Draakon

Despite your rage quit, some more insights from Estonian football. Abbreviation "JK" usually means "jalgpalliklubi" (football club, FC) in Estonian. Interestingly, in case of both Harju JK Laagri and Tammeka JK, in their names JK actually means "jalgpallikool" (football school), indicating that these clubs are focusing to the youth work and offering football practices to children foremost and the main team is just the tip of the pyramid. As far as I know, Tammeka is registered as a non-profit organization and run by members (fans), so FM news about "selling the club" is somewhat confusing. On the other hand, semi-pro status seems rather correct for them.

Actually I'd say that all of the Meistriliiga clubs are considered professional. In the home page of Estonian FA there is a distinction between professional and amateur players in the squad lists. Quick check revealed that Kuressaare and Tammeka have some amateur players in their squad, so they could be considered "semi-pro", but in reality it's like the first XI or at least 10-15 players are professional and perhaps a few backups are amateurs. It's different from FM's definition of semi-pro team. In FM it's common that 5-8 players are professional and most of the bunch are amateur or youth contracts. What makes the difference is squad size. Flora has 25 players registered, but for example Tallinna Kalev only 19, Levadia, Paide and Narva have 20 etc.. Some of the teams fill the last five places with youngsters or something like that. It might be connected to the fact that bigger clubs have also continental games, but Meistriliiga has 36 games + cup, so it's a proper season and go through it with 19-20 players is a bit thin. So the fact that Flora can field 25 professional players and 8 of them are on the international level (Estonian national team members or experience) shows that they have a lot more financial power and better club than their rivals have. About the statement that Flora are basically the only fully professional club - it's probably true in terms of club organization: youth pyramid, coaching staff, backroom/office staff, facilities and how the club is being run by management. I've understood that Flora has also the best connections with foreign clubs and agents and that has allowed them to make more transfer deals to abroad (= selling players, sending youngsters to foreign academies etc.) which provides them additional income sources. Levadia has a committed owner - a businessman (Viktor Levada) who has backed the club for almost two decades. With Kalju and Paide there is a feeling that financially they are not so strong and when things turn sour (e.g. couple of poor seasons without continental football or main sponsor backing off etc.) they might themselves in trouble. Their network is definitely smaller and financial reserves too, so they need to keep their expenses under control and not overextend themselves after initial success.

Don't be overly worried about heading statistics. For center-backs, it seems to be a question of whether you prefer a tall towering CB who is clumsy with ball at his feet or a shorter BPDd. If you are looking to dominate midfield, clubs are preferring CBs who can play the ball out of defence, have a good technique and passing. On the other hand there's always roughly 1/3 of teams who field a target man with 16-18 jumping, so your CB with 14-15 could struggle against those anyway.

As an Estonian, when I see Estonian league post, I upvote Estonian league is a nightmare to manage in, especially in a semi-pro team (I know, I've tried). Estonian lower leagues are somewhat chaotic mess, made up of some semi-pro teams, half-decent amateurs and a lot of U-21 or reserve teams of Meistriliga (top tier) professional clubs, so footballing level is very inconsistent depending on what players are available for those reserve teams. Money is always tight and usually players move between teams with free transfers - it happens very rarely that one Estonian club is willing to pay a fee for a domestic player. The main income for club is hoping to get some of their (youth) players abroad for a transfer fee (or possible future fees if his career moves forward) and for Meistriliiga clubs every round of continental football is vital, because it fills the bank account more than anything else. On the other hand, Meistriliiga attendances are getting bigger each year and ticket revenue increases and Meistriliiga games are broadcasted to national television, so people are getting to attached to local football more with each season and that might help in the future. In reality, Tabasalu is considered to have a fairly decent youth work going on (at least several players from there have reached to Estonian U-16/U-18/U-21 teams and they have a good club pyramid at the moment. Tabasalu is basically a suburb of Tallinn, right outside of the capital borders, so despite the different name name it's pretty much in capital. There's definitely worse places to reside or manage (like Sillamäe or Maardu ). And pronunciation is not so bad. You'll get used to it

Alright. 1. I'll start with passing and the fact that your CB's are hoofing the ball forward. "Play out of defence" instruction helps against that. Also, if one of your CB-s is a decent passer with good technique you might want to make him BPDd. Keep in mind that if you're weaker team (by quality of players) this instruction might get you in trouble against better squads who use high pressing! 2. Secondly - poor heading. Statistics alone don't mean much. Who are losing headers? If it's your attacking players, but because of the fact that you're just hoofing long ball forwards, the stats should improve if you stop doing that (see point 1.). If your striker is not very tall, instruct your players to 'low crosses' or 'whipped crosses' and see if that changes things. 3. Crossing - similarly, crossing accuracy could be low because your target man is unable to win headers. Change crossing instructions and it should improve. 4. 75% tackling is actually decent in my eyes, especially when your defenders face more skilled attacking players. I'd start with those instructions. Perhaps if the opponents are similar you'd like to go for 'play out of defence' instruction and keep the possession more, but revert back to hoofing the ball when you try to hold onto lead against bigger teams (however ugly, but that's what's gotten you so far, hasn't it?), so you can switch between instructions depending on situation and score board.

January 2028 Transfer Window January arrived and teams started to make moves in the transfer market. I recently (re)discovered that I could delegate loaning youngsters in our development list to our loan manager and he started to close a number of deals, so Jonathan Koppers, Quenten Hose and Claidel Muringen went on loan until the end of the season. Very effective work from my backroom staff. There weren’t any big teams seriously considering a move for our first team players. Kenneth Taylor picked up an injury right after the squad returned from the Winter break, so he won’t go anywhere this January. There was interest in Jay Gorter, but it faded off after Christmas and Dramane Guehi’s inconsistent form has decreased his value in the market. The first decision I made in this window was selling David Kalokoh to Eintracht Frankfurt for £8,25m and I consider it a great deal. Kalokoh has been in fine form in November and December, but when looking closely none of his attributes are great (except determination) and he’s 23 years old, so not likely to improve significantly in the future. His performances attracted attention now, but he’s actually behind Amourricho van Axel Dongen in my pecking order and I could cash in, hopefully replacing him with another youngster in a short time without much impact to our first team. Made a lot of sense, actually, and offloaded his £20,000 p/w wages from our book. The second player to move on was Moha and he, too, went to Bundesliga. Mainz 05 signed him for £10,25m. Thought a lot about this transfer before accepting, but it was somewhat more than his current market value is supposed to be and it was the right time to go. The last player to leave was Rico Speksnijder and this deal went through on the transfer deadline day. I had promised to let him go when a bid of at least £17.5m was made and Bayer Leverkusen offered £21m - another player going to Bundesliga. We had lost two wingers in this window, so I recalled Ja-Ryong Kim from FC Porto to fill the gap in our first team. Fixtures and Results Four games in January, but we have to get through that fixture list without Dramane Guehi who’s away with the Cote d’Ivoire national team at the African Cup of Nations. That leaves us in a lot of trouble, because we don’t have a decent striker in the squad, apart from 17 years old John Meeuwis, although my coaching staff noted that Peter Misidjan can also play the position, but neither of them is a CFa that Guehi plays in our formation. We also miss Kenneth Taylor for at least a month with sprained knee ligaments he suffered in training. That’s two leaders gone and some quite strong teams coming against us. In the Topper Derby I used Peter Misidjan up front as DLFa. To make our problems worse, Davy Klaassen lasted just 14 minutes before he had to come off with a twisted ankle. After a quiet first 15 minutes I switched to standard tempo and it worked out much better - we created a number of chances in the first half, but failed to finish them off and were incredibly unlucky not to score a goal. Olivier Aertssen headed against the post from a corner, Stanis Idumbo Muzambo curled it against the crossbar from some way out and van Axel Dongen missed three good chances. PSV got their defence in order in the second half and although van Axel Dongen tested the woodwork once more, we failed to score a goal. Only a point from a match we should have won. Misidjan didn’t work out as a striker and the result left me with the feeling that we desperately missed Guehi. The next in line was Keuken Kampioen Divisie outing SC Cambuur. A potentially tricky game in an away stadium, but I was bold and rotated the line-up, because it was a cup game and against a smaller team. We had two penalties in the first half and van Axel Dongen took both of them. The first one was probably the worst penalty I’ve ever seen - soft and to the centre, but the goalkeeper let it go loose and van Axel Dongen finished from rebound. He did better with the second one, though and without needing to take too many risks in attack we had a two goal lead. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson completed the rout right after the restart and 3:0 marked a good result for us. I was much more nervous about our away trip to Utrecht. John Meeuwis did OK against Cambuur and because Misidjan had been so poor against PSV I took a calculated risk and started with Meeuwis as a PFa in this match. We had a great start to the game and van Axel Dongen scored a flyer to give us the lead. He then hit the crossbar from a free kick, but we continued to build up good attacks and scored goals as well. Can Tas headed in from a free kick (his second goal of the season) and Prince Aning surprised FC Utrecht’s goalkeeper with a swerving shot from the edge of the area. Their goalkeeper didn’t look up to the task in this match and probably feels that he should have done better in a couple of situations. FC Utrecht had a bit better second half and they managed to hit the woodwork twice, but finished the match without a single shot on target. van Axel Dongen’s second goal of the game put the result beyond doubt for us. Our shooting was just 8/6 and we didn’t create too many chances, but the finishing was just so clinical and most of the attempts landed in the net. We tried to carry this sort of form to our last game against FC Twente, but it turned out to be almost a copy of the performance we had against PSV - we created good chances in the first half, but failed to finish them off and van Axel Dongen again wasted our best moment when his chip landed against crossbar on 38’. But this time it didn’t remain goalless. Our saviour was the 17 year old John Meeuwis who found himself in a one-on-one situation soon after the game restarted. He kept his composure and finished with a lovely chip to secure all three points in the home game. Players The team is trying to cope with departures and because we loaned away some talented youngsters in the beginning of January we are looking incredibly thin in some areas, namely midfield and wingers. Dramane Guehi was sorely missed in January - fortunately Cote d’Ivoire was knocked out in the first round of play-offs and he returned at the end of the month, so he’ll be available in February. I have to say kudos to some of the players who stepped up during this difficult time - Bart Smits filled in for Taylor, John Meeuwis was the hero against FC Twente and Nikita Tamm is starting to play like he should be, considering his attributes and the ‘wonderkid’ label that accompanies him. At the same time we’re having some problems with morale. I rejected several bids during this window. As a result, Can Tas and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo are slightly unhappy because they wanted to move on to a stronger division and they’re complaining a little to their teammates. I feel that I have the situation under control, but feelings like that certainly affect morale. Player of the Month: Amourricho van Axel Dongen - when Guehi was absent, van Axel Dongen returned to goal scoring and got four goals in his name in January. Average rating above 7.70 this month will give him the award. His goal against SC Cambuur was his 50th for Ajax, so there was another reason to celebrate for him this month. Goal of the Month: Prince Aning vs. FC Utrecht - a swerving strike from the edge of area Contracts With some players leaving, I had to plan ahead and extend some other contracts that were about to run out. Veteran Davy Klaassen signed a new extension until 2031 - I’m grooming him to become a coach after his playing years are over, but his leadership could be valuable for another couple of seasons. Goalkeeper Jay Gorter signed a new four-year deal. Eredivisie Four teams are chasing the title. We have a small lead, but Feyenoord, Vitesse and Heerenveen are right behind us. Promoted sc Heerenveen has been a real surprise package this season and they’ve been really good in all of the games they’ve played.

December 2028 Fixtures and Results The schedule looked easy, but we struggled even against smaller teams in the wake of our recent poor form. The home win over FC Emmen was a real battle - after another terrible first half we managed to score the winner, but our performance had little to praise. We also lost Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson, who came off with a calf strain that keeps him out until January. We needed a draw against Club Brugge at home to secure our qualification from the group, but we had a terrible start to this game - we conceded an early chance and the following corner gave Brugge the goal they needed with less than a minute played after the kickoff. We struggled to create much in attack - some decent headers from set pieces (Rajkovic was close to scoring) but Brugge had a lot of corners in this game and half of them led to threat to our goal - Jay Gorter had to save us several times, Pawel Wachowicz cleared one away from the line and overall we didn’t do well defending their set pieces. Somehow we still managed to turn things around - Prince Aning timed his run behind the lines well, received a pass and fired in a beautiful goal to make it 1:1 before half-time and Brugge’s own goal in the second half gave us the lead that we managed to hold until the end. I was somewhat disappointed with our attack - we started to create proper chances in the final ten minutes when Brugge were already taking more risks, but I gave Dramane Guehi rest for the match and used Peter Misidjan in his position as a DLFa, so perhaps that was the cause of some problems in creativity. Anyway, a good result in the end and we’re through to the next stages of the competition. I anticipated an easy win in the next match, but instead we had a shaky start against PEC Zwolle. David Kalokoh tested the woodwork with his attempt from some way out, but we conceded again from a corner on 28’ and Zwolle took the lead. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo equalised soon enough and the teams went to half-time with a 1:1 score line. It looked like we played with good confidence, but defending corners was again our achilles’ heel and we really need to improve that in the future. We lacked creativity in the second half, but Rico Speksnijder was our saviour once again - his thunderous strike from 26 metres landed in the top corner and Zwolle was forced to attack and things finally opened up for us. Guehi added one more from the spot after Peter Misidjan was tripped in the box and in the end it looked like a convincing win, but it really wasn’t until Speksnijder’s strike on 66’, so I had a bit mixed feelings about that performance. Lower division team Almere City was supposed to be an easy prey for us and we did beat them with rotation players in the starting line-up. Moha was the star of the night - he linked up twice with David Kalokoh to give us a 2:0 lead and then completed his hat-trick from a penalty to walk away with the match ball. I’m happy with the result and most of the performances on the pitch. Fortuna Sittard has proven to be a dangerous opponent to bigger teams with their adventurous style, but this time they were quite flat in their own home against us. We had a very good first fifteen minutes of the match when we created a lot of chances and Can Tas scored his first goal of the season from a corner to put us in front. David Kalokoh headed in from a free kick in the second half, so we scored two set piece goals despite wasting many chances from open play. Amourricho van Axel Dongen also hit the crossbar twice and I felt that we should have decided the game sooner than we did, but Fortuna didn’t pose a real threat in attack, so 2:0 from away game was a solid win. Good number of shots, key passes, dribbles and corners indicate that we were clearly the better team. We did so well, five wins so far, but couldn’t complete the perfect month and returned with a disappointing draw from Erve Asito. The first half was less than exciting and the penalty gave us the lead, but we allowed Heracles to equalise in the second half and after that they were pretty good in killing the game off. Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi had a poor game - his mistake led to the goal and he couldn’t contribute to our attack in any way, so he’s still on the way to return to his best form after that serious injury. Two points dropped and so our competitors could close the gap. Players Firstly, the positives - we’ve reached halfway of the season, some players recovered from injuries and return of Jermoumi was eagerly anticipated in previous months, so I had a good selection of players available and the schedule wasn’t too difficult either. In addition we have a couple of promising youngsters coming up from the youth ranks - Claidel Muringen made his debut for the club against Almere City and if possible would like to contribute more in midfield. I’ve experimented somewhat with the left flank and used Prince Aning as a WBa there in certain games - it has worked out well, because it adds width and his crossing is decent enough. But we’re not without problems either - finishing from chances and scoring has become problematic. Dramane Guehi is our best goal scorer so far with 10 goals, but most of them have come from penalties and we lack a reliable striker up front. We’re also conceding too many goals from set pieces (somewhat expected because we’re one of the shortest teams in Eredivisie) and that has caused us problems in several games. Player of the Month: David Kalokoh - again more than reliable when getting chances on the right wing. Our best in-form player this month. Goal of the Month: Rico Speksnijder vs. PEC Zwolle - a thunderous strike from 26m Youth Intake Preview Well, that’s just rubbish. I can’t understand why my head of youth development promises me a golden generation when there’s actually almost no significant talent coming to the youth team. That’s probably the worst preview I’ve seen in those years in Ajax and my hopes about March plummeted. Eredivisie We collected 40 points from the first 17 games of the campaign - good sign that we’re on the right track. Vitesse have scored the most goals and their attack has been really impressive (their winger Yusuf Kabadayi with 21 goals already!) but they’re also conceding a lot. We (along with Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar, for example) are much better defensively. Champions League That’s the final standings with our group. Lyon needed a win in the last round, but were defeated by Bologna in Italy, so Brugge got through with us. In other groups Feyenoord did magnificently to beat Atletico Madrid twice and finish second, so they join us in the last 16 - a great season to Eredivisie football. PSV failed to impress and finished fourth - their season in Europe is over with that.

November 2028 Our November schedule looks slightly easier. The Champions League continues with trips to Italy and France, but at least there are some smaller Eredivisie clubs in the calendar for us and that should give more options to rotate. I opted for a strange tactics and team selection against Bologna - used Jasper Vogels in right defence as IWBs and Peter Misidjan (who returned from his long term injury) played in attack as DLFa, because Guehi’s match load has been so enormous he’s becoming jaded and needed a rest. It paid off, though - Misidjan found van Axel Dongen with a through ball and the winger scored to set us up for the win. It remained 1:0 until the end, but we had a huge number of chances in the end. Moha managed to hit the post twice from a completely open position, Hlynsson wasted a lot of opportunities and the rest of the bunch wasn’t better at finishing. In the end we had 3.59 xG with 11 chances in the game, but only one goal. It was good that we kept our clean sheet and took the win. That result virtually secured our qualification from the group. Struggling and manager-less Excelsior should have been easy prey, so I made nine changes to our starting line-up. We controlled the game easily, but struggled to create good chances and only had a handful of decent opportunities. Dramane Guehi scored the winner from a well played counter-attack in the second half and we had no problems in defence, but I expected more creativity in attack and wasn’t entirely happy with the performance. The next game was a little bit better - we had a poor start and conceded a goal in 12’ (Mert Alegoz unable to stop an ambitious attempt from distance), but reacted well, started to create good chances and at half time we had a 3:1 lead. We killed Helmond in the second half - their defender Dario Van Den Buijs was sent off and we added three more goals to make it six in the end. Finally a good performance I was hoping for. I thought we could get a good result against Lyon - in an away game, but our key players were well rested before the match and we had a good tactical setup. It was a very close game where both teams defended well, but a corner goal in the first half gave Lyon an edge and they didn’t give up their lead after that. It wasn’t a terrible game, but we fell short and looked unable to break their defence once they had the lead. And our slump in the end of November was summed up in a defeat against sc Heerenveen. Manager Siem de Jong (ex-Ajax player) has done miracles with Heerenveen after their detour to the Keuken Kampioen Divisie and they’re in European places at the moment. They play park the bus tactics and I have to say that they defended really well. We couldn’t create too many moments in the whole game and finished with 11/3 shooting with just 0.91 xG. Heerenveen didn’t attack too much, either, but they got plenty of corners and set pieces, so one of those resulted in a header that went past Jay Gorter and gave them a win. I was quite frustrated with the team, because whatever I tried, it didn’t work and players’ nervousness didn’t help either. We were very dull in attack and that’s not like Ajax at all. Players November has allowed us to rotate a lot and all players have earned game time this month and are match fit. That should benefit us in December. Fitness was good, but form was more than questionable. Attacking players were very inconsistent. Nikita Tamm, Dramane Guehi and Moha earned a lot of scrutiny from pundits because they completely disappeared in some matches and our finishing was often rubbish. Player of the Month: David Kalokoh - started in two games and excelled in both of them. In hindsight, I should have trusted him more in the later two matches. Goal of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo vs. Helmond Sport - nice piece of skill from the midfielder, taking the ball past defenders and scoring with a placed shot. Eredivisie We had a chance to open up a gap, but the defeat kept it very tight at the top of the table. Surprisingly, PSV is still some way down in the table and Vitesse and Heerenveen are right there in the top three. Patience was lost in several board rooms in November - FC Utrecht, Willem II and FC Twente all sacked their managers. Champions League A draw against Lyon would have been enough, but at the moment all scenarios are possible ahead of the last match day. We have to perform well against Brugge to make it through.

The game doesn't take mistakes into account when calculating match performance rating for players. Only when the mistake is directly leading to goal is it taken into account (although in my opinion match engine connects those mistakes to wrong players half of the time). In that regard match engine is rubbish, because it mostly evaluates passing accuracy (+ key passes) and won duels (tackles and headers) percentage) and disregards most of the mistakes.

October 2028 Fixtures and Results We have a really difficult month ahead of us. It will be at least two weeks before we could hope to get Prince Aning back, but so far younger defenders have to get us through those difficult games - we have AZ Alkmaar, PSV Eindhoven and Vitesse in Eredivisie, and a trip to Italy to face Bologna. Away games against PSV and Vitesse look really difficult for us, on paper, but I’m not sure what to think of Bologna - they exceeded all expectations by finishing fourth in Serie A and booked themselves a ticket to the Champions League, but their current season is well below required standard and they’re just 16th in the league, lost also both their Champions League matches so far and so I hope to return with something from this away game. The first match against FC Groningen was indeed a tricky one and we didn’t do ourselves any favours by missing a penalty in the first half. Nikita Tamm gave us the lead at the end of the first half, but we allowed FC Groningen back into the game after the break. They scored from a corner to make it 1:1 and in 85’ a terrible mistake from Aertssen allowed them to score their second goal. Fortunately we found a late equaliser to rescue a point from here. Youngster John Meeuwis had a chance to win it in injury time, but his attempt went wide and our two points with it. Very messy in attack, a lot of missed opportunities and I wasn’t happy. Another draw against AZ Alkmaar came with a different game of football. AZ were still undefeated in the league and we still had a lot of players missing, so I was careful not to make a blunder. We were a slightly better team throughout the match, but couldn’t score the winner. Our shooting wasn’t too accurate either (12/3) but I wasn’t willing to take more risks. Performance was OK, we just couldn’t score that goal. We did a bit better against Bologna and took advantage of our opponent’s poor form. We had initiative in the first half and Dramane Guehi’s header gave us a deserved lead right before the half-time break, but the second half was even better - Pawel Wachowicz was brought down on the edge of the area and Anthony Taylor awarded us a penalty that Guehi confidently converted. Substitute David Kalokoh scored to make it 3:0. Bologna’s veteran striker Kevin Volland scored a consolation goal from them (and a great strike, curled into the top corner from outside of the area), but it didn’t make any difference to the result. Our shooting was 18/11, we had 3 clear cut chances and 3.10 xG, so a really good game in attack and a remarkable improvement from the AZ match. It was nice to give out some praise in my post match team talk and lift the spirits of the players. Home win over Heracles was a more routine affair. We wasted a couple of half-chances in the first half before Rico Speksnijder curled it into the top corner from 19 metres. Finding our second goal took more time than I wanted and it was a bit anxious, but Tamm made it 2:0 in the last ten minutes. The performance was good - we had momentum, built good attacks and made 20 dribbles in the game. Second win in a row to get our confidence back. Topper derby against PSV Eindhoven turned out to be a completely different match and a tactical battle as well. I countered their 5-2-1-2 WB formation with a balanced approach. The first half was back and forth - both teams had moments and both managed to hit the woodwork in the first five minutes, but PSV started to gain momentum in the end of the first half, so after the break I made a gamble - Moha (who returned from injury) went in as IFs and I switched Aning to WBs to gave our attacks some more width. It was Moha’s turn to be man of the moment - he fired in a low drive from 19 metres to give us the lead. PSV’s goalkeeper Maarten Paes was booked for handling the ball outside of the box and Taylor doubled our lead with a beautiful free kick. PSV took more risks to save the game and their defence crumbled, so Idumbo Muzambo added another goal in injury time - a solo run with the ball into the box and a calm finish. A sweet win over our rivals, but it was a hard battle until the final ten minutes. Very proud of the team to pull this off. Away game against Vitesse didn’t look any easier. Our opponents are challenging for the title this season and doing well in the Europa League, too, so they’re confident and playing good attacking football. We scored a flyer after a smart set piece was played out near Vitesse’s box, but Vitesse equalised in 15’ after Ruben Providence won a close range header against Wachowicz and headed it into the empty net. We struggled to create anything in this game - Vitesse defended extremely well and my tactical tweaks didn’t make any difference. A few players grew nervous, too, and that didn’t help. In the end it remained 1:1, but it was a rather poor display from us - no real chances in attack despite our 64% possession, just a handful of key passes and, as one fan aptly put it in the social media - we had a cutting edge of a blunt spoon. That won’t do. Players At least some injury problems are behind us. Prince Aning returned to action against AZ Alkmaar and he showed with an assist how much we’ve missed his contributions in attack. Youngster Pawel Wachowicz has filled in for Jermoumi in the DR position and has done superbly, taking his actual attributes into account. Peter Misidjan also returned to full training at the end of the month and I hope to see him play in November. It has been a tough run of games and some of the players have carried more match load than others. Dramane Guehi is starting to look jaded and his performances have become more inconsistent. I probably need to find another option in attack - John Meeuwis looks too young to make an impact. Perhaps Misidjan in a game or two? Player of the Month: Kenneth Taylor - played in five games in October and was perhaps the only first team player who has been consistently good, average rating 7.60 in those games. Scored twice and gave one assist. Goal of the Month: Moha vs. PSV Eindhoven - low drive from 19 metres to break the tension and give us a valuable win in a derby match. Eredivisie We’re leading the table, but other teams have played less games, so it’s a really close race for the title so far and there’s plenty of teams in the mix. PSV have suffered heavy losses from us and Feyenoord while AZ Alkmaar have stood out with their controlled 0:0 draws against bigger opponents. To see newly-promoted FC Groningen so high in the table is a small surprise. Alarm bells are ringing for the bottom three and Excelsior, who were still looking for their first win of the season, decided to sack their manager Torsten Frings. To be fair I don’t believe it would make any difference - they just don’t have the quality to stay up. Champions League Three games played so far and we’re doing nicely with seven points. I reckon we need to find another win to make sure we’ll qualify from that group. Both Feyenoord and PSV have suffered heavy losses to bigger teams, but Feyenoord still sticks to the second place in their group and have a chance to reach the knockout stages. PSV is currently third and their realistic aim seems to be Europa League. Both teams struggle to switch tactically from Eredivisie comfortable attacking football to continental level where opponents are equal or better to them.

Selling players - two scenarios: 1) You want to get rid of him - knock down the price and get it over with. There's no point of keeping a 24+ years old player in your reserve team until his contract runs out. Sell him while you can. 2) You want to maximise the profit (first team player probably moving to a bigger league/team) - wait for the offer, usually 24-18 months before his contract runs out (because renewing those contracts tends to be costly). Never offer or transfer list him, but if a journalist asks about interest from other clubs, hint that you're willing to sell if the price is right. If the bid comes in, negotiate to a reasonable amount. I've found that around 1,5x player value is something that big clubs are willing to pay (sometimes higher when several big clubs are interested). Reject lower bids without hesitation. There are moments when it's the best time to sell. When a player makes his debut for his national team (if the nation is ranked high enough) is often a trigger to spark interest from big clubs and his value spikes as well. It is more often the case with goalkeepers (it was mentioned above that goalkeepers are more difficult to sell - well, international level goalies usually attract enough interest). Interest from other clubs usually cools down after the player gets 25 years old. It's still possible that somebody will come with a good bid, but the best age for selling seems to be 22-24.

September 2028 Fixtures and Results We restarted after the international break with a home game against Willem II. As it has happened already this season, we played a drab first half, but I switched to standard tempo at half-time and that change (along with some criticism in our dressing room) made the difference - Dramane Guehi scored soon after the second half kick-off and then Willem II’s Taichi Hara saw his second yellow card in as many minutes and after that it was easy. Kenneth Taylor added to the lead with a beautiful free kick, van Axel Dongen scored with a simple tap-in and Guehi completed the rout from the spot. Great result and excellent performance in the second half - Willem II didn’t take a single shot and we were just cruising. Our Champions League campaign started in Brugge this season and it started terribly, because Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi had to come off after just seven minutes with an injury. We wasted some half-chances and then conceded a goal (ex-Ajax player Noa Lang the goal scorer for Brugge). Players looked anxious and nervous on the pitch and I had to change something - I switched Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson to the AMR position where van Axel Dongen usually plays and he scored the equaliser for us in the second half. Couldn’t score the winner, though, but it was a tough game because we weren’t there mentally 100% and it’s always difficult to win games if we play like that. Jasper Vogels played in DR instead of Jermoumi in the second half and he was a real liability in defence, so in the end the draw wasn’t perhaps the worst that could happen. Jermoumi’s injury was indeed a bad one - torn calf muscle and it takes at least 3-4 months to get him back to the pitch. That’s even worse than this one result. We returned to Amsterdam and I had doubts before our next league game - the players looked tired, morale looked average and we missed several key players - Misidjan, Moha, Jermoumi all injured; Nikita Tamm doubtful with a bruised ankle and I had to send on Pawel Wachowicz as our right wing-back. Surprisingly, we played a decent first half (although couldn’t score a goal) and again, after switching tempo to normal at half-time, goals started to flow easily in the second half - Kalokoh was the first to find the net and when Guehi doubled our lead from penalty, I made substitutions and tried to give our key players some rest. Guehi came off and young striker John Meeuwis came on and he was on fire! Meeuwis scored two goals in the remaining 15 minutes and Idumbo Muzambo added another two, with the best goal of the match coming in injury time - a curling shot into the top corner from 19 metres out. ADO Den Haag completely collapsed in this second half and the 6:0 final score marked a really emphatic win. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo walked away with a 10.0 match rating and showed that he can be relied upon in the AMC position. The Klassieker derby on match day seven happened after Feyenoord had dropped some points already in September - they lost to Heracles and made a draw with FC Twente, so they desperately needed a win to get their title challenge back on track and we could use an away win to deliver a killer blow to them. We started well and took the lead early on - a quick combination of one-touch passes on the right set up Hlynsson for the goal. In the first 10-15 minutes we had momentum and also the lead, but then Prince Aning came off with an injury and I had to send out Pawel Wachowicz and that change derailed us a little, so Feyenoord got back into the match. We held our lead in the first half, but Davy Klaassen made a bad two footed tackle just seconds after the second half kick-off and we had to play 45 minutes with ten men. Obviously we were under a lot of pressure, couldn’t get any chances ourselves and had to fend off Feyenoord attacks. Some players were nervous and it was clear that Wachowicz was a liability in the right defence. Jay Gorter made a couple of great saves to keep our lead, but Georginio Rutter finally equalised for Feyenoord in 86’. Despite that late goal, it almost felt like we won a point there - 1:1 from De Kuip isn’t a terrible result anyway and to cling onto it after the red card was actually a lot better than it could have been for us. Obviously, the board didn’t understand anything about football and rated our match performance with F because of the late goal we conceded and the lack of chances. Prince Aning will be sidelined for 3-4 weeks with a twisted ankle and that adds to our injury problems this Autumn. My expectations weren’t high before our next Champions League game. Lyon is arguably the strongest team in our group and to go against them with Wachowicz in the right-back wasn’t particularly tempting. The squad looked exhausted after running for the ball in the Feyenoord match and there were just two days between the games. However, we had a miraculous first half - Guehi scored with a fine header early on, van Axel Dongen added the second goal with a powerful shot and Lyon’s own goal made it 3:0 in 12 minutes. Our opponents looked like a complete mess and although they managed to score a goal in 24’, it didn’t turn this game around. Olivier Aertssen headed in a free kick to give us a 4:1 lead before half-time and in the second half we continued to have more momentum. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo and Nikita Tamm tested the woodwork, but the second half offered no goals, so we took a valuable win. I was thoroughly delighted with the performance - our attacking movement was excellent at times and we managed to make 20 dribbles in the game. What a turnaround after a difficult derby game. Players Injuries is the key word in September, especially problems with full-backs. Having both Jermoumi and Prince Aning out for such a long time leaves us in serious trouble, especially in the Champions League. Peter Misidjan and Moha have missed the whole of September already and they’re still a couple of weeks away from returning. We have scored a lot of goals and these have been distributed nicely between players. We don’t have a clear goal scoring forward at the moment, while PSV’s Jason van Duiven has already scored an incredible 10 goals from 7 games and AZ’s Paulos Abraham have got to the target 7 times. Because of our good start to the season, interest has been picking up in our star players. Manchester United has been taking a serious look at Kenneth Taylor and Olivier Aertssen has been scouted by Arsenal. I made one contract decision in September - Stanis Idumbo Muzambo earned himself a new four year contract and over £30,000 p/w wages. That’s a lot of money and I had to admit that his agent is worth his paycheck, but the Belgian has performed well lately and could be a useful part of the team in the coming years. We concentrate on youth and John Meeuwis’ inclusion to the first team paid dividends in September - he scored his first senior goals against ADO Den Haag and developed nicely in training. Meanwhile, we got news about Ajax still being one of the best developing clubs in Europe - that’s the aim. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - attacking players had more shining moments this month (especially Guehi and van Axel Dongen), but Aertssen’s average rating of 7.66 in those games was the highest. The rock in our defence, he helped us to secure those results, also scoring against Lyon. Goal of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo vs. ADO Den Haag - a fabulous strike, curled into the top corner from 19 metres. Eredivisie In the middle of the weekend we have AZ Alkmaar at the top of the table - still undefeated and leading the race. Both PSV and Feyenoord have lost some ground in the title race. Bottom of the table offers no surprises either - small teams like Helmond and Excelsior can be found in the relegation fight. Champions League A draw and a win put us in first place at the moment, but there’s plenty of football still ahead. Bologna’s poor start is somewhat surprising. Feyenoord have started their campaign well - two wins over Astana (expected) and Atletico Madrid (total surprise!) have given them a good position in their group. PSV Eindhoven have found Champions League more difficult and their 1:6 defeat to Leicester City was a tough reminder that it's not the Eredivisie level football in this stage.

Apparently, yes. I can only suggest it's because in game statistics an offside gives your opponent a free kick in their own half and the game tries to balance those numbers out in a way of something like "team 1 free kicks" = "team 2 fouls" even though some of the fouls are just offsides. Seems stupid, but it is what it is.

Nothing. You need to do nothing. Just play him enough in the first team.

August 2028 Fixtures and Results We will start our season with a Klassieker Derby in a Johan Cruijff Schaal against Feyenoord. Our Eredivisie campaign will kick off with a trip to Enschede. The Johan Cruijff Schaal final was held in Amsterdam, so it was a home advantage for us and we used it to full extent. Feyenoord’s Igor Diveev headed against the crossbar from a corner in the first minute after the kick-off, but we soon took the lead and were a slightly better team in the first half. Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson had a great chance in 41’, but he managed to hit the post. I made tactical changes in the second half and after substitutions Hlynsson moved over to AMR and scored soon after after Guehi’s through ball. After our second goal Feyenoord tried to attack and took more risks and for a period momentum really switched to them, but our defence stood firm and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo made it 3:0 in injury time from a counter-attack. 3:0 was an excellent result and showed that we’re in good form after pre-season friendlies. Feyenoord’s Giovanni van Bronckhorst probably wonders what went wrong with that match. The first Eredivisie game ended with a similar result - it was a bit more quiet in the second half, but David Kalokoh scored with a simple finish to give us the lead and then Kenneth Taylor curled his shot into the top corner from 23 metres to double it. FC Twente didn’t take a single shot in the first half (they had one half-chance after the break) so our win was never really in doubt. Substitute Rico Speksnijder secured all three points from the spot. FC Utrecht looked fairly strong on paper and it was a fairly difficult home game against them. The first half finished goalless even though we had a penalty in 34’, but Davy Klaassen’s spot kick was saved by their goalkeeper. Most of dangerous moments came from set pieces, so I switched our tempo to normal at half time and in the second half it improved a bit - Amourricho van Axel Dongen hit the post in 54’ and soon Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson broke the deadlock with a good strike into the far post. Rico Speksnijder made it 2:0 with a beautiful goal late in the game - a low drive from 24 metres that was unstoppable for the goalkeeper and ended up in the match day highlight reel. The second half performance earned us a deserved win. Lastly, we went to Deveter to play against the Eagles and we were well aware that they had beaten PSV Eindhoven 5:2 on the last matchday at the same stadium. We had an early penalty and that helped us to settle things down, but Dramane Guehi wasted two good opportunities in the first half and 1:0 was still just a narrow lead. Amourricho van Axel Dongen finally got off the mark in the second half - his well struck half-volley struck the post before going in and that gave us all three points to the table. Not the best performance (we had just 9 key passes in the game) but a clean sheet and three points from away match - I can’t complain too much, either. Players As usual, we had to deal with the transfer window shenanigans in our first couple of weeks into the new season, but it didn’t distract us too much. Injuries have been more frequent visitors in the squad this season. Peter Misidjan was on the wrong end of a hard tackle in one of our friendlies and he was carried off the pitch with a broken foot. He’ll be out until at least November, so we have one less attacking midfielder for early months of our campaign. Amourricho van Axel Dongen was sidelined for two games in August, Pawel Wachowicz had problems and a groin muscle troubled Moha for a few days. Goals have distributed nicely among players and we’ve scored from all kinds of different situations, but to my surprise Dramane Guehi hasn’t found his first goal of the season yet. I hope he’ll find his target soon enough before that drought starts to haunt him mentally. Davy Klaassen had a special moment in August - his penalty against Go Ahead Eagles was the 100th league goal of his career. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - really good in all competitive games in August and pivotal player to our consecutive clean sheets. Goal of the Month: Kenneth Taylor vs. FC Twente - an absolute belter from 23m into the top corner. Eredivisie We started well with three wins in a row, but Feyenoord came out of the gates storming - three wins with 13:0 goal difference and that includes 4:0 trashing of PSV Eindhoven. Very impressive. PSV had a terrible month - they were soundly beaten by Go Ahead Eagles in an away game (2:5) before Feyenoord wiped the floor with them and that must hurt morale. Champions League This time our draw has been really favourable. We have Lyon Olympique, Club Brugge and Bologna in our group. Probably the first time when we managed to avoid all big teams. None of the opponents are really easy, but all should be playable and we could do well against them, at least at Johan Cruijff Arena. Feyenoord and PSV are both in the Champions League proper and that should get Eredivisie a lot of coefficient points for this season. Feyenoord defeated Galatasaray in the play-offs to get to the group stage and they are in group C with Bayern, Atletico Madrid and Astana. Bayern and Atletico are tough to beat, but they should aim for the third place, at least. PSV is in group D with Juventus, Leicester City and Celtic Glasgow and that’s a fairly good group for them. Juventus is the heavy favourite, but Leicester and Celtic are playable and with some luck PSV could get through into the knockout stages. Vitesse are in Europa League and FC Utrecht with FC Twente play in the Conference League group stages. A lot of continental action for many Eredivisie teams this season.

Well, all roles CAN be played by players regardless of their stronger foot. In some situations it benefits them, in others it doesn't matter much. For IWB I suggest it's perhaps more important when he's under pressure by opposition and has to pass the ball somewhere and there are more teammates in the middle of the park, so more passing options on his stronger foot. However, I've experimented a fair amount with IF and IW roles with different players (rigth-footed, left-footed, two-footed). Every now and then attacking players get into situations where being 'wrong-footed' is actually benefitial. You might say that having a IF and IW who have the strongest foot on the opposite side is slightly better in the long term, but wrong-footed player can do well in this role as well.

Squad Update 2028 Our squad looks almost unchanged since the last season and I’d like to think that we’re a bit stronger, because younger players have trained well and they’ve had more time to develop. The core of the team is approaching good years for footballers with many talented players turning 23 or 24 years of age and new leaders starting to emerge after Sebastien Haller’s departure. We have a couple of decent free kick takers in Kenneth Taylor and Amourricho van Axel Dongen, Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson is an excellent at corners, but we don’t have too many good penalty takers after Haller’s departure in Summer and this could be a problem in some games. Davy Klaassen is our go-to guy in league games. Goalkeepers No changes here. Jay Gorter is our number one and Mert Alegoz provides backup. The half-Turkish youngster probably has to accept that he’ll not make it into the big clubs and a backup role in Ajax is not the worst that can happen. We have a couple of great youngsters coming up from U-18 too, so the future in goal looks pretty solid. Defenders I’m happy with our first choice full-backs. We’re a bit thin in the centre, but Ognjen Rajkovic surprised everybody with good performances in Spring and he’ll battle with Can Tas for a place in the first team. It’s a fairly good line-up - some minor flaws, but overall level of players is excellent for Eredivisie, but not too good so that big teams would want to poach them. Midfielders Kenneth Taylor is one of the leaders in the team and his prime years are starting now. Davy Klaassen is entering the final year of his contract and I’m not planning to offer him another extension. Three other players offer minutes from the bench. Rico Speksnijder should replace Klaassen in the long term, but he wanted out in the last season and only remained in the club because no club was willing to pay for the fee we demanded. Attacking Midfield I hope that Amourricho van Axel Dongen is able to produce the same kind of season he had in the last year and others will be slightly better. Nikita Tamm, for one, has improved a lot in training. Peter Misidjan hasn’t really shown his potential to me and his performances are yet to match his talent. We’ve failed to reach an agreement with Stanis Idumbo Muzambo about his new contract - his agent demands more than £20,000 p/w for a fringe player and that’s way above what I’m willing to pay, so his long term future in Ajax is in doubt. Strikers Dramane Guehi took over from Sebastien Haller as our first team option and after Yoram Boerhout continued his loan in Clermont for another year, I promoted young John Meeuwis into the first team. He looks like a great talent and a good finisher. Needs some work with his physical abilities (mainly speed and acceleration), but I expect him to become a great striker in the future.

Summer 2028 Players are on holiday and hard work starts now to prepare the team for the next season. Training Facilities Our training facilities were downgraded and I had to convince the board to make an investment and upgrade them again. I don’t really understand why they’re so reluctant to invest in our facilities with more than £900m in the bank and club culture to develop youth players. In the end they agreed to spend mere £4m to grant my request, but I wish it wouldn’t be such a haggle each time. Staff Both our chief scout and head physio decided to retire from football in June. I decided to promote within and offered the job to one of our scouts and physios respectively, but now we have two first level positions to fill and I put out job adverts to find new members to our backroom staff. One U-18 coach Simon Tahamata also retires in July and we have an additional slot in our coaching staff since Spring (increasing our number of coaches to 13). I don’t need to fill those roles urgently, but probably need to spend some time to bolster our ranks. I’m quite happy with our coaching staff - our first team session quality is rated 4,5*-5* and that’s really good for a club of our level. The best signing was Gianni Kamperveen from FC Utrecht who will take charge of our goalkeeper’s handling training from now on. We also signed a new sport scientist and improved our medical staff rating to the best of the league (PSV had an advantage over us before). Squad To be fair, we don’t have a real star in the team at the moment who would attract attention from really big teams. Perhaps only Jay Gorter qualifies as such, being the first choice goalkeeper for the Holland national team. It makes my job easier in the transfer market, because fending off interest from mid-table Bundesliga teams or Premier League bottom half teams is much easier than denying a move to Chelsea or Arsenal, for example. I feel that we have an adequate cover for almost all of the positions and can actually allow most of the first team players to leave if a hefty bid comes in, with only a few exceptions. We’re a bit thin in defence and I want to hold on to Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi. I’m also not happy to let another centre-back go after Neal Viereck left just in January and we have a solid first team striker in Dramane Guehi who I’d like to keep for a couple of more seasons. But I’m willing to sell our left-back Prince Aning and almost any of the attacking midfielders if a really good bid comes in. Sebastien Haller came to me in May and asked to leave because he wanted a new challenge. He has just one more year left in his contract and he’s probably sensing that he’s now behind Guehi and starting to fall out of the first team. In principle I granted his request, but we shelved the question until an actual bid came in for him. He turns 34 in June and he’s a decent leader, but not really a future coach material, so I don’t necessarily need to keep him until the end of his career. He had minor problems with homesickness a couple of seasons ago, so I understand his desire to move to a new challenge. Davy Klaassen is another veteran in the last year of his contract. He turned 35 years old in February, but he’s starting to show qualities of becoming a decent youth coach. His mental attributes (18 determination) and understanding of youngsters (17 working with youngsters) are really good at the start and I think that it would be wise to send him to coaching courses next season. Transfer Window It didn’t take long before a bid for Sebastien Haller came in - a Saudi club Al-Shabib offered £4,3m for him and he left on good terms with the club. A true legend in Ajax - more than 200 games and 132 goals scored for the club, but it’s time for a new chapter. Youngster Fred Wijker left to ADO Den Haag for free after his unsuccessful loan spell at Almere City and another youngster Carlos Burgzorg was sold to Vitesse for £225k + clauses - he didn’t look like he’s going to make it here and it was a smart to move to get something for him. I needed to make a decision about Juremy Jansen - the midfielder was touted as the best talent in our 2025 academy class, but I suspect that his unambitious nature doesn’t really allow him to develop into a first team player. His personality has changed from unambitious to low determination, but that’s still not good enough. With just one year left of his contract, RSC Anderlecht came with a £2,7m+clauses bid and off he went. Contracts With Haller’s relatively high salary off our books, we could afford to give out some raises. From players who were out on loan this season Ja-Ryong Kim developed really well in Vitoria Guimaraes and earned himself a new £13,000 p/w contract until 2032. Jury is still out on Yoram Boerhout and Bedirhan Celikel, though. Moha also signed a new five-year deal for £17,000 p/w and Can Tas extended his deal until 2033. What did other clubs do? Well, Feyenoord sold their talented right-back Aaron Guglielmo to Atletico Madrid for £35m and spent some of it to strengthen their midfield and central defence. Their squad is ageing and they need to prepare for inevitable rebuilding in a couple of seasons. PSV Eindhoven have much younger players in their first team and they can avoid spending too much and instead develop their own youngsters. And indeed there were several new kids in their pre-season squad list. FC Utrecht’s best achievement in the Summer transfer window was the fact that they could keep their best striker Raphael Owusu in the squad for at least one more year. They somehow managed to sign two excellent players for free - right winger Wilfried Gnonto from Tottenham and experienced left-back Cristiano Biraghi from AS Roma who is also an ex-Italy international. Kudos to their manager for attracting such players to FC Utrecht. They seem a much stronger team as a result.

The first part of your question might have something to do with midfield roles. Against big teams or away games where you seem to struggle, you might try Odergaard as APs instead of RPMs. Too much roaming could be counter-productive, because teammates should be able to find him with passes and if he gets isolated, he can't build up attacks. Not so sure about your left flank, though - how is Xhaka doing as IWBa? It seems he might run into Aubameyan (IFs) because they occupy same space. Might work in some games, but not with others. If you use CFs you have to accept that he's not going to score too many goals. Yes, around 10-20 per season is expected, but he's more of a provider and you shouldn't get downhearted by that statistics. The same with IFs. What I'd do is switch your IFs to IFa - it would include a clear attacking-minded runner to your attack who could feed off support from CFs. Having attacking players on both sides of CFs has proven to work well for me in the past. Another option is to switch Odergaard to MCa or APa, to move him closer to your CFs. An orthodox approach claims that having two playmakers (RPM/AP and DLP) in midfield is counterproductive, because they tend to link up a lot between themselves. It could help to keep your possession stats up, but it's not very productive in building attack. You could just switch Rice to DMCd and add specific PI-s (switch ball to other flank trait is preferrable when his role is to circle the game around or 'take more risks' and 'more direct passing' PI if he's an excellent passer and could spot a runner up front.

I thought that all gamers are well aware of this and accept it as a (somewhat) bad habit On a more serious note: if a person has severe OCD, locking himself to this controlled environment could be more hurtful and counter-productive for him in long term than it might be in the case of 'normal' people. What I've seen about people who have some sort of mental disorders (for example: asperger, autism etc.) there's a fine balance between creating a safe space where a person could "hide" and recharge his mental battery, and facing the real world, challenging himself and coping with his anxiety so that he could get on in the real world.

Wikipedia claims that record low temperature in Riyadh has been -5,4C in January. So, technically not impossible, but I suspect that dropping below zero is rather rare there. Also, lowest temperatures are usually measured at night (early morning) between 4AM and 6AM. Therefore it's even more unusual to experience such low temperatures during the match if it is played in daylight. Perhaps possible if it's played later after sunset, but I suspect that -3C during a football match should still count as freak weather.

You play positive tiki-taka, with shorter passing, so it's a possession-oriented tactics in my eyes. You seek to control the ball, so you don't need to counter, attack. Lose the counter-attack instruction. You play high-pressing, urgent pressing game with counter-press. It means you aim to win the ball high on the pitch. Either way, there's a very little space to pass it into, but you still use 'pass into space' TI. Lose 'pass into space' Lose 'run at defense' team instruction. You have some really good dribbles in your team (for example your IFa), but their role allows them to dribble more anyway. If you lack space in attack, dribbling in all situations doesn't make things better, because there's always a cover for defenders and getting past one opponent doesn't necessarily give you a goal scoring chance. If you want, you can tick 'dribble more' to certain players and roles, depending on their attributes (like BBMs). If that doesn't help, try to play with width. More width (IF and IWS staying wider) could create space in the middle that AP and BBM can use. An orthodox approach is to use one BPD, not two, but that's just a side note here. I don't believe that your attacking problems are directly connected to center-back roles. Otherwise your formation looks solid and roles should work out, if the players ability to carry them out is sufficient.

I'm not so sure if FM is the best option in case of such OCD. The game gives players a certain illusion of control over things (game, club, football players) in a sandbox environment, but the game has flaws and there are plenty of things that could shatter or disrupt that illusion and hence make the player even more anxious and frustrated, trying to get things RIGHT in the video game environment. That might happen if you try several times, or may not. A lot of video games in general give players the illusion of control. A lot of gamers play video games to feel in control of the things, because inside they feel lack of control over their actual life, so it's easier to switch off for a couple of hours (or longer) and close himself mentally into the video game environment where you feel in control. Here's a trap included, because staying in virtual environment longer and longer could make a person to push aside and neglect his real life problems. So, what seems to me that for a person with OCD there could be some positive sides in this, giving yourself some time in controlled environment that releases some anxiety and pressure, but only when it's not counterproductive, as described above. *disclaimer - I'm not psychology professional, so read everything that I wrote with caution

The second point is actually realistic. Players tend to sign with clubs who express DEFINITE interest in him (e.g. contract offer). You're jumping on the train in the last minute by offering him a trial (indicating that you're not so sure about his abilities and future role in the club). Players in professional football seek playing time the most. So it's very usual that they accept offers that include less money, but convince them that they're part of the club's/manager's first team plans.

In my experience, slightly higher tempo with positive mentality leads to slightly more counter-attacks, because players are moving the ball quickly and they're trying to move it forward. Adding 'counter' to these instructions might push it too much and lead to rushed decisions. Try to tick and untick that to see the difference, at least in the games where teams are even or you're favourites in.