Popular Post Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted October 20, 2023 [FM24] Dievs, svētī Latviju Welcome again, your resident soon-to-be-UEFA-A-coach here with another attempt to have a successful, long-lasting FM career thread. What better opportunity is there to have another go than the release of a new game, eh? This one is loosely inspired by my previous save, [FM23] Ballin' in the Baltics, and by conversations with Przemysław Łagożny, a young Polish manager who spent some time in the Latvian leagues, working at Tukums and Spartaks in the country's top tier. Let's get straight to it! The Aim Starting as the manager of the Latvian U19 national team, work my way up as high as possible. No specific aims or rules, just have fun (hopefully). The Manager Meet Artjoms Laizāns, who, just like me, is an ambitious young coach with no playing past whatsoever, patiently grinding, expanding his knowledge, meeting people and slowly moving up the ladder. Having gained recognition during his coaching courses and forged good relationships with people at the Latvian FA, he finally got his chance to shine and took over the U19 national team. The Save Apologies in advance for low resolution images and the lack of graphic megapacks, I'm currently using my work laptop and, well, it has its limitations and not much disk space. As for the save, the selection of leagues is also slightly smaller than usual, but still it's a good variety I think. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - Latvia Under 19s Taking over a youth national team is probably the only way to get positive feedback from the media about your first role in management! Club Name: Latvia Under 19s Nickname: Sarkanbaltsarkanie Year Founded: 1921 Status: - Stadium: Daugavas stadions (10,461 all-seater) Here's the squad we're starting this journey with. Our best players at the moment are apparently Ņikita Parfjonovs, currently on loan from Latvian side Metta to a club in Cyprus, and Noa Meroža from Ac. Viseu in Portugal. Interestingly, we also have a couple of lads at big Italian clubs: Vladislavs Razumejevs at Roma and Roberts Kukulis at Inter, while Kristian Mezsargs is at the Frosinone academy. Just the two friendlies scheduled for us at the moment. We should be beating San Marino, I'm not sure what to expect from the trip to Azerbaijan (whose idea was this?!). 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 The first call-ups have landed and the squad has changed significantly compared to what I originally showed you. This is partly down to a bunch of decent 15-year-old newgens popping up and me adjusting the selection to the 4-3-3 system we're going to be using. Probably best not to get attached to any individuals at this point of the save anyway. My idea is to start with the second choice players against San Marino and then go full strength against Azerbaijan. Hopefully it won't backfire in my debut! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted October 20, 2023 Share Posted October 20, 2023 On board as always bro 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 22 minutes ago, SixPointer said: On board as always bro Happy to see you here, as always! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2023 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Right, so let's get that off the table first - yes, we did concede against San Marino and we took way longer than I would like to set things straight and come out winners. Then we made the 4166 km trip to play Azerbaijan three days later (no, seriously, who came up with this?) and delivered a really good performance where we probably deserved more than a draw. We have one match scheduled for June and it's a much more sensible fixture as we host our neighbours Lithuania. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomD Posted October 20, 2023 Share Posted October 20, 2023 I never thought of starting at a U19 national side, that's a good idea. Might try it myself at some point. Good luck! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 2 minutes ago, DomD said: I never thought of starting at a U19 national side, that's a good idea. Might try it myself at some point. Good luck! Thanks mate! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 (edited) A bunch of new faces joining the June squad, most interestingly Ivo Dirnēns, Kristers Volkovs, and Danila Fokins. Edited October 20, 2023 by Rikulec Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 20, 2023 Author Share Posted October 20, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - June 2023 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Two of the players I mentioned above end up on the scoresheet while the third one wins the MotM award. Always nice to get one over your neighbour! We continue in the same theme as September sees us face Estonia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted October 21, 2023 Share Posted October 21, 2023 Interesting way to start with a national youth side. Looks fun! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 10 hours ago, cerud said: Interesting way to start with a national youth side. Looks fun! Certainly not something I'm used to! I really wish we could manage club youth teams, that would be a great way to create some background for the manager instead of just jumping straight into senior football. Gotta settle for what's possible at the moment. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 Players born in 2004 are no longer eligible, which means we had to say goodbye to almost half our squad. Our best players at the moment are probably Vladislavs Razumejevs, Kevins Cēsnieks, and Rodrigo Gaučis. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2023 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Our biggest win of the save so far and we've also finally kept our first clean sheet. Happy times! Next up, Luxembourg away and Poland at home in October. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 The list now includes several players from Latvia's latest youth intake, most notably Igors Silovs and Ralfs Gorkšs, products of the RFS and Riga FC academies respectively. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 Well, I didn't expect offers to come through so early! There are still four games left to play in the league and the table sees Tukums in 9th, pretty much safe from automatic relegation but likely to face a play-off. I'm definitely not going to join them before the end of the season, but I'll attend the interview. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted October 21, 2023 Share Posted October 21, 2023 Consider me signed up as well. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 21, 2023 Author Share Posted October 21, 2023 9 minutes ago, Hootieleece said: Consider me signed up as well. Welcome aboard! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 They ended up appointing a 43-year-old newgen manager with no experience and a 2* reputation on a wage almost twice as high as the next biggest earner. I don't mind being rejected, but this is unrealistic and I don't like it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2023 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Another good performance and comfortable victory over Luxembourg, unfortunately Poland were just too much for us. For some reason we couldn't arrange any games for November, so now we have to wait five months before we face Gibraltar and Andorra. You may have also noticed that we're not playing any competitive games - I'm gonna outline the reasons for that (and for my choice of opponents for the March fixtures) in a separate post. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 During my years of playing FM I've encountered plenty of weird things and unusual competition rules. This one, however, might just take the cake. I'm gonna summon @Jimbokav1971 for this one, I'm sure he's gonna love it. So, the only competition we can enter as a European U19 national team is the U19 European Championship. It's held yearly, so that should give us plenty of competitive games; after all, there has to be some sort of a qualifying system for the final tournament, right? Well, here it goes. A while ago a U18 national team popped up on the left side of my screen, it wasn't there when I started the save. I have no control over them, which makes a lot of sense, they'd obviously have their own manager. What's funny is that we have to directly rely on them in order to get any competitive games in a given year. If they don't do well enough, we're stuck with friendlies. So how the hell does this work? After some intensive thinking and analysing (around five minutes in total) I think I've finally figured it out. The U19 Euro qualifiers are made up of four rounds, the first two of which are played by... the U18 team. In general it's a similar system to the Nations League, with divisions A, B, and C. In the first round three or four teams in a group play each other once during a single international break in November. If you're in division A, you just want to avoid relegation, there's nothing more to play for. However, if you do end up relegated, there's still a chance for you, albeit you only get one more shot if you're in division C. The second round is, again, a Nations League-esque international break with everyone playing against each other once in new groups. This, however, is where it gets interesting. If you're in division C at the end of this round, you're out. Only teams from divisions A and B (including those who get promoted after this round) advance to the third round, which is where the U19 team takes over. The third round is, again, played in November in a similar fashion to the first round, there are only two divisions though, A and B. This time you really need to end up in division A if you want to continue playing, those who end up in division B are eliminated at this point. Simple. The fourth and final round is played in March, five groups of four teams each battle it out for seven qualification spots. As in the previous cases, everything gets settled during a single international break. Group winners and two best second-placed teams book a place at the Euros. No relegations at this point. Alright, that's it. One thing that I haven't been able to test yet is my assumption that the final standing of your U19 team determines which division your U18s start in at the beginning of the next season. Now, obviously, given our lack of participation in the November qualifying games, I assume our U18s finished in division C last season. That would make sense as this is where they are now. The November fixtures have already been played, how did the kids do? They managed to destroy Azerbaijan in a wonderful performance before inexplicably falling apart against the Faroe Islands. This means they stay in division C, but they get another shot at promotion in March. They have Lithuania and Northern Ireland in their new group. The neighbours should be beatable, I'm not sure about Northern Ireland; if they bring in some players from the English leagues, we could be in trouble. For the November fixtures they called up some of the players I've been using, of course they were able to do that since we didn't play any games. We do have two fixtures arranged for March though and I'm going to let them pick whoever they want and then call up whoever's left. That's why I decided to play against two minnow nations, we really need our U18s to get that promotion. I hope that's clear. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted October 22, 2023 Share Posted October 22, 2023 (edited) 5 hours ago, Rikulec said: What's funny is that we have to directly rely on them in order to get any competitive games in a given year. If they don't do well enough, we're stuck with friendlies. So how the hell does this work? I've actually had this before when I managed...... might be San Marino or possibly..... not sure. The thinking behind it is actually sound though. When you think about it, the U18's who qualify for a tournament in year x, will likely be the U19's who get to play in the competition proper in year y, (as players age a year and move up a group). I know it doesn't completely work like that in real life, but I think the idea behind it makes sense at least. Hadn't seen your thread yet, (been busy with my own), so thanks for the @. It gives me a chance to get on board from early on while it;s still new. [Edit] With regards to the rules of said competition....... please no more. I'm absolutely frazzled. I haven't felt like this since @dafugetook us on a tour of the Pernambuco State Championships in Brazil, (more decades ago rather than years I think), where a competition started out as a league, transformed into a Cup competition, back into a League, followed by a Cup and then 2 more mini League structures before it morphed back into a Cup again at the very end. Edited October 22, 2023 by Jimbokav1971 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 45 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said: I've actually had this before when I managed...... might be San Marino or possibly..... not sure. The thinking behind it is actually sound though. When you think about it, the U18's who qualify for a tournament in year x, will likely be the U19's who get to play in the competition proper in year y, (as players age a year and move up a group). I know it doesn't completely work like that in real life, but I think the idea behind it makes sense at least. Hadn't seen your thread yet, (been busy with my own), so thanks for the @. It gives me a chance to get on board from early on while it;s still new. [Edit] With regards to the rules of said competition....... please no more. I'm absolutely frazzled. I haven't felt like this since @dafugetook us on a tour of the Pernambuco State Championships in Brazil, (more decades ago rather than years I think), where a competition started out as a league, transformed into a Cup competition, back into a League, followed by a Cup and then 2 more mini League structures before it morphed back into a Cup again at the very end. Yeah, I actually like this format, it makes a lot of sense and you also make a valid point about the same players qualifying for the tournament and then participating. It's just that I got really confused initially. That Brazilian competition, however... that's quite something. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 As I said before, we gave some players away to the U18 side. This is still a decent squad that should comfortably win both games this month. Most notably Kristaps Grabovskis wasn't called up by the U21 manager this time, so we promptly snapped him up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2024 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Goals galore and two victories as expected, even if the Gibraltar game turned out pretty mad. Again, for reasons unknown to me we couldn't schedule a game for June, so now it's an excruciating wait until September before we host Bosnia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 22, 2023 Author Share Posted October 22, 2023 We all know that our own games weren't the most important thing in March. We had to rely on our U18 team getting out of their qualifying group in order for us to finally play some competitive football. Could they? Yes, they could! An absolute thriller saw the youngsters snatch a draw against Northern Ireland despite being 4:1 down with just 10 minutes to play. Then they beat Lithuania and had to wait three days for the result of the last game between their group rivals. Northern Ireland won, but their 2:0 victory means that Latvia U18 progress by virtue of goals scored. Euro qualifiers, here we come! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 September is finally upon us, this time we have a tougher opponent to perhaps gauge our chances to get anywhere in the Euro qualifiers. It's yet another squad overhaul as the 2005-born players are no longer eligible for us. We have a whole new set of goalkeepers for instance, Lukass Žuravļovs is probably the best of them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Probably any group would look tough for us at this level, I can't see us progressing to the final round. We might hopefully get some points off Albania and try to avoid finishing last. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2024 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International A poor start to the game saw us go behind, but after some slight tactical tweaks we played incredibly well in the second half, absolutely dominating a much stronger opponent. This is our highest ranked win so far and it gives me hope that we can put up a fight in the Euro qualifiers. Up next, two home friendlies against Kosovo and the Faroe Islands in October. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomD Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 Some great results so far! How long do you think you'll stick with the U19s? I've never tried international management in FM before, how are you finding it? Especially the long breaks between games? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 23 minutes ago, DomD said: Some great results so far! How long do you think you'll stick with the U19s? I've never tried international management in FM before, how are you finding it? Especially the long breaks between games? Thank you! I'm keeping an eye on the U21 job, I'd love this to be my next destination as it would be a nice and realistic progression path. If I don't get there in a few years, I'm probably going to switch to club football and look for a job in the Latvian league. I'm quite enjoying the save so far, especially the aspect of manually looking for players in the U18 league and finding hidden gems there. The breaks are a bit of a pain, but with this year's game having much better optimisation and running quicker it's not that much of an issue. It's a nice break from the usual club stuff and as you said, we're doing surprisingly well, which of course adds to the enjoyment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 It seems Riga FC have got themselves a decent youth intake this year, Renārs Dusmanovs and Aivars Jefremenkovs look like potential future starters for the senior national team. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff7 Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 Good idea man. I tried something similar with Andorra's U21 some years back. The main problem is when a generation can't play anymore (age eligibility) and you must change your squad again and again. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 1 hour ago, Sheriff7 said: Good idea man. I tried something similar with Andorra's U21 some years back. The main problem is when a generation can't play anymore (age eligibility) and you must change your squad again and again. Which is why I don't get too attached to players. We play few games and the best guys we have get called up to the U21 squad after a while, so it's unlikely that anyone will play for us more than ten, maybe twelve times. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2024 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International We gave away a win to a 95th minute goal against Kosovo and then beat the Faroe Islands fairly comfortably, although I'm a bit peeved by the two goals we conceded. On a side note, including the Bosnia game, seven of our last nine goals have come from corners. Six of those were directly from far post crosses and the seventh was a rebound from outside the box. Seems a tad excessive, although it's obviously a very small sample size. Next month is the big one. We face Albania, Greece, and Ireland in the Euro qualifying tournament hosted by the Irish. Anything we can get, I'll happily take. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Only two changes in the squad this time. This is a big moment for us. We're probably gonna get destroyed, but maybe, just maybe...? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2024 - Latvia Under 19s Euro U19 Qualifying B Third Round Oh yes, I'm happy! We played a wonderful first half against Albania and put three goals past them within 15 minutes. Then we produced another very good performance against Greece and perhaps deserved more than a draw, unfortunately an individual mistake towards the end of the first half proved costly. The final game against Ireland was by far the toughest one. We were knackered and we faced the best team in the group. We held them off until the 83rd minute, but the floodgates eventually opened and we just didn't have the stamina to hold on until the end. A 2nd placed finish is fantastic for us, I'm proud of the boys. Two friendlies in March await us, we're going to face Lithuania and Armenia. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 The U18s also started in division B and did even better than us, finishing unbeaten on five points. It's a great result, but now we need them to do well again in March and avoid relegation from a group with Georgia, Hungary, and Wales. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Well well well, look who's back at my door. This season Tukums stayed up comfortably, finishing the season in 7th. However, their shiny newgen manager simply decided to leave at the end of his contract (and so did the managers of Auda, Metta, and Super Nova, for some reason). I'm gonna attend, but I'm not overly keen on taking them over. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Whatever. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 It seems like our success hasn't gone unnoticed as the U21 snap up no less than seven players from our previous selection. This, on the other hand, opens the door for the likes of Ņikita Ščaņicins and Rendijs Ozols. Also, surprisingly, for some reason they didn't call up Emils Sprukts, whom I'll happily take! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
abulezz Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 Great and enjoyable read to start off the FM24 save. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 43 minutes ago, abulezz said: Great and enjoyable read to start off the FM24 save. Thanks mate, good to have you on board. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2025 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Two more victories as Sprukts proves he's far too good for our level. I have no idea what's going on, but we couldn't schedule any friendlies for June or September. Not sure if it's a bug or not, it's definitely annoying because now we have to wait over half a year for our next games. In October we're going to face Moldova and Greece. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 Ooof, this was way too close for comfort. Our U18s almost bottled it and got relegated. Thankfully two draws were enough to stay up. They still could have gone down as the third-placed team with the worst record of all groups, luckily Armenia bailed them out on goals scored. This means we can look forward to the third qualifying round games in November. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 Given that we were almost drawn into a group with Estonia, Northern Ireland, and Hungary instead of this one, you can probably understand that I'm slightly disappointed. Azerbaijan are beatable, but Slovakia and especially Ukraine are likely to be out of our reach. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wils2603 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 Great idea! Will be following. Will you jump ship at the first decent opportunity? Or you looking to have some tournament success first? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 5 hours ago, wils2603 said: Great idea! Will be following. Will you jump ship at the first decent opportunity? Or you looking to have some tournament success first? Welcome aboard! As said before, my idea is to jump to the U21 job when it becomes available and then after some time hopefully move to a Latvian league club that isn't relegation fodder. For me it's all about realistic progression. Given our quality, it's pretty much impossible for us to qualify for any tournament (ie. the Euros). Hell, it would be a great success to advance to the final qualifying round. I guess we'll just see what happens. I do have some news that I'm quite excited about though... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 October has arrived and we have a few new faces in the squad. The youth intake has just happened and guys, something seems to have changed. It's not just one or two clubs, but the quality of players seems to have really improved across the league. I don't know what brought that about, could be nothing more than a lucky year, but maybe there's some kind of a positive trend here? We've got the likes of Jānis Aizgrāvis, Antons Hohlovs, and Artūrs Ozols immediately jumping into our starting XI. Given that Sprukts is also still with us, this is probably the strongest team we've had so far. I just hope the U21s don't pick us apart next month when we play the Euro qualifiers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 24, 2023 Author Share Posted October 24, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2025 - Latvia Under 19s U19 International Moldova turned out to be a surprisingly tough nut to crack. Greece, however, was an incredible performance. We dominated as if they were San Marino or Andorra, they didn't even have a shot on target. That was by far our best performance of this save so far. Next month we have the qualifying tournament. Azerbaijan, Slovakia, and Ukraine await us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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