Popular Post _Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 24, 2022 Preface: Sadly, I am not a historian. Nor do I intend on making this save based around historical characters or following any real-life stories – but I have always had a soft spot for a ‘reason’ behind my game choices. This year I plan on delving deep into three countries who have strong historical ties with empires and power – the Ottomans, Greeks (less of the empire but more of the city states and internal battles) and Romans, visiting two countries that I have never managed in before: Turkey and Greece. I have fond memories of learning about the Romans at school like most seven or eight year old from England probably did - Julius Caesar to Augustus, the story of Romulus and Remus and the wider geographical knowledge of Pompeii. Likewise, I remember learning all about Troy, Marathon and Trojan horses in a Greek topic and then embedded that knowledge later in life with several viewings of 300. I admit to only gaining an interest in the Ottomans later in life, learning about Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire as well as listening to podcasts that have taught me about the Mongol empire to the Persians and Babylonians. Granted - this save could have taken me to Egypt, as - like the Romans - everyone learnt about them at school and maybe into Iran or Iraq, too, but I wanted a save I could get started immediately so plumped for what I could use on the base FM23 game. I don't envisage my time in Greece to be built around tactical ideas, setting out my hoplites in certain formations to defeat the Athenians and climb the ladder to city 'stardom' but I am always someone who reads around the club I'm at and will try to embed different elements into my save. If I just so happen to have a great leader at an Italian club, he might be known as an Emperor, but that won't make or break this save for me. As a FM player who has spent many years previously in the lower levels of Italian football, picking up a raft of teams I like: Messina, Catania, Palermo, Castel di Sangro, Venezia and Pescara as well as the memories of Football Italia, Ronaldo, Zamorano, Recoba and Totti, the lure of returning to the country for the first time in several years was too much to resist. Things looks rather different in Italian football to what I remember – Juventus’ B team, clubs I’ve never heard of and clubs I have heard of now playing at completely different parts of the pyramid – Livorno in Serie D for example, and a change in financial powers, which will probably limit the number of 'Buffon to Parma' and 'Veron to Lazio' moves. If my game progresses as intended, Italy will be the last stop on the tour as I’m fresh from my first country move, in FM22. Before I get there, though, I intend to earn my stripes in the lowest levels of the vanilla version of the game, working my way up, roughly, in terms of reputation. Turkish football is pretty alien to me, except for knowing the big three: Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Besiktas and knowing that Gala sits on the European side of the Strait of Bosporus in Istanbul, whereas Fener are on the Asian side. I also know that Istanbul – previously Constantinople – is a hotbed for football, with eight of the nineteen teams in the Super Lig hailing from the largest city, with only one from Ankara, the capital city. As an Aston Villa fan, I do have a special feeling for Trabzonspor, current Super Lig holders and a team that play in the same claret and blue as my own side – simply because we sent them our spare kits after their formation in 1967. Below that, my knowledge is hazy. I recognise a few names that play in the lower levels, probably through FM knowledge: Genclerbirligi are in the second tier, Samsumspor are 1994 Balkan Cup winners in the second tier, Altinordu are well known in the FM circle due to their rule on only signing Turks and Bursaspor and Kocaelispor are two teams with big stadiums in the third tier. The third tier is split into two groups: Red and White, with either nineteen or twenty teams competing in it this season, with clubs coming from all over Turkey, yet a slight bias towards the western, Mediterranean, side. Likewise, Greek football is somewhat new to me. They appear to have reshuffled their second tier and have allowed B teams of the biggest clubs into this level. The clubs appear to be spread nicely between islands and the mainland, with an obvious trend to those in Athens, the capital. Crete, the largest island, is well represented at the second-tier level but only have OFI to show in the top level. Olympiacos are, by far and away, the most successful team, with forty-seven league titles to their name. Italy is more well known to me but I’m always taken aback by the current situation of teams: Parma in Serie B with Genoa and Cagliari, Virtus Verona in Serie C – being the ‘second’ club in the city after Chievo went bust and Cesena in Serie C with Torres of Sardinia. I am more than aware of the financial powers of Juve, Inter, Milan and Roma and envisage a big battle to overcome these powers - but one that I will relish, should I get that far in my career. --- Just like my Matryoshka career - the intention will be to dive deeply into these lower levels, immersing myself with the culture and footballing passion of these nations before, hopefully, climbing the ladder to take over an exciting project on Italian soil. Whether or not my journey takes me through Greece, to the top tier of Turkish football or the lower echelons of the Italian game is completely fluid and hopefully completely encapsulating. 27 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 24, 2022 Other Reading I am not posting a huge review of all my saves here, like I have in the past, but I do like to link these, largely for my own reference, so that I can see the development in my playing style. [FM19] Not all that glitters is gold [FM19] One night in Serravalle… [FM20] Tequila and Mariachi? [FM20] Voltaço [FM21] Hometown Heroes [FM21] Swiss Army Knife [FM22] Matryoshka For me, the Matryoshka save was the most complete – the way I combined recruitment, development and tactical identity into my time in Russia and then Holland has really set the tone for how I want to play this going forward. I think that FM22, ahead of any other year, has taught me the most about how I want to play this game, and what I, a football fan, want to get from it. What I have written in the game foci is largely a replication of what I had intended to do last year, and, largely, what I did do. I just want to do it on a grander, and more in depth than ever way. Game Foci The image above is the profile of probably the most-talked-about footballer on the planet, certainly in England, right now - Erling Haaland. If you click on the image, it'll take you to the full profile for him. A profile that I have spent hours crafting to give me something that fits with my game foci. The skin will likely never see the light of day beyond my own laptop but I've worked hard, improving my knowledge tenfold, on creating something that can be used to show the conversations I have with myself and paint the pictures that I want to paint. The change in how the attributes are set out is because I want to create a fusion between attribute development on the training pitch and performances each weekend. The most efficient - in my eyes - way to do that was to match the attributes up to the Additional Foci that sit within the game. Furthermore, when you combine those attributes with the stats - which include some colour coding to train my eyes - I will, hopefully, be able to see the benefits of my training development, match role or recruitment focus. Every decision that I make will be driven by statistical outputs and, as of the time of writing, I'm trying to take that further to collate team data easier because, as I've said, I don't know the playing style of the top Turkish teams, let alone the bottom level of Greek football! From there, I can develop my tactical approach, digging deeply into the ways and means that I look to use to exploit them and rise up to the top, and, in this case, Serie A. My aims, still, reflect my own personal desires within football: 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. 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. --- 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. --- 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: First Touch refers to the player's ability to stop, trap or move on the ball when it is coming at a variety of speeds, heights or angles. A player's first touch can be the vital cog in whether possession breaks down or the attacking move can continue. 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. --- 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. --- 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." 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: Director of Football The man with the power. He'll oversee a lot of the things at the club and will allow me to focus on my role of Head Coach/Head of Player Development that I foresee this career moving towards. I will allow him to negotiate contracts, work with my head of recruitment to sign players and hire and fire some of the less key staff. 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! 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 Manager and Game world In keeping with historical spirit of Dario Samaniego (San Marino), Neyveson (Volta Redonda), Joao Fernando (Luzern) and Nikita Zakharov (Krasondar and Groningen) - my manager is a player who I have managed in another gameworld and offers me a fond memory. Alex was signed from River Plate not long after I took over at Krasnodar and he really embodied the statistical, thoroughly-scouted method that I now live and die by. He moved on to Dortmund for nearly €40m and then on to Tottenham for nearly double that but provided me with three wonderful seasons. I hope his managerial career will do the same! As far as the game world goes, I've loaded a pretty hefty database, for me, and I hope that, by not having to add and remove leagues, it'll be relatively stable for the long term. Let's get this going! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conardo Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 (edited) Following ... love your storys Can you show the extended DB-Settings? Edited October 24, 2022 by Conardo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 7 minutes ago, Conardo said: Can you show the extended DB-Settings? I've gone past that point right now but, off the top of my head... Internationals from each continent Players in continental competitions from each continent Players of Turkish and Greek nationality (adding Italians leads me to problem where I have over 160,000 players) All players based in Turkey and Greece All players based in Serie A,B,C and D in Italy (adding Eccellenza and Promozione gives me the same issue as above) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Excited is an understatement - I'm very much looking forward to this. 45 minutes ago, _Ben_ said: I don't envisage my time in Greece to be built around tactical ideas, setting out my hoplites in certain formations to defeat the Athenians and climb the ladder to city 'stardom' but I am always someone who reads around the club I'm at and will try to embed different elements into my save. If I just so happen to have a great leader at an Italian club, he might be known as an Emperor, but that won't make or break this save for me. That's a shame, it would add an interesting (perhaps impossible) wrinkle if you had to incorporate some sort of nation-specific-historical-military-tactic into each club you managed. An overloaded left flank with a withdrawn right flank in Greece to simulate the Battle of Leuctra, or a compact 3-3-3 box formation in Italy in homage to the Tetsudo shield wall. I expect you'd get sacked pretty quickly, though! 51 minutes ago, _Ben_ said: 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. I know you didn't want to mention Moneyball, but...in your previous ventures have you noticed any particular metrics that have proven very useful for determining a good player (I imagine this will be position specific)? Are there any of the new statistics that you are particularly looking forward to diving into in more depth? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 7 minutes ago, GIMN said: That's a shame, it would add an interesting (perhaps impossible) wrinkle if you had to incorporate some sort of nation-specific-historical-military-tactic into each club you managed. An overloaded left flank with a withdrawn right flank in Greece to simulate the Battle of Leuctra, or a compact 3-3-3 box formation in Italy in homage to the Tetsudo shield wall. I expect you'd get sacked pretty quickly, though! My historical knowledge just isn't there, sadly! I'll see what I can do... 8 minutes ago, GIMN said: I know you didn't want to mention Moneyball, but...in your previous ventures have you noticed any particular metrics that have proven very useful for determining a good player (I imagine this will be position specific)? Are there any of the new statistics that you are particularly looking forward to diving into in more depth? I think it's just come from the fact that Moneyball has almost become a throwaway term for using some kind of stats. I've seen people just using goals/90 to determine whether a striker is good or not. Whilst it will do some of that, it's the depth of measure that I want to be using. I must say that, given my fondness of counter attacking and using a mid block, at best, that both the passes per defensive action and progressive passes will be fun this year - both of which were stats that I manually collated last time around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 November 2022 As I've mentioned, I wanted to start at the lowest possible position and work my way up. After four months of job searching, I have been rewarded with my first gig.. Menemen is the fifth largest town in the district of Izmir, the third most populous city in Turkey. With a population of just over 150,000 - it's hardly a bustling town with only 42% of it urbanised and an economy that largely depends on agriculture and breeding. The site is largely Bronze Age and offers little in the way of attraction, to me anyway, for gathering knowledge about the Ottoman Empire, although the trusty Wikipedia tells me that it was an important town in the production of textiles for western Anatolia. Izmir itself sits on the banks of the Aegean sea and is an important town in Turkish history. The town has been invaded by Venetians, Genoese and Ionians in the past and this part of Turkey once belonged to Greece, but, following the Turkish War of Independence in 1922, was retaken by Turkish soldiers. --- The club itself have a website, which I was able to find this information from: Menemen FK started its activities in 1927 under the name “ Menemen Türk Ocağı İdman Yurdu ”. But the official establishment took place in 1942. Founders of the club; Bedri Onat, Nadir Gündüz, Muhattin Hakkı, Nizamettin Bey, Saim Dinçer, Vacip Dolunay and Halil Uyanık. The club's colors are " yellow " and " dark blue ", and " Kubilay " is in the coat of arms of the club . Menemen Youth, which started its social and cultural activities with the opening of Community Centers, started its football life under this roof. She established the main foundations of sports by staying under the same roof for 10 years where the current Girls' Vocational High School is located, and then for 7 years in the building of the former State Hospital. In 1942, when the Community Centers were dissolved, it was included in the Body Training Organization and not long after that, the Local League was established. At that time, Altay, Altınordu, İzmirspor, Karşıyaka, Göztepe, Tirespor and Bayındır also took part in the Local League. Menemen Youth played its first match in this league with Altınordu and the match ended 1-1. In the 1942-43 season, Altınordu finished third in the league, which ended with the Local League championship. After 1950, the Local Leagues were shaped with a new change. The accidents gathered together and Menemen Youth became the team of the new group and won its first championship in 1955. Meanwhile, under the presidency of Mustafa Yontucu, the management including Çetin Ceylan established a club in Taşhan under the name of Menemen Güneşspor Club. The colors of this club were yellow-red. After the first championship, the love for sports in the district increased even more. And that year, Altay transferred striker Adnan from Menemen Youth, while Çamur Zeki became the first top scorer of the team. As a result of the initiatives of Çetin Ceylan, one of Güneşspor's managers in those years, Güneşspor football players were united under the umbrella of Menemen Youth Sports Club. Menemen Youth struggled for 13 years in the Izmir Districts. In 1976, he won his second championship by defeating Narlıdere 1-0 at Alsancak Stadium. In 1984, with the decision of the Football Federation, he was included in the 3rd League with the name "Menemenspor", and with the support of Mayor İlhami Gürsoy and Club President Sabri Karakaş, he started attempts to meet 15 million guarantees as required by law. Sabri Karakaş deposited the guarantee he received from a bank to the Football Federation and Menemenspor was also included in the 3rd League. The management, consisting of Sabri Karakaş, Ünal Atalay, Osman Üstündağ, Kemal Ülken, Sedat Eryılmaz, Lütfü Eroğlu, and Hüseyin Ceylan, took the lead of the club. That year (1984-1985 season), Menemenspor started to compete in the 3rd League 4th Group and finished third in the league. Menemenspor, who came second in 1985-1986, became champion the next season and advanced to the 2nd League. Struggling in the 2nd League for three seasons, Menemenspor first fell into the 3rd League in 1989-90, and fell into the amateur league the next year. In 1992, the name "Menemenspor" disappeared and the name of the club became "Menemen Belediyespor". Menemen Belediyespor, who won the İzmir Amateur League and played promotion matches in the 3rd League in the 2007-2008 season, managed to get back to the 3rd League after 17 years. In the 2013-2014 season, they finished 5th in the 3rd League 2nd Group and qualified to play in the Play-Offs. After eliminating Tuzlaspor and Yeni Diyarbakırspor in the Play-Offs, they were promoted to the 2nd League after 24 years. Having struggled in the 2nd League for five years, the team made it to the Play-Offs four times, but narrowly missed the 1st League. In the 2018-2019 season, it was promoted to the 1st League as the champion in the Red Group. Before the 2019-2020 season, the name was changed to Menemenspor. Menemenspor, who competed in the 1st League between 2019-2022, Before the 2022-2023 season, the club, whose shares were taken over by Ekmas Sportive Activities, one of the Ekmas Group companies, started its struggle under the name "Menemen Football Club". The first president of the club was Bahri Ekmekçioğlu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was Barış Orhunbilge, and the Technical Director was Özden Töraydın. --- In game, the club has somewhat of a blank slate (sans some kits that I created on Kitbasher for them) and the supporter profile seems interesting information, even if I have little understanding of what it will mean to my playing! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 November 2022 - Squad Review Contract signed, feet under the table and this: Yeah. We're not in a great spot. However, I have every hope that we will be able to push up the table given the data I have collated, below: Looking at the statistics when taking over from a sacked manager and seeing that, actually, we have a group of players, who, if you counted xPts as true to life, would be sitting third in the table, is something of a shock! We look as if there is a lack of confidence in the squad going forward as we are underperforming our xG and conceding more than our xGa suggests that we should. There are no gaping holes withing the team but this statistic tells me our football is probably dire - we barely complete above the average number of passes but stop our opposition from completing many - signalling a game whereby we are lose in possession (backed up here) but also probably spend most of the time fouling or being fouled. We've used three shapes this season and have had some success with the 4-3-3, creating chances but, clearly, not putting them away. Likewise, we seem pretty solid facing the most common shapes, creating more than the opposition. I have no game footage to watch in preparation for my first game but it would appear that we are getting carved open and allowing the ball to get to the by-line before being worked (not crossed - we are good at defending those) back into the box, whereby a placed shot from close in is doing the damage. We've also conceded two penalties this season and have been lobbed once, but only three headed goals. Certainly a more unified, solid approach at the back will need to be taken to stem this tide of goals. Our last match report - the only one I can access - probably shows our position under the old boss really well. We were away from home but came away with nothing as we lost 2-1. --- Again, I am pretty happy with the quality of players that I am inheriting. For reference, I have compared them to the attribute levels of players in this division using the Report -> Comparison feature and have also collated some key statistics from the first fourteen games of the season. Each thumbnail is clickable to show their entire profile. Goalkeepers Two keepers over the age of 30 is never great for the long term squad build but I don't see a period of time here in Menemen that exceeds two to three years so we should be ok. Ozer is, by contractual terms, the number one and probably has the upper hand. It'll be interesting to see how this works, tactically, as his kicking is poor so I will have to rely on his Throwing ability to start counter attacks, hoping to increase that pass completion percentage, too. The biggest thing, for me, will be to get some clean sheets on the board and rebuild his confidence. Defenders Probably starting with four at the back means that I'll be looking at Cansev - another aging player - to sure up the centre of the defence. Attribute wise, he's good for this level and really brave, too, so I have some questions to ask around his poor number of blocks and relatively low number of interceptions. I imagine that keeping a right-left pairing will be the safest option so he'll probably be partnered by Paykoc, who, at 19, is a really bright prospect. He's clearly done a lot of defensive work across the 247 minutes he's played this season but I'm hoping he can slot into the backline. Altunbas seems like a nice option as a more progressive full back as he's able to create more key passes and also gets the ball upfield only a little less than Kanci, who'll probably be the starting left back. Midfielders I've always liked a man who can sit and Ferhat Culcoglu looks to be that one. Good attribute wise but also a man who can sprint, despite his ever increasing age, press and tackle, too. Whilst my DM, especially at this point, is often quite static, I feel that he's got the makings of a good player in this role, despite being another man over the age of 30. Ahead of him, I'm likely to opt for two midfielders and two more offensive wingers, with Getbay looking like the only settled choice for that role. I think Tuncer will probably warrant a starting place given his ability to move the ball forward but there is little in the way of realistic long term options here. Likewise, the wingers are limited to Alkurt - a good man but horribly out of form - and Kaylibabal, who I did initially want at full back. Forwards With only two strikers, I'm pretty much settled with one up top and, fortunately, I think both Yilmaz and Ozgun can rotate. The former is performing much better than his partner but, on overall attributes, they are pretty much on a par. I'll need to look at ways to get them scoring again, though. --- Taking it very slowly at the moment, looking at each element in turn before I get to my first match, in four days time. By then I want to have begun some of the following: Identified any promising youth players Set up training Identified a couple of extra coaching staff - ideally Argentinains Created a base tactic to work from 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlivierL Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Good luck, like always trying to read your great detailed posts . I hope you'll also manage in Crete! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 November and December 2022 It's funny that I've poured hours into creating a stats based skin yet have barely looked at a player profile in the first four weeks of my management here, instead getting completely stuck into the match engine - which I quite like, and our tactical battles. I'm through the first four games and, with nine points on the board already, go into Christmas certainly looking upwards. --- Menemenspor 2-0 Afjet Afyonspor I couldn't have asked for a better start to my time at the club! A win, clean sheet and even a penalty save to boost the match ratings. The first goal of my tenure came from a nice midfield overload, something I craved last year. However, I've set up considerably more disciplined with just supporting players in this area until I can get a fuller understanding of our standing within the game as well as the opposition we face. Omer, an attacking right back, along with a winger directly in front of him was used to hold the same area on the pitch whilst I looked to build a numerical advantage and get the ball switched over to striker-cum-winger Enes. I started the game with the instructions you can see in the screenshot and with relatively vanilla roles but added and tweaked as the game went on, in particular using the overload the right hand side after a succession of fouls were conceded by their left back and I felt I could exploit it. There obviously needs to be lots more work to be done - the involvement of the PF(a) needs to be remedied, although I have played with an out and out scorer before, to good success, and we really must build on this pretty horrific looking metric for our defensive actions. However, this is the perfect start for me - some tactical wins, three points and some good performances that I can use as a catalyst to boost morale within the team. --- In the week long break between fixtures, I took my first and last delve into the Staff Search screen - appointing, for realism purposes, a couple of Argentinian coaches, whilst my newly appointed DoF secured some further staff. Neither Lamas or Pelaez match my style of play or formation but speak my language and will help me settle in here. I was also told of the appointment of Karakus as the new u19 Manager. As I said in the opening posts, I need to accept that this is not in my remit as Head Coach and, as such, will work with the staffing structure provided for me. --- Sanliurfaspor 1-2 Menemenspor Two from two! My first taste of facing the newly-remodelled 4-2-3-1 with now two sitting players in a deeper pivot. My intention was to overload one side of that pivot at a time - in this case, the side that they had their Regista on - our left wing. Our first goal was a prime example of that, with the movement of the Mez(a) taking both players in the pivot completely out of play and allowing Enes a relatively simple through ball to Ali, who finished really well. The first goal against under my tenure came from a little bit of poor marking and failing to win the first or second ball - something that has been repeated across the 180 minutes of football to date. I have no idea how to resolve this - whether it's partly due to the 'Stay on Feet' attribute, poor bravery, anticipation or just a sign of relatively low morale, I don't know but I need to resolve that and win these battles. A direct free kick was the winner for us in an unexpected bonus! --- The intake preview (clickable for a full shot) came through and isn't particularly impressive - however, drawing similarities to my time at Mashuk on FM22 - this is really not the important part of this stage of the save. --- Menemenspor 1-2 Akaraspor My first defeat and, whilst there are lots of things to work around, there must be some positives that can be taken from a game, albeit at home, against a team that end the day in 3rd place. Just a quick look at some stats tells you that we were very much in the game: 38 progressive passes to 27 58 final third passes to 35 1.65 non Pen xG to 1.04 2 clear cut chances to 1 The first goal was a sign that our progressive system isn't quite fully implemented and that the Mez(s) is maybe a little too aggressive in a Positive system as the long ball was cut out by their winger and the countered and scored. I will look at either developing the system so that they aren't so far ahead of the ball when we are in the build up as, given the quality of players that we have, are prone to turnovers leaving us in difficult situations. With twenty minutes left, I moved to a double pivot - trying to bypass their midfield a little bit and take advantage of tiring defenders, utilising the five substitutes that I am allowed to make. This time, Gencer got his pass right, taking out their three midfielders and allowing us a nice overload on their defenders. Sadly, before I could instruct us to move back, hold our shape and waste a bit of time, they'd gone down the other end and retaken the lead. --- Between games I attended my first recruitment meeting (click for further info) and, to be fair, it was quite good. We're not blessed with any money so it was quite a short one but I do like how I can speak to the agents before setting my DoF out to renew deals, meaning he won't make stupid decisions on wages. He did, however, make two great calls with the signing, and completion of my backroom team, of HoYD Evrensel Kurucay, who I think is really strong for this level and Chief Scout Murat Kus - who has experience at Bundesliga club Koln. --- Nazili Belediyespor 2-3 Menemenspor I really see value in the 4-2-3-1 shape as I think we have the players made for it and I think this strong result, away at a team chasing promotion, shows that. We got ourselves into a 2-0 and 3-1 lead, playing some really nice football - although a penalty and a goalmouth scramble significantly padded our stats in what was otherwise an even affair. Whilst we did score three times away from home, defensively, I worry that we are an absolute shambles! Every time we lose possession, I feel like we're vulnerable to conceding and our first goal shows just that. There is no way we should be just dallying on the ball their but, also, if we do make that mistake, our marking should be much stronger in the middle of our defence. It's a bit of complacency, positioning, decision making all contributing to a recovery and a cross that is easily slotted home by the man in yards of space. Yet this time, from a corner, we have three men marking each other and allowing space for a simple tap in. This fact from the last four games is of concern to me, too. If you look at this image and notice shots (left) and goals (right), I would say that we have conceded five goals that, a man with the 6'2" frame and high level reflexes that Zulkuf has, should have been saved. His save differential has dropped (93% Expected - which I assume was bugged as pre-takeover was at 100% to 70% save ratio) so there has been an increase in the saves that he is making but I do feel that he's still a little lightweight. Maybe, just maybe, we could try and stop the ball getting into that position though... We're off for the Christmas break now but, in the first week back, I'm going to be running some defensive drills in training. Now I know that Match Prep blocks are what you see on the field, but I want to also spend time trying to improve the defensive attributes that my players have. This will be what they are faced with: --- We sit nicely in the form table and our league position is picking up: It's good to be back writing and getting my teeth into Football Manager again! 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter G Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Needs more Wololo! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyLewis11 Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Picking up exactly where you left off, a really good introduction to the save and Manymenspor 😉 paired with the analytics and analysis which is why I love consuming your threads. 🧠 Kudos on the skin also, linking the attributes to on field actions is pretty genius. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 16 hours ago, _Ben_ said: 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. 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. --- 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. --- 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: First Touch refers to the player's ability to stop, trap or move on the ball when it is coming at a variety of speeds, heights or angles. A player's first touch can be the vital cog in whether possession breaks down or the attacking move can continue. 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. --- 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. --- 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." 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: Director of Football The man with the power. He'll oversee a lot of the things at the club and will allow me to focus on my role of Head Coach/Head of Player Development that I foresee this career moving towards. I will allow him to negotiate contracts, work with my head of recruitment to sign players and hire and fire some of the less key staff. 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! Love it! Good to see the tactical periodisation carries over, will be interesting how you adjust this to suit the current style of play as you look to become more fluid tactically to counter specific threats. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Followed, obvs Just a quick question - I see you've started the save (not yet read those posts), so just checking you're aware of the player development bug in beta and the risk that might need a new start to correct? Obviously not telling you what you should or shouldn't do, just making sure you're aware 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 12 hours ago, Peter G said: Needs more Wololo! I'm sad to say that I had to Google this but it brought back a whole lot of nostalgia with a game I probably ploughed more hours into as a kid than I do now with FM! 12 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said: Picking up exactly where you left off, a really good introduction to the save and Manymenspor 😉 paired with the analytics and analysis which is why I love consuming your threads. 🧠 Kudos on the skin also, linking the attributes to on field actions is pretty genius. The team name doesn't exactly role off the tongue, does it?! Manyoldmenspor would probably be most fitting right now but, as I'm trying to grapple with, the signings will not be initiated by me so the likelihood of bringing through a core of solid youth players is potentially going to be a small one! Just read your Villareal post on Twitter and I must say I'm excited to see how that unfolds and excited to steal some of your data viz ideas! 2 hours ago, SixPointer said: Love it! Good to see the tactical periodisation carries over, will be interesting how you adjust this to suit the current style of play as you look to become more fluid tactically to counter specific threats. Thanks! Still a bit of a bug bear that 'Defensive Shape' is all I can select to prepare for matches - is that just the coaches saying we are using a WB(d) - CD(d) - CD(d) - FB(a) this week or is it saying that they're lining up with two inverted wingers so this is what to expect? In my head, I'm hoping it's the latter! 18 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said: Followed, obvs Just a quick question - I see you've started the save (not yet read those posts), so just checking you're aware of the player development bug in beta and the risk that might need a new start to correct? Obviously not telling you what you should or shouldn't do, just making sure you're aware Yes, I'm aware of it. However, I've read that it will be save game compatible but won't go back to amend any changes, just change the development process from there on in. My thinking was, with me down at this level and playing slowly, I'll only get a season or so done before the full game drops and, therefore, the top players - Endrick seems to be the 'name' this year - won't have lost too much development time and will just start properly from that point onwards. Hope I've not misread it and end up needing to start over - the team intro took me ages! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 26 minutes ago, _Ben_ said: Yes, I'm aware of it. However, I've read that it will be save game compatible but won't go back to amend any changes, just change the development process from there on in. My thinking was, with me down at this level and playing slowly, I'll only get a season or so done before the full game drops and, therefore, the top players - Endrick seems to be the 'name' this year - won't have lost too much development time and will just start properly from that point onwards. Hope I've not misread it and end up needing to start over - the team intro took me ages! That makes sense. If you've got a link to that feedback then I'd be keen to see it, might prompt me to get started too. I've been holding off a little 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 4 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said: That makes sense. If you've got a link to that feedback then I'd be keen to see it, might prompt me to get started too. I've been holding off a little This post here stating this: "Future fixes will be save game compatible and will affect player progression from that point forward, rather than retrospectively alter any attributes. Player progression is a complex area and delicate balancing act with nearly every other part of the game feeding into it one way or another, so your patience is greatly appreciated while we iron out the issues. Results can also be impacted by save game and database setups, so thanks for the feedback so far and if you have any extreme examples or new info, a post on the bug tracker is always welcomed Thanks!" --- As I said, nobody that I'm using now will be developing into wonderkids and a year where mental attributes increase more than technical attributes will hardly break the game, for me, when I'm in 2030+. I understand that people are annoyed at it as they will be at big clubs, developing top tier talents, but, for me, it's not an issue at this point as I won't be getting more than a season or so done during this beta rollout. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Nice one, ta Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmason84 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 That skin really is outstanding - it would be great if it did see the light of day, and you were to make it available. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 1 hour ago, Shrewnaldo said: That makes sense. If you've got a link to that feedback then I'd be keen to see it, might prompt me to get started too. I've been holding off a little Likewise! Just bouncing about the beta having a play around for the same reason. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo_ Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 The most anticipated thread for FM23 - off to a great start, Ben. Amazing work on that skin, too. Look forward to following this one, as inspiring as ever. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjt65 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Here. We. Go. Nice one Ben - love the concept. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 (edited) @cmason84 - It's very much a WIP right now but will drop you a message once I'm happy to release it all! Thanks @Tommo_, @tjt65 - really enjoying it so far! Edited October 25, 2022 by _Ben_ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 January 2023 January is done and we're unbeaten in the league although have failed to keep a clean sheet... ---- After four games and a general understanding of the players, I think it's important I look at our standing in terms of the division and see where we, realistically, can aim for. I've realised the first mistake in this game was to not add full detail to the Turkish third tier whilst I holidayed through, meaning that the statistics collected now - both team and player - are slightly unrealistic and have occurred on the quick match engine (for example, nobody in the league had recorded an open play key pass). However, a quick filter on the Team Stats screen shows that we are largely able to play the way I want and with minimal input from me over the four games in charge: I like to create a playing style that scores lots of goals but also stops the opposition scoring (as if it was that easy!) and that relies on progressing the ball quickly, either through direct passing or dribbling and relying on interceptions to win the ball back as opposed to tackles - which would indicate that, probably, we haven't cut off the initial danger. We're scoring well and creating well, although that has clearly been offset by what is a shocking defence, with lots of goals conceded from the second least number of shots against in the entire league. Going forward, we need to be intercepting more and progressing the ball forward much more. It's a work in progress but I hope that we can build on it... Which leaves the shape, going into two mid-season friendlies, looking like this: The premise is quite clear - we are much more stable at the back and have quite a fluid front three, four or five, depending on the situation. The statistics from the two friendlies are pretty much irrelevant but the shapes and styles are key to me. When we build up, I want to create that 3-2-5 shape (different from my Matryoshka 2-3-5) which includes attacking players in each vertical zone of the pitch - with an emphasis on a build up down the right hand side due to a numerical advantage. I may decide to tactically force an overload on this side if it doesn't come naturally. In terms of player instructions, I'll be asking the right sided DM to sit a little more to cover the hole left by the wing back. Defensively, our shape should now be a big stronger, with the right centre back having the 'Stay Wider' instruction added to hopefully pull him over and make a solid bank of three with two players ahead of them - meaning that, when we do lose the ball moving it forward quickly, we have two banks to break down before the opponents have a clear shot at goal. However, both games were riddled with errors - including this, which literally any keeper worth his salt needs to be dealing with. Time will tell as to whether I've got the right man between the sticks as, in just four games, I've managed to have significant impact on the attacking side of our game, but not the defensive - with a lot of that down to some really sub-standard goalkeeping: --- 24Erzincanspor 1-1 Menemenspor 10 points from 15 and five 'xG wins' but probably the first time I've felt we should have taken more as we travelled to the team second from bottom. We lined up in usual fashion but I intended to put a bit of pressure on their left hand side trio of WB-RGA-IW. We did that, and did it quite well - with a lot of our passes angled from left to right. However, we conceded another soft goal, this time a header from a position where we should really never be challenged from. The cross found the man on the penalty spot who put it low to the keepers left - another recurring pattern of poor shot stopping for shots low to the ground. Much praise goes to Altunbas, who continues to work really hard down the right hand side and I hope to see him add to his two assists, from 0.49 xA, as the season progresses. The overall thoughts from the game remain: This is data from the last three matches. We need to be more resilient in front of our own goal. In transition and, largely, in front of goal, we're producing near enough what I'd want as this point in my tenure, but we're a million miles off solidifying at the back. --- Menemenspor 1-1 Bursaspor New signing Mert Torlak was given a debut but trialist-cum-signing Huseiyn Dogan was left out of the squad. I did not initiate either deal, instead, relied on my DoF and Chief Scout to find and deliver them to me. As time progresses, I will delve deep into the statistical analysis of my signings but, right now, it's trial performances and whatever can be scrounged together - with Mert joining on loan and Dogan costing just £70 a week. This was a lowscoring, low excitement affair against the once Super Lig side Bursaspor but one where, once again, I have to question the performance of my keeper. A shot came in from the edge of the area and, as you can see by the image above, I don't feel that an attempt was really made to save it! Whether this is animation and he's tried his best or whether it's just a half-cooked attempt, I do not know but, yet again, we were left to chase the game. To our credit, we came back and scored a nicely taken headed goal, thanks to Alkurt. We're not scared of getting men into the box and that is evident from the screenshot but what does worry me is that, as of right now, I don't really have a Plan B - the players are one dimension and we lack depth up front as it is. --- Sivas Bld. 1-5 Menemenspor The patterns of offensive play are just getting better and better. I won't ask why we needed to concede from here but our response was great, creating a nice 3-3-4 in the transition phase with a direct ball from Omer into the channel allowing Ekrim to square for Ali's first of the day. His second came from a nice knock down, however, to help win these balls, I'd like to him to be ten to twenty yards either side, doubling up on either full back rather than put his 6'1" frame up against the bigger defenders. It's something that - as an Aston Villa fan - have read that Unai Emery utilises to get either Danjuma or Moreno involved in the build up and it's something that I need Ali to do as well, although I cannot then let him be removed from the end ball through. Our third came down the left and was a prime example of how the play is different on either side - with the full back sitting back creating almost a 2-4-4 shape. Two more goals late on from set pieces sealed the emphatic win as we move ahead of Sivas in the table. --- I'm not getting ahead of myself but we are, literally, a win away from the playoff places here. Next month sees us play both of the top two, Tarsus away ad Inegolspor at home as well as two teams - Arnavutkoy and Amed - who occupy the relegation zone. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmason84 Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 1 hour ago, _Ben_ said: @cmason84 - It's very much a WIP in progress right now but will drop you a message once I'm happy to release it all! Thanks @Tommo_, @tjt65 - really enjoying it so far! Thanks @_Ben_! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darien Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 What a thread! I thought it was hard to keep up after last year but I see it has even improved! Congratulations, I'll look forward to every update, don't leave out a single detail! PS: I also hope you can share that skin, I think it's really amazing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 25, 2022 Author Share Posted October 25, 2022 February 2023 With not a lot to do outside of manage each match, I'm able to push on through the early months in this save. I've lost just once in my first eleven games as Menemenspor manager which, to be fair, is probably close to what was expected of me, given the sheer underperformance of the squad when I took over. This is not a long term project for me but, naturally, I'm now starting to think about recruiting and reshaping the squad over the summer but this needs to be in line with my recruitment team and okayed by a board overseeing a club in quite a lot of financial distress at this point. --- Tarsus Idman Yurdu 2-3 Menemenspor What a performance! Heading away to the top of the league, I made a couple of tweaks to our usual shape - moving the block back to a low block, whilst funnelling their inverted wingers to the touchlines and doubling up on them so that they couldn't get the crosses in. I won't dwell on the fact that both conceded goals did come from crosses - but that was largely down to some shocking marking and then allowing them a free header from a corner. We allowed them to have so much more of the ball - 63% in total - and almost doubled up on our PPDA, letting them have 4.56 passes per action, compared to our 2.77 recorded in the last game. Still, we are shaky at the back but we did an amazing job of restricting them getting close enough to the goal to do anything with our compact shape. Our first, scored by Ziya Alkurt, came from a nice bit of positional play, where the right wing is overloaded thanks to the overlapping full back and then the left side is allowed to create a numerical advantage for when the ball is switched to it. My Plan B in this game was the winner - moving the AM(s) forward to a F9(s) allowed substitute Dogan to flourish - scoring once and creating an assist despite completing on five passes in his twelve minute cameo. This beautifully weighted through ball from Dogan was exactly what I'd asked him to do - occupying the space that the AM had taken and then, just six minutes later, being the furthest man forward to net my winner. --- Menemenspor 1-1 Inegolspor Another point against stronger opposition than ourselves. Whilst things are moving along nicely, I think that there are two points to consider here: Our xG story and shot map above shows that, despite the lovely interplay that we're starting to create on a regular basis, our shooting and, to be fair, the final ball, is still not where it should be. Lots of little increments on the xG story show that the quality of these shots was not good as we've lacked the vision, creativity and off the ball movement to play one more pass. Or, we have been so dependent on playing high tempo football that have just got the shot away rather than looked to play a through ball. These are the kind of things that I tend to miss the first time around - instead reflecting on the quality of the shot as opposed to the quality of the build up. I'm hoping that a deeper dive into xA as well as my routine of intently watching highlights will allow me to dig deeper. We have gone behind, conceding first, in five out of the nine games we've conceded in. This is an appalling statistic and one that we really need to iron out. Looking, briefly, at the team talk feedback, I can see that my position over them is now starting to motivate them, as we are all pulling the same way in a dressing room that is positive. However, our team cohesion, below, could be the defining factor here. I envisage that the squad will be, funds and recruitment pending, torn apart during the summer and this process will need to restart but we must do better at becoming a more cohesion outfit. I have made sure that I have both Team Bonding and Community Outreach in each week and I'm trying to ensure that my conversations are positive and we are collectively happy, but it'll take time... --- Menemenspor 3-1 Arnavutkoy The search for that elusive clean sheet continues. I like to take matches at face value and not believe in match engine faults but I've read that this is something that people are having issues with, too. Whether it means that we'll stop scoring so many will be part and parcel of it but I genuinely don't see us scoring the same type of goals that we are conceding. However, we take three points in a game that we largely dominated and took our chances on. But, again, it's that dilemma between the team talk and/or the player praise then leading, almost immediately, to the goal conceded. We took our second and third goals well with both coming from nice work from left back Kadir. For the first time though, I felt that our reputation preceded us and we were faced with a much lower block than usual, leading to a significant amount (161) of passes completed in our own half. Getting a proper creator in my system might help unlock this as I move forward. --- Amed 1-1 Menemenspor At one point, we'd reached the highs of second in the league. But another wonder goal with dodgy keeping brought us back down to earth. We really need to be beating the teams below us from now on if we harbour any intentions of making a late push into the playoffs over the last ten games but we failed to do so, also looking a little toothless against Amed. Never the less, a point is a point but I do feel like we're probably missing a marginal gain here or there as I continue to get my head around the match engine and ways to exploit spaces and players in the opponents team. This, however, is not made any easier by not being able to scout and analyse the next opposition in any kind of detail - meaning that my first proper look at them comes from the ten minutes I watch on Full at the start of each game. I feel that I'm getting better at it but still can't really pick out the roles of the players aside from the very obvious. --- We are still within touching distance of the playoffs here with ten games left and have moved nicely away from the drop zone that we were falling towards when I took over. The ship is definitely stable, it's now about pushing on to reach it's destination! I finally know a player! Mehmet is a player that I'm sure I've seen or come up against on FM before and, to find him offered to me, personally, by his agent, is great. He's absolutely lost his legs and has had horrible luck with injuries across his career but I hope that, if he were to sign and play in the hole, he could really become an old fashioned Engache, allowing the fluidity around him as he ambles across the pitch, picking a pass and taking my set pieces. He's joined on trial by Alper Potuk, another aging player but one who could ease my depth worries going forward. The big problem is that we are quite significantly in debt and, because of this, my DoF is unable to offer a substantial deal. Goes against the long term vision for my recruitment but, at this level, being directly offered out of contract players is probably the best way to initiate deals before watching them play whilst on trial, which is exactly what these lads will do for the next four weeks. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 A cracking start, and playoffs are very much within your grasp, especially with a game-in-hand. Although it's probably fair to suggest that everyone down to Somaspor in 13th is in that battle right now. You've talked about making marginal gains, how are the team statistics now compared to when you took over? 8 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Also, this is a thing of beauty. The pass was sensational, but the first touch wasn't bad either! Probably the most realistic rounding of a keeper I've seen in FM ever. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 @_Ben_splitting out the attributes like that is such a great way to train yourself to spot the type of player you have on your hands, I absolutely love it. Please include me in the message list if you do go on to release it as I'd love to train myself to do the same Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dereka Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Great job on the skin, I like the creativity of going for additional focus as segmentation Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post _Ben_ Posted October 26, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 26, 2022 Ok, I've caved! I thought about this and want to give something back to the community that has been wonderful to me over the years. The skin is nowhere near finished and I'm not planning to maintain weekly updates and change panels to anything other than what I want but I have made it available to download, here: 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conardo Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Ty Ben! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 26, 2022 Author Share Posted October 26, 2022 8 hours ago, GIMN said: You've talked about making marginal gains, how are the team statistics now compared to when you took over? Got a whole bit on that coming up in the March update! 8 hours ago, GIMN said: Also, this is a thing of beauty. The pass was sensational, but the first touch wasn't bad either! Probably the most realistic rounding of a keeper I've seen in FM ever. I agree - I must say, keepers aside, that this ME feels the most realistic I've ever played. I'm loving the bits of chaos, controls and the little touches that stop it feeling quite so robotic. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 27, 2022 Author Share Posted October 27, 2022 (edited) March 2023 Another unbeaten month as we move forward towards the end of the season. I'm not sure, given our finances, what the future holds here but I've certainly enjoyed cutting my teeth at this level. ---- iSparta 32 1-1 Menemenspor Four seconds plus injury time from our second clean sheet! A little infuriating this one! Not only the late goal denying the points but our attacking performance was substandard. Our goal was 0.08xG meaning that fifteen attempts amassed just 0.53xG - some 0.035xG per shot and, as you can see from the graphic, these are coming from very deep areas. Our heat map shows that we just struggled to break down the iSparta defence and it's one of those games whereby I really feel the lack of a true creator at the club. --- As we move forward, I want to spend a bit of time looking at the key areas of my team and how they've developed under my stewardship. Whilst this is a little bit of a cop-out, choosing players who are performing well, I should hopefully be able to see some kind of development in their statistical outputs as we move forward. The key battle, now, will be to find ways to get those underperforming players to be performing better but that will come once I feel that I have the right balance on the pitch and I can delve into additional training, traits and personalised instructions. For each player, their thumbnail links to their profile and their statistics upon my takeover are at the top with up to date statistics underneath. Ekrem has provided four goals and two assists for me from the right wing, which is a strong output - having a say in 24% of the goals since I took over. What I am pleased with is that he has been moving into positions whereby his shots are of better quality and he's taking more of them, too. He made two appearances for me as a right back but didn't not impress there, and has really cemented himself with improvements in his dribbling and chance creation outputs. Whilst there is evidence of his crossing ability increasing - something that his good Off The Ball, Anticipation and Acceleration should indicate - I do want him to work harder to find his target in the box as this puts him way outside the top twenty at this level. Ali is eighth in the league for xG created but sixteenth in goals scored, even though I've managed to increase the number of shots he's taking. However, my concerns come from the reduction in shot xG - meaning that he's shooting from lesser quality positions and then the Conversion Rate, which is likely a by-product from that. However, in my system, despite being an Advanced Forward, I require a lot more from him in terms of movement and positional play. At the end of the day, he's scoring more than he had been when I took over and I really like the way he builds up the play, so it's now on me to ensure that he has another option with him so that he doesn't just resort to long distance shots. The on-loan right back has been a touch out of form of late but has started to form into the player I want - interception more and tackling less as well as being far more aggressive - as you can see from his drop in crosses - although he's contributing a lot more and also his drop in progressive passes as he's far further forward than before. Overall, the squad is developing to my style of player and, as I said, I need to then look to layer in additional things in order to get them to excel in these areas - although, in the Turkish third division, excel isn't a word that gets thrown around often! ---- Menemenspor 1-1 Erokspor I'm conscious that I've really not been digging into the opposition and trying to get the better of certain players weaknesses, instead just focusing on a formation that may or may not actually be the one that starts the game. So, for this game, I decided to dig into a little bit more. To start, Erokspor are a team with no wins in six, losing the last three. However, they are fifth in the league for shots taken per game and sixth for xG/90 - 1.22, which is 0.11 per game below us, the league leaders in this metric. It's likely that they'll attack quite well but also be very weak defensively. A look at their players, sorted by appearances, shows me the details you can see above. There are two players that I wanted to focus on: Zahit Findit is clearly their strongest player, who is good with two feet and able to score goals, even though he's currently pretty badly out of form. I noticed that there is a dotted line between him and the right back, Cansu, so I expect that their performances, with each other, may be exploitable, too. To counter that, I've set some extra instructions for my left back in an attempt to mark him out of the game. I've also set more opposition and team instructions - pushing him inside, even though he's an Inside Forward, simply because we can double and triple up on him there. At the other end, I spotted a potential weak link - Enes Kayar. Statistically, he covers less ground and makes less sprints/90 than all my centre backs, is out of form and is also the weakest rate of the players from the opposition report created by my chief scout. With my own striker Ali in good form, I really want to get as many options to get one vs one with him, so have instructed my attacking midfielder to get into those spaces, either against him or the other defender. Within minutes, we have doubled up and our goal, on the ten minute mark, shows it, too as Dogan gets in and finishes really well. After that, we managed to keep Findik quiet but, sadly, couldn't go on and seal all of the points. However, to create more xG than our average, whilst stopping Erokspor create as much as they do on average means that this feels like points dropped even though it feels like a tactical victory. We keep moving forward though... --- Menemenspor 2-0 Bayburt Clean sheet Completely wasteful in front of goal, again! When the hard work was done for the last game and it didn't come off, it just feels refreshing to know that we did things well in this game and got some luck, perhaps even should have scored six or seven goals ourselves. Efecan Gulerce was the left wing back that I targeted for this game, pushing the passing moves more down the right than before and he had a poor game. However, it was two pretty horrific mistakes that gifted us our two goals, although I should be writing about a third, late on, which Enes somehow missed: This, combined with the fact that he's 421 minutes without a goal and the pass map that pretty much misses him out, does leave me a little concerned at how that IF(a) role is working. But, whilst we're still unbeaten and playing some, overall, nice football, I'm not going to act too quickly to rip up the playbook. --- Batman 0-2 Menemenspor Another clean sheet and another three points but a game that was polar opposites from our previous encounter. Batman (yes, they are really called that and yes, Batman is a real place in south eastern Turkey), made us fight for everything and it was Atalay Gurel, the holding midfielder, who scored twice - the first of which coming from a direct free kick. It is also the first time I believe I have had anyone be the player of the week and love the little infographic that I get with it! This was one of the first matches that we have lost on xG and it was really interesting to see how a side, fighting to avoid relegation, set up and took the game to us. I still feel that we are weak defensively and, if it hadn't been for a hatful of missed chances, we would have been overran. --- Menemenspor 4-0 Duzcespor ] My pre-match investigating told me that I'd be expecting inverted wingers and a couple of playmakers, probably from deep. Knowing that we do struggle with long, hoofed balls over the top that my defenders just love to watch, I set out with a plan involving some opposition instructions, particularly aimed at their centre back - Can Otman. His key pass rate is pretty decent for a defender and the tag of BPD makes me assume that the attributes which I haven't uncovered lend themselves to that role. Looking at the passes received in the first half, you can really see that I'd made the pitch smaller, pushing them back and centrally to where I have most of my players and, importantly, limited Can to just a couple of his long, raking passes. In the end Can finished with just a 63% pass completion rate and we worked hard to take our chances, possibly building on the fact that he was having such a poor game on the ball, ending with a 6.1 rating. I'm getting to the idea that by stopping a player doing things I will/may/could also make it easier for me to do what I want against them as body language can certainly be a negative by-product of a poor performance. ---- Between games, my youth intake (click the image to see the full list) arrived and, as expected, it's nothing special. Unfortunately, due to lack of any money, I'm not going to be signing any of these players aside from Mehmet Sezer, who is a good athlete and has a good mentality, even if his personality is less than positive. --- Somaspor 1-3 Menemenspor I've started to see the benefit in the 'mentality' system a little more in this edition and am trying to spot noticeable changes. Here, away at a strong Somaspor side, we went to Cautious, from Balanced and I could see that slightly less risk, in this turnover in possession, for example. We managed to control the game for large periods but are still looking shaky at the back. However, three points at a very important time sees us rise to the top of the second half table, with us being unbeaten in the first fourteen reverse fixtures - certainly a strong showing! --- We end the month with a little breathing space over the teams below us and ranked as 'team of the month' too. Five games left to cement our place in the playoffs and see what happens from there! Edited October 27, 2022 by _Ben_ 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 27, 2022 Author Share Posted October 27, 2022 Quick edit... I crashed the game whilst skinning so had to replay the last game of the month. We won, again: 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
abulezz Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 The detail makes it such an interesting read - like getting lost in a novel! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyLewis11 Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Feels like you are just starting to warm into the save. I enjoyed the comments on your opponent analysis, I am glad to see that I am not the only one who spends the extra time trying to make as many marginal gains as possible. Glad you finally broke the clean sheet duck, just like the buses...as soon as your first one arrived so did the second, third... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uroszila Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Great reading Ben, as always. Your style of playing is really focused on every detail so we have possibility to learn something new from each post. Would you mind to take a print screen of your responsibilities as a manager? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielgear Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Great start to the save @_Ben_ As always the depth you go into with the writing and analysis makes for a great read. How long are you planning to stay in Turkey or does it depend how this season finishes? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIMN Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 Over 2pts per game with you in charge! Incredible stuff. Not to tempt fate, but you've got to be considered the favourite to win the play-offs, surely? You mentioned the tight finances - how is the squad shaping up for next season. Any key players likely to leave (at this level, I guess the right question would actually be "any key players likely to still be there")? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 28, 2022 Author Share Posted October 28, 2022 @abulezz, @MattyLewis11 - Thanks for the kind words! --- @uroszila- of course. Here are my roles as Head Coach/Head of Development The HoYD and DoF take up a lot with the Chairman also taking charge of a lot of the hiring at this stage: It'll develop over time when I find the right formula but it's ok for now! --- @danielgear - Thank you. My plan is going to be quite long term in Turkey, given the reputation gap between the third tier and any anything else with Serie C being some thirty leagues better. That being said, I don't think it feels particularly realistic being able to hop from here to Italy right away, even if my Argentinian manager may have a better opportunity due to their transfer preferences. I also think that moving to another club, in general, would be somewhat unrealistic given the 200-odd day spell I've had here. There are some big questions, as you can see below, but I think I need to both be committed to Menemenspor but also be aware of a more appealing job - even though we're, on form at least, probably too good for this level. --- @GIMN - Yep, I think so. But, as a team relegated last season, we probably should have been aiming for that, all along and, given my initial overview of the team, must say just how much we were underachieving. Yeah - squad building... This is where we sit right now, down from about £60k in the black in November: Which indicates to me that I will have the same budgets, or smaller, for next year. Here are my expiring contracts: Despite all the issues with keeping, I (well, my DoF) will offer Zulfuk Ozer a new deal but the rest will move on or leave at the end of their loans, as I'm not able to subsidise that level of wage commitments any longer. That leaves me, essentially, with the players I want to build my team around, as seen here: It's a little concerning that there are so few players here and that I will be needing some kind of total rebuild but I also have a few players that I want to keep around: HOWEVER... the problem comes with our current will we go up/won't we go up predicament. Going up will open the doors to a whole host of new players, particularly as the no non-Turkish player rule is dropped but we have no feelers out there for who could be available. Don't go up and we then also need a new team because I'll be wanting to build a side that can steamroll this division in order to line myself up for a job over the course of the next season as a team in the second tier - and one with a much more sound financial backing. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 28, 2022 Author Share Posted October 28, 2022 April 2023 Five cup finals played. Some more to come! We are playoff bound, which is a great performance - finishing the regular season fifth when, some twenty-two games ago, we sat fourteenth. --- Menemenspor 3-2 Corum More of the same here. We enter April knowing that five wins guarantees us a playoff spot and five wins also puts us in pole position, form wise, to go up. Therefore, I'm going to try and get my scouting and pre-match prep as tight as possible so that I can go into the game with a good idea of a game play. I've watched Corum's (black kits) last game, a home loss, 2-3, to bottom side Amed (white kits). I made some notes as the game progressed: Look to sit deep when out of possession, trying to be compact horizontally and vertically, pushing the play wide. Keeper looks to be very error prone as he misjudged a cross for Amed's first. DM looks very static in front of back four so AM might not be too productive - I could either offset him or use a F9(s). Both fullbacks are quite advanced when in possession, so we could be a threat on the break. Pull everyone back at corners so a short routine may help to pull players out and make space in the box. I believe full backs are man marking so there is space to be exploited out wide. They appear to try and stop crosses but aren't very good at doing so. I think they try to play through the centre forward, getting the ball into him on the floor but he's often quite isolated as the midfield don't appear to be taking too many risks to get up to support him. The analyst also provided some good points: I've made the following changes: AM(s) moves to a F9(s) to try and avoid the defensive midfielder but also to pull a centre back out of the way. AF(a) moves to P(a) as I look to just get him in the box at all times so he can get his shots away. FB(a) moves to WB(a) as, even though we are trying to exploit the centre, there will be a player wide occupying space where their full back may not be. DM(s) moves to SV(s) and we focus play through the centre as this is where they are weakest. All attacking corners are now short and have a player coming short for them, removed from being in the box. We made the best possible start going ahead in the third minute thanks to some header pinball in the box. At the break, I looked at the passes received by P(a) Ali and felt that it was a little too direct and straight, so moved IF(a) Ziya to a WTF(a) in the hope of moving the play wider and exploiting spaces from their vacated wing backs. There wasn't much action in the second half until we went to sleep, allowing Burak to pull it back for their unmarked striker to finish. In the 80th minute, they converted a penalty but we pulled one back immediately, working a short corner nicely to get the ball onto Ali's head before we got very, very lucky in the last minute of normal time, capitalising on a mistake to play Ali in, for his second. We held on to win 3-2 but a non-Pen xG score of 1.02 to 1.89 shows that it wasn't a good performance from us at all. We did capitalise twice tactically with the second and third (as we'd have never had a man there to make that tackle to lay Ali in) but, overall, it just felt a little over complicated. Maybe the things I spotted were unable to be exploited due to the players I have at the club? With the title race coming down to the wire, i feel quietly confident that we'll second a position between third and fifth but less confident we can overturn a five point deficit, bettering the results of Tarsus and Inegolspor to finish top. --- Afjet 2-2 Menemenspor Once again, opponent game watched. The analysts reckon they're slightly lucky to be seventh at the moment, outscoring their team xG by nearly eight goals. According to their pitch tilt, they're not the best at getting the ball into our final third but pretty good at stopping it getting into theirs, so the match will, probably, be won or lost in the middle of the park. It's also worth noting that they make many more fouls than we do and we're pretty strong from set pieces, so I may look to add that in. In transition, they seem to create a 4-2-4 kind of shape which plays out, defensively, as a 4-3-3 but they are most dangerous on their left wing, which could be a problem for us and our marauding right back, Altunbas. However, on the same note - their WB/IW combo on the left will leave them open, too. I love this little chart, too: Basically, we need the first goal. Afjet have won thirteen times when scoring first, as have we, but only once when conceding first. My gameplan will be to try and blow them away early, whilst keeping an eye on loanee forward, Ege. I went 4-2-4 on Attacking mentality to start, as you can see from the number of players in front of the ball in our build up. After ten minutes, we'd been able to pin them back but a stupid goal conceded on the break, where our full back just watched a long kick sail over his head and to their attacker put us behind. We'd have been level on the half hour mark if Ali hadn't strayed offside but we did level on fifty-two minutes after a well worked move and immediately went in front after another nice move, scored by Ali. After many rushed clearances in the first half, I added Play out of Defence to try and reduce the hoofing from our defenders, but, ironically, a punt downfield from Omer allowed Ziya to cross for Ali. Whilst it wasn't my ideal build up, it did show a nice overload on the right wing with my IW(s) and FB(a) creating confusion. But, again, we were pegged back in the sixty-fifth minute because we are just terrible at defending - a little bit of effort to pick up the spare man would have been wonderful here and maybe Olcay wouldn't have scored! Two all it ended and a battle of midfield attrition, as I predicted. However, we simply cannot continue to defend the way that we do if we want to push on and do well. My squad are familiar with their roles and my tactic isn't defensively senseless. The errors we are making are either down to the match engine or down to individual lack of ability and, given my way of trying to see this realistically - every team uses the same ME, I feel that some of my players just aren't good enough. Plus, we still didn't win when conceding first. ---- Menemenspor 5-2 Sanliurfaspor Two inverted wingers means I will be pushing them as wide as I can, especially with a 6'0" striker who only wins 30% of his aerial duels and is currently out of form with no goals in his last 282 minutes. Sanluirfaspor are the statistical opposite of Afject and are considered to be underperforming, coming into the game with two wins, a draw and two defeats in their last five - whilst we sit top of the form charts with four wins in our last five. Academy graduate Kerem Paykoc got his first ever senior goal as we took the lead, from a corner, inside the first fifteen before getting his second just ten minutes later from another corner. I've used my AM as an AP(s) in the past couple of games and kept in the Play out of Defence and have noticed that we now take goal kicks like this, which is great when that move led to a ball going down the right wing, into the box and into the net from Ziya, adding our third before a penalty on the stroke of half time saw us go in 4-0 up - as Kerem, on a hatrick, was told to take his penalty despite me trying to change it! Ali added a fifth early in the second half before we gifted them one back, switching off from a crossfield ball. Then, again, we were just exploited by defenders watching the game pass by. Nit-picking from a 5-2 win means that I am still concerned about the amount of times we do this - a long, aimless ball forward where we lose the first and second balls. To try and alleviate that, and, understanding that I've asked for a higher tempo, I've dropped passing length from 'Slightly More Direct' to 'Standard' knowing that we stretch the play and move forward quickly, anyway, so the I still should be seeing plenty of vertically but less of this: In one game - we lost possession 60 times when looking at our long, progressive passes. Not good enough! Nor is the fact we've conceded six in our last three but we're just bad at defending! --- Menemenspor 1-1 Ankaraspor Research tells me that Ankaraspor aren't likely to be quite as powerful going forward as my last couple of opponents and have relied on the goalscoring on attacking mid, Sedat Cengiz, rather than their forwards. Centre back Recep Yemisci appears to not only be their form player but also their best so playing around him may be our best option. Similarly to Sanliurfaspor, they've got two Inverted Wingers and a Poacher, who is also 6'0" tall with 26% header completion so I'll go for the same style of forcing them wide and allowing crosses. We started terribly, not pushing forward and invited them to score as they passed through the channels between FB and CB to finish easily. In times like this, it's clear that the player doesn't have the game intelligence to deliver the team instruction (force wide), and the player instruction (show onto - in this case - left foot) to stop this kind of thing happening time and time again. Ali got one back on the hour, prodding home after good work from Bedirhan down the right. A draw in a game that we controlled is a little annoying but we looked a little more defensively solid and our long passing data, above, was much better. It does feel like we've lost a bit of our counter attacking efficiency but have nearly halved the number of times we've given their defenders the ball quite cheaply in mid-transition, leaving ourselves open to be countered, too. It does also mean, as you can see above, that our possession stat has risen. I feel that, looking at the rise in passes from the defenders, this is probably possession for possession sake and is, from watching the game, largely just passing it around - so the Play out of Defence will be being removed for the next game, to see how that changes it. We head into the last game with a playoff spot secured, eighteen games unbeaten but unable to take the title. I do not know if the playoffs are in any way seeded but I want to give myself the best possible opportunity by finishing as high up the table as I can. --- Menemenspor 0-0 Nazili Nazili have big Target Forward Huseiyn Colak up top and play a winger down the left, so I know, quite clearly what my plan will be to do - stop him being able to put the ball into the box. 45% of their goals this season have come from crosses on that left side so I'll need to mirror my shape, nullifying that threat. That'll be made a bit harder with the Mezzala they'll probably play in midfield but, given the fact that they play two of them, our build up should be able to bypass them quite easily - bringing my Advanced Playmaker into play. Both full backs are quite defensive so I'm going to have to require some good interplay and off the ball movement to break down. A clean sheet?! We did exactly what I set us out to do. Nazili completed just two of their seventeen crosses, which is great considering their last three games were: 8 from 47, 8 from 38 and 4 from 24. Our game plan was a little off, offensively as the defenders went back to hoofing the ball and, then by bringing back the Play out of Defence, we kept it too much. I think it's going to be all about measuring the risk vs reward of doing that against the opposition we face. Nazili sat back and made the long ball the easier option but made winning the long ball, and second ball, much harder. --- That completes a pretty wonderful turnaround for us from flirting with relegation to the opportunity for an immediate response to the second tier. The four teams in this group face each other whilst the four from the other do, too. From there, there is a semi final, consisting of four teams (unsure if that is still divisional) and then a grand final, although it appears the two group champions plus another two are promoted, so that may just be for bragging rights! I'm pretty shocked at how I've been able to turn this around but have a sneaking feeling we might just do ok here... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 28, 2022 Author Share Posted October 28, 2022 May 2023 Nearly all of May completed and the miracle run continues. It's as nail-biting as it is confusing as I'm not really sure what constitutes promotion but I am sure that we are certainly working towards the tactical changes that I need in order for us to be successful. -- Menemenspor 2-0 Inegolspor Probably the biggest overachieving side in the playoffs, Inegolspor have scored four more than expected and picked up thirteen more points than expected. However, with a strong attack and a pretty stable defence, they'll be pretty hard to break down. However, their play is built around a really high number of blocks and tackles, suggesting that their defending is often last ditch and I think I can get the better of that by playing a swift, counter attacking style. In terms of nullifying potential threats, right winger Batuhan Salman leads their assists charts and has 3.94 dribbles per game - even if his crossing percentage is a pretty poor 12%. Ideally, I'll push them wide but won't invite crosses like I have before, as I still think we're not the best at actually dealing with them and, in this case, their striker is 6'3" and a bit stronger in the air than those I've faced in the past. I wanted to start brightly and push them back, which we did really well. A set piece goal was our just reward as we racked up 0.95xG to their 0.00xG in the first twenty minutes. At half time, the xG story was great, but I felt that we really needed another to settle my own stomach. In the sixty-fourth minute, Ziya was brought down and Ali tucked away the penalty. It stayed 2-0 as we controlled a lot of the ball - again, creating almost a lite version of our counter attacking but, as you can see from the momentum, stopping them getting anything going. We're in a really strong position for the second leg. --- Inegolspor 2-1 Menemenspor We are human, after all. Defeat but progress on aggregate in an unfortunate mismatch where, due to only having one left back at the club, I was forced to play a DM against their strongest player - a player who we marked out of the last game - Batuhan Salman. I set up in the same way as I did in the home leg, with one alteration - moving to Cautious risk mentality rather than balanced. However, that backfired as we conceded early and, with a defence as shaky as ours has been, continuing that safer style did nothing to calm my nerves. It made us really blunt going forward and, despite it coinciding with a time when they didn't amass any further xG, it was a torrid, low quality watch, with nervous turnover after nervous turnover. A penalty on the hour mark was converted by Ali for his twentieth of the season but our response was far from ideal. We allowed them one more chance, which was duly finished but did manage to shut up shop to save extra time and progress. --- Menemenspor 1-0 Bursaspor The xG table has this double header down as the best two teams in the league playing off against each other. Truth be told, the squad that they have amassed is quality, including Melih Demir, the highest valued player in the division at just 16, who has made a phenomenal start to his career. There really appears to be no avenues to exploit - they play a deep, compact 4-3-3 shape and rely on DM Kubilay to be creative, so I shall be trying to mark him out of the game, possibly pushing to a slightly higher press or just man marking him with a more defensive-minded AM. A really nervy game but one that we managed for the large part of. Wanting to get a good start, I opted to change to a Positive mentality, and add some extra risk to our game after the first five minutes or so. Playing with an Engache, mainly in there to stay quite central and static in order to disrupt play through their DM, was a challenge as he completely changed the way we are fluid in our build up play. However, Tuncer - my usual DM - did exactly what I wanted, limiting Kubilay to just thirteen completed passes, down from 60, 42, 53, 61 and and 47 in his last five games. It was Ali Ozgun, again, who tapped in a cross to leave us ahead at the half-way mark of this tie. --- Bursaspor 0-0 Menemenspor DEFEND! DEFEND! DEFEND! The double pivot of Bursaspor surprised me a little - with them sacrificing a more offensive midfielder from the last leg, despite being at home. Because of this, I just went cautious from the second minute, keeping Play out of Defence on and Work the ball into the box in an attempt to just stifle them of possession. With what was at stake, there was absolutely no way I was going to be giving anything away and we just about did it - keeping the game relatively even, albeit at the expense of good performers really anywhere on the pitch. The dream run continues and we now advance into a final (?!?!) against Kocaelispor. I think the winner goes up but not sure how they then meet the fourth team to be promoted to replace the four relegated... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielgear Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 11 hours ago, _Ben_ said: Thank you. My plan is going to be quite long term in Turkey, given the reputation gap between the third tier and any anything else with Serie C being some thirty leagues better. That being said, I don't think it feels particularly realistic being able to hop from here to Italy right away, even if my Argentinian manager may have a better opportunity due to their transfer preferences. I also think that moving to another club, in general, would be somewhat unrealistic given the 200-odd day spell I've had here. There are some big questions, as you can see below, but I think I need to both be committed to Menemenspor but also be aware of a more appealing job - even though we're, on form at least, probably too good for this level. Makes sense Ben, I think 2.5 seasons in Turkey minimum makes sense. With a promotion or maybe two if the playoffs goes well this year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 29, 2022 Author Share Posted October 29, 2022 (End of) May 2023 Menemenspor 1-0 Kocaelispor Wow! This is probably the greatest turnaround I've witnessed on any FM career of mine. We are promoted. You'll notice that this is past tense as it was one of those games where I didn't want to take my eyes of it to write up anything, in case I missed a big incident! It was quite straightforward, too. Kocaelispor play a similar 4-2-3-1 to us and their goals come through their striker - 13 - and their attacking mid - 10 so these were obvious places I wanted to cut off supply to. I'd also watched highlights from a few games prior to this and noted that 34 year old keeper Gokhan Degirmenci was in quite wonderful form, with a 78% save ratio and, probably, this game wouldn't end in a high scoring affair. I was also concerned with the fact that, on paper, Kocaelispor were the best team in their group but, even so, had still not overperformed their xG. Straight from kick off, our defensive shape was visible - a slight alteration to the mentality of the IF - now on support, created three banks. I started on a Balanced mentality, which isn't unusual, but my pragmatic self was slightly concerned, as, in transition our right back was still well ahead of the play, leaving their winger free. The game ebbed and flowed with a number of low-xG long shots from both sides before we hit the post in the nineteenth minute, with a strong header from a set play. Our game plan of tight marking their forward and AM with our four central defensive players was, even in my opinion, a little risky in terms of not offering anything going forward, but their passes received from the first half told me that we were doing the right thing - forward Samed Onur was limited to just fourteen touches, with one in our penalty area, whilst AM Aydogan failed to touch the ball anywhere inside our defensive third apart from the two corners he took. I made no changes to this for the second half, hoping that, whilst we stayed defensively sound, a moment of magic would unlock something going forward. However, as the second half progressed, I was feeling more and more risk-averse and was almost preparing for the idea of extra time and penalties, holding back a couple of spare changes if needed be. Kocaelispor had their best spell following the eightieth minute and my heart was in my mouth on a couple of occasions but Zulfuk came to our rescue. Then, in the last minute of normal time, this happened: Mert Yusuf was brought down and Huseiyn Dogan was there to put the penalty away, at the death. We successfully wasted enough time to see out the minutes of injury time although I would have been incensed if we had conceded from a position like this - where left back Kadir is off getting treatment and nobody drops in to fill his role. An absolutely insane turn-around for the club under my tenure and, for me, a shock promotion - although I do remember writing, in either November or December, that we were only a win away from the playoff spots! Summer will be really tough but I'll have a think about my squad in the remainder of this post and set up some things I want to do over the summer. ---- As a team, we haven't quite got the metrics in the right place for the teams I like to build but I must remember that, firstly, they are skewed from the fourteen games without me in charge and, secondly, that we're actually performing better playing a lite version of counter attacking, whereby we keep the ball a lot more and build up in different ways, with a hefty number of goals coming from set plays (three penalties, eight from corners, two from direct free kicks and one from an indirect free kick). However, we are creating a league high 1.40 non-Pen xG this season and have completed 201 crosses, 17 more than the next best side - where a lot of our goals have come from. These aren't floated crosses, either, they are crosses where we break the lines and square the ball for a simple tap in - successfully stretching a defence or pulling a player out of position performed at pace. 527 dribbles made and over 3,500 high intensity sprints shows that we are moving towards that high intensity attacking game but we are still some 350 progressive passes away from topping that metric as I look to really ingrain us as a back-to-front team. Thirty-nine goals conceded is only good enough for sixth best in the league, although our xGA is second best at 37.80 whilst we have picked up an unwanted stat of a league-high 496 fouls this season. We are fifteenth in OPPDA, which is a testimony to our compact, mid-to-low block but I'm sure that the data is either wrong, or skewed badly due to not running on full detail before I took over as we are all separated by just 0.27 actions, with ours 1.91 a game, much lower than what I've been seeing in our matches (last five: 2.79, 3.11, 3.1, 2.53 and 3.15). I think that this playing style will certainly develop over time as the level of football and players increases. As time progresses, I will be a bit more specific with these end of season stats and, once I've built/rebuilt my analysis tool, that'll feature heavily, too. But for now, I've got some basic Excel calculations to help understanding an area of the pitch where we've struggled the most. Paykoc, at just 19, is the standout performer - both Average Rating wise as well as the sheer number of Interceptions he makes. Looking at his Excel data, It's a little concerning that just 11% of his passes are progressive and that he's nearly in the bottom percentile for times lost possession, which is worrying in our build up - however, long or short it will be. However, his ability to regain the ball is fantastic in these calcuations, comparing him with all defensive minded players at this level - both groups. The Pressures metric for both Paykoc and Omer Sahbas shows the move towards a compact, un-moving defensive line where the block in front of it does the hard work, leading to more interceptions and progression options, even if they're not being used too well. A combination of Sahbas and Cansev are, at this point, the best we have elsewhere but go into next year with just one full back at the club - which is a serious concern for me. A bit of a mixed bag in this area too, if I'm honest. Veteran Ferhat - who has performed pretty well - will be retiring at the end of the season and, with Atalay's loan expiration, we're going to be quite light here, too. I want more from the attacking midfielder as signings Mert Yusuf and Huseiyn Dogan haven't quite done as well as I wanted, despite them both being to thank for the last minute penalty in the playoff final. The only area of the team that I'm truly happy with. The trio of Ziya, Ali and Ekrem have contributed to a large chunk of our goal contributions and have looked like they want to play for me and in my style each week. Adding some depth to them will. Compared to all wingers at this level, Ziya creates a chance every 39 passes and Ekrem ever 41 passes, putting them both in the top 5% of players at this level. Ali has stood out, too, but, if I'm nit-picking, I'd like him to be creating higher xG chances, although I don't want to sacrifice his off the ball movement and the stuff that the stats does not see - like the times he creates space for others or pulls a defender out. A tiny budget and a small squad await me as I try and build a squad that can stay up next year. I envisage that we may not be favourites for relegation as Somaspor, the winners of our group, have over-achieved to the extent that they would finish mid-table on xPts. Below is the squad I have left as we head into the next season: I'm trying to use a combination of statistical analysis, agent offers and local player knowledge. I feel that the last one, whilst not hugely realistic, is really the only way that transfers at this kind of level get done. How many Turkish third tier clubs have a dedicated team of analysts working to scout and report back on the talent at their disposal in the nation or surrounding nations? Probably none. But, then again, how many Turkish second tier clubs would be viable options for agents to contact as a way into European football? Probably lots. It'll be a combination of the above but any trialists will have to play matches rather than just being signed on the back of a coach rating the day they join! That's definitely not realism... 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_ANZFM Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 What an epic read this has been so far! Your work is always some of my favourite here on the forums but I’m usually far too behind the action to ever comment. Congratulations on the promotion! I look forward to reading how you get on next season! Oh and thanks for the skin! It is absolutely incredible! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 29, 2022 Author Share Posted October 29, 2022 (edited) June 2023 Buoyed by the news I will actually see some money come into this club, I've set up some recruitment foci - something I actually think is a pretty nice improvement on last year - and set about trying to upgrade the quality of this team on an absolute shoe-string budget! For reference, we have around £6k per week left over in the wages and about £30k we can splash on players but absolutely no reputation to sign anyone! My squad rules have also changed slightly as I'm now allowed to employ non-Turkish players: I shouldn't fall foul of any of the above rules given the reputation of ourselves to non-Turks but I may have to leave a few spaces as we really have none of our own promising youngsters. --- Here are my early-window dealings - with each thumbnail clickable to take you to their profile. Signing a player with just thirty-two minutes of competitive league action this season just feels all kinds of wrong to me but I was drawn by the fact I actually know who Gokhan is - from his time as a promising FM youngster whilst at Chelsea and then a real life loan to West Ham. Highly rated by the scouting setup who watched several non-competitive games he had played, firstly at parent club Adana Demirspor - in the top flight of Turkey - and then second tier Genclerbirigi, where he was on loan for a few months. A man with nearly 200 games of experience and who has fetched in £14m in transfer fees must be considered a snip at £5k with just £200 a week outlay on wages. Lacking Natural Fitness and Pace due to a couple of terrible injuries - I fancy using Gokhan as a bit of an old school #10, utilising the top quality Ball Control and strong Passing ability that he has. He'll be a natural ball magnet with the Likes Ball Played Into Feet, which might be a masterstroke as it could stop long, high, aimless balls being punted from the defence and the Tries Tricks and Likes to Switch Ball will only add to our fluidity, even if the fact he Dwells on the Ball might slow our counter attacks down. I'm basically going to ask him to turn up to matches and then use the manual rest tool to ensure that he's not overworked during the week as I feel he could be one of those who is made of glass and I will really need to look after if I want to get any kind of prolonged performances from him. A transfer that I'm actually excited about among this summer of annoyance and, potentially, despair. Sahverdi is from Super Lig side Ankaragucu and ex-Eintracht Frankfurt, and is probably a couple of years too old to have been considered a top prospect but I did beat a number of 1.Lig sides to his signature after spending a little bit of time watching any snippets I could have the U19 Elite League, and collating his stats - as this is still impossible to do on the main Player Search page. In nearly twenty appearances for them, as a DM, he racked up some really strong stats - 0.39 xG+xA a game as well as creating twelve clear cut chances, with six assists laid on, too. Really good at winning back possession also. To sign a pre-contract with a wage that is really affordable for us was a great stroke by the Recruitment Team after I pushed his name under their noses. They went for 'Star Player,' which I'd agree with even though he is relatively inexperienced but does have 17 of his 36 career appearances in the top flight of Turkish football, back in the 2020/21 season. The kind of player who I'd normally discredit being as they're not playing first team level but the extra leg work to get a handle on their U19 team (which, to be fair, is a better level than our first team played at last year) seems to have paid off. Statistically, Burak is a sound signing, having amassed nearly 1,800 minutes in the tier that we are being promoted into. There is nothing that really stands out to me - his solid tackling and heading ratios as well as successful pressures tells me he's quite good at retrieving the ball and is relatively good at using it, although he probably doesn't venture far enough up the pitch to make use of it. When things are fully in place and I actually have a recruitment team, I hope to be able to watch video footage of performances to run the rule over players like this. Instead, I am basing some of evidence on the fact that he has 2.Bundesliga experience with Karlsruhe and is from the Dortmund academy as well as playing for two seasons in the Super Liga with Hatayspor, making twenty appearances. An in-game analyst report alerted me to Kaya, who has played at the same level as us in this past season but has impressed me with his general physicality and work rate to get up and down the pitch. Right now, we have one left back and that one stays back a lot, but I think Kaya might have the freedom to get up and down a bit more given his Distance covered and Sprints per game --- We are back in training in three days time and still have a long way to go before this even looks like a squad. I'm more than a little nervous about what is to come - feeling that I'm going to have to extract every ounce of tactical nous from myself and every ounce of ability from each of these players. It's going to be a test - that is for sure! Edited October 29, 2022 by _Ben_ 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted October 29, 2022 Author Share Posted October 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Chris_ANZFM said: What an epic read this has been so far! Your work is always some of my favourite here on the forums but I’m usually far too behind the action to ever comment. Congratulations on the promotion! I look forward to reading how you get on next season! Oh and thanks for the skin! It is absolutely incredible! Thanks Chris! Really enjoying the save so far (minus this summer's transfer window) and glad to hear you're liking the skin. Will hopefully drip feed some updated panels in over the coming days and weeks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrewnaldo Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 Amazing work on the promotion. That thing about no-one filling in for your left-back when he was off having treatment - that sounds like a bug, no? Also amazed that you've signed a player I've also head of in Tore. Really could be a dash of genuine quality. I haven't played in the Turkish second tier before but I can't imagine it's the strongest league in the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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