[FM23] Benfica & the Curse of Bela Guttmann

[warlock]

Many will be familiar with the story of legendary coach Bela Guttmann and his departure from Benfica. For those who aren't, it's a banger.

The Hungarian arrived at Benfica in 1959 and immediately won the Portuguese title before leading them to back-to-back European championships in 1961 and 1962. After that feat he asked the Benfica board for a pay rise and they refused. Storming out of the club, Guttmann is supposed to have uttered the curse: "Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champion." And for more than 60 years they haven't, despite appearing in eight European finals since.

So the goal of this save is simple: lead Benfica to European glory. Break the curse. Winning domestic titles will be welcome, returning the Eagles of Lisbon to their rightful place as the best club in Portugal will be important but a sideshow. All that matters is the title "Champions of Europe", winners of the UEFA Champions League.

The man for the job is former Spanish international Wiley Coyote, who enjoys Portuguese secondary nationality and is fluent in the language:

Starting in June 2022, Coyote's first task will be to replicate Roger Schmidt's achievement of winning the Portuguese title for the first time in 3 years, and will attempt to do so using a Schmidt-style 4231, hoping to play attractive, attacking football. The club is also in the qualifying path for this season's Champions League but it would be a miracle to win it immediately... after all, it took the great Guttmann until his second season.

Coyote's first impressions on arriving at the club were that the squad is not as good as he expected - fantastic up front, short-handed in midfield, and a very mixed bag in defence. So there's work to do and very little money to get it done: a transfer budget of around £13m but available wages of just £3k a week. It looks as though sell-to-buy will be the order of the day, which is not unexpected in a league that lives on a conveyer belt of talent to be sold to the richer nations of Europe. Most recently those sales include Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea and Darwin Nunez to Liverpool for a total of around £200m. The club requires one or two big sales each season for financial stability but that makes it hard to retain enough talent to actually win things. Balancing those competing requirements will be an interesting challenge.

Next up, a look in detail at the squad.

[karanhsingh]

Amazing! Although does this mean the Brentford career is at an end?

[warlock]

1 hour ago, karanhsingh said:

Although does this mean the Brentford career is at an end?

Yup, seemed like time for a new challenge and, as I said in the Brentford thread, it felt like running to stand still - we were years away from competing with City and Liverpool, and with Chelsea and Arsenal spending big every season it was a tough job to maintain that 3rd place.

I've had my eye on Portugal for a while, never managed there. The original thought was to pick someone like Braga and break the Top 3 dominance but then I remembered the Guttmann Curse and it felt like a great story for a save.

[warlock]

Meet the squad

Goalkeepers

Vlachodimos is the only choice and he's a capable 'keeper but not well-suited to the SK role I want. Soares is a natural SK but is at least a year away from being ready to take over the spot. A position to be upgraded if we can scrape together enough budget.

Defence

Otamendi and Grimaldo are the standout players at the back. Unfortunately, both want to leave and are our best chance of raising the funds for reinforcements. Silva, in particular, and Morato are excellent prospects but if Otamendi goes Silva is our only right-footed CB while Verissimo will miss the opening months of the season. Likely need another right-footer to help us here.

The RBs are both capable and reliable without being spectacular. LB is a different proposition - if Grimaldo goes I'll not be happy with Ristic as first choice, and Rodrigues is another for the future.

Central Midfield

The black hole at the heart of the squad. Capitao and Azevedo and nowhere near good enough and will likely raise a pittance if we can move them on. Aursnes and Luis are great but we desperately need backups for both and a Top Priority scouting search was one of my first actions at the club. We have a couple of others who can play CM but are better as AMs and hopeless in the DM roles I need.

Attacking Midfield

The squad's greatest area of strength - Rafa and Guedes are excellent players but, also important, all bar Neres and Schjelderup are capable of playing any of the AM roles and Neres can play on either wing. This gives us lots of options and good cover. We're certainly paying for the privilege of having Guedes on loan, and Draxler doesn't bring much to the party, so they are prime candidates for replacement next summer.

Strikers

Ramos will be our spearpoint, a very good Pressing Forward he's just 21 and, with a model citizen personality, has plenty of room to grow. After him it gets a bit meh - Musa is, at best, adequate and Tengstedt is the emergency-only option. A better backup to Ramos would definitely be nice to have.

Squad Recruitment

Top priority is obviously at least one, and preferably two, backups in defensive midfield. If Grimaldo leaves then a first-choice replacement will be essential. I'm happy for Otamendi to go but we'll then need another right-footer to come in as 4th choice CB. If we can get £6m for Otamendi that would give us £20m to play with; I'll be looking for more than his current value for Grimaldo and would hope to get around £25-30m for him. That obviously gives us a lot more headroom for a luxury signing.

[Rikulec]

I'm more of a Porto fan, but Benfica are also an amazing club, especially with all the big sales they have managed to make in the last few years. Good luck with the save!

[Jogo Bonito]

Welcome to Portugal! I had a couple of very enjoyable seasons with them a few years back and enjoyed my visits to their stadium (and shop).

The Benfica squad sizes are probably enormous but there is so much talent in the various teams, you will always be able to bring your graduates through to the first team. 

The U19 Euros is in Malta at the moment and Portugal U19 ripped Italy apart this evening. The talent is definitely there in Portugal, I wish you every success.

[Hootieleece]

Will your manager be ordering his strikers from the ACME Catalog?

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The Benfica squad sizes are probably enormous

Oh yes! Because it's my first time here I'm struggling a bit to figure out what works for run-of-the-mill matches... can I really play a talented 16-year-old in a PL match?! When I first arrived the first-team squad had more than 40 players . So it's taking me a while to get the hang of things. Good fun, though.

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Will your manager be ordering his strikers from the ACME Catalog?

I was keeping that one in reserve and you've blown it! I'm desperately hoping for a German newgen called Rode-Runer!

[Punch]

Good luck with the new challenge.

 

47 minutes ago, warlock said:

I'm desperately hoping for a German newgen called Rode-Runer

[karanhsingh]

6 hours ago, warlock said:

Oh yes! Because it's my first time here I'm struggling a bit to figure out what works for run-of-the-mill matches... can I really play a talented 16-year-old in a PL match?! When I first arrived the first-team squad had more than 40 players . So it's taking me a while to get the hang of things. Good fun, though.

Ouch, I would not be able to handle this... hate big squads

[Hootieleece]

9 hours ago, warlock said:

I was keeping that one in reserve and you've blown it! I'm desperately hoping for a German newgen called Rode-Runer!

Sorry about that but I couldn't resist.  

As for Rode-Runner just use the Acme Catalog!

 

[Gee_Simpson]

Here's me planning to start a save with Benfica too 😊

I'll be following this with interest! You've actually reassured me in a way that you wouldn't initially know about 😁. I was going to post it here but it's a bit of a TL;DR post 😅

Edited July 7, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[Jogo Bonito]

13 hours ago, warlock said:

Oh yes! Because it's my first time here I'm struggling a bit to figure out what works for run-of-the-mill matches... can I really play a talented 16-year-old in a PL match?! When I first arrived the first-team squad had more than 40 players . So it's taking me a while to get the hang of things. Good fun, though.

Yes agreed. Very good that the new environment is challenging your thoughts and decisions. Should keep it interesting.

I managed both Benfica and Sporting and enjoyed both. Did less than one season with Porto so wasn't much to write home about. I can tip you a couple of Portuguese strikers (one affordable teenager and one prime-age) but am sure you will like to find them yourself 

[SixPointer]

Sad to see the bees go, but with that i love the idea of having a nice narrative like breaking the curse. Best off luck!

[AlfieLucas]

Good luck with this. This was one challenge on my list, so might actually give it a go as well. Will be keeping up with this.

[warlock]

September 2022

Transfer window

We went into the window expecting two players to depart and needing to be replaced. In the end, only one did. Otamendi wanted out and I agreed if we got a decent fee for him. We settled on a fee of £2.8m but the only bid was at £1.8m from Ajax - that was rejected and he remains a Benfica player for now. The other candidate was LB Alex Grimaldo - I'd have loved to have kept him but he was adamant he was leaving. I said I wanted around £25-30m for him, and £30m was what we got from Inter. The only other departures were a couple of youngsters who weren't going to make it, and another couple of prospects who went on loan.

But the Grimaldo deal provided the funds for his own replacement, and plugging the gaps in central midfield.

Our first signing was LB Fran Garcia from Spanish side Rayo Vallecano:

He'll never be the player Grimaldo is, but he's quick with good mentals and I'm sure he can a job for us.

Next on the shopping list was one - or maybe two - backups at DM. We found the first in Argentina:

Hezze arrived from Hurracan for just £5m and the coaching staff believe he will eventually reach greater heights that first-choice BWM Florentino Luis, which would be a fantastic result.

Next was a player and a position that wasn't on my shopping list. It didn't take me long to conclude that on-loan Julian Draxler wasn't worth the £12k a week he was costing us, especially as he spent more time in the medical centre than on the pitch. So that loan was terminated and while I was pondering the situation I stuck in a cheeky bid for this guy:

I didn't expect him to sign, and I certainly expected one of his many Premiership suitors to jump in and hijack the deal, but to my delight the £10m fee was accepted and he's ours for the near future. I'm not sure how long we'll have him, but we'll enjoy it while we can... and bank a big payday when he leaves.

Finally, I went looking for that second backup DM:

Dominguez joins from Bologna for £6.5m and although he's a natural CM he's equally adept in defensive midfield and can cover both the BWM and segundo volante roles we use there. I think he'll be a great squad player for us.

Because of the Otamendi situation I had to keep some money in reserve in case he departed late in the window. So we have around £7m available in January should reinforcements be needed.

Early form

Because we were required to play two qualifying rounds in the Champions League, August proved to be a hectic month on the pitch with eight games played in four weeks.

In the league we got off to a great start with a 100% record, although we have yet to face any of the better clubs. And it was only good enough to match Porto, who lead the table with a better GD. Still, conceding no goals was encouraging.

In the Champions League we had to negotiate qualifying ties against FC Midtylland and Monaco:

The away tie against Monaco was poor as we threw away a 2-0 lead at the half to allow them to square it up, making the home leg a must-win. It was a nerve-wracking affair for 70 minutes before Ramos gave us the breakthrough and Luis iced it for us in added time. Our rewards was a pretty tough group that will present us with quite the challenge if we're to meet the board's requirement of making the last 16:

We begin September with the long trip to Zagreb and I'm hoping we can get off to a good start in the group stage - two wins against Dinamo and getting something out of our home games against Ajax and Juve might be enough to get us through.

[karanhsingh]

Good signings, I think even the Alex Scott move is quite realistic as there seems to be a trend of young English players now moving abroad to prove themselves and then coming back later down the line. Sorry that you had to lose Grimaldo, would have been nice to manage him if even for a season. 

[SixPointer]

Clean sheets rule the roost!! I really liked Hezze in fm 22. He has a Enzo Fernandez feeling about the transfer. Realistic business from arguably the best team in the world in the transfer market!

[Gee_Simpson]

Interesting, I usually disable the first window, but it seems you can get better deals rather than waiting. I would imagine Scott wouldn't be as cheap if left to develop for a full season or even half a season. I suppose disabling the first window probably doesn't make as much sense at this time of the year.

I really like those signings, especially Scott. I will probably go for him myself. My tactic also has a either a DM/BWM and a Volante beside him, in a 4-2-3-1 😁

Edited July 10, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

My tactic also has a either a DM/BWM and a Volante beside him, in a 4-2-3-1

This is my first real 4231 save this year. I played it almost exclusively in FM22 but early experiments this year failed dismally - I think because of the new emphasis on DM double pivots. I read a lot of posts and watched a lot of Youtube videos about it and it seems to be working so far

[Gee_Simpson]

59 minutes ago, warlock said:

This is my first real 4231 save this year. I played it almost exclusively in FM22 but early experiments this year failed dismally - I think because of the new emphasis on DM double pivots. I read a lot of posts and watched a lot of Youtube videos about it and it seems to be working so far

Yeah the DM version now is more effective because of the changes they made to the pivots. You get a defensively solid midfield but they also step up in possession to support the 4 advanced players. Cleon actually said it's the biggest ME change ever in his opinion.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[warlock]

September 2022

An easier month - three games in the opening week but just two more to finish, thanks to an international break. And another excellent month for us:

We're still to play any of our closest rivals in Portugal but we've now played 7 league games unbeaten - and have yet to concede a goal.

Things are naturally tougher in the Champions League but, especially against Ajax, we're doing better than I might have hoped. That game should have finished 5-0 but for two examples of clownshoes goalkeeping. For the first, Odysseas raced out to the corner of the box and only managed to palm the ball to an Ajax player who squared to a teammate, who shot into the empty net. And this was the second:

A long ball from the Ajax 'keeper (you can see the ball dropping just in front of the dugout) found Brobbey. Odysseas has raced out to this position and has just realised his mistake. Allowing Brobbey to do this:

Yes, the central defenders should have done better, but Odysseas can consider his card well and truly marked!

Back in the league, Porto and us had got off to a 100% record while Braga had a poor start and Sporting lost their opening game of the season and dropped another two points in their most recent match against against Chaves. Also in their most recent match, Porto stumbled against Braga, falling to a 1-2 away defeat. Which leaves the table looking like this:

And we're getting performances all over the pitch:

Ramos is easily our best-performer with 11 goals in 11 starts but Neres isn't far behind him playing as an IW-att on the right. Guedes was out for four weeks with injury so he's been good when he's played, and the youngsters - Schjelderup and Scott - are also doing well. A shoutout, too, to RB Alexander Bah who is our leading source of assists... having just moaned about the lack of quality at fullback, I'm having to eat my words!

October gets busy again with 8 games in the month, including both Champions League ties against Juventus. We open with the trip to Turin, which will give us a better idea of how we stand in terms of the European competition.

[Hootieleece]

I have been seeing lots of clownshoes goalkeeping for my team and not so much from the AI. Oddyseas had like 10 saves against my team and kept a clean sheet when we had an xg over 3!

 

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

Oddyseas had like 10 saves against my team

He's a good shot-stopper, but I was looking for a little more than that so had him on a SK-def role and duty. I've since switched him to a simple GK-def and there's been no repeat of the nonsense. I had a similar issue with Raya at Brentford early on but he calmed down and was pretty good until he was superceded by Denis Seimen.

[warlock]

October 2022

This was the month when a relentless schedule finally caught up with us. We conceded a league goals for the first time , and we lost our 100% record. On the upside, we're still unbeaten in all competitions...

There were more bright spots - anticipating our toughest games of the season so far against Juventus, we beat them home and away, and then clinched top spot in our group by beating Ajax in Amsterdam and were excellent in doing so. By the end of the month we were running on fumes, not helped by the brilliant Rafa limping off in the Ajax game with a groin strain that will keep him out for a month.

The final game against Familicao was one we should have won comfortably on paper with the home side bottom of the league. But LB Fran Garcia gave away a penalty shortly after kickoff and we conceded another to go into the break 2-0 down. Harsh language was deployed at the interval and we did well to secure a draw but couldn't find a winner.

But we remain top of the table and have increased our lead to 6pts:

November will be another hard month with 7 games on the schedule before we get a bit of a break in December. It's becoming clear we'll have a battle on our hands to keep hold of Gonçalo Ramos in January - interest is mounting with Liverpool, Chelsea, Leverkusen and Dortmund all sending scouts to watch him, and who can blame them. On the other hand, Gonçalo Guedes now has 11 goals from 7 starts and 5 sub appearances and the fans are demanding he be signed permanently. With a value of around £75m that would be impossible but while he's on loan here until the end of the season, his contract with Wolves expires then, too. Could we bag him on a sneaky free transfer in January? We'll certainly be exploring that option.

[SixPointer]

On 10/07/2023 at 20:23, warlock said:

This is my first real 4231 save this year. I played it almost exclusively in FM22 but early experiments this year failed dismally - I think because of the new emphasis on DM double pivots. I read a lot of posts and watched a lot of Youtube videos about it and it seems to be working so far

I think it’s how I get so much coverage in the 343. As it’s two pivots. Anchor and volante 

[SixPointer]

4 hours ago, warlock said:

October 2022

This was the month when a relentless schedule finally caught up with us. We conceded a league goals for the first time , and we lost our 100% record. On the upside, we're still unbeaten in all competitions...

There were more bright spots - anticipating our toughest games of the season so far against Juventus, we beat them home and away, and then clinched top spot in our group by beating Ajax in Amsterdam and were excellent in doing so. By the end of the month we were running on fumes, not helped by the brilliant Rafa limping off in the Ajax game with a groin strain that will keep him out for a month.

The final game against Familicao was one we should have won comfortably on paper with the home side bottom of the league. But LB Fran Garcia gave away a penalty shortly after kickoff and we conceded another to go into the break 2-0 down. Harsh language was deployed at the interval and we did well to secure a draw but couldn't find a winner.

But we remain top of the table and have increased our lead to 6pts:

November will be another hard month with 7 games on the schedule before we get a bit of a break in December. It's becoming clear we'll have a battle on our hands to keep hold of Gonçalo Ramos in January - interest is mounting with Liverpool, Chelsea, Leverkusen and Dortmund all sending scouts to watch him, and who can blame them. On the other hand, Gonçalo Guedes now has 11 goals from 7 starts and 5 sub appearances and the fans are demanding he be signed permanently. With a value of around £75m that would be impossible but while he's on loan here until the end of the season, his contract with Wolves expires then, too. Could we bag him on a sneaky free transfer in January? We'll certainly be exploring that option.

Relentless scheduling relentless performance! Sad to see the 100% record go but it’s the only blemish in what you can call and unbelievable start. Taking Ajax to the cleaners as well!

[karanhsingh]

6 hours ago, warlock said:

October 2022

This was the month when a relentless schedule finally caught up with us. We conceded a league goals for the first time , and we lost our 100% record. On the upside, we're still unbeaten in all competitions...

There were more bright spots - anticipating our toughest games of the season so far against Juventus, we beat them home and away, and then clinched top spot in our group by beating Ajax in Amsterdam and were excellent in doing so. By the end of the month we were running on fumes, not helped by the brilliant Rafa limping off in the Ajax game with a groin strain that will keep him out for a month.

The final game against Familicao was one we should have won comfortably on paper with the home side bottom of the league. But LB Fran Garcia gave away a penalty shortly after kickoff and we conceded another to go into the break 2-0 down. Harsh language was deployed at the interval and we did well to secure a draw but couldn't find a winner.

But we remain top of the table and have increased our lead to 6pts:

November will be another hard month with 7 games on the schedule before we get a bit of a break in December. It's becoming clear we'll have a battle on our hands to keep hold of Gonçalo Ramos in January - interest is mounting with Liverpool, Chelsea, Leverkusen and Dortmund all sending scouts to watch him, and who can blame them. On the other hand, Gonçalo Guedes now has 11 goals from 7 starts and 5 sub appearances and the fans are demanding he be signed permanently. With a value of around £75m that would be impossible but while he's on loan here until the end of the season, his contract with Wolves expires then, too. Could we bag him on a sneaky free transfer in January? We'll certainly be exploring that option.

I love how the relentless schedule catching up with you equates to one draw in 8 games 

[warlock]

6 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I love how the relentless schedule catching up with you equates to one draw in 8 games 

But is that it, or is it the start of a downturn? As you can tell, I'm a very pessimistic manager, always expecting to hit a wall .

[warlock]

Honours for our brightest prospect:

When you think how much young talent there is in Portugal that's a pretty good endorsement.

[Jogo Bonito]

He's an outstanding talent, very much sought after. Pleased to see it has worked out that way for you in this career. Ramos is another fabulous player for that level. You must stop the pessimism 

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You must stop the pessimism 

But what if it's my secret power?

[Jogo Bonito]

Just now, warlock said:

But what if it's my secret power?

Seek help!

[lfds89]

Pretty sure the league will be easy for you. Benfica is a far better team than any other (Porto supporter speaking). The real challenge is clearly the UCL. One thing to your advantage that I feel is very important in this FM: Morale. You win so much, your players will always be in high spirits and it helps a lot on match performance. You have some good youngsters in the squad, even some who are not good enough for the first eleven but can be useful as squad members.

Those victories against Juve with no conceded goals and the 5-1 against Ajax show you are on the right path. This journey might be shorter than you have thought.

[warlock]

2 hours ago, lfds89 said:

Pretty sure the league will be easy for you

Here's hoping . I have been impressed with our Champions League performances but it's a tough competition to win. I think I'll be in Portugal for a while.

[warlock]

November 2022

I told you it was all going wrong...

First time we come up against another of the Big Three and we fell apart. Don't let the score fool you - we were terrible:

Gave away a penalty in the opening 5 minutes, couldn't pass our way out of a paper bag, and our finishing was no better. Sporting could - and arguably should - have scored 4 or 5 if not for a great performance from young Samuel Soares in goal (which was an accident on my part because I forgot to switch him out after the preceding cup game).

Anyway, having got the first defeat out of the way we can concentrate on better things. This was a strange month - I'd forgotten all about the World Cup and couldn't figure out why we were missing so many players after the Sporting match. All of the Allianz Cup group games were due to be played in the week after. We were offered the chance to postpone them because so many players were on international duty, but they were all rescheduled for the next week... when everyone was still away . In the event we didn't miss them, even against PL side Boavista and it gave me a chance to look at some of the promising youngsters in the reserve and junior squads. So we're into the quarter-final of that competition.

In other news, we clinched top spot in our Champions League group in our final game against Zagreb with a 100% record: 18 goals scored and 4 conceded. And we refuted Braga's claim to be part of a Top Four in a game that saw Ramos scoring for fun.

Also of interest, 22-year-old Dane Casper Tengstedt has begun to show glimmers of ability with 4 goals this month (albeit against lower league opponents). I might have to revise my opinion:

And the weirdness continues next month with just one match scheduled when Porto come to our place for a post-Christmas get-together. Dear Santa...

[Hootieleece]

Guess you have to start looking for players with relishes big matches.

If they dread big matches it can be countered by personality. Determined or Driven are the best for countering it, but professional personalities help also.

Just make sure you have one or two players that relish big matches on the pitch for the others to follow the lead of.

[warlock]

32 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

looking for players with relishes big matches

Good point! Having had a quick look through the coach reports most of the first-team squad 'enjoy' big matches while Aursnes and Rafa 'relish' them; nobody seems to have a problem with big matches, so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

But I might need a tactical variant that gives us a bit more possession without nullifying our attacking threat. Against Juve in both legs they had more of the ball but when we did get it, we hit them. We couldn't do that against Sporting who controlled the game for long spells.

[warlock]

Midway through December and we're still without our Portuguese stars - who are through to the final of the World Cup where they'll play Netherlands. Portugal have already beaten Brazil and Spain en route to the final so there's a good chance they'll be bringing home the trophy.

Edit to add:

Antonio Silva, our wonderkid CB, played the full 90 minutes. Striker Ramos was on the bench but inexplicably the manager preferred some bloke called Cristiano Ronaldo.

Edited July 14, 2023 by warlock

[Hootieleece]

40 minutes ago, warlock said:

I might need a tactical variant that gives us a bit more possession without nullifying our attacking threat. Against Juve in both legs they had more of the ball but when we did get it, we hit them. We couldn't do that against Sporting who controlled the game for long spells.

I play a "possession" game. (Even though it started out as FM23 Gengen press) It doesn't always work. It comes from the Idea that if you have the ball that is the best defense.   

The "Nessel Quist Variant" 5-2-1-2WB is direct from one of @SixPointer's Career updates from a few FM's ago.

[Gee_Simpson]

33 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

I play a "possession" game. (Even though it started out as FM23 Gengen press) It doesn't always work. It comes from the Idea that if you have the ball that is the best defense.   

The "Nessel Quist Variant" 5-2-1-2WB is direct from one of @SixPointer's Career updates from a few FM's ago.

Lol you somehow got to a possession based game from gegenpress? 😂

On second thoughts, I suppose you can still retain some aspects, like the aggressive press, but then dial down the rest, so I can see how you got to it tbh. Most possession tactics tend to have aggressive pressing in fairness.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[warlock]

My natural instinct is to play possession football, pass-and-move rather than a lot of dribbling, precise passing where possible. But I wanted to stick with the Schmidt system for this save, not least because it takes me out of my comfort zone - win the ball back in a hurry and hurt them when they're disorganised. And, by and large, it has worked fantastically well. The question is, what do we do when it isn't working? I don't want to take us far from the core principles but we do need a Plan B.

[Hootieleece]

1 hour ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Lol you somehow got to a possession based game from gegenpress? 😂

Originally the formation was 5-2-1-2 WB with the Gengenpress that comes with the tactics creator. The Media/Press IN THE GAME said I was playing a "possession" game with considered passing.

The new formation has different TI's but is in many ways considered the same.

[Gee_Simpson]

3 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Originally the formation was 5-2-1-2 WB with the Gengenpress that comes with the tactics creator. The Media/Press IN THE GAME said I was playing a "possession" game with considered passing.

The new formation has different TI's but is in many ways considered the same.

Ah okay, fair enough 👍🏻

[SixPointer]

Crazy that performance against sporting!! The game likes to keep us on our toes 

[AlfieLucas]

Going really well thus far, tactic seems to be working brilliantly for you. Keep it up.

[karanhsingh]

8 hours ago, warlock said:

Antonio Silva, our wonderkid CB, played the full 90 minutes. Striker Ramos was on the bench but inexplicably the manager preferred some bloke called Cristiano Ronaldo.

What a schmuck 

Well done though, this seems to be going well save for the odd blip to keep you on your toes 

[Jogo Bonito]

Great progress mate, even a derby defeat to Sporting doesn't change that!

[warlock]

On 15/07/2023 at 02:59, SixPointer said:

The game likes to keep us on our toes

On 15/07/2023 at 07:42, karanhsingh said:

the odd blip to keep you on your toes

I'm developing toes of steel!

December done and dusted - all two games (the fixture computer threw in a second for the month, a round of the Allianz Cup.

In said tie, the quarter final against Vllafranquense, we emerged with a routine win:

In the much more important league game at home to Porto, things did not go so well... a dreary 0-0 draw doesn't seem to merit a screengrab. Although the draw doesn't seem so bad in light of Hezze's red card, 10 minutes into the second half, for a stupid lunging foul. Another workout for the toes.

Of more concern is the impending January transfer window. The board generously chipped in a few millions to the transfer pot, giving us some £16m to play with. The greater concern is the nature of the clubs now circling some of our best players. Otamendi is now wanted, inexplicably, by Barcelona... since he's still transfer listed that one isn't a concern. But Barca are also watching Fiorentino Luis, who is also wanted by Man Utd and Bayern Munich. First-choice AML Joao Mario is wanted by Paris St Germain, while promising CB Morato is drawing the attention of Leverkusen and Dortmund.

I knew we'd eventually be tested on our ability to sell players on our terms and timing but didn't expect it so soon. We'll also have a problem with replacements - many of my scouting reports on preferred targets carry notes to the effect that parent clubs are unwilling to sell midway through the season. Of course, we can also play tough, but risk destroying the excellent atmosphere and team cohesion we've built so far. We'll see what happens.