[FM23] - Moe Bumbercatch - a European journeyman story - chapter 4 - Juventus

[karanhsingh]

5 hours ago, SixPointer said:

On the cusp of a remarkable season!

 

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

As has already been said, what a season you're having so far! A stroke of luck with the man from Leeds missing both legs of the game against you, but they still have quality and it's no easy task to beat them over two legs. Good luck with the remaining big games!

Thanks guys! Have played through the end of the season so will update shortly. 

[warlock]

25 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

will update shortly

Hoping for great things

[13th Man]

Great work overall! Getting one over City is fantastic, and in the CL no less. Haaland missing obviously helps, but hopefully the gameplan can still be effective overall when you face them again.

[SteinkelssonFM]

You have Brighton bubbling, I think this season will be special to say the least. Keep the updates coming. 

[karanhsingh]

14 hours ago, warlock said:

Hoping for great things

 

13 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Great work overall! Getting one over City is fantastic, and in the CL no less. Haaland missing obviously helps, but hopefully the gameplan can still be effective overall when you face them again.

 

12 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said:

You have Brighton bubbling, I think this season will be special to say the least. Keep the updates coming. 

Cheers fellas!

[karanhsingh]

So its Bayer Leverkusen at the Amex first up. Champions League semi-finals. Now there are no easy games at this stage in the competition but we have to look at this as a favourable draw. 

We are usually strong at home, so I am looking to ideally win by a 2 goals margin here.

The game kicks off and it is very nervy indeed. Barely any decent highlights from the first half. We go into HT goalless. Maxi Gomez is injured btw, and Elye Wahi is just not being able to do the business in his place.

We switch to a 4-2-3-1 trying to get an extra body towards the attacking line. It works, as Jorge Salgado scores his only goal of the season with a shot from the edge of the box after a brilliantly worked move from the team.

After this, we continue to try hard to score a second goal, but the most we can fashion is a series of low xG opportunities. It ends 1-0, and will be all to play for in Germany.

[karanhsingh]

Leverkusen away. With a slim one goal lead, and two of our most important players missing - Maxi Gomez and Fabian Rieder. The latter has been ruled out for the rest of the season, as a matter of fact.

To be perfectly honest, we are under the cosh for a large part of the game. Leverkusen finally get a deserved break-through with wonderkid Florian Wirtz scoring in the 70th minute. A nervy tie just got even nervier.

When Pobega hobbles off with an injury, we really are on our last legs now fitness wise. Cheikh Niasse comes on and we are just trying to hang on till extra time. But, Leverkusen score in the 91st minute. Heart-break! Or is it - the goal is fortunately ruled out for a marginal offside call.

Both teams are pretty tired in ET and we figure it's best to just try and play out for penalties. Even though I personally don't have a great record with pens when it comes to FM.

Luckily, this is the one where it turns around! One missed spot kick from Merlin makes the difference, as Pedro Neto smashes home the winning 5th kick to send the away fans into absolute delirium!

The final is set, and it will be German opposition again as we will be up against super club FC Bayern.

Edited June 20, 2023 by karanhsingh

[karanhsingh]

Okay, ordinarily it would make sense to do the FA Cup final first, but let's just get this out of the way.

I did screenshots of each goal, but will just show you the HT and FT stats. That should paint the picture. First, here are the line-ups.

Bayern clearly have quality all over the pitch, but Jamal Musiala at AMC is the main man. He's surely one of the best players in the world at this point. As for us, we take a massive risk by playing Maxi Gomez who is still a bit unfit and just coming back from injury.

The first half is a tense affair with neither side really getting a shot in. But we figure as long as it's like this, we are well in the game, so why push to make a difference. However just at the stroke of half-time, Bayern score with only their 2nd (and 3rd) shot of the entire game. A devastating blow. It's 1-0 to the Germans at HT. The chance shows as high xG because its an open goal on a rebound. Until this point, we had shut them out completely.

Unbelievably, they then go on to score again right at the top of the second half. In a goal that has a striking similarity to the one my Young Boys team conceded to Nice in the UEFA Conference final, Maxi Gomez loses the ball deep in our half to Leroy Sane who goes on a mazy run before setting up Goretzka for the killer goal. Honestly, this completely knocks the stuffing out of the team. We switch to a 4-2-4 but its too late. Bayern score one more and win a completely one sided final 3-0.

Heart-breaking. That's two European finals for Bumbercatch and two 0-3 defeats.

[karanhsingh]

Now let's turn our attention back one week prior, to the FA Cup final between Brighton and Man City.

Apologies, I forgot to take a picture of the starting line-ups. The Norwegian robot is back, but it's literally his first game after 2 months out and he is completely lacking in match fitness. Let's hope he is not at his best.

A goalless first half ensues. But we are right in the game. You can never really expect to dominate against this Manchester City team, but the best you can try to do is to match them punch for punch. We are doing that.

And then, in the 59th minute, our Portuguese flying superstar Pedro Neto unleashes a super goal from the edge of the box after a clinical counter attack. What a goal! He's been absolutely brilliant for us all season and this further vindicates the massive 55m price tag!

Soon after this, Haaland trudges off looking very tired. Now we just need to hold out. And hold out we do! A famous 1-0 win gets Brighton their first ever trophy in the form of the famous FA Cup!

Pedro Neto with a fabulous winner but it is Brighton academy boy Robert Sanchez who gets the MOTM award for some fantastic saves.

And there you have it!!

 

[SixPointer]

Gutting for the UCL after a spectacular run to the final. The FA CUP certainly softens the blow!!! Is that Brighton’s first ever one?

[karanhsingh]

19 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Gutting for the UCL after a spectacular run to the final. The FA CUP certainly softens the blow!!! Is that Brighton’s first ever one?

Thanks! Yes first ever trophy in the club's history

[warlock]

Hard to compete against bigger opposition twice in a week. A massive win in the FA Cup was bound to produce a bit of a hangover. Congratulations... it might have been the narrowest of margins, but a win's a win

[karanhsingh]

20 minutes ago, warlock said:

Hard to compete against bigger opposition twice in a week. A massive win in the FA Cup was bound to produce a bit of a hangover. Congratulations... it might have been the narrowest of margins, but a win's a win

Thank you!

[Hootieleece]

Good Job toppling Man City for the FA Cup!

You just ran out of luck in the Champions League, but it was an unforgettable run.

[karanhsingh]

5 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Good Job toppling Man City for the FA Cup!

You just ran out of luck in the Champions League, but it was an unforgettable run.

Thanks! And yes agreed with you there. 

[karanhsingh]

In all the cup excitement, forgot to update about the league! Here is how it finished up.

Although it says a 6 point gap, we were never really in the title race. We also got a few lucky wins at the end of the season. I believe as per xG we should have finished no higher than 5th spot.

Anyway, 3rd place is of course an excellent return for the club, and Brighton will continue to play in the UEFA Champions League.

[karanhsingh]

Here are the final squad stats from an amazing season at Brighton which saw us win the first ever trophy in the club's history.

Maxi Gomez finishes top scorer again with 27, but he did not score a single goal in the last 2 months of the season. He's also hit 30 and may start to decline soon.

According to me, the player of the season without a doubt has to be Pedro Neto who contributed 16 goals and 20 assists despite being injured for almost a month. He also of course got the all important winner in the FA Cup final. What a brilliant player!

Fabian Rieder had a great sophomore season at England with 10 goals and 17 assists before his season was brutally cut short with a 3 month layoff suffered in March.

At the back, Pablo Ruiz Diaz continues his excellent progress with a great second season too and also popping up with no less than 14 goals. He is now one of the first names on the Argentina team sheet too.

Disappointments of the season for me are Julio Enciso who seems to keep performing worse than his attributes suggest he should, and Mohammed Salisu who did not really shore up our defense as expected following his 56m move.

[karanhsingh]

When Moe took over at Brighton, there were 2 key objectives outlined:

- get the club into Europe

- win the first trophy ever for them

Two seasons later, and both have been delivered. As a result, even though the squad is in fantastic shape, it feels like the right time to move on. One has to question, can things really get better at the current club? Toppling Man City is going to take a herculean effort. Also, the board refuses to expand or build a new stadium despite selling out every single week.

The manager's reputation has clearly grown enough to attract offers from some of Europe's truly "big" clubs. Maybe it is time for a new challenge. Maybe even time to move to France, Italy or Germany since Moe speaks all those languages fluently.

With that, the decision has been made. Thank you Brighton for an amazing two years.

Liverpool is the first club to approach Bumbercatch. Having just finished 6th and with Salah, VVD & co the wrong side of 30, that would actually make for an interesting rebuild. But, the proposal is swiftly turned away.

Bumbercatch has decided that if he is to manage another club in England, it has to be his beloved Manchester United. Who, amazingly, refuse to sack Luis Enrique even after 12th and 8th place finishes in the last two seasons. Go figure.

[karanhsingh]

Soon enough, a new adventure and opportunity presents itself.

Juventus in Italy are looking for a new man to succeed long term club legend Allegri. However, the last few years have been a let down. There has been no league title since 2020, 7 years total in game. In fact, there is no silverware since Coppa Italia in 2021. For a club like Juventus, that is unthinkable. The last season saw them finish 5th, and not even make the Champions League. The club is in need of a revamp. Bumbercatch clearly thinks he is the right man for the (Italian) job.

What surprises Moe during these discussions is how much of a global force Juventus actually is. In terms of fan base, truly one of the largest in the world, and with fans all over Italy and indeed all over the globe. Unlike the Milan & Rome clubs, Juventus fans are not concentrated in Turin but instead spread all over almost equally. They are a huge force to be reckoned with and the club needs to get back to the pinnacle of Italian football.

But more than that, it is the desperation to win the Champions League. The club has only one it twice before, the last one being in 1996 with Del Piero as the star striker. Legends like Buffon, Chiellini and Bonucci failed to win it. They even got Cristiano Ronaldo to the club purely to deliver this competition, but did not succeed. So the challenge is set - not just to become the top club in Italy again, but also numero uno in all of Europe.

As a side note, I think this could be a pretty interesting next chapter to the story. Juve are clearly a storied club with an incredible history. Managing a club of this size comes with its own set of challenges which should provide something a little different for me. Also its probably been 3-4 years since I managed in Italy on any version of FM, so that was a part of the appeal. And with that, here we go!

[Hootieleece]

Take the "Old Lady" back to the top!  Now that is a Challenge......especially with a Board and Fans that wants it done Yesterday!

The biggest thing I have noticed when I play really Big Clubs (I never Career update those saves) is getting recruitment right. Try to pay attention to the players you scout that the analysts say will fit in with the current team. (Group Dynamics screen) if you already have a good club culture and the right leaders in place. It will make transitions much easier. They are often considered the BEST (most expensive) players that you have scouted. (It irks me when I play a midtable club that doesn't have the funds).

[Jogo Bonito]

Good luck with Juventus. If I was managing in Italy again, that's where I would be heading. A great project as they have had a barren spell in your game and IRL are going to be more sensible with their recruitment and will also give chances to their own youth talents that come through the Next Gen set-up.

[karanhsingh]

14 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Take the "Old Lady" back to the top!  Now that is a Challenge......especially with a Board and Fans that wants it done Yesterday!

The biggest thing I have noticed when I play really Big Clubs (I never Career update those saves) is getting recruitment right. Try to pay attention to the players you scout that the analysts say will fit in with the current team. (Group Dynamics screen) if you already have a good club culture and the right leaders in place. It will make transitions much easier. They are often considered the BEST (most expensive) players that you have scouted. (It irks me when I play a midtable club that doesn't have the funds).

Thanks, that's a good tip. And yes, the board want champions league qualification this season and then win the Serie A again by next. No pressure!

10 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Good luck with Juventus. If I was managing in Italy again, that's where I would be heading. A great project as they have had a barren spell in your game and IRL are going to be more sensible with their recruitment and will also give chances to their own youth talents that come through the Next Gen set-up.

Thank you, yes as you say it's actually a pretty interesting challenge. Times have really changed quite quickly for them. 

[karanhsingh]

New update will be up soon - I've started watching matches on extended highlights since I left it on that by mistake after the UCL final and then realised i had forgotten how much i enjoy it  as a result things are now going a fair bit slower 

[SixPointer]

51 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

New update will be up soon - I've started watching matches on extended highlights since I left it on that by mistake after the UCL final and then realised i had forgotten how much i enjoy it  as a result things are now going a fair bit slower 

I wouldn’t watch it on anything less! Key is to  frantic 🤣

[Jogo Bonito]

Extended highlights?!? OMG, I play so slow even on Key, I cannot imagine how slow I would be on Extended...

[Hootieleece]

15 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

New update will be up soon - I've started watching matches on extended highlights since I left it on that by mistake after the UCL final and then realised i had forgotten how much i enjoy it  as a result things are now going a fair bit slower 

I only play with extended highlights.....I didn't know there were other choices! 

[warlock]

Another extended highlights player here. I've tried on key but the game goes past so quickly I have no real idea what's happening, and the final whistle goes before I've made all my subs. A few years ago I tried a save in comprehensive highlights; now that really was slow.

[karanhsingh]

22 hours ago, SixPointer said:

I wouldn’t watch it on anything less! Key is to  frantic 🤣

Beginning to see your point!

9 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Extended highlights?!? OMG, I play so slow even on Key, I cannot imagine how slow I would be on Extended...

Haha then I won't suggest you try it out...

8 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

I only play with extended highlights.....I didn't know there were other choices! 

Yes! Hope you know there's multiple camera angles too

6 hours ago, warlock said:

Another extended highlights player here. I've tried on key but the game goes past so quickly I have no real idea what's happening, and the final whistle goes before I've made all my subs. A few years ago I tried a save in comprehensive highlights; now that really was slow.

Comprehensive is impossible man, takes some real commitment. But yes i agree with you now on extended its much easier to see how say your midfield and defence is functioning as a unit. 

[Hootieleece]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Yes! Hope you know there's multiple camera angles too

I do know but I have been playing with the "Standard" settings for so long it would be wierd. Plus playing with camera angles would probably make me miss putting in subs.  I barely have time to look at the in game IPAD to help make decisions.

[karanhsingh]

So, Juventus. I initially thought the squad would need a bit of work, but turns out it did not. If anything, it badly needed to be trimmed down, so we got on with that over the summer. This struck me as a very under-performing squad - amazingly only 3 players managed to score over a goal last season. And one of those was placed on the transfer list. There are a number of players I was not so sure about, but I ultimately decided to not make wholesale changes in the first summer and give the bulk of the squad some time to prove themselves under new management.

Before getting to the transfers, I will quickly profile the 5 key players who I believe are the best in the squad, to give you an idea of the kind of level we are at.

Dusan Vlahovic to be is an absolutely world class elite striker in his prime. He definitely deserves to win more trophies than the solitary Copa Italia he has at age 27 and hopefully we can provide him that.

Fabio Miretti starts the game as a promising youngster but as you can see has blossomed into a top tier central midfielder. He will play a crucial role for the club in times to come and could even be a future captain.

With Manuel Locatelli at the club, we will be able to change tactics and operate with a proper DLP building from the back. Again, a top quality operator and we can hopefully look forward to at least 2-3 good years from him.

I am a big Chiesa fan IRL and I actually thought he would be a bit better rated in game. However he still looks like a huge threat and after Vlahovic should be our main source for goals.

And at the back, Bremer is definitely our best defender and again even though he is aged 30 we are looking to at least a couple of good seasons out of him.

[karanhsingh]

So now for the transfer window:

As you can see, we ended up bringing in a lot more money than we spent, which was not the original plan. But, unfortunately this happened.

Rieder is the one player I really wanted to bring in from former club Brighton. Now they are absolutely unwilling to even negotiate a deal, under new ownership. Let's see what happens with him in the future.

Anyway, we needed to cut down the squad and also get rid of a couple of bad apples - I am looking squarely at you Adrien Rabiot. We found some players really hard to shift due to high wages and indeed are stuck paying a part of their bills for a while. Also some of the players we could only sort out loan moves for. Kaminski is probably the only one I did not want to sell but he had a year to run on his contract and no intention of renewing.

From the incoming signings, Spinelli (who is half Italian) and Galasso have gone out on loan for the season, so I will profile the two South Americans who will hopefully play a big role with the team this year itself.

Victoria was heavily scouted by me at Brighton and the scouts always came back with a resounding A+ rating. We had to fend off competition from Inter to bring him in but his valuation has already jumped a lot and hopefully he can develop well at the club.

We were looking for an additional option for attacking midfield and Gustavo seems like a good bet - already rated as a wonderkid but still having some room to grow.

[karanhsingh]

And finally, here is the report from the first 3 months in Turin:

It's been mostly good so far, the only disappointments being defeats in Naples and Villarreal. However, the two wins in Rome were certainly very lucky. I just feel like the team is not quite clicking quite yet. 

We are just about top of the league, but Napoli especially and Milan as well are top quality sides who will definitely push us all the way.

The board expects a top 4 finish and UCL qualification which I am reasonably sure of delivering.

[warlock]

6 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I just feel like the team is not quite clicking quite yet

Well, when it all comes together the league title is a foregone conclusion , Keep it up!

[TheGoodRebel]

Wow, just binge read the whole thread. What an amazing journey so far - I can't believe what happened in your first season with Brighton, that was heartbreaking. FM is cruel when it wants to be. Good luck with Juventus - hopefully you'll land the major trophies for them. I enjoyed my time in Italy on my save, I just find it a nice league to play in on the game for some reason. KUTGW

[Jogo Bonito]

A very strong start to your 2027/28 season, everything looking good. 

Nice to see Miretti is still there as one of the five key player 'originals'. 

[karanhsingh]

3 hours ago, TheGoodRebel said:

Wow, just binge read the whole thread. What an amazing journey so far - I can't believe what happened in your first season with Brighton, that was heartbreaking. FM is cruel when it wants to be. Good luck with Juventus - hopefully you'll land the major trophies for them. I enjoyed my time in Italy on my save, I just find it a nice league to play in on the game for some reason. KUTGW

Thank you! Yes i am enjoying it and the quality in Italy is actually higher than i thought it might be. Also the non EU restrictions add to the challenge a little bit. 

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A very strong start to your 2027/28 season, everything looking good. 

Nice to see Miretti is still there as one of the five key player 'originals'. 

Yes Miretti has been very good so far!

[karanhsingh]

So this was shaping up to be a good period, until we have 2 shock defeats in December. Here are the match stats from those two games:

The Fiorentina one was at home to make it worse. And there is nothing I hate more than a bad defeat before the winter break. As you then have to chew on it for a few weeks.

Even in the Europa league, we have been dropping some silly points and find ourselves at risk of not finishing top 8 and qualifying directly for the final 16.

[karanhsingh]

Fortunately, that has not really cost us in the league, as we are still at the top.

It looks like it might turn into a two horse race, as Napoli are a formidable outfit. Conversely, if we had not had these 2 losses, we could have already been running away with it.

[karanhsingh]

More silly points dropped in Jan - at 19th placed Sampdoria and then at Atalanta after being 2 goals up at HT.

Which means our gap is now down to just 3 points. And we have Sassuolo away next before two huge games vs Inter and what could well be a title show-down at home vs Napoli.

[karanhsingh]

Also Jan ended up being a fairly busy transfer window as we brought in two young players to continue the gradual overhaul, at least age wise, of this Juventus squad.

Gaetan Andre is a young forward from Sochaux who my scouts think has bags of potential but he is already 20 so who knows if he will really be able to fulfill it. That being said, we had to play him already due to injuries and he absolutely smashed it in a couple of Europa league games.

Filip Miladinovic is the more expensive signing at 27m from Genk and is a versatile Belgian/Serbian youngster. I am not sure where to play him though, contemplating between RB and DM. Thoughts?

[Hootieleece]

Mladonovic should probably be a Right Back, but he would work as a BPD as well. If as a DM play as BWM or another role that isn't a playmaker.

[karanhsingh]

Well yes, this happened. After battling back for what would be a huge and deserved win over rivals Inter, my goalkeeper proceeds to pass the ball straight to their striker in the 94th minute. Still, he has defenders tearing down on him, but then the keeper also inexplicably comes off his line to allow a simple lob into the net. Final score 2-2 and more points dropped.

We will be welcoming Napoli to Turin with just a one point lead.

[Jogo Bonito]

This sounds like a more challenging season than you are used to seeing. Italy is a rarity in top European leagues as it has a reasonably high number of sides that can fight each other for the title, and I think that has to be a big plus. Good luck holding off the challengers. But remember, if you fail then Juventus will just be given extra points anyway, that's how it works for them 

[karanhsingh]

9 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

This sounds like a more challenging season than you are used to seeing. Italy is a rarity in top European leagues as it has a reasonably high number of sides that can fight each other for the title, and I think that has to be a big plus. Good luck holding off the challengers. But remember, if you fail then Juventus will just be given extra points anyway, that's how it works for them 

Ha! Yes I agree about Italy though. It's a good competitive league, always with different winners. 

Also I reckon that in the game the large European clubs outside of England find it a lot easier to hold onto their best players. For example IRL I cannot see in the year 2027 Osimhen still being at Napoli, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao at Milan, Lautaro Martinez at Inter, and so on. 

[TheGoodRebel]

Wow, very strange. XG wise it looks like you’re still making enough chances to win games but then you are also conceding goals to the few chances you give away. Are they mistakes leading to the goals?

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, TheGoodRebel said:

Wow, very strange. XG wise it looks like you’re still making enough chances to win games but then you are also conceding goals to the few chances you give away. Are they mistakes leading to the goals?

It's typical big club FM dynamics - you start dropping silly points in games you are dominating. But I guess sometimes that happens IRL too. Can't complain too much. 

[warlock]

16 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

more points dropped

I do love February! Always keeps a season interesting, doesn't it?

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

I do love February! Always keeps a season interesting, doesn't it?

The dreaded month! 

[karanhsingh]

A perfect team performance results in a huge 2-0 win against title rivals Napoli. The second goal also means that if we do finish level on points, we take the Scudetto.

[karanhsingh]

Days later, we welcome Inter to Turin once more for the first leg of the Copa Italia semi-finals. I am getting excited at the possible prospect of a treble. Then, this happens.

Without a doubt, the worst defeat of this entire save. And to sworn rivals, at home, in a semi-final no less. Obviously, the two red cards did not help. What a disaster!

One thing for sure, we need a new GK over the summer.