Lucas_26_7

\ Hertha Berlin Season 1 - Winter Break Summary It has been a fantastic start to the season for my Hertha Berlin side, as we currently sit in 5th and just one point behind second placed Borussia Dortmund. It could have been a lot better though, considering we sat top of the league for a considerable amount of time. My defence has been the highlight, with just ten goals conceded in 17 games - with eleven clean sheets. Fixtures & Results After a few dull draws, our season really kicked into gear with a 5-0 thumping of Wolfsburg. We struggled to settle on a main striker in these early games, with preferred striker Davie Selkie out injured and club captain Ibisevic not fitting into my system. We started out with Pascal Kopke up front for a few games but he wasn't scoring despite decent average ratings. I then decided to take a risk and go for 18 year old Dennis Jastrzembski who had been getting consistent 10.0 ratings in training and scoring loads in the 19's. Although he was normally a left winger. I brought him on for his debut against Moenchengladbach and he scored the winner! From then on he became a regular and is currently the top scorer in the Bundesliga with 10. Other notable results include a 3-0 victory over Bayern Munich. We outplayed the champions with a brace from Jastrzembski and a goal from Per Sjkelbred giving us the win. We also secured a shock win away at Borussia Dortmund - Jastrzembski again scoring, this time the winner. Our next league game was a top of the table clash, with RB Leipzig. I was left gobsmacked as we absolutely destroyed them 7-0 to go top of the league, it was 6-0 at half time. Jastrzembski this time contributed a hat-trick, Leckie and Dilrosun were both on fire as well. In recent games, we have begun to falter slightly mainly due to picking up a few injuries. Our first loss of the season was to lowly Frankfurt who beat us 1-0 in the last minute after we dominated most of the match. Augsburg we again dominated, and looked to have secured a 2-2 draw before a 90th minute own goal meant we had lost 2 in 3 games. Leverkusen was our first truly bad performance of the season, showing worrying signs as we slipped out of the top 4 for the first time since September. Usual Starting 11 and Tactics As mentioned, Jastrzembski has been a revelation up front with his goalscoring efforts, a goal every 111 minutes. He even won the European Golden Boy! Dilrosun has also proved sensational, providing 6 goals and 3 assists from the left wing. The biggest surprise though has been Per Skjelbred. At 31 years old, I initially did not intend to play him much but a long term injury to Duda (who has just recovered) and injuries to Arnie Maier forced him into the team and I have been unable to drop him ever since. He has scored 6 goals this season from a box to box midfield role and only Jastrzembski, Reus, Werner and Mario Gomez have scored more than him in the Bundesliga. The biggest part of our team though has been our defence, Lazaro, Stark, Rekik and Plattenhardt have been incredible this season and made us have the best defence in the league. We have only conceded 6 goals all season when those four have played together and I would put our recent dip in form down to a suspension to Stark and an injury to Rekik which saw us have to switch up our defence for the first time. Ladder

Haven't had a save that I have been addicted to in months so thought I would try out a Bundesliga save for the first save. Decided to be Hertha Berlin, mainly due to the idea of them being a capital club that is not a heavyweight as well as the fact they have Matthew Leckie who used to play for my local team. Only realised upon starting the save just how many good young prospects I have at my disposal. So far have played 3 league games and one in the cup and done pretty well. Beat 3rd tier Rostock 2-0 in the cup with ease with a second string side. Draws with Nurnberg (0-0) and Schalke (1-1) were disappointing, particularly Schalke as they equalised in the 93rd minute. Things turned back around in my last game though, smashed Wolfsburg away from home 5-0, Ondrej Duda picked up 4 assists. Guy definitely looks like my key player. Only made one signing, bringing in Timo Horn for 10.5m, then sold the original starting keeper Rune Jarstein for 3.8m. Currently we only have 8 players who are over the age of 26, and most of them are guys who aren't in my plans. Club captain Ibisevic (34) doesn't suit my style and I can't see myself playing him at all, Peter Pekarik (31) is a third choice RB I will be selling as soon as he recovers from injury, Fabian Lustenberger (30) already has a transfer arranged and is extremely injury prone. Then there is Kalou (33), Darida (28) and Leckie (27) who will get some use this season most likely but might look to sell Darida while I can next year. Finally got Skjelbred (31) and Kraft (30) who are just squad players but will prove handy for now. Then there are my young guys, which is literally the rest of the team. Really excited about Duda (23) who I can hopefully keep, then got a really good set of young starters with Maier (19), Stark (23), Rekik (22), Lazaro (22), Dilrosun (20) and Selke (23). Good young squad players in Kopke (23), Dardai (19), Mittelstadt (21) and Torunarigha (21). Then two guys who aren't quite ready to start but look like they're gonna be world beaters, Julius Kade (19) and especially Dennis Jastrzembski who has been tearing up in training and with the 19's. Really nice to be enjoying FM again! Having all these young prospects has got me excited, want to try and promote as much youth as possible and then try and be one of the biggest clubs in Germany!

Good stuff well done mate

Realised that first issue might just be cause the CA's of my created players are higher than what they should be. I will test it with the regular database and see if it works. I have also sent you the squad lists and some minor details for each NPL team.

Another thing to note, at the moment Adelaide United's NPL team play their games at 'Unknown Stadium' in real life, they play most of their games at 'Smith Partners Stadium' (artificial pitch that is also the home of Modbury Jets in SL1 and Modbury Vista in SL2). Also Adelaide Olympic are listed as playing at Thebarton Oval but in real life they play at another artifical ground 'The Parks'. I am currently compiling squad lists for all the teams in all three leagues.

Also some of the CA's of A-League players are ridiculously out of whack this year (Ryan Strain is an average NPL player despite starting in the HAL every week and Elsey is NPL quality despite being one of the best defenders in the HAL).

I am doing a test save and did a create a club and replaced Sturt Lions but kept their finances, I am finding that the clubs are just leaking money big time to the point where I am 4 months in and 150k (and thats in pounds) in the red despite not buying anybody and everybody being non contract and a few players actually leaving.

Something I have noticed with the database, contracts expire in May, meaning that they expire mid season which makes it a bit awkward.

I'm from SA so can do a lot of that sort of stuff from SA NPL to State League 2, I am just completing my last university assignment today so I will send you a PM later this afternoon once I am done. Also will the database be focusing on correct as of the beginning of the 2018 season or being correct as of the beginning of the 2019 season?

Great stuff! Tempted to start my save now but might wait a bit longer. What help did you need with the database?

Not sure who I am going to go as this year if I end up doing a Football League save (which I usually do, but considering starting in the conference this year instead or even doing create a club). I have hit quite a few of those teams now, namely Sheffield United, Blackpool, Preston and Blackburn Rovers. Thinking I might finally do Wimbledon this year, a save I have meaning to try for ages. Also think Plymouth or Burton could be fun but am still making up my mind.

I don't understand the argument Miles gives on Twitter of 'oh you can't change it just like in real life'. You can literally create countries on FM from nothing or create crazy databases, I think that is a bit more unrealistic.

Planning on three saves this year plus an online one, doing Milan at the moment and will run with that for a few seasons. Then will probably look at starting my lower league save in December and simultaneously play that with an A-League save.

Love this, I think you will have a lot more to go by with the fantasy database with all the expansion talk that has been going on. I will definitely be making a HAL save this year using one of your databases. Happy to help with anything in regards to NPL SA you may need help with!

https://www.ccmariners.com.au/news/usain-bolt-update Per this it seems that was false though. He is kidding himself if he thinks he's getting 3m.