Jimbokav1971

Youth Intake day. Mar 2059. What we're expecting? Well if we go back to the preview in December, it told us to expect 2 full backs and a centre-half. I must admit that I'd be quite happy with that. GK. I don't need a GK because I think the save will end when (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" retires, if not before. DL. We've got 2x Martin's, Trindade, Kravchuk + 1 other who's name I can't remember. DR. Gil is almost ready to retire so we have Bronze, Juromito & Soares at a push so we could probably do with a right back. DC. we had 2 centre-backs away on duty at AFCON so we really need another centre-half. MC. We've got quite a few centre-mids, (good job as there are 0 MC's in this intake), but if we get 1 I would want them to be amazing rather than just good. ML. Flores is going to be much better than Espinala & Madruga so some back-up to him would be good. MR. We've got Marinho, Soares & Cunha so we don't need another right winger yet. SC. We're good for finishers but I would love a right-sided link player. (Even a big brute of a TM). 1st look. 2x Top talents and 0 Elite talents is not a good look for an intake. An MC and a MR is not exactly what we're looking for though. Squad by CA. The 1st thing that strikes me is that we have some good Nationalities. (No less than 4x (CPV) players). The 2nd is that there isn't much PA on show, (but they are being judged against some VERY good CA so that's to be expected). The 3rd thing is that there are 7x players with 1.0 CA. Hopefully 1.0 rather than 0.5 CA will be significant. Something I like doing is looking at players with good personalities. I would expect these players to have higher PA than their PA stars suggest. (59e) has a Pro personality. He's ranked 5th by PA. I would expect him to be ranked higher by actual PA. (59i) has a Res personality. He's ranked 9th by PA. I would expect him to be ranked higher by actual PA. (59e) was ranked 5th by PA but is ranked 1st by Actual PA. (59i) was ranked 9th by PA but is ranked 2nd by Actual PA. If you think this is a coincidence, keep an eye on your own intakes or even go back and look at the old intakes in this thread and see how often it is the case. And then players with bad personalities. I would expect these players to have lower comparative PA than their PA stars suggest. (59g) is Bal, and with low Det. (59j) is Unamb, and with low Det. (59o) is Casual, and with low Det. (59g) was ranked 7th by PA and is ranked 10th by Actual PA. (59j) was ranked 10th by PA and is ranked 12th by Actual PA. (59o) was ranked 15th by PA and although it's quite hard to get lower than 15 out of 16, he's actually remained the same when ranked by Actual PA. (That's not bad at all when I was gambling on him not being higher than 15th). Having these personalities is bad, but pairing them with also having low Det is the kiss of death for me and I won't be offering contracts. And then players with "obscure" primary Nationalities. I would expect these players to have low CA. I put this down to the fact that the Youth rating in their Country of origin will be lower, so they are expected to have a lower starting point. (59c) is from (CHN) has 1.0 CA and is ranked 4th by CA but 3rd by Actual CA. (59d) is from (ANG) has 1.0 CA and is ranked 5th by CA but ranked 7th by Actual CA. (59f) is from (CPV) has 0.5 CA and is ranked 9th by CA but ranked 13th by Actual CA. (59h) is from (STP) has 0.5 CA and is ranked 10th by CA but ranked 12th by Actual CA. (59k) is from (ANG) has 1.0 CA and is ranked 2nd by CA but ranked 6th by Actual CA. What I would say here is that this is what I think rather than what I can know and can prove. This can be evidenced by the fact that I only got 8 of these 10 predictions correct, (with 1 showing no change). That being said, it's amazing how often I notice these trends. Squad by Actual PA.

Feb 2059. Liga Bwin. We're scoring goals so freely that for the most part, even when we concede goals at 1 end, it usually doesn't cost us points because we score so many at the other end. Benfica on the other hand are scoring less freely and as a result have drawn another game. We're now 6 pts up with 9 games to play and things are looking decent. UEFA Champions League. This was a really even game and I thought we were unlucky to lose. I would hope to be able to win the 2nd leg & progress. Allianz League Cup. I was starting to think that we might never win this again. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

Earlier in the save I used DLF's, but I couldn't get them to work as I wanted. It looked great on paper in terms of what I wanted, but it just wasn't happening. This seemed a slightly better fit when I tried it but maybe I need to go back and have another go now, (with different players). He's ok, if unspectacular. His performances in the B Team are obviously much better. I actually don't mind the "doesn't run channels" PPM for him. His strengths are certainly staying more central so what we lose in 1 area we make up for in another. He's linking play well enough and that's all I really want for him. Better players would obviously be a more creative outlet, but I'm happy for him to just fill in and do what he can. We lost to Benfica on pens in the Cup and in the league to Braga, but he didn't play in either game, so whatever our failings were/are, it certainly wasn't down to him. He's weaker than I would like, but (44a) Simões (POR) * is back and started the Sporting game so fingers crossed that mini crisis is over.

Jan 2059. Liga Bwin. We lost away to Braga, (largely down to fatigue I think), but Benfica lost the previous week to Guimaraes so nothing has really changed and the gap between us is now 4 pts because they no longer have a game in hand. We need to try and keep the gap at 4 pts because we play them again this season and I'm not confidant at all about beating them. We need to be more than 3 pts ahead with that in mind. Taça de Portugal Placard. We went 2-0 up but this Benfica lot are a tough nut to crack and after coming back and levelling it at 2-2, they took us to pens and then didn't miss while we missed twice. Allianz League Cup. I was worried about this game. We had lots of player missing, (including 3 centre-backs and 2 GK's), and we had a 17 year old GK making his debut. I needn't have worried as we demolished them as the GK scored a free-kick, and a penalty, and kept a clean sheet. Not a bad debut eh! Whoooooooa that's a lot of money. Goal-scoring GK's. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" is out with the flu and (52j) Candé (GNB) (POR) 6'2" is on AFCON duty so 17 year old (57f) Vercleyen (POR) (FRA) made 3 B Team appearances this month, (scoring 2 goals), and then made his 1st Team debut in the Cup against Sporting, (scoring 1 free-kick and a penalty). What a start to his career! (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" will be gutted that he missed the Sporting game because he could be on 17 goals for the season now. Finances.

Disaster. Jan 2059. The "strategy", (if you can call it that), of playing (45c) Rosa (POR) * in the 1st Team and (44a) Simões (POR) * in the Reserves, (they're not really the Reserves, they're just the 1st Team rotated team), has worked pretty well this season. (45c) Rosa (POR) * has 19 goals and 7 assists in 18(4) appearances playing as an AF. (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** has 13 goals and 6 assists in 18(6) appearances playing as a F9. (50l) Bartlett (ENG) * has 12 goals and 4 assists in 11(9) appearances playing as an AF. (44a) Simões (POR) * has 5 goals and 3 assists in 10(14) appearances playing as a F9. The ability to rotate like this only works because we have 4 good strikers.... or had. (44a) Simões (POR) * is likely to miss much of the next month and I've just noticed that he also has a separate recurring injury that I hadn't noticed before. I wonder if it's a recent thing though because he's only had 3 groin issues in his whole career, (Feb 2053, Sep 2053 & Aug 2056). so not exactly recurring for me. On that note by the way, he's actually not had many injuries at all when you consider that he's made 584 career appearances across 14.5 seasons. Without him, it reduces our ability options up front and significantly reduces my ability to rotate. An inability to rotate becomes an issue when you see that we have 6 and possibly 7 games this month, (if we win the Semi). I'm a strong believer that rotation is really important with a congested fixture list like this and it's better to play poorer players who are fresh, (and allow the 1st choice players to recover), than to keep playing fatigued players again and again, even if they have considerably better quality. The problem though is whether the fresh players are good enough to get the job done when I rotate the squad and (53g) Lopes (POR) is significantly the best option available in that respect. Remember, this F9 role is the foil to the AF on the left. I don't mind if the F9 doesn't score. Just so long as he links play and we win.

Dec 2058. Liga Bwin. We lost a tight one, away to Benfica in the league, (although we won the xG battle), but any gains that Benfica made on us in that game, they completely squandered by losing to Gil Vicente at home. The gap is still 7 points and they still have a game in hand. UEFA Champions League. Our "reward" for topping the Group is 2 games against Real Madrid. While their Spanish rivals Barca have fallen away and not won the La Liga title for 12 seasons, (the best they have done since then is 3x 3rd place). Real Madrid & Real Sociedad are very much the dominant power in Spain now. Taça de Portugal Placard. Youth Intake preview. I know this usually has little relation to reality, but I really hope that we get 2x full backs and 1x centre-half. Big Bid. AFCON. I thought this was every 4 years? It's every 2 years. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

(50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" is 24 years old. He's scored 83 league goals, 9 domestic cup goals and 8 European goals.

Nov 2058. Liga Bwin. 3 decent wins in the league gives us a 7 point lead that will be reduced to 4 if Benfica win their game in hand. UEFA Champions League. We were much the better team against Koln, but they scored and we didn't. # Taça de Portugal Placard. A comfortable win for the Reserves. Goal-scoring GK's. No GK goals this month. Finances.

Oct 2058. Liga Bwin. 2 big away wins and the only negative is that we didn't keep 2 clean sheets. After 10 games of the season we're scoring at 3.0 goals per game and Benfica are the next highest at 2.3 goals per game. Speaking of Benfica, they dropped another 2 pts as they drew at home to Boavista and we're now 4 pts ahead. UEFA Champions League. 2 good wins in the Champions League effectively mean that both ourselves and Villareal have qualified. All that remains to be seen is who finishes 1st and 2nd. Taça de Portugal Placard. a comfortable victory here eases us into the next round. Allianz League Cup. We needed a late winner to seal, but even a draw might have been enough. Goal-scoring GK's. Finances.

I said I was happy to work with the wage budget & that expectations were reasonable. I'm guessing that Naglesman said he could operate on a smaller budget and achieve better than expected. Naglesman is 71.

Benfica are too good not ton remain competitive. With this group of player we will never blow them away. I'm glad others are enjoying the squad depth posts. I thought they might have been boring but I suppose there is lots of info in there.

Yeah, it took me a few goes to get the deal done, (about 4 failed attempts I think), but we got there in the end. I would properly love to score 20 goals in a season with a GK again. (Feels like I haven't done it for ages and I think 24 is my record, but not positive).

Rosa looks almost identical to Simoes and there was so little in it I thought I would switch things round mainly because it's the left side central slot they're competing for. The natural fitness also suggests that Rosa playing more games and Simoes filling in will work better, but in my experience Rosa gets injured more than Simoes anyway so it's all up in the air. Rosa has scored 11 goals and 5 assists in 11 games so far this season. Simoes has scored 2 goals and 2 assists in 9 appearances so far this season, but has played all of those in the right hand F9 slot.

Yeah, we're looking ok at the moment. I rotated between Nacional at the end of the previous month and Boavista and did so too much I think. I didn't feel confident to rotate the whole squad and I think I should. Swapping too many breaks up partnerships, (as I've mentioned before), and I think my tinkering cost us.

Sep 2058. Liga Bwin. We drop our 1st points of the season, but we're still unbeaten, (with Benfica & Leixoes), but Porto have already lost 11 pts and are way off it. UEFA Champions League. This should have been our hardest game of the Group, but our Reserves did us proud and I hope to use it as a springboard from here on. Allianz League Cup. Our Reserves will be tasked with our progress here. Goal-scoring GK's. After 6x GK goals in the 1st month, we follow it up with 0x GK goals in month 2. Finances.

Thanks very much. I used to look at them again and again but I have recently started using "Saved Team Selections" feature again, (simply as just yet another example of me being lazy). I have a 1st Team(1), 1st Team(2) and B Team saved Team selection and it lessens the need for me to keep going back to that post, but as soon as I have to make adjustments I find myself doing so anyway.

(50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" has just scored 5 goals in the opening 4 league games of the 2058/59 season. If we include the last game of last season, he has scored 6 goals in his last 5 games. He's only 23 years old but has already scored 98 career goals.

Aug 2058. Liga Bwin. We've started really well and are already ahead of Benfica and Porto who have dropped 4 pts and 7 pts respectively. In other news, our old friend McAuley scored 7 league goals for Benfica in the opening month and Puljić of Sporting ran him close with 5 goals, but the real story was that (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" score 5 league goals in 4 league games. Let me repeat that. Our GK has scored 5 goals in the opening 4 games of the season and if you include the last game of last season then he's scored 6 goals in 5 games. UEFA Champions League Group. Sevilla are going to be decent, but Koln are a bit of a surprise and we should be able to progress from here. Goal-scoring GK's. 5 goals from a GK in 4 games is ridiculous. There is just no other word for it. If we add in the last game of last season then he has actually scored 6 goals in his last 5 league games. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" obviously had a great start to the season with 5 goals in 4 games, (all from the spot), but the highlights also showed me quite a few free-kick opportunities. He had 8 shots against SAD Franchise. 2 penalties (scored), 2 shots blocked (hit wall), 2 shots saved, and 2 shots missed. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" v SAD Franchise. (52j) Candé (GNB) (POR) 6'2" caught my eye this season even before (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" went goal crazy. What I noticed was the 6 shots he took against Merelinense in GW1, (without scoring). All were from free-kicks and he had no issues avoiding the wall, but the opposition GK made 5 saves and the 6th hit the post. (52j) Candé (GNB) (POR) 6'2" v Merelinense. Finances.

New contract. Aug 2058. We had to pay (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" a £13M cash bonus to seal the deal, but it's a 5+3 term and I kept the basic wage under £500k per month so I think it's actually a really good deal.

Job Interview. Aug 2058.

Jul 2058. Big Bid. This is a LOT of money, especially with the board spending all our money on a new stadium. Having said that our balance is up to £75M now anyway so that should keep us going for a bit. He's been very much the 2nd choice striker all through his career, but this season he will be 1st choice. It will be interesting to see how his numbers compare with those of (44a) Simões (POR) * previously. Although he has only scored 155 league goals in his career, he's usually played in Europe and domestic Cup competitions and he's actually scored 235 career goals. [Edit] They came back in and offered £88M.

Squad Depth. Jul 2058. To those wondering why I post this each season, apologies if it bores you, but with so many squads and so many players I actually find it hard to remember who is meant to be playing in what squad and with what priority and whether I want to keep a player or let them go and if I'm letting them go, whether that's on a temp or permanent basis. The situation we now find ourselves in is that the board have nicked the £150M we had in the bank and taken out a loan of £60M, (although I note we still have a transfer kitty of almost £200M and a monthly transfer budget of £10M per month, so although they have spent the money, our budgets actually haven't changed). With that in mind I need to be more proactive with regards to selling players for a profit and possibly even demanding larger fees for loan periods. GK. Although it's been mentioned recently that we're in need of another GK, I think the life of the save probably hasn't got any future after the retirement of Ako. He's 23 now and has 93 goals. If I can keep him through to 33, and he averages 15 goals a season between now and then, then I think he should comfortably obliterate my 176 career goals for a GK record. 1st Team. (50c) Ako (FRA) (GPE) 6'0" has 4 years on his contract and although I have been trying to tie him down to a 5+3, I haven't managed it so far. B Team. (52j) Candé (GNB) (POR) 6'2" U23's. (57f) Vercleyen (POR) (FRA) U19's. Loan. (50f) Loris (LUX) (FRA) 6'0" & (51k) Diniz (POR) 6'4" Sell. DL. For much of this save I've had player playing out of position at left back, so it's actually nice to have some depth in this position, (even if there are some personality issues to be overcome). 1st Team. (52b) Martins (POR) * & (50g) Martins (POR) (FRA) DL *. B Team. (57b) Trindade (POR) * DL & (57d) Kravchuk (POR) (UKR) * U23's. (55d) Trindade (POR), & (57o) Chana (POR) *. U19's. Loan. I was tempted to loan out (55d) Trindade (POR), (Low Det + Low Amb), (57d) Kravchuk (POR) (UKR) * (Low Det + Low Amb) & (57o) Chana (POR) * (Low Prof), but I want to control their training so it makes sense to keep them for for a while. Sell. DR. We've got a few options here, but not as many as I would like. Gil has spent most of his career playing on the right wing, but with youngsters developing he's now not needed so much there and I can release him to to provide cover at right back. (56a) Juromito (POR) *** DR is the great hope though and I expect him to really blossom after a 2nd season in the B team. 1st Team. (48c) Bronze (POR) 6'0" & (41a) Gil (POR) *. B Team. (56a) Juromito (POR) *** DR U23's. (52c) Pinto (POR) U19's. Loan. (51n) Varela (CPV)(POR) 6'1" * Sell. DC. This used to be an area of strength in the squad, but now I don't see loads of centre-backs on the production line outside Lima. We really need another couple to come through soon. Santiago was signed on a free just to provide some possible future depth. 1st Team. (48b) Teixeira (POR) 6'3" * & (54a) Fati (GNB)(POR) 6'1" ***. (45e) The Gimp (ENG) 6'3" ** & (47f) Santos (POR) 6'5" *. B Team. (57a) Lima (CPV)(POR) 6'0" *** & 53h) Alexandre (BRA) 5'11" * + (53k) Charrier (FRA) 6'2". U23's. (54g) Gomes (POR) & (55f) Pais. (POR) 6'1" U19's. Loan. (47b) Santiago (POR) 6'0" Sell. MC. This is the real strength in the squad. We've got some really good experienced players already and some good youngsters waiting in the wings. Being unable to get (40b) Ramalho (POR) * to change his mind about retirement is a blow, but his absence will just give an opportunity to someone else. 1st Team. (44c) Ogbu (ENG) (NGA) * & (55a) Mavioso (POR) ***. (51j) Vicente (POR) *, (47k) Tavares (CPV) * & (49a) Odhiambo (POR) (KEN) *. B Team. (55c) Sousa (POR) * & (54h) Tavares (POR) (CPV) **. (53f) Diogo (POR) U23's. U19's. Loan. (49f) Santos (POR), (51c) Alves (POR) *, (51f) Matias (POR) *, (51e) Clayton (BRA) Sell. ML & MR. ML. 1st Team. (53b) Espínola (POR) * & (49e) Madruga (POR) B Team. (58a) Flores (NED)(SLV) U23's. (50b) Pablo (ESP) ML & (51l) Kwiatkowski (POR) U19's. Loan. (50h) Mickaël (POR) (FRA) Sell. MR. 1st Team. (51a) Marinho (POR) *** & (55b) Cunha (BRA) *** MR. B Team. (54b) Soares (CPV)(POR) *** MR U23's. (52e) Oliveira (CPV) * & (52i) Simões (POR) *. U19's. Loan. Sell. SC. This is another area of strength, but if you look across to the "injury susceptibility" column you will see that our 3 best strikers have very high (x2) and high. Surprisingly it's (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) *** who seems the most injury prone. All the way through this save I have preferred Simoes over Rosa. They are hugely similar and it was basically just down to Simoes being 1 year older so always being slightly ahead in terms of his development. Then Rosa always seemed a little more injury prone. Now though I think I'm going to give Rosa a chance as 1st choice simply because he's a lefty and if I don't split them like this it will mean 2 righties playing together and 2 lefties playing together and that seems silly. 1st Team. (45c) Rosa (POR) * & (53a) Khwinana (ENG) (RSA) ***. (44a) Simões (POR) * & (50l) Bartlett (ENG) *. B Team. (51b) Oliveira (POR) ** & (53g) Lopes (POR). (54f) Sales (POR) * & U23's. (53c) Brandão (POR) & (55k) August. (POR) (RSA) U19's. Loan. Sell.

Sligo Rovers have just beaten Motherwell home and away. Gotta love the Europa Conference.

The -20 goals is largely caused by us being off the pace in the league in the last couple of months and me prioritizing Champions League selection over Liga Bwin selection. We went with some VERY weak squads late in the season. Here is McAuley. He's 35 now so not as good as he once was, but his record has been phenomenal. This doesn't so his performances justice though as he has scored ridiculously well outside of the league. Let me show you. Not quite everything went in for PSG, but it felt like that at the time. I don't know much about XThreat. It certainly shouldn't have been a 5-1. Yeah, the only saving grace with the new stadium build is that it's significantly bigger. Yep, both GK's missed 2 pens each and they were all quite close together if I remember correctly. 88% and 82% isn't awful though, especially when 1 of them was very unhappy all season.The number of times they went close with free-kicks is huge. They hit the post and bar numerous times and saw GK's make saves after I had already started celebrating. (40b) Ramalho (POR) * is as good as gone. I wasn't able to persuade him to stay on. He's having 1 last hurrah at the World Cup in USA, but after that's finished he says that's it and nothing is changing his mind. (58a) Flores (NED)(SLV) is a Liga 3 standard player right now so I will play him in the B Team next season, but I expect him to progress pretty rapidly. I don't think we're desperate for a ML right now though.

Nah, we were really unlucky in the 1st leg against PSG and it was too much to overcome even if things had gone our way in the 2nd leg. There's always next season though right?