UECL by Anderlect 4-2 and Feyenoord in the second round qualificaton by AGF 5-2.

[Hootieleece]

That group could be tough depending on the leagues you have loaded.

I have always found teams from loaded leagues tougher than unloaded teams in Tournaments and all of those are from Top 5 Leagues!

Good Luck on bringing Dutch football back to prominence.

[edgar555]

Good luck. I’m keen to see if Madueke develops into a world beater for you. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

3 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

That group could be tough depending on the leagues you have loaded.

All of the top 5 leagues have been loaded along with a few others from Western Europe. 

1 hour ago, edgar555 said:

Good luck. I’m keen to see if Madueke develops into a world beater for you. 

Thanks for the follow, I am hoping he can be a big impact for me in the role of IF (attack) his ability when on the ball is something special given his age...just need to improve some of his mental attributes.

[RogerC]

Good luck with the new adventure!! Really looking forward to seeing how you manage youth development!

[HowzatFM]

On 31/12/2021 at 10:47, Hootieleece said:

That group could be tough depending on the leagues you have loaded.

I have always found teams from loaded leagues tougher than unloaded teams in Tournaments and all of those are from Top 5 Leagues!

Good Luck on bringing Dutch football back to prominence.

Do you think it is better to have the top 5 leagues loaded when managing in other leagues for this reason?

[Hootieleece]

54 minutes ago, benhoward12 said:

Do you think it is better to have the top 5 leagues loaded when managing in other leagues for this reason?

I always have the Top 5 Leagues loaded, but I definitely notice a difference when I play against unloaded leagues. Especially in Playoff rounds and I am a team from a smaller league, and mine is loaded and played. (Currently playing in Wales as Cefn Druids) 

[HowzatFM]

54 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

I always have the Top 5 Leagues loaded, but I definitely notice a difference when I play against unloaded leagues. Especially in Playoff rounds and I am a team from a smaller league, and mine is loaded and played. (Currently playing in Wales as Cefn Druids) 

Ok thanks! My first experience outside the top leagues so helpful information! 

[SteinkelssonFM]

7 hours ago, RogerC said:

Really looking forward to seeing how you manage youth development!

There is plenty of it on offer in both the B team and the U18, time will tell if I am any good at bringing them through the ranks.

 

[john1]

Tough Champions League group you are in! Hopefully you can nick a point in away matches!

Edited January 2, 2022 by john1

[SteinkelssonFM]

October 2021

After a few months and 16 competitive games I thought it was about time to provide the first update of my initial season, Firstly, I have only just noticed that I am yet to share with you the tactical system which I have set up in Eindhoven.

PSV notoriously favour a 4-3-3, a formation which I am very familiar with and one which I must admit is my favourite. They operated with this system back on the biggest night for the club back in May 1988, the night of the European Cup Final victory against Benfica. 

For those of you who followed my OGC Nice and Glimt saves you will know how much I am a fan of the DLP. However, Sangare doesn't have the pivot to operate in this role (He is a BWM) so I have opted to play a RPM paired with a CM (Support) as the midfield duo.

Gotze, the CM (Support) has been given the PIs above,  I want him to have a greater influence in the final third and form an effective partnership with Phillipp Max (WB (attack) down the left flank, his 16 dribbling ability makes the dribble more often a good instruction as I would like for him to progress via running the ball over the RPM who should be the most comfortable on the ball.  

The Roaming Playmaker

As I have stated above this is the playmaker role which I am the least familiar with and therefore I needed to look at the stats to ensure that the role and personnel were a good fit under the system which I have built. You may note that the pass into space TI has been selected in possession, something which plays to my strength of having the squad with the best acceleration in the league. This instruction could be counter prodcutive, especially if we were looking to play the possession game...not that I have noticed this to date, we have 53% possession in the league, placing us fourth.

As you'd expect the underlying stats are what I wanted to see the RPM across a spread of four league matches is receiving and completing a high amount of passes...with a few Rank 1's sticking out. 

The RPM is the heartbeat of the team, always offering a passing option to teammates.

 

 The above visualisations show where the RPM has received the ball in those four games, you can see how deep the RPM operates, helping to build the ball from the back. The visuals also highlight how the RPM will not look to venture into the oppositions box, opting to camp on the edge of the penalty area to look for room to either shoot or play the key pass. 

This again emphasises the reasoning as to why I have selected the CM to get further forward, to try and get the extra body into the oppositions box. 

Eredivisie 

The  start to the season has been grand, I was particularly pleased with the results against both AZ and Feyenoord. @edgar555 you will be pleased to know that Noni has hit the ground running with eight goal contributions to his name (4 goals, 4 assists) across all competitions. 

One thing I have noted, the first time on FM22 is how the squad are struggling in terms of fitness, despite the usual rotation. I will either need to introduce more rest periods to training, which will hamper the development progress or rotate more which could impact our league form. 

Ajax haven't had the best of starts to the season, Feyenoord are scoring freely whilst we have the best defence in the early stage, which is no fluke as we have the lowest xG against of 3.9. 

Europe

We opened our UCL campaign at home versus the French Champions and secured the victory, thanks to Noni who scored within 50 seconds! A deserved result when looking at the xG.

Unfortunately, we were defeated in Spain (rightly so) with the home team generating three times as many shots on goal.

 

The goal now is to attempt to pick up as many points as we can from our home fixtures and hopefully secure the 3rd spot, knowing how open Atalanta are there could be a chance of causing an upset...time will tell. 

 

 

[edgar555]

Nice start and good to see my boy Noni going good

[john1]

Loving the analyst with your roaming playmaker  

[karanhsingh]

Wonderful club to manage, and taking on Ajax should be a good challenge. 

Look forward to seeing how you develop the youngsters like Madueke.

[Hootieleece]

Glad to see you making progress with PSV.

I may now decide to start playing a 4-3-3 just because.....I have never gotten it to work on my own!

The 4-2-3-1 Wide is my go to formation, but I have been delving into the 5-2-1-2 WB since @Sixpointer started using it.

This is all in the quest for knowledge of Football/Soccer that I lack and of course a few wins!

 

[rich ruzzian]

PSV used to be more of a 4-4-2 team back in the days. Even when they won the Champions League, they did not play "de Hollandse School" of 4-3-3. 

With your tactical setup i completely understand you dont play Zahavi up top as the striker. He seems to be more a second striker type of player. Who is your roaming playmaker? Van Ginkel or maybe Proper? 

[SteinkelssonFM]

15 hours ago, edgar555 said:

Nice start and good to see my boy Noni going good

Yes, he has been really effective from the right as the inside forward, long may that continue.

14 hours ago, john1 said:

Loving the analyst with your roaming playmaker  

Appreciated mate, will drill down a little deeper as the save progresses. I will follow up on this to show how the CM with the added PI's aid the tactic. 

 

4 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

taking on Ajax should be a good challenge. 

You know me, always like to enjoy a save where there is a bigger team to attempt to topple - shame that in Ligue 1 even an undefeated season with OGC Nice (season 4, I think) wasn't enough to topple PSG. 

4 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

I may now decide to start playing a 4-3-3 just because.....I have never gotten it to work on my own!

You may like to read a historic piece which I wrote which captures the charactreristics of the tree man midfield, it is Alegri's Coverciano thesis replicated for FM. 

https://mattylewis11.medium.com/fm21-characteristics-of-the-trio-in-a-three-man-midfield-c6e8f3e152c5

1 hour ago, rich ruzzian said:

PSV used to be more of a 4-4-2 team back in the days. Even when they won the Champions League, they did not play "de Hollandse School" of 4-3-3. 

Apologies, I was basing this off an image from my These Football Times book on PSV (below) 

I have Marco operating as the RPM, although Gutierrez has some traits which would make him a good option.

I am going to attempt to write up my next big piece (outside from the updates) on club building which will explain my methodology surrounding player development, giving an insight into how I am going to attempt to bring players through the club. 

[rich ruzzian]

Looks like Gutierrez would also make a perfect regista. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

1 minute ago, rich ruzzian said:

Looks like Gutierrez would also make a perfect regista. 

Yes he has all the traits which would make him perfect for the role. 

I think the next unexplored role for me will be either the IWB and maybe flirt with @crusadertsar challenge of attempting to make them the primary scorer or the Libero. Both I have zero experience of using so would again take my understanding of individual roles to a new level. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

Youth development - building a football club

 

For me this is an area which I have not focused on specifically in other editions of FM (although I have dabbled with player pathways and when exploring Ralf Rangnick’s pillars of success) and therefore I thought it would be ideal to capture my thoughts in the form of a bespoke blog. 

One quote which sticks in my mind is from OGC Nice owner Jim Ratcliffe, who stated;

Quote

If boys don’t play senior football between the age of 17 and 19 they’re not going to make it through to play champions league level football.

The above quote leads me nicely onto the three drivers of current ability in Football Manager, all of which sit under our span of control.

1. Game time
2. Personality and determination
3. Training facilities and coaching 

Game time

As Jim stated, for me the most important aspect of youth development is exposure to playing time and for that reason it is important to fully understand each team and individual who play within the club. 

Each player will be looking to improve themselves and win football matches, striving to improve their position within the clubs hierarchy. Therefore, the worst thing you can have is too many players, diluting the exposure to game time and reducing the chances of development. 

PSV football club consists of three teams, competing in various competitions.

First Team

• Eredivisie
• UEFA Champions League
• TOTO KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup)
• 24 players

B Team

• Eerste Divisie
• International Cup
• 37 players

Under 18 Team

• Dutch U18 Eredivisie 
• UEFA Youth League
• 36 players

The key is to ensure players are getting enough game time, at an appropriate level for their ability. 

Given the fact that both the B team and U18 squads are bloated, we have a problem as individuals will be starved of adequate game time. Therefore I will have to go through each player with a fine tooth comb to reduce the squad numbers to 20.

Jong PSV & U18

The U18’s will ideally see the majority of players aged 16–17 years-old, which according to Rangnick is a point where both coaches and training have a greater influence. 

1. Tactical differences: they have a greater will to acquire and implement tactical concepts.
2. Motivational differences: young players want to get better; older players want to defend their position or get back to their previous best.
3. Cognitive differences: the attention filter of younger players is much wider than that of older players.

Personality 

Professionalism is hidden but there are a number of personalities that indicate a high degree of professionalism.

• Model Citizen
• Model Professional, Professional
• Perfectionist
• Resolute, Spirited and fairly Professional, to a lesser extent

Young players can improve their personality through mentoring from an experienced player — ideally, with high determination and a personality indicating high professionalism.

Mentoring can play a crucial role in FM and is one area which can reap dividends if utilised correctly. Mentoring both develops and improves players personalities through raising determination or influencing how individuals deal with pressure. 

As you can see from the above we really only have Marco who is a prime candidate to mentor youth players, it would be ideal if we can build on this over time to ensure that we bolster our capacity to develop talent.

Facilities and Staff 

As you can see from the below, PSV have excellent facilities in place within the club, aligning with one of their five core values (Innovation) which sees the club strive for continuous improvement and new development opportunities both on and off the field.

The point surrounding staff resonates with Rangnick’s fundamental pillar competence, where he states “None of us are as good as us all together”, which emphasises the collective input for the club to reach its maximum potential. 

First Team B Team B Team attributes U18 U18 attributes

The coaching staff within the first team are the best in Holland, the B team are significantly above average for all metrics and there is work to be done in relation to the coaching staff within the under 18s. 

However, when looking a little deeper into the attributes you will notice how effective the majority of the U18 staff are when it comes to working with youngsters. 

Ideally, you would recruit youth staff to have a good judge of potential, a great people person, strong discipline and an effective motivator who has sound tactical knowledge and who specialises in working with youngsters…not too much to ask.

 

[rich ruzzian]

How do you trim down the youth squads? Just release the players who are not good enough? 

[SteinkelssonFM]

3 hours ago, rich ruzzian said:

How do you trim down the youth squads? Just release the players who are not good enough? 

You could do it that way, although that would cost money. 

I am just going to do it organically, quite a few of the B Team contracts expire in 2022. This method is a little laborious as it means manually swapping players for each B Team and U18 games to ensure that the players I have highlighted as ones I want to bring through secure game time.

On a plus side, this is really helping me to monitor progress as I am paying a greater detail to fixtures/results which I would normally skim over. 

[Hootieleece]

@MattyLewis11 "On a plus side, this is really helping me to monitor progress as I am paying a greater detail to fixtures/results which I would normally skim over. "

 

I often do this by having U-19 or Reserve Team Emails sent to me as well. Also having by having yourself set to take over the matches as well in staff responsibilities.... (not that I would recommend it!)

As for spending the money can't PSV afford the $100k or so it would take.

It's more than likely save you in the future! Also, not too many Wonderkids can be signed for the price!

 

I am also intrigued by the screen flow options.

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Hootieleece

[Deisler26]

Good luck, however I wish you none against RKC now and forever 

[SixPointer]

An absolute joy to catch up on your work here with PSV. In particular the analysis of the RPM one of my favourite roles for the last two of three versions of the game.
Your updates will inspire me back to my Sparta save after my bout of covid passes. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

15 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

As for spending the money can't PSV afford the $100k or so it would take.

I would be lying if I said that we didn't have the money to pay the compensation fee's for releasing players, as a matter of fact we could easily make the monies by playing a farewell game for the players, through the use of arranging a friendly.

As you can see from the above, playing a team with a similar reputation will secure circa £130k profit. 

15 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Good luck, however I wish you none against RKC now and forever 

Appreciated @Deisler26I hope you follow along the journey. 

 

7 hours ago, SixPointer said:

An absolute joy to catch up on your work here with PSV. In particular the analysis of the RPM one of my favourite roles for the last two of three versions of the game.
Your updates will inspire me back to my Sparta save after my bout of covid passes. 

Glad to have you on board mate and hope you are making a speedy recovery from the VID...I had it over Christmas and am just about feeling myself. 

[SixPointer]

Aye it’s awful. Only had it about two days but I’ll survive 

43 minutes ago, MattyLewis11 said:

Glad to have you on board mate and hope you are making a speedy recovery from the VID...I had it over Christmas and am just about feeling myself. 

[SteinkelssonFM]

We are nearly at the mid-point of the first season and therefore I thought this would be a good time to provide a bit of a detailed update on the save so far. 

You will note from the above that we have been on an exceptional run of form over the past two months and haven’t lost a game since our defeat to Ajax towards the end of October. 

The most surprising element has been our form on the continent, securing back to back victories against Atalanta before putting in THE performance of the season-to-date by smashing Sevilla by five goals to one, making up for our defeat in the reverse fixture. 

Noni Madueke was the main catalyst behind this surprise result, the 19-year-old Englishman secured the highest match rating received this season of 9.9 (so close to a perfect 10!). 

He now has scored six from six (Qualifying included) in the Champions League which will no doubt have a host of clubs considering him as a potential target, to date we are fortunate there are none.

There was a slight cost to such an emphatic victory, Davy Propper suffered a long-term injury, damaging his achilles tendon which rules him out for a three to four-month period, leaving an opening in the midfield for either Ryan Thomas or Erick Gutierrez to gain more minutes from the bench. 

The Eredivisie has become a four-horse race, we may well be sitting top but Feyenoord hold the best form and are on a 10 game undefeated run, they also have scored the most goals in the league, whilst we boast the best defence. 

Ajax, predicted to win the league have lost to Vitesse and Heracles whilst have drawn against the likes of RKC and PEC Zwolle and Twente, they have clearly struggled against the lower sides. Sebastien Haller has only one league start to his name, making 13 appearances from the bench as Erik ten Hag opts to favour a Dusan Tadic and Steven Berghuis partnership up top. 

 

Data Hub 

After spending a little time looking through the various reports available within the hub, I am going to attempt to highlight the reasons which sit behind our performance.

Given the fact we have conceded the least goals, I thought it would be a good starting point to look at our defence. We are outperforming our xGA by -3 which means that we should have conceded 13.8 goals, whilst both Feyenoord and Ajax are on level terms with their xGA, we should have the third-best defence in the league if luck/talent didn’t intervene. 

Looking at the defensive actions you will see that we have made a large proportion of actions either just before the halfway line or deep in our defensive third. The team aerial report adds context to this data, showing that have the best headers won ratio in the division sitting at 70%. 

Andre Ramalho is our leading defender in relation to contested headers and headers won, what you would expect from a no-nonsense defender. Teze, Boscagli and Obispo are all contesting above average whilst wing-backs Sambo and Max are also showing just how effective they can be in the air. 

The goalkeepers are also contributing to the defensive unit, both Drommel and Mvogo have prevented expected goals and have a high save percentage (above 85%). Mvogo is the outlier, leading the way in terms of both metrics and holds the best save percentage in the league at 92%. 

Our results have shown we are also scoring a high volume of goals per game, the below visual highlights just how our forwards are sharing the responsibility, although when it comes to goal scoring Vinicius is an absolute beast. 

We are only just performing above average in relation to our overall conversion rate, something which I would like to improve on. 

The above point lead me to carry out a bit of a deeper dive into the statistics, with a particular focus on touches in the box, shots and goals scored, which can be viewed below.

We have a good touch in box to shot ratio which sits at 59% across the fixtures which span November, whilst our conversion rate has a high range of 34% which could indicate that we have a slight problem in relation to the accuracy of our shooting. However, when adding in both the xG and Goals colums you will note that we are outscoring the xG figure regularly which changes my opinion completely. 

Anyone else think the touches in box visual should be displayed the same way as the passes received, with just a simple dot, the arrows showing where the passes were played from in my opinion are unnecessary.  

On a side note you can see how we managed to secure the emphatic result against Sevilla with five goals stemming from a total of eleven shots with an xG of 2.55, that conversion rate of 45% is something to strive for on a more frequent basis. 

I have also developed the above tracker to highlight the top three performers and trainers across each team, this will aid progression opportunities for players within the club if they perform in the top three of either categories for two consecutive months.  

Edited January 6, 2022 by SteinkelssonFM

[SteinkelssonFM]

I am just going to leave this here...

[Hootieleece]

Time to shock the World! Especially if Koeman is still manager.

 

[Skywalk3r83]

Nice read. Good luck 👍🏻 

[karanhsingh]

Very good progess there! Ajax are doing quite bad surprisingly. 

Are you playing Noni as IW?

[SteinkelssonFM]

13 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Time to shock the World! Especially if Koeman is still manager.

He is still manager indeed and doing an exceptionally good job...

3 hours ago, Skywalk3r83 said:

Nice read. Good luck 👍🏻 

Appreciated, I hope you enjoy the journey.

1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:

Are you playing Noni as IW?

No, Noni is being utilised as an IF on attack. his ability to cross the ball isn't the best and I wanted him to have a greater influence on the ball using his 17 dribbling to operate a little more directly and make more inverted runs.

If my understanding of the two roles is correct, the IW will often come inside once the player has received the ball whilst the IF makes more movement off the ball into the half-space.