[FM23] Deportivo La Coruna: Redemption and a return to the top flight?

[Jtomsett11]

October 2027

I said I'd take 6 points, but I think 5 points is a pretty good return here considering the caliber of opposition.

Athletic 0-1 Deportivo

Another sign of our progression from last season, when Athletic Club completely destroyed us, is that here we weathered the storm and then struck on the counter attack, Rubio delivering a peach of a cross for Mara. In the end, the last 15-20 minutes of probing and counter attacking probably meant we deserved the win. Another standout performance from our defence, who seem to either be excellent, or concede a lot!

Espanyol 2-2 Deportivo

This was a challenging game as they Espanyol are a decent side, however we more than matched them and it was nice to see Mella on the scoresheet and winning man of the match after a start to the season that doesn't come anywhere near to matching McAtee's performance last year. Rubio then got in on the act which was great as I promoted him to the first choice 11 for this game on the back of his excellent sub appearances this year.

Deportivo 2-2 Real Madrid

When you come close to matching Real Madrid with your second choice 11, I think that says a lot about your team. We were really unlucky with the deflected own goal and then Coman benefited from another bobble off a defender for his goal. You'll notice Bella-Kotchap played and that's due to a few defensive injuries we've got.

Deportivo 4-4 Real Betis

Another really good side, but we really should have beaten them. We suffered from long balls and Jorge got a hat-trick as a result of these. At the other end we just couldn't stay level for long enough really, and although all 4 forwards got positive ratings, all were guilty of some bad misses. Cirjan is having a wonderful season, and Mella is starting to show his stuff now too. Hector Rubio contributed again, but Capone got two assists, so at AML I have good depth at least.

We've conceded a lot of goals, but we've also scored quite a lot too. I'm delighted with the performances and the table so far. Top 7 is still the aim as I feel European football of any kind will allow us to kick on a little bit financially and thus improve the quality of the squad.

Player performances so far

I like my detailed stats breakdown as you can examine the full range of stats, but it does make it harder at a glance. Cirjan,  with 4 goals, has definitely been a top performer so far, but it's also noticeable that Val is right up there again this season in terms of average rating and has contributed 2 assists, both from open-play. 

November

I'll aim for 6 out of 9, but we are capable of winning all 3 of these games!

Edited July 11, 2023 by Jtomsett11
Wrong team name!

[Jtomsett11]

November 2027

We did get 6 out of 9 points this month, but the only reason I feel we've not gotten 9 is some injuries to key players across the month.

Getafe 0-1 Deportivo

We seem to be doing really well away from home at the moment.

Mara got his fifth of the season to take him above Cirjan as top-scorer this season; it was a lovely through ball from the Romanian that Mara finished well. We missed a couple of big chances and hit the woodwork 4 times in this game, so the defence was needed to keep Getafe out. We did finish with 10 men due to a long term injury to Man.

As you can see here, we've just been struggling with a few injuries, lacking backup at RB and CB recently and now lacking backup at AMR. We will promote some young players but it does put a strain on our reasonably small squad.

We then played a friendly in the international break, which I like to do to keep our non-internationals match fit. However, this time it backfired as Williams picked up an injury, followed by Val the next day in training.

That's our starting LB, backup DM and backup AMR out of action.

Deportivo 1-0 Alaves

Not a classic by any means here. Bernabei, promoted to the starting 11, repaid me with a great free-kick which was enough for the 3 points. Pablo came in for his third sub-appearance as our best U18 DM and did really well. Unfortunately, the next day...

We now turn to Oca, another youth DM. 

Las Palmas 4-2 Deportivo

We had a bit of a shocker here. We just conceded from every chance it felt like, and they were pretty good goals too. After Mara got the equaliser I thought we'd push on, but perhaps should have settled for the draw. However, you can't win them all and we're still punching well above our own weight, so I'm not too disappointed.

We're up to third, which is amazing!

December

We'll have to do a bit of rotation here to keep everybody fit, which will be hard with our injuries, but I again would like 6 points and progression in the Copa del Rey from this month.

Club developments

We've finished upgrading our youth facilities.

We're currently undergoing the training facilities upgrade, so not many left which is great. If we continue to grow as a club, then at some point we'll probably have to buy the stadium or build our own, but that's years away.

I also thought this was great. The only issue was I couldn't see who the players were. I remember in previous versions, hovering the mouse of the bar showed you the players. I'm guessing that quite a few of these are our current crop of players. It would be nice to see us push up this list with our current youth looking much better potential wise than our current first team.

 

[Jtomsett11]

December 2027

It's a perfect end to 2027, completing what has been a superb year for Deportivo la Coruna.

Deportivo 3-1 Mallorca

A really comprehensive victory. Mella continued his fine form with an assist and a lovely finish across the keeper from the edge of the area, while Hector Rubio also continued to score the goals. This one was a beauty from the edge of the area. We should have scored more in the second half, but no complaints from me.

Elche 0-1 Deportivo

The second string came in and did really well defensively; Vallejo and Oca in particular impressing, but the forward line was swapped in the 65th minute and that allowed Mella to cross for Cirjan to seal the three points.

Deportivo 5-1 Real Sociedad

The standout performance of the month as we blow Real Sociedad away. Mella needed resting, so Costa came in for only his second league start and smashed one in off the bar to bring us level, and from then on we were just excellent. My highlight was seeing 17 year old Oca sliding the ball through for late sub Mella to finish.

Algeciras 0-3 Deportivo

Due to the seeding system for the cup draws, we'll always be away for the first few rounds. Here, we really struggled again offensively with our second string side. I brought on the front 5 at 65 minutes, leaving Rubio on, and it made the difference. First, Mara slipped the ball to Rubio who made no mistake from the edge of the area. Garner then scored a drilled 30 yard finish before again setting up Rubio for a the third.

Rayo Vallecano 1-2 Deportivo

Give Rubio the ball and he will score. Two carbon copies of the third goal against Algeciras were enough here, even though we looked tired and not at our best for large parts. We were sloppy and gave the ball away regularly, but Rubio is playing so well right now he doesn't seem affected. For the first goal, Panzo cleared off the line before we countered at speed, while in the second the ball pinged around the middle before Garner set him away again. He's just so clinical at the moment.

At the moment, we're very clearly the best of the rest behind Madrid and Barcelona. I'm just delighted with how this season has gone so far.

January

Sevilla have dropped away this season, and Tenerife are in the bottom 3, but the first two league games of January are pretty massive ties. 6 points from these fixtures would be the minimum I'd want, anything more and it's a fantastic month.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Mid-season performances 2027/28

I don't want to go into loads of depth with this anymore, but it's useful as it helps me to adjust my A and B team (as in my starting 11 and backup 11) for the second half of the season, plus decide early on transfer strategy for the summer ahead and possibly in January if anyone decent comes up as available.

Goalkeepers

We've conceded a lot this season, so it's no surprise that both keepers should have saved more than they have, but I'm surprised by how many more saves they should have made. Both feature 15th (Vallejo) and 17th (Yaakobishvili) on the goals prevented page for La Liga keepers and both have negatives. Obviously, both are still very young, but I'd really hope they push on and get better over the remainder of the season or perhaps I need to look for a new number 1?

Outfield squad

Bella-Kotchap stands out as the best performer at CB, which is no surprise. There are some interesting stats for the rest, with Nicolaisen yet to lose a tackle and Basso winning less than half of his. Panzo has mostly done well as our left centre back, but I have a feeling that to improve defensively, we need to upgrade on Panzo and sell Nicolaisen as the next natural step of the squad. That'll likely be done in the summer unless we find a left footed CB who is of a higher quality and available now. Basso isn't a bad backup, but is also 30. 

At full back/ wing back, we've had just 4 assists, with Bernabei getting 3 of those. Ludewig is at least creating key passes from open play, but Williams and Hoever aren't contributing much going forward this season. With Williams, his defensive output is probably the best, making more interceptions, winning the ball back more and being more successful in the tackle than anyone else. Hoever has had his injury problems, but to be honest RB is an area we should probably look at and potentially we'd sign an upgrade on Ludewig and sell Hoever.

In the midfield, Garner is once again performing brilliantly, with 6 assists being the highest number of any player. Padilla's numbers look good going forward, but defensively he is nowhere near the pressing machine that Garner, Gonzalez and Val are and he just isn't winning the ball back like they do. It's something I need to consider at the end of the season; has he progressed enough to deserve my continued loyalty, or do we simply need to upgrade and let him develop out on loan? I feel the only safe started is Garner and then there's room for improvement if suitable players can be found going forward.

At AMR and AML I'm delighted with the impact of Rubio, and similarly Mella has really shone in the last two months. Capone still does a good job while Man hasn't really had enough minutes to settle in to the side and it would be too early to judge him I feel. Costa has some really nice stats for someone who has only played 3 games, but I am worried his potential ability is too low to justify giving him more than the backup AML/AMR role he's now fulfilling in Man's absence. However, I'm also very happy with him as a backup.

At AMC and ST there's been two successes, Cirjan and Mara. 6 goal contribution and 10 goal contributions respectively, they've been really good for us. I am disappointed in Arsenijevic, who has got 2 goals and 1 assist, but has looked lightweight when playing. I really want some physical development from him and I want him to contribute more passing wise. I've asked the coaching staff to get him to learn tries killer balls often on the back of this, as that may help him. Bear in mind that we've got another superb option as AMC for next year, Enrique who we signed and then sent on loan to Almeria, so Arsenijevic does need to kick on. Cheddira is barely playing, so his one goal isn't too bad. If we get European football at the end of this year, we'll need to upgrade him to someone who can compete with Mara.

Transfer plans

That leaves us with very little to do now, but some positions to scout for the future:

GK - depending how our current players kick on

RB - almost certainly want to upgrade here if the price is right

CB - an upgrade to our left footed CB is the priority, but a backup right footed centre back to Bella-Kotchap wouldn't be a bad move.

DM - if someone good comes up, or Padilla doesn't kick on, we could improve our quality here.

ST - if we qualify for Europe we need to upgrade here.

Squad pending any transfers

Starting 11

Backup 11

With Val and Man to come back in for Oca and Costa respectively when fit. 

[Sonic Youth]

Your building up Depor nicely 

Those min release clauses are not quite sitting in the right zones yet. They’ll be a sign showing that your in a stronger position.

I liked your last youth intake too 

[_Ben_]

On 11/07/2023 at 15:00, Jtomsett11 said:

Certainly building this squad nicely. With both your homegrown lads wanted and, for La Liga, relatively low release clauses - do you think you can promote from within or is it a case of scouring for bargains and reinvesting the potential £15m?

[Jtomsett11]

On 14/07/2023 at 01:55, Sonic Youth said:

Your building up Depor nicely 

Those min release clauses are not quite sitting in the right zones yet. They’ll be a sign showing that your in a stronger position.

I liked your last youth intake too 

 

13 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Certainly building this squad nicely. With both your homegrown lads wanted and, for La Liga, relatively low release clauses - do you think you can promote from within or is it a case of scouring for bargains and reinvesting the potential £15m?

Thank you both! Both of you highlight our issue with release clauses, but to be honest the truth is none of our players are really worth much more. Our best players (disregarding Mella as he's on loan) are probably Garner and Bella-Kotchap, both of whom are probably good rotation options for European- hunting sides but not top sides. Currently, nobody seems willing to pay the fees when you can probably pick up similar players for less. 

I think I'll renew contracts where possible to boost minimum fee release clauses where the fee is lower than I'd consider a very good fee or where the player has a lot of potential. For example,  Arsenijevic's agent inserted the £52 million release clause which improved upon his £15 million one which we signed him with. A couple of our intake wanted £15 million + release clauses too so I think it'll be a case of slowly and surely build them up as the side improves and accept we may lose a few players on the way. I have to say, having never played in Spain it's added a new dimension to my planning and makes it a whole lot more interesting. 

[Jtomsett11]

January 2028

What a month! We've been nothing short of sensational, even if we appeared to run out of steam with two 120 minute ties either side of the 0-0 draw with Sevilla.

Deportivo 3-1 Barcelona

Cirjan and Rubio just can't stop scoring. When Cirjan opened the scoring after a superb through-ball from Mella (yet another assist) I didn't really think we'd win, and Raphinha quickly equalised. However, we quickly went back in front with Cirjan again clinical after some bouncing around in the box, before Rubio fired in from an acute angle to seal the victory. We're in absolute dream-land with this sort of victory.

5 straight victories in the league as we not only look potential European-spot worthy, but potential Champions League qualification worthy!

UE Olot 1-4 Deportivo

Pretty routine for the second string. It was nice to see Arsenijevic grab two goals and an assist as he's suffered from Cirjan's superb form meaning he hasn't got the game time I thought he might this season and has generally struggled when he has played.

Villarreal 0-3 Deportivo

A few days before this game, Rubio was ruled out for most of the month which meant I put Capone back in the first team and promoted Fondevila to the second string.

He looks a potential star and is already worth more than his release clause. He's certainly getting a new contract soon because...

He came on for his debut and smashed in a 25 yard screamer from the corner of the area. He was a menace on the left when I brought him on with the game seemingly sealed at 2-0 and Villarreal showing little sign of coming back. I love him already! Let's not forget another goal for Cirjan from another Mella assist. This team is wonderful to watch at the moment.

Eibar 2-2 Deportivo (Deportivo win 4-2 on penalties)

Okay, we nearly threw this game away. I don't care about that (especially as we won). What I care about is Fondevila. Two wonderful, beautiful through-balls got him 2 assists in 3 minutes and he also hit the bar. I think this kid is going places. We did get complacent, and perhaps a little tired, but that's bound to happen when you've won 8 in a row. I'm happy as we're through to the next round.

It's another winnable tie for the second string, and more minutes for some of our backup/ young players.

Deportivo 0-0 Sevilla

We did create more, and we played really well at the back, but it wasn't to be as we lacked the clinical edge we've shown recently. Mara hasn't scored in quite a while and while Cirjan has been keeping up his end of the bargain, Rubio is our joint top scorer on just 8 goals with Cirjan so we are struggling for striker goals and in this game it was mostly Mara who had the decent chances. Still, a point and a clean sheet.

Elche 1-3 Deportivo (after extra time)

The second string struggled here against fellow La Liga opposition. However, our substitutes took matters into their own hands with Mella's two assists and Capone's helping us to the 3 goals needed in the end to overcome Elche. 

The quarter final draw throws up an interesting tie.

And late in January we found out that Espanyol beat Real Madrid, meaning a very favourable quarter final draw for us. I am tempted to play the first team for that one and use the second team for the La Liga match nearest to it, as suddenly we're not a million miles from an attempt at silverware.

Deportivo 4-0 Tenerife

A few games of draws in real time, but we ended the month with a comprehensive win over bottom placed side Tenerife. Mara is back on the score sheet, ending a long drought, while there's another assist for Mella and a goal on his return for Rubio. My favourite goal was Garner sliding the ball across the box with defenders stranded for Padilla to slot home, but the best goal was probably a superb long range low-drilled effort from Garner after just 20 seconds which is our quickest ever goal.

We're 8 unbeaten now!

At 48 points from 22 games, we're far far ahead of where I wanted us to be this season (so far at least). We've got 16 games to play, so it could all fall apart, but we really need to be aiming for Champions League now I feel.

February

5 games, 4 in the league. I think I'll prioritise the Espanyol game as Almeria have been awful, although I remember them giving us a very good game last time. 3 home games to end the month is really positive, although none of them are particularly easy ties.

It's the first time in a long time I've had a B for the supporters, whereas the board have been delighted since our third season when we almost got promoted to La Liga.

[Jtomsett11]

January transfers

I've tried really hard prior to January to get my scouting assignments right based on our December analysis (which I actually did a lot earlier than December). We have a very low amount of wages and transfer budget spare, so any January signing would have to be shrewd. 

We did find two centre backs who I thought could make a huge difference.

Valenti would have been the ideal signing as a left footed centre back to upgrade on Panzo, but you can see we're still some way from being able to convince these sorts of players to come and play for us. Champions League football could definitely change that...

We did however, sign a centre with good potential.

Rotena joins from Famalicao and to be honest, I can't remember how much we paid and I've not got the game loaded. I don't think it was much; another release fee. He's got room to develop I know, but some decent attributes and huge potential. If we can get his pace and jumping up slightly (1-2 for each) and some of his technicals to improve as well, we'll have a really good left footed centre back on our hands.

He's gone into the U19s for now, although I may phase him in to replace Nicolaisen towards the end of the season.

His attribute analysis puts him 8 point behind our best CB, so he does have work to do in training. I may also put him in the B Team, as annoyingly one of our better centre backs had a low minimum fee release clause I missed. Teboas was never going to make the team, but was a half-decent player for Fabril.

Wages

Our wages are still really low, but we're limited to £550K a week this year, although our board give us the exact wage budget the league sets which doesn't actually compute because that includes U19 wages as well. We need to boost turnover over time to compete in the long term.

[Sonic Youth]

That’s a tiny budget for a team sitting and performing so high on the table in La Liga! Champions League football is definitely the best way forward, especially with where Depor are now.

Fondevila has had an exciting impact 

[Jtomsett11]

February 2028

We started the month with a great chance to get into the semis of the Copa del Rey.

Deportivo 3-0 Espanyol

Yaakobishvili scored from open play, but only because he scored a rebound from his penalty miss. We created quite a lot of chances here, but failed to hit the target other than the 3 goals (and missed penalty which was saved). Mella scored a lovely goal, cutting in from a through ball from Padilla and there was time for Fondevila to make an impact with an assist; he put the ball on a plate for Cheddira.

Just before the game we got news of the semi final draw, and it couldn't have been kinder for us.

We miss all the La Liga sides and end up against Andorra, who sit 19th in La Liga 2... We should be making the final here!

This draw meant that Almeria game was moved, meaning we faced Andorra next. I went with the second string as I felt we'd at least get a draw and finish them off in the return leg.

Andorra 0-3 Deportivo

We've gone quite a while without penalties, and now we've had 3 in 2 games. We've missed them all, but again Vallejo managed to score the rebound from his first before completely missing the target for his second. We then made the game much harder work, so I brought on the subs and Mara made the difference to probably seal our place in the final.

The second leg is on the 1st March, so it's the 4 La Liga games up first.

Deportivo 1-0 Valencia

4 penalties in 3 games, all missed by my goalkeepers...

Luckily here, Rubio, on his second start since his return from injury scored a wonderful goal, twisting and turning and slotting in at the near post. Valencia then helped us by getting one sent off, but really even before then this was complete domination. No shots from Valencia whatsoever. 

Almeria 0-3 Deportivo

With this game coming just 3 days later, we rotated in the second string again and they were superb. Arsenijevic scored from Cheddira's lovely through ball and that set us on our way. Cirjan came on in the second half and was involved in both goals, scoring and then getting an 'assist' for the own goal. We're playing really nice football!

Deportivo 1-0 Celta Vigo

We win the derby again. We struggled to finish in this game, but Rubio was again our man, scoring a Messi-esque goal with a beautiful dribble and drilled finish. He's performing well, well above what I would have expected of him, indeed our assistant manager prefers him to Foden!

Rubio may be performing superbly, but then again so is the whole team. That's 6 games in all competitions without conceding. Frustratingly, Padilla was injured in the Celta Vigo game, but this will be a chance for another young player to step up, probably Pablo or Oca again.

Deportivo 2-0 Athletic Club

Wow. I don't really have words at the moment. We look like a team who can beat anyone at the moment. Both goals were beautifully worked team goals and we could, and should, have scored many more. 

It's 5 straight in the league, but we're actually 12 matches unbeaten in the league since December 1st, and unbeaten in 6 cup games since then too. 

This is therefore, no surprise!

There were quite a few games on 1st March, so I screenshot the table on that day.

Unbelievably, we're top of the league. I have no idea how we're so consistent when in reality our squad is a mid-table to top-half team at best. We have 12 games to go and really we HAVE to be looking to finish in the top four now. 

March 2028

We should easily make the final, and then it's Real Madrid where our unbeaten run will probably come to an end. If we can just win the home game this month it'll keep us ticking over towards the top 4.

[Jtomsett11]

On 22/07/2023 at 05:03, Sonic Youth said:

That’s a tiny budget for a team sitting and performing so high on the table in La Liga! Champions League football is definitely the best way forward, especially with where Depor are now.

Fondevila has had an exciting impact 

Thank you! We're well above even my expectations now. I've had success before with taking teams from low down and then doing really well, but I usually have some really good wonderkids that I've still spent £5-£10 million on each and they're worth £30 million + and rapidly improving when I do (Jersey Bulls save for example). Here, our best player, Mella, is rated as 'La Liga star player' but he's by far and away our best player. The rest of the squad is mid-table really. How we're top I'm not sure!

I really hope Fondevila is the real deal as he's playing so well. Only time will tell!

[Sonic Youth]

That was one heck of a month, no goals conceded and winning every game with what looks comfort.

Barcelona and Real Madrid both around with Barca in good form while Real Madrid wobbling.

Looking forward to seeing Depor in the Copa del Ray final 

[Jtomsett11]

March 2028

It's another great month, as although we lost our unbeaten run, we qualified for the final of the Copa del Rey and then beat two decent sides without conceding.

Deportivo 7-1 Andorra

We see off Andorra 10-1 on aggregate. The second string did their job superbly, with Cheddira getting a hat-trick, Capone showing his worth and yet another good performance from 16 year old Fondevila. Vallejo scored his penalty this time!

Even better, Betis pulled off a shock in the other semi-final.

We now face them in a very winnable final!

Real Madrid 1-0 Deportivo

We were without both first choice DM's for this, so it was always going to be hard to get a result.

We were so close to a draw, and we really deserved it as we restricted Real Madrid to one really good chance and a lot of half chances. However, on 90 minutes, Tchouameni scored a screamer from 25 yards to end our resistance. We can be really proud of our performance though.

Deportivo 3-0 Espanyol

I gave Arsenijevic the nod here at AMC and he responded really well, delivering a great corner for Bella-Kotchap to nod us into the lead and then finding himself on the end of a lovely ball from Rubio to score as well. Mara got his first goal in what feels like a long time, which shows you how well we're performing overall that our main striker going a while without scoring hasn't been a problem.

Real Betis 0-2 Deportivo

In a preview of the cup final next month, we came and fully deserved our victory. 

Rubio got yet another goal after Panzo reworked a corner really well and then Bernabai came on to score a free kick, his second of the season. Oca has been very impressive in DM since coming into the side with Padilla injured and Pedro also out injured. I am starting to consider whether he can make the step up next year to our second string. He's not looked out of place yet.

Madrid have been in really poor form, so it's probably Barcelona's title to lose with their three games in hand over Madrid and two in hand over us. We're 16 points clear of 5th with a game in hand, so really now we'd have to do really badly to lose a top-four spot.

Remaining fixtures

This is how April and May look. April is busy, with 7 games, so that'll really test our squad. We've actually already qualified for European football even if we lose every game from now on, so we've already achieved my aim for this season.

I've moved quickly to secure some larger release fees for our key players. Bella-Kotchap wanted £65k a week and only would increase his release fee to £14 million, so we've walked away from that deal, but Garner and Mara will now require more than to get them (Benfica are interested in both).

Garner's release fee is up from £18 million. Mara's was £10 million.

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake 2028

Compared to last year, this is a really poor intake, especially when considering the personalities. I've signed the ones who say 'bid' above, plus Villegas as he also has a decent personality. The rest have a combination of poor determination, ambition or both.

In terms of attribute scores, Gonzalez stands out with his current attributes, but he's the only one really and nowhere near the quality of last year.

Fairly loyal and only 6 determination doesn't shout out as a winning personality, so we'll see how he develops.

 

[Jtomsett11]

April 2028

A huge month, which I'll split into the league and cup action.

This was another top month, as we only lost to Las Palmas in a game we really should have won with our rotated side. 

Deportivo 3-0 Getafe

We tore Getafe apart. Padilla set up Garner in the box to open the scoring and then Mella produced another moment of magic with a delightful through ball for Cirjan to bury. The icing on the cake was a lovely delivery from Fondevila to allow Cheddira to score.

Atletico Madrid 0-1 Deportivo

I played the second string here and was blown away by their performance. Vallejo was superb in goal, although it must be said that Atletico were extremely wasteful, and then Fondevila got another assist as this time he played a ball across the six yard box after some fine dribbling for Arsenijevic to bobble home. Our only shot on target, but yet another clean sheet means we keep racking up the points.

Alaves 0-6 Deportivo

A culmination of our performances this season. Everything just clicked. Rubio probably takes the plaudits with a goal and two assists, but all over the park the performances were superb.

Deportivo 1-2 Las Palmas

This game needs the context of coming just after the cup final, and I think it caught up with us. Our second string started really sluggishly and just kept giving away the ball. Two errors by our centre backs shows the need to strengthen our backline in the summer.

We never really recovered from those two errors, and despite creating a million chances, we couldn't get the equaliser our play deserved. 

Mallorca 0-3 Deportivo

Prior to this game, I thought our loss to Las Palmas would allow Barcelona to ease into the lead, but they also lost to Villarreal to leave us neck and neck.

I was concerned we might have lost our way against Las Palmas, but we bounced back here to win convincingly. Mella was the star of the show, scoring a brilliant goal having taken four players on and then smashed it past the keeper, a little Michael Owen vs Argentina-esque. He also provided a brilliant assist. Unfortunately, I just don't think we can afford the £48 million agreed fee in the loan agreement, even if we get 50% of it back.

Deportivo 1-0 Elche

Barcelona won one of their games in hand, but just before we played Elche they played their second and lost to Almeria.

This opened the door back up for us.

We struggled to break Elche down, but then Bella-Kotchap nodded on from a free-kick and Mara bundled home. 

With 3 games to go, we lead Barcelona on head-to-head even if they win their game in hand. Of course, we have to go to the Camp Nou in the last game of the season!

These are the fixtures for Barcelona.

They could yet drop points, but then so could we. I think we'll go into the final game of the season with a chance of winning the title, beyond all expectations. We've already confirmed Champions League football next season.

I have to say, I am pretty disappointed by this as it's going to be very hard to strengthen with this amount of money, bar some sales coming in. You can see why we can't afford Mella!

In light of that, I made an early move to replace him. 

He may be slightly less of a creator than Mella, but he comes in on a free and still has potential to fill according to the scout reports. He takes up our remaining non-EU spot but that's fine by me. 

[Jtomsett11]

April 2028 part 2 - Copa del Rey

Deportivo vs Real Betis

We started off extremely poorly, giving the ball away left right and centre. Indeed, just 2 minutes in, a lofted ball after poor work in the midfield from Garner resulted in Betis taking the lead. We struck back in the 11th minute, Cirjan taking the ball off Mara's feet after he'd been tackled and slotting home, before we again conceded, this time really unfortunately with Bella-Kotchap scoring an own goal having blocked a clearance.

We'd created a lot by this point, with our xG over 2 at just 20 minutes played, yet we were 2-1 down. Mara wasted two really good chances, but the front four were all guilty of poor finishing. Step up Williams, who took on a pass from Rubio and smashed in his first goal for the club to draw us level on 27 minutes. I was then delighted when Mara finally scored on 32 minutes with a deflected goal to give us the lead.

It stayed 3-2 for the rest of the game, with us missing more chances to make it secure. Then, in the 90th minute, a penalty was awarded. Fortunately, it was for us, and Yaakobishvili sealed the victory for us.

An incredible moment to finish the game and a superb achievement for us in our sixth season, and just second back in the league.

[Jtomsett11]

Deportivo Fabril 

Some more success before the massive conclusion to the season ahead in May comes in the form of promotion for Deportivo Fabril, our B Team.

Largely this has been down to the players generated when they were promoted from the unplayable league as I'd already agreed loans for most players who would have played at this level. Now they've been promoted, I'll probably keep 2-3 of the generated players, release the rest and use our 18 and 19 year olds who can't yet play at La Liga 2 level or in our first team to give them game experience.

[Jtomsett11]

May 2028 Part 1

Match day 36

Deportivo 1-0 Rayo Vallecano

This was a real struggle. We played our first team, but the front four were largely ineffective. On came Arsenijevic, Cheddira, Fondevila and Cheddira and they were all involved in a move that switched from one flank to the other, before Arsenijevic thread the ball through for Cheddira to slot home, winning us the 3 points. We were never really in any danger of conceding, but it had looked like a 0-0 draw all the way until the goal.

Barcelona then faced Atletico Madrid away the next day. A huge match.

Unbelievable! It doesn't actually change the parameters for success that much; we still play Barcelona in the final game and presuming we both win our next game, we can now win the title with a draw, win or loss by 1 goal against Barcelona. 

Match day 37

Real Sociedad vs Deportivo

Barcelona vs Valencia

I couldn't quite bear to play the full second string, so we had our 2 centre backs and Garner starting with a view to bringing them off when they got tired. It paid off as Bella-Kotchap headed in from a corner early on to set us on our way. Fondevila provided another assist, laying it on a plate for Arsenijevic and then Vallejo scored a penalty, won by our 16 year old winger sensation. 

So, how did Barcelona do?

It's down to match day 38. We beat Barcelona 3-1 at home, so we can win the title by beating them, drawing with them, or losing by just 1 goal. A 2 goal loss would mean the title is decided on goal difference, where Barcelona would clinch the title.

We know what we need to do.

[Jtomsett11]

May 2028 Part 2 - match day 38 - the title decider

Barcelona vs Deportivo

I started our first eleven, having rested enough of them the previous Tuesday and having subbed Garner, Panzo and Bella-Kotchap early enough to give them enough of a rest to be fighting fit for this match.

I deliberated but then chose our defensive version of the 4-2-3-1 tactic, with both full backs on defensive duty and a reduced amount of pressing. Sit back and defend has worked a few times away recently e.g. away at Atletico Madrid.

It didn't work here.

Barcelona swamped us early on and took the lead on 23 minutes, Pedri setting up newgen Hauge for a simple finish. Thing got worse despite a switch back to our normal away tactics (more pressing and full backs on support duty) as Yaakobishvili somehow caught a shot and then stepped back into his goal. Disaster as at 2-0 down we were set to finish 2nd. 

At half time I gave the team-talk of the 'this is unacceptable' variety. It's the first time I've berated them in a while and I've avoided all 'team meetings' as we're overperforming to such an extent that I can't think of any way they'd help. The players were fired up, and all we would need is an unanswered goal. 

The second half was a complete reversal of the first.

The pressing game paid off instantly, with Mara winning the ball back, sliding it into the feet of Cirjan who smashed home from inside the area. 2-1! Then on 63 minutes Bernabai, on for Williams, delivered a peach of a ball and to the back post and there was none other than Mella to head home to equalise. 2-2!

Barcelona didn't seem to have an answer, and on 83 minutes it got even better, with Capone switching the ball across the box and Mella again finishing brilliantly. Barcelona finally seemed to realise they were losing the title and had two very good chances, but both were skied over the bar when really they should have at least tested Yaakobishvili. Even if they'd have scored both, it wouldn't have been enough due to our 3-1 win earlier in the season.

It finished 3-2. Somehow we'd found a way to comeback from 2-0 down to not only draw, but beat Barcelona, completing the double over them and also completing the domestic double!

Our league form has been sensational, but it's the second half of the season where everything has clicked. 

Just 5 goals conceded in the last 19 games compared to 24 in the first 19!

My mission to bring redeem Deportivo and bring them back to the top flight and to the trophies is complete! A La Liga and Copa del Rey double goes beyond what I thought would be possible so early on in this save. This may be my biggest achievement, as our squad just isn't good enough to be winning the double. I feel like this is just the first step as I'm thoroughly enjoying this save and imagine it'll only get tougher as we look to compete in Europe as well with our ridiculously small budget.

I'm now a club icon which is nice, but it's the legends list I'll now aim for!

[lfds89]

I've been reading everything over the past week. What a journey! I loved reading it! And I hope you can carry on the success of this season!

 

I have always been curious about managing in Spain. La Liga's FFP seems to be quite challenging. In my save, there are many "rich" teams in Spain but almost every one of them has positive net spend (they sell more than they buy, I mean).

[Jtomsett11]

15 hours ago, lfds89 said:

I've been reading everything over the past week. What a journey! I loved reading it! And I hope you can carry on the success of this season!

 

I have always been curious about managing in Spain. La Liga's FFP seems to be quite challenging. In my save, there are many "rich" teams in Spain but almost every one of them has positive net spend (they sell more than they buy, I mean).

Thank you so much! I write this for my own enjoyment, but it's great when others also enjoy it!! I think next season is going to be tough as all signs are that upgrading the squad is going to be hugely challenging until my TV revenue increases/ I earn money from European competitions. Transfer budget of £7 million and only earning 50% of any sales for the budget is not helping me much, especially as a lot of players want wage rises after our success! Spain does seem to be more challenging than England for example, simply because there's money, but not much of it and not enough to build quickly.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Jtomsett11

[Jtomsett11]

Season overview 2027/28

I still can't quite believe we've won the domestic double in our second season in La Liga. An outstanding season by any measure. The updated trophy numbers above show how significant these titles are for the club with the first successes in over 20 years (if you don't count my Primera Federacion win in 2023/24). 

We've also improved the training and youth facilities this year, and overall there's a slight improvement to finances. I'm really hoping the TV revenue goes up for next season as if not we probably need to be successful in the Champions League to some extent to earn enough money to improve our squad.

Player performances

Goalkeepers

We had no penalties most of the season, then 8 in about 10 games! We're not great at finishing the penalties, but Vallejo has scored 3 goals in 12 games which is pretty good. Our keeper performances were much better this season, with Yaakobishvili actually keeping out more shots than he should have, a first for me on this save. Is he good enough for a La Liga winning side? No way! However, he's good enough and in light of having played a month ahead and seen how limited our wage and transfer budget is, we're not going to be improving on him anytime soon. Vallejo has done an okay job for his first season, and with European football next year he'll see more games. I'll analyse the squad in more detail next, but I think he's our best prospect at the moment.

Outfield squad

I know that's a lot of data in one go, but I hate copying and pasting and slicing different bits, so that's how I'm posting it! 

My centre backs have been very interesting this year. Panzo and Bella-Kotchap have played as first-choice and their average ratings are both excellent. Overall, if you look at them compared to Basso and Nicolaisen, they come out on top in more areas than the latter two, but it's not as cut and dry as it feels in game. When looking at data analysis within game (which I feel is too hidden away), Panzo and Bella-Kotchap come out on top for strong, but infrequent tackling and aerial dominance. Bella-Kotchap in particular is one of the best in the air in the league. 

For my full/ wing backs, I like them to press, win the ball back, but also create chances. With the exception of Bernabai, all of them press well and win the ball back well. Hoever, who is backup to Ludewig at right back, definitely outperforms the German for defensive play and I need to consider who is number 1 next year if I cannot upgrade. Bernabai got 9 assists this year, which dwarfs the others (in fact I'm majorly surprised by this) but his open play key passes are behind all the others. Essentially, he's a set piece expert with 2 goals and 7 assists from free kicks. Ludewig stands out with key passes and expected assists.

My defensive midfielders both play as segundo volante's. I've noticed a big difference with my two left sided players, Garner and Gonzalez, both winning more possession and making more interceptions, but they may also be because they're better players. Creatively, Padilla and Oca outperform Val and I think the latter may be on the way out, making room for the home-grown higher potential player Oca, as Padilla has been first choice DMR this year. Garner is our absolute standout player in the midfield, 11 assists and 6 goals in 42 appearances (31 starts) - incredible!

On to our inside forwards and it's Mella and Rubio who are head and shoulders above the rest. Both have 21 goal contributions each, and when you consider Mella is the much, much better player, Rubio has done really well this season. Man barely played due to injury, and while Costa (not pictured above, sorry!) played initially, it was Fondevila who then filled in despite being right footed (so ideally played on the left). He's been sensational, although I'm annoyed his potential is down to 4.5 stars now. 7 assists and a wordie-goal from just 6 starts is brilliant for a 16 year old. I must get him into the first/ second string squad next year. Capone got 9 assists and 2 goals, so did pretty well, but Rubio just outshone him and won the starting spot. It's interesting that Rubio brings both goals and assists, whereas Capone and Fondevila (so far) just bring assists.

Our two attacking midfielders had quite different seasons. Cirjan was a force all year and he was unlucky that Mara picked up towards the end of the season or his 15 goals in 27 starts would have earnt him the squad's top scorer. Arsenijevic was average for most of the season, but slowly earnt more starts and the 9 goals and 5 assists is pretty decent. He's got a tough time holding on to the second starting AMC position though, as we've got some good AMCs coming through.

We only have two strikers who both play as pressing forwards. Mara has 17 goals this season, but his xG suggests he's underperformed and I'd agree with that; he misses quite a lot of chances. Cheddira was a reliable backup and in light of our budget, may remain that way next season while we bring through a younger player. He outperformed his xG, but 8 of his goals were in the Copa del Rey.

Team of the year and awards

Probably fair, although Gonzalez and Garner didn't play together once. The goals from the front four!

We also had 4 players in the ToTY, with 5 in the substitutes as well.

Mella finished 3rd in the Player of the Year award and Yaakobishvili finished third in the Goalkeeper of the Year award. I won manager of the year which was pretty obvious!

Sadly, we're extremely unlikely to see Mella again unless he has a terrible season at Newcastle next year and then goes out on loan again. Sad times for us!

 

[Jtomsett11]

Attribute growth June 2028

I have been using the saved team selection feature to keep track in the first team this year, but I think I am going to start doing that for the B team and U19s to help me track who is next in line as it's not always obvious. I am releasing most of the B team players apart from a few useful ones, as I'd like to use the B team to develop my young players once they turn 18 if they're not good enough for La Liga 2 level loans. Who knows, Deportivo Fabril may be promoted again next season.

Goalkeepers

We're a little short of star quality here. Vallejo improved last season and will get more games, but is showing as 3 gold star potential now, the same as Yaakobishvili who is probably a little short of the quality we need to compete consistently at the top. Cano will play for the B team next year, with Angueira going out on loan or sold if we can get any interest as he's stagnated on loan. Luca and Salgueiro will be in the U19s still; Luca shows 3 gold star potential at this point but he needs a lot of growth to be a useful keeper for us.

Centre backs

Nicolaisen and Basso will be leaving if I can get some money for them; they've both turned 31 and despite good technicals, I don't trust them and they aren't physically good enough. Rotena was bought in for £1 million, but then I didn't register him for the B team or first team, so he's played in a few Copa del Rey games. He's got 4.5 star potential, but wants a loan and I may grant him one. He has 10 for pace which isn't ideal for a high pressing side, so that needs to click up a couple at least. His acceleration of 14 is at least good enough to make up for some of that I suppose. Nadrani was created by the game when the B team got promoted, and will stay in the B team along with Herrero (same deal). Cousillas plays DM mainly, while I may also promote Angel to the B team. Sergio I extended his contract but he'll stay in the B team just for numbers in case of injury. I have some hope for the last three on this list, all who have shown decent growth, but they're young so U19s football remains the best bet at this stage.

That will leave 2 slots at CB in the first team squad which I'd need to fill, unless I retain Rotena which I'd worry about due to his pace at this stage.

Full/ wing backs

Money dictates that the top 4 will be the starting and reserve left and right backs this year. Hoever continues to develop from when I bought him and perhaps deserves a chance at the number 1 right back spot this summer. He had a minimum fee release clause of £7 million which was met, and I've had to give him £35k a week to stay (I looked at alternatives and you can't get better for that money at the moment), so it probably makes sense to play him more.

Behind them, it gets interesting. Huarte, Salas, Priest and Edu are all rated potential at 4.5 or 5 stars. I need to work out who to loan out, who to play in the B team, whether any deserve to be in the first team (Huarte maybe as he's grown rapidly in the last few months) and then there's a whole host of others who probably need to go out on loan again or be sold e.g. Azzaoui, Boedo and Kotsaridis who are unlikely to ever be good enough. 

Segundo volante

Originally, I'd wanted to sell Gonzalez, but at just £5.75million release clause (which nobody would meet) I'm tempted to let him get over me trying to sell him as we just don't have the cash available right now to get another Garner. Val has performed the worst this season so I might let him leave if we can get suitors, and then it's Padilla and Oca for a season, with Padilla really needing to kick on a little bit if he's to be a long-term choice. In the B team, Jorge is another made up player and I realise I've left Cousillas out of this despite him playing there for the B team all last year. Ah yes, that's why, he's terribly rated (54) in this position. Well, perhaps Jorge stays and Pablo joins the B team, with David having another season down in the U19s. David has 5 star potential, Pablo 4 star and Oca 4.5 last time I checked.

Attacking mid

You can see why Arsenijevic has competition for the backup AMC as Enrique, who we signed for a pittance, has grown significantly on loan at Almeria despite having a pretty terrible season. His potential is lower than Arsenijevic, so there's an option to sign him to a new contract with a higher release clause and send him back on loan to La Liga and see how good he can become.

Crespo will play in the B team next year, possibly with Jimenez, with Diez possibly loaned or sold, and Tortosa loaned as well. All of their potential has dropped significantly. The long term hopes here are 5 star potential Rahman and Gonzalez. Torres probably needs a loan as well.

Inside forwards

Mella 

Again, budget dictates that Rubio and Capone stay on the left, while we're bringing in Gordon to replace Mella on a free. Does Man deserve another chance after an injury hit year? What about Fondevila, 8 points of growth in his first season?! The other player who stands out is Escabros, but I have a plan for him at pressing forward. Priest has big potential, but is young enough to stay in the U19s and continue to develop, although he hasn't developed much so far. Oliveira played for the B team last year and may do so again this year with Queijeiro taking the other wing. Costa will go out on loan to La Liga 2 winners Osasuna which leaves a few like Ahlmann, a free signing who now will just go out on loan until we sell him I imagine. Edu I like for right back.

Pressing forwards

Mara and Cheddira will stay unless we get big bids as we have no money. It's Escabros who I want to give some game time in rotation with Cheddira to see if he can make it. He has 4.5 star potential so could be better than both our strikers and when you have no money, invest in what you already bought in right?

Barroso is a B team generated player who won the Segunda Federacion top scorer last year, so he earned a new deal, but I'll probably start Torres in the B team, or perhaps loan him and start Alende (or vice versa!). Savone and Lloyd stay in the U19s for now.

Overall thoughts

We've got some really good growth and then quite a few stuttering players, but the B team is now at a level we can utilise for growth and I really hope that will help.

Before the new season I'll show a few more profiles of any significant players I promote.

[_Ben_]

Congrats on the pretty meteoric rise to the top!

I've skimmed most of this thread but - as you know - I do have a penchant for youth development and, as such, could I see a screenshot of the following players and pick your brains about how you've developed them: some of those rating increases are huge!

• Hector Rubio
• Manuel Costa
• Alberto Huarte
• Jose Vallejo

Particularly interested because, my guess, is that you've used the A-H (or whatever) lettering for the intake based on PA and, as such, the likes of Rubio may have been considered to have a poor ceiling?

[Jtomsett11]

9 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Congrats on the pretty meteoric rise to the top!

I've skimmed most of this thread but - as you know - I do have a penchant for youth development and, as such, could I see a screenshot of the following players and pick your brains about how you've developed them: some of those rating increases are huge!

• Hector Rubio
• Manuel Costa
• Alberto Huarte
• Jose Vallejo

Particularly interested because, my guess, is that you've used the A-H (or whatever) lettering for the intake based on PA and, as such, the likes of Rubio may have been considered to have a poor ceiling?

Thanks @_Ben_

It's interesting that you've picked out those players, as I wouldn't have grouped them, but you are right, they're were all considered lower on the PA scale when they came through. Let's take them in turn of intake year.

Hector Rubio and Jorge Vallejo

This was the intake when Rubio came through. Bearing in mind our level (third tier), there's no reason to think either Rubio or Vallejo would go on to feature in the first team. They don't even have particularly good CA either, which often helps players reach their potential. I've had the same HOYD the whole save, Fran, who has 13 for judging potential, and I can't remember who my assistant manager was at this point or whether he was any good, so there's a good chance he just got the judgement completely wrong.

Here they are now.

Those attribute improvements from Rubio are nothing short of remarkable. He is now at full potential (near enough) and considered as a good La Liga player. I personally think he looks a little average still, but his performances are incredible.

I do remember that he grew significantly on loan and that's what drew my attention to him. 

He went on loan at the age of 17 I think and while he didn't perform well, I think he played enough minutes to develop into a 2.5 star player, which is why I then put him in the team at AMC for 25/26. He did well there, but due to the arrival of Cirjan, he was shunted out to AML for the La Liga campaign, playing second fiddle to Capone I believe. As you can see, with 7 assists, he did quite well, but he really earned his first team place due to his sensational form at the start of this season. He's 21 now, and has 120 league appearances to his name and another 9 cup appearances, which is probably largely the reason for his growth. His personality, fairly professional with 14 determination, so perhaps that's also helped. 

The early loan is probably what accelerated his growth and made him known to me, and then it was selecting him regularly that helped his growth. 

Vallejo isn't as talented yet, but has also clearly grown well.

With him, I am quite pleased with the plan I had to get him game time. I chose teams with as good facilities as possible and who wanted him as first choice until I felt he was good enough for La Liga 2, at which point (the season just gone) I've given him game time. Now, he only actually played 12 games last season, so I've probably held him back a bit, but I hope with Champions League football this year he'll get 20 games. If I had more money, I'd buy a better, younger keeper, but he's currently my best bet so he stays and gains the experience to at least be a decent number 2. Budget restrictions have probably helped these two a lot to be honest.

Costa

Costa is now on loan, so I can't see 'overall attribute growth' (which is annoying).

This is his rating now according to the assman.

This was him when he came through the youth intake (I didn't take a screenshot as he was so low down).

With Costa I think I've played him because his growth stood out as did his pace, and I thought he could make a difference for us. I've found this screenshot from 1st March, so I probably again saw his CA and PA and thought, I need to play him!

Sure enough, 21 days later I gave him his debut. What does it tell you? Probably that I mainly prioritise players who our staff say are growing well and developing their CA, at which point I make sure I give them game time. He's out on loan this season as he's not really good enough for us and we now have better prospects (both in terms of CA and PA) and I want to give him La Liga experience to see if he develops enough to play a role for us.

Huarte

Now, Huarte came through in a golden generation.

Of these players, Huarte and Alende are still considered 5 star prospects, Queijeiro and Oca 4.5, Torres, Pablo and Colley 4 star! So, Huarte was an F simply because so many other good players were around him.

He has definitely grown the most out of those players however.

He's had no loans, so here it was deciding he'd be better off as a full back and then focusing training on wing back attack role with speed as an extra focus. There's still a big issue with his dribbling, but it's his one big issue for me now and he still has a lot of potential (or so the coaches say).

I have promoted him to the first team squad; he'll either go on loan, fill a B team role with potential for cup games or perhaps even be our number 2 left back if we lose Williams to his release clause.

Takeaways

What this analysis has shown me (and you may have taken other points from it), is that potential ability is often completely misjudged on intake day. I often respond to perceived current ability stars probably more than I should. Appropriate game time, even at an early age, is absolutely key to development. We probably knew all of that already but it's interesting to do this sort of analysis!

[Jtomsett11]

Summer 2028 and pre-season

I've already shown the screenshots of our 5 star, 4.5 star and 4 star potential players in the post above, so won't again. However, I've used this quite extensively to try and plot out the squads for U19, Deportivo Fabril and the first team (and second string in the first team squad).

We've also made a number of transfers. I've realised that B Team players don't appear on your history when you sell them, which is annoying as I've also sold 3-4 other youngsters who weren't renewing deals, or worth renewing deals for and were out of contract next season.

We actually made a record amount from transfers out and that's helped leave the finances in a great position, despite investing (again) in the training and youth facilities.

This is the most money we've ever had in my time here.

Transfers in

Ignore Justo and Boedo, the former on loan, and the latter a youth player i didn't snip off this.

Gordon you already know about as he joins on a free, but Scholl and Banjac are CBs to replace Basso and Nicolaisen while Agirrezabal is a young player we are taking a punt on (he's immediately out on loan to La Liga 2).

Of these, Banjac will be our starting LCB while Scholl will be backup RCB. Gordon is first choice AMR replacing Mella, who by the way is now worth £124 million! More on him later!

Transfers out

I feel we've upgraded at CB and actually only spent £100k more in transfer fees than we received for Basso and Nicolaisen. 

We also received our money for McAtee.

And we received some transfer money from previous sales.

There was also a big chance of losing Williams as his release fee clause was met.

However, he's now signed a new contract at just £5k more a week but with a release clause of £25 million. Much better!

Padilla is another who is maybe on the way out, requesting a transfer, but I don't see anyone meeting his £7.5 million release clause, so he'll probably drop the request soon.

Season expectations

One really annoying thing was that the league didn't reset until something ridiculous like the 13th of July, by which time we'd started playing friendlies! It meant I didn't know until late on that we wouldn't receive any more TV money than last season. I read somewhere that it averages your last 5 year league finishes to calculate and I've seen from other saves that it does go up, so hopefully this will improve.

So, our expectations are as they were:

I think this is realistic with our budget (now £2 million left after Scholl's arrival), but obviously we overachieved last year by a huge amount. Let's just see how the season goes!

The media has us as finishing 8th - I'd be happy with any European performance.

One thing that could have an impact on our budget is a potentially huge transfer.

We'd be entitled to half of this, which surely would boost our budget by a reasonable amount! Real Madrid are also in for him, I really hope he doesn't go there!

Final squads

I'm going to keep an eye on the B team and U19s, as their respective managers don't seem to stick to my team selections. I have tried to reduce the number of poor players who get picked over my prospects. I'm also looking at some loans for U19s with high potential who don't kick on just from training, however, I do want to have control over their development for a little longer.

1st team:

2nd team:

Spares/ may go on loan still/ injured and returning

B team

U19s

[_Ben_]

On 13/08/2023 at 21:58, Jtomsett11 said:

Thanks @_Ben_

It's interesting that you've picked out those players, as I wouldn't have grouped them, but you are right, they're were all considered lower on the PA scale when they came through. Let's take them in turn of intake year.

Hector Rubio and Jorge Vallejo

This was the intake when Rubio came through. Bearing in mind our level (third tier), there's no reason to think either Rubio or Vallejo would go on to feature in the first team. They don't even have particularly good CA either, which often helps players reach their potential. I've had the same HOYD the whole save, Fran, who has 13 for judging potential, and I can't remember who my assistant manager was at this point or whether he was any good, so there's a good chance he just got the judgement completely wrong.

Here they are now.

Those attribute improvements from Rubio are nothing short of remarkable. He is now at full potential (near enough) and considered as a good La Liga player. I personally think he looks a little average still, but his performances are incredible.

I do remember that he grew significantly on loan and that's what drew my attention to him. 

He went on loan at the age of 17 I think and while he didn't perform well, I think he played enough minutes to develop into a 2.5 star player, which is why I then put him in the team at AMC for 25/26. He did well there, but due to the arrival of Cirjan, he was shunted out to AML for the La Liga campaign, playing second fiddle to Capone I believe. As you can see, with 7 assists, he did quite well, but he really earned his first team place due to his sensational form at the start of this season. He's 21 now, and has 120 league appearances to his name and another 9 cup appearances, which is probably largely the reason for his growth. His personality, fairly professional with 14 determination, so perhaps that's also helped. 

The early loan is probably what accelerated his growth and made him known to me, and then it was selecting him regularly that helped his growth. 

Vallejo isn't as talented yet, but has also clearly grown well.

With him, I am quite pleased with the plan I had to get him game time. I chose teams with as good facilities as possible and who wanted him as first choice until I felt he was good enough for La Liga 2, at which point (the season just gone) I've given him game time. Now, he only actually played 12 games last season, so I've probably held him back a bit, but I hope with Champions League football this year he'll get 20 games. If I had more money, I'd buy a better, younger keeper, but he's currently my best bet so he stays and gains the experience to at least be a decent number 2. Budget restrictions have probably helped these two a lot to be honest.

Costa

Costa is now on loan, so I can't see 'overall attribute growth' (which is annoying).

This is his rating now according to the assman.

This was him when he came through the youth intake (I didn't take a screenshot as he was so low down).

With Costa I think I've played him because his growth stood out as did his pace, and I thought he could make a difference for us. I've found this screenshot from 1st March, so I probably again saw his CA and PA and thought, I need to play him!

Sure enough, 21 days later I gave him his debut. What does it tell you? Probably that I mainly prioritise players who our staff say are growing well and developing their CA, at which point I make sure I give them game time. He's out on loan this season as he's not really good enough for us and we now have better prospects (both in terms of CA and PA) and I want to give him La Liga experience to see if he develops enough to play a role for us.

Huarte

Now, Huarte came through in a golden generation.

Of these players, Huarte and Alende are still considered 5 star prospects, Queijeiro and Oca 4.5, Torres, Pablo and Colley 4 star! So, Huarte was an F simply because so many other good players were around him.

He has definitely grown the most out of those players however.

He's had no loans, so here it was deciding he'd be better off as a full back and then focusing training on wing back attack role with speed as an extra focus. There's still a big issue with his dribbling, but it's his one big issue for me now and he still has a lot of potential (or so the coaches say).

I have promoted him to the first team squad; he'll either go on loan, fill a B team role with potential for cup games or perhaps even be our number 2 left back if we lose Williams to his release clause.

Takeaways

What this analysis has shown me (and you may have taken other points from it), is that potential ability is often completely misjudged on intake day. I often respond to perceived current ability stars probably more than I should. Appropriate game time, even at an early age, is absolutely key to development. We probably knew all of that already but it's interesting to do this sort of analysis!

Cracking post, thanks! Love those jumps, particularly in the first two. Anything special in terms of how you’ve done that? How much do you put into your youth coaches/schedules or is it fairly vanilla and they’re just ‘good’ potential lads?

[Jtomsett11]

On 15/08/2023 at 09:42, _Ben_ said:

Cracking post, thanks! Love those jumps, particularly in the first two. Anything special in terms of how you’ve done that? How much do you put into your youth coaches/schedules or is it fairly vanilla and they’re just ‘good’ potential lads?

I spend a lot of time ensuring the coaching set ups are good - signing good coaches with good personalities at all levels. All my coaches have 4 star or higher skills at all levels and training load is always 'light'. I do control first team training now having followed your posts for a while, but while I control individual training for the youngsters I don't control general training. I often use position training to suit the attributes I want grown, so although I only use pressing forwards, the positional training will vary dependent on the weaknesses of the players, as although I want a pressing forward in the side, I wanted them to be well rounded.

The key thing I've noticed from my years of playing is to only loan a player out if you're either not bothered about controlling attribute growth (i.e. their potential is too low and you just want them to develop), or if you're happy for attribute growth across the board (they've got no obvious weaknesses) as you obviously can't control the training they do. They also need to be at a level above what you can offer for them, which with a B team who are now in the third tier is going to be easier for me to control I think. When playing elsewhere, I'd rather not loan a good prospect out to a team below the second tier, or possibly third tier if they're very young and the club have reasonable facilities. For example, loaning to Vanarama National in England seems to have absolutely no benefit for decent prospects, compared to remaining at the state of the art training facilities of a Premier League side when under 18.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season friendlies July-August 2028

I was annoyed that I couldn't cancel the tour to the Netherlands as the season reset date was so late I was basically already there. That prevented me using the cup approach to friendlies for a little bit. 

Overall, I'm quite pleased, but I think the Atletico result probably shows you where we will be this season; i.e. not challenging for the title.

The start to the season isn't easy really. If we'd had lots of money to improve, I'd say we should aim for 4-6 points, but I'll take 3-4 points here.

 

[Jtomsett11]

August 2028

Villarreal 2-1 Deportivo

We really struggled here, and I'm not convinced with my new line up. Firstly, Bella-Kotchap was banned, so we played the second string CBs. Bernabai was directly at fault for one of the goals through poor positioning, and I think having him as first choice is probably an error when we're going to have to try and build momentum again this season; Williams is much stronger defensively. Oca was also unfit and Padilla looked much better when he came on.

Garner scored a free-kick, but other than that we deserved to lose.

Real Sociedad 0-3 Deportivo

Much better. In comes our new first choice CBs and we revert to Williams, Ludewig and Padilla in the starting 11. Yaakobishvili scored his first league penalty, Gordon provided a lovely assist for Cirjan and Cheddira finished off a bobble to seal a well deserved 3 points.

Deportivo 0-4 Real Madrid

Ouch. Back down to earth with a bang. The first half was actually very good, but once we went behind, Yaakobishvili started letting in every shot and yes, it could have been more than 4. I really don't think we'll be competing for the title this year!

Champions League draw

We've had the draw for the Champions League, and as you can see, it's pretty tough. From reading other people's saves, 10-11 points is needed for the knockout playoff. The home games against Celtic and Antalyaspor will probably be crucial, while Plzen away also looks very important. This should be fun to at least compete in, but it could also be very demoralising! 

At least we did get some money for our efforts!

Finances

As well as the Champions League cash, we've been boosted by our best season ticket sales ever.

In addition, the big sale of Mella went through.

So, we get £15 million now, a guaranteed £11.75 million in installments (I haven't checked the frequency of these) and I think there's some other clauses in the sale that mean we might get more. Pretty good for a youth player that we just gave a chance to! 

He is good, but that valuation looks ridiculous to me!

We now have £60 million in the bank, but the board won't give us anymore transfer money, so a transfer budget of £9 million is what we're left with just a few days before the window closes. I'm considering a goalkeeper, but I'm also considering just seeing how we do for a bit and investing in January if we need to. Too loyal to players? Perhaps, but I'm keen to give them as much of a chance as I can.

One player has just left.

Huarte goes out to get experience at La Liga 2 at left back. I'm then hoping he'll be ready to play for us next season.

We did have one final bit of news for the month.

Mara is injured, so Cheddira will be first choice and Escabros gets his chance in the second choice XI.

September

I'm likely to prioritise the Antalyaspor game, so will play the second string against Betis and Barcelona, before prioritising Mallorca and the B team can play against Lazio. Probably.

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I spend a lot of time ensuring the coaching set ups are good - signing good coaches with good personalities at all levels. All my coaches have 4 star or higher skills at all levels and training load is always 'light'. I do control first team training now having followed your posts for a while, but while I control individual training for the youngsters I don't control general training. I often use position training to suit the attributes I want grown, so although I only use pressing forwards, the positional training will vary dependent on the weaknesses of the players, as although I want a pressing forward in the side, I wanted them to be well rounded.

The key thing I've noticed from my years of playing is to only loan a player out if you're either not bothered about controlling attribute growth (i.e. their potential is too low and you just want them to develop), or if you're happy for attribute growth across the board (they've got no obvious weaknesses) as you obviously can't control the training they do. They also need to be at a level above what you can offer for them, which with a B team who are now in the third tier is going to be easier for me to control I think. When playing elsewhere, I'd rather not loan a good prospect out to a team below the second tier, or possibly third tier if they're very young and the club have reasonable facilities. For example, loaning to Vanarama National in England seems to have absolutely no benefit for decent prospects, compared to remaining at the state of the art training facilities of a Premier League side when under 18.

 

We're on the same page with all of this!

[lfds89]

@Jtomsett11 can you post an example of your training schedule, please?

I've been working around mine, but I'm not happy with the results on young players. I get one or two developing really well but mostly is not satisfying.

[Jtomsett11]

September 2028

It feels like an age since I played this month, but overall it still looks like a successful one. 4 points from 3 league games might not look brilliant, but we've played 2 games away from home and our home game was a draw against Barcelona. Our return to the Champions League has also gone really well.

Real Betis 3-1 Deportivo

We started well, but really we were outplayed by Betis who have started this season really well. I can't remember a whole load about this game to be honest. I am pleased with Arsenijevic who has started the season well, while Cheddira is also looking good.

Deportivo 2-0 Antalyaspor 

Firstly, I absolutely love the Champions League music and scoreboard. Absolutely love it. I have no idea why something so small makes such a difference, but I really felt like I was playing in the Champions League. This is the first time I've experienced this as it's my debut in the competition on FM23 and I didn't play FM22 (no idea if it was in there then?). 

I'm not sure how good this Turkish side are as we don't have Turkey loaded, but I was really impressed with our performance. Bella-Kotchap, who nearly left at the end of the transfer window, headed us into the lead and then Fondevila came on to provide another lovely assist for Cirjan. We could, and should have won by more. Colley made his debut at left back as Bernabai is out injured. He probably won't end up being a first team starter, but he's playing in the B team so gets the call up when others are injured.

By the way, in case you're wondering, these are the odds on us winning the Champions League.

Deportivo 2-2 Barcelona

The reserves did really well here. Really well. If you consider the fact they had a penalty worth nearly 1xG, then we should have won. As it was, they cancelled out Arsenijevic's deflected opener and after Vallejo saved the penalty, Man then provided Escabros with a great cross for the young striker's first goal for the club. 

Mallorca 0-1 Deportivo

I felt we absolutely had to win this game. We were in the relegation zone despite that great result against Barcelona. We played the new adjusted first team and it was two of the three adjustments made who made the difference. It was Padilla who delivered, scoring a lovely low strike from the edge of the area after fine work from Ludewig in dribbling to the byline before cutting in back. We were excellent and deserved our second win of the season.

Lazio 2-2 Deportivo

The week off allowed us to play the first team again, but looking ahead at the schedule for October I decided to play the B team here. We were very close to winning, and probably should have won having come from behind to take the lead as I always feel that if you're leading past 80 minutes you really should hold out, but in the end this was a fair result. Val has recently come back into the second string ahead of Oca, who really hasn't played well this season, and he's had a real impact with positive performances and here an excellent finish from just inside the area. Cheddira is playing really well and finished nicely from Man's through ball. Man is getting his chances after his horrible injury-hit first season and he's popping up with some assists which is great.

Okay, 14th after 6 games isn't great. However, we've only played 2 home league games, against Real Madrid and Barcelona (loss and draw) so have won 2 and lost 2 of our away games, which really isn't too bad. We've also played 4 of the top 6 in our opening 6 games. I think we'll be in the hunt for European positions by the end of the season.

I'll show the Champions League table when it becomes a bit more meaningful.

Finances

Things are looking very strong for us at the moment, but we do need to increase our income from commercial activity and TV revenue in the near future if we're to grow. We're close to our wage budget restrictions from La Liga now, and we're nowhere near the top sides for income. Yes, our ticket revenues are pretty solid, but I think a couple of years of European football in probably needed to allow us to expand the sorts of wages we can offer players. Our transfer budget is still stupidly low but hopefully will improve for next season.

We did have our first youth player poached.

From our rivals as well. 1.5 gold star probably isn't something we need to worry about missing, but I do hope this doesn't happen too much going forward as we need our best youth players!

October

A really busy month. The first team will play against Osasuna and Celta Vigo probably and maybe against Plzen as the gap of 5 days may be enough time. We'd then have the reserves for Rayo and Cadiz though, which seems like we might throw away points. Therefore, it's probably first team, first team, reserves, first team, reserves, first team.

[Jtomsett11]

Transfer window September 2028

I've already shown the majority of transfers, but there was a little more at the end of the window.

Bella-Kotchap has a £10.75 million release clause and a 10% sell on fee for himself (we signed him on a free so I was OK with this). Rennes triggered the release clause about 2 days before the transfer deadline.

I looked at his wage demands and decided we couldn't compete.

I managed to find a suitable replacement on my shortlist and agreed the transfer and then delayed, waiting for Bella-Kotchap to make up his mind.

He rejected the contract on deadline day, so we didn't have the funds to bring in his replacement (no problem).

However, he's now wanted by Man City. He'll probably leave in January, although in a slight twist he's dramatically lowered his wage demands and I think there may be some hope for us to at least increase the minimum release clause.

We did bring in one more player.

My scout assignment for U20s playing in Spain has seen us sign players such as Escarbros and Arsenijevic, now we have signed a really good prospect keeper too.

In hindsight I think Nikolic could have walked into the reserve team ahead of Vallejo, but this gives us a season to see how both develop and then make a decision.

He's immediately our second best keeper and he's also 'either' footed which takes up CA points, so he's actually probably nearly our best keeper. He's playing in La Liga 2 for the year so that'll be superb for his development.

[Jtomsett11]

On 18/08/2023 at 22:22, lfds89 said:

@Jtomsett11 can you post an example of your training schedule, please?

I've been working around mine, but I'm not happy with the results on young players. I get one or two developing really well but mostly is not satisfying.

No problem.

Pre-season, I read an article by @danielgear in @_Ben_'s thread and so use a pre-season schedule of cup's, maximising training time. This is just a screenshot of week 1 below, with the cup games Saturday and Sunday followed by a day of rest and then 4 days of training (with a move towards tactical work towards the end of pre-season). Again, not my ideas, just some slight adjustments from me based on player complaints.

I then have 4 schedules for 1 game weeks and 2 games weeks, with a defensive and offensive training scheme for each. I tend to use the offensive one before home games, but this is not always the case. I try to balance the mix of offensive and defensive weeks, and I do vary the set piece training. The only complaint I sometimes get from players is a lack of physical training, so every month I try and make sure there's one of these slots shoved in somewhere.

I've looked at various other threads having originally been convinced to do my own training by @_Ben_'s work in his threads, so I'm not entirely sure of all of my thinking.

Generally, I have chosen sessions that suit my tactics (I think).

• We have a high press tactic and also a mid-press tactic, so my defensive training looks a little all over the place but reflects that.
• We had a major problem with conceding from corners early on in the save, so that's the default set piece training for defensive weeks and has worked well, along with changes to my defensive set piece set up.
• I read somewhere that someone tested the impact of match preparation sessions and I think that match practice was the only one that had significant impact, but I do have match review in there occasionally as I feel it must do something (even if it actually doesn't).
• I do fill most of the slots, but I deliberately use 'team bonding' and 'community outreach' in slots that I feel it would be too dangerous to work load to use another training session. I haven't had loads of injuries doing this, but I did when I had the default training intensity at 'double' for 100% fitness.
• Chance creation and conversion are always high up on my list, as I notice problems when I don't have these sessions down. I'm not sure if this is one of those 'I feel it works so it seems like it does' placebo effects that often take place in FM. 
• I always schedule a friendly if we have a week off for international breaks, so the Sunday 8th October 'match practice' will be a friendly for those players unfit, reserves or those not on duty as I like everyone to always be match fit. 

I don't know how much you'll learn from that, I feel I've learnt from others and then made things up as I go along. It feels like it works, so I've stuck to it! Players are developing well for the most part as well. One thing I have noticed is that tactical familiarity is only improved by certain sessions and not sessions like 'ground defence', so I've added more general sessions as I've gone along e.g. 'defending' on 3rd October and 'tactical' on Saturday 7th. 

Feel free to criticise or pick apart my approach!

[danielgear]

12 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Pre-season, I read an article by @danielgear

Glad it helped mate, article link there for the person asking for help. 
 

have you found it’s made a difference @Jtomsett11 

[Jtomsett11]

4 hours ago, danielgear said:

Glad it helped mate, article link there for the person asking for help. 
 

have you found it’s made a difference @Jtomsett11 

Yes, firstly my entire squad is now match fit in just 4 weeks of pre-season as we can fit 4 cups in that time. I use to play a game every 3 days and never thought about the impact on training.

It also makes me select a first and second team pretty early on as I obviously need full rotation from the Saturday to Sunday as you advised in the article. That's a real help for transfer business as I can then plan who needs to go out on loan and who does need to stay as an option player (I often get injuries in DM and winger roles so keeping 1 extra young winger who can play both sides, and DM around,  plus a striker as I play a 1 striker system so one injury throws out my rotation) so we then also get the benefit of good relationships forming between the players early in to the season. I combine this with @Jimbokav1971's rotation policy so that the 1st and 2nd team are then fixed and learn to play together. I have to admit I do adapt the 1st and 2nd team if I think I've made an error or a player's form stands out to me, but largely I stick to the teams and I think the combination of these approaches has made a big difference to the success I'm having. 

I've also not had players jaded during the season since using your approach either,  and definitely use to have that problem. 

[danielgear]

21 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Yes, firstly my entire squad is now match fit in just 4 weeks of pre-season as we can fit 4 cups in that time. I use to play a game every 3 days and never thought about the impact on training.

It also makes me select a first and second team pretty early on as I obviously need full rotation from the Saturday to Sunday as you advised in the article. That's a real help for transfer business as I can then plan who needs to go out on loan and who does need to stay as an option player (I often get injuries in DM and winger roles so keeping 1 extra young winger who can play both sides, and DM around,  plus a striker as I play a 1 striker system so one injury throws out my rotation) so we then also get the benefit of good relationships forming between the players early in to the season. I combine this with @Jimbokav1971's rotation policy so that the 1st and 2nd team are then fixed and learn to play together. I have to admit I do adapt the 1st and 2nd team if I think I've made an error or a player's form stands out to me, but largely I stick to the teams and I think the combination of these approaches has made a big difference to the success I'm having. 

I've also not had players jaded during the season since using your approach either,  and definitely use to have that problem. 

That’s great, Yeah I’ve found it makes a real difference to the fitness of the overall squad as opposed to just the starting XI the old way I used to do it. 

[Jtomsett11]

October 2028

Now that's more like it! A 100% win month (if you ignore the friendly) sets us back on the right path. Four 2-0 wins and a 4-1 and 4-0 sees us win the months games 12-1 in the league and 16-1 overall. 

Osasuna 1-4 Deportivo

Mara returned for this game, but we created very little while he was on the pitch. Cheddira came on and within a minute he'd scored, and then he scored again and helped to create the space for Garner's which sealed the victory before Man scored a lovely goal cutting in within the box from the left. Notably, that's the first and only goal an inside forward has scored in the 11 league games and 3 European games (I'll go into that more later). We needed to build on the Mallorca result so I was delighted that we put 4 past Osasuna.

Deportivo 2-0 Celta Vigo

A very strong defensive performance here, but it did take a corner goal as Bella-Kotchap celebrated a new contract with a header to send us on our way. It was really good to see Mara put his injury behind him too to score a classic goal, a through ball from Hector Rubio (who had 0 assists and 0 goals up until now). We're not firing on all cylinders yet and I largely think this is down to reduced output from Cirjan, Rubio and Gordan, who really hasn't come close to replacing Mella. It is worth mentioning that Mella was largely anonymous until later on in the season.

I really don't think that Bella-Kotchap will be here for the whole of this deal, so I'm prepared to pay him £28k a week more than he was on to get more than £10.25 million for him. Man City and someone in Italy have a strong interest in him, so I think we'll see some bids in January, but hopefully I'll have at least doubled the money we get for him (he's worth £21-27 million now).

Plzen 0-4 Deportivo

As easy as it gets in the Champions League as we make it 7 points from a possible 9. Cheddira was unlucky that his second strike went in off a defender for an own goal. Capone and Man were responsible for the first and third goal, and they seem so much more dangerous than Rubio and Gordon right now. Arsenijevic is also doing well, finding space in the area to slot home here after the ball bounced around the box. Vallejo scored his penalty for his second goal of the season.

Rayo Vallecano 0-2 Deportivo

Williams is out for three weeks, so Bernabei plays in the first eleven for now. Another, really solid performance. Mara again with a classic finish from a through ball; nice to see Cirjan and Mara connecting again. Then Cheddira came on and scored a similar goal from a Man through-ball. Yaakobishvili is much worse at penalties than Vallejo and missed again here, but it didn't harm us at all. Again, we're not smashing in goals, but Banjac and Bella-Kotchap win everything in the air and sweep up most of the danger while Garner and Padilla are doing a really good job patrolling the middle at the moment, keeping the danger well away from our goal.

Deportivo 2-0 Athletic Club

Huarte wasn't getting any game time on loan, so I recalled him with a view of him picking up 3-4 games before Williams returns. He did well on his debut, but it was Arsenijevic who made the difference, literally as I was about to substitute him. A lovely one-two with Capone set him free and he fired home past the keeper. Panzo then scored a header from a Hoever free kick (I don't think I've set anyone for free kicks to be honest). Considering this is the second string, they're doing really well.

Deportivo 2-0 Cadiz

Look what happens when we have some decent home games to play! Mara finished off our perfect month and he's now on 4 goals in the last 3 league games having scored 0 in the first 3 and then missed a few through injury. A Cirjan and Gordon assist (a wonderful ball from the middle of his own half for Gordon) is also great to see as we start to become a bit more creative.

The 10 games must be including European games as we've lost 3 of our opening 11 fixtures in the league!

What a difference a month makes. An excellent string of victories sees us back into the European places and I hope to see us competing there across the season. Real Madrid and Sevilla have made very good starts so I'd be shocked if we were competing for the title, but you never know!

We just want to finish in the top 24. Our remaining fixtures are Dortmund (away), PSG (home), Celtic (home), Man Utd (away) and Chelsea (home). I think we probably need to win and draw to give ourselves a good chance of qualifying. The Celtic home game looks key! Anything from any of the other four would be a massive bonus and we'll play the second string in those games I'd imagine.

November

The second string are up next and then it'll be the first team for the league games bar Valencia I'd imagine. I'd prefer to play the first team against Valencia than Sevilla, but if we play the first team against PSG then we can't against Espanyol and that's a much more winnable game.

Performances

I've mentioned we're struggling for goals from inside forward positions. Last year Rubio and Mella contributed lots of goals and Cirjan was right up there as well. This year, it's our strikers dominating the goals (12) with AMCs getting 5 between them, DM's 4, CB's 3 and GK's 2 before Man's solitary goal for the inside forwards. I think perhaps teams are sitting slightly deeper offering less space in behind, so it's something I'll have to monitor. 

 

 

[lfds89]

Em 25/08/2023 em 22:12, Jtomsett11 disse:

No problem.

Pre-season, I read an article by @danielgear in @_Ben_'s thread and so use a pre-season schedule of cup's, maximising training time. This is just a screenshot of week 1 below, with the cup games Saturday and Sunday followed by a day of rest and then 4 days of training (with a move towards tactical work towards the end of pre-season). Again, not my ideas, just some slight adjustments from me based on player complaints.

I then have 4 schedules for 1 game weeks and 2 games weeks, with a defensive and offensive training scheme for each. I tend to use the offensive one before home games, but this is not always the case. I try to balance the mix of offensive and defensive weeks, and I do vary the set piece training. The only complaint I sometimes get from players is a lack of physical training, so every month I try and make sure there's one of these slots shoved in somewhere.

I've looked at various other threads having originally been convinced to do my own training by @_Ben_'s work in his threads, so I'm not entirely sure of all of my thinking.

Generally, I have chosen sessions that suit my tactics (I think).

• We have a high press tactic and also a mid-press tactic, so my defensive training looks a little all over the place but reflects that.
• We had a major problem with conceding from corners early on in the save, so that's the default set piece training for defensive weeks and has worked well, along with changes to my defensive set piece set up.
• I read somewhere that someone tested the impact of match preparation sessions and I think that match practice was the only one that had significant impact, but I do have match review in there occasionally as I feel it must do something (even if it actually doesn't).
• I do fill most of the slots, but I deliberately use 'team bonding' and 'community outreach' in slots that I feel it would be too dangerous to work load to use another training session. I haven't had loads of injuries doing this, but I did when I had the default training intensity at 'double' for 100% fitness.
• Chance creation and conversion are always high up on my list, as I notice problems when I don't have these sessions down. I'm not sure if this is one of those 'I feel it works so it seems like it does' placebo effects that often take place in FM. 
• I always schedule a friendly if we have a week off for international breaks, so the Sunday 8th October 'match practice' will be a friendly for those players unfit, reserves or those not on duty as I like everyone to always be match fit. 

I don't know how much you'll learn from that, I feel I've learnt from others and then made things up as I go along. It feels like it works, so I've stuck to it! Players are developing well for the most part as well. One thing I have noticed is that tactical familiarity is only improved by certain sessions and not sessions like 'ground defence', so I've added more general sessions as I've gone along e.g. 'defending' on 3rd October and 'tactical' on Saturday 7th. 

Feel free to criticise or pick apart my approach!

I definitely have to make a revision of the pre-season. This season, I was too focused on the transfers, I let my assistant handle everything and my players never got to decent levels of fitness. I've also read @danielgear's article. Will follow from there.

About the rest, I used to do it a bit like what you do, but then I saw EBFM's videos and opted for the more generic training (like you have on 16th Oct, for instance). I'll probably go back to that. It feels more realistic and I don't see such an improvement in development.

Just one more question: do you make specific training schedules for youth or do you use the same as for the senior team?

Thanks for taking the time!

[Jtomsett11]

On 28/08/2023 at 10:15, lfds89 said:

I definitely have to make a revision of the pre-season. This season, I was too focused on the transfers, I let my assistant handle everything and my players never got to decent levels of fitness. I've also read @danielgear's article. Will follow from there.

About the rest, I used to do it a bit like what you do, but then I saw EBFM's videos and opted for the more generic training (like you have on 16th Oct, for instance). I'll probably go back to that. It feels more realistic and I don't see such an improvement in development.

Just one more question: do you make specific training schedules for youth or do you use the same as for the senior team?

Thanks for taking the time!

Nope, just leave them to the assistant manager for youth and B team. This year is the first year I've actually run my own training, so I'm seeing how it goes before extending it to the other teams.

I would highly recommend the pre-season approach 

[Jtomsett11]

November 2028

A pretty poor (but expected) month for the Champions League, but a very solid month in the league.

Dortmund 4-1 Deportivo

We were in shock for most of the first half as Dortmund tore us apart. We then showed a little bit of fight and Man set up Arsenijevic - I'm really liking these two and if they keep playing like this they'll be promoted to the first eleven rather than the second eleven. The fight was ended by Dortmund's 4th goal. To be honest, anything would have been a bonus!

Atletico 0-2 Deportivo

This was a really tight and even game, and then I made two substitutions that changed the game.

Capone and Cheddira came on and combined for both goals. Capone's was a wonderful team move which involved Padilla playing the key pass to set Cheddira away to square to an onrushing Capone. He then returned the favour in more typical fashion for us, a through ball to Cheddira who had a lot of work to do but did it brilliantly. The back 7 at the moment are definitely my starting 7, but you can make a case for the front 4 to be replaced by the second eleven at this point.

Espanyol 2-3 Deportivo

A second away win in a row, but this one was much harder. We had to fight back, and then fight for the win, but we managed it, with Capone and Arsenijevic making more impact again than the starters. Ludewig was sensational in this game, Gordon got his first goal with a stooped header from a gorgeous cross from Capone and the icing on the cake was Arsenijevic nearly breaking the keeper and the net to win us the game.

Interestingly, this came out just before.

He'd be my number 1 at AMC if his physicals were slightly better, but he now has 3 goals and an assist from just 3 starts and 4 sub appearances in La Liga plus 2 goals in 3 Champions League games. That's it, I'm putting him as number 1.

Deportivo 2-3 PSG

We were much closer here than against Dortmund! We did score from two corners, but we also created quite a few chances and I think we'd have come away with something if we weren't facing Mbappe who was just unreal.

Deportivo 0-0 Sevilla

Our winning streak may have come to an end, but we didn't lose against top side Sevilla, and we perhaps deserved to win. Mara has lost his shooting boots after having them all of October, and Cheddira wasn't any better here.

Deportivo 2-0 Valencia

I've moved Capone and Arsenijevic to the first 11 following their recent performances. Rubio responded here with a lovely assist for Val to fire home from inside the box and that set us on our way. Not to be outdone, Capone then finished off from a lovely lofted ball from Gordon, who is starting to perform a little more regularly. 

4th, but it's very tight from 1st to 4th and if Villarreal win their game in hand, it's even tighter. We've done exceptionally well to recover from our start to the season.

We just need to finish 24th, so I think we really need to win our home game against Celtic and then hope we get lucky.

Finances

We're losing around £3 million a month (I cashed in on a transfer clause this month), but that doesn't really worry me as one Champions League win would cover that, plus TV money at the start of the year or a sale of a player. 

Clauses

I haven't written as much about monitoring clauses as in previous careers as to be honest I haven't had any to cash in on.

I don't believe that Ahlmann is going to develop stuck in Watford's U21s, with 4 sub appearances in the Carabao Cup and Europa League to his name, so I can see him being released at the end of his deal despite his valuation. Therefore, it made sense to cash in on the near £1million for him.

December

No early Copa del Rey cup round this year. I'll aim for 6 points and a Champions League victory before the winter break.

[Jtomsett11]

Staff development and loss

I tend to spend a while finding good coaches, physios and scouts and upgrading the staff team each summer. Lee Wallace has been a great assistant manager for the U19s.

Now, while his preferred formation doesn't match, his style does, he has a good personality, an ability to coach to the highest level and also is a decent assistant manager. The problem with finding staff like this is they then get poached and it's very hard to replace both the assistant manager side of things, but also the training quality. Currently, I can't find a replacement so I've put an advert out to see what I can get.

[Jtomsett11]

December 2028

Three more victories before the winter break, and although we do return on the 31st against Elche, I thought that this was actually a natural pause point.

Granada 1-3 Deportivo

We may have started badly, but from the moment Mara scored there only looked to be one winner. However, we missed a whole host of chances and substitutes Cirjan and Scholl were the ones who saw us over the line. 

Deportivo 2-0 Celtic

A comfortable win, but a really important one. Unless we're really unlucky, we should now be in the Champions League play-off round which is a great achievement for our small and let's face it, not brilliantly talented squad. Val played an incredible pass to set up Rubio for the first goal and Scholl scored from his second corner in two games to seal the three points.

Edu got his debut at right back due to an injury to Ludewig and he played really well.

He'll need to play for the B team or on loan next season I feel to continue his excellent development.

I noticed when taking this screenshot that Spanish teams are doing really quite badly. On the other end, Monaco, Udinese and Leicester are flying!

Las Palmas 2-4 Deportivo

This was a really topsy-turvy, we've-run-out-of-steam kind of game. Fortunately, enough of our players played well enough to overcome some really poor defending. Gordon did well as he shows further signs of setting in.

It's very tight at the top, with a slight gap to Valencia and Villarreal, which is what we want as Champions League football is where we need to be finishing after a very good last 11 games (the first 6 were not so great!). Poor Las Palmas!

Club developments

One upgrade away from maxed out facilities!

We can't use this for La Liga squad registration rules (we're still at £675k) but this gives us more leeway signing younger players for the B team or to develop on loan. 

Speaking of loans.

There are more players out on loan, but they're in the B team so don't appear in this report. There's two standouts here, Enrique and Rotena. Both would feature if I recalled them, but they're developing really well in La Liga and La Liga 2 respectively. I'm also quite happy with my squad at the minute in these positions (AMC and DC respectively) and I'd have to upset someone to give them game time.

 

[Jtomsett11]

December form

Yaakobishvili has again exceeded the goals he should have saved while Vallejo under performs, especially with his saves. However, I'm pretty sure Yaakobishvili was also poor when he was slightly younger so I think this could be simply down to experience, age and growth. Vallejo also faces some of the most difficult teams. He's the much better penalty taker!

I'm not going to go into too much depth here, but some players do stand out. Bella-Kotchap is doing everything very well, but I'm particularly impressed with him winning possession back way more than any other centre back. Man stands out on average rating, but actually Gordon has scored more and has created roughly the same key passes per 90 even if he's not creating quite as many chances. Cheddira with 9 goals is our top scorer despite just playing 11 games. That's really impressive!

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake preview

Let's see what we get, but a goalkeeper and centre midfielder would be good as long as the CM is either suited to AMC or DM as we don't play a CM.

[Jtomsett11]

Awards and B Team

These awards are brilliant. Yaakobishvili should be nowhere near this award, but when I look at the goals he's prevented both in our title win and already this season, it's no wonder he is considered one of the top goalkeepers at the moment, if only by performance. Arsenijevic is now our first choice AMC and when you see those stats from his year. 18 contributions in 36 games; very very good for a 19 year old.

Not sure why it says former boss as he's the manager!

Halfway and the B team are well placed for promotion. That would have a hugely beneficial impact on our young players' development.

 

[Jtomsett11]

January 2029

This was a beast of a month, as we were also really busy in the transfer market in terms of loans and one big incoming.

Deportivo 2-0 Elche

Technically in December, but I decided to include with January as it was post the season break. We start as we left off, with a convincing win. Garner set us on the way and Mara finished clinically from Arsenijevic's beautifully weighted past. Celebrating his Golden Boy Award.

Deportivo 0-1 Barcelona

It wasn't to be here as the B team couldn't get over the line, but it was pretty close and to be honest, if there's a competition I don't care about this year, it's this one!

Deportivo 2-0 Getafe

Easy as you like. Capone is back in the goals after a great through ball from Padilla and then Yaakobishvili scores from the spot. You may have noticed Escabros playing and Banjac playing every week at the moment. Well that's due to African Nations call ups and Banjac throwing toys out of the pram over not playing every game (he's played about 70% so he really needs to do one).

Numancia 1-2 Deportivo

A keeper penalty and a giant scoring a header from a corner, what's not to like? We struggled to break down Numacia, but I don't really care if we get to the next round. This month is all about game management. More minutes for young players Huarte and Fondevila (who has struggled majorly with injuries this season and isn't having the same impact as last year) as well as Escabros, who looks like he's never scored a goal, but we'll persist with him to give him minutes for growth!

Man United 4-0 Deportivo

I played the second team back to back against Numancia and Man UTD as I really didn't think we'd beat United away and thought the second team could get through in the cup. That would leave the first team really rested for Villarreal and Real Madrid games. An injury to Scholl did mean we started with our first choice CB's however.

The second team did not surprise here, but we should have scored at least one and actually the second half was really even. Escabros had another nightmare in front of goal.

Deportivo 3-0 Villarreal

And that's what a rested team do! Absolute domination. The first goal for Mara was from a Williams cross that was the stuff of dreams, curving back for Mara to run on to and power home with his head. Despite his two goals, it was Arsenijevic who did all the heavy lifting and how he only had one assist I don't know. You may notice a new name, Carrasco, more on him shortly!

Deportivo 4-1 Chelsea

Wow! We went into this game knowing that a loss would probably be enough for a play-off place, and wanting to keep it respectable. We started Oca in midfield and Escabros up front. I was not expecting the two of them to combine beautifully for the opener. The assist was excellent, a chipped through ball and Escabros rounded the keeper to put us in the lead. A penalty followed and then two Scholl headers put us in dreamland. We even gave a debut to a 16 year old CB (we're a bit short with Panzo at the African cup of Nations to be honest).

He's promising, and looks pretty solid across his attributes, so with some growth he may be a future player for us. He didn't look out of place here.

Real Madrid join us in the play-offs, as do Barcelona who just sneak in. We'd have qualified with 10 points, but the win was a bonus!

Real Madrid 1-0 Deportivo

Back to the league, and back to reality. There was a gulf in class here, have no doubt. It could have been more than one and it reminds me that we are the plucky underdogs in this top four battle for the league title and way off Madrid.

That was our first loss for 16 games!

Andorra 0-3 Deportivo

I've had to stop screen-shoting the formations as it's exceeding the max file upload size (not sure why as I've never had an issue before). I did play the second string, excluding Banjac who got his first goal, but it was only late on when Gordon came on that we really looked impressive. He scored a belter and then set up Carrasco for his debut goal. Oh my word, Carrasco is exciting. 

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Jtomsett11

[Jtomsett11]

End of January table

I'm not sure why my screenshots are suddenly so large, but anyhow there we go! Here's how we look at the end of the month.

Just 4 points off top, and at least 5 clear off 5th place. Personally, I think this is a wonderful achievement considering our start to the season. To give some context to that, look at wage expenditure:

February

February is a big month and I'm not 100% how to approach it. Play the B team against Getafe then leaves them facing Betis, Barcelona and Mallorca - I'm not sure that's the best use of the team. I may have to go: B, A,A,B,A,B,A,B and risk playing the A team twice in 3 days.