[FM24-Online] – From the Belgian Depths (KSC Lokeren >> Standard Liege "Home Sweet Home")

[g1nh0]

FM24 – From the Belgian Depths (KSC Lokeren >> Standard Liege)

After reaching my main goals with my Malaga save, I was going to carry it on (and still may do at some point), but I have just started an online game with another fella where we decided to play both our careers starting in the third tier in any league we wished.

So figured this might be a nice opportunity to just play a more normal managerial career starting at Sunday League Rep and I went with a National C License which for me is probably the most realistic starting point when beginning at a selected club.

I eventually decided to start in Belgium with KSC Lokeren. The board wanted mid-table, so it didn’t seem to be a hugely pressurized job, however looking at clubs in this nation finances appear to be an issue for many Belgian clubs and so I’ve no idea whether it’s a club I’ll stay with or move on from.

So I don’t have any idea how my career will actually go. The aim is to just improve my reputation in Belgium, see whether I feel this is the club for me or eventually move on up in Belgium or maybe take a chance abroad, and see where things simply take me.

--

There is a bit of catching up to do as we’re in the second season now. But I’ll have an overview of things here on the bottom of this first post.

As I’m enjoying it and quite invested in it now, I figured I’d update my career here. Probably won’t be as structured and I’ll just post an update when I feel like something is worth mentioning.

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Managerial Honours

KSC Lokeren (24/07/2023 - 11/11/2024)

Domestic

-x1 Nationale 1 Champions

Managerial

-x1 First Division Amateur HCOTY

Standard Liege (11/11/2024 – present)

Domestic

-x1 Belgium Super Cup

-x1 Belgium Croky Cup

-x3 Belgium Jupiler Pro League

European

-x1 UEFA Champions League

Managerial

-x1 Belgium HCOTS

-x2 Belgium HCOTY

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Progress

* at point of departure

Season	Club	League	Position	Domestic Cups	European Cups	Awards
1	KSC Lokeren	Nationale 1 (BEL)	1st - Champions	Croky Cup - R7	-	MOTY
2	KSC Lokeren	Challenger Pro League (BEL)	2nd*	Croky Cup - R7	-	-
2	Standard Liege	Jupiler Pro League (BEL)	8th (UECL Qualification)	N/A	-	-
3	Standard Liege	Jupiler Pro League (BEL)	1st - (Playoffs -Champions)	Croky Cup - R8	UECL - SF	HCOTY HCOTS
4	Standard Liege	Jupiler Pro League (BEL)	1st - (Playoffs -Champions)	Croky Cup - R8	UCL - KO Playoffs	HCOTY
5	Standard Liege	Jupiler Pro League (BEL)	1st - (Playoffs -Champions)	Croky Cup - Winners	UCL - Winners
6
7
8
9
10

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:46 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 1 – KSC Lokeren

The bookies had me for 6^th but the media for 1^st – no idea what to believe. The board only wanted mid-table, so at least it seemed the job wouldn’t have too much pressure.

What I did know was the squad could almost get out a competitive first XI, but needed a midfielder at a top level to be able to really push for promotion especially with the lack of depth.

So I was able to find a player on a free in Espinosa, that fit the bill and he proved to be a very key player for us. And so I was pretty happy with the squad and also the additional staff members I recruited to give us the best possible chance of performing well each week.

National 1 – Winners (Record Breakers)

I didn’t expect such a dominant season in the end. We also suffered quite a lot of injuries through this year, but I guess at this lower level, the gulf in quality between the teams isn’t that huge.

Lambo was our star man of the year, although his form dropped off in the later part due to being discontent at the club and his contract was also due to expire. But at the end of the year he was happy to renew his contract for next season which I was very pleased with because that would have left a gaping hole to fill.

What was most pleasing was being able to beat the points record achieve when winning the National 1 league. It was previously at 86 points, but a late equalizer on the last day of the season saw us end up with 87 points.

Croky Cup

We gave a good account of ourselves but lost to top tier RWDM on penalties. We were the more positive side and created more chances, but I suppose our lack of quality showed and so we went out.

Notes

Personally for my career, this record breaking year I think was very important as all my attempts to learn a coaching badge were rejected – and probably due to the dire financial situation the club has slipped into.

I also hope that as building a reputation in this nation and league will be hard work, having something stand out on my CV would increase my chances of getting a decent job.

So yes, I am decided it will be a stepping stone club – I never can gain an affinity to a club where the board refused to have any ambitions, nor help develop key staff.

[g1nh0]

 

Season 2 – KSC Lokeren / Standard Liege ("Liege to gamble on Rookie Manager")

A Great Start

Well the start of my second year at KSC Lokeren was going very well. I was able to get a first XI again, I felt capable of exceeding the board expectations.

We were expected to finish rock bottom, but I felt we could avoid a relegation scrap with the squad I was able to assemble. But by November time we were sitting in second place 4 points ahead of third spot.

At this point, I had to go with the expectancy I couldn’t get a job at a decent side as all my several attempts I failed to even make the shortlist.

My major concern really was the finances of this club. Things were only getting worse, and with us losing a number of players out of contract end of the year, undoubtedly we wouldn’t have the wages to keep them and so naturally we wouldn’t be able to place them with any better quality, if anything they would be worse.

So this would be the year we would have to go up, or potentially resign and move on. And so I of course kept trying to apply for other positions…where I finally had the chance to interview for a job, and I had probably to an extent hit the jackpot.

 

The Job Offer – Standard Liege

Never did I imagine I would get an interview with the club in Belgium that at present, had the second highest average attendance in the Jupiler Pro League. This showed what a big club Standard Liege or, despite them not having much success in recent years.

So I went into the interview, promising more and asking for less room to manoeuvre financially. It went well in the end, as it must have given enough of a reason for them to give a rookie like myself a chance to take the helm. And no doubt last year’s success and our current excellent start made them notice.

Really excited with the move which for me, I saw as a potentially long term one both as this club would be a challenge to rebuild, but secondly Belgium is a very competitive league domestically especially with the rules in place – so every year will be a tough one to succeed in.

The only downside was the club’s present financial situation. Over 60k GBP over the wage budget, -2.5mil GBP in the bank and debts to repay amounting to 22mil GBP the club needed an overhaul with the wages and the need to recover our current and longstanding debts.

Even worse, was the balance of the squad – I could see why this team were struggling. Not having a squad to really play one system highly effectively, and severe lack of depth in the defensive area with players of lower tier quality only available outside the first 11, would mean achieving any consistency would be very difficult with this squad.

We currently take over with the club 14^th in the table. If we can keep a first XI available we have the potential to steer clear of the relegation zone, but if we have any long term injuries or any defenders out at all, we will really struggle.

I have my work cut out here, but if we can avoid the drop and hope we can somewhere be able to release some players and invest wisely to improve the depth, I might just be able to steer this sinking ship around and try to set up the fundamentals to move this club in the right direction.

My immediate impact therefore ended up being the coaching staff, as in every aspect this was really poor but with my investments here it is much better. I’m hoping they can help get the most out of our current crop of players to help our fight.

But I'm really excited to get started here. Expect it will be a stressful remainder of the year but a highly important one for the future of this club.

Edited May 2 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 2 Update

A Positive Start

After taking the job in 14th spot and within the relegation group in the table, there certainly was a new manager bounce that lasted a good several weeks. At this point, we've now completed the league phase and just about to move into the playoffs where we eventually finished 8th placed in the league phase. That's left us in the middle group, where the team that finishes top I believe will play the team that finishes bottom of the Championship Group (where you need to finish top 6) for a playoff game that decides who get's the last European spot.

We had some real positive results, and I have possibly had, and will ever have my best result already as Liege manager. The wins included a home victory against at the time top of the table Club Brugge, destroying them 6-0 at our home place. It was a memorable day for the home fan's for sure.

Major Weakness

However I learnt a lot about our squad and our real weaknesses that our opponents ended up exploiting. And unfortunately due to the players we have, there is no solution to fix it, apart from investing in players to negate this. Quite simply, this being the height of our backline and teams with any decent aerial ability is causing us problems with crosses into the box and / or from set plays. What's more painful is both that are playing at CB are 21 and 17 years old, and a couple of our brightest long term talents.

One I feel can develop and be a long-term player at the club but he'll need a tall commanding CB to play next to him. The other, simply is too short at 181cm with no ability to jump. I desperately need a new CB that can be a king in the air, and once I am able to bring someone in I'll be training our shorter CB to play in midfield - fortunately I think his attributes are good enough that he can do a solid job here.

So we threw away a number of points for this reason, and so at this moment having such a limitation will mean there is only so far this squad at present can go.

No Room for Transfers

Sadly, with our financial situation I will be losing a few key players at the end of the year, with no wages to be able to replace them - even Bosman's at this moment in time can't even be considered, and it was so frustrating looking at the talent available that could have improved our first XI and depth, but we just can't offer any decent wages.

So I've definitely found a good challenge in a highly competitive league, and if able to get to a point where we can invest well again, we might be able to start to making forward progress at the club. But my huge fear is it will get worse before it can get better, as we'll need to reduce our 60k wage deficit before we can invest anything, which would mean losing several players and a few of our best ones too.

But nevertheless, really enjoying my experience so far in my new club surroundings and we'll try our best to finish top of the middle group and try to steal a European spot beating one of the Championship group sides. The financial benefits for making European football in our predicament would be huge.

Here are the results so far since I've been in charge:

Playoff Phase (Table with 10 additional games to go following points reduction / table split)

 

[g1nh0]

Season 2 End - Standard Liege

Jupiler Pro League – Playoff Phase

So with a point being behind Westerlo I thought they would be the side challenging us to finish top of our table and a chance to play for a UECL spot.

Despite a surprising loss to Kortrijk we then won 5 on the spin and were looking in a really strong position to comfortably take top spot.

But then we lost two and Cercle Brugge had shot up the table from nowhere, and we had to win our last game to ensure we ended up top.

Well, we ended up drawing – but they got hammered 3-0 fortunately, so that saw us make the playoff finals to play away at Gent.

UECL Playoff - Genk 1 - Standard Liege 2

We hadn't played well at all the last 3 weeks so I wasn’t expecting to get anything from this game. But we had a really good first half where we controlled proceedings and were creating a lot of chances although we couldn’t convert any before HT.

Carrying on into the second half, we took the lead just under the hour mark – only for them to equalize 5 minutes later. It was a real kick in the teeth.

The game then felt a lot more even and had a bad feeling we wouldn’t make it. But in the 86^th minute 17 year old Ntemo took a free kick from 26 yards out to be precise, and it flew passed their keeper to give us a late 2-1 lead. (The goal got 2^nd place in goal of the season which is how I knew it was 26 yards out!)

Then choosing to park the bus, we held out until the end and we upset the odds and stole the final European place which sees us get a chance to compete in the Conference League.

So really delighted how the season went overall since I took over. I've been able to identify our problems that need addressing, give good game time to several kids and see who has long-term potential, and also some excellent performance in certain games - the highlight being the 6-0 home win vs Brugge.

Given I doubt I'll ever have a better team performance in this save than this, I've uploaded the goals here for viewing:

Croky Cup

I wasn’t manager here at the time the side got knocked out quite early, but I hope we have a good run in this cup each year because it will probably be our best chance to win a trophy. Genk took it home this season giving Antwerp a real hiding.

Notes

Qualification for the UECL was significant for us, and I also didn’t realize we would receive a lot in TV money too.

Now seeing our wage and transfer budget, it was over double than what was initially predicted. So it gives me the chance to try and bring in some Bosmans before the new season starts, and try to accelerate our progression to becoming a side that will regularly compete for a Top 6 Championship playoff spot.

The board long-term only ever expected to finish in mid-table, not seeming to have much ambition. But this could well change their view on things, and they also have allowed me to learn my first coaching badge of the save.

So things are looking up both for the club, and personally the willingness to invest in the club, myself, and having the largest stadium in Belgium and second highest average attendance in the league, I’m really at a club I can see myself staying at for quite some time.

Liege apparently were considered one of the big 3 clubs in the past, and I’ll be trying to bring this club back to those heights going forward.

3 Year Plan

So after making the UECL and appearing to be able to attract some decent quality players, if we are able to try and snap a few up I’ll be aiming to progress things within a 3 year time frame.

Year 1 – Finish top 6 and achieve a Europa League spot

Year 2 – Try to achieve a UCL spot

Year 3 – Become a regular serious title contender

The Summer window will be very important, and I just only hope that most of my targets I’ll be able to get and not get gazumped from the AI!

[g1nh0]

Season 3 Update – Standard Liege Pre Season

Board Objectives

Jupiler Pro League: Top Half Finish

UECL: Reach UECL proper

Croky Cup: Reach Latter Stages

Media Prediction: 7th

Transfers

After emphasizing how important this Summer window was to bring the club up another level to start challenging for the top 6, although at times it was a frustrating window, ultimately by the end of it all I was able to conjure up a squad I was really happy with. Realistically it was probably the best I could hope for and I believe it has moved us up a level.

Rayan – High Hopes

Taking the approach of only investing in Bosmans, there was one exception where I found a Brazilian from VDG Rayan that should really good potential to play in the AMR spot in our system.

Last year I was having to train / make do with Price playing there, and although not naturally suited to it he did a sterling job. But this fella has the attributes to play it well, and has potential to become a really important player for us.

Rayan, costing GBP 3.7mil and recently turned 19

A Strong XI and good depth

I was able to pretty much overhaul many areas of our squad, that has resulted in a strong first XI that has a few young kids with great potential, a few players more experienced and I was able to late on find someone with the ability to lead the team well.

I was also able to get relatively good depth, one where if we are able to get into the UECL knockouts, I should be able to field a fairly competitive side that will provide our secondary side and other youngsters with some much needed experience – without compromising our attempts to perform strongly in the league.

Aerial Issues Sorted

And also importantly I now have CBs that aren’t weak aerially. Benkovic and Jakel were tasked to improve us here. They aren't top standard, but they can do a solid job, until I can try find someone of real quality to play here.

The aspect perhaps that will take time to really fulfill is the re-training of Price and Ngoy my short CB into the midfield position.

Once I can get these two guys competently playing in this role, then I’m absolutely certain we’ll make the Championship group this year and hopefully start to build up our club reputation in the process.

Retraining x2 players to be backup midfielders

On the negative side, is we are of course over our wage budget. And after deciding to part with our striker Perica who ate up some quite high wages and also OOC end of year, I brought Delap from City in on loan – really hoping I can make it permanent, because I doubt he’ll ask for much wage wise and he's the perfect long-term squad player at this level too.

Final Touches

If I’m able to bring him on a permanent in January for next year then I’m in a place where I can focus on maximizing our facilities, and trying to improve / continually tweak the squad where I see fit.

The only tricky aspect is ensuring we have 4 players trained at our club for European requirements, and also 8 homegrown players for domestic league ones. At the moment, I’m at the bare minimum with the later as I really wanted to form a strong squad.

But going forward, there needs to be a greater focus on scouting Belgium talent, or spending money on those already proven

And finally, clearing those minimum fee release clauses. A number of players wouldn’t sign with us without one, which of course if they were to leave would be devastating. So at the earliest opportunity I have to try and renew these contracts excluding them.

On the staff front, this is pretty much as good as I can get it. Really happy with my backroom team and they'll play an important role to get the most out of our players.

--

My Aims

Looking at the rules, it seems top 4 would be guaranteed European football at the end of the Championship group phase. I was actually a bit lost with how that functioned last year, where quite oddly I faced the team 5^th for a Euro spot rather than 6^th in that playoff final. Something odd happens if you end 5^th or 6^th it seems, so I don’t want to finish in either of them spots.

So my aim has to be a top 4 by the end of the playoffs. That will show significant progress being made with guaranteed European football, and will have reached a point where it’s fine tuning everything to take us closer to the big boys in Belgium.

That I believe, will be finding a a couple more key players in our first XI, being a top class striker, a top class centre-back that is commanding aerially, and ideally another one or two players that will fill our homegrown spots to provide quality depth. Could do with a better LB too.

I feel Doyle who came in from City to be our main man in midfield and captain hits those requirements in the centre of the park. He was a great free signing who is probably our most important player both skill wise and being able to lead our team. I’m also happy with the two keeper’s we have, both with great potential and already very able that I hope with competition for places will bring the best out of them.

Upgrading our training facilities to get the most out of our kids is imperative. I already asked the board a couple of times and they refused, so I’ll need to keep demanding this because I do not want to see our young talent go to waste.

Our Captain and an Integral part of the side

[g1nh0]

Season 3 End – Standard Liege

First Half

After a very good pre-season where I felt we had moved the club up a level, we had a brilliant start to the campaign, one in which involved many fixtures, but eventually we faced so many difficulties and misfortune which threatened to derail our season.

With the way the league works where you lose half of your points in the initial league phase, it’s very difficult to gain any sort of advantage going into the last 10 games. With many good sides like Anderlecht, Genk, Antwerp, Gent and Club Brugge there are a lot of tricky fixtures to navigate every year.

Well, we were almost perfect first half of the season. Winning 14 and drawing 1 of our 15 games, the other teams struggled to keep pace where we created a 12 point gap to our fierce Classic derby rivals Anderlecht.

Croky Cup Embarrassment

But the one game we produced an absolute stinker in and probably one of my worst performance as a football manager, happened to be sadly in front of our home fans vs Anderlecht. This was in the Croky Cup 8^th round, where our midfield just did not turn up at all, and neither did our backline suffering a heavy 1-4 loss. Going out the cup quite early was disappointing, but not as much as the performance.

On the positive side we made it through the initial Qualification and Group Phases of the UECL finishing second behind Aatalanta. This was a nice money earner, in which after speaking to the board they were finally willing to invest further in our training facilities – I was very happy with this, given the young talents that we have too.

So after experiencing games with the team I built, I felt to get through this year the one position we could do with an improvement with was at LB. But what was about to hit was something I did not expect.

Key Player Sold (Minimum Release – 17.75mil)

Sadly for us, one of our real bright talents had emerged during this time Noah Makembo-Ntemo, performing well whenever he played and he stamped down a first team place. I saw him as an integral home grown club player that would form a big part of the future of this club.

Leicester City spotted his potential, and had no hesitation in meeting the 17.75mil release clause. Honestly, I was devastated as I have now created that affinity to this team and club and to see him depart was painful.

But what was even worse, was that the English transfer deadline day come after the Belgium one – so I had no chance to replace him, and it left a real weakness in our AML position. Our free transfer De La Fuente wasn’t cutting it as he was way too inconsistent and for spells too. So you can imagine with these league rules, I was fearing the worst.

Samuel Dahl – Long Term Left Back Potential

The one positive was finding a really cheap 13 capped Swedish international in Samuel Dahl. With good potential to become a league leading LB, at only 23 I can see him being our long-term solution for this position.

So when I thought I had my first XI for the year, I now had a major missing piece missing. So I then wondered whether we could cling onto our advantage both with the last 15 games, and also more important performing well in the playoffs in the 10 big end of season games.

Surprising Sales Signed Off

The other spanner in the works event that occurred was a bid for our Romanian hit-man Denis Dragus. We received a bid for 17million, and well it ended up being too good an offer to refuse. Despite him forming an important part of our front-line, I just thought the extra funds from this sale could allow us to reinvest smartly and strengthen our squad as a whole.

I spent ages trying to find an immediate replacement, but no strikers that could do the job he did adequately were available. So I ended up bringing in a downgrade of a player on loan, just to try and get us through the season and enable me to complete the sale.

So off he went too to Shanghai Port. I also signed off the departures of Kawabe (3.9mil) an important squad player and our backup keeper Cumming (2.9mil). I again felt with Kawabe 30 years old it was the last chance to make some money, whilst we are also close to having issues with meeting the 8 player home grown requirement, so I decided to let Cumming go and bring in a homegrown / club keeper to take over the deputising duties in goal.

With all of these sales our squad going forwards was now considerably weaker, but I felt the importance to take advantage of this offer long-term for Dragun and the other sales was the correct decision. I was expecting a tough second half the season, but I felt I could try to see things out, and at the bare minimum finish in second place to secure us Champions League football for next year which ultimately would have been something I certainly would have taken at the start of the year.

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Second Half

So with everything above happening, after the league commenced we suffered a couple of alarming defeats against inferior opposition, and I was now quite concerned.

However De La Fuente may have started to finally find his feet in the league, and his form improved along with an upturn in our form. Winning the classic derby 5-1 came after a surprising defeat, and it felt like this result kickstarted our form to continue fighting on for the rest of the season.

Injury Crisis – with an 18 year old’s career ruined

And all this was whilst we had to cope with many injuries both lengthy, but one also other devastating injury too to who I saw as our long-term 18 years old CB for the future in Hugo Correira Rocha.

He suffered a leg break that left him missing football for a reduced 7 to 5 months taking specialist treatment. He was progressing so well as our first XI CB, and this has just ruined his career. He was also club home grown, so this will be painful for meeting those requirements down the line if he can’t ever bring himself to the level needed to be at least a squad player for the side. But I was certainly now already planning to find an adequate replacement to invest in for next year.

But despite all these problems, we kept battling on in each and every game, and our efforts resulted in us even expanding on our mid-season gap of 12 points to 17 – this gave us an 8 point advantage going into the Championship Group phase that would decide the League Winners.

Meanwhile in Europe, we continued to march through the competition until the Semi-Finals where we had to face the winners of the group phase Atalanta.

It was at this point our injury crisis was at its worst point. Having to play a handful of kids form our under 18s and only having our 2 backup strikers available, we actually gave a valiant effort taking the tie overall to Extra Time.

But with this being the away leg, they expectedly took control and scored a winner to avoid going to penalties. We lost this tie on agg 3-2, where we had a 2-1 advantage from the home leg, which given our predicament was a surprise to be in such a position.

However it was Brighton who eventually won the competition, beating Atalanta 2-0 in the UECL final. The two biggest teams in the competition were the ones that made this final in the end.

The Final 10 Games - Jupiler Pro League Champions

So back to the league, with an 8 point advantage it certainly was a strong one. But in our schedule we had our rival Anderlecht due in back to back home / away games. Seeing what they did to us earlier, if we were to lose both of these games our 8 point advantage would immediately be down to just a mere two.

However despite our troubles, we were able to win 9 out of the 10 games, and they never had a sniff. And this form included both a 3-1 home and 0-1 away win against Anderlecht which really pleased our fans.

We eventually ended up winning this phase by 13 points in total and our board were ecstatic with the League Title success, with us also being able to lift the trophy in front of our very home fans in the 4-1 home win vs Genk. A really fitting way to tie this success up, especially as the last time Standard Liege won the Jupiler League was back in the 2008/2009 season, with this success being 2025/2026coming up to almost 20 years ago.

We were predicted 7^th from the start, so it was seen as a completely unexpected success and a memorable outcome for the club.

Overview

It was actually such a stressful season, and my fellow online player of this save had to hear me whine about the constant injuries we were having to cope with! Let alone the AI buying my players on minimum fee release clauses  And also my own doing too, taking a risk with selling some important first XI / squad players in the January window.

But despite the difficulties and poor domestic cup run, it was still an excellent season, as to be honest the way the format is in this league, it’s always going to be a difficult league title to win and I have this to look forward to each and every year.

So tasting success with the board expecting only mid-table, along with our general progression as a club both on the pitch and also off it was really good to see.

I have a real liking now to this club, and I really don’t see myself moving on anytime soon and the support they are showing is good. I'm also now fast learning coaching badges and currently learning the Continental licenses.

My aim for this club going forward, is to try and become the more dominant side in this league and I would define this as winning the title once every 2 seasons whilst ensuring we achieve Champions League football every year, improving our reputation in Europe which will hopefully mean we can build the Nation too, giving us more UCL spots, and on the footballing side I want us to try to build a side that can compete / and get into the Quarter Final stages of the UCL.

Realistically, I think that’s a good long-term target to aim for. But what will be key is making the right signings, but also improving the side of our stadium too in order to be able to attract / funds players demanding greater wages. And with all of our sales generated and smart transfer business so far, I think we're in a very good position to invest in some additional quality and some well priced young talent that should see a very positive future of this club .

We also currently have around 29,000 seats available. A target on this front for me would be to try and reach at least 40,000, where in comparison Juventus have just over 41,000 stadium capacity.

With the rules of needing 8 home grown players in our league registration, it’s going to mean we will always have a squad a bit weaker compared to all of the other European nations, and with wages we probably wouldn’t be expending as much as well, so there would be less of a need for extra funds to be generated.

Edited May 6 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 4 Update – Standard Liege

Board Objectives

Jupiler Pro League: Finish Top 2 Places

UCL: Reach UCL Proper

Croky Cup: Challenge for Cup

Media Prediction: 3rd

--

After last season, where our league triumph had been considered as a quite remarkable an unexpected achievement, I’m guessing this could be seen in Belgium as an achievement similar to what Leicester achieved winning the Premier League.

So what am I expecting to see this year? Teams to now play a lot differently against us, and teams looking to exploit our weaknesses now we are considered a top 3 team.

To reach the same levels, we will need a squad that not only will need better overall quality in the First XI and depth, but also able to cope with the intense midweek games in the Champions League.

It was a big transfer window, and I think we recruited very well with the funds that we had available. We are weak in a couple of areas, but generally I’m confident we can compete for a top two spot this year, which is what the board want.

Three Key Signings

Rafa Marin – Spanish CB, powerful and good in the air. Will expect him to be a danger on set pieces.

Alan Velasco – Our AML to replace Ntemo who left us last year. Hope he can be a real menace to the opponents back line.

Matija Popovic – A 20 year old Serb striker with very good potential. Tall, quick, looks already competent in finishing, he I hope will be our long-term striker for the club and main man.

-

I don’t have any immediate concerns with our squad, but I guess I will learn a bit more after half a season or so. This will identify and potential problems that may need to be rectified in a January window.

We do have some players that I would consider, are at a good level but may just fall short of being a leading player in the division. This typically being one DM spot and one CB spot. And was Adebayo’s season last year a one off?

First Half & into Feb 27

Super Cup

An important game, as any silverware in Belgium is an achievement. We faced Antwerp in this one, and it was a great start to our campaign winning 4-1 to give me my first taste of Supercup glory.

Jupiler Pro League

After our first game I was optimistic for this year – and well, things started off well. But by the time we hit December, our form completely went off a cliff.

It resulted in Club Brugge taking top spot in the league and leading us by a point. But the fierce competition going all the way to 4^th spot, this is more what I expected to see in a tightly contested Belgium league.

Currently 4 points are separating us four at the top, and given how fragile we have been lately, this really could be anyone’s league title.

With our push, most concerning is our losses and performances against the bigger sides. We have struggled, and so that led me to trying to see if I could make some emergency January deals to fix our problems that I identified through this first half of the year.

Croky Cup (R8)

Sadly this fixture away to Brugge happened in December, the month where we lost 5 out of 6 games.

It wasn’t like we played badly, but we just weren’t creating enough and when we did our finishing was poor. We ended up losing this one 0-1 at their place.

UCL (Into Knockout Playoff)

This has gone quite well so far, and I have placed an emphasis in trying to do well, to build up our club reputation and also financially. Getting UCL football each year in Belgium isn’t easy, so I had to try take advantage of this.

We ended up finishing 18^th in the group phase so we have a playoff game due vs Nice. But we’ve lost to them in the league phase already, so it’s going to be a tough ask to make it into the final knockout phase.

Transfers  (January)

What were our problems? Well, Jakal at CB was averaging poorly and making some defensive errors, neither of our squad DMs were at the same level as Doyle, Adebayo wasn’t as prolific as last year, and Delap has been a real disappointment up top.

I also noticed in the tougher games, our midfield wasn’t competitive enough and were getting too easily overrun. This, in combination with having a CB underperforming was not a good combination.

So I needed to invest in a DM and a CB which I did in Bitshiabu for 6mil and Paul Okon at a really cheap 700k. Okon is also Belgium home grown which was a must to meet the league rules. I also ended up deciding to bring in David Zima a Czech international for 10mil. To generate the funds, Jakal was sold for 12mil and Casado our underperforming midfielder for 1.5mil.

And well this ended up being a really busy window as I had an unexpected offer come in for our Right Back Carreira, who had also been performing really poorly and wasn’t taking any criticism. So the signs were he needed to go, and I received 16.5 mil.

I wouldn’t typically have accepted the deal, but Belgium International De Brempt was unhappy at Inter – and he looked a real upgrade and also another home grown player too. So I ended up spending 20mil to bring him in, and I was very happy with this signing.

The last deal was to eventually sell Adebayo where I received 7mil from his release clause. He was playing well at times, but I figured he’s getting on a bit and with a 22 year old Swedish striker looking capable to do a good job especially with his allround attributed, at 3.5mil on a release clause it was worth a gamble. My hunch is he can be a good squad player long term, and has sufficient quality to play with a top side in Belgium.

--

Notes

So with all my dealings for this season confirmed, I see my squad as almost there to what I would like but I could do with another window and also would need the funds for one more splurge.

I’m happy with everything on the defensive side and we have enough talent on the wide areas. But I still require another good DM to be able to rotate with our two starters, and I need a striker ideally at a similar level to Popovic.

But otherwise, our first XI in the important areas being the defence and midfield will have improved. Up front I’m not sure, but I hope joining in January Vilhelmsson will be motivated to make a good impact for the remainder of the year.

Whether this is enough to retain the title I don’t know, but we’ve increased our chances of doing so.

Stadium Expansion

One other piece of good news was our stadium expansion which I requested for has now been completed. Our capacity has increased to 34,368, a bit over 5,000 more than the next largest in Belgium.

Signs are good as with some fixtures we’re already hitting very close to that. But it seems there is no longer an option to expand our current stadium, only the option to build a brand new one which would be very costly.

I did see whether the board would already be interested in this, but at present they have no intentions of building a new one, as they don’t feel we have a big enough fan base.

Perhaps a couple of years proving our average attendances maximize our expanded stadium, will make them reconsider this stance.

Edited May 8 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 4 - Second Half

After already being KO’d the Croky Cup (eventually won by Genk) we had just the UCL left and the Jupiler Pro League to attend to.

UCL - KO'd Playoffs

And well, it wasn’t too long before we went out the UCL too, against the team that beat us already in the League Phase in Nice.

We were unfortunate as we suffered an early red card in the first leg, and well the tie was pretty much done and dusted due to that losing 3-1. We then lost in the return leg 2-1.

Nevertheless, we did well to at least make the playoffs in my first year with the side competing there, and it will have provided some much needed experience for our youngsters with great potential to grow.

It ended up being AC Milan bringing back the glory years to win this year's UCL.

Jupiler Pro League - Title Retained

Well this ended up being a very tense affair, with the league not decided until the very final whistle went on the last set of fixtures in the Championship Group phase.

After the first 30 games, we were eventually able to gain a very slim one point advantage over Club Brugge and Genk – which really was nothing at all.

That especially when the Championship group phase began, we started off terribly. A away 0-2 loss vs Genk then moving above us, and 2 draws in the next two games saw us 4 points off from top spot. Honestly at this point, I felt we were done.

However we finally had a convincing 3-0 home win vs Antwerp, followed up by a 4-0 win vs Cercle Brugge. This must have helped our confidence, because we were able to win the very next 5 games. This included huge games at home vs Genk and Brugge – and both games we took home the win, a 2-0 and 3-1 respectively.

This meant the title was finally back in our hands as we have regained our slim 1 point advantage, where we held our nerve to win our last two games away from home which saw us retain the League Title.

--

Season Overview

It was what I signed up for managing in Belgium, experiencing stressful management at the most extreme level! It honestly feels like I have another full-time job. Having to carefully hold several meetings before our big games vs Brugge and Genk at the end, I wonder if this helped give us the edge in the later part of the year.

We suffered a lot of misfortune, yet again with injuries but our discipline was extremely poor this year, suffering the most red cards in the league with 5 in addition to an extra 3 in the cups. We struggled in all the games we went down to 10 men.

But it’s never easy retaining a title, and the January additions did make a notable difference in the end.

We were having a bit more control in midfield, a real threat from set plays, and the gamble I placed on Oscar Vilhelmsson to go a solid job up top proved a great one. His performances were excellent overall, scoring some key goals in our excellent run at the end. At 3.5million he was an absolute steal, and I see him as a good long-term squad player once I can try and bring someone else in the same ilk as Popovic.

So a much harder year this one, despite having a better squad on paper. But perhaps a more rewarding one given the difficulties we faced in many aspects. 

Another positive was seeing us in a number of games maximising our new increased stadium capacity. Maybe at some point down the line the board may just consider building a new stadium, especially if we continue to make UCL football on a regular basis.

--

Next Season’s Plans

Onto next season, I already have a couple of targets in mind. I expect it will be another Summer of fine tuning the team so I have a good number of home grown Belgians that will improve our depth, and trying to balance the finances. This will typically be across the DM and striker positions. Being able to secure UCL football for a second year running was very important in having the flexibility to do this.

With any luck, once the next Summer window is completed I will have very much a squad I’m happy with to manage and continue to develop.

[g1nh0]

Season 5 Pre Season – Standard Liege

Board Objectives

Jupiler Pro League: Win Jupiler Pro League

UCL: Reach UCL Proper

Croky Cup: Challenge for Cup

Super Cup: Be Competitive

Media Prediction: 1st

--

I’m now coming into my 3^rd pre-season with the club and my squad is finally in a place where I feel for this league and constraints with player and match day registrations I have a decent balance to now work from. But we are now expected to win the league, so the job will be much more pressurised now.

Any other windows going forward, will just be a case of seeing where we can improve our first XI to take us to a higher level, or an opportunity to make some money in sales and finding good value replacements with potential.

So this is how I see the state of our team, where the media now have us favourites to win the title:

Defence

Keepers – Ernst has received the goalkeeper of the year award already at this level, and continues to improve with his young age. I also have a good homegrown backup with the potential to play at a high level in this division too, whom should do a good job filling in for most of the games.

Fullbacks – I’m very happy with the level of quality in this department, and we also have good backups to come in on both flanks. De Brempt is an International regular for Belgium for us on the right flank, with Dahl a regular Swedish international too.

Centre Backs – Marin brought from Real Madrid is now gaining regular caps for Spain (and our newly appointed captain), and Zima is regular Czech International giving us great depth. Bitshiabu is also very potent at set plays for us too. Rocha our home grown club player perhaps is our weakest link, suffering an unfortunate leg break when he was developing really well. I expect he’ll never reach his potential, but at least for now I’ll need him to be a 4^th CB backup for league requirements.

Midfield

Defensive Mids – Took the longest to recruit adequately for due to registration rules, so I had to rely our existing players at the club. I spent big on Vranckx to bring another Belgian player into our squad.

He cost a lot more than I wanted at 20mil, but at 24 years old he will be a solid backup from the bench, and I’m finally content with our depth here. He has a couple of caps for Belgium too.

Doyle and Okon will be our starters. A good combination of one being good defensively with good physicals, and the other more capable of playing with the ball.

Price a homegrown player and Northern Ireland international will be our 4^th DM, and should do an adequate job when needed to be called upon.

Wide Players

We have some good talent here. Velasco and Ordaz were brought over from America. I hoped they would have enough quality to perform in the Belgium league, and they’ve proven they can do it here. Velasco perhaps the better of the two with Ordaz still someone useful to have, at least at this moment.

However it’s a couple of our kids worth mentioning that have the potential to become very good. Rayan our Brazilian now a regular starter on the right has already played well for a couple of seasons and also getting second placed one year in the NXG awards.

Saraz our Colombian International although struggled initially, is showing signs of  real improvement. I’ve retrained him to play on the left hand side given he’s naturally right footed and I play with an IW here. Bags of potential, but with how well Velasco is performing he’ll still be providing us with an impact from the bench.

Attack

Finally happy I think with what options I have here. Popovic has been our main man lately in the AF role, but this year I’ll be trying to have him adapt more as our PF because I’ve brought in Gustavo Sosa in from Boca to play as an AF.

He has great potential to be a very good striker, and I’m hoping their combination can shine with a bit of work.

I’m also happy with our depth this year, especially with the find of Oscar Vilhemmson last January. He’ll be our PF backup. Nascimento from Botafogo has also come in to replace the departing Delap, who never quite reached the expectations I had of him.

Utilizing him to improve our finances, Nascimento was a budget replacement but I’m confident he will do a good job as a backup AF for us. However if he fails, this will be a position I’ll need to re look at.

The Future

In addition to hopefully build a new stadium at some point, more immediately the next few years is about recovering our finances from the recent stadium expansion and expenditures.

During this point I’m hoping our kids will have developed further. And with the age I bought Saraz and Rayan, they eventually will be considered home grown club players.

This will then give me the flexibility to sell Rocha and Price and bring in much better quality players without being restricted.

--

The ultimate aim is to create a football team that with the league restrictions, can aim to try and become a regular top 8 European side / competing in the UCL quarters, and hopefully a mini PSG in Belgium where we can try to win on average a league title once every two years. This for me would be a realistic target.

From my squad now, I believe I need 4 quality International players to take us to that level. These to me are a Keeper, a CB to partner Marin and x2 DMs. I'm hoping Rayan Jourdan our 17 year old whom has lots of potential, may also develop to be a very useful player for the club long-term. 

I’m placing full faith with the offensive players I have. After a few years I’ll probably know after that time whether this needs investing in too, or whether I can keep them together for longer.

Edited May 10 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 5 Update – Standard Liege

Transfer Update - January (The Big Splurge)

So after I thought all my transfer dealings were done, with the money we had available, player discontent at the club, and the talent available I decided to go with an all out splurge to almost create my ideal squad.

Isaac Price wasn’t happy at the club, and he seemed to have an issue with me as manager, classed as somewhat an adversary of mine! So yeah, although he was homegrown I don’t have time to have players who can’t appreciate their role in the squad. So he went out for 7.75mil GBP and in came Faticanti from Leece costing just 4.2mil.

Although at aged 23, he appeared to have room to develop to a very good level so I figured he was worth a gamble. Having some very good teamwork characteristics and physicals to play in a demanding 2 man midfield, with some regular football with better players I hope in time he will become a first teamer. At the very worst, he’ll be a better squad player than Price. I've also been able to remove a negative trait too which should improve him when the ball is at his feet.

The next player out was Zima. He didn’t stay long at the club at all, but we still ended up making a 4.5mil GBP profit on him with him moving over to the UAE. His replacement was a 19 year old Danish wonderkid from Copenhagen Mathias Vendelboe, costing 18.25mil GBP. Already with a couple of international caps to his name he appears to have great potential to grow.

His strengths lay with his teamwork, positioning and anticipation. He can also play at DM as well, but with him being 191cm if he can develop a bit more physically and improve his composure over him he’ll be a very good CB long-term for us.

And the final one – I really had to debate long with proceeding with this transfer. Ernst was wanted by Al-Nassr and offered a 21.mil GBP bid. I then saw a keeper I’ve not yet played with this year, in Guillaume Restes who seemed to have some really good attributes but he wanted to leave his current club Toulouse. Scouts reported he could be an upgrade and be a Star keeper in our division.

Surprisingly no clubs were interested, and he was also out of contract at the end of the year. They also wanted 64mil GBP for him as well! So the options were wait till the end of the season and hope no one else comes in for him, not get him at all because Ernst had performed well for the club, or spend now ensuring he doesn’t get picked up by a bigger club at the end of the year, and place my faith in him he’ll be that upgrade I felt I needed in the GK position.

Looking at the other keepers and their costs, and with Restes being only 22 years old at the moment and already having International Caps to his name, I’ve never been a risk taker so I decided let’s bring the fella in now and sell Ernst. Although Ernst was very commanding in the air and didn't have any real weaknesses to his game, Restes had many positive, despite perhaps not being the best aerially. I like having two tall centre-backs anyhow, so figured any slight deficiencies could be minimised by having CBs highly capable at dealing with crosses.

So these ended up being my 3 out and 3 ins in the January window:

Competition Progress

Super Cup - Winners (3-1 vs Genk)

Another good start to a season, with us beating Genk 3-1 at home to lift the Super Cup for a second year running.

In a match we controlled for pretty much most of the game, we thoroughly deserved the win with Doyle continuing to be an important presence in our midfield.

Croky Cup (Final - to be played May 2028)

I haven’t got knocked out yet! So it’s been our best run in the competition since being Liege manager. We have had some very nice fixtures though, with only Anderlecht our rivals the tricky one, but for once we had a home tie and we comfortably went through.

We are due to meet Genk in the final due to be played at the start of May.

Jupiler Pro League

There doesn’t appear to be the second season syndrome I suffered last year, where pretty much anything that could go wrong, did, along with indiscipline throughout the whole year.

Our squad up till January did a fantastic job. After the first 15 of 30 games in the league phase we won 14 and lost the 1, being the first match of the season away to Club Brugge which was annoying – a super cup hangover I like to think.

And with our tweaked squad, we currently have played 28 games and have already created a 20 points gap between us and 2^nd. Just a couple more games left before the Group Phases begin and the points halved.

Still, I’ll be distraught if we do not win the title from such a commanding position.

UCL

This has been a real highlight so far. We ended up finishing second in the league phase only behind Arsenal. We also shocked La Liga leaders Barcelona at Camp Nou winning 0-1 at their place.

It was a real hard working team performance which saw Rayan grab us the winner in the second half – after I had a pop at him during Half Time!

We also beat Roma 7-0 too in this stage. Both results came following our January dealings, so my hunch with Restes being an upgrade and Fatacanti with those combative midfield attributes has brought us up a level, and makes me wonder how far this squad can actually go.

So we’ve surpassed last year’s performance and are in the Last 16 where we’ve been drawn to play Villareal.

My aim has always been to reach the Quarters with this club as it is the most realistic goal, and if we can make it I’ll be ecstatic with that achievement.

New Stadium?

I also decided with us clearly maximizing attendances in our stadium already expanded, whether it was worth seeing if the board are open to building a brand new stadium – and they were very keen on this which I’m delighted with!

Their plans are looking to have this stadium hold 45,000 in capacity, or thereabouts. This would be perfect as I then feel we finally have a large enough stadium to really have a structure good enough to compete with the better European sides. Our stadium for example would hold more than Chelsea or Juventus.

However it is still at planning stage, so I can only hope that this will eventually be allowed to go through. I’ve had these cases in the past where for whatever reason they end up falling through.

It would be a real significant step for the club if we’re able to move to a stadium of this size.

I would have been more optimistic if I didn’t make the Restes purchase because we were financially in a good position. But with the purchase, this may negatively affect this going through at the very near future as we may not have the finances to support this.

Time will tell on this one I guess.

Other News

I have tried looking to see if we're able to improve in any areas of our team, especially in midfield. But I honestly really struggled to find players that would fit the bill in how we play. And with Doyle being our best corner taker, with it being one of our strengths I would need someone capable of providing a good delivery into the box. So it feels like I'm not going to be able to locate that real top class signing to fill one of our central midfield spots. I wonder if it will hold us back.

But with no one available, I eventually decided to renew his contract along with a few others that were due to expire end of next season - apart from one, and sadly that's our most important player, newly appointed Captain this year and I can only describe him as our John Terry at the back, Rafa Marin.

Big clubs are interested and he wants a move. So if I can't renew his contract at the end of the year, which is after what I hope will end up being a successful season, I may have to consider selling him on so at least I get some money for him.  Sadly it's going to be near impossible to replace him. 

[g1nh0]

Season 5 End – Standard Liege

So in my third full season with the club and with a dozen league games to go, a first Croky Cup final appearance booked with a last 16 tie to play in the UCL we had much more to play for compared to my first couple of seasons at the club.

I was very motivated to bring a Croky Cup to Liege as this was the one domestic trophy missing from the cabinet, and with this would leave us in a position where we would have a very good chance of completing the domestic treble.

In the UCL, well some of our results in the league phase were extremely impressive. But knockout football is something else, where luck and having a fit squad for both sides can make a substantial difference to the outcome of a game – along with heroic individual performance.

Jupiler Pro League - Winners

After the first 30 games were completed after ending up with a gap of 22 points to second place, it gave us an 11 point advantage with 10 games remaining.

Things weren’t actually plain sailing here. Unable to beat Brugge twice with two games ending 0-0, and a defeat and draw to Anderlecht were not results I expected at all. We also dropped points at home to Kortrijk.

But fortunately for us, by the time we were dropping the points vs Anderlecht and Kortrijk we had already sown up the title, and also the Croky Cup – which funnily enough, seemed to cause our end of season lack of form, where we failed to win any of our last three league games.

Croky Cup - Winners

Standard Liege 4 - 0 Genk

I wasn’t sure what to expect in this one. A Cup final is a cup final, and well we actually struggled to play well in this one. For many league games this season we’ve been so assured, and it felt really strange where we had to rely on Restes several times to keep our 1-0 advantage we took with an early goal.

But with Restes inspired (getting MOTM) and having to go for the equalizer, we were able to exploit them several times and ended up comfortably winning (on the scoreline at least), 4-0. This was the same scoreline we beat Genk at home when we notched up the league title.

Really happy to get the team over the line in this one and at this point of the season, it meant we had completed the domestic treble.

UCL – 10 Men Winners!!!

Standard Liege (P) 0 - 0 AC Milan

I was quite dumbfounded how our UCL run went. Suffering difficulties at times getting out a strong squad with a few injuries especially affecting our central midfield, along with some unbelievable performances which saw us dispatch both Arsenal in the quarters and Man City in the semi’s leaving us with a match against the old Italian Giant of AC Milan.

They struggled domestically this year, and for them the UCL was a must win to give them European football next season.

With some of our performance in Europe this year, you may think I would have been confident we could cause an upset in this one. But as above, following our Croky Cup win we lost 1 game and drew 2, and those performances were very poor.

A Cagey, Tense Affair

And well, the first half ended up being a complete bore fest. No highlights at all, with each team only registering one shot on target each. It was a very cagey affair, and probably nerves must have played their part on a side like ours not really experienced with these huge big games in massive occasions.

Was the second half much better? Well, more dramatic. It wasn’t looking good for us as it appeared Milan were the side gaining a few highlights. We were offering absolutely nothing going forward ourselves.

And then unable to keep our composure, a corner floated into the box saw us give away a needless penalty. The way the game had gone, I felt if this went in we weren’t going to come back, especially with our offense struggling the last 3 games too.

Super Restes / Not so Super Okon

But Restes as he has done so often since joining us, saved our bacon and produced a wonderful penalty save to keep the scores at 0-0.

I hoped this moment would motivate our boys to sort things out and get into gear – but unfortunately, this was shown in the wrong manner with Okon getting a red card leaving us to battle with 10 men for the remainder of the second half.

Spending a considerable amount of time deciding how to setup, we ended up going strikerless and played negatively looking to try and alleviate a bit of pressure with some counter attacks down the flanks, whilst trying to keep the ball as long as we possibly could to prevent too much pressure being built.

We held out to the end of normal time, but could we continue on in the same fashion in Extra Time?

Standard Remain Solid

Making a few more adjustments to compensate for fatigue and also dropping the line, we went with the general same approach and just hoping we could perhaps produce something from a set piece play.

Well, we had no highlights at all going forwards, but they also had no real chances of note either.

Playing for penalties probably was our best hope failing the set pieces or individual brilliance. But with no one really performing well, that avenue was gone too.

And luckily for us, we were able to keep Milan out for the extra 30 minutes and it left us with penalties to define whether our team of Liege could complete a historic UCL quadruple…

Spot Kick Optimism

It’s hard to be confident going into a penalty shootout. But ever since I’ve had Restes, he seems to save more penalties than he concedes!

So choosing our penalty takers carefully and trying to say the right words to my boys, it finally came the time when the spot kicks were going to be taken one by one.

Things started off well for us, where they missed an early penalty and we took the lead giving us the advantage.

However things did turn for the worse, in true FM style with us missing the 4^th penalty which left things all square going to the final round before sudden death.

Liege Heroes

Milan had the chance to go ahead, but Restes (again, cup final MOTM in the end) not for the first time came to the rescue saving his 3^rd penalty of the night and second in the shootout.

This left our Swedish giant Oscar Vilhemmson with the opportunity to become a club legend and fire us to UCL glory….which he absolutely did with a no nonsense penalty smashed straight down the middle, before we then all celebrated what was quite an unbelievable achievement! – With those last two being the later words used by my fellow player in the save.

I felt despite it only being my third full season at the club, this probably was going to be our best ever chance to cause an upset.

Being the side of team we are, most of the European sides probably failed to give us the respect we deserved as a team.

After my splurge in the market, it was what I would say was a budget team but with a few gems added to the side that provided that quality and leadership to make us a strong unit as a whole, with that bit of brilliance to make the difference when it was needed – which today, was Restes.

--

So it ended up being a historic year for us. I can guarantee there will not be any other season like this, and well it made me consider applying for jobs elsewhere.

However soon after the cup final, the board had some further news…

New Stadium Plans given go Ahead

To my delight, the board agreed to proceed with building a new stadium and was a higher capacity than initially anticipated.

The size was to be around the 48,500 mark, which would give us a greater capacity than PSG’s stadium as well as Chelsea’s and Juventus’ which was my previous benchmark.

With it now being a top 25 sized stadium, with the continued ambition being shown by the board (which has resulted in an extra loan being taken out increasing our debt again), along with substantially increasing our coaching and scouting staff numbers, it made it hard to make the jump elsewhere.

I did apply for the Real Madrid job just before this news, but Klopp eventually was appointed anyhow. So it was no big deal in the end for me, and I’ll continue to stay here at Liege but needing to try and find out a new objective to achieve at the club.

A New Objective

And I think I found one to keep me going at least another 3 seasons. Looking at the history of Belgian title winners, the most titles any team has won consecutively was Anderlecht with five league titles in a row.

We are currently at three, so the next aim has to be trying to become remembered as the team to equal, or even better this record.

Our form at the end of the year wasn’t great, and after having such a strong season there will most certainly be a decline in performance.

We somehow will need to find a way to keep up the motivation levels to push on again. I’m reluctant to spend big unless I’m able to sell any of our existing players. But the ideal scenario would be bringing in at least 2, or maybe 3 changes to our existing squad to keep things a little fresh but with players motivated and atmosphere within the squad.

[g1nh0]

Season 5 - Celebrating the UCL Quadruple, and Standard Liege's first ever UCL & European Trophy

As with my time at Malaga, the players this year were absolutely superb and most certainly deserve some stardom following such a successful year.

So here's a run down of the key goals from our Croky Cup / UCL wins, along with screenshots of our squad of 25 that made this tremendous year happen:

"Croky Cup Final Goals"

"UCL Winning Penalty"

THE PLAYERS

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 16:45 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 5 - UCL / Quadruple Standard Liege Squad (Continued)

 

Edited Tuesday at 16:43 by g1nh0

[g1nh0]

Season 6 Preview – Standard Liege

Board Objectives

Jupiler Pro League: Win Jupiler Pro League

UCL: Reach UCL Proper

Croky Cup: Win The Cup

Super Cup: Be Competitive

UEFA Super Cup: Be Competitive

Media Prediction: 1st

--

So after last year’s heroics, a couple of quick notes on what has happened since:

Rafa Marin – Our captain and star centre-back has decided to commit his long term future to the club. Last year he wanted to leave with interest coming in from Arsenal. But I expect with our club’s reputation continuing to grow along with his importance to the club he’s decided to stay with us. I’m really delighted because he is such an irreplaceable player.

Stadium Completion Date – Following plans to build a new stadium the expected end date is end of May 2031 (being 3 years from now). It will also hold 48,297 seats, and I would say once completed will be a top stadium in Europe.

Youth Facilities – Also being worked on which will take us to State of the Art once completed, and match our training facilities already at this level.

--

With our board expectations, we are definitely well on the way to becoming the Mini PSG I aimed for this club to be in Belgium. However as a result of the loans taken out we are in a severe state of debt, and I can only hope over time it's something we can continue to reduce.

We are now expected to win everything domestically certainly means this job will now be a highly pressured one. There are still no expectations on the European front at all, but if we continue to put in a good UCL performance and Belgium moves up in the Nation Club Coefficients then this may well change.

I think if we can bring up those expectations to make the last 16 each year then I’ll be very happy with that, in the sense it’s where I roughly want the club to be at on a European scale that we can realistically meet.

Transfer Business

I was intending to not spend much this window, but I’ve ended up spending more than I would like simply because I feel for prolonged success we will need a few new faces, and it’s pointless bringing in players that aren’t at least of a high level or with that potential to maintain the standards we’ve now set.

Continuing my youth policy and keeping to a tight knit squad of 25, there have been a few outs and ins but with an added focus of planning a well rounded squad for a few years from now too.

Emphasis on Set Plays and Leadership

We only have Doyle that can take corners, and he’s also our free kick taker and quite an average one at that. So I’ve decided to try and bring someone in more capable in those situations to take greater advantage of the height we do possess.

Newertton at 23 years of age is the man placed with this task, now with a single Brazilian cap to his name, although he perhaps has less quality in places than Velasco, he is quicker and is his physicals make him an excellent fit for our aggressive pressing game. He’s also a better deliverer of crosses, so for the role in our side he was worth a gamble to replace Velasco. I expect he’ll actually be on the bench for Saraz this year, but given I rotate often and with Europe to contend with he’ll certainly have enough game time to make a good impact.

I’ve also somewhat placed faith in bringing in a young 19 year old Portuguese guy from Braga Jose Coelho, but only at the end of this season. I have two leaders in my side in Doyle and Marin, and feel when either one of them leaves or both, I have to have someone that can step up to the plate and fulfill this duty. I envision him being the eventual replacement for Doyle, if he develops well enough. Part the reason for the delay is the home grown requirement, but Saraz next year will also be an extra player considered club homegrown and so should allow me to then cater for him.

I also really wanted to add another young CB amongst our ranks, and after heavily debating this I eventually did whilst selling our injury ridden young home club grown CB Rocha.

So to replace Rocha I’ve placed my faith in a 19 year old CB in Alejandro. I really tried to find someone with similar traits to Marin and affordable, which ended up being impossible but this guy seemed the next best thing, with traits of being brave, having a great jumping reach, a good tackler and at 191cm he’ll again be strong in the air.

But he could really do with a bit more pace and balance at this stage physically. I can see him being a good long-term 3^rd choice centre back, especially being strong and very strong footed with his left and right foot respectively. He may have the potential to be a starter, but it really depends how far he can improve.

Given he needs game time and it will be hard to provide it to him this year I’ve sent him out on loan to FC Twente and I instead will have the previously out on loan CB Jarell Quansah as our 4^th CB this year (who I considered selling before the loan deal).

I was able to do this as Rayan has now turned into a homegrown club player after being trained here for 3 years from 18 years age and it wouldn’t compromise needing the 8 home grown players in our 25 man squad and 6 involved in a match day.

He’s got good allround attributes so he’ll be more than good enough to be relied upon domestically. He’s only 25 too, so he could do a job for a number of years if I prefer to delay investing in a CB or giving more time for Alejandro to prove himself.

I also invested in a couple of Mexicans outside the window during last season too, in the hope they may have the potential to be long-term squad players De La Cruz at 3mil came in as a goalkeeper with some promise along with Mendizabal at 6.75mil as a striker, who I was able to send on loan to Willem II. But for now, these guys won't be considered for the first team.

Season Expectations

The last time I had a fabulous year far exceeding expectations, the next year was a real slugfest with countless injuries, red cards, and a lot of general unluck in several games.

Well this is FM, so I’m expecting much of the same after last year. Keeping motivation up, and getting anywhere to those standards is probably quite an unrealistic target. But I hope with a couple of new players in our squad it will freshen things up enough.

My aim now for this club is to win another 3 league titles in a row, so all of my efforts will be geared towards this. I’m hoping with the few additions this year that will freshen things up in the changing room, it will keep everyone on their toes and help to push everyone to give their most again for another year.

In Europe, my long-term aim is to make the Quarters if possible, but a last 16 spot isn’t bad either based on our current ranking. Performing well in the league stages would be nice too, as we do need to make as much money as we can playing in this tournament to help reduce our debts.

We also do have a date with Inter Milan in the UEFA Super Cup. It gives prize money and it may be the only chance we have to add this trophy to our cabinet, so I’ll be taking this game very seriously.

[g1nh0]

Season 6 Update – Standard Liege

It is still early stages in the season, but with us having a cup final that for me was an important one for the club here’s a brief update to the start of my fourth season at the Liege wheel:

Belgium Super Cup - Winners (Standard Liege 1 – 0 Genk)

First up was the Belgium Super cup. We’ve won the last couple so it was a chance to make a hatrick of victories. It was a repeat of last year’s final against Genk.

But it was a much different game this time around, with only one goal deciding the game with it coming in the very first minute.

Our main man up top Sosa capitalized on a Genk defense that fell asleep from a free kick to convert a cross from just a few yards out.

We continued to create chances throughout the game but we just weren’t ever able to get that second to give us a solid advantage.

They had a late little rally, but we were the superior side in this one and deserved to take home the victory and Super Cup for another year.

UEFA Super Cup - Winners (Inter 0 – 2 Standard Liege)

With around 3.5mil GBP at stake and perhaps will be our only opportunity to win a UEFA Super Cup it was a game I was very motivated for and fortunately we had a full squad to pick from. So picking our strongest XI I was hoping we could give Inter a competitive game.

Being a little less expansive than usual it was Inter that started off the more promising side, creating a couple of good chances and they would have been disappointed to not have taken the lead. We didn’t start off great, and wondered if they were just the superior side or if we were a little nervous in this one.

But things soon improved, and we were looking a lot more solid after the first 15 minutes or so. Having grown into the game we then created a couple of good chances ourselves though it remained 0-0 going into HT.

Soon after the break and Inter still trying to get into the swing of things, we took the lead. After winning the ball high up the pitch the ball got to Dahl who launched a cross to the far post with Sosa nodding home from a few yards out.

Inter now behind had to try and gain the ascendancy to go for the equalizer, but they never seemed to get going this half and weren’t creating anything of note, with our change of approach since gaining the lead to nullify them proving successful.

And come the 75^th minute, the marauding De Brempt at right back found Sosa with some time to take a shot, which ended up being parried by their keeper into Saraz who calmly tucked away the rebound to double our lead.

With just a quarter of an hour left, I hoped we could just play out time and not do anything silly. Making a last few subs and wasting that time, we held on comfortably to add the UEFA Super Cup to our trophy cabinet which I was ecstatic with, adding to all domestic trophies and the most prestigious European one won within 4 full years of my appointment.

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League / UCL Progress

In addition to our cup successes, we’ve had a solid start in the league and with 8 games gone we’ve currently got a 6 point lead at the top of the table.

In the UCL we’ve also had a couple of very good wins away to Benfica and at home to Sassuolo. We didn’t get the easiest set of fixtures this year which includes games vs Atalanta, Barca and Man City to play. However this gives us a good platform to try and reach the next stage. Gaining a top 8 spot will probably not be possible this time around, but with our good start I’m hoping we can make the knockout playoffs round again.

So it’s been a good start so far. Hopefully we can avoid any serious injuries in our quest to retain our League Title and put out another good performance in the UCL with these being my main priorities this year and going forwards.

Edited Thursday at 13:11 by g1nh0