sherwinriga Posted October 29, 2023 Share Posted October 29, 2023 12 minutes ago, Rikulec said: Oh **** off. Oh, SH*T! This will probably dash your potential championship hopes this season, but I hope that a miracle will happen to your team at the end of the season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 29, 2023 Author Share Posted October 29, 2023 1 hour ago, sherwinriga said: Oh, SH*T! This will probably dash your potential championship hopes this season, but I hope that a miracle will happen to your team at the end of the season. It's way too early to be talking about winning the title or even getting to Europe. We've got off to a good start, but remember the aim is still 6th. It remains to be seen whether we can sustain our initial form and go on to achieve more this season. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 30, 2023 Author Share Posted October 30, 2023 Yay, an upgrade! Our junior coaching is now up to average. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 30, 2023 Author Share Posted October 30, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Not as spectacular as last month, but I feel we're doing very, very well so far. Riga did to us what we did to RFS and Auda were just out of our reach, but all the other games were either really even or dominated by us. Apart from Auda and Riga, who seem to be running away with it, the league is much more even than last year. Metta have pulled off a couple of surprise results and Valmiera are all the way down in 7th, and then there's us, of course. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Another busy month and another one we navigated really well. We avoided defeat against both Riga clubs and only lost once in seven games, winning four. We average exactly two points per game as we approach the halfway point of the season. Note that last season the club sat dead last with no wins and just five points. Transfers Sergejs Vilkovs - an ex-RFS player joins us on a free as a second choice goalkeeper. Eduards Daškevičs - another free transfer who immediately becomes one of the best players at the club, two senior caps to his name. He's going to be retrained to play as a left-sided Mezzala. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 This doesn't look very promising. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - June 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Our great run of form continues, even though RFS took revenge for our game earlier in the season and beat us despite us being the better team this time. Riga are running away with the league and realistically there's no way we're catching them, but a European place is starting to look like a real possibility! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted October 31, 2023 Author Share Posted October 31, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - July 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga We're having a sensational season and we have a perfect month to show for it! While the win at Riga was a bit lucky and perhaps it was them who deserved three points, the victories over Valmiera and BFC were well earned. Beating Riga also means that Liepāja remain the only team we haven't beaten yet. Latvijas Kauss It wasn't without trouble, but we made it past this season's big strugglers Valmiera. This defeat combined with their trouble in the league and dropping out of Europe against Torpedo Kutaisi of Georgia in the first qualifying round means that their manager's job is under threat now. A trip to Spartaks awaits us in the quarter final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Can't stop, won't stop! We're now eight games unbeaten in the league and with just seven games to go we're in a good position to finish runners-up, although we still have some big matches to play on our way there. Latvijas Kauss We cruised to a comfortable victory that was made to seem much closer by us giving away a penalty in the 90th minute. Liepāja away in a tough-looking semi final. No easy draws at this point though, the other semi has RFS facing Auda. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Great July and August. I can’t see you slipping from second now. Your in the tide is in your favour 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 1 hour ago, SixPointer said: Great July and August. I can’t see you slipping from second now. Your in the tide is in your favour I find it difficult to believe that we can last a full season without a real dip in form. We might just be able to do it though! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Riga absolutely destroyed us, but we bounced back well with a smooth victory over Spartaks and a fantastic performance at RFS. A second place finish is very, very close now! Latvijas Kauss Remember when I was happy to play against Liepāja in the cup final last season, claiming they were the most beatable out of all the big teams? Well, now it's the exact opposite, it feels like we can beat anyone apart from them. Transfers Kristeps Tobers - one of Latvia's most reputable players, a 26-year-old with 58 senior caps, was without a club for over a year and he finally agreed to join us! What a massive coup for the club. Youth Intake Our HoYD doesn't seem very happy about this intake. I, on the other hand, can see some potential if these guys start to develop. Dmitrijs Semjonovs Kristaps Matrevics Ričards Mikhailov 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga A win over Metta would have effectively ended the season for us and sealed a second place finish, but an underhit backpass cost us big there. We have Auda at home in the final game and anything can happen there, in the worst case scenario we can still finish 4th. On a positive note though, Liepāja won the cup, which means we've already qualified for European football next season! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Turns out I needn't have worried about Auda, we beat them very comfortably in the end. Despite Liepāja's sensational run of form late in the season, it's us who finish the season in 2nd! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2027 - Grobiņas SC/LFS Virslīga Results (Mar-May) - Results (Jun-Sep) - Results (Oct-Nov) Competition Performance: 2nd What an absolutely incredible season for the club! No one could expect us to break into the top half so early on, let alone finishing runners-up. We build a very good squad with decent depth and just carried on delivering one good performance after another. This stable form allowed us to finish on 76 points only behind runaway champions Riga. Europe, here we come! Latvijas Kauss Competition Performance: Semi Final Everything was going well until we came up against our bogey team. Squad (1) - Squad (2) The star ratings won't tell you the whole story here. We have a very good, balanced squad with a few standout players and plenty of quality across the board. We regularly beat teams from the lower half of the table after changing all 10 outfield players, which is the perfect benchmark for our strength. Beks, Pelcis, Iļjins, and Almanis are leaving at the end of their contracts. Transfers (1) - Transfers (2) - Transfers (3) - Finances We brought in fifteen new players, which is a massive number, while also making a decent profit. The best summary of this overhaul is the state of our squad as described in the paragraph above. Not much has changed in terms of our financial situation, although things may improve with European football on the horizon and the possibility of making a couple of bigger sales. Player of the Season 1st - Ņikita Pašņevs - I knew he was being underrated by our coaches, but even I didn't expect him to become such an effective player for us. 10 goals and 6 assists in the league alone, including some very important points he secured for us. He has the right attributes in the right places, making him perfectly suitable for our system. 2nd - Marco Caputo - the young Italian striker is quickly outgrowing not only our club, but also the whole league. If you become the league's top scorer with 19 goals at just 19 years of age, you're bound to move on and I think we may struggle to hold onto him for another season; just look at his attributes! He's attracting plenty of interest from Polish clubs and that would seem to be a logical move for him, so we'll see. 3rd - Dainis Strods - another huge surprise. He has developed at a crazy rate since being pretty much discarded by RFS and I can definitely see him becoming a starting player for us, possibly sooner rather than later if offers for João Paulo start coming in. Next Season If I end up staying at the club for another season, we're probably looking at a season of steady improvement and hopefully replacing our young starlets if they do leave. However, Valmiera's manager is in trouble, his contract is running out at the end of November (and so is mine, interestingly enough I've yet to receive an extension offer) and if he gets fired, I'm definitely applying for the job. They might have had a bad season, but all in all they're a bigger club with far better resources and it would be a logical move for a young, aspiring manager. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hootieleece Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Great work! European Nights Siren song is calling...... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 27 minutes ago, Hootieleece said: Great work! European Nights Siren song is calling...... Thanks mate! I didn't expect this kind of success so early on, that's for sure! This year's FM seems much kinder to me than the last one. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Here comes a big, big twist! Dainis Kazakevičs resigned from his role as the national team manager after a seven-year stint. When I saw the job open up, I threw my name in the hat... and here we go! Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - Latvia Apparently the media don't have much to say about the senior national team appointing a 35-year-old as their manager. Club Name: Latvia Nickname: Sarkanbaltsarkanie Year Founded: 1921 Status: - Stadium: Daugavas stadions (10,461 all-seater) I've already made some changes to the initial squad that I inherited. Our best players at the moment are Andrejs Cigaņiks, Raimonds Krollis, and a naturalised Croatian, Hrvoje Babec. In addition, we have a few interesting young players who haven't made their international debuts yet, but I'm willing to give them a chance sooner or later. Those are Igors Silovs (notice the future transfer I arranged before receiving the offer from the national team), Dainis Strods, and especially Nikita Ivanovs (how the **** is he still at BFC?!). We're not in any competition at the moment, the first one we enter is the Nations League Division C in September. Oh, and we can't arrange friendlies. In the FIFA rankings we're all the way down in 126th, tied on points with Guatemala. Can we break into the top 100? Can we make it to a big international tournament? 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 The history of Latvia's games so far during this save makes for a rather grim reading. Some big defeats in there, apparently Norway are our big bogey team. At least we did finish above Estonia in the last Euro qualifiers. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 Of course, the day of my appointment as the Latvia manager was also the day I handed in my resignation at Grobiņas. It was a fun season and a half, but I don't see dual management as realistic. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixPointer Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Great season and now already onto a very big job. Looks like you have a task on your hands 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 20 minutes ago, SixPointer said: Great season and now already onto a very big job. Looks like you have a task on your hands Thank you! It's gonna be a tough one and it's frustrating not to be able to arrange any friendlies, but I hope we can get some good performances and results, hopefully making it to the finals of a major competition one day. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomD Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Wow! Congratulations on the Latvia job. You're building an interesting resume. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 1, 2023 Author Share Posted November 1, 2023 11 minutes ago, DomD said: Wow! Congratulations on the Latvia job. You're building an interesting resume. Thanks! Everything's happening very quickly, hopefully I can live up to the inevitable hype! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Born in Nigeria, Oladoye has now become a Latvian citizen and joins the ranks as a decent squad player with a chance to fight for a starting XI spot. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 North Macedonia have some good players and they might prove to be out of reach and I don't really know what to expect from Bulgaria. Malta are a team we should be beating. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 My first international call-ups are in and no less than five players have a chance to make their senior debuts. For some reason we seem to have one long international break spanning over September and October, during which we're going to play four games, instead of two separate breaks. I don't think I like it, but this opinion is subject to change if we end up doing well here. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September & October 2028 - Latvia Nations League C Uh oh, this is not good. We did well in the first game against Malta, but then got hammered by both North Macedonia and Bulgaria. I think the tactic that has brought me success so far isn't going to work here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Some positive news from the league as Grobiņas seem to be doing well even after my departure. A 4th placed finish, a single point off Riga in 3rd and a staggering 39 points above Metta in 7th, firmly cements their place among Latvia's strongest clubs. I'm really happy to have made such an impact in just a season and a half. Also, the table looks even more ridiculous now with six teams so far apart from the other four. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 Several changes to the squad as we prepare to change from our 4-3-3 system to a 4-2-3-1 that's also going to transform into a 3-2-5 in possession with the use of an inverted full back, an inverted wing back, and a segundo volante. For those interested, this is also something we do at DKS Dobre Miasto, the 5th tier Polish team I currently work at in real life. As for the squad, we have some new faces: Marks Leja, Cedric Kouadio, Brian Peña, and Vladislavs Gutkovskis. We absolutely have to beat Malta and I also hope to get a decent result against Bulgaria. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 (edited) Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2028 - Latvia Nations League C The Malta result is much better than the performance, we made the most out of Uldriķis' height for set pieces and Matrevics played very well between the sticks. Bulgaria put us back in place, we hardly threatened them. Edited November 2, 2023 by Rikulec 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 2, 2023 Author Share Posted November 2, 2023 A terrible draw for us. 2029 is going to be a tough year for Latvian football, I can see us finishing on 0 points here. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 The tough draw we got means that I'm going to refer to the dark arts to give us any chance of survival in this group. Slight changes have been made to the squad, the two new faces are David Titov and, making his return after not being picked in November, Timi Ogunniyi. Ladies and gentlemen, Latvia will be playing 4-4-****ing-2. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik45 Posted November 3, 2023 Share Posted November 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Rikulec said: Just read through your journey so far, inspiring stuff! I'm struggling on choosing my next save, but your idea of starting from U19 level seems interesting! About the team roster view above: would it be possible to add a column that tells us readers which club players represent? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 1 hour ago, erik45 said: Just read through your journey so far, inspiring stuff! I'm struggling on choosing my next save, but your idea of starting from U19 level seems interesting! About the team roster view above: would it be possible to add a column that tells us readers which club players represent? Thanks! I can try to add the column, but it might not be easy seeing as I'm playing on a very low resolution screen. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2029 - Latvia UEFA World Cup Qualifiers We shocked Hampden with an early goal to grab the lead, but that's about it. At least we're scoring! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 The June call-ups are here and despite my plans to use a mostly unchanged squad, some players dropped out at the last minute due to injuries. Kristaps Vardanjans is an exciting player who could have a great future ahead of him and another new face in this team is Rihards Ozoliņš. Apart from that, injuries forced us to replace Baba Musah with Iļja Korotkovs, and Vladislavs Gutkovskis with Lamine Corréa. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 3, 2023 Author Share Posted November 3, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - June 2029 - Latvia UEFA World Cup Qualifiers We've won a game! I repeat, we've won a game! There was a bit of luck involved, Israel were probably the better team and they had two goals disallowed, but who cares? Three points stay in Latvia! As for the Greece game, I just don't know. They are absolutely better than us and we should be losing those games, but we shouldn't be receiving such batterings all the time. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 Mostly it's the usual set of players. Hrvoje Babec is left out because he's been without a club for almost a year now and Renārs Dusmanovs gets his chance ahead of Igors Silovs this time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September & October 2029 - Latvia UEFA World Cup Qualifiers Guys, there's progress! Not only did we snatch another win, but we also seem to have somewhat patched up our defence and make those games look roughly like they should given the differences in quality (as opposed to us defending like San Marino). The result in Israel really hurts though; Uldriķis put us 2:0 up in the first half, but we gave away a penalty before the break, then blew a golden chance to score a third in the second half, and then they broke through again. And again. Had we drawn, we would be sitting in 3rd right now. We have Greece at home in the final game and only a win can lift us up from the bottom. Seeing how things have unfolded, I dare to dream! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AM23 Posted November 4, 2023 Share Posted November 4, 2023 Really liking the more realistic career path you have chosen. Good to see the improvement with Latvia, would be great if you could surprise with them and take Latvia to the Euros, though that might be very ambitious 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 18 minutes ago, AM23 said: Really liking the more realistic career path you have chosen. Good to see the improvement with Latvia, would be great if you could surprise with them and take Latvia to the Euros, though that might be very ambitious I'm glad you like my approach, as a real life coach I try to keep things as realistic as possible (I might have already mentioned it, but I'd absolutely love the ability to manage club youth teams). The improvement is here, but it's still a small sample and we need to keep up this form, maybe get a decent result against Greece. The Euros are probably going to be a bit easier to get to than the World Cup, apart from the qualifiers there's also the playoff that's somehow tied to the Nations League, I've yet to figure out how it works exactly. Latvia have already participated in the Euros once, repeating this would be a fantastic achievement. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 Just the one game in this international break and only a win against Greece really gives us anything. They beat us 5:0 in the first match, but that was before our tactical adjustments made us somewhat competitive. It's still a big ask, especially without the injured Andrejs Cigaņiks. We have to be at our absolute best. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 One more reason why this is a massive game! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2029 - Latvia UEFA World Cup Qualifiers Nope, not a chance, they were way too strong. Still, I'm happy with how we did in this campaign. Two wins and 12 goals scored isn't too shabby given our quality and the quality of our opponents! I was somehow able to schedule two friendlies for March. We'll play Lithuania and Andorra. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToMexico!! Posted November 4, 2023 Share Posted November 4, 2023 Unlucky with the last game of the campaign but to pick up two wins in that group is quite an achievement. Good Luck for the next campaign. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 4, 2023 Author Share Posted November 4, 2023 23 minutes ago, ToMexico!! said: Unlucky with the last game of the campaign but to pick up two wins in that group is quite an achievement. Good Luck for the next campaign. Thanks mate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chile_paul Posted November 5, 2023 Share Posted November 5, 2023 Loving this concept, will definitely be following. Up the #11vilki 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 1 hour ago, chile_paul said: Loving this concept, will definitely be following. Up the #11vilki Welcome aboard, nice to have you here! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 Hoping for two wins here. Two players have a chance to make their debuts, a well known Emils Sprukts and a largely talented Jurijs Baumanis. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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