Out From The Iron Curtain | 1. FC Union Berlin

[Hootieleece]

It is definitely tight at the top, but at least you don't have to worry about Dortmund II taking a promotion place if I read the table correctly.

Two decent players out of ALL your youth candidates that will put a hurt-on recruiting for a while......

 

[keeper#1]

2027 Youth Intake

No elite talents....BOOOOOO!  Six top talents......YAY!  All in the all my youth director is rating this as a good intake.  Which, I think, is about right.  Nobody really stands out to make an excellent class.  Nobody really stinks to make it a bad class.  A class that can, hopefully, build some internal roster depth as we continue to push forward with advancing the club back into the 2.Bundesliga and beyond.

I'm a little disappointed in the personality makeup of the class.  A "slack" player right at the top of the class which a "fickle" player as another top talent.  I have to sink into the good talents to find some positive personalities but there are some "unambitious" players in that group as well.  Achim Kelihs rates as perfectionist.  He's going to be a player that could have a longer spell at the club than some of the other players around him.

Johannes Reimann (Personality - Slack; Media Handling - Level Headed): Reimann is a player that can slot into many offensive-minded positions.  However, it looks like that his best slot will be as a forward that like to harass the opposition into making mistakes and forcing offensive zone turnovers.  He could be an interesting option in road matches or against teams that like to build from the back.  A disruptive forward who gets under your skin and then scores on top of it.  An interesting player and someone who could develop into a player if his personality and attitude don't hold him back.

Ole Maucksch (Personality - Spirited; Media Handling - Unflappable): Goalkeepers are always hard to project because they take so long to develop.  Maucksch has the chance to be a good goalkeeper but it will take a long time before we see the fruits of our development labor.  His instincts as a goalkeeper are there.  However, the mental side of his game is not.  He will need time and match experience, on loan, to enhance the mental side of his game before he can make impact on the first team. 

Achim Kelihs (Personality - Perfectionist; Media Handling - Outspoken, Volatile, Confrontational): Kelihs is a right wing-back who already has some of the pieces of his game ready to go but is missing some of the technical skills to be ready to push into the first team.  He has personality to be great.  However, he needs to calm down when speaking with the media. He has the combination of wanting to do everything right but gets mad when it doesn't happen right away.  We need to channel that anger into getting better and not disrupting the locker room.  He can be a great player.  We need to focus him on being great as well and not to dwell on the mistakes that he will make along the way.

Jens Binde (Personality - Fairly Professional; Media Handling - Reserved): Binde is a plodding center-back which is not ideal for how I want to play.  He makes up for the lack of pace with finding a way to be in the right place at the right time.  His positioning is elite for this level.  He's not the most technically savvy player.  He does what is asked of him.  Play defense and get the ball out of the defensive zone.  He could be a player than the locker room can look toward on how to handle themselves in front of the media. 

Julian Bidon (Personality - Fairly Sporting; Media Handling - Level Headed): Bidon is an interesting player.  He's a player that is most comfortable out on the wing but as none of the attributes that you would look for in a winger.  He can't dribble.  He's not very fast.  He can't cross.  What can he do?  He can put the ball in the back of the net when given the opportunity.  Do I train him as a forward and plug him into a crowded center forward room?  Or do I keep him as a winger and let him naturally develop his game out on the wing and try to adapt the tactic to get the most out of his skillset?

Robert Lehmann (Personality - Fickle; Media Handling - Media Friendly): He's almost a clone of Jens Binde.  He's on the slow side but makes up for his lack of pace with elite positioning, marking and tackling.  Stronger in the air than Binde as well and much more willing to get stuck into a tough tackle.  He could quickly find himself as a rotation option at the center back position which could allow to develop into a starter rather quickly.  But the question is: does he have the desire to get better or does he want to talk about how great he is and how he is outgrown the club or wants a new challenge?

[keeper#1]

Edited March 20 by keeper#1

[Hootieleece]

Congratulations on your promotion.

[_Ben_]

7 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Congratulations! Are you in a position to spend all £10m of that? How big is your scouting setup at present?

[keeper#1]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Congratulations! Are you in a position to spend all £10m of that? How big is your scouting setup at present?

Most of that 10m came from sales I made last summer when we dropped down to the 3.Liga.  I've got 22m in the bank right now before sponsorship money and season ticket money get pumped in over the summer.  I'm in a position to spend some but definitely not all of that money.  I've got five scouts out at present.  They have been hammering the following area:

Germany, of course.  Then up into Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland for some less expensive talent and down into Austria and Switzerland for other talents who shouldn't have a problem adapting into the German culture then finally into Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia and Bosnia because I have a scout who thrives in that area.

[keeper#1]

Magdeburg 2026-27 Season Review

It was a tight race all season between ourselves and the Dortmund II team for the league title.  We started to fade down the stretch as our young squad started to feel the impact of the long 3.Liga season.  We tied too many matches in the last couple months of the season and that was the difference as Dortmund II took the league title on the basis of goal differential.

We went unbeaten in the last three months of the season but we had five ties in those 11 matches.  If we win any of those five drawn matches, we win the 3,Liga title and not Dortmund II.  Even though we were playing one match per week, the minutes accumulated by the young squad just wore them down.  A tough pill for the team to swallow but, hopefully, they will use it as fuel when they play in the 2.Bundesliga next season.

We definitely had a starting XI in mind when it came to the roster as seen by the large number of minutes that a number of players played this season especially along the defensive line.  Our center back pairing of Burdett and Nauber logged the most minutes with goalkeeper Dominik Reimann following close behind.  Left back Leon Bell Bell logged the sixth most minutes on the season.  We only had a rotation at right back with Eldin Dzogovic and Max Bernemann.  

The offensive was dominated by center forward Panagiotis Lagaditis, who led the team and ranked tied for the 3rd in the 3.Liga, with 17 goals.  He was assisted by the two wing forwards: left forward Baris Atik was the goalscorer of the pair with 12 goals while right forward Jason Ceka was the creator and led the team with 13 assists.  His production will need to be replaced for the 2027-28 season as he does not want to sign a new contract with us for next season.  We had a great offense-defense pairing in the central midfield as well.  Jonah Fabisch was the creator of the pair racking up two goals but making assists from the center of the field.  Niklas Jahn was the defensive minded player but still found a way to chip in three goals and three assists.

We are in a great financial position heading into next season.  We have serious depth issues that we need to address in the offseason to help build up the roster for the upcoming 2.Bundesliga season.  But, I also do not want to go on a massive spending spree and ruin all of the financial stability that we created this season.  We will not have any prize money coming in this season.  We will have to depend solely on sponsorship and season ticket income to get us through the offseason.  Last season, that combined to be around 8M.  I can expect a slight bump to both and I figure I will see between 9-10M coming in from those categories this coming summer.  I'd like to spend, at most, around half of that total to help improve the depth at the club.

On to the offseason and building the club back up into a 2.Bundesliga team!

 

[Hootieleece]

So, this is going to be a youth development offseason for you? Bring in about 3-4 starters if possible and use the academy and present players as depth for most positions.

[keeper#1]

45 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

So, this is going to be a youth development offseason for you? Bring in about 3-4 starters if possible and use the academy and present players as depth for most positions.

Build additional depth through frees, if possible.  Then go out and look for the starters.

[keeper#1]

Can our tiny club steal this Belgian talent away from ALL the big boys?

And we can not as Nuyts goes to Arsenal for about 25% of the salary that we offered him

Edited March 22 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

Depth acquired.....longer post of these 11 new signs coming tomorrow.

[keeper#1]

Summer 2027 Transfer Window

It was a busy busy window.  However, I'm not sure it was a successful window.  We brought in a lot of players but after watching the first few matches of the seasons; I think that they have only marginally improved the roster.  Maybe that's a function of bringing in so many players that they are still gelling together.  But through six matches, we sit in last place with a 0-3-3 record and a -6 goal differential.  Now, we did lose our starting goalkeeper to an injury and we were 0-2-0 in the two matches that he has played.  Hopefully, when he returns, we can have some stability in net and this stability can help breed some confidence in the team.  Right now, we are just getting pinned back in our defensive zone.  We ranked toward the bottom in Average Defensive Line Height (33.71 yards).  An encouraging stat is we have allowed 12 goals on an xGA of only 8.49 so we should have some matches where the ball starts to bounce our way.  The offense isn't blame-less here either as we rank 17th in xG (5.12) not even averaging an xG of 1.0.  Things need to improve in all facets of the game or it is going to be a long season for us and one that could see me fired during the course of it.  Back to the drawing board and figuring out how to win a match!

[keeper#1]

2027-28 Season - Ten Games In

As you can see, we tried a tactical switch to a three at the back system and it did not work well.  Defense was bad and got pushed deep into our defensive half of the pitch.  Offense was almost non-existent for long stretches of play.  It just wasn't working even.  I went back to something that I'm familiar with: a 4-3-3 formation.  The results have started to improve.  We've gotten seven of our nine points with the 4-3-3 formation.  It's a formation where I understand how the players should move and what the rotations should look like.  I can adjust better on the fly in the match.  Since we are in relegation fight, every point matters.  I couldn't spend a season learning how to make the three CB system work and what the transitional rotations should look like.  We need wins and points.  So, I needed to come home to the 4-3-3 formation.  

Nine points is good enough to keep us out of the relegation zone, however, the advanced stats have us in the relegation zone.  Now, these stats still have our bad start heavily baked into the average so I want to see what these stats look like when we are halfway through the season.  At the moment, it looks like a four team relegation battle for the two automatic slots and the playoff slot against the 3rd place team from 3.Liga.  Osnabruck could fall into that relegation fight.  It should all the way down to the wire.

The best description of our team in these ten matches is passive.  We are willing to let the opposition into our half of the pitch without a lot of resistance.  We pass the ball around the pitch but do very little with it.  We have players in good attacking positions but we fall to give them the ball and settle for the safe pass.  Right now, we are in survival mode and then I can give this squad a proper evaluation and bring in some players who are willing to fight.

 

[Hootieleece]

You and the 4-3-3 are like me and the 4-2-3-1 Wide. It is what we know best and is always a go to if tactical blunders need to be remedied.

[keeper#1]

3 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

You and the 4-3-3 are like me and the 4-2-3-1 Wide. It is what we know best and is always a go to if tactical blunders need to be remedied.

I have a solid 4-2-3-1 wide tactic as well.  But the three CB formations break my brain but I'm always tempted to try them.

[Hootieleece]

1 minute ago, keeper#1 said:

I have a solid 4-2-3-1 wide tactic as well.  But the three CB formations break my brain but I'm always tempted to try them.

The only 3 CB Formation of my own that worked was on FM22 I think a 3-1-4-2 without Wide CB's. in Slovakian League in FM 22. The only other 3 at the back that has worked for me is one @SixPointer's a 5-2-1-2 WB that he used in Norway with a Manager named Nesselquist. I borrowed it for my Career update at the time. I think it was one of the French updates I did about 1-2 years ago, and I tried it again with Preston North End in FM23.

[Shrewnaldo]

On 20/03/2024 at 18:52, keeper#1 said:

2027 Youth Intake

No elite talents....BOOOOOO!  Six top talents......YAY!  All in the all my youth director is rating this as a good intake.  Which, I think, is about right.  Nobody really stands out to make an excellent class.  Nobody really stinks to make it a bad class.  A class that can, hopefully, build some internal roster depth as we continue to push forward with advancing the club back into the 2.Bundesliga and beyond.

I'm a little disappointed in the personality makeup of the class.  A "slack" player right at the top of the class which a "fickle" player as another top talent.  I have to sink into the good talents to find some positive personalities but there are some "unambitious" players in that group as well.  Achim Kelihs rates as perfectionist.  He's going to be a player that could have a longer spell at the club than some of the other players around him.

Johannes Reimann (Personality - Slack; Media Handling - Level Headed): Reimann is a player that can slot into many offensive-minded positions.  However, it looks like that his best slot will be as a forward that like to harass the opposition into making mistakes and forcing offensive zone turnovers.  He could be an interesting option in road matches or against teams that like to build from the back.  A disruptive forward who gets under your skin and then scores on top of it.  An interesting player and someone who could develop into a player if his personality and attitude don't hold him back.

Ole Maucksch (Personality - Spirited; Media Handling - Unflappable): Goalkeepers are always hard to project because they take so long to develop.  Maucksch has the chance to be a good goalkeeper but it will take a long time before we see the fruits of our development labor.  His instincts as a goalkeeper are there.  However, the mental side of his game is not.  He will need time and match experience, on loan, to enhance the mental side of his game before he can make impact on the first team. 

Achim Kelihs (Personality - Perfectionist; Media Handling - Outspoken, Volatile, Confrontational): Kelihs is a right wing-back who already has some of the pieces of his game ready to go but is missing some of the technical skills to be ready to push into the first team.  He has personality to be great.  However, he needs to calm down when speaking with the media. He has the combination of wanting to do everything right but gets mad when it doesn't happen right away.  We need to channel that anger into getting better and not disrupting the locker room.  He can be a great player.  We need to focus him on being great as well and not to dwell on the mistakes that he will make along the way.

Jens Binde (Personality - Fairly Professional; Media Handling - Reserved): Binde is a plodding center-back which is not ideal for how I want to play.  He makes up for the lack of pace with finding a way to be in the right place at the right time.  His positioning is elite for this level.  He's not the most technically savvy player.  He does what is asked of him.  Play defense and get the ball out of the defensive zone.  He could be a player than the locker room can look toward on how to handle themselves in front of the media. 

Julian Bidon (Personality - Fairly Sporting; Media Handling - Level Headed): Bidon is an interesting player.  He's a player that is most comfortable out on the wing but as none of the attributes that you would look for in a winger.  He can't dribble.  He's not very fast.  He can't cross.  What can he do?  He can put the ball in the back of the net when given the opportunity.  Do I train him as a forward and plug him into a crowded center forward room?  Or do I keep him as a winger and let him naturally develop his game out on the wing and try to adapt the tactic to get the most out of his skillset?

Robert Lehmann (Personality - Fickle; Media Handling - Media Friendly): He's almost a clone of Jens Binde.  He's on the slow side but makes up for his lack of pace with elite positioning, marking and tackling.  Stronger in the air than Binde as well and much more willing to get stuck into a tough tackle.  He could quickly find himself as a rotation option at the center back position which could allow to develop into a starter rather quickly.  But the question is: does he have the desire to get better or does he want to talk about how great he is and how he is outgrown the club or wants a new challenge?

Ouch, those personalities. It's a real shame that Maucksh's positioning is so low as otherwise he could make a decent 'keeper.

48 minutes ago, keeper#1 said:

2027-28 Season - Ten Games In

As you can see, we tried a tactical switch to a three at the back system and it did not work well.  Defense was bad and got pushed deep into our defensive half of the pitch.  Offense was almost non-existent for long stretches of play.  It just wasn't working even.  I went back to something that I'm familiar with: a 4-3-3 formation.  The results have started to improve.  We've gotten seven of our nine points with the 4-3-3 formation.  It's a formation where I understand how the players should move and what the rotations should look like.  I can adjust better on the fly in the match.  Since we are in relegation fight, every point matters.  I couldn't spend a season learning how to make the three CB system work and what the transitional rotations should look like.  We need wins and points.  So, I needed to come home to the 4-3-3 formation.  

Nine points is good enough to keep us out of the relegation zone, however, the advanced stats have us in the relegation zone.  Now, these stats still have our bad start heavily baked into the average so I want to see what these stats look like when we are halfway through the season.  At the moment, it looks like a four team relegation battle for the two automatic slots and the playoff slot against the 3rd place team from 3.Liga.  Osnabruck could fall into that relegation fight.  It should all the way down to the wire.

The best description of our team in these ten matches is passive.  We are willing to let the opposition into our half of the pitch without a lot of resistance.  We pass the ball around the pitch but do very little with it.  We have players in good attacking positions but we fall to give them the ball and settle for the safe pass.  Right now, we are in survival mode and then I can give this squad a proper evaluation and bring in some players who are willing to fight.

 

How well do your signings suit the 4-3-3? Anyone left out?

[keeper#1]

Not really.  I signed players who can play a variety of positions so it's more re-allocating where they play than leaving anyone out.  If anything, we lose our attacking central midfielder.

[keeper#1]

Season 2027-28 - Midseason Report

The tactical shift has moved us up in the standings to 13th place and five points clear of the relegation zone.  However, we are overperforming our xG especially on the offensive end.  We have had a few "smash and grab" victories or goals scored from low percentage locations to help us earn a draw.  As a result, the analytics department has us in the relegation zone and not to rest on our past success.  

St. Pauli and Darmstadt were straight up "smash and grab" jobs.  We stayed with the high powered Karlsruhe offense because we scored a bunch of low percentage shots.  When the offense has shown up, the defense has not.  When the defense shows up, the offense does not.  Very frustrating to watch.

Our scouting department alerted me to two midfielders who were still available on the free agent market.  They had been in the free agent market for so long; their contract demands allowed me to sign both of them and stay within in our wage budget.  Lockl slots in immediately to the base of our midfield triangle to disrupt the opposition and transition us into offense.  Fabbian is supposed to help our offense in the midfield but he has been in and out of the lineup with a couple of injuries so we have not been able to fully capitalize on the offensive upgrades that he is supposed to bring.

No one really stands out on an individual level so I went back to evaluating us on a team level like I did when I was improving Nurnberg.

Average Possession - 61% (1st - this is a function of our tactical switch.  We are attempting to keep the ball.  The opposition can't score if they don't have the ball even if we do nothing with the ball)

xG - 14.43 (18th we are clearly doing nothing with the ball.  An xG below 1.00 is not a good way to consistently win matches.  We need to improve this stat in the second half of the season)

xG/shot - 112 shots (11th) 0.129 xG/shot

Pass Completion - 90% (1st - a function of our possession hungry tactic)

Chances Created - 34 (17th - a function of our poor xG)

Conversation Rate - 17% (1st - when we take our chances, we finish them which is a function of our training that I carried over from Nurnberg)

Tackles Won - 80% (2nd - surprised by this stat because I feel every tackle I see is a losing tackle.  Overall, we need to improve our team speed because we lose a lot of foot races to the ball)

xGA - 24.80 (14th - even with the high possession and tackles won stats, we give away a lot of chances.  14.10 of this xGA (1.40/game) was in the first 10 matches.  10.70 of this xGA (1.53/game) has been in the last seven matches.  So even with high possession rate, we are giving up a lot of high quality chances)

xGA/shot - 201 shots (13th) 0.123/xGA/shot (We need to improve our offense because we are getting more quality shots than our opponents.  We need to improve the NUMBER of quality shots)

OPPDA - 4.63 (13th)

Headers Won - 42% (16th - just not strong in the air - another area where we need to improve)

Backline Height Average - 36.39 yards (12th - a big improvement over the first 10 matches where we were last in the league)

Final Third Passes per game - 62 (9th - SHOOT the ball guys.  It doesn't need to be perfect.  Get it on frame)

 

[keeper#1]

2028 Youth Intake Preview

My HOYD is calling this an excellent intake.  These attacking midfielders better be world beaters.

[Hootieleece]

Fabbian will make a great addition to your team. In my save he was part of my Hertha team, and I kept him on as Vice-Captain and Super-Sub even though he was near the end of his career. (34-35 in 2038). He is good in and around the Box. Good Header of the ball and decent long shot also that was at 34-35 in my team! I was using him in a CM-A role.

 

Edited March 25 by Hootieleece

[keeper#1]

12 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Fabbian will make a great addition to your team. In my save he was part of my Hertha team, and I kept him on as Vice-Captain and Super-Sub even though he was near the end of his career. (34-35 in 2038). He is good in and around the Box. Good Header of the ball and decent long shot also that was at 34-35 in my team! I was using him in a CM-A role.

 

Thanks for the scouting report!

[naufal husain]

i'm curious with your 3-1-4-1-1(?) shape....

[Shrewnaldo]

7 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Fabbian will make a great addition to your team. In my save he was part of my Hertha team, and I kept him on as Vice-Captain and Super-Sub even though he was near the end of his career. (34-35 in 2038). He is good in and around the Box. Good Header of the ball and decent long shot also that was at 34-35 in my team! I was using him in a CM-A role.

 

Going to second this. Fabbian was brilliant for my Hellas Verona side - I think he scored nearly 20 in Serie A and scored 2 in the Coppa Italia final. Should be brilliant in 2.Bundesliga

[keeper#1]

2028 Youth Intake

Another intake without any elite talents.  The number of top talents dropped from six last year to just four this year.  Marco Bruhl has the potential to be an elite talent at center back and could partner with Marko Albeit forming a Marco and Marko partnership.  But the preview said that the class was going to A rated attacking midfielders.  That does not seem to be the case.  The good talents do not look like they will be great additions to the club.  All signs are pointing to the Head of Youth Development getting replaced even though he is under contract until 2030.  The club can just not continue with the poor intake after poor intake.  We need to develop players in house and right now we are not on a path to do that.

CB Marco Brohl (Personality - Balanced; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Brohl is the one player from this intake that I am looking for big things from this class.  He is willing to stick his nose into difficult situations and always wants to put the team first.  He does have some things to work on with his game especially when it comes to marking.  He's a tad on the slow side so he would not be best served to be the absolute last line of defense.  He should grow into the mental side of his game as he matures.  A player that I have high hopes for.

RF Dimitis Aspiotis (Personality - Balanced; Media Handling: Media Friendly): Aspiotis is a German with Greek ancestry as he joins the club.  He is a very technical player and like Brohl wants to help the club at all costs.  However, he is not the fastest player so he may not be suited for a wing role but with his high technical level and above average passing; he could be a candidate to slide into the central midfield and help the club there.

CB Marko Albeit (Personality: Balanced; Media Handling: Media Friendly):  Albeit is someone that I thought would have a future at the club but taking a deeper dive into his skill set; I'm having a hard time seeing a future for him here.  He's slow, not a very technical player, not a very smart player.  However, he is strong and brave in the air.  Those are pluses which could help him land him a back-up role but that the highest ceiling I can see for him at the club.

RF Volker Siersleben (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Sierselben is a player who has the potential to be good but his personality could get in the way.  He is fast down the right wing and can put in a decent cross.  He is not the strongest player but makes up for it with his speed.  He does need to spend some time working on the mental side of his game before he can make an impact with the first team.

CB Yves Muller (Personality: Balanced; Media Handling: Outspoken): Another center back from this class and another center back that has a massive hole in his game.  Albeit is weak in a lot of areas.  Muller is especially weak when it comes to his physical traits.  He's very slow and for a club that wants to have fast players all around the pitch, I'm not sure if his game will translate to what we are looking for.  He has the technical and mental ability to be here but may not be physical enough to handle this level.

[Hootieleece]

Aspiotis was the player they were talking about in the preview, I guess. Do you have any Good Mentors on the team. Fabbian would work well with him if you move him to CM.

[keeper#1]

2027-28 Season Review

13th place for a team that was picked to finish in a relegation battle all season is no small feat.  I'd like to say we did it depending on a solid defense or a high-powered offense.  However, looking at the result, I can say neither of those things.  We were a team that just sort of hung around matches and hoped that we scored a banger of a goal.  The defense did just enough to keep us in matches if we did score that banger.  We only got blown out of the water twice in the second half of the season: once to Kiel, who finished 10th, and again to Karlsruhe, who finished 6th but had the best offense in the league this season.  Against everyone, we were just sort of there.  Four clean sheets in the last 17 games was nice but they were mainly against teams who finished below us in the standings.  

What did we do well?  We didn't foul and give the opposition set piece opportunities which was good because we were pretty bad at defending them especially corners.  We allowed 46 goals on the season - eight goals were scored from corners (17% of the goal total).  We were also bad on floated crosses to the back post.  I noticed a problem with our training.  For Saturday matches, we only practiced ground defending.  No aerial defending.  I switched this later in the season to aerial defending and we improved in that area.  It is still an area where we need to improve.  We did a good job keeping the opposition out our final third.  This was good because when they got into the box, they usually scored.  We were strong in the tackle as well.

What didn't we do well?  Outside of keeping the ball, we couldn't do anything well offensively.  We scored only 37 goals just over a goal per match.  We didn't take shots.  When we got the ball out on the wings, the attack usually died there.  We had no one who was good on the cross.  We had to play through the middle of the pitch since our wingers couldn't get the ball into the center forward.  Our non-penalty xG was below a goal per game for the season.  The midfield was strong and could keep the ball away from the opposition but once it went from midfield to offense it was either a turnover or recycle the possession back to the midfield.

Team Season Stats:

Possession: 63% (1st - up 2% from midseason; the strongest area of our game)

xG: 29.52 (18th - 15.09 xG for the second half which is +0.66 from the first half - the weakest area of our game)

xG/Shot:  241 total shots (18th - 129 shots in the second half which is +17 from the first half of the season) 0.122 xG/shot (down from the first half of the season's 0.129 xG/shot)

Pass Completion: 91% (1st - up 1% from midseason goes hand in hand with possession and being the strongest area of our game)

Chances Created: 64 (18th - 30 chances in the second half of the season down from 34 in the first half; it's just a struggle for us to create chances even when dominating possession)

Conversion Rate: 15% (2nd - down from 17% in the first half of the season)

Tackles Won: 79% (1st - I think this is primary reason we stayed in so many matches; we were a great tackling team without fouling)

xGA: 41.79 (10th - our xGA in the second half of the season was 16.99 which was down 7.81 (0.46/game) from the first half.  Limiting the opposition's chances really helped us stay in a lot of matches that we should not have stayed in - full credit to the defense)

xGA/Shot: 337 total shots (9th - 136 shots in the second half of the season which is -65 from the first half of the season.  It also only put us -9 in terms of shots in the season's second half which is another reason why we stayed in so many matches) 0.124 xGA/shot which is up slightly from the first half of the season

OPPDA: 4.87 (17th and up 0.24 from the first half of the season)

Headers won: 43% (16th - up 1% from the first half of the season)

Average Backline Height (yards): 37.58 (7th - +1.19 yards from the first half of the season.  We held the ball in higher positions and kept it away from our attacking zone.)

Final 1/3 Passes Per Game: 68 (4th - +6 from the first half of the season.  We are great at passing around the offensive zone but terrible at creating chances.)

We did make one signing which helped stabilize our defense: Terry Yegbe.  We beat out Vitesse for this player after we brought in him for a two-week trial.  This signing gave me a solid option at the very back of our defense and helped slow down the opposition attack into our zone.  He also allowed Sieman Voet to wander up into our attack more frequently from his Libero position.  He can fire off a good long shot that can find it's way into the net.  He finished the season with four goals and three assists.  Usually, I get a lot of assists from my wing-backs as they get involved in the offensive phase of play.  This year, I only got three assists from the wing-backs and all three came from right back Dylan Gorosito.  The wingers weren't much help either as they only gave me five between Jason Ceka and Alexander Boy.  Boy had to go out onto the wing as Batis Atik was sold in January.  It's not his natural position but he was the best player available for the position.  A true left winger will be needed in the off-season.

The middle was where we shined this season.  Giovanni Fabbian led the way from the midfield with four goals and three assists.  If he can stay healthy for a full season, he can be a 10 goal-10 assist midfielder for us.  Per Lockl added four more goals from his deep-lying playmaker position but didn't add much when it came to assists.  The third midfield slot was usually filled by Jonah Fabrisch and Jon Stancic.  But both of those players do not want to come back for next season.  If they both don't come back, It could Konrad Matysiak's job to lose or, if I find a true left winger, I can slide Boy back into the midfield and pair him with Fabbian in the midfield triangle.  The player who has to improve, next season, is Panagiotis Lagaditis.  He really dropped in form from last season.  This season, he led the team with just six goals.  That is unacceptable for center forward.  It may be that he's not ready for this level.  It may be that he did not get the service that he got last season.  Either way, he has got to improve his performance next season.

The primary goal this off-season is to improve the offense.  Off-load some talent as we had a lot of younger and cheaper players out of loan this season who should be ready for reserve/rotational role next season but first and foremost....improve the offense.  Create more chances.  Score more goals.  

[keeper#1]

On 24/03/2024 at 22:28, naufal husain said:

i'm curious with your 3-1-4-1-1(?) shape....

This is what it looked like

[Jogo Bonito]

A solid season even if there was nothing spectacular forming it. That's a very interesting 31411 formation, very nice to see something unusual!

[keeper#1]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A solid season even if there was nothing spectacular forming it. That's a very interesting 31411 formation, very nice to see something unusual!

It would have been nice if I could have made it work.  The wingers never tracked back to defend and the WCBs never got wide enough so the opposition just exploited our weakness on the flanks.

[naufal husain]

3 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

It would have been nice if I could have made it work.  The wingers never tracked back to defend and the WCBs never got wide enough so the opposition just exploited our weakness on the flanks.

do you try DW? some says it's as good as winger when attacking and good for defending. I always use WB when playing 3 atb, so never used DW, as long as I remember

[keeper#1]

2028-29 Midseason Report

As you can see, we have been winning and are pushing for a promotion place.  However, we are living on a high-wire.  We are winning but I don't want to say we are winning with smoke and mirrors but it feels like we are winning with smoke and mirrors.  The stats reveal how much we are over-performing.  The stats say we should be down where we were last season.  Down with the relegation battle.  I feel like the problems are on the defensive side of the ball.  We have problems getting the ball out of the defensive zone and transitioning into the midfield leaving the attack starved for service.  Thankfully, my constant training on chance conversion has scoring at 20% clip.  We are creating more chances and now rank in the middle of the pack with 45 chances in the first 17 matches.  This is an improvement of 11 chances compared to last season.  As a result, the xG is ticking up too.  But the xGA hasn't improved much over that time.  It has improved.  But in watching us play, the defense just feels like it overmatched and the play is disjointed.  I know that sounds very critical of a team in fifth place but I don't think we are fifth place team.  We could definitely use a defender or two in the January window so our second half of the season form doesn't fall off a cliff and we slide into the middle of the pack.

We did make a couple of big moves in the summer window.  Alexander Boy was bought by Augsburg who immediately loaned him back to us for the season.  Right winger Krystian Przybylko went to Nice in a big money move.  We made a big profit on Przybylko.  He was purchased for 120k and sold for 2.1M with clauses to 3.3M.  That's a tidy profit.  Boy was an academy product so his sale is all profit.  

Coming in, we made three big moves to improve the offensive side of the ball.  My scouts and Director of Football have an affinity toward Argentinian players.  Center forward Franco Pastrana comes his to help take some of the scoring load off of the shoulders of Panagiotis Lagaditis.  In the midfield, Tomas Castro Ponce can play both as a center midfielder or out on the right wing while Ezequiel Cannavo provides us with some experience at the right back position.

Looking at the stats, the first red flag for the defense is one of center midfielders, Giovanni Fabbian (1 goal, 6 assists) has more key headers (22) than our two center backs, Terry Yegbe and Siemen Voet, combined (16).  Yegbe is the more stable of the two center backs but I think we need an upgrade from Siemen Voet.  Pastrana has taken over the starting center forward job from Lagaditis.  Pastrana has a better nose for goal with nine goals compared to Lagaditis' four goals.  Cannavo has had a tough adjustment to the 2.Bundesliga.  His play has been very up and down which has impacted his playing time.  Ponce has had no problem adjusting to playing in this league.  Ponce and Fabbian have made a great midfield partnership with 12 assists between the two players.  Our stats and performance reveal us as a team that should be closer to the bottom of the table than the top of the table.  Again, I think the defense is the issue.  If the defense improves, that in turn can improve the offense who already has the horses to run.

[keeper#1]

2028-29 Midseason Team Stats

Average Possession: 64% (1st)

xG: 18.71 (11th)

xG/Shot: 130 shots (16th - 7.64/game) 0.144 xG/shot

Pass Completion: 91% (1st)

Chances Created: 45 (7th - 2.65/game)

Conversion Rate: 20% (1st)

Final Third Passes per Game: 73 (1st)

Tackles Won: 81% (1st)

xGA: 19.51 (8th)

Net xG: -0.80

xGA/shot: 145 shots (8th - 8.53/game) 0.135 xGA/shot

OPPDA: 4.69 (11th)

Headers Won: 45% (13th)

Backline Height Average: 38.09 yards (7th)

 

[Hootieleece]

You have a lot of good stats, so it isn't all smoke and mirrors. What's killing you is your players not taking their chances in front of goal.

[keeper#1]

Completely Blind Signing

Fortuna Dusseldorf came in on the January Deadline Day and scooped up left-back Cameron Burdett for his 1.3M release clause.  Not a terrible loss for me.  He was griping about playing time and then not performing when I gave him playing time.  But, I was not pleased with the left-backs that my scouts had written reports on.  I went to my Director of Football, who loves Argentinian players, and gave me the name Tomas Sanchez playing for Aldosivi in the second tier of Argentinian footballing pyramid.  I took blind trust in my DoF.  This was the only scouting report the club had on Sanchez.  Next, I made it public about the club's interest in the player solely so I could see what the market was looking at for selling price on Sanchez.  1.1M is a bit high in my opinion but it still meant I would turn a profit on the sales of Burdett and the purchase of Sanchez so I pulled the trigger at 1.1M as the initial offer (550k upfront and another 550k over the next three years).  Aldosivi accepted the offer and I had a new 18-year old left back from Argentina at the club who has a very high ceiling.

 

[Hootieleece]

A little bad at crossing for a Left Back but he does have room to grow. Also worried about his heading as well. But if he doesn't work out as a Left back, he could definitely be retrained as an Anchorman/Defensive Midfielder.

[Shrewnaldo]

Re Fabbian's key headers - is he on near post zonal duties for corners? Key headers are just those inside the 6 yard box iirc so this and his aerial prowess could account for the seeming anomaly 

[keeper#1]

2029 Youth Candidates

Looks like my new Head of Youth Development has done his work this year with this class.  One elite talent (my first while at Magdeburg) and six top talents bring a good depth to this class.  Not sure if the good talents will have what it takes to stick around beyond their trial period or even sign a professional contract with the club.  But I like what I seeing on the surface with this group.

It's a big class too.  Two players larger than a typical youth class.  But the personalities rear their ugly head again.  Three of the top four players have unambitious personalities and another top talent has a low determination personality.  Not sure what is causing the poor personalities to populate every class but it's getting annoying to see good players only to have poor personalities.

Nino Agger 29A (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Media-Friendly): Agger is a dynamic left-winger who can, with some physical training, be a very pacy player on the left flank.  He has good dribbling and passing skills as well.  He does have a lot of work to do on the mental side of his game.  I will need to find a good mentor for him and get rid of the terrible unambitious personality.  If he truly wants to be a great players, he is going to have put in the work to be a great player.  Someone who will kick him in the butt and push him to be better.  

Maximilian Harant 29B (Personality: Fairly Professional; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Harant has the making to be a potential starting right-back for us in the future.  He has speed down the flank.  He has the ability to be a solid tackler.  He has the decision-making ability to know when to make the right tackle and when to back off.  He knows the game for a 16-year old.  He will need to work on the aerial part of his game as that is his current weak spot.  I really like what I see from Harant right now.

Mathias Schossler 29C (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Another right back in Mathias Schossler and he is already a step behind Harant is just about every aspect of the game.  I will need to see how willing he is to learn a new position so he can get on the field as well.  Like Agger, I will need to find a strong set personalities to mentor him and give him the kick in the pants needed to work on his game so he can become a better player.

Milan Petrovic 29D (Personality: Unambitious; Media Handling: Unflappable): The dual German-Serbian national Petrovic has the potential to be a good right winger for us but like Agger and Schossler, it is up to him as to whether he wants to tap into that potential or not.  He is very much like Agger except on the right side of the formation.  He has a lot of holes in the mental side of his game.  My senior players are really going to need to work hard with Agger, Schossler, and Petrovic to up their games and push them to become better players.

Meiko Queckenstedt 29E (Personality: Fairly Professional; Media Handling: Level-Headed): We have the makings of a very solid central midfielder in Queckenstedt.  He is already a very smart player. He is a decent passer and possesses a good first touch.  Looking at his body type, he appears more suited to be a player going forward on attack than a defender.  He needs to work on his strength which should come with age and body development but, right now, he is a very weak player.

Noah Gartner 29F (Personality: Resolute; Media Handling: Reserved): Gartner has the potential to be a great defensive midfielder for us.  He has potential to be an elite tackler and break up opposition attacks before they can even get started.  He has all the skills to be a potential starting holding midfielder for us.  His offensive skills are below average but his passing and "recycling possession" skills are above average.  I can work with a player like that and hopefully he turns into the player that I envision he could be.

Peter Franzel 29G (Personality: Low Determination; Media Handling: Level-Headed): Franzel has the potential to be a great player for us on the right-side of the defense or as another holding midfield option.  The only thing that stands in Franzel's way is Franzel.  He has the ability to be a good player for us.  His determination could be a big hinderance to reaching his full potential.  If that improves, even a little bit, he could reach that potential.  If it doesn't, then who knows.  Definitely a player who needs constant watching.

[keeper#1]

2028-29 Season Review

We were close but not close enough to make the playoffs or win relegation this season.  We struggled offensively against the top teams in the league.  They were very good at cutting off the midfield service to our attacking line.  This, in turn, put more pressure on our defensive line while, based on the stats, was one of the best defensive units in the 2.Bundesliga this season just could not handle the constant pressure. This led to three 0-1 losses along with a pair of 0-2 losses.  We don't need to turn all of these losses into wins.  Heck, even if we turn just a couple of them into wins that's six points, we finish on 61 points and finish in a three-way tie for the league title.  

As the stats show, the defense is ahead of the offense at present.  We are above average in just about every defensive category.  On the offensive side, we are below average to average at best.  In a way, this makes sense.  I've been a lot of focus on improving the defense because I felt this is where we were lacking.  Over the course of the season, it appears that there are problems which need to be addressed on the offensive side of the ball as well.  We have one true goalscorer in Franco Pastrana, who led the team with 14 goals.  However, 13 of those 14 goals came in the first half of the season.  He couldn't find the net in the second half of the season.  The second center forward option, Panagiotis Langditis, had a similar problem.  Only four goals all season and barely over one shot per 90 minutes.  Not a lot of output from the center forwards.  Service came from one source as well, Tomas Castro Ponce, who led the team with ten assists.  His problem was staying healthy.  He was in and out of the lineup with nagging injuries.  He never had time to gel with the team and gain that sense of where his teammates would be and when they would be there.  Konrad Matysiak tried his best to fill his hole left by Ponce but Matysiak was just as interested in scoring goals as he was in creating goalscoring chances for others in the attacking phase.  Next season, I hope that Ponce and Matysiak can be in the lineup at the same time and I use their strengths to improve the offense.  

The defense is in fine shape anchored by Terry Yegbe and winter signing Mladen Cvjetinovic in the middle.  Dylan Gorosetto outplayed new signing Ezequiel Cannavo on the right side while winter signing Tomas Sanchez gave us a different look on the left side if Andres Borset was struggling to find the right pass.  Overall, I'm happy with the defense and hope that no one comes after these players in the summer signing window.

Season Stats

Average Possession: 60% (1st - down from 64% in the first half of the season)

xG: 38.29 (13th - 19.58 in the second half of the season and +0.87 from the first half of the season)

xG/shot: 298 total shots for the season (168 second half of the season shots - +38 from the first half) 0.128 xG/shot

Pass Completion: 90% (1st)

Chances Created: 95 (8th - +5 from the first half of the season when we created 45 first half chances - improving but not showing on the scoresheet)

Conversion Rate: 15% (2nd - down from 20% in the first half of the season)

Final Third Passes/Game: 76 (1st - just dicking around with the ball in the final third and not creating)

Tackles Won: 78% (3rd)

xGA: 38.23 (4th - 18.72 xGA in the second half of the season down 0.79 from the first half of the season)

xGA/Shot: 288 shots allowed (1st - down two from the first half of the season) 0.133 xGA/shot

Net xG: +0.06

OPPDA: 4.67 (17th)

Headers Won: 46% (13th - still showing improvement in this area)

Backline Height Average: 39.06 yards (1st)

[Vakama2619]

How have Nurnberg gotten on since you left?

[keeper#1]

11 minutes ago, Vakama2619 said:

How have Nurnberg gotten on since you left?

13th in 2026-27

10th in 2027-28

5th in 2028-29

During the 2026-27 season, they sold off all the talent that I brought into the club and it's taken them two seasons to rebuild into a club playing for a European slot.

[_Ben_]

On 03/04/2024 at 21:08, keeper#1 said:

I took blind trust in my DoF

I really like this realism element! He's not too bad but, at the end of the day, most managers these days do not have 100% say in who comes through the doors!

7 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

We were close but not close enough to make the playoffs or win relegation this season.  We struggled offensively against the top teams in the league

My experience of the 2.Liga tells me it's not an easy place to get out of - so that's a promising season for you. How did Sanchez fair?

What are your plans for the summer? A big rebuild or just small steps?

 

[keeper#1]

19 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I really like this realism element! He's not too bad but, at the end of the day, most managers these days do not have 100% say in who comes through the doors!

My experience of the 2.Liga tells me it's not an easy place to get out of - so that's a promising season for you. How did Sanchez fair?

What are your plans for the summer? A big rebuild or just small steps?

 

Sanchez did well for an 18-year old playing at this level.  

The plan is to take some small steps in the transfer market.  Continue to cull the 3.Liga players from the rosters either through contract expiry or transfer outs and replace them with some talented youngsters I had out on loan last season.  Hopefully, that's enough to improve us from 5th to 2nd and automatic promotion.

Edited April 7 by keeper#1

[keeper#1]

2029-30 Season - Part 1

I tried to stress quality over quantity in this summer window.  I need players who can unlock a game with a goal or an threaded ball leading to a goal.  Game changers.  We lost a big game changer in the window as RW Tomas Castro Ponce left for Getafe for 4.1M with clauses to take the transfer up to 5.2M.  Ponce led the team with ten assists last season.  Ponce was a great piece of business for the club as we brought him in on a free right before the start of the 2028-29 season.  Pure profit for the club.  Coming in on the right side as Ponce's replacement is Gaston Hernandez who joins us from Uruguay.  Hernandez is a pacy winger who can hopefully replicate Ponce's assist output this season.  Also at the wing position, experienced left winger Myron van Brederode comes to the club after he was let go by Luton Town.  He will be the new starting left winger to match new right winger Hernandez.  In the middle, Mounir Saadi, who has scored 25 goals over the last two seasons for Bielefeld, comes to the club to give us some more goalscoring punch at the top of the formation.  Three more players join the senior club as well but they all except to help the club, this season, in a reserve role:  Joaquin Tipaldi at center back, Alexsander Bobek in goal, and Jannes Schulz at both wing positions.

We've had some inconsistent play as I adjust to the new talent coming into the club and the new players adjusting to their new club.  So far, we've been solid at home and poor on the road.  This puts us right in the middle of the table but we aren't that far from the top.  The xG stats say we should be higher up the table as our goalscoring is behind our xG pace.  Another positive is we have a net positive xG so we are in every match.  We just need to ways to win those matches.  I also think we lead the league in "goals overturned by VAR."  I feel like, at least, once per match; we have a goal overturned by VAR.  Our penalty taking has also been **** poor (0 for 3) which has already cost us some points.

The high point of the season, thus far, has been the 1-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the DfB-Pokal.  I would say that it will be another trophy-less season for Bayer Neverkusen but they won the 2029 Bundesliga.  Finished on points with Bayern Munich but won the title because of superior goal differential (+50 to +41) to claim their first Bundesliga title.

[keeper#1]

New City - Different Club - Same Theme

Every season, I have club sniffing around for my services as their new manager.  Most of the offers (Leece, Santa Clara) are quickly blown off.  The bigger 2.Bundesliga clubs (Schalke, Stuttgart, etc) never have any interest in my services when their job become available.  But one interview request caught my eye - 1. FC Union Berlin.  They are struggling in the Bundesliga this season down in 17th place.  They are club from the East Berlin side of the city so they played behind the Iron Curtain as well.  I took the interview and they responded a day later asking if I wanted to make any changes in the backroom.  I negotiated to bring my Head of Youth Development and coach Miroslav Klose with me to Berlin.

The club is barely hanging on to a Bundesliga place.  They finished in 15th place, last season, on 30 points to avoid even the relegation playout matches.  They are on a similar path this season.  The club has given me a wage budget which is three times larger than my wage budget at Magdeburg.  But the club have found a way to almost 80k over that budget.  Why?  Let's take a look at the roster.

A first team roster that is 42!!!!!! players (45 if you count the three players out on loan) "strong."  The club does not have a reserve team so anybody that is promoted from the U19 team is dumped into the first team and then, it looks like, nothing happens with them.  They just rot on the bench.  There's no real youth development.  The roster is full of players who are past their prime and falling from their peak but at the same time they are blocking the development path of the young players below.  To me, it looks like a US team that is trying to piece together one or two more playoff runs from an aging roster when they should be blowing up the team and letting the kids develop.  This team is trying to string together seasons that just save them from relegation but the youth development is stunted.  I'm going to need to sell off some of the remaining assets, see if I can find some aging players to take a lump sum payment to leave the club, and bring in some kids with upside that I can develop into a team on more stable footing.  In short - this roster is a mess.  

The finances are a mess too.  I'm not sure that I am going to be able to offer aging players "gardening duty" money to just leave the club.  The club doesn't have any money to offer them because of their bloated salaries.  This is going to be a fun multi-year rebuild.

Looking like a very top heavy youth intake will be coming in.  I'd like a goalkeeper but they take too long to develop.  A striker or two would be a nice boost for the club.

[Hootieleece]

Good Luck in Berlin! I usually prefer to rescue Hertha in my saves but given your parameters this is the biggest team you could probably become manager of in Union Berlin.

[SixPointer]

Finally catching up on footy man in general. Big move to union there for you. One of my favourite ever football games I’ve been to. I visited Berlin when they played in liga 2 and watched them play Bochum. The ultras, the standing terraces, the beer what an atmosphere. Walking through the forest the game as well. 

[keeper#1]

February 2030 - Early Days In Berlin

It's early days for me in Berlin and I've been looking for ways to clear some of the deadwood.  A massive deadwood clearing will take place over the summer when a bunch of contracts expire.  Right now, it's been taking offers for any players that other clubs find "valuable" and then replacing them with younger players.  Will these new players have really long term futures at the club?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  So, I was on the lookout for cheaper talent that I could potentially flip in a season or two once we become more settled and I'm not in a scramble mode to find players to save us from relegation this season.  It's an improvement over the aging talent that the club has been relying on to save the club from relegation over the last couple of seasons.

As I like to do, I work back to front when it comes to building the team.  I'm an ex-goalie and the advanced stats have shown that it's easier to gain points around the margins on the defensive side than on the offensive side.  A team can play defensive and earn a 0-0 draw easier than putting their foot on the gas and getting a 3-3 draw.  We were going to lose our right back, Josep Jurnanovic, on a free at the end of the season by Dinamo Zagreb wanted to bring him home earlier than that.  So, I needed to find a new starting right back before I attacked the spine of the team.  I found a good enough 19-year old right back in Denmark at FC Nordsaelland in Marco Gardovoli.  He is able to do the job on a weekly basis.  He's not an ideal solution but he's an ideal short-term solution that can be flipped for a better long-term option as I get the scouting operation up and running.  The biggest need that the club has is in net.  Our starting goalie is listed as "Good 3.Liga."  That's not a good thing for a club fighting against relegation.  A trip through the Czechia U21 roster unearthed Adam Filip.  Filip is a player who has a high ceiling but needs the time in net to fully develop and he's an improvement over my starting goalkeeper.  A no-brainer type of deal.  Jan-Philipp Engmann is a young German defensive midfielder who has time with the German U21 team.  A player brought in after Shakthar took Andras Schafer off of our hands.  Engmann is probably not quite ready for first team Bundesliga football but he can develop into a player, in my opinion, that will be a Bundesliga defensive midfielder.  

In a relegation fight, I went back to what I know best the 4-3-3 DM wide.  We had a rough start before we ground out three draws which didn't help us in the standings but didn't hurt us either.  After the Christmas break, we came out flying with an undefeated January and rode that momentum into an upset of Dortmund before, in classic fashion, we lose to last place Dresden in the very next game.

[Hootieleece]

I agree with you that it is easier to fix a team defensively to stabilize them than it is to fix them offensively especially on the cheap.

[keeper#1]

Goalkeepers and defenders are always undervalued assets in the transfer market unless they are world class players.